CLYDE WISHAM
This short work is the story of a chance encounter with an alien race in deep space. It tells some of the backstory for Kingswood's novel [b:The Pericles Conspiracy 18427543 The Pericles Conspiracy Michael Kingswood https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1378138838s/18427543.jpg 26065458]. I suppose it is also intended to entice the reader into buying the longer work, and that certainly worked with me. (I love a good first-contact story.)
Frank Chadwick is best known of as a game designer. However, he also writes novels – and does it very well indeed. He seems to like mixing genres. His first book [b:How Dark the World Becomes 15803177 How Dark the World Becomes Frank Chadwick https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1345678721s/15803177.jpg 21526591] melds science fiction with noir crime. (My review) [b:The Forever Engine 17571515 The Forever Engine Frank Chadwick https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1376474722s/17571515.jpg 24511231] takes a different tack. It feels to me like H. Beam Piper's Paratime world mated with 19th century steampunk and had a very precocious offspring.The main protagonist, Jack Fargo, is a polymath. He is a linguist, a professor of ancient history at a prestigious university, and he also has a good knowledge of science. But, no simple scholar, prior to a life-altering tragedy he was a special forces officer operating in Afghanistan. In The Forever Engine he needs all his skills when he teams up with a British professor, a special agent of the crown, and a beautiful French spy to save the world from doom.This is a good, fast-paced story with lots of action and surprises along the way. Good book, recommended.
I quite enjoyed Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, the 15th book in Bujold's long running Vorkosigan saga. Can you successfully mix humor, intrigue, and romance in a science-fiction tale? Well you can if your name is Lois McMaster Bujold.
The main characters are happily unmarried Captain Ivan Vorpatril and a refugee from Jackson's Whole called Tej. The story begins with Ivan temporarily on Komarr, assigned as aide-de-camp to Admiral Desplaines. His plans are interrupted when Imperial Security agent Byerly Vorrutyer shows up at his flat late one night and asks him to help out with Byerly's current investigation. Ivan has misgivings, but reluctantly agrees to help. Byerly stresses that all he needs to do is get find out what he can about an attractive young woman who might be in danger. (Obviously he knows Ivan's hot buttons.)
From that point, nothing goes as Ivan expected. He soon finds himself sheltering two young women on the run, dodging kidnappers, and caught up in the intersecting machinations of Jackson's Whole plotters and ImpSec. His life will be forever changed.
Good book.
[b:Landscape Turned Red: Battle of Antietam 1281587 Landscape Turned Red Battle of Antietam Stephen W. Sears https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1387653302s/1281587.jpg 668010] is without a doubt the best single-volume history of the battle of Antietam. Sears is a good writer and historian, and he brings the battle to life with emotion and close attention to detail. The book tells the story of a lost opportunity. An intelligence coup gave General George McClellan the opportunity to use the superb tool he had created, The Army of the Potomac, to destroy Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and quite possibly bring the war to an early end. However, he dithered and gave Lee time to put his army in a strong defensive position behind Antietam creek. This pretty much guaranteed a very bloody day for all concerned. McClellan still could have decisively defeated the Confederate forces, albeit at a greater cost than if he had acted quickly, if he had been willing to commit his army to a general attack. He had a 2 to 1 advantage in numbers and his army was better equipped and in better condition. Instead he committed his forces piecemeal, permitting the defenders to hold them off and make their escape bloodied but unbroken the next day. The war continued for another three years. Opportunity lost.I would say this book is a must read for students of American history, and if one wants to write a story that includes that bloody day, this book should be constantly at hand.
In the early cruel winter months of 1970 Smokey Dalton is struggling re-stabilize his life after the gut wrenching events of [b:Days of Rage: A Smokey Dalton Novel 20932611 Days of Rage A Smokey Dalton Novel Kris Nelscott https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1393547195s/20932611.jpg 458980]. He receives a frantic phone call from his son's friend, Keith Grimshaw. Keith's 13-year-old sister, Lacey, has been lured to the Starlite Hotel and attacked. Smokey hurries to the Starlight and finds that his son Jimmy has rescued Lacey from a rapist. He rushes the injured and traumatized girl to hospital.When Dalton tracks down the rapist, he discovers that Lacey is not the only victim. The Outfit, a mob-based group with political connections has been preying on girls from Lacey's school and brutally forcing them into prostitution. Smokey tries to get help from official channels but soon finds that the police have been bought off and other options are blocked. Then, just when things are starting to look hopeless, he finds unlikely allies. Street justice will be required to stop this evil, and Smokey Dalton and his allies are just the ones to administer it.I love this series. Smokey Dalton is a real hero.Update: I just listened to the excellently done audio version (August, 2014). It was even better the second time around.
[b:Circle of Bones 16244755 Circle of Bones Christine Kling https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1356122272s/16244755.jpg 18472548], true to its cover blurb, is “a Caribbean thriller”. And, a tense thriller it is indeed.The story starts with Maggie Riley, a former US Marine no less, rescuing nude, handsome Cole Thatcher from the sea off the coast of Guadeloupe. At first she dismisses him as some kind of kook because he claims that killers are after him and spouts conspiracy theories. However, she reevaluates a bit when she finds out that he is a Marine Archeologist with a PhD and owns a very practical salvage boat. He claims to be trying to locate the sunken French submarine Surcouf and asks Riley to help him. Riley is reluctant at first but agrees when events show that Cole is indeed being purused and that one of those pursuers is someone from a dark incident in her own past.The story is told in two timelines. The main line is in 2008 and involves Riley and Thatcher trying to solve a mystery and stay alive in the process (no easy matter). The other and shorter timeline tells the story of the Surcouf's fate in 1942. This is a good structure for the story as it gives the writer ([a:Christine Kling 470084 Christine Kling https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1195922526p2/470084.jpg]) a way to fill in a lot necessary back-story in a non-awkward way.To avoid spoilers, I won't give any details. However, if you like stories that are intricate, are very tense, have age-old conspiracies, have a good romance line, and sport antagonists that are both very capable and very evil, this one might be for you.
Chivalry is alive and well in [b:The White Company 314752 The White Company Arthur Conan Doyle https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1387727828s/314752.jpg 785960]. In it a man's word is worth something, and his actions are worth even more. It is also a very bloody story indeed with lots of swordplay and arrows flying.I mixed reading the book and listening to an audio narration. The narration by voice actor Nick Rawlinson gives the story a somewhat different feel and especially colors the character of Sir. Nigel. The book makes it clear that Sir. Nigel is not physically impressive at first sight. Rawlinson reinforces that impression in the audio version by giving Sir. Nigel a mild voice and a slight lisp, which makes him all the more impressive when he goes into action. Slight of stature but aggressive and spirited, he is a banty rooster of a man. He is always looking for “honor” and “advancement”, which seem to be his code words for “a good fight”. He is my favorite character in the story.Young Alleyne is the main protagonist. His part in the book seems to be a more standard coming of age story. His journey from the cloistered world of an Abbey as a shy and inexperienced young man to the end of the story, where though still young, he has become a scarred warrior wearing a knight's spurs, makes a good tale. And, he gets the girl! A very satisfying journey, actually.And there is much more to this good book of medieval adventure.
[b:Terms of Enlistment 17619479 Terms of Enlistment Marko Kloos https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1365637085s/17619479.jpg 24585130] is good military science fiction. Period. The writing style is solid and held my attention all the way through.It has a lot of the standard military trope characters: for example, the tough as nails Sargent, the clueless self aggrandizing staffer, the hard but fair commander. Those tropes exist because they reflect a good deal of real life, and Kloos uses them well to push his story forward. He also does some unexpected things with them. (You'll have to read to find out.)The basic story is common enough. A young person joins the military, matures, faces dangers, and has adventures. The main character in this case is a young man, Andrew Grayson, who at the start of the story lives in a nasty welfare slum area of a dystopian future Boston. He joins the military as a way out of his dead-end existence. This isn't as easy as it sounds. Many apply and few pass the tests. The story then follows Andrew through training, duty assignment, and his blooding as a soldier.About half-way through the story takes a sharp and unexpected (to me) turn and goes somewhere else. What I thought was going to be an exploration of the dystopian future Earth turns into a alien encounter war story. (Marko Kloos makes it work, but I have to wonder about that other story that he almost wrote.)The writing is crisp, the characterization is strong, and there is plenty of action. If you like Elizabeth Moon's military SF or Tanya Huff's Valor series, you will probably like this.
[b:The Atlantis Gene 17999892 The Atlantis Gene (The Origin Mystery, #1) A.G. Riddle https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1385398066s/17999892.jpg 24748164] is a good read and a quite respectable effort for a first book. The pace is fast; if anything too fast, and the story has more twists than an Appalachian blacktop. Some suspension of disbelief is required.A.G. Riddle uses a lot of short chapters, most of them ending on a cliffhanger. Unfortunately, this gives the story a jolting, cobblestone effect. He uses the trope of a story within the story to good effect – to fill in the back story, and then (unusually), merges it with the main story. All in all, a good book. I immediately bought the sequel, because, though the story doesn't end on a cliffhanger, it certainly isn't finished and I need to know what happens next.3½ stars because it is a good story that could perhaps be told better.
Mordant and gritty, even funny at times, I can see why [b:The Thin Red Line 92417 The Thin Red Line James Jones https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1171247310s/92417.jpg 994495] is considered a classic. Having said that, [a:James Jones 3999 James Jones https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1227111357p2/3999.jpg]'s writing style doesn't particularly please me. Unless one of his books is selected by a book club I am active in, I doubt that I will be reading more of his work.
[b:Pixie Noir 19066205 Pixie Noir Cedar Sanderson https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1385825904s/19066205.jpg 27092048] defies classification. It has urban fantasy elements. It has traditional fantasy elements. It has noir crime elements.The main character, Lom, is, believe it or not, a pixie. He is also the fairy King's prime troubleshooter, and he is one tough, hard-bitten fellow indeed. He has been dispatched to bring in, Bella, who is a real-life fairy princess (though she doesn't know it at first). Bella is a very attractive and very smart young woman. She is also tough as fishhooks and nails; she carries weapons and knows how to use them. The action in this book is pretty much non-stop, and the premise is something genuinely new (to me at least).I quite enjoyed this book and will be looking for more from [a:Cedar Sanderson 6560085 Cedar Sanderson https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1370425045p2/6560085.jpg].
I quite enjoyed this little book. It is a coming of age story, an adventure story, and an exploration of the concepts of morality and justice – all in a nice space opera wrapper. [b:Rite of Passage 229021 Rite of Passage Alexei Panshin https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1334659898s/229021.jpg 2160570] won the Nebula Award in 1968 for best novel. I suppose nowadays it would be marketed as young-adult SF. The story is still good and still relevant.
[b:Fuzzy Nation 9647532 Fuzzy Nation John Scalzi https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1316132345s/9647532.jpg 18280046] is a skillful re-telling of H Beam Piper's classic [b:Little Fuzzy 1440148 Little Fuzzy (Fuzzy Sapiens, #1) H. Beam Piper https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348972417s/1440148.jpg 1876891]. (Some call it a “re-imaging”.) My first reaction when I learned about it was “Why? The original is fine.” (That is also my reaction to movie reboots – “Meh. We don't need another Borne Identity or Roman Holiday.” But, I digress.)However, John Scalzi is a skillful writer and I have enjoyed many of his other books; so, I decided to give it a read (actually, a listen in this case). I am glad I did. John Scalzi uses the original plot and characters in [b:Fuzzy Nation 9647532 Fuzzy Nation John Scalzi https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1316132345s/9647532.jpg 18280046], but the details are different and the the language and motivations of the characters are more present-day. They are both well-written and enjoyable versions of a good story. Why not read them both?
It seems I can't get enough Smokey Dalton. This was my second time through [b:War at Home 2003116 War at Home (Smokey Dalton, #5) Kris Nelscott https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312013560s/2003116.jpg 2007001], this time in audio format.In this, the fifth book in the series, Grace Kirkland, a neighbor who tutors Smokey's son Jimmy, asks Smokey to find her missing son Daniel. The search takes him east. First he goes to New Haven to try to find out why Daniel never showed up for his spring semester at Yale. There he learns that Daniel has become involved in a radical antiwar movement and that he was asked to leave Yale due to a violent incident on campus.Clues lead Smokey to New York City. There, things turn dark. He quickly finds Daniel and his girlfriend, but gets an unfriendly welcome. He begins to suspect that they are involved with plans to plant bombs in government buildings. Of course Smokey can't just report that he found Daniel, mission accomplished, and go home, not with people in danger. He investigates further.Then, things get violent. People start getting shot, and Smokey finds a cache of bomb making material that seems to be connected to the shootings. He begins to suspect that, in addition to the violent antiwar group and the police, there may be a third party involved – someone with military training. The war has come home. The climax is literally explosive.Very good story.
In [b:1356 15739863 1356 (The Grail Quest, #4) Bernard Cornwell https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344100391s/15739863.jpg 21425637] Bernard Cornwell brings back Thomas of Hookton, the main protagonist of his Grail Quest series. This story takes place about ten years after the events of [b:Heretic 261083 Heretic (The Grail Quest, #3) Bernard Cornwell https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1382119406s/261083.jpg 927167]. Thomas, now a knighted veteran, is a man of some wealth and fame. He leads his own company of archers and men at arms. Though he serves England, he operates independently in the countryside of Gascony.This story has a lot of the tropes we have come to expect in a Cornwell story. There are of course desperate fights and escapes from perilous situations. And then there are evil men. The most malefic men in the book are a Cardinal of the church and his henchmen. They are almost matched in their vileness by the Count of Labrouillade, who is a pig of a man. As in all the Thomas of Hookton stories, there is also a holy relic. In this story, it is la Malice, a sword that was supposedly used by Peter to defend Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Cornwell hangs this story on the struggle to possess la Malice.The story reaches its climax at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. Cornwell shows us the battle by involving Thomas and his men in desperate and bloody fighting at various crucial points.While not as good in my opinion as the Grail Quest trilogy, [b:1356 15739863 1356 (The Grail Quest, #4) Bernard Cornwell https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344100391s/15739863.jpg 21425637] is quite entertaining, and it was nice to read another Thomas of Hookton story.
Kris Nelscott's Smokey Dalton books are very good. I am working through them a second time now, this time in audiobook format.In [b:Stone Cribs 18810472 Stone Cribs (Smokey Dalton, #4) Kris Nelscott https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1384672872s/18810472.jpg 26745051], the combination of a botched abortion and a friend's death forces Smokey into a moral crisis. He finds that sometimes there are no choices without negative consequences. Smokey has to protect family and friends even if it takes him outside the law. Great story with a powerful finish.
Actually, I would prefer to give [b:Homeworld 18043147 Homeworld (Odyssey One, #3) Evan C. Currie https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1370523301s/18043147.jpg 25319833] 3.5 stars. I rounded up.This is the third book in the series on Captain Eric Weston and the hard-fighting crew of the NAC space cruiser Odyssey. To get the most out of the story, you really need to read the first two books before this one.Currie's writing reminds of David Weber in that there is lots of space combat and there are frequent data dumps. If you like that kind of story, you will probably enjoy the Odyssey One series.