Books
VB 1: Tom Clancy's Op-Center Line of Control
The eighth book in a series created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenk and written by Jeff Rovin, Line of Control takes the National Crisis Management Center into action to prevent a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. The dozen members of Op-Center's Striker military team are en-route to work with India on a secret reconnaissance to find suspected Pakistan nuclear missile sites near disputed Kashmir when a Free Kashmir Movement cell blows up a police station. Oddly, the temple next door and a bus full of Hindu Pilgrims outside explode as well in the next moment. Everything changes and Striker must lead a race through the Himalayas.
I'm not sure how much involvement Clancy has with these books, one of these series he co-created but doesn't write (Net Force and Politika are the others). Rovin, who was not given authors credit on the first Op-Center novels, does a good job with them. I've read most and while the subject matter does fall into expected Clancy territory, that is where politics meets intelligence meets military, there is less complexity than a typical Clancy novel with it's dozen plus sub-plots and less explanatory digressions. In short, 350-400 pages instead of 1200-1400.
I'm not sure how much involvement Clancy has with these books, one of these series he co-created but doesn't write (Net Force and Politika are the others). Rovin, who was not given authors credit on the first Op-Center novels, does a good job with them. I've read most and while the subject matter does fall into expected Clancy territory, that is where politics meets intelligence meets military, there is less complexity than a typical Clancy novel with it's dozen plus sub-plots and less explanatory digressions. In short, 350-400 pages instead of 1200-1400.
VB 2: Gunman's Rhapsody
Robert Parker, best known for the two dozen or so Spenser detective novels (you may remember the mid '80s TV series starring Robert Urich as Spenser and Avery "Captain Sisko" Brooks as the ultimately cool Hawk), takes a poke at retelling the Wyatt Earp/Shootout at the OK Corral western tale in this novel.
His writing is as strong as ever and of course he pays attention to the food being eaten but there is little new here. This story has been told over and over in movies, on TV, and in other novels. For a better recent take watch the 1994 Kevin Costner/Dennis Quaid movie Wyatt Earp. If you feel like reading some Parker, get one of the Spenser books like Promised Land or Pale Kings and Princes.
His writing is as strong as ever and of course he pays attention to the food being eaten but there is little new here. This story has been told over and over in movies, on TV, and in other novels. For a better recent take watch the 1994 Kevin Costner/Dennis Quaid movie Wyatt Earp. If you feel like reading some Parker, get one of the Spenser books like Promised Land or Pale Kings and Princes.
VB 3: Tom Clancy's NetForce
Another one of the series co-created by Clancy, NetForce is the series' name as well as the name of the series' first novel. Written by, but not credited to, Steve Perry, this story introduces us to a new FBI unit called NetForce and is set 10 years in the future. Its also the novelization of a miniseries starring Scott Bakula.
Virtual Reality (VR) gear is standard, as is imposing your own visual metaphor for moving on the Worldwide Web (although driving a car or riding a motorcycle seems most common). The VR, so to speak, puts you in the driver's seat.
Perry does a good job here and I'm looking forward to the second in the series, next on the queue. Someone is creating chaos on the web, lots of deaths (RW, or real world, deaths, that is) and pointing lots of misdirections at NetForce. Which (and this isn't a spoiler as it happens in the first pages) is caught up in trying to solve the assassination of its first commander.
Decent reading but I will be looking to see if it gets stronger in book two. At this point, I prefer Clancy's own novels and the Op-Center series to this one.
Virtual Reality (VR) gear is standard, as is imposing your own visual metaphor for moving on the Worldwide Web (although driving a car or riding a motorcycle seems most common). The VR, so to speak, puts you in the driver's seat.
Perry does a good job here and I'm looking forward to the second in the series, next on the queue. Someone is creating chaos on the web, lots of deaths (RW, or real world, deaths, that is) and pointing lots of misdirections at NetForce. Which (and this isn't a spoiler as it happens in the first pages) is caught up in trying to solve the assassination of its first commander.
Decent reading but I will be looking to see if it gets stronger in book two. At this point, I prefer Clancy's own novels and the Op-Center series to this one.
VB 4: Tom Clancy's NetForce: Hidden Agendas
Second book in the series written by the still uncredited Steve Perry. Interesting but if I didn't already have one other book in this series I wouldn't bother. Storyline is fairly similar to the first NetForce novel, only this time the villain is a too smart for himself political hack, chief of staff to a U.S. Senator with more money than brains. Besides the uninspired plot, Perry tries too hard to show how different the world will be in 2010.
VB 5: A Star Called Henry
I really enjoy reading Roddy Doyle's novels. Most readers are not familiar with him directly but may have seen one of the movies made from his novels: The Commitments, The Scrapper, and The Van. Doyle is considered to be Ireland's greatest living writer and I can't disagree.
A Star Called Henry, volume one of a planned Last Roundup trilogy, tells the tale of the first 20 years of an amazing baby. Making his way for himself on the streets of Dublin at age five, he becomes an important, if expendable, foot soldier of the Irish Rebellion in his teens.
Doyle's story is good, he brings his characters to life through action and movement but what I truly treasure is his way with words, dialog and description. They just bounce and carry the reader along as if one were riding a raft down a strong river, here with rocks and rapids, now soft but running. For example:
"I was a broth of an infant, the wonder of Summerhill and beyond. I was the big news, a local legend within hours of landing on the newspapers." This is Henry, who is both hero and narrator, describing the reaction to his own birth, which he claims to recall in full detail. Doyle keeps me straining to turn the pages, even though there's the odd word here and again that isn't American English and I have to puzzle over it.
Highly recommended. If you've never read any of Doyle's novels, read them all.
A Star Called Henry, volume one of a planned Last Roundup trilogy, tells the tale of the first 20 years of an amazing baby. Making his way for himself on the streets of Dublin at age five, he becomes an important, if expendable, foot soldier of the Irish Rebellion in his teens.
Doyle's story is good, he brings his characters to life through action and movement but what I truly treasure is his way with words, dialog and description. They just bounce and carry the reader along as if one were riding a raft down a strong river, here with rocks and rapids, now soft but running. For example:
"I was a broth of an infant, the wonder of Summerhill and beyond. I was the big news, a local legend within hours of landing on the newspapers." This is Henry, who is both hero and narrator, describing the reaction to his own birth, which he claims to recall in full detail. Doyle keeps me straining to turn the pages, even though there's the odd word here and again that isn't American English and I have to puzzle over it.
Highly recommended. If you've never read any of Doyle's novels, read them all.
VB6: On Writing
After turning out nearly three dozen fiction bestsellers, Steven King recently wrote a non-fiction book on a topic he knows so well. On Writing isn't a long book, nor is it obnoxiously short. The book is part memoir, to show us what life events and influences got him going, and part important rules for writers.
I quite enjoyed this book although I've only read one of King's novels (The Stand) all the way through. He writes in a breezy, friendly style. I took it as meaning, hey, this works for me, why not see if any or all does you any good.
King doesn't spend much ink retelling what Strunk and White covered so well but does strongly recommend that writers become familiar with that book. He's also extremely anti-adverb while admitting that he can't always force himself to remove all the adverbs that somehow still end up in first drafts, even after all these years.
King also advocates that writers spend as much time reading as they spend writing. He ends the book with a short list of titles he'd recently read; I've read some and will now probably read more.
I quite enjoyed this book although I've only read one of King's novels (The Stand) all the way through. He writes in a breezy, friendly style. I took it as meaning, hey, this works for me, why not see if any or all does you any good.
King doesn't spend much ink retelling what Strunk and White covered so well but does strongly recommend that writers become familiar with that book. He's also extremely anti-adverb while admitting that he can't always force himself to remove all the adverbs that somehow still end up in first drafts, even after all these years.
King also advocates that writers spend as much time reading as they spend writing. He ends the book with a short list of titles he'd recently read; I've read some and will now probably read more.
VB7: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
What can I say? When I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I've avoided these books because I thought they were for kids, they generated so much hype, and they were fantasy. Well give J.K. Rowland her due (and believe me, the money has been flowing freely) because she's written books that are just instant classics. The stories are like the best animated shows, they appeal to both kids and adults, there is broad use of humor, and our hero gets to eat a feast at the end.
These are books every kid (say around age seven to nine) ought to read along with The Hobbit and the Wizard of Oz to put a spark of creativity, of the fantastic, in their minds.
These are books every kid (say around age seven to nine) ought to read along with The Hobbit and the Wizard of Oz to put a spark of creativity, of the fantastic, in their minds.
VB9: Star Wars - Rise of the Shadow Academy
Set about 20 years after the end of the original movie trilogy, this collection of six short novels by Kevin Anderson and Rebecca Moesta features Jacen and Jaina Solo (Leia and Han's twins), Lowbacca (Chewbacca the Wookiee's nephew), and Tenel Ka (well, they needed someone to fill out the quartet) as they begin their studies at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy. Great for (pre-)teen Star Wars fans only.
VB10: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Another bad summer leading into an eventful, villainous third year at Hogwarts School. But author J.K. Rowling has maintained the humor and inventiveness so that the repetitive story elements provide a framework instead of leading to boredom. I'm certainly curious to find out how well she's done in the fourth novel. Rowland also spends, to good effect, some effort on character development, so that we aren't stuck in an unchanging Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew world.