A very good account of the war, countering much of the propaganda of the Nigerian and British governments, by the famous fictional writer, who was there as a young journalist. ( )

This is the book, which marked Frederick Forsyth's transition from journalist to author. A record of one of the most brutal conflicts the Third World has ever suffered, it has become a classic of modern war reporting. But it is more than that: it voices one man's outrage, not only at the extremes of human violence that it depicts, but also at the duplicity and self-interest of the Western Governments - most notably the British - who tacitly accepted or actively aided that violence. For the Biafra War, in which Nigeria fought to prevent the secession of its eastern province, divided Britain almost as bitterly as it did Nigeria itself. Forsyth bears day-to-day witness to the ferocity and neargenocide that followed, chronicling the devastation that attended Biafra's bloody road to defeat. His book remains totally relevant as an insight into an Africa still threatened by the divisive violence of tribalism. At the same time, the research and experience that created this book were later to find different expression in Frederick Forsyth's immensely successful The Dogs of War. Here, though, we are most enthralled by the deep seriousness and masterly observation that underlie the skills of a great storyteller.

I had read 'Half a Yellow Sun', about the civil war in Nigeria and the creation of the Biafran state; this is a dry, journalistic account of those years of fighting, written with due regard and constraint by a writer of genre thrillers. I hold Forsyth in a much higher regard based on this book than on any of his others. ( )

This is a well-told story of an awful time in Africa. It should be required reading for politicians and I strongly recommend it's study by high school classes in history and geography (and that subject no-one wants to deal with - Tolerance). Our future citizens really need to be citizens of the world, not just of USA. Knowing about human affairs outside our boundaries might have stopped us from allowing George W. Bush to lead us into a war of lies and deception in Iraq.
Frederick Forsyth grew from being a thorough and understanding reporter-of-events into a really good story spinner of many and varying interests. I think that starting his published works with this horror story was an inspired (or fortuitous) move. He started wonderfully. And, he may actually have been instrumental in helping the people of the Biafra/Nigeria region to come to grips with their hatreds and refusals to understand and tolerate each other. ( )