Here he explores alternate realities - one of the main characters is a spirit and her character development is that of a spiritual character rather than a human.

If you like your spine tingled, this tale will do it. It's full of action, with beautiful maidens (albeit dead) handsome swains and evil doers. Paul Doherty always delivers historical accuracy, with a full dose of the religious and supernatural fears and feelings of the time.

Doherty is a master story teller - the pace is crisp and the setting and characters carry the tale well.

Heartbreak Ridge is probably best known from the Clint Eastwood movie of that title, though the movie has little to do with the battle. The battle itself took place in the latter, non-maneuver part of the Korean War, where the conflict turned into what was essentially WW1 in more mountainous terrain, with an Asian enemy for the U.N. forces. After a few pages of introductory background, the author gets down to brass tacks, telling you all about the battle. The fighting was very intense, often at point-blank range, and the participants were often wounded or killed. Eventually, the U.N. forces captured the ridgeline, and the book concludes rather abruptly.

You have to wonder why the author wrote the book, given its brevity. One clue may be the participation of a battalion of Frenchmen, who were attached to the 23rd Infantry Regiment for the battle. The Frenchmen fought very bravely, and were the ones to actually capture the last pinnacle of the ridgeline and conclude the battle. The author seems to admire them a great deal, so perhaps this was the reason for the book.

If you're curious about Heartbreak Ridge, the author has written a good short account of the battle. It's accompanied by maps, two of which are almost worthless, the other two being of considerable value. You could almost use the last two maps and ignore the other two. The author informs you in a footnote that some other books designate a battle nearby as Heartbreak Ridge incorrectly, so perhaps on that note this is a valuable contribution. However, if you want to read something on the Korean War, there are any number of lengthier, more informative, and more comprehensive accounts of the war. I would recommend Max Hastings' The Korean War instead, as a for instance.

While the book has a clear thesis - one looses touch with it during the course of the discussion. In the end, it seems like this is really a book about the author, Marion, and Derrida, rather than a piece of Heidegger scholarship.

The author breifly presents the history of US CW spraying and herbicidal warefare (chemical only), then follows this with a lengthy detail of Vietnam spray operations. The book is invaluable in understanding the tactical challenges of spray operations, and the techniques devised from these experiences. While I enjoyed the book thourghly for the authors wealth of knowledge on aerial spraying, most readers will be disappointed in its lack of development of the personalities involved, and it rather dry context.

Nonetheless, no history of US herbicidal warfare would be complete without reading this book. The author points to the combat effectiveness of herbicidal warfare, the strong demand for it by field commanders, and the mistakes made by analysts at the time that were critical of the program (such as not even looking at the operational field data!).

The author points to the early effectiveness of anti-crop operations, but their eventual failure due to misuse by GVN planners to punish villegers and not allocating moneys for relocation. Also details the failures of the forest burning operations.

The author does describe how Ranch Hand pilots received more than 1,000x the exposure to Agent Orange than troops on the ground, and that they did not have any ill effects decades later (epidemeological study). Also that Agent Orange (or Purple) had to be reapplied on a regular basis to maintain defoliation, as vegetation quickly grew back.