Historical Fiction Korean War

Ice, Fire, and Blood, the first novel of veteran journalist Norman Black, brings to vivid life U.S. combat infantrymen's experience in Korea, from late 1950 to spring 1951. The story focuses on one company of an infantry battalion and begins in northwestern Korea. It covers those periods when Chinese armies entered the war and inflicted devastating loses on U.S.-U.N. forces and the subsequent turn-around, early in 1951, after Gen. Matthew Ridgway took command. In the following months, new equipment was received, serious loses were inflicted on the Chinese, and it became clear South Korea would not be overrun by Communism.

War is on the horizon of 1949, but in the small, near-coastal town of Hammer Springs, Florida, racial tensions are climbing. Best friends Sam and Jimmy are just trying to navigate their teenage years, but with their lives on hold as they wait to be drafted, they couldn't be more different. Sam, with his sharp tongue and gangling frame, lives inside his own head while Jimmy, the beloved football hero, is dismissive of his own popularity and lives by his own noble agenda. But when Sam falls for an unlikely girl in school, he awakens to the intense world around him. “Just for fun” becomes ...