Audacity, Privateer Out of Portsmouth, by J. E. Fender

This is an interesting nautical fiction novel by J.E. Fender. This is the second volume of the Frost Saga, the story of one Geoffrey Frost, a mariner from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who is a great navigator, excellent naval commander, and a fierce armed combatant. He is also a gentleman, somewhat philosophical and learned in history, philosophy, and other fields. And, finally, he is a businessman. He does not like to waste time – time wasted is business lost for Geoffrey Frost, regardless of whether he employs himself as a trader or as a captain of a privateer.

Geoffrey Frost has entered the American Revolution on behalf of the colony of New Hampshire, commanding a captured British sloop o’ war and sailing out of Portsmouth to harass the British fleet. And as Frost doesn’t like to waste time, the story about him too moves fast, with little time spent ashore and lots of nautical action compared to most of the novels about naval warfare in the age of sail.

The story in Audacity, as in the first book in the series, is set during the American Revolution. Here Frost and his crew engage an English frigate very smartly, destroy another English Navy ship, and capture several British trading and supply ships. For Frost and his crew, that means a very nice sum in prize money, and it also serves to enhance Frost’s reputation and influence.

Audacity is very entertaining, rich on historical detail, and has great descriptions of the naval actions the ship engages in. The weakest part of the book is in the exceedingly conceited manner of behavior of the some of the characters, most notably Frost himself. He speaks as if he was reading from a government document or the small print clauses in an insurance policy. I think it is fairly unlikely that anyone ever stood on a quarterdeck and emitted any of the pompous speeches that Geoffrey Frost is guilty of.

Overall, I view Audacity as a very nice read, entertaining, and quite interesting as it deals with the Civil War and the emerging navy of the US.

Praise:

“This entertaining novel .. offers historical detail .. plenty of action, and unforgettable characters.” —Booklist

“The battle scenes are plentiful, the historic references neatly woven in ..”—Concord Monitor

“A seafaring yarn of the American Revolution, Audacity plunges into action and claps on sail.”—The Historical Novels Review

The Disciple, by Stephen Coonts

Iran is weeks away from having operational nuclear weapons. Closer, in fact, than the CIA believes. It seems to have every intention of using them to strike first. Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is willing to go to great lengths to reunite the Muslim world, and has a plan. According to this plan, Iran will become a martyr nation, and Ahmadinejad will lead the united Muslims of the world in a holy war against the non-believers.

CIA’s Chief of Operations for the Middle East is former Navy admiral Jake Grafton. He knows something is going on, and assigns his best operative, Tommy Carmellini, to work inside Iran. Tommy starts gathering information, and is assisted by a group of dissident Iranians. They are afraid their leader may start a new world war.

Eventually, the facts are on the table. And they are much worse than suspected. Iran has nearly completed production of a dozen nuclear warheads. But the American President refuses to strike Iran first. As he sees it, a broad strike on Iran will be the beginning of the third world war. Instead it will be up to Grafton and Carmellini to stop the disaster from occurring. The countdown to Armageddon has started. Can it be stopped?

Tommy Carmellini, the main character in a recent series of books by Stephen Coonts, has worked with Jake Grafton on a number of missions. He is a retired jewel thief that has been turned into a somewhat reluctant CIA operative. He is a very smooth, careful, intelligent and highly adaptive man who has just the kind of skill set that is required for deep undercover work.

In The Disciple, Stephen Coonts returns to the kind of military and espionage story that he is great at, and that made some other novels, like Cuba, very successful novels. This is a good move by Coonts. He knows how to tell a suspenseful tale of skillful military action and undercover technology.

The Disciple had me pinned to my chair. It is Coonts at his best again. A great book!

The Disciple is a tense and fast-paced thriller, starting with the opening sequence of the Israeli destruction of a Syrian nuclear plant. It never slows down. A great book for fans of military and espionage thrillers.
One I recommend.

High Citadel, by Desmond Bagley

Desmond Bagley is an almost forgetten English master thriller writer. But his books are still very well worth reading – elegant, extremely suspenseful, good characters and smart plots. High Citadel is one of his best.

A plane is forced down in the Andes. The survivors – a pilot, two businessmen, an ex-president, his bodyguard and his niece, a school teacher, and two academics – are forced to battle altitude sickness, freezing temperatures, and a band of Communist guerillas.

And as they try to organize their effort to improve their situation, we start to find out that the people involved are not what they say they are. Each has their own past. And, in addition, it soon becomes evident that the survivors have a traitor in their midst.

They manage to get down to a mining camp. There another bad surprise awaits them. What follows is tense, tightly scripted action. The party of survivors gets holed up on one side of a gorge, trying their best to holding off attackers with limited weapons and ammunition and a homemade crossbow. Their hopes rest on a small number who have volunteered to climb the other side of the mountain looking for help.

Every character in High Citadel plays an important role. The action is very tense, and the suspense is present all the time. This is one of Bagley’s best books, well written, exciting and a great read. It is highly recommended for all thriller fans.

Beginning HTML5 and CSS3: Next Generation Web Standards, by Christopher Murphy

This is a new and very exciting book on modern use of HTML5 and the new CSS3 techniques. If you are a web developer, then Beginning HTML5 and CSS3 is a great introduction to the new features and elements of HTML5; all the leaner, cleaner, and more efficient code you’ve hoped for is available now with HTML5. Aslo, you will find new tools that will allow you to create more meaningful and richer content. For everyone involved in web design, this book also introduces the new structural integrity and styling flexibility of CSS 3. This means better-looking pages and smarter content in your website projects with less work than before.

Beginning HTML-5 and CSS3 provides an in-depth look the new capabilities—including audio and video—that are new to web standards. It also addresses the new HTML5 structural sections, plus HTML5 and CSS3 layouts. You see how to create transitions and animations with new technologies.

• Cutting-edge web development techniques with HTML5 and CSS3
• The new features of HTML5 and how to work with HTML5 and CSS3
• The new web standards being implemented by all the major web browsers
• How to work with the new HTML5 structural sections
• How to create HTML5 and CSS3 layouts
• How to create transitions and animations without using Flash
• New web typography solutions
• A new vision of web development with HTML5 and CSS3

This book is for web developers and anyone involved in web design who wants to embrace the new web standards and cutting-edge features of HTML5 and CSS3. With a practical, accessible approach, this book is for anyone who wants to push their websites forwards with the latest technologies.

Judas Unchained, by Peter Hamilton

Set in the 24th century, bestseller Hamilton’s richly satisfying space opera is both a sequel to Pandora’s Star (2004) and the second half of one dauntingly complicated, wonderfully imagined novel. In the far future, mankind has prospered under the control of the hegemonic Commonwealth, led by the charismatic Nigel Sheldon. Part of the reason for this prosperity is the adaptation of a new wormhole technology developed by Sheldon. Wormholes are generated iteratively and used to create a series of intergalactic railway tunnels linking distant planets with a simple train network.

When Pandora’s Star ended, the worlds of the Commonwealth were under devastating attack by the alien race called Prime. The Prime are a hive-mind organism that was freed by accident from a force field that had been placed around their star by an unknown race.

In the war that followed, twenty-three inhabited Commonwealth-worlds were lost. Millions of people died and millions refugees. In Judas Unchained, we meet again the major players of the Commonwealth as they seek to come to grasp with the treath and mobilize against it. But a second enemy, another mystical alien force, is appearing on the radar of some of the actors in the plot as well – the Starflyer. The Starflyer may potentially be even more dangerous to the human race.

The Guardians, a splinter group believed to be a terrorist organization, have for a long time expressed their belief in the Starflyer’s existence. Now more and more others are being convinced that what they say is true. The Starflyer, argue the Guardians, deliberately manipulated humanity into war with the Prime, so that both species would be weakened. The Starflyer apparently has agents – humans that it controls – all over the Commonwealth.

Once again, Peter F. Hamilton proves himself capable of writing large scale space opera. In a multitude of subplots, Hamilton adroitly leaps from the struggles of one engaging, quirky character to another. Meanwhile, the main action expands and the super-scientific weapons become increasingly terrible.

Hamilton writes excellent action sequences, and his characters are interesting. For any fan of science fiction, Judas Unchained is one to read!

Dead Reckoning, by C. Northcote Parkinson

Dead Reckoning is the fourth book in the Richard Delancey  series by C. Northcote Parkinson, and a very good one at that. We have now reached the year 1805, during The Napoleonic wars. Richard Delancey has married a former actress, Fiona, and is very happy. He is made post, brought back into the service, and given command over the old 32-gun frigate Laura. He is happy to be given command. However, his orders are not exactly what he would prefer as a recently married man. He has been assigned service in the Far East. He must part from his young wife for an unknown period of time.

There is a lot of naval action in this novel. There is convoy escort, a special assignment to chase down a French privateer that disturbs trade, an attack on Mauritius, as well as a bloody fight against two French frigates. In several instances Richard Delancey shows both courage and intelligence. His ingenious strategies while escorting a convoy of East Indiamen is very entertaining. So is the demonstration of pure willpower in the attack against a French privateer.

Delancey is a creative, solid, smart and very likeable officer in Her Majesty’s Navy. Dead Reckoning is thick with excellent plots and smart thinking. It is perhaps the best in the series so far, and certainly one that increased my interest in C. Northcote Parkinson’s series! Being a fan of nautical fiction, I rank this series highly!

The Fight for Rome, by James Duffy

In this second novel in the Gladiators of the Empire series, which continues to tell the story of Quintus Honorius Romanus, the gladiator going by the name of Taurus, we meet again the key characters of James Duffy’s first novel, Sand of the Arena. We meet Quintus, Lindani and Amazonia only a few months after the events in the first book.

It is now AD 69, and it is the Year of the Four Emperors. Emperor Galba has been assassinated, and Otho is engaged in a fight against Vitellius for the throne. But Otho has too few soldiers on his side, and now gladiators are recruited as soldiers for Otho.

>At the same time, at a gladiator ludus in Africa, Quintus’ arch-enemy, the slave Lucius Calidius, gets a second chance. Julia, who is newly widowed and now sole owner of the Romanus shipping business, comes to rescue Lucius, and soon they find themselves in comfortable circumstances in Alexandria and Caesarea, courting Vespasian, the fourth contender for the Roma throne.

The Fight for Rome is a good and very entertaining novel. However, the plot is a little farfetched – as it places a gladiator in the center of the vast struggle for control over the Roman Empire. But if you accept the plot, this is a good, pretty well researched and very interesting novel. The fighting scenes seem very realistic and the relations among the characters are very interesting and well described. The Fight for Rome is a good historical fiction novel which I recommend.

>Praise:

“A well-written story of ancient Rome, comparable to novels written by Simon Scarrow and Michael Curtis Ford . . . an exciting portrayal of gladiatorial combat.”

— The Historical Novels Review

“Duffy combines a sure sense of character and narrative with an extraordinary knowledge of the world of the Roman arena. It’s an exciting, thrilling novel. I’m looking forward to more in the series.”

— John Maddox Roberts, Author,

SPQR historical fiction series

A Clash of Kings, by George R. R. Martin

In A Clash of Kings, George R. R. Martin continues to tell the titanic story of The Song Of Ice And Fire. It is as good as the previous book, if not better. And it is even grimmer and longer than the first volume.

It starts right where A Game of Thrones ends. King Robert is dead. Lord Stark’s head has parted with his shoulders. In the realm there is total chaos. Several kings vie for power, there is war everywhere.

Princess Arya Stark flees her dead father’s capital of King’s Landing, disguised as a boy. And the kingdom is now divided, with several groups wanting the Throne. Robb Stark has been appalled by the treachery of the Lannister family, and has declared himself King of the North. As well, two of the dead King’s brothers also declare for the throne and plan war.

At the same time, things are happening in the North, and it seems strange and mysterious forces are making their way into the civilized lands. Also, a young woman raises a trio of dragons and plots her revenge.

Tyrion Lannister – a very cynical and intriguing character indeed – is once again one at the centre stage in this book. Using his perspective, Martin is able to provide both humor and lots of intelligence.

Each of the three major plots is developing at great pace. And like the previous book, A Clash of Kings is full of scheming, plotting, betrayal, violence and action. The strings are masterfully held together by Martin, and the world of the Seven Kingdoms in vividly clear. Another great installment in a major saga you should not miss out on.

Shadow Account, by Stephen Frey

Stephen Frey, who is a specialist in mergers and acquisitions and works in corporate finance, has written a series of financial thrillers. This book, Shadow Account, is not the best of his books, but I still found it to be an interesting and very entertaining read.

We meet up with the main character, Connor Ashby is in his apartment in Manhattan, with his wealthy engaged to someone else girlfriend Liz Shaw. Then an email addressed to a person named Victor arrives. The email indicates that revenues are profit is being manipulated in a very big but unnamed firm. Connor realizes the email he received was an error, but before he can decide what to do Liz sends him out to buy cigarettes. When he returns Liz has been killed, the apartment has been completely trashed and a goon is trying to kill him. Responding quickly, he manages to get out of the apartment and run off. However, when he returns with the police, his apartment is clean, nothing is broken, and there is no corpse. It is as if nothing has happened.

As he follows a twisting trail of misdeeds and misinformation that stretches nationwide, Conner slowly uncovers a shocking plot as undeniably real as the gunshot wound in his arm. Now, surviving will mean struggling to expose the truth as relentlessly as his shadowy enemies seek to conceal it— and fighting for his life as ruthlessly as those determined to end it.

Shadow Account has a good plot, and it quickly hooks you. And in the course of the story, Frey explains the complex financial issues in a fashion that makes them understandable. Having read this book, you will better understand some of the recent meltdown scandals like Enron.

Stephen Frey’s novels of big money and murder in the world of finance have earned this New York Times bestselling author a richly deserved reputation as a master of suspense who always delivers a high yield. Now he raises the stakes, and the risk factor, in this new thriller that pits a young Wall Street player against corporate conspiracy and White House intrigue—in a dangerous game of double crosses, dirty tricks, and deadly consequences.

Shadow Account. It does jump and twist a little here and there, and may be a little too convoluted at times, but it is a very entertaining and enjoyable read in a genre with relatively few very good writers.

The Wicked Trade, by Jan Needle

This is the second book in the continuing story of Midshipman William Bentley, in Jan Needle’s realist and grim naval saga. The story of William Bentley is set in the early 19th century. The Wicked Trade is quite different from A Fine Boy for Killing. We catch up with William Bentley, survivor of the bloody Welfare mutiny, as a midshipman on the press tender Biter, a ship tasked with recruiting sailors to the Royal Navy – which mostly meant sending out press gangs and capturing able or not so able men.

William’s earlier experiences have stripped away his last traces of innocence, but his service in the London River-surrounded by corruption and greed-teaches him new lessons about the darker side of city life. When Biter is reassigned to combat the “wicked trade” of smuggling, Bentley and his fellow midshipman friend, Sam Holt, are soon drawn into a complicated conspiracy after two customs men are brutally murdered by a well-organized smuggling gang. Greed, corruption and betrayal reach high levels in the navy and the government, and the two midshipmen soon are way over their heads in a cesspool of savagery and duplicity.

The story is multithreaded, and mostly very well told. It is a book about smuggling, press gangs, whores, and love and class relations in England at the time. The books is not for the soft reader – it has some very brutal scenes (some nasty amateur dentistry for instance). As Jan Needle says, his project with this series of books is:

“What I am trying to do in my books is to get behind this myth, to show an age of desperate, ruthless struggle. In the eighteenth century, the British Navy carved out, with blood and violence, a huge portion of the world. The losses were enormous – but not from warfare, mainly. Firstly came disease, then accident: the peril of the sea.”

And he does manage to get behind the myths. In many ways The Wicked Trade is an outstanding book, even though I thought the ending was somewhat lacking and much too “lucky”. I to some extent feel Needle should concern himself a little bit more with the plot and the story, and a little less with gruesome details. Also, the plot, while exciting, doesn’t have the gripping quality of the first book in the series. However, for the most part, the characters are strong, vivid and well drawn.

Overall, The Wicked Trade is an entertaining but gruesome swashbuckler, albeit without the glory of a Hornblower, the class of a Ramage or the naval action of the Alan Lewrie series. Instead Needle gives a thoroughly grim and accurate portrayal of naval existence and the life of the poor. Prepare to be horrified!

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