by L. D. Bruce (Author)
On a Darkling Plain is a vivid depiction of gut-wrenching air combat and the haunting power of an extraordinary first love. Captain John Malik, a brilliant fighter pilot, is a loner obsessed with the love of a woman beyond his reach. Battle hardened and burned out he envisions his imminent death-judgment for an unforgivable deed of his youth. Malik's airborne flight of F-100s is diverted to a tactical emergency at a Marine artillery position under massive NVA assault on a jungle mountaintop in Vietnam's central highlands. Beneath low weather, Malik is hit by groundfire and ejects. On the rain-soaked jungle floor, he faces two options: evade west and continue to exist without hope, or head east into a blood bath in an effort to save even one life at the likely cost of his own.