Sunday, April 22, 2012

So where is that EMP special?

Yes, yes I am still working on an EMP-Solar flare special.  This weekend I got distracted by David T. Zabecki's The German 1918 Offensives.  Which is very interesting, but does not have a lot to do with either phenomena-   Although I suppose the German flame out in 1918 does have certain metaphorical similarities.

Another cause for delay is that while I have read all of the originally intended novels, buried on my Kindle I found David C. Waldron's Dark Grid and Jeff Brackett's Half Past Midnight.  Granted there is something a little ironic about storing novels about solar flares and EMPs on a Kindle.  Seems like I am almost tempting fate.

I did see a nice posting on the Survivalist Board telling people about my reviews.  It is nice to see people finding my reviews useful.  Based on a few e-mails comments, the authors occasionally get a little annoyed with me.  But most of the time I try and avoid getting too personal about it.  I am fully aware that there are books out there that people just love, that I am half-hearted about at best.  When I say that I didn't like a book, I am not trying to say (most of the time) that no one should like the book.  That is the primary reason that I have the "Reality" and "Readability" criteria.  To try and signal the books style without getting into many subjective preferences.  Granted, I have found Readability to have a bit of an Achilles heel in that a low score (challenging reading) winds up applying to great, but challenging, literature (Joyce) and also books that are just a plain mess.  I haven't figured out a way to correct that without adding too many complications.

If the two novels I noted above don't take too long, I suspect I will start the EMP-solar flare reviews next week.

2 comments:

PioneerPreppy said...

I love your reviews. Someday I will once again be able to read more than the pitiful amount I get to today and your reviews we be even more valuable.

russell1200 said...

PP: Thank you.