Two-For-One Special

So to help foster an interest in reading in young men, I’ve decided to start reading and reviewing books that guys might like, and today’s post is a two-for-one special.  So without further ado, let’s get down to business.

 

First up is Ghost Recon: Combat Ops, by David Michaels. I’ve read most of Michael’s books based on Tom Clancy’s line of video games, particularly the Splinter Cell books (I’m a huge Splinter Cell fan). I had already read Michael’s previous Ghost Recon book and it was an enjoyable read, a quick-paced tale chocked with cool military gear and an entertaining plot. It certainly wasn’t the great American novel, but it’s a book based on a first-person shooter, so what do you expect?

 So imagine my surprise when Combat Ops turned out to be a scathing indictment of our continued military presence in Afghanistan. Major Scott Mitchell is part of an elite Army Special Forces unit dispatched to a remote part of the Kandahar province to capture or kill one of the local Taliban commanders. Too bad literally everyone is working against him, and sometimes it seems like the Taliban is the least of his enemies. The book paints a very bleak picture of the situation in that country, and makes the war look futile and the people of Afghanistan not worth fighting for.  It’s no Catch-22 but it will make you think, and might make you angry (if it’s the least bit accurate).  It also manages to be an entertaining story.

 

 

Up next is Chris Bradford’s first novel in his Young Samurai series, The Way of the Warrior. Jack Fletcher is a 12 year old boy sailing on an English ship with his father on a mission to open a trade route to Japan. Upon reaching Japanese waters the ship is attacked by pirates and blown up, and Jack is the sole survivor. He is adopted by Masamoto Takeshi, a great samurai warrior, and eventually sent to Masamoto’s school for young samurai in Kyoto.

 The Way of the Warrior series, from what I can tell by the first book, is essentially Harry Potter if it was set in 19^th century feudal Japan and Harry and Co traded their wands for katanas. There’s even dopplegangers for most of the major characters in the HP series, from Hermione and Ron to Draco and his goons, and deals with some of the same issues (not the least of which is racism, as Jack is constantly referred to as gajian, “foreign devil”.) While it’s not nearly as good as the Harry Potter books, it’s still very enjoyable and very well researched.

There’s something to be said about the trope of the whole “white dude falls in with X ethnic group and ends up better at being that ethnicity”, it’s kinda cliché at this point (Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, Avatar, etc). I guess it does lend a “fish out of water” aspect to the story (though just once I’d like to see the reverse, maybe a movie called “The Greatest Marine” starring Jackie Chan).

 That all having been said, I do heartily recommend this book to any parent who’s trying to get their kid into reading. It’s an fun, easy read (aside from all the Japanese words), and they will learn something about another culture, which I think is always a good thing.  

 

-Mike, out.