Dragonmaster by Chris Bunch

Dragonmaster by Chris Bunch. This is a fantasy novel about a young man achieving his dream of flying a dragon. Naturally there just happens to be a war going on so he ends up in the newly created dragon units. There's nothing particularly new or innovative here. The older generals don't know what to do with dragons so are gifted hero must show them. Beautiful women fall in his lap and he naturally has a nemesis on the other side. The writing is solid but it's a little unnerving to occasionally hear 1990s slang. This is the first in the Storm of Wings trilogy I'll probably pick up the others. This is fluff but enjoyable fluff.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

Life in a Medieval Village by Francis and Joseph Gies

Life in a Medieval Village by Francis and Joseph Gies this is a social history of the English village of Elton around the end of the 13th century. The usual topics are covered organization, religion, Justice and industry. A decent enough summary. This would probably serve best as an introduction or as a quick brush up read.

Recommended!

Second to None: The Fighting 58th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force by Kevin R. Shackelton

Second to None: The Fighting 58th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force by Kevin R. Shackelton. This is a unit history of this Battalion recruited from Toronto. The author a relative of one of those who served has done an excellent job mixing unit history's with primary sources. I think this was geared towards a nonspecialist audience there's occasionally description of terminology which surprised me but it isn't too frequent to be frustrating to the expert. We need more History's like this for Canadian units.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

The Renaissance in National Context edited by Roy Porter

The Renaissance in National Context edited by Roy Porter. This is a collection of essays discussing various countries involvement and reaction to the renaissance. Countries covered are England, France, Hungary, Germany, Belgium and Holland, Poland and three Italian city states. The essays are for the most part pretty good although they do tend to break down into lists of when renaissance texts were translated or published in the country. Unfortunately the authors seem to assume some background knowledge so it can be slightly difficult to follow things. Some essays talk about literature while others politics. I would have preferred a more uniform treatment.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Handgun by Lisa Jardine

The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Handgun by Lisa Jardine. A very short actually more like a long journal article book on the impact of the wheel-lock pistol. Its use in assassination as well as in warfare. This is actually pretty good. The Freudian business about sexuality seemed a little forced but there's only a few pages taken up with it.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

On Latimer

It doesn't surprise me that he received day parole. What does surprise me is that the review board as part of their ruling State that lack of remorse is insufficient to deny day parole. Strange I always thought the point of parole was to reward rehabilitation. How can one be rehabilitated if one does not acknowledge one's crime in the first place? It'll be interesting to see just how quickly this is pointed to as a precedent in other cases.

Generals: Ten British Commanders Who Shaped the World by Mark Urban

Generals: Ten British Commanders Who Shaped the World by Mark Urban. This is a set of biographies of well what the subtitle says. The book includes George Monck, Marlborough, William Howe, Duke Of York, Wellington, Gordon, Kitchener, Allenby, J.F.C. Fuller and Montgomery. Naturally any student of British military history can quibble with the selections. Personally I would have included Wolf instead of Howe. That aside the biographies are pretty good. Urban doesn't shy away from criticizing when that's necessary. This is definitely popular history but it's still pretty good.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

War at Sea in the Age of Sail 1650-1850 by Andrew Lambert

War at Sea in the Age of Sail 1650-1850 by Andrew Lambert. This is part of a larger series on the history of warfare. This is supposed to be an introductory volume on the topic. The series is of varying quality this is one of the better ones. In a relatively short amount of space a lot of technical detail on tactics, strategies and chip design are presented. Frequently this includes illustrations maps and diagrams.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

Bahamarama by Bob Morris

Bahamarama by Bob Morris is another in the long line of Florida mysteries. Although much of the action takes place on a British island in the Caribbean. Are hero a former Miami Dolphins football player has recently been released from prison for a murder he didn't commit. The supposed victim is out to get him. Further complicating things is that his girlfriend is kidnapped. Excellent story that is fast-paced and sprinkled with just enough pop culture references. I've already ordered two more books by the author.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

Rebellion in Kildare, 1790-1803 by Liam Chambers

Rebellion in Kildare, 1790-1803 by Liam Chambers. Short account of the 1798 rebellion in this county of Ireland. the book started off as a thesis so the writing is occasionally verbose. Chambers places the uprising within its political context as opposed to religious differences. I'm not really sure how this fits into other research on the rebellion but on face value it seems reasonable enough.

Recommended.

Is available through Abebooks.

Blood Is Dirt by Robert Wilson

Blood Is Dirt by Robert Wilson is a hard-boiled detective novel set in Africa. Our hero is hired to help an importer who had some money stolen from him quickly he ends up gruesomely murdered. The standard hard-boiled plot devices are here but they been tweaked in interesting ways. The book also contains some very snappy dialogue.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima by Constantine Pleshakov

The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima by Constantine Pleshakov is a decent history of the Russian defeat in this battle of the Russo-Japanese war. There isn't much analysis this is mostly a narrative history. Archival research was done in Russian, English and French archives. The one major handicap is the author's English. Full points for trying to write a book in English when it is not the author's native-language but his editor really let him down. If you can get past the English there is a decent book here but it's still frustrating.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Is a classic mystery. A murder has taken place on the Orient express which is conveniently stuck in a snowbank this allows our hero the detective Hercule Poirot to investigate the case. A quick read. A nice diversion but very unrealistic. Which isn't exactly a surprise.

Recommended if you need some fluff.

Is available through Abebooks.

Bodyguard of Lies by Anthony Cave Brown

Bodyguard of Lies by Anthony Cave Brown. This is a pioneering account of deception operations in the second world war. For the most part it was based upon interviews and not archival sources which means there are some limitations. There are some incorrect statements as well. For instance an entire chapter is devoted to the Coventry myth. That being said it still holds up pretty good even after 30 years. There is information here about operations which are not usually mentioned in other accounts [Starkey]. There's also a long explanation of the plots to assassinate Hitler. It was originally published in two volumes it can be purchased in a single edition.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

On Secret Service East of Constantinople by Peter Hopkirk

On Secret Service East of Constantinople by Peter Hopkirk. This is an excellent history of the 2nd great game. This was the conflict over India and the Middle East between Britain, Germany and Russia in the first world war. The author uses lots of material both from the archives as well as rare personal accounts. Perhaps most interesting was the analysis of German Imperial theory. After the Russian Revolution the attempt of the British agents on the ground to deal with the new reality was fascinating.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

Bad Or, the Dumbing of America by Paul Fussell

Bad Or, the Dumbing of America by Paul Fussell this is an encyclopedia of things that are BAD. BAD things are not just lousy like a bookcase that falls apart that would be just bad what makes things BAD is that the bookcase is actually held in high regard. This was published back in the early nineties so if anything it's gotten a lot worse since then. The entries often scathing are hilarious attacking all sorts of things including books, architecture and Navy missile firings. Not surprisingly much of the criticism comes off as snobbery but it's still quite enjoyable.

Recommended!

The African Slave Trade by Basil Davidson

The African Slave Trade by Basil Davidson is an attempt to look at the effects of the slave trade on the continent of Africa. This is rather difficult since there aren't any African sources so History must be built out of the records kept by whites. The book covers the space of time from first contacts in the 15th century through the end of the slave trade in the 19th century. The argument is made that final abolishment came about not only from the pressure of the various religious societies but also resulted from the economic reality of the Industrial Revolution.

The book is divided into a general study of perceptions on both sides then smaller case studies discussing the effects on both coasts. Intriguingly the European fear of cannibals was also mirrored by the Africans some thought they were being seized to provide nourishment for the slavers.

The writing style is rather dry. There are occasional footnotes, maps and a further reading section. This was published back in 1988 I'm not sure how well this is held up but by itself it seems to be well thought out.

Recommended!

The Technique Of Motor Racing by Piero Taruffi

The Technique Of Motor Racing by Piero Taruffi this book originally published in the 1950s provides a description of racing. The book is mostly made up of discussions of different racing lines as well as the technical aspects of race driving. Much of this is purely of historical interest at this point. It was written before the aerodynamic revolution but it is still interesting. The book concludes with several maps of famous courses in Europe and North America.

Recommended!

Never on These Shores by Stephen R. Pastore

Never on These Shores by Stephen R. Pastore. This is an alternate history of an axis invasion of the United States. The Japanese attack the West Coast while Italy takes a foothold in Florida and the Germans through Texas. The storyline follows several groups of people trying to resist the invaders.

Pastore is very good at describing the various ethical choices that have to be made along the way. His characters although slightly unconvincing for the 1940s seem to react in logical ways. One difficulty is that besides the subplot with the Manhattan Project there isn't much about just where the axis units are in the US. This has more to do with character selection than anything else. I suspect that future books will get us closer to the battle lines. There's quite a bit of action which is also done quite well.

I'm not sure whether it's a bug or a feature but there are some contradictions. Rommel initiates the Nazi salute and a Jewish family in New York in 1942 knows about the crematoria. Naturally criticisms like this can be argued away by pointing to the alternate part of alternate history. It's a credit to the writing that these issues do not take away from the enjoyment of the peace. I'm a knit picker at heart so it's an achievement to write a story that shuts off that part of my brain. This looks like it's the first in an ongoing series I'll pick up the sequel.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.



Note: this copy was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Ruling the Later Roman Empire by Christopher Kelly

Ruling the Later Roman Empire by Christopher Kelly. This is a scholarly look at the Roman empire's bureaucracy in the second and third century AD. Much of the analysis is based upon the writings of a member of the bureaucracy John Lydus. This is supported with inscriptions and occasionally artwork. The corruption built into the system is described. It is argued that by legislating payments to bureaucrats this removed personal relationships out of the equation as well as limited the amount of work that the system had to deal with. There is a substantial section of notes. The writing style is rather uneven the same point is made over and over this tends to be a failing of some academic writing.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

Rome's Enemies (2): Gallic and British Celts by Peter Wilcox

Rome's Enemies (2): Gallic and British Celts by Peter Wilcox. This is from a larger Osprey series on Roman enemies. The book tries to cover quite a bit of history which occasionally leads to sweeping generalizations. I would have preferred if it had been broken up into two. That being said there's quite a bit of information on the uniforms, tactics and strategies employed.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

The Army of Alexander the Great by Nick Sekunda

The Army of Alexander the Great by Nick Sekunda. This is a somewhat thin history of Alexander the great's army. The tactics as well as different units are described. Like other Osprey titles much is made of the uniforms of the soldiers. Unfortunately there isn't much material to go on so a lot of the book is based on a couple of sources. When best guesses are made the reconstruction is acknowledged so full points for that. Still it's pretty apparent the author was straining to get to the correct length.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser

Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser. This is the eighth book in the series. I don't have the seventh. Our non-hero must try to survive the Taiping Rebellion and the Second Opium War. As backdrop is one of the most famous events in Victorian military history the destruction of the Summer Palace. As usual highly historically accurate and funny. It's almost lyrical in some places Fraser certainly had some talent.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

From Capetown to Ladysmith;: An unfinished record of the South African war by G. W Steevens

From Capetown to Ladysmith;: An unfinished record of the South African war by G. W Steevens. This is the Journal of a British reporter reporting on the Boer war. It's very short. The reprint I have from the 1960s sadly does not contain any scholarly apparatus or introduction. The author died of cholera during the siege of Ladysmith. Final chapter contains an obituary and some remembrances. The tone of the work changes from rather lighthearted to cynical particularly about the siege. As a primary source there isn't much here perhaps useful for some color.

Not recommended.

Is available through Abebooks.

Flashman's Lady by George MacDonald Fraser

Flashman's Lady by George MacDonald Fraser. This is the sixth book in the series. Our unheroic hero travels from England through Borneo and Madagascar having his usual terrifying and hilarious adventures. Unlike the other books in the series this also contains portions from his wife's Journal which nicely helped to move things along.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.