death tribble Posted November 7, 2016 Report Share Posted November 7, 2016 Child 44 by Tim Rob Smith. An agent in the precursor to the KGB investigates the murders of children after being disgraced and moved away fom Moscow. Except murders do not exist in the USSR and saying so is anti-Soviet. An unusual story but a gripping one set in Russia just before and after Stalin's death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted November 7, 2016 Report Share Posted November 7, 2016 Night School by Child. Jack Reacher and two other investigators are called in to find out what an American is selling Middle Easterns in 1996 while he is still in the Army CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Shadow Posted November 26, 2016 Report Share Posted November 26, 2016 Reading another Douglas Reeman book. This time it's Strike From The Sea. From the back cover: The Beast. She was the largest submarine in the world, an undersea cruiser with twin turret guns, her own spotter plane, and forty "fish" in her tubes. She was Soufriere, and she was French, but it was 1941 and Hitler's legions held Paris... Ainslie's men. They were the hand-picked best of the Royal Navy and de Gaulle's Free French, armed with Bren guns and revolvers, shuddering through the straits of Borneo on an ancient rust-streaked tramp, steaming for the lagoon where Soufriere lay hidden. Their job: seize her. It is my sad duty to report that Douglas Reeman, the author of this book among many others. is on his deathbed. He wants to die at home and his wife is trying to raise money to allow him to do just that. I'm sure that any help would be appreciated. https://www.douglasreeman.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sociotard Posted December 8, 2016 Report Share Posted December 8, 2016 And I Darken by Kiersten White. It was actually kind of fun. It's a historical novel about Vlad the Impaler (you know, the guy who inspired Dracula). The book is part of a series, so the first on is just about the main character's time spent as basically a hostage in the Ottoman Empire. Except, in addition to the standard fictionalizing of history (stuff gets made up), this is a gender swap novel. Vlad the Impaler is now Lada the Impaler. And she has a torrid romance with Mehmed the Conqueror. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 30, 2017 Report Share Posted July 30, 2017 For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernie Hemingway. I should have hated this book. It's written as though it's translated from Spanish (since it is set during the Spanish Civil War). Hemingway's technique of avoiding writing actual profanity and sex is clumsy and annoying. And the plot is incredibly slow for a book about frickin' guerilla warfare. Yet there is a simplicity and stillness to Hemingway's prose that carries the reader along in spite of all that. It's a quality I've noticed that seems to be consistent among talented literary writers, from McCarthy to Vonnegut to Wolfe. Hemingway accomplishes a lot with the words he puts down, resulting in a vivid and atmospheric setting. And there is a great deal of depth and meaning in even the most seemingly-irrelevant passage. I have read many war novels, but the only other one that really makes you feel what the characters are feeling like this one does is that one by Remarque. I give this book four dynamites out of five, dinging it one dynamite for the slow start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 30, 2017 Report Share Posted July 30, 2017 It is my sad duty to report that Douglas Reeman, the author of this book among many others. is on his deathbed. He wants to die at home and his wife is trying to raise money to allow him to do just that. I'm sure that any help would be appreciated. https://www.douglasreeman.com/ Mr. Reeman passed on January 23rd, according to the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted July 30, 2017 Report Share Posted July 30, 2017 I have read a few books The Late Show by Mike Connally. Renee Ballard is a female detective working overnight where she and her partner take initial reports and then hand them over to dayshift detectives. Then Renee starts trying to work cases that she should be handing over. Ballard is just as tenacious as Bosch and as prone to cutting corners, but she makes a lot more mistakes since she doesn't want to obey rules or trust anyone since a former partner didn't stand up for her when she needed him to do that. I came away not liking the book, because I didn't like her. Matchups is an anthology where writers team up their characters. Naturally I liked the Reacher/Bones teamup the most. No Middle Name by Child. Short stories featuring Jack Reacher. James Penney's New Identity, Portrait of a Lonely Diner, and No room at the Inn were the best stories in the book. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted July 30, 2017 Report Share Posted July 30, 2017 Just read all of Robert Howard's Conan stories in a collection. I'm struck by the ease with which he created this world when it really was the first real fantasy world anyone had ever imagined. Before him there were faerie stories and tales of strange things but this was the very first fantasy world. Conan stories predate all of Tolkien's books and all the Narnia books. They're great stuff, and the character is fascinating. Burrito Boy and Starlord 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted August 11, 2017 Report Share Posted August 11, 2017 the Secret Speech by Tim Rob Smith. This is the follow up to Child 44 and covers the reaction to Khruschev's speech denouncing Stalin and the reign of terror. A woman freed from the gulags takes revenge on an MGB agent and the Soviet state. It took me far too long to read and finish this book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 Read Sandstorm by James Rollins. Mysterious explosion leads to conflicting expeditions to a hidden city and a source for natural antimatter. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted August 23, 2017 Report Share Posted August 23, 2017 Murder in the Ballpark by Robert Goldsborough. I think the guy gets a bad rap for writing Nero Wolfe without being Rex Stout. His writing of Wolfe and Goodwin is fine, I think. Except...I was irritated by the repeated reference to "co-eds from Vassar". It's clearly 1949-1950. There are no co-eds from Vassar. There won't be until the 60s. And the pacing of this one wasn't great. Really it was pretty simple case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted August 25, 2017 Report Share Posted August 25, 2017 The iron Pirate and H.M.S. Saracen by Douglas Reeman. A German cruiser tries to make a break into the Atlantic post D-Day and one man's experience aboard H.M.S. Saracen in the Dardenelles in 1915 and on a malta convoy in 1941. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted October 6, 2017 Report Share Posted October 6, 2017 Cyclops by Clive Cussler. An abandoned airship, a missing millionaire, a Cuban plot, subterfuge in space and a statue worth millions all add up to more action for Dirk Pitt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinanju Posted October 7, 2017 Report Share Posted October 7, 2017 Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Volume 5. (Also Volumes 1-4). Most of them are westerns, unsurprisingly, but one collection is devoted to crime stories and boxing stories (and half and half), and another is adventure stories. He's known for the details in his stories, and rightly so. The incredible variety of settings is remarkable (a zillion desert stories, and every one is different from the last aside from the heat and lack of water), and stories vary a lot as well. Well worth reading. Christopher R Taylor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted October 7, 2017 Report Share Posted October 7, 2017 It is my sad duty to report that Douglas Reeman, the author of this book among many others. is on his deathbed. He wants to die at home and his wife is trying to raise money to allow him to do just that. I'm sure that any help would be appreciated. https://www.douglasreeman.com/ I wonder why he didn't just use the name of the real French submarine that he based this one on the "Surcouf" ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted November 6, 2017 Report Share Posted November 6, 2017 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg. This purports to be 'true' account of events that happened in Scotland at the start of the 1700s first being set in historical context then covering the first person narrative of the sinner followed by a tailpiece by the editor. It highlights an extremely dangerous religious idea that if you are predestined for heaven, you are incapable of doing wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted November 8, 2017 Report Share Posted November 8, 2017 The Siege of Heaven by Tom Harper. A Byzantine agent with the First Crusade travels with it to Jerusalem and the end of the Crusade. Interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted December 21, 2017 Report Share Posted December 21, 2017 A Game of Ghosts by John Connolly. Charlie Parker is tasked with finding a missing fellow PI. This brings him up against The Bretheren. The ending was a little unsatisfactory but it's still a good book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted December 22, 2017 Report Share Posted December 22, 2017 Cochrane biography by David Cordingly. A very fine tale of an extraordinary man's life, although troubled and usually his own worst enemy. Most sea novels that have been written to one degree or another borrow from Thomas Cochrane's life, as he was an amazing captain. Patrick O'Brian, for example, swiped the entire first cruise of Cochrane including its ridiculously improbable capture of a ship about five times its size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted December 22, 2017 Report Share Posted December 22, 2017 The midnight line by Child. Jack Reacher sees a class ring from West Point in a pawn shop and decides to track down the owner. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. A tiger called Richard Parker and an Indian boy share a boat when their ship sinks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted January 1, 2018 Report Share Posted January 1, 2018 "Virtue of War" by Stephen Pressfield about Alexander the Great. Really its more about the concepts of leadership, how to conduct one's self in an army, etc, but its also a history. Not as good as his book "Gates of Fire" largely because of his lack of characterization and the use of modern terms to make the book more readable. *** ½ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted January 1, 2018 Report Share Posted January 1, 2018 Ulysses by James Joyce. Joyce was Irish, wrote good jokes, but hated his readers. He was also not afraid of mixing Latin, French and Gaelic into his text. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted January 3, 2018 Report Share Posted January 3, 2018 "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. An interesting and informative read. The main idea is that Europeans developed a powerful society before anyone else did NOT because Europeans were in any way superior to anyone else, but because Europe is the only part of the Earth that meets the requirements for building a powerful society. If you've ever played a 4X or civilization builder game, you probably know all about crappy start locations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted January 3, 2018 Report Share Posted January 3, 2018 "Trunk Music" by Michael Connelly. A decent police procedural story marred by cinematic excesses that happen far too often in Connelly's books. And Harry Bosch has to be perhaps the world's most difficult to like protagonist in a long series. The guy is just seriously a jerk to everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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