Customer Reviews

A Desert Called Peace

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

About 500 years in the future, the Earth is governed by the descendent of the UN, the United Earth, which has stopped the strife between nations and formed with a world government of enlightened intellectuals. Fortunately, many millions escaped this hellhole of a dystopia to settle a newly discovered planet, "Terra Nova", colonizing it in roughly the same fashion as the old, which, four hundred years later, produces a similar political situation to that of early 21st century Earth. The descendents of western culture are under attack from Muslim extremists, and hampered by the progressive legacy of Earth. One retired Army officer and scion of a wealthy and powerful family loses his family in a terrorist attack and decides to raise a mercenary army to fight back.

The title is shortened from a line recorded in Tacitus's "Agricola" criticizing the Romans; "They make a desert and call it peace", meaning they kill their enemies until there is no one left to oppose them. A Desert Called Peace (ADCP) reads like a classic alternative history for the current political situation after September 11th, and draws from the American invasion of Panama in 1989 and the current War on Terror. The cleverly disguised names of the different countries and areas involved can send the reader scurrying off to do research or plumbing the depths of their mind to figure out who or where exactly "Suomi" and "Secordia" are, or what is the basis for the "Turbo-Finch" aircraft, and does Misrani mean Egypt or Syria? Although the most visible enemies in the book are the Al-Qaeda-like Muslim extremists, there is a level of understanding for them in that their actions (somewhat) logically result from understanding the consequences of their beliefs. The harshest criticisms are directed toward the civilized people hindering the war on terror because they cannot do the same, and cannot see that their actions and protests against war and for a more progressive world hinder the development of peace and a better world.

The author, Mr. Tom Kratman, is a retired Army officer and lawyer, and brings his considerable expertise in both law and war to bear on the story, from a strong justification for using starvation against a besieged city to defending the use of torture on illegal combatants. The analysis of how ruthlessly wars must be fought will shock most modern readers, but his arguments are well founded in the history of warfare. His extensive experience in Panama and Iraq add depth to the setting for ADCP. Some of the references and characters are firmly tongue-in-cheek, and the humor brings welcome relief from the the darker parts of the story. I highly recommend the book to science fiction fans of any political persuasion.

This book is excellent for several reasons: first, it is first rate storytelling. Second it is first rate LITERATE story telling; I did not catch one grammatical "oops!" Third it is a long but very well organized plot that, although there is some temporal skipping about, does not require back reading to catch up on stuff. Like David Weber, Kratman has created a fictional world, but in this case, it could be reality in our own near future, given the course of current events. The combat scenes are starkly realistic and are probably not for the Miss Marple crowd, but it is clear that Kratman has been "where the metal hits the meat". There are 2 more books in the future, one in November and the second in March. They will be "must haves" here.

With Kratman, Baen Books seems to have held the lead in the military sci fi area: Weber, Ringo, Flint are all there and now they have a new comrade in arms.

Very well done!

What if you lost everyone that you loved as a result of a horrific terrorist attack?

What if you had not only the ability, but the means, to strike back?

Would you take revenge?

More importantly, could your sanity survive the ordeal?

A Desert Called Peace explores this topic, and much more, as an allegory of the current war on terror. However, it is much more than that and I fear that many people will overlook the truly complex characters and story and decry the political aspects. But, honestly, outside of the more campy aspects of the U.N. characters, the Author plays fair with respect to the motivations of the rest. There is good and bad represented and no one has a clear cut hold on either. There is no "Red, White and Blue" being squeaky clean and without fault. The "hero" is a man who has lost everything and will do almost anything to avenge them and pays a very dear price for that.

I think that what I liked best about this novel is that it takes a very real look at the cost of going to war and the toll that it exacts on the men and women involved. No doubt that this is a very dark, very grim tale and I believe that if you give it a shot, regardless of your political leanings (OK, if you are Michael Moore you will hate it)and you are honest, I think that you will enjoy this.

I very much enjoyed this and would wholeheartedly recommend this to other adults and am looking forward to the sequel.

I've enjoyed all of Mr. Kratman's books that I have read. So much so that I've made a point to read them all. In the case of A Desert Called Peace and the follow-up novel Carnifax Mr Kratman provides a fictionalization of what those of us who populate the red states would have liked to have seen done by someone after 9/11.

I leave discussion of philosophy and literature to those who enjoy such, what I like about Mr. Kratman's fiction is that it allows me to forget reality and immerse myself in an emotionally satisfying story where the bad guys come to a just (and usually violent) end.

If you are a liberal idealoge you will hate this book for it will expose the underlying weakness to modern PC life. And do it in a way that is no holds barred. Tom looks to do for ground based military sci-fi what David Weber has done for space-based. Create a universe where we can explore what it means to believe what we do, and act on it. Plus its a great read.

This is a well written book with good characterization, an engaging and straight forward plot, and plenty of excitement for the military SF fan. As a Vietnam combat veteran I found his descriptions of military ground combat and military bureaucracies rang true to my experiences. The author warns readers that they might see parallells between the war against Muslim terrorists on the planet in the book and our current situation in the Middle East here on Old Earth. It does not take a very high IQ to find those parallels and his contempt for left of center policies is evident. However, this does not take away the enjoyment of a good read by an author that had found his voice. There are shades of Heinlein and Pournelle here. Mr. Kratman is improving his craft with each new book. His afterword contains a fascinating discussion of transnational progessivism that puts our current policital and military situation in frightening perspective. Highly recommended for readers on the right (for enjoyment and validation) and left (as education and a challenge to their worldview). The beginning of a series that will be enjoyed by fans of Weber, Ringo and hopefully some of the Tranzi's out there...Joe Law.

If you are looking for a thought provoking read about war and how one should choose their enemies, this is the book for you. It is a grim, gritty look at war and the human costs to those who wage it.

A must read for any fan of military scifi.

The fourth book written by Tom Kratman, and the second in it's own universe (his freshman book, A State of Disobedience is set a near future threatened by Civil War and his next two books-Watch on the Rhine (Posleen War Series #7) and Yellow Eyes (Posleen War Series #8) are set in John Ringo's Posleenverse), "A Desert Called Peace" is set on the accidentally discovered world of Terra Nova. Nearly five hundred years after it's discovery, Earth has become an absolute dictatorship based upon the Transnational Socalism of the United Nations and the European Union, aka the Tranzis. A world that "history has stopped" in, and nothing has ever changed-or will change.

Terra Nova has gone through most of the history of Earth in many ways, and is nearing the stars...but it is threatened by threats from within in the form of the Kosmos-the Cosmopolitan Progressives that are the spiritual successors of the Tranzis, and Islamic radicals lead by Mustafa ibn Mohamed ibn Salah. From without, the United Earth Peace Fleet is rotting away-but can still threaten the planet for just a while longer. But, it will be soon before the Terra Novans come to find a decayed Earth. In desperation, the commander of the Peace Fleet supports the Islamic radicals in an act of terror.

This one act of terror will create their worst enemy in the form of Patrick Hennessey, a retired solider whom has found peace in a third-world nation that has beautiful women, strong men, and a corrupt government. The act of terror kills his beloved wife and children, and sets him on the path of building the power he needs to destroy those that destroyed his family.

"A Desert Called Peace" is very much a story of "history doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes" and it takes the current War on Terror as it's template. Skeptical of politicians both in uniform and unelected, and "those that do well by doing good", Kratman's novel reads of a story of a man that will call a spade a spade-or the forceful and violent interrogation of a subject for facts that can be proven torture. While the story despises many Islamics, it does hold out faith-and hope-in those in Terra Nova's version of the Middle East that are tired of the fanatics in their midst and want them to go away...or be crucified.

The first of a longer series of at least three books, "A Desert Called Peace" is well written and will entertain-as long as your beliefs aren't violently challenged by what is written.

A Desert Called Peace is an action-packed, thumping good page-turner. It's a story about one man's quest for vengeance that embraces science fiction's time-honored practice of using a futuristic setting to make social commentary on the present (In this case the social commentary is on 9/11 and the events thereafter), much like H.G. Wells did a century earlier. In doing so, Tom Kratman pulls no punches, nor does he preach from atop a soapbox; he lets the story speak for itself.

A word of warning: if you consider "Political Correctness" a Good Thing, and go through life just looking for something to be offended by, well, consider this book that "something."

However, if you're not terminally thin-skinned and are looking for a gripping story that will suck you in from the very first page, I highly recommend A Desert Called Peace.

Kratman tells a story set in the future on another planet settled by earthlings, but, this planet, in fact, resembles our world today in the war on terror. The events of this planet (Terra Nova) are seen through the eyes of a hero who, in order to avenge the murder of his family in a terrorist attack, raises a private army. He must contend with committed jihadists, deluded do-gooders and arrogant meddlers from old earth's United Nations. Kratman's experience as a career soldier comes through strongly in both his stark portrayal of war and fighting, and his contempt for arrogant self-serving politicians and the generals who toady to them. Kratman tells a tale that is exciting in its action, and disturbing in its implications for our world today.