When I decided I needed a blog again, rather than start fresh, I decided to convert old book review blog to something more general purpose. I deleted all the posts that didn’t age well and in the interest of OCD, I decided to consolidate the old book reviews into batches. This is the second batch, they were posted in January 2008 reviewing/commenting on books I read the previous Summer/Fall.
Title: Invasion – The German Invasion of England
Author: Ken Macksey
Read: August 2007
Edition: Unknown
In the tradition of Peter Tsouras’s alternative histories, this one is grounded strongly in what was really possible in the day, the personalities that mattered and the capabilities of the two sides.
Reviewers on Amazon, while enjoying the book, scoffed at the weak British naval response and conjecture there is no way the Wehrmacht could have projected a sufficient force across the Straits of Dover. I have to disagree with those opinions. Sure, it’s hard to see how a force as strong as the British Home Fleet could be paralyzed into such half-hearted and inept maneuvers as depicted in this book. But, I think Macksey points out the risks of operating battleships in the narrow and shallow waters of the Straits and how that restrained the Royal Navy’s options. When you consider the Imperial aspect, it gets even more clear. Unlike Britain of today, the Britain of 1940 owned outright or effectively about 25% of the planet.
Fleets are expensive and it takes years to build even a single battleship. So, in a war of the sort they imagined themselves in in 1940 (much shorter than it turned out to be), what you start with is all you have. Losing the Home Fleet would mean not only exposing the home islands but the whole of the Empire. Remember, it’s the Home Fleet that blockades the German High Seas fleet in the Baltic. In the worst case, as comes to pass in the book, the intact fleet can evacuate the Royal family, the government and such of the valuable treasures as it can and spirit them off to Canada (part of the Empire) to carry on the fight (and be close to the US, their most likely source of significant military support.
The gimme that cause the most problems for me was the compromise of the radar stations. Certain documents we captured early in the ground campaign which detailed how the warning system worked and therefore how to most cripple it. The was the silver bullet for the ground campaign. Once the Royal Air Force had been beaten back, the ground attacks went forward unmolested. And as the Poles and the French can tell you, that’s a Bad Thing.
The book included several passable maps (it’s a personal peeve of mine to not have a plethora of maps in a military book of any sort). Overall, I found the book compelling and believable. I give this 4 out of 5 for this strong effort with lots of pictures and maps.
Title: The Black Company Trilogy
Author: Glen Cook
Read: August 2007
Edition: Paperback
This is really a reread. A great fantasy series that I lost touch with. I read it when it originally came out on the mid-80s and loved it. Cook has since written several more books in the series beyond the original trilogy described here, but I haven’t read them yet. I picked up a friend’s copy during a recent camping trip as it looked more appealing than the book I had brought and immediately got sucked in. When I got home, I dug out my copy and resumed reading it. Compared to some of the other things I had been reading, it was almost like eating candy.
The central character of the trilogy is Croaker, the physician and chronicler for a mercenary company. Using this literary device, the author can give us a glimpse of the world and some back story without have a character show up and lecture us. I think it works pretty well.
The Black Company
The story opens Croaker and the boys wearing out their welcome with their most recent employer and taking up service, with some strong misgivings, with a powerful sorcerer whose largest character flaw (other than the usual wizardly ego) or having been dead for a few hundred years (sort of). They get tossed into a great political struggle of which they know almost nothing. Their competency earns them the distrust of some pretty powerful figures and the safe harbor of the most powerful sorcerer of the day. Someone they are pretty sure is the “bad guyâ€, but considering the lack of eligible “good guysâ€, they go with the winning team.
Shadows Linger
It’s pretty hard to run away and effectively hide from the most powerful person in the world, but The Black Company manages for a while. However, it’s revealed that as bad a character as The Lady is, she is sweetness and light compared to The Dominator. And a bad thing is about to happen, some folks are fixing to set him lose from his several hundred year old prison, and he’s pissed.
The White Rose
I am not sure where the books split and I don’t want to give away anything important. So, trust me when I say the ending is pretty good and leaves you hoping for more.
This trilogy is solid, the world building is excellent, the characters a lot deeper than is usual for sword and sorcery fare. On the reread, it’s showing a bit of age, but not much. I will give it a 4.5 out of 5 and look eagerly forward to reading the new additions to the series.
Title: Notes From a Small Island
Author: Bill Bryson
Read: May 2005
Edition: Trade paperback
Just prior to our wedding my bride-to-be and I visited a friend or ours who had lived in London for a year or so just recently so that we could build an itinerary pf places to visit. We had 10 days in London minus the day trip to Paris to fill and no idea where to start. Our friend has pretty much the same interests as us and we were able to put together our game plan in short order. Before we left though, she gave us several books to read. Including 3 she considered crucial to survival in London. The first was medium sized copy of the London A-Z. This is the book for getting around in London. It just a map book with a cross referenced list of places and streets, but…London is large and old and I pity the fool that tries to navigate her streets without this book. The next was a small but thick tome that reviewed ever pub in London. Very handy although we probably didn’t use it very much. We tended to eat where ever we were when we got hungry and choose reasonably well throughout the trip. The final book was this one and she said, you need this so you know what Britain is like. We didn’t think much of it at the time and shoved it on our bag with all the other stuff she gave us and headed home.
Our friend asked us if we had read it at our wedding reception and when we told her that we had not, she impressed upon us it’s value. So, while packing we tossed it in the flight bag to be read on the long trip over. While waiting for the flight at BWI, my wife pulled it out and started reading. She’s a very fast reader and had it done by the time we landed. The whole time she was chuckling, so I couldn’t wait for my turn at it.
It turned out to be one of the more entertaining books I have ever read. The author, Bill Bryson is a humorist and travel writer. The book chronicles the author’s attempt to visit all parts of Britain via foot and public transportation in just 6-8 weeks. The author is on the verge of moving back to America after living in Britain for over 20 year and he wants to basically say goodbye to the place with a grand farewell tour.
The result is really funny. Bryson has a great eye for the little details that bring things to life. Since I was visiting London myself while reading it I was able to experience for myself some of the charm that is Britain and her people. Its been too long for me to quote any specific details, just trust me, it’s good, read it.
If you want to read my, somewhat less funny travelogue of the London trip, it’s on the main website.
I give it 5 out of 5 stars knowing full well that reading a book about Britain while visiting Britain (and on my honeymoon to boot) probably juiced the score a little bit. But, what the hell, it’s my blog and no one else is reading it anyways.
Title: Neither Here Nor There
Author: Bill Bryson
Read: October 2007
Edition: Audible.com Audiobook
In this book the humorist Bill Bryson recounts his travels through Europe during a summer break in his college years while retracing this journey some 20 years later. Bryson spent most of the intervening 20+ years living in Britain after marrying an Briton and raising a family. Now, he has decided that they need to spend a few years in America so his children get to know his home country.
So, before departing, he realized that while he nominally lived in Europe for the last two decades, he really hasn’t seen all that much of it. Therefore, decides to retrace that first trip from his college days, this time alone.
While he visits lots of places that you have heard of and are famous, most of his itinerary is a bit off the beaten track. But, it made me yearn to go back to Europe and poke around a bit more. Bryson is my hero in that like me, he speaks only English and still managed to do fine getting around in Europe even though his friends warned him that it would be very hard.
I give this book 4 out of 5. It was good, but slow in places and times I wished he would spend more time on certain cities. But that might have been the editing of the audio book rather than the original work, I haven’t compared the two.
Title: I’m a Stranger Here Myself
Author: Bill Bryson
Read: October 2007
Edition: Audible.com Audio book
Chronologically, this books fits between Notes from a Small Island and A Walk in the Woods. This book is really a collection of weekly columns that Bryson did for a British newspaper on his adjustment to living once again in the U.S. after living so long in Britain.
As such it’s choppy and a bit uneven. Some columns are brilliant, others a bit flat. My former father-in-law wrote (and for all I know may still) a weekly column in a Chicago area newspaper and he will tell you it’s tough to be good week after week. So, I would rate Bryson’s work as part for the course.
I particularly liked the one about his neighbor who drove 600 yards to the gym so she could walk on the treadmill.
I am going to rate this at 3 out of 5. If you are a Bryson fan, you won’t want to miss it, but if you are new to Bryson, I would recommend one of his regular books as a starting point.