Battle Hymn

Battle Hymn
$14.98
The producers wanted Robert Mitchum to play the leading role for this movie, but the real Dean Hess did not want someone who was convicted for marijuana use to portray him in the movie. So, Hudson got the part. I found it a touching film that portrayed the early days of Korea. The Mustangs had the correct markings and the aerial sequences are good. The enemy Yaks were actually T-28 trainers. War is filled with tragedy, and the killing of civilians in this movie brings that fact home. It is an enjoyable '50's era war film about a war that seems almost forgotten today, which is unfortunate. The airlift rescue of the orphans gives a happy ending to the movie about a war that did not end the way Americans were accustom to.

Battle Hymn (Lost Regiment)
$6.99
This is the fifth novel in the series, and the original concept, "Union Army heroes fighting hordes of aliens in space" is starting to wear a little thin. There are several problems.

By this time, the hordes are all giving up horseback and swords for rifles and cannon. Thus the excitement of the combat is limited. And the hordes themselves are getting more and more colorless -- this book has none of the mystic rituals, the intrigue, or the glamor of the first couple, when the Qar Qarth and his Shield Bearer had a complex relationship, and the hordes had rituals and a rich, unique culture of their own.

The new leader of the Bantags, Ha'ark, just is not a powerful enough character. He doesn't have the classic warrior dignity of Muzta in the first book. And he doesn't have the sinister backstabbing style of Tamuka in book four. He's like a geeky nerd who thinks he can do anything just because he knows about machine guns and cannons. Frankly, I never believed Ha'ark would have been ruthless enough to take over the Bantag horde.

Also, we keep stirring in more and more human races, Chinese Zulus and so forth. Forstchen has no time to really make us care about these people the way he did about the Rus in the first book.

The only time the book comes alive is during the great escape and locomotive chase. This is powerful and exciting action writing. The running fight is powerful and told in gripping detail. I just wish Hans Schuder did not chew tobacco, I find that really annoying to read about as a positive habit. I also wish that just for once Forstchen could write female characters who do more than make babies and stare at the men folk adoringly as they step into combat.

Overall, not as good as the first four books, but still okay.

A Hymn Before Battle (Posleen War Series #1)
$7.99
Marc Vietor provides a fine voice spiced with his background acting on television and in film lending action and drama to John Ringo's A Hymn Before Battle, a story of backward Terrans, friendly races of the galactic federation who offer them help, and the confusion of armies of humanity bound to protect not only Earth but two other worlds. Military science fiction at its best comes to life in a gripping audio.

The Hunters
$14.98
This is basically fiction, but it is a realistic account of the air war over Korea. The aircraft are authentic as the movie was made in 58. F-84Fs do a good job portraying the Mig-15s, and the Sabres are incredible as always. The Air Force put a great deal of effort in helping make this movie, and it was the fifties equivalent of "top Gun". Seeing this as a small boy with my dad on TV (he saw it in the theater in 58 when I was a yr old) is what prompted my life long interest in military aviation. It's a well done movie despite the few corny romantic scenes, and is well written with characters loosely based on actual pilots.