Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (OFV)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: WW III stories (was Re: Tom Clancy)
Message-ID: <12216@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 12 Dec 89 04:53:15 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
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From: Mary Shafer (OFV) <shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov>

David Becker writes (in reference to General Sir John Hacket):

>He also wrote _The Third World War:  The Untold Story_.  These books are
>a collection of events that happen in WW III if it started in 1985(they
>were written around 80 and 83 respectively) and
>included a nuclear exchange where Minsk and a British city, Birmingham?,
>are nuked.>The stories concentrate much more on the hardware and
>strategies than Clancy, have less characterization and a LOT more TLAs.
>(Three Letter Acronyms)

>At points Hacket uses the books as his personal soapbox.  He champions weapons
>systems and complains about NATO unrediness.  The Soviets are portrayed
>as fighting the enemy because the KGB is worse but then again Clancy
>does that too.  The good guys win as Soviet Empires disintegrates from
>within.

For those of us who haven't read the book and were looking forward to
it, this is a real downer.  Thanks a whole lot.

Reviews of non-fiction can be very explicit.

Reviews of fiction, particularly if even a grain of suspense exists,
should not tell us "how it comes out."  If it's absolutely impossible
to resist this temptation, perhaps the "spoiler" should be explicitly
marked, both in the Subject field and in the text.  They handle this
very nicely in the groups that regularly discuss fiction.

	[mod.note: Frankly, I don't feel too bad about this.  This isn't
	a book review group, or rec.arts.startrek.  We deal in facts, and
	I can't see being coy about the ending of a book, fiction or not.
	But, if you think of it, let's include "Spoiler" early in the text
	if we disclose something like, oh, that _Red Storm Rising_ ends
	when the Soviet military overthrows the Politburo.
		Oh, BTW, SPOILER WARNING.	8-)    	- Bill ]

On a related note, I saw a paperback "Rolling Thunder" at the
supermarket yesterday.  It had a really spiffy F-4 on the cover and
was a Military-Book-of-the-Month Club (I don't remember the club's
real name) selection, so of course I bought it.  Imagine my surprise
when I started reading it and discovered that there are no F-4s
anywhere in the damn book.  This is a terrible thing to do to an F-4
fan.  There doesn't appear to be anything about Rolling Thunder
either, but I'm only halfway through and still hoping.  Actually,
it's a pretty good book and I'm really enjoying it.

Regards,
Mary

Mary Shafer  shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov or ames!elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
         NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                   Of course I don't speak for NASA