Seldom do I ever do book reviews. There is a cogent reason for that, being I don’t (seldom if ever) read books, and especially not fiction. Why the exception you ask? Simple: I was approached by valiant members of our SF community with the prospect of reading a recent novel by a respectful peer of mine, Clay Martin.

Clay walked the walk, talked the talk, and now he writes the book. I did say that this is a fiction novel, albeit some of the characters in this book are developed after true-to-life American heroes, men of the Special Operations community.

I would, if forced to categorize this book, put it in a class of Rambo adventures but on a more sophisticated level. The author is definitely a man very knowledgeable about long-gunning (sniper operations), and that fact is readily presented in his crafting of detailed particulars in the book. I admonish the reader not to be intimidated by esoteric nomenclatures of long guns. A simple search of internet forums will put you quickly in the know, and happy that you took the time to conduct a lookup.

As page-turners go, this book is for certain one of them, but don’t let that fool you into thinking the story is devoid of a sophisticated plot. This is not a predictable storyline, something that no avid reader wants to pine away his precious time over, rather a largely riveting span of action that starts early on and continues through to the very last line of the book.

I read this work along with a second novel that I again had an invitation to review. I told myself I would alternate between the two books, one chapter at a time. Approximately midway through Clay Martin’s Last Son of the War God I found myself cheating through five chapters at a time before relenting and picking up the other work–LOL, cheating is a funny word to use to describe it, but that’s just how I felt.

I recognize this read as one that I was able to fully traverse one time through without having to backtrack and re-read segments because of an overly complicated plot. I say, if that is actually what you are after in a plot, try reading The DiVinci Code in Chinese; sometimes you don’t want a convoluted storyline to twist your brain around… you just want to read and be fully entertained. If that is the case anytime soon, this is the book for you.

By God and with honor,

geo sends