Rating: 5/5
Year: 2001
Genre: Nonfiction, History
Read again? Yes.
Subtitle: American Coastal Defense Forts of the Third System, 1816-1867
I've been a fort junkie since September of 1999, when I visited Fort Pickens near Pensacola, Florida. At first, I just wanted to make maps of it to build a deathmatch game level for the "Star Wars: Jedi Knight" video game. But as I measured and sketched, I got more and more curious about the history of the place. This turned to fascination and a desire to learn and see as much about these buildings as I possibly can.
Mr. Weaver did a short but enjoyable presentation at Fort Pickens around the time his book came out--and I had to have a copy. "Legacy" takes us briefly through the history of each of 42 forts built between 1816 and 1867, all intended to defend the American coastline against assault by sea.
He begins with a short overview of the systems of fortification, then explains some key terms and structures in the science of fort-building and fort-destroying, weapons, and politics.
Then it's on to the individual forts, going from the Northern Frontier, intended to keep those nefarious Canadians from invading via the Great Lakes and various rivers. Then we go from Maine south along the Atlantic coast to Key West, Florida, along the Gulf Coast, and finally Forts Point and Alcatraz in San Francisco, California.
Illustrations include photos from the author's own collection, maps of the general areas, and line drawings. The only down-side to the illustrations is that they can't convey how very large and beautiful these structures are.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Valdemar 01: The Black Gryphon (Lackey, Mercedes & Dixon, Larry)
Rating: 5/5
Year: 1994
Genre: Fantasy
Read again? Yes
The first book of the first trilogy in the 26-volume Valdemar series. Only 25 books to go. With this first trilogy, we're seeing how things were 1,000 years before the founding of the nation of Valdemar.
This is turning out to be a difficult book to write a review for; it's not an "action" story so much as "interaction"--lots of dialogue, lots of self-examination on the part of key characters, and lots of relating to one another. Don't get me wrong, people and creatures die, but Lackey doesn't spend a lot of time on that. So it's sort of difficult for me to relate what it's about. I like action. I liked "Without Remorse," with its over-the-top revenge. I suppose we could say that Lackey's style is at the other end of the spectrum from George "Don't worry about the acting, I'll fix it in Post" Luca$, who is all about the action and eye candy and to hell with meaningful relationships and people. He should join up with Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer. With his help, they could make a worse film than "Armageddon." Then he could get one of his sucky "Star Wars--New Jedi Order" writers to do the movie tie-in book, and I can write another review. That man keeps me motivated.
We begin with the Black Gryphon himself, Skandranon, on a spying mission in a camp of the evil mage Ma'ar. There's been warning that Ma'ar's men have a new magic weapon, something regular troops can employ, something that could bring defeat to Urtho, the Mage of Silence and his people. The war has been grinding along for a decade, and Ma'ar has inexorably made his way closer and closer to the seat of Urtho's power. We don't see more than the occasional glimpse of the war-in-progress; instead we see its progress in the emotions of the characters. Everyone is tired, worn down, but determined that Ma'ar and his men will pay in blood for each inch of land they take.
The final act of the book sets up the two sequels, but it also sets the stage for the entire remaining series. Urtho's great Tower and the Palace that Ma'ar has conquered are the two pivots upon which the final trilogy will turn.
I highly recommend reading the series in story-chronological order (which is how I'm reviewing it) rather than by published date. You don't really have to, since each of the trilogy sets and singles stands on its own well enough while fitting into the larger story, but it's more satisfying having the little bit of knowledge in the back of your mind and maybe forgetting about it only to "rediscover" it as the characters do 2,000 years later.
For whatever reason, Lackey's style isn't as irritating in this book as it was in the Tregarde stories, but that could easily be the difference in "worlds," given the Tregarde books' "real-world" setting. She does tend to wordiness and some fussiness in word choice, things that don't seem to fit the "voice" of certain characters, but in the more "pure fantasy" setting of the Valdemar books, it could be overlooked as a cultural trait. The story flows well and doesn't seem to drag despite that lack of action--but then, stories are supposed to be about people.
Year: 1994
Genre: Fantasy
Read again? Yes
The first book of the first trilogy in the 26-volume Valdemar series. Only 25 books to go. With this first trilogy, we're seeing how things were 1,000 years before the founding of the nation of Valdemar.
This is turning out to be a difficult book to write a review for; it's not an "action" story so much as "interaction"--lots of dialogue, lots of self-examination on the part of key characters, and lots of relating to one another. Don't get me wrong, people and creatures die, but Lackey doesn't spend a lot of time on that. So it's sort of difficult for me to relate what it's about. I like action. I liked "Without Remorse," with its over-the-top revenge. I suppose we could say that Lackey's style is at the other end of the spectrum from George "Don't worry about the acting, I'll fix it in Post" Luca$, who is all about the action and eye candy and to hell with meaningful relationships and people. He should join up with Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer. With his help, they could make a worse film than "Armageddon." Then he could get one of his sucky "Star Wars--New Jedi Order" writers to do the movie tie-in book, and I can write another review. That man keeps me motivated.
We begin with the Black Gryphon himself, Skandranon, on a spying mission in a camp of the evil mage Ma'ar. There's been warning that Ma'ar's men have a new magic weapon, something regular troops can employ, something that could bring defeat to Urtho, the Mage of Silence and his people. The war has been grinding along for a decade, and Ma'ar has inexorably made his way closer and closer to the seat of Urtho's power. We don't see more than the occasional glimpse of the war-in-progress; instead we see its progress in the emotions of the characters. Everyone is tired, worn down, but determined that Ma'ar and his men will pay in blood for each inch of land they take.
The final act of the book sets up the two sequels, but it also sets the stage for the entire remaining series. Urtho's great Tower and the Palace that Ma'ar has conquered are the two pivots upon which the final trilogy will turn.
I highly recommend reading the series in story-chronological order (which is how I'm reviewing it) rather than by published date. You don't really have to, since each of the trilogy sets and singles stands on its own well enough while fitting into the larger story, but it's more satisfying having the little bit of knowledge in the back of your mind and maybe forgetting about it only to "rediscover" it as the characters do 2,000 years later.
For whatever reason, Lackey's style isn't as irritating in this book as it was in the Tregarde stories, but that could easily be the difference in "worlds," given the Tregarde books' "real-world" setting. She does tend to wordiness and some fussiness in word choice, things that don't seem to fit the "voice" of certain characters, but in the more "pure fantasy" setting of the Valdemar books, it could be overlooked as a cultural trait. The story flows well and doesn't seem to drag despite that lack of action--but then, stories are supposed to be about people.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Quickie: Ranma 1/2 (series, Takahashi, Rumiko)
Rating: 5/5
Year:
Genre: Martial Arts comedy
Read again? Hai!
I first got turned on to the animated ("Anime") version of this back in 1996. I'd say the Anime version is somewhat funnier, but both are driven by slapstick violence and physical gags.
There are some 36 volumes in the novels ("Manga"), each divided into nearly stand-alone "chapters." Think of them as episodes in a sit-com, where you don't really have to watch everything to understand a story in the middle. But it does help, especially with Takahashi's insane list of characters.
We're introduced to up-and-coming teen-aged martial arts master Ranma Saotome and his father Genma. They're scrambling through the streets somewhere in Japan, beating the hell out of each other. Well, actually, we meet a red-haired girl and a giant panda beating the hell out of each other.
Then we cut to the lovely home of Soun Tendo and his three teen daughters Kasumi (the domestic one), Nabiki (the schemer), and Akane (the martial-arts badass). Soun is excited, for today his old friend Genma Saotome and his son will return from a long trip to China, where they learned the secrets of Chinese martial arts--and today, Ranma will be given the chance to choose his wife from one of Soun's three daughters.
As he's explaining this to the girls, there's a loud racket at the door--the guests have arrived! Well, a red-haired girl and a giant panda have arrived!
Turns out that these are the very guests Tendo has been waiting for; Genma turns into a panda when he's hit with cold water. Ranma--macho, arrogant Ranma--turns into a red-haired hottie. Hot water turns them back. They fell into cursed pools somewhere in China.
Takahashi has an excellent hand--I really like her drawing style. Granted, the stories and situations are aimed more at the teen and twentysomething market, and many of the stories are romantic comedies, but Takakashi's also taking a swipe at martial arts as a whole, because just about everyone is a martial artist in these books. You've got martial arts figure skating. Martial arts pizza-making. Martial arts gymnastics. Martial-arts hair care products. Martial arts cheerleading.
Then there's the cast of characters; in addition to those mentioned already, some of the most memorable are:
Happosai, a martial arts master and panty thief.
Ryoga, the guy with no sense of direction, and who turns into a potbellied piglet.
Shampoo, the Chinese girl who must marry Ranma or kill him. Turns into a cat.
Tatewaki Kunou, the guy who wants Akane and girl Ranma--and wants to kill boy Ranma.
Kodachi Kunou, the girl who wants boy Ranma--and wants to kill girl Ranma.
Ukyo, one of three Ranma fiancees, who can kick your ass with a spatula!
The interactions of these seemingly insane people are what drive the story and make me willing to pop for ten bucks per book.
Year:
Genre: Martial Arts comedy
Read again? Hai!
I first got turned on to the animated ("Anime") version of this back in 1996. I'd say the Anime version is somewhat funnier, but both are driven by slapstick violence and physical gags.
There are some 36 volumes in the novels ("Manga"), each divided into nearly stand-alone "chapters." Think of them as episodes in a sit-com, where you don't really have to watch everything to understand a story in the middle. But it does help, especially with Takahashi's insane list of characters.
We're introduced to up-and-coming teen-aged martial arts master Ranma Saotome and his father Genma. They're scrambling through the streets somewhere in Japan, beating the hell out of each other. Well, actually, we meet a red-haired girl and a giant panda beating the hell out of each other.
Then we cut to the lovely home of Soun Tendo and his three teen daughters Kasumi (the domestic one), Nabiki (the schemer), and Akane (the martial-arts badass). Soun is excited, for today his old friend Genma Saotome and his son will return from a long trip to China, where they learned the secrets of Chinese martial arts--and today, Ranma will be given the chance to choose his wife from one of Soun's three daughters.
As he's explaining this to the girls, there's a loud racket at the door--the guests have arrived! Well, a red-haired girl and a giant panda have arrived!
Turns out that these are the very guests Tendo has been waiting for; Genma turns into a panda when he's hit with cold water. Ranma--macho, arrogant Ranma--turns into a red-haired hottie. Hot water turns them back. They fell into cursed pools somewhere in China.
Takahashi has an excellent hand--I really like her drawing style. Granted, the stories and situations are aimed more at the teen and twentysomething market, and many of the stories are romantic comedies, but Takakashi's also taking a swipe at martial arts as a whole, because just about everyone is a martial artist in these books. You've got martial arts figure skating. Martial arts pizza-making. Martial arts gymnastics. Martial-arts hair care products. Martial arts cheerleading.
Then there's the cast of characters; in addition to those mentioned already, some of the most memorable are:
Happosai, a martial arts master and panty thief.
Ryoga, the guy with no sense of direction, and who turns into a potbellied piglet.
Shampoo, the Chinese girl who must marry Ranma or kill him. Turns into a cat.
Tatewaki Kunou, the guy who wants Akane and girl Ranma--and wants to kill boy Ranma.
Kodachi Kunou, the girl who wants boy Ranma--and wants to kill girl Ranma.
Ukyo, one of three Ranma fiancees, who can kick your ass with a spatula!
The interactions of these seemingly insane people are what drive the story and make me willing to pop for ten bucks per book.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Quickie: Star Wars: New Jedi Order (series, various)
Rating: 1/5
Years: 1999-2003
Genre: Sci-Fi
Read again? HELL no.
Yeah, I know I just finished saying you shouldn't look for a "Star Wars" review anytime soon. Changed my mind--because this series is one of the reasons (aside from Luca$) I don't want to read "Star Wars" books. There may be spoilers without warning--this is a series I will not recommend to anyone.
It is a dark time for "Star Wars" fans. Although he's raking cash in at a phenomenal rate, the money-crazed Lord Luca$ isn't happy with destroying the franchise in film. He spreads his grasping tentacles outward into the book market.
Hiring hacks who vomited some of the worst "Star Wars"-affiliated crap to ever grace the page, he and his agents set forth to deliver the coup de grace to what was once a treasured childhood world.
I first encountered this "New Jedi Order" series with book #4, "Hero's Trial." Chewbacca is dead. Han Solo is utterly wrecked. On first reading, I thought it a reasonably good book, and it made me want to read the others to see how Chewie bought it.
I got that chance in January, 2007. For three full months, I slogged through the series from start to finish. Oh, man, did I slog. And there are only maybe 3 of the 19 books (plus short stories/novellas) where I wasn't groaning "Oh, for F*CK'S SAKE!" every other page. Few of the writers have any sort of grasp of the characters and "feel" of Star Wars. They could all have learned from Timothy Zahn, who wrote the best damn "Star Wars" novels, period, with his Thrawn trilogy. I can live with the inevitable continuity issues from one author to the next. But idiotic plots and crappy dialogue are unforgiveable.
In a nutshell, a race of beings with living technology invades the galaxy, killing and destroying anyone and everyone who oppose them. Droids are anathema. Any technology that comes from a non-living source is anathema. They are capable of growing anything they need--ships, weapons, communications, clothing. Even their human disguises are a living skin.
Basically, they waste everyone. Chewie dies. Han and Leia's boy Anakin (inexplicably named after his evil grandfather) dies. The freaking Hutts die. This all sounds cool, but I know damn well there are better writers out there who could have made this turd into something pretty.
This series runs entirely too long--and it brings us back into contact with characters and situations from the worst "Star Wars" novels ever written, such as Dave Wolverton's "The Courtship of Princess Leia" (which is some unholy melding of crappy Harlequin romance complete with hunky prince Fabio type trying to woo the Princess away from Han) and Roger MacBride Allen's Corellian trilogy (where we find that Han Solo has an evil twin cousin with access to a super weapon that will rule the...yeah. Crap.). Yeah, they bring Fabio and the Evil Twin back, and both are still the same after some 20 years.
The worst of it is, I went to Wookieepedia shortly after beginning the set. The write-up makes the series sound good. That's false advertising, isn't it?
Read this series at your own peril. I know of one person who actually liked it, so your mileage may vary.
Years: 1999-2003
Genre: Sci-Fi
Read again? HELL no.
Yeah, I know I just finished saying you shouldn't look for a "Star Wars" review anytime soon. Changed my mind--because this series is one of the reasons (aside from Luca$) I don't want to read "Star Wars" books. There may be spoilers without warning--this is a series I will not recommend to anyone.
It is a dark time for "Star Wars" fans. Although he's raking cash in at a phenomenal rate, the money-crazed Lord Luca$ isn't happy with destroying the franchise in film. He spreads his grasping tentacles outward into the book market.
Hiring hacks who vomited some of the worst "Star Wars"-affiliated crap to ever grace the page, he and his agents set forth to deliver the coup de grace to what was once a treasured childhood world.
I first encountered this "New Jedi Order" series with book #4, "Hero's Trial." Chewbacca is dead. Han Solo is utterly wrecked. On first reading, I thought it a reasonably good book, and it made me want to read the others to see how Chewie bought it.
I got that chance in January, 2007. For three full months, I slogged through the series from start to finish. Oh, man, did I slog. And there are only maybe 3 of the 19 books (plus short stories/novellas) where I wasn't groaning "Oh, for F*CK'S SAKE!" every other page. Few of the writers have any sort of grasp of the characters and "feel" of Star Wars. They could all have learned from Timothy Zahn, who wrote the best damn "Star Wars" novels, period, with his Thrawn trilogy. I can live with the inevitable continuity issues from one author to the next. But idiotic plots and crappy dialogue are unforgiveable.
In a nutshell, a race of beings with living technology invades the galaxy, killing and destroying anyone and everyone who oppose them. Droids are anathema. Any technology that comes from a non-living source is anathema. They are capable of growing anything they need--ships, weapons, communications, clothing. Even their human disguises are a living skin.
Basically, they waste everyone. Chewie dies. Han and Leia's boy Anakin (inexplicably named after his evil grandfather) dies. The freaking Hutts die. This all sounds cool, but I know damn well there are better writers out there who could have made this turd into something pretty.
This series runs entirely too long--and it brings us back into contact with characters and situations from the worst "Star Wars" novels ever written, such as Dave Wolverton's "The Courtship of Princess Leia" (which is some unholy melding of crappy Harlequin romance complete with hunky prince Fabio type trying to woo the Princess away from Han) and Roger MacBride Allen's Corellian trilogy (where we find that Han Solo has an evil twin cousin with access to a super weapon that will rule the...yeah. Crap.). Yeah, they bring Fabio and the Evil Twin back, and both are still the same after some 20 years.
The worst of it is, I went to Wookieepedia shortly after beginning the set. The write-up makes the series sound good. That's false advertising, isn't it?
Read this series at your own peril. I know of one person who actually liked it, so your mileage may vary.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Quickie: The Dresden Files (Series; Butcher, Jim)
Rating (series): 5/5
Year:
1. Storm Front (2000)
2. Fool Moon (2000)
3. Grave Peril (2001)
4. Summer Knight (2002)
5. Death Masks (2003)
6. Blood Rites (2004)
7. Dead Beat (2005)
8. Proven Guilty (2006)
9. White Night (2007)
10. Small Favor (2008)
Genre: Fantasy/Detective
Read again? Absolutely!
To fill in space between the weekly-or-so posts where I review a single book, I'm going to try doing a "quickie" review of a book or series. No idea if it'll be a daily thing, since I'm about as erratic as any other blogger, but *shrug*.
So we begin with Jim Butcher's freaking cool detective wizard, Harry Dresden of "The Dresden Files." If you've seen the very short-run series that the Sci-Fi network squeezed out a few years back...please don't judge these books by the bad coverage. TV and Hollywood types--and especially the Sci-Fi folks--can't seem to stick to a book very well. They changed an awful lot, and it didn't work as well as they hoped.
They should have left damn good enough alone.
Harry Dresden lives in Chicago. He's the only wizard in the phone book, and the only wizard who's trying to make a living as an actual wizard. Much of his work is detective-type stuff, and he fits well into the hard-boiled mold made by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. I can't really see Humphrey Bogart as Dresden, though Dresden is as much of a wise-ass as Bogey ever was. He makes his pennies finding people's keys or lost dogs, and he makes his dollars doing freelance consulting for the Chicago Police Department's Special Crimes unit, where all the weird, unexplained crimes get sent. "Weird" and "unexplained" ends up meaning "supernatural."
Each book features a different supernatural or mythical critter, and you can get an idea of which ones they are by the pun in the book title. Butcher throws in plenty of little pop-culture things (which could really date the series in 10 years, but that's okay), movie quotes, and truly funny moments--for example, while he's about to be clubbed to death in a Wal-Mart garden center by a demon that's taken form by collecting plants and earth, Dresden's busy trying to come up with a name for the damn thing, just because it's good to know what killed you. He names it a "Chlorofiend." His buddy the lady cop kills it with a chainsaw.
Even better, each book builds on the ones before, so there's plenty of room for character development and relationships. And there are lots of interesting regulars: Karrin Murphy, the lady cop; "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone, the local Mob boss; Bob, the talking skull and magical database; Mister, Dresden's enormous gray cat; Mouse, his even bigger dog; Michael, an honest-to-god Knight; Billy the Werewolf; Thomas the vampire; and Susan, his girlfriend who happens to be a reporter.
1. Storm Front (2000): Grisly murders happen during powerful thunderstorms--and there's no physical evidence. Dresden quickly finds himself the target of police scrutiny as people he's spoken to end up dead. Then the killer goes after him--and so does an enforcer of the White Council of mages, who is convinced that Dresden is the killer!
2. Fool Moon (2000): Werewolves! Something is tearing people apart. But is it a) the werewolf whose family was cursed centuries ago by the Church; b) the college werewolf kids who happen to be forming their own pack; or c) something else? Or--as Chicago PD thinks--is it Dresden?
3. Grave Peril (2001): Ghosts! Something is torturing the ghosts in Chicago; something wants revenge on Dresden. Dresden gets invited to a vampire party--and shows up dressed as a cheesy Dracula.
4. Summer Knight (2002): Faeries! Bad things are happening in Faerie land; war is approaching, and it will affect the Faeries and our own world. Can Dresden find the killer of the Summer Knight before the White Council decides to kill him?
5. Death Masks (2003): Demons! Remember the "thirty pieces of silver" story about Jesus? Well, there are thirty silver coins, each one with one of the Fallen Angels in it. One who takes up a coin becomes a murderin' badass. This book has one of the most awesome "interrogation" scenes between Dresden and a guy named Cassius. You'll know it when you read it.
6. Blood Rites (2004): Vampires! Would you believe incubus porn? Not the band, the creatures that feed on sexual energy. Bow-chicka-wow-wow.
7. Dead Beat (2005): Zombies! A head-to-head competition between three black magic practitioners, with the world as the prize. The Big Battle features Dresden riding a zombie T. Rex to fight the bad guys.
8. Proven Guilty (2006): Movie monsters! Harry goes to SplatterCon, where the movie geeks are unreal...and the movie monsters are all too real!
9. White Night (2007): Witches! Someone's been killing witches. And the vampires are back!
10. Small Favor (2008): Billy goats Gruff! First, they're small...Harry defeats them. And each time, their bigger siblings come calling to set him straight. Can Harry survive the biggest Gruff of all?
A quickie review can't do the series justice. But it's going to be several months before I get to it, considering that I'm still one book into the huge Valdemar series. There's a new Dresden coming in April 2009, too.
Year:
1. Storm Front (2000)
2. Fool Moon (2000)
3. Grave Peril (2001)
4. Summer Knight (2002)
5. Death Masks (2003)
6. Blood Rites (2004)
7. Dead Beat (2005)
8. Proven Guilty (2006)
9. White Night (2007)
10. Small Favor (2008)
Genre: Fantasy/Detective
Read again? Absolutely!
To fill in space between the weekly-or-so posts where I review a single book, I'm going to try doing a "quickie" review of a book or series. No idea if it'll be a daily thing, since I'm about as erratic as any other blogger, but *shrug*.
So we begin with Jim Butcher's freaking cool detective wizard, Harry Dresden of "The Dresden Files." If you've seen the very short-run series that the Sci-Fi network squeezed out a few years back...please don't judge these books by the bad coverage. TV and Hollywood types--and especially the Sci-Fi folks--can't seem to stick to a book very well. They changed an awful lot, and it didn't work as well as they hoped.
They should have left damn good enough alone.
Harry Dresden lives in Chicago. He's the only wizard in the phone book, and the only wizard who's trying to make a living as an actual wizard. Much of his work is detective-type stuff, and he fits well into the hard-boiled mold made by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. I can't really see Humphrey Bogart as Dresden, though Dresden is as much of a wise-ass as Bogey ever was. He makes his pennies finding people's keys or lost dogs, and he makes his dollars doing freelance consulting for the Chicago Police Department's Special Crimes unit, where all the weird, unexplained crimes get sent. "Weird" and "unexplained" ends up meaning "supernatural."
Each book features a different supernatural or mythical critter, and you can get an idea of which ones they are by the pun in the book title. Butcher throws in plenty of little pop-culture things (which could really date the series in 10 years, but that's okay), movie quotes, and truly funny moments--for example, while he's about to be clubbed to death in a Wal-Mart garden center by a demon that's taken form by collecting plants and earth, Dresden's busy trying to come up with a name for the damn thing, just because it's good to know what killed you. He names it a "Chlorofiend." His buddy the lady cop kills it with a chainsaw.
Even better, each book builds on the ones before, so there's plenty of room for character development and relationships. And there are lots of interesting regulars: Karrin Murphy, the lady cop; "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone, the local Mob boss; Bob, the talking skull and magical database; Mister, Dresden's enormous gray cat; Mouse, his even bigger dog; Michael, an honest-to-god Knight; Billy the Werewolf; Thomas the vampire; and Susan, his girlfriend who happens to be a reporter.
1. Storm Front (2000): Grisly murders happen during powerful thunderstorms--and there's no physical evidence. Dresden quickly finds himself the target of police scrutiny as people he's spoken to end up dead. Then the killer goes after him--and so does an enforcer of the White Council of mages, who is convinced that Dresden is the killer!
2. Fool Moon (2000): Werewolves! Something is tearing people apart. But is it a) the werewolf whose family was cursed centuries ago by the Church; b) the college werewolf kids who happen to be forming their own pack; or c) something else? Or--as Chicago PD thinks--is it Dresden?
3. Grave Peril (2001): Ghosts! Something is torturing the ghosts in Chicago; something wants revenge on Dresden. Dresden gets invited to a vampire party--and shows up dressed as a cheesy Dracula.
4. Summer Knight (2002): Faeries! Bad things are happening in Faerie land; war is approaching, and it will affect the Faeries and our own world. Can Dresden find the killer of the Summer Knight before the White Council decides to kill him?
5. Death Masks (2003): Demons! Remember the "thirty pieces of silver" story about Jesus? Well, there are thirty silver coins, each one with one of the Fallen Angels in it. One who takes up a coin becomes a murderin' badass. This book has one of the most awesome "interrogation" scenes between Dresden and a guy named Cassius. You'll know it when you read it.
6. Blood Rites (2004): Vampires! Would you believe incubus porn? Not the band, the creatures that feed on sexual energy. Bow-chicka-wow-wow.
7. Dead Beat (2005): Zombies! A head-to-head competition between three black magic practitioners, with the world as the prize. The Big Battle features Dresden riding a zombie T. Rex to fight the bad guys.
8. Proven Guilty (2006): Movie monsters! Harry goes to SplatterCon, where the movie geeks are unreal...and the movie monsters are all too real!
9. White Night (2007): Witches! Someone's been killing witches. And the vampires are back!
10. Small Favor (2008): Billy goats Gruff! First, they're small...Harry defeats them. And each time, their bigger siblings come calling to set him straight. Can Harry survive the biggest Gruff of all?
A quickie review can't do the series justice. But it's going to be several months before I get to it, considering that I'm still one book into the huge Valdemar series. There's a new Dresden coming in April 2009, too.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
A Man on the Moon (Chaikin, Andrew)
Rating: 5/5
Year: 1994
Genre: Nonfiction, history, space
Read again? Yes!
Subtitle: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts.
This is the book that ultimately spawned Tom Hanks' "From the Earth to the Moon" HBO miniseries.
I'm definitely an Apollo geek, though I came late to it. The only memories I have of it might not even be real--I seem to remember TV footage of one of the lunar buggies kicking up dust some 250,000 miles up, but I was 4 or 5 at the time. I envy those who got to see it all, from the first Sputnik to the last Skylab. My space ship was the Columbia shuttle--and cool as that was, it's just not the same.
Chaikin garnered interviews with people who were there--on the ground, in the capsules, on the home-fronts. He certainly delivers the goods, too. Each section of the book has enough technical info to satisfy the space geek in me without being boring.
We're taken through the manned missions in sequence, getting a short biography of each set of three men who would take the coolest ride ever. We begin most appropriately--and most briefly--with the deaths of Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee on January 27, 1967. The mission wasn't even to be called "Apollo 1." It was just another test flight (AS-204), but the unmanned Saturn I-B and Saturn V shots that followed now became Apollo 4, 5, and 6.
Apollo 7 and 8 launched on October and December 1968, respectively, and that second mission brings one of my favorite moments in the book. After Frank Borman got messily space-sick, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell spent the rest of the mission dodging Space Puke. We're treated to Anders' recollection of a green, pulsating glob floating along, splitting up, and going after and smiting a cornered Lovell. At this point, we're barely 100 pages into nearly 700 pages of book (nearly 600 pages of following the missions, and another 100 of appendices and notes).
Each mission gets a good bit of the remaining space, and Chaikin's straightforward style keeps our attention where it belongs.
You might want to have wrist supports on when you read it, though. The book is a heavy beast even in paperback, and as much as I enjoy reading, I have to admit that I was glad to be done. If you only want a Cliff's Notes version, you can see the story in 12 easy pieces by watching "From the Earth to the Moon."
Year: 1994
Genre: Nonfiction, history, space
Read again? Yes!
Subtitle: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts.
This is the book that ultimately spawned Tom Hanks' "From the Earth to the Moon" HBO miniseries.
I'm definitely an Apollo geek, though I came late to it. The only memories I have of it might not even be real--I seem to remember TV footage of one of the lunar buggies kicking up dust some 250,000 miles up, but I was 4 or 5 at the time. I envy those who got to see it all, from the first Sputnik to the last Skylab. My space ship was the Columbia shuttle--and cool as that was, it's just not the same.
Chaikin garnered interviews with people who were there--on the ground, in the capsules, on the home-fronts. He certainly delivers the goods, too. Each section of the book has enough technical info to satisfy the space geek in me without being boring.
We're taken through the manned missions in sequence, getting a short biography of each set of three men who would take the coolest ride ever. We begin most appropriately--and most briefly--with the deaths of Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee on January 27, 1967. The mission wasn't even to be called "Apollo 1." It was just another test flight (AS-204), but the unmanned Saturn I-B and Saturn V shots that followed now became Apollo 4, 5, and 6.
Apollo 7 and 8 launched on October and December 1968, respectively, and that second mission brings one of my favorite moments in the book. After Frank Borman got messily space-sick, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell spent the rest of the mission dodging Space Puke. We're treated to Anders' recollection of a green, pulsating glob floating along, splitting up, and going after and smiting a cornered Lovell. At this point, we're barely 100 pages into nearly 700 pages of book (nearly 600 pages of following the missions, and another 100 of appendices and notes).
Each mission gets a good bit of the remaining space, and Chaikin's straightforward style keeps our attention where it belongs.
You might want to have wrist supports on when you read it, though. The book is a heavy beast even in paperback, and as much as I enjoy reading, I have to admit that I was glad to be done. If you only want a Cliff's Notes version, you can see the story in 12 easy pieces by watching "From the Earth to the Moon."
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Places to Go...
There's one very good site I'd recommend enough to write a post about it:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/
They have a short blurb about each author which includes known pen-names, a section of whatever's expected for release soon, and a main list of titles arranged by series. To the right side is a mosaic of book cover pictures.
Each picture or book title is linked to a separate page (if any) that goes a little more in-depth on that title.
And here's a short list of places to look for e-books:
Universary of Pennsylvania Online Books
Project Gutenberg
Brookings Institute Free Library
Electric Library
Internet Public Library
National Academy of Sciences Free Library
NetLibrary
MIT Free Course Library
I don't know much about the others, but Gutenberg has a massive amount of public-domain stuff, like the complete works of Mark Twain and Shakespeare. Everything's in plain-text.
Google recently started offering entire books and magazines available online:
http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp
Their interface is okay, but I seem to remember that it irritated me a few months back when I first checked it out. When you're still on dial-up in a high-speed world, it's easy to be irritated.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/
They have a short blurb about each author which includes known pen-names, a section of whatever's expected for release soon, and a main list of titles arranged by series. To the right side is a mosaic of book cover pictures.
Each picture or book title is linked to a separate page (if any) that goes a little more in-depth on that title.
And here's a short list of places to look for e-books:
Universary of Pennsylvania Online Books
Project Gutenberg
Brookings Institute Free Library
Electric Library
Internet Public Library
National Academy of Sciences Free Library
NetLibrary
MIT Free Course Library
I don't know much about the others, but Gutenberg has a massive amount of public-domain stuff, like the complete works of Mark Twain and Shakespeare. Everything's in plain-text.
Google recently started offering entire books and magazines available online:
http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp
Their interface is okay, but I seem to remember that it irritated me a few months back when I first checked it out. When you're still on dial-up in a high-speed world, it's easy to be irritated.
Edge: 01 The Loner (George Gilman)
Rating: 3/5
Year: 1971
Genre: Western
Read again? Maybe.
"The Loner" is the first in the Edge series.
It's June of 1885. The Civil War is over. Captain Josiah Hedges is a Union officer who comes back home to his Iowa farm to find his younger brother tortured and murdered. He takes the time for a proper burial and heads out to demolish the men who did it.
This is a straightforward revenge story, and man-o-man is it massive violent! The kid brother--Jamie--is the second to die (the dog was first). The bad guys tie him to an oak tree--all but his right arm, which they secure by long nails hammered between and then bent over the fingers. This brings us to a good line:
"You got four fingers and a thumb on that right hand, boy. You also got another hand and we got lots of nails."
Bad guy has already told Jamie that his big brother ain't comin' home, that he's dead and owed the bad guys money. They've already ransacked the house and barn, stolen most of the horses, and set Jamie up for a little talkin'.
He says there's no money. *BLAM* There goes his thumb.
Now he's too busy screaming to answer properly. *BLAM* there goes his index finger.
One of the other men takes a shot, making a cut on Jamie's cheek. Jamie wets himself.
Then the drunk one tosses his empty whiskey bottle aside, pulls out his pistol, shoots from the hip, and plugs Jamie right between the eyes.
The gang leader blows off the drunk's junk and leaves him there to die.
Then he and the remaining baddies burn the place and high-tail it out of there.
Josiah shows up the next day and buries his little brother. After a preamble about parents and religion, the eulogy is simple, straightforward:
"Rest easy, brother. I'll settle your score. Whoever they are and wherever they run, I'll find them and I'll kill them. I've learned some special ways of killin' people and I'll avenge you good."
They did leave their junkless drunk behind for Hedges to find; he knows these men. They served with him a 'way down South, kickin' Dixie's ass. And he knows pretty much where they're headed.
This sounds promising--you've got the senseless murder, greedy outlaws, and a reason for revenge. But much of the rest of the book seems to be written with an eye toward getting Edge into situations where he kills someone: a fake preacher, a nervous kid, a dancing girl. We find out he's half-Mexican when he educates a sheriff in race relations. He doesn't kill everyone he meets, but he spends so much time glowering that Clint Eastwood should sue for infringement.
Another great exchange:
"You wouldn't shoot an unarmed man!"
Edge: "They're the easiest kind to kill."
Gilman's style is adequate, if clunky and wordy and irritatingly passive in voice, but we're not talking Shakespearean sonnets or flowing streams of prose, here. This book and its brothers are about men who need killin', and the man who kills 'em. There's not really much character development. Edge is homicidal right out of the box and all the other people are just sketches from Central Casting. No twists in the plot, either--Edge goes to [blank], he encounters [blank], he kills [blank], he leaves [blank]. Then he travels a chapter or two to reach the next [blank]. Everything's a straight line, and it's not like that's a bad thing. I do hope that Gilman develops the character in the later books. If not, there's not really much point in writing more books.
Year: 1971
Genre: Western
Read again? Maybe.
"The Loner" is the first in the Edge series.
It's June of 1885. The Civil War is over. Captain Josiah Hedges is a Union officer who comes back home to his Iowa farm to find his younger brother tortured and murdered. He takes the time for a proper burial and heads out to demolish the men who did it.
This is a straightforward revenge story, and man-o-man is it massive violent! The kid brother--Jamie--is the second to die (the dog was first). The bad guys tie him to an oak tree--all but his right arm, which they secure by long nails hammered between and then bent over the fingers. This brings us to a good line:
"You got four fingers and a thumb on that right hand, boy. You also got another hand and we got lots of nails."
Bad guy has already told Jamie that his big brother ain't comin' home, that he's dead and owed the bad guys money. They've already ransacked the house and barn, stolen most of the horses, and set Jamie up for a little talkin'.
He says there's no money. *BLAM* There goes his thumb.
Now he's too busy screaming to answer properly. *BLAM* there goes his index finger.
One of the other men takes a shot, making a cut on Jamie's cheek. Jamie wets himself.
Then the drunk one tosses his empty whiskey bottle aside, pulls out his pistol, shoots from the hip, and plugs Jamie right between the eyes.
The gang leader blows off the drunk's junk and leaves him there to die.
Then he and the remaining baddies burn the place and high-tail it out of there.
Josiah shows up the next day and buries his little brother. After a preamble about parents and religion, the eulogy is simple, straightforward:
"Rest easy, brother. I'll settle your score. Whoever they are and wherever they run, I'll find them and I'll kill them. I've learned some special ways of killin' people and I'll avenge you good."
They did leave their junkless drunk behind for Hedges to find; he knows these men. They served with him a 'way down South, kickin' Dixie's ass. And he knows pretty much where they're headed.
This sounds promising--you've got the senseless murder, greedy outlaws, and a reason for revenge. But much of the rest of the book seems to be written with an eye toward getting Edge into situations where he kills someone: a fake preacher, a nervous kid, a dancing girl. We find out he's half-Mexican when he educates a sheriff in race relations. He doesn't kill everyone he meets, but he spends so much time glowering that Clint Eastwood should sue for infringement.
Another great exchange:
"You wouldn't shoot an unarmed man!"
Edge: "They're the easiest kind to kill."
Gilman's style is adequate, if clunky and wordy and irritatingly passive in voice, but we're not talking Shakespearean sonnets or flowing streams of prose, here. This book and its brothers are about men who need killin', and the man who kills 'em. There's not really much character development. Edge is homicidal right out of the box and all the other people are just sketches from Central Casting. No twists in the plot, either--Edge goes to [blank], he encounters [blank], he kills [blank], he leaves [blank]. Then he travels a chapter or two to reach the next [blank]. Everything's a straight line, and it's not like that's a bad thing. I do hope that Gilman develops the character in the later books. If not, there's not really much point in writing more books.
Star Trek: TOS #48--Rules of Engagement (Morwood, Peter)
Rating: 4
Year: 1990
Genre: Sci-Fi
Read again? Eventually.
Book set somewhere between Trek I (The Motionless Picture) and Trek II. On the "exciting" meter it's closer to I than II.
The Enterprise is diverted from R&R at Starbase 12 to deal with UFP people being kicked off a planet by the new government. It would normally be a diplomatic matter, but this planet--Dekkanar--happens to be part of a Distant Early Warning line that monitors the Neutral Zone between the Federation and Klingon (and Romulan?) space. Losing access to this planet means losing the command post and operations hardware for the 'Firechain.'
Some plot conveniences: No weapons, shields, active scanners (for diplomatic reasons) and no transporters (the planet's star is conveniently in a sunspot phase at just the right convenient frequency to scramble transporters, thereby requiring shuttles to get the Federation people off the planet).
As all this is developing, we're taken to a Klingon spacedock where an experimental D-7 battlecruiser is being readied for its proving flight. This ship will have no crew on-board--instead, it is controlled via a tether from a scout-class Bird of Prey (like the ship Kirk and crew go back in time with in the 4th movie). Hakkarl will be able to fight while cloaked and can pull maneuvers no crewed battlecruiser could manage.
The Klingons are in the same vein as John Ford's "The Final Reflection." [it differentiates between the Klingon language Ford used and that developed by Marc Okrand]. Don't like Morwood's take on Klingons; they're fine on the surface, but seem "off" in some ways--too human-like, prissy (mentally fussing over the smell of a space suit?). Like so many other authors' inability to "get" Vulcans, Morwood doesn't seem to really "get" Klingons.
The Klingon baddie Kasak was aboard the ship the tribbles were beamed to in the TOS episode "The Trouble with Tribbles." His fortunes suffered with the rest of that crew and Koloth, their captain. When he finds out that he's facing the evil James Kirk and his notorious ship, he wants revenge, but he goes about it in a whacked-out, convoluted manner.
Book seems to drag. There are good moments, but this isn't an exciting book, nor is it really engaging like "Strangers From the Sky" or "Spock's World." Still it's much better than "Windows on a Lost World." The ending is a bit weak, with the suddenly-insane Kasak bringing about his own downfall in time for the book to end. Locking phasers on a point. Man, am I ever tired of "Star Trek" right now.
Year: 1990
Genre: Sci-Fi
Read again? Eventually.
Book set somewhere between Trek I (The Motionless Picture) and Trek II. On the "exciting" meter it's closer to I than II.
The Enterprise is diverted from R&R at Starbase 12 to deal with UFP people being kicked off a planet by the new government. It would normally be a diplomatic matter, but this planet--Dekkanar--happens to be part of a Distant Early Warning line that monitors the Neutral Zone between the Federation and Klingon (and Romulan?) space. Losing access to this planet means losing the command post and operations hardware for the 'Firechain.'
Some plot conveniences: No weapons, shields, active scanners (for diplomatic reasons) and no transporters (the planet's star is conveniently in a sunspot phase at just the right convenient frequency to scramble transporters, thereby requiring shuttles to get the Federation people off the planet).
As all this is developing, we're taken to a Klingon spacedock where an experimental D-7 battlecruiser is being readied for its proving flight. This ship will have no crew on-board--instead, it is controlled via a tether from a scout-class Bird of Prey (like the ship Kirk and crew go back in time with in the 4th movie). Hakkarl will be able to fight while cloaked and can pull maneuvers no crewed battlecruiser could manage.
The Klingons are in the same vein as John Ford's "The Final Reflection." [it differentiates between the Klingon language Ford used and that developed by Marc Okrand]. Don't like Morwood's take on Klingons; they're fine on the surface, but seem "off" in some ways--too human-like, prissy (mentally fussing over the smell of a space suit?). Like so many other authors' inability to "get" Vulcans, Morwood doesn't seem to really "get" Klingons.
The Klingon baddie Kasak was aboard the ship the tribbles were beamed to in the TOS episode "The Trouble with Tribbles." His fortunes suffered with the rest of that crew and Koloth, their captain. When he finds out that he's facing the evil James Kirk and his notorious ship, he wants revenge, but he goes about it in a whacked-out, convoluted manner.
Book seems to drag. There are good moments, but this isn't an exciting book, nor is it really engaging like "Strangers From the Sky" or "Spock's World." Still it's much better than "Windows on a Lost World." The ending is a bit weak, with the suddenly-insane Kasak bringing about his own downfall in time for the book to end. Locking phasers on a point. Man, am I ever tired of "Star Trek" right now.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Valdemar (Mercedes Lackey)
Over the last couple of days I've been thinking of starting on Mercedes Lackey's "Valdemar" fantasy series. I'm kind of dreading it, because there are at least 26 novels, spanning some 2,000 years in the history of a nation. It'll take me about that long to finish off the 26 I've got.
It's a really impressive series, and Lackey is crazy prolific. But I have a feeling that I'm going to have some of the same problems with this series that I did with her Diana Tregarde books. She can tell a story, but at times she's shrill, overbearing, and fussy. If you're going through a break-up or you're in the aftermath of one, you need to read something else or some of the books will cut you to pieces with their love stories and lost loves.
Oh, and most of her point-of-view characters are women. There are a few male POV's, and some of them are straight, but many of her guys tend to be gay. In this Utopian fantasy world, most people don't seem to care about that, but those who do tend to be protrayed as the stereotypical homophobe.
As far as characterization, the entire series is strongly character-driven. Real people and their interactions are complicated, imperfect, fragile, petty, and irrational, and Lackey develops her stories with this in mind. These same ideas shape each character, too--they don't all have the same interests or abilities.
The series is broken down mostly into trilogy sets:
Mage Wars 1-3:
01 Black Gryphon, The (w/ Larry Dixon)
02 White Gryphon, The (w/ Larry Dixon)
03 Silver Gryphon, The (w/ Larry Dixon)
The Last Herald-Mage 1-3:
04 Magic's Pawn
05 Magic's Promise
06 Magic's Price
Lavan Firestorm:
07 Brightly Burning
Vows & Honor 1-3:
08 Oathbound, The
09 Oathbreakers
10 OathBlood (Short Story collection)
Alberich 1-2:
11 Exile's Honor
12 Exile's Valor
Skif:
13 Take A Thief
Talia 1-3:
14 Arrows of the Queen
15 Arrow's Flight
16 Arrow's Fall
Kerowyn:
17 By the Sword
Mage Winds 1-3:
18 Winds Of Fate
19 Winds of Change
20 Winds of Fury
Mage Storms 1-3:
21 Storm Warning
22 Storm Rising
23 Storm Breaking
Darian 1-3:
24 Owlflight
25 OwlSight
26 Owlknight
I don't know if I'm up for a cover-to-cover coverage of the whole set. For the blog's purposes, it'd be better if I broke it into the trilogies and singles, with something else in between to get me through the Lackey fatigue.
It's a really impressive series, and Lackey is crazy prolific. But I have a feeling that I'm going to have some of the same problems with this series that I did with her Diana Tregarde books. She can tell a story, but at times she's shrill, overbearing, and fussy. If you're going through a break-up or you're in the aftermath of one, you need to read something else or some of the books will cut you to pieces with their love stories and lost loves.
Oh, and most of her point-of-view characters are women. There are a few male POV's, and some of them are straight, but many of her guys tend to be gay. In this Utopian fantasy world, most people don't seem to care about that, but those who do tend to be protrayed as the stereotypical homophobe.
As far as characterization, the entire series is strongly character-driven. Real people and their interactions are complicated, imperfect, fragile, petty, and irrational, and Lackey develops her stories with this in mind. These same ideas shape each character, too--they don't all have the same interests or abilities.
The series is broken down mostly into trilogy sets:
Mage Wars 1-3:
01 Black Gryphon, The (w/ Larry Dixon)
02 White Gryphon, The (w/ Larry Dixon)
03 Silver Gryphon, The (w/ Larry Dixon)
The Last Herald-Mage 1-3:
04 Magic's Pawn
05 Magic's Promise
06 Magic's Price
Lavan Firestorm:
07 Brightly Burning
Vows & Honor 1-3:
08 Oathbound, The
09 Oathbreakers
10 OathBlood (Short Story collection)
Alberich 1-2:
11 Exile's Honor
12 Exile's Valor
Skif:
13 Take A Thief
Talia 1-3:
14 Arrows of the Queen
15 Arrow's Flight
16 Arrow's Fall
Kerowyn:
17 By the Sword
Mage Winds 1-3:
18 Winds Of Fate
19 Winds of Change
20 Winds of Fury
Mage Storms 1-3:
21 Storm Warning
22 Storm Rising
23 Storm Breaking
Darian 1-3:
24 Owlflight
25 OwlSight
26 Owlknight
I don't know if I'm up for a cover-to-cover coverage of the whole set. For the blog's purposes, it'd be better if I broke it into the trilogies and singles, with something else in between to get me through the Lackey fatigue.
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