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Napalm Dreams: A Men of Valor Novel
Assigned to reinforce a Special Forces border camp in immediate danger of being overrun by a regiment of the North Vietnamese, Green Beret Captain Finn McCulloden and his team must battle overwhelming odds and treachery from within as they struggle to survive against a dangerous foe. Original.
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 25, 2019
I enjoy military historical novels, so I tried this. I liked it but did not find the characters sympathetic. Aslo a lot of military jargon. Technical details are probably accurate; characters seemed somewhat stereotyped to me.
Enjoyable for a read through once but there are better war novels out there.
Enjoyable for a read through once but there are better war novels out there.
July 25, 2024
Wow... Mullins is an incredible author who knows how to keep a books pacing moving forward at just the right speed while juggling multiple points of view and maintaining tension until the final words are printed.
While at first it feels like you're being inundated with all of the different characters, by the end of the book, so many of them have been fleshed out, their stories told, that they become more than just cardboard placeholders in many respects. You honestly get a sense of what the characters are thinking, feeling, and experiencing. Mullins finds ways to make you really like the people he writes about, to understand that they're humans, flaws and all.
The thing is, like Mark Berent's books, while the focus is on a single group of people in a single place, you are also taken on side stories which gives you a broader look at all of the set pieces involved in the battle. Sometimes this can be distracting in books, but here, it helps to twist the mounting tension in a different direction and keeps the adrenaline and feelings at a high clip.
I do have two gripes though.
One is that this is an author who knows what he's talking about and sometimes I feel like I'm back sitting on bleachers under a hot sun learning exactly how det cord works down to the chemical processes. For those who love minutiae detail, Mullins serves it up in bag fulls, but for others, it's easy to skim past that and not have it be too annoying or distracting at all.
And Two, the deus ex machina at the end of the book. If it was capable of doing that at the end, why wasn't it at the beginning and middle and throughout? That still bothers me.
Beyond those two issues, it's still a 5 star and a really great piece of fiction about the Vietnam War.
While at first it feels like you're being inundated with all of the different characters, by the end of the book, so many of them have been fleshed out, their stories told, that they become more than just cardboard placeholders in many respects. You honestly get a sense of what the characters are thinking, feeling, and experiencing. Mullins finds ways to make you really like the people he writes about, to understand that they're humans, flaws and all.
The thing is, like Mark Berent's books, while the focus is on a single group of people in a single place, you are also taken on side stories which gives you a broader look at all of the set pieces involved in the battle. Sometimes this can be distracting in books, but here, it helps to twist the mounting tension in a different direction and keeps the adrenaline and feelings at a high clip.
I do have two gripes though.
One is that this is an author who knows what he's talking about and sometimes I feel like I'm back sitting on bleachers under a hot sun learning exactly how det cord works down to the chemical processes. For those who love minutiae detail, Mullins serves it up in bag fulls, but for others, it's easy to skim past that and not have it be too annoying or distracting at all.
And Two, the deus ex machina at the end of the book. If it was capable of doing that at the end, why wasn't it at the beginning and middle and throughout? That still bothers me.
Beyond those two issues, it's still a 5 star and a really great piece of fiction about the Vietnam War.
October 7, 2017
An excellent read thank you
This book w as a gripping read from the start. The story was realistic, with obviously great research.
This gave a great base for the many accounts of action.
I really enjoyed it and I would recommend the book to anyone
This book w as a gripping read from the start. The story was realistic, with obviously great research.
This gave a great base for the many accounts of action.
I really enjoyed it and I would recommend the book to anyone
December 18, 2017
War in graphic detail
Never have I read a book that gives such graphic detail of infantry warfare, it's easy to imagine the smell of blood and Gore ,see the broken bodies and severed limbs as the troops defend a piece of land in foreign land, absolutely brilliant.
Never have I read a book that gives such graphic detail of infantry warfare, it's easy to imagine the smell of blood and Gore ,see the broken bodies and severed limbs as the troops defend a piece of land in foreign land, absolutely brilliant.
December 22, 2017
I know a soldier who fought in this dreadful war ,an American and this story
brings back the futility of it.to win a battle,loose good people,and we must ask what for.so much given with a questionable result.
brings back the futility of it.to win a battle,loose good people,and we must ask what for.so much given with a questionable result.
March 14, 2017
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14443177
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14443177
February 1, 2022
John F. Mullins penned NAPALM DREAMS in 2004 and it is easy to see that the impact of the Vietnam War has not lessened in his prose. The jungle, the ordnance, firefights, the misery and the oppressive heat feel as real as if told in 1974.
The story combines elements from James R. McDonough's PLATOON LEADER (1985) and the more recent THE OUTPOST (2012) to provide the backdrop of a story that is all too familiar for the US Army. A forlorn camp in a hard to reach place, re-supply problems, and an enemy with superior numbers bent on taking the place.
At the center of this fictional disaster is a team of Green Berets with their Montagnard charges, in a fight for their lives against all odds. A C-130 Spooky provides a satisfying moment in the narrative that rivals Stephen Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger moseying up a hill in POINT OF IMPACT (1993) and makes this a must-read in the military fiction genre.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews