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03/Aug/2012 · 05:00

Five Stars for PROMIS: Vietnam

I found this really nice review of PROMIS: Vietnam today on Amazon, thanks Thomas!

The PROMIS series is an on-going issuance of short stories written by Jack Murphy, a United States Army Ranger and Special Forces veteran. It is the background of the author that gives the books their authenticity and feeling of immediacy and intensity.

Sean Deckard is a Studies and Observation Group (SOG) Team Leader, the one-zero of Reconnaissance Team Key West. The book starts (as do most Murphy books) right in the thick of things with a hot extraction of a downed pilot. The mission is going from bad to worse, and several casualties are suffered before success is achieved. This is a hallmark of the PROMIS series, quick hits of action that flow from one to another to build the story. Murphy has a way with violence that reaches closer and closer to Stephen Pressfield and similar masters of the genre.

This is not like Reflexive Fire, which spends pages developing background characters, describing things in detail, outlining the deep plans of other actors. The book focuses entirely on Deckard, and you can feel him running ragged around the edges as he hops from mission to mission, doing his best to win the war single handedly. When he eventually participates in striking a decisive blow, he is sorely disappointed by the reaction, and things close with a bang.

The book is best described as “special operations without cool toys,” in that the soldiers are all superb warriors, but do not yet have access to the technology that we so associate with top tier SOF units. It is a quick read, and well worth it. I own a Kindle and could have loaned it out for free, but the product that Jack Murphy produces is well worth paying for.

.99 cents on Amazon!

Sergeant Sean Deckard has been running recon with America’s ultra secret Studies and Observations Group for over a year, taking part in cross border operations into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam. Coming off a mission that nearly decimates his entire team, Sean is given yet another suicidal task. It is a mission that could end the Vietnam War, a mission that powerful forces will do anything to prevent from happening.

Issue One in an exciting new military fiction series.

Short Story / Approx. 45 pages.

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Filed under Action Adventure, Military Fiction, Writing

Tagged as Fiction, Kindle, short story, SOG, Special Forces, writing

17/Dec/2011 · 23:02

Review: PRIMAL UNLEASHED!

Click the cover to buy on Amazon!

I was excited to dig into a full length PRIMAL novel after reading Silkstone’s primer for his new series, PRIMAL: Origins. Origins tells the story of how PRIMAL came into existence while this novel tells the background story (or begins to) of PRIMAL operatives Bishop and Mizra before getting on with the core plot. While the beginning starts a little slow with the back story of these two interesting characters, the book clips along at a fast pace as we get to the meat of the story.

Since you already know that PRIMAL is a non-official group of vigilantes recruited from Special Operations units and Intelligence Agencies, we get right into the main threat which involves a lot of double dealing and real politek amongst the bad guys. Iran’s Qud’s Force wants a super weapon that the Soviets abandoned in Afghanistan back in the 80’s while a slightly saner Iranian intelligence service works to preempt the more extremist Qud’s Force from obtaining it. This leads to some interesting alliances between PRIMAL and the Iranians down the line.

From here we follow two separate story lines as the PRIMAL tries to cut off the snake at both ends. From the supply end, we read a straight combat plot as Mizra and Ice travel through the badlands of Afghanistan to stop the bad guy’s from digging up the weapon they are after. From the demand end, we follow Bishop on a espionage heavy plot as he tries to uncover the buyer’s of the weapon. Both plot threads show different perspectives and make for a more interesting, full spectrum novel that shows both the combat side and intel side of modern Special Operations.

Both threads fully come together in the last third or so of the novel, Mizra and Bishop joining forces to take down the bad guys as they get one final crack at recovering the super weapon before it slips into the hands of the Iranians.

PRIMAL: Unleashed was a great first novel from Silkstone and I’m stoked about future additions to the series. The author did a great job at fleshing out the characters while paying equal attention to the technical side (guns, ammunition, spy kit) but without sapping the fun out of the book like many thriller writers tend to.