Well, I am not afraid to admit that the only reason I picked up this book was because it was a free ebook on Baen’s website.  I think.  It was a long time ago.  I read a recommendation of it somewhere, probably on John Scalzi’s Whatever weblog site, and decided I had nothing to lose.  Besides, I was looking for a well-formatted ebook to try out on my PDA using MobiReader.

Freehold is old-school Science Fiction in the vein of Heinlein and Drake.  It follows the desperate escape from Earth of Sergeant Kendra Pacelli of the UN Military after being framed in an embezzlement scheme.  She finds herself on Freehold after seeking asylum at their Earth-side embassy and is overwhelmed by extreme culture shock.  What seems to me to be the ultimate Libertarian Utopia, is a unrestricted nightmare for someone who grew up in the authoritarian, politically correct, dystopian future that the modern world seems to be trending toward.  We get to follow her adjustment to a personally responsible, high-technology life on a world devoted to the freedom of the individual. 

It is difficult to preview this book without giving much away, so I won’t go into it much.  While it seems that it could be rather proselytizing, it really is able to keep it down to a minimum.  As I am a big fan of smaller government, the concept of Freehold, an individuals’ liberty and government minimization greatly appealed to me, and was essential to the storyline, but only was used that far and not to bludgeon the reader with political badgering.  The only major problem I had with the book was its length.  Because it was so long, it took awhile for anything to really get going.  I read this on my PDA, but read something on the order of 10 other books in the meantime, going back over a year.  Not that it was boring, but just a bit slow in the beginning.  But not to worry, it really picks up at the end and I ended up with a few really late nights to finish it.  A good read made great by its availability, and it served it’s purpose:  I will pick up more from this author in the future.

Ok, last review was a little over the top.  I should have called it:  The 21st Century's Alas, Babylon.  This book is credited as inspiration to One Second After and with good reason.  Having never read it, I thought it was time.

"The Day" is the one when the bombs fall.  Although we meet our hero Randy Bragg, native of Central Florida (just north of Orlando), and his brother Mark, who serves in Intelligence for SAC, a few weeks before.  Mark warns Randy of an impending attack and sends his wife and kids to stay with him to weather the threat, giving them all some time to prepare.  The threat is realized when the morning skies are lit up in the direction of Tampa, then less so from Daytona and Miami.  And all doubt is erased when the nuclear strike on Orlando itself and the resulting mushroom cloud is unmistakable.  The rest of the book is the story of a small community fighting for survival in the Florida "Contaminated Zone".

Set in the late '50s, it has an interesting perspective for me, knowing Orlando 30 years later.  The references to McCoy Air Force Base (now Orlando International Airport), Pinecastle and the St. John's River are enjoyable and interesting landmarks.  This is also a well thought out and written book, although not as grim as One Second After, and the characters seemed a bit flat to me as well.  Both these comments, though, are to be expected for a book written 50 years ago.  I found some details, such as the abundance of food, and the town rallying behind the leadership of a man all felt previously to be a amusing playboy, to be disappointing.  But it was a very enjoyable read and was significant for its times, if not so much today.

And now, the book heralded across the Internet as a must read.  One that eclipses most other novels, and tainted my perception of previous reads (Sorry J.F.Lewis).  It was referenced by Techo-geeks, Military writers and SciFi fans.  How could I not read it?  I ended up getting a copy from the local library and consumed it in little over a week.

One Second After actually starts a couple days before.  Then suddenly, the power goes out, most cars stop, and all electronics go dead. And nobody knows why.  Retired USArmy Colonel John Matherson has a pretty good suspicion having to do with high-altitude EMP burst attacks over the United States, but with no communications with anyone in earshot, who can tell?  What follows is a chillingly realistic look at how devastating the total disruption of electricity would be to our country.  The entire novel is set around the people in a small North Carolina community struggling to survive in conditions 100 years gone.

This is one of the most disturbing book I have ever read.  At the same time, it was very well written and executed.  I felt for the characters, identified with them, feared for them.  I will be buying this book for myself later, it was so good.  I have recommended it to everyone into technology and anyone who feels "safe" from foreign threats.  This is "Red Dawn" of the 21st Century.

I've gotten way behind and am having a hard time remembering what I've read. First up, though, is the sequel to Staked. Again, I bought this for the wife, but since I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to read ReVamped too.

ReVamped continues where Staked left off. Eric, a newly undead but powerful vampire with a bit of a memory problem, struggles to overcome the "Problems" incurred at the end of the first book and find answers to who and what he is. And find out who is responsible and exact some revenge. Definitely a fun story!

I was really impressed by Book 1, but not so much by this one. It's not that it wasn't good, because it was. Just not great. I came away feeling that it was a continuation of an ongoing story and didn't really resolve anything important. Maybe it was me and I had too high expectations. We'll see how the wife likes it...

Some time ago, I came across my old friend Tom Cavanagh online and discovered he is a writer. I read his first 2 books and really enjoyed them both. I don't usually enjoy crime novels, but someone lent me this book, and because I enjoyed Tom's books so well, and because Sandford is the pseudonym of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Roswell Camp, I tried it out.

Lucas Davenport is a celebrated police detective in the Minneapolis area who is renowned for using his intellect and game building skills to crack cases. He is brought in to solve a series of seemingly unconnected murders that have all been "signed" by a single killer's messages to the cops. Davenport is forced to out-think a killer who obviously is familiar with forensics and police procedure in order to bring the killer in. What results is a good, rarely predictable investigation that pits mind against mind in a struggle to be top game master.

Ok, I'm still not a fan of crime novels. But I did enjoy this one. It was a mix of the TV shows CSI, Criminal Minds, and Psych. Actually, I couldn't get the image of Lassiter from Psych out of my mind during passages about Davenport, although his actions were more James Bond than Lassy. This was a good diversion, if not a great book. It remains to be seen if I read more of the series (19 books!).

Heechee Rendezvous is book 3 of the classic Heechee Saga of Frederik Pohl.  While Gateway is a very different read, the second of the saga was more mainstream than its predecessor.  And HR is good solid modern Science Fiction.

Again, we join Robinette Broadhead, the even richer billionaire of the Gateway saga. But this time, right from the start, we learn of the alien race known to the humans as Heechee. The main storyline begins with a down-and-out pilot on one of the Gateway planets who decides to work his way back to Earth on a transport ship after his young wife leaves him to go exploring with the castway Han from the 2nd book. On the voyage home, he discovers evidence that the Heechee are still around and can be found, so his plans change to confront Broadhead with a plan to do so. Meanwhile, Han has found the black hole that changed Robin's life so dramatically in the first book and rescued Robin's lost love as a consequence. Both these actions alert and trigger the emergence of the Heechee into Human space, along with a warning of the Assassins who may be awakened to return and destroy all life in the universe.

Final answers in the Heechee Saga are not answered here. We are obviously led up to a conclusion in the final book Annals of the Heechee. This was a good read and Pohl's grasp of science and technology is, again, very refreshing, especially this volumes examination of Artificial Intelligences and the question of storage of human intellect.  I am really enjoying reading this series and look forward to the final book.

I finished this book some time ago, but delayed the review of it because I was not sure how to do it properly.  Every once in a long while, I will read a book that is so good, so meaningful, that it can change perceptions.  This may very well be one of those books.  While watching an episode of Dogfights on the History Channel, I learned of Bud Anderson who flew the famous Old Crow P-51 Mustang in Europe during WWII.  So I looked him up online and discovered he had written a book.

I grew up believing, and well into adulthood, that Chuck Yeager was probably the greatest (American) pilot of all time.  But Yeager himself disagrees:  He names Bud Anderson that pilot.  He is the only combat pilot in WWII to achieve triple ace (17 kills) and never get hit.  His tour of Europe never included a scrubbed mission due to his ability or aircraft.  He was incredibly lucky and extremely skilled.  The story of Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson reads like a novel but yet contains great technical and tactical data.  He grew up a poor farmer, joined up at the opening of the war, flew combat in Europe with one the first squadrons to be outfitted with the Mustang, was a wingman of Chuck Yeager and flight leader as well, a test pilot during the glory days at Edwards, and even flew combat during Vietnam in F-105s.  The man is a hero, deserves to be a legend, and still lives today.

To Fly and Fight is written in a humble voice, quick to give credit where due, not afraid to call it like he saw it, and reluctant to believe he is the great hero that he so evidently is.  The problem with writing a review of a book such as this, is not to come off sounding ridiculous, but that is a difficult feat.  I truly enjoyed this book, and have made it part of my permanent collection.

Sometimes I think this site is turning into a Book Review site instead of a technical site.  And in support of that concern is Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, book 2 of the classic Heechee Saga of Frederick Pohl.  While Gateway is a very different read, the second of the saga promises to be a bit odd, but more mainstream than its predecessor.  And is just so.

We join Robinette Broadhead again, but only as one of the primary players in the story.  More closely we follow the expedition to another artifact dubbed the Food Factory located in the Oort Cloud.  The expedition indeed finds a food processing facility but cannot get it to move closer to inhabited space.  They also find a surprising inhabitant:  A teenaged boy stranded there since birth.  Or rather stranded there and at another location they call Heechee Heaven.  And there the surprises are even greater.

The Heechee Saga is nearly as important to Science Fiction as the Foundation Trilogy and 2001 and its sequels.  If you read Dune and the Ringworld stories, you should read these.  But having said that, the books really are not that great to read.  The stories and the ideas in them certainly are, however, and has shaped much of modern SciFi.  At least in my mind.  Even 30 years later, I still think the AI entities in the books as pretty accurately modeled.  And his treatment of the vast distances within our own solar system is very refreshing.  I am really enjoying re-reading the series, although, I don't believe I have ever read the remaining books.  I am doing so now, but have also picked up some other material as well, so it may be awhile.

UPDATE: When writing up the sequel, I noticed I posted the wrong title for this book. It is now corrected.

Ah, the classics.  Occasionally, I will go back and re-read a book I haven't picked up in decades.  Gateway is such a book.  It has been so long, I couldn't even remember the plot.  Oh, I remembered the premise alright, but the details of the plot were lost to me.  This classic of Sci/Fi has spawned sequels, imitations and a pretty decent (1992) computer game. 

Gateway is the story of a reluctant explorer in the hunt for Heechee artifacts.  The Heechee were a race of ancients that left a space station, dubbed Gateway, complete with several hundred FTL ships.  Once discovered, they were quickly experimented with to find that although no one could figure out how to program them, random combinations of the controls would send a ship out and return to Gateway automatically.  Untold riches awaited volunteers who could ride the ships and return with more artifacts, if any are to be found.  Of course, many dangerous and fatal things were on the other end of the trips, and chnaging the controls mid-flight meant certain death.  Our hero is one of the volunteers who must overcome his very reasonable fears and make some trips out.

Gateway is told from a split perspective.  We know that the protagonist is ultimately successful, as he is very wealthy and undergoing therapy, the primary vehicle of the plot.  However, the therapy hints at horrible trauma and the deaths on his conscience.  The well executed plot leads to a suspected, yet surprising ending that is very satisfying.  There are many reasons why this is a classic, and well justified.

This is a novel approach:  Take your last book, which was really quite good, and retell it from the perspective of a supporting character.  Scalzi's latest book, Zoe's Tale, does just that.  What's more, the supporting character is the sarcastic teenaged daughter of the protagonists in The Last Colony.  Of course, being Scalzi, I ordered and read it in hardcover.

This is the parallel of the last book in the John Perry storyline.  Zoe is the adopted teenaged daughter of John Perry and his ex-SpecialOps wife Jane Sagan who are asked to be the administrators of a new colony.  She must leave behind everything she has known, again, because the colony, named Roanoke, will be hidden, or lost, from everyone.  She must survive with the rest of the colony as the Conclave of Worlds comes after the colonists to destroy them for violating their non-compete edicts.  Oh, and also needs to deal with an entire race of aliens who hold her in the highest reverence for the acts of her biological father.

If you have not read The Lost Colony, do not read this book.  I could only imagine what it must seem like to a non-fan.  It does stand alone, but is not the voice of John Scalzi at his best.  It is, however, extremely entertaining to one familiar with the storyline.  Zoe is sarcastic, cynical, cruel in a teenage-girl way, and very funny.  She is a very endearing character to someone who appreciates some of those qualities.  This may be a fan-service book, but I am very happy to have it in my collection.

I am very excited about this book!  I don't like murder/crime mysteries, but this one is different.  (Disclaimer:  Tom Cavanagh is an old friend of mine, so my opinion may be a little skewed!)  When I found out that my old friend Tom is now an author, I didn't even hesitate to order this book.  How could I not read it?  I'm even going to post a link to his website:  http://www.thomasbcavanagh.com/ 

Murderland is a story of Central Florida (where I spent 20 years), Theme Parks and tourists (where I spent 3) and murder.  Kevin Lonnegan is an ex-cop turned private investigator who is asked by a old friend to investigate a pair of murders at the Empire Realm theme park.  His friend is also an ex-cop and happens to be head of security at said theme park.  Lonnegan is called in discretely because the head detective from the Orange County Sheriffs office is a former colleague of both of them whom they have little more than disdain for.  So he goes under cover picking up clues that could endanger his life and that of his new friend Sheila with whom he struggles to figure out his own feelings for in the wake of his young wife's tragic death.

Ok, I started reading this book only because Tom wrote it.  I then found it to be very amusing from an setting perspective.  Tom lives in Orlando, as did I, and it is very evident in his writing.  There are many insider references to the area, that Tom does a great job of exposing to the reader.  And it seems to me that he did an excellent job of describing the theme park that is NOT Disney World, but certainly is to me!  Suddenly, I discovered that I really cared about the characters and settled in for a very fun read.  Only took me a few days, which these days is remarkable!  Turns out, I really enjoyed the book!  I don't know if it's a great mystery novel, for I am not the one to ask about that, but I know what I like. 

I wish Tom the best, and many more novels (he already has 2 more).  It is my hope that he become bigger than some of the less deserving authors I have read...  And continue the poking at the mouse!  I LOVE it!

Continuing with one of my favorite authors, Warrior Class is the next in the series by Dale Brown.  In my last post I described the series as "stories of near-future geopolitical conflicts with an emphasis on air-power.  What's not to love?"  Well, unfortunately, in this book we find out.

Warrior Class returns us to the modern political arena, only with the increasingly divergent stories with larger than life events, it's hard to say it's the modern world so much as an alternate history anymore.  And that's great, really.  A new isolationist president has been elected with little foreign policy experience and starts a policy of removing all U.S. presence around the world and slashing military budgets.  (Sounds like a certain candidate running now that scares the crap out of me....)  A Russian mafia boss takes the opportunity to make a buck in the Baltics and poor General MacLanahan must do something.

I was disappointed with this book.  Is this really the same Dale Brown that wrote Flight of the Old Dog and Night of the Hawk?  I will be giving the series a rest for a while, partly because I have a whole lot of other books to read.  Hopefully, the next in the series will get back to the solid writing I have come to enjoy.

Heralded by many to be one of the founding series of modern science fiction, this is the first book of the Lensmen series.  It has been made into games, TV shows, etc, none of which I am familiar with.  So, I thought I'd better get with it and do so.  I picked up an old dime-store copy and got reading.

Triplanetary seems to be a collection of early stories and a novella that sets the stage for the series to come.  The first few stories tell of the fall of Atlantis, the burning of Rome, WWI and WWII, etc.; important events in human history.  They expose an galactic plot between two superpowers at war with one another, although one doesn't know of the others existence, in which Earth and its inhabitants are unknowing pawns.  The final novella is about 3 Terrans captured by space pirates, escape, then by a vastly advance fish alien civilization, which, of course, are able to escape from again.  Fortunately, Terran military scientists are able to quickly reverse engineer the fish alien's vastly superior technology in only a few weeks (days?), and built a super-battleship capable of defeating the aliens very civilization.

Yes, this is early sci-fi.  Pulp fiction, et al.  And I probably would offend the leet geeks, but I thought this book was terrible.  Maybe this was a fan-service book to set the series, but I felt the characters were flat and trite; I didn't care what happened to them at all.  The swooning girl, the incredibly capable hero with a tender spot for our frail damsel, the military leaders with single-minded faith in our hero to the point of having no contingencies, all make for great plot indeed.  Maybe I have been led to expect too much, but Burroughs, Howard, Asimov, Clarke and the others have done so, and in surrounding time frames.  So, I won't find out if the rest of the series is any good.  I just don't care.  Indeed, I can't even be bothered to find cover art for this post.

Recommended by another of my ex-Navy friends, I have just completed my 3rd read of this book.  I first read it in 1996, and have considered it one of the most important books I have ever read.  I love combat books written from the point of view of the man in the trenches; this is the one that started it all.  I prize my copy so highly that I will not lend it to anyone.

Company Commander is the experiences of Captain Charles MacDonald, US Army, from the fighting at the Siegfried Line to the end of fighting of World War II.  He is put in command of I Company as a replacement for the previous CO killed during their last engagement.  His baptism of fire during the Wehrmacht's last offensive at the battlements is a stunning introduction to the front.  Mac works us through his fears and nervousness as a new commander and gives us witness to the elation of survival in the trenches.

This book is one of the most memorable I have read about combat infantrymen in WWII.  I dare say it may be one of the most important I have ever read.  Although I have no way of knowing its accuracy, I suspect that the frank portrayal of the front-line infantryman is the reason for the gripping read.  Ironically, he has also captured the long stretches of boredom followed by the frantic moments of utter panic.  Yet the slow areas are more a relief than they are dull passages.  The only complaint I might have is the near complete absence of any technologic detail of the weaponry used, although that is more than made up for by the detailed analysis of the order of battle used during the conflict.  If you have any interest in infantry combat in WWII, this is a must-read book.

Recommended by Sub Dave, one of my seemingly many ex-submariner friends, I picked this book up in my never-ending search for good military books.  It does not disappoint. 

Blind Man's Bluff:  The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage is a collection of some of the USNavy's most daring reconnaissance missions using specially modified submarines during the Cold War.  From the first Captain to follow a new Soviet missile sub for 47 days (!) to the tapping of undersea telephone cables under 400 feet of water, the tales are riveting and surprising.  There is a great deal of high-tech shenanigans here!

A large, but very enjoyable read, I consumed this one quickly.  Each episode is laid out well and neatly presented for a single sitting.  The stories selected read like character driven novels and string together to form a intriguing look at the hidden side of submarine warfare during the Cold War.  This has become a permanent part of my collection.

I am always looking for some light reading for my wife, who doesn't read much escapism. I try to get her to read more nonessential stuff to help her relax at night in order to sleep better. John Scalzi featured an interview with the author and the article intrigued me, so I bought it for her. So over the weekend, while my wife and daughter were in Orlando, I took a break from the great book I am reading and consumed this one. I was impressed. And annoyed to find out its the 1st of a trilogy that hasn't been written yet.

Staked is the story of Eric, a newly undead, but powerful, vampire with a bit of a memory problem.  He lives the dark lifestyle, running  a strip club for menu selection, hangs with a bunch of over vamps, and has girlfriend issues made worse by letting her talk him into turning her too.  He finds himself in the middle of a war with the werewolves for reasons he can't understand.

This is not your typical vampire novel, so Anne Rice lovers will need to look elsewhere.  This is a more intelligent take on the blood-sucker genre but still is a light read that I consumed in 4 days.  Not a record, even for me, but much faster than most books lately.  This is the first Vamp book that I really enjoyed for its logical storyline and decent belief-suspension qualities.  No over-the-top sexual situations or mind-groaning magical assertions, beyond the necessary to set the situation, of course.  Read the Scalzi feature and get the book.  It doesn't disappoint.

Continuing with one of my favorite authors, I recently finished Battle Born by Dale Brown.  Brown writes stories of near-future geopolitical conflicts with an emphasis on air-power.  What's not to love?  Battle Born continues the McLanahan storyline again as second in command of the secret research facility Dreamland.

The conflict this time is Korea.  North Korea has finally exhausted most of its resources, the economy is in a death-spiral and the people are starving and threatening revolt.  Much like modern NK, if sources are to be believed.  As NK threatens to invade South Korea, an all out assault is swiftly conducted by the south, toppling the government and unifying Korea for the first time in modern history.  Of course, life isn't that simple as rogue elements of the communist military try to exact revenge, China plays dirty again, and American politics is, well, American politics as usual.

In order for this book to work, Brown has to through nukes around.  A lot.  The technology fronted in this book deals with anti-ballistic systems.  As such, the plot is a bit unrealistic.  Not terribly, but it made me scratch my head a bit.  Unfortunately, I did not feel that this was one of Browns better books.  In fact, if I had read it before the others, it's unlikely that I would read any more of him.  I don't think Brown has lost it yet, but I am concerned.  This is one for the fans, and little else.

Well, this is an interesting subject.  I got this book as a Christmas gift and it was an easy read.  If you don't know what the Darwin Awards are, you really shouldn't be on the Internet.  Contained within is a collection of the latest winners.

I am not going to summarize any of the entries here, you have seen many of them all over the Internet.  But it was a fun read.  Quick too.  However, all of the entries can probably be found online, and in fact, have been promised so in the text.  And it is probably more enjoyable to be fed them in small doses than all at once, anyway.  I will pass this book about, so others can enjoy it, but I wouldn't rush out and buy 1-3 or any following titles.

When I finished Thunder Below, I realized that I haven't read a Sci-Fi title in a long time and picked up a book co-authored by Ben Bova.  It stunk.  I didn't get more than 100 pages in and dropped it.  I was afraid that since I have read a great many good books with relevance lately, that I was tainted to the irrelevant, namely fiction.   I was wrong.

The Time Ships is a sequel of sorts.  It picks up from The Time Machine, the master work by H.G. Wells.  We follow the further adventures of the Time Traveler as he attempt to return to the time of the Eloi and Morlocks.  But he discovers that time streams are not linear and he cannot return to the future as returning to the past has obliterated that possible future.  Instead he meets a Morlock who is civilized and vastly intelligent, far removed from the Morlocks of Wells imagining.  The remainder of the story involves the Time Traveler's futile attempts to find his place in the Multiplicity, or the whole of possible past and futures.

The main praise I have for this book is this:  Finally someone treats time travel in a way that is not insulting to anyone who knows the least bit of theoretical physics or cosmology.  I really enjoyed this book and will use it as a stepping stone to more of Baxter's works.  Well done, excellently planned and brilliantly executed.  A fine read.

In June of this year, Rear Adm. Eugene B. Fluckey died at the age of 93.  I cannot hope to give a proper summary of his career, but to say the summary of it upon his passing caused me to immediately purchase his book chronicling his command of the submarine USS Barb. 

Thunder Below! is slang used in WWII for depth charges and gives us the indication that this book is about submarine warfare.  What we cannot be prepared for is the great storytelling found here.  The USS Barb was the most successful submarine in the US Pacific Fleet during WWII under the command of one man.  This is the story of the Captain and his crew on some of the most daring raids of Japanese shipping, ports, factories and even an attack against a train.  The Barb even pioneered the use of rocketry from submarines.  The official war record reads like a novel and this first person account, accompanied by official American and Japanese documentation, is more exciting than many thrillers.

I started this book because the topic interested me.  I finished this book knowing it would be a permanent part of my library.  I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in first person accounts of WWII, naval engagements, or military history.  I thoroughly enjoyed it from cover to cover and anticipate that I will read it again one day.  Very impressive.  Adm. Fluckey should be recognized by everyone as a true and very real American Hero.

Bill Mauldin is probably the most famous cartoonist from World War II.  He was an infantry soldier in the Italian campaign who also worked for the Italian theaters version of Stars and Stripes, the soldier-run newspaper.  If you were to see one of his strips, you would immediately recognize his work.

The Brass Ring is Mauldin's autobiography of his early life through the end of WWII.  He tells of his very humble beginnings as the son of a poor farm family, life in the depression, and the start of his career as an illustrator.  He joined the National Guard at an early age at the encouragement of a close friend as it became evident that the Guard would be Federalized at the beginning of the war and before he could be drafted.  He was able to quickly establish himself as a journalist and cartoonist and so avoiding direct insertion into a combat unit.  This is the story of his experiences and the material he created from them.

The Brass Ring has a much more linear telling than Up Front and is easier to read because of it.  Again, I enjoyed the perspective of the infantryman in the trenches although Mauldin never really experienced combat as a reporter.  He seemed to be willing to put himself in the thick of it though, which is refreshing for a rear echelon type.  An enjoyable book, but not the collection of his work that I have been hoping for.  I will keep trying.

Lord Foul's Bane is a fantasy classic that I have read before; twice, I believe. But it was so long ago, that I have been meaning to re-read it for awhile.  The books I have are so old, Amazon doesn't even have the images to link in.  Hopefully Wikipedia doesn't mind.

Lord Foul's Bane is the beginning of the story of Thomas Covenant called Unbeliever.  He is a modern day man afflicted by Leprosy.  He finds himself unwillingly thrust into The Land, a mystical realm that is able to resolve some of his nerve damage and remove his disease.  But he is wary, knowing it must be too good to be true.  He must deliver a message of Doom to the leaders of the Land, and resolve his inner turmoil of even being there.

Covenant is a reluctant hero with fears and flaws that match our own.  Donaldson's treatment of him is very deep and extremely satisfying when looking for a character that is more realistically complex.  He spends much of this book battling the psyche of the main character himself.  There are others, I am certain, that have written this series up far better than I.  For more, find such a review online.  This is the first book of the first trilogy of the Chronicles of the Unbeliever.  The 2 trilogies were so popular that Donaldson has started the 3rd and final a couple years ago.  The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are, without a doubt, required reading for any fantasy fan.

Bill Mauldin is probably the most famous cartoonist from World War II.  He was an infantry soldier in the Italian campaign who also worked for Stars and Stripes, the soldier-run newspaper.  If you were to see one of his strips, you would instantly recognize his work.

Up Front is a collection of some of Bill Mauldin's panels from the war, starring Willie and Joe, along with his own commentary on the war, his work and his own experiences.  They range from very funny to moving.  The text is in no particular order, the panels are roughly arranged by topic, and the stories are fine, indeed.  He gives the reader a feel for what the infantryman, the most important element of any army, went through while at the same time conveying a feeling that it truly can not be comprehended by any outside of the brotherhood of men who were there.

Bill Mauldin has been called the best cartoonist covering the war years and the plight of the foot soldier of all time.  I would agree, though I certainly have not been exposed to the full range.  I liken it to the book Company Commander, written by an average Joe made Captain and given the command of two subsequent companies during the invasion of France.  I tremendously enjoyed Up Front and it will be added to my permanent collection.  I anticipate that I will be reading it again many times, or at least referring back to it on many occasions.

Ed:  Wow, this is my third review in as many weeks!  But that's not entirely fair.  I started this book while still reading Fatal Terrain, which I reviewed a couple weeks late.  I did blaze through The Last Colony very quickly, though.  That was an excellent book!  And Up Front was a very easy read with a lot of space used for panel comics.

Scalzi's latest book is The Last Colony, which also marks the end of the OMW trilogy.  The first two books were very enjoyable, so obviously, I had to pick this one up too.  I think I should also note, that this is the only trilogy that I have bought the first run of entirely in hardcover.  They are that good.

This is the last book in the John Perry storyline, at least for now.  Perry and his ex-SpecialOps wife Jane Sagan are asked to be the administrators of a new colony against the demands of the Conclave of Worlds, which Humans are not part of.  Fittingly, the colony is named Roanoke as it will be hidden, or lost, from everyone.  Of course, it is not hidden forever, nor is the premise as simple as it appears.

An excellent, and quick read.  I have read every novel that Scalzi has written to date.  This is the best of them all.  You can tell that his style is maturing nicely in this novel, which was written as well as many of the giants of SciFi.  A more complex story than Old Man's War, more compelling than The Android's Dream, and packed with more intrigue than The Ghost Brigades.  I still think I liked OMW best, but that is because it was much more military than this one.  Can't recommend Scalzi enough for the true SciFi aficionado.

Following Shadows of Steel is Fatal Terrain, a continuation of the Patrick McLanahan / Brad Elliot storyline.   The next in my quest to read all of the Old Dog series from Dale Brown.

This time, the conflict is in China.  Specifically centered on the "rogue province" of Taiwan.  The Taiwanese leadership declares independence from China, which is not received well.  Gen. Elliot (ret) is recruited by Sky Masters, Inc. to fly one of the EB-52 Megafortresses with McLananahan and crew on contracted Sig-Int recon missions in the Formosa Strait.  When a Taiwanese frigate is attacked by Chinese navy ships, Elliot launches against them, exposing the stealth missions and heating things up.  Major conflict ensues.  Nukes are used.  Fun by all.

I found it very helpful, and quite enlightening , to read up on Taiwan's real status in today's world.  Wikipedia's article on the Republic of China (Taiwan) is concise enough to get a feeling of the complexity of the situation over there.  While not one of Brown's best works, it was very entertaining, if a bit disturbing.  The portrayal of Elliot was a bit over the top, but worked for the story, and the reasoning why was evident in the end.

I am reading through the remaining books from Dale Brown that I have missed.  He is not as good an author as Tom Clancy was in his prime, but is far better than any other techo-political thriller author I have ever read.  Shadows of Steel is book 9 of his Old Dog series (I believe all his books are from the Old Dog series).

SoS takes place in the Middle East, ironically, dealing with Iran.  Ironically as Iran is being a bit of a problem now 10 years later.  When, Sky Masters, Inc, loses a stealth UAV in the Persian Gulf, a new Iranian carrier of the old Soviet fleet traces the signal to a recovery ship belonging to the company.  The ship flees, but it sunk by the Iranians.  Several friends of Patrick McLanahan are captured and imprisoned in Iran.  An enhanced B-2 and a V-22 make important appearances in the story along with the usual mix of high-technology and dream weapons that we can only hope are real.

Brown again mixes a good story with awesome, if a bit ambitious, technology to make a very enjoyable, if not real deep, read.  Again, if you haven't read previous works, you may be a bit lost in places.  I enjoyed this one enough to move right into the next in the series Fatal Terrain.

The Civil War is an interesting topic, here in the States.  There is an great deal of confusion and hypocrisy surrounding it and the events and politics around it, foremost being slavery.  Harry Turtledove is the master of alternate history fiction, and crafts the conflict into what is considered his best book.  I have read others of his, but always intended to read this one.

The Guns of the Southis told from the point of view of two very different personalities.  One is Nate Caudell, a 1st Sergeant of the Confederacy, and the other the infamous Robert E Lee.  As it becomes apparent that the war is lost for the South, a mysterious group of men introduce a new type of rifle to General Lee they call the AK-47.  Armed with the assault rifles and the ammunition to use them, the war quickly turns, as expected.  Without giving too much away, the first half of the book concerns the war and its conclusion very well, and the second half, the events after the war which prove even more complex than imagined.

Turtledove is an excellent author who has a great ability to show the surrounding issues equally well as the primary.  He attacks the idea that the Civil War was simply about slavery swiftly and competently, casts Lee in the light of the reluctant hero, and shows Lincoln as a man of integrity desperate to save the United States.  One of the review quotes on the reverse of the paperback edition suggests that every one studying Civil War history should read this book.  I think that should be expanded to everyone, except the people in the area of Virginia that I live in who think the Confederate Battle Flag is about "heritage":  they should read it twice.

Yep, John Scalzi's latest is ticked off the list.  I have literally read all of his fiction to date.  (Well, I only listened to The Sagan Diaries, though I am glad I didn't waste my limited reading time on it.  I didn't even listen to all of it, it was a bit too much fanboi for me.)  Don't let the goofy cover art or the odd name dissuade you, The Android's Dream is right up there with the rest of Scalzi's titles in quality and enjoyment.

The story of Harry Creek, UNE Diplomat and retired Combat Veteran, follows the mystery of the Evolved Lamb, the hostile alien nation of Nidu, and a chase through the galaxy.  Creek is the only one with enough answers to unravell the tangle, at least with the help of his rather unique AI.  As the opposing factions start closing in, it looks like there is no way out, but for an interesting twist hinted at by the Churches secret AI that brings the whole mess swirling into a very interesting climax.

Scalzi's 3rd major novel has absolutely nothing to do with the previous two books.  TAD stands alone, so far.  It is the story of inter-system intrique in the style of Robert Ludlum, with the humor of Christopher Moore, and the sci-fi flavor of Robert Heinlein.  Good, not great, plot twists mixed with just the right amount of believable future tech make a balanced story that I really enjoyed.  I was very impressed by the InfoSys tech that Scalzi invented for this book, seeing as I am in the industry and he is not.  Some cute holes, but nothing to gripe about.  Well, done, John.  I am still a fan!

Did I do a review of Agent to the Stars?  I can't remember.  It was not actually published, but was released as a CC LIT copy on scalzi.com.  It was much later published by Subterranean Press, a niche publishing house, for a limited collectors run.  I did not purchase it, but did read the LIT version soon after getting my IPaq 2 or 3 years ago.

And sorry for the bad review.  Just not on top of my game tonight...

My wife and I watch the TV show The Unit every week.  It is a great mix of military drama and human interest that makes the show a good marriage saver.  Inside Delta Force is the book that the show is based on.  It is interesting that the show never mentions the fact that is Delta Force involved, which is probably for the best due to the way Hollywood has inaccurately portrayed this unit in the past.

This is an autobiography of Sgt Major Eric Haney, one of the original members of Delta Force, from the time of his selection to his retirement.  Obviously, there is not much detail about actual missions accomplished, as I am sure many of them are still highly classified.  But the selection and training stories were riveting enough.  He also included the best description of the Iran Hostage Rescue attempt in 1980 that I have ever read.  His insights as one from the inside was remarkable.

Inside Delta Force is an excellent read from a citizen soldier in our time.  He spends very little time discussing political motivations, disgust of superior officiers or denegrating fellow combatants except where integral to the story at hand.  I really enjoyed this read and recommend it to anyone that is the least bit interested in Special Forces during our generation.  It is a very interesting insight behind the scenes of many of the big news stories in the '80s and '90s, especially the Beirut Barracks attack, Panama, Grenada, and the Iran Hostage incident.

 Forever Peace is not the sequel to The Forever War, but could be a prequel, except that the conclusion might prevent that from being a possibility.  Of course, the partial expectation that it was linked to TFW was the reason I read this book.  It is not, but still we read on.

The story is one of a soldier in nouveau America, at war with Latin America.  I cannot remember the political names of the factions, and it is not really important.  As most modern combat soldiers of the time, he is only part-time.  His "day job" is professor of physics at a Texas university.  The tech factor of the story is the human-machine interface, or Jacking, that is used to control remote combat mechs hundreds of miles away, instead of risking the lives of the soldiers themselves, although the mortality rates of the operators is shockingly high.  Julian, our hero, becomes disillusioned by the constant conflict and, after a horrifying event, tries to commit suicide.  Surviving that, he becomes involved in a secret plan that could eliminate war and inhumane behavior forever, by ironically using the interface in his brain for his combat service.  And as a fun side-plot, he gets to attempt to save the universe from a science experiment gone wrong, while being stopped by a fanatical religious faction that makes Opus Dei look like a preschool.

A bit trite, I think, this story is not nearly as original or subtle as The Forever War.  I did enjoy the first half of the book, though, as it was not heavily loaded with obvious agenda.  We all understand that war is bad, let's get over it and write some good fiction, okay?  Not a bad book, but I won't read it again, and can't really recommend it to anyone, unlike the first.  I don't think I will be reading Forever Free anytime soon either.

I picked up The Forever War last spring based on the recommendation of John Scalzi.  Specifically, it was required reading for the characters in Scalzi's book The Ghost Brigades.  I am very glad I did.  This may be one of the most cosmologically accurate sci-fi space battle novels ever written.  Cosmology as in the study of vast tracks of the cosmos.  It certainly is the most accurate I have read.  The way in which Haldeman treats the interstellar distances and the time-distortion are central to the main plot and he handles them very well.

The Forever War is the story of one soldier thrust in the middle of an interstellar conflict that from his perspective doesn't last very long at all.  But in the time stream of Earth, the war lasts more than a millenium.  Because of the enormous distances that the military must travel, near light speed velocities cause great time dilation to the crews.  Each mission lasts hundreds of years, but is only weeks in their perception.  The plot is centered on the war, but the real story is the feelings of loss and displacement that the soldier experience when everything they know is centuries gone every time they return.

I suspect this is another antiwar novel.  However, it is subtle enough to not be a problem.  I enjoyed the story and have also read its not-really-a-sequel Forever Peace.  Joe Haldeman's style is different than most sci-fi writers in my opinion.  He seems much more formal and precise, more "educated" even, but not to the point of distraction.  His work is actually pleasurable just to read.  For reference:  I stopped reading Steven King many years ago because his style degraded to the point I couldn't force my way through the words to get to the plot anymore.

I am terribly behind on book reviews.  I finished Forever Peace a couple days before Christmas and am almost done with Inside Delta Force.  I also will post Forever War, the not-a-series forerunner of Peace that I read before Red Mars.  Mars took so long to read that I got out of the habit.  For reference, Mars took 5 months, where Peace took 3 weeks and IDF will only be 5 weeks.

This is the first book in a trilogy about the colonization of Mars.  The first book itself is enormous in scope, from the departure from Earth, the landing, building of settlements, commercialization, and finally Revolution.  Perhaps too large in scope.  The whole series was recommended to me by GP, whose judgment I respect.

Red Mars is the story of a handful of the "First Hundred" colonists on Mars.  They are the pioneers of the new frontier, braving the journey out, surviving planet-side and establishing the first settlement for permanent habitation.  We are treated to Love Triangles, political maneuvering, interpersonal conflict, and clique groups.  Surely some of my favorite themes.  And once the de facto leader of the First Hundred is murdered, we get political intrigue added too.  No investigation, just intrigue.

Technically, this was a brilliant work.  Narratively, not so much.  I found that I really didn't care about the characters and frequently lost track of what was going on.  I don't think it was that there were too many characters, because Red Storm Rising had more and was an incredible story.  Many times I would be reading a segment and have completely forgotten why they were doing some action.  It may be that as a dad of two very small ones, it was natural to fall asleep reading this book every night:  It was definitely a long read;  I purchased this book in July and only finished it this weekend.  My personal opinion is that this would have made a great prequel to an established series; the author tried to put way too much into this book causing it to be flat.  I am disappointed in this book, and despite owning the other two books, I am not sure I will read them. 

I finished the entire series by audiobook the day I left my last job.  It is taking a while to get this review written.  Just gathering all of the publishing data is proving to be a daunting task.  But I will get it all posted.  Note better reviewers than I have delivered more than I; see Wikipedia for better info.  This posting is my impressions of the series, nothing more.

The core of the Foundation Series is 7 books written over the span of 50 years.  The original Foundation Trilogy is widely considered among the greatest science fiction written and Asimov's greatest claim to fame.  Only the Robot stories have earned him higher fame, but the books themselves have not.  The Trilogy is considered required reading by and for any hard-core science fiction fan.  Asimov claimed to not have intended to write anything more of the series past the trilogy, but bowed to fan pressure to add more to the story.  The near thirty year hiatus certainly bears this out, though he never really "ended" the story with the establishment of the 2nd Galactic Empire.  He left us all guessing.

Update:  I don't think I am going to post the epic review I had planned.  It's just too big and would contain too many images if I used my normal review style.

The series is composed of the following books, telling the story of the great Galactic Empire, some 20k years hence:

Foundation Trilogy:  (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation)  These were the original stories written in the 1950s and are basically a collection of short stories that narrate the first half of the millenium long project to ease the transition between Galactic Empires and eliminate the 10,000 years of anarchy caused by the fall of the first Empire.  It was the first great expression of Science Fiction and has become part of the geek lexicon and pop culture forever.

Foundation's Edge:  This book was the first of the series to deal with only one main plotline revolving around a central character.  Golan Trevise, a member of the Foundation Council, is sent off into exile to covertly find the Second Foundation by overtly searching for Earth.  He does the first, nearly, but fails the second.  We learn of the true nature of the Second Foundation and the role it has in the series-wide plot.  This book was written nearly 30 years after the original trilogy, and it shows.  It is much more refined, but almost tedious in its occasional preaching subplots.

Foundation and Earth:  The conclusion of the Search for Earth storyline and a sequel to Foundation's Edge.  The long search for Earth reveals many incites into human nature, that truthfully may not have needed exploring.  The twist at the end ties together many loose ends of the original stories and converges Asimov's other major series, the Robots.  The book itself was great, if long.  I personally feel an aggressive edit would turn it into a excellent read.

Prelude to Foundation:  It is rumored that Asimov couldn't figure out how to continue the original storyline so decided to write a prequel.  Prelude is the telling of Seldon's arrival on Trantor and establishment of psychohistory.  Unfortunately, not one of the more exciting novels written, but you know what was going to happen to the main character ultimately anyway.  Still, some good plot twists and further melding of the primary Asimov franchises.

Forward the Foundation:  The last book ever written for the series as Isaac Asimov died soon after.  It was the continuation of the Seldon storyline including the period of his political office, establishment of the two Foundations and concluding where the very first book started.  A good read, but slightly disappointing in the same way that Prelude was.

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The Foundation series is one of the greatest epics in Science Fiction, in my opinion.  How far you read through it could be considered a measure of your geekness.  But of course, I have read it twice and all of the Robot series too, so I might be a touch prejudiced.  The Foundation Trilogy itself did really define modern Science Fiction and therefore should be read by everyone.

The Ghost Brigades is the sequel to John Scalzi's Old Man's War.  Scalzi has immediately become one of my favorite authors.  I read Old Man's War very quickly and really loved it.  No surprise that I immediatly picked up this one.  What is a surprise is that I actually pre-ordered it.  I've never done that before.  And at the expense of getting ahead of myself, I am going to pre-order The Last Colony coming out next year.  I may even pre-order The Android's Dream, which is not an OMW series novel, but comes out next month.

The Ghost Brigades is not quite a sequel in the traditional sense, where the protaganist from the original book goes on to new things, but a continuation of the universe featuring some of the supporting characters.  The central plot follows Jared Dirac, the cloned body and mind of traitorous Charles Boutin who is on of the CDF's top scientists, in his mission to discover why Boutin betrayed mankind.  Tension is built through control of Dirac and questioning whether he too will defect.  Our OMW Hero's interest, Jane Sagan from the first book is key to Diracs control and we are treated to a glimpse of the Special Forces perspectives as wholly cloned, without childhood, killing machines through her experiences.  The Ghost Brigades reveals more of the OMW universe in a much more detailed and darker way as is fitting moving from a newbie infantry perspective in the first book to a more "informed" viewpoint of the professional having known nothing else.

Again, Scalzi rocks!  I did not enjoy this one quite as much as the first, although I would say this was a better read and a more matured rendering.  I think I really liked the first one more because I was not expecting to be blown away, where I was with the second.  If you fashion yourself a Sci-Fi fan, this is a must read.

Note:  I finished this book a while ago.  Due to blogging difficulties, I am trying to catch up with the highlights from the past.  Expect more soon.

This is the first published book from an author I've never heard of. Almost. Actually, the reason I picked this one up is because of the authors blog Whatever. I enjoyed his writing style online so I took a chance. Glad I did.

"I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army." Old Man's War is the story of one senior citizen that joins the Colonial Defense Force's Army to serve a 7 (?) year tour of duty and then be allowed to retire to the colonies. The only way to get off planet Earth, the good news that he would get a new body, the bad news was a 10% survival rate in the 1st two years!

This is really one of my favorite SciFi books I've read. It only took me a few days to read, even at my new slow "married" rate. I haven't been this into a SciFi books since Ender's Game (the sequels sucked). Scalzi manages to write a very readable story, full of human emotions and interest, while still delivering a solid hard-core science fiction story. I loved the tech in it. One of my favorite scenes in the beginning of the book was right after the new recruits are given their new genetically engineered bodies and they all run off to have a serious orgy. I know if I got a new bod at 75, I'd definitely be right there! AWESOME READ! Get it, get it, get it! And the sequel too!

Up next: Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi. I've read 2 of his and and finishing up the sequel to Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades. I'll finish up these reviews then hit some others...