Reviews – The Honored Dead

David Pitt
Booklist
“So vividly written that it’s easy to forget Wake is a made-up character.  . . . Fans of the Honor Series will enjoy the shift in narrative point of view. Wake has a strong voice, and it is fascinating to see his world and his time through his own eyes. Highly recommended for fans of naval fiction, especially Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, C. S. Forester’s Hornblower novels, or anything by Bernard Cornwell.”

Rear Admiral Tony Cothron, USN (Ret)
62nd Director of Naval Intelligence
“You’ll never look at the Vietnam War the same after reading The Honored Dead.  A ‘must read’ book for anyone who appreciates history, intelligence, and great story-telling, by a master of the art of historical fiction. An action-packed thriller!”

Ted Zebert
Book Reviewer for “Fast Forward” Boston Globe, compiled by Teresa M. Hanafin
“The hero is Navy officer Lt. Commander Peter Wake, and the series covers his Navy life from the mid 1800s until the early 1900s, I presume, as this is book 7 of 15 or so and I believe he {Macomber} just released a new one. While my preference is the time period of sailing ships, this is in the beginning of the mechanized era of steam sailing.
    THE HONORED DEAD takes place in Southeast Asia or Indochina in the early 1880s during the influence of and, in some cases, occupation of several countries, including Vietnam, by the French. Both Commander Wake and his aide-de-camp, Sean Rork, a rascal Irish rogue, have progressed higher than normal in rank and situation than their respective genealogical history would have promised. The series in general may not have as many battle situations as some other war novels, depending more on the situation, their characters, and interplay between the various characters.
     So Commander Wake has been sent on an assignment to Indochina to present a message to the king of Cambodia from the president of the United States. Well, there is more going on than what Peter Wake was lead to believe, and somewhat more than what even the president of the United States knows. This leads Commander Wake and Bosun Rork into many misadventures in Cambodia, the South China Sea, the Makong River, and Vietnam.
     Most of the time, Commander Wake, the president’s man as he has become, and Rork are trying to keep the Chinese, the Vietnamese, and the French from a needless war and from killing one another. Though he is not Catholic, he has befriended them in the earlier books and what goes around has come around. This is definitely a series to read in sequence.
     I totally like the series in general, but this book hit home for me as I am a Vietnam Army veteran and a Gold Star Brother. If I had the proverbial one wish, besides having my brother back, I wish that the American government of the late 1950s had studied their history better and just maybe we wouldn’t have killed more than 58,000 American men and women in the prime of their life, as well as those of our allies and Vietnamese civilians. It’s a good story, but also an enlightening one, at least for me.”

Robert N. Macomber’s
 Intro to The Honored Dead