Book Blog
February 8, 2026
ell, this was a strange way to find a lost story. Was watching an Anime (it wasn’t that good) and in it, the idea of airlocking someone comes up. One of the characters makes a crack about The Cold Equations. I have to admit I was curious and found it online – it’s a scifi from Tom Godwin, published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1954. And that made me dizzy – think about it. A lost story from before I was born ends up noticed in Japan, where it gets a shout out in an anime, which comes back to me through […]
January 4, 2026
hen the novel Wizenbeak came out, you’d probably walk into any mall, look through the one or two bookstores housed there, go to the fantasy section which was greater than the current Barnes and Noble, pick through the many selections and buy it (likely with cash). That’s a period piece of when this book was released (1986, currently forty years ago). Well, most books either come from Massive Amazon, pathetic B&N, or, in this case, a used bookstore. But enough of that. The titular character of this book is a wizard, complete with a troll-bat, who wishes to use his own water […]
December 21, 2025
ince I haunt flat-earther and young creation groups on Facebook (debunking various silly opinions on occasion) I thought I’d enjoy Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World, And why not? Sagan wrote this in the mid-nineties and is a noted science advocate, using his background to guide and instruct those are less-inclined to it. Yes, that’s what I wanted to do. My problem is that the book just didn’t agree with me. Perhaps it was the small print or the long routes he too on some of his points, perhaps readers and writers sometimes don’t click. Don’t know. But my rate of […]
December 14, 2025
‘ve been a bit remiss in my book reviews lately, largely because I’ve been remiss in reading in general. I’ve been limping through a Carl Sagan book as of late. This isn’t to say it’s a bad read. It’s just not as riveting as fiction. So, to get something out (and to take a break) I grabbed a novel from David Drake (of Hammer’s Slammers fame), Counting the Cost. Had it since 1987 (when it was published) and as soon as I opened it the ancient covers (from and back) broke off. So it’s literally now a paperback. Anyway, the world it takes place on […]
November 16, 2025
ack when I was a pre-teen, I started reading The Spirit by Will Eisner. The Spirit was a superhero whose costume was a mask and a blue suit, and whose only powers were his fists, his stamina, his constitution and his charm. And also he was clever – he could outsmart villains and bring them to justice. But what made The Spirit so very amazing to me as a young kid were the backgrounds. Oh, it might have been “Central City” but everyone knew it was New York City. The streets were filled with litter, the brick buildings were worn and leaning, the […]
November 9, 2025
nteresting book and premise – an Irish priest holes up in the Vatican as the Germans invade the city, take over with their usual ruthlessness, and besiege them. Hugh O’Flaherty is our Monsignor-on-the-Ground, running a ring of saboteurs and spies to get as many escaped prisoners out of Rome. And for this, he’ll need money. I would like to know what the true story was here – how close did the actual story follow the book. One thing I know – if you are an American and fine with dictators and secret police, Hugh’s opposite, Gestapo Head Hauptmann might change […]
October 26, 2025
o let me start by saying I bought this book twice – saw it on the shelf as Mickey 17, which refereed on the back cover the book Mickey 7 (as in “based on”). So hurried out to get the first one (is it the first part of a series? A lead-in? What?). But no, Mickey 7 was the original novel and Mickey 17 was a movie they made (and of course, the idea guys had to change the name yet re-release the book with the movie name). But opening the books, one on each knee, showed me that both books (and […]