This section was created to share with the universe what I have been reading and to try and explain why I picked them, what I liked and didn't about them and hopefully to give enough info that you might find something new to try yourself. The most recent is at the top.
As you might see from a quick look through the library I like action books, whether the action takes place on a spaceship, on horseback, in a tank or the Mystical Plane. My tastes tend to range to the simple escapist fiction rather than complex mysteries (as I can't figure whodunit even after the explanation) or powerful dramas. So I tend to favor westerns, fantasy, military fiction and science fiction.
However recently (the last couple of years) I've begun expanding into a totally different field. The real-life adventure story. I find it personally very interesting to sit in my armchair and follow the exploits of someone reaching the top of Mount Everest or bicycling from Alaska to the tip of South America. There is a yearning inside of me to follow these authors out on great adventures and who knows...perhaps someday I will, but for now I read...and dream.
Holmes on the Range (Steve Hockensmith) - Imagine two down on their luck cowboys in 1893 Montana. Like most cattle punchers these brothers are drifting, looking for work. When one reads a story about the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, the other decides that 'detectivating' is the best job in the world and when a mysterious murder happens at the creepy VR ranch they jump in to try and solve the mystery using Holmes' methods.
I found this book to be a really enjoyable read, its not a Sherlock Holmes novel but its inspired by the great detctive and never takes itself too seriously. The unsolved murder is interesting, the characters are interesting with plenty of motive to go around and I found myself surprised at the end. Very recommended.
Going Postal (Terry Pratchett) - The discworld novels are an acquired taste. Some of them are great and others just don't work. For me, Going Postal is one of the better ones, which means it isn't so goofy and has quite an interesting plot.
Convicted criminal "Moist von Lipwig" is given one last chance before the gallows, to get the Post Office going again. It seems that the Post Office hasn't worked in 50 years or so and in the interim a series of Morse-code towers (called "clackers" due to their shutters clacking open and closed to show the lights inside) have been built all over the land to allow virtually instant communication.
When the clackers suffer a hostile takeover and the new company starts raising prices the ruler decides to reactivate the Post Office, and who better than a reformed con man. So Moist inherits a busted up old Post Office filled with millions of old undelivered letters and Junior Postman Groat (now so old he can barely get around). Of course, this being a Discworld novel, there are plenty of wierd magical problems and wry humor.
No knowing how else to get things going, he decides to use his con-man talent to jumpstart things. With the invention of stamps it all seems to be going well until the evil owner of the clackers company decides he doesn't want any competition.
I recommend this book, it has nothing to do with Discworld other than some wierd references to things now and then and it is a very understandable and enjoyable book.
Gust Front (John Ringo) - this is the second in the Human-Posleen war series and is much better than the first (which I thought was terrific). This book takes place a year or so after the first book and the Earth is half-way through its preparations for the invasion. The expectation is that the Posleen will take 70% of the planet leaving humanity only in the mountainous and easy-to-defend areas for a few years until the big battleships can be built. So massive fortifications are underway.
With all that in progress, an unexpected advance party of 2 million Posleen land in Virginia. Almost the entire story follows the outnumbered defenders as they try to defend city after city from the unstoppable horde. The Posleen are the epitome of the iristable force as they simply don't stop. If you kill 10,000 of them the ones right behind will simply climb over the dead ones and keep advancing. Add to that they have futuristic weapons like rail-guns and plasma shooters and it makes for a tough fight.
Incredible action sequences and very resourceful ideas from the defenders keep this a read-until-your-eyes-bleed novel. My highest recommendation.
Halo (The Flood; First Strike; The Fall of Reach) (Eric Nylund) - Since I love the game I had to read the novels. Unfortunately the first novel is very depressing. Its interesting to read about the Spartan project but the whole book is depressing; Humanity is losing the war, people are dying, spaceships are being wiped out, planets are being killed. I actually quit reading half-way through.
Book 2 (The Flood) is the book that follows the Halo 1 game and its terrific. Not only is it faithful to the game but includes a lot of extra stuff besides just what the Spartan was doing. A great read.
Book 3 takes place immediately after the game ends. Its a little simplistic but a lot of fun as the Master Chief and Cortana try to get out of the Halo system and prevent the aliens from reaching Earth. Written before Halo 2 came out I doubt it has anything to do with the plot of the game but its still a good read. Not great but pretty good.
One Man Caravan (Robert E. Fulton Jr.) - in 1932 Mr. Fulton decided he was going to be the first person to ride a motorcycle around the world. It took him 18 months but he made it. The book follows his adventures as he takes off and rides across the world. The adventures in Arabia and the desert countries are particularly interesting as is reading his view of the world at that time in history. Nevertheless I found it a bit dry and kind of lost interest 2/3 of the way through.
A Hymn Before Battle (John Ringo) - this is simply an OUTSTANDING book. The basic premise is that an alien ship lands with a message. 5 years from now 100 million Posleen will invade the Earth and conquer it, turning all of humanity into food. The aliens are hoping that humanity will be able to stop the Posleen because their world is next in line after Earth. So they promise to deliver a pile of super high tech weapons to assist humanity in the upcoming battle.
Rather than a typical military novel where everything goes perfectly and everyone works together, the U.S. military is at the other end of the spectrum. The leaders all seem to be incompetent, cannot think in anything but human terms and don't trust any of the new weaponry. Most of the soldiers seem to be criminals or too lazy to fight. I think its a bit extreme in that regard.
The story follows Mike O'Neil who is a major player in designing the new battle suits. Despite everyone's resistance he becomes an expert in the suits and when the humans go to Barwhon V to help them defend their planet the book really kicks into high gear. The whole second half of the book is one gigantic battle sequence as the humans get their first taste of fighting an unstoppable horde.
Torpedo Junction: U-Boat War Off America's East Coast 1942 (Homer Hickam) - a non-fiction historical book that chronicles what happened on the east coast of the U.S. in 1942. Amazingly the U.S. decided not to defend the shipping that went up and down the coast and the German u-boats sank 259 ships. This is the story of the couple of ancient ships that were trying to find the u-boats.
Its gripping reading from the depression of the ships sinking to the final victory of the U.S. Navy over the u-boats and its all true. Amazing read.
U.S.S. Seawolf (Patrick Robinson) - This is a straightforward military action book. It takes place a few years from now when by an incredible fluke the latest and greatest US sub is captured. While the sub is being examined and the crew tortured, the SEAL's are being sent in to rescue them. The whole story is a bit far-fetched but fun.
Its a blast to read these kind of books, the bad guys are really bad, the US is good and everyone works together smoothly and makes no mistakes, the SEAL's go out and kick some serious booty and everything ends happily. The first part works like that, the action sequences are great and very realistic. As with all of Patrick Robinsons books you follow along like a travelogue, there isn't any "oh my god" sequences of sudden understanding or of a secret plot revealed - you know the one, where suddenly all those unexplained things that have been happening now make sense, in these books each step of the process is methodically laid out and followed.
The ending is where this book falls down, I really feel that the book should have ended at the "fist pumping in the air - rah rah" moment, instead we are treated to a series of bad things and the whole book ends with a whimper - I'm trying not to give it away here, but for me the ending was really depressing.
Buy the book for the exciting action sequences and to read about the SEAL's kicking tail - my recommendation is to read up through the end of chapter 12 and stop there - you'll finish with a big smile.
Around the World On A Bicycle (Thomas Stevens) - This simply an amazing book. Back in 1884 when bicycles had just been invented and "wheelmen" rode those strange bicycles with the giant wheel in the front and the tiny one in the back, Thomas Stevens had nothing better to do, so with typical American pluck he decided to obtain a bicycle and ride it all the way around the world. He started off with only his bicycle, a pistol, a jacket and a lot of determination.
This book follows his adventures day by day, mile by mile through 1880's America, Europe and into countries from another era (Yuzgat, Slavonia, Erzingan and Erzeroum for example). The book has a very large wealth of information about what the everyday people were like, what they wore, their customs, the major places seen.
The first 3rd of the book covers America and Europe and these are really exciting and interesting. Seeing his impressions of familiar surroundings really highlights how things have changed (and remained the same) over the last 120 years. The second third is Asia and that part tended to drag. The last third of the book gets exciting and interesting as he attempts to get into the Arabian countries and is turned back at Afghanistan forcing him to backtrack 800 miles and go around to India, then India and China and finally Japan.
All in all a book well worth reading, don't expect fast-paced action but this is a journal of a long trip in a time long forgotten and vividly brought to life by someone who experienced it firsthand.
Against The Wind (Ron Ayres) - Another motorcycle book, this one chronicling the "Iron Butt Rally" which is a road endurance contest. The riders must ride over 1000 miles for 11 days in a row, battling lack of sleep and all the other hazards of the road.
The rally is interesting, the book itself is kind of dry... Ron just reports each thing as it happens, that one rider had an accident, another forgot their towel, etc. Its not as exciting as I expected it to be, still its an interesting read and gives you a chance to meet some of these characters and dream about long distance riding.
Flaming Iguanas - An All-Girl Road Novel Thing (Erika Lopez) - I bought this book based on the 11 pages available online from Amazon. Its interesting, funny in a weird sort of way and sounded intriguing. I was looking for a kind of journey description with the funny weird things that happen along the way. The book started that way, with her description of how she decided to become a biker gang of one called the Flaming Iguanas and the difficulties of getting someone to go with her and why she went. I found it tedious to delve into her broken past all the time though.
Finally she got out on the road and I expected the pace to pick up a bit, but it didn't, the road stuff takes up about 5% of the book, the rest is a stream of consciousness about everything and anything. Some of its good but I found myself getting impatient after sections like 5 pages of what songs she sang into her helmet (and why). Here is an example:
I sat at the picnic table, twisted open a warm beer, and waited for the motorcycle to heal itself. A flying ant with pincers landed on my chest and I brushed him off. He landed on the table writhing. I'd fu**ed him up. I felt really bad because I couldn't fix him with little ant tweezers and an ant cast, and it's not like they have a little ant hospital with little ant doctors that can rush over and bandage him up.
I looked at the little ant and tried to get him upright with the end of a match in the hopes that he'd take off, but he twisted on the picnic table in agony. So I looked away, screwed up my courage, and mashed him as quick as I could with the bottom of my beer bottle.
I thought, "Aha. No wonder I couldn't appreciate a babbling brook. I am pure evil." Now I was also karmically tied to a translucent bug with pincers. How many other unknown little critters were there? Screaming spiders washed down the drain with an everyday American shower...?
I sat on the picnic table for three hours staring at my bike and thinking about all the animals that had died in my care, and how even when I was eight I thought I was the Antichrist because of it. / I had always known. /
Life Is A Road, The Soul Is a Motorcycle (Daniel Meyer) - This book is going into my "favorites" section of the bookshelf. Its one of those love-it-or-hate-it kind of books. On the surface its a simple narrative about some motorcycle journeys the author has ridden on, sort of like: I rode down highway xxx and stopped in a little town and bought dinner then I rode down highway yyyy and stopped in another little town and got a motel.
It doesn't sound very exciting - but that's just the "what", the real story isn't about where he went but about the way he got there. You see, this book is about experiencing life, rather than just existing, Mr. Meyer uses a motorcycle to renew his very lust for life. His writing pulls at you if you have any interest in this at all, he writes of the sheer joy of leaving a stressful job behind for a trip, of being out on the open road, picking directions at random just to see where they lead, the way he seems to merge with his bike after riding for awhile, the desire to live life to the fullest rather than cower behind fear.. When lightning storms appear, rather than hiding under a bridge to be safe, he rides, laughing and screaming right through the storm.
This style of living appeals to me, I'm not talking about taking foolish chances like hanging off the side of a bridge or anything, but like Richard Halliburtons book - the quest to experience more from life than mere existence. To "live large and laugh large" rather than always play it safe has a tremendous appeal for me, if this intrigues you, if any of this touches you then I recommend this book.
Star Trek S.C.E. #3 (Several) - I know I mentioned the series before but book number 3 really stands out! The whole series is about the "Starfleet Corps of Engineers" under the command of Scotty. They do all the cool technical things you would expect from techno-junkies, solving bizarre problems with typical Star Trek "make it so" style of flair. The writers really have this stuff nailed down pat.
A small example makes my point: The ship is under attack and outgunned but the hold is full of mining equipment. They get the idea to use some of the big phaser drills as additional weapons. Now comes the cool part - the actual technical implementation details.....As one person uses an antigrav carrier to get them from the hold, another cuts through the bulkhead of the ship using a small force field to prevent decompression. Once the drill is in place they push it through the hole and modulate the force field so they can fire through it. But then they realize they need a way to aim it so they go to the nearest replicator and have a motor created. They mount the motor and jury-rig a tricorder to communicate instructions from the bridge to the motor. Then with a few new weapons ports in the side of the ship they re-enter battle. This is just a small 6 page example!
Anyway, I liked #3 a lot, the story about the aliens from another dimension was kinda weak but the rest were superb, definitely worth getting.
To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight (James Tobin) - A very interesting true account of how the Wright brothers solved the problems of powered flight ahead of all the other groups attempting it at the same time, the other groups were well financed, had some very smart scientists and it was a race to see who would solve the myriad problems first. After the problem was solved and the Wrights made their historic flight the book turns to what happens and how the world reacts.. its pretty amazing and an excellent read.
Starfist VIII - Kingdom's Fury (David Sherman and Dan Cragg) - All I can say is "Wow" about this book. I have the whole series (1-8 so far) and this one is the best. Actually it is the end of a trilogy starting with book 6 about a planetwide battle between the "skinks" (aliens) and the Marines of the future. The series is about Marines in the 25th century and the unique problems they face. Typically each book is a new planet and a new problem, some were good and some were just ok, but the last 3 books were absolutely superlative.
The Marines were called down to the planet "Kingdom" (a highly religious planet) to stop some pirates. Little did they know that they were up against amphibious aliens who could swim like fish or run faster than a man, who had superior weapons, 100 to 1 numerical superiority and a masterful battle plan. All the Marines had going for them were the fact that they were Marines and therefore could not lose!
Books 6,7,8 just kept getting better and better and number 8 is a non-stop blast of action as the battle reaches its peak. If your interested in any of that type of stuff, this is the best series like this I've found.
Star Trek S.C.E. (several) - This is a series of books (I've got 1,2,3 so far) that really caught my eye. Different from the "normal" Star Trek books, these are about new characters. But what really makes them stand out is the "S.C.E." stands for "Starfleet Corps of Engineers". These are hard tech books about engineers and techies (not trekies) solving unique problems. The basic idea is that after Kirk talked a planet-wide computer into turning itself off or Picard crippled an alien ship, the S.C.E. would show up to try and see what Starfleet could learn from them. Of course things don't always work out the way its planned and the scientists and engineers must whip up a miracle in short order each story to stay on top. I heartily recommend this series if you like "tech" in addition to "Trek".,
To The Far Blue Mountains (Louis L'amour) - I picked up this book because the intro on the back cover sounded good and I've liked almost every L'amour book I've read. Even though I have not followed the Sacketts saga before I was confident it could stand on its own as a book. Its written in a first person narrative as though he was sitting across from you on the couch telling the story.
The first half of the book is terrific, following his escape from England. We learn of his thirst to be out in the wild open spaces of the newly discovered America, he is falsly accused and is running from the law collecting people to join him as he describes the new beginnings they can have in the New World. Its very tightly written (though I think his escape from prison was way too easy) and you really love the character.
Once the group got to America things changed. In an effort to show the WHOLE life of Barnabas the whole story changes, now we have 50 years of history in 100 pages. So the narrative changes from a day-by-day upbeat story where friends are joining the group to a list of significant events, usually where one of the group dies from an Indian raid. It becomes a series of "we built a fort", "xxx died in an Indian raid", "the fort burned down", "we went down to sea and traded our skins for supplies", "yyyy died in an Indian raid", "we built another fort", etc.
I didn't like the ending either, I think the whole story basically got pretty depressing towards the end with all the group dying or leaving to go off and do other things. All the next generation were grown up and strong but we don't have the emotional connection with them that we did with the first group.
South - A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage (Ernest Shackleton) - This is hands-down the most amazing tale I've ever read. Written in a factual dry manner that cannot disguise the enormity of the tale.
This is the true story of the ill-fated expedition that attempted to cross Antarctica in 1913. They never even made it to land, locked in the ice 100 miles from land itself they stayed marooned in the little ship for over a year before the ship finally was destroyed by the ice, dropping the entire party onto blocks of ice sitting on top of the ocean hundreds of miles from land. The story of their struggle to stay alive, to haul 3 dinghies over the icepack towards the open ocean miles to the north in the dim hope of sailing them across the ocean to land.
This is the story of the most impressive rescue ever made as 4 men (including Shackleton himself) sailed off in a rowboat into the open ocean for 800 miles to land at the only island left before the wide Pacific itself and the subsequent forced march over glaciers and mountains with no food or sleep to reach a fishing village where they could contact the outside world and arrange for recovery of the rest of the crew.
If you want to read a book that will fill you with pride to think that inside of humanity beats the kind of will that these men possessed. If you want to read a story of the most incredible "never say die" attitude ever demonstrated. If you want to read a story of the strength and courage men can show in the face of unbelievable odds, then pick up this book. Be warned though, this is not light summer reading, it will grip you and change your mood as you begin to empathize with what these men went through.
Longarm #94 - Longarm and the Runaway Thieves (Tabor Evans) - A fun filled adult cowboy book. Longarm books are what I use for light relaxation reading in between heavyweights. This one follows Longarm as he has to go undercover into Canada to try and bring back a Metis bank robber to justice. Longarm shoots and romances his way through the adventure with his usual bravado, getting the bad guy (and all the girls) in the process. Well worth reading.
The Royal Road To Romance (Richard Halliburton) - This book follows the true adventures of Richard who graduated from college in the early 1920's and decided the dull boring life behind a desk or working 9 to 5 was not for him. He decided to go out and seek "Romance" (the excitement kind) and have "grand adventures", to utilize the energy and vibrancy of youth while he still had them.
He signed on the first ship he saw and worked his way to Europe, penniless he circled the world, climbed the Matterhorn, bicycled through gardens, swam in the pools at the Taj Mahal, spent his birthday jailed in Gibraltar, lived on a houseboat in Kashmir, walked up Mt Fuji, went through the Kyber Pass into Afghanistan and much much more. The book is filled with his views on life, his enormous exuberance and infectious love of "Romance" (adventure). Reading this book makes you want to get off your seat and go out and have some adventures of your own.
I highly recommend it just as a reminder of how fun life can be....yes he did dangerous things that could have gone awry but it serves as a reminder not to let our life get too dull and gray.