A life cut tragically short

I just finished From Alamein to Zem Zem by Keith Douglas. Douglas was a 24 year old lieutenant in the British Army who, on the eve of the battle of Alamein, deserted his staff job in Cairo to rejoin his regiment and take part in the attack. The thin little book (167 pages) covers Douglas’ experiences as the commander of a troop of Crusader tanks in the battle and the pursuit of Rommel’s Afrika Korps that followed.

Despite his youth, Douglas had established a reputation as something of a poet and his facility with words makes this memoir something very special. I enjoyed it immensely. Douglas is by turns matter of fact and lyrical when describing his experiences. For me at least, he provided the sense of vicariously being in the desert with him as he rode his tank into battle.

Unfortunately the book is simply too short, Douglas was wounded during the campaign and after describing his evacuation back to a hospital in Palestine  in some detail, the rest of his recuperation is given only a cursory description, as is his return to his unit.

After the period covered by the memoir, Capt Douglas returned to Great Britain to train for the D-Day invasion. He landed on Gold Beach 6 June 1944 and was killed three days later by mortar fire at the age of 24.

I recommend the book very highly as one of the best personal memoirs of WWII I’ve read.

70 for the year.

Three “oldie but goodie” Sci-Fi books

Over the course of recent long weekend and three night cruise I finished three old science fiction books, I have been meaning to re-read for a while now.

First, was The Gripping Hand by Niven and Pournelle. This is a 1993 sequel to their 1974 novel The Mote in God’s Eye, which I reviewed last week. The book takes up about 25 years after the action in Mote and gives us the adventures of Horace Hussein Bury and Sir Kevin Renner, who have spent the last 25 years securing the Empire’s border by suppressing the “outies”, while watching for signs of Motie influence. Essentially, a proto-star is about to collapse and create another “Crazy Eddie Point” which will allow the  Moties to escape their home system and wreak havoc on the Empire. Meanwhile, the “Blaine Institute” has discovered a method of addressing the Motie problem (I won’t say more lest I spoil the plot of the earlier book).

Gripping Hand is a fairly well-done sequel. The strength of the book continues to be the idea of the Moties and the fact that the authors have carefully considered the ramifications of their culture and made them very alien to humans. These aliens aren’t your standard “lizardmen” or “furry humans”. My recommendation is really superfluous, either you read Mote and liked it, or you hated it in which case, you’ll hate this.

Second up, was Oath of Fealty.  This is  another Niven and Pournelle book, this time dealing with Todos Santos  an  “arcology”, which is a kind of self-sufficient “live, work, play” community. Todos Santos  was built in a burnt out section of Los Angeles. The book examines the cultural differences that evolved between the Angelinos and the “Saints” (as the residents of the arcology are called), especially how the two groups feel when a group of young people are killed while attempting to infiltrate the arcology. Interestingly, the technical details of the arcology aren’t really addressed in the book. It is more about the sociological differences, especially the Saints choosing to give up privacy for security while maintaining an almost Randian sense of meritocratic elitism.

I first read the book while I was in High School (it was published in 1981) and remember being quite taken by it. I was not as impressed this time around. I suppose that’s because the book projected a fairly dystopian future of urban decay which hasn’t really been realized. Also I would have appreciated more on the technical considerations of arcologies. I don’t really recommend it.

Finally, I re-read Heinlein’s The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. This is the story of a revolution on a future lunar penal colony which is totally controlled by “The Lunar Authority”. The Authority is pretty much solely concerned with exporting ever increasing amounts of grain (grown hydroponically in tunnels under artificial light) to a starving Earth (it has 11 million people!) from the moon, via linear accelerator catapult. The revolution is masterminded by the central computer of the Authority which just happens to be sentient and also just happens to befriend Manuel Garcia O’Kelly-Davis. Although somewhat dated, the book does a pretty good job of exploring the idea of a sentient computer in a context I haven’t come across before, the planning and security of insurgent organizations and the philosophy of governance, although Heinlein’s social libertarianism is provided in large mouthfuls. Again, this is a book I was very taken with while I was in high school. Although the book hasn’t aged well, I di find myself in agreement with a certain amount of its political philosophy.

69 for the year

A Great 1st Contact Novel

I just finished by umpteenth reading of Niven and Pournelle’s The Mote In God’s Eye. This book, set in their “CoDominium” universe details the initial human discovery of “Moties”, small, furry, extremely intelligent, aliens. A probe from the Motie home world suddenly appears in Human space. A naval officer investigating the probe appears to accidentally kill the pilot. After close examination of the probe reveals the location of the Motie homeworld and the government send a small battle squadron to investigate and establish contact with the inhabitants.

The book is extremely enjoyable both in the puzzle of the nature of the Moties which slowly unravels, and in the examination of the ethical and moral issues that emerge from dealing with first contact. The authors have done an excellent job of imagining a wholly alien culture, unlike many other “first contact” novels the Moties are totally unlike any human culture I’ve ever heard of.  Pournelle and Niven are particularly adept at building tension in the novel as the mystery gradually unfolds on two levels. First the reader gets hints, unknown to the main characters, so we have the tension of now knowing exactly what’s going on, then after we know what’s going we’re really rooting for the characters to find out before its too late.

At any rate, I really enjoyed the book, and I highly recommend it, especially if you’ve read and enjoyed other Niven and Pournelle “CoDominium” novels.

66 for the year.

Three Jutland Books in One!

In The Rules of The Game: Jutland and British Naval Command,  Andrew Gordon has written the best book on Jutland I’ve read to date. In fact, Gordon has actually written three books and skillfully intertwined them together.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the battle, it essentially unfolded in three parts. First was when the Royal Navy’s “Battle Cruiser Force” (BCF), led by Admiral Sir David Beatty, found Admiral Hipper’s Fast Scouting Force. Hipper turned away from Beatty and began “The Run to the South” attempting to draw Beatty into range of the rest of the German High Seas fleet, which would destroy Beatty’s battle cruisers, and reduce the British margin of superiority in numbers of dreadnoughts. The first part of Gordon’s book covers this part of the action, with particular emphasis on Beatty’s difficulty exercising effective command of the 5th Battle Squadron (5BS) of battleships which was attached to the BCF in lieu of some battlecruisers who were temporarily assigned elsewhere.

The second, and really delightful, part of the book is a very detailed analysis of WHY Beatty had such difficulty managing 5BS. This analysis, focused on the 1893 collision between HMS Victoria and HMS Camperdown, but actually dealing with events from the 1860s until the outbreak of WWI, could have stood on its own as a very effective history of command and control policies and doctrines of the Royal Navy as it transitioned from Sail to Steam as well as an examination of the effects of extended periods of peace on organizations designed for war. It is well written, thorough and convincing.

Having satisfactorily explained (at least for this reader) Beatty’s difficulties, the book then rejoins the action after Beatty discovers the trap laid for him by Hipper and turns his BCF 180 degrees beginning the second part of the battle, the “Run to the  North”. By turning North, back toward the British main body, Beatty was trying to lead the entire German fleet into action with Admiral Sir John Jellicoe’s Grand Fleet, which enjoyed a substantial numerical superiority over the Germans. Beatty was attempting to do to Scheer and Hipper what they had very nearly done to him.  It very nearly worked. Beatty did lead the German’s into gun range of the Grand Fleet, but Scheer, quickly understanding the precariousness of his position, disengaged by rapidly turning away from the British and disappearing into the late afternoon mist. The two fleets were in only desultory and intermittent contact during the night, and by daybreak, Scheer had run to safety.

The third part of the book is a careful study of the early historiography of the battle as adherents of Both Beatty and Jellicoe each tried to blame the other for the inconclusive nature of the battle, which failed to destroy the German fleet. As with both the battle narrative and the command and control analysis, this survey of post-war efforts to shape public perception is very nearly a complete work in itself.

Finally, the book winds up with a set of 28 axioms or proposals on military command and control functions that make use of the findings of the book as well as Royal Navy experiences in both the Falkland Islands War (1982) and the First Gulf War (1990-91).

All three parts of the book are excellent. Both the battle narrative and command and control survey are extremely engaging and well written. In the battle narrative, Gordon does a simply outstanding job of integrating first person accounts of survivors with comprehensive surveys of the accumulating damage on the ships. It is just excellent.  However, readers should be aware that the book really is almost exclusively focused on the British view of the battle, with very little coverage given to the German perspective. IIRC, there was only one German personal account, that of the gunnery officer on one of the German battlecruisers,  used in the narrative.

The C&C survey is also very well written and does an excellent job of explaining to readers who the protagonists were, as well as the “hows and whys” of their interactions. Gordon’s writing also does an excellent job of recreating the Edwardian era and the Royal Navy of that era to illustrate important points how and why things turned out as they did.

Finally, the section on the postwar recriminations is also very well done. Gordon seems fair and objective in judging the merits of the two sides, and somewhat surprisingly, sides mainly with Beatty’s proponents, while acknowledging that Beatty was really a pretty unsavory character and had made a good many mistakes of his own.

I highly recommend this book. Although not as a general history of the battle. It’s almost total failure to consider the German point of view precludes it from being that. However, it really is an excellent addition to the literature on Jutland. It really is probably the best thing out there on Jutland, at least from the British perspective, as well as tremendously interesting.

65 for the year.

Another Great History Book.

I just finished Castles of Steel by Robert Massie. Castles is the “sequel” to Massie’s superb Dreadnought. Dreadnought covered the unification of Germany, the establishment and massive expansion of the German Navy, which catalyzed the gradual deterioration of relations between Britain and Imperial Germany which was a prime driver of WWI as we know it. Castles of Steel takes up where Dreadnought leaves off and provides a very good history of the conflict between the Royal Navy and Kaiserliche Marine, with particular emphasis on the personalities involved, especially on the British side.

This leads me to my only criticism of the book, it is very Anglo-centric. While we get lots of material on the personalities and political machinations of the major British players, Fisher, Churchill, Jellico, Beatty etc. we get much less detail for the German side of things. Although Massie faithfully reports what Pohl, Scheer, Tirpitz and the Kaiser are doing, he doesn’t seem to have researched them and their interactions as thoroughly, especially on a personal level, as he did the British.

Readers should also be aware that this isn’t (nor is it intended to be) a comprehensive naval history of WWI. Operations in the North Sea are covered in fair detail, as are Spee’s initial successes, his pursuit and eventual destruction. The U-boat war is covered concisely in a couple of chapters, as are operations in the Dardanelles. The flight of the Goeben is covered fairly thoroughly. There is little or no information on any other aspect of WWI at sea. The book is almost completely innocent of any mention of the Russian, Italian, Austrian, French or (aside from Goeben) the Turkish  navies. Nor are operations in the Mediterranean (outside of the Dardanelles) covered. However, to my mind this isn’t really a criticism of the book, as it was intended to be a sequel to Dreadnought, and advance that story. As such, much of the material mentioned above would be “out of scope” for such a work. But I did want to mention it.

Despite these very minor shortcomings, this is really an outstanding book. I recommend it highly to anyone, especially anyone who enjoyed Dreadnought. In fact, I would go so far as to advise that this book not be attempted until the reader has finished Dreadnought. If you enjoy Dreadnought, you’ll really want to read this one. If you didn’t enjoy it, this is just more of the same.

64 for the year.

The Last of Stookie Stackhouse.

Just finished Dead In the Family by Charlaine Harris. This is the tenth and, for now, final book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, and I have to admit, I’m kind of glad to see the end of them, at least for the moment.

This one follows the same formula as the other nine, a mystery presented in the first chapter is slowly unraveled by Sookie and her collection of supernatural friends while beset by a myriad of supernatural enemies. In this case there are two mysteries; who is the “extra” dead body buried on Sookie’s property (she knows about the first one!) and who put it there? The second mystery is the identity of the fairy whose scent the local werewolf pack (the same folks who found the body) has detected? The unraveling of the mystery is complicated by the menacing, but ambiguous presence of Victor and Eric’s “family” issues with his maker (a 3000 year old Roman vampire) and his sibling (Alexei, Tsarevich of the Romanovs!!).

This book is only “ok”. Like so many authors of lengthy series, Harris seems to have either “lost her touch” or become rushed to get the next volume out. The books have become a bit perfunctory and the development of the characters has suffered. It wasn’t a bad book, and it was still a nice way to kill a couple of hours, but it wasn’t as interesting or as fun as the first half dozen or so.

63 for the year.