LitPick Review
Redeye Fulda Cold is the story of Rick Fontain, a young man out of high school and working for Bell Systems, who is drafted into the US Army. Because of his results on aptitude testing, Fontain is encouraged to begin officer training, but he is wary of devoting the years to this career. He instead begins to work on a missile defense system called the Redeye.
This historical work gives the reader great insight into the Cold War of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Rick Fontain journeys through his military engagements with honesty, humor and bonding friendships. The attention that is given to Rick Fontain by the military leaves the ending open to a sequel.
Opinion:
The format of this ficitonal book is separated by headings that contain a place, date and time. The details of this book are heavy in military terminology and history. Frequent footnotes explain many of the terms that I would not have known otherwise. As useful as the footnotes were, they distracted me from the main text. Also, it felt like the beginning of the book was broken up and did not have great flow or transitions. It did eventually smooth out and become more fluid, yet not quickly enough for me.
This book did not engage me as a reader. The book felt more like a nonfiction narrarative, than a work of fiction. Although this book describes the military path well, and with great accuracy, it was difficult for me to connect with the main character of the story. However this might be an interesting read for someone who had been in the military or someone interested in going into it.
