A nice well written “four spider” review of my latest novel, Software by the Kilo, over at Webb Weaver. A bit of it below:
I heartily enjoyed Software By The Kilo, with it’s well thought out and original storyline. The interaction between the techies and the goons was hysterical and a little creepy. Larry Ketchersid also did something I adore in a book… he wove fiction in with historical facts which gave the story that ‘extra something’ I am always looking for. I am not a software geek and get lost in the technical wording and language, but Larry found a way to get me through Software By The Kilo unscathed and even feeling a little bit smarter than when I began reading.
Read the entire review here.
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My notes on Mark Chadbourn’s excellent first novel in his Age of Misrule trilogy, World’s End, has been published on SFSignal.com.
An excerpt:
There are almost as many end of world novels as there are authors (yes, guilty!) in both science fiction and fantasy. My last article on SFSignal talked about different types of technology changes that can be found in sci-fi novels; Chadbourn’s series features a gradual technology collapse in a fantasy novel, with technology slowly but surely being replaced by a sense of the Earth, nature and magic. Chadbourn handles this transition seamlessly, taking the characters (and the reader) from a modern London to using Stonehenge as a refuge from creatures so heinous they cannot look upon them without nausea. Even though it was originally released in the late 90s by Gollancz in the UK, World’s End has a very 2012ish “a new age is coming” feel to it.
Read the entire review here.
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The movie The Lightning Thief, has excellent special effects (Hades in the fire and looking like an old rock musician is well done) and tells the story of Percy Jackson, half human, half Olympian God. Several easily recognized actors play Olympian roles (Uma Thurman is enjoyable as Medusa, Pierce Brosnan with a half-horse body at Chiron, Sean Bean (Boromir from Lord of the Rings and Odysseus in Try) plays Zeus), and, except for the likeness of Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) to my son’s friend Ryan and a few occasions of wooden acting, the kid’s parts (Percy, Annabeth, Grover) were well cast.
As with most, we noted several major differences in the movie versus Rick Riordan’s first novel in the Percy Jackson series. Since the movie was already two hours, one would assume they were cut for time. But there were also pieces that were left out that are needed if the next book in the series is turned into a movie. Slight spoilers below if you haven’t read the book: (more…)
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This is the fifth story originally published by 
Street and Smith. If I remember correctly, this is one of the first ones I purchased back in the late 60s or early 70s. My copy has my name scrawled in it, and the stamp of a Houston book shop on Long Point that is no longer there.
Pirate of the Pacific has, thus far in my re-read, the best “made for movie” plot and action. From the submarine arrival to NYC, on a liner across the Pacific to speed boats, shark battles and machine gun fights, a lot is packed into this short 136 page book.
The story picks up from where the previous story, The Polar Treasure, leaves off, as Doc and his team are returning from the Arctic in a submarine. They are attacked by enemies who have intercepted a request for help to Doc from Juan Mindoro, a politician from the Luzon Union. Avoiding the attacks, Doc rescues his men (who get pinched) and Juan from the men of Tom Too, a man who aims to take over the Luzon Union. Three of Doc’s men get kidnapped (right after he rescues Renny), and Doc follows them on an ocean liner (in interesting disguises) bound for the Luzon Union. They are found out, attacked and imprisoned on the boat. They escape (through a bomb hole with some nifty diving equipment), get to the islands, and end up island hopping, fighting Tom Too’s men, rescuing each other, avoiding sharks and trying to track down Tom Too.
A good passage is included in this story as to why Doc never uses guns (though in some stories he does):
“The reasons I don’t use a gun are largely psychological,” he said. “Put a gun in a man’s hand and he will use it. Let him carry one and he comes to depend on it. Take it away from him, and he is lost - seized with a feeling of helplessness. Therefore, since I carry no firearms, none can be taken from me to leave the resultant feeling of helplessness.”
My sortable table of Doc Savage books is here.
- Written by: Lester Dent
- Villain: Tom Too
- Doc Gadget: underwater breathing hoods, well before the invention of SCUBA;
- Doc Feat: disappears in a fire, wrestles a shark;
- Exotic locale: the Pacific islands of the Luzon Union (Philippines?)
- By the numbers: originally published July, 1933; Bantam #19 published September 1967; Philip Jose Farmer dated July 1932
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The Golden City is the final book in an ambitious trilogy by John Twelve Hawks, mixing a Orwellian 1984 big brother “Vast Machine”, the many worlds theory, quantum computing and martial arts. Sounds right up my alley, right? The first novel in the series, The Traveler, was enjoyable, well-paced, an excellent setup; the second, The Dark River, not so much (my notes).
This third book ties up most of the loose ends, and is as well-paced as the first. While the “good vs. evil” brother characters are predictably drawn, the other characters get more page time in this novel, and are quite enjoyable (especially Hollis). The ending has an Ayn Rand type speech (which makes you think that was the entire purpose for getting the trilogy out!) and leaves room for more books in these worlds. (more…)
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Let’s just call this a public service announcement.
Like many, I am not a fan of waiting, nor the English perfected fine art of “queueing”. When I had to get my Driver’s License renewed in person, I could find no information on-line for which Harris County Driver’s License office had the shortest lines. I hope this information saves you some time.
- All of the offices appear to triple the test of your patience by having three lines: the line to the information desk; the line (or chairs) to wait to be called; and the final “hidden” queue to have to take your test or have your picture taken.
- If you are in northwest Harris county, avoid the Grant Road office (10503 Grant Road); the first line just to get to the Information Desk is almost always out the door, and announced wait times of 3-4 hours are not uncommon;
- The Townhurst office (1601 Townhurst, near I-10 West and Beltway 8) was the one I went to, and I waited less than 90 minutes for the entire process; plus the people in that office were helpful, and amusing (one lady kept announcing that “lovely new people in line should go to the Dacoma office”);
- The Dacoma office (4545 Dacoma, near 290 and the Loop) that was being pushed as an alternative had apparently just been renovated and reopened, new, clean and no waiting; whether that will hold out once folks know it is reopened, I have no idea;
- I heard unsubstantiated reports on the Baytown office (usually no waiting, but too far for me) and the Vantage Parkway office (near the airport, avoid it for its long lines).
Hope this helps you wait less.
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This is the fourth story originally published by 
Street and Smith.
Lester Dent portrays a perplexed Doc Savage, unlike the other novels. Doc is several times surprised by events, which happens rarely.
In this novel, Victor Vail, a blind violin maestro, is saved from kidnapping by Doc (who incidentally wrote the piece Vail had just been performing). Years ago, Vail had been aboard an ocean liner that had been marooned in the Arctic Ice, losing his wife and daughter. Vail believes a man named Ben O’Gard, a member of the crew, saved him from Keelhaul de Rosa, who apparently killed the rest of the passengers, looking for gold and diamonds on board.
Doc discovers that a map was tattooed on blind Victor Vail’s back, which shows where the marooned ocean liner is, containing the treasure. Doc and the team go after the treasure, intent on beating Keelhaul to it. They enlist an arctic submarine, whose captain is eventually revealed to be Ben O’Gard (who, as a big man, has some good fights with Renny and Monk). O’Gard is also after the treasure, and as they get to the ocean liner, a fight ensues between Keelhaul (who has enlisted Eskimos to help), O’Gard and Doc and team. Surprisingly, Victor Vail’s wife and daughter are alive, being helped by the Eskimos, and Victor (who I had pegged wrongly at the beginning as the probably bad guy) shows up, sight renewed by Doc’s operation, to be reunited and to assist Doc and the gang win the day and get the loot.
My sortable table of Doc Savage books is here.
- Written by: Lester Dent
- Villain: Ben O’Gard and Keelhaul de Rosa
- Doc Gadget: explosive liquids, hidden in false wisdom teeth, that ignite when mixed together; Monk had some nice ice melting chemicals in this story as well;
- Doc Feat: fought and killed a polar bear barehanded; performed an operation to restore Victor Vails sight;
- Exotic locale: the Arctic ice caps
- By the numbers: originally published June, 1933; Bantam #4 published April 1965; Philip Jose Farmer dated June 1932
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Though lighter on the Rugby (disappointing for this former and now occasional rugby player) than on the subject of Mandela, Invictus is an 
entertaining movie covering Nelson Mandela’s backing and support of the 1995 South Africa Springboks rugby team, and their efforts in that years Rugby World Cup (the third most watched event in world sports, for my uneducated American friends). Up to that point, the blacks hated the Springboks as a symbol of white supremacy, and Mandela threw his weight behind the team as a symbol of unification.
Invictus (see the poem at the end of this post) is directed by Clint Eastwood (which is reason enough to go see it), and stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Morgan Freeman plays Mandela, and his performance ranks right behind The Shawshank Redemption (IMHO) in a long line of excellent work. Damon plays Francois Pineaar, captain of the South African Rugby team. (more…)
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Smashwords is a very well done eBook site, but (no offense to its creator Mark Coker), the only reason I joined was to support Ed Patterson’s excellent program, Operation eBook Drop. I highly recommend it for all of my fellow authors and hope that my friends and family that are deployed (Vince, Ian, Chris, you guys listening?) will take advantage of the system Mr. Patterson has set up.
Operation eBook Drop is a simple and straightforward process to get electronic books to deployed Armed Services troops through Smashwords. Mr. Patterson has set up a clearing house of sorts, where troops or their families sends him email addresses, and he then forwards those to authors who have told him they would like to participate. These authors have uploaded their works to Smashwords, and used Smashwords coupon capability to create a coupon for the troops to use to download the books for free.
Smashwords is the perfect platform for this, as its “Meatgrinder” is able to convert uploaded books into several different formats, allowing the troops flexibility in how they read the books. Smashwords coupon capability allows the troops to download books that have a price tag associated with them on the Smashwords site for free. Smashwords has also signed some excellent distribution deals recently, making certain ebooks available through Shortcovers, Amazon and B&N.
The only downside I have found with Smashwords is that in order to get converted to the multiple different formats of ebooks the layout possibilities of the book you upload are minimal.
So far about 20% of the troops I’ve notified have downloaded a copy of Dusk Before the Dawn from Smashwords. (Software by the Kilo, my latest, is not in eBook format yet). I hope it has made their downtime more enjoyable.
To learn more about Operation eBook Drop (and for info on how troops or authors can participate), read the article on the Smashwords blog, or see their Facebook Fan page.
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Most histories of World War II focus on North Africa, then the Sicily 
and Italy invasions by the Allies. But after the fall of Rome a few days before D-Day, they focus on the Normandy invasions and the push through France to Germany. There was a lot of Italy left, and the Allies forces there held down several German armies, keeping them away from the Russian and D-Day fronts.
James Holland’s 539 page history of the war in Italy from 1944-1945, Italy’s Sorrow: A Year of War 1944-1945, documents not only the Allies and German armies and their battles, but the struggles of the Italian citizens, partisans, remaining fascist government and reforming Italian armies.
Italy at the time faced civil war, two Armies (first the retreating Germans, then the advancing Allies) consuming all the food and resources leaving little for the citizens, a fragmented leadership with mixed messages, and the pure devastation of war (where it sometimes seems only Rome and Florence were spared). It is truly amazing the country has survived.
This in-depth history is presented in four sections: (more…)
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