Of Mice and Hitmen (The Day Eight Series, Part 2) by Ray Mazza

Published in 2012 by CreateSpace

Yesterday, I posted a review of Book 1 of this series ( The Reborn ) and I wrote a lengthy rave review. I am not going to go into all of that here. Suffice it to say, I really liked Book 1.

Of Mice and Hitmen is where the series really hits its stride. In Book 1, programmer Trevor Leighton discovers that his employer, a tech firm called Day Eight, has created simulated human life in a computer. Not just Artificial Intelligence, but simulated life write down to the cellular level.  These computerized people are called simulants.

Trevor has already met one fairly simple version of the simulant program, a simulant 1.0 if you will. In Book 2 he meets Ezra, the most updated version of the simulant program. She lives in an accelerated world, programmed to go faster so that she can complete projects in the real world quicker. Her name is Ezra, which is an odd name for a female, but it means "helper" in Hebrew and she is being used to work on any number of projects for Day Eight - new computers, cures for illnesses, etc. She has lived for thousands of years in her simulated world and is far smarter than any human being has ever been in terms of raw knowledge.

But, there is another, darker purpose as well. Leighton senses this and narrowly escapes an attempt on his life. When a series of political assassinations change the results of elections, Leighton works to figure out how Day Eight, Ezra and the political chaos are all tied together while he is on the run.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Of Mice and Hitmen (The Day Eight Series, Part 2) by Ray Mazza.

Reviewed on July 17, 2012.

The Reborn (The Day Eight Series, Part 1) by Ray Mazza

Published in 2012 by CreateSpace

So, I have on the table next to me three books by Ray Mazza. These books make up The Day Eight Series. They are self-published and most experienced readers know that a great number of the self-published are fair to middling and I am usually tempted to grade them on a curve, the thought process being, " Well, it's pretty good considering it's a do-it-yourself job and she did it all herself." This is much the same thought process I have when I do handyman work around the house and I proudly show it off to my wife - it's pretty good but certainly not professional.

I let these three books sit on my to-be-read pile for about a month.

Why?

I was not in the mood for, "Well, it's pretty good, considering..."

So, I pick up book one, The Reborn, and about 15 pages in I am thinking, "Where is he going with this?" I read the back cover a couple of times and decided to give it a few more pages. Where are the human simulations running on computers? Where's the "catastrophic event" coming from?

By page 35 I decide I kind of like the main character, Trevor Leighton, and I'll ride it out a bit more.

On page 71, we hit pay dirt. My mind is blown. We are introduced to the simulations. Most importantly, we are introduced to how they are developed. Such a simple idea (and complex at the same time). Good sci-fi takes you to new places and shows you some new stuff. Great sci-fi takes what you already know and puts a little tilt to it, a twist that makes you see everything in a new way. It's all the same. It's all different.

Mazza's series is about human beings simulated on a computer. I figure he knows something about this since his bio shows that he has worked on several "Sims" projects. If you are not familiar with the Sims games, well they create a little world for you to interact in. In a way, they are very, very, very limited versions of Artificial Intelligence. They also show the glaring deficiencies of trying to develop it the way we have so far. This book shows a new path to achieving that effort and the series makes you question if you really want to.

So, in this book, Leighton, a talented programmer working for a tech company called Day Eight is screwing around with the firewall on his company's servers so he can download movies at work. That firewall breach starts a chain reaction that knocks out much of the internet and fries the computers in his office. On his flash drive, though, is a message from a dead girl that claims she is trapped. Since his office is closed for the time being, Trevor decides to do a little investigating and that is where the trouble starts.

These three books are not "pretty good, considering they're an indie effort." They are good. Period.

I rate book one in this series 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Reborn (The Day Eight Series, Part 1) by Ray Mazza.

Reviewed on July 16, 2012.

Bad Moon Rising (Sam McCain #1) (audiobook) by Ed Gorman

Published by AudioGo in 2012
Read by Joe Barrett 
Duration: 6 hours, 6 minutes.
Unabridged

This is the first book I have read (or for that matter even seen) in the Sam McCain series. Normally, I would not recommend jumping in on the tenth book in a series, but it is a testament to the skill of the author, Ed Gorman, that I was able listen to Bad Moon Rising and join right in and not feel lost at all. The titles in the series all come from music from the general time that the book is set in.

 It is late August 1968. It is hot in Black River Falls, Iowa. The book starts with Sam McCain at a party watching the violence of the Democratic National Convention. Hippies are on TV and hippies are in Black River Falls. They are a source of controversy as their free love lifestyle, long hair and drug usage rankle a lot of people in small town Iowa. They live on an old farm with a history of tragedy and that history continues as the daughter of the local millionaire is found dead in a barn on the commune. She was a frequent visitor on the farm and was known to date a resident so the finger of suspicion is immediately pointed at the hippies. Sam McCain is called out by the leader of the commune because he is the only attorney in town that will have anything to do with them. Tensions escalate as McCain tries to figure out what happened.

Ed Gorman

McCain is an interesting character. He sees why the hippies would want to "drop out" of society, but knows they aren't really going off the grid. He is irritated at the mindless anti-hippie reactions of many of his neighbors, but he is very aware that some of these folks cause serious trouble. He admires their talk about freedom, but notes that they live in a commune controlled by an iron-fisted dictator. What kind of guy is Sam McCain? He is the kind of guy that you like but your wife thinks is an asshole. And you know what, you'd  both be right. He is full of contradictions. He likes the hippies but he is a member of the National Guard. He likes to poke his finger in the eye of authority but he does a lot of investigative work for a judge.

I like this book for a lot of reasons. Number one, it's a good old-fashioned mystery. Number two, it's a bit of a history lesson, reminding readers of the upheaval of 1968. Number three, Ed Gorman reminds everyone that the Midwest is not all corn-fed country boys and girls riding on tractors. As a native of Indiana I can tell you that this is not "flyover country" - life happens here, too.

Reason number four for liking the book is the reader, Joe Barrett. Personally, I hate hearing audiobooks with "out of place" accents - British people that sound like people from California that sound like Kentuckians. Barrett hits "Midwest" over and over again perfectly. His sheriff actually sounds almost exactly like a guy I know. Excellent job.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Bad Moon Rising (Sam McCain #10) by Ed Gorman.

Reviewed on July 15, 2012.

The Salvationist (audiobook) by Nancy Cole Silverman

A Clever Twist on the Typical Western.

Published by Mind Wings Audio.
Read by Emily Durante.
Duration: 1 hour, 3 minutes

This short story is a clever twist on the typical western story. Many westerns have the theme of the banker, or other powerful businessman exploiting the townspeople for his own nefarious purposes only to have the local drifter come in and confront him and eventually save the day.

A Salvationist from the 1880s

Nancy Cole Silverman has a similar situation with the most powerful man in Bisbee, Arizona, a mining boom town, exploiting the local miners and young women by gobbling up their claims (in the case of the miners) or coercing them into becoming prostitutes in his brothel (in the case of the young women). The hero is not a cowboy or a gunfighter.  Instead, she is a bumbling, well-intentioned and brave rookie evangelist (Salvationist) named Fannie Johnston who has come to town with the Salvation Army as part of a team sent to evangelize to this rowdy boom town.

Loosely based on events in the life of the author's great-great grandmother, the story is often amusing and, even though it ends abruptly, it is still a solid western story and perhaps a bit more close to the truth than the more popular gunslinger stories.

Emily Durante does a nice job of voicing the great variety of characters (newspapermen, Salvation Army members, miners, young people, the sheriff and several more). Nicely done.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Salvationist by Nancy Cole Silverman.

Reviewed on July 13, 2012.

The Lowdown: A Short History of the Origins of the Vietnam War (audiobook) by Dr. David Anderson

Delivers what it promises

Published by Creative Content Ltd in 2011.
Narrated by Lorelei King
Duration: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Creative Content has a whole series of short audiobooks and kindle books in its "The Lowdown" series. The main feature of the series is that they are short (a little more than an hour or about 35 "pages" on the Kindle) and give the reader a quick look at a topic.

In this case, the topic is the origin of the Vietnam War. Note, this is not a history of the entire war, but if you ever wondered just how the United States got involved in the Vietnam War, this nifty little history will do the job just fine.

President Lyndon Johnson signs the
Tonkin Gulf Resolution in August of 1964

Anderson roots his history in the aftermath of World War II. There are two major factors at play. The first is the desire of the French to re-establish their pre-war colonial empire and re-assert themselves as a major player on the world scene despite their being conquered by the Germans at the beginning of  World War II. The second factor is America's determination to contain Soviet Communism. Anderson traces these two movements and demonstrates that they led to a collision with Ho Chi Minh's anti-colonial communist movement in Vietnam. He follows them through the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He ends with the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that was widely interpreted to give Johnson permission to act in Vietnam as he saw fit.

This is an easy to digest history. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know a little more about the Vietnam War or for use in any class that is looking for a relatively short reading (or listen) in a 20th Century American history class. The audiobook version is read by Lorelei King. King's reading is well done. She reads at the perfect pace - not so fast that you cannot absorb the new facts that she is presenting, not so slowly the listener's attention starts to lag. Nothing less than I would expect from a true audiobook pro.

Link to this audiobook at Amazon.com: The Lowdown: A Short History of the Vietnam War.

I rate this history 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on July 13, 2012.

Rights at Risk: The Limits of Liberty in America by David K. Shipler

Highly Recommended

Published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2012

Last summer I read David K.Shipler's first book on this topic, The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties (see my review by clicking here) and I found it to be the most profound book I read that summer and maybe all year. I began my review of that book with this thought:

"I always tell people that the traditional left-right continuum used to describe someone's politics is so inaccurate as to be useless. Really, what is the difference between an aging hippie living on a hill somewhere  raising some dope for personal use and telling the government to get out of his business and a Barry Goldwater-type conservative (like me) living by himself on a hill somewhere that tells the government to get its nose out of his business? Some dope. Otherwise, they are both determined advocates of civil liberties - keep out of my business if it is not hurting anyone else."

When I read the first book I was expecting to get a snoot full of political commentary that I disagreed with from a New York Times reporter with a left-wing agenda. To be blunt, I was expecting one of those political attack books that Al Franken, Michael Moore, Ann Coulter and David Limbaugh produce with regularity (Well, Al Franken is busy being a Senator now so I suppose he has stopped). Instead, I found the book to be politically balanced and quite remarkable. This book is just as remarkable, if a little less balanced by the inclusion of a half-dozen snide comments that should have been edited out, in my opinion.

Rights at Risk focuses on multiple topics but here are the chapter titles (with descriptions): Torture and Torment (being abused while being investigated), Confessing Falsely (how some people, especially young people and the mentally impaired, are tricked into confessions), The Assistance of Counsel (the defense side of the trial), The Tilted Playing Field (the prosecution side of the trial), Below the Law (the lack of rights of immigrants, legal and illegal), Silence and Its Opposite (freedom of speech in turbulent times), A Redress of Grievances (spying on protesters, "free speech zones") and Inside the Schoolhouse Gate (freedoms of students and teachers).

Torture and Torment includes a discussion of jailhouse torture such as physically abusing suspects and CIA torture. It demonstrates that the famed water-boarding sessions have poisoned several other cases. The good news in the cases of the police abuse is that the system, in the cases Shipler cited, mostly worked to flush out the bad cops. Mostly, but not always. A weaker part of Shipler's argument comes from the discussion of people wanted for trial in America but arrested in foreign countries. He argues, correctly, that many countries do not offer any protection for defendants. But, his arguments are not as tight here and led me to the inevitable conclusion that anyone who confesses to a crime in a foreign country can just claim that they were tortured into confessing and the confession should be dropped. Arrested in Luxembourg? Claim torture and post-traumatic stress disorder. The chapter entitled Confessing Falsely is quite interesting. Shipler discusses the various training methods police learn on how to question suspects and how those very methods can lead to false arrest and false trials and leave the real criminals out on the streets. He also writes about instances in which the rights of the accused were short-circuited in order to facilitate a confession. He includes a recommendations for how to address these problems, including the videotaping of all interrogations and prohibiting the questioning of children without the presence of his or lawyer or a parent.

You know the old adage, "You get what you pay for?" Well, the chapter The Assistance of Counsel was disturbing because it proves it. Public defenders in areas that have professional public defender offices are overwhelmed. In states and locales that have court-appointed public defenders from the general ranks of area defense attorneys there are serious issues of quality. Shipler encountered judges that admit to appointing certain defense attorneys over and over because they don't fuss much in court. Others appoint lots and lots of cases to their political contributors. Those attorneys make a good living on the sheer volume of these cases. But, appointing cases based on these criteria is not a solid foundation for justice. On top of that, court-appointed defenders have almost no budget for experts and in most cases, there are no funds available for appeals. It really is stacked against poor defendants.

The Tilted Playing Field looks at all of the tools the government has to coerce cooperation, including threats of deportation, violation of probation, plea bargaining and asset forfeiture. I was disturbed by the practice of sentencing based on parts of the case that were dismissed. For example, if you have a gun illegally and are brought up on charges of trafficking drugs and are found not guilty of the drug charge, some courts will still sentence you more severely for the gun charge because of the drug charge, that you were acquitted of.

Below the Law discusses the status of legal and illegal immigrants in the justice system. To be blunt, they don't have much status. I was especially disturbed to discover that a great number of immigration judges have no particular experience in immigration law except for a single short class with an online quiz taken the next day (page 144). This makes for poor justice when the judge is not an expert. Would you go to probate court with a judge who know next to nothing about wills? The case of the political refugee who was arrested for not having his papers and was on the deportation list is especially disturbing. Luckily, the refugee learned from other detainees that he did not need papers as a refugee. He told his attorney who educated both the prosecutor and the judge on this legal point. They were directed to a page on their own website that explained the law. (pages 184-5)

The chapter Redress of Grievances demonstrates that we spend an awful lot of time spying on groups that exercise their right to protest. While most of these groups would be silly to spy on, Shipler seems that there would never be a need to look at any of these groups at all. I don't know where the line is, but it is clear that some law enforcement groups are over-zealous and act spitefully towards protesters. For example, the Maryland State Police surveilled an anti-death penalty group and listed some of its members in an anti-terrorism database despite having no evidence of a crime. (page 229) In at least one case, Shipler does hurt his own argument. He notes the famed WTO riots in Seattle in 1999 (nicknamed the "Battle in Seattle" by some) one page and argues that the Washington, D.C, police had no reason to be worried about planned demonstrations against World Bank and the IMF meetings six months later. (pages 234-236) Shipler ends the chapter with a long discussion on flag-burning, which has been ruled legal for a long time and is still news to some and the Westboro Baptist Church protesters.

Inside the Schoolhouse Gate was the most interesting chapter for me because I am a teacher. It is a maxim that students have the right to express political opinions. But, since attendance at school is compulsory, it is also a maxim that you have the right to attend school and not be harassed. For example, is a Malcolm X t-shirt a threat to white students? Is a Hank Williams, Jr. t-shirt with a Confederate flag on it a threat to black students? Are both, or neither, disruptive to school so that teaching becomes difficult? Can high school newspapers be censored by their schools? (page 274, 278-9) Even worse, in my mind are the speech codes  at universities and designated "free speech zones," especially on public university campuses. Silly me, I thought the entire country was a free speech zone. I suppose we don't want students to discover new and different thoughts while being educated...

Shipler concludes with this thought: "If every American school taught the Bill of Rights in a clear and compelling way, if every child knew the fundamental rules that guide the relationships between the individual and the state, then every citizen would eventually feel the reflexive need to resist every violation. We had better begin now, for rights that are not invoked are eventually abandoned."

As a social studies teacher, I wholeheartedly agree and I worry because we are cutting those very classes across the country in order to make sure we pass the math and English standardized tests. The school I taught in last year cut 20% of the social studies classes in the third 9 weeks in order to provide more time for  English practice (language arts stuff, not English for non-English speakers) with a prescribed, decidedly non-social studies curriculum. I wonder what was cut?

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Rights at Risk.

Reviewed on July 13, 2012.

Grant: Savior of the Union ("The Generals" series) by Mitchell Yockelson

Published in 2012 by Thomas Nelson

Grant: Savior of the Union is an enjoyable, easy-to-read biography of Ulysses S. Grant, the Union General that seemingly came from nowhere to become the man that engineered the conquest of  the Confederacy.

Yockelson covers Grant's entire life and also a bit of his father's life, with an appropriate emphasis on Grant's military service in the Mexican War, his resignation from the army between the wars, his difficulties as a civilian and his return to the service once war broke out between the Union and the Confederacy. Two-thirds of the book covers the four years of service in the Civil War. His Presidency and retirement years are quickly brushed over.

Grant's career is dealt with fairly throughout the book. His great decisions are applauded, his mistakes are pointed out (Cold Harbor, in particular) and the reader gets strong feel for his calm, determined leadership style and his emphasis on substance over style. This is a much more balanced biography than the Sherman biography in this series (click here for my review of

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885)

Sherman: The Ruthless Victor).

That being said, the book is in serious need of maps and lots of them. There are a few pictures scattered throughout, but no maps. Also, there are times when the book tends to repeat itself, such as in the chapter on his Presidency.

Still, this is a solid biography recommended for the beginner or the serious student of the Civil War who just has to read everything that he or she finds (like me).

 I received this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers for free in exchange for an honest review.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Grant: Savior of the Union.

I rate this biography 4 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on July 9, 2012.