Joe Martin

The best science fiction is, at its heart, speculative fiction. These books start with a single big idea—a single question—and develop it. The great books take that idea and develop it superbly. Glory Season is a great book. It starts with a single idea: what if humans could clone themselves when times are good and revert to sexual reproduction when times are bad and genetic diversity is at a premium?

David Brin explains how his idea developed, from that single root.

The idea of cloning has been explored widely in fiction, but always in terms of medical technology involving complex machinery, a dilettante obsession for the very rich. This may serve a pampered, self-obsessed class for a while, but it's hardly a process any species could rely on over the long haul, through bad times as well as good. Not a way of life, machine-assisted cloning is the biosocial counterpart of a hobby.

What if, instead, self-cloning were just another of the many startling capabilities of the human womb? An interesting premise. But then, only female humans have wombs, so a contemplation of cloning became a novel about drastically altered relations between the sexes. Most aspects to the society of planet Stratos arose out of this one idea.

David Brin relentlessly develops this big idea, to see exactly where it takes him. He follows it through the sciences, to see where it takes him: biology, sociology, psychology, and more. By pursuing this idea so relentlessly, he constructs a society that is very alien to our own (uncomfortably so, in cases) but yet is still very recognizable.

Glory Season is a tale of a largely static society, where women hold the upper hand. Men are kept around primarily for their ability to “spark” clone births. It's a society largely dominated by extended clans of female clones. It's a society where being unique is very uncomfortable and where “var” is a derisive slur.

But David Brin didn't allow these big, well developed ideas to get in the way of telling a story. Glory Season is an adventure tale, a coming of age tale, and a tale of radicals seeking to remake society. It was both thought provoking and thoroughly entertaining. I highly recommend it.

I ripped through this book in one day. In less than 12 hours, really. I loved it.

I have a real weakness for what I call “popcorn books”. These are books that can be appreciated much like a summer blockbuster movie can be appreciated: sit back, relax, grab a bag of popcorn, don't think too hard, and just enjoy yourself. I love reading them whenever I'm too tired to appreciate an emotionally moving book or to learn from an educational book or when I just need a break from more serious fare.

Storm Front is a fantastic popcorn book. It's the first-person narrative of Hard Dresden, warlock.

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

He's a hard bitten, Chicago P.I., trying to stay on the right side of both the White Council (Wizard law) and the Chicago P.D. He's usually successful, and usually down on his luck, until the day when everything starts happening at once...

This book is a cross between the hard boiled detective fiction of the early 1900's and modern fantasy. It reminded me of reading Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler, crossed with a bit of the absurdist humor of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. The story was grimly dark and somewhat horrifying but told with a deft, light touch that made the experience more entertaining than depressing. Butcher peppers the story with fast-moving action pieces and witty asides that do a lot to move things along.

Highly recommended.

Since I've started reviewing books, I've been trying to force myself to review a book based on what it's meant to be rather than on what I wish it was. After all, that's the only way to be fair to the author. So it was with this book. I was hoping for a narrative of the life of Andrew Jackson. Instead, I got an analysis of the man and the times he lived in. I was annoyed at first but I forced myself to evaluate it fairly. I think I'm glad that I did.

The title of this book was deliberately chosen. Jackson was an orphan who felt alone much of his life. In reaction to that (as the book makes clear), he valued family highly and would go to any length to protect and defend family. For Jackson, the nation was but an extension of his own family. He loved his country and would go to any length (including invading Florida, risking war with France, evicting the Indian tribes, and suppressing free speech) to protect and defend it. He was very much the “American Lion”, defending his pride.

Meacham's intent with this book was not to exhaustively document Jackson's life. Nor was it even to exhaustively document Jackson's years as President. Instead, Meacham drew on newly available letters and papers to sketch a potrait of Jackson's personal life and his relationships with his closest friends and family members.

While this approach has some advantages in humanizing “The General”, it also has some downfalls. Meacham does provide a thumbnail sketch of Jackson's early years and his path to the White House. Regrettably, I feel that it's cursory enough that it fails to fully setup the drama that was to follow.

For instance, I was really hoping for a look at the actual events of Jackson's life. For instance, how did he campaign for the Presidency? How did Presidential campaigns work, day to day, during the early 1800's? The book just glossed right over those details, mentioning only that Jackson won or lost a given election.

This became important when you consider that a central battle of the first two years of Jackson's presidency involved Major Eaton, the Secretary of War. Jackson staked his entire Presidency on the question of whether or not people around him were loyal to Major Eaton. Eventually, the entire Cabinet was sacked over the question: the first time that had happened in American history.

I spent much of this portion of the book wondering why Jackson was being so incredibly loyal to Eaton. I later grew to realize that Eaton had been quite a central figure in Jackson's earlier life and in winning the Presidency. Because Meacham passed over those years so quickly, I failed to understand (until much later) just how important Major Eaton was to General Jackson.

This flaw weakened the book, in my opinion.

I did learn quite a bit from this book (and may write more later on my impressions of Jackson and his age) but I felt that it would have benefited from more detail and more background information, both about Jackson and about the age Jackson lived in.

This is the first book in a series about King Alfred and how he saved England from the invading Danes. I confess that I knew absolutely nothing about King Alfred before I started this book. I'm a sucker for historical fiction so it sounded like a good way to enjoy a good yarn and learn something about history. I was right about one of those.

I did learn a decent amount about very early England, the Danes, the English, and King Alfred. But I wasn't very entertained. I found myself oddly bored by this book. I can't put my finger on exactly why. Perhaps there was too low of ratio of action to people standing around (or sitting) and talking. Perhaps it was the first person narrative. Whatever it was, I found myself learning a lot but not very entertained.

It was a well written book but not one that I found very engaging. I doubt that I'll be back to read the rest of the books in the series. Which is a bit of a shame, because I could stand to learn more about King Alfred and this pivotal moment in Western history.

I started watching Doctor Who about 2 years ago. It was a vivid awakening for me. I had been very dimly aware that the show existed but had never been exposed to it. Once I started watching it, I loved it but I always wanted to know more about it. It is a story with a rich and complex history. One that I knew nothing about it.

One can, of course, try using Google to do research. With something as complex as Doctor Who, the results are rather ... confusing. So, I just suffered in ignorance, merely enjoying what was on TV in front of me.

Last week, randomly, I became aware that a new book had just been published through Amazon. It was a collection of essays from the blog TARDIS Eruditorum: A Psychochronography in Blue. Up until this point, I hadn't even known that the blog existed. But, I clicked over and decided to take a look.

This is the story of a story that can never end. This is the story of how a daft idea from the bowels of the BBC in the 1960s changed everything. This is the story of an impossible man, and his magic box, and everything that happened after.

Because there's something you'd better understand about me. Because it's important, and one day, your life may depend on it.

I am definitely a mad man with a blog.

Okay, so Philip Sandifer (“a hopeless geek with a PhD in English focusing on media studies”) is an entertaining writer. After a few hours of reading through blog entries, I was also convinced that he knew Doctor Who, he knew British culture, and he knew literary criticism. So I bought the book.

From the book's description:

TARDIS Eruditorum is a sprawling and very possibly completely mad critical history of Doctor Who from its first episode in 1963 to the present. In this first volume, we look at topics like how acid-fueled occultism influenced the development of the Cybermen, whether The Celestial Toymaker is irredeemably racist, and whether Barbara Wright was the greatest companion of all time. This book aims to be the most staggeringly thorough look at the evolution of Doctor Who, Great Britain, and the world from 1963 to 1966 ever published.

Revised and expanded versions of every entry from the acclaimed blog TARDIS Eruditorum from the start to finish of William Hartnell's tenure as the Doctor.

It was utterly fascinating and has already given me a lot of insight into the show and how it works. I'm eagerly awaiting the publication of future volumes and have every intention of purchasing them as they're released. Why not? I'm a sucker for really good literary criticism and a sucker for Doctor Who.

This is a story that mostly works. It's a combination of a revenge fantasy and a polemical and Kratman does a very good job of pulling off both sides.

The story centers around Patricio Hennessey de Carrera, a retired military officer living on the planet Terra Nova. His world is turned upside down when his wife and 4 children (the youngest daughter still unborn) are killed in a terrorist attack. Fighting his way out of nearly suicidal grief, he comes out of retirement, builds an army, and uses it towards the goal of killing everyone who directly or indirectly had a hand in the terrorist attacks.

That's, rather self-evidently, the revenge fantasy portion of the work. Those elements of the story really work and are done well.

The polemical bit comes when you consider who the various groups in the story are. Carrera is clearly a stand-in for a competent but too blunt American military officer. And the terrorists who killed his wife and children are clearly barbarian Islamic fanatics. And the building destroyed in the terrorist attack is clearly a stand-in for the World Trade Center towers. The story is best seen as a description of what happened to America on 9/11 and how we should have responded to it.

It's also a look at how we will have to become (at least somewhat) more like our enemies, in order to win. It's not always pleasant but Kratman doesn't try to make us feel good about the changes. He just wants us to recognizes that victory won't be easy and it will probably change us.

The polemical part of the story works fairly well and is well-integrated into the rest of the novel. It's not forced and the explanations and and motivations that make it up are simply in the natural flow of the story.

So far, so good. But the book goes completely off the rails when it comes to the setting. I mentioned that the book takes place on another planet, Terra Nova. This is a planet that a robotic exploring ship just happened to find. It's a planet that just happened to have been settled by every major nation and ethnic group on Earth. It's a planet that just happened to have geography similar to Earth's. It's a planet where the settlers just happened to group themselves similarly to how people are grouped on Earth.

There is a clear and direct correlation between the countries of Terra Nova and the countries of Earth. It's fairly easy to make a translation list.

• The USA is represented by the Federated States of Columbia (FSC).
• The United Kingdom is represented by the Kingdom of Anglia.
• France is represented by the Gallic Republic.
• Germany is represented by Sachsen.
• Iraq is represented by Sumer.
• Afghanistan is represented by Pashtia.
• Iran is represented by Farsia.
• Russia is represented by Volgon.
• Japan is represented by Yamato.
• Europe as a whole is represented by Taurus.
• The European Union is represented by the Tauran Union.

This book was torn between being a polemic and an action/adventure story. Kratman wasn't quite able to pull off the combination. I'd really like to give it 3 stars but the failed marriage prevents me from doing so.

The Polemic

Kratman takes Mark Steyn's book America Alone and runs with it. What would Europe look like if theocratic Muslims out breed everyone else and subjugate everyone else? It's not a crazy question, especially given what happened to Theo van Gogh and what's been threatened against Ayaan Hirsi Ali. (Or given the fire bombing of the French weekly that printed cartoons of Mohammed.)

As a polemic, this is very well done. The book portrays a European caliphate where Christians live as second-class citizens forced to pay heavy taxes in order to gain “protection” against the jihad. Their sons are taken as slaves for the Janissaries and their daughters are taken as slaves for the whore houses. Women are treated as third class citizens and have very few rights and very little protection from abuse. It's a horrifying portrayal of a very patriarchal society.

America has been transformed into the American Empire, after nuclear bombs destroyed 3 American cities. The result was an enraged nation that proceeded to methodically wipe out all traces of Islam within its borders and then to embark on an attempt to wipe out all traces of Islam, everywhere.

The characters in the book are very ambivalent about what America has become. Most of them believe that it's impossible to live with a dominant Islam but simultaneously believe that America has become an ugly and bad place. It's welcome uncertainty: the idea that it may be necessary to do bad things to prevent worse things but that it's still a bad thing.

I'm not at all convinced that Europe will go down the path that Kratman portrays. On the other hand, I think it's far more likely than most progressive liberals do and I am worried about the growth of theocratic Islam. Too many of our institutions want to placate Muslims, in response to Muslim violence, instead of cracking down on the violence directly. I find that kind of response both weak and disturbing.

The Adventure Story

The story revolves around an American intelligence operative, a Christian slave, her Janissary brother, and a potentially lethal bioweapon. Somehow, the weapon must be destroyed, the slaves must be freed, and everyone must escape from the Caliphate.

It could have been a very good story but I felt that it kept getting bogged down in the expository background information and that too much of the plot existed only to explain the world that Kratman wanted the reader to fear.

It was good but it could have been much, much better.

I feel like I should like this book more because, well, it's written by Neil Gaiman. But, honestly, I had to force myself to finish it. A lot of the short stories just didn't hold my interest. It does have some incredibly good stories (“Snow, Glass, Apples”, “Murder Mysteries”, and “We Can Get Them For You Wholesale” really stood out) but I didn't think it sizzled, as an overall volume.

It's not the author's thesis that I disagreed with, it was his (or his editor's) organization of that thesis. The chapter organization was muddled and ideas didn't necessarily flow well within chapters, let alone between chapters. I think I agree with the author's thesis. It's a shame that it wasn't better presented.

Fans had to wait five years after the publication of Storm of Swords (November, 2000) before they got their hands on A Feast for Crows (November, 2005). In my review of Storm, I mentioned that “the book was a non-stop parade of events, swirling ever more madly as the body count rose ever higher.” That pace couldn't last and it didn't.

Feast opens with a new locale—Oldtown—and new characters. It jumps from Oldtown to Dorn, another location that's new to readers. It was, in some ways, a restart to the story. Once again, events pick up right where the previous book left off. This time the story focuses on the events and characters in and around King's Landing. Cersei is awakened to learn about the murder of Lord Tywin Lannister. She fancies herself as the second coming of Lord Tywin and immediately assumes full power as the Queen Regent. She's determined to make her mark on the Kingdom.

The War of the Five Kings is mostly over. King Renly Baratheon, King Robb Start, and King Balon Greyjoy are all dead. King Tommen Baratheon rules in King's Landing and King Stannis Baratheon is mostly out of the picture, ruling in the North at the Wall. Queen Cersei sets about remaking King's Landing and the king's court in her own image.

An early quote in the book, from Lord Rodrik, establishes the theme and sets the course for the rest of the book.

“Crows will fight over a dead man's flesh and kill each other for his eyes. We had one king, then five. Now all I see are crows, squabbling over the corpse of Westeros.”

It's apropos as most of the book involves various characters maneuvering for influence, believing that the worst is over and all that's left is to consolidate power and feast on the pickings. It's a vital part of the story (it feels true to life) but it makes for a much slower read.

Many of the familiar characters are missing from this book. Martin originally intended to write one book but, as it grew and grew, that wasn't possible. He told the stories of half of the characters in Feast for Crows. He saved the stories of the other half of the characters for Dance With Dragons. Many favorite characters are missing from this book; including Bran Stark, Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and Tyrion Lannister. With so much of the action happening King's Landing, several other characters get short thrift: Samwell Tarly among them. That accounts for about half of the reason I gave this book 3 stars instead of 4.

I also struggled to follow the flow of time in this book. I couldn't quite tell whether events were happening over a relatively short period of time (a matter of weeks or a very few months) or a longer period of time (half a year to a year or more). There seemed to be enough happening to justify a period of a year or so.

On the other hand, we heard almost nothing from the missing characters: no news from the Wall, no further rumors of Daenerys, and nothing at all from Tyrion. That seemed a little unrealistic given how much attention was paid to these characters in earlier books. It almost seemed like Martin was trying to avoid spoilers for events in Dance With Dragons.

Because I spent so much time wondering about the flow of time and wondering whether it was really possible for nothing newsworthy to be happening elsewhere, I lost a little bit of the suspension of disbelief. That's the other half of the reason why I feel this book only deserves 3 stars instead of the 4 stars that I've given to the other books in the series.

I'm used to reading a series and watching the quality drop off, bit by bit, with each book in the series. That's not the case with A Song of Ice and Fire. So far, each book maintains overall quality of the series and manages to ratchet the frenetic pace of events just a little bit higher. I really enjoyed reading A Storm of Swords and I'm already looking forward to tackling A Feast for Crows.

The action picked up right where A Clash of Kings left off. Actually, it backtracked a bit first, to cover what was happening in the rest of Westeros, during the final events of A Clash of Kings. The book was a non-stop parade of events, swirling ever more madly as the body count rose ever higher. In Martin's world, no one is safe from death, betrayal—or redemption. It all combines for a very entertaining read and one that's devilishly hard to put down.

I thought this was a very good sequel to The Game of Thrones. It picked up where the last book left off and immediately went to work advancing the plot. If Game of Thrones had one fault, it was that there was too little action and too much world building. All of that world building begins to pay off in this book, however.

In the last book, some scenes were presented multiple times, from a different character's viewpoint each time. There was little of that in this book, as the main characters are scattered all over Westeros.

There are four main Lords claiming the kingship: Robb Stark, in the North; Renly Baratheon in the South; Stannis Baratheon at Storm's End; and Joffrey Baratheon in King's Landing. In addition, Danys Targareon is still raising her three young dragons, Baylon Greyjoy is planning a new rebellion in the Iron Isalnds, and the men of the Night's Watch are hearing rumors of a massive gathering of Wildlings, north of the Wall.

I was entertained by the continued growth of each of the main characters. It was also very obvious that the story was being driven by the personalities of each of the main characters. Game of Thrones revealed what those personalities were. A Clash of Kings showed the actions that those personalities demanded and the inevitable results of those actions. That personality driven story telling made this book a success.

Personal Enthusiasm: I Shouldn't Have Bothered

This is another book that I picked up because of a recommendation by Glenn Reynolds and his readers. Most of the recommendations I get that way are good. This book was the exception that proved the rule. Reading the reviews on Amazon, I wonder if I was reading the same book as everyone else.

The story revolves around two enlisted sailors: Todd and Peters. They are assigned to “temporary duty”, as advance crew for a Navy detachment that will be touring the local solar systems as the guest of a space faring alien race. The appeal of the story is that it takes place entirely from the perspective of people who are fairly low on the totem pole.

It's a good premise. What went wrong? The first problem is that the book is long. If it were a printed book instead of an eBook, it would be well over 500 pages. I stopped reading 54% of the way through the book and not much had happened in those 200–300 pages.

Todd and Peters spent a lot of time on the spaceship learning the language, interacting with the crew, cleaning, talking, exploring, escorting other sailors, eating, sleeping. I was getting quite bored. More than half way into the book and I couldn't identify an antagonist or a central challenge or any kind of real conflict.

Second, the characters all felt stereotypical and fairly homogeneous. The enlisted were decent. The officers and NCOs were mostly jerks who should have spent more time listening to Todd and Peters. The trader aliens were friendly but clueless about anything related in any way to technology. The technological aliens were standoff-ish but got friendlier when they saw that the humans knew how to perform routine maintenance and were eager to learn about the workings of the ship. And so on. Each character fit neatly into a mold and didn't deviate too far from the outlines of that mold.

Finally, the Kindle edition had problems. Italics would often start in one word or phrase and then continue across multiple pages. I could fiddle with the book and eventually get the text to rest to non-italics but it kept happening. If the story had been more interesting, I might have persevered. But the combination of a dull story and technical glitches was more than I was willing to put up with.

Overall, I felt like this book could have desperately used an editor and a copy editor. The concept wasn't bad but it pleaded and begged for someone to shorten it and tighten it up. It also screamed for some proof reading of the Kindle edition to make sure that everything looked good. It's true that the brave new world of self-publishing doesn't require the services of a publisher. On the other hand, some of those services are still valuable and worth paying for.

Personal Enthusiasm: It Was Okay

Charles Stross is one of the best SF writers currently in the field. Hia books are deeply inventive and he has a gift both for imagining potential futures and for bringing them to life. Glenn Reynolds recommended his new book, Rule 34. It sounded interesting but I wasn't interested in paying new book prices to read it. I noticed that it was preceeded by Halting State. Since it was selling for quite a reasonable price, I decided to buy it.

I enjoyed this book. Stross envisions a new future where network connectivity and augmented reality are ubiquitous. Most people wear glasses that give them information about where they are (virtual maps overlaid on top of streets), who they're seeing (names and brief bios floating alongside the people you're looking at), or even information about nearby businesses. Gaming is big business, with massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs) running continuously on cell phones, available for play anytime.

And then a bank is robbed. But it's a bank located in a game. A bank that should be completely unhackable. And the company running the bank seems strangely unwilling to assist the police in their investigation. The police, meanwhile, are baffled by the entire situation and the gaming scene. It's up to a forensic accountant and a recently fired programmer to figure out what's going on.

The book was recent in second person perspective, for 3 or 4 characters. It was nearly first person perspective but instead of the characters narrating their own viewpoint, Stross narrated it for them. (For example, “You stepped out into the street and hailed a passing taxi.”) That was odd but eventually, mostly, faded into the background.

The science and technology in the story was top notch, as you'd expect from an author who used to be a programmer. The characters were real and believable and each had their own voice and perspective.

It was a very good book. So why didn't I enjoy it more? I think it was that the book wasn't quite where my interests lay. I really enjoyed the world that Stross created but I'm just not that into gaming. Since the entire story revolved around gaming, I found it hard to really get into the spirit of the thing. For someone who does really enjoy gaming, this is an absolutely fantastic book.

As you may be aware (he said dryly), this is the first book of George R.R. Martin's wildly successful fantasy series, “Game of Thrones”. I really like this book. I know it's true because I managed to reread it and there are very, very few books that I can stand to reread.

This book meets most of my criteria for being both entertaining and engaging. It has a grand scope. It's true that the novel sprawls over more than 800 pages but Martin makes good use of that length, through detailed world building.

Most of the story takes place in the land of Westeros, among the Seven Kingdoms. It's a world where magic used to exist but most people believe that the magic has faded out of the world. The last of the dragons is dead and the other magical creatures exist only in fairy tales told to children. It's a world where the seasons last for years instead of months. Summer has been long, more than 14 years, and many people don't remember the harshness of Winter.

The history of Westeros and the Seven Kingdoms is embedded deeply into the story, making the world feel large and expansive. The story revolves around the seven Great Houses and focuses primarily on 3: the Starks, The Lannisters, the Targaryens. Each has their own peculiar history, traits, tendencies, and retainers. The characters in each House are fairly detailed. Everyone has their own unique personality and acts according to their own motivations and those of their House. The richness, depth, and complexity of these characters is a big part of what draws me into this world.

The details of the world are another element that really draws me in. For instance, many of the Lords, being quite imperfect people, father bastards. A bastard isn't entitled to his (or her) father's name but needs a name nonetheless. So, each region of Westeros has its own surname for bastards.

Stone was a bastard's name in the Vale, as Snow was in the north, and Flowers in Highgarden; in each of the Seven Kingdoms, custom had fashioned a surname for children born with no names of their own.

Mix all of this together and you get quite a stew of motivations: greed, revenge, lust for power, duty, fear, loyalty all leading to a constant maneuvering for power in the Game of Thrones. As the Lannisters, Stars, and Baratheons jockey for power no one will move through the story unscathed.

On to the spoilers. Since I'm reading through the series, in anticipation of the release of the fifth book, I decided to keep notes of what happens to each of the major characters in each book.

Robb Stark, Catelyn Stark—Robb Stark inherited the Lordship of the North when Eddard Stark was executed for treason. He's currently at Riverrun, having just won a surprise victory over the Lannister forces and his bannermen have just proclaimed him King in the North, to avoid pledging fealty to either Renly Baratheon, Stannis Baratheon, or Joffrey Baratheon/Lannister.

Arya Stark—Has escaped King's Landing is headed North with Yoren, of the Night's Watch.

Sansa Stark—Is currently being held as a hostage of the Lannisters, in King's Landing.

Tyrion Lannister—Is with his father's forces, on the Trident, but is about to head to King's Landing to try to knock some sense into his nephew's (King Joffrey's) head.

Jamie Lannister—Is a prisoner of Robb Stark's forces, having been captured during the battle for Riverrun.

Cersei Lannister, Joffrey Baratheon—In King's Landing, ruling.

Daenerys Targaryen—On the Dothraki sea. Khal Jogo has just died and her dragons have just hatched. Her pitifully small group is deciding where to go next.

John Snow—On the Wall, with the Night's Watch. He's preparing to go North of the Wall, to find out what happened to his uncle Benjen Stark and to investigate the suddenly reawakened threat of the wights and the other creatures of the cold. He'll be accompnying the Lord Commander of the Watch, Lord Mormont.

Bran Stark—A cripple, confined to Winterfell, longing to act a man, as his brother Robb does.

I came to this book through a roundabout path. ClarkesWorld Magazine had an interview with Lauren Beukes, in Issue #56 (May 2011). Jeremy L. C. Jones was talking with Ms. Beukes about her new novel Zoo City. I got intrigued and checked out the publisher, Angry Robot.

As I browsed their catalog, I stumbled on Embedded. The description intrigued me right away.

When journalist Lex Falk gets himself chipped into the brain of a combat soldier, he thinks he has the ultimate scoop - a report from the forbidden front line of a distant planetary war, live to the living rooms of Earth. When the soldier is killed, however, Lex has to take over the body and somehow get himself back to safety once more... broadcasting all the way.

And, at only $4.79 for the Kindle edition, it seemed eminently worth taking a flyer on.

Now that I've finished it, I still think it was worth the money. But it wasn't nearly as good as it could have been. I knew I was in trouble when I started to think about other books, only a quarter of my way through this one. While I can suffer from ADD while reading, getting distracted while reading a book is generally a good sign that I'm just not that into the book.

This book had several flaws, in my opinion. To begin with, the story dropped us onto a planet still undergoing colonization, without first giving us any reason to care about the world itself, the colonists, or the organizations overseeing the colonization. Then we get a main character, Lex Falk, that we again have very little reason to care about or be interested in. I had a very hard time connecting emotionally with anything (or anyone) in the story.

The story also fell prey to the SF temptation to introduce new lingo as a way of showing that the world of the story is different from our own world. It might have worked except that it felt like it took a lot of work in order to understand what was standing in for what. Don't get me wrong: it wasn't all bad. But parts were and I didn't think that they really added much to the story as compensation.

Sadly, it took about two-thirds of the book before I really felt like I developed a bond with the characters and started to care about what happened. From there on out, for the final one-third of the book, I really enjoyed the read. There was some great action, some great investigation work, and a great reveal. It was a really great read and I enjoyed it a lot.

How do I rate a book like this? Well, 4 stars for concept and the execution of the last third of the book. And 2 stars for the execution of the first two-thirds of the book and the introduction of everything. I'll average that out and call it 3 stars for the book as a whole.

I think this book can be a good read, if you're willing to endure the setup necessary in order to get to the really good parts.

I found this book through Jerry Pournelle's site, Chaos Manor. David Friedman had written in to say that he'd had his agent publish it as “a Kindle”, just to see what would happen. After checking out the first two chapters (and seeing that it was priced at just $2.99), I decided to give it a shot.

I'm glad I did, as I really enjoyed the book. Friedman has constructed a magical system in which magic can be studied, experimented with, and controlled much as physics can be studied, experimented with, and controlled in our own world.

Magic spells and phrases are built up of smaller pieces, each with its own effect. By combining the sounds and words of the magical language, mages can create new spells with the desired effects. Although a mage may not be talented in one area, he can often achieve the desired result through a clever usage of an area of magic that he is talented in. It's a very ingenious system and offers many possibilities for creativity—and for reflection about how science works in our own world.

The story centers around Magister Coeler and his efforts to create a new magical spell: the Cascade. He's initially naïve, believing the spell will be used only for good. Eventually, through subsequent events and the arguments of his student Ellen, he realizes the terrible destructive power of his own spell. Together they struggle to protect their world from the spell and the power hungry mages who would seek to use the spell for evil. It's true that a genie can't be stuffed back into a bottle. But maybe he doesn't need to be either.

I found the book to be entertaining, humorous, and thought provoking. Friedman uses the story to communicate the importance of thinking over brute force and to celebrate the triumph of those who are clever, realizing that victory doesn't always have to go to the strongest. There are many clever uses of “small” magics and it's fun to see the creative ways that a determined person can go to in order to resist coercion.

Dennison has spent his entire life watching Varion, his older brother by 20 years, win battle after battle. Varion has fought his battles flawlessly, perfectly, never losing. Dennison has fought his own battles valiantly, but hopelessly, never winning. And, yet, his father and his Emperor refuse to release him from military service. Why? What good does it do anyone for him to stay in arms? Especially when his brother is loyally advancing the Empire's cause at every turn?

This was a pure impulse buy for me. I saw it listed as “customers that like this also like this” item on Amazon.com. I'm a fan of Brandon Sanderson and it was only $0.99, so buying it was an easy decision. (Sure, I know it's on Tor.com, but I like supporting my favorite authors and I prefer reading things on my Kindle whenever possible.)

This was one impulse buy I don't regret. As always, Brandon Sanderson is enjoyable and he knows how to tell a story with a twist. For a $0.99 short story, I definitely got $5 worth of enjoyment.

Despite watching 7 full seasons of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and 5 full seasons of “Angel”, I had no idea what the Dracula story actually was. I'd thought about reading Dracula and I'd even downloaded eBook editions once or twice, but I'd never actually started reading it. Then, about a month ago, I played a game called Fury of Dracula. Afterwards, I was very interested in the backstory of who the characters are and what “really happened”.

I wasn't disappointed. Now that I've read the story, I have good understanding of who Mina and Jonathan Harker are, why Dr. Abraham Van Helsing matters, and who Dr. John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Lord Godalming are.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to. I went into it with very low expecations, mostly because I'm not a fan of the style of most “classic” books. This one was a rather good yarn though.

The entire story was told through the diary entries of the main characters. The read is given a different diary each time the narrative viewpoint needs to jump. While reading diary entries really added to the dramatic tension in some parts of the story, it wasn't necessary everywhere. Overall, I felt that this constant narrative device was a negative rather than a positive. (Especially in the parts of the book where the diary entries wandered a bit and weren't always relevant to the main story.)

However, that's a relatively minor storytelling flaw in an otherwise very good story. The second half of the book moved along briskly and I enjoyed the action/suspense of the hunt for Count Dracula. I think I could safely recommend this book to most people as an enjoyable action adventure story, even if it doesn't quite meet the modern definition of “horror” novels.

This was a very interesting read. Pohl presents an Earth that's over-populated and suffering great strain on almost every front. But, instead of grouping the nations by ideology – a democratic Western bloc vs a communist Eastern bloc – he groups the nations by resources. There are three blocs in the story: the Food Exporting Bloc (“the fats”), the Oil Exporting Bloc (“the greasies”), and the People (Labor) Exporting Bloc (“the peeps”). So, for instance, Canada, England, and the Middle East are grouped into the Oil Bloc. America, Russia, and others are part of the Food Bloc. And, of course, India, Pakistan, and China are part of the People Bloc.

Right away, the story has set you up for some unconventional pairings and alliances. It makes you think about where countries' natural interests lie and how they defend those interests and project their own power. It's a pretty unhappy world, all in all. The major power blocs are so resource constrained that they don't even have the ability or the energy (literally) to directly fight each other. Instead, petty (and not so petty) resentments bubble under the service, unable to be fully expressed.

This is how things stand when scientists discover the planet Jem, orbiting the star Krug. Soon enough, each of the major power blocs dispatches their own expedition to try to explore and colonize the planet. The whole business is complicated by the fact that Jem has 3 sentient species already: the airborn ballonists, the crablike krinpit, and the underground crawlers. Each has their own agenda and the 6-way conflicts between humans and Krugians makes for an interesting story.

Unfortunately, like most Pohl stories I've read to date, I liked the concept of the story far better than I did the actual execution. I struggled to really like or empathize with any of the characters. Consequently, it was a bit of a struggle to really enjoy the book or even to want to finish it.

Rating:
Enjoyment: 2 stars
Concept: 4 stars
Overall: 3 stars

I've enjoyed Dick Van Dyke ever since I saw Marry Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a child. Later in life, I saw episodes of The Dick Van Dyke show and enjoyed them too. So, when I saw this book pop up in the library, I eagerly snagged it.

It was a very easy and engaging read. The book sounds exactly like Dick Van Dyke—as I read, I could easily hear his voice in my head and it sounded exactly like the Dick Van Dyke that I've heard in interviews before.

The book was the story of his life, mostly as collected through representative stories and vignettes. There were chapters dealing with The Dick Van Dyke Show (one of the best times of his life), Mary Poppins (a movie he still loves), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (a movie that he resisted making for a long time and a movie that he feels justifies his initial low opinion of the script).

Along the way, I learned about Dick Van Dyke the political activist, the sailor, and the Sunday School teacher, and husband. I really enjoyed the glimpse into his “lucky life”, the people he knew, and the times he lived through.

Once again, I greatly enjoyed a book by John Ringo.

If you're going to read Ringo, you need to know what you're getting yourself into. He's a veteran and (judging from his books) he loves blowing stuff up, he hates stupid people, he loves weird aliens or situations, and he has quite a vivid imagination.

Live Free or Die follows this trend. Like many of Ringo's recent books it has a “conversational style”. When I say that, I mean that it reads as if you were sitting around a fire with him, listening to him spin a tale. The narration is loose and free, the action is usually just a bit over the top, the events are a bit outrageous and the entire thing is ton of fun to experience. It never even approaches the realm of fine art but that's okay. It's too much fun to quibble about.

The book opens when Earth (Terra) receives its first visit from aliens. They drop off a space gate that allows anyone and everyone from the galaxy to come calling. Soon enough, the Horvath come through and start demanding tribute. It's up to Tyler Vernon to figure out a way to make a buck (or a couple of billion) and start leading the way to free Earth.

Along the way, most of Earth's major cities get wiped out (along with most of America's die-hard liberals) leaving the conservatives and libertarians in charge. Most of the Middle East also gets wiped out (due mostly to their own fear and stupidity.) This is at least the second time that the Middle East has been destroyed in a Ringo novel. (The first, I think, was in “Into the Looking Glass”.) A trillion ton asteroid gets turned into a floating battle station (complete with 1.5 kilometer thick nickel-iron armor) and hundreds of floating space mirrors are used to turn alien fleets into scrap metal.

Really, what's not to like?

How suddenly a life can be cut short. That is the lesson I took away from “Kennedy”.

I underestimated Ted Sorenson. I shouldn't have. One doesn't get to be Counselor to the President and speech writer without having some skills with words. Nevertheless I strongly disliked this book and allowed that to color my perception of Sorenson's skills. I did, at least, up until the final paragraph.

The final few chapters start to build momentum as Sorenson depicts Kennedy's resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the sudden relaxation of tension with the Soviet Union, the negotiations over atmospheric nuclear testing, and the successful signing of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The tone of the book changes to reflect Kennedy's relief at successfully navigating these crises. Sorenson chronicles Kennedy's trip out west to promote the treaty and the dawning new era of détente with the Soviet Union.

Then, he treats the reader to this final, concluding paragraph.

On November 20 he transmitted an optimistic report to the Congress on our participation in the United Nations. On November 21 he started another tour into the heartland of the opposition, this time in Texas. That evening, in Houston, he talked of “an America that is both powerful and peaceful, with a people that are both prosperous and just.” The next morning, in Fort Worth, he expressed confidence that “because we are stronger...our chances for security, our chances for peace, are better than they have been in the past.” That afternoon, in Dallas, he was shot dead.

It will not be easy for historians to compare John Kennedy with his predecessors and successors, for he was unique in his imprint upon the office: the first to be elected at so young an age, the first from the Catholic faith, the first to take office in an age of mutual nuclear capabilities, the first to reach literally for the moon and beyond, the first to prevent a new recession or inflation in modern peacetime, the first to pronounce that all racial segregation and discrimination must be abolished as a matter of right, the first to meet our adversaries in a potentially nuclear confrontation, the first to take a solid step toward nuclear arms control—and the first to die at so young an age.

History and posterity must decide. Customarily they reserve the mantle of greatness for those who win great wars, not those who prevent them. But in my unobjective view I think it will be difficult to measure John Kennedy by any ordinary historical yardstick. For he was an extraordinary man, an extraordinary politician and an extraordinary President. Just as no chart on the history of weapons could accurately reflect the advent of the atom, so it is my belief that no scale of good and bad Presidents can rate John Fitzgerald Kennedy. A mind so free of fear and myth and prejudice, so opposed to cant and clichés, so unwilling to feign or be fooled, to accept or reflect mediocrity, is rare in our world—and even rarer in American politics. Without demeaning any of the great men who have held the Presidency in this century, I do not see how John Kennedy could be ranked below any one of them.

But the President was upset, and sternly told Jacqueline later never to do that ... and not to worry about his future. On November 22 his future merged with his past, and we will never know what might have been. His own inner drive, as well as the swift pace of our times, had enabled him to do more in the White House in three years than many had done in eight—to live a fuller life in forty-six years than most men do in eighty. But that only makes all the greater our loss of the years he was denied.

This book is comprised of 3 stories, originally written as serials. The first could be called a novella, about the rebellion against the theocracy established by Jeremiah Scudder. The second, Coventry, concerns life outside of the Covenant, established after the overthrow of the theocracy. And the third concerns Libby, who has an instinct for math.

The stories were typical Heinlein fare with strong themes of personal morality and the choices men make.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. On the surface, it's a straightforward espionage story with plenty of action and chases. However, what moved it from a two-star to a three-star rating was the vivid descriptions sprinkled throughout the book.

Pournelle is a grand observer of life and he sprinkles his observations throughout the book. The book takes place in Seattle, the Pacific Coast (as two characters sail from Seattle to Los Angeles), and the areas around Los Angeles. In each locale, Pournelle drops in vignettes that serve to illuminate the scene and bring the characters to life. He comments on everything from 1970's-era hotel design, to the fashion choices of hippies, the perils of British manufacturing, the pleasures of a well-built sailboat, and the interesting characters one might see walking through the cities of Southern California.

One of my favorite little pieces is from a description of Venice, California:

Venice was swarming with people of all shapes and sizes, old Italians and Jews living on retirement in houses they'd bought when they were the only people here, or clustered in former resort hotels converted to homes for the aged, anterooms for the funeral homes that sprouted like ghouls.