CLYDE WISHAM
Cat Island is the final book in Walter Jon Williams' Privateers & Gentlemen series. It is actually the culmination of two story lines. One story line follows the career of Captain Favian Markham, USN. His story began in Brig of War and continued in The Macedonian. The other story is told in The Tern Schooner. It follows the adventures Gideon Markham, an American privateer who is also Favian's cousin. Those stories merge in Cat Island as Favian and Gideon team up to try and stop an imminent British attack on New Orleans.
Those who like action packed stories of high seas adventure, will probably like Cat Island. However, you should read the other books in the series first. They are all good reads.
The Tern Schooner is an action packed story of high seas adventure set during the war of 1812.
The main protagonist is Gideon Markham, an American privateer. He has his hands full. He must command his tall ship in canon duels, capture enemy ships, beat off attacks by Red Stick Creeks, negotiate with pirates, quell a mutiny, help stop a British invasion, and deal with a bewildering romance – all of this while dealing with his on internal demons.
Good book – Walter Jon Williams never fails to deliver a good story.
I found a worn copy of Nightmare Blue recently in a used book store. I was familiar with Gardner R. Dozois because of his annual Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies, but hadn't read any of his own work. Nightmare Blue was a pleasant surprise; Dozois and his coauthor, George Alec Effinger, wrote a very good story.
Basically, the story is a cross-genre mix of crime and SF. Nightmare blue is a drug, a terribly addictive drug. It is the perfect slave drug because one hit and you are hooked for life. If you don't get it you die – it is that simple. Unfortunately nightmare blue has started showing up on Earth. An unlikely duo, Jaeger a human PI and Sendijen a lobster-like alien, have to find and stop the source. The stakes are sky-high.
Recommended.
(I just found out that Baen have reissued an ebook version.
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1772-nightmare-blue.aspx)
A Dangerous Road succeeds on several levels. It is a damn good detective story. It is a story about race relations in the United States fifty years ago. It is a love story. It is a story about families and their secrets. All of this is woven about the tumultuous events during the sanitation workers strike in Memphis in 1968, culminating with the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Smokey Dalton, a black man in the segregated South, struggles to eke out a living as an unlicensed PI. Then (it is almost a cliché) she walks into his shabby Beal Street office. She is Laura Hathaway, a wealthy young white woman from Chicago. She hires Smokey to look into her family history. The thing is, her family history and Smokey's seem to be tied together somehow. And that is the mystery this story turns around.
Great book and Smokey Dalton is a great character. I plan to read the entire series.
Update: I wrote the above in November of 2012. I just listened to the audio version (October 2013), and it is also very good. The narrator nailed it. Powerful stuff.
David Brin's Existence is both very interesting and somewhat irritating. The book has eight parts. The first six parts tell an engaging and interesting story which follows the adventures of several protagonists during a time of first contact. At that point I surmise that Brin decided that he just wouldn't be able to finish the book if he continued that way (at least not in a single volume). Anyway, he radically changed the style in parts seven and eight. In those two sections we no longer see the protagonists meeting challenges as events unfold. Instead, the story takes great leaps forward in time, pushing to story forward. Some foreshadowed adventures and events that I was anticipating were told only in hindsight. This let Brin finish the story in one (big) book, but at some cost to the storytelling.
Existence is chock full of interesting and provocative ideas about what the future may bring. Whether it is technical, scientific, social, economic, or you name it, the book touches on most everything related to, yes, existence. Brin's imagination is rather amazing. The book is worth reading just for that. And, the first contact idea in Existence doesn't fit any of the standard SF tropes that I know of. It is quite an unusual and interesting idea.
Conclusion: While Existence doesn't tell as good a story as some of Brin's earlier books (for example, Startide Rising and The Uplift War), it is still a good read, especially for those who like hard SF.
In the past I have read quite a few of Parker's novels. These include some of the later Spenser novels, basically all of his Jesse Stone and Sunny Randel novels, and a couple of his Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch novels. I quite enjoyed them all, so I decided to start reading the earlier Spenser books.
The Judas Goat is Parker's fifth Spenser novel and my second foray into early Spencer. I knocked this short novel out in one evening. Compared to my previous Parker read (God Save the Child), the pacing, characterization, and descriptions were much improved. Parker was obviously learning and improving in his trade.
In this story, Spencer journeys across the Atlantic to hunt down some terrorist killers. The job turns out to be more than he can handle alone. He is one against many, and they are determined to kill him. So, he calls in Hawk (of course) to give a hand and watch his back. Then, the chase is on from city to city.
Good story, but fair warning – things get bloody and brutal.
Sarah A. Hoyt is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers.
Darkship Renegades is good space opera. There is adventure, action, a little romance, and some serious do-or-die situations. What's not to like?
Darkship Renegades is the sequel to Sarah's earlier Prometheus Award wining Darkship Thieves. I would suggest reading both.
(Note: This review is based on the ARC ebook from Baen books; the print version not yet being available at the time of writing.
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1717-darkship-renegades-earc.aspx)
The Warrior's Path, which is the third book in Louis L'Amour's Sacketts series, is quite a good read. Louis L'Amour is best known for his Westerns. This book, however, is better classified as historical fiction as it takes place early in American history before the Western expansion really got started.
In this story is Kin Sackett takes on white slavers who are kidnapping young girls and women from coastal settlements and selling them in the West Indies. There is plenty of tension and action in this book. The action ranges from the Carolina hill country to coastal settlements and from there on to Jamaica and back again. As usual in a L'Amour tale, there are formidable and resourceful villains that are not to be taken lightly. But the Sacketts walk tall, as is their wont.
The Long Way Home is the first book I have read by Sabrina Chase, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It provides a rollicking good story with a nice mix of mystery, action, and suspense. It is a good example of what is being called human-wave science fiction. (Human-wave stories are not like the recently fashionable dystopian tales. They are often more space operatic, and, I would say, are restoring the sense of wonder to SF.)
The book ends on a hopeful note, but with a lot of mysteries unsolved. That is alright, however, because the story continues for two more books in which I expect all will be revealed (Raven's Children and Queen of Chaos, both now available).
Who would like this book? Well, if you liked Elizabeth Moon's Serrano Legacy and Vatta's War books or David Weber's Honor Harrington books, this might be a good book for you.
The Macedonian continues the story of Captain Favian Markham, USN, that began in Walter Jon Williams' Brig of War. Things pick up pretty much were they left off in the previous book. The war of 1812 continues. While awaiting his next command, Markham becomes involved in chasing down a spy ring that has been signaling the British blockade fleet. Then when a fortuitous storm gives an opportunity to break the blockade, Markham basically steals the frigate Macedonian and heads out to do battle with the British in the Atlantic. (Well, actually, he takes command of the Macedonian under somewhat shaky orders from a senior captain—there being no time to communicate with Navy headquarters.) From that point there is lots of action involving deep water sailing and naval combat. Walter Jon Williams obviously did a lot of research for this book and it shows in his very vivid descriptions of what it was like on an American naval vessel in the early 1800's.
This is a very good book. Recommended for fans of Patrick O'Brian and C.S. Forester.
When Heaven Fell is both interesting and depressing. The book is dark, showing a future that we wouldn't wish for. A cybernetic Master Race has conquered Earth, killing billions in the process. Humanity is now a subjugated race, basically a slave race, and it seems that is the way it will be forever. But life goes on and isn't too bad for some ... if you can adapt and accept your place. There is a lot of explicit sex, some fighting (the main protagonist is a soldier), and a bit of intrigue. Some deep moral questions are at least asked if not answered. (Would you betray those close to you to save your country? Your race?)
When Heaven Fell is a well written book. As trends in SF go, it was before its time.
It was a good read and I will be buying more of Barton's work.
