Monday, December 19, 2005
Books: Notes on some books that I've rated 5 stars
Important Note: My ratings are out of 5 stars (with 5 stars being the highest rating), just double rating to match TV.com’s 10 point scale.
Genre: SF Game
Summary: A man of the far past is “reborn” in the far future and must compete in a game.
Notes: The book was an attempt to inject real history into a science fiction setting. Considering that Anthony wasn’t given a book contract to make this into a series, or to write more books like this, I would guess that the attempt failed to be commercially successful. I read the book too long ago to recommend it, unfortunately. I rated his version of “Total Recall” (movie novelization) an impressive 4.90 out of 5 stars, and rated his first book in the Magic of Xanth series, “A Spell for a Chameleon,” a just ok 4 out of 5 stars. Every other book I’ve read by Anthony has been a disappointment. Removing the three books mentioned above from my list of books read written by Anthony, and Anthony’s overall rating drops to 3.47 out of 5 stars (11 books). I rate combined authors books separately from their solo works, so I’ll just add that I read a book by Anthony and Francis Hall that I rated 4.80 (and raises the total number of books that I’ve read with Anthony on the cover to 15 books; I probably overrated that book because I read it around the time I saw the “Stargate” movie and the story was seemingly similar). I can’t recommend the author or the book.
Genre: Thriller Disaster Aftermath
Summary: A man journeys from an underground complex to see what the surface of earth is like many years after a disaster.
Notes: I picked this book up on a trip from a book store that does not appear to be part of a chain, at least I’ve never found that book store again (except in its original location). I read the book during that trip, and really liked it. The book I had said that Dvorkin was a bestselling author, so finding books by him should have been easy, right? I tried to find more books by the author and had trouble finding any more books by him. Many years later, I finally started finding books by Dvorkin, and none has lived up to my high hopes. If you try Dvorkin, and like him, I’d next recommend “Ursus” by him (and with a copyright date of 1989). I read the book a long time ago and my recollection of it doesn’t seem to be similar to reviews I’ve read of the book, so I’m somewhat hesitant to recommend “Central Heat” (though I read “Ursus” in 2002 and gave it a rating of 4.30 out of 5 stars).
Genre: Legal
Summary: A man just out of law school joins a southern law firm. Unfortunately the firm has strong connections to the mafia.
Notes: I don’t really have anything to say. I read the book a long time ago, so the rating is suspect, but I’ve read some books closer in time (date read, not copyright), and rated them highly (in 2003), but then again I’ve read two of his books in 2005 that I ended up giving ratings of 3.64 and 4.20. “Skipping Christmas” hit me in just the right mood and just at the right moment and ended up being rated by me a 4.88 out of 5. I’ve never seen the movie based on the christmas book, and my enjoyment of the book has been dampened by the commercial and critical reaction to the movie. I’ve also never seen the movie based on the other highly rated Grisham book, and I’m not sure, now, why I liked it so much, based on later reports from family to skip the book (told without realizing I had already read “The Runaway Jury” and given it a rating of 4.70 out of 5).
Genre: children’s
Summary: A new pet bunny joins the family and the cat is suspicious (Bunicula - vampire rabbit), told from the point of view of the dog. Notes: I wasn’t much of a reader in my early days (childhood), but I really enjoyed the Bunicula series. I haven’t reread any of the books since I gained my adulthood, so I don’t know if I would recommend the book to anyone, child or adult. I believe the next book I read for pleasure after this series was “The Gunslinger”, many years later (I was annoyed when told that the author had died and no more books could be read by me because they didn’t exist, so I stopped reading altogether for pleasure for about 5 years - it took me awhile to get started reading, then I skipped the next 5 years, I’ve tried to make up for that since then).
Genre: Thriller Disaster Terrorism
Summary: Terrorists take over a US freighter and torture the crew. US President refuses to respond, and Speaker of the House decides get Congress to go after the terrorists (using language in Constitution).
Notes: Two books by the same author on the list and I can’t think of anything to say. Huston wrote a book a year from 1998-2003 (“Balance of Power” was his first book), but hasn’t published anything since (or he published a book a year). Huston is my highest rated author with more than five books read by me, but he stopped publishing his books. Quite disappointing. Just to be fair to the other authors on this list, I rated one of Huston’s books a 3.80, so he isn’t perfect (on the other hand, remove that book from the list, and his overall average shoots up to an almost un heard of 4.78 out of 5 - 1 book rated 4.70, two books rated 4.60 and the last book is below). Next two people down the list of having at least five books read by me and being highly rated, would be Paul Doherty and Eric Flint (both 5 books each and both rated overall 4.54). Michael Z. Lewin is a mutli-book-read-by-me-author higher rated than Huston, but that is just two books (4.80 overall rating); and Eric Flint & David Weber combo books (written by both) are also rated higher than Huston, but again, just two books (4.69). Take away that 1 3.80 book and Huston would have 5 books at a overall rating of 4.78 and be just below Lewin on the list.
Genre: Thriller Disaster Terrorism
Summary: A book about terrorists attacking the US, published and read by me prior to 9/11. Not sure I can recommend the book now, because of events that have occurred (about a year after 9/11, I read a book about terrorists attacking NYC written prior to 9/11 and couldn’t stand it).
Genre: MYS PI Bath
Summary: A family of private investigators investigates cases in Bath England.
Notes: This is the second book in the Lunghi Family series. I first read Lewin in short story format, specifically Lunghi Family stories (among others), and finally found a book-length work that involves this family when I found “Family Business” (rated 4.60). Lewin is not a short-story writer that very occasionally writes book length work, nor a new writer, yet I’ve only read his most recent series (not counting children’s books). He has a long running series that follows the character the private investigator Albert Samson of the US (I think it might be of Indiana; the third book in the series has a copyright of 1974). If you like mysteries and private investigators, then I would strongly recommend this series, but start with the first book. Might as well, since there’s just the two of them.
Genre: Horror
Summary: A woman is stalked by her supposedly dead ex-husband.
Notes: Leigh Nichols is a name used by Dean Koontz, bestselling horror novelist. I’ve read one book by Koontz under the pen name David Axton (“Icebound” - 4.70), one under the name Brian Coffey (“The Voice of the Night” - 3.50), six under the Koontz name (overall rating of 3.67), and two under the pen name Leigh Nichols (other book, “Twilight,” received a rating of just 3.50). If I recall correctly, all but the Axton book are horror books (the Axton one is a thriller), a genre type that I rarely read. It has been a while since I read the book, and the book I read was under the Dean Koontz name (reprint, might be exactly like the Nichols book, or might not be). Look time since I read it and I do not normally read this type of book, so I can’t recommend “Shadowfires.”
Genre: Hist MYS Rome (Historical mystery set in Rome, specifically about 56 BC)
Summary: This is the first book in the Gordinous the Finder series that follows a somewhat lower class man that investigates for powerful people during the waning days of the Roman Republic (and the author’s first novel). In this specific book, Gordinous works for Cicero who is acting as the defense of Sextus, accused of killing his father.
Notes: I strongly recommend this book, especially since it is the first book in the series (I like reading books in order, and so it is easier if I can recommend the first book - in story chronological order, not necessarily published date order). Saylor has written other books, but I’ve only read his Gordinous the Finder series. I’ve found most of the books in the, so far, ten book series to be quite good, with just two to be somewhat disappointingly rated 4.20.
Genre: Adventure SF
Summary: This short novel, which can be found in the book “More than Honor,” a collection of stories set in the Honor universe (though not necessarily starring Honor). This specific short novel tells the tell of the first pairing of Human and treecats.
Notes: I highly recommend this particular story, though no military or war is involved in the story. Just a little girl, a treecat, “jungle” and two species exploring. I think that a reader can like this story without knowing anything about the Honor series, but the rest of the stories in the “More than Honor” book would probably be best read by someone with at least a slight knowledge of the series. Oh, almost forgot, I actually rated this 4.98 out of 5, not 5 out of 5.
Genre: Alt Hist War 100 Yrs War (alternative history, set during the 100 years war)
Summary: A 2000 AD (I believe) town in West Virginia is sent back in time to 1632 AD Germany during the 100 years war. This is the first book in the Assiti Shard series.
Notes: This is the first book that I’ve read by Flint and I had originally rated it 5 out of 5. At some point I downgraded it to 4.95, which still rounds up to 5. I have to warn you, though, that if you like the book, you will find that the rest of the books in the series, for the most part, are works written by Flint and some other author (including one with David Weber).
Notes:
1) copy = copyright date
2) Date = date finished reading
3) BKS RD = books read = books read written by the author
4) AVG = average = overall average rating of the books read by author
Author Title Copy date bks Rd AVG
Piers Anthony “Steppe” 1976 1996 14 3.72
Genre: SF Game
Summary: A man of the far past is “reborn” in the far future and must compete in a game.
Notes: The book was an attempt to inject real history into a science fiction setting. Considering that Anthony wasn’t given a book contract to make this into a series, or to write more books like this, I would guess that the attempt failed to be commercially successful. I read the book too long ago to recommend it, unfortunately. I rated his version of “Total Recall” (movie novelization) an impressive 4.90 out of 5 stars, and rated his first book in the Magic of Xanth series, “A Spell for a Chameleon,” a just ok 4 out of 5 stars. Every other book I’ve read by Anthony has been a disappointment. Removing the three books mentioned above from my list of books read written by Anthony, and Anthony’s overall rating drops to 3.47 out of 5 stars (11 books). I rate combined authors books separately from their solo works, so I’ll just add that I read a book by Anthony and Francis Hall that I rated 4.80 (and raises the total number of books that I’ve read with Anthony on the cover to 15 books; I probably overrated that book because I read it around the time I saw the “Stargate” movie and the story was seemingly similar). I can’t recommend the author or the book.
Author Title Copy date bks Rd AVG
David Dvorkin “Central Heat” 1988 1989 7 4.23
Genre: Thriller Disaster Aftermath
Summary: A man journeys from an underground complex to see what the surface of earth is like many years after a disaster.
Notes: I picked this book up on a trip from a book store that does not appear to be part of a chain, at least I’ve never found that book store again (except in its original location). I read the book during that trip, and really liked it. The book I had said that Dvorkin was a bestselling author, so finding books by him should have been easy, right? I tried to find more books by the author and had trouble finding any more books by him. Many years later, I finally started finding books by Dvorkin, and none has lived up to my high hopes. If you try Dvorkin, and like him, I’d next recommend “Ursus” by him (and with a copyright date of 1989). I read the book a long time ago and my recollection of it doesn’t seem to be similar to reviews I’ve read of the book, so I’m somewhat hesitant to recommend “Central Heat” (though I read “Ursus” in 2002 and gave it a rating of 4.30 out of 5 stars).
Author Title Copy date bks Rd AVG
John Grisham “The Firm” 1991 1993 10 4.37
Genre: Legal
Summary: A man just out of law school joins a southern law firm. Unfortunately the firm has strong connections to the mafia.
Notes: I don’t really have anything to say. I read the book a long time ago, so the rating is suspect, but I’ve read some books closer in time (date read, not copyright), and rated them highly (in 2003), but then again I’ve read two of his books in 2005 that I ended up giving ratings of 3.64 and 4.20. “Skipping Christmas” hit me in just the right mood and just at the right moment and ended up being rated by me a 4.88 out of 5. I’ve never seen the movie based on the christmas book, and my enjoyment of the book has been dampened by the commercial and critical reaction to the movie. I’ve also never seen the movie based on the other highly rated Grisham book, and I’m not sure, now, why I liked it so much, based on later reports from family to skip the book (told without realizing I had already read “The Runaway Jury” and given it a rating of 4.70 out of 5).
Author Title Copy date bks Rd AVG
James Howe “Bunicula” 1979 ? 5 4.40
Genre: children’s
Summary: A new pet bunny joins the family and the cat is suspicious (Bunicula - vampire rabbit), told from the point of view of the dog. Notes: I wasn’t much of a reader in my early days (childhood), but I really enjoyed the Bunicula series. I haven’t reread any of the books since I gained my adulthood, so I don’t know if I would recommend the book to anyone, child or adult. I believe the next book I read for pleasure after this series was “The Gunslinger”, many years later (I was annoyed when told that the author had died and no more books could be read by me because they didn’t exist, so I stopped reading altogether for pleasure for about 5 years - it took me awhile to get started reading, then I skipped the next 5 years, I’ve tried to make up for that since then).
Author Title Copy date BKS RD AVG
James W. Huston “Balance of Power” 1998 1998 6 4.62
Genre: Thriller Disaster Terrorism
Summary: Terrorists take over a US freighter and torture the crew. US President refuses to respond, and Speaker of the House decides get Congress to go after the terrorists (using language in Constitution).
Notes: Two books by the same author on the list and I can’t think of anything to say. Huston wrote a book a year from 1998-2003 (“Balance of Power” was his first book), but hasn’t published anything since (or he published a book a year). Huston is my highest rated author with more than five books read by me, but he stopped publishing his books. Quite disappointing. Just to be fair to the other authors on this list, I rated one of Huston’s books a 3.80, so he isn’t perfect (on the other hand, remove that book from the list, and his overall average shoots up to an almost un heard of 4.78 out of 5 - 1 book rated 4.70, two books rated 4.60 and the last book is below). Next two people down the list of having at least five books read by me and being highly rated, would be Paul Doherty and Eric Flint (both 5 books each and both rated overall 4.54). Michael Z. Lewin is a mutli-book-read-by-me-author higher rated than Huston, but that is just two books (4.80 overall rating); and Eric Flint & David Weber combo books (written by both) are also rated higher than Huston, but again, just two books (4.69). Take away that 1 3.80 book and Huston would have 5 books at a overall rating of 4.78 and be just below Lewin on the list.
Author Title Copy date
James W. Huston “Fallout” 2001 2001
Genre: Thriller Disaster Terrorism
Summary: A book about terrorists attacking the US, published and read by me prior to 9/11. Not sure I can recommend the book now, because of events that have occurred (about a year after 9/11, I read a book about terrorists attacking NYC written prior to 9/11 and couldn’t stand it).
Author Title Copy date
Michael Z. Lewin “Family Planning” 1999 2001 2 4.80
Genre: MYS PI Bath
Summary: A family of private investigators investigates cases in Bath England.
Notes: This is the second book in the Lunghi Family series. I first read Lewin in short story format, specifically Lunghi Family stories (among others), and finally found a book-length work that involves this family when I found “Family Business” (rated 4.60). Lewin is not a short-story writer that very occasionally writes book length work, nor a new writer, yet I’ve only read his most recent series (not counting children’s books). He has a long running series that follows the character the private investigator Albert Samson of the US (I think it might be of Indiana; the third book in the series has a copyright of 1974). If you like mysteries and private investigators, then I would strongly recommend this series, but start with the first book. Might as well, since there’s just the two of them.
Author Title Copy date bks Rd AVG
Leigh Nichols “Shadowfires” 1987 1994 2 4.25
Genre: Horror
Summary: A woman is stalked by her supposedly dead ex-husband.
Notes: Leigh Nichols is a name used by Dean Koontz, bestselling horror novelist. I’ve read one book by Koontz under the pen name David Axton (“Icebound” - 4.70), one under the name Brian Coffey (“The Voice of the Night” - 3.50), six under the Koontz name (overall rating of 3.67), and two under the pen name Leigh Nichols (other book, “Twilight,” received a rating of just 3.50). If I recall correctly, all but the Axton book are horror books (the Axton one is a thriller), a genre type that I rarely read. It has been a while since I read the book, and the book I read was under the Dean Koontz name (reprint, might be exactly like the Nichols book, or might not be). Look time since I read it and I do not normally read this type of book, so I can’t recommend “Shadowfires.”
Author Title Copy date bks Rd AVG
Steven Saylor "Roman Blood” 1991 1999 10 4.46
Genre: Hist MYS Rome (Historical mystery set in Rome, specifically about 56 BC)
Summary: This is the first book in the Gordinous the Finder series that follows a somewhat lower class man that investigates for powerful people during the waning days of the Roman Republic (and the author’s first novel). In this specific book, Gordinous works for Cicero who is acting as the defense of Sextus, accused of killing his father.
Notes: I strongly recommend this book, especially since it is the first book in the series (I like reading books in order, and so it is easier if I can recommend the first book - in story chronological order, not necessarily published date order). Saylor has written other books, but I’ve only read his Gordinous the Finder series. I’ve found most of the books in the, so far, ten book series to be quite good, with just two to be somewhat disappointingly rated 4.20.
Author Title Copy date bks Rd AVG
David Weber “A Beautiful Friendship” 1998 04/30/04 25 4.42
Genre: Adventure SF
Summary: This short novel, which can be found in the book “More than Honor,” a collection of stories set in the Honor universe (though not necessarily starring Honor). This specific short novel tells the tell of the first pairing of Human and treecats.
Notes: I highly recommend this particular story, though no military or war is involved in the story. Just a little girl, a treecat, “jungle” and two species exploring. I think that a reader can like this story without knowing anything about the Honor series, but the rest of the stories in the “More than Honor” book would probably be best read by someone with at least a slight knowledge of the series. Oh, almost forgot, I actually rated this 4.98 out of 5, not 5 out of 5.
Author Title Copy date bks Rd AVG
Eric Flint "1632" 2000 2000 5 4.54
Genre: Alt Hist War 100 Yrs War (alternative history, set during the 100 years war)
Summary: A 2000 AD (I believe) town in West Virginia is sent back in time to 1632 AD Germany during the 100 years war. This is the first book in the Assiti Shard series.
Notes: This is the first book that I’ve read by Flint and I had originally rated it 5 out of 5. At some point I downgraded it to 4.95, which still rounds up to 5. I have to warn you, though, that if you like the book, you will find that the rest of the books in the series, for the most part, are works written by Flint and some other author (including one with David Weber).
Notes:
1) copy = copyright date
2) Date = date finished reading
3) BKS RD = books read = books read written by the author
4) AVG = average = overall average rating of the books read by author
