Thomas Dyja's novel "Play for a Kingdom" is a story about the valor of men and what it means to be cast into the darkness of war to be rescued by the men they call brothers in arms. They are men like all the other men who have walked this earth. They have different religions, values, ideas and above all, in their differences, they find common ground. Men like Tiger, Lyman, Newt and Burridge are heroes, cowards and villains. They demonstrate and bring good and evil into this world and into their own lives. These are the heroes who save the day and fight bravely. Some become heroes because they gave their lives for the cause and fell in the line of fire. They are cowards who are not immune to the horrors of war, or men who simply want to live to see another day. They are also bad guys. They are the ones who snatch life from this land with their cannons, their bullets and their bayonets. To a wife, mother and child, these warriors are the villains of their lives. Young and old, every man dreams of being a hero. They leave their lives behind dreaming of glory and victory. New recruits were hypnotized by the allure of serving for God and Country. Yes, they would be heroes when they returned home and they would defeat the villains who threaten their homes, their families, and their way of life. Uniforms gave young men a sense of importance and status. They learned military drills and worked hard. They believed that they were ready to meet the demands of a soldier by any means possible; that's when they got their first smell of cannon smoke. They heard cries that they had only heard from the mouth of a baby. The cramps started. The throats dried up. Men running past, bleeding and crying, and some of their own joined them. They figured they would find themselves in the middle of paperwork for his land, fighting for principle. He respected the men his group met for a friendly baseball game. The men of Micah's group had fought battle after battle against the Brooklyn 14th. They had clashed in hand-to-hand combat but spared each other's lives only to move on to the next person. How can two teams with so much bloodshed happily coexist in a meadow for a baseball game? They were rare men who found common ground. In their final match, the Brooklyn 14th knew they had been put up by their own army, but they still risked their lives to save the men of the Confederate army. They decided to save their friends. They had formed and shared with these men bonds that they had shared with their own. They were all heroes, cowards and villains, but most importantly, they were still Americans and brothers in arms..