Book Blog
August 9, 2026
new series by (I guess) our new author J.S. Dewes, a tale of betrayal and terror on the literal edge of the universe. So rich boy Cavalon, a privileged brat who annoyed his all-powerful granddad in a very rebellions manner, gets “French Foreign Legioned” to the Argus, a decommissioned battleship now serving as a gutted watchpost, eyes on the “frontier”, supposedly watching for the return of an alien horror that all but annihilated us in two wars. Of course, he’s a rich boy in a ship full of angry troops who have all been sent to this outpost in the literal […]
August 2, 2026
his all began when my siblings press-ganged me into driving up to take care of my mom for three days. Of course, it’s a full (and taxing) drive each way, so that’s five days. And since there may be delays in my relief, that’s six. So no big deal. Since I’d be driving alone (and since rental cars no longer have CD players) I could not borrow from the library and was sorta stuck, that is, until my pal Jesse bought me a Fire so I could get Audible books. I’ve already reviewed my “test” book, The Last Days of New […]
July 26, 2026
ubtitled as “A true story of Love, Desperation and GPS Technology”, this was an interesting bio from a young woman (Caroline Paul) who starts her recounting with smashing her ultralight and pulping her leg (okay, THAT caught my attention). Finally leaving the hospital, she returns home to her two cats (Fibby and Tibby). So she’s confined with her injury, somewhat smacked out on drugs, depressed, whiny, all those recovery things. And that’s when TIbby goes missing. Weeks pass. Hobbling around the immediate area, calling Tibby’s name, aided by her good friend (and illustrator) Wendy MacNaughton, she starts her quest. Fearful […]
July 19, 2026
f you look into my entire Library of Alexandria, you’ll find a review for Shades of Grey, a curious book by Jasper Fforde. Red Side Story is the second (and possibly final) book of the series set up by the author, where a strange, tightly-controlled society with it’s hierarchy based on archaic rules and your ability to see one certain color) comes totally unglued. We have Edward and Jane, my favorite ruf-love couple, trying to make things work around the rule-checking yellows and the governing purples, all supported by the various other hues, with everyone lording over the greys (basically, the unwashed, […]
June 28, 2026
kay, I have to mention that this book came to me in a strange way, and nearly left in another strange way. I became aware of this while driving home from Tampa, listening to NPR (because, God Sakes, what else is there to listen to at Plant City). They had a story about how books get selected by “Book Buyers”, people who represent chains of bookstores and consider books based on dimensions, cover art, content and market appeal. The interviewer was talking to one Book Buyer about all this, and asked for an example. The buyer said something like, “Well, […]
June 21, 2026
ecommended this book to a friend, based on my fond memories of it. He said he sounded interested. That made me interested. I hadn’t read it for 40 years (since it came out). Did I even still have my old copy? After all, there was the cull I’d done when I had to move everything out to a pod and back in the blazing sun (termite treatment in the house). Happily, I found it. And since I wasn’t reading anything, I put it on the top of my list. So Cosmic Banditos is a book that explores the drug trade, South American […]
June 14, 2026
he second book of the Captive’s War Trilogy now extends our understanding of what is going on across the universe in a war that defies belief in scale and technology .The first book, The Mercy of Gods, dealt with a small colony lost (supposedly and hinted at) from The Expanse universe. There, the best of a world are carted off to an alien home world to do labwork and advancements or face being culled. Now, the team that survived has been scattered. With what we learned from the short story Livesuit, about the long-dead alien race from which all unbelievable […]
May 24, 2026
his is the second in the series following The Cruel Stars, by John Birmingham (and make sure you follow this link for the details – I have another book of that name in my library, one of the Ark Royal books). Yeah, so anyway, this is a middling book in a set so most of the action (while interesting and fun) just pretty much works through its plots. We have the aging Scottish Admiral (who is something of a Highlander, being 700 years old) and his sarcastic floating super computer. And the Captain of the Defiant, pretty much the last ship facing the […]
May 10, 2026
he novella Livesuit is one of those James S. A. Corey things, a way to keep the fires burning between novels in a set. In this case, it’s following the starter for the set (presumably three), The Captive’s War, reviewed by me a year or so back. They did this same thing in their long-running series, The Expanse, with short stories coming out online to endrun the publishing field and keep their property warm until the next book was penned. So, they market better than I even did with this flea-bite of a blog site. So, yes, Livesuit. The first book involves an interplanetary […]
May 3, 2026
bout forty years ago, I was still designing games for a living of sorts. One idea I had was a game about the fall of civilization and managing a community in the aftermath. Titled After the Fall, it was based off a little Atari game where Malthusian growth is gamed, with populating outstripping food. In mine, you had the added features of hordes from the fallen cities, failed crops and an early hot-seat multiplayer game. Alas, we never got it finished beyond play testing – couldn’t get the tech advancements to work. It’s a good thing I knocked off when […]