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victor_a_davis 's review for:
I loved this collection. There is something spooky about war stories taking place off the battlefield. I think there is nothing which probes deeper into human nature than the interactions and motivations of people during "a state of war." The title story wasn't my favorite: a tongue-in-cheek letter from a scientist leading a lab project claiming to have successfully isolated and trapped the devil and so freeing humanity from temptation and violence forevermore. It gave me a good chuckle though.
My favorite stories were "Great Day" and "The Commandant's Desk." The former is about a 2037 Army of the World recruit who takes part in a time travelling experiment back to a 1918 World War I battlefield. The latter is about a carpenter who's been pressed into service by three different occupying commandants during the Czechoslovakian war (German, Russian, and American) who has to keep changing the logo on the same desk.
There is a humorous, fatalist streak in all his stories, not unlike [b:Slaughterhouse-Five|4981|Slaughterhouse-Five|Kurt Vonnegut|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1440319389s/4981.jpg|1683562], one of my favorite books. He conveys the tragedy of senseless war born of his own experience as a POW in Dresden. It's easy to see that that experience defined his life and his writing forever.
My favorite stories were "Great Day" and "The Commandant's Desk." The former is about a 2037 Army of the World recruit who takes part in a time travelling experiment back to a 1918 World War I battlefield. The latter is about a carpenter who's been pressed into service by three different occupying commandants during the Czechoslovakian war (German, Russian, and American) who has to keep changing the logo on the same desk.
There is a humorous, fatalist streak in all his stories, not unlike [b:Slaughterhouse-Five|4981|Slaughterhouse-Five|Kurt Vonnegut|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1440319389s/4981.jpg|1683562], one of my favorite books. He conveys the tragedy of senseless war born of his own experience as a POW in Dresden. It's easy to see that that experience defined his life and his writing forever.