Ultimatum

 

By Richard Rohmer

5 Stars

Thriller

Adult

The author of this book has lived an incredibly full life, and as of the writing of this, he's still alive at 102 years old. The book was a number-one-selling book in Canada in 1973. I encountered it in my high school library within a few years of that and enjoyed it enough to eagerly read the sequel as soon as I found it in the same library.

This book was written with the oil crisis as a backdrop. America needs resources, and Canada has resources. They haggle and disagree, and finally the USA decides they need to annex Canada. I won't spoil the story about what happens. I will say that the premise of the story, for most of my life, came across as a little bit ridiculous; then Donald Trump got elected and decided to have a tariff war with us, spouting some very offensive rhetoric. I think that this book would really resonate with Canadian readers today. As a proud Canadian, I appreciated it and feel like giving it less than five stars would somehow feel disloyal. 

It's a worthy read, and I do recommend it even for readers who are not Canadian.

Sharpe's Escape

 

By Bernard Cornwell

5 Stars

Historical Fiction

Adult

I was introduced to Richard Sharpe and his right-hand man, Harper, through YouTube clips. I've never actually watched an entire episode of the show. My daughter was at a used bookstore and got me a couple of these novels because she thought I'd probably enjoy them. I read this one not expecting to like it as much as I did. Because there are 22 novels in the series at this point, I was expecting it to strike me as a little bit formulaic.  I thought the book was excellent. I wasn't disappointed with any of it.

The novel is built around the Bussaco Campaign of 1810. French General Massena objective was Lisbon, hoping to kick the British clear out of Portugal. Wellington is retreating, scorched earth to a defensive line he had built north of the city. In following those orders, Richard Sharpe clashes with Ferragus, who is the main villain of the book. Ferragus and his brother think that the French are going to win, and they are betraying the British and French by trying to sell a massive quantity of food to the French. They believe that by doing this, they will save their family's wealth for the future. Sharpe and his troops stumble across the initial goodwill shipment and destroy it, earning the villains' eternal hatred. Their personal feud plays out against the backdrop of the British victory at Bussaco, where the French advance is temporarily checked, then the sacking of Coimbra, and finally a major skirmish in front of Wellington's defensive works. 

What I liked about the book was the superb descriptions of the battles first, and the pacing and flow of the story. It is believably well written. Sharpe is maybe a bit more of a rogue than I was expecting from the clips online I'd viewed. This is a book I highly recommend. I do have another in the series in my home library and I'm looking forward to reading it as well in the not-too-distant future. 

A History of the True Church

 

By Andrew N. Dugger & Clarence O. Dodd

3.5 Stars

Religion/History

Adult

I was aware of this church history before I ever went to Ambassador College. Its contents were referred to in articles and lectures I read and heard. To some, it is controversial, but whether you agree or disagree with its conclusions, it has had a big impact on the Churches of God following the split with the Seventh Day Adventists. I do not know how this book is viewed by the Adventists. At least part of it would not be viewed favourably. For any Catholic readers, be forewarned that it is deeply anti-catholic. As well, while I have read a great deal on the subject, I do not consider myself qualified as a Church of God historian. Read it yourself and draw your own conclusions.

If there were a copy of this available for sign-out at the Ambassador College library, I would have read it at the beginning of 1986. As I "reread" it, I seem to only remember excerpts, so I think I might be misremembering. I'm not certain a copy was available. I don't remember at all what the book itself looked like. The cover I made is based on a description of it from my online research. No online image of it is available to me. I knew a lot about the book from other sources. I just know that I read that section of the library, including a small book about the Waldensians, which I have not been able to positively identify. Forty years is quite a long time.

The foundational premise of the book is that the Church of God has always existed in one form or another since its founding on Pentecost outside of the Roman Catholic Church. As a Sabbatarian myself, I want to believe that that is true. This book does claim unbroken apostolic succession for the Churches of God. I don't think that's provable, and my personal bible study doesn't convince me that that is even necessary. The book relies heavily on Baptist historians who made an effort to trace Protestantism's history, bypassing the Catholic Church.

The book is organized by century and presents its argument for each time period. I found the book to be difficult to read. It is dry and is peppered with references to other works. The organization lets you read it a bite at a time. This gave me a chance to stop and digest as I went.

If you are interested in studying the history of Sabbatarian Christian churches, this is a must-read. A copy of it is available through this link: https://www.friendsofsabbath.org/reader/Further_Research/e-books/A%20History%20of%20the%20True%20Church%20%20(Dugger%20and%20Dodd).pdf

The Afghan

 

By Frederick Forsyth

4 Stars

Thriller/Suspense

Adult

To this point, I have loved every book I've read from this author. This one disappointed me a little, even though I still think it's a great read.

Mike Martin is the protagonist of this novel. I remember him from "The Fist of God". In this book, he is older; in fact, he seems to be riding off into the sunset. He's renovating a building to retire in, doing most of the work himself. When he gets the call to go back into action, no real motivation is provided for him to do so. Any motivation is implied. If you've read the preceding books, it makes sense. I'm struggling with it, though, as I approach my own retirement. Risk my life for an unknown threat? It's hard for this reader to fully buy into that without some kind of explained incentive.

Terry Martin is the protagonist's brother. In "The Fist of God," he felt like an important character. This time, not so much. He's a professor and works for the government as an Arabic linguistic expert on an on-call basis, along with several other experts. They just agree with what is feared. He's really not needed. Then he boasts about his brother's abilities, which gets the attention of the counter-terrorism people. After his brother's previous exploits, that prodding is entirely unnecessary. A lot of time is spent on his backstory and his character development; once he's made this less-than-spectacular contribution, he disappears from the story. I feel like he's a token character who needed either a bigger role or no real role at all. 

Those two things bothered me and are the reason for the one-star deduction. Outside of that, the story was terrific. It was a page-turner, and I have no problem keeping it as part of my personal library. I do recommend this book, but I think that the other books he's written that I've read are all a bit better.