Himmler’s War

A Novel by Robert A. Goerman
Published by Publish America-2002

 

We are at WAR! No, you didn’t miss a headline in your morning paper or a broadcast on CNN. The battle we are in is not over national boundaries drawn on a piece of paper, or a difference in philosophical or religious views, this one is with aliens from another world.

Derek Himmler is the best he is at what he does, a Master of UFOlogy (which by the way, I don’t know if it is a real title or not, but I do think it is very cool sounding). At a young age, Himmler is considered the authority on any and every thing having to do with the phenomena of flying saucers, renowned by media and citizens alike for his expertise. It is during a radio interview that he is given some terrible news; his brother and his brother’s wife have been killed in an auto accident, plummeting into a ravine. The police tell him that it is either a double suicide or a case of drunken driving. However, Derek knows better, and goes to the scene where police are still combing the wreckage. Working his way down the path of the accident, he comes across a cassette that had been thrown clear of the debris, a recording made by the doomed passengers as they spotted an huge extraterrestrial craft hovering above the ground. Excitement turns to fear as they realize that they are about to be fired upon, the tape ending with the sound of an explosion, and the silence of death.

Derek, ravaged with grief decides to go after the ones that caused the murders; armed with electronics, and high-powered weapons, Himmler goes to extract his revenge. He finds the ship, and once it lands and the crew exits the craft, he fires upon the occupants, killing all but one that then reenters the craft and returns fire. Jumping into his Bricklin (that’s a car for those of you that are too young to remember-kind of like a DeLorien-as in Back to the Future) he tries to flee, but is followed in hot pursuit by the craft, taking erratic shots at him as he drives. The barrage hits another vehicle, and as Derek stops to help the innocent victims out, the ship takes flight. He manages to rescues a young woman, Pamela Stryker, and after a series of rough starts, she joins him in his war. What starts off as a private battle of revenge soon escalates into a melee once the Federal government gets involved, taking the battle to a entirely new level that leaves you turning pages almost faster than you can read them.

Robert A. Goerman has written a story that he should be proud of, never once dropping off from the level of enjoyment that novels of these types can become in the right hands. I found myself wanting to equate it with a Tom Clancy novel, in that he makes you aware of the technology, explaining the ability of each, but never once does he slip into ‘techobabble’. There are no superhuman feats that the hero in the story needs a cape on to do, nor is there a McGyver aspect where he makes an atomic bomb out of a matchbook and a comb. This story is firmly set in the ‘real world’ and that only adds to the whole this may happen feeling of the book.

I know I have said in other reviews that whatever I was reading should be a movie, and without turning the phrase into a cliché, this one should definitely be added to that list. I guess I have been lucky in what I have read as of late, and let me thank the authors of past reviews, as well as this one, for that. And as long as I keep getting books that are the quality of Himmler’s War, then the steak will continue.