'The Sympathizer' by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen (4.0)

While not always enjoyable to read, I found this book important to read for two reasons. First it is a unique view of the past about a time that evokes mixed feelings for many Americans (the Vietnam War). As the ‘dominant culture’ (i.e. American), it’s one of the few cases where the losers have written much of the history.  This book is entirely from the point of view of a Viet Cong agent, amongst the southern Vietnamese and the Americans. Second, the writing is superb with a clever, wry protagonist as our main voice. Even the torture scenes were filled with creative language to invoke feelings and pictures. Here is a fictional story from the point of view of a Vietnamese man who poses as a Captain in the Southern Army, but is really a Viet Cong agent. He has been schooled in the US and returns with the refugees, including the General he supports. While the General tries to build a resistance to return to Viet Nam, our narrator keeps tabs on him while always remembering his true allegiance, to the revolutionaries. The last 25% of the book was the most difficult to read and the most confusing, but I believe that is the intention of the author. If you read this book, make sure to get the copy with the afterward by the author and the interview by Paul Tran. Both are enlightening to Nguyen’s thoughts.

'Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn Duology', by Timothy Zahn

Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn Duology, Timothy Zahn (3.0)

Like most ‘Star Wars’ fans, I generally find Timothy Zahn’s books to be the truest voices of the characters. Given that, I was disappointed in this two-book follow-up to his Thrawn trilogy. While the main characters are true to what you expect, and there were some interesting action scenes, the plot felt contrived. The idea that all the important characters would put themselves in grave danger in order to get a data-card with questionable information that might, just might, stop various New Republic aliens from fighting each other, seemed implausible. While I found the cloning aspects of the plot very clever, the overall Hand of Thrawn, once unveiled, was a disappointment. Overall, I liked the R. A. Salvatore books (Vector Prime) much better with their new and original antagonists.