CLYDE WISHAM

Great finish to a good story.

Three and one-half stars rounded up. This is pretty good military science fiction. As with the other books in this series, the story features a lot of action – much of it brutal.
Captain Eric Weston's mission is to find those responsible for launching the genocidal Drasin attacks on the Earth and its Priminae allies. He succeeds, but the cost is heavy.
If you like space battles, this is a book for you.

Quite good. The writers obviously know their subject.
It could happen.

[b:West of Eden 983898 West of Eden Harry Harrison https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1329539583s/983898.jpg 969393] is a pretty good adventure story. That makes it worth a read, but that is about all I can say for it. The world that Harrison created doesn't appeal to me. I had trouble suspending my disbelief.

[b:Great North Road 13573419 Great North Road Peter F. Hamilton https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1344371600s/13573419.jpg 19154394] is long. It is complex. It crosses genre's.Most of all, the book is an SF story as it is set in the future, the action occurs on multiple planets, and involves alien contact. There is a murder to be resolved, so it is a police procedural. It also has lots of high-tech hijinks and action, giving it a techno-thriller feel. There are conspiracies and secret agendas, giving it a mystery/spy feel. Peter F. Hamilton twines it all together and makes it work.Good book.

Quite good. Fast paced with lots of action. I am reminded again of how skilled a writer Butcher is. He has created a new fantasy world with physics slightly different from our own and with a unique magic system. This world is inhabited by people both normal and somewhat odd and by an intelligent race of cats, all living in immense “spires”.
Butcher gives only glimpses of the new society he has created. The spire dwellers live far above the dangerous surface of the planet. They depend on a magic-like ethereal technology. There are hints of a robust trade as well as a history of conflict between the spires. Butcher likes to show rather than tell. I expect the society will be fleshed out in subsequent books.
The story features desperate fights in the corridors, rooms, and ports of Spire Albion as the protagonists defend their home from invaders. It also features some awesome airship battles. I feel that Butcher took inspiration from the works of C.S. Forester and Patrick O'Brien.
As you might expect, the story features a variety of characters–the good, the courageous, the cowardly, the bad, the quirky, and at least one that is downright evil. All are interesting (though some are perhaps a bit too genre standard). There is also a glimpse of a dark, malevolent intelligence, which I expect will be more fully developed in subsequent volumes.
Pretty good yarn. I look forward to more.

[b:The Heist 16169737 The Heist (Fox and O'Hare, #1) Janet Evanovich https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1371429330s/16169737.jpg 22016392] is an action caper story. Think G.I. Jane meets White Collar. There is plenty of action, some humor, and a nice con. However, it didn't really work for me, I think mainly because I couldn't make myself believe in or emphasize with the main characters. I kept on thinking “Give me a break” as I read it. Also the ending rather sucked. Daddy showing up just in time gave it a deus ex machina feel. I give it three stars just based on the humor and the over-the-top ballsiness of the plot.

This is a nice collection of novellas and short stories set in Eric Flint's Ring of Fire universe. The writing is consistently good, but YMMV depending on what rings your bell. Action, intrigue, and skullduggery abound. I especially liked 71 (what happened to those folks displaced from 1632?) by David Brin, Kinderspiel (something smells in Biberach's town) by Charles H. Gannon, Hide Trouble from Mine Eyes (a police procedural) by David Carrico, and Scarface (beauty is in the eye of the beholder) by Eric Flint.
Good book.

The main mystery in this the sixth Flavia de Luce book is not the dead bodies, though there are two of those, but something from the past. Also, unlike previous books in this series, Flavia herself is not in danger. She does, however, have deep mysteries to unravel. In this story we get some poignant family scenes, heartbreak, betrayal, and murder. (What's not to like?) Mysterious government agencies become involved and the secret history of the de Luce family is finally revealed (at least some of it).
This is one of the better books in the series. Recommended. But to get the most from the story, you really should start with book one.

Good space opera. This is the second book in the Aurora Rising trilogy. Start with the first book as it is all one long story.

This long book is the definitive single-volume history of the American air war in Europe. The air war was brutal. An American bomber crewman in 1943 had only a one in five chance of surviving to the end of his tour of duty. The bomber command suffered more casualties in WW2 than the Marine Corps.
The book is centered on the 8th Air Force, but ranges far and wide covering the USA's daylight bombing campaign, the British night bombing campaign, fighter development and deployment, internal politics both civilian and military, the “bomber barons”, the experience of civilians on the receiving end, German defensive tactics, the experience of prisoners of war, the development of air medicine, and much much more.
All in all, this is an impressive book. It is well written and well researched, it does not shy away from the ugly side of the war, it brings out a wealth of new information, and it illuminates some relatively unknown aspects of the war. Recommended.

“Zombie, zombie, zombie” is a line that repeats many times in this book. That sort of sums it up.
Good book for those looking for a desperate struggle against the zombie apocalypse.

Another good cozy mystery featuring the 11-year old genius detective, Flavia d Luce.
In this story the precocious Flavia spends a lot of time in graveyards and crypts – places where she is quite comfortable, thank you. The story features dead bodies and chemistry of course. Additionally, the story of the de Luce family develops a bit further and we are left with tantalizing questions about the family's future and past.
Alan Bradley had some fun with the main mystery, giving it a nice Agatha Christie feel toward the end. All in all, a nice addition to the series.

Good military SF. Marko Kloos has become one of my automatic buys.

There are some important ideas considered/discussed in this book, but that doesn't save it. The first half was fairly interesting, but in the second half Kim Stanley Robinson tries to bore us to death. The whole book basically expounds a single reason for the Fermi paradox. I found it unconvincing.

Three and one half stars rounded up. This is an alien invasion story with a twist. The humans don't win. (Though they aren't completely exterminated.) The story is told from multiple viewpoints. The two main ones are a high-school boy and a dog. The boy has to become a man very fast and earns the name Iron Mike doing so. The dog? Well he just keeps on being a dog, but a very good dog indeed.

[b:Those Who Dare 19225603 Those Who Dare (Raiding Forces Book 1) Phil Ward https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1441989198s/19225603.jpg 11223742] should be of interest to those who would like to know more about the early days of British special forces operations and training during World War 2. You get action, lots of details of training, a bit of light romance, and quite a few interesting if rather improbable characters.

Those who like lots of action, will like The Runaway.
P.J. Johns is a talented writer. However, his cover art sucks dead puppies.

Three point five stars. C.J. Box tried to get a little spooky in this book. He didn't quite pull it off – at least not for me. Not the best of the Joe Pickett novels, but still an interesting read.

This is an odd book. Nothing particularly exciting happens and there isn't much of a plot. Even so, the story of young Ishmael Horatio and his friends going about their daily work is strangely compelling. I expect I will read more of the series.

An SF classic by one of the grand masters of the genre.

Good SF with a heavy romance sub-theme.
What do we have here: Alien invasion, check; human vs human war, check; dastardly dark treachery, check; high-tech hi-jinks, check; spy/covert ops action, check; star-crossed lovers, check. What's not to like?
I will read the rest of the series.

This is one of the better books in Cornwell's Saxon series. Uthred is older now, but he is still one seriously tough ass-kicking warrior.
This book has a lot of action and travel. First Uthred and his men have to withstand an attack by an invading Viking army led by a brutal warlord. Then he has to make a trip to Ireland to save family members and gain new allies. Then he has to return, deal with an old lover who now hates him, and then save the kingdom of Mercia from the invading army. None of those are easy tasks.
Uhtred's interactions with his three children are very nicely done. The tough old warrior is actually a bit of a softie deep inside.
Of course there are some great battles. And, characters other than Uthred have important rolls in those battles. Two brother against brother feuds have to be resolved, a bishop surprisingly provides support, and an enigmatic prostitute named Mus inspires an army.
Good book.

Two and one-half stars. There is a good story in this book, there really is. Unfortunately, it is obscured by endless data dumps. Someone needed to return the manuscript to the authors and say, “Great story. Now go back and reduce it by a third.”

[b:Winterkill 244100 Winterkill (Joe Pickett, #3) C.J. Box https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1427388697s/244100.jpg 236494] is [a:C.J. Box 314195 C.J. Box https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1294305640p2/314195.jpg]'s third book about Joe Pickett, game warden and reluctant detective. In this book, Joe Pickett has to deal with multiple problems. First he finds a murdered U.S. Forest Service official. Then two government employees who arrive to investigate his death prove to be a bit nuts – or as some would put it, “they don't have all their dogs barking”. An anti-government group further complicates things by taking up residence on federal land. And then to top all that off, Joe's foster daughter April gets kidnapped. Local law enforcement proves to be pretty useless and things get desperate for Joe Pickett. Box weaves these elements together to make a good, suspenseful tale. As usual with C.J. Box, there is a nice twist at the end.Box gives us some changes in this book. Having had some hard times, Pickett has started to loose his somewhat Pollyannaish attitude. He still expects people to do the right thing but is no longer surprised when they don't. Also Box introduces a new character that I rather like named Nate Romanowski – a former special forces operative and falcon hunter living alone in the mountains. I hope he continues in the series as he would make a great side-kick for Joe Pickett (sort of like Hawk to Spencer).Good book.