The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Deep Dark Depression, Excessive Misery

Posted on | January 30, 2021 | Comments Off on Deep Dark Depression, Excessive Misery

— compiled by Wombat-socho

These last few months have been largely taken up with getting ready for tax season, but now that the season is underway and I’m spending several nights a week in Las Vegas between shifts in the tax mines, I’m finding more time to read. Also, Amazon seems to have killed off the Prime Lending Library in favor of folding everyone into the Kindle Unlimited program, and I feel the need to take advantage of that.
Song of the Day
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

What with the election of the Potted Plant of the United States (PPOTUS) and his many Chicom connections, I had to stop reading Divided We Fall, because it was just getting too damned dark for me in the current circumstances. Not all of the stories are grim tales of struggle against a panopticon state whose tentacles control every aspect of life in a future socialist America, but enough of them were to make me decide to save the book for better times.

In contrast to the preceding anthology, the struggle for freedom hasn’t been decided yet in Fortress Doctrine, the fifth of Peter Nealen’s Maelstrom Rising books. Pivoting back to the home front from the European theater action in Strategic Assets, the Triarii and local militia are trying to hold the Texas border against the cartels and possibly the Mexican Army, while Washington wrings its hands and los chales exploit their connections with the cartels and politicians willing to look the other way for a fistful of renminbi. Nealen is getting better with each book; like Tom Clancy before him, he’s able to keep the action rolling on the tactical level while keeping you in tune with the bigger picture. Highly recommended. 

On a more cheerful note, the Keith Laumer Super Pack from the Positronic Super Pack series is a good combination of Laumer’s Retief stories, some non-Retief stories such as “It Could Be Anything”, “Cocoon”, and “End As A Hero”, the early Bolo story “Night of the Trolls, and two complete novels: Worlds Of The Imperium and A Trace of Memory. Quite a deal for just $1.99, especially since it includes what may be the best Retief story, “Diplomat At Arms”. 

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Category: Books

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