Wesley Britton's Blog, page 16

Book Review: David Bowie: A Life by Dylan Jones

David Bowie: A Life
Dylan Jones
Hardcover: 544 pages
Publisher: Crown Archetype (September 12, 2017)
ISBN-10:045149783X
ISBN-13:978-0451497833
https://www.amazon.com/David-Bowie-Li...

Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton


When Prince died on April 21, 2016, just four months after the passing of David Bowie on January 10, there were immediate and numerous comparisons made between the two giants of music in terms of importance and influence. I well recall one TV commentator certain Prince was the more influential of the two.

Huh?

I can’t figure out that reasoning at all. For one matter, by the time of Prince’s first successes in 1979, Bowie had already made a decade-long cultural impact difficult to match. As some of the interviewees in Dylan Jones oral history of the life of David Bowie opined, Ziggy Stardust was where the ‘60s ended and the ‘70s began. A large number of British acts from U2 to Duran Duran acknowledge Bowie as an important influence. Not to mention acts like Mott the Hoople, Iggy Pop, Lulu, and Lu Reed who all benefited from Bowie’s career-saving hand. Later, Madonna and Lady Gaga also pointed to Bowie as a seminal influence on their careers. And all this before Prince set foot into a recording studio.

And, judging from the countless verbal snapshots in Dylan Jones oral history, Bowie’s impact on the many people who knew or simply met him was profound on many levels. For one matter, he was a figure with a deep well of interest from music to the visual arts to theatre and film to fashion to literature. Because of his shifting guises throughout his career, he worked with a wide range of collaborators, producers, musicians, and business advisors. Depending on your point of view, Bowie was simply following his vision or was callous in his leaving some of his associates behind as he changed directions throughout his career.

While painting a “warts and all” portrait of Bowie in the words of hundreds of personal interviews, Dylan Jones presents a more than rounded portrait of an artistic giant worthy of the many accolades Bowie received before and after his death, but certainly he was no saint. In his personal life, he enjoyed a wide range of sexual experiences. Many of them, by 2018 standards, could be considered child molestation. During the ‘70s, Bowie did a bit too much coke. And during the ‘80s, his artistic vision let him down when he crafted some admittedly substandard albums.

But, in the main, most commentators on Bowie in Dylan Jones’ biography remember Bowie in a very favorable light, from his private personal life to his work in the studio to his interactions with, well, seemingly everyone he ever met. From start to finish, Bowie is seen as an innovative artist with drive, talent, a special physical presence as well as intellectual abilities and curiosity. It’s such a personal book that those looking for insights into Bowie’s creative process may feel slighted, but there are no shortage of other books that explore such aspects of Bowie’s output.

I’ve always shied away from using the term “definitive” for any biography as many are comprehensive but usually lack in one aspect or another. Dylan Jones A Life comes close as he actually wrote very little but instead compiled a year-by-year history of Bowie and his circles using the voices of so many observers. It might not be the one and only book you should read about Bowie, but I can’t imagine any other tome out there that touches so many bases. Maybe not definitive, but certainly indispensable.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 20, 2018:
https://waa.ai/aHKm

Sequart Releases New Book on Star Wars Expanded Universe

Sequart is proud to announce the publication of A More Civilized Age: Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe, edited by Rich Handley and Joeseph F. Berenato.

Almost as soon as there were Star Wars films, there were Star Wars novels. Alan Dean Foster got the ball rolling, ghost-writing the first film’s adaptation for George Lucas, as well as penning a sequel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. Novels covering the exploits of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian soon followed, ushering in what would come to be called the Star WarsExpanded Universe. The EU, like the Force itself, has helped to bind the galaxy together.

More than 250 Star Wars novels have been published by Del Rey, Bantam Books, Ballantine Books, and other companies, aimed at both young and adult readers. Spanning the decades before, during, and after the films’ events, the books have spawned new galactic governments, explored the nature of the Jedi and the Sith, and developed the Star Warsmythos well beyond merely a series of films and television shows. The Expanded Universe — recently re-branded as “Legends” following Disney’s acquisition of the franchise — has grown exponentially, comprising not only the books but also comics, video games, radio shows, role-playing games, and more.

With A More Civilized Age: Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe, editors Rich Handley and Joseph F. Berenato continue their look back at the franchise’s highs and lows, which began with A Long Time Ago: Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe and A Galaxy Far, Far Away: Exploring Star Wars Comics. This third volume offers insightful, analytical essays examining the Star Wars EU, contributed by popular film historians, novelists, bloggers, and subject-matter experts — including fan-favorite Star Wars novelists Timothy Zahn and Ryder Windham. The films were just the beginning. Find out how the universe expanded.

The book runs a massive 348 pages.
A More Civilized Age: Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe is available in print and on Kindle. (Just a reminder: you don’t need a Kindle device to read Kindle-formatted books; you can download a free Kindle reader for most computers, phones, and tablets.)

Find out more on the book’s official page or its Facebook page.
Reviewers may request a PDF of the book for review, and the book's editors are available for interviews. If interested, please send inquiries to sequart.mike@gmail.com

Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/More-Civilized...

Book Review: Flash Friends: A Perry County Novel by Dennis Royer

Flash Friends: A Perry County Novel
Dennis Royer
Paperback: 334 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 23, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1547166517
ISBN-13: 978-1547166510
https://www.amazon.com/Flash-Friends-...


Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton


I was delighted to meet author Dennis Royer at a local writers’ conference this August. I was intrigued to hear his description of his latest Perry County novel, Flash Friends, as that’s the locale where my stepson and my grandson live. I was curious to hear that one of his main characters is blind. So am I.

With these connections in mind, I bought one copy of the book for my grandson and asked Dennis to send me an e-book version so I could write this review.

In short order, I was feeling mixed messages, to mangle one usually tried and true metaphor. In many ways, the character of the blind twenty-two-year-old blind character, Annalise DaVinci, was very believable. Her resentment of anyone or anything that frustrated her proud independence is something I’ve seen many, many times. On the other hand, I couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t using a white cane, especially as she was living out in the boondocks and apparently taking long walks in the country. Without a cane?

True, Royer tells us Annalise doesn’t use her cane to look less conspicuous. As the story progresses, we get more and more clues about Annalise’s past from which she is running and hiding. Still, not using a cane, or guide dog and just relying on the apps in her cell phone, I can promise you, is dumb. And dangerous.

The other main character is Bo Camp, a rookie volunteer firefighter who lives on a dairy farm with his parents. They’re neighbors to the Johnsons, who have leased a duplex to Annalise. Annalise is the first person to learn a massive fire is devouring the Johnson house, and Bo is the first person to arrive on the scene to help out.

In short order, fire companies from all over the region descend on the blaze and one firefighter dies of a heart attack at the scene. This leads to a number of investigations of the incident where various law enforcement agencies view Bo, Annalise, and the Johnsons with suspicion. Why? And what is Annalise afraid of? Who is she hiding from?

As the story progresses, I realized Royer is extremely good with character development, offering very believable emotions, motivations, and actions by all his leading and supporting characters. He’s also very good at distributing clues and foreshadowings of several mysteries he’s developing. I was more than surprised by the final third of the book where most readers who know this area will be amazed to see Perry County in this light.

I also realized Flash Friends is an ideal YA novel, and likely too the rest of his Perry County stories. The rural setting is vividly sketched, especially the Camp dairy farm where Bo’s father is concerned his son won’t follow in his footsteps into the family business. The area described around West Perry County, not surprisingly, is clearly drawn from the author’s personal experience. On the other hand, I know Mechanicsburg doesn’t have a store selling adaptive technology for the disabled and there’s no such thing as a Dauphin County School for the Blind.

Of course, the book is fiction so poking holes into the verisimilitude regarding the Central Pennsylvania blind community isn’t really fair, especially as the reader would have to really have specific knowledge to know about such details. Right now, I’m eager to find out what my grandson thinks of the book. I’m also curious to find out what readers think who know little or nothing about this area. Let me know—

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 15, 2018:
https://waa.ai/ayJX

Book Review: The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson

The President is Missing
Bill Clinton
James Patterson
Audible Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Audible.com Release Date: June 4, 2018
https://www.amazon.com/The-President-...

Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton

On so many levels, the powerhouse collaboration between best-selling novelist James Patterson and former President William Jefferson Clinton has ignited nearly every kind of possible critical response. Some readers nearly gush with effusive praise; other reviewers are far less kind, and not always for political reasons.
Some reader games would seem unavoidable. Guessing who wrote what is more than problematic, although I’m certain Clinton wrote both the first and last chapters. The first as it seems so much like Clinton’s own experiences during his impeachment hearings, the last as it reads like one of Clinton’s famously long speeches. To the chagrin of some readers,it’s a speech that touches on many issues not dealt with in the novel at all.
Another game is trying to decide how much of Clinton is captured in the character of President Jonathan Lincoln Duncan. Other reviewers have pointed out a handful of biographical similarities as well as major differences. Me, I read the book noticing the absence of any sex or romantic relationships. Was this a means of avoiding the smirks and/or guessing games of readers who’d want to connect Clinton’s erotic life with his fiction?
The fingerprints of James Patterson are evident throughout the bulk of the thriller. For one thing, the pace of the book is partly driven by his very short chapters that jump from scene to scene, from character to character in a rapid-fire delivery. Throughout, there are many very familiar tropes of the political thriller genre that are reminiscent of numerous authors, not just Patterson. For example, the rudder of the plot is a terrorist named Suliman Cindoruk who wants to activate a computer virus that will cripple the U.S. by erasing all internet data of the military, government, business, medical facilities, and infrastructure. In an often convoluted storyline, President Duncan believes he’s the only man who can meet with Abkhazian separatists to avert the catastrophe. That’s why the President is missing, although political opponents think he’s pulling a fast one to avoid impeachment hearings.
Typical of such novels, one fly in the ointment is a traitor at the very top echelons of the government. But who is the traitor? And why is the female sniper code-named Bach not assassinating world leaders when she has them in her sites, but instead shoots defectors from the terrorist ranks? And who is paying for all this carnage?
Part of the story focuses on discussions between Duncan and his advisors, part is action-oriented with shootouts, car crashes, Viper helicopters, and deadly infiltrations into secret government facilities. It’s either a pleasure or an annoyance to read so many red herrings in the book that lead to a number of very surprising reveals and conclusions in the final chapters.
I recommend reading the Hachette Audio edition of the book to hear the passages narrated by Dennis Quaid, January LaVoy, Peter Ganim, Jeremy Davidson, and Mozhan Marnó . It’s also interesting to hear the chapters focused on Bach read by a female reader and often spiced with musical backgrounds by the classical composers Bach is listening to while setting up her kill shots.
For my money, The President is Missing is a fun read occasionally laced with political observations no doubt offered by Clinton. Maybe some of these lectures will resonate with readers who don’t often listen to voices not coming from their political bent.

You can download the book for free and hear samples at various sites on the net, such as
https://www.audible.com/ep/title/

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Sat. Aug. 11, 2018:
https://waa.ai/awJJ

Book Review: Paranormal Privateers: The Adventures of the Undead (Life After Life Volume 3) by Andy Zach

Paranormal Privateers: The Adventures of the Undead (Life After Life Volume 3) Andy Zach
Publisher: Jule Inc.; 1 edition (May 5, 2018)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B07CJP8FYP
https://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-Pri...

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton


Paranormal Privateers is my third go-around with author Andy Zack. First, I read his bizarre Zombie Turkeys (How an Unknown Blogger Fought Unkillable Turkeys) (2016). Next came My Undead Mother-In-Law (The Family Zombie with Anger Management Issues) (2017). As the titles suggest, Zack’s world of zombie animals and people aren’t meant to terrify readers. Instead, Zack is out to amuse and entertain us with the most unusual situations and scenes most of us will ever experience on the printed page.

Paranormal Privateers continues the weirdness with a handful of returning characters and the type of zombies few of us would want to kill, destroy, or dismember. They’re, for the most part, super-heroes with superior strength, resistance to diseases like cancer, and the ability to regenerate limbs and other body parts. These zombies don’t want to lose these abilities so they carry around vials of infected blood to make sure they have the means to become a zombie again in case somebody cures them.

This time around, a crew of zombies has a presidential commission and a super-yacht to take on missions the U.S. Military can’t. Their leader is the impatient Diane Newby, the “Undead Mother-in-Law” of the previous volume. She fiercely leads her comrades as they battle Somali pirates, Crimean human slavers, and London terrorists in Harrods department store with the aid of huge zombie bulls. (Talk about a bull in a china shop!) then, a more serious scenario pulls together three storylines as the zombie team infiltrate a North Korean nuclear facility. One of these storylines centers on a North Korean defector who first becomes a zombie, then a Christian, and then he does his best to spread both in a prison camp.

Along the way, the heroic zombies and their human allies must suffer with the schemes of Sid Boffin, a 120-year-old criminal genius who wants to rule the earth and destroy all zombies with viruses carried on fly feet. Despite his efforts, Diane and her group fight on even after losing their zombie strength and regenerative abilities.

And then . . . we get an alien spaceship bringing powerful aliens to earth. It’s almost a completely different book from that point forward, beginning about 2/3 of the way in Paranormal Privateers.

All three volumes of the “Life After Life” series so far are fast-paced romps with minimal character development full of quirky humor and off-the-wall satire. While not billed as YA novels, I see no reason why young adults wouldn’t especially enjoy these yarns. There’s much about blogging, Skype, and other contemporary matters throughout all the adventures. How about a Kickstarter campaign to fund a cure for the anti-zombie virus? Political correctness? Say “paranormal people,” not “zombies.”

No reader needs to read the previous books to jump into the action, although it wouldn’t hurt to read My Undead Mother-in-Law first to get some character background. But all you need to get into the quirky world of Andy Zack is to have a healthy sense of humor and the willingness to travel to a world that never was and never will be.

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 6, 2018:
https://waa.ai/acSL

Book Review: Bob Hope On TV: Thanks For the Video Memories by Wesley Hyatt

Bob Hope On TV: Thanks For the Video Memories
Wesley Hyatt
Publisher: BearManor Media (December 15, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1629332178
ISBN-13: 978-1629332178
https://www.amazon.com/Bob-Hope-TV-Th...

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

No other modern entertainer can claim the longevity or scope of what Bob Hope accomplished between 1919 to 1997, nearly 80 years in show business. Before his death at the age of 100 in 2003, Hope was a vaudevillian, actor on stage, radio, film, and television. He helped define just what a “stand-up comic” is. He was also a singer, dancer, sometime athlete, and author. He starred in 54 feature films, appeared in many more, and hosted the Academy Awards show 19 times, more than any other host.

Those Academy Award Shows are among the seemingly countless Bob Hope TV appearances chronicled by Wesley Hyatt in his Bob Hope on TV. The heart of his book, not surprisingly, are the numerous specials Hope hosted for NBC television starting in 1950 which continued until 1997. Among those specials were a number of shows performed live before military audiences for the USO (United Services Organization), including the 1970 and 1971 Christmas specials taped in Vietnam, now listed in the Top 46 U.S. network prime-time telecasts. Both were seen by more than 60 percent of the U.S. households watching television.

Add in all the specials hosted by others and TV shows Hope guested on, it’s obvious Hyatt had a daunting task simply cataloguing but one part of the Bob Hope legacy. Gratefully, Hyatt gives us much more than capsule descriptions of each Hope TV outing. Decade by decade, Hyatt gives us useful introductions that describe what Hope’s career was like during each of these periods of his small screen life.

I must admit, Hyatt’s critical analysis of each special, in particular, make it surprising Hope’s tenure with NBC ran for as long as it did. After the 1950s, Hyatt uses few compliments to describe these programs. Hyatt claims that Hope got further and further out of touch with contemporary tastes and mores, especially regarding equal rights for women. During the Vietnam war, Hope was a conspicuous supporter of that unpopular conflict and was a known backer of beleaguered President Richard Nixon. Hyatt goes beyond these already well-known aspects of Hope’s public life and knocks most of the skits and monologues for much of Hope’s TV career. As Hyatt made every effort to screen as many of the Hope appearances as he could, one wonders if boredom crept into his critical eye or if Hyatt is using contemporary standards—as in his distaste for Hope’s targeting of gays—to measure broadcasts that might not have always earn high ratings, but remained popular for many reasons. Audiences kept coming back again and again even as the generations changed. Advertisers usually supported Hope for long periods of time, especially Chrysler (1963–73) and Texaco (1975–85).

Whether or not readers agree with Hyatt’s often unhappy critical analyses or not, without question, you got to be a major fan of Bob Hope to want this lengthy tome. There’s a whole lot of old-timers in that number. And we must all applaud Hyatt for his incredible task of doing the research for this volume. From hunting down rare and obscure copies of the old broadcasts to screening nearly everything he could find to interviewing surviving participants, notably joke writers like Bob Mills, Wesley Hyatt has compiled an impressive work of research most libraries should want to shelve, especially those with good collections of books dealing with entertainment. Bob Hope fans of whatever generation you belong to may well want to skim through these pages—Bob Hope on TV isn’t a cover to cover read unless, like Hyatt, all this television minutia is your cup of tea.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 2, 2018:
https://waa.ai/afwW

Book Review: Wild Hearts: The Coming Night by Andrew Wichland

Wild Hearts: The Coming Night (Volume 1)
Andrew Wichland
Series: Wild Hearts
Paperback: 130 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (June 29, 2018)
ISBN-10: 1720625689
ISBN-13: 978-1720625681
https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Hearts-Co...


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

As I rarely intentionally spend time with YA novels, I haven’t really thought about what elements characterize such books. Now that I’ve read the first volume of Andrew Wichland’s Wild Hearts, I’m pretty sure one feature of his fiction is likely typical in sci-fi or fantasy books crafted for young readers. Wish fulfillment.

In the case of Wichland, it’s easy to see how his autism led to a special interest in disabilities. In Wild Hearts, his use of amazingly powerful cyber-suits goes far beyond anything Tony Stark ever imagined. They literally give eyesight to one blind character; they also give one girl bound to her wheelchair legs to walk on. For a generation fixated on what technology can do, it’s not surprising Wichland’s cyber-suits can do all manner of wonderous things from sprouting weapons to flying to absorbing desirable traits from animal DNA.

Wichland tells his story by interweaving two parallel plotlines. Both are revealed by two different first-person narrators. One is Commander Ian Erik Dregan who leads a crew of intergalactic warriors who get engaged in a starship battle with the evil Wraiths. They find themselves sent to our planet 5,000 years in their past where their bodies grow younger.

The other narrator is Alec, the main figure I associated with wish fulfillment. He’s a high school student who, along with his group of friends, is subject to the authoritative will of a principal who inflicts unjust detention on them and they endure parents who ground them for various offences. As they go through such typical high school travails, wearing their newly acquired cyber-suits, they find themselves drawn into deadly duels with the conquering Wraiths and become key warriors drawn into not just saving earth, but the galaxy as a whole. Along the way, the teenagers meet helpful winged angel-like creatures and less than helpful walking lizards. Strangely, the band of students seem to be the only earth-born humans aware of these extra-terrestrials, discover elaborate underground chambers, and see all the carnage left behind by the battles between Wraiths and their enemies.

Of course, in such action/ adventure romps, nothing is supposed to be taken too seriously. There’s rather thin character development as the implausible action never pauses for a second. In publicity for his books, Wichland claims that back in high school, science fiction and fantasy gave him escape from a world he apparently didn’t fit into very well. Wild Hearts certainly reflects that. It’s pure escapism. There’s no social commentary, no analogues with current events.

It’s clear this volume is but the first of a series as it ends with a cliff-hanger with many unanswered questions. One question for me was, where are these “wild hearts” of the title? I never figured that out. We know Commander Dregan has a missing wife who disappeared 13 years ago. Since that point was brought up several times, readers might presume something will be made of that sometime in the series. But not volume one.

In short, Wild Hearts should appeal to young readers of sci-fi who like fast-paced action-adventure full of imaginative spectacle that isn’t demanding reading. It’s a short read so is suitable for hot summer nights when school isn’t in session.

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on July 30, 2018:
https://waa.ai/aClL

Cool Stuff in new Alien Vision Newsletter!

A one time offer to non-subscribers of the Alien Vision newsletter:

Click on the link below to check out the free short story exclusive with this months newsletter. You can also read a teaser from Wes Britton’s latest short story, “Sasquatch,” another slice from the Beta-Earth Chronicles.
https://mailchi.mp/a9bd51c4f90c/free-...

Two Beta-Earth Giveaways for your Summer Reading!

You can now get not just one, but two free Beta-Earth Chronicles short stories by visiting the Instafreebie Group Giveaway, “Summertime! You've Got Time for Short Reads.”

https://claims.instafreebie.com/gg/J7...

One is Murder in the Canyon”; the other is a brand-new story called “Last Night of the Collective.”

“The Last Night of the Collective: A Beta-Earth Chronicles Story”

For as long as history had memory, Beta-Earth was cursed by the Plague-With-No-Name, an incurable disease that killed three out of every four male infants their first year.

Now, the scientists of the Collective have discovered the cure. It comes from the combined DNA of Malcolm Renbourn, the alien from Alpha-Earth, and his wife, Saspheria Thorwaif Renbourn, the genetically enhanced mutant with astonishing physical and mental abilities.

But the one copy of this priceless cure has been stolen by the amoral and ruthless royal house of the island of Hitilec. For the sake of their planet, two powerful former enemies who share genetically-enhanced abilities must break into the headquarters of the thieves and recover the cure sought by all humankind for untold centuries.

But recovering the secret files is no easy or simple task. Success will depend on an almost unbelievable physical feat followed by a very high price, a heart-wrenching sacrifice.

“The Last Night of the Collective” is a thrill-ride of an adventure adapted from the pages of A Throne for an Alien: The Beta-Earth Chronicles, Book 4.

While you're there, why not sighn up for Wes Britton's newsletter? Then, while you’re online, check out the snazzy new Beta-Earth logo and brand at our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/BetaEarthChr...

Book Review: December's Soldiers by Marvin Tyson

December’s Soldiers
Marvin Tyson
Defiance Press & Publishing
Release date: May 14, 2018
ISBN-10:1941948035065
ISBN-13: 978-1948035064
https://www.amazon.com/Decembers-Sold...
It should be no surprise that December’s Soldiers was published by Defiance Press this year. Not only does the house champion Texas writers, but a month before they issued Marvin Tyson’s fictional account of what might happen after Texas secedes from the U.S., they published Daniel Miller’s non-fiction Texit: Why and How Texas Will Leave the Union.

Tyson’s new sequel to his 2015 Fall of the Western Empire opens when an ex-president of the U.S. is drawn into a scheme by a group of rich Chinese underworld figures who will take care of his massive gambling debts if he’ll help ignite a war between the U.S. and the newly created Republic of Texas. They hope such a war would distract all eyes from their planned takeover of all the crude oil leases in Texas.

Ex-president Jackson isn’t the only political leader working for the Chinese. An important senator and the Attorney General are also mixed up in the plot. Opposing them are the presidents of the U.S. and Texas who want a smooth transition for Texas from statehood to independence. A more than capable group of Texas investigators try to connect the dots between troublemakers in Texas and Washington, the leaders of the conspiracy, and the Chinese bosses. And that takes some risky and deadly doing.

The stakes couldn’t be higher in this fast-paced tale of political intrigue. Both Texas and the U.S. are called on to help out Europe in its current economic crisis, the U.N. is concerned about any potential war, and a number of states in the American heartland announce they wish to follow Texas’s lead and secede from the union. The U.S. government says that simply can’t happen.

The rich well of main and supporting players includes the movers and shakers at the top of the political heaps as well as the investigators in the trenches who engage in gunfights and prison escapes in their quest to avert any larger wars. As a result, Tyson has us in locations in or near Austin, Texas and Washington. as well as important scenes set in Macau, China, and the mountains of Kurdistan. In short, Tyson paints a large canvas that isn’t confined within the borders of Texas.
December’s Soldiers is a thriller that should appeal to readers well beyond those interested in any potential Texas secession. It’s, in part, a page-turner of an espionage tale as well as a layered and very believable political thriller. It’s refreshing to meet so many positive political leaders in a story with no shortage of optimism.

I have to admit—I have no idea what the title means. I can’t connect it with anything I read. For now, consider December’s Soldiers a hot summer read for hot summer nights.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on July 1, 2018
https://waa.ai/am61