Stars and Stripes in Peril

I've enjoyed quite a few alternate history novels, including some by Harry Turtledove as well as S.M. Stirling.  But many times I've been disappointed as well, because, no matter how interesting the hook is, no matter what tiny thing may happen to change history and launch a cool plot, it still comes down to good writing.  A good novel still has to be a good story with well developed characters, etc.

This novel, Stars & Stripes in Peril is the second in the "Stars and Stripes" trilogy by Harry Harrison.  This is an alternate history novel set in the Civil War era, with all the major US and Confederate historical figures interacting.  In the first book, the "hook" was that Queen Victoria's husband did not live long enough to convince her not to enter the American Civil War on the Southern side...so the British did indeed enter the conflict.  However, they attacked the wrong target, hitting Biloxi instead of New Orleans to stop Grant, and so the South teamed up with the North to fight a common foe.  Now in this second book, the war with Britain is over but Queen Victoria isn't finished.  The US forces take the war to Great Britain, fighting for the freedom of Ireland this time.

I enjoyed reading this one, mostly because it was fairly simple and straight forward.  The plot was interesting and the author has thrown in lots of historical tidbits.  I like seeing people like Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman, working alongside Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and others in cooperation.  That part was cool but, the overall characterization was lacking.  I found them to be pretty flat, and one dimensional.  The major historical characters always seemed to think the same and even used the same phrases.  The non-historical characters came off a little better.  But that was OK.  I did appreciate the American's use of technology here, particularly the next generation of ironclads as well as an improved version of the Gatling gun.  I have one more to read in this trilogy and I will definitely do so.

Glory in the Name

James L. Nelson is one of "my" authors.  By that I mean I'll read anything and everything he writes as it's sure to be a great read.  I can't honestly say that about all of the authors on the "my authors" list at the side of my blog page but with James L. Nelson, I've now read 9 of his books and they have all been fantastic experiences; he's never let me down.  I even read his web page and get fascinated by his maritime expertise and how he translates that into fiction and nonfiction alike.  I have yet to try any of his nonfiction works but have no doubt that I will in due course.  As a long-time lover of nautical fiction, I tend to compare everything to the Horatio Hornblower series.  While that is certainly good, entertaining nautical fiction, and has transcended to the rank of "classic" literature, I enjoy Mr Nelson's novels more.

Glory in the Name is the first of Mr Nelson's "Bowater" series.  This is the story of Lieutenant Samuel Bowater, US Navy, at the outbreak of the US Civil War.  He reluctantly resigns his commission in order to fight on the side of the Confederacy.  Unfortunately, the Southern cause is long on heart and desire but short on resources, and the Confederate Navy is a perfect example with very few ships and fewer naval officers.  Bowater gains his first command of a modified tugboat, which he proceeds to mount guns upon, turning it into a sort of gunboat.  This is an exciting time in naval warfare as the switch from sail to steam and to ironclads is happening fast.  The resulting sea battles are strange events indeed.  Bowater has several adventures, culminating in the Battle of New Orleans.

The story is a good one, with fleshed out characters, interesting personalities, and complicated relationships. The realtionship between Bowater and his chief engineer, for example, is a wonderful mix of two people who dislike, even despise each other, and yet have a profound respect for each other.  The build up from a crew of strangers to one of comrades in arms is natural and fun to read.  The action/battle sequences are fascinating in their historical accuracy but also really intense.  It takes a great writer to write scenes from history where you already know the outcome, and yet as you're reading it, the result does not seem inevitable.  I have read a lot about the Civil War, both fiction and nonfiction, and yet the naval parts are mostly reduced to the USS Monitor/CSS Virginia (ne Merrimack) battle and the Battle of New Orleans (from Farragut's point of view).  But this novel really brought home the scale of such Civil War naval battles as well as the almost hopeless situation of the CS Navy, such as it was.  This novel is a great example of how to place a really good human story against an historically accurate backdrop.  We learn from the history without feeling lectured and we live the lives of the characters as they face great hardship and unbearable pain of tragic loss.

This is the first of a series, with Thieves of Mercy being the second, published in 2005.  Since then Mr Nelson seems to have concentrated more on his nonfiction work and I wonder how long it might be before he returns to his fiction.  Hopefully, not long.  Meanwhile I will be looking to purchase more of his stuff.

Larry Niven wrote "Leviathan", the next story in The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century.  I've read several of his science fiction novels, including the "Ringworld" series but he's not one of my favorites.  I really like his ideas and settings but his story telling just doesn't jive with me for some reason.  This story is no exception.  It's about answering the "what if" question of what if when you go back in time, you not only travel through time but you also travel to a different time path.  Here the protagonist (in our future) goes hunting for a Leviathan or extinct sperm whale as the largest creature ever on earth.  Not worth the time to read even though this was a short one.

Next up: William Corlett's The Tunnel Behind the Waterfall, the third book of the "Magician's House Quartet"

Savannah: or A Gift for Mr Lincoln

John Jakes is another one of "my" authors, or an author that I will pretty much purchase and read anything they publish.  Over the years, these authors have changed somewhat, particularly if there is a downard trend in quality.  Savannah: or A Gift for Mr Lincoln ranks on the lower end of Mr Jakes' work but still there is enough enjoyment here to keep him on my list.  His last three books have suffered some so he's pushing it a little but his age would dictate there aren't too many novels left in him anyway.

This particular novel is one of his shorter ones and is a fairly light read.  He takes a tiny part of General Sherman's famous "March to the Sea" campaign near the end of the Civil War, namely that of the days and weeks surrounding the taking of Savannah during late December 1864.  Sherman, to this day, is often a hated man in the South due to this campaign which they see as unneccesarily harsh to the farmers and other non-combatants of the region.  But Sherman intended to break the back of the South and make them plea for peace and end the war sooner.  Not all that unlike another controversial decision almost a century later with the dropping of atom bombs on Japan.

The story here though is not about warfare or tactics or political decisions.  Rather, it brings it all down to the personal level, as we follow the story of how ordinary people in Savannah deal with what is happening around them.  It's a fairly basic story and the characters represent a cross section of society at that time.  One of the main characters is a twelve year old girl and as a result, the novel almost reads as a young adult novel.  Certainly there is no swearing or sex in this book.  General Sherman does put in a couple of appearances and comes across more as an understanding grandfather than the root of all evil.  This, ultimately, is a book about Christmas and the spirit of that time of the year so understanding the other person's point of view is easier, or at least people do tend to work harder at it.  I will say that I continue to be inspired by the historical accuracy of Mr Jakes' work.  He always manages to sprinkle in quite a few historical tidbits and that makes his books fun to read.

The third story in Jeffrey Archer's collection, Cat O'Nine Tales was awesome.  "Don't Drink the Water" is told in his same style of campfire storytelling; i.e. not much dialogue, just here's what happened.  The story tells of a man in Russia who got away with murder.  He does it by getting his wife to unknowingly drink the tap water at a hotel instead of the bottled water.  Apparently 50 some years ago the water there was downright dangerous.  Sure enough his wife gets a disease and dies.  Unfortunately for the protagonist, justice is ultimately served to him though, just not by the legal system.  The twist right at the end was a complete surprise and had me laughing out loud.

Next up: a young adult fantasy novel, The Steps Up the Chimney, the first in a series of four called "The Magician's House Quartet" by William Corlett.

Red River

The second book I completed on my trip to Las Vegas was P.G. Nagle's Red River. This is the fourth and final (it appears) book in her "Civil War in the Far West" series. The series started with Gloritta Pass, and continued with The Guns of Valverde, and then Galveston.

I think this book really demonstrates how Ms Nagle has grown into her writing abilities. The first book was well researched and there were several strong characters but the plot seemed to be pretty basic and even predictable. She even included what I would consider to be an amateurish plot device that interrupted the climax of the story. But as she progressed through this series she just got better and better. The research was still outstanding, exhaustive even, but her characters were better written. The plots take place against historical realities so that, of course, can't be changed. But how her fictional characters act and interact with others has become delightful. This last book in the series illustrates that very well, with her long-time character, confederate officer Jamie Russell, becoming truly multi-dimensional. His interaction with Mrs Hawkland, forms the basis for the novel.

Ms Nagle's wartime action scenes are very well done as well. I felt like I was there, not in any kind of heroic battle sense but definitely feeling the fear, the exhaustion, and the filth of battle. Jamie leads his gun battery and is in the thick of battles...you can just hear the explosions and see the men around him struggle to do their duty. The Red River itself, a tributary to the Mississippi River, takes on a life of its own, especially as the Union boats try to free their ships from shallow waters in order to secure the entire Mississippi, a crutial strategy for the war.

All in all, this wraps up a very good historical fiction series. I was happy to see it progress but I wish there were one more novel to finish out the war. This one does take us up to where the end is in sight though, so perhaps another would be anti-climactic. I'm not sure if Ms Nagle planned for another but it seems she has turned her hand to romantic fantasy for the moment.

Next up: I've already begun the third book in the first "Kushiel" trilogy: Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey. As we get closer to the end of the year I always try to finish up any series that I have open. That is, excepting those series that I actually plan to read over many years, like "Repairman Jack" for instance.

Galveston

It was very cold out today but I persevered and spent my lunch break in my car anyway amidst swirling snow flakes and a bitterly cold wind. That's so I could complete Galveston, by P.G. Nagle. My fingers were cold and my hands were shaking and I even had to start the car's motor just to keep the heat up to a reasonable level. But I had to do it because I really wanted to finish this book.

This is the third book of a four book series about the Civil War in the Far West. I enjoyed the first book, Glorieta Pass quite a bit but I did see flaws in it. The second book, The Guns of Valverde was much less enjoyable although still not a bad book. I've been delaying reading this third book because of that, worried that the series was deteriorating. However, I was way off base. This novel was thoroughly enjoyable and I'm now really looking forward to the last book of the series, Red River, which has just been published in paperback.

This is not a civil war book that is filled with battle scenes. Quite the contrary. We follow three main characters through the story. Jaime is a confederate soldier, formerly of the Quartermaster corps but he now commands an artillery battery. He's been with us since the first book. We also follow his sister, Emma, as well as a Union naval ship master, Quincy. Galveston, Texas is the scene as union ships set up a naval blockade and invade the town while Confederate forces fight back. There is really only one major battle scene in the book, at the climax near the end, but the mounting tension throughout the novel makes for a great story. The story builds for the first half of the book as the players move into place and we get to see elements of the society of the times. That's what I like about historical fiction, a chance to "live" in the times represented. There is lots of good characterization here as we experience day-to-day living with these characters, see their ups and downs, fret over relationships and hope for better times. Ms Nagle seems to have grown as a story teller with this entry and I plan to move the last book of the series up on my reading list. Interestingly, I recently wrote the author to see if she would be writing any more in this series or any historical fiction for that matter. She replied very graciously to say that she has recently published a "romantic fantasy" novel under the name "Pati Nagle" and that she had no further plans for this series...but you never know.

I also completed one more essay/story from Harlan Ellison's The Essential Ellison. This one was called "Gopher in the Gilly" and concerns a time when the author was 13 years old and ran away to the circus. He lives and works with them for three months before being arrested and spending 3 days in jail with a "geek," a psycho drunkard that found employment with the circuses in those days because they were willing to do anything, and I mean anything, for the job. The circus experience was not at all what the author, the "gopher" was expecting, and was a truly horrible time. The piece is a short and somewhat bitter commentary on the society of the day, and how a child's dreams can be dashed with hard core reality.

Next up, The Raiders, by Harold Robbins, the sequel to The Carpetbaggers.

The Guns of Valverde

As expected I didn't get quite as much reading done this last week as I normally do. Lots going on in our household, mostly because it is May, the end of the school year. It wasn't until today at lunchtime that I finished reading the final few pages of P.G. Nagle's The Guns of Valverde. Normally I would have expected to have completed this one on or about Saturday but just too much going on.

This book is the second of Ms Nagle's "Civil War in the West" series. I read the first one, Glorietta Pass earlier this year and while I enjoyed it mostly, I felt it didn't quite live up to its potential. And it had a cop-out surprise at the end that rubbed me the wrong way. So it was with some small trepidation that I began to read this second volume of the series. But as I read this book, I was gratified to revisit most of the same characters from the first book, be reminded of their motivations, and watch them grow. I was happy to follow the plot as well because it involves more of New Mexico, my home state (although I haven't lived there for many years). There were some spots that dragged just a bit but the last 50 pages or so were spot-on driving towards a satisfying conclusion. No egghead suprises this time. From the author's note at the end of the book, it is evident that she has done a lot of research and I have no doubt that the history is correct (other than the fictional characters of course), but more importantly she tells a good story. It seems that the author has grown in ability some since the first book and now I'm really looking forward to the next in the series, Galveston which should take the characters further in their adventures. There is a fourth book as well coming out in paperback this year although it has been published in hardback back in 2003. I haven't heard of any more in the series and I am a little afraid that Ms Nagle has retired from writing or gone on to other things. Hopefully she is just busy researching some other historical arena that I will find fascinating to read about in novel format.

Next up is only my second David Baldacci novel: Split Second.

And just to update my Swedish empire (Empire: Total War computer game) progress, well, that scenario is over. There were some aspects of the game that I hadn't realized before and I overextended myself. I had built up so many armies and they were effectively taking over the world, but my treasury couldn't keep up with the demands. I also had progressed so far in my knowledge tree that the citizens were demanding reform and there is no mechanism in the game for me to change from absolute monarchy to any other form of government. So when the citizens wanted a Republic, I couldn't give it to them and so they just rebelled all over the place. So next time I will keep them unenlightened like any good monarchy should. And to test this theory out I have begun a new campaign in the subcontinent of India, playing the Maratha Confederacy. I'll keep you posted on this as well...

Glorieta Pass

The second book I had selected for my trip to San Diego was Glorieta Pass, by PG Nagle as the first part of her "Civil War in the West" series. I have to say, books like this one are the main reason I read historical fiction. Most of us know quite a bit about the major battles of the Civil War, fought in the East but few know of just how far west the action stretched. I grew up in New Mexico but never knew much about the state's role in the Civil War. I have driven near Glorieta often but never knew the history of that place. So it was with great anticipation that I began reading this novel.

The novel itself seems to have been well researched. We learn of the basics of the situation: elements of the army in Texas pushing northward through New Mexico along the Rio Grande, leading to a great battle against Colorado volunteers at Glorieta Pass. The goal of the Texans was Pikes Peak gold but they were held off because of this bloody battle.

While the writing was well done, I found the characters to be pretty standard stock issue types. The male characters were mostly governed by their brutish behavior while the females were honorable, intelligent, and courageous to the point of being foolhardy. I don't know if that is because the author is female or that's just the way she wanted certain characters to behave...I make no judgements. Having said that, I did still enjoy seeing the history evolve through their eyes and I am interested to see what happens in the next book. This is what draws me to historical fiction...living the experiences through characters. I like reading text books to get the facts but historical fiction makes it come alive.

I also have to mention a twist at the end of the novel concerning one of the main characters (no spoilers here). I feel like I should have seen it coming but in retrospect it was such a ridiculous twist that I wouldn't have noticed the clues anyway. Readers of this novel will know what I mean. This is Ms Nagle's debut novel so hopefully she won't stoop to such tricks in the future. Her prose is worthy of greater things.

Yesterday, I finished the next short story in the Deaver collection, More Twisted. "Copycat" was the best yet; this one really hit the mark. Finally this collection deals a winner, a story that builds the suspense and has several twists that really keeps you guessing on who did what to whom. The end was very satisfying and not predictable. Hopefully, there are more gems like this one in the remainder of the collection.

Next up: finishing off the Psi Corps series with The Fate of Bester.

War, Terrible War

I've completed the 6th volume in Joy Hakim's A History of US: War, Terrible War. You may remenber that this is the first of my WOE (While Otherwise Engaged) reading for the year. Refer to the first couple of posts in this blog for further clarification of "WOE reading".

This volume covers the years 1855-1865 in the history of the U.S. These books are written for young readers and so it does tend to simplify the major issues of the Civil War, however, I think they do a good job of portraying the ebb and flow of history. If this is the first book on the Civil War read by a teenager, for example, they will walk away with a fairly good idea of the prime players as well as the under currents that lead up to and through the war. The author, as in other volumes of this history, does a great job of including lots of relevant snippets, sidebar facts, and pictures to keep us turning the pages. Students of US history won't find much new here but that's not the role of the book (or the series). It effectively reviews the relevant issues of the time period, and that's what we expect. The slavery issue takes a lead role here as expected but other issues are not swept under the rug. All in all, a good entry in the series.

Next WOE read is Orwell's 1984.