D. B. Grady
Autor(a) de Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry
About the Author
Image credit: David W. Brown in Times Square, 2014
Obras por D. B. Grady
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Nome canónico
- Grady, D. B.
- Nome legal
- Brown, David Wayne
- Outros nomes
- Grady, D.B.
Grady, D B
Grady, DB
Brown, David W. - Data de nascimento
- 1979
- Sexo
- male
- Nacionalidade
- USA
- Locais de residência
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
- Educação
- Louisiana State University (BS ∙ Computer Science)
University of Arkansas at Monticello (MFA|Creative Writing) - Ocupações
- freelance writer
- Organizações
- Authors Guild
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
Fatal error: Call to undefined function isLitsy() in /var/www/html/inc_magicDB.php on line 425- D.B. Grady is the pseudonym of author David W. Brown. He is the coauthor of Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry (Wiley, 2013) and The Command: Deep Inside the President's Secret Army (Wiley, 2012). He is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a regular contributor to The Week and Mental Floss. Other publications include short stories and essays.
David holds a master of fine arts in creative writing from the University of Arkansas at Monticello and a bachelor of science from Louisiana State University. He is a former U.S. Army paratrooper and a veteran of Afghanistan. He is a member of the Authors Guild and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
David lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his wife and family.
Membros
Críticas
I was impressed by much of the research, but did not enjoy some of the sensationalist-type claims which belong better to a newspaper "rag". Even bringing up Area 51 seemed to be a maneuver to attract the loony-tunes crowd to buy the book.
I'm certainly not dismissing the book and all its wonderful stories, it's just that I don't like the government's attempts at secrecy to be scorned when the safety of millions is at stake. If the Chinese are stealing our Defense secrets, we obviously face a crisis of secrecy in our country and need to move fast to protect our nation's military and business confidential research.… (mais)
I'm certainly not dismissing the book and all its wonderful stories, it's just that I don't like the government's attempts at secrecy to be scorned when the safety of millions is at stake. If the Chinese are stealing our Defense secrets, we obviously face a crisis of secrecy in our country and need to move fast to protect our nation's military and business confidential research.… (mais)
I was impressed by much of the research, but did not enjoy some of the sensationalist-type claims which belong better to a newspaper "rag". Even bringing up Area 51 seemed to be a maneuver to attract the loony-tunes crowd to buy the book.
I'm certainly not dismissing the book and all its wonderful stories, it's just that I don't like the government's attempts at secrecy to be scorned when the safety of millions is at stake. If the Chinese are stealing our Defense secrets, we obviously face a crisis of secrecy in our country and need to move fast to protect our nation's military and business confidential research.… (mais)
I'm certainly not dismissing the book and all its wonderful stories, it's just that I don't like the government's attempts at secrecy to be scorned when the safety of millions is at stake. If the Chinese are stealing our Defense secrets, we obviously face a crisis of secrecy in our country and need to move fast to protect our nation's military and business confidential research.… (mais)
There are certain things a person can expect from a book titled "Red Planet Noir", and a Pulitzer ain't one of them. But if your ears prick up on hearing the name, then you won't be disappointed. Grady has written an entertaining diversion that lives up to its retro cover delightfully.
Michael Sheppard is a down-on-his-luck, PI, living a hardscrabble (and hard-drinking) existence on Earth after he fingers the wrong guy on a big case. A call from the colony of Mars could turn his fortunes around, however. Turns out the ruling autocrat is dead, and it wasn't suicide. Will this turn out to be a one way trip?
Honestly, I found there was little to criticise in Red Plant Noir. Grady keeps his narrative hurdling along nicely, aided by some competent prose that doesn't draw too much attention to itself, and resists marinating overlong in noir cliches (an occupational hazard with writers of these mash-ups, I've found). The "twist" isn't exactly earth-shattering but it didn't insult my intelligence and the story's other charms made up for it.
The characterisation is... adequate, even if not dripping in originality (it is a noir novel, after all). Sheppard and his fan club of thugs, mafia, femme fatales - and of course the fuzz - do play to broad types, but it feels more like a comfortable old pair of shoes than a boot you've pulled from the dam.
In some respects, the world-building is actually the strongest part of the book. Grady's vision of Mars isn't that new, but there's small flourishes here and there, little glints of originality, that lend the book's world a more interesting cast. Even the parts that aren't unique, though, do feel like homage to a generation of sixties and seventies Martian sci-fi, and I really liked that aspect.
Indeed, overall, the book has a very retro vibe to it, something akin to the pulp atmospherics of Total Recall (the *good* version, which was in itself homage). It's not a big or slow read, by any stretch, and it doesn't mistake itself for literature. A fun romp.… (mais)
Michael Sheppard is a down-on-his-luck, PI, living a hardscrabble (and hard-drinking) existence on Earth after he fingers the wrong guy on a big case. A call from the colony of Mars could turn his fortunes around, however. Turns out the ruling autocrat is dead, and it wasn't suicide. Will this turn out to be a one way trip?
Honestly, I found there was little to criticise in Red Plant Noir. Grady keeps his narrative hurdling along nicely, aided by some competent prose that doesn't draw too much attention to itself, and resists marinating overlong in noir cliches (an occupational hazard with writers of these mash-ups, I've found). The "twist" isn't exactly earth-shattering but it didn't insult my intelligence and the story's other charms made up for it.
The characterisation is... adequate, even if not dripping in originality (it is a noir novel, after all). Sheppard and his fan club of thugs, mafia, femme fatales - and of course the fuzz - do play to broad types, but it feels more like a comfortable old pair of shoes than a boot you've pulled from the dam.
In some respects, the world-building is actually the strongest part of the book. Grady's vision of Mars isn't that new, but there's small flourishes here and there, little glints of originality, that lend the book's world a more interesting cast. Even the parts that aren't unique, though, do feel like homage to a generation of sixties and seventies Martian sci-fi, and I really liked that aspect.
Indeed, overall, the book has a very retro vibe to it, something akin to the pulp atmospherics of Total Recall (the *good* version, which was in itself homage). It's not a big or slow read, by any stretch, and it doesn't mistake itself for literature. A fun romp.… (mais)
Prémios
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 3
- Membros
- 108
- Popularidade
- #179,297
- Avaliação
- 4.0
- Críticas
- 12
- ISBN
- 7
- Marcado como favorito
- 2
It is always interesting how basic tenets of combat get re-invented and then lost, and so on in cycles. This is what happened with JSOC - in a move very much like one taken by Israel, steps were made to make a nimble and deadly corps capable of striking wherever it is necessary. I mention Israel here because this country is in almost constant war footing with its neighbors from the very beginning and to be able to cope with it, Israel had to create force able to match the more numerous enemies. And this happened by combining all the intelligence and combat resources at the disposal of relatively small security force.
It takes a very capable commanders (generals Flynn and McChrystal) to break the inter-agency barriers and pursue the goal of creating small and versatile strike force. When they finally enabled the forces to share information and participate in combined operations JSOC started to grow and its special operations capabilities grew almost exponentially. They pretty soon became force multiplier and enabled the rest of deployed forces to fight more efficiently.
Author shows how rivalry remained but (hah, could not guess) on management level while on operational level things continued to flourish.
Final few chapters tackle the question of where is JSOC aiming for in the future. Heavy utilization in CT operations seem to be a sole focuse of the entire command. But in light of events after the book was published it is visible that JSOC certainly has place in the modern world. But with such a capable force extra level of care is required to avoid issues that happened in the past (1980's events described in excellent book "Secret Warriors", especially Iran Contra affair that blemished US SOCOM for decades).
I have to admit that I am slightly surprised by some of the comments where people are shocked by covert JSOC operations outside of Middle East (namely China). It is like being surprised by India's role in Sri Lanka conflict with Tamil's, or constant Pakistan's paramilitary operations in Punjab, or both Pakistan's and India's secret war with China, China's covert wars especially against ROC, or North/South Korea infiltrations, European stand behind armies, or [not so] secret war against narco cartels in Central and South America....... and so on and so on. I like it when people decide to think that nations love each other. There are only and there will be only alliances and these are always temporary (remember the CIA industrial espionage affair in France at the start of 90's). And forces used to combat these silent wars are forces exactly like JSOC.
Excellent book, highly recommended to everyone interested in military and special operations in particular.… (mais)