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Book Review – Young Lions by Andrew Mackay
A book review of Young Lions by Andrew Mackay, the first in a series of four books featuring the two characters so far. Overview Young Lions is an alternate history set in a WW2 where Operation Sealion worked and the Germans managed to invade the UK. The book followed two teenage boys that are members of their school's cadet force and get involved in both the initial fighting and then the British Resistance to occupation. Book Review This is a boy's own adventure, with a horrific body count. Andrew Mackay is a history teacher, and it shows in the level of detail in the story. The history is very well researched and the detail ensures that the story remains consistent throughout and nothing jars the narrative flow. The Young Lions of the title are both teenage boys in their fourth…
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Book Review – New Model Army by Adam Roberts
In summary Adam Robert's New Model Army is a fabulous concept that doesn't quite work for me. Book Review New Model Army has a Fab Concept. However it doesn't quite work. Some of it is too heavy handed and not well enough researched to be credible. New Model Armies I bought this book because I liked the premise, a change in the nature of warfare brought about by better information available to the whole army through a wiki style network. It has promise for some very interesting stories, but the author instead wrote a political polemic based on very old fashioned stereotypes and without bothering to do his research. Accepting that our narrator is probably unreliable, given he is definitely going insane, and the twist that happens at the end (no spoilers) it is clear that we cannot rely on…
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Book Review: The Quarry by Iain Banks
Sadly The Quarry is the last book Iain Banks ever wrote, and it is certainly a very poignant read. You can imagine him going through the same turmoil as Guy, one of the main characters who is dying of cancer. It certainly isn't my most favourite book by Iain (M) Banks, but it works better than some of the other non-SF books that I have read of his. The basic premise is one of a bunch of university friends gathering for a long weekend at the house they all lived in as students, which backs onto a Quarry - hence the book title. One of their number, Guy, still lives there with his son (who is the POV character for the whole story). Guy is dying from cancer and is nearing his final stages when the gang all arrive for…
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CLWG July 2013 Game Reports
There were five of us at July's CLWG meeting, myself, Nick, Mukul, Dave & John. There were three game sessions presented: I went first with a two part committee game called "The High Ground" about the consequences of cheaper surface to orbit space travel; Nick presented an economics card game for educating people about markets and the effects of money and credit; Mukul's session on the 1914 campaign on the Eastern Front. (more…)
Mike Duff vs Macduff [Naming Crisis Point’s Main Character]
My mother, a recently retired teacher of High School English, has been reading my stories and asked me some interesting questions about why I named Mike Duff the main character in my first novella Crisis Point. She was interested in the parallels between Mike Duff and Shakespeare's Macduff. (more…)