Most authors of this genre of political thriller have trouble reconciling the epic heroism (good or bad) of religious fundamentalists in the former Soviet Central Asia with the image of mobs of AK-47-armed men tossing video tapes and foreign magazines into bonfires. In "The Devil's Garden", set in the region's decaying and polluted oilfields, the tables are turned and the ordered world familiar to us disintegrates under the feet of unlucky Westerners. Though author Peters has dabbled in techno-thriller before ("Red Army" and "War in the Year 2020"), he has also practically created his own subgenre of non-techno centered in and around the fringes of the foremer Soviet empire.

"Devil's Garden" tells the story of a young American kidnapped while working for a relief program in that troubled region. Because Peters' victim is the daughter of a US senator, consequences of the kidnapping go far beyond local problems and feed a growing maelstrom that threatens to destroy order already fragile with the collapse of the USSR. Among the unlucky Yankees caught up in the chaos are the Islamic fundamentalists who carry-out the kidnap, the local chieftains who can't be sure what their own role in the kidanpping is, the American intelligence officer sent to lead the rescue, his lover, her husband, the republic's leaders ready to tear their oil-rich state to shreds and an army willing to battle anybody to the death - if they can just learn how to shoot. As a good indicator of the managed chaos, our hero, the aforementioned intelligence officer, tries to determine who would kidnap the senator's daughter by trying to find who's responsible. Bit with the fate of the tiny asian republic's oil at stake, and the militant forces welling up in the population, it's soon clear that nobody is responsible for anything. Peters manages this chaos well. something I appreciate through all of Peters books is his resolute reluctance to point fingers and lay blame - his charachters do that, but are compensated with well nuanced faults that make their objectivity suspect. The guerrillas are fearsome, but not the murderous, callous warriors of god we've seen in other books (or on CNN for that matter). The region's warlords, despite sparking a war that threatens to explode beyond their own borders, are just greedy and - in a masterful anti-climax occurring when the factions meet - go at each other much as the corporate directors in a hostile buy-out. One wonders how the directors of Time-Warner and Disney would have settled their cable-disputes if they had to fight with guns and soldiers instead of lawyers, bloated stock prices and otherwise empty content. The biggest revelation is the hero himself, who, despite being an expert on the region, is actually more lost than any of his fellow Americans. It's all chaotic, but Peters keeps the novel from falling apart and the chaos only adds scale to a blighted country and those who live there and are set on destroying it.

Ralph Peters, whom I know professionally, is a modern-day Lawrence of Arabia who has actually walked hundreds of miles through the worst of terrains, and deeply understands--at both a Ph.D. and gutter level, the reality of real war. The Joint Chiefs don't want to face this reality because it bears no resemblance to their nice clean air-conditioned CNN version of war. Devil's Garden is the real thing, and it is also a great novel.

Ralph Peters has done it again! He has woven a seductive, intensely captivating plot into an eminently credible narrative, one as enthralling as those of his earlier 'Twilight of Heroes' and 'The War in 2020'. Unlike the plastic incarnations who stumble incredulously across the pages of Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, and Larry Bond, Peters gives us real-life heroes akin to those of Frederick Forsyth -- those ultimately believable, poignantly human men and women who emerge from a crucible of tragedy and pain to make a veridical impact upon the world. As such, many contemporary authors of America's all-too pandemic and facile techno-thrillers could learn something from Peters, an author who underscores the reality that life is a little more prosaic than the inevitable triumph of democracy as secured by some smarmy fighter pilot-fornicator. Overall, Peters' haunting imagery recalls Edmund Burke's warnings about the metaphysical pretensions of the French Revolutionaries, while his human landscapes are as stark and as those of Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian'. In the end, Peters' works may very well be to our century what Dickens' 'Tale of Two Cities' was to the nineteenth...Herein lies an absolutely ineluctable read which will not disappoint!

With thanks to the New York Review Books, Peter Handke's A SORROW BEYOND DREAMS is once again available. This slim but pungent volume opens with an elegant introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides ( author of 'Middlesex' and 'The Virgin Suicides' ) and few writers could better place this memoir of Handke's response to his mother's suicide in 1971 in a more meaningful perspective.

Handke writes about his mother in a way that creates a story rather than a history of a life. There is so much understantding of how the world changed from Pre-WW II through the post war emptiness of a desecrated Europe and its accompanying slow move toward healing that plagues burned countries after victories or defeats signalling the end of wars. Handke's mother remains nameless which serves to make her a more universal figure than just another individual. And using the word 'individual' is actually in contrast to the major problem of this tragic women's life. Always a women of poverty, suffering the cruelties that that station in life suggests (a fatherless child, a marriage of convenience that results in a life with an alcoholic husban, self induced abortions, begging for food, the lack of simple luxuries like Christmas gifts, etc) his mother was not a woman who considered herself an individual: she was a daughter of a postwar poverty and gloom, aligning herself with Socialism which further negated her worth as a unique person. Her gradual withdrawal in yet another group (those with 'nervous breakdowns') overtured her ultimate complete withdrawal from the world as she finds taking her own life the final solution to her grief.

Handke reserves his own response to the loss of his mother until the end of this memoir - a section of memories, flashbacks, regrets and tears that force him to place his final godbyes in the form of the written word. The writing is powerful in its simplicity, unfettered by false emotions, straight forward in forcing both the author and the reader into confronting the tragedy of suicide. Perhaps many readers will use this short tome to find healing of like experiences: others will read this book simply because it is a beautifully constructed story of the life on an Everyman/woman. Highly Recommended.

Glad to see this back in print. I've relied on a library copy when I wanted to revisit it. Spend the hour or two it takes to read this and it will stick with you forever. I hope they've touched up the few missteps in Mannheim's translation. Otherwise, this near-perfect memoir puts most of its flabby and narcissistic successors (the list is endless) to shame.

At once stark and lyrical, Handke's A SORROW BEYOND DREAMS is one of the finest memoirs I've read, and, without a doubt, the strongest portrait I know of a mother by her son--a portrait made strong, in part, by Handke's ability to see and analyze his mother's life within the context of the limited choices available to her, and by his ability to see the ways in which her life is molded by the "genre" of a life comparable to a woman of his mother's class and station. It is, too, at once loving and mercilessly painful. I'm not a great fan of Handke's--the intensity of his self-consciousness, or the cool ironic stances of his early work--but this brief book is an exception. Read it & you will be reading it again throughout your life.

wow. This book was absolutely amazing. I read it in four days (but only an hour or two a day!). Its all russians, which is cool. Its got every concievable character- tankers, infantryman, artilleryman, supplyers, generals, KGB officers, MiG pilots, Air-Assault Paratroopers, Reconnaissance Tankers, Engineers, Air defence troopers, and (of course) your local neighborhood political officer! ( but there are a couple who are actually good soldiers, and do their duty.). Its a great book, and a must have for anyone who likes the military or action. One definite plus is that it doesn't get into all of the technology details. The author simply says "tank" not a specific type-like Tom Clancy loves to do. Just read it, you won't be wasting your time, and it might just give you a whole new perspective on modern war!

This is probably the best novel I have ever read. I have been interested in military history for quite some time, and I was wondered what would have happened if the Soviets flooded across the East - West German border with their huge numbers of armor and infantry. This great novel gave me a version of how this might have turned out.

I read this book for the first time as a new soldier stationed in Germany with the US Army. Found it to be an outstanding read due to the book looking at World War III from the Soviet's viewpoint. I am a big fan of most of Clancy's work, but I thought this book to be at least as good as, if not better, than Red Storm Rising.

Moss has written a provocative book about how various factions in the cancer industry have become corrupted by the old, familiar struggle for money and power.
One of the more interesting chapters deals with the battle between a brilliant researcher in Houston named Stanislaw Burzynski and the cancer industry establishment. Members of the establishment are portrayed as favoring the use of patentable chemicals or synthetic drugs over any natural methods of treatment , such as that pioneered by Burzynski.
In discussing the cancer establishment Moss explains the make-up and activities of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, The American Cancer Society, The National Cancer Institute and The Food and Drug Administration.
My experience in reading this book has left me with even less trust in the people and organizations responsible for waging this country's war on cancer.

This book by an ex cancer insider at the Sloan Kettering institute details all of the alternative therapies which have been railroaded by the cancer establishment. An interesting read for anyone who has the nagging feeling that the cancer war is being lost because pharmaceutical companies are avoiding possible natural, non patentable cures,

If you have ever wondered about the Cancer Industry and wondered how it developed or who is who in the Cancer Industry or if you ever just had a feeling that all is not well where cancer treatments are concerned, then this book by Ralph Moss outlines in great detail the development of the Cancer Industry. It is absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend it as excellent reading for anyone with any serious interest in cancer, health or if you like fascinating books

...then he might write something like "The War in 2020."

Sure, Japan Inc isn't so scary any more. Yeah, we're proving now (January, 2002) that we can take on radical Islam and win. OK, so our military isn't quite as hollowed-out as we'd feared. And maybe we're still the tech kings of all the known universe.

That still doesn't make this book any less scary or fun to read. The reason? It's just really well written, with living, breathing characters you really will care about. That's why Ralph Peters has a shelf life ten times that of Clancy -- and I'm a Clancy fan.

Oh, plus a techno-thriller second half that will keep you up all night.

This book is one of the best novels I have ever read. The WAR IN 2020 is an honest book which does not try to pull its punches.

Despite some of the themes being dated (written in 1990; the USSR exists in 2020 (sort of) AND the Japan as the enemy), the book was one of the first to take a hard look at the end of the cold war and its effects on islamic fundamentalism and the chaos in Central Asia (a common thread throughout many of his novels.) It also looks at the peace dividend and how these so-called savings get deferred to the butcher's bill.

The WAR in 2020 strikes a somber tone and does not come off with a triumphant flourish where the heroes get the medals and all the bad guys get theirs. The ending leaves you wondering what the [heck] everyone died for--unfortunately, it ends like most wars. Don't get me wrong, this book is an exciting novel with its fair share of action, but it does not cop out with a comic book ending that wraps up everything in a neat package.

This is a military fiction novel for thinking adults.

A Personal Commentary:

Ralph Peters seems to me, an under appreciated author. He is not as popular as Tom Clancy (they both showed up in the mid 80s) but I find him to be a literary and philosophically superior author. I think that Ralph does not constantly the sales Clancy does because he does not go near the nationalism trap that Clancy has fallen into. I hope that he continues to write more novels.

I had never read any books by this author, and picked up the book in a pile of used books. I am not a big fan of fictional war novels even though I have read the works of Harry Turtledove including the "Guns of the South" and the "Worldwar" series. I found this book more belivable and readable than the "Worldwar" series.

The book is dated, ( with recent events in terrorism in the world) but still comes across as a plausible story.

I am looking forward to reading more of this author's work.

Then Major Peters produced an interesting work on the counterdrug effort, an effort that the US still remains commited to throughout Latin America. It is evident that when you sort through the fictional relationships established in the book, the complexity of providing these nations support from multiple levels of the US Gov. This is a task too large for any single agency or individual. What Mr Peters fails to paint is the total INABILITY of the US military ever taking an active part in any counterdrug effort, restrictions driven by US Law. The US Govt assists in many ways, but the problem remains that drugs have NOT been recognbized for the WMD they represent to America. In the end, US power and capabilities often appear handcuffed by a multiple groups of drug dealers made up of a mix of wise businessmen, political and military associates, and thugs, otherwise known as terrorist organizations.

This book is Ralph Peters' best work, period! War in 2020 got me bogged down in technical doodads and gadgets, not so with this offering. This book even examines the tense relationship between the military and how the press spins its coverage. ( Over dinner in one instance). It does so without EVER slowing down its pace, and you'll want to read it again like me. As a matter of fact you may read it thrice...now where is my copy....? Geron L- a reader

This kit, is pretty cool. My children ages 3 and 5 loved it. Quite simplistic, it does a great job of introducing kids to the fascinating world of science and chemistry.

Peter Larkin is a real lover of old time Burlesque. He's lovingly researched the old sketches, and updated them making them more accessable for a modern audience. He's done a wonderful job, and this volume is a great resource. Between the sketches and Mr. Larkin's excellent notes the reader really gets to see what this lost form of entertainment was all about.

Have read everything Ralph Peters has put out, plus had the pleasure of working with him in the Pentagon. Exceptional book that I highly reccomend to anyone interested in the military genre.

This book is a beginning reader with very few words. To the critical eye of an adult, the book can easily be grouped with books of few words which offer little to the young reader.

I have had this book in my classroom collections as a K and 1st grade teacher for several years. It is a book which remains out all year because the children are driven to the subject, simplicity and illustrations. A good buy!