The Avenger, by Frederick Forsyth

Calvin Dexter, the main character of this story, is a quiet lawyer in a quiet little town in America. Or so it seems. However, Dexter was a “tunnel rat” in Vietnam, one of the toughest services there, and came back alive and highly decorated. A man very used to danger.

It turns out that Dexter doubles as the Avenger, a man who secretly sells services where he uses the set of skills acquired in Vietnam rather than at law school.

The main plot in The Avenger involves a Canadian billionaire that hires the Avenger to identify the killer of his grandson. The Avenger, however, eventually gets involved in this at a personal and emotional level, rather than simply professional. And when that happens, the straightforward mission gets infinitely more complicated.

The Avenger is a great and interesting read, with a very intriguing psychological mechanism at its core. It is not the best book Frederick Forsyth has ever written, but as all of Forsyth’s books, it is still very suspenseful and entertaining.

A King’s Trade (Alan Lewrie-series), by Dewey Lambdin

I am a lover of books. Among the books I love the most to read, are historical novels. Master & Commander, Sword Song, Masters of Rome, and more, are among my favorites. And to me, there is hardly anything more romantic, intriguing, exotic and interesting then a great naval novel, of course about the British navy during the era of sail.

And the series entitled The Naval Adventures of Alan Lewrie by Dewey Lambdin is among my favorites. Great, joyful reading. Rough, tough, hard Navy guys, sailing, the life at sea, great sea battles. I love it!

Alan Lewrie is the main character is this series of books. He is a brash, impetuous ladies’ man and general rakehell. He’s also an officer in the Royal Navy where his bravery and quick thinking bring him success as often as they land him in hot water.

From a young midshipman who develops a love for naval artillery to captain of a dashing frigate, Lewrie moves up the ranks as he samples the pleasures of the world and makes his mark as a King’s officer!

In A King’s Trade, Alan Lewrie meet trouble of many types. He is now in hot water for “liberating” a dozen slaves from their Caribbean plantation and putting them to work on his ship, the HMS Proteus. He learns that “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”. Then Zachariah Twigg of the Foreign Office, one of the spies who has often used him for dangerous missions, suggests a scheme that might save his career: recasting the incorrigible captain as an abolitionist hero. And sends him to sea, reckoning that he will be a more sellable hero at a distance. But Lewrie can get into trouble at sea as well! And even being his bestest self, he does!

Great book and a lovely series overall! If you like naval historical fiction, go check it out!

Masters of Time, by A.E. van Vogt

A.E. van Vogt (actually Alfred Elton van Vogt, April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was one the the classical masters of science fiction, and one of my favorites as well. Masters of Time is one of his earliest works, a real classic science fiction story. So to some extent Masters of Time is, and should be read as, an example of the first primitive attempts at writing modern science fiction. This novel from the early 1940s was first published in the pulp magazine Astounding Science Fiction.

A woman, Norma, is contacted, and offered a job. She finds out that her secretarial job is in a business which exists as a front for a recruiting station for a war in the distant future. As well, Indeed, Norma’s boyfriend professor Garson is caught up in this. The man who hires Norma is a tall, powerful, and callous individual named Dr. Lell, who turns out to be one of the Masters of Time.

Taking place in a multidimensional matrix of space and time, we follow Norma’s and Garson’s attempts understand the frightening new technoligies used to control them, the operation of the future cultures, and the new concepts of time and space forces upon them. Also, of course, they seek to be free and return to their own time. And the technologies are powerful indeed – Dr. Lell, for instance, can make Norma older or younger at will.

The storyline in Masters of Time is at times a little hard to follow. Yet, to me, this book is very interesting, and rereading it I am still amazed by the level of sophistication of A. E. van Vogt’s thinking and plotting. Relative to the time period of its writing this is an impressive book, and still worth a reading!

Cat O’Nine Tales, by Jeffrey Archer

Cat O’Nine Tales is Jeffrey Archer’s fifth collection of short stories. It was published in 2006, and nine of the twelve stories are based on tales Archer heard while in prison. The other three stories are also based on true events but are not derived from prison. Jeffrey Archer is an excellent short story writer – he masters the form of the short story almost to perfection. In Cat O’Nine tales he shows it yet again.

While incarcerated for two years in five different prisons, Jeffrey Archer picked up several ideas for short stories. They range from a tale of The Man Who Robbed His Own Post Office, to the story of a company chairman who tried to poison his wife while on a trip to St Petersburg – both with unexpected consequences. In another, Maestro, an Italian restaurateur ends up in jail, unable to explain to the tax man how he can own a yacht, a Ferrari and a home in Florence, while only declaring a profit of £70,000 a year.

Cat O’Nine Tales is another great collection of short stories, with twelve stories with intriguing plots, by Jeffrey Archer!
Read more reviews of books by Jeffrey Archer.

Order Cat O’ Nine Tales by Jeffrey Archer from amazon UK!

The Unlikely Spy, by Daniel Silva

Daniel Silva is a great writer of thrillers of espionage. His writings remind me of the early John Le Carré. In this book, The Unlikely Spy, his debut novel, he looks behind the curtain of secrecy surrounding espionage during World War II, and uses it as the basis for a great and exciting as well as innovative spy thriller. He shows that, as Le Carré, he has a lot of knowledge about spy craft as well as the workings of anti-espionage organizations.

In The Unlikely Spy Silva deals with the Allies’ effort to protect perhaps the greatest secrets of all during World War II – the location of the planned D-Day landings in France. Silva’s story has an innovative plot with roots both in Nazi-Germany’s spy machine ran by Admiral Canaris and a huge counter-intelligence effort, involving both the American and the British intelligence services, and having been cleared all the way up to Prime Minister Winston Churchill!

The stakes on both sides are extremely high: a successful invasion does not assure victory, but defeat on the beaches will prolong the war and, very possibly, lose it. Much hinges on what the enemy knows about the undertaking. “In wartime,” Winston Churchill wrote, “truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”

The main story in The Unlikely Spy takes place in 1943, but with excursions to events at previous points in time leading up to the key events. In 1943, Britain’s counter-intelligence service MI5 has identified and captured virtually all of the German spies sent to the country so far. Some has been hanged; some has been turned and are used to feed back carefully crafted misinformation to their controllers in Germany.

But now the Germans awaken a sleeping agent to get more intelligence about the upcoming British invasion. And when the British learn about this, they realize that one piece of correct information may destroy the house of cards – based on endless lies – they have so carefully constructed. The sleeper-agent is Catherine Blake, a very beautiful and seductive agent who began her entry into Britain with the cold-blooded killing of a young female painter. As she comes closer and closer to penetrating the Allied operation, code-named Operation Mulberry, the action accelerates. Will the invasion plan succeed with this a brilliant agent at work? Can she be stopped in time?

Silva’s characters are strong. Along with a teeming cast of other characters, real and fictional, they bring the chase to a furious and satisfying climax. And the final plot twist is original, yet logical.
The Unlikely Spy is a strong and promising debut book.

Order Daniel Silva’s The Unlikely Spy from amazon UK. See the other Daniel Silva thrillers as well at amazon UK!

See more reviews of books by Daniel Silva at Leserglede.com!

Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Your Business, by DL Byron & Steve Broback

Blogs have come to stay. There are now millions of blogs on the net, about every possible subject you can imagine. Some blogs are extremely informal, reporting on the everyday lives of their authors, while others are corporate ones, run by companies that try to establish new, more conversational types of communication with their customers.

Here at this site we have started a couple of blogs too, and found blogging to be an interesting medium for communication. Blogs are more informal by nature, and most blog software provide for easy communication between bloggers and readers.

Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Your Business is a little gold mine about blogging. It is short, only about 180 pages long, but it deals with most of the topics that are relevant to establishing and running a blog. It covers topics like blog design, tools you need for blogging, writing and launching your blog, as well as managing and monitoring your blog. The tone is informal and conversational. And the authors have a solid background as bloggers and as corporate advisors to corporations that have established blogs aimed at customers (like Boing or Bluefly).

Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Your Business is a well written, very informative book that covers a wide range of topics about blogs and blogging. Recommended!

A few other books about blogs and blogging that may be of interest to you:

Links to amazon US for these boooks: Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business, Start Your Own Blogging Business (Startup), Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers, and How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog (How to Make . . .). Links to amazon UK: Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business, Start Your Own Blogging Business, Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers, and How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog (How to Make . . .).

Genghis: Birth of an Empire, by Conn Iggulden

I have a passion for historical fiction. Conn Iggulden’s Genghis: Birth of an Empire (which published in the UK as Wolf of the Plains) is the kind of book that increases this passion in me. It is at the same time a wonderful piece of fiction and also a book that provides a glimpse into the life of the mysterious Genghis Khan. This is historical fiction of the first order. Iggulden has previously authored the bestselling Emperor series on the life of Julius Caesar, and is an excellent craftsman.

Iggulden has been inspired by Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan, which supposedly is the leading primary source into the life and times of Genghis Khan, to weave a fantastic story that moves at a pleasant pace from the birth of Temujin to his first unification of the warring Mongol tribes, after which he assumes the title Genghis, claiming his birthright as the rightful khan of the Wolves.

This book is the first of a series about Genghis Khan. Still, it has both the plot and the content to be read as a standalone novel. And there is nothing unresolved by the end. Iggulden weaves a spellbinding story of an exotic and “unforgiving land” and the enigmatic young man — charismatic, a brilliant tactician and capable “of utter ruthlessness” — who sets out to tame it.

The future conqueror Temujin, the name meaning a man of iron, is born to the khan (ruler) of a hard Mongol tribe that roams central Asia’s steppes in the 12th century. The Mongols are constantly warring with the Tartars, while both parties are influenced by and manipulated by the Chinese.

When his father is killed by Tartar raiders, a rival claims the tribe, assumes the title of Khan, and banishes Temujin’s family. Left behind without resources when the tribe migrates, the family struggles with nature and enemies to survive in the harsh environment. Thus Temujin is hardened and becomes a hard and tough warrior.

But, having been raised as a Khan’s son, he still dreams of being Khan – he even feels destined to become one – and starts gathering outcasts into a new tribe. Then he begins raiding Tartar camps. And as his fame spreads, Temujin launches an ambitious campaign to unite the Mongol tribes “after a thousand years of warfare” into a single people, defeat the Tartars and invade China.

This is a really epic piece of work. To research it, Iggulden even spent time in Mongolia, and it shows. One of the strengths of “Genghis” lie in Iggulden’s depiction of the extremely harsh Mongolian landscape and the life scraped out by its inhabitants. Genghis: Birth of an Empire is a gem of historical fiction – very, very entertaining at the same time as it is illuminating and educational. I strongly recommend it!

Stieg Larsson’s books hot in England

The following list, from amazon in England, is quite interesting to a fan a Stieg Larsson!

The most popular items in Fiction at amazon UK. Updated hourly. (Average customer rating in parentheses):

1. Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga), by Stephenie Meyer (3.8)
2. When Will There be Good News?? by Kate Atkinson (3.9)
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (4.2)
4. The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff, (4.5)
5. The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson (4.6)
6. The Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry (3.8)
7. The Shack, by William P. Young (3.6)
8. The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink (4.2)
9. Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates (4.8)
10. Wetlands, by Charlotte Roche (3.1)

So, right now Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is in third place and at the same time his The Girl Who Played with Fire is in the fifth place! That is quite remarkable!

Both of Stieg Larsson’s books have excellent customer ratings. The only book ranked higher among the current top ten by customers is the extremely remarkable Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates. That is also quite a feat by Stieg Larsson. It is very sad that he did not live to see his astonishing success!

Links to Stieg Larsson’s books at Amazon US: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Gunnar’s Daughter, by Sigrid Undset

(Translated by Arthur G. Chater.New : York: Knopf, 1936. New translation by Tiina Nanally.) (Norwegian title: Fortællingen om Viga-Ljot og Vigdis. Christiania (Oslo): Aschehoug, 1909.)

Set in Norway and Iceland at the beginning of the eleventh century, Gunnar’s Daughter is the story of the beautiful, spoiled Vigdis Gunnarsdatter, who is casually raped by the man she had wanted to love.

A woman of courage and intelligence, Vigdis is toughened by adversity. Alone she raises the child conceived in violence, repeatedly defending her autonomy in a world governed by men. Alone she also gradually rebuilds her life and restores her family’s honor, until an unrelenting social code propels her to take the action that again destroys her happiness.

More than a historical romance, Gunnar’s Daughter depicts characters driven by passion and vengefulness, themes as familiar in Undset’s own time – and in ours – as they were in the Saga Age. A strong, unsentimental book by Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset. Still very well worth reading!

The Non-Designer’s Web Book, 3rd Edition, by Robin Williams

While the second edition of The Non-Designer’s Web Book won’t answer all of your technical questions about the inner workings of the Web, it explains most of what a beginning designer needs to know: what the Web is, how it gets to your computer, how to use it, and, most of all, how to design for it.
Any artist can tell you that you have to know how a medium works to get the most impact from working in it.

A basic understanding of how the Web works enables the good designer to create the most effective sites. This book thoroughly discusses the different kinds of graphics that are used on the Web, when to use one over another, how to make the most of text styles, and how to design navigation systems.

The comparisons are the best stuff here–good design vs. bad design, why designing Web pages is different from designing printed pages, and why a site looks terrific on one monitor but terrible on another. Two chapters on properly preparing graphics and setting typography for use on a Web site describe how to avoid obvious mistakes that would make your work look amateurish.

Not limited to design, the Non-Designer’s Web Book shows how to get a site up and running, register the domain name, and add it to search engines. After the design is finished and implemented, the site has to be uploaded and updated; this is explained, too.

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