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 fifth batch; they were posted in April 2008 reviewing/commenting on books I read the previously.
Title: Rommel: Trail of the Fox
Author: David Irving
Read: March 2008
Edition: eBook edition read on the Kindle
David Irving has made many of his works available for free, non-commercial use on his web site. This is the first of them that I have read and is apparently one of his earlier works. It’s goal is give us a glimpse of the real Rommel through the use of private documents, letters, interviews and other official wartime documents.
Although I have made something of a study of Rommel, this book shed a lot of new light on this enigmatic man that is often considered German’s best operational commander. Most interesting were the results of interviews of surviving family and staff members. They painted the personal side of Rommel, the one the propaganda machines didn’t see.
My impression of Rommel’s Chief of Staff from the Normandy campaign changed dramatically with the information revealed in this book. Previously, he had been painted and a sort of quiet competent man that made Rommel’s schemes work and handled the paperwork and orders while Rommel was out being Rommel. In actuality, Hans Speidel was busy masterminding the Hitler conspiracy. The plan was that in coordination with the bomb, there would be an uprising in Paris. As the bomb plot failed, this never happened. When the inquisition started, Spiedel managed to talk his way out of the Gestapo’s grasp but the cost as implicating Rommel. While Rommel was approached a couple of times, he never became actively involved in the conspiracy. The author believes that Rommel knew the war was lost as early as late 1942 or the beginning of 1943 and advocated ending it, but was loyal to Hitler to the end.
This is a must read for WWII buffs, I give it 5 stars.
Title: German Methods of Warfare in the Libyan Desert
Author: U.S. War Department
Read: April 2008
Edition: 1942 Military Intelligence Service Information Bulletin #20 (Unclassified 2 Mar 87)
As you might guess from the name, this is an actual document from the US War Department during WWII of the German methods of warfare as observed by the British and from captured German documents. To the WWII buff, there isn’t a lot of new material here, but there is some. For instance, minefields are often cited as playing a large role in the campaign. This document describes how they were laid.
Most of the rest is anecdotal information focused on German operational art and is succinct and informative. The document was intended for combat commanders at the battalion and lower echelons prior to the Torch landings. It’s floating around the Internet as a PDF and a recommended read if you are a WWII buff.
Title: March To the Sea
Author: John Ringo and David Drake
Read: April 2008
Edition: eBook on the Kindle
A nice follow on to the first book. Despite the rather formulaic plot, the authors didn’t kill off the one person I was sure was doomed, selecting another bit player instead. That aside, this is a fun ride once we get going. The battle scenes in the last third of the book are trademark John Ringo. No one slays low tech opponents like he does. I mean no one. It’s great and hearkens back to his Posleen Carnology series (also recommended).
I need to go buy the third book now, I really liked this one and need to know how it all ends. No higher complement can be paid to an author, IMO. 5 stars.
Title: March Upcountry
Author: John Ringo and David Drake
Read: March 2008
Edition: eBook on the Kindle
I love both of these authors, but the cover of the book and the back jacket didn’t sell me, so it took getting an essentially free eBook version to get me to dive in. Overall, I like the world. Things hang together nicely; the biome is believable.
The story is more engaging than I expected, frankly. Drake does some good action; Ringo does great action and good characters. I have a good idea who plotted which characters, would be interesting to meet the authors and find out if I am right. The book includes maps, but that’s not something we expect to find, and they are lumped at the back, so when we find them, it’s too late and either we imagined the map or it’s not like how we imagined it and it’s a bit jarring. So, if you read this book, check the maps!
Despite starting like it was going to be tedious, it’s a really engaging story and leaves you hungry for the next book. 4.5 stars.
Title: Dead Witch Walking
Author: Kim Harrison
Read: April 2008
Edition: eBook read on the Kindle
I confess that I belong to the Science Fiction book club and have since i was like 14. It was once the only source of affordable, decent SF books (back in the early 80s). I don’t buy a whole lot from them anymore, but I still get the monthly club brochure. Since I can decline online, there is basically no reason to quit. Getting the glossy booklet once a month lets me keep current on the new books without venturing into Borders. A trip that never ends in less than $50 of books. Seriously, I am getting to the point, chill. Lately, that is to say the last 5 years or more, the back few pages of the brochure have been the domain of vampires and werewolves.
I mean, I guess, they fall broadly into the SF&F genre. The vampire an oldie but goodie in the land of fantasy writing. However, these looked different. First, almost all of the authors are women. Not that that is a problem. In fact, I tend make a point of checking out female authors when I can as they often tell a story completely differently from a male writer and the change of pace is nice. Next, the covers of most of these books are, well, sexy. They seem to come in long series too. Now, I am a sucker for good world building and it’s hard to throw away a good world, so a long series tends to promise a more complete world. Also, the cover. Do I want to read a book with an exploding spaceship on it, or one with a hot young goth chick on it? Even if she is holding a knife that drips blood.
And yet, mostly they are all marked “explicit sex”. Thumbing through one of them at the bookstore, it seemed like the new refuge of the bodice ripper authors. They can’t all be bad, so I decided to give one series a shot for two reasons: 1) I came across a copy of the book in .doc format and therefore could convert it to be read on the Kindle I just happened to have recently acquire. And 2), vampire girls, explicit sex, can it be that bad?
Well, as it turns out, this was a pretty good choice. First of all, there wasn’t any gratuitous sex, in fact, I don’t think there was any in the first book. What there was a good and interesting world. The author has envisioned a world where normal humans and the supernatural co-exist in an uneasy peace. The back story is reasonably plausible and the characters colorful, complex and conflicted.
It’s clear that this was envisioned as a series of semi-standalone story. I have 2 more past this one in eBook format before I have to resort to finding more at the bookstore, so we will see how it goes. But, so far, I like the world and the characters. I give it a 4 star. Oh, and all the titles in this series are plays on Clint Eastwood movies, so that’s a huge plus: girls that like Clint /clap.