02/17/2025
The Perfect Assassin: A Doc Savage Thriller by James Patterson and Brian Sitts
If you have been following this blog, you should have noticed that I'm a long time Doc Savage fan. So when I saw this, I had to give it a read. I didn't expect much, since I was disappointed with the Patterson Shadow book. I've read enough Shadow books to do more than hum the tune, and I wasn't impressed. This "Doc Savage" book took a different path, and I got the impression that Sitts is a Doc fan and read a lot of the books, unlike the Patterson co-author on the Shadow book. Brandt Savage has a doctorate in anthropology,and is a mild mannered professor at the University of Chicago. He is also the great grandson of Clark Savage, Jr., the famous adventurer active in the early 20th Century.
Life for Brandt is pretty calm, until he is kidnapped, and forced to partake in a odd regiment of exercise and diet by a woman is clearly dangerous and beautiful. Over a surprising brief period of time, Brandt gets leaner, stronger, and taller. Then things get weird. He and his former captor end up in a bunch of danger as they travel to exotic locations where people want to kill them. There is even a tip of the hat to the Rocketeer comics, where was his great grandfather who invented the jet pack.
I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. There is a sequel out, which I also enjoyed, and it's clear more are in the pipeline.
03/17/2025
Space Pirates of Andromeda by John C. Wright
This is the first book in the Starquest series, and if you are fan of Space Opera, you will probably like this book a lot. Seriously, E.E. "Doc" Smith would have read this with a smile. It's got Empires, Republics, suppressed Holy Warriors with exotic weapons, sentient robots, a Princess from a destroyed planet, and as the title suggests, Space Pirates and the brave members of the Space Patrol that hunt them. As one reviewer put this, this is what the Star Wars prequels could have been if they didn't suck.
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