Daily Thoughts 9/7/2009

Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Dying Detective"

Better to Beg Forgiveness by Michael Z. Williamson

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This is a military science fiction novel. An executive protection service has to protect an interim president during a planetary civil war. This is an action novel with lots of explosions, shooting, and narrow escapes. The point of the novel is the action.

Every other page, the mercenary bodyguards have to stop the president of Celadon from being killed. The locals attempt to shoot, blowup, ram, or dismember acting president Bishwanath. It eventually deteriorates to the point where the mercenaries have to get the president off planet.

Thus follows a series of daring escapes, hijackings, and intrigue. The good guys do not win in the end, but they do save their man.

The setting is the near future where earth has just begun colonizing the outer planets. The weapons are recognizable as things which we have today, machine guns, mortars, bombs, and explosives. The locals are decidedly low tech, coming from a back water world. The United Nations is still in existence and has sent peacekeepers and bureaucrats to keep things under control.

Plenty of action and lots of things get blown up. Plus, if you have a libertarian bent and don't like bureaucracy, you might like the politics in the novel. I read it for the action.

I have started reading a book called Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. It is a thriller featuring two U.S. Marshalls who are visiting a prison for the criminally insane on an island. One of the inmates has escaped. The book is being turned into a movie starring Leonardo Di Caprio coming out in 2010.

Daily Thoughts 9/6/2009

Boston Public Library Main Staircase

Daily Thoughts 9/6/2009

The Language of Bees Featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie R. King

This is Sherlock Holmes in his later years living in the country tending his bees with a younger companion Mary Russell. It is very different than most Sherlock Holmes pastiches which I have read. Watson is only mentioned briefly in passing.

In this novel we learn that Sherlock Holmes had a son who he barely knows and a granddaughter. The son is a bohemian artist who is mixed up with a diabolical occultist. The main villain does not seem like a master criminal.

The novel does not read much like a mystery novel at all. It is more of a suspense novel with elements of the chase than detection. This makes it not what I expected. There is some detection involved which includes Mary Russell visiting a number of interesting settings including an occult meeting, breaking into different houses, and visiting art galleries and cafes.

Also, Sherlock Holmes brother, Mycroft Holmes plays a much more significant role in this novel than most Sherlock Holmes novels. I enjoyed reading this book, but it is not like the typical Sherlock Holmes pastiche. The descriptions are very well done. I like the descriptions of Sherlock Holmes's sons surrealist paintings as well as when Mary Russell is investigating Sherlock Holmes's bee hives. It is worth reading if you want a different viewpoint on the great detective.

Today was a day where I relaxed quite a bit and read. I also went to Barnes and Noble and bought a book, Better to Beg Forgiveness by Michael Z. Williamson. This book is published by Baen books. It is libertarian military science fiction. The viewpoints can be a mix of harshly anti-authoritarian and anti-corporate.