Review: Decision - J.E. Macdonnell

Recently, I really enjoyed J.E. Macdonnell’s novel THE BUFFER, part of a long series by him about naval warfare during World War II which follows an ensemble cast of officers and sailors in the Australian navy. I plan to go back to the beginning of the series and catch up, but in the meantime, the just-released novel DECISION is a direct sequel to THE BUFFER, so I picked it up next.

The tragic storyline begun in THE BUFFER comes to a conclusion fairly early on in DECISION, which focuses on Captain Peter Bentley, the captain of the destroyer Wind Rode and the commander of a flotilla of destroyers. That storyline places Bentley in the position where he has to make a difficult decision, a theme that continues throughout this book. Allied forces are invading the Japanese-held island of Truk, and Wind Rode is part of the fleet charged with protecting the invading forces and keeping enemy submarines at bay as the troop ships and supply ships converge on the island.

There’s a lot of strategy and tactics in this book, but of course, Macdonnell provides plenty of human drama, too, as well as a mixture of victory and losses for the Australians. Peter Bentley is a fine protagonist, and First Lieutenant Robert Randall and Chief Bosun’s Mate William “Hooky” Walker are on hand to provide support. (Hooky is a great character, and I’m hoping some of the other books will feature him more.)

Macdonnell’s fast-paced, straight-ahead prose isn’t flashy, but he’s a great storyteller and keeps me flipping the digital pages. I thoroughly enjoyed DECISION, and I’m excited that there are a bunch more books in this series to keep me entertained. You can find this one on Amazon and on all the other platforms, as well.

Commando: Braddock! - Ferg Handley

"Better you just forget about being a pilot," said Squadron Leader Roy Suddaby when Matt Braddock first tried to enlist in the auxiliaries. But he wasn't a quitter, and the blue-eyed man with uncanny talent would fight his way to the best bombing squad in Britain before he could bring the fight to Nazi Germany. The war is on, and the RAF's best known bomber ace is back in this all-new adventure!

(I assume from the sales copy that the protagonist of this yarn has appeared previously in COMMANDO, but this is the first story I've read about him and chronologically the first Braddock tale as well, since it begins before World War II and concerns his early days in the RAF. Braddock is a working class guy who becomes a pilot over the opposition of the upper-crust officers and fellow pilots, but he's still only a sergeant when he takes command of a bomber. Braddock's ambition is to fly fighters, so he tries to make the larger, slower, and clumsier bomber do things that a fighter plane would, and manages to succeed most of the time. This is another excellent story from long-time COMMANDO scripter Ferg Handley. I've already bought the next issue in the Braddock series.)

Forgotten Books: Normandy: A Graphic History of D-Day - Wayne Vansant

I recently ran across this trade paperback from 2012, and with the 72^nd anniversary of D-Day coming up, this seemed like a good time to read it. I remember Wayne Vansant's work from the Marvel Comics series THE 'NAM, and he's an excellent choice to produce historical volumes such as this one.

NORMANDY is subtitled A GRAPHIC HISTORY OF D-DAY, but that's kind of misleading. Yes, there are illustrations on every page (very good ones, too), but there's also a great deal of text, so this is sort of a cross between a prose history and a graphic novel. Vansant starts with a quick background of the early days of World War II and then launches into the planning for the Allied invasion of Europe, which took several years, before covering the events of D-Day, June 6, 1944, itself. The combination of text and art is very clear and concise and historically accurate, as far as I can tell. I'm not a D-day "buff", but I've read quite a bit about it.

Despite the book's title, the planning and the invasion are covered in approximately the first third of this volume. The rest of the book is concerned with the Allies' advance across France, through the hedgerow country and beyond, all the way to the liberation of Paris. It draws to a close there, but there are other volumes in the series. I plan to get them as well, because NORMANDY is an excellent slice of history and well worth reading.