NOVELS: "Starship Troopers In Passing" (16 November 2007)

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Top: Starship Troopers (SST), the novel.

Hi All,

I just finished reading Starship Troopers (SST), the novel and what a great book it is. SST was a groundbreaking novel in its time and is arguably the first book to describe many sci-fi memes including power armor and insectile aliens. But beyond the entertaining science fiction story is much of what really earned Robert A. Heinlein his name: a very intriguing discussion of current social conditions and how future societies may deal with them, which is at the heart of sci-fi as literature. It's where Isaac Asimov made much of his name as well. Reading SST, the novel, really can inspire one to consider current questions of nationality, citizenship, civic virtue, education, military organization, and many others. And SST certainly wasn't the first novel in which Heinlein examined American society... many of his other novels question education, social values, and many other cornerstones of societies around the world. In fact, much of the writing reminds me of the philosophical writings of Edmund Burke.

Here are some ideas that SST examines through the guise of science fiction:
- The basis on which a successful State establishes citizenship.
- What is civic virtue and how should it be instilled in succeeding generations.
- How should successful military leadership function.
- What the ratio between teeth (the fighting edge of an army) to tail (logistics) in a successful military should ideally be.
- How to inspire the fighting man.
- One way how to solve the natural rivalries that often exist between different branches of a military.

It's amazing just how much SST, the novel, has inspired in the way of pop culture...

Link to the Wiki article for the book here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_troopers

Link for Edmund Burke here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

TOP: The first SST film was relatively well received.

TOP: The second SST film was widely panned.

SST has spawned two films and a third is coming out. I recommend enjoying the first for entertainment value although with the knowledge that the underpinnings of the novel and film are like night and day. The film is more about fascism and a negative critique of existing democracies at heart with the central message of destroying them while the novel was much more about a critique of Western-style democracy with an idea of reclaiming what is good about democracies. The second film was universally panned and very few have had anything good to say about it. I found it rather mediocre although I enjoyed it with the caveat that I'm a dedicated sci-fi fan.

Wiki link to the first SST film here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_%28film%29

Wiki link to the second SST film here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_2:_Hero_of_the_Federation

TOP: This SST cartoon series later inspired a miniatures game.

The first SST film inspired the above Roughnecks animated series, which did fairly well and went on to later inspire a miniatures game. The animated series was definitely made with a younger audience in mind and avoids blood, gore, and death, which more or less emasculates the novel. While the computer animation is stunning, don't expect much from the storyline. And if you decide you want to buy a copy of the series, go for the multi-DVD compilation set rather than trying to collect each plot arc individually.

Wiki link to the animated Roughnecks adaptation of SST here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roughnecks:_Starship_Troopers_Chronicles

TOP: The original 1976 SST wargame was and is quite popular.

TOP: The 2005 Mongoose Publishing SST game never picked up in my area.

The classic Avalon Hills 1976 SST game is a classic and still fun to play. It can be picked up relatively cheaply on the secondary market although I've seeen it fetch relatively high prices on the secondary market. The newer 2005 28mm SST minis game from Mongoose Publishing never really picked up in my area and the latest 2007 SST Evolution game hasn't either. I've played both games and had a small part in playtesting the Evolution rule set and I like them, but I prefer sci-fi skirmish gaming above the company / small squad level so apart from enjoying the odd game at gaming conventions, I haven't extensively played the game. There's a relatively small group in the Bay Area that plays it, but I almost never see it local to Sacto anymore. And if you prefer the novel to the film, you're better off with the classic 1976 SST game from Avalon Hills, which IS based on the novel, rather the Mongoose game, which is based on the animated series.

Link to the SST minis game here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers:_The_Miniatures_Game

BGG link to the 2005 SST minis game here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/15435

BGG link to the classic 1976 SST board game here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/670

I certainly haven't done more than touch upon the many pop culture forms that SST has taken... It's also appeared as a graphic novel, in several Japanese anime series, and elsewhere, but I endeavored in this post to cover a rough selection of what's out there that may be on interest from a gamer's perspective.

Keep on gaming!

Have a great Friday!

Shalom,

Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

NOVELS: "World War Z" & Tripod's "Stockpiling Weaponry!"

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Hi All,

Before I share my brief review of the New York Times zombie best seller "World War Z" by Max Brooks, I'm going to share a far more entertaining Tripod music video / comedy skit. This Tripod skit nearly captures in roughly a minute and a half what all 342 pages of "World War Z" does. And the message boils down as thus:

1. Evil "NeoCons" have crippled the world, which makes us vulnerable to zombie invasion.

2. True "hippie-like progressives" can save the world with a proper Socialist ordering to society, multiculturalism, and a new nation-state in Israel called United Palestine... once all of the "NeoCons" have all been eaten by zombies...

3. War is bad and evil... unless dictators or Socialists start them.

4. Americans suck, white people suck, Christians suck... unless they are "multicultural progressives" who can denounce the troika of Western evil: whiteness, American "cowboy" capitalism, and the Judeo-Christian underpinnings of American Christianity.

5. The US military are a bunch of wasted, violent morons. All of them suffer from post traumatic battle syndrome, Vietnam flashbacks, or brush war jingoism.

6. And, oh yeah, Jews suck, but the only the religious and/or Zionist ones who don't want to be a part of "United Palestine."

7. And last but not least, the most important point:

"Bush sucks!"

"And is singlehandedly the cause...
...of ALL of the world's problems"

Well, maybe the Tripod song doesn't say all that, but I wanted something funny to share in an otherwise depressing book review. And unfortunately, the book isn't much more subtle than the seven points I've outlined above. Max Brooks had a political axe to grind when he wrote this book and while he avoids naming names, it's very clear what "lessons" he wanted to shove down our throats while making a quick buck off the zombie fad. Seriously, I bet they'll make a translation of this book mandatory reading at political reeducation AKA indoctrination camps in Communist China... it's just about that bad.

If you're a big fan of blaming America and its Presidents as the "root cause" of all evil in the world, or at least most of it... this book will probably be your cup of tea. If not, it will take so much effort to wade through the tripe that you'll probably quit reading the book long before you reach the end of it. I found it tiring after about page fifty... I've read mathematics text books that were less tiresome.

My one big compliment for Max Brooks is that he did some good research albeit through his "rose-coloured political glasses." The references to other nations and places capture a snapshot of those places that "feels right," even when he often gets them wrong. As I mentioned, he often mentions lots of foreign-language terms without ever really getting it right. I can't speak to all the places he mentions, but I can speak to many of the places I have lived or been such as his mention of the "ship yards" where old freighters are taken to be recycled into metal scrap. I think Max Brooks may have mistaken India for Pakistan, which is where most ships go to be broken down to recycled scrap. Small point, but it's symptomatic of most of the novel: "feels right," but is subtly off. Max Brook's zombies though are spot on and very consistently imagineered throughout the novel. He spent some time well creating his zombies, physical characteristics, behavior patterns, and all. Congratulations AKA Mazel Tov to him on that point... if only there were more.

And, probably the other major theme of the book, after anti-Americanism, is PESSIMISM. In Max Brook's apocalyptic fantasy, no one can get anything right until they begin to see the light of Socialism and new the "new societal ordering" that has, in reality, failed in every society that it has ever been tried in from the failed Communist States of the former USSR, to Red China, to Pol Pot's Cambodia, Mugabwe's tragedy of Zimbabwe, to Communist Vietnam, the gulags of North Korea, the prison state of Cuba, to the Bathist regimes in the Middle East and beyond. In the book, every kind of theme or meme whining about the shortcomings of Western society are trumpeted to the heavens: fundamentalist Christians, NRA "gun nuts," lazy Western white collar workers AKA management, NeoCons, a violent, corrupt military without enough ammo or common sense to "fight smart," and a whole laundry list of people and groups that "progressives" like Max Brooks blame for the ills of the world. Expect that theme to be repeated ad nauseum or maybe to put it a little more aptly: ad zombium.

OK. I've ranted enough...

The bottom line is that the book is mildly entertaining if you can get past the political messages that Max Brooks so obviously wants you to take away from this book.

Andy over at Little Lead Heroes wrote a much better review than I have. Check it out here:
http://www.littleleadheroes.com/archives/000733.html#000733

Have a great Sunday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

NOVELS: "Gregor The Overlander!"

. TOP: Suzanne Collins with a rat in Central Park.

Hi All,

I've always loved children's literature, from the simplest fairy tales to the epic yarns of Westerns, murder mysteries., fantasy and science fiction. My mother taught me from a young age to love reading and brought us by the library on a weekly basis if not more often. I remember knowing the librarian for first name (...her insistence and a luxury that few of the local neighborhood children were granted) and she knew mine. I remember many a fond time talking to her about books after school and having her guide me through the library until I started taking more books out of the adult section than the children's one. My parents also set an example for my sister and I in that they read quite often themselves. I have many fond memories of contentedly enjoying a good book in the peace and quiet of my childhood bedroom.

Some of the great books I remember from my childhood include:
The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings series by: J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Narnia & The Space Trilogy series by: C.S. Lewis.
The Prydain series by: Lloyd Alexander.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz series by: L. Frank Baum.

And the book most associated with younger generations has been:
Harry Potter by: J.K. Rowling

I have a few reservations about Harry Potter, but that could just be a generational thing... However, what I most appreciate about Harry Potter is that it's motivated a large number of children to read and pick up an interest in fantasy, a genre which I always felt as a teacher encouraged imagination, something in very short supply among the later generations that take video games, movie tie-in merchandise, and movie adaptations of books for granted. I've found it very common to speak with children these days who would rather watch the movie than read the book, which is 99.9% of the time, superior to the superficial movie scripts that get put out so often by Hollywood these days. Simply put, books lend themselves much better to a full, rich story that a movie can rarely match. However, movies are easier and don't require the vocabulary, time, and, most importantly, imagination that a simple viewing of a movie require.

A new series that I think bodes well for the newer generations is the "Gregor the Overlander" book series by Suzanne Collins. It's children literature at its' best with well developed, rich, believable characters in an interesting, fantasy environment. I was riveted to the pages of the novels for five books running and read them over the period of about a week and a half. Good stuff!

To learn more about the "Gregor the Overlander" book series laso known as "The Underland Chronicles," please check out this site from the publisher:
http://www.scholastic.com/titles/features/fantasy/gregoroverlander_rrr.asp

Or this one from the author:
http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/

Or this helpful one full of background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Underland_Chronicles

And now for a quick synopsis of the books without spoilers:

GREGOR THE OVERLANDER:
BOOK ONE IN THE UNDERLAND CHRONICLES

In this book, the reader is introduced to all of the main characters of the series including Gregor, a poor eleven-year-old boy from New York City, and his family including his precocious two-year-old sister, Boots. While doing laundry in his basement, he and his sister fall through a basement grate and find themselves in the world of the Underland, a place settled centuries earlier by Bartholomew of Sandwich, a noblemen formerly from Britain. Bartholomew of Sandwich escaped Britain to form a kingdom called Regalia under the streets and sewers of New York City, but simply settling the vast underground wasn't so easy a task as the Underland was already populated by a number of intelligent species that are far-off distant cousins to their relatives in the Overworld, giant speaking bats, massive cunning rats, tribal cockroaches and many more societies. Gregor discovers that Bartholomew of Sandwich left behind a number of riddle-like prophecies of which he is named. Gregor finds himself prisoner of the Regalians until he can fulfill the prophecy...

GREGOR AND THE PROPHECY OF BANE:
BOOK TWO IN THE UNDERLAND CHRONICLES

Gregor's previous adventures have earned him a place of respect and honor among the Regalians, who now have established a communication system between Gregor while he lives in the Overland and themselves in the Underland. Gregor's family struggles and his father falls ill and loses his job when a summons comes from Regalia. Gregor answers the summons and begins to train among the Regalians to become "The Warrior" his prophetic role in the prophecies of the half-mad riddle-prophecies of Bartholomew of Sandwich. After training for a bit, Gregor discovers that the rat kingdoms, the principal rivals of the humans of Regalia, are stirring and a rat prophecy has arisen that a rat deliverer has risen, a rat simply known as "The Bane"... Gregor sets off on a quest to find "The Bane," earn his title as "The Warrior," and hopefully avert war between the rats and Regalians... and it doesn't help when Gregor's father is taken captive by the rats...

GREGOR AND THE CURSE OF THE WARMBLOODS:
BOOK THREE IN THE UNDERLAND CHRONICLES

Another prophecy brings Gregor back to the Underland as Gregor finds the Rat King is again scheming to bring war to the Underland. A food shortage and a mysterious plague complicate the unrest among the kingdoms of the Underland as species becomes pitted again each other. Gregor sets off on a quest to find a cure for the plague and make peace among the species of the Underland that takes him to a rich jungle land full of carnivorous plants, giant rampaging, and a mystery or two from Gregor's previously unknown past... And it doesn't help that the rats have come to believe that one of their prophecies is to murder his baby sister, Boots...

GREGOR AND THE MARKS OF THE SECRET:
BOOK FOUR IN THE UNDERLAND CHRONICLES

Gregor's mother falls ill with the plague and remains bedridden in Regalia while the rest of Gregor's family finds themselves in increasingly dire straights with jobs, no money, and part of the family ill will a mysterious plague from the Underland. Gregor also finds himself running out of excuses why he's missed so much school... Only a friendly neighbor keeps his family fed, but who knows for how much longer a kindly old woman can hold down the fort... And meanwhile, the prophetic rat known as "The Bane" has grown increasingly massive and increasingly aware of his capacity to wreak dissent and destruction in the rat kingdom. the next thing Gregor knows, "The Bane" nearly kills him in an ambush and the human-allied mice kingdom of the nibblers has mysteriously disappeared. Gregor also finds himself growing, maturing, and finding himself attracted to Luxa, a princess of the Underland... Gregor struggles to survive in an Overland and an Underland in The Marks of the Secret...

GREGOR AND THE CODE OF CLAW:
BOOK FIVE IN THE UNDERLAND CHRONICLES

In the climactic finale of the Gregor the Overlander series, the Underland finally comes to full-fledged war with the rats and their allies aligning against the humans and theirs. Another of the half-mad riddle-prophecies of Bartholomew of Sandwich, the Prophecy of Time. It says that both the Bane and the Warrior will die, and that the Underlanders must break the cipher called the Code of Claw in order for humanity to survive. Gregor's attraction and consequent relationship to Luxa, a princess and the future queen of the Underland, increases as Gregor struggles to save his family, the humans of Regalia, and the entire Underland...

Great books! I highly recommend them to any fantasy lover and especially to yonger readers and those adults who still love childhood imagination!

Have a great Monday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

FILMS: "Armageddon"... Not Quite Bust'in Up The Planet...

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TOP: Armageddon, saving the world...

...from spiky steaming turd-shaped asteroids.

Hi All,

I tend to not be the most avid movie-goer... and I finally caught up to Armageddon, a 1998 "oldie & moldie" starring Bruce Willis and unfortunately featuring Ben "Wuss-boy" Affleck. The basic premise of the movie is that a giant asteroid is discovered hurdling towards the Earth on a collision path that will bring about an apocalyptic "planet killer" event like many scientists theorize ended the reign of the dinosaurs. And, of course, the only person who can save us is a burly oil driller played by Bruce Willis and his team of fellow "roughneck" drillers including the ever-annoying Ben Affleck. Billy Bob Thornton, puts in a good performance as a NASA administrator... and Liv Tyler acts pouty and annoying... as well as hot as is her prime talent.

TOP: The asteroid is spikey and Hollywood-set-looking...

The "Roughnecks" are played by a host of Hollywood "2nd stringers" including quite a few of them who have made their way into "leading man" roles almost a decade later. Among the better-known "Roughnecks":

Steve Buscemi: How this bug-eyed guy makes it in Hollywood is almost beyond me until I remembered that he has an excellent sense of comedic timing... and he doesn't fail in this flick with his comedic talents. Despite specializing in playing sleezeballs, he's likable and ends up both surviving the mission and being rewarded Hollywood-style with a trophy wife who just happens to be a stripper named "Molly Mounds." Only in Hollywood...

Michael Clark Duncan: This guy has become best-known for his role as the giant possessed black guy from Steven King's "The Green Mile." Despite being such a freakishly large man, he's likable as well.

William Fichtner: Will Fichtner has gone through a string of great roles including "Blackhawk Down" and the television series "Invasion." He plays a steely-faced Air Force colonel... pretty much his archetypal character. He will be playing a supporting role in the upcoming movie adaptation of the classic graphic novel "The Dark Knight."

Will Patton: Will Patton has gone onto to many "leading man" roles including as the coach in the very likable 2000 flick "Remember The Titans." His "down-South" accent give him a certain charisma...

Peter Stormare: Best-known for playing a crazy murderous nut in "Fargo," Peter Stormare plays a really stereotypical Russian cosmonaut in Armageddon. I can't blame him since the director undoubtedly wanted him to play such a lousy two-dimensional character. If the Soviet Union had really wanted to win the Cold War bad enough, they should have come up with a "Communist Hollywood" so they could make NASA look bad... although the whole "American cowboy" stereotype has persisted well enough...

Owen Wilson: Owen Wilson as just a pup back in 1998 and it shows because they knock off his character early in the film. He went on to make a number of bad comedies including several with Jackie Chan.

Here's an IMDB (International Movie Data Base) link to the film:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120591/

TOP: The "Roughnecks," men we should be...

...thankful that NASA has never put in space.

And the central plot device of a planet-destroying asteroid is a common-enough one... very popular in sci-fi novels. I've easily read a half a dozen or so novels with this theme including:

"The Forge of God" by Greg Bear:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forge_of_God

"The Hammer of God" by Arthur C. Clarke:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hammer_of_God

"Rendezvous With Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama

"Footfall" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footfall

"Lucifer's Hammer" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer%27s_Hammer

And lastly, here's a link to everything you could ever want to know about asteroids in science fiction, courtesy of Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_in_fiction#Collisions_with_Earth

Have a great Tuesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

NOVELS: "A Wrinkle In Time" Moves On...

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TOP: Madeleine L'Engle, may you rest in peace.

Hi All,

I just read some sad news in the NY Times:

Madeleine L’Engle, an author whose childhood fables, religious meditations and fanciful science fiction transcended both genre and generation, most memorably in her children’s classic “A Wrinkle in Time,” died on Thursday in Litchfield, Conn. She was 88.

Her death was announced yesterday by her publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux. A spokeswoman said Ms. L’Engle (pronounced LENG-el) had died of natural causes at a nursing home, which she entered three years ago. Before then the author had maintained homes in Manhattan and Goshen, Conn.

“A Wrinkle in Time” was rejected by 26 publishers before editors at Farrar, Straus & Giroux read it and enthusiastically accepted it. It proved to be her masterpiece, winning the John Newbery Medal as the best children’s book of 1963 and selling, so far, eight million copies. It is now in its 69th printing.

In the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Marygail G. Parker notes “a peculiar splendor” in Ms. L’Engle’s oeuvre, and some of that splendor is owed to sheer literary range. Her works included poetry, plays, autobiography and books on prayer, and almost all were deeply, quixotically personal.

But it was in her vivid children’s characters that readers most clearly glimpsed her passionate search for answers to the questions that mattered most. She sometimes spoke of her writing as if she were taking dictation from her subconscious.

“Of course I’m Meg,” Ms. L’Engle said about the beloved protagonist of “A Wrinkle in Time.”

The St. James Guide to Children’s Writers called Ms. L’Engle “one of the truly important writers of juvenile fiction in recent decades.” Such accolades did not come from pulling punches. “Wrinkle” has been one of the most banned books in the United States, accused by religious conservatives of offering an inaccurate portrayal of God and nurturing in the young an unholy belief in myth and fantasy.

Ms. L’Engle, who often wrote about her Christian faith, was taken aback by the attacks. “It seems people are willing to damn the book without reading it,” Ms. L’Engle said in an interview with The New York Times in 2001. “Nonsense about witchcraft and fantasy. First I felt horror, then anger, and finally I said, ‘Ah, the hell with it.’ It’s great publicity, really.”

TOP: One of the many covers of “A Wrinkle in Time.”

The book begins, “It was a dark and stormy night,” repeating the line of a 19th-century novelist, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. “Wrinkle” then takes off. Meg Murray, with help from her psychic baby brother, uses time travel and extrasensory perception to rescue her father, a gifted scientist, from a planet controlled by the Dark Thing. She does so through the power of love.

The book uses concepts that Ms. L’Engle said she had plucked from Einstein’s theory of relativity and Planck’s quantum theory, almost flaunting her frequent assertion that children’s literature is literature too difficult for adults to understand.

“Wrinkle” is part of Ms. L’Engle’s Time series of children’s books, which includes “A Wind in the Door,” “A Swiftly Tilting Planet,” “Many Waters” and “An Acceptable Time.” The series combines elements of science fiction with insights into love and moral purpose.

...(article continued at link below).

Madeleine L'Engle has been one of my favorite writers for years... one of the children's literature writers who really sparked my imagination as a child and helped me make a choice that I still stand by to this day: I'd rather read than watch television. I strongly feel that that decision forced me to read more, use the dictionary, ask questions and otherwise ethically and intellectually develop as a human being in ways that I wouldn't have if the television had monopolized my free time as a child.

TOP: One of the earliest covers of “A Wrinkle in Time.”

As a former elementary school teacher, I loved Madeleine L'Engle's books... they're all very strange and don't keep to the mold that children's literature often comes in: plain, predictable, packaged, with simple "politically correct" moral lessons that don't promote really introspective thought. Too many children's novels these days come in a packaged "pap" form, much like most television programming, that promote the ideas of conformity and cultural relativism rather than what the NY Times wrote as thus:

The series combines elements of science fiction with insights into love and moral purpose.

And it's books that make concrete statements about values that really promote intellectual growth in my opinion, whether they question our existing beliefs or reinforce them. Books that teach conformity and the supposition that all ideas are equal do a great disservice to their reader. Some ideas are superior to others and some values are universal... or should be (Ideas like respect for life...). And part of being an well-developed human being is being able to identify one's own values and to be able to then make choices based upon those values regardless of the consequences of those choices... in other words, "to do the right thing."

OK. Rant mode off.

TOP: Another of the many covers of “A Wrinkle in Time.”

Here are a few links about Mrs. L'Engle and her works:

A Wiki entry about her best-known work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wrinkle_in_Time

The Wiki biography entry on Mrs. L'Engle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_L%E2%80%99Engle

The NY Times obituary for her:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/08/arts/08lengle.html

TOP: Even another of the many covers of “A Wrinkle in Time.”

I can't recommend Madeleine L'Engle's books enough... If you haven't read any of her writing, go out to your local library and check out a copy of a L'Engle... I don't think that you'll be disappointed.

Have a great Sunday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

HASBARA: 40th Anniversary of The 1967 Six Day War!

. The photo that defined the war:

Paratroopers standing in aweful reverence after liberating the Kotel (The Western Wall).

Hi Everyone,

Today is the fortieth anniversary of The 1967 Six Day War that so dramatically changed the balance of power in the Middle East. This conflict not only changed the balance of power in the Middle East, but it profoundly affected military thinking and has ever since been of strong interest to historians, professional military men, and AIW (Arab-Israeli Wars) miniatures wargamers among others.

First of all, let me make a recommendation to read the Magnum Opus (masterpiece) of 1967 Six Day War history:

If you're going to read just one book about the war, please read "Six Days of War" by Michael Oren, which is by far, the most comprehensively researched and definitive historical account yet written on the conflict.

The Six Day War is perhaps most noted for Operation Moked (Focus), in which Israel launched a surprise air attack against Arab Air Forces, which practically crippled the entire militaries of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and other enemies of Israel. This single operation practically defined air power as the dominant force in warfare from the 1960s on. The Indians paid attention to it in their wars with Pakistan and the Arabs did as well in their later wars with Israel. Even NATO paid attention and began and ambitious program of building hardened aircraft shelters (HAS) in Europe. Operation Moked set the standard and has long been admired by air forces around the world.

The shadow of an Israeli Mirage fighter plane passes over ruined Arab aircraft.

But more than anything else, The Six Day War established Israel as a nation that would not go quietly into the night. Israel gained strategic deterrence in the form of land and no longer stood in the same precarious mortal danger that it had before. It's a fascinating piece of history and I highly recommend study of it to anyone with a passion for such. I've been studying it for over twenty years now, have probably read over a hundred books about it, and can still honestly say that I still have much to learn about it.

An Israeli AMX-13 light tank, which proved ineffective...
...as well as a false path in tank design.
Armor and armament later predominated over mobility in tank design.

Happy Tuesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

An Israeli Mirage fightercraft with one of its principle enemies, a captured Arab MiG.

P.S.
Today is also the anniversary of the WWII Battle of Midway.

P.S.S.
My friend Treppenwitz found this amazing photo:
http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2007/06/this_picture_ma.html

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

NOVELS: On Finding Used Books...

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Hi Everyone,

The other day ago I spent some time looking for a used book and came up with bopkes (nothing). So, I made an inquiry on one of my favorite on-line forums, The Miniatures Page (TMP, link on right sidebar).

Here's what I wrote:

I followed a link last week to an awesome used/new book site that had an entry for each book that had:
- ISBN
- Links to various commercial sellers of the book including Amazon, B&N, etc.
- A descriptive blurb
- etc.

I'd like to find that site, but more to the point:

*** What are the best online resources you know of to find used or new books? Please share. ***

And here are the many great resources that others shared:

AbeBooks.com
http://www.abebooks.com/

Addall.com
http://www.addall.com/

Alibris.com
http://www.alibris.com/

Biblio.com
http://www.biblio.com/

Bookcrossing.com
http://bookcrossing.com/

Bookfinder.com
http://www.bookfinder.com/

Fetchbook.info
http://www.fetchbook.info/

Grenadierbooks.com
http://www.grenadierbooks.com/

Powells.com
http://www.powells.com/

Unfortunately, I've been too blasted busy at work to evaluate all of these sellers, but I will as time permits.

Thanks again to all those who helped!

Have a great Thursday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

HASBARA: Six Day War Redux!

.Yossi Ben Hanan, later tank commander, refreshing in the Suez Canal.

Hi Everyone,

- With the fortieth anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem from Jordan, I'm seeing a plethora of articles about The 1967 Six Day War that may be of interest to AIW (Arab-Israeli Wars) miniatures gamers.

- Charles Krauthammer writes:

"A Prelude to the Six Days"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/17/AR2007051701976.html

- In which he relates the overwhelming significance of the Six Days War to politics in the modern Middle East. He mentions Michael Oren's outstanding 2002 book:

"Six Days of War"
By: Michael Oren

- ...which is by far, the best and most definitive book written yet on the conflict. If you're an Oren fan, check out some of his other recent books as well. He recently concluded a US tour promoting his latest 2007 book:

"Power, Faith, and Fantasy: The United States in the Middle East, 1776 to 2006"

Egyptian Archer tank captured in the Sinai.

And Michael Oren wrote this article in The Jerusalem Post:

"Did Israel Want The Six Day War?"
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178708597047&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

- You can read more about Michael Oren here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Oren

Israeli paratroopers after they liberated Jerusalem.

- Meanwhile Abraham Rabinovich writes a recollection of his experiences during The Six Day War in this Jerusalem Post article:

"City Under Siege"
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1178708596997&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

- I particularly recommend the following of Rabinovich's books:

"The Battle For Jerusalem, June 5-7, 1967"
"The Boats of Cherbourg"
"The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East"

- Rabinovich has a very different writing style than Oren and his research is less authoritative, but his books have a less academic and thus more entertaining feel to them. Read Oren for academic history backed by solid fact and relentless research; read Rabinovich to be entertained and to get an "in a nut shell" history of the war.

- You can read more about Abraham Rabinovich here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Rabinovich

The "Big Three," Narkis, Dayan, & Rabin, entering Bethlehem triumphant.

- And I can never mention modern Israeli history without mentioning Herman Wouk's wonderful novels:

"The Hope"
"The Glory"

- They can be found cheaply as used paperbacks and employ charismatic characters set against the backdrop of Israel's many wars for survival.

- You can read more about Herman Wouk here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Wouk

Sharon and Begin in 1967, the beginning of a long and successful relationship.

- And lastly, a new book about The Six Day War is coming out this year entitled:

"Foxbats over Dimona: The Soviets' Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War"
By: Remez & Isabella Ginor

- The new book tells the history of the Soviet involvement in The Six Day War, with the premise that the Soviets engineered the war in hopes of overthrowing the government of Israel and installing a puppet state in its stead. Very interesting.

Israeli jets in a flyby after the war: Mirage, Mystere, Vautor & Magister.

- I learned about the book in this Jerusalem Post article:

"Soviets engineered Six Day War"
By: David Horovitz
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178708610161&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

- More about the new book here:
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300123173

- And here:
http://www.amazon.com/Foxbats-Over-Dimona-Soviets-Nuclear/dp/0300123175

- So, for folks interested in AIW history, now is a particularly rich time to study with Soviet archives opening up, US historical documents being shared, and a great need to look back on history with critical regard and analysis.

Have a great Friday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
Comments are down on this post due to an internal Blogger glitch. Blogger is working on fixing it.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

NOVELS: The Book Meme Catches Up To Me...

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Hi Everyone,

Awhile back, my friend Abba Gav, tagged me with the book meme and I'm finally catching up to it.

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1. Name one book that changed your life:

"This is My God: The Jewish Way of Life" by Herman Wouk.
- This is one of Herman Wouk’s best books in myopinion, a very concise overview of Judaism and its’ meaning for secular Jews and just folks interested in knowing more about their Jewish neighbors from a religious or cultural viewpoint. An older lady friend of mine (as well as a former patient) gave it to me and I still use it at times when I want to re-clarify some point of interest for myself. It's one of my most valued books.

2. One book you've read more than once:

“Space Trilogy” by C.S. Lewis.
1. “Out of the Silent Planet”
2. “Perelandra”
3. “That Hideous Strength”
- I’ve had hankering lately to reread C.S. Lewis’“Space Trilogy” series… books as meaningful as Tolkien’s work or even C.S. Lewis’ better known works such as his “Narnia” children’s books. At times, his Space Trilogy reminds me of Burrough’s Barsoomian tales, Well’s Eloi from “The Time Machine” or even… the Traveller (classic sci-fi RPG) group called the Darrians.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island:

“Department of the Air Force, Search and Rescue Survival Manual, AFM 64-5”
- My father gave me a copy of either this manual or a related one as a boy and it was one of my favorite possessions. I still have it somewhere although it’s still packed away from my last move. It has instructions for everything from distilling water to finding food anywhere on the globe and more.

4. One book that made you laugh:

Anything by Dave Barry or Erma Bombeck:
- I can’t remember which one of these two authors I last read, but both Erma Bombeck and Dave Berry make my stomach hurt from laughing too much. Erma Bombeck, may she rest in peace, passed away a few years ago.

5. One book that made you cry:

“Genesis 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War” by Dan Kurzman.
- The struggle for Israel’s Independence in 1948 is a heart-wrenching true story of perserverance in the face of what must have seemed like insurmountable danger. There are so many stories of folks struggling bitterly just to survive, let alone prosper. What an amazing story.

6. One book you wish you'd written:

"Treason" by Orson Scott Card.
- Orson Scott Card made his break-through into the sci-fi industry with a short story named “Treason”that later turned into this book. It’s one of my favorites, a genius work that is fun to reread no matter how well you know the story. The story itslef is a classic sci-fi theme about evolution gone wild. I sometimes wonder if the classic fantasy RPG “Tekumel” and “Treason” are somehow related.

7. One book you wish had never been written:

“Orientalism” by Edward Said.
- This book, often considered a founding work in post-colonial theory, has been a huge contributor to the many misunderstandings and great difficulty that many academics, scholars and others have when trying to understand the differences between Western and Eastern cultures. The gist of the book is that Western authors can't critically judge Eastern culture because of their Western-slanted rose-coloured glasses. Meanwhile Said felt perfectly adequate to lay judgment down on Western literature. Moral equivalence and political correctness made great leaps forward when this book became disseminated.

8. One book you're currently reading:

“Mars” series by Kim Stanley Robinson.
- I’m currently on “Red Mars.” I never read the third book in this trilogy (it wasn’t written when I read the first two books in the series) and am looking forward to reading this series from beginning to end.
- I just finished reading David Brin's “Uplift” and“Uplift Storm” series.

9. One book you've been meaning to read:

“The Guide for the Perplexed” by Maimonides.
- I’ve always meant to read this book in its entirety rather than in excerpts sprinkled throughout other texts. The last book I had hankering to read in this manner was Plutarch’s “Lives,” which I enjoyed very much. It's sort of funny that Maimonides' "Guide For The Perplexed" is often mentioned in occult novels such as the Lovecraftian Cthulhu series and, interesting enough... in some of the Ghostbuster's movies.

10. Tag 5 people:

Andy Cowell
http://www.littleleadheroes.com/

Patrick Smyrl
http://pshobbyshed.blogspot.com/

Paul James “Tas” O’Grady
http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/

PixelGeek (Zac Belado)
http://crusades.blogspot.com/

Yehuda Berlinger
http://jergames.blogspot.com/

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Have a great Friday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

HASBARA: Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Hi Everyone,

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, otherwise known as Yom HaShoah in Hebrew. I thought alot about what I could write, but in the end I want to go with some simple text... no picture, no razzle dazzle... simply mention the fact, acknowledge it and stop. Talking about the existential threat of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons wouldn't help today.

http://www.yadvashem.org/

http://history1900s.about.com/cs/holocaust/a/yomhashoah.htm

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I'm going to follow my friend Yehuda's lead.

http://jergames.blogspot.com/

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Yehuda linked to one story and mentioned two more.

1. He linked to Treppenwitz with one of those stories that is so real that you want to cry:

http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2006/04/fred_basci.html

2. Then he mentioned genocide is unfortunately still with us:

http://www.darfurgenocide.org/

3. And lastly he mentioned that there are those who would have us suffer more Holocausts:

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/04/14/iran.israel/

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I would add one more link to that string:

http://www.yadvashem.org/

I finished reading the novel Against Gravity yesterday, which is certainly cogent, but I'll leave book discussion for another day.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

NOVELS: "The Winter War" & "Guns, Germs and Steel"

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Hi Everyone,

Yesterday, my friend Ralph AKA L-4 forwarded me a post from our mutual friend Mojarn Piett AKA Jyrki Sarni in Finland. Mojarn is a huge historical buff and one of his prime historical interests is the little-known Winter War between Finland and the USSR. He found an interesting site about The Winter War and shared it with us the other day ago.

Check it out an enjoy:
http://www.wfyi.org/fireandice/index.htm

For those of you who haven't heard of The Winter War, I'm providing a link to the Wikipedia entry on The Winter War should you want to learn more about it.

Link here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_war

In a nutshell, while Hitler was taking his first bites of Europe, The Winter War was Stalin's first attempt at serious land acquisition in WWII. In 1939, Stalin attempted to conquer Finland, a tiny nation with not much of s atnding army that proved that numbers aren't everything. The Russians swarmed the Finns in large numbers, but superior knowledge of the land allowed the Finns to triumph although with considerable losses, but nothing like what the Russians endured. By 1940, an armistance was achieved, but several later border skirmishes occurred.

From a wargamer's stance, the war was very interesting because it featured so many of the early war Russian tanks that gradually disappeared from the later battlefields of WWII. In addition, the Finns made extensive use of Molotov cocktails and used tactics similar to what several Allied forces used later in the war against fascist Germany. The Winter War is definitely an interesting piece of textbook history, worthy of study.

I also found that Jared Diamond's runaway bestseller novel, "Guns, Germs and Steel" has been made into a PBS television special.

Check it out and enjoy:
http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/

If you haven't heard of "Guns, Germs and Steel," I highly recommend you check it out. I first heard of the book from an unlikely source... from the Apolyton computer game discussion group, associated with the popular hit computer game "Civilization" from Sid Meier. They wanted to design a computer game along the lines of "Guns, Germs and Steel." And what would those lines be?

Well, essentially the primary question that Diamond brings up in his book is: "Why did European countries come to the forefront of history and not some other ethnic or cultural group?" And the title of his book neatly answers his question:

GUNS: Groups crowded together had the constant impetus to develop more sophisticated weapons.

GERMS: The use of domesticated animals "innoculated" populations with them against diseases that groups without them were highy susceptible to.

STEEL: Access to natural resources was vital to the development of better materials such as steel.

At first I was worried that Diamond's book would be pseudoscience forwarding a revisionist "politically correct" view of the world, but after speaking to a number of my friends who are scientists, I decided to give it a chance. And while I'm not sure I agree with everything Dr. Diamond hypothesizes, I do find his arguments and evidence very compelling. And aside from that, "Guns, Germs and Steel" is a great read although an academic one.

One of the books I read back around the time I became interested in "Guns, Germs and Steel" was Orson Scott Card's "Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus." It's an interesting novel of time travel and alternate histories, one well worth checking out. Imagine if the "New World" met the "Old One" in strength instead of at the end of conquistador guns and swords:
http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/card.html

Have a great Wednesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

NOVELS: Time Travel & Dan Simmons!

Hi Everyone,

I've been doing alot of reading lately and have come across several excellent time travel themed sci-fi novels.

One of the first I read was Harry Turtledove's "In High Places," part of his Crosstime Traffic series. The novel seems to have been written for young adults, but it wasn't "dumbed down" in any way and follows a family of merchants (We'd call them business people) from the future back to an alternate historical path in which Europe never recovered from the Black Plague.

In the Turtledove Crosstime Traffic world, the future has run out of resources in a Malthusian twist and thus must send back traders to trade for raw materials and resources that have run short in the timetravelling future. They do this by sending merchants across time and even across alternate times to trade for those needed items. However, despite having vastly superior technology compared to most of the places they visit, they have very limited powers to police any one time period and in an accident of fate, a merchant family's daughter gets separated from her family and taken as a slave in a Moorish timeline. Then in a scarier twist of fate, the Moorish slavers actually end up being fiends from the future...

It was a great novel and I enjoyed it very much.

A link to "In High Places":

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765306964/qid=1144681872/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-8023289-6636719?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

And I recently read another story posted on-line (I have a link listed below) about a future in which democracy wasn't able to take hold and an Islamic caliphate became the new world order. It was a great story and based on its strength, I'll be reading Dan Simmons' halmark novel, "Hyperion" next.

"Hyperion" is known for its prose and poetry, not something you normally encounter in a sci-fi novel so I'm intrigued. My friend, Vince, says that it reminded him alot of "The Canturbury Tales." One of the things that intrigues me most about Dan Simmons is that he isn't afraid to include religion in his novels and I don't mean the way that authors like Herbert wrote really poor caricatures of religion into his "Dune" novels, but to genuinely write about religion (although not necessarily existing religions) in a beleivable way... a very tough task to convincingly pull off.

A link to "Hyperion":

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553283685/qid=1144681512/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-8023289-6636719?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

And finally a link to Dan Simmons' site where he has an eerie short story about a geopolitical future that I hope never comes to fore... a world in which terror has come to roost. Check it out:

http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message.htm

And here's a teaser blurb from the Simmons short story:

...It was not the horrors of his revelations about my grandchildren that had shaken me the most deeply, shaken me to the core of my core, but rather the the Time Traveler’s last three words. Three words that any Replayer or time traveler visiting here from a century or more from now would react to first and most emotionally – three words I will not share here in this piece nor ever plan to share, at least until everyone on Earth knows them – three words that will keep me awake nights for months and years to come.

Three words.

I challenge anyone who reads the short story to figure out what the mysterious "three words" are...

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
I'm still working on a report describing ConQuest Sac... but as a short teaser, the convention was great and none of my worries came to pass; ConQuest Sac was a huge success!

QUIZES: Blogger Tagging...

Hi Guys,

The somewhat infamous Zac "Pixelgeek" Belado tagged my with one of those "travel the blog" questionnaires and I'm in a good mood so I'll play along. Normally, I'm not much for chain letters and their like, but Zac is an OK guy and wants to see this thing move on. I mostly watch gaming blogs, rarely anything else and at that, I don't check out other blogs very consistently (usually once a week). Well, here goes:

Four Jobs I’ve Had:
- Chef For a Nice Italian Restaurant
(It takes work to make pasta by hand!)
- ESL Teacher
(Have taught numerous immigrants how to speak English)
- Illustrator
(Illustrated for books and magazines some time ago)
- Military Interpreter / Translator
(Spanish while in Cuba)

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
- Aliens
(A classic... love the heart-pounding end)
- Gladiator
(Makes me feel heroic while I do mundane tasks like laundry!)
- The Thirteenth Warrior
(Love the flow on this film, better than the book)
- Zulu
(The Welsh songs really make the film)

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:
- Lost
(I watch it with my sister... very cool X-files style mystery / drama)
- Battlestar Galactica
(Not too fond of the new Starbuck, but love the series overall)
- Invasion
(Who doesn't like sneaky invaders from space?)
- Just about anything on the History Channel
(I can flip to this channel just about anytime I want and catch something interesting)

I don't actually own a TV that has antenna, satellite or cable recption. Mine is hooked up to a VCR and a DVD players and that's it. I've always felt that too many people watch too much television alone... if I do it, I generally watch it at other folk's homes as a social activity. I don't ever want to let the boob tube dictate my schedule.

Four Places I’ve Been on Vacation:
- Suzdal, Russia
(The history in Suzdal is amazing, you can almost feel yourself back in time)
- Massada, Israel
(Another haunting place where you can feel the history...)
- Kiev, The Ukraine
(Kiev is an acient city and full of interesting historical sites...)
- Mexico City, Mexico
(Mexico has its own charm despite the crowding and filth)

Four Favorite Dishes:
- Mom's home-made Enchiladas
(My mother makes the best enchiladas hands-down of any I've ever tried... the trick is in the sauce... browned flour really makes it happen)
- Mom's Spanish rice
(She's a genius at this... the perfect mix of rice, tomato sauce and seasoning... I've been taught the recipe, but can't quite match her expertise with it)
- My blueberry polenta tort
(I used to experiment with polenta torts years ago and came up with this recipe which is scrumptious)
- My Scrambled eggs with the good mixed in them
(...a little pico de gallo seasoning, fresh veggies, left-overs, etc.)

If you couldn't tell, I enjoy cooking and baking...

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
- http://www.yahoo.com/
(I get my E-mail here...)
- http://6mm-minis.blogspot.com/
(This is my blog, I try to update once or twice a week...)
- http://www.epic40k.co.uk/
(The Epicomms community has been my homes for years upon years...)
- http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/6mmScienceFictionWarGames/
(I run a number of Yahoo E-groups and this is one of my favorites)

Four Places I’d Rather Be:
- Karmiel, Israel
(Israel is beautiful in a way that words can't capture... you can palpably feel the warmth of the people of Karmiel)
- At my home
(...rather than work!)
- At my parent's home visiting
(I love my folks and enjoy visiting them when I get the chance)
- Visiting friends just about anywhere
(My friend Vince, sister, Dick, Daniel "Dafrca" C., Kimbo, etc., etc.)

I really think that people make the place and not the other way around.

Four Bloggers I’m Tagging:
- Jeffro's Gaming Blog: Car Wars, Star Fleet Battles, Ogre, Battletech, and More!
http://jeffro.mindsay.com/
- Ty Beard and his FFOT blog
http://fftows.blogspot.com/
- Yehuda Berlinger & The Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club
http://jergames.blogspot.com/
- Zac Pixelgeek Belado at his blog Mini Crusade
http://crusades.blogspot.com/

I don't know if it's kosher to tag Zac back, but I do like to read what he writes.

Four of My Favourite Books:
- Any of the original Conan novels by Robert E. Howard
(Pulp adventure goodness at its best!)
- Duel for the Golan: The 100-Hour Battle That Saved Israel by Jerry Asher and Eric Hammel
(The story of the near miraculous defeat of the USSR through its proxy of Syria on the Golan Heights in 1973)
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
( I love almost every one of Card's novel... he is a genius at characterization)
- Any of the Hammer's Slammers novels by David Drake
(Gritty goodness!)

I'm an avid reader so this was a tough list to write.

Four of My Favorite Games:
- Command & Colors: Ancients by GMT Games
(I'm really starting to groove with this game)
- Dirtside II by GZG Games
(The run-away classic of sci-fi miniatures gaming...)
- HOTT by Phil Barker
(A fun, quick and simple way to relive those favorite scenes from Tolkien and other fantasy favorites...)
- Settlers of Canaan by Cactus Games
(Settlers is now a classic game and I really like this Biblical variant of the Cataan theme...)

This is a gaming blog community so it seems only appropriate to list games.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.