The Rods and the Axe
Book #6 in the popular Carrera military science fiction series. Tarawa. Iwo. Normandy. Names that shine in the military history of two worlds, places where brave men stormed ashore and fought their way to victory no matter the odds. But then there are other names: Marathon. Malta. Gallipoli.
Balboa’s Patricio Carrera has driven the Tauran Union from his adopted country, driven them out with appalling loss and worse humiliation. That’s not enough though. To finally finish his enemies, Carrera needs to draw them back for a more telling defeat. He cannot take the battle to them because, beyond some long range bombardment capability, he cannot reach them. But when they return, they don’t plan to come alone; they insist on having someone else do most of the bleeding for them.
Carrera understands this. And that’s why he’s provoked the Zhong Guo mercilessly, infuriating their ruling Empress. He needs the Zhong in the war, to buck up the Taurans to continue the war to its bitterest end and not unending stalemate.
But to get to Carrera, the Zhong must take the Isla Real, the strongest island fortress on two worlds. In the process, they’ll learn why Marines never forget those other names...
Gallipoli... Malta... Marathon.
Carrera’s enemies are about to learn why the expression "blood-stained water" is not just a literary allusion.
Tom Kratman
In 1974, at age seventeen, Tom Kratman became a political refugee and defector from the PRM (People’s Republic of Massachusetts) by virtue of joining the Regular Army. He stayed a Regular Army infantryman most of his adult life, returning to Massachusetts as an unofficial dissident while attending Boston College after his first hitch. Back in the Army, he managed to do just about everything there was to do at one time or another. After the Gulf War, with the bottom dropping completely out of the anti-communist market, Tom decided to become a lawyer. Every now and again, when the frustrations of legal life and having to deal with other lawyers got to be too much, Tom would rejoin the Army (or a somewhat similar group, say) for fun and frolic in other climes. His family, muttering darkly, put up with this for years. He no longer practices law, instead writing full-time for Baen. His novels for Baen include A State of Disobedience, Caliphate, and the series consisting of A Desert Called Peace, Carnifex, The Lotus Eaters, The Amazon Legion, Come and Take Them, The Rods and the Axe, and A Pillar of Fire by Night. He has written novels with John Ringo: Watch on the Rhine, Yellow Eyes, and The Tuloriad. Also for Baen, he has written the first three volumes of the modern-day military fiction series Countdown.
A Desert Called Peace
Also known as Carrera.
A Desert Called Peace consists of eight primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads — series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
