Ace of Aces Books

Back in the early '80s, probably 1982, my friend Paul Knorr handed me a novel and said something like, "Read this. You'll like it." I perused the cover, emblazoned with some fairly typical sci-fi soldier, and, humoring him, asked what it was about.

"It's about soldiers," he said. "They fight, then they have sex, then they do drugs, then they fight some more." Encouraging. Nonetheless, I accepted the book and read it. In short, War Games, by Karl Hansen and Kenneth Paul Rogers, is one of the most lurid, powerful works of science fiction I have ever read, a mutant cross between Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, with a solid dose of S&M and narcotics abuse thrown in for good measure.

The 1981 novel was followed four years later by Dream Games, which was written by Hansen alone. War Games is far superior to Dream Games as a military science fiction novel. However, the latter book explores the workings of Hansen's universe in greater depth and provides answers to questions posed in the earlier work. Dream Games ends with a separatist invasion armada ringing Earth and preparing to launch a crushing attack -- bleak yes, but also inviting a sequel. A sequel that to date has not been forthcoming.

From a gaming point of view, especially that of role-playing, Hansen's books are ideal in that throughout them they describe a broad variety of weapons, armor, equipment, augmentations, and genetically manufactured races, and clearly delineate the socio-political and military environments his protagonists inhabit. Of course, the books are damned from a role-playing point of view, in that many parents would undoubtedly become upset if they knew just what sort of books their kid's new game was based on. (Remember all the flak D&D has gotten, especially in the '80s?) Nonetheless, those of us who have both read Hansen and played TSR's Star Frontiers cannot fail to notice uncanny similarities between the arsenals of the books and the game.

Since reading War Games and Dream Games, I have continued to search for other works by Karl Hansen, but from what I can tell he only wrote those two. I have always wondered what happened to him, and sometimes entertain the notion that the righteous citizens of whatever town he lived in decided that burning him in effigy just wouldn't be good enough ... To my knowledge, the only other thing Kenneth Paul Rogers has written is some true crime book (which I have not read) about a convicted rapist-murderer. Maybe that would shed some light on the whole Hansen-Rogers disappearing act. And maybe I don't want to know.

--By Michael J. Varhola for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

I like most of the writings of Roger Zelazny that I have read. He is a student of the Qabalah and the Grail and embeds real knowledge of some esoteric spiritual practices in his entertaining stories. This one started out as a short story and expanded into a full book. The style is very condensed. It seems that not a word is wasted. Some paragraphs say a lot. The story is about a therapist who uses a machine to enter into the dreams of others and even make dreams for them. A physically blind woman wants to know what seeing is like. The therapist memorizes his day time experiences and shares them in the sessions, visits museums and has her join him in the dream of what he did during the day. The theme of our ordinary world being a dream is touched upon indirectly through this medium, with the therapist almost becoming a god for the blind woman as she gradually learns how to see and to visualize in this shared space. There are multiple themes playing out through the pages with Qabalistic themes used in the background, for instance a master of the tree of life does not merely ascend the middle pillar, but must be able to go up and down the tree of life.

If you are considering reading this book, you definately should. Hal Fischer was a fighter "Ace" and a P.O.W., military (or atleast pilot) stories can't get much better than this one. I will warn you, the first 50 pages are a cultural introduction to military life and a bit slow, picking up the pace considerably as he starts flying jets. At the second third I was not able to stop reading until it was complete. The suspense of what was going to happen was extremely captivating, and I already new he was an "Ace" and a P.O.W.! This book extends the meaning of honor & respect, without political agendas. Should be required reading for kids, pilots, or anyone considering a life in the military.

I picked up this book because I had read a few of Bishop's regencies which are well done. The Durable Fire, which is set in 16th century England, was an extremely enjoyable read with interesting characters. The conclusion was a bit too quick but overall I highly recommend!

This book I did not know it existed up till 4 weeks ago. Wow, what a great read and some very good information towards understanding the three games. Red Baron (original) is fantastic, if you can find a copy, A-10 tank killer & Aces of the Pacific. Just a great strategy guide. If you find one, do not stop and think, just buy it. You will enjoy it.

This is a great resource. I have taught a class in computers in health care for undergraduates seeking degrees in health care administration since 1985; I've spent an increasing amount of time on telemedicine and e-health topics.

The authors have done a great job in pulling together all of the facts and concepts needed to effectively teach this subject. Detailed chapters on technologies, applications, and how to get started provide an excellent foundation. Chapters on challenges to maintaining confidentiality of patient information, malpractice pitfalls and ethical concerns with e-health are perfect for teachers and are essential reading to all professionals who are involved in the provision of these services. Final chapters emphasizing the evaluation of programs using these emerging (and imperfect) technologies temper the "let's do it because we can" spirit of telemedicine enthusiasts with the "let's make sure it works in the real world" concerns of administrators.

I'm particularly pleased with the effort made in every chapter to put a human face on the technologies involved. Much better than dry feature lists, these real-world examples will help my students (some of whom are health care practitioners returning for another degree) really understand what e-health will mean to us all.

If you are looking for the best book available on this topic, look no further.

This is a great read, but before you spend the $50 for this paperback, go check your local used book stores and thrift stores like Goodwill, I got my copy of the 1962 version for 69 cents and it is in great shape at a Goodwill store.

I'm looking forward to using this book this semester. It's loaded with great information.

I love Patricia Anthony for her unique, gentle literate approach to fiction. She has been woefully largely ignored by those who continue paying money for some of the worst crap ever set to paper. Anthony has been called the male "Ray Bradybury" and indeed, her stories remind one of Bradbury and his tales of real humans. You will not find nanotech, quantum theory, weird genetically enhanced homo sapiens, Singularity-oriented gods of the AI machine or non-human futures. No, both Bradbury and Anthony are firmly in the second phase of Science Fiction, the first being the "invasion from Mars" type. The third "movement" involved robotics, bio-engineering. The current could be called the quantum/nano Singularity catastrophic future phase with nihilism, post-humans and non-human relations.

Paradoxicaly, the presence of ET's has dwindles but whether this is due to the increasingly doubtful likelihood of alien intelligence, a dirth of ideas on the subject or a wave of hip cyber-punk smartass writing is unknown. What is known is that theis collection of stories - many no more than a few pages - both invoke and evoke emotions that were once called "human". The stories - setting, dialogue and character - are set in mostly rural America with solid country folk, farmers, workers and a rare "city" worker, usually a computer programmer or the like. Imagine a swath from Georgia to Iowa and this is Anthony Land.

Space travel is pure 1950's - hibernation, atomic rockets, human crews, slower than light speed. Computers and robots also seem imported from that era. An occasional android, alien, ghost, apparition, or spirit person makes an appearance. Rising above the constant humor (some would say irony), memorable characters and interesting plot, one notes the purely literary aspects. Each saga has been ruthlessly edited - sometimes for financial reasons at the time - leaving episodes that are sharp and beautiful and searing and sometimes shocking.

EATING MEMORIES (one of the stories) is one of those rarities that can be enjoyed on multiple levels without compromise on any. My Grade - A+

I always enjoyed Tarzan running around the jungle etc etc but when he made his way "back into a land time forgot" in the Pellucidar series of tales at the earth's core fighting dinos and sabertooths and mastodons and cavedudes -- well, heck! How cool was that! So get the series of tales here all together.