Category: Books

Ooooh Man.

Just got Hard Rain by Barry Eisler, from Amazon yesterday. Started it on the commute this morning…. man, just a couple chapters in and I can’t pull myself away when I sit down at my desk…

It’s really good to pull up a chair and spend some time with a hitman. Eisler’s John Rain is a lot of fun to follow around. I wouldn’t want him following me, though.

Eisler’s 3rd book in the series came out today, in hardback. I might have to break my no-hardbacks-for-fiction rule.

If you haven’t started reading Eisler, you’re in for a treat.

update: so, i came home from work and instead of going for a run, climbed onto the couch and finished the book. How was it? Oh, I don’t know–books like that are like ice cream cones on a hot summer day. You like em up before they melt, and you’re still hot, but you feel great. Maybe a little sleepy.

THE USN destroyer Nathan James survives a nuclear holocaust, but is alone in the North Atlantic with only a 6 month supply of fuel and food. Cut off from all radio communications, the Nathan James and her crew (152 men, 26 women) face perplexing questions: are there survivors? how to replenish supplies? is there an uncontaminated port? are they alone? and how do they perpetuate the human race?

The story is narrated by the captain, and we see inside his thinking and into life on a navy ship. The writing is somewhat wordy but once you settle into it, paints rich and detailed pictures of the captain’s state of mind.

The book is a great thought experiment–and remains intriguing and satisfying to the end. There are so many angles: life on the high seas, navy discipline, a post nuclear world, and most interestingly, the relations outnumbered women to men in a small society.

Well crafted, hefty (600+ pages), and a surprising but satisfying ending.

Amazon: The Last Battleship by William Brinkley