No really, I mean it

Please stay home if you want to vote for Trump...  For the love of God and this Country. 

Apparently the people in my hometown, the (only half-heartedly) People's Republic of Arlington, listened to the whole voting thing (I think a lot of Democrats crossed the line to have the chance to vote against Trump), but not enough people are listening.

I am voting for the Libertarian candidate if the Republican's cannot figure out a way to not nominate Trump (I admit to mocking the Democrat's "super-delegate" concept for being undemocratic (part of the reason that no one really expected Bernie to get nominated, when you are as plugged in and part of the system as Hillary is, that is a heck of a windmill to tilt to challenge her), but it is looking like a good idea now....). 

I just... can't..... vote for Trump or Hillary.

February "Reads"/Reads

Even more miles for my training equals even more miles for me to listen to books. Though it is a slightly (less so than normal) shorter month.

• Valhalla (Lexy Vaughan Steven Macaulay #1) - Robert J. Mrazek
• Not a bad book. But not interesting enough to keep going. It was interesting how the author tied in the airplane recovery into a recovery effort for, of all things, the Vikings and secret cults. Felt like a mediocre Dan Brown novel.

• Brothers in Valor (Man of War #3) - H. Paul Honsinger
• Continuation of a fun series. I enjoyed the interesting situations and the clever ways that the captain was able to escape. Based on the ending I am interested to see where this goes.

• The X-Files: Trust No One - edited by Jonathan Maberry
• With a new "season" of The X-Files on tv, it was hard not to buy this anthology to get into the mood and revel in some nostalgia. So I didn't resist and was quite happy with the set of stories. The X-Files feels like returning to your childhood and most of these stories captured the feel of the show. While not every story completely engaged me, the overall set made me feel like I got my money's worth.

Vote

Vote.

 am deeply looking forward to tomorrow's primary's here in VA (I got excited as I saw that the signs are up around my local polling place) because finally I can toss my vote into the ring. I am not deeply excited about the other options (I am going to go with Rubio, because he seems to be the best mid-line candidate) but I need to make clear that I don't want Trump as the nominee.

P.S. Ignore the request above if you are planning on voting for the Donald. If so then please, for the love of God and country, stay at home. (and that goes double for Democrats who may think it is funny to toss a ringer into the campaign and vote in the Republican primary. That is the definition of a dick move.)

January "Reads"/Reads

So to humor those who feel that listening to an audio book isn't reading (though it is a big way for me to consume new entertainment).  I have upped my running miles in anticipation of a half marathon in March (I listen to audio books when running, as well as when I am commuting).

• "Steel World" - Undying Mercenaries #1 - B.V. Larson
• Solid SF. Interesting concept with a novel way of killing the main characters. Over and over again. A broad and complex world told from the perspective of a grunt (though he is a "lucky" grunt who seems to always end up in the middle of the actions) with some interesting politics going on in the background. I will definitely give the next book a whirl.

• "A Call to Arms" - Honorverse: Manticore Ascendant - David Weber
• So after a long pause by me from reading any of the Honorverse books, this series continues to drag me in. It offers a unique perspective of the history of the Manticore kingdom from the beginning, before it becomes the super-power that it is in Honor series. Focused mainly on the story started in the first book of Travis Long, this steps several years forward to allow the main character and the supporting cast to move up in rank/responsibility. Covering both the micro (ship to ship fighting) to the macro (big high level political moves) this story has a little bit for everyone, though in particular for those who have grown up reading the other Honor novels.

• "The End Has Come" - edited by John Joseph Adams
• Last of the trilogy, most of the stories here address what comes after the apocalypse. After the apocalypse you say, how can there be a story? Well... Humans are tough and we have a habit of pushing onward even through unspeakable odds (even a virus that kills 99.99% still has some survivors). It was interesting to see how the stories progressed through this set (since most of the stories here had a previous story in the other 2 books (before and during the apocalypse of course)).

Back from the Dead (or also known as living a lot of Life)

Sydney got older, got a baby brother (Sean) and life is just plain busy.
We have a new house (near Ballston), H has a new job, I have a new position in the Army (Somehow the Army decided I should be a Company Commander. 45 people working for me. Not what I ever expected and more work than I realized, but it is what it is. I hit 11 years with the Guard in March) and the world just seems busier.

I wanted to bring this blog back from the dead because I wanted to work on my writing and have an outlet different from the frenzied update world of Facebook and Twitter.
More to follow in the future

Happy

Though I am not the UN's biggest fan, I can get behind the  UN International Day of Happiness, a day intended to "reclaim happiness – away from the fake images of happiness in the adverts and back towards the things that matter."

Anyone who knows me knows that I am generally happy person, happiest when surrounded by friends and family.  There are of course 2 things that make me happier than most, my wife and my daughter.

New Addition to the Family

On June 16th, 2013 I was honored to help welcome my daughter,  Sydney to the world (thanks to my lovely wife, Hannah (aka Cupcake Girl from long ago)).  I am so excited to have her enter our lives!!!

The Engines of God (The Academy #1) by Jack McDevitt

The Engines of God (The Academy #1)

by Jack McDevitt

Solid and engaging SF. One of the things I respected about this book is that it shows the future as a messy place.  Sure, they have FTL travel and communications but everything is not hunky-dory at home.  Earth is a messed up place that seems only to be getting worse, science is still operating on a shoestring budget, the military/government is still stepping on peoples toes and the universe is a big scary place.

Spanning 5 separate planets, this tale is good (generally what I have come to expect from Jack McDevitt).  We have the stars but they are a fairly lonely place. Only one alive race has been found (the are technologically around the WWI level), another never got off their planet and died out and a third was engaged in a game of clue, placing structures near all three races (they left a statue near us an weirdly empty city on a moon of another race).

The main characters are mostly archaeologists, who only seem to have exciting jobs in the stories that are written (like Indiana Jones) who are trying to put all the pieces together.  There is action scenes scattered all around story as well as high tech action.  I am really looking forward to the next book!

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Redshirts

by John Scalzi

Ah, redshirts. It seems to be a sign of a true SF geek to immediately get the reference, vs those would stare at you blankly if you referenced it.  But what if you suddenly realized that you weren't the main character in the reality that you inhabit. Worse, you come to the suspicion that your part in the show may be to become just interesting enough to make the audiences feel some emotional loss when you died. And everyone around you is dying at a rate unheard of for any other ship in the fleet.

Well, this is what happened to the main characters of this story.  And after living through a dreaded away mission (except for their dramatically lost friend ironically) they finally figure out what is going on and even when their show is being written (though of course via divergent universes there is no reference to their show).  After kidnapping a main character (one of the best ways to ensure that they don't die off-screen) they are off to the past to try and stop the writers from killing them and their compatriots.

Overall a fun book, with entertaining characters and a sly wink to a bunch of in-jokes. It may not be a book I ever go back to re-read but it was an interesting story.

Midst Toil and Tribulation (Safehold #6) by David Weber

Midst Toil and Tribulation (Safehold #6)

by David Weber

Treading water. When you get a series that has such breadth and scope such as the Safehold series (in particular when you are talking about a book that spans the entire world where the fastest objects are moving at around 20mph) you sometimes have a book where most of the story is spent getting things tidied up from the last book and preparing the ground for the next.  Midst Toil and Tribulation is one of those rebuilding books.

Sure, some things happened.  Fights occurred, progress was made, troops were moving across the world. But in the end you find yourself wanting, waiting for the next book because that is when the interesting stuff is going to happen.  I appreciate the series and look forward to the next book but this book just whets your appetite for the next book, leaving you unfulfilled and wanting.

Fuzzy Nation (Fuzzy Sapiens) by John Scalzi

Fuzzy Nation (Fuzzy Sapiens)

by John Scalzi

A rewrite of a previous story with the same name, this story updates a story that many people, myself included, have never read to contemporary standards.  While a number of the points were updated to account for how we see the technology and standards for contemporary society, I could very much feel the underpinning concepts that carried through from this older story.

A lot of older SF has the super-competent character who is so much smarter and slicker than his peers effectively manipulating the other characters of the story.  In this case it is even more appropriate that this same archetype is also a disbarred lawyer who utilizes his knowledge to control the whole flow of the story.

I was definitely entertained and enjoyed the story throughout though.  From the introductions of the Fuzzies to most of the elements and characters, this book brought me solidly into the story and entertained throughout.

Jack Holloway, a dis-barred lawyer, is a prospector on Zara 23.  In his searches he has struck the mother load, something that would pay out billions of dollars, but he now faces a moral quandary.  Small creatures that he calls Fuzzies have taken to visit his place.  He shares their info to his ex-girlfriend who chooses to file a claim that they are an intelligent lifeforms, which would jeopardize Jack's future payday.  Throughout the book Jack must balance his his desire to strike it big with the potential cost of endangering the fuzzies.

The Evolutionary Void (Void #3) by Peter F. Hamilton

The Evolutionary Void (Void #3)

by Peter F. Hamilton

What a solid ending to a pretty fantastic series.  Considering this is the end of the second trilogy based in this fascinating universe that has such a massive scope that it was entertaining to see where it would go.  Full of everything from post-Singularity intelligences, uploaded human consciousnesses, cyborgs, magic and even some elves tossed in.

To really get this book you must have read the previous books, preferably even the series that preceded this one given that is where many of the characters and came from.  This is a SF series that evokes the older SF, large in scale and concepts coupled with solid contemporary characters.

Oath of Swords (War God #1) by David Weber

Oath of Swords (War God #1)

by David Weber

This may have been the only "pure" fantasy (vs urban fantasy) books I have read in a long while.  I have read Weber's Reef series but that has a serious SF element. Not that I haven't read fantasy ever (100's of books disagree with that estimate) but it's not my primary genre.

I gotta say that I liked this book. The story kept me interested the whole way through and I turned around and bought the next book in the series right after finishing this one.

As to the story? It helps that it is an interesting world, populated by both the standard races (humans, dwarves, elves) as well as the unique (like our lead character and sidekick, who are hridani, a tall human like people with different ears). Bahzell is at his core a good guy, and therein lays the problem, as his tendency to do good gets him into deeper and deeper trouble.  And then the Gods and Mages get involved....

I very much look forward to reading the next book.

2012!

2012 has been quite an exciting year!  Starting off with a return from Afghanistan (really, if that was the only good thing this would be a great post). A nice couple of weeks off and then back to work.

Lots of wedding planning, followed by the actual event

A delightful almost 3 week vacation to Australia and New Zealand.
A second reception in my Wifes hometown (along with a trip to the State Fair).
There was a bit of tragedy as we had to attend the funerals of both of my wifes Grandmothers (within 3 months of each other).
And of course some new life to counteract those losses as my wife is now pregnant and due in June.

Second Star (Star Svensdotter #1) by Dana Stabenow

Second Star (Star Svensdotter #1)

by Dana Stabenow

Classic SF. Given that I grew up in the days when the Russians (or Soviets) were a driving force, this novel felt familiar. This is basically an alternate future book, where a message from space shows that Aliens are out there and motivates the world to head outwards to greet those aliens on a more equal footing.

Star is basically a construction manager / captain of the still developing L5 community being put together by the Western alliance (US, Japan, Mexico, Canada) on a grand scale (miles long rotating habitat meant to house 1 million people? That's the definition of grand scale!).  Of course, there are a lot of issues. The potential of a hostile takeover, construction delays, solar flares and, yes, aliens all make this book an entertaining read.

Amazingly for a book written 2 decades ago, the book holds up fairly well (other than the geo-political aspects). I had to go back see when it was written and was quite surprised at the date.

The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight (Lost Stars #1) by Jack Campbell

The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight (Lost Stars #1)

by Jack Campbell

What a great spinoff concept. Prior to this book the Syndicate, controlled by nefarious CEO's, were nothing more than relative stick figures. In this case we get to delve deeper into Syndicate society in the post-Geary age.  The main characters were tangentially introduced in the main series, but now we have a chance to see the desperate fight of the leadership of Midway to separate themselves from the central control of the Syndicate.

This is much more of a political novel than the Lost Fleet books.  Yes, there is space combat as well as ground combat, but a lot of the book is devoted to the truly twisted political realm of the CEO's, where you cannot trust anyone. Even though they must work together to wring a small hole of safety for both themselves and the people of Midway, the sheer level of scheming is intense (where every move is never taken at face value and no one is what they seem to be). But the two leaders, Drakon and Iceni, seem to see the value of cooperation and realize that the system that they were born into needs to be changed (but realizing that it cannot be done overnight).

A very solid book and I very much look forward to the next (with a cliffhanger like Jack dropped at the end of the book, it is a given that there needs to be another book).

A World Out of Time

A World Out of Time

by Larry Niven

Classic SF. While a few of the concepts of the future world are a bit dated (though one could argue that as most of the story is from the perspective of a man who died in the 1970's) it overall is an interesting romp that covers an impressive scope of time (not just throwing us hundreds of years into the future, but millions!!!).

Corbell begins this tale as a corpsicle, frozen on the off chance getting revived in the future. And lucky for him he does... sorta. Waking up in a new body he finds he is merely fodder for the "State", his old body is ground up to extract his memories and tied into a body of a criminal who has been wiped. Slated to be a operator of a ramscoop ship, he eventually has his own ideas and ends up hijacking it and eventually returning to the Earth 3 million years after he left. Afterward he spends the rest of the book on the prowl for a special treatment that will make him young again.

Furious (Kris Longknife #10)

by Mike Shepherd

This is the style of SF that I grew up on.  I guess that is why I have read the past 9 books, making this one a no-brainer.

In a lot of ways this is perhaps the most boring of the series. No cataclismic fight against overwhelming odds and very little fleet action (even the ground fighting/espionage, another big factor for this series, was tame).  Mainly just a bunch of hiding/escaping from pursuers, a break in, more fleeing and then a courtroom drama (set in the Japanese empire, which is entertaining).  And oddly enough, more romance than we have seen in almost the entire series combined.

Kris starts the story exiled, stuck on a planet far away, seperated from most of her friends (except Abbie). After yet another assaination attempt coupled with some key intel that needs to be resolved back in Wardhaven, she promptly escapes. Making things difficult for her is that her father and her grandfather have both sworn out warrants against her, and her other grandfather locks her out of her massive funds.

Overall entertaining popcorn novel.  The most frustrating part of the book was the end, which so horribly teases the next book I was kind of annoyed......

Dead of Night (Dead of Night #1) by Jonathan Maberry

Dead of Night (Dead of Night #1)

by Jonathan Maberry

Still not sure how I missed finding Jonathan Maberry before but I am hooked. This book seems to keep up his Zombie theme, with more of the classic outbreak/beginning story.  Providing one of the better back stories for how the infection came to be than most books, the book kept me glued until the end.

When a mad-scientist doctor injects a death row serial killer with something other than what the government wants, untold horror is unleashed on a little county in Pennsylvania. Most of the story is told from the perspective of the reporter, Trout, and his on-again, off-again girlfriend Dez. Trout gets the full story from the prison doc, while Dez must slowly figure out the danger she is in bit by bit and only through trial and error is she able to learn how to fight correctly.  It is a solid story that keeps you involved for the entire novel, as you try to figure out where the story will end.

Kitty Takes a Holiday (Kitty Norville #3) by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty Takes a Holiday (Kitty Norville #3)

by Carrie Vaughn

This book was kind of a slog to get through. I continue to enjoy reading stories involving Kitty, but this story seemed somewhat adrift and not anchored like the first two books.  It also had the odd feel that there were basically two stories in this book that are combined. The mystery of who is harassing Kitty during her self-enforced isolation and the part where she deals with the aftereffects of the first story.

Overall we get a better understanding of the world that Kitty lives in (with the expansion of new types of supernatural creatures and of magic) as well as better understanding of the two men who dominate her life, her lawyer, Ben, and her occasional hunter ally Cormic.

I really do enjoy the tone (the voice) of Kitty, she remains an engaging character and I have hopes for the next book. It helps that in the end she is back where she belongs, behind the mic.