Saturday, June 25, 2011

Rich's Random Reviews #2 This Week's E-Book Crop

I thought I'd do some quick reviews of the e-books that I read this week. FYI, Most of them were free books for the Kindle.

#1. To Prime the Pump by A. Bertram Chandler. The second John Grimes novel in Chandler's long-running sci-fi naval series. Excellent space opera - good characterization, fast moving and just a fun read.

#2. The Solar Pons Omnibus, Volume 1 by August Derleth. For those not familiar with Solar Pons, the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street was an excellent homage written by Wisconsinite Derleth. The stories are written in a very similar style of Conan Doyle, and Derleth created some good characterizations and mysteries. This particular volume (the first of two) is somewhat derided because the editor published the stories in chronological order (instead of publication order) and took apparently took some liberties with the tales, but I find them very engrossing, almost nearly so as the original Sherlock Holmes' tales.

#3. The Schmoldenesse Falcon by John Northern. A free short story that has no idea what it's trying to be: Science fiction, hard-boiled detective fiction, or something else. It's a quick read, and free, so nothing ventured, nothing gained.

#4. L'il Red in the Hood by Graham Murray. Another free short story. I sort of assumed there would be some humor in this, but it's softcore porn. And worse, much like Paris Hilton and oral sex, Murray has managed to screw that up as well. Not even worth the price at nothing.

#5. Putt Up or Shut Up: A Shanktacular Guide to Golf's Greatest Excuses by Kevin Michael and Lacy Maran. A free humor book in which all the humor falls flat. I mean completely. It's like this book was written by the bastard love child of Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno - there's nothing even remotely funny in this book. The opening line, "What drunk Scotsman came up with the idea (sic) creating a club for every shot?" boded that it was not going to be a good experience. I've seen better humor and jokes on Laffy Taffy wrappers.

That's all for this week, folks!

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