Tom Clancy has lent his name to a numerous series of books that have been written by ghostwriters and other authors.  One of those series’ is a video game series known as Splinter Cell.  The series has spawned a few books.  One of these books is Fallout.

Sam Fisher is a special operative who works for a clandestine organization within the United States Government known as Third Echelon.  They carry out black operations for the government in the worlds hot spots.  This book finds Fisher travelling to Kyrgyzstan to Kenya to North Korea in an attempt to stop an insane warlord from using poison to overthrow the world.

As usual with this series, the book takes liberties with the science and technology available.  It is believeable, however, and still retains a sense of realism.  The book is not long, only 353 pages, and provides for some easy reading.  I would recommend reading the entire Splinter Cell series in order, as it provides background on the characters that is normally lacking in a book this short.  That is the one major complaint I have with short books is that they leave no room for character development.  It does, however, make for good video gaming.

Uncle John is the author of one of my favorite series’ of books.  The Bathroom Reader Series are about as unconventional as you can get from a book perspective.  It is a collection of odd facts and trivia set out in a series of articles rarely longer than six pages in length.  Want to know the circumstances surrounding Elvis’ death?  Facts about armadillos, Corning-Ware, sleeplessness, plagues, Kings, Queens, and everything in between line the pages of these books.  This series of books would be mandatory reading should you aspire to try to get on Jeopardy!.  Most of the answers to the questions on that show can be found in the pages of these books.  The average book generally exceeds 500 pages, and can be read year in and year out.

Some of the books are theme based as well.  There are specific books on Hockey, Music, Gardening, and History.  As I am a big fan of history, that book was one of my personal favorites.  I would love to see them write a book on technology.  Provide me with all sorts of useless information on the history (and the how stuff works) of computers, televisions, radio, even cars and the space shuttle.

I own about twenty of these books.  Some articles are repeated within the different books, but that’s ok.  The fact is you never remember the entire book, so it is all good.  They seem to come out with one or two a year, and I buy them when they come out.  I have found that Wal-Mart is the cheapest place to buy these books.

This book, from Robert Ludlum’s Covert-One Series, is a thriller much like Tom Clancy writes.  This is the second book that was written by a ghost writer for Ludlum that I have read.  The Janson Directive was the first (review pending).

This book follows an evil environmentalist attempting to destroy the world with a cutting edge technology known as nanophages.  Covert-One, a black-ops division of the United States Government, must track him down and sanitize the threat.  Lt. Col. Jon Smith has been assigned that task, by any means necessary.

This is the fifth book in the Covert-One Series, but the first that I have read.  I do not enjoy reading a book in mid-series, but this one did not rely on the history of the first four.  While some of the characters are holdovers, their history is not terribly relevant.  The book is short and makes for leisurely reading.

Searching through the Internet for information on nanites and nanophages, I did not find much help.  This is a new – and very experimental – technology.  As the book illustrates, there are potentially very good uses for the technology.  There could be – should someone have the resources – as unlikely as that may be, I may add – terrible uses for the technology.  I like learning about new technologies, even those in fields that require a lot of effort to understand.

I just finished reading the book A Writer At War, by Vasily Grossman.  Mr. Grossman was a front line correspondent during World War II for the Soviet Union, and this book is based upon the notebooks he used while interviewing and observing.  The book was compiled and translated by Antony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova.

Grossman was a Soviet Jew who was able to create vivid images with words.  His ability get even the most hardened Soviet Officers to speak was remarkable.  His articles were candid and vivid and did not cater to Soviet censorship or politics (Though when printed, some of his articles were altered by his editor).

He covered firsthand the battle for Stalingrad, and the Soviet pushback through the Ukraine, Poland, Kursk, Berdichev, Treblinka, and finally Berlin.  The chapter on Treblinka was the highlight of the book for me.  It is absolutely sickening to know what kind of animals the Nazis were.  While Grossman’s death toll estimates are not accurate, the bottom line is if you kill 6,000,000 or 4,000,000 or 2,000,000 people, you’re still a monster.  This article, known as “The Hell of Treblinka,” was presented as evidence during the Nuremburg trial.

Grossman is more famous for is other novel, Life and Fate.  Life and Fate describes the siege of Stalingrad.  The novel was finished in 1960, but it was declared subversive by the then Soviet government and banned.  Twenty years later, it was smuggled out of the Soviet Union and published with critical acclaim.  I have yet to read this book, but it is now on my list.

I just finished reading the latest offering from Stephen King.  Duma Key is about a man, Edgar Freemantle, who was involved in a serious accident.  To further his rehabilitation, he moves to Duma Key, Florida, where he discovers he has a serious talent for painting.  However, his ability to paint is manipulated by Perse, an undead creature looking to escape her watery grave.  It is up to Edgar and his friends to stop Perse from escaping, no matter the personal cost.

The book was enjoyable, but the story could have lost about 500 pages.  King’s novels are typically long and as usual, it take a few hundred pages to get into the book.  His best writings are those that are kept short, in my experience.  In so saying, I have not read all of his books yet.  I will have to acquire a couple of the longer ones (Such as It or The Talisman) which will allow me to judge his writings with better authority.