Books with author Mark Thomason

In May 1915, Italy declared war on the Habsburg Empire. Nearly 750,000 Italian troops were killed in savage, hopeless fighting on the stony hills north of Trieste and in the snows of the Dolomites. To maintain discipline, General Luigi Cadorna restored the Roman practice of decimation, executing random members of units that retreated or rebelled. With elegance and pathos, historian Mark Thompson relates the saga of the Italian front, the nationalist frenzy and political intrigues that preceded the conflict, and the towering personalities of the statesmen, generals, and writers drawn into the heart of the chaos. A work of epic scale, The White War does full justice to the brutal and heart-wrenching war that inspired Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.

When two Tritian youths embark on the 3-day voyage to their new home to attend school at the finest Science Institution on their home planet, they witness something profoundly disturbing that pulls them into the middle of an intensely woven plot filled with intrigue, suspense and danger. When A’L, the precocious son of Tritia’s brightest physicist, and Pur’, the brilliant and beautiful daughter of the planet’s finest astronomer team up to uncover the true purpose of the voyage, and the mysterious transmission to another galaxy, they find much more than they could ever have imagined in this fanciful and provocative adventure story set on a planet 600 million miles from Earth. While the two scholarly teens learn more of their planet’s carefully guarded secrets, they also find out more about themselves as they weave their way through the many mysteries involving their planet’s political structure, its degenerating atmosphere and the magnificent discovery of a gem-like planet with liquid oceans, actual living vegetation and beautiful cities. In book one of this five part series, we learn much of the similarities between this alien world and Earth. There is a connection between the planets, and the intrinsically similar inhabitants though the reasons remain elusive as bits and pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place throughout the series. For Al’ and Pur’ to decipher the truth about their planet, themselves and the newly discovered Speckled Planet, they must use their vastly superior intellect and highly developed resourcefulness to stay a step ahead of some very powerful duplicitous characters who seem determined to use and deceive them at every turn. Tritia, ‘The Speckled Planet’, is a true adventure story that highlights both the light and dark sides of people and the forced transition from childhood to adulthood under stressful and menacing conditions. The Speckled Planet can be read on many levels. It reveals much of true human nature under adversity and demonstrates the hardships that accompany the 'coming of age'.

'Winning is everything', so they say. But actually second can be thrilling, intriguing, heroic and pure. You may not have heard of John Landy, Juerg Marmet or 'You Better Run', but that doesn't mean they're not worth knowing about. They are, respectively, the second man to run a sub-four-minute mile, the leader of the second team to conquer Everest, and the second video played on MTV. The Book of Seconds will tell the stories of the nearly-men and nearly-women, not to mention the nearly-skyscrapers, nearly-moon missions and nearly-whales: the people and things who until now have sat in the shadow of the firsts. This book will bring them gloriously into the limelight hitherto denied to them.

In May 1915, Italy declared war on the Habsburg Empire. The result was one of the most hopeless and senseless wars of modern times. Nearly 750,000 Italians and half as many Austro-Hungarian troops were killed. To maintain discipline in the face of desperation and low morale, General Luigi Cadorna restored the Roman practice of decimation, executing random members of units that retreated or rebelled. With great skill and pathos, Mark Thompson relates the saga of the Italian front. A work of epic scale, The White War does justice to one of the most remarkable untold stories of the First World War.