World War 2 Book - The Day of Battle (Authored by Rick Atkinson)

For most people, their knowledge of the Second World War in terms of action are some battle scenes - Pearl Harbor, the African theatre, Battle for Stalingrad, Dunkirk, and the Normandy landings. One of the largest theaters of action during the 1943-44 phase (besides the Russian offensive on the Eastern front) was the action in Sicily and Italy. If you were to ask people besides historians about what happened in Italy during the Second World War, most people can only talk about Mussolini, but not too many more details. The Italian campaign was a significant campaign, involving men from many different countries (British, British commonwealth and territories, the Poles, and the American army). For the American army, it was significant. Their introduction into the African battle theater was not very positive, since the German army out-fought them. In the European theater, called the Fortress Germany because the Nazis controlled most of the continent, attacking the Italian theater would bring in the Nazi war machine to defend Sicily and Italy.



Another massive advantage that this entire theater brought to the American army was the blooding that it did to the army. It exposed it to war where it defeated the German war machine at many fronts, forced the development of tactics. At the same time, it also exposed them to the problems of war, with fierce German resistance preventing the movement at many fronts. The landings of Anzio provides lessons to armies even now.
The advantage of this book is about the research that has gone into providing the details of the various battles and confrontations that happened during this stage. The defeat and push back of the German armies from Sicily and evacuation from the entire island was a series of skirmishes and battles, with the German armies not being a pushover, fighting hard and also being intelligent thinkers. During the entire campaign, the German army essentially took over the Italian war campaign from the Axis side, with the Italian army not being too much in the picture.
During these battles, not everything was positive. There were failures from the various army leaders and generals, some of these were removed from their command positions during the course of these battles, and the person who developed a great reputation during these battles was also forced to relinquish his command and go into exile (this being General Patton, who slapped 2 soldiers for what he believed was cowardice and had to face severe problems when these slaps became public knowledge).
The book provides a lot of details of the entire campaign, something that a student of the war effort, or one who wants to read about this entire campaign. A must read book.

The Sum of all Fears (published in 1991) - Thermo-nuclear blast, authored by Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy was a bestseller author, who wrote with great authority on the military and on intelligence matters. However, even though he wrote expertly and with great detail on the matters that he wrote about, his books were not boring. Imagine a detailed description of how a hydrogen (thermonuclear) bomb works, imagine it written out in a novel, and imagine how scared you can be of the prospect that a physicist, with access to a core of plutonium, and without the support of a nation state, can construct a huge weapon that has the potential to destroy a city and also bring the major powers to war with each other. The detailed description of how a hydrogen bomb, with its fission and fusion steps, almost seems out of a physics book without the technical jargon that would be there in a textbook.
The book is the 5th in the series of books that had Jack Ryan as the character, and here he is in a senior position in the CIA, but unfortunately not on good terms with the National Security Advisor (Liz Elliott) because of some ego issues. Unfortunately for Ryan, this carries a lot of weight, because normally the NSA carries a lot of weight, but in this case, since the NSA is also having an affair with the President, it carries even more importance. By this time, Ryan is also well know within Congress since he was intimately involved with the going-ons in the previous book, Clear and Present Danger, which forced the moving aside of the then President and the coming into the Presidency of the current president, Robert Fowler.
The book starts with a new twist to the Israeli-Palestinian twist, whereby everybody normally knows of the public cycle of rock-throwing and retaliation, which can result in deaths, but don't cause any moral issues on a wide scale. However, the book takes a new tactic by the Palestinians, where they oppose the Israeli army through non-violent means, and are viciously attacked by a slightly deranged Israeli army commander. This sight, on view on TV screens, forces a changeover in the morality, since nobody can defend this action of killing peaceful protesters who were not attacking them. Israel stands on the verge of being isolated, and although this isolation has happened, a change in attitude in the US could be very significant.

A quick plan, started by Jack Ryan, goes through the various stakeholders including the Vatican, the Saudis, the Russians, and a potential peace is declared in the troubled areas of the Middle East, where a troika of different religious leaders administer the region. This causes havoc in the minds of terrorists, since the confrontation is their life blood, and they join forces with a German terrorist who was also finding safe sanctuary missing with the meltdown of the communist worlds of eastern Europe. This would not mean anything, but they have found a lost Israeli bomb in the Golan Heights, and that is seen as the basis for building a powerful bomb, that combined with other actions, will make it seem that this was done by the Russians and provoke a massive confrontation.
With the bomb having been made, it is sought to be exploded in Denver when the Super Bowl is happening, which would devastate the city and also take out senior administration officials who were there to take part in the game. Combine this with an attack supposedly by the Russians in Berlin on American forces, and a weakened and traumatized President, not getting good counsel, and the situation rapidly escalates. The Russians are blamed, and they are shocked to find that they are being blamed, with a battle happening in Berlin and some of their aircraft getting downed without warning near Libya. But if threatened, they have the potential to kill back in equal number. Ryan is getting some good intelligence, but will the President listen in time ? A gripping, although seemingly unrealistic novel.

Red Storm Rising (published in 1986) - Authored by Tom Clancy, a conflict between NATO and Warsaw

Tom Clancy (1947 - 2013) was an author who wrote a number of gripping novels taking the intelligence agencies and military and wrote novels around these, involving a number of different countries. In some cases, the level of details was such that it surprised even experts. For example, when his first novel, 'The Hunt for Red October' came out in 1984, it was a big hit and the details of nuclear submarines was a surprise to everyone (with one person even wondering how the Government allowed a novel with such details to be published). Over a period of time, his novels, which initially focused on confrontation with the Soviets at an intelligence and military level, moved to new challenges, including reconciliation and support with the Russians and conflict with the Chinese (somewhat warped, and maybe even racist to some level - The Bear and the Dragon), and with more and more focus to conflict with Islamic terrorism (and the haunting depiction of the crashing of a full size commercial jet into the US Congress in the year 1994 - many years before the terrorist strike of 2001). For his fans, his novels were well researched novels, with a lot of details about how the intelligence agencies of the US Government worked, particularly through one of his chief characters - the honest and moral, and conservative Jack Ryan. For the generation who have been born after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a novel about a clash between the huge Warsaw Pact and NATO forces in Europe would seem so old word, but this novel is a fascinating reading about how the policy making works in a restricted government - where the leaders think that whatever they say will happen. And the details of the military action are also great. Of course, most of Clancy's novels are gripping, but they are thick and take their own time to read (and read with great care).



Red Storm Rising does not have any association with Jack Ryan, one of the few of Clancy's novels that do not have any association with his chief character. It starts out with a terrorist strike by independence seekers from Azerbaijan who destroy a huge oil production facility, with this single striking causing a massive blow to the ability of the Soviet Union to generate oil - and this affects their production facilities, their farm production and their military. One option is to get cooperation from the West and seek their help - but internal politics plays a key role in moving the politburo away from this option and instead launching an all out attack on the NATO forces across Europe so as to prevent them from mobilizing in support of a Soviet drive to attack across Iran and seize the Persian oil field. The concept being to somehow show that there was an attack on the Warsaw Pact and this would force the Soviet Union to retaliate and hold NATO in Europe and keep them busy. And why would this work ? The Warsaw Pact had a much larger number of tanks and military equipment than NATO, but the quality of forces is a different matter.
However, NATO learns of these plans and on the first day of the offensive, manage to get their superior aircraft to slow down the Russian advance by destroying enemy aircraft and key infrastructure such as bridges. Soviet planners expected a slow advance through Germany and were willing to take losses, but were also able to surprise their NATO opposites through seizing Iceland, and also using some tactical efforts to attack some NATO naval vessels.
However, things start to reverse with the grounding of the force based at Iceland and re-taking of Iceland by the US Marines. And then a quick attack places NATO forces behind the front of the Soviet army and then the forces also learn knowledge about the dire fuel status of the Soviet armies and they destroy some of their fuel supplies, in a prelude to the general attack against the Soviet army forces. But such an offensive might force the Russians to go nuclear. What happens next ?

Partisans (published in 1982) - written by Alistair Maclean - the fight against the Germans in Yugoslavia

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war he saw and many of them became best sellers. MacLean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
Another book about the battles in world war two from the MacLean Stable. Here the author takes the reader to Yugoslavia where the war rages on with its convoluted politics. On one hand the Germans and the Italians are fighting the war with the native Yugoslav's called Partisans ably aided aadn supported by the communist led by general Tito. They are thwarted by one of their own I.e the Chetniks who side with the germans. The allies try to hitch their horse to the Partisans to defeat the Nazi's.



The main lead is Pete Peterson, an Yugoslav royalist who is the typical macLean man with his dour and cynical ways receives coded orders from his German commanders to deliver it to the German resistance deep in Yugoslavia. Just as the Germans even the readers are confused about the name Pete Peterson for an Yugoslav. But MacLean has an humorist explanation for that. It seems that Pete is the son of an Englishman who never went back to england after coming to Yugoslavia. MacLean provided another funny anecdote about a village in Italy populated by Scots who had landed there decades ago for a battle. It seems those villagers had ruddy Scottish faces and a name starting with “Mac” .
Well the fun ends there for this novel. The plot meanders through the boring fist fights and Nazi vs Allies dialogues. Pete is accompanied by two operatives, gEorge the fat and Alex the dour. He gets two radio operatives, part of the Yugoslav Royalist gang, Sarina and Micheal, the pretty fraternal twins. And so they set pace to Yugolavia and meet many characters on the way, the drinking Giacomo, pretty Lorraine, Marija, Major Harrison and of course the villains.
No prizes for guessing that Pete is really a Partisan. But the loyalties of the other participants is always circumspect. They fight the Nazi's and are captured many time. But each time they are released as a group in tact to reach the other side. Contrary to MacLean's earlier books the fighting is pretty tame and easy passage for the heroes. In the end the villains are captured, the traitors are unmasked and the hero loves his pretty operative. As usual the women whine a lot and cry over his shoulder. One gets her husband and the pther falls for Pete. The villains are captured and delivered to the Britishers.
MacLean is said to have reached a low point in his career during the 80's and many books witness his decline and this book is one of those. There is nothing much to offer the reader and I do not recommend it during a holiday. Just pick it up when you just need to fill your gaps in your day with some light reading.

Breakheart pass (published in 1974) - Written by author Alistair Maclean, a western story set in Nevada in the late 19th century

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war he saw and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
Breakheart Pass is a fast paced western by MacLean. Alistair Maclean departs from his usual world war two environments to reach the out backs of America. He creates a fast paced thriller involving the US Marshalls and the army. So there is nothing British about this story except for MacLean's language.
The novel is set in the 1870's in Nevada. A train starts its journey from Reese city to Fort Humbolt. The passengers include, the governor Fairchild and his niece Marica, the governors Aide, Reverend Peabody, Dr. Molyneux and an assortment of soldiers commanded by Colonel Claremont and US Marshall Pearce. Pearce is in charge of the prisoner John Deakin who is convicted of de-railing a train loaded with supplies for the army. So he is not a very popular man with the soldiers. Dr. Molyneux is a tropical diseases expert going to help with the cholera outbreak.



The passengers are going to fort Humbolt because of the cholera epidemic which has decimated the camp. They are going to relieve the men and provide medical supplies and food. Marshall Pearce is an honorable man who wrangles a ticket just to get to the fort to check on another outlaw.
As the trains chug along the mountainous ravines they encounter murders, a blizzard and villainous Indians. But MacLeans characters are not what they seem. As the novel picks up pace one by one the passengers start to get killed. They are discovered in boxes, among the coal, hanging outside and every gruesome positions. So who turns out to be the unlikely hero, but the outlaw Deakin. He starts investigating.
Soon as the corpses tumble out they realize that all is not well at the fort and cholera is not to be blamed. Deakin is not really a convict but a criminal investigator with the reverend being his boss. Deakin also has a soft corner for Marica, but in MacLean's true style the romance is for names sake only. After reading MacLean I have come to the conclusion that the hero is a man named John and the love interest is always Marie. Is it coincidence or just plain fixation?
There are lot of twists in the plot and in the end the most honorable man turns out to be the despicable fiend and the least honorable the most respected. This book is adapted in to a movie starring Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Ben Johnson and others. The movie is much different form the book, but the pace is fine. So would like to pick up both for the weekend for time-pass.

Force 10 from Navarone (published in 1968) - Authored by Alistair Maclean - Mallory and Miller sent to Yugoslavia to fight along with the partisans

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war that he was part of, and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
Force 10 from Navarone is the sequel to the highly successful Guns Of Navarone. Guns of Navarone had featured the doughty heroes of MacLean, Mallory, the resourceful mountaineer, Miller, the the explosives expert, Andrea Stavros, the brooding cool Greek resistance fighter, Brown, the engineer and radio expert and Stevens the medic. Brown and Stevens were martyred in their last mission to silence the German guns in Navarone. After the Aegean war Andrea stays over to marry the Greek resistance fighter,Maria and Mallory and Miller return to the war in Europe.
Force 10 picks up the threads right after the war. Miller and Mallory are ordered to return to Navarone and fetch Stavros for a mission in Yugoslavia. Stavros after much resistance comes with them. They are joined by Royal Marine Commando's who fill up the vacancies of Brown and Steven's. But one of them, Reynolds is less than pleased to be a reserve. But a team they must be, to fight the Germans in eastern Europe. They are briefed by Colonel Jensen about the mission. They are supposed to go to the Neretva region in Bosnia and check out why all allied agents have been kidnapped and if possible undertake a rescue mission.



They meet general Vuckovic the commander of the partisan forces supporting the allies in Yugoslavia. He informs them that the partisan forces are trapped against the river with German Panzer forces moving in on them. He indicates that if the partisans are defeated the German Army will control all of Yugoslavia and asks for help from the allies to prevent the slaughtering.
The mission starts as soon as they are air dropped down to Neretva and are captured by Drozhny, a huge partisan Bosnian. They tell him that they are allied deserters who are being tried by the army for selling Penicillin. Drozhny produces them before a German captain Neufeld who informs a stunned Miller that Drozhny and group are German collaborators called the Chetniks. Thus the mystery of the continuous capture of allied agents become clear.
Now in the hands of the enemy they have to engage them with lies and deception. They meet the singing blind minstrel Peter and his sister Maria who have secrets of their own. After a series of twists and action the heroes manage to rescue the captured Allied Prisoners and outwit the Germans. The ending is phenomenal with a dam burst and washing away of the Panzer divisions.
This book was also adapted to become a movie, directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Barbara Bach, Edward Fox and Franco Nero and was a moderate success. But the movie has little in common with the book apart from the principle characters and the title. So grab your copy and enjoy the action packed thriller.

Guns of Navarone (Published in 1957) authored by Alistair MacLean, a classic set in the Second World War

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war he saw and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
MacLean's characters are men who fight against all odds. They are ordinary men who are thrown in to situations which are physically and emotionally demanding. Many of them never think about surviving, and their only instinct is to fight the odds. Some succeed, some redeem themselves and some sacrifice. But in the end all are heroes. This story is based on the battle of Leros during world war two. This is one of the most successful of MacLean's books which was made in to a successful motion picture.



The battle takes place in the year 1943 during the the world war two (based on the battle of Leros) where more than 2000 English troops are holed up. Their evacuation is possible only if the route through the island of Navarone is opened up, but this is not possible till the route is made safe from the huge guns overlooking the route which threaten any ship trying to pass through. It is needed to remove these guns, something which seems incredible, and this impossible task is put to a crack team is put together to neutralize the guns of Navarone.
The team is led by Captain Keith Mallory, a mountaineer from New Zealand who is also a commando, Andrea Stavros, a Greek colonel, Corporal Dusty Miller (an American explosives expert), Petty Officer Casey Brown (a Royal Navy personnel, from the Special Boat Service), and many others. They ultimately set sail to Navarone disguised as Greek fisherman.
Their boat has to fight the ever present enemy - the water and the sea, but eventually they reach the foot of the cliff and have to climb the sheer cliff in a storm, where the experience of Mallory proves invaluable.
They are one step ahead of the Germans, but just, and they have a timeframe whereby they have to blow up the guns to give the trapped men a chance through a relief convoy; in addition, like you would expect from such a book, one of the people supporting them is also betraying them. How do they manage to get into the fortress, and destroy the guns ?

HMS Ulysses (published in 1955) - written by Alistair Maclean and about the struggle of a doomed ship during the war

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war he saw and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
Because of his war experiences, his novels are also high on the action content. The emotional and the romantic angle is not very much touched upon by Maclean. His characters are highly cynical men who are always part of the high octane action and push themselves against all odds with out any thought for their safety. The elements also play a very important in MacLean's writings. Most of the time his men are pitted against harsh unforgiving surroundings which brings out the innate nature hidden inside, be it a devil or a hero.
HMS Ulysses is Alistair MacLean's first novel and is largely drawn upon his war experiences. The true story about the ill-fated convoy PQ-17 provided the basis for this story. It tells us the story of ordinary men who fight against seemingly unsurmountable odds just to prove their loyalty. HMS Ulysses is Captained by Richard Vallery, who commands unflinching loyalty from his men.



The story begins with Ulysses at Anchor in Scapa Flow after a grueling mission as an escort ship in the arctic north. The men are exhausted and tired battling the harshest of climates coupled with low food rations. They are emotionally exhausted because of the battle of nerves against the U-boats, enemy aircraft and ships. These men learn upon weighing the anchor that the higher authorities are planning to send them back in to battle and are ready to put them through the same grind with out any concerns for their well being. A mini mutiny spreads across the ship and only their loyalty towards Richard Vallery prevents them from deserting.
Now a much soothed crew find that the trust in their abilities is eroded and orders are very clear, - escort a convoy through the battle field of Murmansk and on return will be rewarded with a draft to the Mediterranean. HMS Ulysses is to use to bait German Destroyer Tirpitz and help her destruction. The Captain and the crew accepts the terms for the sake of redemption.
But a fierce storm is raging in the Arctic, coupled with death stalking Ulysses in the form of U-boats and fighter planes above. Men have to fight against bone chilling cold and the waters toss the Ulysses with no mercy with the specter of tuberculosis among them. In the last pages Alistair Maclean graphically describes the hopelessness of the expendable men battling everything stacked up against them and sacrificing their lives for honor. Glory is for them for ever because the mind numbing hopelessness brings the men to give the battle everything they have, not to survive but to sacrifice and win.

Dogs of War - by Frederick Forsyth (1974)

Suppose you are in the turbulent time period of the 1960's - 1970's when various colonial ruled countries in Africa were reaching their independence. There were many different influences working in the countries at that point of time, the Soviet Union was trying to get regimes to be in its favor. Many of these countries were mineral rich, and there was a fight to get the rulers of the country in favor of companies so that they could get advantages of the mineral rights that were being awarded by these countries. It was not unheard of that a country's Government could be deposed off in a coup, although using mercenaries was not unheard of. As is normal with Forsyth, his novel is based on a lot of detailed research, enough that people who were in this line of business were astounded by the accuracy of these details.



In fact, there is a lot of buzz that the country that Forsyth refers to as Zangaro was actually the country of Equatorial Guinea; the book is supposed to be atleast partly based upon Forsyth's time as a reported in the Biafran War between Biafra and Nigeria, and in fact, as a part of researching this story, Forsyth was researching how to attempt a coup against the Government of Equatorial Guinea, and it was supposed to cost a ridiculously small sum of a quarter of a million dollars. There is a lot of speculation that there was an actual coup attempt against the Government that was spoiled by Spain.
The book draws mixed reviews, with many people praising the depth of description of the details; however, there was also criticism that there were too many details or preparation and not enough action. The story is about a British mining tycoon learning of a hot discovery of the priceless metal, platinum, in the Central African republic of Zangaro. However, the ruler is leaning towards the Soviet Union, who in turn decide to give him a KGB guard and also send in their own survey team. At the same time, the British tycoon Sir James Manson hires a mercenary, Carlo Alfred Thomas “Cat” Shannon, who had left Zangaro earlier after the side he was supporting failed. They decide to plan an operation in which they will kill the current leader, Jean Kimba, and replace him with their own man. The rest of the story is about the execution of the plan, and how it meets with its challenges.

Mother Night, a book by Kurt Vonnegut (1961)

Mother Night is partly a war story, and a spy story (with the syping done during the war), but is more than that. It does not do much about fighting, or about combat, more about the life of a playwright who lives a double life as a spy, and ends up at the end of the war as a shell. The book is a depiction of the plight of the person who ends up with a double identity at the end of the war, a spy who survived the war (not something that a lot of spies did), who feels that he is nationless now, and cannot find anything worthwhile to have as a means of living (the one true love he had, his wife, died during a war battle). In the end, you end up with a person who has no will to live. Part of the message of the book is 'you end up being what you pretend to be', and and hence people should be very careful about whatever they try to become.



The story (written in first person) is about this guy called Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American citizen who moves to Germany after World War 1. He stays on in Germany after Hitler comes to power in 1933, and since he is a playwright, he continues to write plays. He associates with members of the Nazi Party, and cares for 2 people - his plays, and his wife Helga (also the actress of his plays). Soon, he has an encounter that sets the stage of the remainder of his life. He meets with a man called Frank Wirtanen, from the US War Department (the US Government did not have a separate spy agency at that point of time), who asks him to become a spy of the US. Campbell refuses, but Frank tells him to think it over.
As the war starts, Joseph Goebbels is the propaganda minister for the Nazis, the one who turned the art of propaganda into a convincing weapon; part of Goebbels assignment is to convert enemies to their cause, and Campbell becomes a part of that effort, rising in esteem and becoming more and more allied to the effort. He would be reviled for his role as a loyal supporter of the Nazis, and criticized as a war criminal. However, Campbell is also a spy for the US, working for the OSS (Office of Strategic Service - the agency that later became the foundation for the CIA), passing on messages through his speeches; however, Campbell does not know the content of the messages he is passing.
However, in the middle of the war, he gets a real shock, when his wife Helga is presumed dead when she was caught in a camp (where she was entertaining German troops) which was over-run by the Soviet Army. Later, near the end of the war, he has a slightly unpleasant conversation with his father-in-law, in which his father-in-law basically tells him that he always suspected that Campbell was a spy, but he was good at his propaganda work that it over-shadowed everything else he may have done. When he is captured by US forces, he gets released due to the efforts of Wirtanen.
Campbell moves to New York City, living a lonely life without any adventure, until there is a confluence of events. He is sought by a Soviet agent looking to re-build his career, by a white supremacist, by the FBI, by the sister of his wife, and by Nazi hunters. He however is almost beyond caring.
Eventually, there is a sequence in which he gets caught by Nazi Hunters, and taken to Israel. What happens to him, to a person who is beyond caring, but who was not a war criminal, but instead a spy who was very effective.

War of the Worlds (1898) - By HG Wells

The world outside our planet has always fascinated us, even when we could not see what is out there. In addition to a quest with trying to finding out more of the mysteries of the Universe, there was always a few of the unknown. Suppose there is an alien race on other worlds, there is no reason to believe that they would be friendly towards humanity (in fact, given the ferocity with which humanity fights each other, it is very easy to assume that another race would find it easy to be hostile to us). And of course, if it is a race older than us, they would have a more advanced technology, more advanced weapons, and may be easily able to overcome us (and destroy humanity).
There has been a lot of movie and books coverage of the prospects of an alien invasion of earth, with movies such as Independence Day, Mars Attacks being the most recent. However, this book (by the futuristic science fiction writer HG Wells) is probable the earliest book that deals with this subject (leaving aside the tales of the pyramids and other such structures having been built by aliens), and also details a believable reason for why the attacks by a more technologically superior race would have stopped. In addition, Mars had already been believed to be the center of an advanced race when the Italian astronomer, Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835-1910), described some of the natural phenomenon existing on Mars, and these were wrongly translated into English as 'there are canals on Mars'.



This novel had remained popular, but what made this novel extraordinarily popular, and at the same scared a large section of the population, was a radio broadcast on Halloween (October 30, 1938) by Orson Wells, where he made listeners panic, believing that the news stories of an actual invasion were true.
The book is about the proposed landing of a Martian ship (cylinder) in the town of Woking, England near the end of the 19th century. This is preceded by the observations of a series of explosions on Mars and the launching of a meteor towards Earth. This meteor lands on Earth, and strange looking Martians start emerging from the cylinder and start building up machinery. Approaching humans are killed by a death ray (a heat ray). The machine that the Martians have been building is a 3-legged fighting machine that uses the heat ray and also uses poison gas in the form of a black smoke.
Attacks on these army of attacking Martians are easily repelled, and they are soon taking control of vast sections of South England, with the populations of those areas evacuating. The narrator, the one who is explaining what is happening (and having been separated from his wife in one of the confusing moments during the attack) is able to watch the Martians from close quarters, including their use of human blood as food. And then suddenly the Martians vanish - they have been felled by the pathogens (bacteria / virus) found on Earth, and to which they are not immune.

War and Peace (by Leo Tolstoy)

'War and Peace' has been called as the best novel ever written, and while there would be other favorite novels and people might consider other novels as the greatest, there is no getting around the fact that this is a great novel. War and Peace is taught in many English literature courses as an alltime great book by a great author (his other work, 'Anna Karenina' was also very famous).
The story is set around the 1812 French-Russian war where the French emperor, Napolean had invaded Russia. This was eventually a great disaster for the French, since they first managed to take Moscow (which had been abandoned by the Russians as a part of this war), but this did not do them too much good. The Russian winter had already set in, the army had to eventually return back, and they were harassed by the Cossack attacks. They lost a majority of their force in this return, and at the same time, left most of the wooden structures of Moscow burning.



The novel was published through a period from 1865 to 1869 in the 'Russkii Vestnik', and went through 2 complete different forms. Tolstoy was not happy with the first published draft, and totally rewrote the novel to get another version, that was the final published version. This original version was also published again in the last 2 decades and is now available in many languages after translation. The writing of the book in its original also reflects some of the cultural norms of the society of that time - while most of the book was in Russian, there are many dialogues that were written in French since this was the language of the French aristocracy. There is apparently a small patriotic subtext in the book as well as regards language - French is used more to denote insincerity while Russian is increasingly used to show the more honest and better part.
The book takes characters from 3 main Russian families (The Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Bezukovs, along with some more associated characters), including those who are part of the nobility and those on the edge of financial ruin, and takes the movements in their life, centered around the oncoming conflict with France, and moving onto the changes that happen due to this conflict, and the aftermath. An imposing historical figure such as Napoleon is a side part of this story, it is the impressive flesh and blood tale of these Russian characters, intersection with a description of the Russian society at that time that makes this a very impressive work of fiction.
The story presents some major characters such as Pierre Bezukhov (the main character, very honest, but not worldly wise - supposed to be a reflection of Tolstoy himeself), Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky (brave, a soldier looking forward to the war), Natasha Rostova (starting out as a young girl, she goes through many trials and tribulations, and eventually gets married to Pierre), Nikolai Rostov (another soldier, also responsible for trying to keep his family from financial ruin), Sonya Rostova (a poor cousin, she was engaged to Nikolai, but eventually releases him so that he can marry the rich Princess Maria), and many other such characters.

From The Holy Mountain By William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is that sort of a writer you would love to read just because he has written it. For me, he will always be such a writer. Every book of his has been good than the other one. He surely writes a lot about Middle East and Indian Subcontinent. In "From The Holy Mountain: A Journey Among The Christians Of The Middle East", he travels the Silk Route of ancient Byzantium through the present day Middle East retracing the AD 578 journey of John Moschos, a well known Byzantine monk, traveller and historian. All along the way he only sees a dying heritage in form of neglected monasteries, declining number of Christians and great sort of confusion among different religions in the region.

He begins his journey on Mt. Athos after seeing the older manuscript of 'The Spiritual Meadow' (the book by John Moschos), travels to Istanbul, eastern Turkey, Tur Abdin, then on to Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. Wherever he went, he retraces Moshos' route, visits remains of his era and tries to stay in the same monasteries as Mochos has done centuries ago.

All the while he notices that early Christian presence in the area was very significant and it has been declining steadily ever since. It has been sometime due to political suppression or sometimes just due to better opportunities outside - but in nearly each instance it has taken its toll on the region's culture and heritage. Some of the monasteries mentioned by Mochos are now extinct or destroyed either by time or governments. On the one hand, he notices the differences between Islam and Christianity getting wider and wider down the ages. On the other hand, he still find these religions intermingled together at some holy places praying together for miracles or babies.

Certainly worth a read for its rich description of the place, early times and understanding of current scenarios.

O Jerusalem - Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre

Most people would have heard of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, at the same time, a vast majority of the same people would have little or no knowledge of the background of the conflict; or of the history of the region of the region at the time of the founding of Israel in 1948. The conflict has split people so widely that it is hard to find people who do not have a bias on the subject. The same is true of people who have written on the topic. In the midst of all this, to find a book that details the history of the region in a relatively unbiased way is difficult. This book is a very close approximation of the detailing of the history of that region that seeks to present history without too much bias.


Jerusalem is without doubt the most disputed territory in the world, and still at the center of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even now, most Islam inspired terrorists consider the cause of Jerusalem to be central to the conflict. Jerusalem is the holiest of holies for Jews, the site of the destructed Second Temple (and the remaining Western Wall from that temple); in addition, the same complex contains the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims (said to house the rock from which the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven on his horse along with the archangel Gabriel); to round off the religious significances, Jerusalem also contains the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the grounds that are venerated as the place where Jesus was said to have been crucified and buried. It is not hard to imagine why the city of Jerusalem has always been a much sought over city.
To write a book about such a place is not easy. Such a book will be reviewed very critically, examined for bias, and every historical fact mentioned checked. To ensure that they did a good job, the authors, Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, spent 5 years of research, checking historical documents and records. The overall aim was to write a book that aims to provide details of the facts and circumstances surrounding the creation of the state of Israel - to that extent, the book presents details of all the chief players of that time - the Arabs, the British who had the mandate of the region of Palestine, and the various players on the Jewish side (simple soldiers, religious leaders, the leaders (David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir), as well as the various organizations on the Jewish side (Hagannah, Irgun, Stern)).
The book itself starts from the time when the United Nations (in 1947) voted to partition the British mandate of Palestine into 2 parts - one to be the state of the Jews called Israel, and the other to be a Palestine state. However, both sides knew that this was not the end, there would be a war; and both sides prepared for war. So, for example, Israel sent its men abroad to buy arms and needed to setup an army and air force that could hold up its own against the might of its Arab neighbors. Similarly, the Arabs went to buy arms, and also worked at ensuring that all the constituents of the Arab side worked together. As the end of the mandate came closer, war became more imminent. It was also an intelligence war, something that Israel eventually won and won the entire battle (the Israeli objective was to retain their homeland, and they managed to do so). One consequence of the battle was to create a huge number of Palestinian refugees, the problem of which is a major impediment to any peaceful solution even now.

The Devil's Alternative - Frederick Forsyth

In this time and age, the events described in this thriller by Frederick Forsyth seem as from another age. And in fact, that was another age. In 1979, when this novel was published, the Soviet Union was the worldwide great power representing communism, with the Eastern half of Europe in its clutches. In addition to the client states such as East Germany, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, etc that were also communists, and some of whom had seen the might of the Soviet army when they had tried to move towards democracy, there were the states that were part of the Soviet Union besides Russia. In all, there were 15 former states that made up the Soviet Union, and it would only have been a visionary / fool who would have dared to claim that these countries will be separate countries within 12 years.
And this is one of the main stories of this thriller. The second largest constituent state of the Soviet Union was the Ukraine, and since it was the second largest, and had known independence before, it was ruthlessly sought to be made like Russia, and any elements of Ukrainian culture stubbed out; after all, if the people are as Russian as the Russians, then where will there be a need to start a separatist front. The Russians (the largest majority of the Soviet Union) used a combination of the Red Army and the feared KGB (formerly the NKVD) to sniff out and break any level of Ukrainian separatism, such that it never reached any dangerous point.


Frederich Forsyth also takes the opportunity to explain several aspects that form the basis of the thriller, namely:
1. The workings of the Soviet Politburo and the politics between the different members, especially about how the various members come to reach the peak of political life in the Soviet Union (politburo)
2. Some details about the concept of a super-tanker and the colossal damage that a super-tanker can do
3. The use of spies and their information in deciding what Governments that are in conflict with each other do, and how policies are made based on this information
4. And a very advanced topic for that age, involving the use of spy satellites to gather information about what is happening in the territory of another country
5. A lot of details about the spy-craft, about how to spy and control agents in hostile territory
6. And for me, something that was very interesting for me, namely details about what the SR-71 (the Blackbird) can do

The novel starts with the escape of a Ukrainian separatist (under attack from the KGB) from the Soviet Union. He meets a Ukrainian sympathizer who is fanatically in favor of Ukrainian independence and against the Soviet Union and the KGB. He takes this opportunity to go to the Soviet Union.
At the same time, the US and British discover that vast tracts of the Russian grain harvest is spoiled, and then you go to the Russian side and discover that a series of freak incidents cause the spoilage of vast chunks of the Soviet wheat harvest, causing a famine of immense proportions. And once the Americans and Western powers get to know about this, they would demand concessions on a large scale before providing the grain. The Soviet Union cannot afford to undergo a famine of this level since that may cause the one thing that any Soviet politburo dreads, the rise of the long suffering population at a level that the use of force cannot control. One option is to use the vast Red Army to attack Western Europe to get over this scarcity, and this becomes a issue about control of the Politburo.
At such a time, the new British SIS (MI6) head in Moscow meets and old flame; she is also in a position to be able to supply information about the workings of the Politburo, something that the Americans and British find very valuable. As things escalate, this information is of vital information in helping fine-tune the policies of the West.
As things move ahead, things threaten to spiral out of control. If the politburo source is used too much, she could get exposed; if it gets out that Ukrainian separatists have assassinated the head of the KGB, things could spiral out of control and risk giving the faction in the politburo the majority to go to war; and if the Ukrainian separatists use the vast super-tanker Freya that they now control and let the oil go into the ocean, it would be an environmental tragedy of the highest order.
At such times, what can happen. And this is the Devil's alternative, anything you do has a consequence, and will lead to a loss of life. And for politicians and leaders, taking the easiest path is the way to go. Coldness is an essential attribute of state-craft.
The concluding lines of the book are what would shake you when you read them - 'Ukraine will be free again'; and this is precisely what happened in 1991 when Boris Yeltsin took Russia away from the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union vanished into history.

The Kite Runner

After a long time, probably after I read 'The Life of Pi', here's another book which keeps you engaged till the end. Its a sad and tragic story of a boy from Afghanistan. Its a work of fiction by Khaled Hosseini and his first one, did this in 2003. He is from Afghanistan.

The book starts with a story of a boy in Afghanistan in a well-to-do family with access to English DVDs, good food, Mustang, a influential father and most importantly a divine friend. The book is named 'The Kite Runner'as this divine friend is a great kite runner. A kite runner is someone who runs and loots the cut kites. Amir, the rich kid and the Hasan the poor kid. The story moves easy and well in the beginning with details on Afghan life and mostly about Kabul before Russian war era.



It all funny and good-read till Khaled makes the first blow where Hasan gets badly treated by a group of rowdy boys. Wont tell you the actual thing but I was very shocked and I actually stopped reading this for a while. It seemed like a big effort to again pick the book and resume. From then on the story turns and more tragic thing start to happen. Amir gets into that guilt mode since he could not save Hasan. Then the war happens and they have to flee to Pakistan and then later to US. Amir has lost his mother very early and his Dad was never too excited about Amir for he was more of a creative kind with little or no interest in sports or more manly occupations.

The story then moves leaps n bounds with Amir finally moving to US, finishing his school there, finding a girl, comes back to Pakistan to meet an old friend of his Abba. Its a not a thick tome but Khaled has been able to add so much that you keep engaged and connected. Infact in last 100 pages, there are many new twists and discoveries. Its not only a story of a boy by now and rather takes you to society and a country. In last few episodes so much happen that you start to get nauseating at times.

The finish line has not been decorated too much, it sorts of end on a subtle note. Nothing great happens in the end, probably a realistic end to a heroic story. If you dont like reading tragedies then avoid but if you are interested in reading human relations, those secret aspects of ourselves, the innates then do read.

There is a movie on the book and is getting released shortly so read the book first before watching the movie.

Leon Uris: Trinity (1976)

Right at the start, let me say it, and then you can read the review keeping this in mind. I simply loved the book. I have read it a few more times since the first time I read it, and one can't help but be moved by the book. Let me cross-relate something I read in a Tom Clancy (Patriot Games). Even though that book is about renegade Irish terrorists, there is some dialogue in the book about the origin of the 'troubles' and how a lot of this was mishandled due to British politics. And then I read Trinity soon after, and this book has done a great deal to explain the issues related to the Irish problem, especially the history.
To an outsider, the conflict in Northern Ireland seems strange, what with it being viewed as a battle between 2 Christian faiths. The source of the conflict and current issues seem hard to comprehend. This problem is further compounded by the fact that in the present, in Northern Ireland, the Protestant population is in a majority, and the Catholics are in a minority, an exact reversal of the population mix in Ireland, which is where the root of the problem originates. A conflict that seems so small to outsiders is actually many centuries old, reaching a peak with the conquest of the Catholic Irish king by the Protestant English kingdom in the 17th century, and the bitter conflicts after that.


The novel 'Trinity' is focused on a time period between the 1850's and the Irish uprising in 1916. The book is pretty long (over 700 pages), but is extremely gripping and almost forces you to try and read as much as you can over one sitting, and try and finish reading the book first, getting higher priority over other things that you may have to do. However, if you are of English origin and not of Irish origin, you might consider the novel somewhat biased since it presents the outlook from an Irish point of view, with the English not being portrayed in the most positive of light.
The book is the story of the intertwining lives of the Larkins (Catholic hill farmers from the fictional town of Ballyutogue in County Donegal), the Macleods (Protestant shipyard workers from Belfast), and the Hubbles (representatives of three centuries of Anglo-Irish aristocracy).
The novel describes in some depth how the cultural and religious differences between the Protestant and the Catholic communities are exploited so as to drive them further apart, to the extent that any inter-action between the 2 communities is severely prohibited. The depiction of the treatment of a Protestant girl by her own community women, who is involved with a Catholic boy is horrific.
The book moves towards a Irish movement against the English occupation, culminating in a plot against a fort occupied by the English. The book ends in a failure that is converted to a victory; however, the message of despair in the Irish problem is ever present.

Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

Eye of the Needle was a novel that catapulted Ken Follett to instant fame. It was first published in 1978 with the title of 'Storm Island', and eventually became much more successful as 'Eye of the Needle'. It was the author's first major success and set him up to write many more successful novels based on a fast action track incorporating a spy thriller.
The novel takes a historical period (not too far back though - World War 2) and spins a story around that. The concept of a ice-cold anti-hero all out to break the secrecy of the allied effort getting felled by the courage of a lady with whom he has had an affair was very gripping. The story line is not very complex, but there is a fair amount of detail that holds the reader.



During World War II, the allied forced had been pushed from Europe and needed to re-enter the continent in order to take on the Nazis militarily. There are not too many feasible invasion routes, with the Dover-Calais route being the shortest and hence the most likely. The allies had however decided to take the longer Normandy landing; the biggest question was about how to protect this information from the Germans and to get them to focus on the Calais entry point. This entire operation was called Operation Fortitude, and it involved setting up a massive fake army so that the Germans could be deceived from afar. However, if a spy on the ground looked, he would be able to determine that this entire operation was a fake.
And the novel is based on such a person. A skilled spy, called 'Die Nadel', who is ice-cold and can kill anybody if they get in his way, eventually finds out the extent of the fake army and has to reach his submarine pick-up in a remote corner of Britain, and also transmit his findings to the German high command.
And then he runs into this couple living on an isolated island. A young couple, but the husband got crippled in an accident and is now very bitter, with the bitterness causing their relations to drift apart. And into this comes the spy; the inevitable happens; he soon starts to have an affair with the wife (the entire scenario described in some detail). At the same time, Der Niedle is being hunted by the British military who have found out about him and will do anything to hunt him down and kill him.
So what happens ? Does the husband find out about him ? Will the cold spy be able to reveal his truth or will he be found ? What about the affair between the wife and him ? 'Eye of the needle' is a well paced thriller with some well sketched out characters.

Battle Cry (1953): By Leon Uris

Leon Uris wrote a number of books in his lifetime (1924 - 2003). Leon Uris fought in the Second World War in the United States Marine Corps, and his experience formed the basis of his first book, Battle Cry, released in 1953. The book chronicled the adventures of a group of young men who join the United States Marines after the Pearl Harbour attack, and take part in the fierce fighting with the Japanese in the Islands of the Pacific. Names such as Wake, Guadalcanal, etc were famous milestones in this fighting (these were also incidentally some of the places where Leon Uris had toured in).
And for a book written so far back (1953), there is a fair amount of representation of different cultures shown. Though the book skips over the African-American community, there are soldiers from Native Indian (Navajo), Italian-American, Swedish, Yankee, and other backgrounds. The narrating is done by a crusty old sergeant (with a lot of experience) called Mac. The whole group is led by a Colonel, Sam Huxley, who wants glory for his team.
The book is well-written, taking the story in more detail of the All-American boy, Danny Forester, and his urge to join the Marines and the effect this has on his personal life. These impacts are supposed to represent the problems faced by other soldiers, and the impact on their families who see young boys (barely out of their teens), young men, and family men going off to a war from whom many may never come back.
The book makes for some gripping reading, with their adventures in a war that is destined to take them to a place with fierce fighting between the Americans and the Japanese (not depicted in any great detail - just as fierce fighters who will fight to the end rather than commit suicide). The book starts with boot camp, with a hint of seriousness starting to emerge, and then becomes more serious as the narrative proceeds. Times where there is no actual fighting going show the life of the Marines at these forward and war zones, and is able to keep reader attention. But it is the scenes of battle that do not hesitate from actual gore and death, and there are members of the squad and friend who end up dead or very wounded.
The book shows the motive behind people heading to war, to fight for the country; and at the same time does not hesitate in showing the actual death and destruction that can emerge from such a battle. Read it if you can find it, it's a very good book.

Tom Clancy: Bear and the Dragon

The Bear refers to Russia and the Dragon refers to China and these are terminologies from old. If you are a follower of the Chinese Communist Party, then this book is not for you (in fact, if you detest somebody making critical comments of China, then you would not like this book). There is very little positive in this book about China, starting from the beginning and going almost till the end. Even a person who is portrayed somewhat positively is also shown as forcing himself on the young girls in his office.
The book is much more positive on Russia, although the cooperation that is depicted in the book between Russia and the US does not exist in any form or condition currently. In fact, given the adversarial nature of the relationship between Bush's administration and Putin's semi-dictatorship, the story in this book seems almost fanciful.



The book has many positives. There is the usual Clancy style of having multiple stories weaving into the script, slowly coming together and blowing into a tension wracked ending. And suddenly, you see an almost calamity occurring, stopped in the nick of time. Next, you have the usual concept of people with honour, and many people without honour. There is more of Jack Ryan (and if you are a fan of a fictional character such as I am of Jack Ryan), you get to see more of the individual qualities of his characters, including more anger, and of his revulsion against actions that go against his morality.
As always, the CIA is essentially portrayed as a positive and patriotic force, (although numerous other books normally portray the CIA as a force that can act like a rogue force at times). The best thing is the level of detail in the book about military actions. The main battle action in the book is wonderfully detailed; in addition, with the current discussion about missile defense, there is a fair amount of discussion about the way in which to prepare for missile defense.
The book starts with an assassination attempt on the head of the Russian intelligence agency (the successor to the KGB), he is a close confidant of the President and such an attempt causes a great deal of alarm. At around the same time, Russia discovers that Siberia has an immense stockpile of gold and oil, something that will cause Russia to lift itself out of its slow economic growth and into modernity. This stockpile causes immense jealousy among China's leaders.
And onto the main theme of the book: China. Clancy does not spare China (I would not be surprised if Clancy is prohibited from entering China). Its dictatorship (the Chinese Communist Party), the lack of democracy and freedom of worship, and most of all the restrictions on citizens including the forced enforcement of abortion on citizens violating the one-children rule comes in for special focus. Even though the criticism is harsh, one wonders whether any of this is false (One knows that there is no democracy, the treatment of the Tibeteans, of special religious cults, of people seeking the right to move from one part of the country, and the immense clashes between the citizens the corrupt party all over the country all seem to portray a country very different from others).
Anyhow, in this book, the enforcement of a brutal abortion combined with a crackdown on a Christian sect inflame western opinion, and push the Chinese towards attempting a military attack on Russia's new riches. The book is all about how this moves forward into an actual war between China and a Russo-US axis, moving forward into a nuclear confrontation.