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A review by dlkeur
Empty Quiver: Tales from the Crimson Son Universe by Heather Bungard-Janney, Russ Linton
5.0
This anthology, a series of connected stories that prequels Russ Linton's novel, Crimson Son, immediately grabs hold, taking you hostage. The writing is intense, riveting, and the stuff of a military action-adventure thriller–a good war thriller.
For instance, enter 20th century “REAL”–Vietnam: a terrified young soldier standing on a landmine, moments from death, his platoon’s lieutenant, a tough old-timer called “Hound”, staying right with him, cursing him, coercing him into staying still and calm, the veteran bound and determined that, somehow, he wasn’t going to lose this scared-white kid. Plunged into tense, hypercritical situations like this, delivered in terse, no-nonsense writing, Linton doesn’t hedge any bets…so if you’re squeamish about good guys dying or touchy about the language of real soldiers in the field, you might find your brain cringing and your ears wincing.
This is not a happy read. Author Russ Linton pulls no punches. If you’re hoping for glorious, happy endings and the good guys finish first, last, and always, you’re in for a reality check…because what Russ Linton delivers--The Real--comes at you in all its devastatingly unpleasant reality. Expect to experience, with all their implications, the machinations that drive the action in the stories, all reeking of the same underhanded, subversive expediencies that drive the American military, our security departments, and our politics. No nice patriotic gesture covers uncomfortable and very pointed references about our nation’s and the world’s military and political agendas and methodologies.
For instance, enter 20th century “REAL”–Vietnam: a terrified young soldier standing on a landmine, moments from death, his platoon’s lieutenant, a tough old-timer called “Hound”, staying right with him, cursing him, coercing him into staying still and calm, the veteran bound and determined that, somehow, he wasn’t going to lose this scared-white kid. Plunged into tense, hypercritical situations like this, delivered in terse, no-nonsense writing, Linton doesn’t hedge any bets…so if you’re squeamish about good guys dying or touchy about the language of real soldiers in the field, you might find your brain cringing and your ears wincing.
This is not a happy read. Author Russ Linton pulls no punches. If you’re hoping for glorious, happy endings and the good guys finish first, last, and always, you’re in for a reality check…because what Russ Linton delivers--The Real--comes at you in all its devastatingly unpleasant reality. Expect to experience, with all their implications, the machinations that drive the action in the stories, all reeking of the same underhanded, subversive expediencies that drive the American military, our security departments, and our politics. No nice patriotic gesture covers uncomfortable and very pointed references about our nation’s and the world’s military and political agendas and methodologies.