CONQUERORS: HOW PORTUGAL FORGED the FIRST GLOBAL EMPIRE (audiobook) by Roger Crowley

Published by Recorded Books in 2015.
Read by Jonathan Davis.
Duration: 13 hours, 7 minutes.
Unabridged.

In the mid-1400s Portugal was poised to be a major world power, despite being a backwater of Europe in so many ways. Portugal sits at the western extreme of Europe, destined to be a minor player in European politics most of the time. All of Portugal's border touches Spain, so if Portugal wanted to interact with anyone but Spain they had to take to the sea.

IThe Portugese developed a new type of little wooden ship called the caravel, armed them with cannons, filled them with food, water, sailors, and stone monuments to mark the areas they explored. They pushed down the coast of Africa, hoping to find a way to the spices of Asia.

They were looking to trade, especially for spices because the Muslim countries had established a stranglehold on the spice trade with the decline and eventual fall on the Byzantine Empire in 1453.  They were also looking to link up with the fabled African Christian king Prester John, join up to defeat the Muslims, spread Christianity, and make a lot of money along the way.

And, with the exception of the Prester John part of the plan, that's basically what happened. Prester John turned out to be the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. It was real, but not nearly as powerful as the Portugese believed - and it wasn't very interested in attacking the Muslims in a religious war. 

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire is a pretty thorough look at the Portugese conquistadores and their escapades in the Indian Ocean. From the first, Portugal came with guns a-blazin'. They laid waste to cities, took slaves, took hostages, burnt ships, and were confrontational with almost everyone. 

Then, they headed home and made plans to return with even more ships. They made annual trips and made plans to make permanent posts from Africa to India. 

At this point, this history bogs down. It's not that it isn't accurate - it just becomes a litany of outrageous attacks by the Portugese, a minor setback, and then an even more audacious attack. It all kind of blurred together for me because Crowley didn't take a moment to pull away from the history to do a bit of analysis.

He didn't even step away to look at what the Portugese were doing in other parts of the world, such as Brazil and west Africa and put the Portugese efforts in the Indian Ocean into a larger context until the literal last three or four minutes of the audiobook. The title says it is a book about Portugal's empire and it ignores a lot of their empire.

The audiobook reader was Jonathan Davis. He is a very good reader and has a flair for accentuating the dramatic moments. But, he is also very slow. I rarely do this, but I set the audiobook player to play at 120% and he was still a bit slow at times.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: CONQUERORS: HOW PORTUGAL FORGED the FIRST GLOBAL EMPIRE by Roger Crowley.

JIMMY CARTER: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (Biographies of U.S. Presidents) (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in 2025 by Hourly History.

Hourly History is a publisher that specializes in short histories and biographies in e-book form that are designed to be read in about an hour.

This limited format should have been enough for any other one term President, but with Jimmy Carter there is so much post-Presidential activity to cover that it came up a bit short.

This history spends a lot of time on Carter's early life - too much, in my opinion. Newsweek magazine once called Jimmy Carter the best ex-President ever*, and this book just doesn't tell enough about his 40+ years of being the most active former President of my lifetime. Clinton, W. Bush, and Obama all left the Presidency with enough vim and vigor to go out and be useful, but Carter did more than all of them have combined AFTER he was eighty years old.

The man was an author, a rogue diplomat, helped eradicate a truly gruesome disease, monitored elections around the world, helped build an amazing number of houses with his own hands, and taught Sunday School. I am sure I have left out 20 other things. 

This is a solid 3 star biography, but I would have moved the focus to say much more about post-Presidential years.

This e-book can be found on Amazon.com here: JIMMY CARTER: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (Biographies of U.S. Presidents) by Hourly History.

*Newsweek may be right about Jimmy Carter, but I doubt they considered the amazing post-Presidential career of John Quincy Adams. See this book: Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life In Congress by Joseph Wheelan.

FAT VAMPIRE (audiobook) (Fat Vampire #1) by Johnny B. Truant

Published in 2024 by Nyifie Brothers Publishing.
Read by Joe Hempel.
Duration: 3 hours, 58 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis

Fat Vampire is a unique entry into the long and storied history of vampire tales. Our protagonist is Reginald Baskin, a very overweight accountant who works for a company that sells fitness equipment. 

The rest of the office are bullies straight out an eighties frat house movie. Reginald tries to work late afternoon into the evening as much as possible and that is where he encounters the office IT guy, Maurice. 

Maurice only works the night shift. He wears dark robes and carries an umbrella as he walks home in the early morning twilight because he is a vampire - one of the oldest vampires in the world.

Another group of vampires try to harvest Reginald for his food and Maurice intervenes and converts him to a vampire instead to save his life. The problem is (as is often the case in vampire stories) Reginald is stuck with the overweight and way out of shape body he had the moment he became a vampire. That is a problem because the vampire community doesn't tolerate vampires that can't pull their own weight (pun intended.)

My Review

This is a unique story, but it is still a pretty average story. There is nothing wrong with it, but it's not very memorable, either. Case in point, I listened to this audiobook months ago and literally immediately forgot all about it as soon as I was done with it until I accidentally clicked on the "Finished" tab on my audiobook player this evening.

However, if you are a fan of vampire stories, you should give it a go.

Note: there are 10 books in this series at this time.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: FAT VAMPIRE by Johnny B Truant.

FORT SOLITUDE (DC COMICS: SECRET HERO SOCIETY #2) by Derek Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen

Published in 2017 by Scholastic

Synopsis

The DC Comics Secret Hero Society series s a re-imagining of the DC universe with a comic twist. 

The first book in this series featured a Hogwarts-type school where only children with special talents are invited. Young Bruce Wayne suspects that there is more going on in the school than meets the eye and his new friends Clark Kent and Diana Prince join him to investigate.

Fort Solitude is book 2 in the series. The trio are invited to a special summer camp. They notice that this camp has an off vibe. Then, campers start to disappear. And, there are constant warnings about a scarecrow that stalks the woods at night.

The trio adds in a kid that runs really, really fast, a kid that wins every target shooting contest, and a kid with robotic implants - Flash, Green Arrow, and Cyborg. Clark also finds a journal with detailed notes from a girl that attended a previous session of this same summer camp - Lois Lane.

Using the clues from Lois' notebook, the campers investigate the camp and work together to figure out what is going on.

My Review

This was a fun read, but it's basically the same plot as the first book in this series. I liked the first book pretty well, but it just seemed cheesy to do the same plot twice in a row.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Fort Solitude (DC Comics Secret Hero Society #2).

JOHN BELUSHI: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (Kindle) by Hourly History

Published in January of 2026 by Hourly History.

John Belushi has always known as a cautionary tale for me - an amazing talent that quickly rose to national prominence and then died of a drug overdose just when things really got going.

Hourly History specializes in short histories and biographies that take about an hour to read. In this case, this biography gives a lot of details about his early life, but simply fails to give the reader a sense of what Belushi or the characters he created on Saturday Night Live was like. 

It does no better with any of the four movies. Belushi only made 4 movies, but two of them are classics - The Blues Brothers and Animal House. You would think that there would have been a lot more about those movies and a lot less about his first really run-down apartment in New York City.

I rate this e-book 3 stars out of 5.

This e-book can be found on Amazon.com here: John Belushi: A Life from Beginning to End.

K IS in TROUBLE by Gary Clement

Published in 2024 by Little, Brown Ink.

An NPR Best Book of the Year.

K is a 10-12 year old boy living in an unknown European city in what appears to be the late 1800s. K Is in Trouble is a graphic novel that tells of his misadventures. 

In a series of stories, K runs into trouble with a talking fish, he meets a talking insect, and finds an intelligent crow. But, his real difficulties are with adults who don't listen. The adults at school don't listen, the police don't listen, the mayor doesn't listen, and his parents especially don't listen. 

I liked the art, but the stories were so-so. The last story is the best by far. 

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. Not bad, not great.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: K Is in Trouble by Gark Klement. 

THE TWO MINUTE RULE (audiobook) by Robert Crais

Originally Published in 2006.
Audiobook edition published in 2008 by Brilliance Audio.
Read by Christopher Graybill
Duration: 9 hours, 23 minutes.
Unabridged.

Named Best Crime Novel of the Year by the London Evening Standard.

Named one of the Top Ten Crime Novels of the Year by The New York Sun and the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel.

Audiobook version named a finalist for the Audie Award.

Veteran writer Robert Crais is mostly famous for his Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels. The Two Minute Rule is on of his few stand alone novels. It features a former bank robber named Max Holman. 

Synopsis

Holman has a son that he barely knows because of Holman's life of crime and his subsequent prison term. All he really knows about his son is that he has become a policeman in LAPD - and Holman couldn't be more proud.

That pride turns into sorrow on the day of Holman's release from prison. As he is packing up, he gets a message that tells him his son has died as a result of a shooting along with several other officers.

Holman comes to believe that the police are intentionally botching the investigation and starts his own while trying to restart his life outside of prison...

My Review

There was nothing wrong with this book. It is a good mystery and the steps that were taken to solve it made total sense. But, the story has to be more than the mystery. To me, the whole thing felt forced.

Despite the accolades (see above), I am puzzled as to why this book just did not gel for me. There were great aspects to this story - a strong lead character, a great buddy from the old days, a new partner. All of the parts were there, but just didn't gel together even though there was great potential in this book to become something special and even start a series.

The audiobook was read by Christopher Graybill. He was excellent with any of the dialogue parts - lots of different accents and all delivered well. But, the rest of the text was just read like a bored tour guide who has delivered the same boring speech too many times.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Two Minute Rule by Robert Crais.

BRIONNE (audiobook) by Louis L'Amour

Originally published in 1968.
Audiobook published in 2016 by Random House Audio.
Read by Erik Singer.
Duration: 4 hours, 3 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis

Major James Brionne is a Virginian and a confidante of President Ulysses S. Grant. He helped pacify the region immediately after the war, including hanging a criminal named Allard.

The rest of the Allard family gang, bushwackers from the brutal Missouri theater of the Civil War, comes to Virginia to kill Brionne. They don't find Brionne, but they do find his wife and son at Brionne's plantation house. She takes out one of the Allard gang and then kills herself rather than be brutalized by them.

The Allard gang never finds Brionne's son, who had hidden himself in a little cave nearby.

Brionne decides he needs a massive change of scenery. He takes his son out West on a train, to a region he had explored as part of a military mission years earlier. He wants to find a place to start over with his son - Utah.

But, Briolle gets the feeling that something is not right about other passengers on the train...

My review

Parts of this book are truly exciting, such the attack on the Briolle mansion and the prairie fire. However, the idea that a family gang would travel halfway across the country for revenge and then travel most of the way back across the country in an attempt to get even seemed more than a little farfetched to me.

This story was not a bad story, but it just felt underdeveloped. If I had been L'Amour's editor way back in 1968, I would have told him to add another 2 hours worth of story to this 4 hour audiobook and flesh out more of the characters and their story arcs.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Brionne by Louis L'Amour. 

THE ROARING TWENTIES: A HISTORY from BEGINNNG to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published by Hourly History in 2023.

Hourly History specializes in producing little histories and biographies that can be read in about an hour. 

If you are pretty well-versed in the basics of 1920's America, this short history offers nothing new. If you remember the basics from your U.S. history textbook or if you watched a documentary on the topic, this e-book ill offer nothing new.

The e-book repeats some of its main themes multiple times, sometimes within a few paragraphs of each other. I kept wondering if they were trying to fill space, which seems kind of ridiculous in a book with literal space limits (able to be read in just an hour). It also made me wonder if this book were written by an AI.

As an example of what I was talking about, the e-book mentioned that people grew more accepting of LBTQ+ people in the 1920's. That is undoubtedly true, but it was mentioned so many times that it might persuade some readers that the 1920's were a very accepting time. I think it would be fair to say that the during the 1920's, the needle of the gauge of LGBTQ+ acceptance moved off of "zero", but that's about it. Progress, to be sure, but hardly worth mentioning multiple times. 

The facts presented in the book are all solid, which is why I am giving it 3 stars out of 5, even if it was written in a clunky way.

This e-book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Roaring Twenties: A History from Beginning to End.

WITCHY (graphic novel) by Ariel Slamet Ries

Originally published in 2019.

Witchy started out as a highly acclaimed webcomic that has since been printed as a graphic novel on high quality paper. 

Witchy is set in a world where magic exists and the length on a person's hair determines the power of the magic user. The kingdom of Hyalin uses magic users to enforce its regime. They train young users in an academy with the goal of providing magic users as soldiers in the elite Witch Guard. The Witch Guard fights external enemies and tamps down internal dissent with brutal, often lethal force.

The graphic novel has a lot of positive things:

-The drawings are clean, crisp, and very clear. The art is great.

-The characters all easy to differentiate from one another (sometimes artists makes a lot of characters that look alike).

-There are several great characters, especially the raven familiar.

But, there are negative things as well:

-The ground rules of the universe are not explained well. This graphic novel deserved an written introduction page, much like the famed scrolling text in the Star Wars movies. It would have benefitted from even a few sentences, like the three sentences at the beginning of James Gunn's Superman movie. The back cover of the book provides some necessary information, but not enough.

-Because the ground rules were not explained well, I often was somewhat confused and did not understand the actual stakes involved in some dramatic scenes.

-Interesting story lines are developed and then dropped in an effort to move the story along. In particular, I am thinking about the characters in the school and how they relate to the main character, Nyneve. It didn't help to move the story along when this reader was still trying to understand the basic rules of this world. Remaining in the school longer would have allowed more character development and let the reader learn more of the ground rules.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. Not bad, but it seems like it was a missed opportunity to be so much more.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Witchy by Ariel Slamet Ries.

STAR TREK: TIMETRAP by David Dvorkin

Published in 1988 by Pocket Books

I used to be a gigantic reader of Star Trek books. In the mid-80's I had a rather large collection. In fact, my cousin and I had a complete collection if we put ours together (we would share back and forth so we wouldn't miss any book). I was quite the fan. I ran across this book when I was picking through the stacks of a used book store that had lost its lease and picked it up for old times sake.

I don't remember the plot of Timetrap at all so this must have been published after I had stopped making sure I had EVERY Star Trek that was printed.

Synopsis:

The story occurs in the same region of space as The Original Series episode "The Tholian Web." The Tholians had the ability to make an area of space phase in and out of alternate universes. Or, maybe it was natural - who knows? After all, the Tholians are a mysterious species and no one knows much about them.

In that show, a federation ship was trapped and phasing back and forth between universes. No one knew that this was the case and Captain Kirk ends up trapped on that ship and comes within seconds of death because he personally led an away team to an unclear and dangerous location. What can you do? He's the captain, he can pick the away teams and if he wants to risk his life it is his prerogative. 

In the book, it is some time later and Kirk finds a Klingon ship in a similar situation as the Federation ship was in "The Tholian Web". The Klingon ship is literally being torn to pieces by the stresses. Again, he personally leads an away team, The goal to kidnap/rescue members of the crew so they can be questioned as to why this Klingon warship was so far away from the Klingon Empire. 

But, something unexpected happens. The ship blips out of existence and Kirk wakes up 100 years in the future - in a time when the Klingons and the Federation have combined. The Federation won the continual Klingon/Federation Cold War and the Klingons are happy about and everyone is looking forward to the day when the Romulans will join as well.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Enterprise is pulling in every favor to keep investigating the disappearance of Captain Kirk in hopes of rescuing him...

My Review

Even with a book that is 37 year olds that has its own Wikipedia page, I am not going to talk a lot about the plot and any issues that I had with it because it would be nothing but a series of spoilers.

It isn't a bad story, but not a great one. I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Trek: Timetrap by David Dvorkin.

AMERICAN HERITAGE NEW ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES: VOLUME 8: THE CIVIL WAR by Robert G. Athearn

Published in 1971 by Fawcett Publications, Inc.

This book was part of a series intended to be a supplement to a history curriculum as part of a classroom library or in a school library. It is part of a multi-volume series. When I was a kid, I would see books like this used for extra credit (outline chapter X, etc.) when I was a kid.

Positives:

The pictures are great. The book title says it is illustrated and it does not lie. There are pictures on almost every page and many of them are the most famous photos, paintings, and drawings of the war.

There is an "Encyclopedic Section" at the end of the book. It has biographies of prominent people of the war and explanations of some of the big ideas, and events of the war. Before the internet, these little encyclopedias about a dedicated topic were extremely helpful.

There is an essay from Bruce Catton between the regular text and the Encyclopedic Section. It is excellent.

Negatives:

There is literally no explanation of the events that led to the Civil War. The first sentence of the book is: "The Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter sparked a great military conflagration that was to blaze in America for four bitter, bloody years." Then, it proceeds to talk about the post-Sumter military build-up. Page 2 discusses Bull Run and page 3 talks about Fort Donelson. Iti is almost like the war just happened. 

Slavery is almost entirely ignored. Because of this, I would describe this book is a "Lost Cause" lite history. The facts that are presented are accurate, but when you ignore the role slavery played in the Civil War, you are slanting things towards the Confederacy. It's not advocating "Lost Cause" points, but it lends itself towards that interpretation. This is not surprising for a book written in 1971.

The Reconstruction section is also tilted to the side of the former Confederates. 

I rate this mixed bag of a book three stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: AMERICAN HERITAGE NEW ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES: VOLUME 8: THE CIVIL WAR by Robert G. Athearn.

SUPERMAN / WONDER WOMAN, Volume 1: Power Couple (graphic novel) by Charles Soule

Published in 2014 by DC Comics.

Written by Charles Soule.

Art by Tony S. Daniel

Synopsis

In the New 52 reboot of the DC universes we have a world where Superman and Wonder Woman are secretly dating. They are working through their relationship, dealing with cultural differences, a massive age difference, and the fact that a lot of her Greek god family basically hates him because he is a commoner, despite his extraordinary powers.

As part of larger plot to escape from the Phantom Zone, General Zod released Doomsday. Doomsday, you may remember, is the creature that killed Superman in the "Death of Superman" series back in 1992. This is one of  the first appearances of Doomsday in the New 52 reboot and he is as fearsome as ever. 

Meanwhile, Clark Kent's partner in an online publishing venture (Cat Grant) publishes an exclusive video that she received from an anonymous source. It shows Superman and Wonder Woman making out and suddenly they are the "it" couple around the world.

My Review

This summer I discovered Charles Soule and took full advantage of the library to read as much of his stuff as I could. Most of it is pretty good, but I cannot say the same of this collection. 

Almost everything about this story feels rushed. It's as if Soule had a 12 or 13 comic's worth of story that he had to tell in just 7 comics. Even worse, the story keeps gliding back and forth in time in a series of flashbacks that are labeled with a little blue box at the top of the first page of the current flashback. "Two hours ago." "Eight hours ago." "Now." They bounce around so much that it just confuses an already rushed story. Also, it ruins the drama because when they are in the "Now" timeline you can see how it all ends up. 

I rate this story 3 stars out of 5. There are moments of quality stuff here, including a scene between the Greek god Apollo and Superman that did not turn out the way that Apollo had hoped.

But, not enough.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman / Wonder Woman, Volume 1: Power Couple.

SONGS of AMERICA: PATRIOTISM, PROTEST, and the MUSIC THAT MADE a NATION (audiobook) by Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw

Published in 2019 by Random House Audio.

Read by the authors, Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw.

Duration: 7 hours, 40 minutes.

Unabridged.

It turn out that historian Jon Meacham and country music star Tim McGraw are neighbors. They decided to work together on Songs of America, a book that looks at the role of music in American politics.

They start with songs of the Revolution and work their way forward, hitting songs you've heard of such as The National Anthem (War of 1812) and The Battle Hymn of the Republic (Civil War) and songs you've most likely never heard of. 

Not every song is war related. For example, the anti-lynching song Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday. There is a nicely done section comparing two still-popular songs from the 1980s - Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen and Proud to Be an American by Lee Greenwood. 

I particularly liked the juxtaposition of two Vietnam era songs: The Ballad of the Green Berets by Sgt Barry Sadler (1966) and Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969) show how public perception of the war changed in three short years.

Despite the book having been released during the first Trump Administration, there is literally no mention of Donald Trump in the book.

Jon Meacham provided the bulk of the material for this book. He provided the historical context and the story behind how the song came into being. In the first 1/3 of the book, McGraw had practically no input except for reading the lyrics in a completely uninspired way. In the later sections, with more contemporary songs, McGraw's input was not only more frequent, but often more insightful.

But, the book dragged at times, especially early on. I was disappointed that there were only one or two actual pieces of music in an audiobook about music. Tim McGraw knows his way around many styles of music and I assumed that he would be at least playing the tune of the older songs. Sadly, he does not.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation.

SLAPSTICK or LONESOME NO MORE! by Kurt Vonnegut

Originally published in 1976.

Synopsis

In the essay that serves as the prologue to Slapstick, Kurt Vonnegut writes about family, connection, and acceptance. He spends a lot of time talking about his older brother - more than he usually does in his essays. He also talks about his sister - a topic of frequent discussion in his essays. She and her husband both died with days of one another, one of an accident and the other of cancer. Kurt Vonnegut and his wife adopted three of their four children. 

In his essays Vonnegut makes frequent mention of the lack of family connection in our modern world and he thinks we are far the worse off for it. This novel is all about family connection, featuring two physically deformed twins who who are psychically connected.

The twins were kept apart from society in an old mansion on a large estate in order to protect them from society and to protect the reputations of their elite, ultra-rich parents. After all, the "right sort of people" don't have freaks for children.

It was assumed that the children would have mental disabilities. It turns out that they were geniuses, especially when they were physically close to one another...

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

My Review

This is a truly bizarre novel, even by the standards of Kurt Vonnegut. I liked the book in many ways, but I really can't say that it was a great or even a particularly good novel. There are times when it just gets so weird that the story gets buried in its own absurdities.

In one of his essays, Vonnegut graded all of his books up to that point. He gave Slapstick a grade of 'D.' I will do better than that - I give it 3 stars out of 5 (a solid 'C') because it has a lot of heart. 

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. 

THE RED DRAGON (Action Adventures Short Stories Collection #10) by L. Ron Hubbard

Originally published in 1935 by the magazine "Five Novels"

Re-published in 2013 by Galaxy Press.

Long before L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) became the creator of Scientology, he was a pulp fiction writer. He did this for nearly 20 years, with his first writing credit coming in 1932. The Red Dragon was originally written for a monthly publication called Five Novels.

Synopsis

The Red Dragon starts out very much like an Indiana Jones movie - an American damsel in distress is in China looking for the archaeological find her father had told her about. He has left clues to its location and she is seeking someone to help her. The site is located in Manchuria - a disputed zone under Japanese control in what would eventually become the beginnings of World War II in Asia (unknown to Hubbard at the time because Pearl Harbor attack was more than six years away).

The mysterious Michael Stuart has stepped up to help. His nickname is The Red Dragon because he is audacious and because he had red hair. He is disreputable in both the Japanese and Chinese controlled areas for reasons never made clear in this 92 page novella.

So, Stuart and the damsel in distress head off into Manchuria with assassins following and the Japanese Army waiting...

My Review

This adventure story has a little bit of everything - car chases, pistol fights in hotel rooms, a pistol fight on the Great Wall of China, love, daring escapes, clever disguises. But, the story sort of peters out at about two-thirds of the way through.

Be aware that this story is 90 years old and it shows its age when it comes to racial stereotypes.

For me, the funniest scene in the book is completely unintentional. At one point The Red Dragon steals the uniform of a Japanese officer and sneaks into a hut/pub to get some information. He blacked his hair with cooking grease, rubbed yellow dust all over his skin to give it a different color (not kidding), and taped back his eyes to make them look more Asian. With all of these questionable tricks, he is concerned that the locals will notice his gray eyes - not the tape on the eyes!

I rate this novella 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Red Dragon by L. Ron Hubbard.

BOUND for CANAAN: THE EPIC STORY of the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, AMERICA'S FIRST CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (audiobook) by Fergus Bordewich

Published by Harper Audio.

Read by the author, Fergus Bordewich.

Duration: 5 hours, 29 minutes.

Abridged.

The abridged version of Bound for Canaan hits the highlights of the Underground Railroad movement, but leaves quite a bit out. This is a radically abridged audiobook - fourteen hours of a nineteen hour audiobook were cut out - more than 70% of the book. I did not realize how much it had been abridged until I had already listened to it.

What remains is solid, but more of traditional hero study. The reader learns about the Quakers, Levi Coffin and Harriet Tubman and a few other stalwarts of the movement. Frederick Douglass shows up as an example of the Underground Railroad in action. There is a nod to the importance of women in the movement and how that led to the Women's Suffrage movement. 

The book goes off track a bit when it comes to John Brown of Bleeding Kansas fame. Brown did participate in the Underground Railroad movement, but the book follows him to the Kansas and the violence that he committed there as an abolitionist. It follows with a detailed re-telling of John Brown's attempt to instigate a slave rebellion by seizing the national armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).

While these are all things that Brown did, he did them separately from the actions of the Underground Railroad. I know that the author was trying to tie the Underground Railroad to the political climate that led to the Civil War and the eventual liberation of the slaves, but this was clunky. I am going to blame it on the extreme abridgment of the book.

What was left after the abridgement wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything that was groundbreaking, either.

I rate this abridged audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement. 

BATMAN - ONE BAD DAY: RA'S al GHUL (graphic novel) by Tom Taylor

Published in 2023 by DC Comics

Written by Tom Taylor

Art by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki, and Brad Anderson

Synopsis

The One Bad Day series looks at individual top level Batman villains (If you are a fan of Bootface, sorry) and gives them a comic that focuses on just that villain. 

In Batman - One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul we encounter a newly brought back to life Ra's al Ghul. He looks at the current state of the world - a world with just a few corporate oligarchs controlling the media, manufacturing, shipping, etc. and decides to take action. 

When Batman notices the odd string of deaths Bruce Wayne's corporate peers, he decides to start investigating (the "World's Greatest Detective" actually does some detecting!). Ra's al Ghul lashes out to deter the investigation, and he goes after what Batman values most...

My Review

As I write this review, I want to be clear that I am not a fan of the Ra's al Ghul character, but his goals in this graphic novel made for an interesting read. I know that this is a DC Comic, but I have a Marvel comment to make. I've heard it said that the MCU movie villains have a point, but their way of dealing with the situation is over-the-top. For example, Thanos notices that there aren't enough resources, but he decides to kill off half of all life rather than help create more resources. Magneto and Killmonger have similar over the top answers to actual real world problems.

Ra's al Ghul has a point about horrible billionaires running the economy, but his reaction is more than a bit twisted - it's an MCU villain response to a problem. He needs Batman to stay out of the way and he has an equally twisted plan to do that. 

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. I don't like the villain, his plan is ridiculous (and could probably be accomplished with legal maneuvers).

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman - One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul.

STAR WARS: DARTH VADER: DARK LORD of the SITH, VOLUME 4 - FORTRESS VADER (graphic novel) by Charles Soule

Published by Licensed Publishing in 2019.

Written by Charles Soule.

Art by Guiseppe Camuncoli, Daniele Orlandini, Terry Pallot, David Curiel, Dono Sanchez-Almara, and Erick Arciniega.

Synopsis

This series tells the story of the completion of the training that turned Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. The Emperor is, at best, an emotionally and physically abusive teacher.

In Fortress Vader, Darth Vader is granted a planet to use as a home base to complete his studies and perhaps learn how to bring his beloved Padme back from the dead.

But, he needs a temple to focus the power of the force and a relic from the Emperor promises to provide what he needs...

My Review

Soule really likes this relic. It also appears in his Lando comic where it is much creepier. In this comic the relic picks up a comic quality that I don't think was intended. The construction and reconstruction of this temple was not at all interesting to me. This collection was the worst of the series.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: STAR WARS: DARTH VADER: DARK LORD of the SITH, VOLUME 4 - FORTRESS VADER.

BATMAN - ONE BAD DAY: TWO-FACE (graphic novel) by Mariko Tamaki

Published in 2023 by DC Comics.

Written by Mariko Tamaki.

Art by Javier Fernandez and Jordie Bellaire.

Synopsis

The One Bad Day series looks at individual top level Batman villains (If you are a fan of Polka-Dot Man, sorry) and gives them a comic that focuses on just that villain. 

Batman - One Bad Day: Two-Face begins with a flashback of a hostage situation on the roof of a tall building. One of the cops on duty down below is Patrolman Christopher Nakano. Flash forward to the present day, for some inexplicable reason, Mayor Christopher Nakano offers Two-Face the chance to resume his job as the District Attorney of Gotham City.

Batman goes along and is determined to reform Two-Face so he can just be Harvey Dent

Why? Why? Why? Is Two-Face the only attorney in the city?

So, things go really well and Two-Face retires a hero.

Yeah right.

My Review

If you can get past the weirdness of responsible adults offering a violent felon with serious mental health issues an important job like District Attorney (which I clearly could not), the story is fairly interesting. You get to meet Harvey Dent's dad. There are arguments from Batgirl against the idea of hiring a super villain as the DA that no one listens to. 

The art was first-rate throughout.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman - One Bad Day: Two Face.