The One with Prince of Fire

198. Title & Author: Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva (369 pages)

Genre: Fiction—Thriller

Completed: 21 September 2011

Summary & Review:

After a gruesome attack occurs at the Israeli embassy in Rome, spy and art-restorer Gabriel Allon must track down the man responsible. As he works with a team at the Mossad, they realize that this attacker is a man with deep roots in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: his father and grandfather both died fighting the Zionists and he plans his attacks to commemorate their murders and the date of the destruction of his old village. With another attack only days away, Allon must do whatever it takes to stop the plot and save the life of his wife, even if it means sacrificing his own in the process.

Simply put, I really like Silva’s books. His plots are exciting and fast-paced, but what makes them above average is that he bases them on historical and current events. This book focused on the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and described the nearly impossible situation Israel currently finds itself in with insight and understanding.

Allon is an excellent character. Granted, I may be slightly biased by the fact that he is an art-restorer, but there is more to it than that. I like that he is human without being whiny. In Alex Berenson’s John Wells series, I can’t stand the character of John Wells. He is more concerned with condemning America and its actions than the Islamic terrorists and their deadly deeds. Allon, on the other hand, while often struggling with the mistakes and difficult decisions Israel has made, is able to put the conflict into a proper perspective and understand that at times, unpleasant things must be done in order to defend life and liberty.

Rating: 8.0

Audiobook Update: I recently finished a couple more audiobooks. I enjoyed Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn, which was just a fun action-packed thriller. Ross King's Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling was a little uneven. The book was extremely long and could have done without a lot of the unrelated tangents the author chose to include. But, when King was focused on the main topic, i.e. Michelangelo's fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the process and history behind it, the book was very interesting. Finally, I listened to Ron Reagan's biography of his father, My Father at 100. I enjoyed the personal insights into President Reagan's life but I thought Ron, his son, came across as whiny and immature. It seemed like he perhaps resented the success of his father.

The One with The Ruins of Gorlan

197. Title & Author: Ranger’s Apprentice Book One: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan (249 pages)

Genre: Fiction—Young Adult & Fantasy

Completed: 12 September 2011

Summary & Review:

Orphaned at a young age, Will grows up in the care of the Baron who rules the fiefdom in which he lives. As part of the Baron’s care for orphaned children, they have the opportunity, if selected, to become apprentices to the various craft masters in the castle at fifteen. Will desires nothing more than to be chosen to become a knight, yet he is rejected by the master of the battleschool because of his small size and build. One by one, each craftmaster rejects Will as an apprentice except for the mysterious Ranger named Halt. At first disappointed by the assignment, Will soon learns to love the craft of the Ranger: stealth movement, tracking, hunting, and gathering intelligence for the Kingdom. As his skills grow, so does the danger within the kingdom as an old enemy reignites the war between good and evil by sending out his two fearsome beasts to hunt down and assassinate old enemies.

This is the first book in a series of ten, so the plot serves largely to set up the upcoming major battle between the forces of the kingdom and those of its enemy, Morgarath. The reader is introduced to the major characters, learns about Will’s role as a Ranger’s apprentice, and then a small action sequence hunting down the first of Morgarath’s fearsome creatures occurs. Overall, I enjoyed the book and sped through it pretty quickly. It is a familiar formula for a series, especially in young adult books: a seemingly misfit youth, not cut out for anything special, is handpicked by an elite group because of the many skills he actually possesses and becomes a hero after all. Even though this was a familiar template, it did not detract from the fun of the novel.

Rating: 7.5

Arguments Summed Up: After America

Title & Author: After America: Get Ready for Armageddon by Mark Steyn

Genre: Nonfiction--Current Events & Politics

My Rating: 9.0

Summed Up: Mark Steyn’s outlook in regard to the future of Western Civilization has not improved. Having previously written a book foretelling the end of most Western societies by willful suicide (America Alone), Steyn is now adding the United States herself to the ever growing list of doomed states. While the crushing national of debt of America will hasten the societal collapse that will lead to increased crime, poverty, unemployment, and desperation among the citizens, that is not the biggest problem. As Steyn says, “A society can cope with corroded infrastructure and a devalued currency more easily than with corroded liberty and a devalued citizen.” Indeed, the most serious problem with big government is that it creates small citizens.

Throughout the book Steyn frequently returns to H.G. Wells’ fanciful The Time Machine. If a man from that period, 1895, were to travel to 1950, he would be overwhelmed by the technological advancements. Now imagine if that same man were to travel ahead another sixty or so years to our day, what would he see? While he may see some minor improvements in some technologies, overall, the world would look basically the same. Steyn argues that increasing government intervention into the private lives, ideas, and business of the citizenry has stifled innovation. Just think of the horrendous process that new medications must go through before finally being declared “safe” by the all-knowing government. The human spirit is being overwhelmed by bureaucracy. We are no longer a society that accomplishes much of anything because of government coddling and smothering.

The government has a vested interest in keeping its citizenry repressed. Its power rests on the people needing them for the basics in life: food, employment, health care. If people can do things on their own then they no longer need the government and the power the political class clings to is lost. Thus, big government, in collusion with a leftist judiciary and leftist labor groups work to keep the people subdued.

There may be hope, however. As Steyn says, “America was the only nation in the developed world where millions of people took to the streets to tell the state: I can do just fine if you control-freak statists would…just stay the hell out of my life and my pocket.” Rather than relying on the state to do things for us, making our citizenship atrophy like an unused muscle, we must rely on ourselves. Or, in other words: “Screw the state. Let’s do it ourselves.”

You can read my review of After America here.

The One with We Are Doomed

196. Title & Author: We are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism by John Derbyshire (261 pages)

Genre: Nonfiction—Politics

Completed: 9 September 2011

Summary & Review:

Political commentator John Derbyshire presents his case for a Conservatism based in pessimistic realism. As he goes through the various topics in this book, including education, immigration, culture, and the economy, he shows how overly optimistic idealism has caused the serious problems we face today. While Derbyshire does not offer much hope for the future, he says that at least a realistic, which in his view is a necessarily pessimistic, outlook on the world will allow one to bear the current and future problems we face.

This was an uneven book for me. At times I was able to really get behind the arguments Derbyshire was presenting, especially as he explored the problems with our immigration, education, and economic policies. However, certain chapters read very un-conservative to me. Derbyshire readily admits that he is a big-city intellectual, a “metrocon” in his words (“metro” as in urban, not as in excessive male grooming and "con" as in conservative), and I think he is therefore missing a lot of the philosophical and historical basis for the conservative and libertarian platforms. Trying to rely on merely statistical arguments for the free-market and small government, among other conservative ideals, is to miss out on the larger, more important reasons behind such principles. While freedom is important because it leads to increased economic wealth, that is far from the most critical reason it is essential to our culture and country.

I will post an "Arguments Summed Up" post in a couple of weeks.

Rating: 6.0

The One with Dead I Well May Be

195. Title & Author: Dead I Well May Be by Adrian McKinty (367 pages)

Genre: Fiction—Crime Thriller

Completed: 1 September 2011

Summary & Review:

With no future in Ireland, 19 year-old Michael Forsythe illegally immigrates to New York City and takes up employment with Irish gangster, Darkey White. Michael easily begins to move up in the crew with his sharp mind and steely nerves, until he has an affair with Darkey’s girl. Michael and three others of his crew are sent to Mexico and double-crossed. After suffering unbearable hell in a Mexican prison and watching his three friends brutally murdered while incarcerated, Forsythe escapes and begins exacting his remorseless revenge on all those who betrayed him.

This was a pretty brutal book. Once Forsythe started exacting his revenge, it was relentless and unflinchingly violent. The character of Michael Forsythe is a flawed, turbulent, and grim human being, yet he still has enough humanity within for the reader to be able to relate to him rather than simply being terrified of him. McKinty’s prose was quick, almost choppy. But, being an Irishman himself, he was able to effectively illustrate the intricacies of Irish culture and crime to the reader through authentic dialogue and vernacular. In my opinion, the plot timing was a little inconsistent, however. The pace began with a quick step, but slowed dramatically during the middle portion of the novel with an extended incarceration scene where Forsythe reflects on his past and present. But, as soon as Forsythe escapes from prison, the story picks up and doesn’t stop.

Rating: 7.5