Book Blog – Page 57 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

March 12, 2023

The Socrates Express (Review)

his was an interesting find. Only I (it would seem) could find a book that combines two of my curiosities. The first, the philosophy of being human, the outlooks and considerations of our human natures. And the second, trains. In The Socrates Express, Author Eric rides a train to the locale of each famous philosopher, musing about the train, the travel, the philosopher, and the life lesson we might learn from him (or her). There are fourteen stops and fourteen philosophers, grouped in subjects from the general (how to get out of bed, how to walk, etc), to specifics (how […]

March 19, 2023

Too Dumb to Fail (Review)

o here’s a book about the GOP and it’s failings. And before YOU jump on ME for posting this, keep in mind that the author of this review of HIS beloved party (Matt K. Lewis) already told me that if I’m reading this with a handful of popcorn, in it for laffs, it isn’t the book for me. And it wasn’t. At least not for laughs. For an interesting read into the decay of the Republican Party, you can’t do wrong by reading this. So the author outlines the party from its high water mark with Regan (we disagree in […]

April 2, 2023

A Princess of Mars (Review)

his one really takes me back to my teens. I’d read a couple of John Carter books. Back then, the game shops (remember those?) all had rulebooks for Mars battles, and Mars lead miniatures. And then you had Frank Frazetta pumping out erotic, exciting art of John Carter and his crazy adventures… And now what do we have? A movie made by one studio to try to topple the franchise of another (in this case, the juvenile StarWars). Actually, the movie wasn’t all that bad, and they did their best to follow the storyline. But movies are movies and books […]

April 8, 2023

The Stars, my Destination (Review)

he Stars, my Destination introduces the hero Gully Foyle as a low-life uneducated thug. Even his Merchant Marine card notes: Education: None. Skills: None. Merits: None. Recommendations: None. And it looks even grimmer – Gully is the sole survivor of a destroyed ship, floating somewhere deep in our solar system. Lost. He gets by surviving in a closet for months, venturing out on depleting tanks to scrap together whatever food and necessities he requires. But then comes a ship, which slows and gives his wreckage a lookover. He fires off all his distress signals. And the ship, it accelerates away. […]

April 16, 2023

The Gods of Mars (Review)

o here we are at the second novel of John Carter on Mars, The Gods of Mars. And here, author Edgar Rice Burroughs has something to piss off everyone. Race, religion, it’s all there. Really, just read it as an adventure novel and don’t go too deep. So poor John Carter has been separated from his adapted Martian home in the Empire of Helium and his beloved Dejah Thoris for a decade. Finally he manages to teleport his sad little self back to Mars, only to appear in the worst prison on the planet, the Valley Dor, which is held […]

April 23, 2023

Triton (Review)

riton is a moon orbiting Neptune. It is also the setting for a scifi story set hundreds of years in the future. So our main character is a young male ex-prostitute from a very repressive Mars, a fact which figures into who is is. With a name like Bron (specifically, Bron Helstrom), does anyone see the wordplay? Tall and Nordic, Bron has traveled to Triton, a utopia world where you can be who you want, dorm in mixed couple settings, homosexual settings, whatever you like. If your sexual tastes are not to your liking, you can easily change them. If […]

April 30, 2023

Rogue Ship (Review)

his one was a used book from the 60s, a reworked combination of three short stories author A.E. Van Vogt compiled. And I hate to say it, but it was really a painful read. From the back cover, it looked interesting – a generation ship on it’s way to Centaurus with twenty years behind it and ten years in front of it starts to lose focus. Mutiny is brewing in the below decks, and some of the explorers want to turn for home (okay, that caused a little red flag – wouldn’t turning about a slow generation ship burn more […]

May 20, 2023

Alien Chronicles: The Crimson Claw (Review)

o this is book two of the Alien Chronicles, a short series Lucasfilms authorized (or whatever, I don’t know the arrangement) for a scifi story that could have been sometime in the StarWars universe but not directly in it. So what’s that mean – if you have a circular area that represents StarWars (with Jedis and Tie Fighters and Banthas) then this series is somewhere (or somewhen) outside it? Okay, we’ll go with that. So in the first section, reviewed HERE, we had feline Ampiris banished from the court and her mistress’s side (her mistress being the queen-in-waiting-for-dad-to-die). Right now, […]

May 28, 2023

Mistborn (Review)

his one was a recommendation by our favorite barista Maddy, a book of high fantasy in a world so bleak it is really not to be believed. The thing is, magic works, but only after a fashion. There are eleven metals that a misting (who can use one) or mistborn (who can use them all) employ for basic spells. But here is the interesting part – the metals are swallowed by these mages, and their bellies burn them, so that’s what fuels the magic. It’s really wild and craftily done, this set of magic rules that make this fantasy world […]

June 4, 2023

Destroyermen 1: Into the Storm (Review)

his book should count for two reviews. I checked it out of the local library for a recent road trip. Listened to it while the miles zipped past, smiling. Decided at the end that I liked it well enough to look into the series. Fifteen books. And Norfolk’s local bookstores could come up with ten of them. Bought those and ordered the rest. just re-read the first one. So, the Destroyermen series starts with Into the Storm in the opening days of the Pacific War in World War 2, with the Japanese Navy devouring anything in its path. The USS […]