Monday Book Pick: Island in the Sea of Time
Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling
Mr. Stirling got a lot of mileage out of this book, at least eight other books have been written based on this one, with only two being direct sequels. The story starts off with the island of Nantucket, and a Coast Guard training sailing ship that was just offshore, being transported back to the Bronze Age. That is good for a trilogy right there. What happended to to rest of the planet with Nantucket disappeared is good for at least two more trilogies.
Monday Book Pick: A New American Tea Party
Filed under: American History, Monday Book Pick, Politics, Tea Party
A New American Tea Party: The Counterrevolution Against Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes by John O’Hara.
This book cover the history of the early Tea Parties in 2009 and provides information on how to “brew your own.” Bonus: Forward by Michelle Malkin!
Monday Book Pick: The Jennifer Morgue
The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross.
It’s another tale from the “Laundry Files.” British Civil Servant Bob Howard is forced to save the world from the horrors of the “Old Ones” once again, while dealing with the mind numbing horrors of government bureaucracy at the same time. Stross pays tribute to the British institution of James Bond in this book as well.
Monday Book Pick: Live Free or Die
Live Free or Die by John Ringo.
Woot! This book was fun! Loosely based on the back story of the Schlock Mercenary webcomic, John Ringo has fun with classic SciFi concepts like First Contact, asteroid mining, and big nasty space Battlecruisers! He doesn’t think small either. Lots and lots of mirrors in space make great big solar powered Death Rays! Ringo is planning more books in this series and I’m hoping he goes E.E. “Doc” Smith big.
Monday Book Pick: Triplanetary
TriPlantary by E.E “Doc” Smith.
The first in the classic Space Opera Lensman series. This series influenced a lot of what was to come. Robert Heinlein considered Edward E. Smith to be one of his mentors.
Monday Book Pick: The Man of Bronze & The Land of Terror
The Man of Bronze and The Land of Terror by Lester Dent.
The first two Doc Savage novels.
The first Doc Savage novel I read was The Land of Terror back in either 1971 or 1972. It was a Bantam reprint that I picked up at store in Panama City just outside the Balboa Gate. Since then, I have read over 160 of the original 181 Doc Savage novels, as well as several by Philip Jose Farmer (licensed or otherwise) and Will Murray. IMNSHO, Doc Savage was the greatest of the Pulp Era Heros.
Monday Book Pick: Melody of Vengeance
Melody of Vengeance by Michael A. Black.
A rousing good pulp adventure that pays tribute to the two greatest pulp heros, Doc Savage and the Shadow!
Monday Book Pick: His Majesty’s Dragon
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
An interesting bit of historical fantasy that reads like a cross between Horatio Hornblower and Jane Austen, with dragons. Yup, dragons, and the best dragons, of course, come from China. This is the first in series about a British Navy Officer who captures a dragon’s egg in a sea battle and ends up bonding with the beast when it hatches. Of course, it speaks English, and French. An interesting read. While I’m a mostly a hard core SciFi reader, I do enjoy good alternate history stories.
Monday Book Pick: Tom Paine Maru
Tom Paine Maru by L. Neil Smith
This is the “author’s edition” release, recovered from an old hard drive, in an obsolete word processor format. This is what was originally submitted to a publisher who then edited it with a weed wacker. A delightful bit of space opera in the classic L. Neil Smith Hard Core Libertarian style.
Monday Book Pick: Badass
Badass: A Relentless Onslaught of the Toughest Warlords, Vikings, Samurai, Pirates, Gunfighters, and Military Commanders to Ever Live by Ben Thompson
As billed, a collection of Badasses through out history. The list includes Alexander the Great, General George S. Patton, Bruce Lee, Chandragupta Maurya, Tomoe Gozen, Carlos Hathcock, and many more.
I have my own six degrees of connection to world class badass, back when I was a little kid, we lived in a D.C. suburb in Virginia while my dad was doing his scenic tour of Southeast Asia courtesy of the US Army. The school teacher who lived down the street used to babysit for my brother and I. She was one of the daughters of the USMC’s Lewis “Chesty” Puller. From what I remember, she was nice, but we didn’t get away with anything.