Oddly enough, in my short time here on this earth, i have read more books than the average American does in a year. That I am sure of. Here is the plain out truth; when I first started reading this book i was expecting nothing more than another military thriller that starts off good then gets slow and hard to get through, and then ends with the heroine preventing some armagedon. But by the time i was at page 150, (Out of the 400 pages in the book)I was intrigued and wanted to read more. For me a good book, movie or TV show, has to have charachters that you in a kinda weird way feel connected too. However only a book that was written extraordinarily can make you feel how they feel. In other books you may look upon a charchter's situation as a caring bystander, but to me, this book made me feel as if i was the charchter, as if i were the one feeling the pain, the sorrow, the woe, and the happiness and pleasure. Proxy Wars follows Charlie Dunbar, Nick Cavallo, Daniel Becker, and other operators from a PMF (or Private Military Firm) called Mjolnir International. It is basically a company that provides mercernaries to people willing to pay. The company was started by former Green Beret, Josef Kosakowski. In the beginng of this novel, Mjolnir International, is in a finacial crisis because of their last assignement that went bad. Josef, who is desperate to save his company, readily accepts a too good to be true offer by the small island nation called Monrovia. The mercernaries job is to train the inexperienced Monrovian military. Everything seems to be a set deal untill the mysterious man Ben, who may be C.I.A., warns the company to stop taking action in Monrovia. But they continue untill they witness the worst possible thing, the men they trained turn their deadly skills on innocent men, women, and children, killing all in sight. Dunbar, Cavallo, Becker, Deacon, Garner, and Turner (the A-Team if you will) are thrust into a world of anger, revenge, and danger as they try to stop the corrupt and, yes i knoiw it is corny, evil, government from continuing the attrocites. The fact that i know the author personally doesn't at all affect the way i rate this book. As a matter of fact i thought reading Stillman's book or Mr. Stillman as i refer to him ( yeah he's my lit. teracher) would be tough for me becuase i know him and could picture him writing this. But i was proved wrong and truly enjoyed the book, and i am very very very ready for the next book of the series, so hurry up Mr. Stillman.