Manga Review: Naruto

Manga Review: Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto After 700 chapters and fifteen years, an animated TV series, multiple short movies and video games and piles of merchandise, the popular manga series Naruto has ended. For those who somehow missed the last fifteen years of hype, the premise goes something like this.  Blond, blue-eyed orphan Naruto Uzumaki is hated and… Continue reading Manga Review: Naruto

Book Review: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

Book Review: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder The title is pretty self-explanatory; this book is about the location of the worst mass murders of the 1930s and 1940s; the part of Europe between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.  Starting with the 1933 deliberate starvation of Ukrainians by the Soviet government, policies… Continue reading Book Review: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents Wonder Woman Volume 4

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents Wonder Woman Volume 4 Edited by Robert Kanigher Wonder Woman was not the first female superhero in comics, nor even the first not to be a male character’s sidekick.  But she was the first to get her own ongoing solo series, and designed to be an equal to the male… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents Wonder Woman Volume 4

Book Review: What We Won

Book Review: What We Won by Bruce Riedel Disclaimer:  I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. The Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan (1979-1989) was a turning point in history.  It was often called the “Russian Vietnam” as the Soviet troops found themselves mired in battle with… Continue reading Book Review: What We Won

Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 15: Dark Matter

Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 15: Dark Matter edited by Mary François Rockcastle This literary journal is published by Hamline University in Minnesota.  The title comes from another name of the Philosopher’s Stone, the transformative agent which turned base metals into gold, in the search for true immortality, as literature turns ordinary words into art.… Continue reading Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 15: Dark Matter

Book Review: Naked to the Stars

Book Review: Naked to the Stars by Gordon R. Dickson Section Leader Calvin Truant of the 91st Combat Engineers has not slept in two days, his unit is at less than half strength and their translator is dying, and all the officers have been killed, leaving Cal in command.  The truce with the alien Lehaunan… Continue reading Book Review: Naked to the Stars

Book Review: Space Captain/The Mad Metropolis

Book Review: Space Captain by Murray Leinster/The Mad Metropolis by Philip E. High This is another of the Ace Doubles–two short science fiction books in one volume, printed upside down from one another.  In general, these are a good deal.  A readable copy won’t set you back more than a brand new paperback in most… Continue reading Book Review: Space Captain/The Mad Metropolis

Book Review: The Dumb Gods Speak

Book Review: The Dumb Gods Speak by E. Phillips Oppenheim In 1937, the dying genius Mark Humberstone bequeaths his marvelous inventions to a Council of Seven to be used in the service of peace.  Shortly thereafter, the United States grants independence to the Philippines.  When the Japanese attempt to invade the newly freed islands, their… Continue reading Book Review: The Dumb Gods Speak

Book Review: Native Silver

Book Review: Native Silver by Blake Hausladen This is a sequel to Mr. Hausladen’s Ghosts in the Yew and will contain some spoilers for the earlier work. Prince Barok has brought the sleepy backwater province of Enhedu from a shameful place of exile to a thriving young nation in little over a year with the help… Continue reading Book Review: Native Silver

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents the Great Disaster Featuring the Atomic Knights

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents the Great Disaster Featuring the Atomic Knights by too many to list.  Trust me, a lot of great names. Between the late 1940s and somewhere in the 1990s, one of the most pervasive fears of the American public was atomic war. For the first time in known history, humans were… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents the Great Disaster Featuring the Atomic Knights