Book Blog
March 30, 2025
think I’m almost there – two books remaining. As always, the reptilian Grik in Africa somehow come up with another massive army and fleet of galleys (along with the usual host of ironclads) and are coming down the south-flowing Zambezi river, attempting to break out and flood across the strait to Madagascar, to push out the allies and keep pushing until thousands of miles are taken back. Unluckily for our heroes, all their assets are north, up in Zanzibar, where they just put paid to much of the Japanese presence there, including squashing a significant character or two. So there is […]
March 23, 2025
don’t quite remember where I got this one – probably a used bookstore. It didn’t have ISBN or copyright info, so I’m guessing self-published or an advance copy. Either way, it was a pretty good effort. So we have the Magellan, a deep-space exploration vessel making a time-dilated, sleep-chamber haul out on a mission of exploration. Deep in space they find an object with no relative motion, just sitting there. When they try to move it, it attempts to remain where it was, slams into the back of the shuttle bay and then burns out. Fortunately they can communication with […]
March 17, 2025
f this book’s vector didn’t immediately jump out at you, let me remind you. Toto is Dorothy’s little dog from the Wizard of Oz. Oh yes, that dog. We saw this with Wicked and A Barnstormer in Oz. These are reimagining of the classic movie we all watched as kids, that big event. in each case, we see the various elements recast, either humorously or horrifically. And this work is no exception. Tota is a clever, sharp, wisecracking mutt who is still trying to wrap around the through that his beloved Dorothy and the Gales (Henry and Em) turned him […]
March 9, 2025
‘ve never read much of Greg Bear’s work. Just didn’t spin out that way (and I doubt he’s read any of mine, so we’re even, I guess). Picked up Slant from the used bookstore right before it folded. My final purchase. So in the book, we at the midpoint of our century. You can see echoes of our times in this one – some Global Warming issues, breakaway states (pretty much up in Militia country). AI is coming along, with one of the characters inorganic. Nanotech and general tech have improved to the point where you can change your body […]
March 2, 2025
y friend Pete loaned this book (first of three) to read. I was a bit hesitant – I don’t know Pete’s tastes and if they weren’t mine, well, I’d just signed up for about 570 pages of regret. Needn’t have worried. Wool jumps right in. The last of humanity live in a silo underground, about 150 floors deep with nothing but a circular stairwell to join them. The world outside is toxic and dead, but people still enjoy sitting in front of the big display, watching it. And to keep those camera lenses clean, every so often (when someone cracks […]
February 24, 2025
his one came to me as a birthday present from my dear wife. Normally she doesn’t try this sort of things – given the number of books I’ve read (I’ve reviewed hundreds on this website), she doesn’t risk it. But this one stood out for obvious reasons. It is the historic recount of an American who started out as an ambulance driver in France and ended up enlisting in the Royal Air Force. Hailing from far-away, different-world Kansas City, the fellow had to start the lengthy process of becoming a Lancaster Bomber pilot in command, involving months of effort. And […]
February 16, 2025
o it’s Berlin, 1964. Not our Berlin, but a Berlin where Germany won World War Two. It’s not one of those “Germans Rule the Planet” deals – in this case, they own most of the east (but are still fighting red terrorists along a Vietnam-like front). All other European countries bow to them. And Hitler, now an old man, is about to have a massive birthday party. President Kennedy will soon be flying in to talk detente. Way below all this is a policeman, Xavier March, divorced, hated by his young son (for party reasons), an ex-uboat man, just doing […]
February 9, 2025
o we all have our images of Germany’s original push, the blitzkrieg, with well-run German tanks superior in technology and tactics to every nation they faced. Right? Well, as Matthew Cooper and James Lucas lay out in this 1976 book, no, not quite. The two authors make a pretty good case, showing how the successful (yet too little, too late) infiltration tactics of World War One led to the ideal of total mechanized warfare. You punch through a weak point. You drive hard, cutting communications and command, and rout the enemy. It’s how cavalry used to be used. And the […]
February 2, 2025
‘d read this so many years ago (pretty much when it came out) that I finally remembered it about half-way through this pass. The “soap bubble” air defenses – I remembered that. The Forever War was written by Joe Haldeman, a Vietnam vet, just after that pointless war ended. And it has a lot of the national angst that rocked us when it finally did shut down. Other than recent politics (and like the War in Forever, is comprised of half-truths and misconceptions), never had the nation been so divided. Haldeman captures that (hell, he was living it) in this […]
January 26, 2025
don’t know who Adam Carolla is. A friend said he runs a very popular podcast and was a personality as one of those sorts of “zoo crew” guys on various radio shows. He’s quite successful. Found his book on the shelf of a Norfolk used bookstore (where I get lots of books). Anyway, I looked it over and through “why not?” Okay, I did. I didn’t enjoy it very much. I’m sure that Mr. Corolla wouldn’t like me very much either. We are different sorts of people. So Not Taco Bell Material is a memoir of Carolla’s childhood, pretty a […]