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.
“Liberalism is a religion. It affords a feeling of spiritual rectitude at little or no cost. Central to this religion is the assertion that evil does not exist, all conflict being attributed to a lack of understanding between the opposed. Well and good, but this does not accord with the experience of anyone.”
A nifty little farce combining multiple historical and fictional characters in a series of adventures, complete with cross dimensional rifts to stir the pot a bit. Reminded me of lot of Philip Jose Farmer’s writing as various fictional authors, with just a dash of Robert Heinlein’s The Number of the Beast thrown in for good measure. The cast includes Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill Cody’s animated head, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Martian invaders and more. That includes Ned the Seal. Ned doesn’t talk, that would be silly. He does write a lot on a notepad he wears on a chain around his neck though.
Given that the Navy anti-terrorism group, which consists of SEAL Team Members and was originally called SEAL Team Six, I’m repeating the book pick from 12/29/08
This is the autobiography of the founder of SEAL Team Six, the Navy’s anti-terrorist unit.
Written in prison to pay off his legal fees. Considering one of his jobs in the Navy was to piss off Admirals, hardly surprising.
I still say the Admirals that put there should be brought up on charges. He is exactly the kind of psycho SOB (and I mean that in a good way) that you want doing the jobs he did.
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.
OK, OK…it’s a spin off media from the Castle TV show. I read it after watching the first season. For murder mystery pulp, and I have read more than a few, it’s not that bad. Reasonably decent as a stand alone, but the tie ins to the TV show are what make the book more than average. One of my favorites was naming the Judge the writer character plays poker with “Simpson” and noting his resemblance to Homer Simpson. The TV tie in is that the judge character in the show is played by Dan Castellaneta, who is the voice of Homer Simpson! Whomever the author is, I hope he got a decent fee for this. He or she probably had some fun writing it, and now that the next few mortgage payments are made, can focus on work their name can go on…
One of the classics of Science Fiction by two of the best “Hard Science Fiction” authors out there. This was their first collaboration and for extra bonus points, they had it vetted by the Grandmaster of Science Fiction, Robert A. Heinlein.
A double hit by one of my favorite authors. The first two books in his Riverworld series are back in print in a single volume. To Where Your Scatter Bodies Go was my book pick way back on 9/7/09, but I saw that it was back in print today. It’s worth the repeat, especially combined with The Fabulous Riverboat. This is one of the grand epics of Science Fiction and certainly worth the read to any student of the genre.
This is the second in his “Troy Rising” series and it doesn’t fail to deliver! The first book in the series was a pick last year. He said he was going to go old school SciFi Space Opera with this series, and my hope what he would go E.E. “Doc” Smith big. Let me just say that my faith in Mr. Ringo was not misplaced. A very fun read. I recommend this series to long term Ringo fans, like me, and to those who haven’t sampled his particular brand of reader crack yet.