Heed the words of Bandit Six
So every four years we elect a king. Since people like consistency, we tend to elect the same king as many times as we can get away with. (See previous paragraph.) And the king, especially in any sort of emergency, has a lot of power. They don’t always, or even most of the time, have enough to fix things right away. But they’ve got a lot of power.
Including the power to totally screw things up.
…
For the kids reading this, this is a very important point. When you choose your king, forget most of the reasons you think you should vote for the king. Mostly, the king can’t do much about the economy but ruin it. They can’t make you richer or smarter (although they can manage the reverse). If you want one suggestion, think about all the contingencies under which that king (or queen in this case) may hold your lives in his or her hands. And choose wisely.
Monday Book Pick: Knox’s Irregulars
Knox’s Irregulars by J. Wesley Bush
Nice bit of Military Science Fiction. It has powered armor, drone attacks, high tech aircraft and down and dirty partisan Guerrilla warfare.
Monday Book Pick: Rogue
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
Rogue by Michael Z. Williamson
Williamson revisits Kenneth Chinran, the “hero” of The Weapon. The war is over, Ken wants nothing to with his his role in the war, just be left alone and raise is daughter. Of course, that isn’t going to happen. One of Chinran’s team members has “gone rogue” and the Government of Freehold wants him taken down. Mainly because they don’t want other governments getting a reminder of just how deadly a trained Freehold Operative is. Chinran, and his lovely young assistant, travel across known space tracking down their prey as he performs assassination after assassination, including Earth, were Chinran is justifably afraid of being torn to small bloody bits by the surviving population.
Nice Product Placement
Damon has a copy of Michael Z. Williamson‘s new book, Rogue, on the couch.
Monday Book Pick: The Hot Gate
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
The third in his latest series, which is “old school SciFi Space Opera”. Ya, we got your epic space battle right here, and in case you forgot no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. They have their own battle plans, that is why they are called the enemy. Sometimes you don’t win, but not losing can still carry the day. A damn fine read. May Mr. Ringo continue providing his ‘reader crack’ a pace that destroys laptops but pays for many new ones.
Monday Book Pick: Go Tell The Spartans
Go Tell The Spartans by Dr. Jerry Pournelle and S.M. Stirling
Part of Pournelle’s Condominium series, and more specifically part of the Falkenberg Legion series. An excellent read in the Military SciFi genre, and a damn good primer on low intensity conflicts as well.
SciFi Geek Bonus Points: The first mention of “Major Falkenberg” and the “Falkenberg Rifles” isn’t in a book by Mr. Pournelle. Geek points for identifying which Military Sci-Fi book does.
SciFi Sunday: H. Beam Piper
In addition to the Monday Book Picks and the Friday B-Movie posts, I’ll be posting about Science Fiction on random Sundays.
To kick things off, I am starting with one of my favorite SciFi authors, H. Beam Piper. Piper was in inspiration to many in the field today, including the massively best selling author, David Weber.
A lot of H. Beam Piper’s works are available in the public domain. You can find them on the Gutenberg’s SF CD, and there are also audiobook format versions available.
My personal favorites are Space Viking and Uller Uprising, but you should take the time to read his entire catalog. Sadly, it is not as large as it should have been.
Monday Book Pick: March to the Sea
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
March to the Sea by John Ringo and David Weber
Second in the Empire of Man series. Prince Roger continues his education as he and the Bronze Barbarians continue their trek across a harsh alien wilderness filled with hordes of aliens, hostile and otherwise, but mostly hostile.
Monday Book Pick: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming by Christopher C. Horner.
Since the BBC finally figured out that the planet stopped getting warmer a decade ago, today’s pick is by someone who pointed out some of the problems with broken model of the anthropogenic global warming Luddites a few years ago.
Monday Book Pick: The Forever War
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
The classic anti-war military SciFi book seen by many as an answer to Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (the Monday book pick from Feb. 9, 2009). Haldeman claims that isn’t how he wrote it, and Robert Heinlein thought it was a damn good good book. An opinion I share.