Walter D. Rodgers – författare

Century''s Child is the saga of the Richards family, whose protagonist describes the interaction of his family, typical of tens of thousands like it, with the military and political history of this country, from 1900 to 1998, with a single flashback to November, 1864 (Sherman''s March to the Sea), and a flash-over to the Somme, July 1, 1916.

The setting is principally a Midwestern city, but over half the action takes place at multiple scattered Army posts, in South Vietnam, and in Arabia.

The first-person protagonist is determined to break out of the blue-collar world, to break the mold of generations of skilled labor, and feels driven to see just how far he can rise. He wants to do something to make the world better, and perhaps to make a difference in its history. And it is not in him to say "die."

Medical school is the logical first choice; in 1954 he begins pre-med, the first of the Richards clan to do so.

His weaknesses are almost overwhelming in the 1950s; no money (no student loans then), no family endorsement ("maybe we should keep to our place"), a disastrous failed engagement to the love of his life, minimal skills to cope with adversity, and probably most importantly, he is not as intelligent as he believes that he is.

The antagonist is the established order, which is fuelled by the sweat of the blue-collar class. The fewer of the establishment that there are, the more fuel is available to each of them. The Establishment is easy to identify; you can tell by the way that its members treat anyone who cannot retaliate. And its great strength lies principally in its incumbency.

The conflict is not in whether the protagonist will succeed in breaking away into upward mobility; that becomes obvious early in the narrative, but in demonstrating how, first with the help of intensive military training, and then with a year in Vietnam, which makes up half the book, he does it.

Army Green is a fictional study encompassing the lives of two friends from Kansas City, as they encounter the events and situations of the last half of the 20th Century. Their backgrounds are similar, yet differ enough to provide an intriguing level of contrast.

It is the sequel to Century''s Child.

The two men meet as teenagers in the Kansas National Guard of 1954. Their lives develop over the next 50 years, separately for the most part, but along parallel career and family lines.

The protagonist, Bill Anderson, begins his post-high school life intending (and wanting) nothing more than to have a "steady lifetime job" at Sears, Roebuck''s gigantic mail order plant in Kansas City, Missouri. Thirty-five years later he has developed a completely-unexpectedly steady lifetime job as one of the Army''s seniormost enlisted logisticians. He describes his life as a series of accidents which turned out well. The reader can''t avoid the conclusion that the narrator made those incidents bear fruit, and his protestations to the contrary, chance had only a small part in their outcome.

The turning point of his story is the crucial accident of his activation and posting to Vietnam in the wake of 1968''s Tet Offensive. After that, even with twelve years'' seniority, Sears doesn''t have a chance.

During his career, he continues to encounter his friend, now-Doctor Coe Richards, the protagonist of Century''s Child. Richards'' more-conventional civilan-and-reservist''s life provides an engaging ongoing counterplot from the first to the last stage.

Western Sunrise is a future history, including and ending with the successful conclusion of the next Gulf War, which begins in the summer of the year 2004.

The precipitating event of that war will not be described here; it would give away too much. The technology involved is similar to that which might be featured in one of many techno-thrillers.

The narrative begins with the end of the Vietnam Conflict, touches on the Panamanian invasion of 1988, describes a Mideast assignment, Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and peacetime service in the Army Medical Department.

The realism, twists, turns, counterplots and colorful characters (such as Old Franz, the headwaiter, late of the 11th SS Armored Division, and Miss MacTavish who may or may not be an agent of MI6) make this short volume a page-turner, impossible to put down.

It is told from the viewpoint of a career military surgeon, assigned out to pasture, or so he believes, after Desert Storm, until it''s time for him to retire. Except that his various mundane jobs'' requirements are highly classified and contradictory. When he tries to connect the dots, he''s quickly ordered not to proceed further.

Without a plausible explanation, he is kept on active duty long after his date of retirement in support of something mysterious, compartmented and unexplained until the last ten pages of the novel.

Buy it for a man who likes action-packed stories; if he likes W.E.B. Griffin, he''ll love Western Sunrise