Book Description
This three volume set presents for the first time the genre-defining Slammers series in a uniform hardcover set. This volume features all of the Hammer's Slammer short fiction, as well as all of the interstitial material from the original Slammers collection, as well as new artwork, and an original Slammers story, "A Death in Peacetime." The first volume will feature an introduction by Gene Wolfe, and cover art by Vincent Di Fate.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Compilation.......2007-02-11
Everyone who is a fan of David Drake's Hammer's Slammers will enjoy this collection.
Part one of a comprehensive collection of the Hammers Slammers Works.......2006-11-04
This is a book I've been waiting over ten years for. As a fan of mister Drakes writtings, in particular the Hammers Slammers series, I have always had a hard time tracking down some of his stories... this book, and its companion, offer the complete collection of his works (a must for any fan). It will also replace my paperbacks, which have become quite dog-eared over the years since I first discovered the Hammers Slammers.
For those not familiar with the Hammers Slammers... These stories represent some of the best Military Sci-Fi of the previous century, and remain among my top picks to this day. As Mr. Drake quite frequently points out his stories are not about super-hero type soldiers; rather they are about ordinary men and women whos chosen profession is soldering. His characters have flaws, and they often times lose a lot... but they always get the job done. Though his stories are based of of his experiences in Vietnam it is quite easy to see how the lessons apply to todays world (perhapse more so in some respects).
If you enjoy gritty military fiction then I'm sure that you'll enjoy the trials and tribulations of the Hammers Slammers.
Great Compendium of Early Hammer's Slammers Tales.......2006-10-15
HAMMER'S SLAMMERS are a mercenary Army regiment, operating in the 28th Century, who sell their services to the highest bidders on the diverse outlying human colonies, most of which are in constant conflict... sort of like futuristic Hessian mercenary soldiers of the 18th Century.
Here are brief reviews of the more substantial stories (mostly short stories, except where noted) from THE COMPLETE HAMMER'S SLAMMERS (VOLUME ONE):
*** UNDER THE HAMMER (1974) - Details a newbie Rob Jenne's first day among Hammer's Slammers - and he ends up having to learn fast.
**** THE BUTCHER'S BILL (1974) - If you hire the Slammers to get the job done, don't expect them or Sergeant-Commander Pritchard to play around when things get tough.
*** BUT LOYAL TO HIS OWN (1975) - Tells how the Slammers regiment got their start, and introduces Joachim Stueben, Colonel Hammer's smallish personal bodyguard - who has a prediliction for killing.
*** CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE (1978) - A young lady has to learn to kill quickly, and then chooses to join up with the Slammers, rather than go back with her now-husbandless villagemates.
***** CULTURAL CONFLICT (1979) - A remotely stationed platoon of Slammers meets up with an intelligent race of dense forest tree-dwellers, which leeds to a different kind of conflict with immense ramifications to all parties.
*** 1/2 HANGMAN (1979) Novellete - Danny Pritchard is now a Captain, and highly-trusted element of the Slammers. He doesn't approve of the casual voilence of Stueben, but will get the job done when called upon.
*** CODE-NAME FEIREFITZ (1985) - A Captain is assigned to dig out a horde of rebels from an underground bunker complex (eerily predictive of Tora Bora situation in Afghanistan, occurring 17 years later); but, he must also deal with his ex-Slammer born-again Christian brother, who has ties with the rebels.
***** THE TANK LORDS (1987) - Novellete - This story plays out on a despot lord's manor on an off-world Kingdom; it is an excellent little tale about a young page, who worships the tanks and "the tank lords" who are visiting his lord's manor - and how he comes to transform himself into one of them. Much political and sexual intrigue, along with some decently exciting moments. Not the typical Drake tank lords story of mayhem and gore, although there is some at the end.
**** LIBERTY PORT (1987) Novella - Everything goes haywire when a company of Slammers, who have recently been in terrible combat, are let loose in a entertainment district with heartless cyborg females, which turn out to cause more problems than human females.
*** NIGHT MARCH (1997) - A strange case of mistaken identity ensues when communications on a night march get fouled up beyond all recognition.
The Slammers Complete.......2006-02-25
The first in a proposed three volume compendium of Dave Drake's HAMMERS SLAMMERS material, this one will be convenient to have. It is likely that the buyers will, at least in many cases, have already read what it contains, but having the tales together, in a hard-back format, will be a good thing.
The Slammers are, as Dave once said himself, "the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment with ray-guns", and are notably inspired by what Dave saw and heard while he was with the Blackhorse Cav in Vietnam and Cambodia some few years ago. Some of the best tales available to bring the violence, confusion and sometimes ambiguity of who the "good guys" are in combat to the reader.
If you have read Dave's Slammers material before, you'll enjoy having it pulled together into this anthology and will want the book. If you haven't, you owe yourself the pleasure of getting this book of tightly written, fast moving stories of what combat does to those who have the "privelege" of experiencing it.
Book Description
SEX AND VIOLENCE. Mickey Spillane, the tough-as-nails, bestselling publishing phenomenon knew what readers wanted. Now he's really letting them have it...times three.
MIKE HAMMER-Spillane's ultimate creation, the original no-holds-barred private eye who became homicide's hottest anti-hero.
THE MIKE HAMMER COLLECTION, VOLUME 1-the first-ever trade anthology of Spillane's masterpieces of literary mayhem. In one exciting collection, here are the first three novels featuring legendary detective Mike Hammer.
I, the Jury
My Gun is Quick
Vengeance is Mine!
Mickey Spillane is a master. (The New York Times)
Mickey Spillane is the living master of the hard-boiled mystery. (Detecting Men)
Customer Reviews:
Entertaining Hard-Boiled Noir Reading.......2007-09-01
The Mike Hammer tales are not for the faint of heart by any means. Mickey Spillane's hard-drinking, nihilistic, hard-bitted, two-fisted private gumshoe is forever driven by a dark sense of personal honor and a thirst for vengeance. He doesn't suffer fools, or anyone else, and wears his emotions clearly on his sleeve. One can see why he became so popular in the repressed, McCarthyistic days of the 1950s.
The Mike Hammer Collection Vol. 1 contains the first three of Spillane's Mike Hammer novels - I, the Jury, My Gun is Quick, and Vengeance is Mine! - which, as a rule, follow the standard formula of detective novels - there is a murder under mysterious circumstances, and when the P.I. digs deeper, he discovers a startling or seamy secret no one expects, which throws him in even more danger. In all honesty, after reading two of the Make Hammer novels, the plots become fairly predictable, and the identity of the grand, string-pulling villain behind it all can be guessed from early-on.
However, one doesn't read Spillane for the plot - he is clearly a style man, and it is the style that will keep you reading through this volume and volume 2 (which I also recommend). Spillane's world is a dark and dreary version of New York City where a sort of Darwinian, survival-of-the-fittest worldview prevails. The people on the bottom-rung of society are barely scraping by, and crime and decay are on every street corner. The perfect lion of this particular asphault jungle is Mike Hammer, a veteran of WWII's Pacific Theater who eats, drinks, fights and loves with equal intensity.
All of the stories are written in the first person, giving us a window into Hammer's inner monologues, which are sometimes juvenile and rudimentary, and sometimes rather profound. Hammer is an intolerant, hair-trigger sort of fellow; the women of the books are femme fatales of the highest order; the villains are inscrutable and unscrupulous. Most shocking is the violence in Spillane's work, which is quick and brutal and vivid - even by the standards of today's jaded audiences. For those who have enjoyed Hammett and Chandler and are looking for a different read, you can't do much better than Mike Hammer.
I grew up with Mike Hammer.......2007-07-23
Bought this for my son so he could read something else besides Star War books. Growing up I bought and read every one. I never looked back.
Very well done!.......2007-06-08
Fine writing by a fine author. Pictures appeared in my mind with his use of words and always enjoyed each story. No one else like Spillane - not ever.
Gift review.......2007-03-31
I cannot actually review the contents of this item because it was bought as a gift for someone else. I can say they were delighted with it and told me that they have been enjoying it very much. This is a person who has wide reading interests.
WOW.......2006-11-04
This is so freakin' good. Spillaine is the Master at crime-fiction. And controlling your fingers to turn page after page. Even if you're not so much a fan of reading books, just pick this up.
It is great.
Book Description
Starting in 1971 and lasting in one form or another for five years, the MO exploded onto the popular music scene while simultaneously trashing all existing conventions, forging a new direction that is still controversial to this day. The loudest and fastest band in the entire world, the MO literally could "scare" people - yet also could create music of great beauty. All five members of the original band, John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman and Rick Laird, cooperated with the author. In addition, over 100 people, including some of the world's greatest musicians and artists, provide comments exclusive to this book. Among those commenting for the book are Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Jeff Beck, Sir George Martin, Jean-Luc Ponty, Peter Max, Joe Zawinul, Bill Frisell, Dennis Chambers, Bill Bruford, Peter Erskine, Jimmy Herring, Jonas Hellborg, Mark Egan, John Scofield, Steve Lukather, Lyle Mays, Steve Morse, Joey DeFrancesco, Narada Michael Walden and many, many more.
Customer Reviews:
great content, poor delivery.......2007-08-17
Due to the extensive and detailed research, this book is a must-read for any die-hard MO fan; but be prepared to slog through some lame prose.
Positives: Due to the paucity of information that has been available on the MO in the past, the depth and variety of insights that Kolosky has collected in this book are both astounding and riveting. The interviews with the band members are particularly great to read. The book humanizes every member, and does a good job of showing how each of them brought different talents, perspectives and insecurities that led to both the brilliance and the eventual demise of the group. I felt confident that Kolosky has left no stone unturned in his quest to illuminate us as to exactly what made the MO so great.
Negatives: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the MO, and can honestly say that their music has affected my life more than any other art I have ever encountered. But even I was put off by Kolosky's simpering fanboy tone. While the research is meticulous and impressive, the quality of the writing made the book an absolute drudge to read. A biased, reverent tone is welcome, as are some personal thoughts; but Kolosky often intrudes on the story, digressing and generally mucking it up with his opinions and self-indulgence. You're going to have to be a VERY dedicated fan to make it through.
A stupendous book about a stupendous band.......2007-08-16
Walter Kolosky takes us into the heart, soul, and universe of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in a piercingly frank and personal way that provides us with a lot more than a glimpse of the characters, personalities, and energy that were at the core of the world's fastest and loudest jazz-rock fusion band; indeed, a band that was at the very cutting (bleeding!) edge of a fantastmagorical brand of music the likes of which had never been played before or since. He has actually achieved something that the band itself could never have done because of the tension and rivalries that both held the band together and blew them apart after less than three power-packed years. He has described the Mahavishnu Orchestra (TMO) in a riveting, stark, and exciting manner that is thrilling and profoundly nostalgic. For people such as myself, who loved the band 30+ years ago and who have "rediscovered" it periodically since, the issuance of this book was perfectly timed as I had spent scores of hours during the spring and summer of 2006 studying TMO's music and the sheet music in huge detail with my eldest son. Having this book was the next best thing to having TMO right there is my living room or basement studio. It completed our exploration of TMO and of our own musical abilities (or lack thereof!). This is a book for the ages written about a band for the ages, a band which I fear and regret we shall never see the likes of again. Rock on, TMO and Walter Kolosky!
If you are a true fan, don't waste your time. .......2007-07-07
Being an ardent Mahavishnu fan, I could not wait to read what I thought would be an inside look into the band's genius. Boy was I disappointed. In short, the book substantially consists of the author's gushing (to the point of distraction) about how great the band is and quotes from various musicians discussing the first time they heard the band and how great the band is. I'm sorry, but I could not care less to hear about how great the band is from other musicians. I already know the band is great. I get it. Why do I need to read page after page about the first time the author heard the band and what the band means to him? I was hoping to gain insight and detail into how the music was created and a personal look into the minds that created it. It would also have been nice to get a glimpse into the inner conflicts that plagued the band, but the author, obviously ga ga over the band, appeared afraid to travel down that path or say anything that might even remotely be controversial. There is nothing revealed in this book that any fan would not otherwise know except maybe details concerning the font the band used. In short, this a very superficial read about a complex and important musicial group.
The Definitive Story of the M.O. has Finally been Written.......2007-06-17
Walter Kolosky has done a magnificent job detailing the history of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, arguably the greatest band of all time ! He lets the members of the band as well as their musical peers and fans tell the story in their own words, while guiding the saga chronologically. The technique works well.
While there have been other books written about "fusion" and about some of the band members, notably John McLaughlin, Power, Passion and Beauty leads the field in accuracy of fact, thoroughness of scope, and necessity of purchase ! If you enjoy any of the music of this great band, you owe it to yourself to buy this book ! You won't be disappointed !
Great Book about a Great Band.......2007-06-17
This was a great read. I listened to the referenced albums while I read this and it was a pure delight to get a notion on the behind the scenes of what was on these guys minds while this was happening back in the day!
Average customer rating:
- Flash fiction at its best
- A Fine Collection of Flash
- "I'm going to be brave in ways you won't recognize."
- Daringly Original...
- When reading is like flying...
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I Carry a Hammer in My Pocket for Occasions Such As These (American Readers Series)
Anthony Tognazzini
Manufacturer: BOA Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1929918909 |
Book Description
"Reading Anthony Tognazzini is like having a surprise party thrown in your honor on every page.
I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These turns cartwheels, plants daisies, and sings love songs in honor of all that is strange, sad, serious, and sublime about being alive."-Myla Goldberg, author of
Bee Season
I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These is a collection of fifty-seven pieces that range in length from compressed paragraphs to ten-page stories. Characters, voices, and surreal scenarios are unified in a playful vision of the world sustained by metaphor, memory, cartoon, tragedy, love story, and song.
Speed and brevity are a large part of the collection's design. In a culture where attention spans are shorter and more fractured, the need for a literature for the subway and the waiting room-something to resonate in the smaller gaps of our lives-is emerging. To this end,
I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These is quick, colloquial, and comic, yet challenges readers to think. It offers-at a glance-a journey into a fictional world that is poetic and narrative, fantastic and familiar, accessible and adventurous.
"The Difference"
Although I was never an early riser, my father always counseled me to rise with the sun.
"Early bird gets the worm!" he told me.
"Sure," I said, "but the worm who sleeps late, lives."
Anthony Tognazzini lives in New York City, where he makes his living as a teacher and freelance journalist. His awards include an AWP Award, an Academy of American Poets prize, a Greer Artist Foundation Fellowship, and a Hemingway Fellowship.
Customer Reviews:
Flash fiction at its best.......2007-06-28
I ordered the book after discovering it in "Poets and Writers" and was immediately captivated by the brevity, frankness, honesty of Tognazzini's brilliance on every page. A real treat, must-read, literary gem--underrated.
A Fine Collection of Flash.......2007-06-26
I often long for a simpler life, with fewer complications and distractions, in which my attention span can occasionally linger to enjoy a particular moment. The sun in my life reached its zenith a few years ago and is picking up speed as it drops toward the horizon and so I tend to resent that, as a society, we boast of our superior ability to multi-task even as we sheepishly admit to the negative effect of refusing to take time out to occasionally clear the mechanism. That said, I've resisted "flash fiction" as something that caters to our ever-shortening attention span.
For the uninitiated, flash fiction contains all of the classic story elements: protagonist, conflict, and resolution; but unlike the traditional short story, the limited word length often leaves some of these elements to only be implied in the written storyline, which is perhaps best exemplified by Ernest Hemingway's six-word flash, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
Although it can be traced back to Aesop's Fables, with the likes of Chekhov, O. Henry, Kafka, H.P. Lovecraft and Ray Bradbury contributing, flash fiction is enjoying a resurgence on the Internet. Although I sometimes cringe from the niche it fills in our fractured society, despite all of its professed connectivity through cell phones and email, flash is a viable art form that presents a challenge to the writer he or she doesn't normally face when writing a longer piece: strictly meat and bones writing without all of the side dishes.
Anthony Tognazzini seems to have mastered this literary art form with his collection of flash fiction, I Carry a Hammer In My Pocket for Occasions Such as These. Tognazzini understands the concept, in flash fiction, that what is left unsaid is as equally important as what is said. In flash, less is more.
Composed of fifty-seven pieces ranging in length from a single paragraph to several pages, none hit the reader over the head, yet most hit the nail on the head with their brevity, focus and message. From the opening piece, A Primer, in which a naked man paints himself into the landscape, to the title piece about a brief encounter between strangers on the street, to A Telephone Conversation with My Father (yeah, they really do love each other), to The Enigma of Possibility -- how can a man with the longest tongue in the world manage to find a way to pay the rent in the aftermath of having just lost his job? -- to Working Out with Kafka, where Kafka meets himself while riding a bike crossing a bridge, to Old House -- "I know how lonely the house is when there is no one to live there," to Baseball Is Dangerous but Love Is Everything, where love cures a young man's "not-right scramble and his thinking irregular slightly," the result of a childhood beaning on the head with a baseball bat, I Carry a Hammer is a fine collection of flash that ranges from the fantastical to the commonplace, that contains humor and portrays grief and loss, that turns the mundane into the fascinating, and is almost always thought-provoking.
Tognazzini's voice is fresh, his narrative sharp: My stomach jumped like an angry, barking dog and I spun, throwing up in every direction. When I finished, I regarded the abstract, brown-red splashes on the tile. I thought, Pollock, and it seems tailor-made for flash; yet for some reason, perhaps because their text lack a surgeon's precision with a scalpel, the longer pieces, particularly Gainesville, Oregon -- 1962 -- don't work as well. Tognazzini's talent seems to "flash" with brilliance more often in the flash element.
Still, the overall effect of reading I Carry a Hammer is addicting: you never know what you're going to get when you turn the next page, but you can't refrain from taking a peek.
Recommended.
-- From "The Smoking Poet," literary ezine, Summer 2007 Issue
"I'm going to be brave in ways you won't recognize.".......2007-05-23
Anthony Tognazzini is more than a brilliant writer; he is an extraordinarily gifted cartographer. He has created a relief map of the human psyche in its gorgeous flawed glory--the meandering browns and bottomless blues and twisting greens that define our dizzy spirit; the mountains and valleys of dense loneliness that surround our mortal coil. All the beauty and all the blemishes are manifest in his magnificent prose.
"I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These" is intellectual, innovative, insightful, incisive, intuitive, intense, and, FUNNY! Tognazzini infuses his slick, saucy wit on every page. Every day I identify a new favorite among these spectacular shorts. Today I have two: the allusively absurd "The Reason We Were So Afraid," and the vibrant snapshot "Many Fine Marriages Begin at Friends' Parties." The header of this review is a line from "Same Game" that swallowed me whole.
This omnibus is for all of us--those of us with questions and those who have the answers. Those who think and those who feel. Those who are lost and those who've been found. This book is a gift. So, to Anthony Tognazzini, I say, THANK YOU.
Daringly Original..........2007-05-11
(Anthony read as part of my visiting authors series at the West Side YMCA on April 27, 2007. This is from my introduction to the event).
Anthony Tognazzini's stories show an acceptance of calamity, a knowledge that what we prepare for may never come, but something shockingly unexpected very well might. And throughout his stories, sometimes very much coming as a surprise, there are moments of pure empathetic humanity, where Anthony gives us characters simply longing for a better life.
His stories explode the artificiality of social graces and the necessity of violating them to get at the rich, rewarding or scary stuff that life offers us. There's a desire to not be caught in automatic action and reaction, but to be vividly present, awake. Sometimes he does it by having his characters react tangentially to their prompts, never quite meeting the situation head-on, but finding novel ways of engaging their fellow actors, their surroundings.
There's a mounting sense of desperation at the heart of many of the stories in "I Carry a Hammer for Occasions Such As These" Anthony's vivid imagery and twists of language and meaning reflect the fracturing of personalities; the breaks in communication between neighbors, lovers, family members. His well-honed sense of the absurd serves both to heighten the emotional blows when they come, and also to highlight the preposterous and ridiculous moments that life constantly presents us. The stories, written with the economy and force of poetry, are both dream-state and hard-reality, and much of the joy in reading them is the constant subtle shifting between one and the other. But no matter how unusual the image--and I prefer the term original--Anthony always keeps us in the physical realm, rooted in sensation.
Most of the stories are short, some shockingly so. But whether they be a three-sentence story like the clear and utterly concise "The Difference," or rich, extended stories like the violent, erotic and heartbreaking `Gainesville, Oregon--1962," Anthony shows a skill and ability to take us along for whatever the length of the story, like a jazz musician who can play a pithy, classic melody, or can stretch out and blow, always riveting our attention.
Reading Anthony Tognazzini's bracingly original work is a complete pleasure, both an escape and an opportunity to dig in deep to something worthwhile. In one of the last pieces in "I Carry a Hammer..." "Found Story," he writes "I found this gift...and I so much want you to have it."
When reading is like flying... .......2007-04-07
Reading Anthony Tognazzini's stories is like fishing in your underwear in someone else's dream. It is like dunking with your left hand over Shaquille O'Neal while playing a cello with your right. It is like going into Baskin-Robbins, eating one scoop of all 31 flavors, and magically emerging, VICTORIOUSLY, with no stomach ache.
If April is the cruellest month, then you should read this book this April and it will be just like a summer day, or Christmas Day, or any time in life before algebra.
If you like stories, if you like words, or if you like waking up on Sunday morning, rolling back over, and going back to sleep again because the dreams are so good and the bed is so warm... then you will love this book like a refreshing swim in a shark-free ocean.
Book Description
Henry Aaron left his mark on the world by breaking Babe Ruth's record for home runs. But the world has also left its mark on him.
"Hammering Hank" Aaron's story is one that tells us much about baseball, naturally, but also about our times. His unique, poignant life has made him a symbol for much of the social history of twentieth-century America.
Raised during the Depression in the Deep South enclave of Mobile, Alabama, Aaron broke into professional baseball as a cross-handed slugger and shortstop for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. A year later, he and a few others had the unforgettable mission of integrating the South Atlantic League. A year after that, he was a timid rookie leftfielder for the Milwaukee Braves, for whom he became a World Series hero in 1957 as well as the Most Valuable Player of the National League.
Aaron found himself back in the South when the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1965. Nine years later, in the heat of hatred and controversy, he hit his 715th home run to break Ruth's and baseball's most cherished record--a feat that was recently voted the greatest moment in baseball history. That year, Aaron received over 900,000 pieces of mail, many of them vicious and racially charged.
In a career that may be the most consistent baseball has ever seen. Aaron also set all-time records for total bases and RBIs. He ended his playing days by spending two nostalgic seasons back in Milwaukee with the Brewers, then embarked on a new career as an executive with the Atlanta Braves. He was for a long time the highest-ranking black in baseball. In this position, Aaron has become an unofficial spokesman in racial matters pertaining to the national pastime.
Because of the depth and pertinence of Aaron's dramatic experiences, I Had A Hammer is more than a baseball autobiography. Henry Aaron's candor and insights have produced a revealing book about his extraordinary life and time.
Customer Reviews:
Still the greatest home run hitter ever........2007-08-13
It doesn't matter how many home runs Berry Bond's or anyone of this aera of Baseball, what Hank AAron endured and the racial hatred he went through only proves that he is the BEST. These modern day players could not survive what he and others went through.
Mr Aaron is a very humble, decent man.......2007-07-04
I've been a fan from age seven, which is where I was in life when Henry hit number 715. His recounting of his life in baseball is captivating and highly educational.
Mr Aaron is one of the most skilled players in baseball history, and his telling of his story explains that he is much more than that. Mr Aaron is a man of dignity and class, his success through clouds of racist hate provides a shining example of what a man can be under extreme circumstances. Thank you Henry, for your marvelous career in baseball, and for your open, honest sharing of the story.
Great book about a true baseball hero: Hank Aaron........2006-12-21
"I Had A Hammer" is a wonderfully written autobiography about the struggles and the triumphs of one Henry(aka Hank) "The Hammer" Aaron, the career home run record holder, and one of the last of the "Negro League" players to make it big. Aaron describes his upbringing in Mobile well, and shows us the different levels of racism in the Deep South. The book reveals that Aaron fought against segregation in the minor leagues, helping to end "white-only" minor league teams, and shows us Aaron's love affair with the city of Milwaukee and it's long-gone Braves team, and the tense relationship between Aaron and Atlanta, which had the first Deep South major league team. This is recommended for lovers of baseball as well as those who want to know more about civil rights heroes. Atlanta is not cast in a good light in this book, but Aaron harbors little bitterness towards the city or the racism and death threats he had to endure while trying to break Babe Ruth's record.
The Home Run King Who Will Always Reign.......2006-06-01
Hank Aaron tells it like it is...this is an amazing story. He is, hands-down, the best NATURAL home run hitter ever. His story is captivating, but also a bit sad. The persecution he underwent while chasing the record was horrific. He at times sounds hurt, angry, and bitter as he tells his story. I don't blame him...what courage.
A Legendary Man of Athletic Ability and Integrity for Mankind .......2006-03-18
The athletic proficiency of Hank Aaron is probably the greatest in the history of baseball if not all sports. He is a man of dignity, grace and the stuff legends are made of. This is an endearing and absorbing biography. This biography has captivated the legend of the man for me. It is well written with true fervor and endearment. One of the best.
Average customer rating:
- A very interesting and detailed book!
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Witch Hammer
Vaclav Kaplicky
Manufacturer: Harbinger House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0943173590 |
Customer Reviews:
A very interesting and detailed book!.......2000-08-03
I loved this book. The details were wonderful, and the translation excellent! This is the story of a little town in CZECHOSLOVAKIA in the 1900's that has been victim of the late witch hunts. It all starts with a rumour that a hag in town is using communion hosts to cast spells, this causes an amazing stir in the community. This is a great book, you find greed, lies, sex, and compassion all in the same book. The translation looses nothing of the original text. Quite interesting, specially when it was written in the 1800's.
Average customer rating:
- Good Collection of Drake's Early Hammer's Slammers Military SciFi.
- "Rolling Hot" is Five Stars, all by itself...
- Disturbing
- What a waste of time
- It's in the Hammers Slammers Series, what more do you need?
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The Tank Lords (Hammer's Slammer's)
David Drake
Manufacturer: Baen
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Cross The Stars (Special Limited Edition)
ASIN: 0671877941 |
Customer Reviews:
Good Collection of Drake's Early Hammer's Slammers Military SciFi........2006-02-17
The is a collection of related stories, about Colonel Hammer's Slammers, a group of mercenaries who ply their trade on other planets, in the far future. I'd previously read some of David Drake's more recent works, like the excellent THE REACHES series (Sir Francis Drake in Space); so, I'd been exposed to his ability to describe the horrors of war in great detail. While the descriptions of future tank and other military technology are superb, and there is plenty of action, I found most of these stories to be more battle-oriented than his later works, with simpler plots, and somewhat harder to follow dialog.
Here are brief reviews of each of the individual stories from THE TANK LORDS:
*** UNDER THE HAMMER (1979) - Short story. Details a newbie's first day among Hammer's Slammers - and he ends up having to learn fast.
*** 1/2 ROLLING HOT (1989) - Full-length story, which makes up the bulk of the book. Lots of detail of the horrors of war. A hodgepodge group of mercenaries (recruits, burnouts, maintenance techs) at a rear guard/maintenance site have to deal with an enemy ambush, and scrape together a force to launch a counterstrike. Mixed in with this are great descriptions of future military technologies, which still hold up well over 16 years later. I'm greatly impressed with his description of the tank commanders' display technology, the Unmanned Air Vehicles (which I'm very familiar with), and his description of battlefield digital communications (even today's 4th ID can't yet match his descriptions). When all the communications satellites are taken out, he even describes a way of getting long-range digital messages thru via meteor scatter.
*** NIGHT MARCH (1997) - Short story. A strange case of mistaken identity ensues when communications on a night march are fubar.
*** CODE-NAME FEIREFITZ (1985) - Short story. A Captain is assigned to dig out a horde of rebels from an underground bunker complex (eerily predictive of Tora Bora situation in Afghanistan, occurring 17 years later); but, he must also deal with his ex-Slammer born-again Christian brother, who has ties with the rebels.
***** THE TANK LORDS (1987) - Novellete, and the book's namesake. This story plays out on a despot lord's manor on an off-world Kingdom (imagine King John from Rocket Robin Hood, and you would be fairly close to the lord's persona); it is an excellent little tale about a young page, who worships the tanks and "the tank lords" who are visiting his lord's manor - and how he comes to transform himself into one of them. Much political and sexual intrigue, along with some decently exciting moments. Not the typical Drake tank lords story of mayhem and gore, although there is some at the end. This story almost single-handedly brings the whole book up to a 4 star rating.
The entire book is available in electronic format vie the Baen online free library.
"Rolling Hot" is Five Stars, all by itself..........2006-01-01
Baen Books has a very bad habit of repackaging previously-published material in different editions and not warning the reader of the fact. This is a Naughty.
On the other hand, this edition keeps "Rolling Hot", the single best of the "Hammer's Slammers" stories, in print, and for that alone it'd be almost worth its cover price. Add in "The Tank Lords", which i had not read before, and i bought it quite happily to replace a copy or "Rolling Hot" gone AWOL.
Since the most important part of this book (as far as i'm concerned) is "Rolling Hot", i'm reviewing mainly that story:
This is, in many ways, the best that David Drake has given us yet.
In a war not unlike the one in which Drake and i both found ourselves involved a while back, an ad-hoc unit of odds and sods finds itself rolling hot to try to relieve their employer's provincial capital.
While these are members of Hammer's Slammers, the deadliest mercenary unit going, they are hardly the Slammers' finest, ranging from maintenance personnel pressed into service as the crew of a patched-up tank to their CO, Capt. Peggie Ranson, who is just this side of a Section 8, and a civilian reporter, who accidentally winds up along for the ride, who furnishes a viewpoint for the reader.
It is this viewpoint (one of several from which Drake tells the story) that makes this book, in my opinion, about Drake's best -- by giving us someone a lot like ourselves, putting us inside his head then and putting him through an accelerated version of the hardening process that produces a professional soldier from a raw replacement, Drake shows us even more starkly than usual, that war is, indeed hell. And why.
Drake is not going to let us get away from war without rubbing our noses in it; he wants the reader to see soldiers as people, not fungibles, like bullets. (When Colonel Hammer gives Peggy Ranson the initial orders, he says that, in order to move fast, she is authorised to "combat loss" [abandon in place withouy survey] damaged vehicles. She replies sardonically [and presciently] that she's probably going to be combat lossing crews.) He wants to show people who haven't Seen The Elephant what war is, and to -- just maybe -- convince a few of us that War Is Not A Good Thing.
Reading this book can be harrowing, as you watch men and women who are at least recogniseable and often sympathetic characters kill and die. If you can read it and watch those characters fighting and dieing, and not find yourself in some sort of emotional state as you read Chapter 13, which is a slightly-less-formal version of a military arrival report of Task Force Ranson's arrival in the capital, listing the few remaining of the vehicles and personnel that they rolled with, then you have Not Been Listening or you Just Don't Get it.
"...still i wonder why -- the worst of men must fight and the best of men must die..." -- that was the question when Woodie wrote "Reuben James"; it's still the question.
One of the absolutely most revealing looks at the military mind and what the military actually DOES that i have ever read.
[For musical accompaniment to this book, may i suggest
"Drive On", by Johnny Cash, on his "American Recordings" CD, "Johnny Come Lately" by Steve Earle on "Copperhead Road", "Bad Moon Risin'" (and "Fortunate Son") by Creedence Clearwater and "Sam Stone", by John Prine...]
"The Tank Lords", the story of a misfit in a Rather Odd society who watches as the Slammer demonstrate why it is better to deal honestly with people like them, is also excellent.
Disturbing.......2004-10-20
The only reason I don't give it 5 is because it is a reprint in a different format, with all stories previously published.
Spoiler alert for the main story.
That said, Rolling Hot, the prime story, is one you simply must read if you want to grasp the military mindset. It ranks up with Heinlein's Starship Troopers (the novel, not the stupid movie with the same title) and Haldeman's The Forever War.
Drake always manages to impart wisdom under the horrific gore. It's actually incredibly subtle in its own perverse way. Drake loads on the blood as a cautionary tale. He served with the 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam, and it still shows in his writing and occasionally in his talk. This isn't gore to titillate, this is gore to revolt, just in case you start to develop the theory that violence is a neat thing. It's harsh enough it will probably override years of stupid shootemup computer games in the current generation. Yes, it's THAT grisly.
But the characters are where the story is. Along with a decrepit, burned out, wrung out bunch of leftovers from previous engagements, a civilian reporter rides along. His goal was to investigate the "Waste" of money on the mercenaries that could be spent on additional indigenous forces. All he sees at the beginning is the rough, crude exterior of the unit.
On post during an attack, he winds up dragging along during a hell for leather chase across the continent, a desperate attempt to relieve the capital with the only troops available--the Slammers' sick list. It's that or be left as fodder, and the enemy doesn't care that he's a "noncombatant." Violating the non-interference concept reporters try to embrace, he mans a gun and offers his best military skill--shooting a grenade launcher as he learned as a reservist years past. "That's it, Turtle! you flush 'em, we'll shoot 'em!" one of his squad mates advises through a burst of fire. Even more than the Slammers, this is the last place he wants to be, and there's simply no choice.
At the end of a brutal, casualty-ridden drive across a hostile wasteland of enemy action, bad roads, "friendly" fire and inadequate supplies, he has the answer to his question. Why spend money on professionals? Because they're the only ones who can accomplish the impossible. As Montesquieu said, "A rational army WOULD run away."
That's when the story took a twist. Upon relieving the town, the mercs are shunned and ridiculed for their "disgusting and unprofessional" appearance by the alleged professionals of the local army and government. Our reporter reacts with righteous indignation and murderous rage that troops brave enough and dedicated enough to pull off the impossible are regarded as trash by pretty boys with no trigger time...
...and is stopped by one of the gunners, who tells him, "It don't mean nothin'."
I was appalled by the ending. I was outraged. It seemed to not be an ending in any fashion. It was six months later, during a discussion where I was trying uselessly to explain the concept of military duty to a civilian who simply CANNOT understand what it means. Some can, some can't. Those who can't never will. That's when I understood. "It don't mean nothin'."
Nineteen years of service. A few hours to read. Six months for it to make sense. And a story I will never forget.
And sadly, most civilians will never get it. That's not an insult, it's a cultural observation.
Bravo, Dave.
What a waste of time.......2002-09-28
The author of this book seems to have made pretty sure that the word "cyan" appears at least three times on every page. If that is all that you require from your reading material, this book will satisfy you. Otherwise, it stinks. No plot, no characters, no conflict, no interest.
It's in the Hammers Slammers Series, what more do you need?.......2002-02-12
I love this seies, the only reason this book didn't get 5 stars is because some of the stories are repeated in other books in the series.
Average customer rating:
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Hammer on the Rock
Nahum N. Glatzer
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0805200320
Release Date: 1987-09-13 |
Customer Reviews:
An essential gem.......2000-08-31
This slim volume is the perfect introduction to Midrash; it's material is drawn from the Talmud and midrashic writings i.e. first five centuries of the common era. The introduction is very brief; the editor allows the selected passages to speak for themselves which they do beautifully. Some of the material is very specifically Jewish in the sense of relating directly to Jewish history; but most of it speaks to religious truth in the sense found in most religions.
An example: "Someone came before Rabab and said: 'The mayor of my town has told me: Go and kill so and so; it you do not, I will have you killed.' The Raba said to him: 'Let him kill you, but you must not fill. What do you think, your blood is redder thananother man's? Perhaps his blood is redder than yours.'"
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