"He was a homing device for her hatred."
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The Dreamtaker by Chad Burn Trafford Publishing
book review by Maria A. Hughes
Meet Sergeant Rick Dane, a cold-blooded, reckless, and jaded Marine officer who would give Rambo a run for his money. Rick Dane is on his third tour in the Vietnam War, trying to make up for a tactical mistake that cost the lives of most of his platoon. Determined to never put himself or his soldiers in such a dire situation again, he disregards his superiors until they prove worthy of earning their rank. His foolhardiness, however, ends with the decimation of a village. Unable to cope with the trauma, he unknowingly taps into a supernatural power he didn't realize he had, destroying the well-being of a Vietnamese girl named By Le in the process. Consumed with hate, she's determined to track down Dane, who she refers to as a demon named Diem Vuong, and kill him, no matter the cost.
The Dreamtaker gives the reader a detailed look into the horrors of the Vietnam War through the eyes of Sergeant Dane and By Le. Despite the illusion of free choice, By Le and Dane are pawns maneuvered until they have outlasted their usefulness to their respective governments and eventually undone by their actions. The tragic situations that these characters are thrown into entreats the reader to question the necessity of war and the ethics of killing for a biased view of “"he good." Chad Burn skillfully depicts this message by immersing the reader in the jungles of Vietnam, likely influenced by his own experiences. While the author excels at drawing the reader into the atmosphere of the war, he falls short of evoking an empathetic response due to the story heavily leaning on description versus demonstration. In spite of a slightly pontificating beginning, it is a satisfying, rich read pervading with supernatural elements combined with philosophical overtones.