Nam Flashback (Quikfire Books) Victor Hughes This is not the first time Hughes has written about Vietnam. In fact, this is the ninth such book he has produced this year. Nam Flashback therefore follows on from where last month’s Jungle Carnage left off, and continues the saga that began with Routine Patrols along the Cambodian Border. Not since the triple release of Napalm Vengeance, Nam-Busters and Chopper Accident back in 1997 has Hughes been so prolific. Not since the best-selling I Don’t Need No Camouflage has his writing been so packed with action, excitement and automatic rifles. In Nam Flashback we find our hero, Max, in a hospital suffering from horrible visions in which he imagines he is involved in the Vietnam War. The doctors assure him that he has never even been to the Nam, let alone fought in a war. They also tell him that he is a milkman from Dorset. Max is suspicious but the doctors manage to convince him. After all, the year is 2006 and Max is only 32. He couldn’t possibly have fought in the Nam. Gradually the flashbacks subside and Max acquires something of a liking for Backgammon, which he plays regularly with the other patients. However, just as Max is about to have his ears syringed with a deadly serum, he is rescued by Colonel Samantha, who he hasn’t seen since the second chapter of Death by Bullet. Samantha explains that it isn’t really 2006, it’s actually 1969 and the Vietnam War is still going on. Then Max remembers how he’d been captured by Viet Cong scientists whilst on a perilous solo-mission in enemy territory. The scientists, it turns out, were doing experiments on him to learn the secrets of his immense strength, amazing combat skills and general manliness. It also turns out that Samantha is really Max’s long-lost sister (although attentive readers will have suspected as much from Max’s premonition in the famous psychedelic scene in Cong-Bong). Following their escape the siblings proceed to reminisce about their childhood round a campfire until Samantha is poisoned by a robotic snake controlled by one of the scientists. To get revenge Max teams up with his old buddy Mad Johnson and returns to the ammo depot featured in “Decisions, Decisions”. Once he has chosen his weapons he returns to the hospital and shoots everybody therein. Unfortunately, however, Johnson is killed in the fight and thus Max sets off on another mission to avenge his friend. The book then finishes on a cliffhanger almost as gripping as the ending of Only One Grenade Left. At least Hughes’ fans won’t have to wait very long to find out what happens next. The story is continued in Atomic Atonement, released next Monday. Amongst other things Nam Flashback demonstrates Hughes growing confidence as a novelist. When he wrote My Gun Has a Higher Rate of Fire than Yours, fans criticised him for exploring his characters in too much depth, but Hughes has persisted. That book, it seems, merely hinted at what Nam Flashback has achieved. Hughes has now shown he can combine his traditional themes with a new-found knack for characterisation. As always, however, Hughes’ forte is his effortless realism. According to the biog on back of the book his attention to detail is no literary artifice – although he's only in his early thirties, Hughes himself fought in the Nam.