Rating: 
Summary: A tough book about a set of tough men ( and a tougher woman)
Review: An interesting piece of work. Not sure how a reporter could have managed this take on the military -- unless he "slept with the enemy" -- but it's nice that someone finally did.Also interesting is the switch from nonfiction to fiction. Hmmm. I've never written a thing, but I imagine the style change must be hard. Keep up the good work, Thomas.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but it isnt clancy
Review: I got this book for chistmas along with Tom Clancey's shadow warriors. I figured i would read this book quickly before i went back to school because i knew that Clancey would defiently take me a while longer.
After recently finishing the book, I can say that it was a very interesting read. Other reviews have bashed this book saying that "An officer would never really disrupt a supperior officer's orders." It should probably be repeated that this novel is FICTION.
Being in Army ROTC in college, i found this novel more interesting than probably most. The Author obviously had alot of officer input when writing this, especially when describing the jury. In closing, it isn't clancey, but still worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but it isnt clancy
Review: I got this book for chistmas along with Tom Clancey's shadow warriors. I figured i would read this book quickly before i went back to school because i knew that Clancey would defiently take me a while longer.
After recently finishing the book, I can say that it was a very interesting read. Other reviews have bashed this book saying that "An officer would never really disrupt a supperior officer's orders." It should probably be repeated that this novel is FICTION.
Being in Army ROTC in college, i found this novel more interesting than probably most. The Author obviously had alot of officer input when writing this, especially when describing the jury. In closing, it isn't clancey, but still worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: I loved the first 90% of this book; thumbs down on last 10%
Review: I was in love with this book for the first 90% of it. I thought it was as good as and as well written as James Webb's two great political/military novels, Something to Die For and The Emperor's General. The story and characters are well developed and the writing style is straightforward and appealing. I told my wife that the author was wasting his talent writing anything other than fiction, based on how good I found this book to be. But, a funny thing happened to the book as it ended. In my opinion, the author lacked the self confidence to close out the book with events that were as believable and credible as he had used up to that point. He inserted a couple of critical story lines that made the book more spectacular, which it didn't need, and less believable. More like what you'd expect a Hollywood script writer to insert into a great author's story to make a more commercial movie. I felt like the author sold himself out by putting those elements in his story. Without giving away the story, I'm specifically referring to the events surrounding retired Colonel Petrosky and to the very last part of General Ames' story. There was some other marginal material near the end that I could accept, but the two I just referenced were too much. Still, if you like military/political stories, you should definitely read this book. Enough of it is very good to make it worthwhile and you may not be as put off by the last part of the book (not really the ending, which I had no problem with; just the way the author got to the ending) as I was. I hope Ricks writes some more books and I hope he gets some help with finishing them. I found the way he finished his nonfiction book, Making the Corps, to also drag down that book's quality, as he shifted gears from reporting to philosophizing. He may yet become a great writer. He certainly has great talent and maybe maturity will bring him better judgement on how to finish his books.
Rating:
Summary: The Rightest Stuff
Review: Let me add to the praise already lavished on Thomas E. Ricks' A Soldier's Duty. In many ways, it is the quintessential moral tale of the post-Soviet, post-modern age. Mr. Ricks accomplishes a number of extraordinary things with this book. He summarizes a universe of complex contemporary issues in a volume that can be read in a single rainy day. He establishes dramatic tension from the start and maintains it throughout the piece. He creates complex, three dimensional characters with the brushstrokes of a minimalist. And as he does in his journalistic writing, he presents all sides of the issue in an even, dispassionate manner. With A Soldier's Duty, Mr. Ricks has revived a genre that was teetering on the brink of destructive self-imitation. If you read one military related novel this year, A Soldier's Duty is the one to read.
Rating:
Summary: Seven MORE Days In May
Review: Neat plot idea -- in the near future, disgruntled military officers, linked by the Internet, furious at a clueless administration, led in secret by an ambitious general, form a secret society to, as they see it, fulfill their duty of "defending the Consittution of the United States". What makes this different from a hundred other thrillers is that Thomas Ricks REALLY understands the U. S. military. Ricks carries some baggage -- he not just a reporter, he's with the Washington Post, but Ricks really understands the U. S. armed forces, both inside and outside the Beltway. These are real soldiers -- this is the way they talk, act, and think. The problem is that this is a first-novel, and it falls apart after 150 superb pages. Just when you expect the plot to thicken, the Army Chief of Staff and his sharp female aide-de-camp, who have been the protagonists to this point, wander away, and we get some court martial drama involving a very minor character, some hit-man and who's-got-the-computer-disk melodrama, and a deus-ex-machina with a Marine colonel turned dope-smoking hippie. But the Army described there-in is real -- from the defacto segregation of the NCO Clubs to the Pentagon cafeteria full of divorced LTCs -- this is real. Ricks makes the evil politicans in his novel Republicans (he IS with the Post, after all), but the situations he postulates are not unlikely, given the events of the Clinton administration.
Rating:
Summary: Very Well Done
Review: Remarkable: a reporter who apparently has no military service but demonstrates an unusual understanding of the military and its many subcultures. From a purely literary standpoint it's journeyman stuff; only a few minor characters really flesh out to three dimensions, and the plot goes off the rails at the end. But the novel's main conceit (an e-mail revolution within the US Army officer corps) and its principal theme - where does duty lie? - are well-developed. Military officers should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great writing...very rare in the genre
Review: This is great writing. I am tired of reading shallow books by Clancy and is ilk, who are lost in technology and Reagan politics. So enter here for a good military story that does not follow the predictable route.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book
Review: This is one of the best books about the military I have ever read. Once you start reading, you will not want to stop. Even though I did not like all the stereotypes in the book, based on my ten years in the military, I have to admit that the author very accurately portrays the military, its members, and their attitudes. The book, set in 2004, tells the story of how several military members deal with controversial policies and missions dictated to them by the White House. As you read the book, the characters' ethical conflicts of duty versus loyalty, duty versus honesty, and duty versus honor raise the stakes to the point of life and death. Life and death for the characters as well as life and death of good order and discipline of the armed forces. There is nothing in this book that is unbelievable. To the contrary, many of the conflicts and debates contained within this book have already taken place. That fact makes the conflicts in the book that have not taken place yet, all the more believable. This is a must read for members of the military!
Rating: 
Summary: Uneven plot and poorly-developed characters
Review: This was an enjoyable read, but the author's whole premise is preposterous. While serving officers may gripe to each other about their civilian masters, they would NEVER stop an operation against an enemy of the United States, as some do in his book, nor would they condone it after the fact. If you read his fist book "Making the Corps," you'll see Ricks' fears of a professional military alienated from the population they serve. This novel is an extension of that concern. If he's using this book as a warning against such action, then fair enough. But, if he honestly thinks officers would plot against their own government, then he's not the astute observer of the armed forces which he bills himself as. On the subject of the author as observer of military life, I would offer, as a serving soldier, that his view is very much that of the outsider. While he provides many accurate anecdotes that provide some authenticity to his narrative, they often come off as canned; you can almost hear the fighter pilot or Army Ranger telling him the story and Ricks eagerly writing it down. Consequently, from my perspective, the book lacked authenticity. Where Ricks is at his best is when he's describing his own area of expertise: how the beltway news machine runs, how various agencies manipulate the media to get their message out. Bottom line: this is an entertaining read but don't think this is what your servicemen and women get up to when you're not looking.
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