{"id":26866,"date":"2017-11-29T15:38:58","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T15:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/11\/29\/military-times-winter-reading-guide-fiction-from-wolves-to-seals\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:35:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:35:25","slug":"military-times-winter-reading-guide-fiction-from-wolves-to-seals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/off-duty\/2017\/11\/29\/military-times-winter-reading-guide-fiction-from-wolves-to-seals\/","title":{"rendered":"Military Times Winter Reading Guide: Fiction from wolves to SEALs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our final fiction reviews for 2017, in time for your holiday shopping (or your literary escape from the season). They\u2019re in order of reading value and satisfaction. Prices are provided by the publishers; you may find better deals as the holidays approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonfiction fans, head here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Battle Within <\/b>by Alistair Luft, Inkshares, 350 pages, $16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debut novelist <\/a>is a Canadian Army lieutenant colonel who opens with Tim O\u2019Brien\u2019s admonition that an \u201cuplifting\u201d war story is \u201ca very old and terrible lie.\u201d To tell the truth, Luft centers on Major Hugh Degare, a combat veteran (Afghanistan thrice) on desk duty at headquarters in Ottawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He suffers from post-traumatic stress, which he is reluctant to admit despite offers of help from his wife and a shrink. After all, \u201cwhat kind of soldier couldn\u2019t handle a few bad dreams?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His dreams become vivid nightmares, and he feels like he can \u201cno longer fit in to the very society he thought he\u2019d been protecting.\u201d His disengagement stems from pressures within and without. Another officer callously says \u201ca soldier who\u2019d kill themselves over a made-up reason like PTSD should never have been let into the military in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What at the start seems like a fictionalized, Army-issued training treatise on coping with PTSD spirals into a suspenseful and sad situation that is uncannily close to daily news headlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wolf Season <\/b>by Helen Benedict, Bellevue, 320 pages, $17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sheep in wolf\u2019s clothing and three illegally kept wolves populate a small, rural town that suffers the effects of a hurricane and an epidemic of post-traumatic stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veteran and Army widow Rin is a \u201cpit bull of a woman\u201d who keeps an M16 above her kitchen window, suffers \u201ca clusterbomb of paranoias,\u201d and prances with wolves. Studio dancer Beth uses alcohol to stem her fear that her Marine husband will return from Afghanistan only to wear out her welcome mat. Physician Naema escapes from Baghdad to Syria to the U.S., but war follows her \u201call the way her to her bedroom in Huntsville, N.Y., and her very own bed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The doctor says people can use up their supply of compassion, and this is a town without much pity. As Rin says, \u201cthank the Lord, Allah, Krishna, Buddha, and Santa Claus, too, that the Iraq War wasn\u2019t fought in woods like these.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story <\/a>is provocative if not always pleasant, with characters that require equal doses of empathy and endurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Into a Dark Frontier<\/b> by John Mangan, Oceanview, 323 pages, $27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 74 short chapters, the Air Force pilot and \u201ccoffee house poet\u201d debuts notably<\/a> with a thriller about how an ex-Navy SEAL\u2019s actions \u2014 plural \u2014 might save the world, starting with one continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When his government frames Slade (and his sister Summer), the only recourse is for him and his horse, Sig, to cooperate with an Army colonel who insists he covertly \u2014 how else in a thriller? \u2014 get to the bottom of the horror in a future, post-holocaust Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stir in an American religious sect (the Judeans), a murderous cult (the Penitents), our hero\u2019s incredible prowess (mental and physical), and a beautiful woman (with \u201cIndian-ink\u201d hair) who is in danger and in Slade\u2019s thoughts. Things happen fast and with occasional fun: \u201cThe worst thing about life is that there\u2019s no theme music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A subtheme that is either naive or disingenuous will make some readers squirm, starting with the title\u2019s archaic reference to Africa. There\u2019s an anti-gay slur and \u201cjoke.\u201d Empathy for people who depart the U.S. because \u201cif we stood up for our biblical beliefs, we were accused of hate-speech.\u201d And the threat of \u201cOne World Government\u201d created by things such as international trade deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ending implies Slade will be back, and perhaps then the plot \u2014 not the politics \u2014 will thicken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTED, NOT REVIEWED<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n