I went down a memory hole and I can't get back.....

Binges. Binge eating. Binge drinking. Binge watching. Binge reading. I like binges.

Since I have to watch what I eat and I can't really drink anymore I have to satisfy my craving by bing watching shows on Hulu and binge reading on my Kindle.

Lately I have been reading the novels of Griff Hosker. I found him on Amazon and started reading some of his series. They are like peanuts. You get one and you just want to keep going. I thought it was a good research project. Read someone who is a very successful genre writer that most people have not heard of but is still earning a great living. This dude is a couple of years younger than me and has published 90 novels! That's right 90! They all go for less than five bucks and seem to be pretty popular. Now don't get me wrong. They all sort of seem the same. Or the the same themes. He repeats himself a lot. The action scenes in paticular. But if you are a Game of Thrones fan and aren't into rape and incest it is decent escapist reading.

He seems to specialize in medieval England with series devoted to the Saxons, Normans, Vikings and the Plantagenets. A decent way to spend some time.

Recommended for what it is. A good value for the money.

I finished the latest Spenser Novel and it was pretty good

But not as good as one written by Robert B. Parker. He had a unique voice that is hard to imitate. I think Ace Atkins does a pretty good job but he is just too crude. He doesn't have the subtlety with invective that Parker had.

I know that Parker took a lot of inspiration from a great Boston Crime novelist called George V. Higgins. You can taste the echo's of Higgins style in the early Spenser books. Higgens best book was his first "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" that was made into a movie starring Robert Mitchum. There is a lot of that character in Spenser. But he branched out from there.

The problem for Parker was that Spenser has become sort of a superman. He wins every fight and every shoot out. Consider the fact that he mentions he was a Korean War vet in an early story it would make him about seventy years old right now. So some of the exploits he gets into are sort of ridiculous. Atkins tries to blend in some younger characters but the bulk of the story is still Spenser. I don't know how much longer they can pull this off.

Still it is a lot better than most run of the mill hard boiled detective novels.

When your favorite write croaks....what do you do!

We all of us have favorite writers. People who we eagerly await the next book to come out. It could be a series or just the general output of the author.  I have a bunch of guys I follow and get every book that comes out as soon as it is published. Robert B. Parker. Eric Flint. SM Stirling. George RR Martin. Elmore Leonard. Elmer Kelton. Robert Conroy. Harry Turtledove. Sean Chercover. George Peleconos. Dennis Lehane. Loren Estleman. And a bunch more.

Sometimes the author dies. People like John D. MacDonald. Elmore Leonard. Tom Clancy. Robert B. Parker. Then your supply is shut off. Your favorite characters will not be having any new adventures. Series are cut off in the middle of their run.

Now some authors are so popular that other people step up to continue the legacy. Sometimes it is the son or daughter of the author. When Michael Shaara the author of one of my favorite books "The Killer Angels" died his son Jeff picked up the mantle and produced some pretty good books. But more often than not there is no one to carry on the series.

That is not to say that many people don't try to use the famous characters in new stories. The most prominent example is of course Sherlock Holmes who seems to have moved into the public domain. There are innumerable pastiches using Holmes and Watson in stories by fans and authors who pay homage to the great stories first put forth by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Some are great and some are dreck. I always wanted to try my hand at that and the Inspector Lestrade letters are a nod in that direction. Maybe someday I will try.

The estate of Robert B. Parker is trying a different approach. They have several different professional authors to carry forward three of the series. The Jesse Stone novels are being written by Reed Farrell Coleman and more interestingly TV producer Michael Brandman. He is making a cottage industry of Jesse Stone has he has produced a series of TV movies staring Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone. You can catch them on Netflicks and they are pretty good although quite different than some aspects of the books.

Robert B. Parker's Westerns are being carried forward by Robert Knott. Now Parkers Westerns were always his weakest work and this has not changed with a new hand on the reins. I sympathize because I am a big Western fan and wish I could write them as effortlessly as someone like Louis Lamour or Elmer Kelton or Elmore Leonard. It is a noble effort that just doesn't quite cut it.

Finally they hit a bullseye when they got novelist Ace Atkins to pen the new Spenser novels. He is right on the mark. He captures Parkers voice without slavishly copying him. The latest Spenser novel is called "Kickback" and is about the for-profit prison systems that have sprung up to house juveniles in the Northeast. I just bought it and will read it today. Nothing is better than getting one of your favorite authors new books to read. It is not actually Robert B. Parker but it is close enough to top off my jones for hard boiled detective fiction for a while.

Now I have to wait until September for the next SM Stirling book. Waiting sucks.

The clutching hand?

I did nothing but read when I was in the hospital. I needed to take my mind off of my predicament so I had to transport myself into another place and time.

One of the best books that I read was "The First Family" by Mike Dash. It was about the first real Mafia family in America which was the Morello/Terranova family of Harlem. They were the people of the famous murder barrel and the murder stable and a bunch of murders. Mainly counterfeiters they ran everything from around 1890 to 1918. A good run.

The main bad guy was Giuseppe Morello who was called the clutching hand because of his withered arm from when he was a kid in Sicily. According to the book he was the "Boss of Bosses" for a good portion of the beginning of the last century. When he got out of prison he was smart enough not to try to get his old spot back but became consigliore to Joe "The Boss" Masseria who is usually where most people start when they talk about the origins of the Mafia.

You find out about immigrant life and the gangs of New York and the Black Hand and lots of really interesting stuff. I highly recommend it to fans of the Mafia.

The Given Sacrafice

I just finished reading a silly little science fiction book called the "The Given Sacrifice" by one of my favorite authors SM Stirling. This was the culmination of a series of books set in a world where all technology was destroyed and people had to go back to a primitive medieval society without any machines. The series was pretty good and it all led up to this book.

Which was a big disappointment.

He wrapped the whole story up in a couple of paragraphs and ended it as if he was just tired of writing this series. Which I think he was in the end.

In the last chapter the King Rudi Mackenzie is killed in a silly little skirmish after besting all of his foes easily in the culminating battle. I would hope that he would have a better ending to such a long saga. But I think these guys get tired of their work and should hand it off to someone who is still enthusiastic about it.

It ended with a sad whimper.

Cold Days are good days!

 

The new Harry Dresden Novel is out and it is called "Cold Days.'

It is pretty good. After the last novel where Harry was killed and came back from the dead it was pretty hard to come up with something but he did. In this novel Harry becomes the "Winter Knight" of the Fairie kingdom of Winter and has a bunch of adventures. Including a fight to the death with Santa Clause.

So it is highly recommended.

Raylan is an interesting book

Elmore Leonard has reversed the usual trajectory of film to book. He has written a book based on the TV series that is based on his books. Think about that one for a second.

He has taken the characterization of Rayland Givens that was created in the series "Justified" and written a best seller based on three new loosely connected stories using the characters from the series. You can recognize how he has changed up some of the facts of the matter as the Crowes track the same behavior as the Bennett clan of season two. And he introduces a couple of characters who appear in Season 3 including the nurse who steals kidneys who Raylan has to shoot. It is a hoot and well worth getting especially on your kindle.

Elmore Leonard is one of the best of all time in the mystery suspense field and he hasn't lost his touch. He is also a great Western author and I particularly enjoy some of his Western novels. So many of the elitist shit heads look down on people who enjoy Westerns but I love nothing better than reading something from Elmer Kelton or Max Brand or classics from Zane Grey. Elmore Leonard's westerns like "Valdez is Coming" can stand up to any of them.

Although Raylan Givens is just about his best character.

It is a quick fun read. Highly recommended for leisure reading in the hammock on a sunny afternoon.

The Starker....what a gonif!

I have reading this great new book about a gangster from the turn of the century who dominated the Lower East Side one hundred years ago. Big Jack Zelig who controlled the Lower East Side rackets before Prohibition for a few years until he was murdered by the police. He was about to testify in the murder trail of the century. Well the early part of the century where a police lieutenant was sent to the electric chair. It is a great book and if you were following "Boardwalk Empire" it is in much the same time frame and sensibility. Just a little earlier.

It is about tough Jewish gangster who would go and ride buses and wait for nudnicks to pull on somebodies beard and then they would kick the shit out of them. It is a great read.

If Winter is coming as slow as the next "Game of Thrones Book" I would still be wearing my Hawaiian shirt and speedo's

George R.R. Martin has posted one chapter of his next installment of the Game of Thrones series on his website. It was six years between books the last time and who knows how long we are going to have to wait for the new book called "The Winds of Winter." With the HBO series going into the second season it looks like he will be even more distracted. And we will be waiting again.

At least SM Stirling and Eric Flint are fair with us. They give us free chapters and snippets to wet our appetite but they publish pretty much one book a year. Martin has got to be kidding me.

Somebody said in reference to this long wait between books "George Martin is not your bitch."

Well he might not be my bitch but he definitely is a bitch.

If you don't like the Kennedy's you will love "Castros Bomb"

I have getting books like crazy on my Kindle and I am always overjoyed to find something by one of my favorite authors to add to my reading list.

I have always enjoyed the work of Robert Conroy who is one of the best alternative history guys around. I first started reading him with his very cool book "1901" where he imagines a world where the Kaiser invades the United States because he wants to steal the colonies we acquired during the Spanish American War. That book was a lot of fun as were his later books: "1945 Red Inferno" "1945" "1942" and "1862" in which he picks a pivotal year in one of our wars and wonders what would have happened if a few things changed. He seamlessly blends real life historical characters with those of his own invention to tell some great stories.

In "Castro's Bomb" he wonders what would happen if after the Cuban Missile Crisis our buddy Fidel decides to attack Guantanamo Bay and at the same time steal a couple of the tactical nukes that Russia had secreted in Cuba at the time. There are some great battle scenes but the best part of it is the depiction of Kennedy and his relationship to Lyndon Johnson, Maxwell Taylor and a bunch of other historical figures from Camelot. For example when he meets a CIA analysis he is more interested in checking out her tits than what she has to say about Castro. It is a lot of fun.

Highly recommended for some light reading.

It's just too easy!

To order stuff on your kindle. A couple of great friends of mine gave me a gift certificate to Amazon for my birthday and I just started to use it today. I was able to order book after book to add to the kindle list. It was great. The books I just ordered were:

The Cut (Spero Lucas) [Kindle Edition] George Pelecanos a new series by one of my favorite authors. It is based in Washington DC and is a hard boiled mystery. Highly reccomended.

Outlaw [Kindle Edition] Angus Donald an novel of Robin Hood about a young man joining Robin Hood with a different view of the traditional hero. I heard good things about it but I have never read any of his work so we will have to see.

Lionheart [Kindle Edition] Sharon Kay Penman who is one of my favorite historical novelists. She writes of this era and is a wonderful writer with an amazing take on the period. Reminds me of another favorite of mine Mary Renault. Highly reccomended (especially for you broads cause it is kind of romantical but still full of daring doo doo)

Distant Thunders: Destroyermen [Kindle Edition] Taylor Anderson the next entry in the Destorymen series where a couple of World War 2 destroyers were transported to a world with Cats that walk like humans and evil insects try to destroy them. With a rouge Japanese battleship and eighteen century Brits as well. A great series but you should start from the begining. I can't wait to dive into it. Highly, highly reccomended.

Conqueror: A Novel of Kublai Khan [Kindle Edition] Conn Iggulden which is a pre-order of the next novel in the series based on the life of Gengkis Kahn and his descendants. It is a great historical series which is very accesable and a great quick read. Highly, highly reccomended.

I have a bunch of great books to read now. Taking a dump will be a great pleasure now. Well I mean it always is but now I have a lot to read on the throne. Just sayn'

Don't tell the Kid.

Another series I have to get on Kindle is the Dusty Fog or Floating Outfit stories by JT Edson. He was a limey author who wrote a bunch of right wing westerns featuring Dusty Fog, Mark Counter and the Yasbel Kid. Great fun if not the most literary of stories they are great to kill as summer Sunday afternoon on the porch.

Highly recommended for my conservative brethren.

He's a coxswain?

"Command a Kings Ship" is one of my favorite Bolitho novels. In it John Allday becomes the admirals coxswain. No that is not dirty Titus, he is the guy who steers the captains barge. In the earlier novels Stockdale is the coxswain but he dies in a battle protecting the nephew of the hero. So Allday becomes his new right hand man even though he was a shepard who was pressed into the navy. It is pretty interesting is all.

A good place to jump into the series it was the first novel I bought from Alexander Kent (Douglas Reeman) and it is funny but I have every book he has ever published.

Now I have to get them on the fuckin kindle. Rats.

Thar she blows!

One of my favorite genres of fiction is the sea story. Especially the stories of sailing ships in the 17th and 18th centuries that have become more and more popular these days to the point that they make multi-million dollar movies about them. Great authors like C.S. Forrester and Patrick O'Brian write rousing tales of adventure and derring do that are great page turners. In particular I enjoy the work of Douglas Reeman who writes under the pen name of Alexander Kent and has a wonderful series of books called the "Bolithio" series. It traces the career of a British naval officer from a lowly midshipman to becoming an admiral. It basically cribs from Admiral Nelsons career although Nelson makes a few brief cameo spots and it is a lot of fun and highly recommended series for youse guys to read.

Now there are a lot of conventions in these types of books. The cruel Captain Bligh types who have their men whipped at the slightest notice. The solid yeoman who are pressed into service but become loyal and self-sacrificing members of the crew. They young impressionable midshipman who idolize the hero and grow up to be captains themselves. And one of the most common conventions is the "False Flag."

Now the false flag is when an enemy ship sails up to you with your country's flag displayed and then at the last minute changes it to the enemy and starts lobbing cannon balls at you. Now you can't tell which ship is which by the designs or types of ship because they were constantly getting captured as prizes and incorporated into the other nations navy. So it can be a surprise when you think someone is something they are not. You always have to be ready for that. Or they can blow you out of the water.

I hate false flag operations.

The ones I hate in particular are the people who claim to be something they are not to get some reflected glory off of a particular profession or life experience. The guy in the bar who pretends to be a fireman after 911 to pick up girls. The dude who pretends to be a producer or director to hit on people. The blogger who pretends to be a fashionista who will promote you but really only wants free stuff. And most of all the lowlife who pretends to have served in the armed forces as a vet.

Back in the day I used to hang out in the Quiet Man and the owner Eddie loved to pretend he was a former Green Beret who had injured his hip parachuting into Vietnam. When in fact he was an ex-cop who got hit by a taxicab on 42nd St. He would tell these long involved bullshit stories about his experiences and you would listen and then go "But Eddie that was the plot of "China Beach" last night." It got really tiresome and after a while you got tired of arguing and when he started his bullshit you would just drink up and go somewhere else.

Recently I was in a bistro and someone was pulling a false flag operation where they pretended to be a Mom of a service member. I called them on it and pointed out the many inconsistencies and lies in a very pointed manner. Nothing gets me more pissed off than someone who tries to use the military to pretend that they are vets or that they have family members serving. Time and again we have people claiming to be something they are not to get their insane views some credibility in some insane way. It was total and complete bullshit and I jumped on it with both feet.

But then a crazy thing happened. The bartender threw me out without really knowing or understanding what was happening. Now they were either lazy or stupid. I am betting on lazy as this bartender is famous for being lazy. You know that type. Who think you came to the bar because of them and not because of the other people in the bar. So the bartender went on a rampage and threw me out of the bar. Now this is a person who leaves dirty glasses on the bar and cigarettes on the floor and crap and debris and just never cleans up the mess. But now all of a sudden they want to set up what the customers can talk about. How about that?

So now you get faced with a decision. Do you go back to the bar where this kind of shit is happening? Or do you drink up and take your business elsewhere? I kept going to the Quiet Man because it was on the corner of my office but that is not the case here. So maybe it is time to just drink up and go somewhere else. Many of the regulars at this joint have already done that. In fact when I see them they ask me why I still go there. And you know I am starting to wonder.

You see I never sail under a false flag.

What happens when a villain becomes a hero?

Ever since I got my kindle I have intrigued by these books that you can download for 99 cents. I mean how could that be bad? You are not making a big investment in time or money as they are generally short stories that you can just breeze through with out stopping to come up for air.

The great Lawrence Block talks about his stories that he is putting on Amazon for that great low price. It is a way to encourage short stories and novellas and such. I already have most of these stories in various collections I have bought through the years but will buy them again for a dollar. Just to have them on the kindle to pull up at my leisure.

Anyhoo, I got this crazy book called Thor Meets Captain America!

I found it by just typing in Captain America in the search function of the kindle and it popped right up. What it is about is an alternative universe where the Norse Gods of Asgard decide to ally themselves with the Germans during World War 2 and stop them from losing. Then Loki of all people rescues the Jews in the concentration camps and magically transports them to Israel.

And Loki becomes an ally of the United States and the Free World as they battle the Nazi's up till the 1960's! A villain becomes a hero! Dogs and Cats lie down together! Who would have thunk it.

Its a small idea and perfect for a novella. I haven't finished it yet but it is a pretty quick read. For 99 cents you can't beat it.

Plus the whole idea will give some people a heart attack. Just sayn'

So SM Stirling did it to me again!

The latest volume in the Emberverse Series came out called "The Tears of the Sun."

This is the one he has been pimping for the last year by letting out a couple of chapters every month to whet our appetites. So I got it downloaded to my Kindle yesterday and I finished already.

Now I have to wait another fuckin year for the next one.

This book is ok but it is pretty much filler. Just like the latest in George RR Martin's series. It is full of action but it doesn't really move the story forward. In fact it really is just a big flashback that is not moving the story forward at all and leaves us spinning our wheels. I get that it is thought to turn out a book a year. But if that is your pace you should really move the story along. Stirling is one of my favorite writers but this book was kind of a disappointment.

Yeah I loved the Travis McGee books too!

Mama M said....
Travis McGee was the MamaM's first love. She might have settled for Meyer, but McGee was the favorite. She started reading the series in high school and kept the books stored in a box under her bed, as they were plenty edifying for her but not the sort of edifying reading material encouraged in her home at that time.

So true Mama M. I loved the Travis McGee books and have everyone of them in tattered paperbacks. They were among the first I started collecting along with Louis Lamour and Robert E. Howard and HP Lovecraft and Arthur Conan Doyle and Max Brand and Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö and the Horatio Hornblower books. These series gave me the feeling that I was entering another world. And there were so many of them! I could save up and buy another one the next week and have something to read on the subway on my way to work or school or just in the backyard while I listened to the game.

I tried to buy the McGee books for my kindle but they are not available. I loved in particular loved "One Fearful Yellow Eye" and "A Tan and Sandy Silence." I read those books twenty years ago and I still remember them fondly. I wish I could get them all on the kindle because they hold up today.

There are a lot of great writers and series that I did not include in the poll but who I would recommend highly that you give a chance. John D. MacDonald and Travis Mcgee.. Walter Mosely and Easy Rawlins and Mouse. Joe Lansdale with Hap Collins and Leonard Pine. The great Elmore Leonard. Dennis Lehane. And one of my personal favorites Loren D. Estelman and his Macklin series. I you want a series that sparks of realism you should check that out nd.

There are many great fictional series that you can dive into that will give you hours of pleasure.

The kindle is just a vehicle to get more of them back in your life.

I have hours and hours of great fun in store for me.

Hey what not give it a chance? It might be fun!

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Block and Ellroy and Vachss OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!

Ever since I got a Kindle I have been buying books at a feverish pace. Not only new ones but old favorites. I want to have them on hand so if I want to dive into a new book I just have to click on it and start reading. So I have gone out and repurchased many titles that I already own in hardcover.

Block and Ellroy and Vachss OH MY!!!

I have been busy downloading the complete works of three of the all stars in mystery/detective/hard boiled writing for the Kindle.

You all know how I feel about the great Lawrence Block who it the reigning king of the mystery novel. I have just finished rereading all of the Matt Scudder books that I had downloaded after I had purchased his latest entry in the series "A Drop of the Hard Stuff." Rereading these books is like visiting an old friend. You can really get an appreciation of the talent on display when you read them one after another.

After our recent discussions with "J" on the evil blogger ladies blog I also started downloading some of my favorite James Ellroy novels. Ellroy is a manaic but one of the most talented writers around today. He is an acquired taste...sometimes he veers off into really strange places. Dark places. But there is a lot of substance there.
I am just jumping back into "White Jazz" and it is a crazy ride. Well worth you notice.

Finally I also downloaded a bunch of Andrew Vachss books about Burke. He is really dark and some of it is a tough go. But he is a much more linear writer than Ellroy even though they seem to touch on the same themes some of the time. The Burke series is one of the best hard boiled detective series out there and you really get a slice of low life when you read them.

So I can spend what little time I have this Labor Day Weekend reading some of my favorite books from some of my favorite authors.

What could be better than that?

Hey that gives me an idea for a poll!

The Tears of the Sun

So I have been patiently waiting for the next book in the Emberverse II series which is called "The Tears of the Sun." You know the great series that SM Stirling has going about the societies that grew after the major event of the transfer of the island of Nantucket to the time of the Iliad.

To promote this book he has followed his practice of posting chapters of the book on-line where you can get them for free. He is up to eight chapters already and usually does about ten before he publishes. The book is due in September so he owes me two chapters already. I need to read them while I am on vacation next week.

Let's get with the program. You are killing me dude.