The Guns of the South- Good Alternate History

The Guns of the South

One of the books that I finished this week was The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove. I haven’t read a lot of books by Harry Turtledove in the past but the ones I’ve read have all been good. His books have all been a twist of history. An alternate history where some part has been changed in some way so that history was changed.

In this book, time travelers came back to the Confederacy and brought General Robert E. Lee a supply of AK-47s just before he was about to lose the civil war.

As a history buff, I was interested to see what the events would be if the South never rejoined the Union. I was interested to see the great study the author made of the actual persons who were a part of the story and the choices they would probably have made in the new circumstances they found themselves in. There was great research done to use the real characters who were a part of our history but also to create fictional characters and weave them into this time and place without any apparent seams.

I greatly enjoyed this book and will read more by this author the next chance I get.

But that’s just my opinion.

-Jeff

Battle Cruiser - Missed my Mark

I just finished reading Battle Cruiser by B. V. Larson. I have to say, I was a little disappointed. I have read his Undying Mercenaries series and really enjoyed them so I was looking forward to starting a new series but this one didn’t hit the mark for me.

That isn’t to say that it was a bad story. I would give it a solid 3 or 3.5 out of 5 but he usually hits much higher on the scale than that for me.

The story was good; Earth has lost her capacity to go to the stars through a solar calamity and the Star Guard is struggling to survive on smaller and smaller budgets as the Earth becomes isolationist and retreats inward. Into this arena a young captain is forced to overcome the odds and inertia of politics when he discovers that one of the Colonist’s ships has returned and the single ship out guns all of the Earth’s fleet by itself.

The problems for me come with the characters, who are not as well developed as they could be, and the plot was not as fleshed out as it could have been. There are some really good characters here that I would have liked to know better.

The plot felt rushed and had few twists or turns. I had real trouble with the romantic connection between the main character and his girl. He met her once and they were both willing to make major sacrifices for each other. I felt there needed to be more development there also.

As I said earlier, I enjoyed the story, but I probably won’t finish the series.

But that's just my opinion.

-Jeff

Northwest Angle - My Comfort Food

One of the books that I just finished in the past week was Northwest Angle by William Kent Krueger. This is the eleventh book in the Cork O’Conner mystery series I started reading this series several years ago and have enjoyed this series very much. As with most series, some books are better than others; or I should say, I liked some books better than others. Other readers might disagree on which are the best.

The great thing about series is that you know the characters and have grown with them as they have grown and learned. The best thing about a good series, and these are no exception, is that each book is its own story. You don’t have a cliffhanger where you have to run out to get the next installment. I think of my favorite series as my comfort food of the literary world.

Having said all that, I may be getting to the end of this particular series. The thing I liked about it was his investigations of crimes and the intertwining of the Native American culture with the story. This latest story seemed strained to come up with a viable investigation and had more to do with a weather occurrence than the crimes that followed it. For me, it failed to build the suspense and drama that previous installments of this series have done. The character might be coming to the end of his run.

It was still a well crafted story and worth reading but not up to the author's usual high level.

I would give it three and a half stars if I had to grade it. I did enjoy the story. I saw most of the twists coming and that is why it wasn’t as enjoyable for me. A lot of the story centered on Cork’s kids and their decisions rather than his own, so the story tended to be a lot less focused than it usually is. I think that was a distraction, also.

While this wasn’t my favorite installment of the series, I’ll still keep reading. This is my comfort food after all.

But that’s just my opinion.

~Jeff

The Dragons of Dorcastle- An Unexpected Surprise

Alright, I admit it, I started a new series.

With as many books as I’m reading, I really shouldn’t get started on anything that makes me commit to another 6 to 8 books but I’ve been looking at this book for a while and finally decided to read it when I finished the book I had been reading the other day. The fact that I finished this one in a day and a half shows me I make the right choice.

The Dragons of Dorcastle surprised me in many ways. I have to make another confession here. I knew this author, having read his Lost Fleet series. I loved that series, so I picked up this book without ever reading the blurb on the back. I had no idea what the story was about. I had read the title and the sub-title. As I said, I had been looking at the book for some time but the actual story was a surprise. It is almost a cross between steampunk and a dystopian YA love-story. And, to top it off, any dragons are incidental.

Having said all that, I would give it a 4.5 out of 5. Maybe even higher if I hadn’t felt the story ended too soon. But don’t we always feel the good stories end too soon? In all fairness, I wasn’t looking for military SF like his Lost Fleet series. If it has Dragons in the title, I know I’m looking at a different kind of book and the sub-title The Pillars of Reality is another clue that we have moved into the realm of Fantasy. That was what I was expecting. I got much more than my expectations.

It wasn’t a perfect book. I don’t give 5s easily but it was close. I loved this book. I admit, sometimes it’s just the mood you’re in when you read it, too. Whatever the case, this one hit the spot.

From the earliest moments of the book, the action caught my interest and kept me bound up with Mechanic Mari and the Mage Alain as they move from one disaster to another. They break the rules that say mechanics and mages don’t associate with each other to solve the puzzles in front of them before they end up dead. It had a great pace that kept me going.

I highly recommend this book.

But that’s just my opinion.

At the Sign of Triumph- The End at Last.

Okay, I finished At the Sign of Triumph a couple of weeks ago. It was the final book (Book 9) in the Safehold Series by David Weber. I've been looking forward to this book for a while. It was a good book and I enjoyed it. If I were rating on a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give it a solid 3. Maybe a 3.5. It's unfortunate that my most overwhelming feeling was 'Thank Heavens this series is finally over!' 

Having said that, I need to add that while I didn't like how some of the books in the series ended, I loved this series. The first several books in the series were some of the best books I've read and David Weber is one of my favorite authors. It just seemed like the last few books were moving like cold molasses in January, as my mother used to say. 

The war that was being fought between the two powers stretched to encompass the whole planet and maybe it was too much to ask at it progress during each book but I ended each installment with a sense of being cheated of the ending I needed. I finally got it with this book.

I have written books that were part of a series but I have tried to make each one have its own internal story that was complete within the volume. Maybe that was why the later books were so unsatisfying to me. There didn’t seem to be any arc that finished within the framework of the book. They just went on and on.

At the Sign of Triumph I assume is the last book in the series, but the author sets it up to continue if he wants to. In any event, the war is over and the heroes have triumphed as the title would indicate. As long as the series ran, and as tired as I was getting of the never-ending battles, it seemed like this books was rushed and a lot of the ending to the combat was forced.  I kept thinking, why couldn’t this have happened two books ago?

It sounds like I have more complaints than praise for this book but the truth is that, as I said earlier, I enjoyed it.

Sorry, I guess I just needed to get the rant out of my system.

I enjoyed this book even though it had a rushed feel. Weber’s writing style is one that I appreciate. I have whole bookshelves in my library devoted to his books and if you read my own books you will probably see a pale echo of his style because I read so many of his books. All of the books in the series were good enough to keep me interested throughout the story. Obviously, I kept reading to the ninth book so something must have been working. They were frustrating in the lack of progress but good stories nonetheless. I'll always be up for his next book. 

But that’s just my opinion.

Red Rising- What's a little revenge among friends?

So this week I finished a book called Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I would have to put this one as one of the better books I’ve read so far this year.

I knew going in that it was the first book of a trilogy and so I was sort of leery.  Stories don’t tend to hold up through a three book set very well. Of course, there are notable exceptions to this rule. And having said that, usually the first one is good, so I went ahead. 

I’m glad I did.

There are pieces that are pulled from other sources, such as kids fighting kids (a la the Hunger Games), but the underlying story is new and solid. I'm sure there will be comparisons to the Hunger Games books but I felt this book was better that those books in every way. I am not one who bashed the Hunger Games in any way but I enjoyed this one more. There are pitfalls and plot twists enough even for me. Comparisons to other books do a disservice to this book.

There is an old saying that revenge is a dish best served cold, but the protagonist, Darrow, seems to run too hot to be able to hold out for the end game and his final revenge. It kept me engaged because I was ready for him to abort his careful planning at any time and just jump in with all guns blazing. It suited his temperament much better than the long, patient revenge that he had planned. 

You knew, throughout the book, that he wanted to just say, "What plan? Let's blow them all up!". You were just waiting for it to happen.

That was part of the author's gift in this book. He had me on the edge of my seat waiting for it to happen and at the same time begging the hero not to let it happen.

You know I love twists and turns and this book has plenty of them. 

The story is rich and imaginative. I loved where the author took the story. The concept was well thought out and executed. The plot is tight and believable which is always good for Sci-fi/fantasy books. The characters are deep and multi-layered.

I hope the rest of the series holds up as well. It was well executed and worth the read. 

But, that's just my opinion.

~Jeff

No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished. My best read of the year so far.

Okay. I know what I like and it doesn't always match what everyone else likes. I can't help that. I like what I like.

I'm sure you are the same.

So far this year, my favorite book has been a book called No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished, by Rachel Aaron.

It is the third book in a series that I found in November of last year and I am really enjoying.

The main character, a young dragon named Julius, is in the process of trying to reorganize the way his ruthless family does business. Sometimes I find his methods go a little beyond credibility but the story is good and the action keeps you going.

One of the things I like about this book, and the series as a whole, is that I don't see the plot twists coming. I read A LOT of books so it's hard to not see the plot twists coming most of the time. That makes it fun to read a book that I can't quite predict.

So back to my opening statement. I know what I like. I tend to like books where the protagonist is young and naïve. I like the traditional coming of age stories. This series started out that way but, as I said, had a few twists and turns along the way.

I'm not going to go into a bunch of spoilers or write a synopsis of the story here in this blog. Hey, I hate writing those for my own books, but I will say, there are times when I get very annoyed with Julius and wish he were more in touch with the real world.

You can't make the world turn out the way you want just by wishing hard enough. There are really bad people out there and no matter how many time you explain to them how the world would be a better place if we all just get along, they are still going to say, "So what?" and shoot you in the back.  Having said that, the world isn't changed by reasonable people, either. So what do I know. So far he keeps getting away with it. No one has shot him in the back yet. Though I'm sure they all want to.

This is a series worth reading, if you haven't checked it out yet. I recommend it.

But that's just my opinion.

-Jeff