Megiddo's Shadow (review)

News of his brother's death on a World War I European battlefield sends underage Edward Bathe off to lie his way into the army. The Canadian teen is promptly shipped off for training in England, where a friend of the family manipulates his orders to get Edward assigned to breaking horses, even through he aches to be at the front slaughtering Huns to avenge his brother. Edward is destined to see plenty of action, though; separated from his comrades and his nurse sweetheart, he's eventually reassigned to the cavalry and sent not to Europe but to Palestine, where he takes part in action against the Turks and witnesses atrocities on both sides that disabuse him of any lingering notion of the glory of war or the righteousness of revenge. This is a standard plot that has been altered many times to fit the war in question, but Slade does it justice with patient pacing that maximizes Edward's growing anger over being hobbled in his personal mission, near-palpable descriptions of the oppressive heat and filth of his ultimate assignment, and the contrast between Edward's eagerness for battle and his all too believable cowardice when it comes to facing a stricken comrade during his recovery. Readers in search of a rousing World War I story, but not quite ready for the irony and despair of Spillebeen's superb Kipling's Choice (BCCB 7/05), should be thoroughly engrossed.