No Greater Courage: A Novel of the Battle of Fredericksburg by Richard Croker

A Fine Bit of Historical Fiction

Originally published in 2006 by William Morrow

No Greater Courage: A Novel of the Battle of Fredericksburg is Richard Croker's novelization of the events leading up to and including the Battle of Fredericksburg in December of 1862 and it is just about as good as it gets in the "cast of thousands" (lots and lots of characters) type of historical fiction.

Due to the nature of this sort of book, it is just about impossible to get too deeply involved in many of these characters. But, Croker does an admirable job of giving us something to know about each of them, reminding the reader who each character is when they re-join the narrative and then we get to watch them in what is arguably one of the Union Army of the Potomac's worst moments. Most of the characters are real and not all of them are big generals. Not only do we get to see the action in the battle itself, but there is plenty of focus on the behind-the-scenes political intrigue that demonstrates how truly talented Lincoln was as a politician and also the dangers of too much civilian interference in purely military matters.

Ambrose Burnside (1824-1881), the Union
commander at Fredericksburg

The only complaint I have concerns maps. There are not enough of them and the maps that are included are so stylized that I had difficulty reading them. Fortunately, the maps are not absolutely necessary for the book to be enjoyed and if you find yourself confused, historical maps of this battle abound on the internet.

I hope that Richard Croker is working on another book. Chancellorsville comes up next chronologically and he would do a great job with it.

Croker's previous novel of the Civil War, To Make Men Free: A Novel of the Battle of Antietam is not required pre-reading to enjoy this novel.

I rate this novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: No Greater Courage: A Novel of the Battle of Fredericksburg by Richard Croker.

Reviewed on September 15, 2008.

A Cure for Night: A Novel by Justin Peacock

A Very Solid First Novel

Published in 2009.

The last two novels I read before this one were from solid "name brand" authors. And...they were disappointing schlock. Justin Peacock is a new author and perhaps because he is new, he has put some care into his work and created a strong book that I can easily recommend.

The title A Cure for Night comes from this little exchange between two defense attorneys:

The author

"That's what the criminal law is: it's how the day tries to correct the night's mistakes. Most of my cases, people have done something they never would've dreamed of doing in broad daylight."
"What does that make us?" I said. "The night's janitors?"
"We're absolutely that," Myra said, sipping her cosmo. "What else do we do but clean up after it? That's why we'll never run out of work. Not unless someone invents a cure for night."

This gritty, dark book features a New York City Public Defense Attorney, Joel Deveraux, that has his own troubled past (with drugs) that has caused him to fall from the fast track in a big-time, big money law firm. Joel is working himself up through the system and he is tapped to be second-chair on a murder case that involves an inner-city drug dealer, a Jewish college student and a lot more.

On a real positive, Justin Peacock has gone out of his way to include correct-sounding dialects - the people from the projects sound authentic to my ear. Although I am not "in the life", I have taught in urban schools for  more than 10 years and Peacock's a lot more accurate than most of those that even bother to try to catch the dialect.

Fans of Robert K. Tanenbaum (Reckless Endangerment) will like this one.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A Cure for Night.

Reviewed on September 20, 2008.

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of The Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick

Well-written, I learned quite a bit probably more than when I visited the battlefield

Published in 2010.

You just cannot talk about George Armstrong Custer without stirring controversy. Depending on the writer, Custer was a true American hero who was betrayed by his superiors and failed by his subordinates or he was a self-absorbed crazy racist imperialist that finally found someone that could fight back and taught him a lesson.

Our movies have shown this as well. Errol Flynn's They Died With Their Boots On (1941) made a hero of Custer while Little Big Man (1970) makes out to be a delusional nut.

Sample of how Little Big Man depicts Custer:


In The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of The Little Bighorn, Philbrick notes these views and takes more of a middle road. Custer comes off as a more nuanced man. Ambitious, impetuous and overly confident, but not a fool. Plus, he had reasons for that confidence - the audacious, unexpected move had always worked for him in the past.

Sitting Bull, his opponent at the Battle of The Little Big Horn is similarly portrayed without much nuance in the literature. He is a symbol of resistance and Sioux culture, but not really portrayed as a thinking, living, breathing man. Sitting Bull was one of many Sioux leaders. He advocated rejecting white culture as long as possible, but realized that this was only possible for a certain amount of time. In this respect, this icon of resistance was, in fact, a realist that understood that, in the end, such resistance was futile.

George A. Custer
(1839-1876)

Philbrick's title, The Last Stand, refers to two last stands - the famed last stand of Custer and, ironically, he notes that the same battle was really the last stand of the Sioux. Never again would they have so many warriors in one location - after the battle they scattered. Some went to the reservation, some left for Canada and some fought and died in smaller groups.

Sitting Bull
(c. 1831-1890)

In many ways, The Last Stand is a well-written dual biography of Custer and Sitting Bull, and that additional background information makes the telling of the tale of the battle all that much more interesting.The background on Major Reno and Captain Benteen also heightened the drama of the tale.

Like I said in the title, I've been to the battlefield and I left no more informed to the actual timeline of the battle and how it transpired over the space than I was when I arrived - it is just too vast and there were not enough maps (this was more than 20 years ago so maybe things have changed at their interpretive center). Of course, with the actual troopers involved in the Custer's Last Stand, as opposed to those who were with Reno and Benteen, their movements in the battle are bound to be speculative.

The real strength of this book is Philbrick's ability to make a history read like a novel. The story is told with drama, is well-researched and does a good job of tying in other things that were going on in American history at the time. The information about the steamboats that traveled the Missouri was fascinating - I had no idea that they were so cleverly designed.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of The Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Reviewed on July 11, 2011.

Sentinels of Silence

Chichen Itza

A short, breathtaking look at Mexico's Indian ruins

Filmed almost entirely from a helicopter, Sentinels of Silence is a double Academy Award winning documentary is narrated by Orson Welles. This movie is shown in by the Mexican government in embassies around the world and serves as a fantastic 18 minute introduction to the Ancient Indian Civilizations of Mexico. Orson Welles, dramatic photography and an equally dramatic soundtrack combine to make this a memorable movie. A must-see and must-have movie for all fans of Mayan and Aztec history.

5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on September 21, 2008.

Passion Play DVD

Starring Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox and Bill Murray.
Movie originally released in 2010.

Passion Play tries very hard to be a BIG movie - one with lots of big themes (such as love conquering all, redemption and love causing a person to grow and become more than they were before) but it just falls short. It goes through all of the motions but not enough things click to make the movie work.

Mitch Glazer wrote and directed this movie and he enlisted his high school friend Mickey Rourke and his wife (Kelly Lynch) to be in the movie. Bill Murray stars as a mafia boss named Happy. Murray puts a spark into nearly every scene and might have the most interesting character in the entire movie - the mob boss with a love for art and beauty. Rourke's character (Nick Pool) is a down and out jazz player that has been sleeping with Happy's wife. Happy orders Rourke to be taken out to the desert and executed. As Pool awaits a shot to the forehead the mobsters are killed by Indians who run away into the desert.

Pool runs as well and stumbles onto a creepy carnival in the middle of the desert. He goes into the freak show tent and discovers that the woman with wings display is not fake - she really has wings. The carnival owner has raised her from childhood and both uses and protects her - but he is clear that he will kill to keep her.

Nate and the winged girl Lily (Megan Fox) escape and Nate makes plans to sell her to Happy in order to get back in Happy's good graces. Along the way Pool and Lily fall in love and they work to figure out a way to be together and escape from the carnival owner and Happy.


As I noted, Bill Murray did a great job of playing the ironically named Happy. Mickey Rourke was absolutely believable as the down and out musician - let's face it, he lived it as a down and out actor. But, Megan Fox as Lily was merely a pretty face and attractive body to attach the wings to and there was no spark between the two. I kept wondering what she would see in Rourke's shuffling, sometimes slow-witted character. Since the pivot point of the movie was the love between Lily and Nate and there was just no spark there the movie just flows along on auto-pilot until we get to a conclusion that explains some of the surreal scenes and the heaven and hell references that abound.

I rate this movie 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Passion Play. 

Reviewed July 10, 2011.

Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam 1862 (audiobook) by James McPherson

Does a brilliant job of looking at the meaning of the battle of Antietam

Published in 2002 by Recorded Books.
Read by Nelson Runger.
Duration: 5 hours, 48 minutes.
Unabridged

I have nearly 90 books that cover the Civil War on my bookshelf. Most books that cover the Civil War compartmentalize the battles into little chapters with titles like "Chancellorsville", "Antietam" and "Shiloh". The battles are thoroughly covered but the feel for the larger flow of the war is sacrificed.

In Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam 1862, McPherson dramatically sweeps the reader along and I was left with a renewed sense of amazement and respect for the fact that Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was able to fight, let alone go on the offensive against two separate armies and fight multiple, large battles from June through September of 1862.

McPherson does an extraordinary job of tying in many of the political and military threads of this war to demonstrate that Antietam was the day that determined the outcome of the war, and not the more popular belief that it was July 4, 1863 with the dual losses for the Confederacy at Vicksburg and Gettysburg.

George B. McClellan, the victor
of the Battle of Antietam despite
his many mistakes

McPherson provides multiple quotations from those involved in the political and military events of the time. In fact, at times the story is told mostly through choice quotes from generals, ambassadors and prominent private citizens such as Frederick Douglass and Horace Greeley.

The audiobook was well read by Nelson Runger. The audiobook lasts about 5 hours and 45 minutes and was a joy to listen to.
 
I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (Pivotal Moments in American History)  

Reviewed on September 26, 2008.

Life in the Big City (Astro City, Vol. 1) by Kurt Busiek

It was okay

Originally published in 1999 by Wildstorm.

Let me start with this: I am not a big comics fanatic. I read some of these bigger collections from time to time for entertainment, but I've never been to a comic book shop, I don't own a Green Lantern shirt and there's no Superman sticker on my car.

But, I do know what I like and, for me, Astro City was an "okay" collection of new superheroes. This collections includes 5 stories, 2 of which I found tedious. In the intro, Busiek claims to want to get back to basics and stop the "deconstruction" of the superhero. Get out of the superhero's head and back to the action. But, the first and last stories are all about getting into the superhero's head. They were interesting stories, but they went against the spirit Busiek claimed to have been wanting to avoid.

In short, kudos to Busiek for creating a whole new world of superheroes, but this still didn't grab me enough to make me look for further adventures of these new superheroes.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Life in the Big City (Astro City, Volume 1).

Reviewed on September 26, 2008.

Secrets of Ancient Empires: The First Armies DVD

Limited range, no real secrets, despite the title.

DVD released in 2006.

Although it purports to tell "secrets" of the first armies, most of the world is left out of Secrets of Ancient Empires: The First Armies and there really are no secrets told in this documentary DVD. The wars featured are:

A) The Trojan War
B) The Punic Wars
C) The Persian Wars

Yeah - that's right, they're out of timeline order and only Greece, Rome, Carthage and Persia are represented. There are no secrets revealed in this DVD (don't tell anyone but the Greeks are using a fake horse to sneak into Troy!) and there is no real study into how these large armies evolved, the economic mobilization involved or anything of the sort, despite the claims of the text on the back of the DVD that it "tells the powerful story of the origins of organized warfare" and "how sophisticated tactics were introduced."

I'm also bothered by the fact that most of the world is not included. No Egyptian, Chinese or Indian armies even though all of these would have preceded the Greeks and the Romans.

I give this DVD a two star rating because it promises all sorts of new insights when in reality, it is only slightly more informative than the average high school world history textbook. This movie should have been given a more appropriate title such as "Wars of the Greeks and Romans." There are better DVDs out there about the Greeks and the Romans.

I rate this DVD 2 stars out of 5.

This DVD can be found on Amazon.com here: Secrets of Ancient Empires: The First Armies.

Reviewed on September 27, 2008.

Slow Storm by Danica Novgorodoff

A rather depressing tale

Published in 2008 by First Second.

Slow Storm is a rather depressing tale of a sexually-harrassed female firefighter with family issues in Kentucky that encounters an illegal alien named Rafi during a thunderstorm that has spawned tornadoes. Rafi's home gets burned due to a lightning strike.

That's about it for the plot with the exception of some clever writing comparing sneaking across the border to climbing over the "pearly gates" to get into heaven, this is an entirely forgettable graphic novel.

I rate this graphic novel 2 stars out of 5.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Slow Storm.

Reviewed on October 5, 2008.

Bleachers (audiobook) by John Grisham

Change of pace for Grisham

Published by Random House Audio in 2003.

Read by the author, John Grisham
4 hours, 22 minutes

Unabridged.

I, for one, am not especially enamored of Grisham's legal thrillers but I do enjoy Grisham's foray into non-legal fiction.

Bleachers was read by the author. Grisham's southern accent and good ol' boy style are sometimes helpful but his occasional odd emphasis and flat read can be distracting.

The book features a Bobby Knight/Woody Hayes type of small-town high school football coach. He is cruel, petty and completely breaks his players as he builds them into his mold and makes them successful teams year after year after year. His teams have won 13 Texas state championships.

The coach is dying of cancer now and his players are returning home to honor him and await his funeral. They meet several times on the bleachers of the field they played on and discuss their memories of school, football and of course the coach. Thus, the title.

We see the reunion of players through the eyes of Neeley, a former All-American quarterback who suffered a career-ending injury in college and never reached his full potential as a player. Although Neeley is our window to this world, he is not the true focus of the book - it is the coach and the love/hate relationship his players and the town have with him.

An interesting book. This Indiana University graduate couldn't help but wonder if the alumni of Bobby Knight's basketball program have had similar discussions about him.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Bleachers by John Grisham.

Reviewed on October 7, 2008.

Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots by Rod Dreher

Neat idea but bad follow through

Published in 2006 by Three Rivers Press.

I grabbed Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots on impulse as I was leaving the local purveyor of books. You see, I am a "Crunchy Con" of sorts, being an avid recycler. But, this book really failed to reach me. In fact, I felt like I was being preached at with certain topics being outright hammered into my skull due to their repetitive re-occurrence.

Pluses:

-The book addresses the fact that the conservative movement is not monolithic and their are a variety of reasons for people to espouse conservatism.

-Embraces a belief in buying local - something I try to do when I go out to eat or shop whenever reasonably possible.

-Points out how silly it is to apply big business agricultural regulations to family farms.

Negatives:

-What the heck is "crunchy"? Search the internet and you may get a reference to "Crunchy granola", which basically means being hippie-like. Or, you may get a reference to this book, or you may get a reference to some sort of street drug.

-Dreher gets too preachy, too mystical about the virtues of organic farming and quaint old neighborhoods that time forgot in the inner city. Plus, he goes on and on for dozens of pages about these topics with multiple interviews that do little but reinforce the points already made.

-Dreher repeats the old worn line that we in the West should be more like the East: "...in the West, economics is built on philosophically materialist assumptions, but in the East, the whole person is taken into account." (p. 49) Really. The East, home to the Khmer Rouge, sex slavery, the caste system and foot binding. Besides, which "Eastern" philosophy are you going to follow? Confucianism? Daoism? Sikhism? Samurai Bushido? There really is no "Eastern" philosophy. Let's admit it - no society, East or West has all of the answers.

-Dreher's answer to the un-competitive nature of organic farming is a decidedly un-conservative one, have the power of the federal government choose in favor of the organic farmers "and encourage through tax incentives the development of small-scale, locally based agriculture." (p. 86) This is especially odd considering his prior exhortation: "We object to the idea that there's nothing wrong with our country that a new tax or a government program can't fix." (p. 10)

-Dreher waxes poetically about homeschooling. For page after page we hear about how his family does it and how others do as well. He drags up quotes from the 1800s and the 1920s about how the philosophical underpinnings of public schools are inherently anti-family. He offers only two choices: A) immoral public schools who are only out to indoctrinate your children (pp. 136-139) or B) perfect family homeschoolers. 

To be fair, you should know that I am a public school teacher that does not believe in the inherent goodness of public schools (or any other human institution, for that matter). I've seen families do homeschooling right (some of our family's best friends do it right), but I've also seen it done so poorly that when their kids finally come to school they are functionally illiterate.

While sympathetic to many of his points, the most I can say about this book is "disappointed."

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots.

Reviewed on October 13, 2008.

Note: Rod Dreher has gone off the deep end politically since I have read this book. My 2/5 star review isn't much of an endorsement to begin with, but I wanted to make it clear that I do not agree with his embrace of Viktor Orban of Hungary.

Trader of Secrets (Paul Madriani #13)(audiobook) by Steve Martini

Paul Madriani continues fighting terrorists and never enters the courtroom

Published by Harper Audio in 2011.
Read by Dan Woren.
Duration: 10 hours, 57 minutes.
Unabridged.

Steve Martini completes a trilogy within his Paul Madriani series that does not have attorneys Paul Madriani and his partner Harry Hinds even enter a courtroom. Instead, Madriani finishes a three book fight against terrorists (both foreign and domestic) in Trader of Secrets.

If you are looking for a good courtroom drama, this book will surely disappoint. However, if you are looking for an international chase over 3 different continents, traitors, spies, secret agents, international assassins, a good and loyal dog, secret government agencies and a conspiracy that may kill millions...well this is your book.

What are Madriani's qualifications for chasing international terror plots? Hardly any. He is too old, too slow and doesn't really carry a weapon. However, he has a good sense of right and wrong and an international assassin is out to kill his daughter because she can identify him. So, Paul tracks the international assassin "Liquida" the "Mexicutioner" and the ever-gruff Harry Hinds comes along to offer lots of smart comments and a measure of physical intimidation, should it be required. Paul's new love interest, Joselyn Cole comes along, too.

Steve Martini

The trail leads to an international conspiracy against both the United States and Israel. Paul, Harry and Joselyn know that they cannot wait for the FBI to save the day so they must act. To Martini's credit, he does not morph these middle-aged lawyers into special forces soldiers that shoot first and ask questions later. Instead, they use their heads and if that fails, the front bumper of a car works too!

I have no idea how realistic any of this stuff actually is, but Trader of Secrets was a great bit of summer entertainment.

Reader Dan Woren does a solid job. He has a lot of accents to attempt and he does a solid job with that. He captures the voice of Harry Hinds perfectly.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Trader of Secrets by Steve Martini.

Reviewed on July 8, 2011.

The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher

A wonderful sci-fi trilogy

Trilogy originally published in 1967 and 1968.

The White Mountains is just the first in a trilogy of sci-fi adventures aimed at young people. This classic trilogy was a childhood favorite of mine and I was fortunate enough to have rediscovered them. I re-read them after 20+ years and still find them to be engaging and really quite good. The second book is called The City of Gold and Lead and the final book is The Pool of Fire.

The premise of The Tripods Trilogy is that an alien race called the "Masters" have taken over earth, destroyed its great cities and control men's minds with a device called "the cap". All people are capped at age 14 and human beings live in small villages at a near-medieval level of technology.

The main characters are Will, Henry, Beanpole and Fritz who are all young men who question the practice of capping and the presence of the Tripods - giant three-legged machines that enforce the capping and are worshipped by some and feared by the uncapped. These characters head off for the White Mountains (actually the Alps) where free men are rumored to live. Eventually the series focuses on the struggle of the free men (as they begin to recover some of mankind's lost knowledge and technology) versus the Masters.

During the boys' travels we get to see the author's vision of a destroyed world, especially Europe, and how mankind reacts to the imposed (brain-robbing) peace and harmony of the Masters. The Masters are truly alien - we have very little concept of their motivation, how their bodies work, their technology or their society. These are not your garden-variety Star Trek humanoid-style aliens, and I think that it one of its great strengths.

Later, Christopher wrote a prequel called When the Tripods Came. You may click on the TRIPODS or John Christopher tag below to see my review of that book.

I give this trilogy 5 stars out of 5.

This series can be found on Amazon.com here: The Tripods Trilogy.

Reviewed on June 9, 2006.

The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr

An excellent beginning to a promising career.

Originally published in 1997.

First off - The Black Flower is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It follows a group of Confederate soldiers during and after the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee (November of 1864), especially an educated Private named Bushrod Carter. I will not go into great detail, for fear of ruining the plot for others.

For a first book, this is a remarkable work. The characters are well-written and "feel" like real people. They have weight and depth, a feature that many readers and writers on this forum have decried as missing in most of modern literature. They speak in dialect that is easy to read and does not take much decoding (as opposed to some of Twain's). I am a Civil War buff, and I can testify that the historical aspects of the story ring true.

Confederate Soldiers

This book reminded me very much of The Red Badge of Courage, but not in its theme or its plot. It reminded me of Crane's battle scenes - the confusion and the noise and the smoke and the pain and death are so well-described in both books. The "Black Flower" the title refers to is a metaphor for battle - a battle is a black flower that opens up and brings death, a wondrous and fearsome thing.

I can do this book no further praise than just quit writing about it.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War.

Reviewed on June 8, 2006.

The American Revolution in the West by George Macgregor Waller

General history of the American frontier during the Revolution.

Published in 1976 by Burnham Inc Pub

Synopsis: 

The American Revolution in the West is designed to be a general review or introduction to the American Revolution in what is now Kentucky, Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. At that point in time, that was the American West. It features George Rogers Clark prominently.

George Rogers Clark (1752-1818)  accepts
the surrender of Vincennes

My review:

This is a decent history. Nothing great, nothing terrible. I would recommend along with it the historical fiction book Long Knife by James Alexander Thom and a good biography of Daniel Boone to get a better understanding of the warfare along the frontier. I would also recommend a book I also reviewed entitled The Red Heart by Thom for an impression of the war from the American Indian's point of view.

I give this book 3 stars for being neither great nor awful. It was simply a history.

If you are not familiar with Clark's story, I urge you to read the short history on the National Parks Service's site from the George Rogers Clark National Historic Site in Vincennes, Indiana - hopefully it will encourage you to read more. I personally find the story to be most amazing - Clark is one of the few outright heroes I have in my study of history.

I will leave you with a quote from Clark that was featured in the book: "Great things have been effected by a few men well conducted."

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The American Revolution in the West.

Reviewed on June 8, 2006.

Out of the Dark (audiobook) by David Weber

A near-great, but flawed, epic story

Published by Macmillan Audio in 2010
Read by Charles Keating
Duration: 16 hours, 48 minutes
Unabridged

Ultra-prolific author David Weber visits familiar territory in this audiobook. Weber is a master of the military-based science fiction story and Out of the Dark delivers Weber’s expertise and interest in weapons, weapons systems and military organization in spades in this near-great but flawed epic story that, according to Publishers Weekly, is actually the first book in a trilogy.

The novel Out of the Dark is based on a short story of the same name that Weber published in 2010. The story begins with an alien survey of Earth (called KU-197-20) in the year 1415. The aliens are part of a multi-species alliance called the Galactic Hegemony. The aliens are exploring and documenting all habitable planets and rate all inhabited planets on a technology scale.

David Weber

They find the Earth of 1415 backward technologically but decide to watch some military action in Europe. What they witness is the Battle of Agincourt between Henry V’s England and France – some of the fiercest fighting of the Hundred Years War and the site of horrific slaughter, including the killing of hundreds of French prisoners and wounded after the battle. The aliens that witness this slaughter are horrified. The member races of the Galactic Hegemony are almost all herbivores and they cannot understand the raw violence of humans and assume that humans will wipe themselves out as soon as they develop greater technology.

But, there is one carnivorous member of the Hegemony – the Shongairi a race that might best be described as dog people. The other members of the Hegemony fear the Shongairi and decide to recommend that the Shongairi colonize KU-197-20, figuring that the warlike humans and the Shongairi will keep one another occupied for a while.

By the time the Shongairi arrive nearly 600 years have passed and humans have advanced their technology at a breathtaking pace by the standards of the Hegemony. The Shongairi realize that humans and Earth are technically not eligible for colonization anymore – they are too far advanced and should be sealed from Hegemony contact until humans start interstellar travel or destroy themselves in a nuclear war, either way it’s not Hegemony business. The Shongairi decide that the rate of human technological growth indicates that humanity would be a great “client race” for the Shongair Empire and they hop to harness some of that human creativity for their own ends and an invasion of earth starts by annihilation of the capitol of every country with a Kinetic Energy Weapon or, in layman’s terms, by dropping asteroids on them. Half of humankind dies in one day.

The strong parts of Out of the Dark lie in describing the equipment, weapons and strategies of both the humans and the Shongairi. Everything fits and makes sense, especially when the Shongairi start to have problems conquering earth. In Shongairi culture, a culture based on pack animal psychology, humans should submit because the Shongairi have demonstrated they are the superior race, much like other dogs submit to the alpha dog in a pack. They do not understand why humans continue to fight with improvised explosive devices, with suicide attacks and with small arms  - they are particularly irritated that in the United States there are so many weapons and so many people know how to use them.  In fact, human psychology is a complete mystery to the Shongairi – they cannot fathom that mothers would die to save their children and grief-stricken fathers would fight to the death to avenge their families.

To make it all the worse, the Shongairi military is simply not prepared to fight such a technologically advanced foe – they usually fight Stone Age level villagers. Their tanks are not designed to ward off Russian tank rounds. Their body army will stop swords, but not the high-powered rifles of American hunters. Even worse for the Shongairi, they awaken an ancient power while fighting in the wilds of Romania…

At the beginning of this review I called Out of the Dark a near-great but flawed epic story. All of the elements are there to make this an end of the world classic like Stephen King’s The Stand. Instead, the very elements that make the story viable and interesting – the attention to the detail of the weaponry, the motivations of both species, the way they adapt to each other’s strategies, the battle scenes – they all get buried in the detail. There is simply too much of it. We are privy to too many meetings of the Shongairi high command. There is simply way too much detail about the rifles, pistols, IEDs, tanks and other weapons of the human resistance. I am no shrinking violet when it comes to guns, but the constant descriptions of the grains in every bullet, the weights of the various weapons and their relative strengths and weaknesses did more than just approach the level of a gun fetish. Long, clunky conversations that transmit lots of information to the reader but could have been expressed better by an omniscient narrator. The North Carolina family is so self-sufficient and proficient with firearms that they could have been taken straight from a bad historical fiction novel about the pioneers. The book can be read as a how-to guide to building your own bunker and with overly long detailed descriptions of how to create a steady water supply and what food to stock.

But, despite the flaws, it still worked for me. Could it have been better? Yes. But, it was a great ride nonetheless. When American fighter pilots strike down Shongairi landing ships on the first day of the invasion I found myself actually pumping my fist a bit when those ships were shot out of the sky and the planes somehow managed to escape. I was proud of our confusing human psychology that allowed humans to continue to fight. I bought in to the story and, in the end, that’s what is all about.

Charles Keating read the audiobook and he did a great job of creating multiple distinct voices for the characters. His interesting accent worked especially well with the Shongairi characters and undoubtedly made the book a better experience.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found here on Amazon.com: Out of the Dark by David Weber.

Reviewed on June 24, 2011.

Middle Passage (audiobook) by Charles Richard Johnson

Winner of the 1990 National Book Award

Published in 1990.
Read by Dion Graham.

Duration: 7 hours, 4 minutes.

Unabridged.

I have rarely heard a narrator's voice so well-suited to a character as is Dion Graham's voice is to Rutherford Calhoun. Middle Passage (winner of the 1990 National Book Award) is written in first person as a personal journal of a ne'er-do-well former slave from Illinois who lives in New Orleans in 1830. Calhoun is forced to go on the run. He stows away on a slave ship bound for West Africa. It is captained by a diminutive American explorer and adventurer with a strong personality and an insatiable desire for new experiences.The crew is discontented and on the edge of mutiny.

Along the way, Calhoun discovers that the slaves and the cargo in the hold are not normal, in fact they might be more accurately described as paranormal. I would say more but I want to avoid spoilers.

Charles Richard Johnson

In reality, this book is not a good piece of historical fiction - historical anachronisms abound. Rather, it is an exceptional piece of fiction full of good old-fashioned literary themes, adventure, personal growth and literary allusions, like other, more famous novels about the sea, including the obvious ones such as Moby Dick and Homer's Odyssey.

One of the larger themes is freedom and servitude. Most obviously there are the slaves, but Charles Johnson also explores the debts we owe one another, society in general, employer/employee, men and women, parent and child, god and man and the way our past binds us to our future. Looked at in all of these contexts, the reader may wonder if any of us are really free?

I highly recommend Middle Passage, especially the audio version, since it so perfectly narrated.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on October 23, 2008.

This book can be found on Amazon here: Middle Passage

The Intellectual Devotional: Modern Culture: Converse Confidently about Society and the Arts by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim

Learn a little every day. 

Read by Oliver Wyman and Helen Litchfield
Duration: a little more than 17 hours.

Published in 2008.

The Intellectual Devotional: Modern Culture is designed on the same format as a religious devotional - a small bit of inspiration every day. In this case, it is designed to be a small bit of learning every day. It is not set up with specific dates (Such as Thursday, October 23), but it starts with Monday of Week 1 and works it way through the year. There are 16 CD's in this set, with an estimated length of a little more than 3 minutes for each day and a little more than 17 hours overall. There are Intellectual Devotionals with other themes as well, such as American history.

The topics vary widely. The first CD ranges from Sigmund Freud to Hal Roach (the man behind the Little Rascals). The topics are interesting and I found myself dispensing with the intended one-a-day format and listening to upwards of 20 of them as I putter around the kitchen.

The only complaint I have is that there is no index included to remind the listener of the location of interesting entries. Unlike the book version, I really can't easily go flipping through it until I find the entry I'm looking for.

Nonetheless, this one comes highly recommended by this reviewer.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Intellectual Devotional.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on October 23, 2008.