What am I reading?

Here's what I'm reading these days. Note that I always read multiple books simultaneously; can't help myself. I'm not counting the several books I have going at any one time as I work on my dissertation. These are only the books I want to read, not the books I need to read:

• Book I read while eating (my wife is in Germany currently, so I read while eating my three meals a day): War and Decision by Douglas Feith [I am making my way through the massive stack of non-fiction works I have accumulated on Iraq and Afghanistan; note that I dislike Feith a great deal.]
• Book I read while riding my recumbent exercise bike (this has to be relatively mindless because, well, my legs are pumping as fast as I can comfortably pump them for a half-hour every day): Penetrator #16: Deepsea Shootout [I mainly read men's adventure novels while exercising; this one is turning out to be a pretty decent Penetrator.]
• Other books: TNT 4: The Devil's Claw [I am re-reading this completely over-the-top series because I'm writing an article on it for Men of Violence zine and loving every minute of it.]
• Currently on hold: Necroscope 3: The Source [there's nothing wrong with the book, and in fact, I've read it before, but I just don't have a lot of time currently to resume reading the entire Necroscope series; I'll pick it back up when I'm done with the TNT books.]

Recent Acquisitions

These are (hopefully) the last two new books I'll acquire for a while. On my wife's last full day in town, we hit a new/used bookstore in town and I couldn't help but pick these up.

• War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History 1500 to Today by Max Boot [good popular military historian]
• King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman [mix of autobiography and history of the international chess scene; hopefully a lot more on the latter than the former]

Recent Acquisitions

Bought a number of new books while out booking with my wife. A couple new ones (because I had a gift certificate and coupon from Borders) and a bunch of used ones from Edward McKay's in Raleigh. Here we go:

Mystery/Crime:

• The Beekeeper's Apprentice and A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King [been wanting to check this series out for a long time]
• Omnibus: Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula / Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes by Loren D. Estleman [I am a sucker for Holmes pastiches]
• In the House of Secret Enemies by George C. Chesbro [these Chesbros are both hardbacks, though I've already read and own them in paperback]
• An Incident at Bloodtide by George C. Chesbro

Science Fiction:

• The Electric Church and The Digital Plague by Jeff Somers [these have sounded intriguing for a while now]
• In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker [the author just died and I've recently heard about the series]
• Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds [been wanting to investigate this series for a long time now]
• War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches ed. Kevin J. Anderson [love the original, plus I'm really curious to see what they say Teddy Roosevelt's reaction to the Martian invasion is]

Fantasy:

• Death's Master by Tanith Lee [I have been wanting to read this series for probably 20 years; I'm probably old enough to appreciate it now]
• Doc Sidhe by Aaron Allston [read it years ago and gave away my copy, but I think I may appreciate it more now]

Men's Adventure:

• Casca: The Barbarian (#5) by Barry Sadler [one of the few Cascas I don't already own]

Horror/Thriller:

• John Dies at the End by David Wong [been hearing great things about this one]

Non-Fiction:

• Poplorica by Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger [I love throwing historical trivia at my students, so this may supply me with some new material]
• Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile [been wanting to check this out for a long time, though I suspect that it seriously overestimates Wilson's importance; also curious what it says about Mike Vickers since I know and have worked with him]

Recent Acquisitions

I try to cut back on the number of new book purchases, I really do. This is especially important because I have a four-digit number of books in my library I intend to read or reread. But sometimes I just can't help myself from buying additional ones.

Here's what I've picked up lately:

• A really neat hardback, illustrated omnibus edition (from B&N) of the first three John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Love these books, and while I already own them all (the Del Rey editions are my favorites because of the awesome cover art), this is the first illustrated edition. Sadly, the entire series is not yet in the public domain (thanks Disney and Sonny Bono; say, Sonny, how're the slopes today?)
• A bunch of Fletch mystery novels by Gregory McDonald (and one of the Flynn mysteries too). Picked these up as a lot on eBay. I've always heard great things about them, and I loved the first Fletch movie. While I don't have the entire series yet, a couple folks on LibraryThing assure me it's ok to read them in any order.

Review: Mixed Blood by Roger Smith

A modern day crime thriller set in Cape Town, South Africa. Comparisons with George Pelecanos’ various efforts set in DC are almost inevitable, as Mixed Blood includes all the elements we’ve come to know and love: relatively ordinary folks, down on their luck, who make a series of very bad choices in their lives, and pay the consequences; a setting where the urban sprawl in which the action takes place is as important as any of the characters; corrupt cops and brutal criminals; grim, bloody violence; a series of apocalyptic confrontations.

Mixed Blood follows a man named Jack Burn, who was involved in a bank heist that ending with Jack and family (pregnant wife and young son) having to give up their outwardly normal lives and flee to South Africa. Oh and Jack’s marriage is dissolving, his son is kidnapped, the South African police begin to pursue him (some for the two million in cash he stole), and he runs afoul of various criminal factions. Then the story gets really interesting.

There are quite an array of minor characters who populate Mixed Blood -- all fascinating in their own right -- but I was initially skeptical that they would all play vital roles. I am pleased to report that they are all well-integrated into the story and help keep the novel’s pace moving rapidly. Aside from Jack, the main lynchpins of the story are the corrupt cop chasing Jack and an ex-con night watchman. Both are fun characters and excellent additions to the story.

Weaknesses of the book: first, the protagonist’s background. It’s only hastily sketched. He was an “Army officer” of some kind, who after some time in Iraq, opened his own security system company. What exactly did he do in the Army? How did that translate into a security system job? How did he develop the fake identities he and his wife use? I’ve known and worked with a heck of a lot of military officers in various specialties and not a one has the necessary skillsets. Guess we just have to suspend disbelief. In any case, the Iraq bit seems tacked on in an effort to tap into the current zeitgeist. Also, we just kind of have to accept that the protagonist has a gambling problem and perhaps a bit of a drinking problem and that’s why he made the very bad decision that led to his current situation. That’s more or less par for the course with most crime fiction, but I always crave a bit more justification for the truly bad decisions that characters make. The finale -- I won’t spoil it for you here, but once you’ve read 50 pages you know how it’s going to end, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing – really had a sense of inevitability, and I guess that’s the point, but the way it happened just kind of came out of nowhere. That could have been finessed a bit. I also would have liked a bit more detail on South Africa. I know essentially nothing about what it’s like there, and while the city was portrayed interestingly, I wanted a lot more setting details. I didn’t quite feel like I knew what all the places described look like, or what daily life was like there. I’m sure if I had more familiarity with it, the details provided would have been sufficient, but for me, I wanted more.

I highly recommend this book if you like modern crime fiction. It’s fast-paced, well-written, and violent. All good things in my book. If you like thrillers and contemporary crime novels, I think you’ll enjoy this one. Heck, you might even learn a little about Cape Town, as I did.

Full disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in exchange for a review. This has not influenced my review in any way.

4 stars out of 5

Review copyright 2010 J. Andrew Byers

Recent Book Acquisitions

Had a fun book-hunting expedition with a friend yesterday.  We hit four used book stores and the local comic/RPG shop.

Here's what I bought (all yesterday with the exception of the first item):

• Passport to Peril by Robert B. Parker (this month's Hard Case Crimes book, which I subscribe to).
• Three Perry Rhodan books [#2, 6, 9] (I have been curious about this long-running series for a long time, but haven't read any of them yet; still don't have #1 yet, darn it, but I'm guessing that it doesn't matter much).
• Three of Alan Burt Akers' Dray Prescott series [#6, 7, 20] (a planetary romance series I have been interested in for a long time; still missing #5, among others; once I get that, I have a long continuous run of the books an can start reading them).
• Lin Carter's The Immortal of World's End (still missing a couple from the series, but I've been slowly compiling them).
• James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 by John Pearson (I am skeptical of this one, and didn't even know that it existed, but for $1.50, I couldn't pass it up).
• John P. Marquand's Your Turn, Mr. Moto (first of the Mr. Moto series; I have heard these are very good, and much darker than the old movies).
• Dorothy Gilman's The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (first of the Mrs. Pollifax series, a "cozy espionage" series -- are there any more series like this? -- about an old lady who joins CIA).
• Matthew Woodring Stover's Heroes Die (new-ish SF novel that sounds like it has an interesting premise, reminiscent of Dream Park).
• Taylor Anderson's Into the Storm (fist of the alt history Destroyermen series, which sounds interesting, though the premise of John Birmingham's Axis of Time series and William Forstchen's Lost Regiment series).
• Katherine Neville's The Eight (an interesting re-release of an older book that's being heavily pushed by it's publisher; historical chess-related mystery/thriller; I suck at chess, but have always been fascinated by it).
• E.C. Tubb's Melome, #28 in the Dumarest of Terra series (none of which I've read yet, though I have a bunch of them).
• Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Oakdale Affair (this was probably the only real treasure in the bunch, as I had almost given up hope of finding it; just a handful of additional ERB books and I'll have a copy of everything he ever wrote).
• The first Planetes manga (a little bit of anime usually goes a long way with me, but this one has always looked interesting to me).
• Some RPG stuff: GURPS Traveller Behind the Claw (error-ridden, but it's one of the few GURPS Trav books I didn't already own); Jovian Chronicles main rulebook, the Space Equipment Handbook, and the Europa Incident (I have always been curious about this game and have been on an anime kick of late); and Fully Strapped, Always Packed gear book for Mayfair's old Underground RPG.

Nothing truly outstanding, but some good stuff overall.  A nice day, despite pulling a muscle in my lower back yesterday morning.

Review: Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

This was a fun, fast read full of non-stop action that delivered exactly what it promised, no more and no less. A police detective is recruited by a secret government agency to stop an impending release of zombies by Islamic terrorists on an unsuspecting American public. The zombie scourge is caused by genetically-manipulated prions; these zombies are "fast movers," more akin to those in 28 Days Later than the George Romero kind. The action is fast and furious, with vivid, well-described combat sequences throughout the book. It would probably make a fun summer action movie. 

It's not entirely clear how the protagonist, Joe Ledger, a detective who has never been in combat becomes such a killing machine. We are told many times that he is simply hero material, so we just have to accept that, I guess. He generally deals better with trauma than most of the Special Forces troops placed under his command (which is an odd arrangement, but again, we are asked to accept that). This need to suspend disbelief is common in both technothrillers and horror novels, so it's not out of place, or any more egregious than in most novels of either genre. 

There are a few silly bits in the book, however: 

• It's typical of technothrillers, I suppose, but it's darn silly to provide makes and models of every piece of equipment mentioned, including gym bags and watches. It could be a subtle gibe at the genre, I supposes, but there's not enough evidence for that argument. 
• Everyone refers colloquially to the Department of Homeland Security as "Homeland." That's unrealistic. I worked for ten years in government service , including two there, and everyone, civilian, military, law enforcement, intelligence, refers to it as "DHS." Likewise, Maberry has named the "black ops" organization the Department of Military Sciences ("Science" on the back cover), which is also silly. "Department" has a very specific meaning in government parlance, and it doesn't work here. Also, "Homeland" is often used as a generic term for the U.S. intelligence community, as though DHS had the lead. That is almost never the case. DHS has a small intel shop of its own, but let's be honest: it's small, ineffectual, not particularly influential, and half the people working there are detailed from other agencies, either inside or outside the department. On matters like the ones depicted in the book, CIA and FBI would have the lead. I tended to mentally substitute "the IC" for "Homeland" because all those references really irked me.
• "Hooah" is (sadly) not just a Ranger term, it's widely used throughout the army (and I've heard it used by the other services s well).
• Perhaps the silliest bit of all: one of the major characters is a British woman who is purportedly a major in Britain's SAS who heads up one of DMS' field teams. Now, to the best of my knowledge, women are not permitted in the SAS, so her background doesn't make sense, and why would a British citizen be recruited into an elite, "black" combat unit? If she had been described as a liaison officer, I might accept it, but she's not. There's really no good reason for her to be a Brit in any case. It's a bit of an oddity.  

Little things like that. I hate to criticize a book for such niggling errors, but when a technothriller purports to depict the military and intelligence comunity realistically, I do think that the book must be evaluated on its own terms and flaws have to be pointed out.

The book ends with closure -- the current threat has been decisively ended -- but it is clearly set up as the first book of a series. I liked this one well enough that I plan to pick up the next. Yes, the action and twists and turns of the plot are eminently predictable, but that's not always a bad thing. It's a fun, light read, and I enjoyed it tremendously. If you like zombies and technothrillers, this is an obligatory purchase. 

The publisher has also made available a short story that elaborates on the opening scene of the novel, which you can sign up to receive here.

Review copyright 2009 J. Andrew Byers