look inside, young soldier. look inside your fellow soldier, see the nothing there, see the nothing that has been put there as a reason why, see the nothing that has become a something, a reason for being a reason for acting a reason for dying. look inside your own self, young soldier. see the slowly building anger, see the red. you can shape that anger, turn it into a weapon, make it a place you can live, make it a reason for moving forward. it is the heart of you. Soldier of America! shine bright, and bring the radiant dawn of corporate-military interests to these little third world countries! neither you nor your masters really understand why you are there in the first place - but who cares? you are all serving greater interests! be the pawn in a long-game whose rules are long-forgotten! out of the darkness, into more darkness; out of the jungle, into another. make a home there! America is just a memory now, a place you once were; you are much more at home in this personal heart of darkness, this jungle of the mind, this bubbling sludgy swamp of the soul. you make new friends in this new place. your friends will guide you - and you will guide them! there is so much to teach and so much to learn. grow up and become a living weapon, little soldier. do your parents proud! destroy! burn the people, burn the land. take everything from them. who is "them" anyway? it gets so confusing in the thick of battle. everyone looks the same yet also different. and what is a "battle" anyway, when both sides share the same goal? the answer to that question: destroy both sides! The narrative unwinds like a glistening, multi-colored snake, its coils taking the reader here and there, a sinuous adventure that moves from set-piece to set-piece, each part so differently hued from the prior part, all parts leading to one place: the head of the snake.The prose astounds. Lucius Shepard was a genius. The images are so rich and so beautifully rendered, a wonderful horrible nightmare, so many images.An attack of butterflies, swarming, covering every inch of them.A downed helicopter, stuck in the trees. A computer voice that lives on, imagining itself to be God.Shirtless pilots sunning themselves, black helmets never removed, helmets that allow them to see things far and near, into a person and into the future.An Ant Hill full of little soldiers. An attack in the mist.An entertainment for the masses: soldier versus panther. Alas, poor panther! It has no chance.Gangs of children, victims and victimizers, playing by their own rules, creating their own rituals.A barrio full of almost-zombies to be used as their masters see fit, living puppets hacking at each other when the need arises and slumping into pools of refuse and excrement while on standby.A slaughter in a church. A much-needed slaughter. A holy slaughter!Psychic powers: psychic puppet masters making the whole world their battleground, psychic soldiers and psychic revolutionaries... our psychic heroes, David and Debora: you have a trait: Anger. she has a trait: Commitment. together you will inspire each other, feed off of each other, make each other stronger with each bout of lovemaking. your Anger and her Commitment will recharge and refuel - those traits are at the heart of both of you. recognize these traits, their power, and so be made whole. they will move you forward and they will give you love, passion, a way to connect with each other and a way to understand your own selves. and they will provide you with a mission: destroy the puppet masters, one by one. kill 'em all! out of the jungle, into your own jungle. this Green Hell is but one room in this labyrinthine mansion; go through one door and another one will open. it is your memory palace; it is the whole wide world. follow this green path right back to your home. there you will kill and there you will forget. maybe?
Originally published on my blog here in July 2001.The central character of Shepard's second novel, David Minghella, is an American soldier in a pointless jungle war, this one in Guatemala rather than Vietnam. The mind powers of the Psicorps play an important part in the fighting, but Minghella won't volunteer when he passes their tests. A meeting with a beautiful psychic woman changes his mind, and after his training he discovers that the war isn't what it seems; it is actually part of a centuries old feud between two families of psychics.The novel is about American imperialism, about the sort of war that might have come out of the Contra rebellion in Nicaragua. Seen from Minghella's viewpoint, what Life During Wartime has to say is definitely from the American side, if one which is not jingoistic, and is more about his suffering and that of his comrades than the former inhabitants of the deserted villages. The psychological effect that the Vietnam War had on many of its American veterans is obviously the inspiration behind the chilling descriptions of the zombie-like armies of those who have had their minds destroyed by too much psychic manipulation.By using the genre to say something about the effects of war and the nature of American imperialism which could not be said in a traditional narrative, Shepard has created one of the more interesting and thoughtful science fiction novels of the eighties. He didn't go on to become the major nineties author - at least, not that I noticed - that many fans expected at the time; a pity.
Do You like book Life During Wartime (2006)?
I originally rated this 4 stars, but on reflection, I raised it to 5.I feel like I should say something about this book because it was a such a very compelling read. It was one of those books that was almost surreal because while I was reading it I did not really know exactly where it was going, but that was actually OK. It isn't really a war story, psychic or otherwise. It is more of a story of self discovery and love. The protagonist is incredibly flawed, but that makes him all the more human and believable. Instead of becoming increasingly filled with self-loathing as his power over others increases, he instead learns from his (many) errors in judgment and personal failings and becomes stronger and more filled with hope by the end of the book. I also have to comment on the the writing, which was of absolute unparalleled quality. There were passages in this book which were almost lyrical in nature. Shepard is a master at communicating experience, whether it be sensual or divine, violent or loving, ugly or transcendent. This is a richly told, if often violent and harsh tale, filled with characters that live and die like no others.
—Justine
This is modern SF in all senses of the phrase: technology is not progress, decay, violence and sex abound, the use of drugs by characters can be felt even in the style (a strange craft in the jungle compared to an evil Easter egg forgotten there by a giant child...), the pace of the story is fast at its steadiest. It is also modern SF at its best: absolutely none of this is gratuitous, which I feel is very rare. For people who like this genre, it is going to be a great experience. For the rest, it might not be the easiest way to get used to SF, but it is worth familiarising yourself with the genre if only to read novels like this one.
—Cécile C.
While Lucius Shepard’s 1987 chronicle of near-future Central-American jungle warfare wears openly a uniform of post-Vietnam-era disappointment and is decorated with the emblems of Cold War paranoia, it hasn’t aged badly. Shepard’s prose is hallucinogenically vivid, his plotting Borgesian, his ideas, larger than life. Protagonist David Mingolla’s odyssey, from hesitant trooper to lethal psy-ops assassin, is darkly picaresque, if at times episodic. From time to time, Shepard’s asides (always-helmeted helicopter pilots, the Lost Patrol, a downed chopper that claims to be god) threaten to steal the show, and it is to his credit that he manages to reign in the story. Audacious, and occasionally even indulgent, LIFE DURING WARTIME is an SF war story ranking with the best of Haldeman, Hasford, or O’Brien.
—Ross Lockhart
