Review: 1920: America's Great War

1920: America's Great War by Robert Conroy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Taking as his starting point a German victory in the Battle of the Marne that led to German hegemony over much of the world, Robert Conroy weaves a fantastic tale of alternative history. The action centers around a joint Mexican/German invasion of the southern US, specifically Texas and California.

While the primary point of view characters are all inventions of Conroy the book is peppered with real characters from our own history such as Patton, MacArthur, Pancho Villa, and others who live quite different lives in this timeline. Conroy's versions of these characters remains true to our historical understandings of their personalities though.

This is a fantastic book and is sure to please any and all lovers of alternative history!



View all my reviews

Review: Mars, Inc.: The Billionaire's Club

Mars, Inc.: The Billionaire's Club by Ben Bova

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



The key to great science fiction is to tell a great story. In Mars, Inc., Ben Bova does just that. While the book is in one sense about the quest to launch a spaceship to Mars and the engineering, bureaucratic, financial, marketing, industrial espionage, hostile takeovers etc. work needed to make this happen; it is also a story of a man trying to do something that really matters.

Art Thrasher is rich, he does not lack for female companionship, by all modern measures he is a success. He is also a man who wants more. His father's last advice to him was to do something lasting, something that matters; and in his Mars project Art has found just that. Art also finds that he is no longer satisfied with simply female companionship and begins to build something lasting and that matters in that part of his life as well.

This is an expertly crafted novel that had my attention riveted from start to finish.



View all my reviews

Review: When Technocultures Collide: Innovation from Below and the Struggle for Autonomy

When Technocultures Collide: Innovation from Below and the Struggle for Autonomy by Gary Genosko

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



As an academic librarian with an interest in technology and the Internet I was very excited to begin reading this book. The "technoculture" referred to in the title refers to the intersection of technology and culture, and the way that these two intertwined areas influence society. Topics covered include the lives of hackers such as Canada's "Mafiaboy", urban exploration of abandoned buildings or restricted areas, wearable technology (though interestingly without referencing Google's Glass eye wear, early telephone Phreaking, and the impact of Wikileaks on privacy and governments allowing access to information.

Each chapter presents a look at a specific technology or idea and in many cases grounds it in a substantial amount of philosophical and cultural theory. The amount of theory varies widely and in some cases became a bit too scholarly and dense for someone like myself without a strong background in the specific literature. Nonetheless, there is much to recommend here for the general reader as well as the more specialized academic reader.



View all my reviews

Review: The Edge of the Precipice: Why Read Literature in the Digital Age?

The Edge of the Precipice: Why Read Literature in the Digital Age? by Paul Socken

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Paul Socken, a retired professor of French Studies at the University of Waterloo, has brought together a wide variety of essayist in this volume to answer the question, "Why read literature in the digital age?" Respondents were asked to focus upon the act specifically on reading literature as opposed to non-fiction, news or other genres.

The strength of the work is the wide varieties of responses in the included essays. Some wrote of the joy of owning real books, others talked of the aesthetic pleasures of reading a fine volume. Other writers spoke of the importance of continuing to read literature for the many benefits it brings the reader without expressing a strong preference for format. There was even a discussion about the vocationalization of colleges and universities and how the decline in the reading of literature is a part of that process. A few expressed a love for the new technologies and the convenience of e-Readers.

As I read the various essays I found myself reflecting on a number of issues related to my own history with books, reading, and electronic devices. Growing up in a rural area with little access to books other than through underfunded school and public libraries led to my attaching a certain sacredness to those volumes that I owned. I can understand fully the contributors who wrote of identifying as a collector of books. I also identify with the author who spoke of a "U-Haul upgrade" being needed to move their books (my last major move required a second U-Haul for just this reason). Several years ago I began moving most of my reading to my Kindle and iPad and am very comfortable doing so though I still purchase physical books to read and collect. It also seemed somewhat ironic to be reading some of the essays that celebrated reading physical books and decried the electronic book on my iPad in eARC format.

Like any collection of essays some resonated with me more than others. Nonetheless, all of the essays in the volume will cause you to think about the nature of reading, literature, technology and most importantly, your personal relationship with all of these.




View all my reviews

Review: Vitriol the Hunter

Vitriol the Hunter by Billy Martin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Art - 3 stars
Story - 2 stars

The setting is not bad but the characters are very wooden in this vampire hunter comic. The main character makes Batman look like a bundle of fun at parties as he wages a relentless war on the vampires let loose on his city by his father. The scarce attempts from secondary characters to connect with him are rebuffed leaving the hero alone and to a large extent unlikable. The art is decent if cartoony but it is clearly drawn and works for the story. The characters leave the reader much like their personality - flat.



View all my reviews

Review: Grimm Fairy Tales Volume 14

Grimm Fairy Tales Volume 14 by Troy Brownfield

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Grimm's Fairy Tales Volume 14 combines several interesting stories with decent if predictably hyper-sexualized art. This is my first experience with the series so I am not solid on the back-story but it appears that a number of people are looking individuals who are manifesting powers (sort of like Professor Xavier searched for mutants I suppose). The four stories included all deal with people with powers and the efforts taken to identify and protect these folks from their own powers and in some ways the temptation to abuse them.

I will search out further volumes in this series.



View all my reviews

Review: Judge Dredd: Year One

Judge Dredd: Year One by Matt Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Art - 3 Stars
Story - 5 Stars
Overall - 4 Stars

Judge Dredd faces down a rash of youth or Juves spontaneously gaining psionic powers and using them to riot and commit crimes. What's not to like? The art in this book reflects the old 2000 AD art that we are used to seeing with Judge Dredd but is not really up to the highest standards of the comic art today. The story on the other hand is fantastic.

Dredd picks up a case involving a Juve with sudden psionic powers and works with his fellow judges in the Psi Division to investigate. Visiting a home for wayward boys which appears to be the epicenter for the psionic outbreak,

Dredd discovers a rift to a parallel dimension. Taking the direct approach, he leaps through the rift and comes out into a desolate version of MegaCity One where the few remaining Judges and citizens have moved underground to old New York.

Once in the undercity he joins up with a few remaining judges and discovers that the Juves follow something called the four mothers that appears to be a hive mind like being. Dredd leads the judges in an assault on the Mothers and discovers that they are simply a ruse for a trans-dimensional gang of thieves. Dredd and the judges break up the gang and Dredd, with the help of the Psi-Judges in his own dimension, returns to his own reality.




View all my reviews