Author: Douglas E. Richards

Pages: 192

Ages: 9-12

Release Date: May 7, 2010 – Paragon Press

ISBN: 978-0982618417

The Prometheus Project: Trapped is a great book.  It has a lot of fun and science in it.  I did not want to put the book down at all.  At the end, you find out a lot of stuff.  I loved the teacher parts.  It gets scary when they have to save their mom but I would do it.  I liked the part where they told Ryan and Regan about the project.  I thought the alien city was cool and learning about it was fun.  The nano-robots were cool and weird at the same time.  I loved when they went through the traps and heard their mom and dad going on about the Prometheus project.

This is the first book of the Prometheus Project series.  Dierdre received a review copy from the author.

Author: Dana Haynes

Pages: 352

Release Date: June 22, 2010 – Minotaur

ISBN: 978-0312599881

Crashers by Dana Hayes is two stories in one.  The first revolves around the NTSB investigation of a plane crash in rural Oregon.  The investigation initially points at pilot error as the cause of the crash, but is it really? The second involves an Irish Protestant terrorist group in California, with a female former Mossad agent thrown in.  Naturally, both of these stories eventually intersect.

Written with as much action as an episode of “24” the book was fast-paced and hard to put down.  I found the descriptions of the NTSB investigation fascinating although I do not know how much of a resemblance they bare to reality.  While I thoroughly enjoyed Crashers it was not perfect.  Haynes used one of the recurring plot devices from “24” that has become tiresome on the show and which I could have done without here.  A couple of scenes towards the end of the book were over the top and read more like a script for a summer block buster, which may well be the intention.  Lastly, the story centered on the terrorists did not pack the same punch as the plane crash and investigation parts of the book did.

In spite of these relatively minor issues and the fact my favorite character was killed, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  Haynes is apparently working on the sequel, which I will be sure to read.  I would recommend against reading this book if you are planning on flying anytime soon, there is a big difference between knowing intellectually what can go wrong with a plane and having it spelled out for you.

I received this book as an Advanced Reader’ Edition from Minotaur Books.

Author: Andrew Clements

Pages: 160

Ages: 7-10

Release Date: April 6, 2010 – Atheneum

ISBN: 978-1416938866

I think that We the Children: Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School is interesting. There is a mystery; it’s exciting and fun to read.  There is a treasure that the janitor gives to Ben.  Every day Ben and Jill find more clues and things that people with money don’t want them to find.  Things start happening, for instance the janitor dies. It is scary.

I did not like that the book did not tell you the whole story.  I did like the book, but you have to read the next book to know what happened.  I would enjoy reading the next book and I think they should make more books.

Special guest review by Dierdre, age 9.

She received an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book from Simon and Schuster.

Author: Sam Eastland

Pages: 288

Release Date: April 27, 2010 – Bantam

ISBN: 978-0553807813

In Eye of the Red Tsar, Nicholas II’s special investigator, the Emerald Eye, is arrested following the Bolshevik revolution.  The Eye, also known as Pekkala, is sent to the Gulag where he spends the next dozen years. Then several bodies are found in a mineshaft and Pekkala is released to determine if the bodies are those of the missing Tsar and his family and if they are, to determine who killed them.  Someone apparently does not want him to find out the truth and witnesses begin having unfortunate accidents.  So is it really the Tsar and his family at the bottom of the mineshaft, and if so, who killed them?  Read the book to find out, it is worth it.

The story takes place in 1929 but there are frequent flashbacks to Pekkala’s past, his childhood, training, the revolution, and his arrest and torture.  Pekkala’s background has been set up and he has the makings of a very good character, we will have to wait and see how he develops in the next book. Yes, there is a next book coming in 2011.

The book was well written, especially for a first effort, although the ending did feel a little rushed. Recommended.

I received an Advance Reader’s Edition of this book from the Library Thing Early Reviewer program.

Terrorists claim to have planted a nuclear bomb in Washington DC and demand access to the New York Federal Reserve Bank or they will set it off.  So begins the rather far fetched 18 Billion.  Without any confirmation of the bombs existence the terrorists are given access to the Federal Reserve Bank, where they make off with the title’s 18 billion, dollars that is.  The terrorists transport the money out of the country and turn it over to Mohammed of Babylon.  Mohammed is an Islamic religious leader who condemns violence and some believe is the Mahdi.   Mohammed secretly meets with the President of the United States and makes a secret agreement to return the money in exchange for the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq, amongst other things.  18 Billion is billed as Book One of the Mohammed of Babylon series.

I tried to like this book, there are parts of an interesting story in it, however the problems pushed the interesting parts aside.  Without going into a point by point explanation I’ll just hit the high points.  While the writing style wasn’t bad, I had to reread some paragraphs to understand what they were saying and a lot of the dialogue seemed forced and unnatural.  Government agents make no mistakes in 18 Billion, and their ability to trace e-mail and phone calls seems greatly exaggerated.  I was willing to over look these issues, along with the unbelievably of the U.S. Government giving terrorists $18 billion based solely on the claim they would detonate a nuclear bomb if they didn’t get it, however there was one more problem which ended any chance of me reading further books in the series.  Towards the end of the book, the President’s spiritual advisor- Reverend Daniel Barkley, who previously had almost no role in the book, is sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner with friends when they are joined by a “Mr. Goodson”, a friend of Barkley’s unknown to the others.  After dinner Goodson leaves and no one except Barkley can remember his being there.  This incident had nothing else to do with the rest of the book; I can only think readers will hear more about this character in later books.  I will leave it to them to find out if Mohammed is the Mahdi and if Goodson becomes God’s son and the world becomes a wonderful place.  In a short four pages Mr. Gresham ended any chance of me reading future books in this series.    I’m obviously not the target audience for this book, and while I could be wrong, I think this book is aimed at the Left Behind crowd.  So if you’re a fan of that series you might want to give 18 Billion a try.  

I received a review copy of this book from Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists.

Author: Andro Linklater

Pages: 400

Release Date: September 29, 2009 – Walker & Company

ISBN – 978-0802717207

If you have never heard of James Wilkinson, and you probably have not, I recommend you read An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Life of General James Wilkinson by Andro Linklater.  He is probably the most interesting figure from the revolutionary era that no one has ever heard of. 

James Wilkinson served in the Continental Army during the early part of the Revolutionary War before being forced to resign.  In 1783, he moved to Kentucky where he advocated Kentucky’s separation from Virginia and established trade relationships with the Spanish in New Orleans.  In 1791, he returned to federal military service and was promoted to brigadier general and fought in the Battle of Fallen Timbers.  He became the senior officer of the United States Army in 1796 until 1798 when George Washington replaced him.  In 1800, he again became the senior officer in the Army, a position he maintained until 1812.  Throughout his career he faced three Court Martials and four congressional investigations, it was said that, “He had never won a battle but never lost an inquiry” (312). 

Throughout his career, Wilkinson was accused of being in the pay of the Spanish and working against the interests of the United States.  At the time, many people believed he was involved in the Burr Conspiracy to seize the western portion of the country and parts of Mexico, but he betrayed Burr by revealing his plot to Jefferson and denying all involvement in the conspiracy. 

At the time of his death in 1825, he was considered a distinguished soldier.  History would have remembered him as a somewhat minor member of the founding generation.  Or it least that is how he would have been remembered.  In 1888, 200,000 documents from the Spanish American empire were sent from Havana to Madrid and historians began to go through them in the early part of the 20^th century.  Amongst these documents, historians found confirmation of the old allegations.  Wilkinson, or as he was known to the Spanish, Agent 13 had been on the Spanish payroll.  Amongst the documents were hundreds of letters, reports, and assessments exchanged between Wilkinson and his handlers in New Orleans, their supervisors in Havana, and Imperial officials in Madrid. 

General Wilkinson not only passed on his country’s strategic secrets, he sought to detach Kentucky from the Union and ally it with Spain, and wrote detailed plans advising the Spanish authorities on the best way to prevent American expansion beyond the Mississippi river.  He alerted Spanish authorities to the expedition mounted by Lewis and Clark to explore the American west.  Spanish cavalry patrols were dispatched to intercept the expedition but were unable to locate it. 

Mr. Linklater has written a compelling book about an interesting character and has made good use of the many sources available.  Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in early American history, the early U.S. Army, or a good story.

I received this book as an ARC from Walker Books.

Author: Douglas Hunter

Pages: 320

Release Date: September 1, 2009 – Bloomsbury Press

ISBN: 978-1-59691-680-7

Just in time for the 400^th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the Hudson River, Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage that Redrew the Map of the New World tells the story of Hudson’s second to last voyage on which he discovered the river that would one day bear his name.  Hudson had been retained by the Dutch East India Company to find a passage to the Orient across the top of Asia.  Hudson was mildly certain this could not be done, so after a short attempt to round the top of Russia he sailed the Half Moon to the east coast of North America, in violation of his contract, in an attempt to find a mid-continental passage to the Pacific.  After ranging up and down the east coast, Hudson entered what would later be called New York Bay.  He soon discovered the mouth of a river he thought would lead him either to the St. Lawrence River or to the Pacific Ocean.  Hudson proceeded up the river as far as it was navigable, then came back down, and set sail for England, not wanting to return to Amsterdam after violating his contract.  There are few surviving records from the voyage.   The primary source was the journal of Robert Juet, one of Hudson’s officers.  In addition to the description of Hudson’s voyage, Mr. Hunter describes previous and concurrent journeys to the New World as well as the European politics of exploration.

I found it interesting that even though by the time of Hudson’s voyage, multiple trips had been made to North America by different explorers, there was no agreement on the shape of the coast line, the locations (or existence) of islands, or the locations of rivers and bays.  This was due, in part, to the imprecise determination of longitude, as well as the inability to determine latitude at all.

I found Hunter’s portrayal of the trip up the Hudson River interesting and engaging.  Unfortunately, the journey up the river doesn’t begin until well past the half way point in the book.  Prior to that, Hudson sailed up and down the coast seemingly at random and I had a difficult time maintaining interest in this portion of the journey.  While Mr. Hunter is obviously very knowledgeable regarding the tidal patterns, salinity, and currents of the New York Bay and its surrounding waterways, I began to feel my eyes glaze over whenever he began to discuss them.

There is a lack of source material covering this voyage and Hudson in general.  Nothing is known of his life prior to 1607, just two years prior to this voyage.  This is obviously not the fault of Mr. Hunter, who made a good effort with what was available.  Perhaps the scarcity of source material precluded this subject from being treated in this format.  Lastly, I continue to have an issue with footnotes, in this case Mr. Hunter did not use any.  I find this unsettling in a book filled with direct quotations.

Overall I would not recommend Half Moon to the general reader. Anyone who already has an interest in Hudson and his travels might find it of interest.

I received an ARC of this book from Bloomsbury publishing.

Author: Richard Guy

134 pages

Publisher: Institute of the Expanding Earth, 2009

ISBN: 978-0962901836

I have to admit, I’d never heard of the “Expanding Earth” theory or its companion the “Receding Seas” theory prior to receiving an e-mail invitation to review The Ascent of Man: Downhill All the Way by Richard Guy.  The e-mail stated the book would forever alter my perspective on the history of ancient civilizations.  How could I refuse?

Mr. Guy maintains the seas have receded throughout time, making one time port cities landlocked and explaining seashells found in mountain caves.   It’s been some time since I last studied geology but I seem to recall something about plate tectonics causing the mountains to rise, which seems to be a more reasonable and scientifically accepted explanation.

Mr. Guy’s explanation for the receding seas is the expansion of the Earth, to quote, “The only reason the seas recedes is because the earth is expanding.” (113). I can come up with about half a dozen other explanations for receding seas, admittedly at least two involve aliens but that doesn’t seem too far off the mark for this theory.

In spite of my initial skepticism I was prepared to read Mr. Guy’s scientific evidence for this theory and maybe find something useful or informative in it.  However, once he started citing the story of Noah and the Ark I pretty much gave up on that, but continued to read as a public service so you wouldn’t have to.  I learned that the United States Government is aware of the receding seas, no mention if they agree with the expending earth as well, which is why they have not signed the Kyoto Treaty.  They have not released this information due to “National Security”.  There is no mention of how national security would be threatened by the knowledge that the seas are receding at such a small rate as to be unnoticeable for 60 years.  That, according to Mr. Guy is how long it will be before the theory can be proven.  And so it goes, for a mercifully short 134 pages, of which 38 are taken up with hand drawn maps and seemingly unrelated photographs.  Mr. Guy’s “interesting” use of the English language, particularly grammar, capitalization, and punctuation, tells a story of conspiracy theory wrapped in dubious “science” and biblical references without source notes.

Just as I thought I had lost an hour of my life that I would never get back, I read the copyright page.  It states, “This is a work of non fiction, Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.”  Then I got it.

Author: Jon Meacham

Pages: 512

Release Date: April 30, 2009 -  Random House Trade Paperbacks

ISBN:  978-0812973464

Jon Meacham’s American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House is a biography of Andrew Jackson that concentrates on his time in the White House while giving some coverage to the time before and after.  Meacham concentrates on the personal relationships between Jackson, his advisors, and his cabinet.  These relationships played a surprising role in determining public policy.

Many of the features of the presidency that we take for granted had their start with Jackson.  He believed the power of the Presidency should be expanded at the expense of the legislative branch. While the details have changed this seems to be an ongoing effort that continues today. The more I read about America’s early days, the more I find they were very similar to today.

I did have one issue with the book, the footnotes.  I am a big believer in footnotes and have a hard time reading non-fiction without them.  I did not like the way Meacham’s notes were done.  The actual notes were at the end of the book and were used primarily for direct quotation.  The reader is forced to determine which of several quotations they are looking for, as the only reference is the page number, with several notes for each page.  There was nothing in the text to indicate there was a note for it.

Overall, I enjoyed reading American Lion and would recommend it to anyone interested in American history between the Revolution and the Civil War.  It may not be for those with more intimate knowledge of the period, but for the rest of us it serves as a good introduction to both Andrew Jackson and the people around him.

I received a review copy of this book from the Library Thing Early Reviewer program.