Book Blog
March 28, 2021
ell, this one jolted me in surprise – written in the mid-eighties by Hilbert Schenck, who worked on feasibility studies for the USAF for a nuclear-powered bomber (impractical, given that conventional bombers could do the job easier, cleaner, and didn’t radiate like the bombs they’d just dropped when they returned home). Anyway, what caught me is that the story opens in a model train operations session (where, before Digital Command Control, they are using “microcomputers” (whatever that means in 1985) to simulate how steam engines work in their session). Overall, I really enjoyed the tension and repartee most sessions have. […]
March 21, 2021
ulled this one of my late father’s shelf, one of those 1979 age-of-sail swashbucklers written by the great Alexander Kent. Just one from the shelf run by the same author, a tale of his hero, (now Flag Captain) Richard Bolitho, facing the events of The Great Mutiny. See, I thought we were talking India, but no, this was apparently a massive mutiny that swept the Royal Navy at the time. It came as a poke in the eye to captains and their belief in rule by rank, that they could beat and punish anyone they damn well pleased. Concessions were […]
March 15, 2021
his week, I continue with my crush through dusty old books. This time, a modern day adventure (modern day if you are thinking of the early 1900s). But the book Pirates’ Hope followed very close to the trail of Treasure Island – an island, a band of desperate heroes, and a group of horrid buccaneers. So how did we get to this point? It seems Bonteck Van Dyck is one of the idle rich. He’s got everything. Further, he’s a skilled football player and a leader of men. Being who he is, he approaches his old college chum Dick Preble […]
March 7, 2021
he Hollow Needle; Further Adventures of Arsene Lupin: how could I miss? Spotted this while pulling the original book from Project Gutenberg (which I rather enjoyed). And I’ve heard this is one of his most famous episodes. So here, again, we have a crime that takes place – several men invade the palatial home of the Comte de Gesvres. While his daughter Suzanne seems rather useless, her cousin Raymonde, a more practical girl, spots one of the fleeing thieves from the balcony, picks up a rifle from a trophy case (it appears it is kept loaded, bad gun safety there), […]
February 28, 2021
his is the third book of the Old Man’s War series, a tale where John Perry and his resurrected (long story) wife Jane leave their happy colony home to establish a colony for the Colonial Union. Journeying to a planet named Roanoke (as terrible a colony name as that is), they quickly realize that (a) this is not the planet they were supposed to colonize, and (b) that the ship dropping them off is now disabled, and (c) they are under quarantine, and nobody knows where they are. It turns out that this is all Machiavellian moves to throw off […]
February 21, 2021
’d first heard of Lupin from the classic Japanese anime (and I do mean classic – it’s been running fifty years) – Lupin III. There, the main character, a master thief, claims he was the grandson of Arsene Lupin, whoever that was. Then there was the very recent series on Netflix, Lupin, where a modern French thief raves about “the Lupin books”. Well, you all know how I am with literary threads like this – I gotta unravel them. So into Project Gutenberg I went, poking around. And yes, there was a Lupin, a thief very popular in French magazine […]
February 14, 2021
kay, no mistaking this – Drone is one of those male fantasy books. Troy Pearce, our main character, is the CEO of Pearce Systems, a company that makes and flies drones for all circumstances including whale tracking and political assassinations. He apparently spends his time up in a cabin, running his company with occasional online meetings and mostly chopping wood (with his shirt off). His officers are all eclectic individuals who do their own research from various beaches around the world. No TPS reports. No budgets. No investor meetings. Everyone is sexy and provocative and perfect. The villains are pretty […]
February 7, 2021
his shortie comes from The Fortunes of Captain Blood, one of the collections of short stores that 1930’s megastar Rafael Sabatini wrote about his break out character, Captain Blood, a pirate in the golden age of piracy. In this short tale, Monsieur de Saintonges, on a sort of inspection tour of the French possessions in the Caribbean for his masters in Paris, has been successful in that he has married a very rich woman who owns most of Martinique. In completing his circuit and before heading home to enjoy his wife’s fortunes in his homeland, he calls upon Tortuga, a […]
January 30, 2021
had a good feeling this was going to be good. The first book of the series (Old Man’s War by John Scalzi) was really a joy to read. And I had my best friend Jesse (as well as the guy behind the counter at the bookstore) rave about how good the followup was. And I’ve got to say, “I had it on good authority…” Great book. This book centers on the Ghost Brigades, far-future solders who are created from the DNA of the dead, who fight and die to keep the human colonies safe. However, one of them is a […]
January 24, 2021
ou know those quaint little curb libraries where you can trade books? Usually I find them packed with children’s coloring books and gothic romances. But while shopping the three in my neighborhood, I found a five-year-old hardback, a medical thriller titled The Hollow Men. So Doctor Harry Kent is a bit of a rudderless soul, a fellow who, besides his hospital rounds, puts in time as a police surgeon for the London Metropolitan Police. And one night he’s called in; a young teen has gone into a chicken fast food place with a starter gun and a list of demands: […]