Debt of Honor

 

By Tom Clancy

4 stars

Action/Adventure/Suspense

Adult

This is the second Tom Clancy book I’ve had the pleasure of reading. I will eventually write up a review of Clear and Present Danger when I get a chance to do a little reviewing of the book itself. Many of the characters recur in this novel, and it made it easy for me to get into the story. Jack Ryan, John Clark, and Domingo Chavez are central characters once again, along with others.

The primary bad guy is a Japanese businessman called Razio Yamata. He is a very powerful investment leader who wields a great deal of power behind the scenes. He has a plan to make Japan great again. He maneuvers to create a conflict between Japan and the United States. That conflict loosely follows a Pearl Harbor-type script. To save the day, our three intrepid heroes have to work very hard. Don’t want to give away anything.

It is a long book in the sense that it does require a significant time commitment to read. That is the pattern I see in most of his work, so I knew what I was getting into. I do appreciate that the author takes the time to explain everything. There are a lot of short forms used, and I imagine that I’ll get less confused on that count the more of his work I read. I do have to stop for a second sometimes to make sure I understand.

I do have a couple of quibbles. Someone in the story gets stabbed with a steak knife and dies instantly. That doesn’t strike me as believable. I know he needed to be gotten rid of to advance the storyline, but I’m sure the author could’ve come up with something better than that. The other issue I have is the buildup between fleets in the Indian Ocean. The climax to that thread in the story was a bit of a letdown. 

The story, of course, is pretty intense. I enjoyed it, and when I can find the time, I’ll read another one of his books with pleasure.

Three Cheers For Me

 

By Donald Jack

5 Stars

Historical/Humour

Adult

I discovered this book and the accompanying series while I was a student in high school. At that time, I devoured books at a phenomenal rate. I discovered quite a few great authors and read some terrific books. This series was my favourite. This book is the opening salvo in the series and won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour. I’m not sure how popular The Bandy Papers were outside of Canada.

Bartholomew Bandy is an anti-hero. The son of a preacher, bland looking, physically and socially clumsy. He will make you laugh at some of the situations he gets into, but he is incredibly human and relatable at the same time. We meet him as he prepares to ship off to war in Europe. He starts WW1 as an infantryman in the trenches. Chaos follows him into the chaos that is already there. This book is top-notch comedy, but at the same time, it doesn’t minimize the war that is the backdrop of this story. He survives the trenches and joins the Royal Flying Corps. He proves to be a natural pilot. While training, his engine fails, and he makes a forced landing on an estate called Burma Park. He falls in love with the place and Katherine Lewis, the young woman living there. His encounter with the plumbing there is memorably hysterical. The rest of the book is split between flying at the front and then spending leave in England.

On reading the book a second time, I still heartily recommend it. I look forward to rereading the next four books in the series and eventually reading the four that I never knew about after graduating from high school.

Gray Mountain

By John Grisham
4 Stars
Legal Thriller
Adult

This book arrived in my library courtesy the local used book store. My daughter found it and knew that I had previously enjoyed one of his books. What she didn’t know was that I read a Reader’s Digest version of one of his novels if that actually counts.

This is a legal thriller. The heroine is Samantha Kofer a New York lawyer working for Big Law who starts the story getting furloughed for a year without pay because of a major economic crisis. She is told to work as an intern for free and after a year maybe she would get her job back along with all her benefits. She ends up finding an internship in a little hick village in the Appalachians, deep in coal country for a free legal clinic. She’s a big city girl and she’s a fish out of water, not sure of what she wants and not sure of her future.

The antagonists in all this is the big coal corporations. They are taking advantage of the little people. The story revolves around this conflict. She finds herself getting sucked deeper and deeper into a fight she doesn’t really want to get involved in. She is more of a people person than she gives herself credit for. She finds herself caring about the clients and what becomes of them.

Some of the reviews I read of this book were harsh. Outside of the main character’s vacillations which became a little wearisome, I liked the book.

When the Dikes Broke

 

By Alta Halverson Seymour

5 Stars

Historical Fiction

Children’s/Young Adult

I got a copy of this book through school before I was a teenager. I’m not sure if my copy survived all my changes of address. I had it in my personal library for many years. I am of Dutch decent and that is one of the main reasons I was interested in the story. The events are real. My parents, I believe, moved to Canada just before this happened. The flooding did not reach the areas where my family is from.

The story revolves around the van Rossem family. The family wakes up to find their house flooding. They are rescued but some members of the family get separated from the rest of the family. The story outlines the family’s ordeal.

Loved the book. Read it several times, even though I know how the story goes.

The Guns of Navarone

 

By Alistair MacLean

5 Stars

Action/Adventure/Suspense

Adult

Keith Mallory has been chosen to lead a small team of commandos to destroy an impossible target in an effort to clear the way for the Navy to rescue more than a thousand soldiers who are in peril. His team includes Dusty Miller, an explosives and sabotage expert, Casey Brown, an engineer, Andy Stevens, a mountain climber like Mallory, and Andrea, a seemingly indestructible Greek soldier who seems to get bigger and stronger as the story unfolds.

They encounter setbacks and obstacles at every turn. Physical barriers, enemy soldiers, and enemy spies. Once it gets going, the book is a page turner and is very hard to put down. For me, this is a reread. I read it when I was in high school. Now I have my own private copy for my personal library. 

This book made me a fan of Alistair MacLean. I would happily read all his books if I had the time. This one comes highly recommended.

Needful Things

By Stephen King
2 Stars
Horror/Suspense
Adult

I hear that Stephen King is a better writer than this book would seem to indicate. I’m not into horror, and this book gives me no desire to seek out any more of his work. I got the book from a thrift store for next to nothing, because I wanted to see how he writes. I was disappointed.

There is a scene where he rips off Edgar Allan Poe. Okay, I’m sure he did that as some kind of tribute, and maybe that makes it all right. Meh. Every single English literature and creative writing professor I ever had would have crucified me for doing something like that.

Second, he would throw in random sexual references in at least one scene where that was unnecessary unless you wanted to add some interest to a scene that really wasn’t very good. I understand the technique, and I don’t view it as a mark of good writing.

The climactic scene required a leap in logic. I’m not ashamed to say that I did not see that coming. I did not feel smarter after reading that.

That being said, I did read the whole thing, which means the writing was not completely atrocious. Stephen King fans seem to like it. I don’t feel any guilt about rating it a two. I usually don’t review or rate anything less than three, but I think Mr. King is tough and can take it.

His Majesty's Yankees

 By Thomas H. Raddall

5 stars

Adventure/Historical Fiction

Adult

This book sat apparently untouched in my parents' library while I was growing up. In my teens, I decided to pull it out and read it. I’m not sure anyone else in my family ever did. The book turned out to be far better than I was expecting. Someone in my family still has the family copy of this. I don't know who, but I suspect someone. No worries, I hope it gets read by many. My daughter did find me my own copy in a local used book store. A nice little surprise.

The book is set in the maritime provinces of Canada, mainly Nova Scotia, during the American Revolution. The main character is David Strange, the youngest member of his family, and the story revolves around him and his family. The family is torn between loyalty to Britain and loyalty to the cause of their fellow colonists. The research on the history in this book is superb, and the story is memorable enough. I read the story about forty-five years ago and remember it well enough to review it without having to find a copy and reread it. The rebel assault on Fort Cumberland is particularly well written. I have visited the site and have written an article on this site that might be of interest. Fort Beausejour/Fort Cumberland

This book did win the Governor General’s Award when it was published, and if you can get access to a copy and Canadian history is something that interests you, this book should be well worth your while.

The Silent Corner

By Dean Koontz
5 Stars
Action/Adventure/Suspense
Adult

In my opinion, this is one of Dean Koontz’s best. I wish I’d discovered his work sooner.

The heroine is Jane Hawk. She is an FBI agent who goes rogue. Her husband committed suicide under questionable circumstances. When she digs into the case, she is warned off, and she and her son are threatened. She goes on leave, hides her son somewhere safe, and continues her investigation underground. What she finds is chilling. The bad guys are truly evil. As usual, I will not give away the story. This is the beginning of a series, so while the ending is satisfying, there are things left unresolved for the next saga in the series. I’m truly tempted to devour the whole rest of the series before I read anything else, but that will work at cross purposes to why I’m reading these books in the first place.

The writing is, of course, excellent. It will keep you on the edge of your seat. I was not tempted to flip ahead in the book because I didn’t want to miss anything. I also didn’t want to put it down. At the beginning of the book, you will spend most of your time in Jane’s head. There is what felt like a head hop at one point, but I didn’t find it very confusing. I also felt that one of the helper characters didn’t acquit himself quite as well as I expected from the buildup. These are minor quibbles that didn’t really bother my enjoyment of the book at all.

Great read. Highly recommended.

The Triumph of the Sun

 

By Wilbur Smith
4 Stars
Action/Adventure/Suspense
Adult

This book was given to me by a family friend. I had not heard of this particular author beforehand. Before I get into the review, I will advise any of my readers that this book contains a lot of graphic violence and graphic sex scenes. I would label the sex scenes as erotic (by my own definition) in nature. I would not go so far as to call them porno/smut. I did not know that going in. I would not have read it knowing that.

The main characters are Rebecca Benbrook: young, beautiful, intelligent, and responsible beyond her years; however, when it comes to men, she’s naive and stupid. Penrod Balantyne: young soldier, courageous, dashing, handsome, but he’s a man-whore. Emir Osman Atalan: the main villain, courageous, handsome, intelligent, absolutely ruthless. There are four more characters of slightly lesser importance that I will mention. Ryder Courtney: a merchant, courageous, handsome, intelligent, rich, but a little bit boring. The twins Saffron and Amber Benbrook are younger sisters. They mature through the course of the book. Finally, the Mahdi: a religious leader who unites the warring tribes of Sudan in rebellion. There are many other important characters throughout the book, but everything revolves around the ones I’ve mentioned. 

The book begins with the siege of Khartoum in 1884 and flows from there. This book is very well written. The descriptions were excellent, although in a few places near the beginning, I felt they dragged a bit. Maybe I’m just an impatient reader, but I did have to fight the urge to skip ahead through some of it. After one of the sex scenes, I wasn’t far from putting it down and not picking it back up. Everything you would expect in a well-written novel was there, though. The characters were complex and, for the most part, believable. The action scenes were riveting. There was foreshadowing, symbolism, and parallels, and it all made sense. I found the climax a little predictable, but the ending was satisfying. My star deduction in the rating is based on the writing itself, not the graphic depictions that some may disapprove of. Some people enjoy that in a book.

One small thing baffles me. There is a minor character toward the end of the book that is a part of a family where all the men are handsome and the women beautiful, but for some reason, it’s pointed out a couple of times that he is butt-ugly. It stood out so starkly, and I’m not sure why the author did that.

The Fist of God

 

By Frederick Forsyth
5 Stars
Action/Adventure/Suspense
Adult

I would have to consider myself a fan of Frederick Forsyth. This is the sixth of his novels that I have read, and I haven’t been disappointed in any way in any of them.

The book is set during the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, Desert Shield, and the beginning of Desert Storm. The premise of the book is that Saddam Hussein has built a Weapon of Mass Destruction that Iraq has code-named The Fist of God. It is a top-secret program that almost managed to escape the Allies' attention. There is a race against time to identify, locate, and destroy the threat. The consequences are enormous.

Through most of the book, Major Mike Martin of the SAS does the heavy lifting. He is borrowed by the intelligence people to work inside first Kuwait, then Iraq. The allies have a wild-card-type spy on the inside. They don’t actually know who he is, and neither do we. There is a twist at the end of the story that completely blindsided me.

Great book, highly recommended.

The Dogs of War

 

By Frederick Forsyth
5 Stars
Action/Adventure/Suspense
Adult

I read this book when I was in high school and absolutely loved it. Became a bit of a fan of the author. My kids learned about this while we were discussing different authors that I liked when I was growing up. My daughter found a copy in the used bookstore in town and decided I should have my own personal copy. This review is based on my reread.

Cat Shannon is a mercenary leader who finds a job for himself and his band of mercenaries. They are hired to overthrow the government of a small African country so that his client can gain mining rights and favour from the installed regime. The clients motivation is of course greed and the mercenaries need money as well. The author draws the reader in and you will end up cheering for these guys. The story ends with a twist and it is quite satisfying. My second time through, I knew what was coming and looked for all the little clues along the way. A great read both times but the ending hit me completely differently the second time around.

I saw the movie made from this book and didn’t like it at all. Christopher Walken played Cat Shannon and he is not what I envisioned the character to be. No disrespect to his acting but I think he was miscast. For me the book is highly recommended but the movie is not. 

 

Nala's World

 

By Dean Nicholson with Garry Jenkins

5 Stars

Non-Fiction/Adventure

Adult 

We found this book in the Sackville, New Brunswick, book exchange box and took it home with us. Nala is a cat, and the book is basically the story of how this long-distance bicycle traveler found her and adopted her. They have been touring the world together ever since, raising money for animal shelters and the like. They can be followed on their YouTube channel 1bike1world and their Instagram account @1bike1world. I do follow them myself. You can subscribe to their community at https://www.1bike1world.com/community. There is a cost.

The initial appeal of the story to me is that I have traveled by bicycle myself and would love to be doing it again. I won’t list my excuses here. Reading about it is quite enjoyable. I can sit and exchange stories with fellow riders for hours. I also grew up with cats. 

The author meets an abandoned kitten while cycling in Bosnia and takes it with him. He names her Nala and then goes through the adventure of learning how to care for her and take care of the paperwork involved with traveling with a pet and crossing international borders. The story became an Internet phenomenon, and they’ve been able to contribute a great deal to animal shelters along the way. It’s a feel-good story, and I quite enjoyed it.

The Journey - A History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)

By Robert Coulter

5 Stars

Religion/History

Adult

For me, this is an important historical work as I have been a Sabbath-keeping Christian for more than fifty years. The subject matter is something I have studied in the past, and when I became aware of this book, I sought it out and bought my own copy. Once it was delivered, I read it cover to cover.

Other works that I have read on the subject are: “History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)” by Richard C. Nickels, “History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)” by John Kiesz, “A History of the True Church” by Andrew N. Dugger and Clarence O. Dodd, “The Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong Volumes I and II. In addition, I have listened to a number of sermons touching on the subject as well as some lectures while I attended Ambassador College in Pasadena, California, back in the 1980s. Most of these works can be obtained online for anyone interested. I got free PDF files of all except the Autobiography, which I have in hard copy.

For a reference work, I found this quite easy to read. That is not the case with some of the books in the above paragraph. This is well researched, and it does reference some of the works above. What impressed me the most about it was its simple, logical, chronological organization. I also appreciated the author's efforts at complete honesty on the subject. He is critical of some of the other books, and he supports his points.

One point I’d like to make is that the separate organizations were not as separate as some of the writers seem to indicate. Herbert Armstrong started “flying solo” with the Radio Church of God, but I do recall a high ranking minister in a lecture at college mention that in the early days, when they were traveling, sometimes they would find themselves in an area without a directly affiliated congregation and would sometime visit Church of God Seventh Day congregations and at times deliver sermons while visiting. So I don’t think organizational borders were very rigid. 

This is a valuable reference to anyone within the broader Church of God community and anyone interested in studying the subject.

 

Flight of Eagles

By Jack Higgins

4.5 Stars

Action/Adventure/Suspense

Adult

This is my first written book review in a very long time. I might write an entry in my dormant blog explaining that. It doesn’t belong here. My daughter, knowing that I’m a Jack Higgins fan, found this at the local used book store and brought it home for me. This book is everything you would expect from a Jack Higgins novel. Masterful storytelling and well-written.

We follow Harry and Max Kelso, who are identical twins who follow in the footsteps of their World War I fighter pilot ace father. They are separated as boys, one living in the United States, the other in Germany. They fought on opposite sides during World War II. If that sounds a little corny, don’t worry about it. Higgins handles this well. It doesn’t come off that way.

I grew up completely enamored with airplanes, especially fighter planes and the pilots that flew them. As a writer, I understand “the suspension of disbelief” concept, and as a reader, because of my background, I struggled some with this at the beginning of the book. If you don’t have the background, I have you likely will not notice. The maneuver where a fighter pilot slams the “brakes” to get his opponent to overshoot or even crash, to me, is a trope. I think every fictional fighter pilot I’ve ever read pulls that stunt like it’s somehow genius (okay, Firefox was an exception). I’ll give him a pass on that partly because it is actually a thing. It does have the disadvantage that if your enemy is expecting it you’ve bled off too much energy and now you’re a sitting duck.

I feel I have to dock him a half point for something, though, and as a big fan, I almost feel guilty doing it. Erich (Bubi) Hartmann is a character in the book, and he is completely off on the actual historical person. I’m not sure I understand why. Maybe the personality is perfectly matched, but he was spending his time fighting on the Eastern Front, not working for Himmler. He captures Adolph Galland’s charisma, and he seems to be spot on with all the other historical characters. Higgins did his homework. I can’t help but think this was done on purpose. It is possible they met, and Higgins didn’t like him one bit. Only saying that because there is one ace, who will remain unnamed, who is considered a hero, but as a person, he is not a nice man. I’ve written people I don’t like into villains in my writing. Not saying that that is what is happening. I think we should try to be true to actual history, and I think the character could have been given a different name. Hartmann could have been left out of it.