Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.
Title: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Author: Margaret Vandenburg
Narrator: MacLeod Andrews
Format: Unabridged
Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-31-15
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes
Genres: Fiction, Literary
Publisher's Summary:
For patriots like Billy Sinclair, the Iraq War started on 9/11. He is primed to kill in the backwoods of Montana, hunting with his buddy, Pete, under the tutelage of his grandfather, a decorated World War II veteran. When they kill their first deer, Grandpa smears its blood on their faces in honor of Pete's great-great-grandfather, a Sioux scout who corralled the first wild horses bearing the Sinclair brand.
A more sublime boyhood is unimaginable, a more tragic adolescence unthinkable. Nobody sees it coming. Pete's inexplicable suicide steels Sinclair's resolve to join the marines. The moral certainty of the war on terror fills the void left by his best friend's death. But Sinclair's faith falters when his platoon is forced to attack equivocal targets in Fallujah: mosques, cemeteries, and countless homes. Urban combat is tough enough without being haunted by the specters of defenseless women, let alone children. Sinclair summons his training, holding his doubts at bay until a suicide bomber triggers flashbacks to the role he unwittingly played in Pete's death. His own survival will ultimately depend on solving the riddle posed by these two suicides - mirror images of self-destructive compulsions at home and abroad.
Members Reviews:
More than the title suggests
Margaret Vandenburgâs fine novel deserves a more original title. The novel is an exploration of the experience of American fighters in Iraq. I suppose in that context the title has an ironic resonance, but the novel is not an ironic exposition of political mistakes or rationalizations for war, it is a very convincing personal account of the experiences of a single fictional Marine squad in the battle for Fallujah.
Vandenburg is a very persuasive writer on the gruntâs personal experience of modern war. This is surprising, as we are conditioned to think of war as the province of men; we expect that the writing of women on war will be concerned with the war on the home front, not on the battle front. Vandenburg disposes of that quaint notion immediately. She has the rare ability to imagine and articulate the actions of her characters with a conviction that does not depend on a feminine point of view . She speaks with the masculine voice of the fighters at Fallujah, because the battle for Fallujah was overwhelmingly the actions of men.
Vandenburg is a good writer. Her language is appropriate and terse, the action sometimes shockingly immediate and forceful, the development of players neatly defined by their actions, and by a spare use of flashback that gives the characters a back story. But its most important attribute is this: the story MOVES; quickly, sometimes violently, and always with a pace that fits the story line.
This novel belongs in the select group of war novels that expand oneâs understanding of war in general, but most particularly, the American war in Iraq. Itâs a learning experience, but mostly itâs a damned good read.
If the mark of a good story is being able to lose yourself in another ...
If the mark of a good story is being able to lose yourself in another world, then Margaret Vandenburg's "Weapons of Mass Destruction" succeeds tremendously. I was shocked at how quickly I was transported into a world I know nothing about: the front lines of a twenty-first century war. The ease and expertise with which Vandenburg writes about the soldiers we follow is remarkable.