Carnifex (Desert Called Peace Series #2) Book

The second book in the series we continue the process of Carrera taking his revenge on the Salafi terrorists that killed his wife and children. After success in Sumer (Iraq) the Legion del Cid returns home. The Progressives have won their election and as a result have fired the LdC. But...the war still rages in Pashtia (Afghanistan) and eventually the Federated States of Columbia (USA) will have to turn once more to the LdC.

So Carrera extorts a huge sum from the FSC and the Legion deploys to Pashtia. They are able to win, mostly because, as in Sumer, they do not restrain their Area of Operations (AoO), nor their Rules of Engagement (RoE). Meanwhile back home the first ships of the Clasis (Latin for fleet) are deployed on anti-piracy operations in the Mare Furiousa (Pacific) around Uhura (Africa) and in the Nicobar straits (Borneo?).

At the same time back in Balboa (Panama), Parilla, Carerra's partner with the LdC, has decided to run for President in the upcoming election. This is a threat to the status quo and the primacy of the Tauran Union (EU) and current gov't so they, of course, work to prevent it.

Will Carrera find Mustafa the architect behind his family's murder? Will the Salafi terror network defeat an aging WWII escort carrier? Will Parilla win the election? What will the High Admiral of the United Earth Peacekeeping Fleet (UEPF) do to stop Carrera? To find out you need to read the book, of course.

Col Kratman has again penned his "near-Earth" view of current geopolitics and allows us to view the world as it might be instead. As the story grows the depth grows as well and the history is explained. We start to see, even more so, the cracks in the UEPF and its rigid caste system, but we also start to see that Carrera can, and perhaps has, gone too far. It has been almost a decade since the attacks, and how he can manage to maintain such hatred is part of the character study. It is indicative of the nature of the conflict that hatred changes us into something that might very well be as bad as what we fight. Has Carrera stepped over that line? Perhaps...or perhaps not. I am reminded, in part, of the line that Jack Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men" tells Tom Cruise's character..."we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns...you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall." Carrera is the man on that wall and he protects those that need protecting from a planet that is desperately trying to kill itself. Is that us? To an extent...I wish it wasn't, but it is. That is partly what makes this book so compelling to read.