QuoteHaving seen FSN's note on Craven, I went and bought the first three.
...
OK novel but not very compelling to me.

Agreed. I may buy the second one - but not yet.

Besides, it's historically wrong. It says that Craven was sloshing about in the wine barges, but doesn't mention Lt Roberts of the 16th Light Dragoons whose exploits are described in "The Road to Oporto". 



I'm actually reading the first of the Witcher books The Last Wish. This is somewhat of a departure for me. In the 1980s, when fantasy was cool, I read Moorcock, Robert E Howard and, of course, Tolkein. Over the last few years I have tried to re-read may of these and find no great joy in the reading. I even re-read Stephen Donaldson and didn't progress beyond the first book. Why? Not sure. I find Robert E Howard the most readable, and I suspect that is because Conan is a person dealing with life in a fantastical world, whereas there are larger issues at stake with Moorcock and Tolkein.

It's why my favourite superheroes are Batman and Green Arrow. One extraordinary man, fighting an intimate battle against the evil around them. When it gets to Superman defeating alien invasion, I'm out.

The Witcher (at least this one) is the story of a jobbing monster hunter. The magic is present but understated, the monsters are mostly natural creatures who inconvenience the humans around them, so must be dealt with. Either that or cursed or flawed humans.

There is a certain acceptance though. I liked the bit where the Witcher describes a troll living under a bridge. If he wasn't paid, he would attack the legs of travellers, but the villagers didn't want him killed. The troll maintained the bridge better than humans would and the price he charged was reasonable.

The Last Wish is episodic and weaves back and forth over a number of tales. There is much of the fairy tale in them; a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and a disturbing take on Snow White stick in the mind.   

This is great stuff. It's like a fantasy version of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, a jobbing killer with a code, but all too fallible.

Two gripes: one is that the fight scenes are not well written. Some feel like an afterthought, but it's a mild moan.  Secondly (and this may be because I'm not Polish) I did feel like a bestiary would have been useful.

Enjoying the book, but not tempted to the games. I did watch the first episode of the TV series, and if the night is long and dark, and sleep will not come for the mind is troubled with painful memory, then I may try again.

https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Category:The_Witcher_bestiary 

We tried the Witcher series. It was just Cavill being his usual wooden self. Apparently that's intentional, but just as with his Superman and pretty much enter corpus, it's dull as dishwater. All the charisma of a planl, even if he is king of the nerds and the God-Emperor.

I like The Witcher books and enjoyed the one episode (Episode 1) I saw of the TV series. Seems to me Cavill is well cast as Geralt of Rivia.

Loved the first Witcher game, didn't like the second, haven't tried the third.

Quote from: Ithoriel on 14 January 2023, 12:26:26 PMI like The Witcher books and enjoyed the one episode (Episode 1) I saw of the TV series. Seems to me Cavill is well cast as Geralt of Rivia.

Loved the first Witcher game, didn't like the second, haven't tried the third.

I'm told he's very well cast, as Geralt is essentially a plank of wood with a sword, but Cavill having the charisma and magnetism of a plank of wood turned it into a snoozefest. Which is sad, as I rather wnated to like it!

Finished "The U.S. Marines And Amphibious War" by Jeter A. Isely and Philip A Crowl.  It was published in 1951 and is a great history of the development of amphibious war.  It goes through all of the Central Pacific island invasions and shows how tactics adopted to the Japanese defenses.  It also shows that the Japanese adapted from the banzai charges in the early fights to a dug in defense, primarily due to the overwhelming firepower of the US.

Numbers of ships, planes and troops were astounding as the war went on.  Support craft types and uses, fast battleships and old battleships, tank landing craft, command ships all are discussed.  Okinawa rivals D-Day for size and had to sail much longer distances.  The breakdown of the campaigns is detailed and very interesting.

For example the chapter on Iwo Jima, Chapter X The Supreme Test, Iwo Jima, breaks down as follows:
First a general description of why Iwo was invaded.
1. Strategy, Command, and Planning Preliminary Fires
2. Troop Training, Embarkation, and Rehearsals
3. Delivery of the Preparatory Fires
4. Narrative of the Fighting
  The Beach Assault
  Kuribayashi, His Men, And His Tactics
  The Capture Of Suribachi
  The Contest In The Northeast
5. Tactical and Amphibious Aspects
  Artillery, Naval Gunfire, And Air Support Ashore
  American Tactics And Weapons
  Supply, Beach Logistics, Replacements, And Medical Activity
6. The Significance of Iwo Jima

The chapter goes from page 432 to 531, so very detailed.  During the fighting each committed battalion had a destroyer in direct support.

The book is obviously Marine-centric, but discusses the issues with the army and navy, which in most cases went smoothly.  One beef of the Marines with the navy the Marines wanted their own Marine pilots to support them with ground attack.  Also their request was to have the Marine squadrons on escort carriers that the ground commander could control, but that took almost the whole war to accomplish.

If you are interested in the Pacific War and island hopping, I heartily recommend this book.  I see it is on Amazon as a Kindle release for $4.99.

And finished "Craven's War: Against All Odds", book 3 by Nick S Thomas.  After Talavera Craven is given a task to take an arms convoy across Spain, creating havoc, to supply the guerillas with arms.  Then when he gets to the coast in Northern Spain, pick up an arms shipment and return. Little fights and description of swordplay (as well as descriptions of the swords.

Not planning to get any more of these.  Ok but not gripping.

Finished "Motivation In War: The Experience of Common Soldiers in Old-Regime Europe" by Ilya Berkovich.

An interesting book with many first person examples of common soldiers.  It tends to refute the thinking that common soldiers were not patriotic and were only ruled (disciplined/sent into battle/prevented of deserting) by draconian measures.  As more time has gone by more first person accounts of private soldiers have been found and explored, leading to realizing soldiers then (early to late 1700's, early 1800's) had similar motivations to soldiers later.  Not much difference between old regime and French revolutionary soldiers according to the book.

There is honor, patriotism, allegiance to king and country and to mess mates, all shown in the narrative.

"Tank Men" by Robert Kershaw.

I am enjoying it a lot, and also finding it useful food for thought. It has some issues which I won't go into here – as a summary I tend to agree with most of the 3 & 4 star reviews on Amazon and think the 1 and 2 star reviews are unfair.

2 points in particular stand out:

1) I can't shake the feeling that no set of rules I have seen in the past 40 years capture anything like what I'm reading (although the more abstracted approach in BKC comes closest to some of it). Maybe there is something that could be done to address that... but given my second point maybe that's not a bug but a feature!

2) There is some very grim stuff indeed described – it does give me pause to think about why I have been obsessed with tanks and tank warfare ever since I built my first Airfix kit...

Finished "Brute: The Life f Victor Krulak, U.S.Marine" by Robert Coram.  This is a well written book.  Krulak was only 5'-4" and got his nickname when he was at Annapolis.  He liked it (it fit his personality) so kept using it.  He retired as a LTG but did not get to be Commandant of the Marines, having ticked off LBJ by telling him LBJ's Vietnam scenario was getting people killed and would not win the war, as well as he said LBJ would lose the next Presidential election.

Krulak was instrumental in the development of the Higgins boat through working with Higgins.  Krulak had been in China when the Japanese attacked China and landed at Shanghai.  He chartered a boat, went to watch the landing and and personally sketched and took pictures of the Japanese landing craft.  He was very up to date on all the marine tactics for amphibious landings and was very wary of the army and navy attempts to curtail the Marine Corps.  Truman was also against an expanded Maine Corps and said they were only the Navy's policemen.

Krulak was involved in the banana wars, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. He also was one of the first to utilize the helicopter for assault landings.  He had three sons, two in the Marines and one who washed out of boot camp and became a priest.  That son, his oldest, eventually became a Navy chaplain with the Marines. One of his sons did become Commandant.

Quote"Tank Men" by Robert Kershaw.


1) I can't shake the feeling that no set of rules I have seen in the past 40 years capture anything like what I'm reading (although the more abstracted approach in BKC comes closest to some of it). Maybe there is something that could be done to address that... but given my second point maybe that's not a bug but a feature!

It's a while since I read this book - which bit of what the book describes, do you feel rules fail to pick up?


In my view most rules make tanks too good as they focus on the hard technical stats, and tend to fail to account for the practical issues and the crew - and the challenges of the crew interacting with the hardware. 

Finished a little booklet "Civil War Small Arms" an NRA American Rifleman reprint which looks as though it was done ion the 1950's.

Union revolvers, with pictures, number manufactured and factory location.  A small article on John Brown's Colt revolver.  A short piece on explosive bullets, an article of carbines and two articles by Jac Weller. In these articles in fires the various Confederate shoulder arms to test their accuracy.  I remember buying and really appreciating his books on Wellington in India, the Peninsula and Waterloo.  At the time (early to mid 60's) they were very informative. 

Quote from: flamingpig0 on 18 September 2022, 01:32:12 AMThe Persians? 

Just bought it on your recommendation

Hah! So what did you think of it?

I prefer to use the library service for reading copies.

Quote from: hammurabi70 on 30 January 2023, 11:36:47 AMHah! So what did you think of it?

I prefer to use the library service for reading copies.

Got it on kindle
I found it a bit of a hard read but thought the general conclusions sound. A good recommendation.

Finished "Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia" by M. J. Whitley.

Just as it says, all cruisers in the world during WWII; many photos and deck plans.  Got me to pull out my 1:2400 ships to see how many I needed to paint still (a bunch).  But not yet.

Returning to Rebels and Patriots (Osprey Games).