The writing was pedestrian, the story uninspired, the plot ludicrous, the characters one-dimensional, and the series overall reads like a D&D adventure. But what can I say? I really enjoyed this book! It is refreshing these days to read a heroic fantasy in which the good guys are unambiguously good and the ending is unambiguously …
Category: General
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/03/12/rage-of-a-demon-king-by-raymond-feist/
Mar 03 2014
The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme
This is an outstanding work of historical scholarship. I am by now quite familiar with the history of the late republic and the ensuing Augustan Principate, but Syme’s meticulous analysis goes beyond anything I could ever attempt. Syme sees the the overthrow of the republic and the path to monarchy as a necessary evil, an …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/03/03/the-roman-revolution-by-ronald-syme/
Feb 26 2014
The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 by Eric Hobsbawm
The French Revolution is only a secondary theme in this book; the primary theme is the social upheaval and unrest caused by the Industrial Revolution. As a Marxist, Hobsbawm sees this as THE major turning point in history, which unfortunately did not lead to the world-wide revolution that Marxists believed would materialize. Nevertheless, even the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/02/26/the-age-of-revolution-1789-1848-by-eric-hobsbawm/
Feb 01 2014
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer
This is an outstanding book. Why do journalists invariably write history better than professional historians? Many treatments of Nazi Germany treat their subject with a sterile and bloodless lack of feeling; not this book. Shirer gives the criminals their due. Yet through it all there is the almost supernatural phenomenon of Hitler, this nobody from …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/02/01/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-by-william-shirer/
Jan 14 2014
The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson
The Italian campaign has been neglected by most World War II historians; Rick Atkinson brings it vividly to life. It is a story of almost perpetual tactical and strategic blunders, in which the steady application of brute force rather than brilliant leadership or maneuvering decided the contest. The rivalry among generals was horrific, and there …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/01/14/the-day-of-battle-by-rick-atkinson/
Jan 03 2014
Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles by Richard Dowden
EXCELLENT book, confirms my opinion that the best writers of history are non-historians. African history is mostly a depressing subject, but this book was so well written that I could not put it down. There is a good dose of white liberal guilt sprinkled throughout the narrative, as well as a typical tendency to blame …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/01/03/africa-altered-states-ordinary-miracles-by-richard-dowden/
Nov 14 2013
A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
There’s not much I can say about this book without giving away spoilers, but I will say that it is the best one in the series so far. And I will give away at least one spoiler, just because it’s so good: Cersei finally gets her long awaited come-uppance. And Daenerys…oh, Daenerys…my heart beats for …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/11/14/a-dance-with-dragons-by-george-r-r-martin/
Nov 11 2013
A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
I read this book twenty years ago, but on rereading it I got much more out of it. This survey begins with the pre-Socratics and ends with John Dewey; it does not include the existentialists or the post-modernists, who were not yet influential when this book was written (1943). Russell gives a synopsis of each …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/11/11/a-history-of-western-philosophy-by-bertrand-russell/
Nov 08 2013
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson
Not sure why this book is such a sensation; I found most of it pretty boring, and the author obviously enjoyed writing about the rape and murder of women WAY too much. I don’t think I care to read the other two books in the series, but maybe my mood will change after I get …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/11/08/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-by-stieg-larrson/
Oct 19 2013
With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge
Reading this gut-wrenching memoir has definitely cured me of any desire to be a hero. E.B. Sledge writes graphically but unaffectedly of war and its horrors, and of the heroic young men who fought against the Japanese in the Second World War. The account is inspiring, of admiration if not exactly emulation. Particularly gruesome is …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/10/19/with-the-old-breed-by-e-b-sledge/
Al Singh
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Professor X
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The Shire