Books
November 30th, 2014 – Book: ‘Tier One Wild’ by “Dalton Fury”
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Dec.01, 2014, under Books
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book by “Dalton Fury” is simple in it’s general plot, with complications. The complications are the best parts of the book. It’s the rest that is harder to get through.
The rest of the book follows various characters and what they are doing with asides of background and motivations. The writing of all this is standard with lots of military jargon. The jargon is interesting, but trivial to the story. The plot slows considerably due to the excess.
This book does get the complaint I give almost all novels written in the past 25 years- It needs editing. Some of the military details are good to include, but all that is included,including routine tasks are a bit much. This book should have been whittled into three books. Three books that would have been better than this whole one. It seems obvious to me that the “Fury” fellow brought into the publisher hundreds of pages of story and it all got cut to these two books.
I add an extra star only for a few elements of the story not usually found in espionage thrillers.
Bottom line; I do not recommend this book. 5 of 10.
November 26th,2014- Book: ‘Black Site’ by “Dalton Fury”
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Nov.26, 2014, under Books
Black Site by Dalton Fury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
‘Black Site’ strives to cover every aspect of the military mission(s) that the main character endeavors upon and does so impressively. Seems little there is left out, despite the knowledge that not all can be revealed without veering into the reality of American military operations that the author claims to know. Despite the complexity of all that happens int the book, it is written in a clear fashion making so much easier to digest.
This is still another entry in the overflowing literary area of espionage by former military-turned authors. This one is much like the others, especially the recent variety that deal with middle east issues. In fact, the writing is much like many of them.Possible too many of them. Turns out Mark Greaney was involved with writing this. Greaney is also writing his own series along with continuing Clancy’s Jack Ryan series. Is Greaney also writing this series? It’s known that Dalton Fury is a pen name and this book reminds me of Greaney’s The Gray Man.
However, ‘Black Site’ reminds me of many of the other new espionage novels being spit out today. All written well and full of action. I’m not finding a real writing style in the majority of these books. So many read as if all were written by the same person. If not for different publishers, I’d wonder if this genre wasn’t the opposite of the William Johnstone Clan set of books all being handled by ghost writers. In this case are many being handle by a few writers using different names and lots of assistants? I’ll stop these ponderings.
Despite all the above, this is a very good book, though it also lacks style. Very readable, exciting and well worth the expense.
Bottom line: I recommend this book.
November 23rd, 2014 – Book: ‘Sixkiller, U.S. Marshall- Day of Rage’ by William W. Johnstone
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Nov.24, 2014, under Books
Day of Rage by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a good western tale of John Henry Sixkiller by the Johnstone Clan. It’s a bit more complicated than most Johnstone Clan books with far more developed side characters. This is second in this series and both have far more plot development and far more attention to setting. Overall this story of gold, bad guys and banks is one of the better entries in the entire Johnstone Clan library.
Seems to me the dialogue, though other wise written well for reading was a bit dogged with a lack of authenticity to the times.
Bottom line: I recommend this book.
November 20th, 2014 – Book: ‘Morse’s Greatest Mystery and Other Stories’ by Colin Dexter.
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Nov.20, 2014, under Books
Morse’s Greatest Mystery and Other Stories by Colin Dexter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’m not usually a fan of a short story collection, but this one is outstanding. I also don’t give five stars lightly. I feel the overall book deserves them. I’ll add that not all may love this set of stories. Those who love real mysteries will love these. Those who love James Patterson or Sandra Brown are likely not to like them.
Dexter really has a flair for crafting a short mystery. No easy task. Sorry there is only one collection of short stories. Still hope for more from Dexter.
The tales in the book are all mysteries with great characters, stories and terrific writing.
Bottom line: I recommend the book!
November 16th, 2014 – Book’ The Case of the Lame Canary’ by Erle Stanley Gardner.
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Nov.19, 2014, under Books
The Case of the Lame Canary by Erle Stanley Gardner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
What stands out as the best parts of ‘The Case of the Lame Canary is the interaction between the Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake characters. Gardcner is at the top of his writing skills with consistency and character development.
This is also true of the rest of the cast of this novel. Distinct characters developed throughout the book. This all helps wading through a very convoluted and overly concocted story by Gardner.
This book revels Gardeners ability to write great characterized and his ability to work too hard to use elements to create a book.
As I read the book I could see how Gardner had a set of distinct parts he worked real hard to fit together. This makes the book feel very forced to a conclusion. You know there is a conclusion at the end, but keep seeing many pages ahead as Gardner tries to weave in some nonsense leads that,in any other of his books, Mason would have been written to figure out.
Though I don’t care for the overall story, the writing is top notch and,again, just reading character interaction is outstanding.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 6 of 10 points.
November 12th, 2014 – Book: ‘The Case of the Ice Cold Hands’ by Erle Stanley Gardner
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Nov.12, 2014, under Books
The Case of the Ice Cold Hands by Erle Stanley Gardner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This volume of the law life of Perry Mason moves as fast as most others and then slows, as usual when the story lands in the courtroom. In this story the story really slows int he courtroom as an intricate set of legal moves sets up the conclusion. A bit tough to get through and I think it all could have been written more clearly.
This Gardner story is a bit more plodding in places and repetitious. This is a later Mason book and maybe that has something to do with it.
As usual, the main characters are hardly described at all. The passing characters are well described and very consistent. The setting is also well mapped out literally.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 6 of 10.
November 8th, 2014 – Book: ‘Key Biscayne – The Romance of Cape Florida’ by Jim Woodman
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Nov.08, 2014, under Books
Key Biscayne The Romance of Cape Florida by Jim Woodman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a wonderful book of history! Well written and thorough to it’s goals. The book has a great airy feel in it’s construction and makes reading far more enjoyable than history books can usually be.
Author Woodman does focus most on pre-1900 and whips up the 20th century, up to it’s publication of 1961, in just a few pages.
Bottom line: I highly recommend this hard to find book.
So hard to find, I had to add it to Goodreads.
November 6th, 2014 – Book: ‘The Spanish Conquistadores, Men or Devils?’
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Nov.06, 2014, under Books
The Spanish Conquistadores, Men or Devils by John Francis Bannon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a must read for anyone wanting to understand or are studying the Spanish conquistadors. This volume gives various views from experts as to whether the conquistadors were the good guys or the bad guys. Each entry is an excerpt from an expert’s larger examination of the subject. Reading each essay gives the reader much to think about and consider.
The selections and notes of a bit of background of each is very readable.
Bottom line: I recommend this book.
November 3rd, 2014 – Book: ‘Florida’s Menendez: Captain General of the Ocean Sea’ by Albert C. Manucy
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Nov.03, 2014, under Books
Florida’s Menendez: Captain General of the Ocean Sea by Albert C. Manucy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Clearly Albert Manucy is an apologist for explorer Menendez and his success of making a slaughterhouse of Florida during his days here. Manucy doesn’t completely ignore the empirical evidence and documentation of the indians and French, but nary a word of it is in this volume of Menendez’s life.
It is good to read the viewpoint Manucy has in this book. It just doesn’t jive with all else we know or can shake out from what has been written. Is Manucy a strong Catholic and excuses the behaviour due to faith? It’s only thing else that Manucy notes with a fervor throughout the book – Menendez’s faith. It’s certainly fine to base a person’s lifestyle as a reason for actions. It is also important not to white wash all else and claim a book to be a history book. If Manucy had the intent to ignore Menendez’s actions as that of a tribute to faith, then the book should have focused more specifically to Catholicism and how Menendez lived his life based on it.
The writing of this book, set more as an adventure novel, is sub-par.
Bottom line: I do not recommend this book. 3 of 10.
OCtober 30th, 2014 – Book: “Two” by John D. MAcDonald.
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Oct.30, 2014, under Books
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m a huge John D. MacDonald fan. I decided to open up this set of short stories because it was one I had not read and i haven’t read MacDonald in quite a while. These two are reasons why I need to reread other MacDonald books to see if time has changed my view of his work.
These two stories are lackluster at best. The first really doesn’t go anywhere and the second is paced to be a thriller, but I wasn’t thrilled. I think I’ve read too many like the second story so that I knew where it was going. Likely if I had read it when the story came out, I would find it a genuine thriller.
The writing is good MacDonald, but not great. The characters in both stories are pretty thin.
Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book – 4 out of 10
October 29th, 2014 – Book: ‘Bloody Kansas’ by Chuck Martin
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Oct.29, 2014, under Books
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
‘Bloody Kansas’ seems to me to be more real than many westerns I’ve read. The language is not literate, nor direct. Many characters are not sure of themselves, many confused and many conflicted. Older characters are realizing their age but not much brighter than anyone else. I think this best portrays those that headed west. The majority of westerns have all the characters sound like they just left a Toastmasters meeting. The characters in this book likely never saw a school room. Which was true at that time.
AS much as I really like the stories and characters in the Johnstone Clan books, this seemed to me far more accurate. There are no brilliant geniuses in this tale. Plenty who think they are and get caught in it. There are characters who work to be a bad or good guy and cave during the book as situations bend them. It’s hard to say there is a good guy in the book, though there is a focus on a central character.
For all of this I would give this book five stars. The trouble is plugging all this in and making a coherent story. That’s where this stumbles. The author seems to have worked so hard to relate an illiterate group, that it is sometimes hard to follow the story. The constant mention of everyone’s nickname also makes reading difficult as the names don’t role off the tongue or mind. But, wouldn’t that be typical in the wild and illiterate west?
I think this book has bad ratings due to there being a questionable good guy or bad guy. I thinks it makes it more realistic.
Bottom line: I recommend this book.
I’ll start here adding a rating from 10, which makes more sense than Goodreads 5: 6 out of 10
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