Monday, July 21st, 2014
Sunset of the Gods by Steve White
Jason Thanou is back (26 Aug 2013 Book Pick) and things are getting even weirder in his trips to the past. He finds out that there are worse things than finding that the anicent Greek Gods were aliens mucking with human development. At least they were slowing dying out. One a mission to observe, from a lot closer viewpoint than he planned, the battle of Marathon, things go pear shaped right quick when he runs into Pan!
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi, Time Travel
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Monday, July 14th, 2014
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
The first book in the Amber series. Two sets of five books, plus a fist full of short stories and an amazing amount of fan fiction. It starts with a common theme for the author. The protagonist has to discover who he is, and why he is in a bunch of trouble. In this case he just isn’t a very long lived mercenary who wakes up in a private ‘sanatorium’, where the staff tries to keep him heavily sedated. Nope, nothing that simple. It gets weirder from there damn quick and stays there! Zelazny has the delightful talent of taking the line between fantasy and Science Fiction and using it to play jump rope. For Carl Corey is really Prince Corwin of Amber. The Kingdom at the center of all the varied realities. Toss in some wonderfully detailed sword fights (Zelazny was a fencer and an Aikido instructor), massive battles, treachery, and that special blend of wry Zelazny humor, and you will be be looking for the next book in the series straight off.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, June 16th, 2014
The Daybreakers by Louis L’Amour
Louis L’Amour was one of best known masters of the American western. The Daybreakers shows him at the top of his game. Part of his Sackett series, this tells the tale of how Orrin and Tyrel came out of the mountains and made their way west. One of my favorites from the series.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, Sackett, Western
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Monday, May 19th, 2014
A New American Space Plan by Travis Taylor, Ringleader of the Rocket City Rednecks
NASA rocket scientist and self identified redneck, Travis Taylor, has a plan for getting America back into space.
Which is something America really needs right now, for many reason which Doctor Taylor lists in this book. Here is one that he wrote about, and has come to pass. The US currently has no method of getting Astronauts to the Space Station and back. Our current President put the budget for the Orion program on life support. I guess that is G.W. Bush’s fault, since the program started when he was President, so Barry felt he had to kill it. His solution was to outsource American jobs to Russia. In case you haven’t been paying attention, the US government pays Russia to get US Astronauts to the Space Station and back. Now the Russian are saying Nyet to that. It’s a good thing that the private sector is stepping up, but this is a problem we didn’t need to have.
Unlike this post, Travis Taylor’s book is mostly upbeat and positive. It should also be read in American high school science classes.
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, Science, Space, Technology
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Thursday, May 15th, 2014
“…the “right wing” guys I know are matter of factly gender-blind. No neocon’s ever called me “honey.””
— Confessions of A Failed Slut by Kathy Shaidle
Tags: book, Politics, quote, Quote of the Day
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Monday, May 5th, 2014
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
Larry Coreia makes the book pick again. This is the first book in his first series. He had self-published this book, after getting turned down by multiple publishers, and it was selling pretty well. Then Baen contacted him and Correia followed up his first hit with string of others, including three more Monster Hunter books and two other series with five books between them. In this book we meet Owen Z. Pitt, who has a soul sucking accounting job in Dallas that only gets worse, when his already bad boss gets bitten by a werewolf and attacks Pitt on the next full moon. It is close, but Pitt manages to kill his boss and get threatened by some Feds who tell him to keep his mouth shut or they will put a bullet in his head. Enter Monster Hunter International. A private company that hunts monsters and collects the federal bounty on them. Yes, Pitt finds his true calling. Hunting monsters. Zombies, werewolves, Vampires, and all that stuff. Stir in some Lovecraftian horror and an old Jewish monster hunter spirit guide and you have one fun read! It has monsters. It has romance. It has detailed and accurate firearm discriptions. Fun for the whole family!
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Adventure, Baen, book, horror, Monday Book Pick, Monster, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, April 28th, 2014
Hard Magic by Larry Correia
Larry Coreia makes the book pick again. This time with the first book in his hard-boiled noir series complete with more than a bit of magic thrown in. It’s the 1930’s and magic has been around for about a hundred years. It started with just a few people, but it’s been growing pretty steady, so by the time this story takes place it’s pretty mainstream. Magic takes different forms in different people. Some can move objects with their mind, others can heal people, others can change the effect (more or less) the effect of gravity, others can teleport, and so on. Then there are the Cogs. They are just really, really smart in specific areas. Einstein was a Cog, as was Count Von Zeppelin, and John Moses Browning. Larry Correia is a former firearms instructor, so of course John Moses Browning in the book, and he is hero. I enjoyed this book a lot. Good characters, both good guys and bad guys, and those who are really a bit of both. An interesting setting, and lots of action. I’m glad there are two sequels to this already in print.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Baen, book, Detective, Magic, Monday Book Pick, Noir, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, April 21st, 2014
The Given Sacrifice by S.M. Stirling
Once again, S.M. Stirling proves himself to be the current master of the epic trilogy. Set in his Emberverse, he wraps up another historic period of his alternate universe where Powers have denied technology beyond gunpowder. Don’t worry, there will be more epic trilogies set in the Change series. It’s just time for the next generation.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: alternate, Alternate History, book, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, March 17th, 2014
Big Boys Don’t Cry by Tom Kratman
Tom Kratman writes a Bolo Novella. OK, they aren’t called “Bolos”, but Parthas. They are just huge, tank like, war machines with an AI core, that are pretty damn smart by the time they reach revs in the late thirties. Let’s just say that in this morality play, the Partha’s human masters do things to them that no Bolo (or Partha) should have to live through. I know a few things about the military, military history, and training. Subjects that Kratman is an expert on, and all three play a part in this story. An interesting read, with a happier ending than you would expect.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Baen Books, book, Military Science Fiction, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, February 17th, 2014
Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD: Empyre by Will Murray
Will Murry is well known to pulp fans for his new Doc Savage novels. This book is about Marvel’s Nick Fury, Director of Shield. It was published back in 2000, and features the “old school” Nick Fury. The one who lead the “Howling Commandos” back in WWII. This is before someone decided that Sam Jackson would make a Bad Ass Nick Fury (which he did/does). In this adventure, Nick Fury has brought back the psychic division (called “Special Powers” in this iteration), and just in time too. The Special Powers group plays a major role in solving the latest evil plot from Hydra to cause death and destruction around the world. The afterword to the book says that Will Murry is a practicing psychic and has used all the of the techniques the SHIELD Special Powers group uses, including remote viewing. For you skeptics, consider this. This book was published in 2000. Spoiler alert here: It has a Middle Eastern base group (a fragment of Hydra and a thinly disguised Saddam Hussein) using commercial airliners to attack major cities by crashing the airliner into the target city. OK, Tom Clancy also used that one his books back before 9/11/2011. Still, the point had to be made. Either way, this is old school Marvel adventure with a flying SHIELD Humvee taking out Iraqi (of course they use another name, but it’s not hard to figure out) MIGs and Nick Fury at his cigar chomping best.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, comic book, Comics, Marvel, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
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