Book Review: The Jongurian Mission by Greg Strandberg (three stars)

Book Review: The Jongurian Mission (Jongurian Trilogy #1) by Greg Strandberg (three stars)

“They seem happy to have more power now, following the Civil War. But I don’t really see how having more power has made their lives any better.”

Could have been an engaging epic fantasy of a farm boy’s introduction to a greater world and a destiny. Protagonist and antagonists well developed.

Next to it was the trade office, where the farmers came to sell their grain each autumn harvest and get price projections on next year’s crop.

Glacial pace. A lot of telling. Describing. Details for the sake of details, not for the sake of the story. Odd words used badly.

Edgyn had the ship skirting the coast half a dozen leagues out.

Lacks verisimilitude: Author exhibits ignorance of economics, farming, sailing, warfare, and geography—especially distances. Based on eighteenth-century mercantile theories of trade and politics. Quaint. Apparently leagues in this world are shorter than three miles—anywhere from a furlong to a mile. These “what’s he talking about?” moments knock the reader out of the spell of the story.

For more times than he could now count Bryn wished again that he had never left Eston.

Movie Review: Jesus Revolution, directed by Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle (four stars)

Movie Review: Jesus Revolution, directed by Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle (four stars)

“It’s not something to explain. It’s something to be experienced.”

A sympathetic look at the central personalities and events of the Jesus movement coming to southern California in the earl 1970s. While the movie displays some of the “warts” and conflicts among the central characters, it sanitizes the negative. Even the hippie drug scene is disinfected. Long.

“There is an entire generation right now searching for God. If you look a little deeper, if you look with love, you’ll see a bunch of kids that are searching for all the right things, just in all the wrong places.”

Out of character roles for Jonathan Roumie and Kelsey Grammar who got to show more depth than the roles for which they are famous. Doubtful many non-Christians will venture this way, but isn’t totally a whitewash nor a church service.

“What I’m saying is that they want peace and love. Isn’t that what you want?”

I was twenty-five in 1971 but remember little of either the hippies or the Jesus movement. Busy living.

‘Let’s just see what God has in mind.’

Book Review: Operation Pineapple Express by Scott Mann (four stars)

Book Review: Operation Pineapple Express: The Incredible Story of a Group of Americans Who Undertook One Last Mission and Honored a Promise in Afghanistan by Scott Mann (four stars)

“Leaving these guys in the wind is also a massive national security threat.”

How an ad hoc rescue of one threatened Afghan morphed into an underground railroad which saved hundreds of Afghan men, women, and children from Taliban retribution as the United States of America deserted them. Told in third person by a key player in the exfiltration miracle worked by dozens of Americans operating without official support—in fact, occasionally despite official impediment.

“It appeared as if the entire Afghan special operations community was being abandoned. There was zero will among senior leaders to intervene on behalf of partner forces.”

Plenty of blame to spread over four presidential administrations. Our politicians live in a bubble of fantasy that their words alter reality. The language and emotions are raw. Sometimes unnecessarily so, but the author was armpit deep in the trauma.

“‘This was the greatest airlift in American history.’ [said General Mark Milley] In an instant Scott realized this was nothing more than political theater. Legacy damage control. Every ounce of hope he had felt coming in drained away. The buck had been passed—and saluted. This whole thing was bullshit.”

From the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs down, we turned our backs on  people who had kept our people alive in the field for twenty years. Ignoring not only a moral obligation but also potential compromise of the inner workings of American special operations.

“Much of the trust in our political administrations, diplomacy, and security has been damaged by the ‘forever war’ in Afghanistan and in the botched withdrawal from it.”

If America hadn’t deserted Afghanistan in 2021, would Russia have invaded Ukraine in 2022?

“You’re wasting time with these lists that State keeps asking for. They’re going into a black hole. The only thing that’s working is the ad hoc groups.”

Review: The Gallant by Janny Wurtz (three stars)

Review: The Gallant by Janny Wurtz (three stars)

‘Cold sober, he might have remembered the warning: no one who crossed paths with one of the Seven survived the experience unchanged.’ 

Decent novella. Best appreciated by those who have read other of Wurtz’s Wars of Light and Shadow corpus, otherwise pointless. Cover art by the author unrelated to the story.

‘Davien’s concern had rigorously proven the pitfall that risked the mysteries to entropy: sooner or later, the rot of self-interest undermined guided wisdom.’

Book Review: “Burning Books for Pleasure and Profit” by K. J. Parker (four stars)

Book Review: “Burning Books for Pleasure and Profit” by K. J. Parker (four stars)

The very finest kit and materials will only take you so far. The rest has to come from inside. 

Entertaining short fiction. Parker once again creates a world with a few words. It’s easier when that world is an analog of Medieval Europe, but it’s well done. Protagonist has a conscience but also other, more profound motives.

Raising another interesting hypothetical question: If you don’t remember something and neither does anyone else, did it ever happen? 

Loses a star for pointless profanity. Yes, one phrase can do it, when it’s phrase like that. Wanted to rate this five.

Evidence, he told me with a grin, is Truth, and Truth never dies; instead, they lock it up and throw away the key. 

Book Review: Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson (four stars)

Book Review: Tress of the Emerald Sea (The Cosmere) by Brandon Sanderson (four stars)

In the land where everyone screams, everyone is also slightly deaf.

Most enjoyable Sanderson tale to date. Sanderson is a master world creator. This standalone fantasy novel showcases his world-building mastery, even though it occurs in his already-developed universe, the Cosmere. Hints of science fiction. Apart from a notable exception, this story’s association to others is undetectable to average readers.

It is the sharpness of the wielder, and not the sharpness of the sword, that foreshadows mishap.

If anything better than some of his expansive epics. He still shares insights to the foibles of humanity, leavened here with humor. Do read his afterword on the origin of the tale.

“You have everything you need.”

Book Review: “Cemetery in the Clouds” by Sørina Higgins (four stars)

At the turn of the twenty-seventh century, grave-robbing wasn’t what it used to be. 

Engaging short science fiction set so far into the future that what we think we know isn’t necessarily so. Good voice; good character development. Intertwined story lines set up a compelling climax.

Without an ozone layer, the cities relied on smog to keep out the unbearable sun.

Fifty years ago all SF bemoaned overpopulation (with a side of nuclear winter); today it’s wailing over climate change (with a side of post-industrial dystopia). Care to guess the “in” apocalypse of 2070?

“You’re making that up! This isn’t some totalitarian dystopia!”  He stopped, stymied. Wasn’t that exactly what it was? 

Book Review: Stars and Bones by Gareth L. Powell (two and a half stars)

Book Review: Stars and Bones (Continuance #1) by Gareth L. Powell (two and a half stars)

‘We’d wanted adventure, excitement, and really wild things… and we’d received them in abundance. Just not in the way we’d hoped.’ 

Central plot borrowed from a Star Trek movie. Too-stupid-to-survive humans contact inimical aliens with inevitable results. Things get worse. The usual sophomoric misapplications of basic physics and economics. Good, if obvious setup for feel-good ending.

“We’re a team, and if you think I’m going to let you walk in there alone, you’re even crazier than you look.” 

Simultaneously I was reading After Doomsday, 1962 Poul Anderson post-Apocalyptic novel. Powell sure makes Anderson look good.

“What do you think I should I do?” “You’re seriously going to ask dating advice from an unneutered tomcat?” “Oh god, I am, aren’t I?

The rating started as a solid four stars; now three would be a gift. Had I known the extent of profanity I wouldn’t have started, let alone finish, this book. One character knows no other adjective than f—ing. Even the computer curses.

“They have no poetry in their souls.” “That, they do not. Also, no souls.” 

Book Review: After Doomsday by Poul Anderson (four stars)

Book Review: After Doomsday by Poul Anderson (four stars)

‘Hatred of the murderers crowded out fear and grief alike. Hatred focused so sharply on the thing which pursued her ship that it seemed the steel must melt.’

Writing in the early 1960s, Anderson develops a more engaging, plausible tale than current SF authors. Two challenges interweave. His failure to anticipate the coming digital and solid-state revolution dates the book but doesn’t make him unusual.

‘They could be anywhere among a couple hundred billion stars. How can we get word to them?’

Simultaneously I was reading Stars and Bones. a contemporary post-Apocalyptic novel with a similar approach. Anderson wins. The story and storytelling are direct and well-paced. In retrospect humorous that so many characters smoke on space craft.

‘In the Seven Classics of Voyen, one may read, “Many desperations do not equal one hope.”