BillP's Book\Miniature\Wargame Blog

Friday by Robert Heinlein is a strange bit of late (read “hypersexualized”) Heinlein about a female clandestine courier who happens to be an artificial person. The book takes place in a weird world were North America is heavily balkanized and has a very uneven tech level were intercontinental transportation via ballistic rocket and the Internet co-exist with horse based transport. I remember being impressed with it when I read it at the age of 19. Now, I just see how poorly Heinlein writes women and marvel at what a “dirty old man” he became in his old age.

The Dispatcher by John Scalzi was in interesting mystery set in a world were murder is essentially impossible because homicide victims magically disappear from the crime scene and wake up about 5 minutes later in their beds, naked. This inexplicable phenomena gives rise to the profession of “dispatchers” who are legally authorized to kill people on the verge of death via other causes to ensure that they survive. For example, if one is going to have a risky surgery, one can hire a “dispatcher” to monitor the surgery and kill you if anything goes wrong during it. That will make you a murder victim and you’ll wake up in your bed, none the worse for wear. The book was interesting, but not really memorable since the premise is just used to drive a plot rather than as an exploration of the societal or philosophical implicaitons.

We Lead by Christopher Nuttall is the ninth book in a series dealing with Humankind warring with aliens using fleets of starships. Its not bad, very engaging and moves right along, but this is the ninth book, its not where you want to start.

Tell Tale Stories is the latest collection of “surprise ending” short stories by Jeffery Archer. As usual with Archer these run the gamut from pretty good to excellent and are a good way to kill a couple of hours on a plane, at an airport, or while lounging on the beach.

The Shepard Frederick Forsyth’s aviation ghost story is my standard go-to read on Christmas eve when everyone else is asleep. This year I read it at my sister-in-law’s house in Ottawa about 12:30 on Christmas morning after everyone was in bed.

A Magnificent Disaster: The Failure of Market Garden, The Arnhem Operation, September 1944 is a very critical look at the operation by David Bennett. Bennett faults the planning for the operation as well as the execution of the ground component of the plan especially by 30 Corps. He also has a few choice things to say about the post-operation efforts by Browning and Monty to slag Sosabowski. The book was good, but it was done better by Sebastian Ritchie in his Arnhem: Myth and Reality.

That’s 137 for the year, a new league record, and I’m leaving on a seven day cruise tomorrow so we’ll see y’all next year and thanks for stopping by and hanging out this year!

First the good stuff. Helprin is an absolutely amazing writer. His prose is lyrical and enthralling. His description is wonderful. His characters are very well realized and engaging. All of that is true here as well.

Now the bad stuff. Helprin, has always been a “small conservative” and this was reflected in his work which has extolled the virtues of honor, self-reliance, and the need for individuals to willingly sacrifice themselves for the benefit of civilization. His philosophy was a part of why I’ve enjoyed his books over the years.

Unfortunately, in this book he has gone a bit off the deep-end of “big C Conservatism”. A couple of examples; the central premise of the novel, that his grandson would have a better chance of surviving leukemia in the US than France, while useful for slagging Obamacare/expanded healthcare access isn’t actually true because France’s five year survival rate for Childhood Leukemia is actually higher than the U.S.’s. He’s also on a bit of a Islamophobic kick here, one of the subplots of the book involves a group of three French Muslims who attack a Jewish kid on the street and are thwarted by a stranger who happens by and kills two of them. The unfolding of that subplot plays into several anti-Islamic stereotypes. Finally, a major the undertone of the book is that because of Muslim immigration and failure to assimilate, Europe in general and France in particular, are no longer safe for Jews.

So in my view, what was once a strong voice for the values of conservatism, values that I more or less share, has been corrupted by the fear and hatred of Islam and the willingness to ignore inconvenient facts into the current political philosophy that purports to be “conservative”.

Oh well, maybe his next book will be better.

131 for the year.