Book Review: Conqueror’s Pride by Timothy Zahn (Three Stars)

Book Review: Conqueror’s Pride (Conqueror’s Saga #1) by Timothy Zahn

Three Stars

“When lives are at stake, you do what you have to, whether it’s personally comfortable for you or not.”

Typical Cold War-era space opera. Independently-minded heroes take on bumbling bureaucracy as well as the heinous enemy. Standard space opera opening: new alien obliterates friendly human greeters.

“No empire looks oppressive to those in power.”

Well conceived (first published in 1994) and well written. The technology and science aged well: despite being written before the advent of smart phones, tablets, and the internet. Not great literature, not even great science fiction, but a good read.

“We don’t always create the wars. But whether we do or not, we always win them. Tell your Elders that.”

Trivia: The Conqueror’s Sagas immediately preceded Zahn’s enormously popular Admiral Thrawn Star Wars books.

“It’s that ‘supposed to be’ that I worry about.”

Book Review: The Story of Kao Yu by Jonathan Strahan (Three Stars)

Book Review: The Story of Kao Yu by Peter S. Beagle

Three Stars

“Our bodies tell the truth, if our mouths do not.”

Well-written and interesting, but there’s no payoff. The story ended as the reader knew it must: a sad, true-to-life emptiness, but no pleasure.

“He is like a vase or a pot that has been shattered into small bits, and then restored, glued back together, fragment by fragment. It will look as good as new, if the work is done right, but you have to be careful with it. We will have to be careful.”

Book Review: The Light and the Glory: Did God have a Plan for America? (Second Edition) by Peter Marshall and David Manuel Four Stars

Book Review: The Light and the Glory: Did God have a Plan for America? by Peter Marshall and David Manuel

Four Stars

As the cover asserts, the second edition is “revised and expanded.” (For a fuller review of the first edition, read here.) Some material has been deleted, some of which had doubtful providence, some perhaps to keep the book close to 500 pages. The result is a better, tighter argument of the author’s thesis.

As reviewed previously, this book presents an argument, that “Since the first Christian settlers entered into covenant with Him, God has called the people of this country to be ‘a City on a Hill,’” referring to John Winthrop’s 1630 quote from Matthew 5:14.

Thirty years elapsed between editions. This writing is tauter and reads better. While the cover art of the first edition is more striking, this edition is preferred for the text.

(Both authors are now deceased. The link in goodreads.com is erroneous, to Marshall’s father.)

Book Review: The Burning Light by Bradley P. Beaulieu and Rob Zeigler (Three Stars)

Book Review: The Burning Light by Bradley P. Beaulieu and Rob Zeigler

Three Stars

“We are standing at the edge of the end of the world.”

A well-developed post-apocalyptic novel about what might have been the next step in human evolution. Naturally, some oppose what others see as progress. Many don’t care; they just want to plug in to the Light.

“I should have waited, knowing the Light search for us, ya. It come to us, not the other way around.”

The plot is based on humans having an extra-sensory ability to link. So, to that extent it’s almost a fantasy novel.

“All times are now.”

The story definitely starts in the middle and rushes forward, looking back just enough to explain how we got where we are.

“We are what we are, ya, until we are something else.”

Book Review: The Children of Hùrin by J. R. R. Tolkien (Three Stars)

Book Review: The Children of Hùrin by J. R. R. Tolkien

Three Stars

“In their light we are dimmed, or we burn with too quick a flame, and the weight of our doom lies heavier on us.”

This volume is a necessary, one might say essential, part of the corpus of Tolkien’s history of Middle Earth. Followers of Tolkien will certainly want to read it. Alas, however, this work lacks the quality of the works published in Tolkien’s lifetime. I blame the efforts of his son and executors less than the simple press of time and lack of collaborators while Tolkien still lived.

“Fear both the heat and the cold of your heart, and strive for patience.”

Reads like a synopsis with occasional dialogue at key points. That it approaches being a coherent whole forty years after the author’s death is credit to

Book Review: Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George (Three Stars)

Book Review: Payment in Blood (Inspector Lynley #2) by Elizabeth George

Three Stars

“[Murder] contaminates and pollutes, and no life it touches, no matter how tangentially, can ever be the same.”

Murder on the Orient Express investigated by Lord Peter Wimsey, with an old Scottish manor house playing the part of the train. As with all these cut-off-from-the-world murder mysteries, solving the crime involves untangling the relationships among the characters. That the investigators form early and conflicting opinions of who-dun-it increases the complexity.

“Silence is as useful a tool of interrogation as any question.”

The large and often indistinguishable cast is the strength and the weakness of this story. The reader is often forced to pause to figure out

Tenacious Dedication

Talent + training + tenacity is just about unbeatable.

Misty Midwest Mossiness

I feel nostalgically melancholy today.  I am remembering a time, about a decade ago, when I seethed with frustration surrounding a disappointing rejection my daughter suffered through.  When I requested an explanation for the rejection, the response I receive accused my daughter of “not being dedicated enough.”  In my mind, “not dedicated enough” became “not rich enough” because the evidence supporting that theory appeared overwhelming.  Other more affluent students with less talent and training achieved admittance, while my daughter was passed over.

Across the intervening years, I’ve watched and listened to my daughter devote countless hours in vocal training and coaching, music studies, daily practicing, auditions, rehearsals and performances.  Her perseverance, tenacity and, yes, dedication, knows no bounds. Her vocal coach is amazed out how extraordinarily large my daughter’s voice is, the largest she has heard.  I weep with pride, joy and love when I get a chance to hear…

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Book Review: The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers (Three Stars)

Book Review: The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers

Three Stars

“The next step is always unimaginable until it’s occurred.”

Variations of Arthurian legend has been a cottage industry of western literature for almost a millennia. Power’s take is innovative and well-developed. That his sixteenth century embodiment of the Briton hero is egotistic and a rogue fits the pattern. The melding of the fantastic and the historic worked, mostly. A nod to the history of beer.

“I never used to think much of coincidences, but these days I practically trip over them in the street.”

Quibbles: Modern vocabulary jars the reader out of the sixteenth century setting. Words like bouncer, toast, sleeping bag, bowling pins. A week and a half to travel from Trieste to Vienna? I wouldn’t count on rusty, old chain mail to stop a rapier thrust.

“A morning for a nigh-density volley of prayers.”

The story telling was better than the rating implies, but it’s been done.

“Am I one of the cards? Or a coin in the pot?”

Book Review: Behind the Throne by K. B. Wagers Three Stars

Book Review: Behind the Throne (Indranan Wars #1) by K. B. Wagers

Three Stars

“I could have come home. My whole life could have been different.” “We all live with such a burden.”

Well-written science fiction adventure that rises above mere space opera by Wager’s fully conceived and presented non-Earth Hindu female-dominated culture. The narrative follows the protagonist closely, so the reader is dragged along with the rapid pace of the action, but the cultural, religious and technical details are melded in expertly.

“Practically everyone is hiding something … including you.”

Quibble: Bodies in space do not implode.

“Now I was finding out that my timing was as [bad] as my judgment.”

Telegraphed many of her punches. While the protagonist was kept off balance by the rapidly evolving action, she picked up on everything and everyone too quickly, robbing the story of uncertainty. It’d have been nice if she’d been wrong about someone.

“Concentrate on what you know. The rest will sort itself out, or it’ll kill you.”

Satisfying close for this opening episode in a greater story.

“We don’t get to say everything that needs saying before the end.”