Customer Reviews

The Texas-Israeli War

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A friend who knows that I research the Arab-Israeli conflict recommended this fun little Sci-fi novel and I'm very glad she did. I enjoyed reading this novel very much. It was very nice light entertainment.

Jake Saunders and Howard Waldrop, the authors, have fashioned an extremely entertaining post-holocaust action novel in the rebellious remnants of the United States. It's obvious that both spent a lot of time reading and researching before the novel was written because there a quite a few disparate elements successfully rolled together in this light entertaining novel. Among the elements are: Wild West Texas Rangers cowboy story elements, an interest in the Arab-Israeli wars, an interest in W.W.II military hardware, an interest in Cold War politics, and probably, above all else, a projected post-nuclear Armageddon scenario.

The novel was written in 1974 and parts of the novel cobbled together into a novelette previously appeared in Galaxy Magazine in July, 1973. This story was probably written during the height of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and probably the authors drew much inspiration from what appeared in the newspapers, magazine, and other media of the time.

The authors built an alternate history in which 1992 a limited nuclear exchange and widespread use of biological and chemical weapons has killed nine out of every ten people in the world. The two coalitions were a Chinese-Irish-Afrikaaner versus a Russo-British coalition that eventually allies with the United States. Europe waffles and is mostly destroyed in the crossfire. The Israelis stood neutral and their sworn Arab enemies attacked Israel, but with little result. Egyptians bombers managed to hit Tel Aviv, but after that brief attack, the Arab world was all but destroyed by Israeli military might. As neutrals, Israel managed to avoid all but the lingering effects of the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) exchange and stands as one of the last prospering enclaves of humanity. In fact, Israel is so prosperous that they have an overpopulation problem. Enter story plot element one, Israel now hires out its excess population as mercenary soldiers to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, in the shattered remnants of the USA, Texas declares independence and a second US civil war develops, with a Second Lone Star Republic arising driven by oil interests and the SA, Sons of the Alamo, a white supremacy Gestapo-like group holding the power behind the throne. Israeli mercenaries have been hired out to both sides of the war and the book's protagonists are a mixed unit of Israeli tankists and reinforcements from the federal government. Their mission is to penetrate the heart of Texas and rescue the kidnapped president of the USA.

However, the World War has not only destroyed the world's population, but along with that population went the many technicians who maintained the technology that not only drove high-tech societies, but their military machines as well. Any weapon surviving is thrust onto the field including W.W.II museum pieces, M-4 Shermans, M-3 Grants, and even a Stuart tank. The federal Israelis start out in updated British Chieftain and Centurion tanks, but are quickly moved into vintage armor as they take losses. A little high technology exists such as main gun cannons replaced with laser weaponry, but most of the weapons are conventional arms from the 1970s and before.

Several historical personages are written into the story including Israeli generals Yoffe and Sharon. Sharon, in this alternate future, is a general hired out to the Second Lone Star state instead of being a future president of Israel. The cameos were fun to read. The authors seem to be a little prescient as well since they predict a 1982 Arab-Israeli war that did occur.

The story very much reminds me of the Steve Jackson Games universe called Car Wars or the movies Mad Max and The Road Warrior. All of the popular apocalyptic background is there including the particular character of Texas that all writers from that state seem to imbue their work with. Among my favorite humorous elements were giant cockroaches the size of small dogs that are now hunted for sport and in one Texas cantina; the protagonists find one mounted over a bar.

I highly recommend this fun little sci-fi novel. It's not art or high literature, but it is a great read!

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

Saunders and Waldrop definitely get a "A" for imagiation on this book. When a nuclear war wipes out a good chunk of Earth's population, Israel is relatively untouched and helps America fight its wars in exchange for a place to live. Now a group of Israeli and American soldiers face a tough challenge. Rescue the kidnapped President of the United States from Texas, which has seceded from the Union.

It's a quick read with OK character development and decent action. I really liked the laser-armed Israeli Centurion tanks duking it out with a Texas heavy cruiser. Also, a first-rate job by the authors bringing out the harshness, and hopelessness, of a post-apocalypse world, from contaminated farmland to cities no longer maintained. The characters in many instances are torn between their dreams for life after fighting, then wonder if they will live long enough to see them or if they can even make a life in this miserable world. Some really good scenes when the Israelis ad Americans infiltrate the Texan compound. They learn of the conflict between the regular Texan Army and the fanatical faction called the Sons of the Alamo. One great aspect was the Israeli commander's view of one Texan general who comes off as an honorable warrior, leading the Israeli to dislike the idea that he may have to kill him in order to complete his mission.

In the future...in, um, 1999...England will be attacked by Ireland with bombs full of LSD; the UK's leaders will go insane and drop nukes on several countries; other countries will drop nukes on still other countries; the US will get dragged into it; chemical and biological weapons will be launched at nearly every country in the planet; nine tenths of the earth's population will die; Texas will secede from the US; and a new Civil War will be fought between the Union and the Republic of Texas, with the Union using hired Israeli troops for much of the fighting.

It's going to be interesting.

Especially, since on top of all of that, Texas will kidnap the US President, the Vice President will go crazy with power, and Israeli troops will be forced to go undercover to get the President back--along the way, fighting against Texas and going against the orders of the power-crazed VP.

That's the story told here, and it's an interesting one. If it weren't set in a projected future (1999, theorized from 1973 and 1974), if the tanks didn't have lasers in it, and if we hadn't already sent a manned expedition to Mars (which WE SHOULD HAVE DONE ALREADY), the story wouldn't really be sci-fi, more of a military novel, almost like something by Tom Clancy. It's really grounded, though it does have a little fun with giant, mutated roaches.

It's a pretty decent, fast-paced read, though it often resorts to telling instead of showing, frequently uses passive voice instead of active, and sometimes lapses into bits of seemingly lazy racism--for instance, referring to one character once as "the black."

The story is a cool idea though, and anyone familiar with Texas, Lousiana, or New Mexico will find an interesting future proposed here for their states. Also for Pittsburgh, PA, which becomes the new DC.

Check it out.

I come back to this one again and again, it's one of my favorite stories from when I was a kid. Regarding Glen's review:
If you look for flaws in anything, you will find them.
If you accept a story for what it is, you can relax and enjoy it.

Published in 1974, this book posits a post-apocalyptic world that seems more realistic than most. Once a speculative future vision, it is now an interesting alternate history.

Just over 200 pages, the book manages to cram in a lot of character development, develops believable relationships between characters, and paints a vivid picture of the setting.

The premise is that seven years before the time of the story, the UK, its water supply tainted by LSD, nukes Ireland and China, and China responds. Eventually all the world powers are dragged into the conflict, with the US and USSR on the same side, surprisingly enough. By the time of the beginning of the story, the world has lost something like 90% of its population due to nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare. Israel managed to avoid destruction, and is one of the only intact nations on Earth, and even suffers from overpopulation. Israeli mercenaries are found worldwide. In this book, an Israeli mercenary tank unit works for the US government in its war against a Texas that has seceded. Texas has captured the US president from a meeting in Oklahoma, and may or may not be ready to hand him over to the Chinese, who are embroiled in a war against the US in Alaska.

This book isn't lighthearted, but there is definitely an undercurrent of hope running through it. Still, there are downbeat elements; I was struck by the account of a joint US/Russian Mars mission. WWIII broke out while the mission was underway, and the crew lost contact with Earth. They continued the mission, landed on Mars - the first humans to do so - and returned to find the Earth embroiled in the aftermath of Armageddon. The somber account of their experiences is moving and succinctly told, adding to the atmosphere evoked by the book.

The cover image is misleading, by the way. There is no attack as depicted, though there is an encounter with Native Americans that gives an interesting glimpse into how their various cultures have been impacted by the global war and collapse.

This is a remarkable book. For how slender it is, it contains a lot of content. The setting is rich with possibility, and given the number of alternate history books out now, it could have served for a whole series of books. As it is, this book is an example of just how good science fiction of the 1970s could be.

A truely humorous look at a post-nuclear world.

A friend who knows that I research the Arab-Israeli conflict recommended this fun little Sci-fi novel and I'm very glad she did. I enjoyed reading this novel very much. It was very nice light entertainment.

Jake Saunders and Howard Waldrop, the authors, have fashioned an extremely entertaining post-holocaust action novel in the rebellious remnants of the United States. It's obvious that both spent a lot of time reading and researching before the novel was written because there a quite a few disparate elements successfully rolled together in this light entertaining novel. Among the elements are: Wild West Texas Rangers cowboy story elements, an interest in the Arab-Israeli wars, an interest in W.W.II military hardware, an interest in Cold War politics, and probably, above all else, a projected post-nuclear Armageddon scenario.

The novel was written in 1974 and parts of the novel cobbled together into a novelette previously appeared in Galaxy Magazine in July, 1973. This story was probably written during the height of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and probably the authors drew much inspiration from what appeared in the newspapers, magazine, and other media of the time.

The authors built an alternate history in which 1992 a limited nuclear exchange and widespread use of biological and chemical weapons has killed nine out of every ten people in the world. The two coalitions were a Chinese-Irish-Afrikaaner versus a Russo-British coalition that eventually allies with the United States. Europe waffles and is mostly destroyed in the crossfire. The Israelis stood neutral and their sworn Arab enemies attacked Israel, but with little result. Egyptians bombers managed to hit Tel Aviv, but after that brief attack, the Arab world was all but destroyed by Israeli military might. As neutrals, Israel managed to avoid all but the lingering effects of the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) exchange and stands as one of the last prospering enclaves of humanity. In fact, Israel is so prosperous that they have an overpopulation problem. Enter story plot element one, Israel now hires out its excess population as mercenary soldiers to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, in the shattered remnants of the USA, Texas declares independence and a second US civil war develops, with a Second Lone Star Republic arising driven by oil interests and the SA, Sons of the Alamo, a white supremacy Gestapo-like group holding the power behind the throne. Israeli mercenaries have been hired out to both sides of the war and the book's protagonists are a mixed unit of Israeli tankists and reinforcements from the federal government. Their mission is to penetrate the heart of Texas and rescue the kidnapped president of the USA.

However, the World War has not only destroyed the world's population, but along with that population went the many technicians who maintained the technology that not only drove high-tech societies, but their military machines as well. Any weapon surviving is thrust onto the field including W.W.II museum pieces, M-4 Shermans, M-3 Grants, and even a Stuart tank. The federal Israelis start out in updated British Chieftain and Centurion tanks, but are quickly moved into vintage armor as they take losses. A little high technology exists such as main gun cannons replaced with laser weaponry, but most of the weapons are conventional arms from the 1970s and before.

Several historical personages are written into the story including Israeli generals Yoffe and Sharon. Sharon, in this alternate future, is a general hired out to the Second Lone Star state instead of being a future president of Israel. The cameos were fun to read. The authors seem to be a little prescient as well since they predict a 1982 Arab-Israeli war that did occur.

The story very much reminds me of the Steve Jackson Games universe called Car Wars or the movies Mad Max and The Road Warrior. All of the popular apocalyptic background is there including the particular character of Texas that all writers from that state seem to imbue their work with. Among my favorite humorous elements were giant cockroaches the size of small dogs that are now hunted for sport and in one Texas cantina; the protagonists find one mounted over a bar.

I highly recommend this fun little sci-fi novel. It's not art or high literature, but it is a great read!...

Everyone has to start somewhere. That's the first rule of writing. And the best thing to do is acknowledge the rule and try not to regret the fumbling beginnings too much. The important thing is what you are doing now. The second rule of writing is "Don't give up the day job." It's the day job that allows you to have ethics, that allows you to write for your own muse rather than Paramount's or Byron Preiss'. There comes a time when you forego the day job and try to make it on your wits and it backfires. As you stumble along, trying to reach out forward rather than backwards to the day job, you grab onto the quick buck. Was that the scenario for The Texas-Israeli War: 1999? Probably not, because, for its flaws, The Texas-Israeli War: 1999 is not calculated enough to make that quick buck. But neither is it inspired enough to contain the full muse that Howard Waldrop has followed since that time (and I refuse to blame the co-author for any perceived flaws; Waldrop must share what praise or blame there is equally).

The Texas-Israeli War: 1999 is an adventure novel. These days it would probably be published by Baen rather than Del Rey, because of its focus on military equipment and maneuvering. While the story stays within the Baen military style, it contains that inspired spark that I associate with Waldrop. The descriptions of military things reads true because Howard probably read about it in Jane's Fighting something-or-other. The story fails, however, in its portrayal of certain "political" aspects. The intrigue surrounding the SS-like Sons of the Alamo; the President Pro-Tem, and his motivations, ring tinny.

Pick up Howard's Them Bones or A Dozen Tough Jobs, and come back to this one only if you are a completist.

I read this book when I was much younger and I just re-read, again. I love it. this is an anti war war book.