Navy veteran and DAV member and supporter Umberto “Nardo” Nardolicci recently finished writing the first book in his “War of Fear” series, titled “Eye of the Nomad.”

This epic work of historic fiction takes readers to the 12th-century Eurasian Steppe to witness the rise of one of the greatest empires in human history. The book is inspired by Yasotay, the real-life architect behind Genghis Khan’s military special forces.

Nardolicci is a successful veteran entrepreneur who has served as mentor and speaker to DAV Patriot Boot Camp cohorts. The son of a DAV member, he’s generously supported DAV and other veteran charities for many years. He recently sat down with DAV to talk about his first novel and the writing process, as well as how his military and civilian careers informed his willingness to take on the challenge of writing a novel.

DAV:   Nardo, congratulations on completing the first in what is going to be an awesome series of books. Tell us about “Eye of the Nomad.”

Nardo: “Eye of the Nomad” is a story of one of Genghis Khan’s generals. And the concept is basically that building one of the largest empires in the world isn’t done alone. It’s done with a lot of other people. I mean, any great accomplishment has other people, even though there might be one dominant person. They usually get help, if you will. Yasotay is the main character, and he’s my protagonist. He helped Genghis build his special forces group. They were responsible for doing some of the first psyops operations ever in history. And so that was the reason why I picked that character. I thought it would make for a very entertaining storyline, something that a lot of people don’t know a lot about—12th-, 13th-century Far East Mongolia. China is sort of a unique place in history and a unique time in history.

DAV:   You’re a Navy veteran, a disabled veteran, changed in service. What was your inspiration to write “War of Fear”?

Nardo: I came across an article in an armed forces journal, actually, that was specifically addressing special forces and one of the first special forces groups ever, which was the Mangoday from Genghis Khan’s army. And I just found this whole story of Yasotay very fascinating. I did a lot of research on it. I wasn’t able to come up with a lot. There’s not really a lot out there. And, well, the main reason is, is because the culture didn’t even have a written word back then. Genghis Khan commissioned a group to come up with the Mongolian written word. And the first work that had ever been produced was produced after his death. We’re talking about a large group of illiterate people that grew into this massive empire. It’s the largest contiguous empire ever. So it’s pretty impressive what they were able to accomplish.

DAV:   And tell us more about Yasotay. What drives him, like what makes him relatable? And do you think that there’s something about him that reflects challenges that people face today?

Nardo:  I do. And I think that one of the biggest challenges we face today is knowledge wielded without wisdom can be dangerous. And I think we’re seeing that now with some of the concerns that we have with some of the newer technologies with [artificial intelligence] and so forth. And the story of Yasotay is about a learned man that goes to this group of illiterate nomads and he helps them in war tactics and strategy and in planning and so forth. And he brings more of structure to the operation, if you will. And that’s sort of the premise behind the book itself … that he then, after he helps create this war machine, learns to regret it and grows to regret it.

DAV:   One of the illiterate people you were talking about is central to the story with Yasotay. How did you put them together? And what do you think readers take away from that?

Nardo: The dynamic between Yasotay and Genghis was that they were friends. Yasotay helped him out initially and began to work with him and then grew and realized what he has done through some difficult times of his own. Realized, you know, what he was part of he didn’t want to be part of anymore. And so that’s sort of the story behind Yasotay as he grows to regret his involvement because of the carnage that is ensued by Genghis and his groups.

DAV:   How do you balance that need to hold on to readers, give them a really fun journey, but also deal with deeper themes, purpose, identity, rites of passage. How do you do all of those things?

Nardo: One of the things I did was hire an editor who was a Mongolian historian. And he read through the book and gave me feedback. Actually, I believe he’s connected with the University of London or Cambridge, so he’s got a good background in history and specifically Mongolian history. I thought that was important to have that as an integral part of the story. I tried to do my best to make the historical events current within the book. So the things that are happening are actually happening. For instance, in the second book, and that’s the one I’m working on now, the city of Zhongdu is destroyed and over a million people are killed. Genghis took over a number of cities, and they were pretty brutal. I’ve worked to have a balance between the facts of the history, and also, we don’t want it to be a horror story, right? We wanted to be entertaining. And so, there’s certainly a balance to strike there.

DAV:   I know a lot of people around the shop who we’ve talked to have read the book. They feel like this is like a movie or a series of films.

Nardo:  I’ve had a number of people say that same thing. I think it, probably, I’ve done my best to put it on paper. But I think in my mind, I see it as a movie too. You know, it’s just one of those things that I think it would lend itself well to being on the big screen.

DAV:   What do you hope the book accomplishes?

Nardo: Well, the big thing, obviously, is to entertain. It’s a historical fiction book, and it’s entertainment. Number two, I would really like to get across that message that I was speaking to earlier with regards to knowledge and wisdom and how knowledge applied without wisdom can be dangerous. And I think we’re living in that world today. And so, I think there’s a message there to speak to. And then thirdly, I’d like to be able to, if we can get the book to be successful, or the series to be successful, that we could generate some revenue for veterans. And that all proceeds are going to be donated to veterans causes. I do a lot from a philanthropy point of view with regards to veterans.

DAV:   Did you feel like you were connecting in some way with symbolic elements in the story, based on your experiences?

Nardo: That’s a big part of the storyline, right? Especially with the first book, because you’ve got this young man who’s been raised in this one environment, in a royal palace as part of the Jin Empire. And he leaves that environment and goes into a totally different environment, which is a massive change to him, these illiterate nomads that basically live traveling from place to place. And so, for my main character, change is an integral part of what he’s going through here. It’s part of his growing-up stage. I guess that change is something that we all go through, right? In some way, shape or form. Certainly, us in the military, we’ve gone through that time and again, where you’re getting stationed from one place to the next; or a new job; or whatever the case may be. So change is an important aspect, and you have to be able to learn to deal with it. And that’s one of the things that my main character does is he learns to deal with it.

DAV:   I know we ask you all the time to mentor entrepreneurs. Do you have any advice for people who want to write a book? Your multi-decade rabbit hole has come up with something incredible. What do you tell someone else who wants to do the same thing?

Nardo: I think that the first bit of advice would be to start writing. My background is in engineering. I’m a system engineer. I worked at Johns Hopkins University for a number of years after the military. I worked there for five years, and then I started my own engineering firm. So I live a very structured approach to work. And my structured approach to writing a book was to come up with that outline and come up with a basic plot, theme and my main characters. I spent a lot more time researching than writing. And so, I guess if someone is going to write a book, one of the books I’d recommend you to read is “Save the Cat” by Blake Snyder. It sounds like an unusual name, but it’s a fantastic book that helps people that have never written a book before really come up with the structure and how best to make sure that you’re not just spending a lot of time writing stuff that won’t be interesting. I’m a firm believer in doing the research necessary to do it. But there’s a lot of books out there too.

DAV:   Anything else?

Nardo: No, we’re excited about it and we’re excited about working with DAV. When you write a book, you’re competing with everyone who’s ever written a book before, from Hemingway on down. There are so many hours in a day that a reader is going to read. So you’re competing with all the great works out there. And so, you need to bring your A game. And I’ve been fortunate enough to have a great team to work with, and DAV included. And I thank you guys very much for everything you’ve done to help me with this book. We’re going to have it in Audible, in e-book, on Kindle and on Amazon. And a hardback and paperback. We’re going to release the paperback sometime next year, but the hardback is going to be coming out on Veterans Day 2024, along with the Audible and the e-book. We’re excited about it.

To learn more about the book, visit waroffear.com.