Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies
by C. S. Forester
As I've been reading through the Hornblower Novels, I've wondered what this book would be like. In the midst of tales of action and adventure, the thought of the hero as a middle-aged admiral doesn't seem all that appealing. Fortunately, Mr. Forester's imagination is better than mine. Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies is a satisfying end to the series. In this book, Horatio Hornblower, is more of a trickster than an action hero. He still has his skirmishes, but saves the day with strategy rather than brute strength. (Well, his own brute strength that is. He does employ the more vigorous men under his command.) Unlike the previous books, the tale is less of a day to day account of a particular mission, but rather tells the highlights of a three year posting in the Caribbean. It ends with a final sea voyage, and a battle against nature rather than enemy ships.
Definitely on my shelf.
LibraryThing link
As I've been reading through the Hornblower Novels, I've wondered what this book would be like. In the midst of tales of action and adventure, the thought of the hero as a middle-aged admiral doesn't seem all that appealing. Fortunately, Mr. Forester's imagination is better than mine. Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies is a satisfying end to the series. In this book, Horatio Hornblower, is more of a trickster than an action hero. He still has his skirmishes, but saves the day with strategy rather than brute strength. (Well, his own brute strength that is. He does employ the more vigorous men under his command.) Unlike the previous books, the tale is less of a day to day account of a particular mission, but rather tells the highlights of a three year posting in the Caribbean. It ends with a final sea voyage, and a battle against nature rather than enemy ships.
Definitely on my shelf.
LibraryThing link
Labels: CSForester, HornblowerSaga, OnMyShelf
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Mallworld
by Somtow Sucharitkul
This blast from the past is a collection of short stories from the early 1980's. The scenario is this: Centuries from now, the human race will be visited by an advanced race called the Selespridar. They'll shunt the solar system into a parallel universe to keep us in quarantine as they (slowly) judge whether humanity has evolved enough to become part of the greater pan-galactic civilization. Considering the stories in this book center around 30-kilometer-long shopping mall in the vicinity of Jupiter, you can probably guess that we have a ways to go.
The tales of Mallworld are amusing, though they elicit more of a quick grin than any LOLs. (Of course, they were written before LOLs, so that might be a factor.) Many of those are anachronisms/malapropisms committed by characters in their references to our ancient era. The overall purpose of the collection seems to be to take pot-shots at the vapidness of American consumer society while telling tales of common people confronting the crushing pressures brought to bear by wealth and power and winning peace and contentment in the end. There's a lot of worse things you could be reading.
Check it out!
LibraryThing link
This blast from the past is a collection of short stories from the early 1980's. The scenario is this: Centuries from now, the human race will be visited by an advanced race called the Selespridar. They'll shunt the solar system into a parallel universe to keep us in quarantine as they (slowly) judge whether humanity has evolved enough to become part of the greater pan-galactic civilization. Considering the stories in this book center around 30-kilometer-long shopping mall in the vicinity of Jupiter, you can probably guess that we have a ways to go.
The tales of Mallworld are amusing, though they elicit more of a quick grin than any LOLs. (Of course, they were written before LOLs, so that might be a factor.) Many of those are anachronisms/malapropisms committed by characters in their references to our ancient era. The overall purpose of the collection seems to be to take pot-shots at the vapidness of American consumer society while telling tales of common people confronting the crushing pressures brought to bear by wealth and power and winning peace and contentment in the end. There's a lot of worse things you could be reading.
Check it out!
LibraryThing link
Labels: CheckItOut, SomtowSucharitkul
Monday, January 14, 2019
Lies My Teacher Told Me
by James W. Loewen
Last read in January 2005.
on my shelf
LibraryThing link
Last read in January 2005.
on my shelf
LibraryThing link
Labels: JamesLoewen, OnMyShelf
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