The God Virus by Skip Coryell

The God Virus
By Skip Coryell
White Feather Press

Reviewed by Keith Jones

What if the lights suddenly went out all over the world as if God just flipped the switch. That is a question “The God Virus” makes you ask. What would you do once the panic set it and it was “every man for himself?”

“The God Virus” is the first of a planned trilogy. Dan Branch is a man at a crossroads in his life living in Wisconsin when the chaos strikes. Before the lights go out he receives a coded text from his Uncle Rodney in Michigan. Uncle Rodney is a survivalist who has spent his entire life preparing for the worst and had hoped to do the same for his nephew he took in at the death of his brother. Having grown up in that environment, Dan has a few tricks up his sleeve. Rodney’s text is a code for Dan to drop everything and come home to Michigan. Of course for Dan this is not nearly that simple. There is the matter of Dan’s philandering wife and his step son to whom Dan is the only father he has ever known.

“The God Virus” is a struggle for survival that prompts a great deal of self examination. What would you do if the modern world we have all come to depend on was suddenly plunged into a brand new dark age? How would you make do when the trucks quit running and the supermarkets all shut down. Even more important, what would you do when others equally unprepared decide that your provisions are fair game? This book is a compelling read and Coryell’s best effort to date. It will leave you hungry for the next installment.

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The Final Salute by Kathleen Rodgers

The Final Salute
By Kathleen M. Rodgers
Navigator Books

Reviewed by Keith Jones

“The Final Salute” has been touted as a must read for Air Force pilots and their families. I maintain that it should have a far broader audience than that. This is a book that everybody would enjoy. In fact I would go so far as to call it a must read for all Americans because it gives a solid insight into the emotional world these families inhabit.

At the beginning we find Lt. Col. Tucker Westerfield dealing with what every fighter pilot spends his entire career fearing, the loss of a close friend. Tuck is told on his first day of flight training that in a twenty year flying career, one in three of them will die at the stick. While dealing with his grief, he walks into the middle of a situation that places him in the cross hairs of the most powerful people on his base. Tuck is forced to navigate this web of intrigue while maintaining his role as a husband and father. To keep him from being bored, Tuck also has a daughter he barely knows from a short lived previous marriage dropped back into his life. This backdrop places the reader in the world of a military career spanning from Viet Nam to the first Gulf War and everything that entails.

“The Final Salute” will grab you from the first page. You will dread having to put it down and long for your next opportunity to pick it up. Author Kathleen Rodgers has lived this life herself as the wife of a retired flyer and gives you a vacation into a whole other world. If you have no first hand experience with the military, this book will come as close as anything I have found to helping you understand what this life is like.

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Boys of Diamond Hill – 150 Years Ago

Boys of Diamond Hill

Boys of Diamond Hill

To read the entries thus far for the Sesquicentennial series for The Boys of Diamond Hill click here.

On February 18, 1862, William B. Tucker wrote his uncle Robert Boyd from Johns Island near Charleston, South Carolina. He was a member of Company F, 2nd South Carolina Rifles.

Tucker gives a great amount of detail of the military maneuvering that had gone on between the Confederate and federal armies on the island.

To learn more click on the “Diamond Hill” link at the top. To buy the book you may go to any major online retailer such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or you may buy it directly from McFarland Publishers. “The Boys of Diamond Hill” is also available for the Kindle.

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John Carter of Mars

I believe I read every one of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels and loved them as a child, but somehow I totally missed the John Carter of Mars series. I was not aware of them until the recent news of the upcoming movie, so I set about rectifying this. I have now completed the first book of the series, “A Princess of Mars” and must say it is an excellent book that holds up despite being a hundred years old. Now I can’t wait for the movie to come out and plan to read the rest of the series. Judging from the first book, I believe that Burroughs intended this to be a stand alone novel, but as is often the case, must have been prompted by its success to write more.

Interesting tidbits I learned:

  • Michael Crichton was a fan of the series. The John Carter character in his TV series, “ER” was in fact named after this John Carter.
  • A crater on Mars is named in Burroughs’ honor. No doubt due to these books.
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs was working as a pencil sharpener wholesaler when he started writing.
  • Tarzan, Texas is named for his more famous character. Also Tarzana, California is named after Burroughs’ nearby ranch which he naturally named for the character.

I wonder if any towns will be named for John Carter now.

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Gray Cavalier by Mary Bandy Daughtry

Gray Cavalier: The Life and Wars of General W. H. F. “Rooney” Lee
By Mary Bandy Daughtry
Da Capo

Reviewed by J. Keith Jones

In Gray Cavalier Mary Daughtry covers the life a very important Confederate general whose life over-shadowed by his more famous father. William Henry Fitzhugh Lee was the second son of General Robert E. Lee. His father nicknamed him “Rooney” as a child and the moniker stuck for life. Unlike his father and older brother, Rooney was not a West Pointer. Rather he was one of the handful of Harvard men in the Confederate army. Although largely ignored, the younger Lee was a vital general in the Southern cavalry and any student of Confederate history stands to learn much from this well done biography.

Something else rather unexpected occurs in this book. The reader is shown an entirely new dimension of Robert E. Lee. We are used to hearing about his generalship and his lessons on duty and honor. What Daughtry shows us is Robert E. Lee the father and family man. You realize the family issues that weighed on his mind as he made some of the most monumental decisions in the history of this nation.

Gray Cavalier is a thoroughly researched and very well written work. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of any aficionado of Southern history.

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Biggest Brother — The life of Dick Winters

Biggest Brother: The Life of Major Dick Winters
By Larry Alexander
NAL Caliber

Reviewed by Keith Jones

Biggest Brother explores the life of Major Richard Winters of Band of Brothers fame. Although this book is several years old, I just picked it up recently. I had read and loved both Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose and Major Winters’ own book, Beyond Band of Brothers. Prompted by Winters’ death, I finally read Biggest Brother. Using extra source materials not available to Ambrose – rediscovered letters Winters wrote to his wartime lady friend – Alexander’s book gives added dimension to the Winters story.

Whereas, Ambrose’s book gives the story of one company’s wartime experiences – of which Winters was a large part – and Winters book focuses mainly on the same story from his perspective with added insight into his leadership lessons, Alexander’s book does something different. It tells the complete story of a very private man. Alexander begins by covering Winters’ childhood in greater depth than the other works had. The war experiences provides deeper information about other officers that Winters served with and particularly covers Winters’ experiences with the other companies while serving as the commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion. Of course the meat of the book is the war experiences, but the delightful bookend to Winters’ childhood is the story of his life after the war. The reader is treated to the fuller stories that are only brushed over in the wrap up sections of the other two books. Among these are Winters’ time working for Nixon Nitration Works, how the Band of Brothers book came to be and his experiences working with Stephen Ambrose. Then the reader is treated to a behind the scenes look at the making of the mini-series and Winters’ interactions with Tom Hanks and the writers, including a major battle the old soldier fought with them over excessively gratuitous adult language. While not a full concession, Hanks actually did tone down the language to some degree to appease Winters after first vowing not to. After that the reader is taken along on trips back to Europe where Winters meets with old comrades and foes, then onto the Emmy Awards where Winters takes center stage.

For fans of either the book Band of Brothers or the HBO mini-series, Biggest Brother is a book that you should not miss. Even if you have not partaken in these, this book provides such a great window into the life of an extraordinary man that you are bound to enjoy it anyway.

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A City Laid Waste by Simms & Aiken

A City Laid Waste
By William Gillmore Simms
Edited by David Aiken
University of South Carolina Press

Reviewed by J. Keith Jones

This is a book with a load of historical relevance. David Aiken, an English professor at the College of Charleston and the Citadel has rendered a valuable service by resurrecting this great piece from the archives of the Columbia Phoenix. The author, William Gilmore Simms was one of the leading novelists, short story writers and poets of the period leading up to the War for Southern Independence. At the time of Sherman’s march, Simms was living in Columbia, South Carolina and had a front row seat for the destruction that ensued.

The first part of the book is a detailed introduction by Aiken that does a great job of telling who Simms was and his relevance in history. It details his life, works and how he came to be in Columbia and why and how he went out of his way to document this important event. It also provides insight as to why he is largely overlooked in modern historical accounts. The next part is the real meat and potatoes of this tragic tale, the actual ten-part newspaper account of the burning of Columbia. Simms garnered this information not only from what he witnessed himself, but also from multiple witnesses from all over the town. Simms knew he was working on a tight deadline for several reasons. First many people in Columbia at the time were refuges from other towns. They had come there thinking they would be safe. So Simms knew he had a limited time before these folks scattered to other places. He also knew that it would only be a matter of time before the Union army would return and shut down the press and bully the survivors into silence.

The burning of Columbia is often overshadowed by the earlier burning of Atlanta by the Pyrotechnician in Chief of the Union army. Those who have studied this event have read the standard government school textbook explanations as offered by Lt. Gen. William T. Sherman. These range from the big OOPS, it was an accident to the downright ludicrous claim that Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton burned the town–including his own house–to keep the Yankee army from benefiting (foraging liberally, Sherman called it). Well, if you have ever been tempted to believe these explanations, you should read this book.

In the beginning of the event, a committee led by Mayor T. J. Goodwyn rode out to meet the Union army under a flag of truce and surrender the city as Savannah, Georgia had done. It had worked for Savannah, so they hoped for the same. In the interest of sparing the people of Columbia from urban warfare, Gen. Hampton pulled his troops out under the delusion that the Union army would not attack the defenseless. Col. Stone of Sherman’s staff received the surrender and assured Mayor Goodwyn that the city would be spared, with the exception of a few government buildings. However, a small band of Confederate stragglers had not cleared the area and a few shots were fired in their direction. Now, most folks would know that this is an isolated thing, that in an army of that size and the communications of the day, it is unlikely that they had gotten the orders to retreat and not engage. What did occur hardly constituted an attack, rather it was minor rear-guard firing to cover a retreat. Apparently Col. Stone was not that bright or he was simply looking for a reason to feel wronged and proceeded to assure the mayor that he would be held to account for this. Once again, a prudent officer would realize that a city mayor would have no authority over the Confederate soldiers and retaliating against his city except in self-defense is not appropriate. (If I wanted to be spiteful, I could ramble on about how if a certain insurance company existed in that day, they could advertise their product as “So easy even a Union officer could figure it out.” Perhaps with a picture of Gen. Burnside in the background, but luckily I won’t do that.)

Simms proceeds to give a blow-by-blow account of how the Union army not only burned things of military use, but private residences. Interesting accounts of how even a woman giving birth was dragged out on a mattress so they could burn her home. The grave of a newly buried corpse was dug up just in case the family had tried to hide any valuables there. Certain details you would not expect emerge, such as the fact that the mid-western soldiers were more respectful than the ones from New England. Simms even includes lists of specific properties burned and the owners’ names.

The archaic language of the day is sometimes quite different, but once you get used to it, the information conveyed proves more than worth the time spent studying this text. This is a relatively short book and an invaluable resource in understanding the suffering inflicted in the Deep South in the waning days of the war. David Aiken deserves great credit for rescuing this definitive account from the dustbin of history.

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150 Years Ago on Diamond Hill – Punishment in the Army

To read the entries thus far for the Sesquicentennial series for The Boys of Diamond Hill click here.

Jan. 12, 1862 – Pressley Boyd writes a letter to his brother Thomas from camp in Rock Run, Virginia. Thomas is training around Charleston, South Carolina in the newly minted 19th South Carolina Infantry.

According to Pressley, Company D of the 7th SC, which he and Daniel belong, are quite dissatisfied with their current officers. One thing of note in this letter is Pressley’s account of seeing three soldiers from another state being punished at Manassas Junction. He said that they were bound “with ther hands tied up to a pole so they had to stand on ther tip toes and ther feet in stocks for too or three” hours.

To learn more click on the “Diamond Hill” link at the top. To buy the book you may go to any major online retailer such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or you may buy it directly from McFarland Publishers. “The Boys of Diamond Hill” is also available for the Kindle.

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Wonderful Review of Diamond Hill by Military Writers Society

Military Writers Society of America president Joyce Faulkner has just released a fantastic review of The Boys of Diamond Hill this week. This review is one that would buoy the spirits of any writer and make him dive into his next project with great enthusiasm:

A gorgeous & heartbreaking piece of history

January 8, 2012
By Joyce Faulkner

This review is from: Boys of Diamond Hill: The Lives and Civil War Letters of the Boyd Family of Abbeville County, South Carolina (Paperback)

The Boys of Diamond Hill is a handsome book. When I first received it, I spent a long time examining the cover — and every time I picked it up, I saw another detail in the mural-like painting representing a soldier’s life in the Confederacy. It is well-researched, well-documented, and beautifully presented by editor and MWSA member J. Keith Jones. If you are a scholar of the Civil War, you will rejoice as the primary materials — letters exchanged by members of the Boyd family — brings their experiences to life as only first-hand accounts can do. If you are a casual reader, you will be struck by the cultural and philosophical differences between the 19th and the 21st centuries in America — and yet, how much the same we all are. Any reader will be moved by the lives of these people, farmers, caught up in the major American catastrophe of their time — politics gone awry and turned violent.

In the afterward, the editor comments about the emotional connection with this family he felt after the many weeks and months he spent working with their letters and researching their lives. I understood his point. As I read about the brothers’ devotion to their parents, their affection for their siblings and their love for their wives and children — I began to feel like I knew them. And when they began asking each other of news about Felton or about Andrew’s well-being, even though I knew they were already dead when these words were written, I too was devastated.

This book had to have taken an incredible amount of work. I’m sure Mr. Jones found the information in bits that had to be fitted together like an enormous jigsaw puzzle. He helps the reader along with a well-constructed index and comprehensive bibliography. I loved an appendix that explained the various cast of characters and how they were related to each other. In fact, I read that both before I tackled the letters — and afterwards. Then, I spent hours scanning the Boyd brothers company rosters — looking for names that I might recognize.

This is a work to linger over — and I did. It’s a gold mine for novelists — each letter, in and of itself, is a story with subplots and character development. I found myself reading a letter from one of the boys, reading Mr. Jones’ background information, and then looking up some obscure comment or reference. I got a big kick out of how the Boyds talked so casually about the momentous things happening to them. Daniel is wounded on the second day at Gettysburg. Yet, other than to tell his father that he got hit in the leg, he doesn’t explain himself further. When so much is going on, I guess it’s hard to know what to mention and what let pass. Or perhaps you think you will have the rest of your life to talk about it — or maybe you want to forget it as soon as possible.

This is perhaps the most dogeared of the books that I’ve received in the last few years. I will probably keep it near as reference for a story I’m planning — or maybe just to reach back in time to touch the Boyd family once again on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Reviewed by: Joyce Faulkner, President of Military Writers Society of America (2011)

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Empire of the Gods by David Stag

Empire of the Gods
By David Stag

Reviewed by Keith Jones

Empire of the Gods is a thoroughly enjoyable book. David Stag crafts a gripping tale that keeps you guessing. It begins with teenage Linus being kidnapped along with most of his hometown by alien pirates to be sold into intergalactic slavery. In a story reminiscent of Joseph and his coat of many colors from the Bible, Linus doesn’t let his circumstances define him. Instead he rises above his problems and establishes himself in distant worlds.

Empire of the Gods breaks out from the usual formulas in forming a plausible and enjoyable book. You’ll find yourself never quite figuring out where Stag is going with his story. Nonetheless you will not want to put it down until you see what happens next. This book sweeps you about the Galaxy taking you to an ending sure to leave you satisfied.

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