Books: May 2008 Archives

One of the things that my friends find paradoxical about me is that I love military history, military fiction, and good war stories, in spite of the fact that I'm a liberal, dKos reading (and worse, participating) DFH. I'm usually good about putting aside the personal politics of authors of military fiction, particularly the more knuckle-dragging types like Tom Clancy.

I'm part of the Diary Rescue team, which is a great way to get exposed to a wider range of Kossack diaries. I pick time slots to read that I wouldn't normally, in the hopes of finding interesting gems. One that I found is Jeff Huber, a retired US Navy Commander, blogger, and I was pleased to discover, author of military fiction.

Wait a minute, a Kossack, a dang liburl who writes military fiction? I immediately shot over to amazon.com and bought his book, Bathtub Admirals. The book jacket says it's satire, but that's like saying that "Catch-22" is just a comedy novel.

Bathtub Admirals traces the career of Jack Hogan, from young LTJG through his retirement as a CDR. Hogan began his career as a "NFO" or Naval Flight Officer, flying in the backseat of E-2C "Hawkeye" planes, the Navy's "mini-AWACS." Knowing that there wasn't much of a future for a back-seat guy in Naval Aviation, Hogan becomes a qualified SWO, or Surface Warfare Officer. That extra studying and the extra ship duty costs him his first marriage, as the pressure to further his career during the Cold War took its toll on home life. The novel follows the now-bachelor Hogan through shore and carrier duty tours both as a SWO and as a part of flight squadrons, through an even more disastrous second marriage, culminating in his retirement as a Commander.

Huber's anecdotes on Navy life are priceless, but the overall theme of ineptitude and incompetence is what makes the novel so enjoyable. His Jack Hogan is, in many ways, the navy equivalent of Dilbert. Where Scott Adams' famous engineer is a cube-dweller in a nameless, faceless, corporate world occupied by various insane archetypes, Hogan encounters those archetypes on ships and shore bases. From "Admiral Fix Felon" (alleged to be part of an actual Mafia family) to "Senator Tailhook" (a woman senator who wanted to bring Naval Aviation down after the 1991 "Tailhook" scandal, to "Senator Ex-Prisoner-of-War" (the most blatant real-life reference, this time to John McCain), the Navy's top management and its political bosses are elegantly and humorously skewered.

Huber doesn't stop with Hogan's superiors, though. The ranks of Jack Hogan's contemporaries and colleagues also filled with characters that are worthy of Adams and Heller. From his "friend," Buzz, who more is more than willing to throw Hogan under the bus to further his own career to USNA grads with the connections and influence that Hogan, an AOCS officer doesn't have, to officers who are just flat-out idiots and/or criminals, Huber's navy is indeed a "Dilbert Zone."

The theme of incompetence, while making for hilarious reading, is one that really should give us all pause. These are the men who fight our wars. We entrust them with countless billions of dollars and some of the deadliest weapons in the history of mankind. Still, many battles are, as Jack Hogan says, lost because "two of their admirals hated each other more than they hated us."

Bathtub Admirals is a must-read for fans of military fiction, and highly recommended for everyone.

Once I finish catching up with family upon returning from an out-of-town trip, one of my favorite things to do is to open the box from Amazon.com that's occasionally waiting for me on the kitchen table. While in Baltimore this week I ordered three books:



Bathub Admirals by Jeff Huber. I'm a sucker for military fiction, even when the author's political beliefs are diametrically opposed to mine. I learned of Huber's novel from Daily Kos, where he shares some of his regular blog posts. I enjoy supporting the writing careers of fellow Kossacks.



The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria. Traveling outside the US, particularly since the start of Bush's War, makes me agree with Fareed-the world will move forward without the US, particularly if we continue to choose idiots for leaders. Fareed is a regular guest on The Daily Show, and his appearances are some of Stewart's best interviews.



The Bishop At The Lake (a Blackie Ryan novel) by Andrew M. Greeley. I'm currently reading a treasure I found at a used paperback store, Happy Are Those Who Thirst For Justice, one of Fr. Greeley's first "Blackie Ryan" novels. I was never a big murder-mystery fan until I discovered the character of Monsignor (now Bishop) John Blackwood Ryan of Chicago. Looking forward to this latest installment.

While Science Fiction has always been my passion, historical fiction is a close second. I grew up on not only Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein, but also C. S. Forester's classic tales of the adventures of Horatio Hornblower. It was Hornblower that gave me my enjoyment of all things Napoleonic. The Napoleonic connection is how I got into Cornwell. His novels of Richard Sharpe's adventures during that period, while different from those of Hornblower, Bolitho and Jack Aubrey, still are fun reads.

Another genre I'm a sucker for are Grail stories. Like most hopeless romantics, I love the notion that the Holy Grail is out there in some form or another, and I fully understand the passion of Grail Knights ancient and modern to chase the dream of finding it. Put a favorable experience with an author together with a trilogy of novels about a Grail quest and you've got me sold.

I just finished reading the second of Cornwell's three "Grail Quest" novels. In The Archer's Tale, we meet Thomas of Hookton, bastard son of a priest living in the south of England. The year is 1345, and Thomas, home from studies at Oxford. Unfortunately, the village is attacked by French raiders from Brittany. Thomas' father was killed and the village burnt. Thomas learns that the reason the village of Hookton was burned was because his father was keeper of an important secret. One of the French lords in the raiding party on Hookton was searching for that secret, the Holy Grail.

Knowing that the best way to hunt a Frenchman is to follow him back to France, Thomas leaves his village to join the English army fighting in France. King Edward marches through Brittany and Normandy, and is in need of men who can shoot the English longbow. Archers at this time were as deadly a weapon as modern artillery, raining death from the sky with their arrows. Hated by the enemy to the point where they would die violent deaths if caught, the bands of English archers fighting in France were cunning and tough men.

Archer chronicles Thomas' exploits with the English army, his encounters with French noblemen as well as Edward, Prince of Wales (the "Black Prince"), as well as his romantic encounters along the way. He befriends a French knight, Sir Guillaume, and falls in love with the knight's illegitimate daughter, Elanor. Encouraged by Guillaume and a monk he also befriends, Thomas reluctantly takes up the Grail quest.

Of course, Thomas is not the only one seeking the Grail. Hot on his trail are a Dominican friar, an Inquisitor, and Guy Vexile, the Frenchman who killed his father. Archer ends with Thomas, Elanor, and the monk, Father Hobbe, heading to the English city of Durham in search of clues to his father's secret.

In the second book, Vagabond, Thomas and Elanor make their way to Durham, pausing while Thomas fights with the English against David Bruce and the Scottish army. he sends Elanor and the monk ahead to Durham to interview an elderly priest who knew his father while he fights with the English. The Scots are defeated, but the Dominican and Vexile murder Elanor and the monk. Thomas allies himself with Robert Douglas of the Clan Douglas, who is an English prisoner, but wants to seek the Dominican to exact revenge because the priest killed his brother. In spite of the natural English-Scottish enmity between Thomas and Robbie, they become friends and comrades-in-arms as they return to France. Along the way through England from Durham, they return to the land near Hookton and receive a book of history and clues written by Thomas' father. (Of course there has to be a "Grail Book!")

Their adventures lead them through Brittany and Normandy as they re-encounter Sir Guillaume and others. They re-join the English army, fighting in raids, pitched battles, shipboard encounters, and seiges as they pursue the priest and Vexile. They unravel clues from the Grail book and make some progress in the quest. Vagabond closes with Thomas and Robbie exacting their revenge on the Dominican, but the elusive Vexile, the "Harlequin," escapes to pursue the Grail on his own.

I'm enjoying this series immensely. I'm going to pick up the third book, Heretic, tomorrow for reading on my trip next week.