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First Blood
A dramatic chain of events triggered the first battle of the Civil War, which climaxed with the shelling and surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. And the battle's moves and countermoves spelled out the issues and emotions of the long, national bloodletting to follow.
W.A. Swanburg, a pulitzer-prize-winning historian, tells how the North acted with disbelief, bumbling indecision, and finally with firm resolve; the South spat flaming rhetoric that carried it past the point of no return and into grim reality. His narrative's mounting tension will put you behind the thundering canons and beneath the deafening blasts.
"The most readable, most cohesive account of Sumter." (Time)
384 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 18, 2024
Cynical 70's WWII novel, as a squad of American soldiers are sent to escort a French major to a fortress guarding a mountain pass, so he can talk the Vichy commandant into letting de Gaulle take command.
It's a suicide mission.
Along the way, they find an Italian American gangster who got drafted into the Italian army.
Only in the '70's.
It's a suicide mission.
Along the way, they find an Italian American gangster who got drafted into the Italian army.
Only in the '70's.
February 6, 2025
I really enjoyed this WW2 novel. With crazy commanders all around, the enlisted are just trying to survive. A couple of dozen paratroopers are dropped on top of a tank column in North Africa on a suicide mission to secure a fort at a pass that was integral to the allied defensive line. Great cast of characters and crazy hijinks make this one an easy read.
Highly recommended, a quick read that's written fairly well.
Highly recommended, a quick read that's written fairly well.
October 3, 2018
I found this in a Salvation Army store in New Hampshire this past September. The price was 90% off the cover price. Cover price was $1.50. So it was a deal I couldn't walk away from.
Lou Cameron? Author of
I was game. I purchased this book as well as one of Lou Cameron's Western novels.
Terribly disappointing.
It's an action novel set during World War II. Cover blurb promises: "Twice as gutsy as the DIRTY DOZEN! They had just one order - kill now... die later!"
Basically a group of guys (I'm still not sure how many are in the detail) are ordered to parachute into the desert of some "Arab" held country where the Germans are attempting to sieze a Vichy French held Foreign Legion outpost. Their assignment is to take over the fort and delay for as long as possible the German objective. It's a suicide mission and the detail of troops are led by a pill-popping speed-freak of a newly promoted first lieutenant.
The descriptions of the action sequences (which are numerous, I'll give it that) are so confusingly rendered I was never certain what exactly had been achieved and by whom. It's as if the author started out writing two separate novels and then just slammed 'em together and did a poor job of editing the result.
Cameron must have used the term "purple pissing Nazi's" at least a half-dozen times. I've never heard that term used, I've never seen it in print before this novel ...I have no idea why a Nazi's piss would be purple... is it a reference to wine consumption?
It was a slow-read. I almost cast it aside 3 or 4 times but kept thinking, "hey -it's me... it can't be the Lou Cameron written paperback original I'm holding here". So I finally finished it earlier this afternoon.
I see that I gave it 3 stars earlier.
I'm taking it down two stars.
Hate doing that because ...
Lou Cameron wrote it.
He also wrote quite a few short stories and novellas for Sweat Mags. Maybe this was one of them and he sold it as a paperback original in 1971 to "Magnum Books a division of Prestige Books".
I can't recommend this novel to anyone.
Lou Cameron? Author of
I was game. I purchased this book as well as one of Lou Cameron's Western novels.
Terribly disappointing.
It's an action novel set during World War II. Cover blurb promises: "Twice as gutsy as the DIRTY DOZEN! They had just one order - kill now... die later!"
Basically a group of guys (I'm still not sure how many are in the detail) are ordered to parachute into the desert of some "Arab" held country where the Germans are attempting to sieze a Vichy French held Foreign Legion outpost. Their assignment is to take over the fort and delay for as long as possible the German objective. It's a suicide mission and the detail of troops are led by a pill-popping speed-freak of a newly promoted first lieutenant.
The descriptions of the action sequences (which are numerous, I'll give it that) are so confusingly rendered I was never certain what exactly had been achieved and by whom. It's as if the author started out writing two separate novels and then just slammed 'em together and did a poor job of editing the result.
Cameron must have used the term "purple pissing Nazi's" at least a half-dozen times. I've never heard that term used, I've never seen it in print before this novel ...I have no idea why a Nazi's piss would be purple... is it a reference to wine consumption?
It was a slow-read. I almost cast it aside 3 or 4 times but kept thinking, "hey -it's me... it can't be the Lou Cameron written paperback original I'm holding here". So I finally finished it earlier this afternoon.
I see that I gave it 3 stars earlier.
I'm taking it down two stars.
Hate doing that because ...
Lou Cameron wrote it.
He also wrote quite a few short stories and novellas for Sweat Mags. Maybe this was one of them and he sold it as a paperback original in 1971 to "Magnum Books a division of Prestige Books".
I can't recommend this novel to anyone.
May 11, 2022
A strange book. I liked some elements of it quite a lot, but there were things "off" about the book that troubled me. The ending was excellent, however, with a lot of action and some nice surprises. Overall, the writing was good. Below are the weirdities.
1. The book has no chapters. There are breaks in the prose, an extra space that indicates a change in character POV, but no chapters. I don't remember reading another modern book without chapters. It didn't actually bother me very much, though.
Before I get to number 2 below, which I've marked with a spoiler alert, I have to say that it seems as if the author did not have a good sense of who it was about when he started it. In fact, it reads a little like a rough draft as far as story goes, although the prose is of good quality and doesn't seem rushed.
SPOILER ALERT below:
2. The second weirdity did bother me. The book starts out introducing us to a guy named Sean Fitzgerald, who is given an impossible order by his commander. He seems to be a tough as nails kind of fellow and from the way the story is told, he's the hero we're supposed to be rooting for. Then, halfway through the book, we find out Fitzgerald is a drug addict and he suddenly starts acting weird and charges the enemy by himself and is killed. A soldier nicknamed "War Lord" takes over and is now the POV character. This was jarring in a big way, although I certainly liked the War Lord character.
1. The book has no chapters. There are breaks in the prose, an extra space that indicates a change in character POV, but no chapters. I don't remember reading another modern book without chapters. It didn't actually bother me very much, though.
Before I get to number 2 below, which I've marked with a spoiler alert, I have to say that it seems as if the author did not have a good sense of who it was about when he started it. In fact, it reads a little like a rough draft as far as story goes, although the prose is of good quality and doesn't seem rushed.
SPOILER ALERT below:
2. The second weirdity did bother me. The book starts out introducing us to a guy named Sean Fitzgerald, who is given an impossible order by his commander. He seems to be a tough as nails kind of fellow and from the way the story is told, he's the hero we're supposed to be rooting for. Then, halfway through the book, we find out Fitzgerald is a drug addict and he suddenly starts acting weird and charges the enemy by himself and is killed. A soldier nicknamed "War Lord" takes over and is now the POV character. This was jarring in a big way, although I certainly liked the War Lord character.
April 29, 2024
A fun, action-packed war story, set in WW2 North Africa, in which a small unit of American paratroopers are ordered to capture a fort held by French Foreign Legionnaires (who may or may not be loyal to Vichy France.) The American commander is a cocaine-addict, which eventually forces 6'6" enlisted man Roy Marvin to step up and take charge.
Drug-addicted commanding officer aside, the mission gets off to a bad start when the unit parachutes down right in the middle of an Italian armored column during a pitch-dark night.
The book drips with dark humor and a cynical, anti-authority attitude, while telling the unusual story well. The action scenes, especially a scene in which Marvin and two companions hijack a self-propelled gun from a German/Italian unit, are intense. The various characters all have their own unique personalities and the story is brought to a satisfying if cynical conclusion.
Drug-addicted commanding officer aside, the mission gets off to a bad start when the unit parachutes down right in the middle of an Italian armored column during a pitch-dark night.
The book drips with dark humor and a cynical, anti-authority attitude, while telling the unusual story well. The action scenes, especially a scene in which Marvin and two companions hijack a self-propelled gun from a German/Italian unit, are intense. The various characters all have their own unique personalities and the story is brought to a satisfying if cynical conclusion.
September 12, 2021
Despite what the cover promises, THE FIRST BLOOD is nowhere near THE DIRTY DOZEN and nor should it be. First of all, this WW II action novel precedes David Morrell's 1972 Vietnam War vet epic FIRST BLOOD and contrary to the latter, the reader would have a hard time determining why the sooner adventure is named thusly.
Nonetheless, THE FIRST BLOOD is full of great dialogue, army roughhousing, and war time antics to fill three novels. Lou Cameron throws us head first into Algiers, 1942, the territory of Rommel's Afrika Corps and delivers the goods with blood, gore, action and tanks.
Not surprisingly, this suicide airborne mission into a distant part of the desert comes with plenty of plot twists, betrayals, and surviving against all odds.
Lewd, crude and in the mood, THE FIRST BLOOD is the perfect interlude for tech heavy modern fare & takes it all the way back to grit, tactics, and courage.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews