Awhile back I read this new book by Steven Pressfield, a historical fiction writer probably best known for his “300″ novel Gates Of Fire.  His best book is easily The Afghan Campaign.  I gifted a copy to Will Dennis, who, after reading, deemed it “the best book I’ve read in 20 years”, only to later give that high honor to Wells Tower’s short story “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned”.  I’d be hard-pressed to pick from the two, myself.

The Afghan Campaign dealt with Alexander’s warring in that country, but focused on army grunts, and is  bawdy and rowdy and full of slang and is touching and brutal and sexual.  Written now probably to draw parallels to the current fighting in Afghanistan, I personally enjoy it without that comparison.  It’s smooth, effortless, clever, and 110% enjoyable historical fiction, which sort of brings me to Killing Rommel.

A departure from the rest of his novels that are set in antiquity, Killing Rommel is obviously WW2, an account of tank drivers in the Sahara being sent on a ludicrous mission to find Rommel and take him out directly.  Why the book shines, at least for me, is the grunt-saga of dealing with the desert, of repairing engines on the fly, or hiding in plain sight and fighting in pitch dark.  I’ve been writing battle scenes for a few years now in my comics, and Pressfield does it so perfectly, so smoothly, it makes me cringe in embarrassment despite myself.

I’d still recommend The Afghan Campaign first.  His other, earlier books, less so.

bri