Tank Pioneer
Ludwig von Eimannsberger was an Austrian military officer and armored theorist whose 1934 book “Der Kampfwagenkrieg” proved prescient (though as with everything else, there’s argument about just how...
View ArticleAction Hero Names And Backgrounds
So reading this Nader Elfhefnawy speculation on “Thrillers and Social Class” brought me to some of my thoughts I had on the subject. A lot of character background in the pulpier stuff extends only to...
View ArticleThe World War III Blog On Red Dawn
The World War III 1987 Blog has been doing a series on Red Dawn, the classic 1980s invasion movie. The three entries (to date) are available here (part 1), here (part 2), and here (part 3). Naturally,...
View ArticleThe Most Strangely Prominent Book
David Alexander’s Marine Force One is not prominent or popular by any standard. The best you can say is that it led to a few more book in its series. It has its quirks, but it’s a very middling novel....
View ArticleCasca: The Sword And Planet Hero
So I’ve been reading a few more Casca books. During one readthrough, it hit me: Casca is basically a sword and planet hero (think John Carter and knockoffs of that). Sword and planet heroes tend to...
View ArticleTechnothriller Games
The role of video games in the decline of the technothriller cannot be discounted. Beyond this, looking at just how closely they matched is fascinating to me. The first (Splinter Cell) is very...
View ArticleSea Lion Press: Sam Bowie
My newest Sea Lion Press piece is on Sam Bowie, the player the Trail Blazers picked ahead of Michael Jordan in the 1984 NBA draft. Because of this, Bowie has been unfairly considered “the ultimate...
View ArticleUSMC Divisions in World War III
So, a RAND study on the (sideshow) southern theater of World War III included this graph. Notice how low the USMC divisions are placed. Even the WP bottom-of-the-barrel Romanians outdo them. I have my...
View ArticleFire Emblem Wariness
So I saw the preview for Fire Emblem Three Houses, of which more was finally released in the latest Nintendo Direct. While a lot of it looks impressive, I have to say that I’m wary. I think it’s just...
View ArticleThe UN Legion and its opponent
One serious proposal for a standing “UN Legion” got me thinking. How would it compare to its most likely [conventional] opponent? The UN Legion (highly unlikely to be deployed in its entirety) would...
View ArticlePoliticized Armies
Kenneth Pollack’s Armies of Sand, and its thesis predecessor, “The Influence of Arab Culture on Arab Military Effectiveness”, is fascinating not just for its core claim, but also in how, culture aside,...
View ArticleArmies of Sand
I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. In terms of fiction, it means (among other things) lots of new Fuldapocalypse reviews in waiting. But I figure I’d cover a non-fiction book here, Kenneth...
View ArticleWhy I Liked Them At Fuldapocalypse
So I’m very critical even of things I like. The problem is that this can frequently come across as too negative. Because of this, and because I wanted to shake things up so that my formula wouldn’t...
View ArticleThe F-35 in Context
So, the F-35 has had both its first USMC attack in anger and its first outright loss. Context needs to be considered with two of the claims I’ve heard floating around about it. “Why is it attacking...
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