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I loved Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall. I think si-fi writers have good and bad books depending on the science and subject of the novel they publish. Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O

To pontalba The premise for the second book sounded great, but the reviews were not good. I'll skip it, there are a lot of good books to read. Thanks for your opinion.

Time and Again Time and Again is the classic time travel story by Jack Finney set in New York City in 1970 and 1882. Our time traveller is Simon Morely, Si for short, an artist for an advertising agency. One day while at work, Si is visited unannounced by Major Ruben Prien. Over lunch, Major...

Ringworld What does a puppeteer, a kzin, and two humans have in common? They are going to 'Ringworld'! You thought I was going to say 'Disney World' , didn’t you? This is the premise of Larry Niven’s epic novel about an artificial ring, one million miles wide, encircling a sun-like star. I...

pontalba, That's a rousing list of books. Thanks for the tips for future reading. Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O

Catch-22 This uproarious satirical novel by Joseph Heller prompted me to think of Robert Crichton’s 'The Secret Of Santa Vittoria' , another novel blending WWII and comedy. Published in 1961, 'Catch-22' was the forerunner of Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel, 'Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors'...

Thanks, he was very happy with your remarks! Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O

The lightning thief The following is a guest observation of a Rick Riordan book by my most wonderful nine year old grandson, Kai: This book is mainly about Zeus’s lightning bolt being stolen. He was sleeping one night when somebody stole his bolt, and Percy Jackson is on a quest to find it...

There is no otherwise Not for nothing, this pleasing short story ( 44 pages ) reminded me of Jay and the Americans 1964 song 'Come a Little Bit Closer' . All the elements are there, but still the ending is somewhat different. My question to author Ardin Lalui is why did you stop the story on...

House of Leaves This novel is not a sequel to Walt Whitman’s 'Leaves of Grass' , in fact it’s not like anything I’ve ever read before. Welcome to the world of ergodic literature. This was my first foray into this genre, and I liked it. This genre requires the reader to make a real effort to...

Bone river This is the story of a very stoic group of people living in the Washington Territory of the Pacific Northwest during the mid 1800s. Megan Chance spins a tale of mystery and intrigue that grips the reader and will not let go until you have read all 386 pages. Only a person who lives...

The dog stars This novel by Peter Heller has more of a survival/adventure flavor then the taste of another apocalyptic novel. There have been many plague driven post-apocalyptic novels written, going back to 1826 when 'Frankenstein' famed author Mary Shelley wrote 'The Last Man' , a story of a...

The plum tree Ellen Marie Wiseman’s riveting debut novel allows the reader to peer into the life of a German teenager and her family in World War II torn Nazi Germany. The author states that the book was inspired by her own mother’s actual experiences in Germany, and by the author’s numerous...

Slow apocalypse One of my favorite writers, John Varley, writes a “been there, done that” book. What I mean is that there are only so many ways you can pen a apocalypse/survival novel. Is this novel similar to William R. Forstchen’s 'One Second After' and Cormac McCarthy’s 'The Road' ? You...

To Beneak Have you read ' The Master and Margarita ' by Mikhail Bulgakov? The novel combines fantasy, a satirical look at the Stalin run government, and a story within a story. Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O

The catcher in the rye J.D. Salinger published this reputed American classic in 1951, which was probably the most censored book in high schools and libraries until the mid 1980s. I’m not sure why it’s considered a classic other than the fact that professors and publishers like looking for...

Valley forge This book is a five star effort from Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen! Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O

The adventures of huckleberry finn This satirical novel is the sequel to 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and is one of the first novels to be written in the vernacular with local color. How about this from Jim ,the slave as an example: “ I tuck out en shin down de hill, en ‘spec to steal a skift...

To Eclair:The choice of China Mieville's diction is highly suspect in this weird fantasy novel written in 2010. I think good vocabulary is not necessarily good when one doesn't understand what you are talking about. His loquacious style of penning real and made-up words require a college...

Uncle tom's cabin On 1/10/1776 Thomas Paine published a 48 page pamphlet titled 'Common Sense', which was an argument for freedom from British rule. In 1851 Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin as an argument for the freedom of all slaves in the United States. Both books ignited a...