• Buy the Book
• US
• UK

Global war is raging throughout most of my new novel, DEFENDERS (US | UK | AUS). In fact by the end of Defenders, humanity has fought more than one global war, because at its heart the book is about war veterans, and what becomes of them once they come home and the parades are over. Once I’d outlined Defenders and very broadly mapped out the wars that are the backdrop for the unfolding drama, it occurred to me that I knew absolutely nothing about war. I knew a bit about military history, but little or nothing about strategy, tactics, weapons. I had, for example, no idea what an invading army did. Once they dropped into enemy territory, where would they go? How did you win a war?

This was a problem. It was also surprising, because my father is a retired Brigadier General. Over the years we’d spent countless hours talking about investing and baseball, politics and comic collecting, but never military strategy. That changed as I began writing Defenders.

I was on the phone with my father nearly every day, describing what was happening in my world, and asking what a military leader would be thinking and doing in those various situations. I didn’t make things easy on him. No military commander in history has ever had to deal with an enemy who can read minds, who knows exactly what you’re planning at every moment. And no commander has had millions of somewhat deranged, genetically engineered super-warriors as allies. Dad played along, though, sometimes sending elaborate battle plans.  In fact, let me cut and paste a small sample to give you an idea. This is part of his battle plan for the defenders (the deranged super-warriors), whose mission is to seize a nuclear power plant.

Two separate LZs (landing Zones) will be utilized.  The first LZ will be approximately 5 miles NNE of the objective, the second, 5 miles SSE. Both LZs are between Highways 60 and 5. One additional squad from each drop zone is designated as a security squad and will move as follows: From drop Zone one, directly North; from drop zone two, directly South. Northern moving squad cuts off and secures Highway 60 and establishes a perimeter defense. Southern moving squad secures highway 5 and establishes perimeter defense. Full security squad will deny Luyten movement from West to East.

By the time I finished writing Defenders, I knew a lot more about military strategy. I’d learned, for instance, that winning a war was about controlling resources. Power. Water. Food. I understood that one of an army’s most pressing concerns was supply routes–both theirs and the enemy’s–because if food and ammunition can’t reach you, you’re done. I also learned about protecting your center of gravity–the place where your leadership is located. If the enemy takes out your center of gravity, you’re in trouble. Also, an army never invades an area right away if they have an air force. First they bomb it for a few hours to a few days in order to weaken resistance.

If you decide to read Defenders (and I sure hope you will), you’ll find the book opens with a prologue. In it, an army platoon is on a mission to salvage tons of World War II era weapons (pistols, rifles, flame-throwers, machine guns, hand grenades) that the U.S. Army sealed in an abandoned coalmine in Pennsylvania decades earlier. The weapons were coated in cosmoline, a greasy substance that keeps the weapons fresh and rust-free. This is all true. There are weapons caches like this in abandoned mines the U.S. Government purchased for just this purpose. The weapons are down there just in case. I’m guessing psychic alien invaders were not one of the “just in case” scenarios considered when those weapons were sealed away, but they sure came in handy in writing Defenders. I’m glad my father told me they were down there.

…

 DEFENDERS (US | UK | AUS) is available now! Look for it online and in bookstores everywhere. Here is an excerpt from the novel.