THE DANGEROUS DIMENSION (Stories from the Golden Age Series) (kindle e-book) (short story) by L. Ron Hubbard

Originally published in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction in 1938.

Re-published in e-book format by Galaxy Press in 2010.

On the internet you can find rumors that this was L. Ron Hubbard's first science fiction story. Purportedly, the editor was looking for something that was breezy, funny and easy-to-read. I have no idea if this really true, but this short story is certainly all of those things.

Sadly, it's just not a very good short story.

Dr. Henry Mudge has worked out the mathematics of how to transport oneself instantly from one place to another just by imagining that place. He calls this formula Equation C.

But, controlling your mind enough to use this technique is difficult. Try not to think of a place when you hear someone talk about it. So, when someone says a place to Dr. Mudge he goes there, including the moon and Mars. Meanwhile, he is supposed to be giving a major presentation at his university to a group of professors if he can just get there and stay there without bouncing off somewhere else...

While a cute concept, the story just does not work all that well if you think it through. The internal consistency is just not there. Also, despite the fact that the cover has an exploding space ship on it, there are no space ships in this short story. 

The story is accompanied by an uncritical, enthusiastic biography of Hubbard that mostly skips over the Scientology stuff.

I rate this short story 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE DANGEROUS DIMENSION (Stories from the Golden Age Series) (kindle e-book) (short story) by L. Ron Hubbard.

BRANDED OUTLAW (Stories from the Golden Age series) by L. Ron Hubbard

Originally published in 1938 in "Five-Novels Monthly" magazine

Re-published by Galaxy Press in 2011.

I read this as a kindle e-book, which seemed sort of appropriate considering L. Ron Hubbard's standing as a world class science fiction author. When this story was originally written in 1938 my standard-issue Kindle HD tablet would seem to be nothing short of science fiction. 

You may not be aware that Hubbard wrote plenty of westerns back in the days of pulp serial magazines (and long before his name became synonymous with Scientology.) His familiarity with western life came from his childhood in Montana when Montana was still only a few steps away from its rough-and-tumble cowboy past.

Branded Outlaw is an all out Western adventure with all of the familiar elements fans of Westerns are readily familiar with. Lee Weston is coming from Wyoming after being summoned by his father to his ranch in New Mexico. When he arrives he finds his father dead and a smoldering ruin where his father's ranch had been. He is sure that the biggest rancher in the area is the source of this trouble and he is determined to get his revenge.

When he arrives in town he finds himself in a gunfight with the hired hands of this rancher and he is forced to flee town and nurse his wounds. While hiding out he is discovered by a beautiful, headstrong girl who patches him up. Lee falls for her only to find out she is his enemy's daughter...

While none too subtle, this book is about as action-packed as a book can be. It is followed by an interesting biography of the almost unbelievable life of L. Ron Hubbard. 

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  BRANDED OUTLAW (Stories from the Golden Age series) by L. Ron Hubbard.

THE K-FROST CAPER by James Blakley

Published in 2013.

In his sophomore effort author James Blakley introduces a new character but stays in familiar territory. His previous book, The Steel Deal, featured a private investigator that stumbled into something much larger than he had imagined when he took a case,

In The K-Frost Caper Luna Nightcrow, a Cherokee insurance investigator from Oklahoma, is sent to Miami to look into a suspicious life insurance application. It seems that the company paid out life insurance money a few years ago for the drowning death of a man with the unlikely name of Kelvin Frost. His body was never recovered and now a person was applying for more life insurance in Miami with the same unlikely name. 

The Miami Skyline. Photo by Marc Averette

The company, Charmed Life Mutual, already sent one investigator but he has dropped off the grid so Luna Nightcrow is sent to investigate this Kelvin Frost person and find the other investigator. But, when she arrives in Miami she discovers that the Kelvin Frost case is much more convoluted than she could have imagined. Plus, she's being followed by the white car and the detective she is supposed to liaison with in Miami is so darned attractive...

Chock full of odd names and quirky characters and topped off with just a dash of romance, The K-Frost Caper is a light detective story that I would normally call beach reading. But, since it is 14 degrees as I write this on January 3rd, I will suggest that this could be a fun book to read as you while away a snowy day. If you like your detective stories full of grit and gore this will be bound to disappoint - despite the fact that all kinds of people die it is much more like an old Remington Steele mystery than No Country for Old Men. But, if that is your style than you should find The K-Frost Caper to be a fun, quick read.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The K-Frost Caper by James Blakley.

Note: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

WITH GOD on THEIR SIDE (kindle e-book) by John Frye

Just Does Not Live Up to the Promise of Its Title

Published by Endeavour Press Ltd. in 2013
Estimated length: 361 pages

I am a huge student of the Civil War. I own more than one hundred books (fiction and non-fiction) on the topic, a fact that my wife tolerates but only sort of understands. I think that there is something to be learned in well-researched historical fiction as well as the history texts because excellent historical fiction has the ability to place the reader in someone's shoes at the moment.

Taking on the topic of the Civil War in historical fiction can be a thankless undertaking - misstate the caliber of a weapon and the purists are all over you. Go on about slavery too much and the revisionists are after you. Fail to mention it at all and everyone else is after you. I thought Frye did just fine with all of those aspects in this book. I read nothing that did not seem correct as far as the details went. 

With God on Their Side is about a Confederate General named William Page. Page is an expert in artillery and attended West Point before he became an Episcopal minister. He has a keen interest in the politics that led to the war but he has serious doubts about the role of a minister in the army. Eventually, he is pressured by his friends and neighbors into becoming their officer when they join up and he has great success at the the First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas. 

A smashed Confederate artillery
battery at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Page seems to be very decisive in that battle but, in reality, he has much more in common with Union General George McClellan - he is easily spooked, overly concerned about protecting his guns rather than using them and is a genius at training and organization and a disaster at the actual business of war.

Page seems to be loosely based on an actual Civil War figure - William N. Pendleton who was an Episcopal minister, was from the same town as the Page character (he married a woman with the last name Page), had a similar panic attack as Page did after the Sharpsburg/Antietam campaign and surrendered with Lee at Appomattox Court House. Both lost sons who were aides to Stonewall Jackson to battlefield injury. 

Unlike the Page character, Pendleton seems to have been mostly an administrator, not a battlefield general at the end of the war.

Frye decided to give his main character a variety of roles in many battles rather than falling to the temptation of making him the centerpiece of every battle. For example, Frye decided to place Page in Fredericksburg during the Battle of Chancellorsville - you never hear much about the few troops that were left in Fredericksburg when Lee divided his smaller army to keep part of the much larger Union army out of the main fight in Chancellorsville and he had rear guard duty after Sharpsburg/Antietam campaign.

Slavery was a topic but he dealt with it mainly through his main character's family slaves (they were by far more interesting than the Pages, the family that owned them). The slave Wilson, who accompanies Page during the war as a manservant is interesting as he debates escaping to be a free man (he has two obvious chances) or staying with Page to whom he feels a certain amount of loyalty even if it is betrayed at one point. Wilson also knows that escaping to freedom means never seeing his wife, his family and everything he has known his whole life ever again, especially if he the Confederacy were to win its independence. His wife told him to take the chance when he got it but...

Back on the home front Union soldiers go around the front lines and raid into Confederate territory. The varied reactions of the slaves left back at home  to the Union soldiers are interesting, much more interesting than the reaction of the white families (mostly horror) because to the slaves these soldiers represent a threat (possibility of rape for the female slaves), disruption, chaos, danger but also hope. 

The book fails, I think, at the primary mission that is indicated by both the title and the book description. Was God on the side of the South? Was he on the side of the North? Does he take sides in war? If so, how does he show it? This is hinted at throughout the book but the best we get is the notion that the war just changed everything. Page's dithering is to be explained by extensive soul-searching, but to me it seemed like he was over-concerned with losing his guns (he goes on about the possibility of losing his guns in battle at least as much as he does about if God has forsaken the Confederacy. 

A much better discussion in a piece of historical fiction about the role of God in the Civil War can be found in Howard Bahr's The Judas Field: A Novel of the Civil War.

I rate this e-book 3 stars out of 5 because it just does not live up to the promise of its title and there was simply too much watching General Page fret and worry and not doing much of anything. The wrong character was made the main character - if Wilson the slave had been the focus this might have been something great.

Note: I did discover that Frye has written another Civil War book that is currently free as a Kindle download on Amazon. I downloaded it and will give Mr. Frye's work another chance.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: With God on Their Side by John Frye.

BEST of 2013

This is a list of the best of the best of the 101 books and short stories that I read or listened to in 2013. They did not have to be released in 2013.

I broke the books into several categories. The reviews are linked. 

* indicates the best book in that category.

Fiction books:

*Breaking Point (Joe Pickett #13) by C.J. Box

His Majesty's Dragon (Temeriare #1) by Naomi Novak

Suspect by Robert Crais

Unthinkable (Jane Candiotti and Kenny Marks #4) by Clyde Phillips

Short Story:

*That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made by Eric James Stone

Overtime in the Woods by Ryan Sean O'Reilly

Sledge by Ernie Lindsey

Cage Life by Karin Cox

Non-Fiction books:

*Under the Wire: Bestselling World War II of an American Spitfire Pilot and Legendary POW Escape Artist by William Ash and Brendan Foley

A Dream So Big: Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger by Steve Peiffer with Gregg Lewis

A Portrait of Jesus by Joseph F. Girzone

Blood and Smoke: A True Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and the Birth of the Indy 500 by Charles Leerhsen

Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government by P.J. O'Rourke

Fiction audiobook:

*Civil War (Marvel Comics) by Stuart Moore (Multiple performers)

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (Read by Will Patton)

Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama by Brian Daley (Multiple performers)

Streets of Fire by Thomas H. Cook (Read by Ray Chase)

The Intercept by Dick Wolf (read by Peter Ganim)

Two for Texas by James Lee Burke (read by Will Patton)

Short Story audiobook:

*UR by Stephen King (Read by Holter Graham)

Rendezvous by Nelson DeMille (Read by Scott Brick)

Titanium Rain, Volume One by Josh Finney (multiple performers) 

Stationary Bike by Stephen King (Read by Ron McClarty)

Non-fiction audiobook:

*Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir (read by Robert Petkoff)

The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy (Read by Bob Walter)

My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir by Penny Marshall (read by Penny Marshall)

Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves by Henry Wiencek (Read by Brian Holsopple)

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Famous People Who Returned Our Calls: Celebrity Highlights from the Oddly Informative News Quiz by NPR (multiple performers)

ENDER'S GAME (The Ender Quintet #1) by Orson Scott Card

I decided to take the plunge and see what all of the hype was about.

Originally published in 1985.
Winner of the Nebula Award (1985).
Winner of the Hugo Award (1986).

Ender's Game is a classic and I had not read it until now. Why? I don't know. I was reading a lot of science fiction when it came out, but I just missed it. Of course, I couldn't miss all of the sequels and prequels that came in the ensuing years but I figured that I was just too far behind to catch up. 

But, when the movie came out this fall a cousin of mine told me that he had gone to see it because he read it multiple times as a kid and loved it. So, I decided to take the plunge and see what all of the hype was about.

The positives:

Orson Scott Card. Photo by Nihonjoe

-Orson Scott Card creates an interesting, integrated universe to tell this story. It holds together well and has a solid internal consistency.

-The descriptions of the command school battles and the way that the command school operates are quite good - in fact, the battle scenes are excellent.

-Considering that the book was written in 1985 (and edited a bit in 1991) Card's descriptions of the internet and internet forums and online news agencies that are reminiscent of the Huffington Post are amazing, simply amazing.

I liked the ending with the computer game simulation - which I will not go into to avoid spoilers.

The negatives:

-The story line involving Ender's sister and brother, Peter and Valentine and their plot to manipulate public opinion to take over the world is weak and I found it to be an unwelcome distraction from the much more interesting Ender at the Command School story arc.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Ender's Game (The Ender Quintet)

Reviewed on December 29, 2013.

Note: this book was challenged by a parent of a 14 year old student in South Carolina. This resulted in a police investigation of the teacher for distributing pornography. In my review I mentioned nothing pornographic. From the various articles I found, the parent was objecting to curse words. See this link for more info.

THE DROP (Harry Bosch #17) by Michael Connelly

Published in 2011 by Little, Brown and Company

I am a big fan of the Harry Bosch series, having read 15 of the 16 books in the series (so far) and given all but one top marks. The Drop continues that excellent trend. This is a gritty mystery story (really, it is two mysteries) with a number of twists and turns and a morally ambiguous ending.

Bosch is part of the D.R.O.P program - the Deferred Retirement Option Plan. This allows police officers to work up to five years past their mandatory retirement age, with the department making the decision as to how long he will work. When the story starts Harry has 3 years left in the DROP program and he is working cold murder cases with a young partner named David Chu. 

Harry sees the end of his career coming and he wants to get as many cases solved as he can. When a DNA hit on a rape/murder from the late 1980s points to a convicted child molester who would have been nine years old when the victim was killed Harry suspects that something else is going on. 

Just as he starts to dig into this case he get called into a current case involving the death of his son of his nemesis, former cop and current city councilman Irvin Irving. The preliminary investigation suggests that Irving's son jumped from the balcony of a hotel room, Irving suspects that it was murder and wants Harry to be involved so that it will be investigated properly.

The book goes back and forth between the cases and introduces a new love interest for Harry Bosch who forces Harry to consider why he is a detective in the first place. The strain of these cases strain the new partnership with David Chu and Harry is dismayed to hear that his daughter might be interested in police work as well (but proud as she participates in a target shooting contest).

Like all of the books in this series, The Drop is often brooding and intense as the reader watches Harry pursue the case over everything else. Simply one of the  best series going.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Drop (Harry Bosch #17) by Michael Connelly.