Remembering Paramilitary Action-Adventure: A History

Those of us who get only reviewers rather than claqueurs cannot count on the rave review the way those better-positioned than ourselves can. This makes a good response to our work the more meaningful when we get it, and it was indeed very satisfying to see writer, editor and critic Martin Compart--the Pope of German crime fiction himself!--pen a very positive review of my book Paramilitary Action-Adventure: A History. Describing my book as "ein ambitioniertes und längst überfälliges Werk," "ein essenzielles Werk für jeden, der sich für diese spezifischen Aspekte von Popkultur, Genre-Fiktion oder die kulturelle Verarbeitung des Kalten Krieges interessiert . . . ein Standardwerk" (in English: "an ambitious and overdue work," "an essential work for anyone interested in these specific aspects of pop culture, genre fiction, or the cultural processing of the Cold War," the "standard work" in its field), it is exactly the kind of response for which the writer of any nonfiction book tackling a big subject hopes. You can check out the review for yourself here--as those who don't read German may rest assured that Google Translate offers a very readable English translation of the text.