The Bush Soldiers

by John Hooker

With the Japanese holding the western coastal cities of Australia, Geoffrey Sawtell, an Australian officer, with a few raw recruits and two Englishmen ill-suited to the task, must figure out how to sabotage the Japanese and save the outback for Australia

Genres: Alternate History, Australia, Thriller, Science Fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy

438 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[S'hi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like an extended pub crawl, The Bush Soldiers scrabble their way through history and unreality across the outback of Australia. Somewhere between the No Man’s Land of The Great War and the No Other Man’s Land of suspected invasion, the beliefs of catholic and protestant and atheist or Free Thinker are played out to ever more devastating effect. Until there is nothing else but to face what this vast land has always known.
Tightly written yet seeming to wander like its various characters, The Bush Soldiers presents the formation of the Australian character by the necessity of leaving much of the Old World behind. Yet it does not quite find the Older World that continues to feel impenetrable to the outsider.
While God moves in mysterious ways, people walk in parallel mysteries to each other. When God helps those who help themselves paths start to cross and the world of experience opens up to each of them.
I am even reminded of a 35 cent hardback novel I read as a teenager called The Keeper of Secrets. In it an estranged and wandering father visits his daughter and advises her of the importance of intimacy. His example is allowing someone to see her eating a peach. John Hooker uses this same image of a woman eating a peach with its juice running down her chin. To appreciate that image in the sparse landscape of The Bush Soldiers you will have to read it yourself.
You may also then be prepared for a different view than Terra Nullius, and learn how to overcome sandy blight.

[Sean Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was tedious. At best, the pacing was pedestrian, the writing limited and repetitive and the plot mostly pointless. Novels usually have a beginning, a middle and an ending. This one just seemed to have one, long, rambling middle. The back story of the protagonist was mildly interesting, but as a whole, this book lacked any real impetus. It started slowly and never recovered.

[Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more of a proper novel with character development and plot than an alternate history. It is very well written novel of what is and was; an exploration of the meaning and inevitability of loss. Reading it, I mostly felt sad. Hooker's surprises are nicely handled.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absorbing alternate history set in a Japanese occupied Australia in 1943 where five sharply drawn individuals travel overland from Bourke to Broken Hill to sabotage the Japanese run mines and then escape to tragedy in Burke and Wills country near Cooper’s Creek. The narrative is interspersed with the lead character’s life story from his experiences at Passchendaele through the Depression to 1941. An authentic Australia and the understated Japanese presence characterise a great read

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book long ago but I remember that I was really engaged with the alternate history presented in it because it so easily could have occurred.But the book isn't just an alternate history; we learn about the characters as they make their way throught the harsh Australian environment on their quest to stymie the Japanese invasion.

[Cimuchowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forget the enemy, the environment will kill you.