Whatcha reading redux.

[Jered]

I've just started re-reading the Lost Regiment series by William R. Forstchen. It's about a Civil War era Union regiment transported to a world where humans are the primary food source for some very large, nasty aliens. Hilarity ensues, of course as the boys in blue become dietary consultants.

I read that. I'm not easily disturbed by literature, but the dinner scene was disturbing.

[Captain Wheelgun]

I've just started re-reading the Lost Regiment series by William R. Forstchen. It's about a Civil War era Union regiment transported to a world where humans are the primary food source for some very large, nasty aliens. Hilarity ensues, of course as the boys in blue become dietary consultants.

I read that. I'm not easily disturbed by literature, but the dinner scene was disturbing.

Yeah, there's some stuff in this series that qualifies as genuine horror.

[Jered]

Yep, there's that. That was something that almost should have been in a Saw movie.

[Weetabix]

I'm almost finished with Kratman's Countdown: H Hour. Pretty good on the whole, but some of the battle descriptions are too drawn out for my taste. I prefer a bit more story and a bit less long description of action. I'd still recommend it so far, though I haven't finished it yet.

I bought a pile of Kratman books recently, and this one got here first, so I'm reading the Countdown series out of order. Also got Amazon Legion based on the Women in Ranger School thread and one other that I can't remember now.

[Jered]

You should get Riding the Red Horse, too.

[Netpackrat]

Re-read Reilly's Luck, one of my favorites by Louis L'Amour. I got rid of nearly all of my LL paperbacks years ago, but recently found a site that has a bunch of them posted online. It's probably technically stealing but I figure that Louis' kids have more than enough of my money already.

I have a couple more paperbacks ordered, the 5th in Kratman's Carrera series, and some John Ringo sci-fi book that looked interesting.

[Kommander]

Having just finished "Tigers in the Mud" by Otto Carius I have to say that this book really contributes to the "Deutchland Ubermench" myth. The authors description of the Russians forces it pretty good, and he obviously respected them on some level. However he has nothing but disdain for the Americans, to the point to where the reader is forced to wonder just how the Americans ever defeated a single German unit if they were as incompetent as he alleges. He seems to think that the only reason they lost was due to poor command decisions, not actually getting outfought. Never mind that this is the kind of crap Hitler used in the first place to further his "stabbed in the back" narrative.

There are other issues with the book. The author first acts as if he is totally ignorant to the larger political situation in Europe, other than that Russians are bad. This is believable in the context that the author was young and focused on his job etc. Fair enough. However he also acts clueless as to why the allies and later the German people have such a poor opinion of the Wehrmacht. He fails to understand that the just doing your job bit falls a bit flat at a certain point. Certainly no one blames the common soldier directly for what happened, but at the same time they were used by the Nazis to further their political ambitions and enable them to murder a whole bunch of people. The author seems to be totally unable to understand this.

[toad]

I was re-reading the "Rods and the Axe" by Kratman and now I've got a real jones for the sequel.
I bit the bullet and set up my kindle to take direct down loads from Baen Books, mainly so I could skim through "Caliphate" and read his afterward.
Given when they started writing and what has happened since Kratman and Ringo both make me nervous.

I'm sure that under the Emperor I'll just look back and laugh

[Jericho941]

Having just finished "Tigers in the Mud" by Otto Carius I have to say that this book really contributes to the "Deutchland Ubermench" myth. The authors description of the Russians forces it pretty good, and he obviously respected them on some level. However he has nothing but disdain for the Americans, to the point to where the reader is forced to wonder just how the Americans ever defeated a single German unit if they were as incompetent as he alleges. He seems to think that the only reason they lost was due to poor command decisions, not actually getting outfought. Never mind that this is the kind of crap Hitler used in the first place to further his "stabbed in the back" narrative.

There are other issues with the book. The author first acts as if he is totally ignorant to the larger political situation in Europe, other than that Russians are bad. This is believable in the context that the author was young and focused on his job etc. Fair enough. However he also acts clueless as to why the allies and later the German people have such a poor opinion of the Wehrmacht. He fails to understand that the just doing your job bit falls a bit flat at a certain point. Certainly no one blames the common soldier directly for what happened, but at the same time they were used by the Nazis to further their political ambitions and enable them to murder a whole bunch of people. The author seems to be totally unable to understand this.

Yeah, if the Americans sucked so bad, who'd he surrender to in the end?

The thing is, I really do enjoy reading the stories of German aces. Otto Carius, Adolf Galland, etc. But the important thing to remember is the big fat grain of salt to take along for the ride. They were prideful men. Prideful Germans, even. They would seize any ground to nurture their ego, and the German technowizardry and military magic myths lend power to their narrative.

Fact is, it doesn't matter how graceful their faceplants were, they still got BTFO.

[toad]

I used to have a paper back on German fighter pilots and I think the title was "German Fighter Aces". One of the things that has stuck with me was the hatred of the B-17 bombers that they had. They found out the hard way that the best approach was head on and it was terrifying. The book had pages illustrating what the closing speed was like. You'd have just a dot at a minute out, and the bomber would get bigger and bigger faster and faster. Then there were all of those tracers coming at you. The fighter pilots had an unconscious tendency to slump and duck down in their seats. They felt that some newbies died because the had their eyes closed and collided with a bomber. One pilot said the Ami's cut back on the raids just a bit too soon. Fighter planes they had but they were losing too many pilots. One pilot said air to air combat against other fighters was a challenge, a thrill. Going against the bomber boxes was just hoping your luck didn't run out and trying not to piss yourself.
















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