Justice League of America: Exterminators (audiobook) by Christopher Golden

Published in 2008 by Graphic Audio.

5 CDs
5 Hours
28 Actors

Graphic Audio published the audio version of a DC Comics graphic novel featuring the Justice League of America. Graphic Audio boasts that it is "A Movie In Your Mind" and while that may be a bit of an exaggeration, it is every bit as good as those old radio plays that, if you're lucky, a local radio station may play from time to time. Graphic Audio has 28 actors (if my count was correct as they named them all), music, lots of special effects and they use them all to create a thoroughly engrossing story.

There is nothing particularly new in JLA: Exterminators. A wave of new "meta-humans" are popping up all over the globe with one thing in common (besides super powers): they were all in the UK about 10 years previously and were exposed to something that gave them these new powers.

The Flash and The Green Lantern become friends with a new meta-human with telekinesis and the audience is given a perspective on both sides of this issue - the old superheroes and the new ones, some good and some bad. I was reminded of that old TV show,  The Greatest American Hero, as their new friend, Ian, struggles with the desire to be a regular guy and the desire to use his new powers for good.

Later, things start to go even more haywire and giant monsters begin stomping around in just about every metropolitan area in the world, including Metropolis, Hong Kong, Long Beach, Edinburgh, Paris and especially London. Somehow, Gotham City is not pestered by this homage to Godzilla movies. These monsters are tough and the JLA has to call out anyone and everyone to stop them (except the military, which is featured big-time in a similar problem 10 years ago but is strangely absent while Superman gets thrown through entire buildings).

The audiobook features The Flash, The Green Lantern, Aquaman, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter throughout. The Atom gets extended focus later on and eventually everyone gets called in including the retired versions of Flash and Green Lantern, Nightwing, the Titans, Steel, Black Lightning, Superboy, Wonder Girl, the Blue Beatle and pretty much everyone in the DC universe except for the Bizarro world folks.

In the end, Superman, Batman and the Martian Manhunter spend way too much time agonizing over whether or not to destroy these giant monsters that are destroying buildings by the minute and killing untold thousands. That over-thinking is not something that generally plagues Batman, but in this case it got annoying. For the record, I am all for killing giant alien monsters that are destroying the world's urban centers - without delay! The Flash and The Green Lantern respond by blowing off this psychological self doubt by asking if they should have gone ahead and  let them destroy the cities? No, is the answer. Then move on.

I've done a lot of critical observations here but the question is, is this an entertaining audiobook?

Yes!

Lots of fun - very entertaining. The multi-actor old-fashioned radio play format works very well.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: JLA: Exterminators.

Reviewed on November 7, 2010.

The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara

Originally published in 2006.

The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II is the first book in Jeff Shaara's series about World War II. It is the weakest in many ways. Shaara approaches most of his books with the docudrama format - a little bit of narrative history, a lot bit of historical fiction. His narrative history is quite well written and flows nicely.

The historical fiction in this book is its weak point. The action is very good, but there is not a lot of action - just a few pages in the Africa Campaign and some very solid stuff from the Sicily campaign. The majority of the historical fiction part of the book, among the Allied characters at least, is Shaara's characters putting themselves into place to fight Rommel and setting the scene for the second book. It would have moved more briskly if Shaara would have reverted to the historical narrative form, but it would severely limit the fictional aspects of the book.

Jeff Shaara

On the Axis side, Rommel is the compelling figure of the book. Clearly Shaara builds him up to be the ultimate professional officer of the war - not a Nazi, just a man fighting his country as he has always done. Shaara skirts around the issues that Rommel must have surely considered when those orders come from thugs like the Nazis. Perhaps he just assumed that Rommel chose to mostly ignore the uncomfortable aspects of taking orders from people like the Nazis. Perhaps Rommel was just as afraid of the Communists and just as angry at the Allies as Hitler was - we just don't know from this book. What I did not get from this series was a sense that Rommel was a real "super general". After all, for the layman he is the only battlefield German General with a "name brand" recognition. What I got from this portrayal of Rommel was a sense that he could have defeated two particular British commanders with ease if he had the resources and that he could see that Germany was extending itself too far.

There are plenty of great maps in this series, but especially in this book.

I rate this book 4 stars and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara.

Reviewed on November 16, 2010.

The Steel Wave: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara

Published in 2008 by Ballantine 

The Steel Wave is the second book in Shaara's World War II series and is a superior book to the first in almost every way. There is a lot more action (hundreds of pages) and it is intense. The political wrangling that Eisenhower had to endure and master is a theme in every book, but is strongest in this one. The title of the book comes from a comment that Rommel makes about the Allied invasion coming in like a wave of steel into France.

Rommel continues on as a major character throughout. It is interesting to note that he was correct to fear an Allied invasion of France (which most of the German high command poo-pooed) but picked the wrong place. Hitler picked the right place, although he doubted it would happen. It is also interesting to note that Rommel thought that D-Day was a feint and failed to respond correctly to it until it was too late. Rommel is still the most interesting "officer" character on either side - he knows that Germany will be ruined by the Nazis and that the Germans will lose the war but we get little sense that he was opposed to the Nazis for any reason other than that they will bring ruin to Germany. Still, the way Shaara deals with the last bits of Rommel's life is compelling reading.

Even more compelling is the way Shaara deals with the ground-level stories of the American soldiers during D-Day. This is riveting stuff - well told and compelling.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on November 6, 2010

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Steel Wave by Jeff Shaara.

No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara

Originally published in 2009.

No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II is the final book in Shaara’s World War II trilogy. It is very similar to the second book, which makes sense since it is a continuation of the same campaign. The Allies continue their quest to push across France and into Germany. Patton looms as a larger and larger character. The part of the noble German soldier, previously played by Rommel is filled by Karl Rudolf Gerd Von Rundstedt, so much so that the reader may not even miss the Rommel character at all.

The battle sequences are stirringly told. The “Battle of the Bulge” is told quite well from the point of view of three of the very few soldiers of the 106th  that made it through the battle without being killed or captured (this was Kurt Vonnegut’s unit, by the way, but he does not appear in the book).

Eisenhower at Ohrdruf

 Shaara spends a lot of time in the book among the inner circle of Hitler’s loyal command, with people like Albert Speer and Martin Bormann. It is an interesting choice to do so, but I would have preferred that he had not done it. It would have been even more interesting to have looked at the common foot soldier that continued to fight after the war was completely lost and seen what their motivations were (perhaps this interest comes from a college class I had more than 20 years ago where we met a man who was just that – a common foot soldier who abandoned the Eastern Front and marched across Austria and Germany to surrender to American troops).


Shaara’s tale of the liberation of the Ohrdruf concentration camp was shocking, visceral and powerful. Very well done.

I would rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara.

Reviewed on November 6, 2010.

Illegals: The Unacceptable Cost of America's Failure to Control Its Borders by Darrell Ankarlo

A thorough discussion of the topic, from a stop-the-bleeding perspective

Published in 2010 by Thomas Nelson.

Mark Twain once noted that, "Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it. I was reminded of this quote while reading Darrell Ankarlo's Illegals: The Unacceptable Cost of America's Failure to Control Its Borders. Everyone has an opinion about illegal immigration, but precious few people have even seen the border, let alone know anything about the high cost of illegal immigration, the physical danger it creates, how it is done and the long-term damage it does to the United States.

This is an eye-opening, scary look at the world of illegal immigrants - the dangers of crossing the border, the coyotes who guide them across, the drug gangs, and the U.S. Border Patrol. The first half of the  book is a powerful and consuming introduction to how immigrants cross the border, how the Border Patrol pursues its policy of "catch and release" and the extreme poverty of parts of Mexico that induces so many to try to come to El Norte.

Ankarlo is not anti-Mexican or anti-Hispanic. He is anti-illegal immigrant. He correctly notes that several of the 9/11 hijackers were a different kind of illegal alien - the kind that comes on a work or student visa (or something of that nature) and just does not leave. Ankarlo claims that 40% of all illegal aliens are that type.

Darrell Ankarlo

The first half of the book is just riveting, which overcomes the rat-a-tat writing style. The second half bogs down in too many statistics interspersed with long word-for-word interviews with immigration experts and both of Arizona's senators, John Kyl and John McCain. Neither Kyl nor McCain have much to say and the point of the interviews was to show that the whole topic is being dodged by politicians, I suppose. Everyone knows that already - most are too scared of being called "racist" or "nativist", the rest think it's good for business to have a steady stream of cheap labor.

True life tales, first-hand experiences and an eye onto a world unknown by most of us make the book worth your time to read, no matter your views on immigration. Combine this book with Geraldo Rivera's The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity and you might get a fairly balanced view of the issue (even though Geraldo's book is not nearly as well-researched or thought-out)

Note: this book appears to be a re-working of another Ankarlo book: Another Man's Sombrero: A Conservative Broadcaster's Undercover Journey Across the Mexican Border.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Illegals.

Reviewed on November 5, 2010.

Note: More than 14 years later and I have to note that the politics of Trump/MAGA has really skewed all discussion on this topic. There is no discussion of people coming legally on a work or student visa and then staying illegally are about 40% of the illegal immigrants. If you listened to MAGA you'd think they were all in immigrant caravans. I don't know if I still agree with this author's points as much as I did before (probably not), but at least there is some nuance. We've lost nuance in our politics.
DWD. January 15, 2025.

Chameleon: The March Madness Murders by Matthew J. O'Brien

Strong start for a first novel

Published in 1997.

This surprisingly strong first novel concerns a group of 5 high school friends who are being killed off nearly 20 years after graduation. Four members of this group are extremely successful (Congressman, Olympic medal winner, Big-time college basketball coach, billionaire entrepreneur) and the FBI believes the unsuccessful one is killing his former buddies in a fit of jealous, psychotic cold-blooded, calculating rage.

The story mostly concerns the last two surviving friends (coach and billionaire) and the extraordinary steps the FBI takes to protect them while the coach's team is progressing through the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament field. If you like basketball, then the well-described basketball action is a nice addition to the mystery.

Most of the action is set in and around the fictional University of Northern Indiana, which is located in West Lafayette, Indiana. For those familiar with Indiana, you know that that is the home for Purdue University. I have no idea why he didn't make the coach character Purdue's coach, especially when he refers to former Purdue standout Glenn Robinson in one of the scenes.

The story works pretty well, although at times the conversations get a bit repetitive and the romance blossoms from nothing into a tight bond way too quickly. But, as a mystery goes, it was above average. I was fooled until I was supposed to know the truth, although I think the author tells us too soon - he could've kept the truth hidden a bit longer and made the story that much better.
 
I rate this book 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Chameleon: The March Madness Murders by Matthew J. O'Brien.
 
Reviewed on February 10, 2005.

Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman

Fascinating.

Published in 2000 by University of California Press.

The title of Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? pretty much tells it all - it is an academic exploration into the people who deny the Holocaust ever happened and their motivations for making this claim.

Of course, you may be wondering why someone would make a claim like this, despite the film footage of newly-liberated camps, eyewitness testimony from both victims and perpetrators, the population records that show that, indeed, some 6 million Jews did not survive World War II and damning circumstantial evidence from Hitler and members of his inner circle that alludes to a "Final Solution" to the "Jewish problem".

Well, the deniers are a motley lot. Some are educated and well-spoken and others are not. Some feel that Germany has become a martyred nation to the cause of eradicating racism. Others are pro-fascist in politics and want to get rid of the taint that Nazi-ism gives to fascism, so they try to exonerate the Nazis.


Auschwitz's infamous "Work sets you free" sign

Others are just plain anti-Semites and sincerely believe the Jews somehow "cooked up" the population figures or even somehow managed to conspire to kill off 6 million of their own people in order to create sympathy for the creation of a Jewish country, namely, modern-day Israel.

It was a fascinating book, a little deep at the beginning and the end with the different theories on how to approach history, but the middle was quite informative. 
 
I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Denying History.
 
Reviewed on February 11, 2005.