Chun does an excellent job of summarizing a very complex network of decisions made by President Harry Truman and the Allied military leaders.  In addition to the immense casualties that the Allies could incur in an invasion, the Americans and their British allies were wary of Soviet intentions with regards to the occupation of Japanese territory - there were already strains in American/British relations with the Soviets in Europe.

The book is beautifully illustrated by John White, including detailed diagrams of the atomic bombs and the bombing runs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  In addition, Chun includes maps of the original invasion plans of Japan.
In short, this is an excellent analysis of the decisions and operations leading up to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Cover via Amazon

The folks at Little Brown are using this new media stuff.  There is still some time left in their Blog Talk Radio live interview with Marie Phillips.  (My review of God’s Behaving Badly is here.)

I am looking forward to the show with Laura Miller on Wednesday.  I am reading here The Magician’s Book right now.

Now I just need to finish so I can ask some good questions . . .

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My review of the book is here. YouTube via Educating Alice.

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Boy on a Dolphin

Last night I needed some bedside reading but didn’t feel up to starting some of the non-fiction that is next in the pile.  So I grabbed this children’s story and read it in one sitting.

It turned out to be a rather simple story, but a creative and entertaining one.  Here is the plot summary from School Library Journal:

Seven-year-old Adara was born during the coldest chill of the coldest year ever, a chill that killed her mother during the girl’s birth. Ever since then, she has been a remote and chilly child, living for winter when the ice lizards come out and forming a bond with a mysterious ice dragon. When war comes and dragon-riding invaders threaten her home and family, the ice dragon helps her to thwart them, leading to its own demise.

The writing is simple like the story, but it has the sort of depth well written stories always seem to have: the sense that there is a great deal more to the world that the author isn’t sharing.  The medieval world that makes up the setting is recognizable but just mysterious enough.  Dragon’s as battle vehicles are not unique obviously, but the ice dragon with a connection to the weather is a unique hook.  The characters are not well developed but Adara’s past, and the resulting conflict with her family, adds enough tension and suspense that the minimalist storyline nevertheless pulls you forward.

All in all, I enjoyed The Ice Dragon.  It has the feel of a legend passed down through the oral tradition - simple but poetic and touched by both beauty and tragedy.  It is a quick sketch from a author who normally deals in the epic format.

It piqued my interst enough that I plan to read Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

Barnes and Noble video with the author below.

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I bring this up because in times past I would have read the first two books before picking up the latest H. Terrell Griffin Matt Royal mystery Blood Island.  But I didn’t and so I can’t really comment on the series or any backstory I might have missed.  But luckily the book functions as a stand alone story.

Enough discursive introduction then, what about the book?  It was an entertaining mystery/action story with some unique plot lines.

The central character is obviously Matt Royal a semi-retired trial lawyer living in Longboat Key, Florida. Royals high pressure legal career burned him out and cost him his marriage, but he ended up with enough money to live in Longboat and do pro-bono legal and investigative work.  He is also an ex-special forces Vietnam veteran.

Like so many mysteries the story kicks of with a dead body.  This one found in local bird sanctuary.  Royal doesn’t think much of it at first, but when his ex-wife Laura turns to him for help in find her step-daughter, Peggy, things get complicated.  Soon Laura is missing too, the violence escalates and the body count grows.  With far too many unexplained coincidences Royal finds himself in the center of a dangerous plot.

FYI, what follows includes plot spoilers for those of you who don’t want to read those sort of things.

The story can be broken up into thirds.  The first third introduces the characters and the threads at the heart of the mystery.  The second half focuses on Royal’s search for his ex-wife and her step-daughter.  And the last third focuses on the unraveling of the larger conspiracy that ties all the sub-plots together.

The book does best when it is focused on Royal and his investigations.  Royal is a laid back, and sardonic tough guy, who has the training to get ugly when he needs to.  He realizes he screwed up and ruined his life by focusing on his career to the detriment of everything else.  That realization makes him humble and aware that he needs to keep his personal demons at bay if he is to be happy or at least content.  As PW noted: “Griffin’s breezy first-person narration brings the likable Matt, with his killer reflexes and wry sense of humor, vividly to life.”

The story starts off slow and builds the tension as the danger Royal is facing grows.  The first two thirds of the book work well this way.  The last third is in some ways an awkward addition. What weaves the plots dealing with Laura and Peggy into a larger whole is a conspiracy involving a mentally unstable religious figure who runs bordellos and is planning to blow up churches to start an anti-Muslim backlash.

This unique hook connects Peggy’s kidnapping to the other bodies and sets up Royal’s adventures surrounding Blood Island.  But the religious/terrorism element also forces Griffin - or at least he chose - to wrap up the threat to those churches. This part of the book is well done for the most part, but it gives the effect of having almost two endings: one when Royal rescues Peggy and finds out what happened to Laura and one when the terrorist threat storyline is resolved.

This aspect of the plot didn’t ruin the book or anything but I thought it made the story a little less tight then it otherwise would have been.  It seems to me that Griffin wanted to add a plot line about religious fundamentalists, and used it well to build a conspiracy, but didn’t quite know how to wrap it up.

This nit-pick aside, Blood Island was a entertaining and quick read.  Matt Royal is an interesting character and Griffin does a nice job of mixing character, suspense, and action.  Even it I haven’t read the whole series, I feel confident in saying that those who enjoy mystery/suspense with a South Florida twist will enjoy past, present and future Matt Royal novels.

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No, this is not an election related post.  Rather it is another lame site news announcement.  If you look to your right you will see that you have anopportunity to vote thanks to a new fangled Polls plug-in.

As it happens, the question deals with a feature to your left - namely the Notes & Asides sideblog.  Just to make it easy on you, I will include the poll in this post as well.  As always, feedback welcomed and appreciated:

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Thanks.