The Iron Monster Raid - Assorted Thoughts
*Note regarding page numbers: the story starts on page 11
Hitch concusses himself on the jeep on page 23*, so you know it's going to be a good book.
This author really, really wants to make sure that you know everybody's first and last name. And rank. And the last thing he wants to do is use the same configuration of a character's name twice in a row. Which leads to paragraphs like, "He passed the glasses to Pettigrew. Keeping in a low crouch, Tully worked his way up through the rocks..." (17).
...and sentences like, "I'd hate to meet up with Capt. Hans Dietrich again with no more firepower than that" (12).
...and also Troy addressing Moffitt as Jack for no apparent reason, which makes me vaguely uncomfortable.
...and Moffitt addressing Troy as Sam, which is even worse.
Don't worry if you didn't catch where Moffitt's from. He's referred to as "the Englishman" at least every other dialogue tag.
Same goes for Tully and Hitch, though it's slightly less frequent.
I don't know if we get any reminders about where Troy's from, but by golly, you'll know he spent time in Australia.
Troy re: Dietrich: "'That guys is the wiliest tank company comander Rommel ever trained'" (12).
"Although [Troy and Tully] had been together on at least fifty raids, [Troy] could never tell for sure when Tully was joking" (19).
"It was so black that Moffitt grabbed Troy's pistol belt to keep from getting separated" (25). This is such a funny image.
"Sam took the grenade Hitchcock handed him and started running forward himself" (31). I am having a visceral reaction to this name weirdness.
Dietrich gets to be the one testing this new giant monster tank. I was starting to wonder if he'd show up.
Troy gets half-buried in a small landslide (36), which seems to really do a number on his lower half (42).
So, naturally, a couple of pages later, Troy tries and fails to climb the side of an abandoned mud-brick farmhouse (46), "hit[ting] the ground hard. It was a sickening fall for his body was already bruised from the punishment he had taken when the wadi bank caved in on him."
And then Tully immediately tries to do the same thing, only to fall and crash into Troy when a German starts to shoot at them (47).
"'Okay,' the Englishman said. The American slang sounded strange spoken in his clipped British accent" (52) ???
Dietrich: "'And they are good soldiers. The very best.'" (ok, this tracks) "'So good, in fact, that I'll never rest until I see them buried!'" (...who is this guy?) (56)
Dietrich and this other German captain keep calling each other by their first names. I don't think this author knows a whole lot about the military.
A German soldier aims his gun at Hitch. Hitch tries to run...and slips in the mud and falls flat on his face (60). ...And then Tully immediately does the exact same thing (61).
Lucky, Troy is there to throw his knife at the guy, and Tully tackles him only to receive a gun butt straight to the head (61). Concussion count: 2
Troy's now calling Hitch "Mark," and I continue to be uncomfortable (63).
So d'you think these authors they hired to write these tie-in novels had any access to the episodes? Or at least the scripts? Like, how much extra effort is it really to run off extra copies of a bunch of the scripts for the guy? Or set him up in a projection room with the already-aired episodes? Or even just give him a basic cheat-sheet of who each character is and what they all call each other?
"The Kentuckian was the worrying type when nothing was happening, but once things started to move and he foresaw action, his spirits bubbled" (145).
The word Hauptmann isn't used once throughout the entire book. However, "Kapitan" is used four times (?, 153, 154)
"Moffitt noted that Dietrich did not return the 'Heil, Hitler!' of McCuster's. This did not surprise him. Most of the Wehrmacht officers in North Africa detested the Nazi madman. They felt he was destroying them by sending matériel to the Russian front that was urgently needed to stop the Allied push in North Africa." Fascinating.
Troy: "I sure miss our jeeps. I know now why the old-time cowboy loved his horse" (159)
Some friendly fire: "A steel slug came so close it drew blood from Sam Troy's ear. Another knocked part of the heel off Moffitt's shoe" (162).
Tully sees Troy about to get it from a trio of Germans. He's too far away to shoot them, so, "Instead, he cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed at the top of his voice" (167).
"A bullet struck the wheel axle near his head. It ricocheted off an an angle and cut across Tully's temple" (168). Concussion count: 3.
"Tully touched the cut on his temple. It hurt unmercifully. His head clanged like an off-beat bell, but he struggled to hide it. "'I've cut myself worse shaving,' he said (169). I love these internal thoughts that are the exact opposite of what comes out of their mouths.
"Dietrich scrambled up to come to his aid, but went down as Tully hit him from behind with a football tackle" (176). This is the second time that Tully has specifically "football tackled" someone.
We don't see what happens directly after this, but Dietrich winds up unconscious, so I'm counting it as concussion #4.
"'Hurry, Dummkopf!' Moffitt snarled in imitation of an impatient German officer." Ah, yes, my favorite trope: impersonating-a-German-officer-by-yelling-at-everybody-so-they're-too-nervous-to-question-who-you-are.
"The car hit the wall again with a numbing shock. For a moment Troy was dazed" (186). Might this be concussion #5? I'm leaning towards no, but I'm not entirely convinced.
"Troy darted forward and caught the driver of the first vehicle in line with a hard blow that knocked him unconscious" (207). It's not one of our boys, but that's certainly a concussion.
"'That is the good captain's major fault,' Troy said. 'He always thinks we will do only the sensible things. But we don't!' "'Sometimes it pays to be crazy!' Tully said with a grin" (209).
Final concussion count: 5--Tully: 2; Hitch: 1; Dietrich: 1; German soldier: 1
Final verdict: The story was fine, the characterizations were ok, the name thing was weird, and the whole thing was jam-packed with action. And 5 concussions is nothing to sneeze at. With a bit of cleaning up, it could have made a good two-parter. 3.5/5 stars.
