Reviews

"Like many novels, this one has its origin in the author’s life, in Robinson’s case his near-deployment with the reinstated Merrill’s Marauders into the French Indochina wars while he was in the US Army. This aborted plan sparked an interest in the convolutions of American policy in East Asia between the Korean and Vietnam wars, which form the background of this novel and its plot. Genre-wise, The Godhead is a mystery, but since its Triple Nine Society author is also interested in the harmony of Eastern mysticism with Western physics, it is really more of an allegory about how the oneness of all things is manifest in everyday reality, even when that reality is prosaic or gruesome. Mensan mystery and military fans will enjoy the literal level of Robinson’s well-researched tale, which follows an American investigation into a French accusation that the American government is supplying arms to anti-French guerrillas. More metaphysical Mensans, for their part, will enjoy detecting the philosophico-scientific quest for the ultimate truths about life evident in the novel’s title, to which each character offers clues. Ultimately, this is a book for the philosopher warrior of Asian legend."

— Mensa World Journal, October 2016 issue.

"You have real talent. Keep writing."

— Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winner, Fiction.

"The action remains strong while clarity has been improved. In many places your touch shows itself to be finer than before. Your determination and energy are remarkable."

— Tom Jenks, editor of the last posthumous novel of Ernest Hemingway.

"This is a particularly impressive first novel, written with a style that is often lyrical and with a narrative that is vivid, powerfully but compactly expressed, closely observed, effectively plotted and quite suspenseful."

— Paul D. McCarthy, former Senior Editor of Pocket Books.

"This book is an extraordinary book. It was an eye-opener for me, engrossing and I thought innovative. It tells a unique story and contains a lot of government skullduggery and has quite interesting characters."

— David Swift, screenwriter.

"Great Reading. Historically correct. Militarily Correct. Politically exact. Good Homework on your times and places. This book set me up with more food for thought in finding more pieces of the puzzle. Unlike my Cao Dai brothers I understood the reality of a Cao Dai Girl falling in Love with a warrior (from personal experience). The beginning was out of my scope but once the book got into Vietnam I enjoyed the style and the way it moved along in timing and in keeping up with what was going on with the characters. In Good Taste. I converted to Cao Daism in 1967 and Vietnamese is my 5th Language. I had relatives that were Viet Minh that did not support the Assassination of Diem and have relatives buried in the Holy See Cemetery, and also had relatives that ranked up to Colonel in the Cao Dai Army."

— SFC Mark A. Neider