# Military novels from the otherside **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [June 28, 2023, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228 "2023-06-28T13:21:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/1 "2023-06-28T13:21:07Z")
I like to read,among other things, military thrillers. You know, Tom Clancy, etc. They are all written where the US are the good guys fighting the evil Russian or Chinese bad guys. Are there any that are opposite? The good Russians fighting the evil American plan to take control of Russia? ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/2 "2023-06-28T13:27:08Z")
There’s _Sergent Lamb of the Ninth,_ released as _Sergent Lamb’s America_ in the United States, and it’s sequel _Proceed, Sergent Lamb_ by Robert Graves. Lamb is an Irishman enlisted in the British Army during the American Revolution and the book goes over his adventures there. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/3 "2023-06-28T13:29:22Z")
Try _Sniper_ by Nicolai Linin and _One Soldier’s War in Chechnya_ by Arkady Babchenko. ---
**Author:** ![Digger11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@Digger11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digger11)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/4 "2023-06-28T14:09:11Z")
I don’t know if this is exactly what the OP has in mind. But G. A. Henty wrote _True to the Old Flag_, a book about the American Revolution, wherein the hero is on the Loyalist side. > **[True to the Old Flag: A Tale of the American War of Independence by G. A. Henty](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8859)** > > Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by volunteers. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/5 "2023-06-28T14:50:20Z")
I’ll take a gander at some of those for sure, but modern day is more what I’m looking for. Like “Red Storm Rising” or “Hunt for Red October” type of stories. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/6 "2023-06-28T15:24:13Z")
I know there are plenty of Chinese films with westerners as the bad guys. Not sure about novels, though. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/7 "2023-06-28T15:39:27Z")
> [@Digger11](#): > > wherein the hero is on the Loyalist side. That would definitely be the good guys. 😉🇨🇦 ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/8 "2023-06-28T19:22:36Z")
I posted about it before here but there’s a popular Korean military fiction book written by a South Korean in the 00s where basically the plot is “North and South Korea want to peacefully unify, American clearly doesn’t want this because it would mean there would no longer be any need for US military bases in Korea so America invades South Korea claiming their government is illegitimate. While the entire US military is in Korea though a joint secret North/South Korean 100,000 soldier task force secretly assembles in Mexico and then invades the United States and takes over the ENTIRE American southwest.” I remember reading there is an entire subgenre all over the world of countries with “America takes us over” books and the plot is almost always “We resist the invasion but pay a heavy price but it was worth it in terms of national pride” ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/9 "2023-06-28T19:24:51Z")
I think it’s the present day part that’s going to be problematic. You’ve got a relatively limited set of adversaries for Western forces- Soviet Union, North Korea, Vietnam, China, Iraq, Taliban, and al Qaeda. I don’t know that any of those nations had much of a commercial fiction publishing industry, and even if they did, I don’t know that military novels are common. Here are some options though for Iraq and Vietnam. [The Best Vietnam War Stories by Vietnamese Authors (theculturetrip.com)](https://theculturetrip.com/asia/vietnam/articles/the-best-vietnam-war-stories-by-vietnamese-authors/) [The best books about what the Iraq War was like for Iraqis (shepherd.com)](https://shepherd.com/best-books/what-the-iraq-war-was-like-for-iraqis) ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/10 "2023-06-28T23:49:34Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I don’t know that any of those nations had much of a commercial fiction publishing industry, and even if they did, I don’t know that military novels are common. Well, it doesn’t have to be written by one of “them”, but told from their side as the “good guys”. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/11 "2023-06-29T11:10:50Z")
I’m sure I’ve read about Soviet and East European TV spy series, so presumably there were similar books. > **[Category:Russian spy television series](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Russian_spy_television_series)** > > Russian spy fiction television series. > The following 7 pages are in this category, out of 7 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. I’d guess that not a lot would be translated into English, on the assumption that publishers wouldn’t expect much of a market on ‘our side’. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/12 "2023-06-29T12:58:21Z")
I’ll be checking the library catalog, thanks ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/13 "2023-06-29T17:25:09Z")
Red Army by Ralph Peters. It’s a late Cold War era look at a conventional WWIII scenario told from the invading Soviet perspective. It’s pretty well done. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/14 "2023-06-29T18:39:49Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > Red Army by Ralph Peters Just what I think I’m looking for. Ordered from Amazon ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/15 "2023-07-02T12:41:21Z")
Well, I just finished Red Army and found it interesting. Though not written by a Russian, the author made a good effort to highlight the disgust with the non russian troop in the army. Pointing out their inability to even speak much of the language. Thanks for the recommendation. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/16 "2023-07-03T03:53:12Z")
The OP mentioned Tom Clancy. Have you read his second novel, _Red Storm Rising_? It’s about a Soviet invasion of western Europe. The book has a number of different viewpoint characters, many of whom are Soviets. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/17 "2023-07-03T12:41:57Z")
Oh yeah, great book. I even read the stuff he’s written since his death. 🤨 ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2023, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/18 "2023-07-04T16:28:31Z")
Not quite what you’re asking for, but… in _The Winds of War_ by Herman Wouk (about WWII) one recurring feature is “translated” sections of a (fictional) history of the war written by a (fictional) German general (and in fact many German generals did write such histories after the war; often, one cynically assumes, in attempts to ground themselves purely in the military side of things, not the holocaust side of things). I thought it gave everything a fascinating perspective. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2023, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/19 "2023-07-04T17:35:28Z")
Thanks, I may look for that at the library. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-novels-from-the-otherside/986228/20 "2023-07-04T17:51:02Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I remember reading there is an entire subgenre all over the world of countries with “America takes us over” books and the plot is almost always “We resist the invasion but pay a heavy price but it was worth it in terms of national pride” Hell, even Canada has a few of those. I read this one back in highschool: > **[Ultimatum by Richard Rohmer](https://www.amazon.ca/Ultimatum-Richard-Rohmer/dp/0770103642)** > > Ultimatum by Richard Rohmer