Cao Bang

I don't read much fiction, but this is a pretty good read. I read just about anything I can get my hands on about the First Indochina War, since there is such a dearth of literature on this topic in English. The storyline centers around the French evacuation of the Northern Indochina frontier forts in October 1950, & the author does a good job & seems to be familiar with the real history here. My only issue with the book (and it's minor) is thatsome of the characters are somewhat "clichéd "IE the main character is a former SS Man. Overall, good read & I look forward to the sequel!

I am so glad that amazon carried these wonderful books, I spent 2 years in Vietnam as an Marine infantry man, I always carriedwith me a copy of "Street Without Joy" in my pack. If only we had listened to the French when they told us we are doomed torepeat their mistake.William R EllisSgt 3rd Marine DivisionVietnam 1965-1967

I really thought this book was great on the French and Vietminh. It took the views of both sides in the conflict. The only thing that got me was the end. At first I didn't like the end, but on reflection it couldn't have ended better. Read this book.

Keep interest. Fair factual for historical fiction. Leaves you hanging at the end.

Although quite concise and begging for a bit more development, the story moved right along and gave a sense of the bleak life of French Legionaries in Vietnam. Such a premonition of what was to come when Americans with clean faces arrived in the mysterious Orient.

poor spelling , confused story line ,trying to be a many things and ends up being nothing

Very enjoyable read.

To simplistic for my taste. I'm a detail junkie and this book did give me th e high I was looking for.

This book finishes before the battle. I find the libertarian battles the Vietnamese fought fascinating, but this series of books is more about the French and their allies. The book needs editing, one of the characters suffers from word salad but that should not apply to the rest of the book.However the book is cheap, when other books on the same subject cost much more.

An unbiased view of both sides of the conflict, but reading it made me think I was reading a second book in a trilogy and although I don’t dislike the ending, the writer has so many subplots and secondary stories it seems lazy. Also my version changes font/type face between sentences and some writing is poor “ much of the wire blew apart but much remained intact” describing the attack with Bangalore tubes. He describes one character not living to old age as he drops having been shot through the eye, a few pages later the same character is a POW being quizzed by his captors.