Books
April 12th, 2015 – Book: ‘Flamingo Road’ by Robert Wilder
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Apr.12, 2015, under Books
Flamingo Road by Robert Wilder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Robert Wilder’s ‘Flamingo Road’ is fictitious tale of a fictional town, Truro, with fictional characters. However, the political activity that is the foundation of this story was and is very real and happens all the time. The wondrous job Wilder does is plot the political actions taken throughout the book. As someone involved with politics, I can write Wilder does an excellent job.
Where I feel Wilder slips is over writing his narrative. It’s a problem that exists more today. There were many places where an editor should have pulled back Wilder’s reigns.
The characters are very well done. The sadistic depiction of each character is a highlight of Wilder’s work. The setting of Florida is well written. I wish he’d selected an actual location. Even an actual County. I understand the corruption that is involved, but he could have been a bit more specific. The town name of Truro is puzzling, too. The explanation is likely to be found in a Wilder interview of some such.
A bit about the film version. Too bad Shirley MacLaine wasn’t available yet for such a role. She would have been perfect as Lane Ballou. Wilder’s writing fits MacLaine so well, it’s surprising it’s impossinle for him to have known of MacLaine when he wrote the book around 1940, nearly 15 years before MacLaine started film work.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of 10 points.
April 7th, 2015 – Book: ‘Walk with Evil’ by Robert Wilder.
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Apr.07, 2015, under Books
Walk With Evil by Robert Wilder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book. I like the plot, layout, characters, pace, writing, cover, type, size of paper, binding, whoever binded it, the planet it is on….oh, and, of course, the setting. That might be a bit extreme.
It’s been quite awhile since I poured through any book like this. Characters are usually what get me and the characters in this book are so diversely written and defined that you just have to know what happens to them next. Wilder is constantly raising questions as to who is what and where and why. I just had to get through the book to find out what on earth was going on.
I loved the answers peppered through the book that lead to more questions and more questions.
About Florida: the setting is very well done. It is a fictitious town with a name that chalks up the biggest minus to the book: Redemption City. More than a bit much.
To me, whatever might be a bit much is little to how well this book is constructed.
Here’s the BIG question: Why the heck is this, at this point, the ONLY review of this book in Goodreads. People, hunt this book down and take no prisoners. You’ll have no time for prisoners ’cause you’ll be reading this book!
Bottom line: Guess. 10 out of 10 points.
April 5th, 2015 – Book: ‘Coup D’Etat’ by Ben Coes
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Apr.05, 2015, under Books
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The second in the Dewey Andreas series is more the standard of the Super Soldier genre. A big difference is the immense amount of detail covered throughout the book. Obviously Coes or others are checking everything from the outback of Australia to the out back of India. Don’t know about the accuracy, but it sounds good.
The story is vast and covers a lot of territory. As with so many contemporary over sized novels I’ve read, this book could have been three…or even four books.
Though the book is long and could use some editing, the writing is far tighter in Coes book, as I recall it to be in the first in series, ‘Power Down’.
The characters are extremely well developed. Good guys, bad guys and others.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of 10 points.
April 1st, 2014 – Book: ‘American Jihad’ by William Johnstone
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Apr.01, 2015, under Books
Black Ops: American Jihad by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What I hate most about this book: There has only been one made! Apparently whatever fall out occurred between the mysterious “Fred Austin” mentioned on the cover killed off this series.
First great element of this novel is the continuation of the “Smoke” Jensen legacy to today with “smoke”‘s great grandson. It’s just not a mention of the relation but the weaving of the family connection into the story. It is a bit pretentious, but adds much to the story.
Another great element of the book is the handling of the story in a far more realistic light than the various super soldier novels want to reveal. The conflict of the media and layers are generally entirely absent from the typical espionage story. This book takes it all head-on and lays the ground work for a series that never happened.
The writing is typical of a Johnstone Clan book with great characters and a fun, fast moving story.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 of 10 points.
March 30th, 2015 – Book: ‘Sixkiller: U.S. Marshal-The Hour of Death’ by William W. Johnstone
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Mar.31, 2015, under Books, What's New?
The Hour of Death by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book started so well! Really good writing! Then there was repetition of sentences in a few places. Then it became very evident that the Sixkiller character in this book was far away from the character in the first two books in the series. Then the book abruptly ends, wrapping up the story in a few pages after the build up.
I wonder what happened here. Seems there were multiple writers constructing the book. Whoever guided all this seemed to have had conflict with the writers. That would explain the repetition, the inconsistent character and the odd plotting.
Otherwise, the writing is some of the best of all the Johnstone collection. Though, that doesn’t salvage this book.
Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 3 of 10 points.
March 26th, 2015 – ‘Eight Hours to Die’ by William W. Johnstone
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Mar.26, 2015, under Books
Eight Hours to Die by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It is amazing how the Johnstone Clan of writers can draw a reader into a tale. They did it again here with this offering from the Johnstone Herd of books.
The tale is a fun ride of a town in trouble and Sixkiller rides in to try and save the day. After reading so many Johnstone books in the past two years, the tales do start to sound familiar when a weaker writer gets hold of it. That is the case here. As much fun as the story is and the pages turn faster and faster as excitement builds, this Johnstone tale is lacking.
As the book proceeds the story resolves itself a bit too easily. There’s little in the way of twists and turns to help the story have more meat to it’s bone. There is a significant twist in the story that comes at a very odd part of the book.
The characters make it all worthwhile. Most are well done. Though, many are given little background and some are never given names.
The two biggest clunkers of the product is a goofy cover and an unrelated book title.
Still the book is worth reading for the fun of it all.
Bottom line: i recommend the book. 5 of 10 points.
March 12th, 2015 – Book: ‘On Target’ by Mark Greaney
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Mar.12, 2015, under Books
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
‘On Target’ is a terrific adventure. So many books have a formalized plot. I charged into this book thinking I would travel a somewhat similar trail. Author Greaney takes his hero and hurls him into one mess after the other. Soon the original mission of the hero transforms into various levels of excitement and viewpoints and the ending becomes mysterious at each page turn.
The writing is very good. The characters are very well described and explained.
When the girl character appeared, I figured she was dropped in as love interest. She’s more than that. Though, she could have just as well be a boy. In that sense the woman character felt forced.
The other issue is my typical cry of a contemporary novel that could have had 50 less pages or so. It helps that Greaney has a compelling story to better carry the reader through extraneous text.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 of 10 points.
March 10th, 2015 – Book: ‘Heywood Broun’ by Dale Kramer
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Mar.10, 2015, under Books
Heywood Broun – a biographical portrait by Dale Kramer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Heywood Broun has become a long forgotten whipsaw sharp humorist. Even the more notable Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley, of the same Smart Set, are getting long lost nearly 100 years after blazing literary trails of wit.
I can’t even remember where I picked up this copy of Dale Kramer’s ‘Heywood Broun’, but I have never seen it again. I had to enter the book, here, into the Goodread’s shelves. That’s a true pity, for this book of Broun’s life is very well written and researched. The writing is better than most biographies. There’s a closeness felt in the writing to Broun that seems to be closer than Broun, himself, would have allowed.
There are the troubles: Lack of years noted, which, as usual, gets confusing while reading. There are asides of supposed dialogue at different points, that are very good, but for someone as guarded as Broun, have to wonder about the accuracy. The dialogue does fit well and well illustrates the narrative.
There seems to also be the noticeable edits throughout the book as names come out of no where with no explanation. The names are not recognizable, even with my knowledge of the circle Broun ran around with.
Bottom line: I recommend this book….IF you can find it.
An aside: The book is inscribed Christmastime 1949 by Maggie Bartel, long time reporter for the New York Daily News. She retired to Key West and became, and apparently is still, instrumental in recording Key West history. Something dear to my heart.
Bartel had inscribed the book to, what appears to be, “Bob Ring”, who I could find nothing about. Was hoping this might help me figure out where I had picked up the book. Possibly Bartel never gave the book to Ring and I found it during one of my trips to the Keys. The book does appear otherwise not to have been read, though the dust jacket is in terrible shape.
February 28th, 2015 – Book: ‘Fallon’ by Louis L’Amour
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.28, 2015, under Books
Fallon by Louis L’Amour
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the third of three books I’m reading in a row by Louis L’Amour and it is certainly the best.
The story seems to be taking a direction that it angles from and takes the reader on a journey of a man’s self discovery. What adds so much to the story is that the reader also learns much about the main character. The thoughts about the character at first are likely to be different by the end of the book.
The writing is top notch. L’Amour builds this story differently than the two I just read before it.
The characters are well written. As a story should, the characters develop as the story goes along.
This book is best of the 20 I’ve read, so far, this year.
Bottom line: I recommend this book.
February 27th, 2015 – Book: ‘The Rivers West’ by Louis L’Amour
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.27, 2015, under Books
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the second of three Louis L’Amour books I’m reading in a row. This one is a step up from the first, ‘The Broken Gun’. Still it is muddled with a main character that claims up and down to be a mere ship builder, who then acts as a brilliants detective. The inconsistency of the main character is as bothersome as a weird paranoia amongst the main character and others in the beginning of the book that dissipates as the story pages by.
The plot is lightweight, though the journey is fun. Just wish it was better written. There is way too much effort to play a shell game that really didn’t seem to me worth constructing in the end.
Something pops up in this book that was also in ‘The Broken Gun’: Somebody “vanishes”. Written again as if the book were steeped in mysticism.
Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 4 of 10 points.
February 25th, 2015 – Book: ‘The Broken Gun’by Louis L’Amour
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.25, 2015, under Books
The Broken Gun by Louis L’Amour
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I see a well illustrated old west themed cover to a Louis L’Amour book, the title ‘The Broken Gun’ and I plunge into a novel that instantly confuses me. It takes a few pages to realize when in time this novel falls. There is no mention of it. There is a mention of 90 years before…but, before what?
By the third page the Korean War is mentioned.
Involving stroytelling, time should be established in some way off the top if a story about different time periods is being unraveled. Instead L’Amour leaves the reader at drift trying to figure out what’s going on.
Making the early part of the book worse is L’Amour’s poor approach to literally illustrating an urban setting.
Once the novel goes out to ranch lands of sand and rock, L’Amour hits his stride in describing the setting. But, time gets away from him again. L’Amour clearly had trouble with writing about his present.
A number of things bother me about the writing of this book. One involved an over long chase near the end. Another was one sentence involving a character that vanishes. Though clearly not the intent, the line is more surreal than consistent with the rhythm of the story.
The story is shakey, at best, and the conclusion over obvious.
Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 4 out of ten.
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