Spycatcher by Matthew Dunn

Ridiculous but entertaining.

Published in 2011 by William Morrow.

Usually I have a low tolerance for over the top nonsense in my thriller novels. I tend to not like the stories with the unstoppable good guy whose training takes over and causes him to wipe out legions of his opponents. But, this one hit the spot for some reason.

The premise of Spycatcher is really quite simple: Will Cochrane is a member of MI6 - the British version of the CIA. He is their super-spy, code-named Spartan. He is nearly unstoppable and pretty much has carte blanche to do whatever he wants to defend the UK.

A new intelligence leak from Iran has discovered the existence of a similar type of super spy in Iran and he is planning a very big hit against the West. Cochrane is dispatched to stop him.

The chase runs through Eastern Europe and America and of course ends in a dramatic, utterly unrealistic confrontation after sniper fights, special forces commando raids and lots of high level meetings in which Cochrane convinces everyone that he is doing the right thing despite the rising body count.

Is it silly?

Absolutely.

Does it smack of the realism the cover promises?

Nope. Not one bit.

Did I like it?

Surprisingly, I did.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Spycatcher by Matthew Dunn.

Reviewed on May 7, 2011.

The Final Storm: A Novel of the War in the Pacific by Jeff Shaara

A bit disappointing.

Published in 2011 by Ballantine Books.


Jeff Shaara's European Theater World War II trilogy covered America's participation in that theater completely - from before the invasion of North Africa to the occupation of Germany. All of my reviews of those books can be seen by clicking here. He did a great job of discussing the grand strategies and showing the view from the trenches.

I really was hoping for the same treatment here. Shaara alludes to problems with his publisher in an introduction, but the reader is left with a truncated version of the war in the Pacific Theater. Shaara picks up this story with the dates he left off in his European Theater trilogy - Spring of 1945.So, no Pearl Harbor, Battle of Midway or threat of invasion of Australia. No occupation of the Aleutian Islands. No Bataan Death March.

The B-29 bomber Enola Gay

Instead, we are told the story of one major campaign (Okinawa) and the story of the Enola Gay and the bombing of Hiroshima. Those stories are told well. In fact, they are told brilliantly. The fighting in Okinawa was horrific and so different than the fighting in Europe that I was struck over and over again by how much the whole story needed to be told - not just the end of the story.

Reviewed May 7, 2011.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Final Storm: A Novel of the War in the Pacific by Jeff Shaara.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5 for failing to deliver the goods as they deserved to have been delivered.

Daddy Dates: Four Daughters, One Clueless Dad, and His Quest to Win Their Hearts by Greg Wright

What a great idea.

Published in 2011 by Thomas Nelson.

In a world where so many kids are disconnected from their families, Greg Wright is determined  to be a large part of his four daughters' lives. The only way to do this is to spend time with his girls - lots of time (I once had a principal tell me that kids spell love T-I-M-E and I have seen nothing in 21 years of teaching to contradict that thought).

The "daddy date" is devoted time just to them as a unique and special person. He achieves this by having "daddy dates" with them. On a daddy date he picks up the girl at home, takes her to a restaurant and/or an activity (not a movie, but an activity that promotes conversation) that she would like. Finally, starts a discussion with her and mostly listens. As a bonus, he is modeling the kind of behavior a special young man should show them when they go on dates (his daughters do not date in high school - they can go out in groups but not paired off dates).



Greg Wright is not a professional expert on children but he does have a firm grasp on the often-confusing interaction between men and women. He offers lots of practical advice on what makes a good "date" with a daughter, several sample date ideas, and even personality profiles to give us clueless dads a place to start with a good discussion on the first "date."

This is a very quick and easy read, but I think it is an important book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of the Booksneeze program in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon,com here: Daddy Dates Four Daughters, One Clueless Dad, and His Quest to Win Their Hearts by Greg Wright

Reviewed May 7, 2011.

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

Oh! The dangers of reviewing a classic.

Originally published in 1922.

Siddhartha has been on my "should read" list for a long time, nearly 20 years.

With all of that build up and anticipation you'd think I'd have more thoughts about it than I do. My one word review of the book is 'lukewarm.'

It is neither a strong book nor a weak book. Siddhartha's spiritual quest is told in such a detached manner that, in the end, I feel detached from the whole exercise. I am uncommitted to the character and I really didn't particularly care where his quest ended up.

Perhaps that was the point of it all - it's his quest, you can do nothing but care about your own.

Hermann Hesse
(1877-1962)

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: Siddhartha

Reviewed  on December 6, 2005.

The Prefect (audiobook) by Alastair Reynolds

19 hours, 34 minutes

Read by John Lee
Published by Tantor Audio

Unabridged.

Alastair Reynolds’ The Prefect is a hard-boiled detective novel set in a future in which mankind has moved to new worlds far away from Earth and created any number of new technologies. But, people still find themselves confronted by age-old problems that come from within humanity itself. In the end, despite the all of the glitz of spaceships and high tech weaponry, this is really a book about freedom vs. tyranny, redemption, revenge, justice, revenge and honor.

Set in the year 2427, The Prefect is the fifth novel in the Revelation Space series. Chronologically, it is the first novel (there are short stories and novellas in the series as well) and it can be read as a stand-alone novel. The Prefect takes place in the Glitter Band, a group of 10,000 space stations (called habitats) with a total population of 100 million all in orbit around a planet called Yellowstone about 10 light years from Earth. The Glitter Band is ruled by a single government but internally each space station is independent from the other ones and offer many radically different lifestyles. The Glitter Band is highly democratic – every citizen gets to vote on numerous policy items every day using internal implants and an advanced form of the Internet called Abstraction.

Alastair Reynolds

Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, an agent of Panoply, a group tasked with protecting the external security of the Glitter Band the voting rights of all of its citizens and protecting the right of every citizen to have access to Abstraction. Drefyus is like many officers in police procedurals – adhering to his own personal rigid code, scarred from a hidden past, leading a team of talented rejects. The other two members of his team are Sparver, a genetically modified pig (known as hyperpigs) who bears the brunt of racial taunts and assumptions with much dignity and Thalia NG, the daughter of a Panoply agent turned traitor who feels the need to redeem her family name.

Dreyfus and his team are sent to investigate the complete destruction of Ruskin-Sartorius, a relatively small habitat. 960 people are dead and all evidence points to an attack by the Ultras, a group of humans that live outside of the mainstream human society of the Glitter Band and specialize in modifying their bodies in a series of human/mechanical physical blends. The Glitter Band and the Ultras have an uneasy truce and clearly do not understand one another’s cultures or technology. Rising tension between the Ultras and the Glitter Band threatens to become open war.

Dreyfus suspects that the Ultras are not guilty but instead they were framed by a very clever entity that may be attempting to take advantage of the chaos and destruction of a war to seize control of the entire Glitter Band. Dreyfus bucks the system and follows his own hunch. Soon, he and his team find more trouble than they had bargained for.  For Dreyfus, this includes a frightening look into that hidden part of himself that makes him the tough detective that he is. 

At first, The Prefect is a difficult book. For the first two hours I found myself on a mental roller coaster, alternating between outright confusion and fascination with the vivid mental pictures Reynolds creates in his little universe of the Glitter Band. Reynolds does little to overtly explain the technology or the politics in this book. He assumes (correctly) that, eventually, the reader will catch on to what is going on in the story. Like I said, it took me about two hours to start catching on. By the end, I was well versed and navigating through Glitter Band technology and politics like an old pro.

John Lee, a winner of the AudioFile Golden Voice Award, does an expert job of not just reading a text with a staggering number of characters and accents but also delivering those voices with an overlay of emotion that does nothing but enhance the story. 

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5

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

Reviewed on April 21, 2011.

The Civil War: Strange and Fascinating Facts by Burke Davis

Fun to read, but be warned...

Published in 1982.

...you had better be up on your Civil War basics before attempting to read this book. It assumes that the reader is well aware of the main battles, campaigns, personalities and relative strengths and weaknesses of both the North and the South.

Union General
William Tecumseh Sherman
(1820-1891)

As the title suggests, the book is primarily a collection of facts and oddball "did you know?" type of stories that are not really intended to re-tell the story of the Civil War but are mostly aimed at  people who know the story fairly well and are looking for some new stories (in my case, these are new stories I can use to bore my wife in new and different ways with the Civil War).

There's bound to be something new in here for everyone but the hardest of the hard core Civil War aficionados. Well-written, breezy, although oftentimes disjointed and random.

This book is also published under the titles Our Incredible Civil War and The Incredible Civil War by the same author.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Civil War: Strange and Fascinating Facts by Burke Davis.

Reviewed December 2, 2005.

A Heartbeat Away (audiobook) by Michael Palmer

A political thriller for people that don't know much about politics

Read by Robert Petkoff
11 hours, 42 minutes.

The premise behind A Heartbeat Away is simple and brilliant:  What if terrorists released a biological weapon into the House chamber during the President's State of the Union Address - the one time when just about everybody who is anybody in the Federal government is all in one room together?

The follow through, however, is not so hot.

Palmer's characterization of how a President would deal with this sort of problem shows that Palmer does not understand the one thing that all presidents are - they are politicians. They know how to collaborate, get things done, work with people they cannot stand to get their programs enacted. Even the most difficult President can schmooze and get people to work with them. 

The president in A Heartbeat Away, James Allaire is the most politically tone deaf character I have ever seen. He manages to make the whole thing look like an attempted coup (although most of the Congressmen and women  are placid, like a herd of sheep - I had to wonder if Palmer had ever watched Meet the Press even one time. Those people live to argue. They all think they are the expert of almost everything and just about everything is some sort of scheme)

Anyway, the entire government of the United States is present except for the Designated Survivor - the cabinet member who stays away just in case there is a terrorist act and becomes president. You may remember the many references to Dick Cheney being in an "undisclosed location" during the Bush 43 administration and you then know that Cheney was the Designated Survivor.

A State of the Union address

They are all exposed to WRX3883, a bio-weapon created by the order of the president (who is a "man of the people" despite his dictatorial ways - we see no evidence of this in the book but the author tell us that he is so I guess he is. Oh, he is also a medical doctor - I guess he did not take that Hippocratic Oath thing too seriously, huh? Do no harm unless you're creating a bio-weapon...) and the President does not cede power to the Designated Survivor. Instead, because he is an expert on everything, he goes about working on a secret plan to try to get a cure made, while he lies to everyone and says it is just the flu and everyone is on lockdown on the penalty of death. And - they need to sit down in their assigned seats. Now! Then, a beat down by the Secret Service starts, including a pistol whipping of someone in the upstairs gallery.

The president brings an epidemiologist out of prison where he had been held without trial for 9 months to find the cure in exchange for a pardon. Throw in a number of simplistic characters including a crusading journalist, an evil priest, evil corporate bad guys, an overly-ambitious politician with religiously-tinged political views and a whole lot of talk about the evils of animal testing and you get the idea. This is politics if Michael Savage and Michael Moore ran the two parties.

As I was listening to the audiobook I was wondering where the first family was. They were exposed to the virus in the first pages of the book while sitting in the gallery. They must have taken the order to sit down in their assigned seats very seriously because they don't show up again until the end of the book. Where are they while the president is worrying if his exposure to the bio-weapon is affecting his judgment? Where are they when gunfire erupts, when people start to die of the disease? No where to be found.

This book had all the hallmarks of a contract-filler. There are parts that are actually quite entertaining, but the political story at the center of it all is clumsy, unrealistic and frustrating.

I rate this audiobook 1 star out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: A Heartbeat Away by Michael Palmer.

Reviewed on April 29, 2011.