| 1.
Moon Shot - Alan Shepard, Deke Slaton with Jay Barbree - This
book was about the American space race from the very beginning to the
last Apollo missions. It covers much the same ground as the movie "The
Right Stuff" but it was an exciting read anyway. It pointed out just
how close of friends Shepard and Slaton and how each over came their
medical problems to fly into space. I did learn much about failed
Russian space missions that I hadn't known about that allowed the US to
leap frog the Russians race to the moon. In general it was a good
story/history of the brave men who pioneered space travel for the US.
The only negative aspect of the book occurred at the very end when the
author's blamed Obama for almost closing NASA down. While this might in
fact be true, it wasn't noted that Obama had inherited the worst
financial situation since the Great Depression and had to cut programs
everywhere to bring the problems under control. Other than that, it is
a great story for anyone who might not remember these epic moments of
American history. |
| 2.
The Valhalla Prophecy - Andy McDermott - I just checked this
out and found out that I had read it before but had not written it
down. I don't think I will reread this right now even though the plot
is fuzzy in my head. |
| 3. Ice War - Brian Falkner - Another
Falkner book with young adults being the heroes again. I'm starting to
believe all of Falkner books are this way. In this story, the Earth has
been invaded by Bzadians who are hell bent on taking over the Earth and
making Earthlings slaves. The definitive battle for Earth is about to
take place in the arctic in the Bering Straits where Bzandian forces
are amassing for an invasion of North America. Two teams of Navy Seals
had been dispatched to do reconnaissance but were never heard from
again. It was decided that a group of young humans (referred to as the
Angels) who had been altered to look like Bzandians be sent in as they
may succeed where as the Navy Seals could not. The leaders in the
Pentagon directing the battle preparation were unaware of the Angels
being called in as they were supposed to have been disbanded after some
prior issue which was not described in this book. (I believe there must
be previous books in this series that would fill in some blanks in this
story.) Anyway, the Angels are captured but escape by using their
brains and lead the charge to defeat the Bzadians. The battle
takes place around Little Diomede island which really exists. This was
a decent story but my least favorite of the Falkner books I have read
so far because it focuses on battle and I am not a huge fan of military
battle stories. |
| 4.
The Lost Order - Steve Berry - I hadn't read a Berry novel
in a long time so I thought I would read this one. It was a good story
that, as usual, has basis in historical fact. Here is the description
from Amazon: "The Knights of the Golden Circle was the largest and most
dangerous clandestine organization in American history. It amassed
billions in stolen gold and silver, all buried in hidden caches across
the United States. Since 1865 treasure hunters have searched, but
little of that immense wealth has ever been found. Now, one hundred and
sixty years later, two factions of what remains of the Knights of the
Golden Circle want that lost treasure―one to spend it for their own
ends, the other to preserve it. Thrust into this battle is former
Justice Department agent Cotton Malone, whose connection to the knights
is far deeper than he ever imagined. At the center is the Smithsonian
Institution―linked to the knights, its treasure, and Malone himself
through an ancestor, a Confederate spy named Angus “Cotton” Adams,
whose story holds the key to everything. Complicating matters are the
political ambitions of a reckless Speaker of the House and the bitter
widow of a United States Senator, who together are planning radical
changes to the country. And while Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt face the
past, ex-president Danny Daniels and Stephanie Nelle confront a new and
unexpected challenge, a threat that may cost one of them their life.
From the backrooms of the Smithsonian to the deepest woods in rural
Arkansas, and finally up into the rugged mountains of northern New
Mexico, The Lost Order by Steve Berry is a perilous adventure into our
country’s dark past, and a potentially even darker future."
Interestingly, the plot describes the dysfunction of government that
everyone sees but no one seems to be able to do anything about. A way
around this impasse is presented in this book that would be perfectly
legal today but no one has the guts to try it. |
| 5.
The Bishop's Pawn - Steve Berry - This is a story about a
possible explanation of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Even
though his death was been investigated over and over questions remain
about whether the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover was behind King's
assassination. In this story the answer is yes but what made this
story interesting was the twist that King himself purposely set himself
up to be killed with the hopes that that would cement his legacy
and his teachings more soundly than if he had stayed alive. The story,
most of which is based on facts, tells how James Earl Ray was recruited
in Canada because of his deep seated hate for black people and was then
send around to various training venues around the US and Mexico to hone
his killing skills. Cotton Malone get drafted from JAG into the
Magellan Billet for this his first mission and is sent to Florida by
Stephanie Nelle the head of Magellan Billet. Malone get tangled
up between bad apples in the FBI who want to silence him and
people who want any new investigation of King's death to end.
Malone keeps getting caught by the bad guys and escaping while trying
to understand King's death and the people who played a part in it. In
the end Malone has all of the evidence of what happened but decides to
destroy it because publishing it would only reopen wounds that have
somewhat healed. This was an interesting read because I never had studied King or his death and this story enlightened me a bit about what happened. I guess we will never know for sure whether Hoover ordered King's death or not. My guess he did. |
| 6. Inquisition - David Gibbins -
Haven't read a Gibbins book for a while so I thought it was time to
check in with Jack Howard and Costas to see what they have been up to.
In this story they start out by finding a ship wreck and some old coins
in the waters off of England's south western coast. In trying to trace
the history of the wreck they did a lot of research on where the ship
came from, who the captain was and what the purpose of the final voyage
was. They discovered the ship was used to move people and goods from
Tangier's when the English surrendered the town to the Moor's. The
history was traced back to various pirates who captured and then lost
the ship during subsequent battles. Most interestingly, they found out
that a sister ship, the "Black Swan" was dispatched from Tangier's at
the same time carrying the Holy Grail to attempt to keep it safe from
the Altamanus (a secret society of religious zealots and sadists that
were spawned from the Spanish Inquisition). The grail was sent to a
priest who secreted it away from Port Royal to Brazil in the hopes of
keeping it safe. Unfortunately the Altamanus tracked the shipment and
killed and burned the village of the priest in their attempt to secure
the grail. Luckily the priest and a few followers again escaped with
the grail and hid it in a mine in a cavern that could only be accessed
by diving. Of course Jack and Costas find the grail in the end after
defeating the Altamanus and take it again to a high mountain sanctuary
in the hopes that it would remain safe until such time as the world was
ready for it. I found the long history described in the book to be a bit much but what fascinated me was that the author explained at the end of the story that his main character Jack is actually a reflection of himself and that he in fact is an archaeologist and expert diver and did find a ship wreck off the coast of England with the spoils he described in the book. This makes the story more real to me as it is based mostly in fact. The grail portion of the story, however, is pure fiction. I almost sent this book back to the library because I was bored with the story but the end of the story proved quiet exciting. |
| 7. Pharaoh - David Gibbins - Another
Gibbins historical novel about the British in Egypt and Sudan in the
middle to late 1800's. The book really is about that history and the
presence of Jack, Costas and company are really a sideline. The history
was mildly interesting proven by the fact that I read the book all of
the way through. I think this is my last Gibbins novel for a while. |
| 8.
Pyramid of Doom - Andy McDermott - Another story featuring Eddie
and Nina and a lot of killing, explosions and close calls. In
this story Nina is depressed because she lost her position at IHC and
because of recent scandals her career as well. The couple are living
month to month in a run down place because that is all they can afford.
Eddie is working as a body guard for Grant, the famous Hollywood action
film actor, to make ends meet. A graduate student Macy who is working
on a dig in Egypt finds out that the bad guys (associated with an
Osiris cult) have been digging illegally near the pyramids in Gaza in
an attempt to find the Pyramid Of Osiris before the officially
sanctioned archaeologists do. Macy finds out that only three of the
four scrolls describing the directions to the Pyramid of Osiris were
turned over to the authorities and the bad guys have the fourth and
final scroll. The cult believes that Osiris baked bread containing a
very special yeast that would guarantee eternal life so they wanted to
find the pyramid and hopefully spores of the yeast (along with all of
the treasure) so they could again bake the life giving bread and charge
people a lot of money to keep the bread flowing their way. Macy
contacts Nina because she knows of her reputation and the couple
quickly gets drawn into the fray where seemingly everyone is out to get
them. They travel all over Egypt to find the temple of Osiris with the
bad guys on their tail and travel to other European cities as their
quest dictates.
Needless to say Eddie, Nina and Macy are successful in finding the temple first and defeating the cults of Osiris and Set to turn the temple complex over to the Egyptian authorities. In the process they torch the Osiris cult's headquarters thereby killing any spores from the temple. As a result of this find, Eddie and Nina are given a prestigious award from the Egyptian government and Nina is offered her old position back at IHC. Hence, depression gone. This was a good fast paced story that I really enjoyed. |
| 9.
Empire of Gold - Andy McDermott - Nina, Eddie and Macy are
called in when another Earth energy statue was found in a secret room
under Glastonbury Tor. Nina is the only one who can activate these
statues to emit a blue glow when she and the statues are at an Earth
energy location. When the previously found statue is brought together
with the newly found one they emit a pattern that points to another
status from the same set so the crew sets off for South America to find
the other statue. In the process they find a unknown Inca temple and
the other statue that was cut in half vertically. More importantly they
find paintings that describe where the legendary city of El Dorado, the
city of gold, is located and this is the location of the second half of
the status they found. So off they go again after narrowly escaping a
military coup leader and his drug dealing friends who are only in it
for the riches. After deciphering the information of the cave drawings
they find El Dorado and as soon as they start to investigate the bad
guys show up again and try to kill them all and to steal the treasures.
Eddie's long time friend and mentor Mac is killed by an associate of
the drug lord, Kit, so after defeating the bad guys at El Dorado, Eddie
takes out after the escaping solders and kills them all. After things
calm down Eddie realizes that Mac was killed by Kit, so Eddie takes off
to bring him to justice. In the process a natural gas pipeline is blown
up and Kit is killed. Eddie's involvement is caught on video and even
Nina sees him do it. What nobody saw was that Kit had a gun and was
about to kill Eddie before he saved himself. The authorities come and
arrest Eddie for murder and Nina even turns her back on him. Eddie knew
he could never prove his innocence from prison so he escapes leaving
the Police and Nina to wonder where he went. The book mysteriously ends
at this point with the story continuing in another McDermott book
called "Temple of the Gods" which unfortunately our library does not
have. I am sure I will come across this book at some point so I can
find out how Eddie clears himself and gets back with Nina. |
| 10.
Lewis & Clark for DUMMIES - Sammye J. Meadows and Jana
Sawyer Prewitt - When I saw
this DUMMIES book about Lewis & Clark I was intrigued and in
actuality it turned out to be a good format for describing the people
and places that the Corp of Discovery came upon. I have read of their
travels in the past but I needed a refresher. The authors are two women
which also changed the perspective of the material. I liked the way
they described all of the major players up front so you had some idea
as to their histories and their talents that allowed them to join the
corp. The authors describe the travels as the worlds longest camping
trip. The authors also dove into the personalities of Lewis and Clark
and Thomas Jefferson to give readers a glimpse into their thinking
about the necessity for the adventure that followed. The coverage of
the trip was well described and in many sections the story was
told in the actual words of the explorers. The first person
descriptions pointed out that Clark was not a very educated man but was
an excellent mountain man and that Lewis was not a good business man
(who failed in all of his post journey endeavors) and had terrible
bouts of depression which lead to his eventual suicide. After
describing the journey the authors had interesting observations about
places that have and have not changed since Lewis & Clark's times,
about places to visit that Lewis and Clerk visited tht still exist,
about the environmental impacts since the journey, about the impacts
white men had on the Indian tribes, about how the US government reneged
on all of the treaties they entered into with the native American and
how the animal life has been decimated since then. It was somehow
refreshing to read about their journey again and to virtually revisit
the west before the arrival of the white man. |
| 11.
The Revelation Code - Andy McDermott - A CIA covert operation in
the desert discovers ancient ruins concealing a humanoid statue, with
six wings and the face of a lion. When the CIA agents are attacked by
Iraqi forces the angel is destroyed but in the process gives off
a deadly gas which kills everyone except team member Ezekiel Cross.
Cross is then convinced that the statue represents one of four
angels prophesied in the Book of Revelation setting him off on his own
mission (he thinks) from God. Depressed following the death of her friend Macy, Nina has been focusing her energies on her pregnancy, rather than the archaeological discoveries for which she is famous. But adventure still finds her when she's kidnapped by religious cultists lead by Cross intending to force her to locate the remaining angels with the idea that if all of the statues are destroyed it will begin the apocalypse and he will be given access to all of God's secrets. Nina engages in a battle of wits against her captors, knowing her only hope of rescue is for Eddie to find the other statues first. But with a ruthless maniac determined to fulfill Revelation's prophecy, time is running out. Only by keeping the angels out of the cultists' hands can Nina and Eddie prevent the coming apocalypse. Nina and Eddie figure out that Cross intends to break the other Angels he has found and therefore release their deadly poison in Mecca and in the Vatican to kill as many believers as possible as he believes the religions these places represent are blasphemous to Gods true will. In the end of course Eddie and Nina are successful in thwarting Cross' plans and eventually kill him and all of his supporters/believers one way or another. This was a fun read in typical McDermott format. |
| 12.
The Wheel of Time - Carlos Castaneda - I hadn't read any
Castaneda books since college so I thought I would try this one since I
was fascinated with his books I did read. This book was different in
that he took quotes from Don Juan and other naguals/shamans from each
of his previous books and then tried to summarized what he learned from
them. I was amazed that I still remembered many of the terms used to
described warriors and their view of the universe. I didn't learn
anything new from this book but it was a nice trip down memory lane. |
| 13.
Pyramid - David Gibbins - This is a continuation of his book
Pharaoh that I read previously. In this story Jack and Costas almost
die many times but somewhere always survive. The descendants of the
Mahdi (out for revenge for a slight 100 years old, committed by
Kitchener after the death of Gordon of Khartoum ), the Jihadists,
infiltrating all levels of government until Egypt is ready to fall, and
with it the western worlds cradle of archaeology. The country that
captures the imagination with its immense age and towering monuments,
all at risk, and Jack and Costas searching for the last clues to 10
years of searching to find Akhenaten, his links to Moses and what drove
these men, one to destroy his own army and turn against his gods and
another to found a people. Jack has connected a mystery hidden inside a
great pyramid to a fossilized discovery in the Red Sea and a
110-year-old handwritten report of a man who claims to have escaped a
labyrinth beneath Cairo. For that his team is stalked by a brutal
extremist organization that will destroy any treasure they find. In the
end Jack and Costas find Akhenaten's City Of Lights which is a library
under the great pyramid by swimming into a tunnel off of the Nile that
has been hidden for thousands of years. Unfortunately they cannot yet
tell the world about this discovery because the Jihadists would surely
destroy everything as non Muslim. This was not a bad read and was very
suspenseful especially at the end. Also, Gibbins does an amazing job of
combining historical facts with his fiction in the creation of this
story. It's hard to tell when facts end and fiction begins. |
| 14. When Einstein Walked with Godel
- Jim Holt - A somewhat interesting book about the leaders/thinkers in
science from ancient times to more recently. Does time exist? What is
infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In
this collection of essays, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos,
and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former.
Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the
foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along
the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and
neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing
pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
He offers an introduction to many of our most beautiful but least
understood ideas, from Einsteinian relativity to string theory, and
also invites us to consider why the greatest logician of the twentieth
century believed the U.S. Constitution contained a terrible
contradiction―and whether the universe truly has a future. I will admit I didn't read this book from cover to cover as I usually do as some of the more psychological portions of the book didn't interest me. |
| 15.
Crucible - James Rollins - Another Sigma Force story. This time
it is all about AI and the threat it posses to society. In this story
Mara, a young woman genus, invents an AI "being" that lives in a laser
contained sphere. She is just about to give a demo of Eve (her AI),
when a group of religious fanatics storms in and kills all the people
she was going to give her demo to. These people want to wipe all
progress off of the face of the Earth and create a simpler time before
technology where they could have complete control over everything and
everybody. Eve was just starting to get sentient when the demo tragedy
occurred and flashed a sigma sign to her creator. The religious order
was watching the video feed before the demo and saw the sigma sign and
decided that the Sigma organization was a threat to their plan so they
kidnapped Monk's and Kat's two children and Seichan who was very
pregnant. In the process Kat is seriously injured and was almost
considered brain dead and taken off life support. They wanted to trade
the Eve device for the people they kidnapped. The zealots gained control of the Eve device and warped it to their evil needs and unleashed it on Paris France. The AI caused fires to breakout everywhere and at the same time killed all the water supply so Paris would burn to the ground. At the same time the AI broke into a nuclear power plant on the outskirts of Paris and shut down all safety systems in the hope of causing a melt down which would make northern Europe a wasteland for hundred of years to come. Luckily Mara brought back up the normal Eve and she restored the safety systems and prevented a melt down. By this time Sigma was hot on the trail of the zealots and chases them into the hills of Portugal where the final battle is fought. Luckily the good guys won again and due to modern medical technology Kat is brought out of her coma and made a complete recovery. It is interesting that Rollins wrote two endings to the story. The pleasant one above and an alternative in which the evil AI accomplished it goals and takes over the Earth by unleashing nano bots that consumed everything. He also wrote a short warning about AI and said according to his research the "Singularity" (when computers become as smart as or smarter than humans) will happen in the next decade and most likely in the next five years. He is truly scared of what might happen to humans then. He ends with the phrase, "be very afraid". |
| 16.
The Pharaoh Key - Preston & Child - This was a fun story
from authors I haven't read in a while. Two guys, Gideon and Garza,
were laid off by their company Effective Engineering Solutions in a
mysterious manner in that the company just folded without warning and
people's paychecks just stopped. Gideon and Garza went back to the
company to collect their belongings and noticed that a computer which
had been working on decrypting what was called the "Phaistos Disc" for
years finally finished with its translation. They began thinking that
they have this answer to what might be the location of treasure that
their x-boss Eli Glinn didn't have and decided to keep the result to
themselves and set out for finding the treasure somewhere deep in
Africa in the vicinity of Egypt and Sudan in a no mans land. They pooled their money and outfitted their expedition and headed out. They ran into nothing but trouble along the way because they have no facilities with the language nor local customs. They meet up with a woman, Imogen, who says she is a geologist and must share camels with her to get to where they are going. They strike out through the desert and are eventually captured by an unknown people who are living an Egyptian second century life. They are almost put to death but engineer Garza saves the kings daughter and shows them how to use a leverage to build their mini burial pyramids faster and with less effort. They become part of the community and are given more and more freedoms to leave the camp on hunting trips. All the time they are looking for the treasure of the Phaistos Disc and finally find what they believe is a tomb. They eventually break into the tomb and find substantial treasure but now mummies so they determine this is a shrine not a tomb. They eventually decide to make a run for it after bagging as much treasure as they could carry on their camels. Of course the plan goes south and they barely escape with nothing with their lives. What they did discover was a prototype of the ten commandments which was written by an Egyptian pharaoh not by Moses as believed by all major religions. Because of the disruptions this would cause they decided to keep the secret among them and to let someone else find the shrine and present it to the world. Gideon then goes back to New Mexico to die from his terminal disease, Imogen basically disappears but did revel to them that she was actually Eli Glinn's niece and an archaeologist and was spying on them the whole time. Garza goes back to the community to become their king and live out the rest of his life with his new wife and child. This was an entertaining story which I read in record time. Preston & Child still have it. |
| 17.
The Sacred Vault - Andy McDermott - Nina and Eddie are back in
another epic thriller. As the story opens Michelangelo's David is
stolen from its plinth in Florence, Italy, in the latest of a series of
audacious raids of the world's greatest treasures. When another
treasure, the Talonor Codex - an account of the travels of a great
Atlantean explorer, which suggests a link between the ancient Hindu
civilization of India and the Atlanteans is stolen from an exhibition
in San Francisco, Nina and Eddie join the adventure. They must now race
across the world from India to Nicaragua, the Himalayas to Greenland,
to find the vault of Shiva before the man who has stolen the Codex. For
the Codex says that inside the vault lies the Shiva Purana, the written
words and chronicles of Shiva, the ancient Hindu god of destruction and
transformation. With the Shiva Purana the villain Khoil and his evil
wife Vanita hopes to end the Kali Yuga (the final stage of the cycle of
Yugas in Hinduism, which is marked by violence, strife and discord) and
to begin the Satya Yuga cycle with them in charge of course. There plan
was to start WWIII and have all the major powers annihilate themselves
while they hold up in opulence in an abandoned radar base in Greenland.
Of course Nina and Eddie crash their party in Greenland, kill Khoil and
Vanita and warn the world putting an end to their plans. This was a
good story like the rest of McDermott's books. |
| 18.
Shivering World - Kathy Tyers - Tyers is a new author for me
which I selected on a whim. It seems she has been writing sci-fi books
for quiet a while and if they are like this book I may read them all.
This was a good story that takes place in the future (2143) when
religious colonists are trying to terraform a planet for themselves.
Unfortunately they have to employee expert humans to guide them in this
endeavor. The main character is a teacher/soil biologist named Graysha
with a rare terminal disease that signs on to the task because of the
triple pay she wants to use to pay off her divorce settlement. The
colonists have manipulated their genes to cure common aliments and for
longer life which makes them abominations to the EB (Eugenics Board run
by Graysha's mother) because they are not pure human. Graysha has
accepted this assignment in part to get away from her mother and her
mother's fanatic religion. As problems develop in the cooling of the
planet, Graysha investigates and finds that a fellow scientist is
causing the problem by trying to develop a bacteria that removes CFCs
from the atmosphere so he can win a large cash prise. When it becomes
apparent that the terraforming experiment on the planet is likely to
fail the organization bank rolling the project (made up of pure humans)
decides to terminate the colonization of the planet against the will of
the people. When the humans pull out the colonists decide to stay
anyway even if it means their own deaths. Graysha having fallen in love
with a colonist decides to stay as well. The story ends with Graysha
marriage and the hope of a better life away from her mother and her
politics. |
| 19.
How to change your mind - Michael Pollan - Overview of the
research done and being done on the science of psychedelics used for
both clinical and recreational purposes. There is a lot of discussion
about using psychedelics to help terminal patients deal with end of
life issues, using them for depression and anxiety, as a treatment for
alcoholism and drug dependency and as a tool for stimulating
creativity. Not only did Pollan research the science he also
experimented with LSD, psilocybin many times and ayahuasca to gather
first hand knowledge of their affects. There is also a lot of
discussion of brain chemistry and brain imaging of people under the
influence. He describes the Default Mode Network (DMN) discovered in
2001 which is a portion of the brain that acts like a hub controlling
the actions of multiple parts of the brain and how during tripping the
DMN basically turns off and lets these brain areas communicate directly
reducing or eliminating the filtering effect that results in normal
consciousness. It is speculated that the DMN is where the ego is
located and when in the off state creates a dissolution of the sense of
self. This book has made me consider doing mushrooms again to try and
jar my mind out of its rut and open the doors for more creative
thinking. I think it has helped Pollan in that regard. |
| 20.
Aerial Geology - Mary Caperton Morton - An interesting book
about many of the geological features of the North American continent.
Each chapter is a different area and contains a short description along
with photographs taken mainly from space. There are chapters on
volcanoes, canyons, glaciers, lakes, craters and lakes. There were many
areas I hadn't heard of before and there were a few geologic facts that
I learned from the text. I found it interesting that Garden of the Gods
in Colorado Springs was not covered since it is a truly amazing
geologic site. This was a fairly interesting read but definitely not
riveting by any mean. |