Green on Green

The "Green on Green Trilogy" of novels is a complex saga of the Viet Nam War era. Part 1 is titled "Departure", Part 2 "Green on Green" and Part 3 "Loose Shadows". It centers around the Odyssey of an anti-war infantryman, Michael Landers, to survive the war and return to his own life. Other soldiers’ stories wrap ever tighter into the mix. A tribal tale of the Montagnard people, with mystical overtones, melds into the overall tale. As "Green on Green Part 2" begins, Private Michael Landers is handcuffed to the seat of a plane over to Viet Nam, between the eternal soldier, Sergeant Haude, and an eerily distant officer, Lieutenant MacNamour, heading back into country for some untold reason. A boy, Te, and an old man with wizardly powers, Xem, have bonded in secret, in a cave in the jungle outside the tribe’s village. Selected to be the next shaman Te is being trained by the wise woman Amba. Both their lives are in danger from the jealousy of the chief’s wife. As Landers moves through the stages from landing in country to getting to “the field”, where the infantry roam, odd signs and dreams entangle him into something far deeper than being just a general-issue soldier. Having moved into the routine of life in the field – as well as firefights in the Ia Drang Valley, the Battle of Dak To and the Tet Offensive – these arcane connections deepen, particularly, as Xem has joined their unit as a native scout. Eventually, the GI and Montagnard stories merge into a mythological mission to halt a war between the Montagnard gods. As the mystery unfolds, it seems that two kept-secret love stories have been driving all pertinent plot twists.