Book Series Review: Mitch Rapp Series - The Kyle Mills Novels

 

The Mitch Rapp series was left in limbo in 2013 after the death of its creator, Vince Flynn. At that point, it consisted of 13 novels and one partially written novel, and it seemed like the series may have died with Flynn. Mills was hired to finish Flynn's last book, The Survivor, which was finally published in 2015, a couple of years after Flynn's death. Mills would stay on to write 8 more books in the series, deciding to step away after 2023's, Code Red.

Mills was definitely in an unenviable position, picking up the wildly popular series after the death of its creator. On The Survivor, Mills has said during interviews that his intent was to be a carbon copy of Flynn so that you could not tell where the material Flynn wrote ended and where Mills' work started. Mills has said that Flynn wrote three pages of The Survivor, and I have read reports that Flynn finished three chapters, but however much Flynn wrote, I, personally, could not tell what Flynn wrote versus what Mills wrote. After the first book, it seemed like Mills was in a feeling-out process, trying to figure out how to put his own stamp on the series. Mills' second book in the series, Order to Kill, felt a bit off to me, but after that novel, it seemed like Mills found the balance between honoring what Flynn did with the characters and also not being beholden to the direction that Flynn may have gone. For the most part, however, I do think that had Flynn decided to take the storylines in the direction Mills did, the end result would have been something like what Mills produced.

I think that Mills' best contribution to the series is probably the novel Oath of Loyalty, which is the 21st book in the series, but his last entry, Code Red, was very good as well. Mills finished Code Red in a way that the next author, who will be Don Bently (who has continued the Jack Ryan novels after Tom Clancy's death) can take the series in whatever direction he wants. While there are certainly some who will not accept any Rapp stories told by anyone other than Flynn, I think Mills did a great job keeping the characters going and honoring what Flynn created.

Book Set Review: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Easton Press)

 

This is a three-set collection of the complete Sherlock Holmes mystery stories and novels, written over the period of time from the late 1880s to the late 1920s by Sir Authur Conan Doyle. The volumes are titled The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Later Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Between the three volumes, the 56 short stories and four novels are spread across nearly 1800 pages. The first volume is the longest, at 753 pages, the second volume is just over 450 pages, and the third volume is just over 550 pages. As is the case with all of the Easton Press books, they are leather-bound with gold-trimmed pages, and have a built-in cloth bookmark. There are 160 illustrations (and the illustrated pages do not count toward the overall page count of the books), many of which were in the original publications in which the stories were printed.

Most of the 56 stories and 4 novels are written from the perspective of Dr. Watson, who introduces and then narrates the cases. Watson, of course, plays the more straight-laced sidekick to Holmes' quirky and offbeat lead. This is the first time I have read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories in years, and the first time that I have read the entire collection. A few of the observations that I have are:

1.    The old English style of writing and dialect definitely takes some getting used to. For example, Doyle will use the word ejaculate like we would use the word exclaim. Even if you are a relatively fast reader, you may have to slow down as you are reading these. 

2. The various stories are relatively disconnected. From time to time events from other stories will be referenced, but for the most part, this is a collection of stand-alone procedural mysteries. 

3. Unlike what you might expect if you have watched the BBC TV series or the recent movies starring Robert Downey Jr., Moriarty is not as big a foil for Holmes as you might think. He only appears in one of the stories and is referenced in a few others. 

4. The TV series that starred Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman heavily adapted the stories from the books. If you watched all of the seasons of the show you will definitely recognize some of the elements from the stories easily, and others seem nothing like what the show depicted. 

Overall, the stories are good but very quirky.  They are probably not necessarily the easiest stories for someone in the modern-day United States to read and easily pay rapt attention to every word. But they are classic mysteries that are worth reading.

Book Series Review: Vince Flynn's Novels

 

Vince Flynn was an author who lived in the Twin Cities and wrote 14 books in total, 13 of them centered around the character of Mitch Rapp, a terrorist hunter who, at the beginning of his career, worked as an off-the-books black-ops assassin. Flynn, through Rapps narratives in the books, made it clear that Rapp was not a spy. He did not gather intel or work as an analyst. He went after and killed bad guys.

Flynn's first novel was 1997's Term Limits, which was the only book he wrote that was not part of the Mitch Rapp series, although it did feature some of the characters who would become regulars in the series. It was also probably Flynn's most political book, as it had Scott Coleman killing corrupt politicians and warning the government that more would die if a law was not passed to protect the economy from cratering. The character of Coleman would be rewritten to omit his acts of domestic terrorism in the Rapp novels. 

The Rapp series started with the Transfer of Power, which was published in 1999. In that novel, Rapp had been working as a terrorist hunter for about a decade. He learns of an attack on the White House, and much of the book is set with Rapp sneaking around the White House taking out the terrorists who are trying to get the President (fictional President Hayes) out of the bunker. Fans of the series 24 (which Flynn actually consulted on for a couple of seasons) will recognize a similar storyline being incorporated into one of the later seasons of the show, and it is clear that the character of Jack Bauer was based at least in part on Mitch Rapp.

The first four books in the series were set around Iraq being the primary threat to the US, and then, after real life happened in the form of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the remaining novels would be set against the backdrop of radical Islam and many of the plotlines focused on the aftermath of 9/11. After the 10th book in the series, Pursuit of Honor was published in 2009, Flynn wrote two prequel novels, American Assassin and Kill Shot, which fleshed out the details of how Rapp was recruited into the CIA and his early career, which had only been hinted at up to that point in the books. In 2010, Flynn would be diagnosed with an aggressive form of Prostate Cancer, and, unfortunately, passed away in 2013 (almost 10 years to the day as of this writing) at the age of 47 after finishing the novel, The Last Man, which brought the series back to the present day. Flynn started working on the next book, The Survivor but had only finished a few chapters before he died. Flynn's estate and his publisher commissioned Kyle Mills (who wrote books in the same genre) to finish The Suvivior, and Mills would be brought back to write several more books in the series.

My exposure to Flynn was through his appearances on the Dan Barrerrio afternoon radio show in the Twin Cities. Flynn would come on not only to promote his books but generally talk politics and local sports with Barrerrio. Flynn actually named a minor character in one of his books after Barrerrio. Flynn was certainly a conservative Republican, and his conservative viewpoint, especially when it came to the issue of torture, and whether the enhanced interrogation techniques approved by the Bush Administration amounted to torture, was present in the books. Flynn had the viewpoint that enhanced interrogation worked, which is debatable, as people like FBI agent Ali Soufan, who had interrogated many Al-Qeada members said it did not. Flynn also did not like that the Obama administration was investigating CIA personnel (and charging some) who were told during the Bush Administration that the enhanced interrogation techniques were legal. However, Flynn made it clear both in his interviews and the books that he was not a fan of politics or politicians in general, and some of the bad guys in the novels were actually Republican politicians. 

Flynn was also pals with Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, who were (and still are in Beck's case), in my opinion, two of the biggest pieces of shit in recent human history. While I never listened to his interviews on their shows, Flynn never struck me as being as nuts as Beck, Limbaugh, and their ilk. Of course, Flynn died before the whole t***p takeover of the Republican party, so we will never know if Flynn would have been one in the ranks of the sane (e.g., the "never t***pers") or if he would have become one of the cult members. But, given that he took a couple of shots at t***p in one of his books, I suspect Flynn would not have been a fan. And, I am sure that Flynn would not like the idea of book bans that we are seeing a decade after his death as I remember him saying that the Harry Potter novels (which have been caught up in some book bans) were perfectly fine for kids.

Overall, Flynn's Rapp series is a very well-written blend of action and suspense. Flynn was very much anti-political correctness and used Rapp's bluntness to present an in-your-face view of the very real threats to the US. And given that both Bill Clinton and Rush Limbaugh were fans of Flynn's books, they can certainly be enjoyed regardless of your political persuasion, even if you do not agree with Flynn's politics or every point of view expressed in the books. 

Book Review: Inferno

 

This is the fourth in what is, as of this writing, five novels by Dan Brown centered around the character of Robert Langdon, who is a symbolism professor at Harvard University. In this novel, he wakes up a hospital in Florence, Italy with a head wound and no memory of the last few days. He is told that his memory loss is likely temporary, but before he can figure out what has happened to him he, and his doctor, Sienna Brooks, have to evade an assassin who is targeting Langdon. The attempt to retrace his steps and discovers a plot by Bertrand Zobrist, a transhumanist genius scientist who is obsessed with Dante's Inferno, who intends to release a virus to solve the world's overpopulation issue. 

The novel is a good story that blends action and dramatic moments. It definitely has some of the same elements that the prior novels (and the movie adaptations of those) have had. Langdon has to race around trying to solve various puzzles and riddles, this time based on clues tied to Dante's Inferno. There are twists in the story, much like in the other novels. Some are kind of eye-rolling inducing and others I think work pretty well. I do like the fact that the story is centered around the issue of overpopulation, which is a real thing. Overall, I would say that this is not as good as The Da Vinci Code, or even quite as good as Angels & Demons, but it is still very good. So, if you are a fan of his other novels, this is worth the read. 

Book Review: Star Wars - The High Republic: The Fallen Star

 

As most people reading this review are likely aware by now, the High Republic series of stories pit the Jedi and the Republic as a whole, not against the Sith, but against a group of pirates called The Nihil. The Nihil have been responsible not only for the hyperspace disasters, but the attack on the Republic fair, and a series of skirmishes that ended either with a draw or the Jedi barely winning. This book tells the story of a subversive attack on The Starlight Beacon, the space station that is essentially run by the Jedi and has been a focus of a lot of the High Republic stories up to this point. The Nihil manages to send a team to the station to sabotage it and release something (it is not clear even at the end of the book exactly what) that can severely hamper the Jedi's connection to the force and put them all in danger.

I will not go into great detail about what happens in the book, but I will say that The Nihil scores a decisive victory. In the end, Manchin Ro declares himself to all to be the real Eye of the Nihil and sends a message to the Republic that they are not at all done. One thing that the story does suffer a bit from is having a ton of characters and shifting the story from one point of view to another. It is not impossible to follow, but there are times when the POV switches multiple times per chapter, and it would be a lot easier to read if each chapter focused on one or two characters and then shifted to other characters in the next chapter. That is my only real criticism, otherwise, the story was very good, the pacing went well, and the book holds the readers in suspense all the way to the end. The book is 345 pages long, including a short Epilogue, which is about as long as most of the adult novels (and some of the young adult novels) clock in at. I am a fairly fast reader and was able to get through it in about 10 days reading for an hour or so before bed. If you are one of those who, like me, read all of the canon novels, you will probably have pre-ordered this and read it right away. If you are one of those who gets some, but not all, of the novels, I do think this one is worth picking up.

Book Review: On That Day: The Definitive Timeline of 9/11

 

September 11, 2001, was a day that most people, at least those who were old enough (or still had enough mental faculties) to be aware of what was happening will remember for the rest of their lives. This is one of the many books that have been written about 9/11 around the 20th anniversary. It lays out a very thorough and very detailed timeline of events starting at about 4:45 AM detailing as many of the actions and movements of the hijackers that can be reproduced, to 11:50 PM when President Bush returned to the White House residence after being dragged down to the bunker because of a false alarm of another attack.

The focus of the book is mostly on the government's response to the attacks, and really illustrates just how chaotic and dysfunctional everything was. The author does not spend much time detailing things that were happening in the buildings or on the planes. He does mention some of the phone calls that were made and some of what was going on in the buildings, but the core of the author's attention was on the communications (or lack thereof) between politicians, the FAA, and the military. In the Amazon reviews, one of the reviewers complains that the book is essentially unreadable because he does not even know the correct time Flight 11 hit the north tower. Rest assured, that the author does know that Flight 11 hit the north tower at 8:46 AM. The author uses two em dashes on page 55 in a way that, if you do not read the sentence carefully (or do not understand the function of an em dash), it seems like he is saying that the plane hit the tower at 8:24 AM.

The main thing I took away from reading the book is that almost nobody in a position of power really had a handle on what was going on as events were unfolding or followed the procedures that they should have. For example, the Speaker of the House was the only person in the line of succession that actually went to where he was supposed to. The communication was so bad that day that President Bush could barely get in touch with anyone, which was making him madder as the day went on, especially since the secret service was not allowing him to return to Washington DC. And, there were a ton of false reports of other attacks, whether bombings or other supposedly hijacked planes. There were planes that officials were told were hijacked, then a few minutes later would be told were not hijacked and landed safely, and then a few minutes later would get another report that they were hijacked and crashed. And, officials never really got a good handle on what happened to the planes that were actually involved in the attacks, as there were reports that Flights 11 and 77 were still in the air long after they had crashed into their targets. The author also makes clear (as others have before him) that several members of the administration wanted desperately to tie the attacks to Iraq (although it was clear even by that afternoon who was responsible) and were planning to use the attack as justification to go into Iraq and take out Sadaam Hussein.

The book is very well-sourced, using a ton of footnotes, that not only point to sources but also flesh out the cited text. The author identifies a lot of the false reports that were being circulated that day (and in the days after), which gives you an idea of just how chaotic it was. The one thing I would have liked the author to focus on more is a flight that many believe would have been a fifth hijacked flight, United Airlines flight 23 which was flying from JFK in NY to Los Angeles, had it not been caught up in initial closure and ground stop of air traffic in the NY area. There were reports of several middle eastern men on that plane who became extremely agitated when the plane did not take off who pushed their way off the plane when it returned to the gate, and that box cutters were found in their carry-on bags (which they left on the plane). The author says this turned out to be false, but does not provide any details about what in the reported information was wrong and how it was determined to be incorrect.

Overall, it is a very detailed book with a lot of information. There are some typos that did not get caught, but they really do not affect the readability or cause anything to be misleading. I would not say it is as emotional as some of the other books that have been released over the years, especially those from survivors telling their stories of the day. That said, it is definitely worth reading.

Book Review: State of Terror

 

This is a book that centers around the character of Ellen Adams, the new Secretary of State in the new administration that succeeded a dumpster fire of a prior administration. Adams is clearly based on Clinton and the previous President (who is described as egotistical and stupid) is clearly based on the former guy. The new President, President Williams, and Ellen Adams despise each other but end up having to put their animosity aside to uncover a terrorist plot that involves a series of coordinated bombings in Europe and a threat of bombs going off in the United States.

The book weaves things that are clearly based on real life with a healthy dose of fiction. The book in some ways is prophetic, even with the fictional material, pretty much predicting what would happen when America finally got out of Afghanistan (the book was written before it actually happened) and has a coup plot that is eerily similar to what is being discovered about some right-wing lawmakers and January 6th. Hopefully, the majority of the book's plot remains fiction, but the way things are going, who knows.

Overall, the book is mostly well-written and has an engaging plot that keeps readers interested. Of course, there are some who will never read it simply because Hillary Clinton is a co-author, and certainly, her political views are present in the book, so if you cannot separate your feelings about her or her politics and a work of fiction, then it is best to avoid this. Even though the book is a bit long (at just under 500 pages), it is a fairly easy read. I read fairly quickly and managed to get through it in about ten days mostly reading an hour or two at a time before bed. There are definitely some cliche plot points and it definitely has a couple of eye-rolling, "yeah right" moments. But for the most part, it is a good political thriller that is worth the read.

Book Review: The Dark Knight Rises Novelization

 

This is the novelization of the final installment in the Nolan Batman Trilogy. It follows the screenplay almost word-for-word and does not really add anything that significantly alters the story. Unlike books that are written first and then adapted to a movie, in which a ton of material ends up being cut out, what you get in the movie is pretty much what you get in the book, with only minor variations. So, if you liked, or loved the movie, you will probably like the book. Personally, I would have liked it if the author would have fleshed a bit more of the story out (especially the ending), but otherwise it is a fine novelization.

Book Review: Star Wars: Queen's Hope

 

This is the third book in what is, at least to this point, a trilogy of Padme-focused novels. The stories have all been ancillary to the main storylines from the movies, telling side stories involving Padme and the handmaidens and fleshing out the main storylines from Episodes I and II.

This book is set just after the events of Episode II when Padme and Anakin get married on Naboo, and details how they have to figure out how to keep their marriage under the radar of the Senate and the Jedi. It also tells the story of Padme and the original handmaidens growing up and growing apart, which is hard for all of them. And, then the book weaves in a couple of different missions for Padme, one that was intended to bring a sort of truce with the Trade Federation. Of the other main characters, Palpatine, Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Bail Organa all appear in the novel, but of those only Bail has a significant role. The others are mostly there in the background until the end when Palpatine has a larger presence.

The hardcover version of the book is relatively short at just under 300 pages. If you are a fast reader you should be able to finish it in a couple of days or less. I would say that overall, the book is good, but not as good as the prior novels in the trilogy. What made the prior books work as well as they did were the relationships between Padme and the other handmaidens. The point of this novel is to show how those relationships changed, as all relationships tend to do as people get older, but that made the character dynamics from the first two novels just feel off. Yes, there are a lot of LGBT references in the book and tying real-life issues into the Star Wars universe. Personally, it did not bother me, but as you can tell if you read through the other reviews on Amazon, it made some people apoplectic. It is not exactly a new phenomenon for the Star Wars Universe as each new film and novel has tried to make that universe look more like the real world and not just full of white males. But, if that is something you get triggered over, then you definitely want to stay away from this. I have read most of the canon novels and I would say that this one is better than some, but definitely not as good as others (or even most).

Book Review: Everything T***p Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever

 

The subject of the book is evident from the title. It is one of the most accurately titled books ever. Wilson, who was a behind-the-scenes Republican strategist who never got on the t***p train, either at the beginning or after he won the nomination, excoriates everyone involved in the former administration and everyone who supported the prior administration. He goes scorched earth on t***p and anyone who supported him, for whatever reason they did so, and definitely does not wear kid gloves as he criticizes anyone. For the MAGATs out there excoriates basically means to verbally bitch-slap, and verbally means using words. 

There is no doubt about Wilson's feelings toward any person or group of people he discusses in the book. Wilson openly mocks anyone who supported the orange shitgibbon, whether they were the inbred hillbillies with three teeth and even fewer IQ points, the opportunists like Paul Ryan and Bitch McConnell who only supported t***p to get the tax breaks they wanted to pass signed into law and/or to stack the courts with conservative judges, or the evangelicals who actually seem to believe that ol' pussy-grabber is anything close to a good Christian (despite not being able to quote one bible verse or properly pronounce 2 Corinthians). Wilson blends satire in the form of a five-part tragedy of being a White House staffer with comments on real events (like Tillerson calling the orange genital wart a "fucking moron") and uses a lot of snark. And, he backs up his assertions with over 200 footnotes citing different sources.

Wison does not shy away from the fact that he did a lot to stoke the fire under what ultimately became of the t***p base, and fully admits he did a job to make them believe in much of the crazy shit they believe. He also slams the Democrats and their strategists for being so bad at politics as a reason he was able to do what he did as effectively as he did it. He basically says, rightly in my opinion, that Democrats have no idea how to punch back and as a result, the Republicans just roll over them. Refreshingly, he does not try to do some bullshit pandering or mea-culpa trying to claim that he was wrong the entire time, sees the error of his ways, and is now a tree-hugging liberal. He admits that he is still a small-government conservative, and makes no apologies for it. Although he interestingly admits that a lot of the lines and talking points that small-government conservatives have been spewing for decades it total bullshit, so he kinda-sorta admits he was wrong about some things (or just went along with making some shit up). At any rate, he is not exactly a liberal darling and does not want to be one, but he makes no bones about the fact that the Republicans are a threat to democracy. And this was all before the whole January 6th riot and the attempt to steal the election came out. The book was actually released before even the Mueller report was issued. So, hopefully, there will be a follow-up that gets into the even more batshit crazy stuff that came out after this book was released. 

It has a much different tone than other books written about the former administration, but I think that is a good thing because he does not sugarcoat his opinions or try to spare anyone's feelings.

Book Review: 11/22/63

 

11/22/63 is a book that is about trying to stop the assassination of JFK. In it, the main character, Jake Epping is told of a portal that can transport the traveler to the past. He learns of the portal from the owner of a diner he frequents who seems to mysteriously age every time Jake sees him. Al, the owner of the diner tells Jake the rules for traveling through the portal, namely that the portal sends the person back to September 9th, 1958 and if the person returns from the past through the portal they come back two minutes in time after they left, with whatever changes made in the past taking hold. Going back through the portal again wipes out anything that was previously changed and returns the person back to September 9th, 1958. Al tells Jake that he was trying to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy, and tries to get Jake to take up the mission. The "main" aspect of the novel is that the past can be changed, but the larger the event someone tries to change, the more the "past" pushes back and tries to prevent the change from happening. As you can expect, Jake does go into the past and tries to figure out how to stop the assassination while also having to live his life in the late 1950s in the south coming from living in Maine in 2011, and dealing with the fact that nearly everything he does, large or small, potentially changes something in the past.

While I would not say I am an aficionado of King's works (I have read a couple of his books and seen some of the movie adaptations of his works) I really liked this book. Even though it is pretty long (over 800 pages) it is a fairly easy read with a reasonable amount of characters in it and good character development. So, I was able to get through it fairly quickly (in about a week and a half) despite the size. The book was based on the premise that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing JFK and did not get into the various conspiracy hypotheses, although in the afterward, King did say that while he does not believe in a massive conspiracy, he does concede the possibility that more people than just Oswald were involved, but he chose to approach the story on the belief that there was none and that Oswald was a lone wolf. I cannot say that everyone who is a fan of King's other works will like this book, and cannot say how similar or different it is from his other novels, but I found the book to be a great read with an engaging story and definitely recommend it.

Book Review: The Kremlin's Candidate

 

This is the final novel in the Red Sparrow series of spy novels involving the Russian double agent Dominika Egorova. There is a time jump from the end of the second novel, and now Dominika is in the running to become the new head of the SVR. This means she will have unparalleled access to information to feed to the Americans, but it also puts her in more danger as it becomes much harder for her to pass the information along to the CIA. The main plot of the novel is that there is a Russian mole, code-named Magnit, who is in line to become the new director of the CIA after the death of the current director. Of course, if the mole becomes the director, Dominika's identity immediately becomes known to the Russians and she would be sent off to a Gulag and killed. So, there is a race to uncover the identity of the mole and prevent the mole from being confirmed as director, and it, of course, includes the usual spy thriller twists and turns with nearly every main character in danger at some point.

The book clocks in at about 430 pages. It is not an extremely fast read (it took me 21 days to get through it, and I am a fairly quick reader), but how quickly you can get through it really depends on how much time you can devote to reading it. The chapters are fairly short, anywhere from five to ten pages on average, so there are plenty of natural stopping points if you read just an hour or two at a time. There are a few new characters in the book, but the focus is mostly on the established characters, especially Dominika and Nate, and Putin plays a very large role in this novel, much moreso than he did in the prior two. The ending does leave open the possibility of additional stories, but the tone would definitely be changed somewhat because the characters definitely end up in a very different place from where they started. Chances are, it will be the end of the story, however, especially since the Red Sparrow movie pretty much flopped and there is not any pressure to keep a movie franchise alive. If you liked the prior novels, this is definitely worth reading.

Book Review: Perfect Soldiers: The 9/11 Hijackers: Who They Were, Why They Did It

 

This is a book that seeks to figure out who the terrorists were who executed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and, more importantly, why they did what they did. Specifically, to find an explanation that goes beyond the easy "they were crazy" mantra. While the book does discuss all of the terrorists, the focus is on three of the four pilot hijackers, Mohammed Atta, Ziad Jarrah, and Marwan al-Shehhi, who made up the "Hamburg Cell" of terrorists who were all enrolled in schools in Hamburg Germany and ended up going to the most radical Mosque in the city where they ended up being radicalized and started looking for a fight.

A couple of the more interesting takeaways from the book is that not all of the hijackers (especially Atta and Jarrah) were not overtly religious or political growing up, and did not really become either until they were radicalized in Hamburg. Also, they did not even have fervent hatred of the United States, they were just angry and wanted to join any fight. In fact, their initial idea was to go to Chechnya to fight the Russians but ended up at an Al-Queda training camp in Afghanistan shortly after Khalid Sheik Mohammed pitched the "planes operation" to Osama Bin Laden, and he approved to finance the operation. So, they just happened to be the most educated people willing to volunteer for a martyrdom operation and were essentially assigned to the plot that would become the 9/11 attacks. Overall, there was nothing really different or abnormal about any of them, they were just "normal" guys with varying levels of education, some even coming from upper-middle-class backgrounds, that were young and mad and willing to follow whatever they were told. The author also debunks the notion that Atta really planned much of anything, that everyone who knew him said he could follow orders but had very little in the way of leadership ability (because most everyone hated his attitude) or creativity. In fact, he was probably the most "abnormal" one of the bunch as he hated pretty much everyone (especially women) and was just generally miserable about everything.

The book is divided into three parts. The backgrounds of the hijackers, Bin Laden's rise to power, and the actual plot to hijack the planes and execute the attacks on 9/11. The author gives a pretty good reconstruction (as much as he could put together) of the movements of the various people involved up to 9/11. One big takeaway is, that having made as many stupid decisions and mistakes as the hijackers did, even that day at the airports, the fact that they were able to pull the attacks off with the level of success that they did was frankly amazing. And, it underscores just how unprepared our system was at all levels for an attack like this, such that even a bunch of nitwits like these could pull it off. The only thing the book does not go into great detail about is the actual attacks themselves. It basically sets up what happened up to 9/11, but does not go into great detail about the events of the day itself.

Overall, the book is very good. It provides a very interesting look into the lives of the hijackers, what caused them to become radicalized, and what made them do what they did. It does not in any way glorify them or try to make them seem tragic or sympathetic figures. In many ways, it does just the opposite, both by pointing out how stupid some of their actions were and how hypocritical they were regarding their so-called "beliefs" in the days leading up to the attacks. I definitely recommend it.

Book Review: No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet

 

No Better Time is a biography, written by Molly Knight Raskin, of a math/tech genius named Danny Lewin who, as a graduate student at MIT, developed a computer algorithm that kept websites experiencing a high amount of traffic from crashing. He, along with one of his professors at MIT created a company called Akamai Technologies that made a ton of money in the "Dotcom" bubble of the mid-1990s and barely managed to survive the bust that occurred at the end of the 1990s and early 2000s. The company's technology helped transform the internet from its early dial-up modem days to what it is today.

Even if that was all he was known for Lewin's story would be impressive, but he was also unique in that he was born and grew up for a time in America, then moved to Isreal in the mid-1980s (against his will) and managed to flourish not only in school but becoming a member of the elite military unit (Isreal's version of special forces) that is usually reserved for people who were born and raised in Isreal. He also had the misfortune to have booked a trip from Boston to Los Angeles on September 11, 2001, onboard American Airlines flight 11 which, of course, was the first plane hijacked and the first to fly into the World Trade Center. It would also turn out that he was most certainly the first passenger killed on any of the airplanes but was very likely the first person overall to be killed on 9/11 as he tried to intervene to stop the hijacking.

The book does a good job of portraying the good and the bad of Lewin's personality and work ethic. It does not paint a completely rosy picture as it details how he was prone to outbursts of anger, was a workaholic who often put work above family, and had a management style that definitely chaffed some of the people he worked with. On the other hand, he never asked anyone to do something he was not willing to do himself, and his force of personality got the company contracts with entities like Yahoo, Apple, CNN, and more, when most of the time the people he was making pitches to had no idea what he was talking about.

The book is mostly focused on Lewin's life. Only one chapter at the very end of the book discusses the events of his death. In that chapter the author does not speculate as to what happened on the plane, just giving general details that resulted from the investigation which was based on what the flight attendants on flight 11 who managed to reach people on the ground were reporting. What is known is that Danny was seated across the aisle from two of the terrorists on the plane (including the pilot hijacker) and directly in front of the 5th hijacker sitting in business class. He likely knew immediately what was happening because he understood Arabic and because of his anti-terrorism training. It is not known exactly how the hijacking played out and if Danny was stabbed simply because of where he was sitting (on United 93, the passenger seated in front of the hijacker who was farthest back in first-class was stabbed basically as a warning to the other passengers) or if he actually started to fight the hijackers in front of him. There are some reports online that he managed to tackle one of the hijackers but all the author says is that it is likely that Lewin tried to thwart the hijacking and had his throat slashed by the hijacker who was sitting behind him. He was certainly the person most equipped to stop the hijacking but he would have been in a three, four, or five-on-one situation with one of the hijackers directly behind him. The fact that Danny could not stop the hijacking makes Mark Whalberg's insinuation that if he had been on the plane (he was originally booked on Flight 11 until he changed his travel plans) things would have turned out differently. Once the hijackers got on the plane, Danny was probably the only person who could have stopped them.

The book is definitely more interesting the better you understand computers. The author admits that it is hard to understand and describe exactly what Lewin figured out and what Akamai as a company does. She does a fairly good job of putting a very complex subject into layman's terms and not focusing on the overly technical aspects. As I said above, this is not a detailed look at all into the 9/11 attacks, so if that is what you are after, this is not the book for you. Chances are, had he lived, Lewin may have been up there in the pantheon of tech giants like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates because what he did for the internet was certainly worthy of that company. For years, the only way most people (aside from those who met him or knew him personally) would have ever heard of him was by reading the 9/11 Commission report. Otherwise, the only reference to him for years was a line in the National Geographic Inside 9/11 documentary in which an unnamed passenger is mentioned as trying to intervene in the hijacking but is stabbed. While the book can be a bit dry and will not appeal to everyone, I think it is an interesting read and if you are a fan of biographies this is worth checking out.

Book Set Review: Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-7)

 

This is the full set of the original Harry Potter novels in a paperback version. It is much more than just a mass-market paperback, however. The books are just a bit smaller in size than the hardcover versions, and they have the same kind of quality illustrations and look great. They also come in a collector box that you can either store them in on a shelf, or the box can be displayed separately if you are one of those who goes all in decking out a bookshelf.

Harry Potter is, of course, the massive series that consisted of these 7 books, which were ultimately adapted into 8 movies, and then spun off the Fantastic Beasts franchise that is currently still going strong. The books are set in the 1990s at a time when a ten-year-old Harry learns that he is a wizard, and starts attending school at Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry. The theme throughout the series of books is the looming threat of the dark wizard Voldemort who tried and failed to kill Harry as an infant. The author JK Rowling, wrote the books with the intention that kids about Harry's age could start reading them and then age with the characters in the books. So, they do get progressively darker and more "adult" as the series goes on. The first couple of books are easily appropriate for 10-11 year-olds, but the later books are probably more appropriate for those in the 13-15-year-old (on up) age range. Even though they are technically kids' books, they can easily be enjoyed by adults. The books also get longer as the series goes on, so if you have seen the movies, there is a lot that happens in the books, especially books 3-6 that get cut out of the movies. I do think, on the whole, the books are better than the movies, but I think there are some things that the movies tweaked from the books that worked better.

Overall, it is a great book series. The story is unique in that, as opposed to a lot of other books in the sci-fi/fantasy genre that set their stories on made-up worlds that have little in common with our reality, it sets the world of magic in the "real" world in contemporary times, just making it clear that people without the magical ability (called muggles) are largely unaware of the existence of magic. If you are one of the few who have yet to read the books, I highly recommend them.

Book Review: Helter Skelter

 

Helter Skelter is the novel written by Vincent Bugliosi, the lead prosecutor in the prosecution and conviction of Charles Manson and his followers for the series of murders that they carried out in the late 1960s, including the murder of the actress Sharon Tate. The book details not only the crimes but the investigation that was carried out and the prosecution of those involved. Most interesting, especially for those of us who are lawyers, is the strategy Bugliosi used to convict Manson even though he did not help carry out the murders, and his followers were basically brainwashed cult members who were reluctant to flip on him.

As anyone who has read any of Bugliosi's books, he has a pretty snarky writing style and is not shy about sharing his personal feelings about the people he is writing about. So, his characterization of Manson and his band of followers could be quite humorous at times. The book is organized into multiple parts that detail the murders, then detail the killers, the investigation of the crime, determining a motive, catching those involved, and the trial and its aftermath. It is a very entertaining read and provides a lot of information that only Bugliosi and a handful of other people were privy to. So, if you are a history buff and/or a true crime enthusiast, this is definitely worth reading.

Book Review: Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

 

Reclaiming history is a massive book on the Kennedy Assassination by the noted prosecutor and author Vince Bugliosi. It is broken into two "books". Book One, titled "Matters of Fact: What Happened" discusses the Assassination, the various investigations, the evidence, details Oswald's past and movements, and the mountain of evidence against him, and pointing to the fact that he was the only shooter.

In the second book, titled "Delusions of Conspiracy: What Didn't Happen", Bugliosi swats down the most prevalent conspiracy theories, refuting them point-by-point with detailed evidence and citations to bolster his conclusions. Of course, his ultimate conclusion is that there is no proof of conspiracy. He is quite condescending to most of the major conspiracy theorists, holding a special derision for Mark Lane and Oliver Stone, and makes no bones about the fact that he finds most of the conspiracy advocates to be batshit crazy.

The book reads like an extremely long law review article. Almost every sentence is footnoted, and many of the footnotes include a paragraph or more of text. The amount of text in the footnotes can probably fill their own book. As a result, it is not exactly the easiest thing to read but it provides a lot of detail. Obviously, the Kennedy Assassination is one of the most contentious points of debate in history. For people who don't believe there was a conspiracy, this book will just deepen their resolve. For those who do, nothing Bugliosi says, including the fact that such a conspiracy would require multiple people to stay quiet forever and never reveal anything, or that many of the various conspiracies contradict each other, will ever change their mind. So, it is pretty likely if you think that Oswald acted alone you will love this book and if you think something more nefarious was behind the Assassination, you will hate it. Personally, I think it is worth reading regardless of where you stand on the conspiracy issue, if nothing else, just for the fact that it is one of the most detailed books on the Kennedy Assassination out there.

Book Review: Star Wars - The High Republic: Race to Crashpoint Tower

 

This, like the other junior novels, is an ancillary story to the adult high-republic novels. Meaning, it fills in some of the details of the larger story. This one is set on Valo during the Nihil attack on the Republic fair that is detailed in the novel, "The Rising Storm". It is told from the perspective of two Padawans, one named Ram, and another named Lula. They get stuck in the middle of the Nihil attack and help get the word out to the Republic that reinforcements are needed. Vernestra Rawoh also appears in the novel, and Yoda is again name-dropped but does not appear directly.

Like the other junior novels, this one is short, just under 200 pages. If you read relatively quickly this can easily be finished in a day or two. Even though it is tailored more to kids, I think it is written well enough for adults to enjoy. But, it can get a little silly (mainly some of the stuff involving Ram's droid) at times. I would not call it a must-read, but if you are, like me, an adult who collects all of the canon books, it is worth reading once.

Book Review: Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles

 

Chances are, if you were even slightly interested in Dungeons and Dragons back in the mid-1980s to early 1990s, you probably read these series of books. Back in the day, the sci-fi and fantasy section of the book stores had a massive Dragonlance Section. This is actually a set of novels that introduced the world of Krynn, and basically revolves around a fight between good and evil. The basic premise is that there are gods of good, evil, and neutrality. The "people" of Krynn are sometimes just regular people, and other times they have power (like magic-users and clerics). And, in addition to humans, there are other species like dwarves, elves, half-elves, trolls, and even dragons. The characters were based on a D&D campaign that one of the authors was playing, and it spawned multiple novels by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman involving the main characters, and a ton of ancillary novels that either augmented or expanded the storylines in the main novels.

Chances are anyone looking to buy this has already read the books multiple times, however, if you have not, a couple of provisos. First, this set is annotated, as the title suggests. The authors insert comments throughout the book that discuss specific events and even spoil things that happen in the later parts of the story. So, if you are reading this for the first time, and you care about spoilers, I would advise you to get the mass-market paperback versions of the novels and read those first, then read this to get additional insight into the story and the characters. Or, just do not read the annotations before you read the story. Second, the annotated version is probably overkill for anyone who is not a die-hard fan of the series. It provides a lot of extra detail that someone who is just casually reading the books is not likely to care about. But, if you are someone who really loves the characters and the story, this is definitely worth reading.

Book Review: Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader

 

This was a novel put out before the Disney-Lucasfilm collaboration so, it was relegated to Legends status. It is a novel that really retells Anakin/Vader's life through his own eyes, so much of what is told (things that were seen in the movies) are still a part of the official canon. However, some of the inner monologue material and things presented from a slightly different perspective are not. Much of that has been replaced by the Vader comic series that chronicles his life after the battle of Mustafar and being put in the suit.

As others have mentioned, the book does rehash a lot of the "old" or already known material. But, that is not to say that there is nothing new in the book. We get a lot of what Anakin or Vader was actually thinking during the events, which were not always things that were in the movies. So, it is disingenuous to say that there is nothing new in it. That said, it is not going to be a book that will appeal to everyone. While I would not necessarily put it in the category of a must-read, for die-hard fans I do think it is worth checking out.