DucKon and Two Books on Mercenaries
DucKon
I'm back from DucKon . The con was poorly-attended, largely due to the date. All the librarians were at the ALA meeting (in downtown Chicago), and there are three big regional cons next weekend, so budget-conscious attendees of those cons stayed home. Still, I had fun and moved some books. It appears that next year DucKon will be back to it's usual early June schedule, so I anticipate more turnout.
A Private Little War
Ironically, I have a trunk novel entitled "A Private War" (it's a mess, and will probably never see the light of day) so when I saw Jason Sheehan's debut novel featured on Scalzi's Big Idea I bought the ebook. It's an interesting read. The setup is that futuristic mercenaries are fighting a war on the cheap, and using replica WWI biplanes to bomb the spear-totting natives. Alas for the mercs, things aren't going to plan. Entertaining but not terribly deep.
My Friend the Mercenary
Moving from fiction to fact, I am 99% finished with James Brabazon's memoir My Friend the Mercenary. It's the true story of Nick du Toit, a South African mercenary famous for a botched coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. The two men became friends when du Toit was Brabazon's bodyguard while filming a revolution in Liberia. Two thoughts:
1) Brabazon befriended du Toit despite the later's heavy involvement in enforcing South African apartheid. This enforcement consisted of a lot of assassinations and bombings, conducted by du Toit personally. There's a fair body of research that suggests men fight not for patriotism but for their fellow soldiers. Brabazon's memoir supports this conclusion - he's friends with du Toit because of the joint struggle they had in Liberia.
2) The Equatorial Guinea coup was poorly-planned and haphazardly conducted, resulting in its failure. Brabazon is befuddled as to how a professional like du Toit could have dropped the ball so badly. Here I can say I've seen (and been guilty of) this before. Basically, competent people with a history of making things happen decide that, based on their track record / skill set, they can gut their way through a project. Sometimes, this works. Sometimes it fails, and when it does it's usually disastrous. Consider it "Gerrib's law of competency."
I'm back from DucKon . The con was poorly-attended, largely due to the date. All the librarians were at the ALA meeting (in downtown Chicago), and there are three big regional cons next weekend, so budget-conscious attendees of those cons stayed home. Still, I had fun and moved some books. It appears that next year DucKon will be back to it's usual early June schedule, so I anticipate more turnout.
A Private Little War
Ironically, I have a trunk novel entitled "A Private War" (it's a mess, and will probably never see the light of day) so when I saw Jason Sheehan's debut novel featured on Scalzi's Big Idea I bought the ebook. It's an interesting read. The setup is that futuristic mercenaries are fighting a war on the cheap, and using replica WWI biplanes to bomb the spear-totting natives. Alas for the mercs, things aren't going to plan. Entertaining but not terribly deep.
My Friend the Mercenary
Moving from fiction to fact, I am 99% finished with James Brabazon's memoir My Friend the Mercenary. It's the true story of Nick du Toit, a South African mercenary famous for a botched coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. The two men became friends when du Toit was Brabazon's bodyguard while filming a revolution in Liberia. Two thoughts:
1) Brabazon befriended du Toit despite the later's heavy involvement in enforcing South African apartheid. This enforcement consisted of a lot of assassinations and bombings, conducted by du Toit personally. There's a fair body of research that suggests men fight not for patriotism but for their fellow soldiers. Brabazon's memoir supports this conclusion - he's friends with du Toit because of the joint struggle they had in Liberia.
2) The Equatorial Guinea coup was poorly-planned and haphazardly conducted, resulting in its failure. Brabazon is befuddled as to how a professional like du Toit could have dropped the ball so badly. Here I can say I've seen (and been guilty of) this before. Basically, competent people with a history of making things happen decide that, based on their track record / skill set, they can gut their way through a project. Sometimes, this works. Sometimes it fails, and when it does it's usually disastrous. Consider it "Gerrib's law of competency."