Review: Hitler's Panzers by Dennis Showalter

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Read From: Jan 2nd to 31st, 2016. Kindle.

I started out reading this book as a relative WWII newbie, I can place Stalingrad on a map, and know what the Battle of the Bulge was, but that is about it.

This book was easily the most in depth study of a particular facet of war, any war, that I've ever read. It threw me at the deep end, and like somebody cut off and surrounded by the eponymous Hitler's panzers, I was struggling to make sense of most things. Unlike those poor souls however, I enjoyed being confused and looking for answers all the time. I think I now know more about WWII, even after reading only about this one aspect of it, than ever before.

Dennis Showalter is a professor of history at the Colorado College, and his specialization in military history regularly shows up in this book. He regularly tackles myths, and stories that have grown up around some aspects of the armoured fighting in Europe involving the panzers, and being a novice, I definitely would benefit from a re-reading after familiarizing myself with all aspects of WWII. I found his writing to be crisp, and enjoyable, one of the reasons I stuck through.

The book covers the history of the panzers right from the post 1919 armistice, and how German theory and craft on armoured fighting evolved. The 1940 War in Western Europe is covered quickly (the war itself was quick too), and the bulk of the book is given over to the massive tussle between the Germans and the Soviets. Characters, mainly from the German side of things regularly appear, and battles are explained in some detail. Equipment, such as the fabled Tigers and Panthers, not to mention their Russian and later, American counterparts are quickly explained, with the emphasis that the war was fought and won with operational and tactical nimbleness, not equipment. For example, when the war started, the French actually had superior tanks to the German Panzer IIIs and IVs, but German operational command and manoeuvring cut them to pieces. Later in the war, when the famous German Tigers and Panthers appeared, it was the Soviets with their overall depth and planning, but slightly inferior tanks, that hammered the Germans. 

Overall, I liked everything about this book, but it is not for the WWII novice. I only hope that this is a good beginning for my WWII reading list.

Review: Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Read From: July 25th to 31st, 2015. Kindle e-ARC.

This was a lovely fantasy book set in Regency England. It wonderfully explored things like racism, class society in England, and Malaysian vampires in a quirky, oft-times brilliant way.

I loved the writing. I'm normally not into Regency literature, but since so much was talked about this book doing new things, I decided to give it a spin. The hype is well deserved. The lead protagonists, both people of colour are fun to read. And even though this is set in early 19th Century the writing is perfectly accessible and full of snark, without it feeling shoe-horned or out of place.

Zen Cho does a great job of integrating quite a bit of the outside world, including a supernatural one full of faeries. I always find Regency literature to be so full of itself, narrowly focussing on upper class Britain as though it were a perfectly self-contained unit, completely managing to ignore the massive wars the British were fighting all over the world. The Sorcerer to the Crown does not fall into this trap. Neither the romance, nor the magic overwhelms the book at all, there is just the right amount of both so that you can enjoy them, and combined with the great characters, Regency manners, this is a cracking read. And did I mention the Malaysian female vampyres? 

I can't really find anything to criticize in this book at all. It's a bonus we'll have two more books in this series coming out, I can't wait to find out what Zen Cho does from here.

All in all, I'll have no problems recommending this book looking for a nice read, even if you are not into Regency literature, or fantasy for that matter.

Full Disclosure: I got an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review.

Review: Waterloo by Alan Forrest

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Read From: January 16th to 20th. Kindle ARC.

This was a good overview of how the Battle of Waterloo was viewed in various countries that took part in the event.

Alan Forrest is a historian specialising in French history, and especially Napoleon. This gives the book a nice ring of authority.

Waterloo is treated in a straight forward manner with a straight up discussion of a prelude to the battle, the battle itself, and then how the battle was perceived in the eyes of history.

I especially liked the sections on how the Battle of Waterloo was used by the British for propaganda purposes, and more or less or appropriated by them, to the detriment of the Germans. I also liked the sections on how the Germans weren't a united front either and it was seen through different eyes in Hannover (which had dynastic ties with Britain) and Prussia (the other principal participant in the Allies). Surprisingly, Waterloo only plays a role similar to a footnote in German nationalistic history, and Leipzig was given pride of place instead.

The writing is crisp, and although Forrest isn't a great stylist, you're not bored by the content either. A little knowledge of Napoleon and his exploits will help you appreciate the book a lot better.

P.S. I was given an ARC by the publisher in exchange for a review.

Review: Gemini Cell by Myke Cole

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Read From: January 11th to 12th, 2015. Kindle ARC.

I think Myke Cole invented the military fantasy genre, and even if he didn't, he'll be remembered as somebody who introduced it to the masses.

Myke Cole has previous experience as an US military officer and security contractor, so that gives his military fantasy books a good tinge of "realism".

Gemini Cell was an action packed, full blown adrenaline ride. The protag, Jim Schweitzer is a Navy SEAL. But combine a hard-case like him with magic and you've got a one of a kind book on your hands. Although Gemini Cell calls itself a prequel to Cole's brilliant Shadow Ops series, this can be considered as a brand new book/series on its own. And it's Cole's best work to date. The characters are interesting and diverse. Cole pulls off that rare trick of making you feel all kinds of things about his characters: you want to root for them, then they are deplorable, and then you're back to cheering. You get your money's worth.

Like all his novels, Gemini Cell also asks interesting questions about personal rights, and how far the government can interfere in those rights when it comes to issues such as national security. However, I just couldn't flow with the idea that being a "professional" killer somehow made it okay to being a killer. When this book asks nice question about religion and personal rights, this sense of American gungo-ho-ness somehow didn't jive with the whole book. And considering, Cole distanced himself from this very thing in his other novels, even criticized them.

That apart, this is a great book. To quote Jim Schweitzer, this is the start of something new. I can't wait to see where it goes next.

Full Disclosure: I got an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a review.

Review: How Star Wars Conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Read from: December 12 to December 22. Mobile .ePub

How Star Wars Conquered the Universe was a tour de force in the history of Star Wars writing. There have been so many Star Wars books published in the history of the franchise, what makes this special you ask? Well, it just happens to be the newest, and the only one I've read, so that makes it special in my book.

Chris Taylor is the deputy editor of the technology and news website Mashable. His articles also regularly appear in Time, Business and Fortune. This clearly shows up in his writing, every one of the chapters reads like very interesting articles by themselves.

First we get to see what looks like Taylor's qualifications as a fan; his interactions with, among other things, the 501st Legion, monks in San Francisco who practise the Jedi way of life, the R2 Droid builders club, and a host of others (including Navajo peoples who saw Star Wars for the first time dubbed in the Navajo language called Dene). Taylor then looks at the early life of the self styled "Creator", George Lucas, in small town California; what might have influenced him growing up in the post WWII generation. Lucas's early films in college, his collaboration with Coppola and Spielberg, all of these are examined in an engaging sort of way. This is a nice road trip through Americana, and something I enjoyed reading.

Next, we get to see the making of Star Wars itself. The "sequels" obviously take up a bulk of the remaining screen time. Lucas's visions, his reading, his experimenting are examined. To be honest, and Taylor admits this in a later chapter, we quite don't know whom to believe here. Lucas and the company he built, LucasFilm, have built so many myths around the myth that is Star Wars, even a monumental, unbiased work like this one will have its work cut out for it. We will only know for sure once Lucas is long gone into history, and more records are declassified. Suffice it to say, there has been nothing quite like Star Wars in movie history. It changed everything. How we view science-fiction/fantasy in films, and special effects are just two of the things it had a colossal impact on. But merchandising, studio deals, ticketing policy, Vietnam, vocabulary, just about everything has been impacted. And whatever faults the "prequels" may have (I share the same philosophy as the author here, the prequels are here to stay, we should learn to live with them), they too revolutionized film making technology with digital shooting and CGI. Taylor rounds up everything with an examination of Disney's buying out of LucasFilm and what it might mean to the future. (You can already tell the book is old, the Episode VII trailer is out, and the conversation buzz has moved on).

At it's heart though, How Star Wars Conquered the Universe remains a human tale. Taylor has interviewed many, many people including Lucas's ex-producer, ex-director, ex-wife and ex-PR guy (and ex-actors). The long string of ex-es is understandable, the new people don't talk (including Lucas, although he is famous as an introvert), but that doesn't take away from the authenticity of this book one bit. It's examination of fandom, Star Wars long lasting gift to the world is extremely well examined.

You can tell this is a new style of writing books. It references YouTube videos, asks its readers to Google things, and talks about what fans said on online forums; even though it is pretty bulky, it reads like a breeze.

Star Wars has changed the world for good, and impacted many, many people deeply. Reading this book gives you a great insight into all of that. It is excellent reading, even if you have only watched Star Wars only once.

Review: Ancestors in Our Genome by Eugene Harris

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Read from: November 17 to December 22.

Ancestors in our Genome was a great overview of cutting edge findings in the field of human genetics and evolution.

Harris frames the book by how closely we are related to our "nearest relatives". This makes the book somewhat chronological. Along the way, we discover our nearest ape relative, and how genetics helped us put this ancient controversy to bed (it's the chimp). Also, what do scientists do when they are studying genomes and the science behind it all. Ancestors in our Genome was really educational for someone like me, I picked up a lot of evolutionary biology such as the difference between gene trees and species trees, selective sweeps and genetic drift. The last few chapters explore some of our closest relatives such as Neanderthals and Denisovans. (Thanks to genetics, we were able to extract DNA from these humans from a single finger bone. Nothing else has been found of this mysterious relative.) While it has leaked into popular science that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals and even Denisovans, it was exciting to see the science behind it. The science throughout the book was top-of-the-shelf. Harris has taken great trouble to report on the newest findings in the field, and in a field like human genetics, a book like this is excellent for keeping on top of things.

While Harris makes his best efforts to take people along, quite a bit of this book was hard reading. Added to this, since the book I was reading was an ARC, it lacked quite a few of the figures, and the diagrams were unintelligible. This is not taking away from the book, but I review what I read. There's a nice glossary at the end though, and a peak at it regularly won't hurt. The writing otherwise is flowing and while you don't get sucked in, you don't get bored either.

Overall, Ancestors in Our Genome was great science reading, especially for people in some background in this area.

Full Disclosure: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a review.

Review: The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

Read from: December 17 to December 20. ARC Kindle copy.

I've stayed away from Reilly even though I know he sells really well. The Great Zoo of China unfortunately confirms the worst suspicions I had about him.

The novel is basically Jurassic Park minus the dinosaurs, but with dragons thrown in instead. There is almost no exploration of why China would want to do such a thing, except for the cliched reason that it wants to "show to the world" that it can do so. Really, every terrible stereotype I can think of the modern Chinese and China is on display here.

There are the super-rich party men, the grandiose infrastructure, conniving colonels ready to murder to "protect the nation's pride", and massive hubris. And obviously a white man, in this case, a white woman, has to save the day. And what a Mary Sue she is! She's single-handedly wrangled saltwater crocs and deciphered alligator mating calls. That makes her the world expert on dragons of course, they are the closest living relatives you see. The science is laughable, just a plot device, which I can easily pass. The plot is Jurassic Park to the letter. Dragons hatched using mumbo-jumbo science. They escape, not due to human negligence, but rather hubris. Havoc ensues. White person saves the day (with white supporting characters, and a dragon of course).

The writing is alright. Just about the only thing going for it is that the book is easy reading. For people who want a fast paced, action oriented plot, this book is an easy pick. For everybody else, stay away.

Full Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher.