Ace of Aces Books

My boys (4 & 6) love this book and the other Atomic Ace. The stories are fun with Dad and Mom as the heroes and the illustrations are imaginative and fun--the kids will flip through the book just to look at them again and again.

Although the Saint books are definitely best if read in the right order, most of them - especially the later ones - can be read in isolation without great loss. The present book, the direct sequel to The Last Hero, is the exception.

Once again arms-dealer Rayt Marius is plotting to start a war to increase demand for his products, and once again Simon and his friends frustrate his major plan. But of course, Marius has a second string to his bow, and the climax of "Knight Templar" is the most electrifying in any Saint book (and, incidentally, provides the mechanism whereby Simon is able to continue on through thirty-three more rather than spending the next forty years in gaol).

Crown Prince Rudolf, my very favourite villain, who only comes on stage towards the end of the earlier opus, appears early here in the tale of the Desecrated Royal Toothpaste.

BTW, the titles of ten of the Saint books were later - confusingly - changed, as follows:

01: Meet the Tiger -> The Saint Meets the Tiger
03: The Last Hero -> The Saint Closes the Case
04: Knight Templar -> The Avenging Saint
07: She Was A Lady -> The Saint Meets His Match
08: The Holy Terror -> The Saint vs. Scotland Yard
10: Once More the Saint -> The Saint and Mr. Teal
12: The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal -> The Saint in London
13: Boodle -> The Saint Intervenes
18: Thieves Picnic -> The Saint Bids Diamonds
19: Prelude for War -> The Saint Plays With Fire

The fatuity of the revised titles is nowhere more evident than with the present book and its antecedent: in "The Last Hero" the Saint does not close the case, and in "Knight Templar" the one thing he does not do is avenge the death of Norman Kent.

P.S. For a list of -- and discussion of -- all Charteris's Saint books, see my So You'd Like To... Guide.

This book is simply amazing. All science fiction fans should read this! This is Delany's finest work (in my opinion), and should absolutely not be missed. The story is about language, identity, meaning. Ahead of its time, I don't know why this book isn't lauded by all, instead of being hard to find. I'm not going to spoil the story. If you like science fiction in general, you're going to like this.

Rydra Wong is a poet - the poet of her generation, though only in her twenties, with a readership spanning five galaxies. Her readership also spans two sides of an interstellar war. Because of her past skills at decryption and current skills in many human languages, her help is asked in decoding messages that precede devastating acts of sabotage against our side.

Rydra discovers that codename Babel-17 is no mere cipher. It's a language instead, with its own words, grammar, and lethal internal logic. Rydra chases Bable-17 in a trail of sabotage across the star-streams, learning bits and pieces of the language as she goes. Every fact that sheds light on the language only darkens the real mystery: who speaks this language? And why?

It's a slim book, but dense. Fast-paced adventure pulls the reader along, with plenty of worthwhile characters along the way. Delany's writing is so good that we really care about that mousy little bureaucrat who approves Rydra's star flight. We also get a genuinely sick chill from the head of the weapons lab - as well we should, from the hypocritical genteelness of a man so dedicated to death en masse.

Babel-17 instantly became one of my favorites when I first read it. A new reading, years later, shows why. I never know whether an old favorite will live up to my memory of it, but this one certainly does.

-- wiredweird

I'm not much for series of any kind, but these quasi historical novels were pretty good. I liked them when I was a kid and I recently picked up the first one and read it again, it held up so well I tracked down all the others except No 5, which I couldn't find. I'm looking forward to reading that one, it's actually not only entertaining but also thought provoking, this period of history is full of unanswered questions.

Good rogue sub yarn. Irving A. Greenfield's novel is about a submarine called the Barracuda. It's captained by an ultra-patriot who sees commies everywhere. One of the first ships the submarine attacks is a ship called the African Wolf. The captain thinks that the United States and the Soviet Union are at war so he decides to attack what he perceives to be enemy shipping. He's supposed to be participating in war games but he's taken them too far. Read this book to find out more.

The physical appearance of some military aircraft just broadcast their raison d'etre. Big, brutish and pugnacious, the Bristol Beaufighter, a twin-engine RAF night fighter armed with four 20mm cannons and four .303-in. machine guns, always struck me as a born killer. Grace and styling be damned; it existed solely to make things burn, bleed and blow up. The Beaufighter's record in the skies over England, Europe, the Med and tropical climes is nicely related by Andrew Thomas in this, the 65th in Osprey's Aircraft of the Aces series.

Developed from the Beaufort torpedo bomber, the Beau arrived just in time to help defeat the Luftwaffe's night blitz on England. Aces like John Cunnigham, Bob Braham and "Zulu" Morris took an increasing toll of Luftwaffe bombers. As the tide turned, Beaufighter crews began intruder ops over Europe, flew bomber support missions and coastal strikes and were active in every theater of war. By war's end over 70 pilots including Michael Constable-Maxwell, "Moose" Fumerton and "Butch" Gordon,had made ace flying Bristol's beefy fighter.

Thomas does a good job of relating the multitude of missions the Beaufighter flew worldwide, sprinkling the text with combat reports from pilots and navigators along with dozens of photos of crews and aircraft. John Weal does his usual marvelous job with color profiles of 30 Beaufighter aircraft.

Though overshadowed by the Mosquito, the Beaufighter made a great contribution to the Allied victory and its story is nicely summarized in Thomas' book. Recommended!

It is in 'Beneath the Web' that the whole story really gets going, as set up in 'The Wooden Sword'. In the world patiently crafted Lyn Abbey lets her characters lose to solve the mystery of 'Dart' and wether he is man, demon, fetch, or who knows what. Berika the sheperdess came off relatively poorly in the first book, still gaining her feet. As she finds her power that changes. The obsessive reader of science fiction for some thirty five years, I rarely find a book who's ending I can't guess, but Lyn Abbey makes the whole thing a unique experience with her depth of detail and characterization. I only wish I could say of her that 'she doesn't know when to end a series', as two books seems to be her limit. A pity, because the rich worlds she carves out have the potential for much more. These two books are worth finding.END

The interview is more often than not the deciding factor to if one is potentially hired or simply tossed to the side. "Best Answers to 202 Job Interview Questions: Expert Tips to Ace the Interview and Get the Job Offer" offers readers sage advice to help them get through the interrogation that employers so often put prospective employees through where the correct answers are never that obvious - questions like self-evaluation, skills, problem solving abilities, hobbies, motivation, salary, and many more questions are examined and advice given to answer them honestly and effectively. Five hundred pages of well written information, "Best Answers to 202 Job Interviews Questions: Expert Tips to Ace the Interview and Get the Job Offer" is highly recommended for anyone with the feared interview on the horizon and for community library career shelves.

Collection of Science Fiction Short stories from Galaxy. Contributors include: Roger Zelazny, Spider Robinson, Jerry Pournelle, Michael Bishop and others.

LISTEN IN as two disembodied alien intelligences decide the fate of all life on Earth...

FOLLOW Corbell the Rebel as he makes his desperate bid for freedom from the all-powerful State - by diving for the Galactic Core...

JOIN the Last Americans as they meet Earth's new owners...

TAKE PART in victorious battle against the vicious aliens from another galaxy...

BECOME the only tramp spaceship skipper in the Solar System...

YOU WILL EXPERIENCE ALL OF THIS - AND MORE, IN:

THE BEST FROM GALAXY: VOLUME IV