Galactic Invasion
Something is killing every living cell on world after world, and the Galactic Confederation can't stop it. A small man from Earth offers to win the war in exchange for total command, and the galaxy laughs.
Tag: War
War films are argument as much as spectacle, and the argument is usually about what the fighting was for. This tag collects reviews of war films and the craft questions they raise for anyone writing combat.
Artificial IntelligencePetrov Day: The Officer Who Didn’t Believe the Computer
On September 26, 1983, a Soviet early-warning system reported five American nuclear missiles. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov called it a malfunction, and he was right. Petrov Day marks the night one officer refused to believe the machine.
NovemberKurt Vonnegut Day: The Book That Took Twenty Years
Kurt Vonnegut survived the firebombing of Dresden three stories underground and couldn't write about it for more than twenty years. When he did, he broke time apart to get there, and Slaughterhouse-Five still shows memoir writers how to approach what…
LeadershipSoldier for Life: Leader Lessons from the 12th Sergeant Major of the Army
The memoir and leadership book of Jack Tilley, who rose from Vietnam-era private to the 12th Sergeant Major of the Army. Written with Army historian Dan Elder, it ends every chapter with the lesson behind the story.
HistoryShattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully retell the Battle of Midway from the Japanese side, using Japanese records to overturn decades of accepted history. It's one of the two nonfiction books I keep rereading.
HistoryA World at Arms: A Global History of World War II
Gerhard Weinberg's one-volume history of World War II across every continent, more about why things happened than about the battles. It's one of the two nonfiction books I keep rereading.
MemoirA Tiger among Us: A Story of Valor in Vietnam’s A Shau Valley
Medal of Honor recipient Bennie Adkins, a retired command sergeant major, tells the story of the 1966 fight for Camp A Shau, where 17 Green Berets held out against a far larger North Vietnamese force. He wrote it with journalist…
MemoirWe Were Soldiers Once… and Young: Ia Drang, the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
The account of the November 1965 Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, written by the battalion commander who led it, Hal Moore, and Joseph Galloway, the reporter who fought beside his men. It became the 2002 film We Were Soldiers.
FamilyHiring a Ghostwriter for a Veteran’s or First Responder’s Memoir
A ghostwriter can turn a veteran's, police officer's or firefighter's service into a memoir, even after the veteran has died. The interviews, the records that help, and when the manuscript needs a security review or a lawyer's read.
Fiction WritingThe Greatest World War I Films
Every First World War film reviewed on this site, ranked. The first Best Picture winner, a docudrama cast with the men who lived it, tunnellers under Messines, and the war nobody adapts as often as the one that followed it.
1990sStar Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) Review
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine rates 10 and above on the rewatch scale and is the best series the franchise has produced. It is also the most underrated rating in Trek history. A station instead of a ship, a military…
1990sLife is Beautiful (1998) Review
Life is Beautiful (1998) rates 6 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Roberto Benigni made a comedy about a father convincing his son that a concentration camp is a game, won Best Actor, and produced the most divisive film…