Alone in the Valley tells the story of 19-year-old Daniel Perdue and his year as a grunt, pursuing an elusive enemy through the steamy jungles of the Central Vietnamese Highlands. From the moment the boy soldier touches down until he is airborne and on his way home again, author Kenneth Waymon Baker makes sure the reader hears every sound, sees every sight, feels every emotion as his young hero faces the rigors of war and changed forever, a man who will return acquire the instincts of a warrior. Yet Perdue is never less than wholly sympathetic, surrounded by a cross-section of believable American types - all bound in the crucible of day-to-day combat.Aside from the breathtaking realism and a prose style equal to the finest of war-time writing, the most valuable attribute of this remarkable book is its absence of cynicism. American soldiers are seen neither as heroes nor monsters, but as young men capable of extraordinary goodness and disastrous shortcomings; men who fear only cowardice and friendship. Read Less