Brian Steidle

The author is a former U.S. marine who served for a while as an independent military observer in Sudan. The book chronicles his witnessing of the genocide taking place in Darfur and the lack of public attention given to the horrors taking place. His frustration in seeing any international pressure on the government of Sudan, or in raising people's consciousness to the atrocities is apparent. Reading the book certainly makes you appreciate life in the West.

I can see why the author felt compelled to write this book. If I'd seen what he'd seen I'd want to write it too. And it does give some insight into the horrors of Darfur. It must have been unutterably bleak to have the job of watching this happen and not be able to do anything about it. But it's kind of one-dimensional - there's very little by way of political analysis or ways forward, just a lot of description of atrocities. Hard to think about and no way forward.

Rambling. Shockingly naive and simplistic. Very poorly edited. As far as literary merit goes, this book deserves no praise. However, it does educate the reader about the horrors in Darfur and highlight the need for action - although the author is vague on what and how. It is the context of public apathy and ignorance that give the book value, although Steidle could do with deeper analysis and understanding of the conflict.

A chronology of the massacres that the author reported to the African Union during a year stay in Darfur. That is pretty much it. He doesn't provide a history of the government, the janjaweed, the SLA etc (in fact the name Al Bashir is never mentioned during the book...), or the issues in Darfur. doesn't provide any history of the complacency of the west, even though he complains, rightfully so, about the west's lack of effort. Overall, it felt like he was going to write a book about no show more matter how much information he had -- even though the only info he used was his experiences. NO CONTEXT!! show less