The Warramunga’s War is Australian author Greg Kater’s first novel. According to Mr. Kater’s website The Warramunga’s War is the first of a planned trilogy of fictional historical novels. Mr. Kater weaves fictional characters and events with historical facts and people.
The Warramunga’s War rates 3 out of 4 stars. There are several minor grammatical errors throughout the book which at times interrupt the flow of the narrative. This caused several instances of having to re-read sections for clarification. Some of the grammatical mistakes, however, are now considered “acceptable” in writing; for instance beginning a sentence with a conjunction. This reviewer is of an age from which the rules were stricter, perhaps. Other errors include incorrect sentence structure, punctuation misuses and omissions, and incorrect verb tense. These errors add to the need to occasionally re-read paragraphs to get a clear understanding of the intention of the author. It should also be noted, though, that some of this reviewer’s occasional confusion may stem from the fact that the writer and reader are from different countries. The format of this novel is not formal, but rather more akin to a verbal
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narration. There are no pretenses here; just a good story well worth the read. The story begins two years into World War II in 1941 Lebanon, and weaves its way through Egypt and surrounding areas ending in Australia after the war.
The two protagonists, Cpl. Jack O’Brian (aka Jacko) and Lt. James Munro (aka Jamie) are introduced to the reader while fighting for their lives in a skirmish with Vichy French. The reader is immediately drawn into a fast paced, life and death conflict. The story follows Jacko and Jamie as they become fast friends working together in the military intelligence arena fighting the Axis powers during the war. After the war, they return to their home land of Australia and continue working together to capture war criminals. Along the way the reader is introduced to many diverse and quite colorful characters which adds to the pull of the
narrative. Over all, this is a very entertaining read. The characters are likeable and very human. The geographical descriptions bring the areas to life: one can almost feel the heat of the dessert; hear and feel the buzz and bite of insects; see and taste the dust and grit of outback Australia; warm to new love. Sometimes, the dialog seems a bit juvenile and disjointed. This may be due in part to the writer’s attempt to demonstrate the different nationalities and ethnicities of the characters. Then, too, the grammatical errors are at times distracting. This reviewer also found the title to be somewhat misleading; one would expect a story more specific to the Warramungas or a Warramunga specific conflict when indeed it is a vastly more encompassing tale. For these reasons the 3 out of 4 stars rating was given. The bottom line is that this is a lively novel of the action and adventure genre and well worth reading. The descriptions are rich, the colorful characters well developed, and the ending (mostly) satisfying.
As with any genre, all novels termed ‘war stories’ share certain elements in common. The place and time settings of the novels, obviously, take in at least some aspect of at least one war or conflict. The characters tend to either be soldiers or are at least immediately affected by the military. An ever present sense of doom with punctuated moments of peace is almost a standard of the war novel. Beyond the basic similarities, however, each of these battle books stands apart as an individual. Charles Yale Harrison’s World War I novel, Generals Die in Bed is, in essence, quite different than Colin McDougall’s Execution. Coming years earlier, Generals can almost be seen to hold the wisdom one would expect see in an older sibling, while Execution suffers the growing pains that the younger child inevitably feels.
The Wars by Timothy Findley is an anti-war novel set during the First World War. The novel follows Robert Ross, a Canadian military officer, as he suffers through the horrors of the war both on and off the battlefield. As the novel progresses, Robert evolves from an innocent young man to a deeply troubled and broken individual. This loss of innocence plays a great role in Robert’s development as a character and is highlighted by his experiences with sex and death, experiences that eventually leads to his downfall.
The title of this novel, “The Wars” is illusory. Upon first glance, it makes one expect a protagonist who goes to an actual war, uses physical strength to fight on the battlefield and becomes a war hero.While part of that is true, there are also other significances of the war associated with this title. This novel recounts the journey of the protagonist, Robert Ross as he starts out as a shy, introvert and an inexperienced person before he goes to war; he experiences a change in himself as a result of the people and the battle(s) that he fights with the factors in his surroundings. Therefore, “The Wars” doesn’t necessarily mean the war with the enemy but it includes the wars at home, wars against nature and wars of relationships. Which
during the war. This novel is able to portray the overwhelming effects and power war has
Robert Ross’ is introduced to characters with varying outlooks on the world, based on their own social and economic backgrounds. The soldiers around Robert Ross differ greatly,...
Tim O’Brien states in his novel The Things They Carried, “The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty. For all its horror, you can’t help but gape at the awful majesty of combat” (77). This profound statement captures not only his perspective of war from his experience in Vietnam but a collective truth about war across the ages. It is not called the art of combat without reason: this truth transcends time and can be found in the art produced and poetry written during the years of World War I. George Trakl creates beautiful images of the war in his poem “Grodek” but juxtaposes them with the harsh realities of war. Paul Nash, a World War I artist, invokes similar images in his paintings We are Making a New World and The Ypres Salient at Night. Guilaume Apollinaire’s writes about the beautiful atrocity that is war in his poem “Gala.”
Indians and Whites have always had a fragile relationship that could ignite into a war within days. One point in history where we see this take place is during the Yamasee War. The Yamasee War is a product of a broken relationship. Historians such as William Ramsey have examined the Yamasee War and hypothesized why the Indians went to war against South Carolina. Ramsey’s book, The Yamasee War, pinpoints various conflicts that may have started the war. These conflicts piled on top of each other and lead the Indians to their breaking point. The war was over all ignited by the flame of a broken relationship that led the Native Americans to ineffectively make a coalition to go against the English.
World War I was a very deadly war with over 100 million human casualties(deaths plus injured). Therefore war is a very transformative event for humanity, because it always affects individuals, societies, and even the world in a pessimistic way.
Reynolds, Ann. "The Wars." Masterplots II: British & Commonwealth Fiction Series (1987): 1-4. Literary Reference Center. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a constant battle between death and love.
The just war theory is described by Thomas Massaro in his book Living Justice as the “principle that warfare might be justified under certain conditions” (108). The complexities involved with international relations makes determining a just war very difficult. Even though historically pacifism hasn’t gained much traction within Catholic circles, it currently is gaining popularity with many mainstream Catholics. With so many differing views on military action, one might ask, “What determines a just war? How can we balance the need for peace with self-defense?” An examination of criteria for a just war and critiques written on this topic might shed light on these two questions.
Have you ever heard about the Holocaust? What about the Holodomor, or the Porajmos? All of those events were horrible mass genocides targeting a certain group, whether regarding race, religion, or simply the country of residence. Mass ethnic atrocities remain an unfortunate part of the human history, and yet some are discussed more often than others. The novel Daughter of War written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch takes place during the Armenian Genocide, and follows the main characters Kevork and Marta who met in an orphanage and fell in love. Once the teenagers were old enough, they were to leave the orphanage, and in their attempts at survival they were separated, and now, veiled as muslims, they look for one another, unsure whether the
Tony Palmer, the author of “Break of Day”, tells a story that takes place in and out of war. The story follows a man named Murray Barrett who lives in the times of ww2. He ends up finding himself in the middle of it, down at Port Moresby. During the midst of war, Murray ends up coming across an injured Sid Archer, a childhood enemy and the man who stole Will’s (Murray’s older brother) childhood lover. Murray helps Sid instead of abandoning him, despite their childhood drama. In this book, Palmer really focuses on the themes of family, death, and bravery. He presents to us how complicated families can get, how people deal with death differently from others, and how there are many forms of bravery.
The main-character in this story is Mallory. Along with Miller and Andrea they are the people who is mentioned most. Mallory, Miller and Andrea are three men working for the allied intelligence. The new mission that they get is in Neretva. The valley of Neretva is a vital sector of the main north-south route through Yugoslavia. Miller, Mallory and Andrea takes on themselves parachutes and after some time with flying they are dropped somewhere over Neretva close by to the Partisans headquarters. This book is divided into chapters according to which day and time it was. Maclean goes chronological forward in this book from Thursday 00.00 to Sunday 02.15. This period is divided into almost 15 chapters with timeperiods like Friday 02.00- 04.45. This mission that these three men are assigned to is very secret. It has a such high rank of confidentiality that they kept it a secret to even their own allies. In Neretva there is a huge dam. South to the Neretva river is General Zimmermanns two armoured divisions. This is the Germans who is trying very soon to invade all Yugoslavia. This place is very important to have control over and it mustn`t be lost to the Germans.
Death by the millions. War; caused by the petty disagreements of those in power; fought by the brave young men that had no other choice. No one truly wins a war; it does not decipher who is right, only whom is left. The horrors of war are devastating; both mentally and physically. The horror is not only ever present during life on the Frontline, it lives on in the survivors guilt. I believe