Book Review: The Kinderhook Creature and Beyond: A Personal Reminiscence by Bruce G. Hallenbeck

The Kinderhook Creature and Beyond: A Personal Reminiscence by Bruce G. Hallenbeck
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The town of Kinderhook, New York is where The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was born, it turns out that Washington Irving’s Headless Horseman isn’t the only supernatural or mysterious local in the area. The Kinderhook Creature and Beyond: A Personal Reminiscence by Bruce G. Hallenbeck details the unusual phenomena that his hometown, his family, and himself experience in a very interesting start to the 1980s.

The term “high strangeness” truly applies to the incidents and events that Hallenbeck relates from his life, that of his family, and from others who have contacted him over the years but specially during the early 1980s. The first half of the book covers such unique phenomena as ghosts, supernatural entities like fairies or something similar, and UFOs all happening in the Hudson River valley but several on Hallenbeck’s family property that he and or members of his family encountered or witnessed. But Hallenbeck also relates similar incidents that have been reported to him over the years as he investigates all types of strange occurrences over the decades. The second half of the book concentrates on the sightings and vocalizations of sasquatch that locals began calling the ‘Kinderhook Creature’ even though several times more than one was witnessed at the same time. Hallenbeck himself never saw ‘the creature’, however his grandmother and cousin had multiple encounters which both wished they had never had. During the peak years of the creature’s time in the area numerous people outside of Hallenbeck’s family had their own incidents which eventually came Hallenbeck’s way, adding to his collection of everything he could find to figure out what was going on. Overall, this 180-page book is an easy-to-read account of the strange 1980s in a small town in New York state.

The Kinderhook Creature and Beyond: A Person Reminiscence relates strange times in the 1980s in not only Kinderhook, New York but all along the Hudson River valley mostly from the personal recollections of Bruce G. Hallenbeck along with reports from his family and complete strangers.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is one of mysteries greatest cases from one of, if not the, greatest writers of the genre and it’s been adapted numerous times in film, television, and other genres. Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie’s best-known Hercule Poirot mystery novels with a compelling crime on a passenger train stuck in a snowstorm in Yugoslavia that looks to be connected to a dark crime in the United States and a dozen suspects that keep readers guessing until the end.

After solving a mystery in French colonial Syria for the military there, Poirot hears news of a ongoing case in England he quickly arranges a spot on the next coach to Calais thanks to his friend the direction of the passenger train company. Once on board, Poirot notes the number of passengers and their various origins. The next day one of them is murdered while the train is stopped thanks to a snowdrift, Poirot is asked to investigate the crime as the Yugoslav police don’t put officers on trains. This is the setup as the Poirot looks to find the answer, which thanks to the cultural zeitgeist I was spoiled to the ending a long time ago but a part of the joy of reading mysteries is figuring out how the protagonist figures it out based on the clues the author gives. After finishing the book, I can see why it is just a classic in the mystery genre and a page-turner to boot. Unlike the previous Poirot novel that I read, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, this was written in the third-person and I enjoyed seeing more Poirot as a character. Frankly a great read and just shows I need to read some of Poirot in the future.

Murder on the Orient Express is one of, if not the, most famous of Hercule Poirot’s cases and just shows why Agatha Christie is seen as the “Queen of Mystery”. A great read from beginning to end.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Ordeal of the Union, Volume Two: A House Dividing, 1852-1857 by Allan Nevins

Ordeal of the Union, Vol 2: A House Dividing, 1852-57 by Allan Nevins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Compromise in politics is not clean, nobody gets a 100% of what they want but to get some what they do and to keep peace they’re willing to endure something they dislike, but when one side decides to betray the other…hell hath no fury. Ordeal of the Union, Volume Two: A House Dividing, 1852-1857 is the second of Allan Nevins’ eight volume series on the lead to and history of the American Civil War with the focus on how a compromise to keep the peace was undermined by one of its architects and how all concerned reacted.

Nevins begins the volume by introducing the factor that he believed upset the hard fought and crafted Compromise of 1850 between North and South, Franklin Pierce. A dark horse candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1852 that benefited from being seen as the candidate that supported “the Compromise” only to show his fickleness and weakness by appointing those on either side of the anti-Compromise North and South into his administration thus sowing the seeds of discord. With a weak President potentially causing a rift in the party along with various economic factors at stake, Stephen Douglas brought further the Kansas-Nebraska Bill which shattered the Compromise he helped pass, destroy the Whig Party while dividing the Democratic and bringing furth the Republicans, and causing bloodshed on the plains of Kansas. Nevins shows how a weak man, another in a line of such men to occupy the White House, allowed the nation to literally begin killing over the future of slavery in the nation just a few years after it appeared everyone had peacefully agreed on a ‘final’ settlement. But while the domestic situation was tearing a part, internationally the United States looked incompetent as its ambassadors in Europe made fools of themselves while private citizens waged wars of conquest in various Latin American nations. Over the course of one Presidential term, the nation went from peaceful to threatening to tear itself apart when the election of 1856 saw the nation decide upon the one candidate that looked like he would bring peace and unity back to the nation, James Buchanan, surely things would be looking up.

Ordeal of the Union, Volume Two reveals how the United States unraveled so quickly towards civil war thanks to the poor judgment of one individual compounded by another. Allan Nevins explores not only the political, but the economic and cultural situations in both North and South which revealed shows the two halves of the nation apparently becoming two, as if a clash was becoming unavoidable.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Asylum by Una McCormack

Asylum by Una McCormack
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Federation is going to have trade negotiations with Chionians scheduled to be on board the Enterprise, however it turns out the Chionians have internal divisions that will make things difficult not only for negotiations but for First Officer Una Chin-Riley. Asylum by Una McCormack is the second book featuring the characters from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in the novelizations surrounding one of the latest Star Trek television series.

Taking place after the events the second season episode, “Ad Astra per Aspera”—and maybe “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” as well—the book follows Lt. Commander “Number One” Una Chin-Riley in present-day and in her senior year at the academy, the Chionian ambassador Linchar, and two Euxhana in flashbacks. The story is basic for the franchise with the Federation having negotiations with what turns out to be the dominate ethnicity of a planet that is suppressing the minority’s cultural heritage and one of the main characters has interacted with said minority in their past, then said minority appears to be doing things to disrupt the talks. Overall, it was well written, adds depth to several of the main characters of the series—Number One, Christopher Pike, and Pelia—while also creating some good secondary characters. However there were some pet peeves I couldn’t get over, the first was Number One as a senior at the Academy making a commitment to help support a refugee family only to back out when it hurts her studies even though she has a full schedule and already doing extracurricular activities when there was no way a senior about to graduate and officially join Starfleet would have made this mistake at this point in their life. The second was inferring that Pike and tangentially Number One inspired Pelia to create the Kobayashi Maru test at the Academy, I mean why? Not everything in the lore needs to be explained as having been created by events in a prequel or by a character in said prequel, sometimes it can be created by a nobody and never revealed as to the reason. While those two things annoyed me, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book so if you’re a fan of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and want to get into the novelizations this is recommended.

Asylum is a good example of media tie-in novels, Una McCormack nails the present-day voices of the characters, and the overall story reads like a good episode.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Rights of Man by Thomas Paine

Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The French Revolution brought about various reactions across the Channel in Britain, especially after the war in America however the split between English supporters of the American cause in-between supporters and reactionaries against the French Revolution brought about one of the most famous counterrevolution pamphlets of all time and then came the response. Rights of Man by Thomas Paine is a series of essays first to counter Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France and then to propose reforms of the English government.

The first part of the book directly answers Burke’s counter-revolution argument with Paine positing that popular revolution is permissible when a government does not safeguard the natural rights of its people. The defense of the French Revolution is expertly done by Paine then he highlights and counters what he perceives to be the weakness of Burke’s argument of hereditary wisdom by the assertion—with examples—of how wisdom does not translate from one generation to another in a monarchy so how could it do so in a whole class. The second part of Paine’s book, which was published a year later than the first, is where the essays start deviating from the defending the French Revolution which was the premise to reforming the English government. While some of Paine’s thoughts and ideas are good, his delving into tax policy and the like it’ll made me wonder why I’m reading Wealth of Nations again. Admittedly I didn’t read Burke’s Reflections before reading Paine, a major oversight, but given that Paine awaited Burke’s response while dismissing lesser writers’ efforts to counter his initial publication—during the time between Parts 1 and 2—I will assume that Paine accurately portrayed Burke’s thesis. Given this assumption, Part 1 is a well written rebuttal to Burke and good defense of the ideals of the early French Revolution. However, the second half of the book and its essays touching on a wide range of subjects that Paine attempts to connect with his theme in an effort to advocate a reform to English system of government to be more like the American republican and French constitutional monarchy forms that the late 18th Century Revolutions had produced to that point, is where things feel scattered and the thrust of Paine’s arguments slacken. Yet, one can’t deny Paine’s way with words especially in defense of causes he believes in.

Rights of Man by Thomas Paine is a defense of the ideals of the early French Revolution against counter-revolutionary arguments by reactionary aristocratic defenders of the “status quo”, when focused it’s very good reading.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Star Wars Adventures, Volume 3: Endangered by Delilah S. Dawson & Sholly Fisch

Star Wars Adventures, Vol. 3: Endangered by Delilah S. Dawson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Star Wars Adventures, Volume 3: Endangered combines three issues of the comic that featured main stories focused on Rose Tico from The Last Jedi and the crew of the Ghost from Star Wars Rebels. “Rose Knows” is fine for what it is, and Ros is portrayed better than how Rian Johnson writes her in the film. The titular story of the volume features the crew of the Ghost on a mission to save a rare bird from being taken to the Emperor’s menagerie for a planet that view it necessary for things to grow. Having seen a few episodes of Star Wars Rebels, “Endangered” reads like what I imagine a script for the show would be and the art appears to be accurate as well, a surprise given the all-ages demographic. The are three Tales from Wild Space that features a young Anakin Skywalker in “Podracer’s Rescue, Nien Numb in “Look Before You Leap”, and a young Jawa in “Gonk!”. While all three short stories were at least good, I’ll admit I purchased this for “Gonk!” written and drawn by Otis Frampton who had drawn random Jawa images and unofficial little comic strips for years prior to getting this opportunity to do a short story that would appear under the official Star Wars banner. Overall, it’s a nice little volume of stories set in the galaxy far far away.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Neuromancer by William Gibson

Neuromancer by William Gibson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In the future the line between humanity and machine is getting blurred thanks to cybernetic implants that allow people to enter cyberspace for both positive and nefarious activities then there is artificial intelligence that at any moment could go from machine to human. Neuromancer by William Gibson was a science fiction classic from its publication that became the go to example of the cyberpunk subgenre.

I’m not a picky reader and I’m willing to follow any character whether good or bad or doing very nefarious things to others or having deplorable personal habits, and with caveat I can say the main character of Case was frankly boring as hell. In fact, no character was interesting save Molly even though she was seen from Case perspective and frankly I wish she would have been the main character even though she didn’t enter cyberspace. Honestly, I didn’t understand Gibson’s vision of cyberspace until the latter half of the book when Case was in it a lot and it got easier to figure out. So it can be no surprise that I really didn’t get into the book until roughly two-thirds of the way through when things were building up to the climax that in the end was meh. Maybe if I had read this book closer to when it was published it might have been more impactful but given the slow start then the rapid climb in anticipation to an indifferent ending I don’t understand the hype for the book.

Neuromancer made the cyberpunk subgenre and William Gibson a major science fiction author, however to me I don’t understand the hype for the book.

View all my reviews