Targets by Don McQuinn

Fiction / Vietnam War 

501 pages / 1393 KB

5 Stars

Legalities first: I received a free electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have been enjoying McQuinn's novels for several years. Mostly, I read his space operas and fantasies, recently I've discovered some of his war novels. Oh, what a discovery I have made!

Targets follows Charles Taylor, MAJ, USMC during a year's tour of duty in Saigon during the Vietnam war. This is not a story of shoot –'em up bang bang out in the jungle type of episodes. No, this is a much more thoughtful, and thereby fear inducing, of life and love in war-torn Saigon. There are the guys who just want to survive and get home, the guys who want to make a positive difference, and the ones who want to stab a few of the others in the back. And through it all are the Vietnamese who just want the war to end and everybody to go back home.

This is not the first story of that war I've read, but it is the first story of that war I've read where the Vietnamese play a major, and positive, supporting role. While this is not a novel of battles in the rice paddies or jungles, there is enough violence in the city—assassinations and attempted assassinations, back alley beat-downs, and kidnappings—to keep anyone's adrenaline flowing smoothly.

McQuinn also shows the world that a good yarn can be twisted without peppering it with profanities. The yarn is stronger, the twist tighter, and the woven story superb!

If you like a well-written novel, read Targets.

If you like a good story, read Targets.

If you want to know what war is about, read Targets.

Light the Hidden Things --by Don McQuinn

Fiction / Romance

279 pages / 1705 KB

4 Stars

This is not the "usual" McQuinn book. The books I've read by him have been space operas and adventures. They've had their share of adrenaline. This book is gentle, and touches on a difficult subject, PTSD. While it doesn't get into the clinical aspects of PTSD, it does show what someone living with it goes through; how it affects them and those around them. I think this book is a marvelous book for anyone who is either living with PTSD, or knows and loves someone who is.

The primary protagonist, Crow, suffers from PTSD. He's a war vet who has seen more than any human needs to see of death. Fortunately, we don't have to relive a lot of what he does. Crow—a loner, and his dog Major, come to a small town in the Washington Cascades, not too far from Seattle. Here, Crow meets people who help him face his demons to get them off his back.

Dare I make a generalization here? Dare I say Crow is like many men who have PTSD in that he knows he's broke, but he'll fix it himself? He doesn't need help. He's a Marine.

There is no "ah-ha" moment when Crow realizes he needs others; there is no "ah-ha" moment when he is suddenly "fixed." We travel with him as he comes to the realization he really does not want to be a loner any more, he wants companionship, and he wants friends to stand by him and help him.

The chapters of this book are written in the point of view of whoever is narrating that chapter. Most are written by either Lila, who has her own demons or by Crow. Some people find this type of writing irritating, I for one love it.

I would have liked to know just a little more about how Crow's wife died, and a little more about Joe, their son. Crow spent a lot of time thinking about them, to have their stories not tied up in a neat ribbon at the end. (Yes, I like happily ever after in my fiction.)

McQuinn has a tremendous vocabulary, and he uses it to full advantage. I've seldom read a book with such delightful turns of phrase as this one.