DWD's Reviews

Published in September of 2013 This is the first in a series of books about teenage human soldiers used to infiltrate the ranks of alien invaders of Earth through secret missions. The premise is that a group of aliens called Bzadians arrived at Earth and settled in the Australian Outback because it was most like their home. Their ships had no propulsion systems to let them take back off of Earth and humanity was persuaded to let them settle in Australia. But, it turns out that these original ships were the advance force for a full-fledged invasion. Australia became their stronghold and the from their the Bzadians invaded Asia, Africa and Europe. Now, only the Americas hold them off.  Because of the slight, short stature of the Bzadians, human teenagers have been recruited to undergo plastic surgery and go behind enemy lines to gather intelligence and, if possible, actually do some damage. In this book, the target is the massive rock formation known as Uluru or Ayers Rock. The

Published in July of 2015 by Fideli Publishing Inc. The World War II generation is rapidly passing away and with them go their individual stories.  Ronald May has collected a number of these stories and had them published in the Martinsville, Indiana newspaper as a regular feature. This book is a collection of these stories with a lot of full color pictures. Some of the stories have been expanded. A photograph from the book of a B-26 Marauder being shot down Typically, each story tells a little about each man's life before his military service, focuses on his time in service and then tells about life after the war (some went on to serve in Korea as well but those efforts are not highlighted in this book). For me, the most interesting part of the book is reading about the wide variety of jobs that these men held during the war. When you read the history books or watch the movies you tend to think that everyone carried a gun, flew a plane, maintained the planes or worke

Published by BBC Worldwide Unlimited in 2010. Multicast Performance Duration: 44 minutes Even though I enjoy the comic book movies and I listen to a few comic book-based audiobooks, I am not a serious comics fan. I dabble. I haven't even been into a real comic book store. I know the big names and their back stories and that's about it. But, the title of this story ruined the story for me. If you know about the Lazarus Pits then there was no mystery at all. This was just one more problem in a problem-filled audiobook. First things first, let me be clear that none of the problems in this audiobook come from the actual performance of the book. It is performed like an old-fashioned radio play and the BBC performers did a great job.  Sadly, the story itself does not live up to the performances of the actors. In this story, Batman is supposed to be dead. He hasn't been seen in a while and Commissioner Gordon receives a tape from Batman that was to be delivered when

Too Short. A Lost Opportunity to Create Something Truly Amazing. Published in 2010 by BBC Audio Multicast Performance Duration: 1 hour Superman is captured and on trial. Lex Luthor is the prosecutor, Lois Lane is Superman's sole defender. A Guardian of the Universe is the judge and if Superman is found guilty, he is to be sentenced to the Phantom Zone.  The charge? Superman is not the defender of humanity - he is actually committing crimes against humanity. Luthor's arguments go along this line - Superman is an alien and he is interfering with life on Earth. As Lois Lane makes her arguments that Superman is actually helping, Luthor blunts them with his own arguments. For example, Luthor calls Batman to the stand to testify that Batman feels the need to monitor Superman to make sure that he does not abuse his powers to enslave humanity. The audiobook ventures into some fairly unique territory. Not only are Superman's peers questioned but the assumption is that

Published by Random House Audio in June of 2014 Read by Paul Michael Duration: 19 hours, 42 minutes Unabridged Confederate General Braxton Bragg (1817-1876)   Jeff Shaara is well-known by fans of military historical fiction. This is his fifth book about the Civil War, the third about the campaign in The Western Theater. This book picks up a few months after Grant's victory at Vicksburg and focuses on Chattanooga. The crushing defeat at Chickamauga suffered by Union General Rosecrans was a terrible blow after the Union's massive twin victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg just two months earlier. Confederate General Braxton Bragg swept Rosecrans' army from the Chickamauga battlefield and they fled back to the safety of Chattanooga. Bragg's forces occupy the mountains that surround Chattanooga and have effectively laid siege to the city. Already, the Union forces are suffering and Rosecrans seems confused about what to do next. Luckily, Bragg is worried about d

Published in 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers The Civil War was, in many ways, the world's first modern war. The submarine was invented, the machine gun was introduced, aerial reconnaissance was used and metal warships ruled the seas. It was also a war that featured all aspects of the media of the day. Propaganda songs like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" were written, speeches were given all over the country, those same speeches were re-read in newspapers. Those newspapers were openly partisan on every issue of the day. And, one of the best ways to express these partisan opinions was political cartoons. This book is filled with political cartoons describing the issues that brought on the war, cartoons inspired by the people and fighting in the war and a light discussion of the end of the war. Almost all of the cartoons are excellent and they provide a jumping off point for discussion of the events as they are portrayed in chronological order.  Below is a carto