Afternoon, everyone. It’s October 4, 2022. Not sure how the weather is in other parts of the world but here in the eastern US, it’s cold, gray, and rainy. I haven’t seen the sun since last month, honestly. 😊
I hate to do this but I need to take a brief detour away from the Death of the Backfire series of entries in order to take care of some pressing business. Specifically, writing and publishing a book review on this blog. The book is World War 1990: The Weser by William Stroock. It is the latest release in Stroock’s World War 1990 series. I’ve discussed some of the titles from this series in the past and even reviewed the first release Operation Arctic Storm. I’ve had no desire to review any of Stroock’s other works…..until around 2:00 PM this afternoon.
The author and I had a little dust-up on social media. I replied to a post he put up about this book and advised him the photo of the M-60A3 MBT on his book cover had its REFORGER markers visible. This honest mistake could happen to anyone. I wasn’t attempting to denigrate his choice of cover art. Unfortunately, Stroock seems to believe my friendly advice was a shot across his bow. So, he responds by sending me a screenshot from Amazon displaying statistics for The Weser from the Kindle Store website.
Well, since Stroock saw fit to dazzle me with stats showing how well his latest book is doing I feel it would only be fair to re-read the work and write up a detailed review of it. Then we can get back to the Backfires on D+24. Apologies for the delay, everyone. Hopefully, the book review will be entertaining enough to merit your forgiveness. 😊
Third World War 1987 
Light him up, Mike! 🙂
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🙂
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You are a big meanie!!!! LOL
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I was a big nice guy until he took my advice the wrong way. LOL Now I’m just pissed 🙂
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Well if you want to be really nit picky with him about that tank, it’s actually a M60A1 RISE. There is no thermal shroud on the main gun tube, which is one of the visual ID differences between the two types of M60s. 😉I’m pretty sure that the Regular Army had phased out all of their M60A1s by 1990, having replaced them with overhauled M1s as units in Europe received their new M1A1s.
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See, this is the kind of knowledge that can make or break a scene, chapter or even a novel. Carlos!! I owe you, brother
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Unfortunately, you get that sometimes, whether people are just a bit sensitive, take things the wrong way, are just having a bad day or whatever. Looking forward to the review …. I had a vague interest in the series as if it was any good, it would be a useful read vis-a-vis my TWW story (based on a wargame using the Third World War series from GDW or Compass Games).
Cheers
Peter
(PS. Did you ever have a look at that timeline I sent you?)
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Yeah, I get it too. Writers are artists and some of us are a bit more sensitive than others. It could’ve been a very good series and ideal for your TWW story.
Yes I did and it was excellent. In fact I wanted to talk to you about it. Do you have my email? Get me at ww31987blog@gmail.com
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the only question is whether there’s enough popcorn.
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You won’t need that much, Steve. The Apollo Creed-Ivan Drago fight didn’t last very long either 🙂
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PPS. I came across this, which I thought might be of interest:
Click to access DOC_0000802732.pdf
All the best
Peter
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This is a great read. I have a copy of it already but thanks for thinking of me when you found it, Peter!
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I read Operation Arctic Storm and it left me COMPLETELY underwhelmed. As I recall, it was riddled with both editing errors and mistakes in nomenclature that the intended audience would notice.
I definitely had no desire to continue with the series.
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I can’t say I blame you. Not a great series of books, which is sad because the potential was there for it to be damn good
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