Short Reviews for September 2025

Downfall, Iraq War, Spirit Ring, Kaiju Preservation Society

Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, by Richard B. Frank (484 pp; 1999)

Who should read this? Anyone interested in the end of the Pacific Theater of World War II, or questions around the atomic bombing of Japan.

Frank juxtaposes American planning for the invasion of Japan with Japanese defense plans and diplomatic moves, showing how things kept building upon themselves until the atomic bomb changed the situation. And then, he tells the diplomatic moves between the bombing and the surrender being made effective. It's a strong history, eye-opening on several points.

Several details were new to me - such as how kamikazis were plausibly the best-available tactical move for Japan (though horrifying), and how many Japanese officers remained so unreconciled to the surrender that they planned to kamikazi the American fleet when they sailed into Tokyo Bay to formally accept the surrender (before being foiled by other officers who immobilized their planes).

But Frank's biggest argument is that, without the atomic bomb, Japan might really have forced America to more lenient terms out of fear an invasion would cause politically-unsustainable casualties. He's convinced me such high casualties were very possible, and were convincing Admiral Nimitz and other high military officers to oppose an invasion. What would that have led to? Frank's conclusion doesn't convince me - but I can't exclude it.

So, all in all, I consider this one of the best sort of histories: it's both given me new details and opened my mind to a new perspective.

---

The Iraq War, by John Keegan (304 pp; 2004)

Who should read this? People interested in Iraq, or the military details of the American invasion of Iraq.

This's a short history of Iraq, and specifically of their politics and army. First we get a quick high-level history from World War I (when Iraq gained independence) through the 2003 American invasion, and then the next part of the book gives a longer military history of that invasion primarily from the American/British side. It barely touches on the insurgency and aftermath, since much of that hadn't happened yet when he wrote the first edition of this book - which on the one hand leaves me wanting more, but on the other hand reminds me of how the war was its own story, independent of the aftermath.

Much of this was new to me. Despite Iraq having played such a major role in recent American politics for so long, I'd hardly gone back to understand the details of the invasion itself. Keegan here reminds me of how contingent it was, and how many important decisions went into making it as swiftly successful as it was.

Keegan is generally objective in his point of view, but he reserves his disdain for those who would sacrifice practical politics to idealistic goals - whether the Europeans and leftists who opposed the 2003 invasion, or the American pro-democracy advocates who delayed getting Iraq into order to immediately start building a new government. From Keegan's perspective in practical military and political matters, I can understand why he disdains them. But, they justify themselves on other grounds than practicalities, so that merely exposes the limitations of his analysis. That said, this's an invaluable part of any complete analysis, and a significant story in itself.

---

---

The Spirit Ring, by Lois McMaster Bujold (369 pp; 1992)

Who should read this? People who like historical fiction, historical fantasy, and action.

In an alternate Italian Renaissance with magic - and with magic publicly known and (of course) regulated by the Church - our protagonist is the daughter of a metalworker and magician who's caught up in an invasion of her city - and after seeing the invader's evil magic, is pulled into fighting against it.

Bujold captures the feeling of history very well, while writing a plot packed with action that could almost feel pulpy. Perhaps the Renaissance, with its many feuding cities and nobles, is one of the periods of history where people on such a comparitively-low social level had such high amounts of political agency that things like this almost could happen? And, her worldbuilding around magic and the Church here is intriguing enough that I wish there could've been more in this world. I might just have to write more in a similar world myself.

---

The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi (264 pp; 2022)

Who should read this? People who want a light adventure and don't care about depth; also, people who don’t mind Scalzi’s sense of humor.

Scalzi, in his afterword, describes this as a pop-song of a book: something light that you read and enjoy, but something you can go about your day afterwards without its sticking with you. I agree. This's short on depth, but it's a fast-paced fun story.

It starts with our protagonist being hired for what feels like an over-the-top new job: in a secret other world, managing an ecology of kaiju. At first, the humor comes from the outlandish conditions of the job. Later on, some actual stakes appear and start getting raised - but at least to me, those stakes still didn't quite seem real except on the personal level.

Still, I can hardly paint this as a flaw - it didn't start out the sort of book with real stakes beyond the personal level, and making them feel real would've made it worse at being the sort of book it is. It's not light in the sense that it contains characters in realistically bad states (our protagonist starts the book getting fired without any savings), but it's light in that it doesn't really address any deep issues.

I'm not really going to recommend this book unless the title drags you in, because there's nothing that really pushes me to give it a recommendation. But if it does and if (like me) you've enjoyed some other Scalzi books, you might enjoy cracking it open.