Brute by Robert Coram

Brute is the biography of Victor Krulak, a man who probably had just about as much influence on the forming of the modern Marine Corps as anyone I've ever heard of. Although it's his personal story, the meat of the book is really more about inter-service rivalries between the Army, Navy and the Corps, and how Krulak played an integral part in shaping that fight.

Coram spends what I felt was an inordinate amount of time talking about the conflict between Krulak's personal and professional integrity when it came to the Corps, and the fact that he spent his entire life also denying or trying to escape his Jewish heritage, which was not really all that surprising, given the amount of animosity that Jews attracted while he was growing up, attending the Naval Academy, and building his career. Krulak certainly had his fair share of other faults which are mentioned more sparingly.

Though he was not physically imposing, barely making the height and weight requirements to join the military, Victor Krulak eventually lived up to his ironically assigned nickname, Brute, in ways befitting an honorable, loyal, and determined military officer. He was quite fortunate in that he achieved some early close associations with powerful senior officers, who gave him glowing fitness reports and put him on the fast track for promotions. But unlike some others, his promotions were based on hard work and the willingness to take on any task and complete it, no matter what the cost.

While serving as a junior officer in China, he witnessed the Japanese invasion and occupation, and took made copious drawings and notes about the landing craft that they used which allowed men and equipment to get ashore rapidly. At the time, US forces had boats with high bows and deep keels for landing craft, and it was in the first place awkward for men to get out of the boat, and in the second place they had to remain so far offshore that men would be swimming to the beach, subject to enemy gunfire, rather than already being ashore and able to fight.

He sent dispatches to the Department of the Navy containing his reports, but they were consigned to a filing cabinet without anyone reviewing them at the time. Later on, when it became apparent that there was a strong possibility that we could end up at war in the Pacific, Krulak was working for a general officer tasked with revising amphibious assault doctrine, and Krulak dug out his old files and tried again to get the Navy to look at them. They were too hung up in their bureaucracy to change what they already had on the drawing board, so Krulak and his Marine superiors contacted a man named Higgins, who turned those drawings into the Higgins boats later used in WWII to great effect.

Also, during the Vietnam War, Krulak spent most of his time out in the countryside, visiting his troops and those of our allies, paying attention to what really was going on, rather than making his judgements from an armchair somewhere in the rear. He ended up writing a counterinsurgency manual that was mostly ignored, and the politicians ended up paying more attention to the media reports of a lost cause than what men like Krulak were reporting, so we pulled out. Interestingly enough, Krulak's manual was strikingly similar to the counterinsurgency policy put in place by General Petraeus thirty years later in Iraq.

A great book for military history buffs and Marine Corps fans alike, this was a good read about a very interesting fellow.

Discord's Apple by Carrie Vaughn

I've really come to enjoy Vaughn's series about Kitty, and was hoping for something new and exciting here when I saw it at the library. The story begins when Evie Walker, a woman with no discernable magical talents, returns home to small town Colorado to take care of her father, who is possibly terminally ill. Things are just slightly different in her new world - it appears that there have been some successful terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction, and Evie's mother was killed a few years ago in one of them, leaving her and her father alone. The only effect this really has on the story is that a very light form of martial law is in effect around the country, and the police appear to have grown both checkpoint and power hungry, in some cases.

Evie notices some strange visitors at her father's house, and begins to find out a little bit about the mystery held there. It turns out that the gods didn't really just fade away because people stopped worshiping them, but that Zeus, fearing his rivals, called all of them to a meeting on Mount Olympus and destroyed the majority of them. There were a few left to wander the world, immortal. Prometheus, fearing what might happen if some of the more potent magic artifacts fell into the wrong hands, went around the world gathering them all into a bag of holding (you D&D fans remember how that works) and then giving them into the possession of one trustworthy but unremarkable family, to keep safe forever. The only time they've released any of them was when the enchantment surrounding the collection determined that the person who came looking for the artifact was pure of heart and all that sort of thing.

While Evie's dad is dying, some of the power hungry leftover immortals decide it would be a good time to try to get possession of the items, and this story is about Evie and a few of her friends resisting their wiles. Vaughn is a good writer, so the book is readable, but the premise is not exciting, the characters mostly unsympathetic, the new slant on old legends nothing to get excited about. I'd give it a pass, quite frankly.

War of Honor by David Weber (Honor Harrington #10)

Review written 2003

I'm not particularly fond of novels written with too many shifts in point of
War of Honor is not as action-packed as most of the previous novels in the series, but rather tells the tale of the deadly political game behind the action. The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the empire formerly known as the People's Republic of Haven are in an uneasy truce as the story begins. The Havenites are desperately trying to restore a semblance of democracy to their formerly totalitarian government, and the story of the political struggle of President Esther McQueen and her ally, Defense Minister Thomas Theisman, with her Secretary of State, who desires power for himself, is the main focus of those scenes set in the Republic.

Theisman's people have labored hard in secret to restore technological and numerical parity with the Manticoran fleet, and they must decide exactly how to use their new ships and equipment. In the Star Kingdom, the North Hollow government and its liberal allies have been busy disassembling the machinery of war to support their domestic social and economic programs. Harrington and her allies have been rendered nearly powerless, and are further hindered, as the story develops, by orchestrated attacks on their personal and private reputations.

While the Star Kingdom focused on the war with the Peeps, the Andermani Empire has grown ambitious, and piracy in the Silesian Confederacy has gotten out of control. This one slowly builds to a burn. Duplicitous behavior by McQueen's Secretary of State derails the peace negotiations, and the fiscal policies of the Manticoran government erode its ability to defend itself, when the Havenites launch a preemptive strike. The book is quite long, around 800 pages, but should provide you with many hours of enjoyment, as the tension builds to a climax. The way it ends, I expect we'll be seeing more of Honor fairly soon.
view. Occasionally, however, I find one that is written well enough to keep my attention despite the changes. War of Honor, the latest in the Honor Harrington series, is one of those.

Dancing on the Head of a Pin by Thomas Sniegoski

With Madeline gone, Remy has very little left to enjoy in his life as a human. He's been ignoring his private investigation business, for the most part, and avoiding the few friends that he has. He and Marlowe are just getting by, tho Marlowe is probably getting over his grief more quickly.

When a Nomad, one of a group of angels who left Heaven voluntarily after Lucifer's war, turns up multilated in the hands of one of the Denizens, a group of "paroled" angels still doing penance on Earth after a stint in Hell, Remy gets the feeling that his life is about to get interesting once more. He visits the leaders of the Nomads to see if they might know what the Nomad was up to before he met his dismemberment and death, but they claim ignorance.

Shortly after that, Remy is contacted by a potential client who wants him to investigate the theft of some weapons from his extensive and expensive collection. Remy takes the job on a hunch and starts poking around. He consults his angelic friend, Francis, guardian of the gate between Hell and Earth, and finds out that the weapons may be The Pitiless, a set of weapons whose creation was inspired by angels, basically unstoppable, designed to kill over and over again.

More than one set of evil forces in the world are intent on getting their claws on  The Pitiless, and Remy is caught in the middle, trying to do the right thing, to prevent Heaven and Hell from going to war once more. Dark, brutal, somewhat depressing, but a good tale again from Sniegoski.

Worldwar: Tilting the Balance by Harry S. Turtledove

Ok, so I wasn't all that enthused about the first book in this series by Turtledove, but the selection was slim at the library, and I'd kinda gotten caught up in a couple of the characters' stories, so I decided to keep on reading.

In this second book, The Race, a bunch of lizard men bent on conquering Earth, has been brought somewhat to a standstill by the unorthodox tactics of humans around the globe, and the advent of winter, which the cold-blooded lizzies can't tolerate as well as the mammals. The former Axis and Allies have managed to capture some of The Race's war machinery, and are trying to comprehend its technology - solid state circuitry, ceramic alloys, hydrogen fuel, and have also captured a sample of plutonium, from which the Germans, Russians, Americans and Japanese are feverishly trying to create an atomic bomb which they can use to stop the relentless lizards.

The lizards have another unforeseen problem in their conquest. Many of their males have become addicted to ginger. This earth spice has an effect similar to cocaine on their metabolism - a feeling of excitement, invincibility and euphoria. It is also immediately physically and psychologically addictive for them. Understandably, soldiers under the effects of ginger suffer from impaired judgement in combat, which isn't helping their cause.

Turtledove manages to kill off some of our favorite humans in this book, though I won't spoil it by telling you which ones. This book still leaps around the globe quickly, changing POV at will, but the sections are now longer, I think, possibly because he's managed to downsize the POV pool by attrition.
Anyway, a solid but uninspiring read.

Nightlife by Rob Thurman

I took advantage of the opportunity to grab books one through five of the Cal Leandros series by Thurman at one of my favorite bookstores the other day, so I thought I'd give the first one a try. This is some pretty dark stuff, not my usual light-hearted fare. Cal and his brother Nik have had a very dysfunctional childhood, with an alcoholic narcissistic mother, and left home to live on their own as soon as the older brother, Nik, was eighteen. Cal and Nik have different fathers, and Cal is a half breed between human and Auphe (elf).

The Auphe in this story are not the beautiful, pointy-eared, gauzy creatures of fairy tales, but ugly and evil creatures, who delight in pain, death and destruction. They ruled the Earth long before mankind came on the scene, but were crowded out by rapidly breeding humans, and their numbers have dwindled. One of their members somehow fathering Cal (Caliban) is part of a plan they have to regain control over the world, but it's a long way into the book before we find out the part Cal is supposed to play.

Cal and Nik live in New York City, and most of the action plays out in its mean streets. They have a friend of sorts, a boggle who lives in Central Park, eating muggers, and when they go used car shopping one day, they encounter Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, peddling fast and fashionable vehicles. He somewhat reluctantly becomes an ally in their investigation of the Auphe plot. There's also a nasty troll that lives under the Brooklyn Bridge whom they meet and interrogate.

The action drags for the first half of the book, but then gets wild and wooly after Cal is possessed by an evil spirit, a banshee of sorts, and forced to play his part in the Auphe's scheme. The person who recommended this series says that the first book is the one she rated the worst of all of them, so I'm looking forward to the second one, it should be really interesting.

A Journey by Tony Blair

Tony Blair's autobiographical work, A Journey, is alternately fascinating and tedious. When Blair talks about the events that shaped his stint as Britain's prime minister, the policies and motivations behind the New Labour Party, and his interactions with other world leaders, like Bush, Berlusconi, and Chirac, it's quite interesting. When he goes on and on about the political maneuvering within the party itself and the relative strengths and weaknesses of every member of his staff he ever had, it's enough to put you to sleep.

As a young MP, Blair realized that the traditional Labour Party must change with the times. The last few years of the twentieth century and the early days of the twenty-first would require a government that was able to provide social benefits to those who were truly deserving of them while encouraging creativity, innovation and productivity within the private sector to provide opportunities for those of the less fortunate who were able and willing to work hard to propel their families into the middle class. The transformation he championed led the party into its first victory in forming a new government in many years.

I found him generally quite engaging, occasionally witty, and possessed of strong convictions blended with an uncommon common sense.

Some great quotes:

"a happy protocol is almost invariably the sign of a badly run government."

"I never thought that enjoying life's good things led to indifference to the plight of those who couldn't. For me the opposite was true: what I wanted for myself, I also wanted for others."

"A proper functioning state was obviously necessary to do what only government could do, as was a thriving and competitive private sector to generate the nation's wealth."

Blair worked on reforming the educational system in Britain, trying to provide more opportunity for all students. On education: "The middle class will always find a way to make the system work, or at least answer to them in some form or another. So good schools, comprehensive or not, would be in good neighborhoods."  He also believed that antisocial behavior led to the deterioration of a nation, and was a strong supporter of law and order. One key to that was helping dysfunctional families, whom he describes thusly, "These people at the bottom didn't have dysfunctional working lives. They had dysfunctional lives, full stop. Their children were disruptive at school, if they attended at all. Their parents were often separated or abusive or just plain inadequate."

In a series of novels that I really enjoyed, Allen Cole and Chris Bunch tell the tale of an annual event that the Eternal Emperor holds, an outdoor barbecue. I think the origins of that idea may have come from a British traditional barbecue that Prince Philip cooks. "The royals cook, and serve the guests. They do the washing up...You sit there having eaten, the Queen asks you if you've finished, she stacks the plates up and goes off to the sink." I always thought the royal family was a stodgy lot, but perhaps I was mistaken.

I had a bit of a deja vu moment when he mentioned that during the problems in Sarajevo, the European leaders were "prepared to commit to the necessary expressions of disgust at what was happening and demand that it stop, but were insistent that any military threat should explicitly rule out the use of ground forces." Can you say "Libya"?

He describes the deliberations between Western powers about whether or not to invade Iraq in 2003 as not a time of "rash decisions" but rather of "people straining to get policy right" in a situation that was constantly shifting. He and other leaders were fully convinced that Saddam's regime was in possession of weapons of mass destruction and would have no compunctions about using them against other countries in the region and around the world, especially after having used them on their own people; the Kurds in the north and the Marsh Arabs in the south.

He and others in his government pushed for greater transparency and enacted something similar to the FOIA laws in the U.S. He writes, in retrospect, "Freedom of Information. Three harmless words...You idiot. You naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop...I quake at the imbecility of it." It turned out to be a weapon used by journalists to beat his government about the head and shoulders all too often.

All in all, a most interesting read. There are places where it's a slog, but many of the anecdotes about fellow world leaders make it all worthwhile. It's also a look into the heart of someone who, whether you agree with him or not, was and is still shaping the nature of the world we deal with.

Worldwar: In the Balance by Harry S. Turtledove

Quite a while back, I purchased and read Turtledove's The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump, which I really enjoyed. I've kept an eye out ever since for another book in the same venue, but haven't run across one. What I have seen from him, however, is a ton of alternate history novels, in various series. I'm not a huge fan of alternate history, with the notable exceptions being Stirling's Drakon series, and Frankowski's Conrad books (more of a Connecticut Yankee thing, actually), so I haven't ever read any of them.

Well, any port in a drought, so to speak. The pickings were slim at the library last week, so I figured I'd try one. Worldwar is a tale of alien invasion, set in the middle of World War II. A lizard-like race of alien invaders shows up, figuring the internal division of Earth's population will make them easy pickings. Actually, they miscalculated from the start, as their most recent probes showed earth natives at the spear and club level of weaponry.

While the alien invasion doesn't totally eliminate all of the Axis' and Allies' opposition towards one another (they all appear to be planning to turn upon one another as soon as the lizards are defeated), most of the nations on Earth quickly turn the bulk of their energies to fighting the invaders. Ok, as far as alternate history mingling with the alien invasion meme is concerned, this is a reasonably amusing read, but there's basically no new ideas, no new plot devices, no new anything. It's merely a way to kill some time without destroying brain cells.

I think I've mentioned before how much I dislike multiple POV books. This is probably the most extreme MPOV novel I've ever read. However, given the premise, it's the only real way to handle things in a novel of this scope. The novel follows the fortunes of several minor league ball players in the US who get "drafted" to fight the aliens, and end up in widely varied locations. There are Jewish victims of Nazi oppression and abuse, Polish freedom fighters, a Soviet pilot and foreign secretary, a couple of German panzer crewmen, British radar operators, Chinese villagers, American scientists and even lizard POWs whose stories get told.
Call me a fool, but I enjoyed this one just enough to pick up the next in the series, Tilting the Balance. Of course, it was another lean day at the library.

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card

Over the years, I've come to expect certain things when I open up a new novel by Orson Scott Card. The main thing is that I better just block out the time to read the book straight through to the finish. It's a bad idea to start a new Card novel at bedtime, because I can count on getting no sleep till it's done. Unfortunately, this latest book wasn't up to those standards, I'm afraid.

The main story line in The Lost Gate is about Danny North, a twelve year old child in a family of mages who live on a compound in Virginia. They are the descendents of powerful magic users who once were considered to be gods, in this case the Norse ones, like Loki and Thor. Ever since the trickster, Loki, locked up the gate between MiddleGard and Westilia, their powers have waned, and they live concealed from ordinary humans, or drowthers.

Danny, alone amongst his cousins, doesn't have any talent for magic, and is held in contempt by most of his clan. It turns out after a bit that he's actually a gatemage, who has the potential to restore the gates that Loki stole. The other magic families on the planet are part of an agreement that since gatemages are too powerful, they will be put to death as soon as they are discovered, and when the Greeks come by for an inspection, Danny is caught using small gates to snoop on the adults, and flees for his life.

Like Oliver Twist or Pinocchio, he meets up with some unsavory companions when he is shoplifting some clothes at a WalMart, and travels to Washington DC to begin a life of crime - just like congresscritters. The house where he eventually takes refuge turns out to be a place "baited" to bring in Orphans, the half breeds with magical talent that the Families do not claim. The house's owner, Stone, finds Danny a family of Orphans to live and train with, giving him the first truly loving environment he's ever really known.

There's a secondary story line that is taking place on the old home of the "gods", Westilia. Loss of the gates there has also caused the magic to dwindle. A boy/man whose body is trapped in a tree for centuries is released by some kindly strangers, though he suffers from a partial amnesia. He wanders into the midst of a political battle between mage kingdoms, and ends up playing a key role in restoring one of them to power again.

This novel is pretty much targeted at the young adult market. I just found it extremely derivative and not as captivating as Card's usual output. I never sympathized nor empathized with any of the characters, particularly, and what growth and development took place in their hearts and lives was far too facile. Pick it up at the library if you must, but I wouldn't pay hardcover prices for this one.

The UN Gang by Pedro A. Sanjuan

The subtitle of this book, "A Memoir of Incompetence, Corruption, Espionage, Anti-Semitism, and Islamic Extremism at the UN Secretariat," says it all. Mr. Sanjuan was a high-ranking US official at the UN Secretariat for about ten years, and has plenty of anecdotes about the ridiculous happenings there. The examples of incompetence and nepotism didn't shock me at all, having lived through the last few decades of UN screwups. The blatant use of the secretariat headquarters by the Soviet espionage apparatus, however, and the criminal activities there, however, did.

The central premise of this book seems to be that the UN was founded by the Soviets and the US in order to provide member states with the illusion of input and influence in world events, while the two superpowers went on about their business of the Cold War. It seems rather cynical, but may very well be true.

The book, on the whole, is interesting, but takes a rather scattershot approach to exposing the truth about the United Nations. I wish Mr. Sanjuan had told more stories about his experiences there, but I suppose I'll just have to peruse some of the references mentioned in the book in order to obtain a more thorough understanding of the UN's foibles and follies.

Mailbox Monday

Wolfsbane by Patricia Briggs

Wolfsbane is the second book in the stories of Aralorn, and it really doesn't break much new ground. As I mentioned in my review of Masques, there's a Bond-ian flaw in the stories, and it appears at first that Aralorn and Wolf have made a stereotypical Blofeld-esque mistake, leaving a live enemy behind them. When they faced down ae'Magi Geoffrey, the left him without his magic facing a horde of malignant creatures that he'd formerly been able to control, assuming that he would be torn apart without either of our heroes bloodying their own hands.

Aralorn learns that her father, the Lyon of Lambshold, has died, and so she travels with Wolf to the old family keep to pay her last respects. Her relationship with her family has been strained over the years, as she was an illegitimate child of her father's shapeshifter lover, and some of her brothers are uncomfortable with her powers. For them moment, most of that is set aside while they are mourning.

It turns out that her father is not actually dead, but has been captured in a spell that simulates death. It's too complex for Wolf to unravel by himself, and so they seek help first from Aralorn's shapeshifter uncle, then from a local priestess of death, and finally from the current ae'Magi. As they dig into things further, they come to believe that it may be Geoffrey's spirit - a dreamwalker - influencing the living to perform the spell that threatens the Lyon.

The whole plot appears to be designed to draw Aralorn and Cain (Wolf) to a place where they can be captured for Geoffrey again. In some ways the book is more about relationships than about defeating the dead wizard's evil plans. Aralorn and Wolf become more deeply involved and committed to one another, and Aralorn's relationships with her mother, brothers and sister look like they might be restored. Again, not Briggs' best work, but it's good clean fun.

Book Blogger Hop - April 29 to May 2

It's time for the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books.



This week's question:
"Summer is coming quickly - what 2011 summer release are you are most looking forward to?"

I've been waiting for Ghost Story by Jim Butcher, ever since Harry Dresden took a bullet in Changes. Pre-buzz doesn't seem to indicate that it's going to answer the question of where this series is going, or if it is going, long term, but I love The Dresden Files.

Masques by Patricia Briggs

I believe that Masques was Briggs first novel, and evidently it was adequate to get her published, so she could follow up eventually with Mercy Thompson and friends. This book is mostly just classic fantasy, complete with an evil wizard, a plucky female lead, and her faithful shapeshifting wolf companion.

Aralorn, runaway daughter of a minor noble, is a shapeshifter and a spy for Ren, the spymaster of Sianim. Her assignment is to find out what she can at the court of the ae'Magi (archmage) Geoffrey, a well-beloved man who seems to have the magical situation in the land well under control. While she is there, she finds that Geoffrey is not the angelic figure he pretends to be, but that he is guilty of using black magic, fueled by pain, blood and death, to consolidate his power and influence.

There is a branch of the royal family that is immune to magic whom he is unable to influence with his charismatic spells, and Aralorn makes contact with the heir of that family, Myr, while she is spying at the court of the ae'Magi. When Geoffrey plots to capture or kill Myr, Aralorn goes AWOL from her next assignment to join his loyalists hiding in the mountains where Geoffrey's magic doesn't reach.

Sometime much earlier, Aralorn rescued a wolf from a pit trap who was actually a shapeshifter. Wolf has been her somewhat constant companion ever since, and he also is part of the resistance to the ae'Magi. Wolf has a more personal reason, though, as he is really Cain, the ae'Magi's son, who fled after being accused of working black magic. He had actually done so, under his father's tutelage, but had come to regret his evil ways and fled from his father's control.

The quest is relatively straightforward - kill Geoffrey and free the kingdom from his evil. The main problem with this novel, in my opinion, is that Geoffrey suffers from the same conceit as the Bond villains, he wants to gloat over his victims rather than just killing them quickly. This gives Aralorn just enough opportunities to escape him so that she can defeat him in the end. A good first effort by Briggs, but she's written much better.

Vitals by Greg Bear

Review written 2003

This novel left me with a sense of deja vu. Actually it didn't "leave me" so much as the impression snuck up on me as I was reading, and continued to the end and beyond. I kept wondering if I hadn't read this novel before, and just forgotten it. Given the large volume of SF I devour, it's certainly possible.

However, the most likely explanation is that this book is nearly a re-make of one of Bear's first writings, Blood Music. I can't really recall any of the details of the earlier book, but my general recollection is that the cells or mitochondria in our bloodstreams were "singing" to us, and if we just tuned in and listened to them, we'd be able to take the next evolutionary step to some sort of communal consciousness.

Anyway, Vitals is a story about two brothers, Hal and Rob Cousins, who are scientists working in the area of life extension. While on a deep sea voyage to obtain samples of primitive organisms near volcanic vents in the ocean, things begin to go mysteriously wrong for Hal. He is attacked by the driver of the sub, and strange things happen on the vessel above the waves, as well. In the wake of this event, his funding is cut, he becomes subject to more personal assaults, and his sanity is called into question.

His brother was murdered at approximately the same time, and as Hal begins to dig into material his brother had arranged to end up in his hands, he becomes involved in a conspiracy which began in Stalinist Russia. Russian biologists working with the bacteria in stromatolites (primitive fossil-like organisms) from Lake Baikal created a mind control technique which they tested on prisoners destined for the gulags. After Stalin's fall from power, the head scientist reached an accommodation with Western intelligence agencies, and a huge shadowy organization has controlled the minds of key people and thugs worldwide ever since.

Where it gets weird, tho, is that these people are actually being controlled at a far more powerful level by the bacteria themselves. It seems that the bacteria have had a worldwide conspiracy to keep the human race dying young (thereby providing fodder for more bacteria) all along. Hal and his fellow scientists who are trying to find the fountain of youth are interfering with their plan, and must be stopped at all costs.

So, as far as weird science goes, this is a provocative, thought inspiring novel. As far as the plot, character development and final resolution are concerned, I was confused and disappointed throughout. I've read quite a few of Bear's novels over the years, and enjoyed them. This is probably not his best effort.

Citadel by John Ringo

Citadel is the second book in Ringo's Troy Rising series, and in a way it breaks the mold set in the first. Most of Live Free or Die takes place from the point of view of Tyler Vernon, the man who successfully opens up trade with the Glatun and organizes the Earth resistance to the Horvath. Now, Ringo introduces a couple of new characters so that we can get a better perspective of what's going on with the man-made planetoid, Troy, as construction on a war time footing predominates this book.

The Horvath were smacked around pretty hard at the end of LFoD, and are most likely off licking their wounds somewhere, but the Rangora empire which gave the Horvath most of the fleet that Troy wiped out have decided that the Terrans must be dealt with sooner than later, so their punitive fleet, more modern and powerful than the Horvath's, is on the way. Ringo also introduces a couple of characters on the Rangora side of things, so that we can see what their high command is thinking, as each of a series of space battles falls into place.

On the military side of things, we get Engineering Apprentice Dana Parker, a bright young woman who is part of the space navy. Fresh out of the academy, she experiences a crash course (sometimes literally) in maintaining and repairing the space vehicles used by the fleet, and as a coxswain, or pilot. On the civilian side, there's Butch Allen, a member of a poor family with fourteen children, who takes the opportunity to go to Troy as an apprentice welder. He survives the hazing rituals of the existing crew and the rigors of training and working in microgravity and hard vacuum, to become an integral part of the construction and later salvage operations as succeeding fleets sent by the Rangora are reduced to their component pieces and used by the Earth fleet for their needs.

The Rangoran characters are possibly the best of a bad lot. Most of the high command consistently underestimate the fighting ability and technological level of Earth, but Major To'Jopeviq and his political officer, Lieutenant Jith Beor, are prone to a more realistic assessment of the odds. This puts them at odds with most of their colleagues and superiors, but in the end they are justified in a Pyrrhic fashion.

Most hard science fiction and military buffs will probably really enjoy this novel, as it explores the possibilities of applying new technology to an old endeavor. I know I did. Waiting eagerly for Troy Rising III.

Unhinged by Michelle Malkin

Review written 2005

Just finished (did you know that the book review heading on my old web site was called "Just finished...," because I almost always started my review with those words?) reading Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, which, depending on your political persuasion, is either an extremely biased rant against the forces of Liberal reason and rationality, or an objective look at the excesses of the "barking moonbats" of the Leftist horde, or maybe just a bit of both.

What it is, is a pretty well documented book about a number of instances of extreme insensitivity, race baiting, ad hominem attacks, and even criminal behavior by spokesman, self-appointed or otherwise, of the Liberal Left. Malkin explores PEST, Post Election Selection Trauma, which apparently severely affected many of those who campaigned for or voted for John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential race, incapacitating them for days, weeks or months after his loss to Bush. She explores some of the liberal conspiracy theories, such as believing that the CIA blew up the World Trade Center towers, that the capture of Saddam Hussein was staged at an opportune moment; he'd been in custody for months previously, or that Bush has secret plans for a military draft.

She talks about liberals' failure to support our troops during the War on Terror and the War in Iraq, their attacks on campus recruiters and recruiting stations, and their abusive behavior towards war veterans and their families. She talks about college environments which condone and even encourage viewpoints such as Ward Churchill's, that the people who worked in the WTC deserved what happened to them, for their complicity in the military industrial complex's bid for world domination (Gosh, some people never really grew out of the sixties, did they?).

She spends some time discussing the rabid anti-Bush sentiment of many of the entertainers in Hollywood. Given the total fantasy of the world these people generally live in, who relies on them for any kind of reality check, anyway? (digression here - I was watching an Oprah-clone talk show one day, and the topic was successful relationships. The host had three guests (models and actresses - C or D list, I can't really say) who were there to give us their sage advice. The first one says something along the lines of "I've always been single," the second says her longest relationship was 1-1/2 years, and the third was married for several years and got divorced. My first and last thought - I turned to another channel at that point - was "why in the world would you ask one of these people how to sustain a long term monogamous relationship?" If I want to know how, I'll ask one of my acquaintances who have been married for 20, 50, or 65 years. - end digression).

Malkin also has a chapter filled with the venomous attacks upon her personally from liberals who have taken great offense to the opinions she expresses on her blog, and/or the columns she writes for conservative web sites, and/or the bloviating she gets to do on Fox News, especially The O'Reilly Factor. If you're at all sensitive or easily offended by foul language, I suggest you skip this chapter, or perhaps use a black magic marker to clean it up a bit. The rest of the chapter is the same sort of thing that she's collected from other web sites, posted by people who disagreed with some poor conservative schmuck.

Ok, so I was shocked and appalled by the obscene personal attacks on Mrs. Malkin. I, personally, wouldn't dream of talking to my worst enemy in the world that way, even if they'd spoken to me in that fashion first. However, from my surfing excursions, I've noticed that this stuff is pretty common on political blogs -- why, I can't imagine, as it doesn't further rational discourse in any way, shape or form. Perhaps I'll even receive some of it for posting this review.

To be as objective as possible here, there's a ton of invective being tossed back and forth in the political arena these days, both online and offline, that falls far beyond the pale of what not so long ago was considered common courtesy. I'm not even talking dirty politics, here, but rather the vicious attacks - verbal and/or physical - which evoke  Wrestlemania far more than boxing by Queensbury rules.
All in all, a quick and entertaining, and sometimes maddening, read.

Tiassa by Steven Brust

I was actually quite surprised to find this out so quickly at my local library. I've been a huge Brust fan for years, and have avidly followed, read, and re-read his Taltos series, so I was thrilled to find Tiassa, the thirteenth book in the series. I'm guessing there will be 17or 18 by the time it's all finished, mimicking the Cycle and accounting for all of the houses, with the addition of the book titled Taltos a while back.

Tiassa is structured a little differently. No surprises there, Brust likes to mess with conventions a bit when it comes to story lines. It begins with a scene between Vlad and Sethra LaVode, where he shows her a silver sculpture of a tiassa which is the focus of the entire story, being rumored to have mystical powers, though its powers turn out in the end to have nothing to do with what is commonly known. Then the story hops back in time to shortly after Vlad and Cawti met (and she tried to assassinate him), when he gets involved in an elaborate con with the participation of the Viscount of Adrilankha, which ends up with Khaavren (of Phoenix Guards and elsewhere fame) owing Vlad a favor.

The story continues to bounce around, and Brust very skillfully weaves timelines and characters from all of his novels together for the first time here. It was quite entertaining to see the contrast between the parts of the tale told in Vlad's "voice" and those in the style of "Khaavren" and his friends. Then, when Vlad and Khaavren are actually on stage together, the banter and verbal sparring are a thing of beauty to behold. Parvi the historian puts in an appearance, as well, giving Brust the chance to elucidate a bit on the notions of storytelling and history.

Unfortunately, it had been too long since I read the last installment of Vlad, so I'm going to have to go back and revisit it, just so I understand the reasoning behind the ending of this book. Might not be a bad idea, if you've got copies of Dzur, Iorich and Jhegaala laying about the house, to give them a glance before you pick this one up. My only other worry is that Brust may be finally going into a Heinlein-esque senile phase, where the desire to throw all of his characters from all of his stories into the crockpot leaves us all with indigestion. Only time will tell.

Mailbox Monday

Magic on the Hunt by Devon Monk

I had to grab a copy of Magic on the Hunt as soon as it came out, so I could find out what Allie and her allies were up to. The situation in magical Portland is still very unsettled, though the corporate Veiled have been imprisoned, as well as the beast-man Greyson. But it appears that Leander has managed to slip from the land of Death into the mundane world, and his megalomania can't mean anything good is going to happen.

It seems, in this book, that all of the "adult" members of the Authority have their own plots and power plays going on, while only Allie and the younger generation actually have the best interests of Portland and its residents at heart. Allie is still inhabited by the spirit of her dead father, which turns out to be a good thing several times through this installment, beginning when she and Zayvion are attacked at her apartment. Zayvion is knocked unconscious and Allie is immobilized by magic, as Dane, a close ally of Sethra (kidnapped head of the Authority), and his thugs interrogate her. But Dad's magic is somehow able to penetrate those bindings and the bad guys are temporarily driven off.

Throughout the book, Allie, Zayvion, Shamus and Terric repeatedly disobey or ignore orders from on high, and keep going from frying pan to fire in their efforts to stop Leander and find out what's really going on in the war of the wells. Making things more complicated, Allie's best friend Nola shows up in town, dragging Cody along, and she intends to move to the city permanently, so she can be closer to her boyfriend, head of the supernatural task force in the Portland police. Allie tries to protect her from the effects of the war, but Nola's a big girl, and resents Allie's interference.

Nothing really new or surprising develops with Allie and Zayvion's relationship, aside from some magical bits towards the end of the book. There are some good plot surprises that caught me napping, as far as the whole plot/counterplot thing. The only disappointment for me was that the ending seemed to leave us in another unresolved situation, leaving us waiting for the next sequel. I know that Monk has a story to tell and it's going to take a lot more pages to get to the end of it, but maybe just once we could get a longer "super-sized" book for our money.

The Wizard of London by Mercedes Lackey

After reading about a quarter way through this book, I realized it was actually book #4 in a series called The Elemental Masters. Now, this is pretty good, since I never got much of a feeling that I had missed "what has gone before," and was able to enjoy it as a stand-alone novel. I'll probably pick up the earlier books in the series at the library one of these days, just to catch up on things.

I do, however, remember now why I quit reading Lackey's books a few years ago. She had reached that point in an author's career where, in my opinion, she had nothing really new to say. I first noticed this phenomenon in the works of Heinlein about five years before his death, and later in the works of Eddings, which up to that point had been delightful.

The story is about a young girl, Sarah, whose parents are missionaries in Africa. For her safety, they send her home to England to a boarding school run by Isabelle Harton and her husband, Frederick. Many boarding schools are horrible places, run by misers and bullies, but this one is full of loving care, and has the added benefit of helping psychically gifted youngsters learn to use and control their talents. Isabelle and Frederick, and several of their staff, are Warriors of the Light, and when they manifest their avatars, do battle with the forces of darkness wherever they are found.

Isabelle also rescues a street waif named Nan, who possesses psychic ability, and a considerable portion of the book details her integration (a la Eliza Doolittle) into the school. Sarah and Nan, of course, become the best of friends, and eventually fall into some misadventures discovering and defeating, with the help of the Warriors, several evil minions.

Ok, here's a couple of things I consider to be the downside to this book. First, Lackey seems to have fallen into that same rut which Heinlein fell into in his latter days, that all of the good guys in the books are simply "too good to be true." When most of the surrounding culture is horribly prejudiced against the foreign, they are not only tolerant, but embrace other cultures. Three of the "servants" in the school are a Sikh, a Gurkha, and a Moslem (they also are extremely wise and filled with the spirit of brotherhood).

While the majority of the marriages in their culture are arranged, political and loveless, Isabelle and Frederick's union is blissful, loving and *gasp* enjoys the "carnal" relations. In the household and school, disputes are always rationally discussed, children are lovingly disciplined in creative ways (rather than resorting to crude corporal measures), students and servants cheerfully do their chores...et cetera, et cetera, et-freakin' cetera. The word that came to mind when I was considering the characters in this book (and upon reflection, in Lackey's recent works) was "insipid."

In the plot, the tension slowly (agonizingly so) builds. There is a certain nobleman, David Alderscroft, who was a former beau of Isabelle's, winkled away from her in the past by Cordelia, the ice princess incarnate. Cordelia, not so surprisingly, has an ancient evil ally, some sort of ice dragon locked in a glacier, and appears to have a goal of -dare I say it - world domination. Over the course of the book, her plot slowly works its way to fruition. David has been influenced over the years to go along with her scheme, by appealing to his sense that aristocrats surely must know best how to govern the masses. However, at the climactic moment, when good and evil must surely battle, our intrepid heroes manage to TALK THE ENEMY INTO GIVING UP! Is that exciting, or what? Of course, the enemy was merely duped in the first place so, of course, love is all you really need. Why can't we all just get along?

Trick of the Light by Rob Thurman

Rob Thurman is perhaps better known for her (yes, Rob is short for Robyn) Cal Leandros series, but I haven't been able to locate a cheap copy of the first book in that series, so I had to give her Trickster series a try first. This book brings a little different cast of characters than the bread and butter elf, vampire and werewolf fare, with a little homemade jam of angels and demons instead.

Trixa Ixtomi is a bar owner in Las Vegas, who seems to have a part time hobby of burning down nightclubs near the Strip which belong to demons. Her chief bartender Leo, is a native american of indeterminate tribe - and he can get really rude with the tourist who ask him his Indian name - whose history with Trixa goes back a long time. They have a mascot at the bar, Lenore, a male! raven who quotes Poe and others freely.

Trixa has a tendency to take in strays, it appears, and she has a particular soft spot for a pair of runaways named Griffin and Zeke. Griffin is an empath, and Zeke is a telepath, but also a sociopath, whose notions of right and wrong are so black and white that Griffin has to keep an eye on him at all times, lest he execute all thieves, rapists, and molesters on sight. All of the cast of characters are pretty good with guns and knives, and ready to mix it up with the demons which infest sin city in a heartbeat.

Trixa's brother was murdered by a demon some years ago when they lived in Hawaii, and she has spent the intervening time trying to find out which one is guilty of the crime. She has heard a rumor about an artifact called the Light of Life, which has immense power and which the legions of both Heaven and Hell desire go gain control of. She believes she can find it, and trade it to whichever side hands over her brother's killer.

This one's got some really interesting characters, great plot twists that I never saw coming, and has a great treasure hunt motif. I just have to wonder what Ms. Thurman is going to do in the next book to top this one.

Tangled Threads by Jennifer Estep

Ms. Estep was kind enough to send me an advance copy of the fourth book in her Elemental Assassin series to review, so I'm here to give you the early buzz on Tangled Threads.

Gin Blanco's arch-enemy, Mab Monroe, has hired another professional assassin, from a family of assassins (Like the Flying Wallendas?) to kill The Spider. The assassin is also a woman, called LaFleur, and uses a variant on air elemental skills, electrocution, as well as her formidable physical skills, to make her kills. Gin is investigating one of Mab's drug dealing minions down by the docks when the first trap is set, but her gut instinct tells her there's something wrong with the setup, and she witnesses LaFleur murder the hapless fool who is bait for the snare.

So now Gin and her friends must figure out how to take down LaFleur before she kills Gin. Gin begins to investigate, and finds out that one of the bartenders at Northern Exposure, Vinnie, an immigrant from the Soviet bloc, has been passing information along to Monroe. Monroe kidnaps his daughter, and Gin's need to save the innocent complicates things further.

LaFleur is, if not romantically, sexually involved with one of Mab's lieutenants whose son Gin killed in an earlier book, and he convinces the assassin to kill Gin Blanco, the restaurant owner, as well, only on the grounds that she had a run-in with his son earlier in which he lost face. So Gin is a target for two reasons, though none of the bad guys knows she is The Spider. Mab also has reasons to want Gin's sister, the policewoman, dead, and Gin also needs to find a way to protect her baby sister, Bria.

Gin's relationship with Owen Grayson goes through some evolution in this volume. It becomes apparent to her eventually that he's not put off by her alter ego and is more than eager to help in her crusade against the Monroe mob. We see some hope that Gin might once again feel loved and part of a "family" again.

One of the things I wondered about while reading this book was exactly how Gin gets trained in her elemental magic. In one scene, she creates some delicate lockpicks out of ice, but most of the time she just uses the brute force approach or creates knives out of ice. There's a bit where an ice elemental bartender at Northern Aggression creates the entire bar setup out of ice, and keeps it maintained with his magic. It seems like Gin might have wanted to consult with him for some tips. She doesn't seem to spend time with any ice elementals, at least as it's mentioned in the books, and I just wonder how she could go about perfecting her skills.

In fact, none of the elementals in these books really seem to do a whole lot more with their magic than create some huge blast of power to battle with other elementals, or temporarily raise the power to intimidate someone. One exception is Gin's friend, the dwarven healer, who seems to be able to do quite delicate healing and cosmetic surgery with her power. Shouldn't Gin spend more time with her, at least understanding the principles of control, even if it's a different element? All Jo-Jo seems to say to her is basically, "you are strong in the Force, young Skywalker".

Another thing that I thought was odd was that Gin has, throughout the books, used her stone elemental power to check her surroundings for evil intent. Even when she enters her own home, she checks the stones, and is able to determine that no one has come around while she's gone with an intent to do her harm. But at one point in the book, when she checks the pavement around her restaurant, the Pork Pit, she detects no bad vibes. A little later on, we discover that the assassin, LaFleur, had been around to check the place out. Why couldn't Gin detect that?

Overall, a great book, and I'm hoping to see the next book, Spider's Revenge, soon

Carnifex by Tom Kratman

Carnifex takes up the action right where A Desert Called Peace leaves off, on the planet of Terra Nova. The initial campaigns of the Legions put together by Patricio Carrera (nee Patrick Hennessey) and his colleagues have wound down, and the FSC has tried to mothball them. So, when the time comes that they need to be called back to service, Carrera/Hennessey makes the politicians who fired him in the first place pay through the nose to hire his men.

In the meantime, Carrera and the boys have been building an even more formidable force than before, including the beginnings of a fleet of ships, including a small aircraft carrier, and their first job is to tackle the piracy which is crippling shipping for the FSC and its allies. Then their army is hired to take care of the Salafists who have retreated to a mountainous and tribe-infested area of the planet (sounds like Afghanistan).

After Mr. Kratman was kind enough to comment on my post about the first book in this series, A Desert Called Peace, I feel moved to discuss some of the deeper issues raised in reading his books.

The main protagonist, Patrick Hennessy, enters into this endeavor motivated mostly by vengeance, needing to make the terrorists pay in blood for the death of his family. In the journey, however, we do see some other aspects of Hennessy, such as his intense loyalty towards his men. He'll spare nothing, not even his own health, wealth or sanity, in order to make sure that they get the best training and equipment possible to wage this war. In the beginning, they have little, but after a time, they are the most effective fighting force on the planet. He also endures the dilemma that all commanders face, of sending troops off into situations where they are all likely to be killed, in order to achieve a strategic objective, and this responsibility ages and saddens him, but not past his ability to do what he must.

There's a point in the books when Hennessy, seeing that the opposing forces are not treating prisoners humanely, makes a public statement to the media and to his foes that if they will abide by the rules of war, his troops will continue to treat prisoners well, allow battlefield surrenders, and so forth. But if the Salafists will not abide by the rules, then his forces will be released to be as brutal as necessary to win. This policy appeared to work in the book. It raises some moral questions, though, and one wonders if in lowering our standards to those our enemies follow, we might not become too much like them to bear.

The Legion also maintains a very secretive on-the-water "intelligence gathering' operation. Captured terrorists are both physically and psychologically tortured until they give up the information needed to thwart their organization's ongoing plans. We've just been through a huge public debate on torture in this country, so I've considered it a bit. My gut level reaction is that, if the lives of my family or friends were at stake, and time was short to find out how to stop an impending attack, my first instinct would be to use whatever means necessary to stop it. The needs of the many, or the innocent, outweigh the cost of brutalizing someone who means them harm. Does it make it moral, however?

In the United States, we have long had a mandate that the military forces of the country are ultimately under civilian control, with the President as our commander in chief. The Legion, in these books, is only nominally under civilian control, mostly from a payroll standpoint, though as time goes by Hennessy and his financial wizards come close to achieving financial independence as well. So, is the existence of a superior fighting force, abiding mostly by their own sense of honor and duty, a good thing to have lying around? In this story it may very well be. What responsibility should an army have to their civilian masters when those master become corrupt, incompetent and at times betray their own nation?

Other thoughts...

What happens when the standard of living in a country is so low that joining a mercenary force like the legion provides young men with the highest wages they could ever earn, better training than the could ever have hoped for, a guaranteed retirement and death benefit, and for the truly talented, paid scholarships? When you have such a flood of volunteers that you can pick just the best and the brightest for your troops?

At what point do you regard media workers who are ostensibly neutral or overtly hostile to your cause to be actual enemies? What level of cooperation with your armed enemies makes them fair targets? What about members of NGOs who are providing material aid? What level of retaliation is appropriate? Humiliating or discrediting them, taking them prisoner until the war is over, assassinating them?

If you like hard core war fiction, complete with rape, torture, assassination, violent combat, graphic sex, corruption, and twisty plots, traps and pitfalls, it's a great book. Kratman makes no bones about how he feels about those who view the world as they wish it could be, rather than accepting reality and dealing with treacherous terrorist forces accordingly.