#bookreview – The Boring Old Man

Book Review: World Made By Hand by James H. Kunstler

I’ve known of James Kunstler for quite a few years now, having been introduced to him by a good friend sometime in the early 00’s. I’ve been a steady reader of his blog site (kunstler.com) for the last couple years too – he puts out very thought provoking articles every Friday. (Highly recommended!) This however, was my first foray into his fictional work and I’m just gonna come right out and say it – I REALLY liked this book. A LOT.

This was, in it’s own way, a post-apocalyptic novel which is pretty much my favorite genre of fiction. But it was so unlike any other post-apoc novel I’ve read in the past, it really doesn’t fit with the others I’ve read. (And there have been MANY!)

The story takes place in upstate New York, where I’ve never been, but he sets the scene so well that I felt like I’d been there. The storyline starts some time after everything has fallen apart, though you never get a specific time frame – whether its a year or five, you never really know. Basically folks are just trying to keep what’s left from falling apart and keep themselves alive. In this small town there are still remnants of a community, but severely diminished. They are living in a post-oil world, no more cars and trucks, no trains, no industry. Even bicycles are rare because rubber tires aren’t being made and the old ones are failing. Roads still exist, but hadn’t been maintained so even if there were autos, the roads would beat them to death. Electricity is almost non-existent and eventually quits altogether. For all intents and purposes, Government is gone though rumors persist of a President and a new Capital in the midwest. (Minnesota if I recall…) In a lot of ways it’s like they’re living in the 1800’s.

The protagonist is a quiet, calm man. He was a tech executive in the BEFORE, but scratches out a living as the town’s carpenter and plays the fiddle in the town’s musical group. We learn that he’d lost both his wife and his daughter during the troubled times, though you don’t really get much background on his life before the time of this story. He also has a teenaged son that “headed out into the world” some time previous, and he has no idea whether his son is still alive or where he might be. I found him to be pretty likeable and relatable, not like the uber-prepped, former military hotshots that are usually the focus of the post-apoc genre.

A couple things hit right up front – a strange new group of religious folks arrive in town, having purchased the former high school for their new Church and living quarters. There is a murder. The widow of the murdered man has her house burn to the ground. A group of men taking trade goods by river go missing… For a quiet little burg in upstate NY, a lot is happening!

I don’t want to spoil anything with additional details, I will just say this was a great book.

The story was compelling. The characters were realistic. The writing was superb. I couldn’t wait to get back to it every night and I was almost sad to see it finished!

I purchased the book out of curiosity, frankly not expecting much. In my experience non-fiction writers are horrible at fiction, and vice-versa. Well, Mr. Kunstler may just be the exception to the rule! This is one that will be staying in my library, as I know without doubt I will want to read it again.

There are a couple sequels to this story, and I’m happy to say I’ve started the second one as of last night. I hope it holds up to the first.

Well done Mr. Kunstler! Thank you for a great piece of work!! I look forward to the rest of the installments!

Thanks for stopping by!

Book Review: Flying On the Wings of Change by James Maynard

This was another “by chance” read by an author previously unknown to me.

It was an unusual story, which I appreciated. The subtitle of the book being “a story from America’s divorce”, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I can tell you it turned out to be nothing at all like I thought it would be.

The basic premise is that a wounded and now discharged former U.S. Marine and his computer programmer neighbor meet up and build a drone together, a miniaturized version of a military plane. Initially they use this drone to assist a militia group that is fighting a battle with a south-of-the-border cartel.

During the course of the story, California, Washington and half of Oregon secede from the U.S., and Chinese forces try to move in to “help” and protect the newly seceded states, the s-o-t-b cartels are fighting each other so as to gain territory control up the west coast, Texas withdraws from the U.S. to once again restore the Republic of Texas, federal interests play both sides against each other, and more. It is a pretty wild ride and I was drawn in pretty quickly.

Overall, I will state that I strongly liked the story. There was enough character development that I felt I had a good “feel” of the characters and it made the story all the more believable. The twists and turns of the story itself were enough to keep me coming back for more. Action, adventure, intrigue – all present and accounted for.

As for my personal “gripes” about the book? Not many. Primarily, the writer needed to engage an editor. I was kinda irked at first by this – the wrong word here or there, weird punctuation… but honestly once I got hooked into the story (which didn’t take long), I was less bothered by it. Nonetheless, it kinda had the feel of a rough draft. Don’t get me wrong, those kind of mistakes are EASY to miss when you’ve read something you’ve written, especially by the 10th pass through. But if it were ME, and I was going to self publish a book that was going to be in print, I’d go the extra step of having an outside editor proof the thing before it went to the printer. I realize this is nit-picking, but this is simply my honest assessment. That being said, kudos to the author for writing and self publishing! We need more, many more, authors putting their work out on their own without the “direction” (read: censorship) of the major league publishing houses.

My only other gripe is that the writer got a little too “in the weeds” with details – both in the flight action scenes but also (especially) in the technical aspects of the building of the drone(s). Now, if you’re a “plane guy” and know the terminology used, or a pilot that has had to execute maneuvers, maybe those parts will read easier to you. In my case I found myself re-reading several passages just trying to make sense of it in my own head with NO experience whatsoever with planes or flying. Honestly I felt a little dumb at times, as the technical material was over my head.

Lastly, the ending was a little anticlimactic, but it left a great set-up for a sequel.

All in all, I very much enjoyed the book. There was a lot of hidden philosophy tucked in there that made you think, but also just interesting characters and a lot of excitement. I will absolutely read the sequel when/if it drops, and I will certainly keep an eye on the author for more work in the future. His style is really different, or I should say his perspective is very different from the mainstream while at the same time he doesn’t veer off into the sheer foaming-at-the-mouth anti- government crap that so many dystopian/post-apoc writers do. Which also reminds me, I really appreciated the authors “reality” of the USA in this book. So many these days are so off the rails and unbelievable, this was a great change of pace. Yes, in the story the country is most definitely falling apart, but it’s still in tact enough to be somewhat realistic. Kinda like real life…

Anyhow, without getting spoilers involved, that’s all I’ve got to say on the subject.

Bottom line, I enjoyed the book a great deal in spite of its minor flaws and I’m looking forward to the sequel. Would recommend! Well done Mr. Maynard!

Thanks for stopping by!

Book Review: The Iron Web by Larken Rose

This is yet another book that I cannot recall how I ever came across… I had never heard of the title, nor the author but I did buy it myself, so I must have heard about it from some other blogger, or maybe someone dropped the name in a comment on a blog or social media or whathaveyou…. Who ever it was that turned me on to this book – THANK YOU!

Now, this book is a work of fiction but WOW! The picture it paints of our country and the “what if’s” it draws out of you while reading, it seems highly plausible that such an action could in fact transpire right here on our very shores.

Without giving too much away (the hardest part of a book review!), the story starts with a passenger airplane being shot out of the sky over Arizona. The responsibility for which is laid at the feet of a domestic terrorist organization, “The Iron Web”.

A lone survivor of the crash is rescued by some folks in an isolated community, that just happens to be under seige by the FBI due to the shooting of an officer over a search warrant situation earlier in said community.

I will say unabashedly that I really, really enjoyed this book. It’s the first novel I’ve read that comes from I guess what you’d call a political dissident mindset, that doesn’t try to shove some crazy dogma down your throat or meander off into cringe territory with crazy religious or racial diatribes. What it did do, and I thought it did so masterfully, was put forth a compelling argument for the lack of necessity of an all encompassing, behemoth government entity. There was a touch of Ayn Rand to it, without getting so “in the weeds” as she was fond of doing. If you’ve read Atlas Shrugged, you know what I mean. (And if you haven’t read it, you SHOULD.)

This novel was certainly not the best written thing I’ve ever read, and there were some parts that were a bit predictable and frankly, corny. That being said, it was a compelling story, a relatively believable story and it makes you think!

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing this book as required reading for High School English classes. It’s not often you find a book that is fun to read, but also an eye opener.

On the one hand, I feel like I should give this book away, with the caveat that it be passed on to someone else afterwards as I think everyone should read this book. On the other hand, I’ll likely want to read it again!

All in all, if you like a little action and intrigue, mixed in with political shenanigans and topped off with some general civics and a dash of philosophy, I think you’ll like The Iron Web. I know I did!

Thanks for stopping by!

Book Review: The Man of Legends by Kenneth Johnson

I’ll be honest, I don’t remember exactly how I came across this book. It may have been a freebie from Amazon Prime… Anyhow, I had never read anything from Mr. Johnson in the past, so I had no idea what to expect. It was a Kindle read, which is not my preferred method, but I’m glad I picked this one!

The story is convoluted to say the least. It bounces back between a great number of characters, some minor some major but everyone has a piece of the action.

The main character, who goes by many names, has been around a long, long time. Without giving away the story, I can’t really say too much, but I will say the “man of legend” has seen more than anyone can imagine and has had a hand in many things that have shaped the modern era.

He’s being pursued by the Catholic church, a highly ambitious investigative reporter and an old, long lost friend simultaneously, which leads to quite the thrill ride.

The book is a nice mash up of spy novel, historic novel, supernatural and religious imagery and just straight up suspense.

All in all, it was a good yarn. Is it gonna displace anything currently in my Top 10? No, not at all. But I’m glad I read it, it was certainly entertaining and it kept me coming back for more. Nothing worse than a book you have to force yourself to finish!