In this book Abbey tells the story of a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world. The main character is Jack Burns a anarchist cowboy who wants to rescue his son from the city and its army. The army is controlled by a very insane but very authoritarian former officer who has reintroduced many of the less savory aspects of militarism and tyranny to the world. In many ways I found this the most enjoyable of Abbey’s books because his writing fits better in a post-apocalyptic world than in the modern one. I still disagree with his proposals for anarchism and believe that law and order are better than the suffering of total freedom. Some people are not made to fit into the stable world and they are the explorers and pioneers. Where our current societies problems arise is that there are few spots that haven’t been explored and those places are so protected that pioneers are kept out for the benefit of the bureaucrats and the ever organized scholars. Maybe the modern world is creating within themselves the seeds of its own destruction by not allowing those who need to, to be able to leave. We are free to do anything except leave and without that freedom all people become servants of the state.
So Vile a Sin is one of many books in the New Adventures of Doctor who, it was written by Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman. This book takes place near the end of the thirtieth century. Mankind has not only left earth, it has conquered much of the area around earth. In order to better rule its territories it has reinstituted an empire with nobility. It is into this setting that the time traveler Doctor Who and his aides return. It seems that the two main aids in this book who are Roz Forrester and Chris are from this time period. The book begins with them chasing after a old weapon from the doctors people which ends up creating multiple potentialities of the doctor who go out into the world. The main characters are struggling to figure out what is going on when the doctor decides that the empress has suffered enough and pulls the plug on her life. In the dynastic struggle which follows Roz looses her life. The book was unusual in that way. Most books don’t kill their main characters but this one did. Even though the book told us on page one that she had died I kept waiting for her to escape but it never happened. So I guess I could write this about death and how it affects people. For me that is a difficult thing to write about as I have never had anyone close to me die. I sometimes think that is why I am so unable to see the pain of death. It has never happened to me. When it does happen to someone close to me I don’t know how I will react. Death both scares me but yet it also gives me hope that I will be with my heavenly father. I hope to life a good life and then to be with my master forever.
The Horse Tamer’s Challenge is a romance set in the old west written by Gordon Aalborg. The story takes place on the great plains of North America during the time when the United States was fighting the Sioux War. The male protagonist in this romance is Luc L’Hirondelle a metis man who knows the frontier and the tribes that dwell in it. Metis is a French term for someone who has both European and American Indian ancestry. The female protagonist is Rebecca Bennett, a woman from St. Louis who is searching for her long lost sister Amy. Rebecca harbors fears of the frontier dating back to the time as a child when her father tried move the family west in an effort to claim a gold mine he had discovered. That trip had ended in disaster when American Indians raided their caravan and captured Amy Bennett and partially scalped her father. She and her mother had retreated home where they were at times visited by her father. However now he mother is dead and her father convinced her to go out west searching for Amy. The romance between these two seems impossible for t a couple of reasons. First Luc is partially Indian and Rebecca hates all aspects of American Indians because of what they did to her sister. Luc however comes manipulates things so that she finds out that neither side is right when it comes to American Indian-European relations. In part I think the author may err slightly to the side of the American Indians but overall in his description of people along the border he is fairly accurate. He also makes Luc the perfect combinations of savage and sophisticate so as to give Rebecca something to connect with. The second reason why the romance seems impossible is because of the racism which dominated that period. It was understood if frowned upon that certain European men would be forced to marry American Indian women because of the shortage of European women on the frontier. However the reverse was completely unacceptable as Europeans considered themselves better than the American Indians. Of course as is often the case in such a discriminatory situation a person was considered American Indian if they had any ancestor who had the blood in them while only ’pure’ Europeans were considered European. I find this silly as it influences our own perceptions of race even today that people are considered in the minority even if most of their ancestry is with the majority. In this story Rebecca overcomes her societies racism, can we?
Dining with Devils is Gordan Aalborg’s sequel to The Specialist. While the former book mostly took place on Victoria Island in Canada this novel takes place in Tasmania in Australia. The main characters are the same however with a few new additions. One of these new additions is Teuge Kendall’s ex-wife Rose who through her own insanity becomes involved with the specialist. For even though the main characters believe him to be dead from cougar bite, he still lives to threaten his prey. The fact that the readers know the identities of all of the villains reduces the suspense of the story dramatically from the previous novel. There are still elements of suspense but overall it reads more like an adventure than a mystery because of its lack of twists that are unknown. There are still certain twists like when Ian, the man Rose hires to rattle Kendall shoots the wrong man and kills another by accident. In a way if this was a true mystery the facts about who killed the judge and why would have held a greater part in the story but the author preferred to delve in the minds of the misfits. Maybe that is a better description of this type of book a psychological thriller into the minds of those who kill. The reasons for these misfits perception of reality are different yet all filled with a sense of hubris. Ian is a native Tassie who is the very picture of a frontiersman. He hunts what he wills and he eats what he hunts. In many ways he would not have the bent to be a villain except for the fact that his nation sent him on a trip up to do some fighting in Vietnam. There he uncovered the true thing that motivates him which is his love for drugs. Rose is also from Tasmania but her outlook on life is much more urbane because of her profession as a psychiatric nurse. The motivating factor for her is the fact that her ex-husband has found success and is unwilling to share it with her. So she wants to hurt him and the new woman in his life. The specialist is the third type. He is a professional killer and gourmet who only asks that the world be perfect for him. All are focused only on their own desires which blinds them to their own flaws.
Today’s book is The Fools Progress by Edward Abbey. This book was interesting because it truly shows what the secular American lives for, nothing. The work is in many ways Abbey’s autobiography even though he used imaginary characters to tell his story. His is the fate of those who can not conform to reality. The book has two intermixed stories running side by side. The first is the present day and his trip from Arizona to West Virginia. And the second is the main characters past and how he got into the situation that can be seen in the journey he is taking. The past of the character is very vivid as it goes on about growing up in West Virginia, time in the military, and life of an ex-soldier. The character is someone who can not hold down a regular job even though he is highly educated it is difficult seeing the character wanting a regular job. Overall I found the book worth reading although very depressing. It was made more so by the fact that the main character was a philosopher but yet in the end, I felt like he didn’t understand what life is about. The key to any useful philosophy is God because philosophy without God is like trying to tie an elephant onto a daisy and expecting it to hold . It is easier to look at the story now and see the purpose in its Nihilism than it was when I was reading it. I hope you enjoyed this.
I wish I could say that I had enjoyed the book that I’m talking about today but if I said that I would be lying. The book of the day is Edward Abbey’s, yes him again, Black Sun. This book does not take place in the same timeline that the other two Abbey books I have reviewed take place in but instead in another vision of our own world.This story can be best said to be a love story although a depressing and bleak view of love it is. The main character is a worker at a remote fire station who every once in a while goes into town to pick up supplies. There he meets this young college age girl who he falls in lust with and so after a short courtship they end up back at his tower having sex. The two amazingly still like each other in their own strange manner and so keep meeting until one day the girl disappears neither the guy nor her friends nor her fiancee know what happened to her but eventually they find her body dead in a canyon. This book is very bleak and the picture of humanity it portraits has no rosy tint. If I were to judge the author by this work alone, I would say that the best place for his work is a trashcan. But as I said at the beginning every work even the worst can teach us something. This work does teach a little. What it shows is to be wary of someone or something that is attractive just do to its abnormality. It isn’t worth it to go chasing strangers in the wood when people much nearer to you love you all the same. Sometimes chasing fairytales just leaves you nothing but bones and memories. Live like each day may be your last, not that today will be your last. Hope you enjoy
Today I am reviewing a book by an author that I have discussed before. The book is Hayduke Lives! and the author is Edward Abbey. This book is the sequel to The Monkey Wrench Gang and it takes place much later in time. One interesting feature of the book is the fact that it is supposed to take place in the real world and so many of the characters in this book have read the previous book. The basic outline of the book is more ecoterrorism but it is gotten to by a different method than in the first book. In the first book the characters just destroyed and then were hunted down and all except Hayduke were captured. This capture has made the characters more timid and thus they don’t really want to get involved in breaking the law again. But as the books title says "Hayduke lives" and he needs help to destroy an important mining machine. So by the end of the book our band of criminals have once again broken the law. I found this book more realistic than the previous one, as the people seem slightly more mature. The book is an entertaining read but once again it is about something that should not be tried at home. The book is a paradox much like the author, I say that because paradox sounds nicer than hypocritical. It is another masterwork by a man who wasted his life. It shows that with hard work even a few people can accomplish dastardly deeds. Well I’m going to bed now, hope you enjoyed it.
OK now before I get started with the book, I am a little tired tonight so the review may be a little hazy although not as hazy as Hayduke’s normal driving condition. The book I am discussing tonight is The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. The book is about people that have all the brains I associate with the environmental terrorist movement. The main characters are a group of people that through their actions do more harm to the environment than good although you won’t hear the author saying that. They are the type of people who litter and destroy things in ways that the destruction is more damaging to the environment than the thing they are attempting to destroy. While I absolutely hate the main point of the book, it is an interesting work of fiction. If one doesn’t take it seriously someone could enjoy the book quite a bit. The lesson I learned from the book is to pay attention to what you are doing because you may be trying to do good but in the end be causing more harm than the good you are doing. To paraphrase the line at the beginning of the book, I would prefer to be crushed by a Mitsubishi bulldozer. That’s it hope you enjoyed it. Your friend Brian.
La livre du jour est Toward Home avec Carolyne Aarsen. This book deals with the issue of a Christian romance. Overall it is a decent book very homey and uplifting showing that even though a person may think that they know where there life should go God(and the author) knows better. It is very uplifting because it shows that hard work and caring for other people will get you somewhere in life as it does for the main female character a nurse who is struggling to make ends meet in a small town and ends up with a life like in a fairy tale due to her faith and love. The book seems well written but very shallow as the main things that go wrong for the characters are in the past and the future seems to rose colored. I enjoyed the book as much for its message that if you have a dream and work for it, you can make it happen.
The book that I read today was State Scarlet by David Aaron. This book was very depressing. It is the fictional story of what would happen if a terrorist stole a nuclear weapon. The story takes place in the nineteen eighties when the main conflict was between the US and the USSR. The main character is a US spy named Sean Gordon with assorted politicians on both sides playing major supporting roles. The reason the book is depressing is because it shows the problems that tit for tat has and the way that in the current time scum rise to the top of the political world. To begin with tit for tat is a game theory based on equal retaliation for anything the other side does. This means that if someone hists you then you have to hit them back to be fair. Now anyone that has really lived in the real world knows it doesn’t end like that because you will constantly be hitting your opponent and he you because of what you did last. However this has been the major foreign policy method for the US in the world. I’m depressed because this policy and others like it are so intertwined in our government that justice is destoyed for the sake of demonstrating our courage. Courage without forgiveness is suicidal. Vengence will destroy the promise of a good future and give it to liers and thieves.