Monday Book Pick: Space Pirates of Andromeda
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.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Wrecking Crew
The last of four late 1960s Matt Helm movies starring Dean Martin. These are light comedy spy movies with plenty of female eye candy. Spoofs of the more serious James Bond movies and a nice view into the era they were made. Lots of smoking, drinking, large cars, and beautiful women who fall to the charms of counter-intelligence agent Matt Helm. They dialed the beautiful women up to 11 in this one with Tina Louise, Elke Sommer, Nancy Kwan, and Sharon Tate. Bruce Lee was listed as the “Karate Advisor”, and he got some of his LA area martial arts buddies bit parts in the film. Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, Ed Parker, and Mike Stone doing stunt work for Dean Martin. They are all really young in this movie, and aren’t on screen long, so you have to pay attention. All four films have been released on Blu-ray and DVD, so fire up some popcorn and enjoy.
Monday Book Pick: The Perfect Assassin: A Doc Savage Thriller
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.
Monday Book Pick: Revenge of the Analog
Revenge of the Analog by David Sax
I picked up the hardcover at my local library book sale. Support your local library folks. This book was published in 2016, so the author did most of his research in 2015 and maybe 2014. My observation, made about a decade later, is that he was spot on. The book is broken into three main parts, with some extras tossed in at the end. Paper, Vinyl, and film. Sax’s observation that in the early 21st century era of electronics, people are returning to an analog experience. Stop by your local office supply store, and you will find $20 plus notebooks displayed near the register, and non-digital cameras, i.e. film, a bit farther in. Stuff you didn’t see during the post PDA ‘Smartphone’ rise. Look at the music section of your local Target or Barnes and Noble. Lots of vinyl records that people are paying a premium for. The books goes into the details on this return to analog, including how manufactures had to track down equipment once thought obsolete in order to meet the rising demand for vinyl and film. They recovered abandoned vinyl presses and refurbished them. They are now running nearly 24/7 to make Taylor Swift more money. The music companies are very fond of vinyl, their profit margins are much higher, and it’s harder to bootleg. On a recent business trip, I observed about half the people in a conference room taking handwritten notes in notebooks sitting on top of their closed laptops. Bottom line, analog is more personal. People related to it better. Taking pictures with film can be imperfect, unlike the trend in digital photography, and people like the serendipity of that process. There is also a section on how a rich investor spent his own money to start a high end watch factory in Detroit. His belief was that there was an untapped manual workforce abandoned by the auto industry. Check out Shinola. Luxury watches and other goods handmade in Detroit. An interesting and thoughtful read. Check it out.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Cleopatra
Cleopatra
The Ceil B. DeMille version starting Claudette Colbert, which earned five Academy Award nominations. This was back in 1934, when you got the awards for merit, so definitely worth checking out. This was a major production back then, and I prefer it to the 1963 version.
Monday Book Pick: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by Damien Lewis
Going from adventures in the “Unreal” to adventures in the very real. This book is about creation and evolution of British Special Warfare troops in WWII. The focus is on the creation of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) by Winston Churchill and its eventual merger with the SAS/SBS operating the North African and Mediterranean theaters, including action in Greece and Italy. These were very unconventional warriors conducting very unconventional warfare, which made them much more effective in their ability to tie down or defeat much larger units of German and Italian conventional troops. Adventure in literature is often described as someone else in a lot of trouble, far away. Keep in mind, this book is non-fiction. The collection British, Danish, American, and Greek soldiers put themselves in incredible danger, and didn’t always get away to fight another day. Guy Richie is putting a movie soon based on this book, which I’m expecting to be well done, but do yourself a favor and read the book, including the official descriptions of the actions that won them multiple medals for valor in combat.
Monday Book Pick: Knight Watch
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, RPG, Science Fiction
Knight Watch by Tim Akers
This book had me laughing out loud. Uber-nerd goes the Ren Faire, and his opponent in the sword and board competition turns into a dragon, which he slays by driving his mom’s Volvo into its head. This gets him involved with Knight Watch, an organization that protects reality from it’s mythic past. If you have any experience with fantasy gaming, especially Dungeons and Dragons, you will get a lot of the ‘in jokes.’ The protagonist John is a classic sword and board Tank, and his ex-girlfriend is an Elven Princess with her magical longbow. I really enjoyed this book, and the sequel.
Monday Book Pick: The Color of Magic
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
The very first Discworld novel. The start of a very long comic fantasy series. Loads of fun. Give it a try, and then be prepared to dive into the remaining 39 books in the series.
Monday Book Pick: Athenaeum, Inc.: Door Number three
Athenaeum, Inc.: Door Number Three by Dan Kemp
To be honest, I knew I was going to buy this when read that author was a former Army NCO and a fan of both John Ringo and Larry Correia. Kemp mixed elements of the Paladin of Shadows and Dead Six series into his own blend, which was a really fun read that I didn’t want to put down until I finished. My major problem with this book is that there no sequel yet. The book was full of Easter Eggs, which I highlighted heavily for future research. Which I admit resulted in my getting a Rocket City Trash Panda hat, despite my serious lack of interest in professional baseball. Be prepared into deep dives into various types of deep nerdness: gun, watch, knife, and Hong Kong tactical tailors. Oh, and his deep obsession with Asian women. As the author says, writing this book was cheaper than therapy. This would make fun movie, and one that Joe Bob Briggs would recommend.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Samurai Cop
This classic from 1991 has the Joe Bob Briggs seal of approval. It’s got gun fu, sword fu, and kung fu. There is also plenty of gratuitous nudity. The production values make you long for the high quality of Dolemite. This is a movie with aspirations of being a B-Movie, which made it so fun to watch. One plus is Gerald Okamura, he raised the value of the acting and the martial ars scenes. In the days of the local video store, it would have been well worth the rental. Check it out.
Friday B-Movie Pick Archive