Pure wisdom - right there!
10/10
Seeking escapism and inspiration...from books & stuff
19 November 2012
More TUeBL
I've posted about this excellent website before but am compelled to do so again...
TUeBL - The Ultimate eBook Library.
These people do good work - making books available in .epub format to whoever has the need or desire.
To quote the website administrator on their Facebook page:
I operate TUEBL because it provides a service that I am morally compelled to offer. Think of it as a blend of tithing and missionary. I enable people to share culture and knowledge around the world, and for others to be able to receive that knowledge and culture.
We get users who email us from Kenya, South Africa, Columbia, and other places that don't have affordable access to books and praise us for what we do for them. You can look through the posts on our walls and see all the students and mothers and avid readers who are able to read more books because of TUEBL.
Users of TUEBL are not the ones killing the publishing industry. I know that most of you spend more money on books than most other people. Sure some of you don't, but the number of you who don't buy books anymore and also can afford to buy more books are in the minority.
Sharing books lets us share culture, and that allows us to make to world a richer place. A better place.
The world has too much hate already. Share the love of books and help TUeBL to go some way to achieving this noble goal.
17 November 2012
Book Review: The Citadel - Robert Doherty
What: The Citadel
Who: Robert Doherty (pseudonym for Bob Mayer)
When: Published March 27th 2007
This book follows on immediately after Section 8 which I reviewed here. It's pretty much a continuation of the story begun in Section 8, and the action begins right away.
Jim Vaughn and Layla Tai, the only surviving members of their Section 8 team from the previous mission, are recovering after their ordeal - an ordeal that has left them both officially declared dead. They are approached by their former boss who wants Vaughn and Tai to come and work for him to find out exactly who the shadowy Organization are who pull the strings of groups like Section 8 and others. He figures that they might be rather useful assets given the fact that they are 'dead'. And he issues them their first task...
Information about a secret base in Antarctica has come to light and the possibility of there being various nuclear weapons stored there. It seems that this base was built by a rogue element within the Organization but without their knowledge. This information gets into the hands of a number of others and the race is on to recover the weapons. What ensues is a race to find the Citadel and secure the weapons lest they fall into the wrong hands.
There's the usual Robert Doherty conspriacy twists in there as well with Majestic 12 coming into the plot too.
A good follow-up to Section 8. More good adventure and battles with lots of military hardware which is great. About the only complaint is how some things go just too right in some scenes, like how everything in the Citadel worked perfectly after being abandoned for 50 years...too easy.
Never mind, because this doesn't detract from an otherwise very good, and real page-turning book.
Once again it looks as if Mr. Doherty has left the path open for sequels - which is just as well because there must be so much more to this story. I really look forward to more from Jim Vaughn and finding out the real truth behind 'The Organization'. To quote the main character at the end of the book:
8/10
Check it out at Goodreads.
Who: Robert Doherty (pseudonym for Bob Mayer)
When: Published March 27th 2007
At the start of the Cold War, the greatest threat to America wasn't the Russians and the looming Communist threat. Rather, it was an elite organization bent on world domination, a group so powerful only nuclear weapons could safeguard against them. The CIA knew what these men were capable of, and in a last ditch attempt to protect America against them, they built two high-security arsenals deep within the earth--one declassified in the Nevada desert, and one heavily under wraps in Antarctica. For over 50 years, no one spoke of The Citadel, the fortress deep under the ice in Antarctica that held the most powerful weapon known to man--until the Organization returned, hellbent on destruction.
Captain Jim Vaughn is a government agent known for performing missions no one else wants. So when an old colleague approaches him with an assignment, he can't refuse--even if the mission has been set in motion by a dead man's letter, found in Antarctica and dated 1949. The Citadel has been cracked, and the only man who can safeguard it is Vaughn. Nothing short of the fate of mankind rests on his shoulders.
This book follows on immediately after Section 8 which I reviewed here. It's pretty much a continuation of the story begun in Section 8, and the action begins right away.
Jim Vaughn and Layla Tai, the only surviving members of their Section 8 team from the previous mission, are recovering after their ordeal - an ordeal that has left them both officially declared dead. They are approached by their former boss who wants Vaughn and Tai to come and work for him to find out exactly who the shadowy Organization are who pull the strings of groups like Section 8 and others. He figures that they might be rather useful assets given the fact that they are 'dead'. And he issues them their first task...
Information about a secret base in Antarctica has come to light and the possibility of there being various nuclear weapons stored there. It seems that this base was built by a rogue element within the Organization but without their knowledge. This information gets into the hands of a number of others and the race is on to recover the weapons. What ensues is a race to find the Citadel and secure the weapons lest they fall into the wrong hands.
There's the usual Robert Doherty conspriacy twists in there as well with Majestic 12 coming into the plot too.
A good follow-up to Section 8. More good adventure and battles with lots of military hardware which is great. About the only complaint is how some things go just too right in some scenes, like how everything in the Citadel worked perfectly after being abandoned for 50 years...too easy.
Never mind, because this doesn't detract from an otherwise very good, and real page-turning book.
Once again it looks as if Mr. Doherty has left the path open for sequels - which is just as well because there must be so much more to this story. I really look forward to more from Jim Vaughn and finding out the real truth behind 'The Organization'. To quote the main character at the end of the book:
"I think we've started some cracks in the ice that protects the Organization."Nice one. Can't wait for more.
8/10
Check it out at Goodreads.
11 November 2012
Book Review: Section 8 - Robert Doherty
What: Section 8
Who: Robert Doherty (pseudonym for Bob Mayer)
When: Published October 1st 2005
Another novel from Bob Mayer writing under the pseudonym Robert Doherty. I'd previously read his Area 51 series and enjoyed that immensely, especially his writing style and superb action scenes. Therefore I found that picking this up was a no-brainer.
Here we have a tale of a group of military misfits and screw-ups that are thrown together by a shady organization for covert operations outside the bounds of official knowledge - a group that calls itself Section 8.
The main character is a man by the name of Jim Vaughn who earned his place on the team by being the leader of a botched hostage rescue. After proving his worth as a black ops soldier to the Section 8 people, Vaughn meets the rest of the team who are an equally motley collection with their own personal stories of failure and/or corruption.
They are tasked with the task of dealing with a shady group that has connections to a dark Japanese World War Two secret and a secretive organization that nobody seems to know anything about.
Another cracking yarn that didn't disappoint. Quite a page-turner with nonstop action and just enough depth to the main characters to keep it interesting. The combat scenes are kept brief but are still vivid, the plot is complex enough without being too much and the ending is left open. All in all a good read.
This story is closely followed by The Citadel - which I'm reading now.
10/10
Check it out at Goodreads.
Who: Robert Doherty (pseudonym for Bob Mayer)
When: Published October 1st 2005
They were the men called upon to do the impossible. A top-secret unit who were tasked with what others would call suicide missions. They were the men who had nothing to lose. Captain Jim Vaughn is a soldier in disgrace. Commanding a special forces mission to capture terrorists in the Philippines, Vaughn's team is destroyed, and when the smoke clears, he is the one made the scapegoat. Forced into the shadows by the scandal, Vaughn is offered a chance to redeem himself when he is approached by an enigmatic government agent looking for a few desperate men.
Vaughn is recruited into a new team, but is shocked to meet his new teammates, a group of men outside of the regular chain of command. These were men who had used up all their second chances. These are men who have crossed the line one too many times. Drug users. Felons. The insane. The terminally ill. These are now the men that Vaughn must trust with his life.
This group of outcasts and misfits has been assembled for two reasons--they are skilled, and they are expendable. These are the kinds of men who are needed to attempt missions the government can't acknowledge, the country can't condone, and the team cannot fail. But the deeper Vaughn gets into the unique group, the more he realizes that the organization may be concealing more than the rap sheets of its most unusual operators. A team of such unique properties is the perfect tool to use againt America's enemies...and possibly America itself.
Another novel from Bob Mayer writing under the pseudonym Robert Doherty. I'd previously read his Area 51 series and enjoyed that immensely, especially his writing style and superb action scenes. Therefore I found that picking this up was a no-brainer.
Here we have a tale of a group of military misfits and screw-ups that are thrown together by a shady organization for covert operations outside the bounds of official knowledge - a group that calls itself Section 8.
The main character is a man by the name of Jim Vaughn who earned his place on the team by being the leader of a botched hostage rescue. After proving his worth as a black ops soldier to the Section 8 people, Vaughn meets the rest of the team who are an equally motley collection with their own personal stories of failure and/or corruption.
They are tasked with the task of dealing with a shady group that has connections to a dark Japanese World War Two secret and a secretive organization that nobody seems to know anything about.
Another cracking yarn that didn't disappoint. Quite a page-turner with nonstop action and just enough depth to the main characters to keep it interesting. The combat scenes are kept brief but are still vivid, the plot is complex enough without being too much and the ending is left open. All in all a good read.
This story is closely followed by The Citadel - which I'm reading now.
10/10
Check it out at Goodreads.
05 November 2012
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Book Review: The Harbinger - Jonathan Cahn
What: The Harbinger
Who: Jonathan Cahn
When: Published January 2012
Right here we have one of those books that comes along once in a while that is quite different from most other things we read. This book is not so much a novel, but a lesson in Biblical prophecy. The lesson is centered mainly around Isaiah 9:10 and how this relates to America's past and future.
Who: Jonathan Cahn
When: Published January 2012
Is it possible that there exists an ancient mystery that holds the secret of America’s future? That this mystery lies behind everything from 9/11 to the collapse of the global economy? That ancient harbingers of judgment are now manifesting in America? That God is sending America a prophetic message of what is yet to come?Before its destruction as a nation, ancient Israel received nine harbingers, prophetic omens of warning. The same nine harbingers are now manifesting in America with immediate ramifications for end-time prophecy. Hidden in an ancient biblical prophecy from Isaiah, the mysteries revealed in The Harbinger are so precise that they foretold recent American events down to the exact days. The revelations are so specific that even the most hardened skeptics will find it hard to dismiss or put down. It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood thriller with one exception IT'S REAL.The prophetic mysteries are revealed through an intriguing and engaging narrative the reader will find hard to put down. The Harbinger opens with the appearance of a man burdened with a message he has received from a mysterious figure called The Prophet. The Prophet has given him nine seals, each containing a message about America's future. As he tells of his encounters with The Prophet, from a skyscraper in New York City, to a rural mountaintop, to Capitol Hill, to Ground Zero, the mystery behind each seal is revealed. As the story unfolds, each revelation becomes a piece in a greater puzzle & the ramifications of which will even alter the course of world history.
Right here we have one of those books that comes along once in a while that is quite different from most other things we read. This book is not so much a novel, but a lesson in Biblical prophecy. The lesson is centered mainly around Isaiah 9:10 and how this relates to America's past and future.
The story is basically the storyteller recounting various conversations and lessons had with a man he refers to "The Prophet". It is during these encounters that he learns how the events surrounding the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001 and the years following parallel events which happened to Israel in ancient times. The main crux is that when a nation is originally created with God's blessing and inspiration it prospers - but when it turns away from Him and all that He has given them they will be warned or chastised. If these warnings (or harbingers) are not heeded and they don't turn back to Him, then judgement will surely come.
The similarities between the two nations (ancient Israel and present-day USA) is actually quite startling. Especially the symbolic elements such as the type and location of trees and buildings, etc. is very thought-provoking.
This book was not at all what I expected. That's okay because I ended up really enjoying the story and the lesson underneath it. It is quite well written considering it's so heavy on dialogue.
Very well worth reading if you have any interest in Biblical themes or prophecy. Like The Da Vinci Code but with a deeper purpose. Not bad at all.
7/10
Check it out at Goodreads.
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