Of all the books I’ve read about the Vietnam War, only two have been novels: this one and Red Flags by Juris Jurvevics. Fields of Fire is definitely a Naked and the Dead/Thin Red Line foxhole kind of story. The home front and love interest stories seem like necessary dramatic distractions. But James Webb is dead-on with his battlefield reports. ( )

if you are looking for a lot of "action" it is there in bursts but mostly it is a probably realistic but horribly depressing view of the Vietnam War in the 1960's.

You follow a bunch of guys as they live laugh and die fighting in Vietnam. You are huddling in a fire pit as bullets and mortars whizz by your head, you return fire at night at shadows by the treeline. You develop camaraderie that is unbreakable or hate for officers bent on risking your life for their gain... and you plot your revenge. You see buddies one minute then a broken men the next, random and senseless.

You follow their lives as a collective unit as well as individually which can be a problem for the reader as there is little continuity to the story.

It was a decent portrayal of the Vietnam war but as I went further and further into the novel I felt dragged down by the futility of it all. Not a fun read but I guess one that should be read. ( )

Quite a realistic and moving account of what it was like for Marines serving in Vietnam in the 1960s. ( )

Robert Lee Hodges, Jr. joins the marines in keeping with his family history of serving in the military. It was said that if there were no Vietnam, he'd have to invent it.
We learn about Hodges doing well in Marine officer training and shipped to Vietnam. Once there he's stationed "in country" and we meet the rest of his unit.
James Webb does a nice job in describing the hell that was Vietnam and still give us a feel for the men who fought and died there.
Snake, named for his tattoo has a low level job. One day he sees the Marine motto, "Death Before Dishonor" and has it tattooed and then joins the Marines. His fearlessness and leadership of the unit in a main part of the story.
Will Goodrich was the college man. While many friends were running to Canada or going to grad school to escape the draft, Will leaves Harvard and joins up. It is from his point of view that we see many of the battle scenes and the death and injury that surrounds the unit and what it can do to a person.
These men and others are surrounded by enemies. Is the farmer in the nearby village, really a farmer or VC? It's impossible to tell.
Sgt Austin joins the unit and wants to bring it the spit and polish that works in the states but is rediculous in front line action.
During one battle, one of his men has had enough and flips a grenade near enough to injure the sgt. and remove him from the unit, but not kill him.
It is difficult to comprehend the death and inhumanity that surrounds these men who are really just out of high school in many cases. Webb does it well. The novel has been compared to "All Quiet on the Western Front" and like that novel, does well in telling the horrors of war. ( )

Very well written book. Interesting characters, and exciting action. ( )