ARA Review by jmb783 of The Warramunga's War
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ARA Review by jmb783 of The Warramunga's War
The Warramunga's War is a superbly written and perfectly plotted tale of intrigue and spycraft, set in Egypt during World War II. Australian Sergeant Jamie Munro is seriously injured in battle and saved by Corporal "Jacko" O'Brien, another Australian of Aboriginal descent. During his period of convalescence, Jamie is assigned to be a spy in Cairo and requests Jacko as his teammate. Jacko's Aboriginal heritage allows him to pass for Egyptian, and together Jacko and Jamie begin working to undermine Nazi plots in Cairo...although they quickly encounter obstacles, up to and including murder.
Let me start by saying that I loved nearly everything about this book. The setting and the action reminded me of Fleming's James Bond novels (minus all of Fleming's problematic touches). I've read a lot of books about World War II, but I've never even heard of one set in Cairo. I've read a lot of spy novels, but none about Australian spies during the 1940s. From the very first chapter, the author had my attention, and I was fully on board.
I thought the pacing of the book was very tight, the plot developments were unexpected, and the characters themselves were likable. As an English teacher, I also appreciated the author's prose; he alternated smoothly between simple, compound, and complex sentences, varying the structure in a way that kept me flipping pages. I could hardly believe that this was author Greg Kater's first novel!
With all of that said, it was very easy for me to award this book five out of five stars. The unique setting, the nonstop action, the relentless intrigue, and the characters themselves conspired to make this book endlessly readable. I would have no hesitation recommending it to anyone I know.
I personally believe that a balanced review includes both positive and critical commentary, but I have to be completely honest: I've been wracking my brain for half an hour trying to find something, anything, that I could say negative about this book. The historical details, the geography, the military terminology - everything is exactly as it should be. I'm not the kind of person to rave over books, but I truly believe that if you have the slightest interest at all in World War II or in spy stories, you'll make a meal out of this entire series.
I would have rated this book four stars if I'd found any sort of historical inaccuracies in it. For instance, a character gives his height in feet and inches, so I googled "when did Australia adopt the metric system," and sure enough, they were still using the Imperial system during World War II (they didn't adopt metric until 1974, in case you were curious). If the dialogue had been stilted, or the plot had been contrived, or the characters had been one-dimensional, I would have had no problem knocking this novel down to four stars. But at every step of the way, my expectations were met and surpassed. I wholly recommend this novel to anyone who loves action stories, spy stories, historical fiction, or anything along those lines.
***
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