First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

This novel is a thriller with a time travel twist. North's narrator, Harry August, doesn't travel in time using technology, but some unexplained phenomenon of his person sends him back to his own birth after his death. Every time. And each time he gets sent back to his own birth to re-live his life, he remembers the events of his previous life. Others exist in the future and in the past with this same looped-life quality. Because their lives overlap slightly--one person being a child when another person is old--they can send messages up and down history.

The problem occurs when one of these multi-lived people decides to change history and brings technological advances into existence earlier than they normally arrive. Then he starts killing permanently others with returning lives who would oppose him.

The reader learns the hard-knock wisdom that Harry August picks up in his serial lives and waits to find out if August will be killed permanently by the Other who is trying to manage human history and destiny through his own lives.

This is an exciting read, even if a much less exciting review.

Cauldron of Ghosts--Third book in the Crown of Slaves series taking place in the "Honorverse" of David Weber

This book is very good--action, suspense and favorite characters.

Action--fights on a small enough level to follow individuals--space ship takeovers, urban fighting in defended and booby-trapped buildings, and cargo "truck"-jackings gone sideways.

Suspense--will the characters be caught or will they succeed? Will they die? Will they Die AND succeed? The reader in the moment is kept guessing.

Favorite characters--Anton Zilwicki, Victor Cachat, and others from the Crown of Slaves segment of the Honorverse are all here doing their characteristic mannerisms; dangerous, insane plans; and forlorn hope actions. The one exception to known character similarity is Andrew Artlett who acts younger yet more thoughtful than his appearance in Torch of Freedom.

In any case, there's a lot to love in this volume and a reader's favorite villains to hate as well--from bit-part slavers to (literally) evil genius father & sons.

Full four stars from me! The only thing that kept it from being five stars for me is that (as other reviewers of the David Weber Honorverse books have complained about a couple of other titles) is that in this book several paragraphs are taken word for word or nearly from the second book in the Saganami Island series, Storm from the Shadows. Since the scene takes place in both books, it's understandable, if not  justifiable. I found it only a little disconcerting.

Nevertheless, for readers who enjoy the Honorverse or for readers who just enjoy good space / spy / military adventure stories, this is a four-star read that they will want to dive into. Like a number of individual books in a series, it may not be the best volume to jump into from a standing start, but it does read well on its own, and for first time readers, the repeated paragraphs won't even be noticed, because they fit perfectly in this story.

For fun and adventure, read this book!

Missing Simile

Why doesn't anyone ever say "Cute as a zipper"?

Overheard Art Movements

Two Schools of art that I heard of:
Gopher Baroque
Hoosier Dada (this is apparently the name of a race horse as well).

 I just need to think of others for an imaginary art history course.

The Sea without a Shore by David Drake, review

The Sea Without a Shore by David Drake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Drake pours on the adventure and gives readers an excellent time.

The Sea without a Shore by David Drake is the latest (#10) in the Daniel Leary / Adele Mundy space navy series. Drake keeps things fresh in this adventure of the duo in the Cinnabar Navy--RCN as all the insiders call it. Because this is one of a series, and because the author has said he tries to make it possible to start the series from any one of the books, this book has some passages that readers familiar with the series will either welcome as familiar friends or feel some level of annoyance with the repetition of stuff they already know. Mine was the familiar friends reaction.

David Drake (as his author's note explains) takes earth minor historical events and recasts them as a plot framework for Leary & Mundy to work through in different planets and star systems. It's a technique that works very well for me. The author is able to take his characters through multiple adventure scenarios without becoming repetitive (except in as much as some have found the explanations of the Matrix or Leary or Mundy's personal history repetitive, as mentioned above).

In this book, they are not acting as official RCN members. They escort the son (formerly a ne'r do well, but now reformed) of Adele's civilian boss to a planet where there's a revolution going on, where the son hopes to find a buried treasure to help his side buy weapons and win the revolution. They don't know if there really is a treasure, but they set off to help--with Adele having a related secret mission that she doesn't share with Daniel or anyone else!

In one sense, it's a well-known pattern for fans of the series--Daniel & Adele are given a nearly impossible mission, Daniel thinks up a bold and sly plan, and Adele gets normally inaccessible information and fools the opposition. This may sound simple and mundane, especially after nine previous novels in the series, but once again, for me, Drake pours on the adventure and gives readers an excellent time.

I've read all his books in the Leary & Mundy series more than twice! and I expect to do the same with this volume.

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