Myers has introduced the realities of war with a book that could be considered a sequel or companion to his popular novel, Fallen Angels, which presented the story of one soldier's service during the Vietnam Conflict. Instead, this newer work brings readers to Operation Iraqi feeling along with Robin (aka Birdy), an African American who was influenced by his reaction to 9/11 to surpass college for now and join the Army.

As he arrives in Kuwait just prior to the American invasion, Birdy has been assigned to a Civil Affairs unit, which is assigned with trying to win over the hearts of the soon to be liberated Iraqis. While this means he and his companions are not on the front lines, they still find themselves in a number of very dangerous situations as they talk to be people after civilians are mistakenly killed, work with Iraqis to rebuild damaged infrastructure, and try to provide a positive image for Americans.

Birdy's role as narrator allows readers to experience the challenging mixture of excitement, patriotism, naivite, and horror as they become enmesshed in the difficult actions and sights they experience during battles and in between. In fact, Birdy is shocked by the fact that he probably has killed people, but the fact that his weapon shoots at such a distance protects him from the reality until he ends up shooting an enemy combatent at close range. In the process, his youthful innocences evolves in to a darkened adult hood that we hear so many of our soldiers now experiencing.

Myers has created a novel that highlights the issues of both going to war and what happened during the fighting while still staying a bit objective, allowing the reader to make his own opinions. He is able to do that because of Birdy's perspective as an 18-year-old young man who believes what he is doing, at least at the start.

The only flaw I really see in this novel is I found myself really wanting an Author's Note at the end of the work to explain why Myers made certain choices when including historical events and designing characters. It is also difficult to tell which characters are real historical figures versus characters created to push forward the story.

Even with that, this book is an extremely moving and interesting tale that will keep the readers engaged, particularly male readers. I know I have a lot of teen guy readers who eat up Vietnam novels, and I think this will fill a niche and bring the tale closer to something they know about.