Read Books This will provide a list of the books I've read with a brief review. Users are blocked, contact me for access. I welcome discussions, but I'm tired of spam.

April 6, 2020

Solo: A Star Wars Story: by Mur Lafferty

Filed under: Adventure,Science Fiction — Tags: , — Randolph @ 11:13 am

This is the story of Han Solo prior to the movie saga. It start with his life on Corellia. It goes through his first encounters with Chewbacca and Lando, getting into his smuggling career and his acquisition of the Millennium Falcon.

The book is an action story. Han goes from one event to another. Parts of the book really bothered me, character actions didn’t seem quite right, some events seemed to be just plot points. Some of Han’s schemes didn’t seem quite reasonable, even if they failed, it seems he could come up with a better bluff or idea. It wasn’t particularly bad, it just should have been a lot more.

May 24, 2019

Conan Omnibus Volume 4 by Timothy Truman

Filed under: Adventure,Fantasy — Tags: , — Randolph @ 6:06 pm

Normally, I really enjoy reading Conan. With this omnibus, I have mixed feelings.

On the positive side, the quality of the art is very good. A lot of detail goes into important images, he uses the page changes well and mixes the image formats on each page in a pleasing manner.

I also like the pacing. I find most comics paced too fast. The authors don’t make good use of timing or pacing.

The stories are decent, I wouldn’t rate them much above that. It’s moderately typical of Conan stories and they can become generic. These stories had a lot of the generic qualities.

On the negative side, I didn’t really feel like this is the same Conan as the Robert Howard stories. There is much more emphasis on the violence and his relationship to Crom is completely different. That doesn’t detract from the value of the story unless you are looking for a traditional Conan.

The other element that bothered me was a setting error. In a place where clocks are a rare wonder and, if I remember correctly, never appears in the original stories, Conan casually blurted out “I’ll be back in an hour or two.” Although minor to many, this really detracted from the setting for me. I doubt Conan has ever nor would ever have need nor understand mechanical time.

Overall, the book makes for a mild diversion, I can’t recommend it if you like the original Conan. The character’s behavior does not match the expected archetype. If you favor this version of the character, or just enjoy the story, it’s ok.

November 15, 2018

Fools and Mortals CD: A Novel by Bernard Cornwell

Filed under: Adventure,History — Tags: , , — Randolph @ 3:21 pm


Fools and Mortals CD: A Novel by Bernard Cornwell

Bernard Cornwell takes a break from his traditional military-based historical fiction to tell the story of an actor, Richard Shakespeare, the younger and estranged brother of William Shakespeare. It is a coming-of-age story about Richard, but it is more a story about late 16th century theater and politics.

The story itself would have made a good Shakespeare play, it has love, politics and betrayal. The author brings the stage to life and gives the reader a good feel for life in the Elizabethan period.

In his usual way, Cornwell tells a very good story. The characters are real and the situations believable.

This isn’t what I expected when I started, I didn’t read the jacket and was expecting a typical Bernard Cornwell novel, but I was pleasantly surprised and could not turn away.

May 19, 2017

The Barsoom Project by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes

Filed under: Adventure,Mystery,Science Fiction,Series — Tags: , — Randolph @ 4:16 pm


The Barsoom Project by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes

This books is a follow-on to Dream Park. In this, the Dream Park business is running a new simulation, an end-of-the world scenario with mythological connections. But things are going on behind the scenes. When a player dies before it should be possible, an investigation begins turning up murder and conspiracy – and a return character operating under an alias and with a hidden past.

The dream story is interesting. It was well-researched and involves some Inuit history and mythology, and we see the players drawn into an interesting culture.

However, I didn’t feel the story was as good as the previous one. The characters are a bit shallow, which is moderately typical for Niven. But the story is very creative, which is also typical. In the end, I didn’t feel as if everything was adequately explained, such as the code modifications which had to get around security and have a very good understanding of their technology. The mystery player seemed to be far to uninteresting in the end, she had a lot of potential and should have been more complex. With the weak ending and the lack of character development I can’t recommend this book.

April 15, 2017

Gateway by Frederik Pohl

Filed under: Adventure,Science Fiction — Randolph @ 3:06 pm


Gateway by Frederik Pohl

This story tells about exploration, about the fear and wonder of it. It is told in first person, and we deal with his anxieties, passions and fears. The protagonist, Robinette “Bob” Broadhead, won a lottery, enough to got to Gateway and become a prospector. Gateway is an asteroid with Heechee ships, ships capable of faster-than-light travel.  The Heechee disappeared millions of years ago leaving, besides just their ships, valuable artifacts scattered about the universe. People risk their lives to find these artifacts on the possibility of achieving financial independence.

There are only a few key characters besides the main character, most of these have very little development. The exceptions are Gelle-Klara Moynlin, Dane Metchnikov who are important to Bob and are key to his character development and his psychosis.

The author does a good job of describing life in a low-gravity asteroid, I found the descriptions interesting and insightful, although I think he missed a point or two. 🙂 Moving a heavy object would be very difficult, it may not have weight, but it’s inertia would be greater than the friction you would have with the floor. It recurred during the fight scene, it seems like it would be very difficult to maintain footing while struggling with someone. The problem did not detract from the book.

The story unravels along with a parallel path in the future where Bob is seeing a robot shrink, Sigfrid. These sessions provide a harbinger of events to come, but they aren’t very clear. At first, they seemed unimportant, but they help develop both Bob’s character and build to the climax. I found Sigfrid very interesting, even though a very flat character. Bob’s actions later in the book reinforce that Sigrid isn’t an individual, but he seems to walk a line between human and robot.

There are also one-page entries that help build an image of life on Gateway. These include classified ads, personal communications, rule and contracts.

Overall, I found the book very enjoyable and difficult to put down. There is something looming around the corner that needs resolving. The final revelation is unique and thought-provoking.

April 1, 2017

Myth-ion Improbable by Robert Asprin

Filed under: Adventure,Fantasy,Humor,Series — Tags: — Randolph @ 2:23 pm


Myth-ion Improbable by Robert Asprin

This books is set earlier than some of the recent books, following Myth Directions. In this adventure, Skeeve gets hold of a treasure map that leads to a golden cow. At the thought of treasure, Aahz loses his senses, with Tananda, they begin a grand adventure. .

Only, the map is magical and changes as the proceed. They meet some odd characters, some peculiar dimensions. Meeting vegetarian cowboys, odd cattle, and redundant towns on their way to find gold, they face odd obstacles and find humorous solutions.

March 31, 2017

Tales of the Jedi by Tom Veitch

Filed under: Adventure,Science Fiction — Tags: , — Randolph @ 4:05 pm


Tales of the Jedi by Tom Veitch

This is a small collection of short stories about the Jedi Knights in the age before the movies. These are stories of adventure of young jedi facing their first conflicts. I listened to the audio version of the book.

Unfortunately, the dialog is pretty bad. The characterization of the young Jedi is weak and poorly written. The author explains thing to the reader by using ignorance, often in the jedi, who do know know some of the basics in how the force works. I suspect the reader knows far more than the young jedi.

December 2, 2016

The Man with the Golden Torc by Simon R. Green

Filed under: Adventure,Fantasy — Tags: , — Randolph @ 7:49 pm

The Man with the Golden Torc by Simon R. Green

This is the first book of the Secret Histories novels, in which a family, the Droods, uses ancient secrets of science and magic to protect the human population from a large assembly of evils, demons, monsters, aliens, etc. Except the official story conceals a dark secret.

Eddie Drood does what the family asks of him. Being independent, he isn’t satisfied living under the roof and rules of the family matriarch, so he works among the normal humans, fighting the family’s fight. Until he is sent on a mission, doomed to fail, and is declared rogue by the matriarch with a kill-on-sight order. Most of the book is his story of trying to find out why this happened.

The book is full of odd and fun characters, each is a creative creation with an interesting story. There is also a large array of odd artifacts, each also creative and unusual.

The author almost gets in the way of the story. He enjoys setting up a situation, and then adding a one-liner to build its opposite. This happens in the characters’ stories, in idioms, settings, all too much. Some of them are very good, which keeps them from getting entirely stale, it is just part of his sense of humor.

The book has several allusions to James Bond. Eddie operates under the moniker Edwin Bond, and has an uncle James Drood with a history that sounds like James. This character sets a high-mark for establishing Edwin as a major operative.

The beginning of the book was a bit difficult to get through. As the author set the scene, he set up Edwin Drood as a masterful and powerful agent with a powerful tool. It felt like Deus-ex-Machina as he pulled new skills out to defeat opponents. But this was all stage setting to familiarize the reader with his abilities. The book definitely improves.

Toward the end of the book, it became a page-turner for me. The situations were exciting. However, I was quite disappointed in the ending, in which an entirely misunderstood plot element suddenly just solved all the problems. Oddly, it didn’t feel like it ruined the book. The story was good enough to carry the novel, the humor was good, and it was interesting. I will make time to read the second novel.

November 1, 2013

Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia

Filed under: Adventure,Fantasy,Steampunk — Randolph @ 4:31 am

Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia

This is a travel story, about a young girl who gets involved in a power struggle and finds her place in the world. The setting is very interesting, combining magic, steampunk, zombies and perhaps a little horror into an epic struggle between good and evil. The story is set in an alternate history near the dawn of WW II, Hitler is dead, the Japanese empire plays the role of evil. A secret organization of magic-enabled people in a country that fears them, play the good. Lead by the Chairman, they are striving for world domination. The Chairman has mastered many forms of magic and is believed to be immortal. The story even has a nice plot twist concerning the struggle. It very much reminded me of the X-men universe by Marvel. There a several parallels, most obvious is the public’s perception of people with powers.

Each chapter begins with a tidbit out of the world’s history, often resembling a newspaper account. These relate people we recognize and give clues to how this world deviated from our own. They are a very good addition to the story and provide some interesting backstory.

What doesn’t work is the characterizations. Larry doesn’t create convincing characters, many have characteristics that just aren’t appropriate for that character. One example is the riches man in the world, who seems a heartless sociopath, yet who cringes from a mild threat. Another is a battle-hardened soldier who pauses during a firefight to have a private conversation with his girlfriend. These types of issues almost ruined the book for me. The main character keeps growing in strength, yet this isn’t explained well. She just has new abilities when you see her in battle. They fit with the character, but seem to come too suddenly.

Another weakness is that Larry has a tendency to relate some action to the reader, then to explain how it could happen. It felt like a deus ex machina mechanism, he could have given hints of these capabilities earlier in the story.

For the most part, the book was saved by the author’s creative story and the action in the story. The plot kept moving, the action scenes are well-described, and the book is generally fun.

August 15, 2013

Hopscotch by Brian Garfield

Filed under: Adventure — Randolph @ 7:45 am

Hopscotch by Brian Garfield

Miles Kendig was a top field agent with the CIA. But when a spy reaches a certain age, he is moved to a desk job. Feeling he was being forced into retirement, he quit. And he took a lot of secrets with him.

Depressed from the beginning, a meeting with a Soviet agent inspired him to play a game. The meeting inspired him to play a game. He is writing a book full of secrets, chapter by chapter he is sending them to the CIA and publishers around the world. It is an open challenge to his former colleagues to stop him before he can finish.

The book is written well. It is in third person getting inside Miles’ head. We watch him set traps, not knowing how they will play out. Then we get to watch the action. Miles anticipates every action his colleagues do and works to not only stay ahead of them, but taunt them at each step.

The writing is good and reflects the mood on the page. During his early depression, Brian describes a meal as “he ate something in a café and had two Remy Martins.” The tone changes dramatically after the meeting with the Soviet providing a harbinger of action to come.

The book is a fast read and fully enjoyable.

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress