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Salvage and Demolition Book Review

Salvage and Demolition by Tim Powers Subterranean Books, 2013 $30.00; 155 pages ISBN 978-1-59606-515-4 Tim Powers has been one of my favorite authors for over a decade, and this novella is full of the reasons why. A good time travel book is hard to write, but I think Powers

The Long View 2004-02-23: Popular Gothic

Dan Brown is far from my favorite author, but my hat is off to him for knowing his audience. It sure as hell wasn't me, but my tastes tend to be niche. However, it took a man like John to compare and contrast Tom Clancy's environmental

The Long View: A Culture of Conspiracy

The world of conspiracy theories is a strange one. If anything, a lack of proof, or even disproof, only makes them more popular. There are a lot of durable memes that came out of the 1990s, things like the New World Order, or the Men in Black. Hollywood helped, and

The Long View: Rainbow Six

These were the only two of Tom Clancy's books that John reviewed. I was in a big Tom Clancy phase at the time John wrote these, so I found the reviews interesting. They hold up well. Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1998

The Long View: Executive Orders

Here is a link to the Oliver Stone review of Executive Orders that motivated John to read the book. I find the Stone review kind of funny, especially this: As usual, some of the Clancy plotting is fiendishly inventive, and he has a technically sharp command of the realistic detail,

The Long View 2003-12-17: The Return of the King

John didn't do movie reviews often, so this is a treat. The Return of the King "Wake up, Mr. Frodo!" "Oh, what time is it, Sam?" "It's time to finish the last of these here Peter Jackson movies, begging your pardon.

The Martian Book Review

The Martian by Andy Weir Broadway Books, 2014 $15.00; 387 pages ISBN 978-0-553-41802-6 This is a book for nerds. Clearly written by a big fat nerd, for other big fat nerds. I mean that in the best possible way, since I absolutely loved reading it. From his dust jacket