Book Review: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Book Review: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice edited by Jack Zipes Most likely, when you saw this title, you immediately thought of the Fantasia sequence with Mickey Mouse, or perhaps the more recent Disney film with Nicolas Cage. But the multiplying of brooms is only one aspect of the tales gathered under the general title of “The… Continue reading Book Review: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Book Review: Ashenden or The British Agent

Book Review: Ashenden or The British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham Archduke Ferdinand has been shot, and Europe is rapidly tipping in to the Great War. Britain can no longer rely on a small number of trained government agents to handle its necessary intelligence efforts. But who to recruit? Perhaps a writer who’s currently between… Continue reading Book Review: Ashenden or The British Agent

Book Review: The Tirpitz

Book Review: The Tirpitz by David Woodward Subtitled “And the Battle for the North Atlantic”, this 1953 volume is a look at how the German battleship Tirpitz, the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy, managed to influence the entire shape of the European theater of World War Two, despite seeing almost no actual… Continue reading Book Review: The Tirpitz

Book Review: The Sea Chase

Book Review: The Sea Chase by Andrew Geer Sydney Harbour is bustling on this September day in 1939, but one ship, the Ergenstrasse, lies idle, waiting to fill her sadly depleted coal bunkers. This ship is part of the German merchant marine, and everyone is well aware that it is only a matter of time… Continue reading Book Review: The Sea Chase

Book Review: Riley and the Great War

Book Review: Riley and the Great War by James Anderson O’Neal Jim hasn’t had much contact with his grandfathers over the years; Grandpa Jimmy was often absent without explanation, and Riley was even more remote, seldom talking even when he was present. But now that Jimmy is dead, Riley has a present for his writing-ambitious… Continue reading Book Review: Riley and the Great War

Book Review: Looking for Humboldt & Searching for German Footprints in New Mexico and Beyond

Book Review: Looking for Humboldt & Searching for German Footprints in New Mexico and Beyond by Erika Schelby The author is a German immigrant to New Mexico. While studying the history of her new state, she learned that Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the famous Prussian naturalist and explorer, had passed through what would become New… Continue reading Book Review: Looking for Humboldt & Searching for German Footprints in New Mexico and Beyond

Book Review: The World of HIstory

Book Review: The World of History edited by Courtlandt Canby & Nancy E. Gross History is a very wide and deep subject.  It extends from the beginning of the universe (though much before written records is speculative at best) to just this last minute, and from the movements of great nations to what precisely people… Continue reading Book Review: The World of HIstory

Book Review: Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories

Book Review: Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories by Naomi Kritzer This is the first collection of speculative fiction stories by Naomi Kritzer, headlined by the title piece, which won a Hugo Award in 2016.   There’s seventeen stories in all. “Cat Pictures Please” is a sweet story about an artificial intelligence accidentally created from a… Continue reading Book Review: Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories

Book Review: Code Name Verity

Book Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein In a Gestapo cell somewhere in Vichy France, a captured spy has been broken.  She writes a story telling of her secret mission, but in order to do that, she must first tell of the friendship between ATA pilot Maddie and SOE wireless operator Queenie.   The years… Continue reading Book Review: Code Name Verity

Magazine Review: High Adventure #73: Secret Agent “X”

Magazine Review: High Adventure #73: Secret Agent “X” Edited by John P. Gunnison Let’s take another look at this pulp reprint magazine, this time reprinting stories from Secret Agent “X” May 1934. “Ambassador of Doom” by Brent House: A secret meeting takes place in Washington, D.C.  The matter at hand–whether to preserve or destroy the prototype and… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #73: Secret Agent “X”