Recently read: "Yellow Medicine" by Anthony Neil Smith

Yellow Medicine



I'm blaming this one on Bill Crider.  He is often pointing out interesting, odd, mystery/crime novels, and this is one (here, and here).  Billy Lafitte is a cop with a bad side, and has relocated to Yellow Medicine county in Minnesota from Gulfport, Mississippi in the aftermath of Katrina.  Separated from his wife (who is living with their two kids with her very religious parents) Lafitte is now working for his brother-in-law, who is Sheriff of Yellow Medicine.  Drew, a young singer who Lafitte might be in love with, asks for his help with her boyfriend Ian, who has become involved with a new set of drug dealers in the area.  Lafitte, who views the local dealers as his own money source, gets involved.  Soon, there's multiple deaths, the Feds and even terrorists in the Minnesota heartland.

Lafitte spends most of the book beaten up and wounded, careening from one bad spot to another.  He also seems to have more friends than he deserves.  Smith pulls it off, and makes me wonder what will happens next.

Recently read: "Rocket Girls: The Last Planet" by Housuke Nojiri

Rocket Girls: The Last Planet





Second book, following Rocket Girls, by Nojiri about Yukari Morita and her experiences as an astronaut for the Solomon Space Association (SAS).  The book opens with Yukari and her half-sister/co-pilot aboard the SAS capsule (about the size of an American Gemini) in orbit.  A problem with landing causes the capsule to come down in a pool at Yukari's old school.  Quick thinking by one student, Akane, saves the science experiment.  Akane is then recruited by Yukari to join the SAS astronaut corps.  The middle section of the book covers the difficulty that Akane has in passing the training (she tends to pass out at moderately high g levels).  At the same time, the NASA shuttle is in orbit, attempting to launch a probe to Pluto.  When the American astronauts have a mishap, and can't fix the probe, SAS launches Yuakri and Akane to come to their rescue since the young girls, with their more advanced skintight spacesuits, are able to get into the tight quarters needed to get the probe ready for launch.


*** Slight spoilers***

Things seem to go well, until the probe's engines fire too early, putting it into a higher orbit.The solution that SAS along with NASA come up with is clever (putting the SAS capsule in the shuttle cargo bay before starting boosting to a higher orbit, then boosting the capsule even higher), and the sort of "gung-ho, let's succeed" thinking that is fun to see in a (relatively) realistic space novel.  There's some nail biting at the end, as the SAS capsule sees higher re-entry temperatures, but we get a happy ending (though another coincidence with the landing site!).

***Spoilers over***

These two novels are light, fun reading, with fairly realistic technology.  The major "fantastic" element is the behavior of SAS, in how they are willing to use these young girls as their astronauts.  There's also the landing at the begining of the book, at Yuakir's former school, which stretches coincidence  to the breaking point.

I followed Housuke Nojiri from the first Rocket Girl book to his more serious SF novel Usurper of the Sun, which I though was marvelous.  These books, with others, are being published in the US by Haikasoru, which is rapidly becoming a welcome source of entertaining, interesting SF.  James Nicoll has been pushing the Haikasoru books hard (partially to try and get editor Nick Mamatas a Hugo), and I'm glad, since I would love to see more of them, and to see the ones already published get more attention.

Recently read: "The Eagle has Landed" by Jack Higgins

The Eagle Has Landed




For years, in my head, I had trouble keeping Higgins' The Eagle Has Landed seperate from Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal (both were thrillerish books written in the '70s with movie adaptaions).  That was a shame, since both books have a lot to offer of themselves (and aren't really similiar in any way).  I was able to read Jackal several months ago (and watch the niffy movie adaption), so I finally got around to reading the Higgins book.

Eagle, set in 1943, concerns a German plot to capture Winston Churchill on British soil.  Set in motion with comments from Hitler (following the rescue of Benito Mussolini by a team of German special forces), it starts out as just a planning exercise (with the hope that Hitler will forget it) but takes on a will of its own as the planner (Colonel Max Radl) begins to believe that the plan could work.  Radl finds that Churchill is planning to visit the samll isolated town of  Studley Constable, and there is already a German agent in place (Joanna Grey , a South Africian who moved to England after the Boer War). Radl finds the perfect head of the mission in Lt. Col. Kurt Steiner (who has an American mother and was educated in England), and decides that IRA operative Liam Devlin would be the right person to lay the groundwork.

****SPOILERS***

The paratroopers infiltrate the villiage (posing as a Polish squad on manevers) and for a time the plan seems as if it might succeed.  While watching the manevers, there's an accident involving children and a waterwheel, and the German's cover is blown.  What follows is a siege of the villiage, as American Rangers (led by a colonel desparate for action) make a foolish frontal attack.  As the Germans try to hold out, Devlin must deal with the English lass Molly that he has fallen in love with.

The book is told primarily from the German viewpoint, and at times you find yourself almost rooting for the paratroopers to pull off the mission.  I'm sure this raised some eyebrows in 1975, but for me the characters of Joanna Grey and Liam Devlin are harder to like though both have reasons to hate the British (only Grey "likes" the Germans...Devlin is much more in the vein of "...the enemy of my enemy...").  The character of Steiner and Radl are well drawn, I think, as are some of the Studley Constable villiagers.

If you enjoy thrillers, especially set during WWII, then I think this is a fine example, and well worth picking up.

At UH commencement for my nephew's graduation. Good for him!

Recently read: "If The Dead Rise Not" by Philip Kerr

If The Dead Rise Not



This review contains spoilers!

Another book by Kerr staring police/hotel detective/private eye Bernie Gunther.  The book opens in 1934, and Gunther has left the police force and is a hotel detective at the upscale Adlon.  As the Nazis continue to tighten their grip, he has to worry about his 1/4 Jewish heritage, and also about the cop he killed accidentally when he was accosted after not reacting to a spectator speaking "treason" (calling Hitler "crazy").  Berlin is trying to get ready for the 1936 Olympics;there's a mysterious death of a merchant at the Adlon and the theft of a Chinese box from the room of an American businessman Max Reles (a German American who is clearly mob connected).  He then helps an American writer, Noreen Charalambides, in the investigation of the death of a former boxer, who drowned.  Noreen wants find evidence of discrimination against Jews, and put pressure on the Olympics to pull out of Berlin. 

He and Noreen quickly fall in love, but his investigation ruffles the feathers of the wrong people, and he is imprisoned for a time.  Noreen buys his release by agreeing to drop her investigation and leaving Germany.  After being released, he figures out that the merchant's death was not by natural causes, but was murder (an ice pick through the ear).  He and Reles comes to an agreement: Gunther won't tell the Gestapo that Reles is Jewish, and Reles won't have his brother kill Noreen.

We then flash forward to Havana in 1954 (where Gunther ends up after his adventures in Argentina A Quiet Flame).  Gunther is under an assumed name, and runs into Noreen Charalambides.  She asks for his help with her daughter who is dating an older man; the man turns out to be Max Reles, who, along with his mob buddies, are running casinos in Cuba.  Reles wants Gunther's help in running his hotel/casino, but turns up dead.

A lot happens in this book, and as with all the other Gunther books, it's fairly depressing.  Any hint of Gunter finding happiness is typically crushed before the book is over.  I did find the section in Berlin interesting, with the run up to the '36 Olympics.  Both sections have the future looming over them (Berlin, with the war in the future and Cuba with Castro in prison and revolution to come).  Though Gunter is world weary and beat down, he will always have his own sense of honor.

The next book, Field Gray, is out now.

Recently read: "Murder in the Air" by Bill Crider

Murder in the Air



This is the 18th book in Crider's "Sheriff Dan Rhodes" series, and I finally grabbed a Kindle copy of it.

Here, Lester Hamilton's chicken farm is a going concern in Blackin County, but the neighbors are up in arms over the foul (bad pun!) smell.  When Hamilton is found dead in a well known fishing hole, Rhodes must investigate.  Making his work more difficult is the continuing antics of  the mysterious "Robin Hood" who is using his bow and arrows to deliver notes (complaining about the local government, including County Commissioner Mikey Burns).  There's also a group of women protesters in skimpy feather outfits, and Commissioner Burns trying to get federal money to outfit Rhodes with automatic weapons (in case of terrorists).

If you've read any of the Sheriff Rhodes books before (and enjoyed them) then this is another good installment.  You have many of the typical things (including the comedy stylings of dispatcher Hank and jailer Lawton), but Rhodes is addressing what it's like in these small Texas towns, which seem to be slowly dying (like small towns in many states, I'm sure).  In this book he is also addressing some of the issues with factory farms.

Recommended, and looking forward to book 19 (The Wild Hog Murders) due in July.

Mother's Day at the Chocolate Bar....yum...

Opening night for Thor. It has been a long time since I've seen a big budget movie on opening night.

Jury duty in Brazoria county..not a producted morning, but I suppose it is part of the price we pay for our court system

5 Guys .... Great fries!

Recently viewed: "The Charge of the Light Brigade"

The Charge of the Light Brigade



The first real disappointment I've had watching an Errol Flynn movie.  The first two-thirds is great, with Flynn part of the 27th Bengal Lancers on the Indian frontier. I think the ending, while filmed quite well with the cavalry charge, falls apart though.

While it's not unusual for a Hollywood movie (and an Errol Flynn movie...see They Died with Their Boots On) to get the actual history wrong (and this movie has a disclaimer at the beginning), the way in Brigade gets it wrong ends up making it hard to respect Flynn's Major Georffrey Vickers character.

Stationed in Indian, Flynn's Vickers saves the life of Surat Khan (the leader of the fictional country of Suristan).  Also in India is Vickers' brother, Captain Perry Vickers, who has stolen the love of Geoffrey's fiancee Elsa (Olivia de Havilland).  Later, Surat Kahn (angered that the British will no longer pay him for his loyalty) massacres the inhabitants of Chukoti (mainly wives and children) but spares Geoffrey and Elsa to repay his debt.  Kahn aligns himself with Russia, and ends up in Balaclava during the Crimean War.  When Geoffrey finds out that Kahn is with the Russian troops opposite the 27th Lancers, he changes the written orders of Sir Charles Macefield, ordering the commander of the Light Brigade, Sir Benjamin Warrenton, to attack.  Vickers orders the attack so the Lancers can avenge the Chukoti massacre.  He sends a note to Macefeild explaining his actions, and has his brother Perry deliver it so he will survive.

The charge takes place, the cavalry facing the Russian cannons, and though the Lancers are wiped out, Geoffrey is able to find and kill Surat Khan, even as he dies.  Receiving the note, Macefield takes responsibility for the charge, burning the note.

While I can accept that Geoffrey felt the need to avenge the terrible massacre, he condemned not only the 27th Lancers but the other members of the Brigade to death, and did it by disobeying orders.  This leaves a bad taste in my mouth, making it impossible to feel as if he is a hero.  I suppose it would be difficult to film the actual history and have a hero, but I would have expected the fictional story to do a better job.

The charge itself is well staged, though it was filmed with trip wire, which resulted in dozens of horses being killed.  This helped lead to the ASPCA banning trip wires from films, and the U.S. Congress taking action to protect animals during filming.

Recently read: "Gator Kill" by Bill Crider

Gator Kill



The second book in Crider's "Truman Smith" series.  Between the first and second book, the body of Smith's sister has been found, leaving him feeling a bit more depressed (though at least he knows that she is dead).  When a dead gator is found on the property of a family's friend, Smith is asked to investigate.  Soon, there's human bodies, and a suspicious deputy sheriff who doesn't like outsiders.

Why are there rumors of cattle rustlers?  Are the murders tied to rumors of a government land buy for a park?  And who is driving the black 4WD vehicle that tires to run Smith down?

This is a nice follow up to the first book, though in ways it is more reminiscent of Crider's "Sheriff Dan Rhodes" books, given the small town setting and some of the characters.  I definitely want to see more to of Smith, but the other books aren't available as ebooks.

Recently read: "The California Voodoo Game" by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes

The California Voodoo Game: A Dream Park Novel




The third book by Niven and Barnes to focus on Dream Park, the fictional California amusement park which hosts LARG in addition to typical rides.  This one takes place eight years after the first.  The new game, focusing on voodoo, is set in Meacham's Folly (Meacham Incorpaorated Mojave Industrial Community) which was meant to be a giant planned community.  Damaged in the big quake (which occurs before Dream Park), it has been abandoned until now, when it is being used as the setting for the newest game, and then will be used as the test bed for the terraforming being planned for Mars (part of the background for The Barsoom Project)

Alex Griffin, Dream Park security chief, has a new girlfriend who is found murdered just before the game starts.  Tony McWhirter (jailed by Griffin in Dream Park, then hired for security when he is released from prison, and now one of the Game Masters for the new game) guesses that the killer is possibly in the game and that there is some sort of gambling fix planned. Griffin once again enters a game as a player.

The game itself is based around Voodoo, and gods (or aliens), and is different in that instead of a single team, there are multiple ones, competing against one another.  This leads to a lot of strategy by the Lore Masters (the heads of the teams) with alliances formed and broken. This adds to the complexity of the game, but sometimes adds to the confusion, since the cast of characters is pretty large (though there's a lot of game "deaths" fairly early in the game).  We also see several returning characters among the gamers, including Mary Em and Acascia Garcia (former lover of both McWhirter and Griffin).  I did enjoy some of the teams (the Army team in particular).

As a mystery (and as a game) this one is better than The Barsoom Project, but still lacks something compared to Dream Park.  I did think the ending, which Griffin finally realizing what his life has lacked, is fitting.

As a side note, like the Kindle version of Dream Park, the cover art for this one isn't very good, especially compared to the art of the original hardcover edition.



We'll see a new Dream Park book, The Moon Maze Game, later this year (though it will be set more than 25 years after this book)

Recently read: "Fever Dream" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Fever Dream





The newest book from Preston and Child about FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast.  This is sort of a return to form after being the slightly disappointing  previous two books (The Wheel of Darkness and Cemetery Dance).

Agent Pendergast, in a chance examination of the gun his wife Helen was carrying during the lion hunt twelve years before that resulted in her death, realizes that Helen was murdered.  Determined to find out the reason, he drags his friend, NYPD cop Vincnet D'Agosta, into a leave of absence to help with the hunt.  What was the motive for Helen's murder?  Was it connected to her apparent fascination with John James Audubon, and her search for a apparent lost Audubon painting?  They must travel to Africia and then back to the American Gulf Coast as they unravel the secrets behind Helen's life before she met Pendergast.

I've always liked how Preston and Child craft their novels around what appears to be some supernatural event, eventually pulling out a rational explanation for what's going on (though again we get a bit of Constance Greene, Pendersgast's ward, who is the biggest stretch in their books).  With this book, there's less of that, since it's primarily a murder mystery, though there is evenutally an unexpected answer to what caused several esipodes of madness.  How that ties in with Audubon is a bit far fetched, but still rational.

I do worry a bit about their focus on Pendergast.  I know that he's by far their most popular creation, but I actually perfer their books where we see more of the supporting cast.  This is now the sixth book to focus narrowly on the agent, and I'd like to see more of their general mystery/thrillers.  He also has been even more of a super human character, where he always had the necessary knowledge at hand, along with his physical skills.  I am happy to see that their new book, Gideon's Sword, has a new protangist and is the start of a new series.

Recently read: "Dead on the Island" by Bill Crider

Dead on the Island



The first book in Bill Crider's "Truman Smith" PI series, it introduces private investigator Truman (Tru) Smith .  Smith, a BOI (born on the island) returned to Galveston Island to try and find his missing sister.  He has failed, and is painting houses to get by, running along the seawall when his weak knee lets him and reading Faulkner in his spare time (and also feeding Nameless, the cat who hangs around).

Smith is asked by his high school friend Dino to find Sharon Matthews, the daughter of one of the women who worked the whorehouses run by Dino's uncles when Galveston was wide open.  He first thinks the girl ran away when she found out about her mother's past, but finding Sharon's boyfriend murdered, and then getting beat up outside a Houston nightclub, convinces him that there is more going on.

He must dig into his and Dino's past, and there will be more bloodshed before the story is told.  Smith makes an interesting detective: wracked by guilt over the failure to find his sister, he's a bit adrift.  Crider's "Sheriff Dan Rhodes" series is more successful (up to 16 or 17 books) but this one is well worth searching out also.

Recently read: "The A.I. War, Book One: The Big Boost" by Daniel Keys Moran

The A.I. War, Book One: The Big Boost




Trent the Uncatchable is back!  It's been a long time waiting, but DKM has finally given us the next part of the "Continuing Time" story, and it focuses on Trent.  To me, it feels much more like "The Long Run" than "The Last Dancer" and most of his fans (myself included) are probably ok with that, since Trent is such a marvelous character.  There's also not much focus on the "Continuing Time" background, which, while I know Moran loves, is to me the weakest part of his writing.

The Unity is being built in Earth orbit, a seven kilometer long spacecraft, one of the largest artifact ever built by humans, and it is being built for one purpose: to bring the rest of the solar system (particularly Mars and the Belt) under Earth (Peaceforce) control.  Trent goes undercover aboard the Unity, planning on somehow derailing the Peacforce plans.  There, he will match wits with Melissa du Bois, a Peaceforcer Elite and eventually her boss, Peaceforcer Elite Commander Mohammed Vance.

Much of this book apparently was written years ago, but it still feels pretty fresh to me.  I've not done a re-read of The Long Run or The Last Dancer, but Trent still feels like Trent, and I didn't notice any glaring inconsistencies in the background.  The book opens with a marvelous set piece, as Trent (with a price on his head) is the focus of an assassination attempt in the Belt, and ends up playing hide and seek with a Peaceforce spaceship.  The bulk of the book has Trent aboard the Unity undercover, pretending to be the person in charge of the programming team.  His goal is to derail the project, and his final solution works well, and I certainly didn't see it coming.

The big flaw in the book is that it's "book one" of a trilogy, and it ends in a cliff hanger.  I can only hope that the wait for books 2 and 3 isn't anywhere near as long.

Recently read: "The Thirty-Nine Steps" by John Buchan

The Thirty-Nine Steps



Recently, we watched a BBC produced version of this story on our local PBS station.  Since we had already seen the Hitchcock version, and there were significant differences, I wanted to see how the original story compared.

As expected, there are major changes.  In all, mining engineer Richard Hannay is in London when he encounters a spy.  In the book it's 1914, and Hannay (an expatriate Scot) is asked for help by free lance spy Franklin Scudder, who has uncovered a plot to kill the Greek Premier and steal the British war plans.  After Scudder is murdered, and Hannay must flee, since he would be suspected.  With him he has Scudder notes, in a cipher.

Hannay decides to continue Scudder work, and makes his way to Scotland.  Much of the book has him traveling back and forth, using various disguises, as he breaks the cipher in the notes and begins to understand the plot, which includes the group "Black Stone" and something called "Thirty-nine Steps".  He is chased around the moors by his pursers using foot, cars and even an aeroplane.  He takes refugee in a cottage owned by an eldery man, who he finds is one of the enemy.  Imprisoned, he makes his escape using his mining experience, by building a bomb.

Through the help of a naive local politician, he meets Sir Walter Bullivant from the Foreign Office.  While at Sir Walter's house, they find that the Greek Premier Karolides has been assassinated.  Later, while a military meeting is going on, Hannay cannot shake the notice that more is happening.  He sees one of his former pursers, masquerading  as the First Sea Lord, leaving the meeting, Hannay warns Sir Walter  that the man, who has the all important British war preparation information, is a spy.  Guessing that "the thirty-nine steps" might refers to the landing point from which the spy might flee England, Hannay, which the military's help, try to determine the location.

Finally, deciding the the coastal town in Kent is the best answer, they find a house with a path down the cliff to the beach; the path has thirty-nine steps.  There's also a yacht offshore.  Hannay, visiting the villa, matches wit with the three there, and there is eventually a struggle with two of the three captured.  The third flees to the yahtch, which in the meantime has been seized by the authorities.

The book was interesting, being an early example of the "man on the run" thriller, and also a fairly early spy novel.  There's now been at least five filmed versions (with a another one, directed by Robert Towne, announced but without significant progress).  Buchan returned to the character four more times, with two books set during WWI (at the end of this book, Hannay joins the army), and two post war.  In this book, Hannay is very much a man with wits and skills (I see echos  of this sort of character later in Heinlein's "competent man").  The book does have an absence of female characters (so of course, all the film versions add a female companion).

Recently read: "The Barsoom Project" by Larry Niven and Steve Barnes

The Barsoom Project



After re reading Dream Park, I debated whether I should re read the sequel, since I didn't find it memorable when I first read it.  I finally decided to take a chance.  It's a mixed bag, I think.  The first book's game depended on the South Pacific, particularly Cargo Cults, which had just enough "science" to make it feel less like a fantasy game (slightly less, I admit).  With the focus here being on Inuit mythology, this felt much more like a fantasy D&D game, which made the game itself less interesting to me.

As with the first book, in general the characters aren't that memorable (I still don't have a feeling on who Gwen and Ollie are, and they appear in both games).  The mystery, again, isn't quite played fair, since I don't see how you could figure out who was responsible for the initial murders (though it's pretty clear from the beginning who the ultimate villain is).  I sort of like the Alex Griffin characters, though again, outside of his job have we really gotten to know him?

The beanstalk/Barsoom stuff feels like it's tacked on in a way.  I suppose that Niven was fascinated by the idea at the time (we saw it later in Rainbow Mars) but here it's not even a McGuffin, really.

I do like the cover art for this release better than the initial, though since I read it as a Kindle version maybe that's not important.

I'm going to wait a while (a few weeks probably) before I tackle The California Voodoo Game (with a terrible Kindle cover!) in preparation for The Moon Maze Game later this year.

Recently read: "The Leagcy of Heorot" by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steve Barnes

The Leagcy of Heorot



Niven and Pournelle, writing as a team, gave us one of the definitive "First Contact" novels (The Mote in God's Eye, one of my favorite novels of all time), an excellent disaster novel (Lucifer's Hammer) and what I think is possibly the best alien invasion novel (Footfall).  Here, writing with Steve Barnes in 1987, they gave us a very good colonization novel.

After a century of travel in hibernation, the crew of the National Geographic is beginning the settlement of Avalon, an Eath like planet orbiting Tau Ceti IV.  Picking an island for the first settlement, the location seems almost idea, with no major predators.  Cadman Weyland, the only military man among the colonists, feels almost useless, until cattle and dogs start disappearing.

The predator is a marvelous killing machine, with turbo charged blood that gives it incredible speed in bursts.  Ignoring Weyland's warnings, the first attack on the colony is devastating and Weyland retreats to a home on a bluff above the colony (where he is joined by one of the female colonist in love with him).

Roused to action after they are attacked by a second "Grendel", the colonist (lead by Weyland) take action to wipe out the entire population.  This results in the colony feeling like the problem is solved, but the colonist later realize that they have upset the ecology of the island.  There's a desparate battle, with human weapons (lasers, electric fences, rifles) against an army of Grendels, with a final stand at "Cadamn's Bluff".

This is primarily an action novel, with man against alien beast.  The Grendel, with a life cycle based somewhat on an odd African frog (the frog, like the Grendels, are female and feed upon they children during famine), is an interesting alien (possibly as smart as a gorilla).  There's the added issue of "hibernation instability" which results in many of the colonist having various levels of brain damage (and even the ones that don't are prone to wonder if they are missing things).  There's also a heavy dose of "being prepared" (Heinlein's "if you would have peace, prepare for war").

Recently read: "Butcher's Moon" by Richard Stark

Butcher's Moon



This is the sixteenth "Parker" novel that Westlake (using the Stark pseudonym) wrote, and it was the longest at the time (about twice as long as most of the earlier ones).  Parker, tired of his run of bad luck, goes back to the town where Slayground was set.  There, with the help of Alan Grofield, he is intent on recovering the heist money he was forced to leave behind, hidden in an amusement park.  Once in town, with the money missing, he gets involved in the local mob, and realizes that his money was used to help finance an upcoming coup.

Given the run around, and with Grofield wounded and captured by the mob (Parker is delivered one of Grofield's fingers), he calls in a group of fellow thieves (not friends, since Parker has none), and we see a reunion of sorts with many of the cast members from the previous books (including Handy Mckay, coming out of retirement after the interstate bypasses his diner).  Parker decides to hit most of the money making operations that the mob controls in one night, letting his fellow crooks spilt all the money in exchange for their help in hitting the new mob boss and rescue Grofield.

When read after it was first published (1974) it must have felt like the explosive climax to the series, and for a long time it was.  Westlake would not return to the character for almost 25 years.  I've not read the newer books (I'm reading them in order, as we get these new University of Chicago Press editions), but leaving the character here would have been fine with me.