Well, THAT was interesting! Ringo's protagonist, "Bandit Six", is not shy about sharing his opinions. Good story. Is there a sequel? How did he meet his wife? This book got a lot of one star reviews on Good Reads...
I don't know why I picked up this book, maybe it was the big-boobed blonde on the cover. I struggle through the first chapter, and gave up. Not interesting to me, too much blah blah blah. Pretty much the same experience I had with Pride And Prejudice, but I struggle through it because it is a classic. This ain't no Jane Austen. I'm not putting forth the effort.
Gave up reading 12/2008
More than you may want to know about how space poop. The author is not afraid to ask the hard questions about how man can survive, live, and possibly procreate, in space.
She kind of lays into G. Harry Stine, a writer I'd rather admire, but if she's right, she's right.
Words I Had To Look Up:::
submarine myopia (pg. 57) -- Apparently submarine crew develop a vision problem from being in close quarters that takes a few days to clear up after they get ashore.
Quote:
...here in Almogordo...not far from Roswell and Area 51 -- (pg. 169)Well, Area 51 is 500 miles away, by my finger-measure.
I really enjoyed this first book in The Sixth World series. Which I'm reading 'cause it was nominated for a Hugo. It takes place in the Navajo tribal area of the U.S. after an apocalyptic event has wiped out a great deal of the rest of the world. Very reminiscent of Tony Hillerman's mysteries, at least as far as the Native American stuff. There has been some controversy about her portrayal of Navajo culture and mythology, but it's a good story.
Quote:
More of an oversize shack, really, it is approximately eight hundred feet across and half as deep...--pg 153 So it's almost nearly three football fields long and it's an oversize shack?
Shut up! Shut up! I used to climb all over these trees! Don't you tell me what to do! Once when I was fifteen I jumped from one tree to the next one over! And that was just a couple weeks ago. She had sat down on the grass and Val had sat next to her, an arm around her. Just a couple weeks ago, she insisted. And now I'm ninety-four.
Colonization of Mars. First book of a trilogy. 519 pages. Good book, but couldn't bring myself to read the other two.
QUOTE:
"They were so ignorant! Young men and women, educated very carefully to be apolitical, to be technicians who thought they disliked politics, making them putty in the hands of their rulers, just like always."
SAS renegade gets hold of a nuke sub and terrorizes U.S. West coast. Seemed rather predictable, maybe I've read too much of Mr. Robinson. Character is bound to come back as he has not received his come- uppence yet.
Mack Bedford gets kicked out of the Navy, essentially. Deadly anti-tank missiles are killing our boys in the Middle East. And the ship yard in Mack's hometown is shutting down. All because of the French. Mack is going to do something about. it.
As mentioned in the Amazon.com review, it takes 200 pages to get going, but when it does, it does! Some of the plot seems improbable, but you can't fault the action.
I'm not some military expert, but I never heard that SEALs traveled in tanks. Seems like all the SEALs killed in this book are in tanks!
The author's favorite word seems to be "smithereens". He uses it at least three times. Hey, like I could write a best-selling novel!
Quote:
He surged forward, arms pumping, combat boots hitting the blacktop. Up ahead he could see a cyclist, wearing Olympic spandex shorts but struggling. And in Mack's mind, this was Osama Bin Laden trying to get away...The cyclist, who was not even a member of al-Qaeda, was a young local schoolteacher, and he stared in astonishment as Mack Bedford came pounding past him. (pg. 203)
Another techno-war adventure, with the same characters as past books I've read of his. In this one, Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, AGAIN! This time, they kick butt because of the liberal British Labour Party's military budget cuts. Hmmmm. Very mixed reviews on Amazon. I read the LARGE PRINT edition.
Words I Had To Look Up:
Bergan -- A kind of backpack, I guess.
Quote:
"...using crampons when necessary, hammering the little steel footholds in to the rock..." -- pg. 321 I thought crampons were those steel spiky things that go on your boots. I think a piton is what you hammer into the rock.
Quote:
"...Stratofortress...had flown..., refueling once at North Island, San Diego, where they picked up most of the explosive contents for the HALO canister." -- page 540. In my EXTENSIVE research I find that the B-52 requires a 300 foot wide runway that is at least 8,200 feet long. The runways at North Island are 8,000 x 200 feet and 7,500 x 300 feet. I don't think a BUFF would land there. UPDATE: I found another link that says a B-52H needs "only" 175 feet of runway width.
China orders 10 Kilo class subs from Russia. The USA doesnt't want them delivered. Bill Baldridge has small role, marries Laura Anderson. This is book number 2 in series.
Guess I forgot to enter this one, 'cause I sure remember reading it! New teen girl in a southern town. A new Yankee Girl. In the mid 60s. Dad is an FBI agent.