Raid of No Return

If you have read my blog for a while you may have noticed that I think Nathan Hale is brilliant. He makes fantastic, informative, and inventive comics, and his series Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales is the best historical series in the graphic novel business. I even liked his non-historical work like One Trick Pony. What amazes me about his work is how consistently excellent it is, and Raid of No Return is no exception.

The plot of the book is set during World War II. In the events following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there was an extremely covert, risky, and dangerous mission set in place to bomb the Japanese mainland. This book recounts that mission with lots of details about the individual pilots, their crews, and the various outcomes of each bombing run. But additionally, and most impressively to me, it also delved deeply into the Japanese planning of the bombing and gave insight into their side of the military conflict.

This book is full of action and suspense, with multiple plot threads running simultaneously. It is difficult to have so many different stories and to make the reader feel invested in each one, but Hale does exactly that, making the stories both historically detailed as well as personally affecting. Raid of No Return is chock full of compelling, true-life stories that will keep you on the end of your seat and is a worthy addition to an extraordinarily well-crafted series of books.

The reviews I read about this book were all aptly full of praise. Lori Henderson wrote that it "does a great job of illuminating historical events in an entertaining and sometimes sobering way. It’s a great addition to library shelves." Tanya Turek called it "a powerful story that is suspenseful, emotional and almost unbelievable."

Raid of No Return was published by Amulet Books, and they offer more info about it here.