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 fourth batch, they were posted in April 2008 reviewing/commenting on books I read the previously.
Title: Singularity Sky
Author: Charles Stross
Read: February 2008
Edition: Mass Market Paperback (ISBN 0441011799)
Reading this series slightly out of order, I read Iron Sunrise, the sequel, first. There were a lot of unanswered questions from Iron Sunrise that I figured would be made clear in this book, and I was only partly right. We get good back story on the main characters, we get introduced to what will be a central character in the second book, but we don’t really get any background on what caused this one star to go nova. And the enemy from the second book is not the bad guys in the first book. In fact, they are only mentioned once or twice off hand. And the bad guys in this book aren’t mentioned at all in the second book. Maybe the forth coming third book will tie some of this together.
Despite the complex plot, it’s a compelling story and a good read. I give it 4 stars, but I suggest you read them in order 🙂
Title: Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Author: John Perkins
Read: February 2008
Edition: Audible Audio Book
“Economic hit men,†John Perkins writes, “are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder.â€
John Perkins should know; he was an economic hit man. His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S., from Indonesia to Panama, to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction companies. Saddled with huge debts, these countries came under the control of the United States government, World Bank, and other U.S.-dominated aid agencies that acted like loan sharks, dictating repayment terms and bullying foreign governments into submission.
So this sounds pretty interesting and it came highly recommended from some people I respect so I decided to give it a go. The world of international finance isn’t one I know much about, so it intrigued me. For instance, I was always curious about what the big international monetary organizations like the World Bank and the IMF actually did. I was pretty sure they weren’t banks in the sense you or I know them. What I had heard was that they loaned money to developing countries to help them modernize. Exactly how that helped, I had no clue. After all, how could some dirt poor country with people starving possibly pay back huge loans regardless of what they were for? Considering the fuss surrounding spending a few billion dollars on anything else causes, the relative lack of scrutiny that money we give these organizations was curious. In the back of my mind I had assumed it was just that it was hard to argue about charity/altruism, but that was without a lot of consideration.
So when this book came along offering to expose how it all works, I grabbed it. It is definitely interesting. As the publisher’s blurb indicates, the author paints an exceedingly cynical view of why these entities exist.
While we expect an author in non-fiction to build a strong case for their thesis, this one stretches…I am not sure what to call it…taste, I guess. He describes how he struggles with his conscious while he pulls down millions of dollars in salary, bonuses and perks. It’s pretty hard to feel for him really. The author also hammers phrases like, “America’s march to Global Empire.†While it’s no doubt that that is the net effect of the activity of the author and others like him, I can hardly believe it’s all that organized. Frankly, it can probably be explained by simple (corporate and personal) greed.
For myself, I have marked this a subject that bares further study in hopes of constructing a somewhat more complete picture. I can’t believe that this is the whole story. Also, I know a couple socially that are involved with the World Bank and they spout the platitudes of healing the poor around the world. A mutual friend describes them as “a bunch of Kucinich kooks†to give an idea of their rather hard-core democratic leaning. And so we tend to avoid political discussions. But with their support, I think it’s a vote for the truthfulness of this book, we will see.
In any case it’s a fascinating book and a recommended one, just don’t totally suspend your disbelief without doing some homework. 5 Stars.
Title: Fox at the Front
Author: Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson
Read: March 2008
Edition: Mass Market Paperback (ISBN 0765343991)
This book picks up where the previous one left off (essentially after the Battle of the Bulge). Hard to give this a solid review without revealing spoilers in one or both of the books. The fun of these alternate history books is what was changed and how that affected the outcome. I will reiterate what I said in my post on the first book in that the changes are fairly restrained. Also, the authors focus more on strategy and grand strategy than on the hardware aspects of the war. Though, there are enough of the later to keep me, a hardware enthusiast, satisfied.
Again, the dominate perspective is Rommel’s, but the authors continue with some of the smaller players to give a real feeling to the story.
The plausibility is still pretty high through this book, so I will give it 4 out of 5 as well. If you like this, you should check out Peter Tsouras’s excellent Disaster at D-Day for another alternate ending to WWII. If you want more (factual) on Rommel, I highly recommend Rommel: On the Trail of the Fox by David Irving (review coming soon), Hans von Luck’s Panzer Commander, or von Mellenthin’s Panzer Battles. All quite good.
Title: Fox at the Front
Author: Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson
Read: February 2008
Edition: Mass Market Paperback (ISBN 0812574664)
This is quite an interesting book (well series, as there is a sequel). The premise is what if the July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler succeeded? Focusing on the larger political and military situation, this book and it’s sequel explore a possibility. The authors tell the tale through several of the big players, like Rommel, of course, as well has a host of smaller officers on both sides (well, all three sides) of the conflict.
I won’t go into details that might spoil a well reasoned “alternative ending†except to say that the variation is restrained, reasonably plausible and different that any of the others I have read.
Overall, the book was pretty interesting. The prose was a little rough, especially dialog in certain areas. Considering it’s a first novel, I am fine with it on that level. My pet peeve for military books is map, they often don’t have them or have them at the right scale. This book is a happy exception. Of course, you could always have a few more. I give it a 4 out of 5 overall.
Title: The Hidden Family
Author: Charles Stross
Read: February 2008
Edition: Mass Market Paperback (ISBN 0765352052)
Charles Stross returns with the second in his ongoing series about a family that can walk between parallel worlds (a la Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber). In this installment our heroine discovers that there are in fact at least 2 parallel worlds in addition to the normal Earth we inhabit. Apparently, this hasn’t occurred to anyone else in the extended family of world walkers.
She decides to sidestep the morass of political intrigue in the first side world and setup shop in this new world while she tries to come to grips with the changes in her life and her new role(s). Naturally nothing is what it seems and there are things that she has to cope with in this new world including a long lost part of the family that lives only in this world.
Overall, the action picks up a bit and we get some glimpses towards how the future will shape up, but there are still many threads and a lot of unknowns. So the story remains somewhat frustrating and still compelling.
I give this a 4 out of 5 overall.
Title: The Family Trade
Author: Charles Stross
Read: January 2008
Edition: Mass Market Paperback (ISBN 0765352052)
This is the first book of a series in a new universe for Stross. It’s reminiscent of Zelazny’s Amber. There are people that can cross between parallel worlds, each similar but different. Only members of the “royal blood†can walk between worlds, and they can only take what they can carry with them.
The story centers around a reporter who specializes in the high tech financial world. For reasons that haven’t become clear in the first two books, her mother gives her a talisman containing the secret “patternâ€. Focusing on the pattern allows you to walk between worlds. But, only if you are a member of the family. Which, of course, she is. The book is primarily about Miriam discovering her talents and learning about the world that she has inherited access to.
Needless to say, the other world has it’s own issues and problems. This world is roughly locked into the Late Middle Ages and held there by a combination of politics and greed. Much of the political bickering is centered around the power and wealth of the large, extended family that can walk to the modern world. This family is not royalty, so the royals and the other gentry have problems with them. In addition, they like to kill each other.
Over all, like Stross’ other books, the world building is compelling, but the story is a bit lacking. After reading the book, I wanted to read the next to see what happens. I like the world and the premise, at least as much as has been revealed so far. And yet, it’s not clear what’s going on at all and that’s a bit frustrating. I guess it’s like what normal people feel when they read a Clancy novel.
I am going to give it a 3.5 out of 5, it’s a compelling, but frustrating read.