What are we reading?

[Staggerwing]

Axis of Time was awesome. He's written a trilogy of novellas set in the 50's that seems to be setting up for another series.

His After America series was also well done.

+1
I've read both the Axis of Time series and After America.
The former did have a somewhat abrupt jump between the second and third book, almost as if the author had originally planned several more but then decided to wrap it all up. Yet then came the novellas...
The After America series definitely left the door open for a fourth book.

For those of you who are used to reading alt-history written by guys like turtledove and Conroy, you may find Birmigham's style a little more gritty. He also Tuckerizes quite a bit in his books.

I've yet to read the Stalin's Hammer novellas. Soon...

[bbmike]

Axis of Time was awesome. He's written a trilogy of novellas set in the 50's that seems to be setting up for another series.

His After America series was also well done.

+1
I've read both the Axis of Time series and After America.
The former did have a somewhat abrupt jump between the second and third book, almost as if the author had originally planned several more but then decided to wrap it all up. Yet then came the novellas...
The After America series definitely left the door open for a fourth book.

For those of you who are used to reading alt-history written by guys like turtledove and Conroy, you may find Birmigham's style a little more gritty. He also Tuckerizes quite a bit in his books.

I've yet to read the Stalin's Hammer novellas. Soon...

Oh my god! You made a Wilson Tucker reference! One of my favorite authors of all time. So few seem to know his work.

[Pinetree]

Axis of Time was awesome. He's written a trilogy of novellas set in the 50's that seems to be setting up for another series.

His After America series was also well done.

+1
I've read both the Axis of Time series and After America.
The former did have a somewhat abrupt jump between the second and third book, almost as if the author had originally planned several more but then decided to wrap it all up. Yet then came the novellas...
The After America series definitely left the door open for a fourth book.

For those of you who are used to reading alt-history written by guys like turtledove and Conroy, you may find Birmigham's style a little more gritty. He also Tuckerizes quite a bit in his books.

I've yet to read the Stalin's Hammer novellas. Soon...

I'm part way into the second, Cairo. Rome was pretty good with it's description of life there, an alt-version of Cold War Berlin. I bought the omnibus edition of all 3 for kindle.

[Staggerwing]

I picked up the kindle omnibus as well. Just have not gotten to it yet.

[Crossroads]

Picking up some classics, reading Company Commander now. I like his writing style very much, no bullsh*t, one day he just appears in France to lead his Coy. Read only the first few chapters, things are sure to pick up soon. First deployment to a quiet Sigfried line outpost, near a place called St Vith.

Nothing should happen near St Vith in winter 1944, I'm told.

Was a nice read, recommended. It was written in 1947, so while there's perhaps better "Coy commander" books around from modern era, for instance Nathaniel Flick's (of the Generation Kill fame) "One Bullet Away", Company Commander painted a very rich picture of a very young Captain leading a Coy made of citizen soldiers, from October '44 to end of war, being afraid under barrage, cheering when some one else got the call to go into harm's way, yet performed their duties when the call came.

Next, back to if not sci-fi then alternative reality with

.

January 1945: As Hitler's Germany and Tojo's Japan collapse, General George Marshall dies unexpectedly days before the critical Yalta Conference. His successor as US Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, flies halfway around the world to butt heads with Josef Stalin and change history.

The first a couple of chapters done, Marshall had his heart attack, and Mac Arthur's left the PTO towards Jalta, already with his list of keepers and leavers, Ike being in the latter category by the way. Ha.

[bayonetbrant]

some of y'all I'm sure would be "reading" this, huh?

[airboy]

I'm halfway through Freehold by Michael Z. Williamson.  You can get the ebook for free.
It has held my interest.  Sort of a Libertarian Paradise with awesome people in the Military.  Sort of Starship Troopers politically with a lot more sex.

I'm close to finishing Tank Commander by Bill Close.  It is an ok WW2 Memoir about a Brit Tanker who got 8 tanks shot out from under him.  He was a tanker in the 1930s.  First couple of "battles" he hardly fired a shot in the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment who were defeated around Calais and in Greece and lost all of their equipment.

I'm almost through The Dark Valley by Brendon which is a very depressing book about the major nations in the 1930s (UK, France, USSR, USA, Japan, China) and how totally screwed up they were.  It is interesting, but very depressing.

I finished the first book in The Laundry series by Charles Stross - The Atrocity Archives.  It goes better as an audio book than a live read.  It is a really interesting mash up of Cthulhu, horrible bureaucracy, and Harry Dresden.  I highly recommend it.   

[Crossroads]

Next, back to if not sci-fi then alternative reality with

.

January 1945: As Hitler's Germany and Tojo's Japan collapse, General George Marshall dies unexpectedly days before the critical Yalta Conference. His successor as US Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, flies halfway around the world to butt heads with Josef Stalin and change history.

The first a couple of chapters done, Marshall had his heart attack, and Mac Arthur's left the PTO towards Jalta, already with his list of keepers and leavers, Ike being in the latter category by the way. Ha.

Finished the book, the author's written a few military histories of and it tells, he built the alt reality quite nicely tweaking things a bit here and there - having had MacArthur take over first of course. He's obviously building up for his book two, where Patton gets his fight vs Zukov apparently, here the story finishes just as the US and Soviet forces close on each other. So all things still peaceful between the sides, if just.

It could have kept a better focus imho though, the number of POV characters just keeps adding up. Then again, he seems again to build for his sequels, it is obvious things are going to stay heated in PTO as well, not just in ETO.

For 0.99 not a bad read, at all, I'll give it a solid 3,5 stars out of five. I'll likely get the sequel once they come out. 

[Gusington]

Began reading The Reivers - The Story of the Border Reivers by Alistair Moffat.

[bob48]

 :bd:

[Gusington]

It's some neighbors you've got to the north here, Sir. Quite the cast of characters.

[bob48]

Indeed it is.

"Oi, you in the kilt. Put that bloody cow down and bugger off"

[Sir Slash]

Oi, that's no kilt. It's me Mum's drapes. And, the bloody cow started it!

[BanzaiCat]

I finished Invasion: Alaska finally. It was okay. It had moments but I could tell the author was trying way too hard to be like Tom Clancy in Red Storm Rising; his ability to weave narrative about weapons systems was halting and juvenile, but I stuck with it. The ending was rushed and there were some head-scratching moments in it, too.

I get a freebie every month with Prime, so I went ahead and got Invasion: California, the next one in the series. It starts off a LOT better than any part of Invasion: Alaska, so here's hoping it continues to do well. I'm hoping the author improved his prose significantly.

[Toonces]

I recently finished A Blaze of Glory followed immediately by A Chain of Thunder, both by Jeff Shaara.  Not bad books, but man, I just do not groove on Shaara's writing style in large doses.  There's another book in the series released, but I'm sort of full of the way he writes.  I swear, every scene Grant and Sherman are lighting up cigars.  I mean, I know they smoked a lot of cigars, but it gets tiresome to read how in every scene they're "reaching for a cigar, face surrounded by the warming smoke" etc., etc.

With those out of the way, I've gone back to finish Shelby Foote's third in his Civil War Trilogy.  Also trying to finish The Rules of the Game, but I had to start from the beginning since it's been so long since I put it down.

Finally, I've decided upon Les Miserables as my summer reading project.  I'm 20% through, so I think I might actually finish it...only like 800 pages to go.   ::)