All Purls. No Swine.
Jack Pembroke is a Royal Navy officer badly injured during the Dunkirk evacuation, now assigned to command a minesweeping flotilla in South Africa. Emil Falk commands a Nazi auxiliary cruiser – a disguised and armed merchantman conducting commerce raiding far from Europe. In The Cape Raider, a novel by Justin Fox, the two have a… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: Adventure in the Roaring Forties
J.R.R. Tolkien may be the most beloved twentieth-century author with the most diverse reader base. He appeals to Christian and New Age audiences as well as readers across the political spectrum. Fame and fortune were the last things he really sought. An Oxford professor, he just wanted to tell some stories. The Real J.R.R. Tolkien:… Continue reading Book Review By Seawriter: A Fresh Look at Tolkien
Eric Flint’s "Assiti Shards" stories are an alternate history series where people from the present are cast into the past by shards of time-shifting artwork striking the Earth. The series started with 1632, in which a West Virginia small town transposed in space with Thirty-Years-War Germany. In 2017, a new branch of the series, Ring… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: Cruising the Ancient Mediterranean in a Modern Cruise Ship
He shoots! And scores! (Completely unexpected, and hopefully accurate, sports analogy by the athletically-compromised (and proud of it) RWKJ.) My friend, Mark Lardas--who posts on Ricochet as Seawriter and who graciously allows me to reblog his posts here--has a new book available: Battle of the Atlantic 1942–45: The Climax of World War II's Greatest Naval… Continue reading Book Review By Seawriter: In Which He Calls His Own Number
Before Portland, OR, became the upscale city mocked in Portlandia, it was a down-at-the-heels lumber town and port hard hit by the Great Depression. Its transformation began in World War II, when Portland and its cross-river companion, Vancouver, became major shipbuilding centers in the shipyards established by Henry Kaiser. These produced ships by the score:… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: Liberty Factory
On March 22, 1945 Major Max Hignite flew his last Luftwaffe mission; a flight to Switzerland in a Ju-52 loaded with artwork stolen by the Nazis. The plane crashed and was sealed in a cave by a Swiss lake. Hignite, badly injured, survived. Rescued by local Swiss, he spent months near death in a hospital.… Continue reading Book Review By Seawriter: Ghosts of the Past–Seeking Stolen Nazi Art
Larry Correia is best known for hard-edged urban fantasy. His Monster Hunter and Hard Magic (The Grimnoir Chronicles) series involve lots of firearms and fantastic creatures. Gun Runner, by Larry Correia and John Brown is hard science fiction, set in a distant future that has interstellar travel. Yet Correia stays true to form. It is… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: Gun Runner, by Correia and Brown–Being the Bad Guy For A Good Cause
Niccolò Machiavelli is best known for his work The Prince, written in 1513. Today, his name is often associated with political deceit and deviousness. To be Machiavellian is to behave unscrupulously. The actual man was quite different than his modern reputation. He was a staunch believer in republican government, and was viewed as an honest… Continue reading Book Review By Seawriter: A Novel About Niccolò Machiavelli
I'm grateful for the opportunity to post, with permission, my Ricochet friend Seawriter's book reviews here. This one is particularly interesting, involving a book I haven't read yet, but which encompasses a subject dear to my heart, whether it be via a familial obligation, professional expertise, or simply a heartfelt interest. One of the most… Continue reading Book Review By Seawriter: On Reading the Enemy’s Email
The first book of the trilogy, Toward the Gleam, appeared in 2011. A fantasy, the book’s premise was that J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth legendaria were based on actual events. Author T. M. Doran bases a central character on Tolkien--John Hill, who finds a prehistoric manuscript preserved over thousands of years. Set in the… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: Kataklusmós, The Conclusion of an Epic Fantasy Trilogy