Paperbacks at War by Justin Marriott

Once again, the Justin Marriott team has produced an in-depth look at a specific sub-genre of men’s adventure fiction, this time with an edition devoted entirely to wartime book reviews. There is a wide-range of reviews here including classic war novels, poignant we-were-there books, testosterone-fueled paperbacks, pulp yarns, and even comics. This is another must-have companion volume for those readers who dig this stuff. 

There are over 170 reviews here by knowledgeable readers. Some are authors themselves but every single one is a fan. The vast majority of this volume is devoted to the reviews, however there are a couple of extra gems including an essay by Justin Marriott focusing on the “cynical and brutal school of paperbacks in the 1970s and 80s typified by Sven Hassel and Leo Kessler” as well as a nice B&W cover gallery. The reviews are not just about the stories themselves but often include interesting information about the authors, publishers and, in the case of comics, the pencilers, colorists, etc.

Fans will want to snatch this up but I think one of the major benefits of these kind of publications are the way they can entice those readers who are unfamiliar with the sub-genre or perhaps have been flirting with diving in but are not sure where to start. There are plenty of opinions offered within these pages by knowledgeable reviewers, and of course opinions may differ. But just to read through them provides a nice education in the subject matter.

Full disclosure: I have a few reviews included in this volume but a tiny percentage of the overall content.

Highly Recommended.