Stephan Sanders is a Dutch author, who writes for various media and also presents television programmes. Zon, zee, oorlog. Reisverhalen & introspecties he travels to destinations to explore his roots. Thus, Zon, zee, oorlog. Reisverhalen & introspecties contains about 100 pages of longer essays, followed by another 100 pages of short columns of travelogues and introspection.

Stephan Sanders has spent extended periods of time in South Africa and Surinam. His essays are well-informed about the political situation, but always seek a personal edge. Almost all essays and columns refer to the author on the prowl in an attempt to find handsome men to get laid. In many cases Sanders makes these occasional gay lovers his informers or uses them to assess the advance of the human rights situation or the general level of freedom. This, inevitably, leads to difficult situations engendered by cultural differences, or blurred by other issues such as differences in material wealth between the author and his lovers. For readers wondering what the value of such observations then might be, there seems to be just one answer. The value is determined just only by the value derived from the situation by the author. Therefore, the essays and prose in this collection are on the edge of a fine balance between hedonism and very personal essays. ( )