Published in September of 2003, Predator’s Gold is the sequel to Mortal Engines. It continues the story of what happens after London is destroyed.
Again, I thought they did a great job with the next book. This could have ended the series and it would have been just as good.
Good book!
Published in November of 2001, Mortal Engines is a dystopian future where the traction cities are on the move eating each other and they are fighting against the anti-traction league to for the right to do so.
As dumb as the concept is, it was a fun book. It had some really good character development and was just a good read. Of course, I watched the movie shortly after reading it. Honestly, I don’t know why I do that… They hacked the story-line to bits.
Skip the movie and read the book.
Published in June of 1992, Outlander is the first book in a series of fictional books about Outlanders. People who time travel from one place to another. The first was a nurse from WWII to 16th century Scotland.
It certainly had an interesting back story and the author knows how to keep the reader engaged but I didn’t really like it. The main character was a little too much “Mary Sue” for me and I didn’t really like how she handled herself. I was looking for a good series but this just wasn’t it.
Skip it. For this 12 book series, I am one and done.
Published in October of 2007, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a autobiographical look at Haruki Murakami and largely centered around his experience with the New York marathon and other races. He is primarily a writer but he has done a lot of running.
This was an interesting book to read. Any work from another culture has elements that can surprise you as you go along. Ironically, I listened to this book while running. He mentions doing triathlons as well and I was disgusted that swimmers would kick an old man as he was trying to compete in a race. Particularly in open water…
On the whole, it was an ok book. I don’t know that I grew too much from it.
I wouldn’t read it again.
Published in October of 2020, Greenlights is the autobiographical musings of Matthew McConaughey (all right, all right, all right…).
I’m always nervous when I read this celebrity bios. Most of the time I come away thinking much less of them but this time was different. My wife was talking to me about this book thinking that I had already read it. I told her that I had but I was thinking about Val Kilmer’s book. So, I had to read it…
I was pleasantly surprised. The first of it seemed like it he was trying to act all manly to counter he stereotypical RomCom role. As the story went on, he seemed to actually be the person he was representing. It also explains why he stopped doing those roles. If it wasn’t just fantasy, he earned a bit of my respect.
Not a bad read.
Published in 1982, Battlefield Earth is a story of Earth a thousand years from now after we had been invaded by an alien civilization known as the Psychlos. They have almost no interest in us, rather they just want to mine our planet for the heavy metals.
This was a pretty fun book and I remember being intimidated by it by it’s shear size when I read it as a teen. With my adult eyes, it was pretty campy and all the women had almost no character development but it was still fun.
The movie that came out a number of years ago was pretty terrible and didn’t do much to help promote the book. Oh well, Travolta tried…
A fun action book but pretty long.
Published in December of 1987, The Doomed Planet is the 10th and final book in the Mission Earth series. This book sees everything settled and Earth’s fate resolved.
Everything was tied off neatly in place. It was as good of an ending as could have been hoped for. I read the Series a long time ago but I don’t believe I ever really finished it. Now it’s finished, I can leave it permanently.
I’m not a fan of series. It had it’s fun parts but it just wasn’t worth it.
Published in December of 1990. Villainy Victorious is the 9th book in the Mission Earth series. This book changes the narrators and we don’t hear much more from Sultan Gris. Hisst is in control of Voltar and only Heller can save the day. However, the real villainy is from a public relations campaign designed to immortalize Heller at any cost.
I did enjoy the change of pace and the book wasn’t just about how Sultan Gris was taken advantage of and how Heller was great. However, there were more than a few issues… There is something base about Hubbard’s writing that I can’t quite put my finger on. Some parts are so much more brutal or perverse than they need to be and most of the characters can’t seem to think for themselves. It’s like they are seen as less than people.
I’m in it till the end but I wouldn’t start if I were you.
Published in June of 1988, Disaster is the 8th book in the Mission Earth series. This book sees Heller take Gris into custody, resolve his issues on Earth, and bring him back to Voltar.
Heller can certainly clean up quick. They breezed right by how he wiped out most of Russia and Eastern Europe but he left a few issues open. We aren’t getting much better.
Just holding on till the end.
Published in 1987, Voyage of Vengeance is the seventh book in the Mission Earth series. Sultan Gris sees just about everything go hill and finds himself running out of New York and from just about everyone. He finds himself back in Turkey and enlists the crew of the tug to kidnap the Countess Krak.
I didn’t need the 15 year old taking advantage of Gris or the drug references. They did a good job representing the worst of humanity and pegging it on Gris.
I can’t recommend it.