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Counters
Eric Hoffer Book Awards Honorable Mention for Legacy Fiction
Warmones, hormones, and conscience compete for the souls of young pilots in the VietNam war. An air combat tale of whimsical intelligence and vivid realism.
It’s 1967 in DaNang, Vietnam, as new pilot Steve Mylder reports for duty to his fighter squadron and meets fellow pilot Avery Aughton. Avery is cocky, unbearably patriotic, and outrageously successful with women--everything Steve is not! Yet they become friends as they drink together at the DOOM Club bar and learn the ropes of air combat together. As they dogfight in the air, their mutual friend Sub-Lieutenant Sam the Collie--who thinks he’s a fighter pilot too--parallels their war by dogfighting on the ground against his rival Charlie, a junkyard mutt.
Steve, unenthusiastic about the war, fights for his life in the skies over North Vietnam but battles for his soul against the Red Baron of his nightmares. Avery--master of the art of combat seduction--acquires a measure of humility as he thunders fifty feet over a North Vietnamese beach, looks down and locks eyes with an improbable bikini-clad woman … and falls into hopeless love. Both pilots seem on-track to survive their tours of duty when Avery is shot down and Steve has to face himself--balancing imagination against reality--in the aftermath of a rescue attempt.
In Counters, former air force pilot Tony Taylor weaves whimsical humor and authentic details of air combat into a brooding yet fanciful tapestry, illuminating the hormones and warmones that impel young men to war and stupidity.
Editorial Reviews:
This book is destined to become a classic. The story is told by a young Air Force pilot caught up in the Viet-Nam war. He takes the reader, both mentally and physically, inside the minds and bodies of young men on the battlefield. The reader will fully sense how it feels to fly a F-4C Phantom II fighter jet. The vivid description of battles fought in the air, and also in barracks and clubhouse on the base where these young men live come to life. It’s a searing question of survival. The reader will finally deeply understand the camaraderie, as well as the life-long brotherhood of young men who have lived through a war together. The author is an extraordinarily gifted writer, who claims to have navigated spacecraft to every planet in the solar system. He makes that claim almost believable.
– US Review of Books (for Hoffer Award Honorable Mention in Legacy Fiction)
An honest, engaging tale of living through war….a vivid contrast between swaggering language and graceful, even prose, which is underscored with deep internal subtext….brings a balanced and original perspective to a genre too often dominated by the action.
—Kirkus Reviews
Warmones, hormones, and conscience compete for the souls of young pilots in the VietNam war. An air combat tale of whimsical intelligence and vivid realism.
It’s 1967 in DaNang, Vietnam, as new pilot Steve Mylder reports for duty to his fighter squadron and meets fellow pilot Avery Aughton. Avery is cocky, unbearably patriotic, and outrageously successful with women--everything Steve is not! Yet they become friends as they drink together at the DOOM Club bar and learn the ropes of air combat together. As they dogfight in the air, their mutual friend Sub-Lieutenant Sam the Collie--who thinks he’s a fighter pilot too--parallels their war by dogfighting on the ground against his rival Charlie, a junkyard mutt.
Steve, unenthusiastic about the war, fights for his life in the skies over North Vietnam but battles for his soul against the Red Baron of his nightmares. Avery--master of the art of combat seduction--acquires a measure of humility as he thunders fifty feet over a North Vietnamese beach, looks down and locks eyes with an improbable bikini-clad woman … and falls into hopeless love. Both pilots seem on-track to survive their tours of duty when Avery is shot down and Steve has to face himself--balancing imagination against reality--in the aftermath of a rescue attempt.
In Counters, former air force pilot Tony Taylor weaves whimsical humor and authentic details of air combat into a brooding yet fanciful tapestry, illuminating the hormones and warmones that impel young men to war and stupidity.
Editorial Reviews:
This book is destined to become a classic. The story is told by a young Air Force pilot caught up in the Viet-Nam war. He takes the reader, both mentally and physically, inside the minds and bodies of young men on the battlefield. The reader will fully sense how it feels to fly a F-4C Phantom II fighter jet. The vivid description of battles fought in the air, and also in barracks and clubhouse on the base where these young men live come to life. It’s a searing question of survival. The reader will finally deeply understand the camaraderie, as well as the life-long brotherhood of young men who have lived through a war together. The author is an extraordinarily gifted writer, who claims to have navigated spacecraft to every planet in the solar system. He makes that claim almost believable.
– US Review of Books (for Hoffer Award Honorable Mention in Legacy Fiction)
An honest, engaging tale of living through war….a vivid contrast between swaggering language and graceful, even prose, which is underscored with deep internal subtext….brings a balanced and original perspective to a genre too often dominated by the action.
—Kirkus Reviews
239 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2008
1 person want to read
About the author
Tony Taylor
2 books8 followersSadly, Tony passed away August 7, 2019. I am his wife and will continue to manage his books.
Pilot, spacecraft navigator, author: Tony Taylor flew fighters in the Air Force and later navigated NASA spacecraft to all eight planets of the solar system, adding minor planet Pluto in 2015 to maintain bragging rights for “all the planets” in case it’s promoted to full planethood again.
His latest novel, The Darkest Side of Saturn, reflects many of his NASA experiences and won several honors, including First Place for Commercial Fiction in the 2016 Eric Hoffer Book Awards and Book of the Year in the 2015 Arizona Literary Contest. His first novel, Counters, drew on air combat experiences in Vietnam and won an Honorable Mention in the Hoffer Awards. Both books made the Short List for Grand Prize in that contest.
Tony lives with his wife Jan in Sedona, Arizona. He may not be the only interplanetary navigator in Sedona, land of vortices and UFO enthusiasts, but he’s probably the only one who actually worked for NASA.
Pilot, spacecraft navigator, author: Tony Taylor flew fighters in the Air Force and later navigated NASA spacecraft to all eight planets of the solar system, adding minor planet Pluto in 2015 to maintain bragging rights for “all the planets” in case it’s promoted to full planethood again.
His latest novel, The Darkest Side of Saturn, reflects many of his NASA experiences and won several honors, including First Place for Commercial Fiction in the 2016 Eric Hoffer Book Awards and Book of the Year in the 2015 Arizona Literary Contest. His first novel, Counters, drew on air combat experiences in Vietnam and won an Honorable Mention in the Hoffer Awards. Both books made the Short List for Grand Prize in that contest.
Tony lives with his wife Jan in Sedona, Arizona. He may not be the only interplanetary navigator in Sedona, land of vortices and UFO enthusiasts, but he’s probably the only one who actually worked for NASA.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 1, 2017
"This is really it," he thought. "I’m in a war. If you have to die in the morning, you might as well enjoy the night before."
In the middle of November, 1996, Wing headquarters in RAF Bentwaters/woodridge, England received a teletype listing sixty-eight piolts' names chosen to report to Southeast Asia, ASAP. Noticing an error with the twenty-third name, which was "Garbled in transmission", Seventh Air Force requested a repeat and six days after the initial message they received a new list with all names intact. However, number twenty-three, First Lieutenant Hoskins, James R., has already left to be married and went on vacation for his honeymoon.
That's where Steve Mylder comes in. Needing a replacement pilot, Lieutenant Mylder volunteers himself for the position before he even realizes what he's done. Although he and Hoskins are friends, they aren't exactly close and Steve shocks even himself with his hastey actions.
"He wasn’t a warlike type of guy, either, even though he was a fighter pilot and proud of it. It had just never occurred to him quite as viscerally as then that the central occupation of fighter pilots was fighting."
A few days later he gets his orders, and prepares to leave to fight in the war.
Counters by Tony Taylor is a gripping story about a young fighter pilot who gets sent to fight in the Vietnam war. This isnt just a story about Steve Mylder being sent to war though, but of all the other fighter pilots he fought alongside of too. This story is about growing up, major life changing moments, friendships, loss and the aftermath of war, too. Wonderfully written with lighthearted humor and vivid details this historical war fiction will suck you in and leave you wishing for more.
The characters are all nicely fleshed out and the world building is great. Counters starts us off with an exciting prolouge of a vividly detailed first person POV of someone going through the motions of preparing to fly their plane and taking off. Its written so well you can almost imagine that you're the one truly experiencing it for yourself.
In fact, I found myself thinking "Wow, this author must have really done his research!" Only to find out later that most of his knowledge comes from experience and it definitely shows!
I don't normally read historical war fictions, but I would recommend this book to anyone who does or may have an interest in it.
**** I received an eBook copy of this title in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Booktasters for introducing me to this author and thank you to Tony Taylor for giving me the chance to read and review his work. ****
In the middle of November, 1996, Wing headquarters in RAF Bentwaters/woodridge, England received a teletype listing sixty-eight piolts' names chosen to report to Southeast Asia, ASAP. Noticing an error with the twenty-third name, which was "Garbled in transmission", Seventh Air Force requested a repeat and six days after the initial message they received a new list with all names intact. However, number twenty-three, First Lieutenant Hoskins, James R., has already left to be married and went on vacation for his honeymoon.
That's where Steve Mylder comes in. Needing a replacement pilot, Lieutenant Mylder volunteers himself for the position before he even realizes what he's done. Although he and Hoskins are friends, they aren't exactly close and Steve shocks even himself with his hastey actions.
"He wasn’t a warlike type of guy, either, even though he was a fighter pilot and proud of it. It had just never occurred to him quite as viscerally as then that the central occupation of fighter pilots was fighting."
A few days later he gets his orders, and prepares to leave to fight in the war.
Counters by Tony Taylor is a gripping story about a young fighter pilot who gets sent to fight in the Vietnam war. This isnt just a story about Steve Mylder being sent to war though, but of all the other fighter pilots he fought alongside of too. This story is about growing up, major life changing moments, friendships, loss and the aftermath of war, too. Wonderfully written with lighthearted humor and vivid details this historical war fiction will suck you in and leave you wishing for more.
The characters are all nicely fleshed out and the world building is great. Counters starts us off with an exciting prolouge of a vividly detailed first person POV of someone going through the motions of preparing to fly their plane and taking off. Its written so well you can almost imagine that you're the one truly experiencing it for yourself.
In fact, I found myself thinking "Wow, this author must have really done his research!" Only to find out later that most of his knowledge comes from experience and it definitely shows!
I don't normally read historical war fictions, but I would recommend this book to anyone who does or may have an interest in it.
**** I received an eBook copy of this title in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Booktasters for introducing me to this author and thank you to Tony Taylor for giving me the chance to read and review his work. ****
September 29, 2016
A quite unorthodox description of what was felt by the soldiers on the American side during the Vietnam war...I've read many books on the subject, most of them unflinchingly long and technical, so this book was a refreshing change of pace. Told through a single unprepared fighter pilot's POV, this book clearly showcases the author's experiences itself or so I believe. This book offers a wide range of possibilities- sitting inside DOOM (insider joke!) and having a drink, shuddering at the thought of your hairy superiors, watching jets get blown to bits...it was all an eye-opener for young Steve Mylder. I liked Steve from the first line in which he appeared- he had such an innocent, I'm-still-too-young to take part in war quality to him that instantly endeared me. There were parts in the book where he told the story via a series of letters to a newspaper- those were my favorites. The guy knew when to be humble, when to take swift action, when to identify moral regresses. And when he decided to pursue his writing? Kudos, Steve! And although he was just a side character, Sam the collie has a special place in my heart. He was the perfect companion, even though a little too eager.
In my opinion, the epilogue of the book was the most poignant one I've ever read. So for me, there was only one downside to this book- it ended much too soon. I could have read on for a couple hundred more...Still, I guess all good things must come to an end!
In my opinion, the epilogue of the book was the most poignant one I've ever read. So for me, there was only one downside to this book- it ended much too soon. I could have read on for a couple hundred more...Still, I guess all good things must come to an end!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews