This book contains a collection of short stories by Lawrence Block. I wanted to like it. There are several short stories, each standing independently from the others. Each story starts an interesting mystery, they are well told. But the story stops just as the mystery is getting interesting. Nothing is resolved, no one gets caught, NOTHING. I had wondered if it was abridged and had a bad editor, nope, it wasn’t abridged.
This is a good one to skip.
Although I enjoyed this book, I’m still trying to sort it all out. There was a lot going on and I felt there should be a little more, yet all the ends seem to be tied up.
This book is one of a series involving a PI by the name of Spencer. He is a hard-boiled detective set in the present, along the east coast, but could be set anywhere. In this book, he is investigating the murder of an actor in a very bad play. The killer was present for a half hour, yet is not identified at the shooting. It made for an interesting twist. His investigation takes him into China town, where he runs into Tongs and deals with being an outsider.
The story is solid, he doesn’t make unsubstantiated intuitive leaps, nor lucky guesses. The characters are pretty well developed and are interesting, and the story is well told. The style reminded me of Ramond Chandler, a bit.
This is the third in a series of humor-focused philosophy books, this dealing with the matter of life and death. The authors use humor to drive points hope, with varying amounts of success. The book feels light, in spite of the weighty philosophical material. It is easy to read and digest, but I do question how much retaining power it has. It is an enjoyable and pretty fast read.
This is a behind-the-scenes story of Star Trek. It starts from its early concept and pitch to the studios. Herb Solow and Robert Justman (co-authors) discuss the politics and manipulations that happened to make Star Trek turn into a tv series. Years of work and three pilots later they debuted on the screen. But their obstacles never ceased, each year was a fight for renewal, there were problems with the cast, and problems with Desilu.
After reading it, I certainly have a different view of many of the people involved. My opinions of some of the major and minor actors and supporting staff has changed drastically. The authors attempt to take some of the credit normally attributed to Roddenberry and distribute it to other deserving individuals.
The book isn’t just for Trekkies, (the term was coined by the staff during the series run), but anyone interested in what goes on in a series production. My complaint is that the book is too terse. I feel like there’s a lot of information still untold.
We never learn much of the identity of the time traveller (op cit, it does have two ‘L’s in the book, is that a British spelling?), the beginning of the book refers to him as the time traveller. The story is told in a first-person narration. He is British, and he is male, probably in his prime. It is the classic story, a bit different from the movie versions. We meet the Morlocks, and Weena, strange creatures we encounter only briefly, and learn of man’s fate.
The story is well told and moves quickly. He doesn’t pause to build suspense, we can feel the urgency of the time traveller’s actions.
H. G. Wells suggests man is his own demise, one has to wonder if he was making a political statement, but doesn’t stress it as we would expect authors to do today. The book is around 260ish pages, but felt shorter as it reads pretty easily. It is in the public domain and available for free from Project Gutenberg.
Issa arrived in Germany with no past and access to large money. He didn’t want the money as it was gained immorally according the the laws of Islam. The story unravels his past, and who he is, without providing a lot of definite answers. Issa is studied by several teams, oftenwith different interpretations of the past.
This book is set in Germany, near the current time. It involves current issues, and feels typical for Le Carre’s work.
The story moves slowly at first, in Le Carre’s style, there is little action, as subtlety and knowledge are key. The suspense builds well, but slowly. Not all of the questions are answered, but the events are clear.
I had expected another Chee or Leaphorn story. This is more of an adventure, than a mystery. The story is set at the tail end of the Vietnam war, the protagonist, Moon Methias, is searching for the daughter of his deceased brother. In the process of finding his neice, he also finds himself. The book is about him remaking himself through adventure that mounts, he persists in spite of himself. The reader is lead to believe the search is for the child, but much if it is about himself.
Homer Hickam grew up in a West Virginia mining town. He wasn’t a miner, nor a foo
tball player, as was everyone else in the twon. He and his friends played with rockets. When he went away to study engineering, there was an accident at the mines. His father was being blamed for the death of man. Homer’s life was disrupted as he went home to try and help.
This story continues from October Sky in the story of Homer Hickam, but the book stands well on its own. We meet the characters, and understand some of the sociology of a small mining town and its issues.
The story is a mystery, unraveling the events leading to the death of one of the mining supervisors. Although, I don’t think the reader can solve the mystery himself, it is a good mystery, and an interesting anecdote in the life of Homer “Sonny” Hickam.
The twists in this story kept me going to the end. A man assigns an agent to a position in Berlin, and the agent disappears immediately. Smiley and co. investigate the disappearance. The story is from the point of view of Ned, the manager making the fatal assignment. He is new to the field and finds himself in the thick of it and under suspicion.
This is a short story taken from the collection The Secret Pilgrim. It is an audiobook read by John Le Carre.
T
he book develops well, the main character uncovers clues as to whats going on, jumps to reasonable, but invalid, conclusions, and the reader is drawn in. Everything seems reasonable and develops properly. … As events unfold, the tone becomes suspenseful and perhaps a bit of horror. The book plays with mans dominance over nature and some of the morals, Dr. Moreau was outcast for his work, and finds his own way to continue, with consequences.
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