Redneck Kaiju - Wil Radcliffe

   2025; 185 pages.  Full Title: Redneck Kaiju: The Scavengers of Deep Hollow.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Dark Fantasy, Horror.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    It came out of the mist like a myth; a giant man-shaped goat.  Thorns twisted like serpents.  Muscles like tree trunks.  Cloven hoofs that cracked stone.  And eyes . . . God, those eyes . . . yellow like wildfire.  (pg. 7).

 

    And it kicked the stuffing out of a 12-man squadron of US Marines.  Patrick “Panther” McMorn was one of the lucky survivors, and still has nightmares about that encounter.

 

    But that was in the past, in Afghanistan, and who knows what kinds of vile mutated beasts all the wars with chemical weapons over there may have been spawned.  Panther McMorn is a civilian now, back in his hometown of Deep Hollow, Indiana.  The only monsters here are in fairy tales.

 

    Yeah right.  In your dreams, Panther, in your dreams.

 

What’s To Like...

    The action in Redneck Kaiju starts right away; the monster-meeting excerpt given above occurs on the third page of the text.  There are two timelines, one in Afghanistan; the other in Deep Hollow.  The text switches between the two, but it is not confusing at all.

 

    I was unfamiliar with the term “Kaiju”, but it’s not a made-up word.  Google it; you’ll be glad you did.  The character development is excellent; I especially liked how Barry’s persona evolves as the story progresses.  Kira and Panther are also well-crafted.  Heck, even the dog’s character development is deftly done.

 

    Thrills and spills and kaiju critters abound.  It’s easy to determine who the bad guys are, but the real crux of the storyline is figuring out a way to stop them, and then repair their evil doings.  There are a wide variety of kaiju creatures to meet and discreetly avoid.  They differ in size, mentality, and temperament, but all of them are lethal.

 

    Everything builds to an exciting, over-the-top, ending, with a major plot twist thrown in just when I thought the story was winding up.  The final page hints that a sequel will follow, hopefully in the not-too-distant future!

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Luchador (n.) : a Mexican professional wrestler

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  5.0/5 based on 1 rating and 1 review.

    Goodreads: x.xx/5 based on 0 ratings and 0 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Whatever was out there wasn’t trying to hide.  Heavy footfalls.  Breathing, maybe.  Slow and steady.  He didn’t feel fear, not exactly, but his muscles tensed, trained for impact.

    If it wanted to kill him, it probably could.

    He reached down, fingers brushing the handle of the knife on his belt.

    Then a snout pushed out of the brush.  A long tail wagged behind it.

    “Seriously?” Panther said, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.  (pg. 12)

 

    She laughed for real this time.  Then she stood on her toes and kissed him deeply.  When they pulled apart, T-Bone gave a jealous grunt.

    Kira reached out and scratched the giant dog’s head.  “Take care of this big dummy,” she whispered.

    “I will,” Panther replied.

    “I was talking to the dog,” she said with a crooked smile.  (pg. 125)

 

Kindle Details…

    Redneck Kaiju currently costs $2.99 at Amazon, which is a super deal for a new release.  Wil Radcliffe has another half-dozen e-books for your Kindle, from his two earlier series: Noggle Stones and The Whisper King.  They range in price from $0.99 to $4.99 apiece.

 

“Holy crap.  Chemistry is way more violent than I thought.”  (pg. 72)

    There’s a light-to-moderate amount of profanity in Redneck Kaiju.  I counted 16 instances in the first 20%, including a couple of f-bombs; which extrapolates out to about 80 in the whole book.  Not bad for a horror tale.  There was also one roll-in-the-hay.

 

    I spotted only one typo: raises/raised.  Kudos to whoever did the editing on this.

 

    That’s it for the quibbles.  Redneck Kaiju is a fast-paced, well-written tale with a bit of wit thrown in for good measure.  There were no slow spots that I recall.  Simply put, the monsters come in droves, fast and furious, and there’s just no time to slow down.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  I liked the tip-of-the-hat to acclaimed Wyoming-born American artist Jackson Pollock.  I’ve been a fan of his ever since seeing his works in a gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming years ago.  It’s nice to see him getting a nod.

Silk Road - Colin Falconer

   2011; 468 pages.  Book 1 (out of 15) in the “Epic Adventure” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Historical Asian Fiction; Epic Adventure.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    An enemy of my enemy is my friend.  And the Christian Crusaders fighting the hordes of Saracens in the Holy Land in 1260 AD need all the friends they can get.

 

    What about those fearsome marauding Mongols way out in Eastern Asia?  They’ve been battling the Christian and Moslem armies, and inflicting heavy casualties on both.

 

    Let’s send a Papal envoy to them and get them to join the Crusaders they’ve been killing.  Then the both of us can gang up on those infidel Moslems.  We’ll conveniently ignore the fact that the Mongols are also infidels.

 

    We’ll assign a veteran Crusader to accompany the envoy and keep him safe.  A Knights Templar, no less.  The two of them can travel to and meet with the Great Khan, wherever he is, and convince him to join us.

 

    Nothing can possibly go wrong.  Because we have God on our side, and nobody else does!

 

What’s To Like...

    Silk Road is the first book in a 15-volume Historical Adventure series by Colin Falconer.  It is a standalone novel, not connected to any of the others.  Chronologically, it starts out soon after what Wikipedia labels “The Seventh Crusade”, which was waged in the years 1248-1254 AD.

 

    The storyline follows three main protagonists: William, the Pope’s envoy and zealous defender of the faith; Josseran, the Crusader tasked with making sure William safely reaches the Great Khan; and Khutelun, a Mongol princess who’d rather engage you in combat than become engaged to you.  The character development of these three individuals is deep and satisfying, and that is also true of the secondary characters such as Khutelun’s father, her brothers, and the daughter of Kublai, the present Mongol ruler of Cathay (China).

 

    The historical angle felt meticulously researched, which for a history buff like me, is a definite plus.  The titular “Silk Road” was the main trade route in those days, but traveling it was perilous at best, fatal at worst.  I was familiar with the practice of foot-binding and the partaking of hashish (by both Mongols and Saracens), but didn’t know ice cream was a culinary delight back then.  And William’s clumsy attempts at using chopsticks brought back personal memories one of my business trips to China.

 

    Traversing the Silk Road from the Near East to the Far East entailed months of traveling in the 13^th century, and to pass the time, the reader is treated to extensive theological discussions.  William is annoyingly zealous; Josseran is a jaded warrior; and both staunchly defend their faith and/or lack of it.  It was also enlightening to hear the Mongols, Saracens, and Chinese expound on their religious beliefs.

 

    The ending is both exciting and heartwarming.  The storylines for Josseran and Khutelun are resolved, at least for the moment, and William’s is covered in the Prologue and Epilogue.  There is room for a sequel, but I doubt that Colin Falconer will pen one.  Too many other Epic Adventures to tell.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 14,544 ratings and 944 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.27/5 based on 10,002 ratings and 419 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Argol (n.) : camel droppings dried in the sun (Mongolian).

    Others: Koumiss (n.); Parlous (adj.).

 

Excerpts...

    The woman turned to one of her companions.  “The thin one will die of cold before we are halfway across the mountains.  The other one looks fit enough.  But he is as ugly as his horse, and his nose is twice as big.”

    The Mongols laughed.

    “I have no quarrel with you for my own account,” Josseran said in her own language, “but I object to you calling my horse ugly.”  (loc. 888)

 

    “There are some who think we should spend all our lives as our grandfathers did, on the steppes, stealing horses and burning towns.  But Qaidu and my brother Ariq Boke live in a time that is gone.  Are we to live as Genghis lived, to conquer the world every winter, only to withdraw again during the summer to tend our horses and sheep?  If we are to keep what we have won, then we have to change our old ways.  The world may be conquered from horseback, but it cannot be ruled from it.”  (loc. 3664)

 

Kindle Details…

    Silk Road sells for $3.99 at Amazon right now.  All of the other books in the series are also $3.99.  Colin Falconer has another seven novels available for your reading pleasure, mostly historical fiction and crime thrillers, and in the price range of $0.99 to $4.99.

 

“May you grow boils in your ears the size of watermelons.”  (loc. 2255)

    I was impressed by the sparsity of cussing—just three instances first third of the book.  There are several rolls-in-the-hay however, and a number of adult situations, including a disturbing underage one.  I suspect, however, that such was life in the wilds of Asia back then.

 

    The editing was fantastic; I noted just one typo: defend/defends.  The book is written in “Australian”, the author’s nationality, which means a few odd spellings, such as offence, meagre, and judgement; but also “normal” spellings on such words as realize, specter, and defenseless.

 

    I personally found Silk Road a great piece of Historical Fiction.  There’s a smidgen of Romance blended in; and I liked the way Khutelun and Miao-yen (the Chinese princess) were both, in their own ways, strong female character studies.  I have a couple more books from this series on my Kindle, and I expect I'll start reading one of those in the not-too-distant future.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing. One of Josseran’s responsibilities during the trek was to act as a translator for William.  William suffers from a deficiency of tact—not a good trait for an envoy—and Josseran often resorts to “loose translations” when William is engaging in brusque dialogue with other dignitaries.  It was most entertaining to read his “free form” revisions.

Hope For the Best - Jodi Taylor

 

   2019; 461 pages.  Book 10 (out of 14) in the “Chronicles of St. Mary’s” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Time Travel; Humorous Fantasy; Historical Fiction.  Overall Rating: 9*/10.

 

    Madeleine “Max” Maxwell has been traded to the Time Police!

 

    Well okay, technically she’s been “seconded” to the Time Police, meaning St. Mary’s loaning Max to them for a while.  It’s sort of a goodwill gesture, aimed at improving the relationship between the two organizations.

 

    One of the weird things is that the Time Police office is based in the future, so Max gets to time-travel forward every time she goes to work.  How utterly kewl is that?!  But the bigger perk for Max is that she gets to be with her son, Matthew, who is being kept at the Time Police headquarters (“TPHQ”), protected by the Time Police from the evil bad guy, Clive Ronan.

 

    Looking after Matthew is not an easy job; see the second excerpt below.

 

What’s To Like...

    I enjoyed Max’s career move in Hope for the Best.  It seemed a nice way for Jodi Taylor to introduce the reader to her new “Time Police” series, the first book of which came out about five months after this one.

 

    It was interesting to watch Max and Captain Ellis learn to work as partners.  Their first adventure involves traveling to 16^th-century London to deal with a Temporal Anomaly.  The Time Police are there to “repair” the digression, even if that means using force.  St. Mary’s is there to record history.  Those differing motivations do not always mesh smoothly.

 

    Delightfully, there’s lots of time-jumping.  I counted ten chrono-hops, and that’s not including return jumps to St. Mary’s and/or TPHQ.  As usual, the book’s cover image gives a glimpse at two of those trips.  The smokestacks shown at the top are of the Battersea Power Station, as any fan of Pink Floyd’s “Animals” album will recognize.  We’ll let you wonder why the bottom image is simply a nest of eggs.

 

    It’s not a spoiler to reveal that two of my favorite characters in this series, Adrian and Mikey, play prominent roles in the storyline.  Grint the Grunt was also an interesting character, as were Hillary and Donald.  I chuckled at the mention of the sport of cheese-rolling on Cooper’s Hill, and liked learning why “Time is like a bluebell wood”.

 

    The ending is tense, twisty, and totally unexpected.  History is restored to its proper order, although not everybody at St. Mary’s, Max in particular, is happy about it.  The Time Police and St. Mary’s have a better understanding of each other, although I’d hardly call them bosom buddies.  Hope For the Best is both a part of a series and a standalone novel.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 5,408 ratings and 383 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.32*/5, based on 7,706 ratings and 584 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    I knelt up to see better.

    Ellis pulled me down.  “Stay down.”

    “I can’t.  It’s my job.  I’m the historian.  I study historical events.  You’re the Time Police.  Go and count your crayons.”

    Someone behind me wondered aloud why they let me live.

    “I’ve no idea,” said Ellis.  “Perhaps she’ll come in handy one day.”

    “And if not?”  Was it my imagination or was there a hopeful note there?

    “Then you can kill her.”  (pg. 126)

 

    “Will you come and see me off?”

    “Of course.  Every wife always wants to know when her husband’s safely out of the picture.”

    “And I gather you’re on the move, too.”

    “Yes.  Because of what’s happening at St. Mary’s, Dr. Bairstow’s moved the schedule forwards.  I’m going back to TPHQ.”

    “Give my love to Matthew.  How’s he doing?”

    “He broke the Time Map.”

    “The boy’s a vandal.  He gets more like his mother every day.”

    “And then showed them how to put it right.”

    “The boy’s a genius.  He gets more like his father every day.”  (pg. 278)

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Firkling (v.) : searching; rummaging.

Others: Jellabiyas (n.).

 

I was well and truly up the River of Excrement and my canoe had no visible means of propulsion.  (pg. 352)

    The profanity is pretty sparse in Hope for the Best; I noticed just 11 instances in the first 20% of the book; all of which of the “milder” ilk.  Max pays a visit to a sex club late in the story, but it’s a rather tame experience.  I didn’t note any typos; so kudos to whoever the editor was.

 

    The series is written in British, not American; so there are a few weird words and spellings for us Yankee readers, including draughty, ploughed, ageing, and storeys.  I’m used to hoovering by now, but the abovementioned firkling stumped me.  Jellabiya is an Arabic term.

 

    That’s the nit-pickiest I can be with Hope for the Best.  It’s another fine time-travel tale with lots of wit, humor, thrills-&-spills, family drama, and, maybe best of all, historical fiction blended in.  I've yet to see any drop-off in the quality of the books in this series.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  At one point our heroes come riding in on what is described as “TWOC’d horses”.  Say what?  That acronym stumped me, so I googled it.  It turns out TWOC stands for “Taken Without Owner’s Consent”. Now you know.

David and Goliath - Malcolm Gladwell

   2013; 295 pages.  Full Title: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Applied Psychology; Sociology; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    David and Goliath.  Everyone has heard the tale.  It has inspired generations upon generations of readers.  Big, bad Goliath trots out and challenges the Israelites to a one-on-one battle with any champion they choose.  He’s fully armored and is carrying a huge sword.  Out steps puny little David with only a slingshot and five smooth stones.

 

    David plunks Goliath with his first shot, hitting him right in the forehead and stunning him.  David then goes over to the giant, picks up his sword and chops off the giant’s head.  From this we learn to trust in the higher powers, never get discouraged, and bravely do battle against all odds.  Malcolm Gladwell has studied the details of the David and Goliath tale, and admits that there are important lessons to be learned.

 

    But he feels the ones we’ve been taught for generations upon generations are completely wrong.

 

What’s To Like...

    Malcolm Gladwell divides David and Goliath into three parts, each containing three chapters, namely:

    Part 1 : The Advantages of Disadvantages (Chapters 1-3)

    Topics: Girls High School basketball; Classroom size; Choosing a college.

    Part 2 : The Theory of Desirable Difficulty (Chapters 4-6)

    Topics: Dyslexia; the London Blitz; the Civil Right Movement.

    Part 3 : The Limits of Power (Chapters 7-9)

    Topics: Northern Ireland; California’s ‘Three Strike Law’; Vichy France.

 

        Each chapter’s title is that of a person, none of whom I had heard of, whose life embodies the themes of that section.  Gladwell then takes their “lessons learned” and applies them to other, usually more famous, persons and historical events.  Some of those tangential topics will surprise you.  For instance, in Chapter 5, the theme of the London Blitz segues into the fight against Leukemia.

 

    There is also an Introduction, in which Gladwell meticulously examines the David/Goliath affair tale, even suggesting that the latter was afflicted with something called “Acromegaly” (say what?!), which leveled the playing field.  The book closes with an Afterword, which focuses on America’s Vietnam debacle.

 

    I was impressed by the author’s writing skills.  Let’s face it, a story centering on Girls’ High School Basketball sounds like a yawner, ditto for detailing the search for a cure to Leukemia.  But Gladwell somehow turns them into fascinating subjects.  Other interesting sidelights include Lawrence of Arabia, a cameo appearance by Julius Erving, the neuroscience of dyslexia, and the statistical importance of “inverted U-curves”.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 14,018 ratings and 3,706 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.97*/5, based on 188,881 ratings and 11,990 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Suppose you were to total up all the wars over the past two hundred years that occurred between very large and very small countries.  Let’s say that one side has to be at least ten times larger in population and armed might than the other.  How often do you think the bigger side wins?  Most of us would put that number at close to 100 percent.  A tenfold difference in a lot.  But the actual answer may surprise you.  When the political scientist Ivan Arreguin did the calculation a few years ago, what he came up with was 71.5 percent.  Just under a third of the time, the weaker country wins.  (pg. 21)

 

    Birmingham was the most racially divided city in America.  It was known as “Johannesburg of the South.”  When a busload of civil rights activists were on their way to Birmingham, the local police stood by while Klansmen forced their bus to the side of the road and set it afire.  Black people who tried to move into white neighborhoods had their homes dynamited by the city’s local Ku Klux Klansmen so often that Birmingham’s other nickname was Bombingham.  (pg. 168)

 

The smarter your peers, the dumber you feel; the dumber you feel, the more likely you are to drop out of science.  (pg. 85)

    There’s a sprinkling of profanity—I noted 21 instances in the entire of book—in David and Goliath, including four f-bombs and a half-dozen cases of the "n-word" racial epithet.  Most of those occurred in direct quotes of various newsmakers.

 

    Wikipedia mentions that the critical response to David and Goliath was mostly negative.  The criticisms generally accuse Gladwell of skewing the data to fit his arguments. However, that Wikipedia segment closes with a positive review, and also notes that David and Goliath was a bestseller, reaching #4 on a NY Times chart (“Hardcover Non-Fiction”) and #5 on a USA Today chart (“Best-Selling Books”).

 

    Personally, I think the Malcolm Gladwell does a great job of presenting alternate views on various strategies to use when you’re the underdog, the misfit, or the weaker force.  His conclusions are open to debate, but hey, that’s the purpose of this book.  The fact that Gladwell suggests that David beat Goliath because of the giant having an eyesight-affecting medical condition is of course speculative.  Then again, that whole Philistine/Israelite encounter itself is unprovable.

 

    9 Stars.  My favorite chapters were #6, #7, and the Afterword, all of which focus on real life struggles in American history, some of which I lived through.  Your favorites may vary.

Soul Music - Terry Pratchett

   1995; 3739 pages.  Book 16 (out of 41) in “Discworld” series.  New Author? : No.  Laurels : #151 in the “Big Read”.  Genres : Humorous Fantasy; Satire; British Humour.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    The music is magical in Ankh-Morpork.  Especially the tunes being played by a newly-formed group, “The Band With Rocks In”.  It has listeners tapping their feet, snapping their fingers, and swaying with the beat.  What’s next, people fainting in the aisles?

 

    The wizards at the Unseen University are concerned.  The magic emanating from The Band With Rocks In is not one of their incantations.  An investigation is called for.  They’ll soon get to the bottom of things.

 

    Meanwhile, the Grim Reaper himself, Death, has taken a leave of absence.  It falls upon his granddaughter, Susan, to fill in on a temporary basis, even though she has zero experience swinging the scythe.

 

    So in summary, it’s just another normal day on Discworld.  Let’s go see Band With Rocks In down at the local pub tonight.

 

What’s To Like...

    Soul Music is first and foremost Terry Pratchett’s salute to the 20^th century music business.  In a nutshell, he plops it down in Discworld, among its dwarves, trolls, wizards, gods, and magic, and postulates how similar its development would be when compared to our world.

 

    This includes such things as forming a band and recording its music so that you can listen to it anytime, anyplace.  A number of our-world music idols received subtle nods from Pratchett.  For instance, one character is named “Satchelmouth”, which I eventually realized could be condensed to “Satchmo”, jazz favorite Louis Armstrong’s sobriquet.  Similarly, Imp, a bard whose guitar-playing is magical, is referred to as looking a bit “elvish”.  Well, he is short in stature, but there is a second way to interpret that “elvish” comparison.

 

    It is also fascinating to watch the coming-of-age of Susan.  She starts out as a student at a girl’s boarding school, and has a unique talent – she can turn invisible whenever she’s bored.  What a great way to skip boring classes!  But being the step-grandchild of Death forces her to come to grips with the Facts of Death (as opposed to the Facts of Life), and learn to pick up the Scythe, ride grandfather's horse Binky, team up with a rodent called "Death of Rats", and carry her family duties.

 

    Most of the tale takes place in Ankh-Morpork, so a lot of familiar characters show up, including C.M.O.T. Dibbler, the Librarian (ook!), Lord Vetineri, and Corporal Nobbs and Sergeant Colon of the City Watch.  Being a chemist, I also enjoyed the several times that Chemistry is resorted to, including using the compounds Calcium Carbonate, Ammonium Chloride, and an rare chemical that my company used to manufacture, Ammonium Sulfide.  Wowza!

 

    As with any Discworld novel, the two main storylines rapidly split into a bunch of secondary ones, which keeps the pacing brisk.  As (almost) always, Terry Pratchett eschews the use of chapters , but that just means you can stop for the night at any paragraph break you encounter.  The ending is more heartwarming than exciting, and ties up all the plot threads tidily.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 6,236 ratings and 432 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.06/5 based on 84,620 ratings and 2,875 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Plangent (adj.) : loud, reverberating, and often melancholy.

 

Excerpts...

    The class was learning about some revolt in which some peasants had wanted to stop being peasants and, since the nobles had won, had stopped being peasants really quickly.  Had they bothered to learn to read and acquire some history books they’d have learned about the uncertain merits of things like scythes and pitchforks when used in a battle against crossbows and broadswords.  (pg. 39)

 

    “He says to tell you,” said Albert wearily, “that a chit of a girl means a small girl.  He thinks you may have misheard me.”

    Susan hunched up in the chair.  Albert pulled up another one and sat down.

    “How old are you?”

    “Sixteen.”

    “Oh my.”  Albert rolled his eyes.  “How long have you been sixteen?”

    “Since I was fifteen, of course.  Are you stupid?”  (pg. 76)

 

“Never give a monkey the key to the banana plantation.”  (pg. 218)

    As is normal for a Discworld novel, there’s only a smidgen of mild cussing in Soul Music.  I counted just six instances in the first third of the book, all of which were eschatological ones, and there are no adult situations to shield juvenile eyes from.

 

    There were two punctuation typos: The/Then and Fit’s/Fits.  I thought there was a spelling typo (surelly/surely), but it turns out that Imp’s accent results in prolonged emphasis on any “L sound” in his speaking.  My only other quibble is that two of my favorite City Watch characters—Sam Vimes and Carrot—didn’t make it into the tale.

 

    That’s all I can nitpick about.  I always have high expectations when starting to read a Discworld book, and once again, Terry Pratchett did not disappoint me.  Only two books from the series remain for me to read (I’m not reading them in order), and it will be a bittersweet day whenever I finish the entire series.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  There may be no chapter divisions, but Terry Pratchett’s trademark Footnotes are still plentiful here.  Also, if you’re new to the Discworld series, there’s a handy Glossary in the back of the book, which closes with a Discworld Trivia Quiz.  Fantastic!

Justinian's Empire - Nick Holmes

    2024; 367 pages.  Book 4 (out of 4, but eventually 6) in “The Fall of the Roman Empire” series.  Full Title: Justinian’s Empire – Triumph and Tragedy.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Ancient History; Rome; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    I learned the date in my World History class: The Roman Empire collapsed in 476 CE when the Goths sacked Rome.

 

    Except, at the risk of splitting hairs, that wasn’t its total end.  Yes, the Western Roman Empire was no more.  But the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital of Constantinople, was doing relatively well, at least as long as it was happy to simply maintain its present borders.

 

    True, those pesky Persians kept raiding along its eastern borders; buying-&-selling was throttled by the smallest currency one could use in a solid gold coin; and worst of all, the populace was bitterly divided over whether Jesus was both human-&-divine, or just plain old divine.  But those issues are nothing that a dynamic Emperor can’t fix.

 

    Unfortunately, the present one, Anastasius, is a bit underqualified.  I sure hope the next Emperor is better.

 

What’s To Like...

    Nick Holmes divides Justinian’s Empire into four parts, namely:

    Part 1. New Rome, New Romans:  pg. 26, 12 sections.

    Part 2. The Peasant and the Prostitute: pg. 86, 12 sections.

    Part 3. The Age of Conquest: pg. 147, 15 sections.

    Part 4. Apocalypse Now:  pg. 254, 20 sections.

Those 59 sections cover 367 pages of text, which averages out to about 6 pages per chapter, and means there's always a good place to stop reading for the night.

 

    The book covers the years from 468 CE, the year that Vandal-controlled Carthage destroyed a Roman armada trying to retake the city, to 565 CE, the year the (Eastern) Roman Emperor Justinian died.  The bulk of Justinian’s Empire is devoted to Justinian and his “can-do-anything” military leader, Belisarius.  They’re both introduced around page 100 (+/- 10 pages) and are the main focus throughout the rest of the book.

 

    I loved the degree of detail that author Nick Holmes imparts to this critical time in World History.  The “gold coin” dilemma was solved by the introduction of low-value copper coins called “follis” which were so important to the daily paying of workers’ wages.  I was surprised to learn of the “Late Antique Little Ice Age” in 536 CE, and the devastating Plague in 541 CE, both of which killed millions of people worldwide, with civilizations having no way to defend against their effect.  And I smirked when about the “Nika riots” which prove that athletic games provoking hooligans to urban violence is nothing new.

 

    Justinian is generally hailed as a hero by modern historians.  Nick Holmes assesses this over the last couple of chapters, giving reasons whether the Emperor's various military and economic campaigns were worth it in the end.  In any event, Justinian’s reign was arguably the high-water mark of the Eastern Roman Empire.  The next book reportedly focuses on the efforts of subsequent emperors to maintain that level of glory.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Slanging Match (n.) : a heated argument or quarrel where people insult each other.

Others: Monophysites (n.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 88 ratings and 5 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.45/5 based on 31 ratings and 3 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Basilicus was a man who, over the last 1,500 years, has received not one kind word from any chronicler or historian.  He was universally detested in the sixth century and he still is.  Indeed, it was truly remarkable that he attained the position of emperor at all, and once he did, he did everything possible to lose it.  His first foolish action was to promote the lover of his beautiful wife, Zenonis.  Unknown to him, but known to everyone else, she was having a passionate affair with a senator called Armatus.  (pg. 44)

 

    Chosroes marched fast into the Roman interior.  None of our sources say whether Antioch was his aim right from the beginning.  But he was certainly going in the right direction to reach the empire’s second most important city.  He avoided the city of Callinicum, where Belisarius had suffered his only defeat, and stopped instead at the town of Sura.  Procopius says he chose Sura because as he passed it, his horse neighed and stamped the ground, which the magi (Persian priests) thought showed it would easily fall.  But the magi made a mistake.  The first Persian assault was beaten back with heavy losses.  (pg. 258)

 

Kindle Details…

   Justinian’s Empire presently sells for $5.99 at Amazon.  Book One in the series, The Roman Revolution is on sale for just $0.99 right now, and Books 2 and 3 cost  $5.99 apiece.  An earlier work of the author, The Byzantine World War is available for $2.99.

 

“The rich Goth wants to be Roman but only the poor Roman wants to be a Goth.”  (pg. 204)

    As was true in the previous book, there is zero profanity and/or adult situations in Justinian’s Empire.  One of the Empresses is mentioned as previously being a prostitute, but I count that as a historical fact.  Heck, similar situations exist in present-day politics, and for the most part elicit yawns.

 

    I only caught one typo.  On page 106, Theodora’s “premature death” is given as occurring in 448 CE, which is certainly premature since that was before she was born.  As the Timeline section in the back of the book notes, the correct year is 548 CE.

 

    The direct links to Footnotes work very smoothly, but when Maps and Illustrations are referenced in the text, they are not set up with active links.  That was also true in the previous book.

 

    Enough nitpicking.  I found Justinian’s Empire to be another great entry in Nick Holmes’ “The Fall of the Roman Empire” series.  It isn’t easy chronicling the events in a world that almost no one, including me, knows much about, and do it in a coherent manner.  Justinian’s Empire succeeds wonderfully in that regard.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  Finding any historical records of the events covered in Justinian’s Empire apparently is quite the challenge.  Nick Holmes’ favorite source is a Greek historian named Procopius, whose “official” account, titled History of the Wars, is filled with oodles of praise for Justinian, Belisarius, and their spouses, all of whom presumably loved this adulation.

    But Procopius wrote a second chronicle of the same events, titled it Secret History, which presented these four characters in a much less favorable light, and which was not made public until they had all died, presumably to avoid retaliation.

    Discretion truly is the better part of valor.

The Closers - Michael Connelly

   2005; 447 pages.  Book 11 (out of 20) in the “Harry Bosch Novel” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Police Procedural; Hard-boiled Crime Fiction; Murder Thriller.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    After three years of retirement, Harry Bosch is back in the Los Angeles Police Department! The chief of police has personally extended the offer to join up again.

 

    Most of the LAPD that were there when Harry retired now welcome him back, but a couple are a bit frosty to him.  One in particular is downright hostile about it.

 

    He’s not getting his old job back.  Instead, he’s been assigned to the Open-Unsolved Unit.  You and I would call it the “Cold Case Department”.  He and his partner, Detective Kizmin “Kiz” Rider, have already been given a case to reopen: an unsolved murder of a high school girl way back in 1988.  And, as one of LAPD's upper brass quips, “New hope for the dead.  Harry Bosch is on the case again.”

 

    The trouble is, Harry’s not sure whether that Captain was being sarcastic or not.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Closers combines two of my favorite crime genres: Police Procedurals and Cold Cases, and is the eleventh book in Michael Connelly’s 20-volume “Harry Bosch” series.  I’ve read a bunch of these books, starting way back before this blog existed.  I do recall the first one, The Concrete Blonde, and being blown away by it.  I’m not reading the series in order, and I don’t think I missing out on much.

 

    Harry’s “unretirement” is further complicated by him having to learn to work with a younger, female detective as an equal partner instead of an underling.  He also has to get caught up on the latest technological advances in things like DNA profiling, wiretaps (via something called ListenTech), and phone call tracing (via something called AutoTrack).  Harry grudgingly acquiesces to all that, but draws the line at using computers to write up reports.  He’ll stick with a good old typewriter, thank you.

 

    Harry, known in the past for his uncompromising brusqueness when dealing with authority figures, now also has to learn to be tactful.  Because this is a cold case, it means two other detectives originally worked the case and failed to come up with anything.  Harry now has to interview them and critique their performances, and hope he finds something they missed.  Good luck with trying to be diplomatic, Harry.

 

    I love this series because Michael Connelly is a master at crafting a complex, captivating mystery, filled with subtle clues, human drama, red herrings, plot twists, and well-developed characters.  There’s just enough thrills and spills to keep the pacing brisk, without the action becoming “over the top”.

 

    The ending is suitably exciting, and is keyed by Harry discovering a subtle clue in a photograph.  It’s a crucial bit of evidence, so tag along with Harry and Kiz as they methodically discover and apprehend the killer(s).  Trying to solve the case before they do will probably be a fruitless venture.  The final chapter gives one last surprising plot twist that will leave Harry and the reader with a heavy heart.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Jonesing (v.): having a fixation on (something).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 22,565 ratings and 1,694 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.19/5 based on 60,485 ratings and 2,470 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “You know who we have to thank for this, don’t you?” Bosch asked.

    She looked at him quizzically.

    “I give up.”

    “Mel Gibson.”

    “What are you talking about?”

    “When did Lethal Weapon come out?  Right around this time, right?”

    “I guess.  But what are you talking about?  Those movies are so far-fetched.”

    “That’s my point.  That’s the movie that started all of this holding the gun sideways and with two hands, one over the other.  We got blood on this gun because the shooter was a Lethal Weapon fan.”  (pg. 35)

 

    “So if I was a defense lawyer,” Pratt continued, “I would have Mackey cop to the burglary because the statute of limitations has long expired.  He would say the gun bit him when he tried it out so he got rid of the damn thing — long before any murder.  He’d say, “No sir I didn’t kill that little girl with it and you can’t prove I did.  You can’t prove I ever laid eyes on her.”

    Rider and Bosch nodded.

    “So you got nothing.”

    They nodded again.

    “Not bad for a day’s work.   What do you want to do about it?”  (pg. 141)

 

“I think you could probably talk a zebra out of his white stripes if you had to.”  (pg. 272)

    There was a lot less profanity in The Closers than I expected: just 7 instances in the first 10% of the book, although five of those were f-bombs.

 

    As is the norm, the author uses lots of acronyms that us civilian readers need to remember.  Among them here are ESB (Evidence Storage Building), PDU (Public Disorder Unit), RHD (Robbery & Homicide Division), and IAD (Internal Affairs Department).  I remembered most of them, but kept forgetting what SID stood for.

 

    I can’t think of anything else to quibble about.  The Closers was a great read for me, with an awesome glimpse into what it’s like to be a big city detective.  I count Michael Connelly as one of my favorite Police Procedural authors; his books never disappoint me.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  The Closers is set in the present, which means 2005, the year it was published.  It was fun to see some long-departed entities in the text, most notably the Yellow Pages and Borders Bookstore.  Those were the days!