DWD's Reviews

Not Cornwell's Best Effort. Published in 2010 by HarperCollins Set in 1779 Massachusetts, Bernard Cornwell tells the story of the Penobscot Expedition - a small scale invasion by British forces of a bay in what is now Maine. The government of Massachusetts is determined to repel this invasion without help from the Continental Army. It calls up its militia and its fledgling navy. It does accept help from the American national Navy and its contingent of Marines. By far, the most famous American in this campaign is the commander of the Massachusetts' artillery unit, Lt. Colonel Paul Revere. Cornwell does a decent job of developing the British officers as characters.  A young officer named John Moore gets his first taste of battle here. In the Napoleonic Wars, Moore was one of the architects of Napoleon's eventual defeat. Cornwell's battle scenes are, as always, excellently described. He switches from naval battles to land battles with ease. I felt absolutely confid

Published in 2011 by Random House Audio. Read by Wil Wheaton. Duration: 15 hours, 46 minutes Unabridged Ready Player One is a dystopian novel set in 2044 America. Things are not going well - there is an energy crisis, mega-corporations run everything and most of the country lives in poverty. Cities aren't particularly safe and the countryside between the cities resembles Mad Max more than Green Acres. The only relief comes in the form of The OASIS - a free virtual world that allows its users to avoid their depressing real lives and be part of something bright, shiny and new. You can become who you want to be and people of relatively modest means in the real world can become someone quite important online. The book revolves around Wade Watts and his online persona Parzival. He, along with millions of others, is in the midst of an online treasure hunt for clues to a fortune. He is a "gunter", which is a contraction of "egg hunter", as in the Easter Eggs -hi

Published in 2015 by HarperAudio in 2015 Read by Reese Witherspoon. Duration: 6 hours, 57 minutes Unabridged I waited for a while to take a chance with Go Set a Watchman . The blowback when it was released was formidable, so I decided to let it sit for a while and in the meantime stop reading the reviews. Warning: spoilers ahead. This book is set about 20 years after the events of To Kill a Mockingbird , in the 1950s. Jean Louise Finch (Scout) has come home to Maycomb, Alabama from New York City for a long visit.  When she first arrives she falls into the familiar rhythms of a small town where she seems to know most everyone. She rekindles a romance with her father's young protege and soon enough returns to scandalizing her aunt with her forward ways. Atticus Finch has become a physically frailer man, but his mind is still spry. Harper Lee (1926-2016) Everything about the trip seems to be going well until Jean Louise discovers a racist pamphlet among some papers o

The Story Continues... Published in Blackstone Audio in 2015 Read by Bronson Pinchot Duration: 9 hours, 51 minutes Unabridged In this sequel to the bestseller One Second After , Forstchen continues to tell the story of what happens to a North Carolina community called Black Mountain after the United States is attacked by multiple EMP attacks from nuclear weapons. All of the modern technology is fried (computers, modern cars, the electrical grid, anything with a circuit board) and America reverts back to a pre-industrial technology level. *********SPOILER ALERT************* An Apache helicopter This book starts one year after the ending of the first book which ended one year after the attack. The main thrust of the story is that the federal government has returned in the guise of an appointed administrator working out of Asheville, NC. It is unclear exactly who is in control of the federal government, but they are drafting most of the able-bodied soldiers of the communit

A Review of the Audiobook Published in 2009 by Blackstone Audio Read by Joe Barrett Duration: 13 hours, 21 minutes Unabridged When this book was first published, it made a sensation of sorts, which is pretty tough to do if you are a science fiction book. As the book's promoters are proud to point out, excerpts from this book were even read into the Congressional Record from the floor of the House of Representatives as a warning about the dangers of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon to the United States. An EMP happens as a by-product of the explosion of a nuclear weapon. In short, a nuclear weapon detonated high in the atmosphere can generate this pulse and fry almost all modern electronic circuits by overwhelming them much like a lightning strike will due when it hits someone's home. The pulse can be generated from high enough in the atmosphere that the bomb itself does not cause an explosion on the planet's surface or even cause a radiation danger. In this bo

A Review of the Audiobook Published in November of 2016 by Penguin Audio Read by Carrie Fisher and Billie Lourd Duration: 5 hours, 10 minutes Unabridged Published just a few weeks before her death, Carrie Fisher's The Princess Diarist continues in her well-known tradition of tell-all books. This is my first Carrie Fisher book. If you have not read a book of hers before, be prepared for a frank and open discussion of just about anything that pops into her head. Every family has that older relative who means well but makes comments in front of the children that you just know will necessitate a subsequent discussion ("Why did Uncle Bob say...?). Carrie Fisher served that role in the world of Hollywood for many years. The first half of the book is mostly devoted to the making of the original Star Wars movie, now known as Episode IV . There were a lot of factoids I had already heard or read before, but it was enjoyable listening to Carrie Fisher literally tell them again