Folks, if you haven't heard about it I've got a new modern civil war novel out that is getting a lot of attention.  Right now the only official review of it comes from Michael Bane who called it "Freakin' brilliant" and has a review up at michaelbane.tv.  It's currently for sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle form.  
You won't find two people who can agree on how a modern civil war might start, but my novel takes place almost a decade into the conflict and I did my best to make it both technically accurate and realistic.
Here's the back cover blurb--
Nearly ten years into a horrific Civil War which has claimed the lives of millions, and that neither side seems to be winning, a squad of guerrillas crawls through the remains of a once-great city far behind enemy lines. Tired, embittered, always short on food, water, and, most of all, ammo, they continue to fight, convinced of their cause.
Then they're given a chance, a mission that could change the direction of the war. Could change everything.  But to accomplish their task, they’ll have to risk everything.
Nobody can agree on how or even when the war started.  But, hopefully, this is where it ends.

I don't post here very often at all, so if you don't recognize my name, here's the short version:  former cop and Detroit-area P.I., been writing articles for gun magazines including Guns & Ammo for 15 years, been doing TV shows on The Sportsman Channel since 2009, and along the way managed to make GrandMaster in USPSA.  This is my seventh book, and my second book, Carnivore, did well enough to get featured on The O'Reilly Factor (where I accidentally pissed off John Stossel in the green room--long story).

"Dogsoldiers invents a new genre while endorsing an older one: it's the familiar desperate-men, desperate mission story, dating as far back as The Iliad.  However, in Tarr's talented hands it becomes something brand new: a desperate mission at the end of civilization, with all the grit and savagery that implies."
---Stephen Hunter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the Bob Lee Swagger series.

Are we going to get the Stossel story? I'll read your book if we do.

Seriously, I put it in my Kindle Unlimited queue. It does sound interesting.
Do we need to read any of your other books before this one?

Dogsoldiers is a stand-alone, and exists in its own universe, so no, you don't have to read any of the other books first.

Just read Dogsoldiers and really enjoyed it. Excellent read.

I just finished Dogsoldiers. Excellent book.

Do you have plans for any follow ups?

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Put it in my queue.

Just got in this new blurb, from someone you guys might have heard of...

"Anyone who has been paying attention is well aware that our country has become more and more divided along ideological lines, especially in the last few years. Many fear a coming Civil War, but few agree as to what such a conflict would actually look like. Novelist James Tarr has tackled the subject in fictional form with his novel DOGSOLDIERS. This book was published in March 2020, which means that Tarr started writing it at least a year earlier, in my estimation. That fact was always in the back of my mind as I was reading the book.

Within every widespread conflict such as a war, there will be individual stories that are very different from each other because they happened in different locations with different circumstances. Tarr has chosen to set his story in the Detroit area, ten years into a general breakdown of American society. He makes little to no mention of what happened during the previous decade. Instead, he tells of a small group of men from the area that are called on by an anonymous leader to carry out a dangerous mission that they believe will help in the fight against tyranny and to restore freedom.

DOGSOLDIERS is initially depressing, which I think is inevitable with any story that starts with the premise that America has collapsed and we are now ten years post-apocalypse. The tale gradually becomes both compelling and uplifting, with the inspiring message that the human spirit has near-limitless ability to overcome even the most overwhelming of obstacles.

Reading it will make you reevaluate your own principles and priorities, and I recommend it without reservation. It most definitely does not suck."  --John Ross, author of Unintended Consequences

I’ll get the book James, but I think this would get more eyes in General Discussion.

I read it, good book

Have read Dogsoldiers and Bestiarii.

While a little bleak, Dogsoliders was a good read and eerily prescient.

Bestiarri was more of a fun read and really enjoyed the Seamus character.

I’m halfway through it right now and it’s definitely a good read.

Just started it and I’m enjoying it so far.

@jt677

I finished the book and I thought it was awesome. It seems like it was left open for a possible sequel?

Was there ever a sequel to Whorl?

will have to check these out too

edit: derp, sequel to Whorl is "Waiting for the Kick".

Dogsoldiers is great, thought provoking and holds your attention throughout. I'm hoping for more in this Genre. Not sequels, just Parallel stories.  timeframe, situation, conditions, different locations.

I expected the book to be pretty bad just based on the genre.

Happy to say I was completely wrong. I really enjoyed it and thought it was well done. Good story with enough gun guy detail to make it interesting without turning into ten pages describing what kind of socks a guy is wearing like a lot of books in this vein.

I hope there are more in this series. This one created a really interesting world and characters I want to know more about. Good guys and bad guys. Its a tough genre to do without going way over the top but Dogsoldiers pulled it off nicely. Not making the bad guys into cartoon villains really made a nice difference between this and many other action novels I have read.

Look forward to more.

There wouldn't be a shortage of ammo.  There's too many countries with a vest interested or willing to capture the prize of the USA.  Ammo and arms would be smuggled in, and because there are many other countries willing to sponsor smuggling, the civil war would be fractioned into m any factions.  Those factions would eventually merge into a handful or less.

Just like we witnessed in Syria.

I'm late getting here, but I read this a while back via Amazon's Prime Reading.  One of my first thoughts after a few pages is 'this guy's an Arfcommer'.

I was impressed.  Surprised there weren't more literal 'war tourists', but most of the people who could do that sort of thing would have already come and gone by the timeline of this event.

And the odd references here and there throughout, could be a pretty good series of books.  From when Canada tried to 'help', to what's happening in other place, like the front lines of the war.

it was also the first place I'd heard of the 8.6x51 and I really thought that was just made up for the book and had forgotten it, until the recent announcement about the new carbine and LMG.

His book Bestiarii was good too.

Dropped it in my queue. I look forward to reading it. I'll post a review on Amazon when done.

It’s a great read and very thought provoking. Well written and edited.  Even nailed it with the new Army rifle being the M5.

I’d love to see a follow on about some other area of the war.

Oh, and spends a lot of thought on thermals and their impact for those following the Garand Thumb thread.