A few books..

The master is losing his touch - this time one talks about Frederick Forsyth and his latest book "The Cobra" - which sounds more like a mix of late season Tom Clancy (for mechanical superiority of American and English techno jazz), Jack Higgins (for the apparent indestructibility of the good guys) and Colin Forbes (for the extremely featherbrained plot). The new age Forsyth doesnt cut it - the loss of the Cold War seems to robbed the man of his mojo - of his post Cold War novels, only Deceiver and to a certain extent the Icon have a good well developed plotline and character development - Fist of God, Avenger, Negotiator, and the Afghan, all suffered to a certain extent from the Tom Clancyness of the apparent superiority of the American forces over what they had. And Mike Martin was the last character who you rooted for and that too in Fist of God. In Cobra, Colin Dexter makes a comeback, as does Paul Devearaux and it is a sadly developed piece by the master, none of the suspense, the intrigue of the earlier books, I mean forget Day of the Jackal, something like Dogs of War had things going for it. Anyways, the master has fallen, as is the case with another master, in this case, Zhang Yimou.

 

Also got introduced to ebooks from a few friends and read a few good ones - can Dresden - the Storm Front by Jim Butcher if you get it. Nice. Also read my first Rob Heinlein - the puppet masters, early 1950s science fiction rocked, I guess - there are an overt anti communist line, the slightly misogynist part of it is more subtle, as the heroine goes from being a super agent to a married woman, who says yes dear to the husband. Anyways, it was good and you could see it being inspiration to a lot of things.

 

Also have all the Alistair Macleans as ebooks - man, the guy could write. Most of his stories are implausible, but it is like watching a good Rajini movie, I mean, the story is atbest there as a structure to showcase the man and well, the same is with Alistair Maclean books from Major Smith and Schaffer in Where Eagles Dare, to Captain Mallory and Miller in Guns of Navarone to Michael Mitchell in Seawitch to Revson in Golden Gate to First Officer Carter in Golden Rendevous, the heroes are all boorish, but inexplicably sincere men, who are your archetypical dyed in white heroes. And they are capable of supreme acts of physical stuff - Smith pretty much kills three well trained operatives with one hand shattered in WED; Mallory is half dead by the time he gets around to planting the charges in Guns, Carter has a near broken thigh, Michael Mitchell has a broken hand in Seawitch but still get the better of all the villains. But what really makes the Macleans tick is the way they are written, with a smart aleck comment waiting in every other paragraph. I love macleans for the simple reason that when I am reading them, I enjoy myself. I dont seek a higher meaning in the writing than what there is and that makes it extremely good.

 

And yeah, apparently the Brandon Sanderson feller seems to be an improvement over the stuffy Robert Jordan methodology of writing in WOT. Not that it makes the series much better, but he certainly seems to be able to write a lot more fluidly than Jordan ever did. May even get around to reading the Gathering of the Storm - book 12 of the series or book 1 of the 12th book, whichever way you look at.