ALEX RIDER - POINT BLANK

PUFFIN BOOKS

Written by Anthony Horowitz

Copyright Anthony Horowitz, 2001

All rights reserved



In Point Blank, the second book in the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, some billionaires have been mysteriously killed and orphaned Alex Rider is sent by MI6 - the British Secret Intelligence Service - to infiltrate a school in the snow-covered French Alps that is a school for these malcontent children of these high profile industry businessmen in order to find out why they are being killed.

Alex is brought by helicopter to Point Blanc by Mrs. Stellenbosch, the co-director of the Point Blanc Academy for young men. While at the Academy, Alex meets the students at the Academy which includes James - who wants to escape from the Academy. After sneaking out of his room, Alex sees a boy being dragged downstairs and believes it to be James. The next day, Alex sees James - whose attitude towards escaping the Academy have changed. James has become just like all the other robotic students at the Academy.

Alex soon finds out the sinister truth about the Academy - that the Academy is targeting these young men - and signals MI6 for help.

What I did not like was that the head of MI6, Alan Blunt, refuses to have his people go in on the Academy immediately - thus risking Alex's life. But I did like that when a team of SAS - Special Air Service - soldiers is finally sent out to liberate the school, the team is lead by Alex's former SAS trainer Wolf.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

KING KONG

THE MODERN LIBRARY

Written by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper

Novelization by Delos W. Lovelace

Introduction by Greg Bear
Preface by Mark Cotta Vaz

Introduction copyright 2005 by Greg Bear
Preface copyright 2005 by Mark Cotta Vaz

All rights reserved.



In King Kong - originally written by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper, with the novelization by Delos W. Lovelace - movie producer Denham is out to make a film with the new 8th Wonder of the World - the great ape, King Kong.

Denham takes a film crew and an innocent leading lady, Ann Darrow, out on a freighter ship in the South Pacific ocean and sails to an exotic tropical island in order to search for a mythical legend. There on the island full of dinosaurs, they run into the natives who kidnap the beautiful actress Ann and have put her up to sacrifice to the native's mysterious monster god - the giant gorilla beast King Kong.

This novelization of the original movie from 1933 gave me the feeling of the movie. The Preface by Mark Cotta Vaz explains how the story of the movie King Kong came about. This is especially important as some people like me might think that King Kong had came from a book first, but this is a completely original story that was created to be produced for a movie - with Cooper saying that he had gotten the idea from a dream that he had of a giant gorilla terrorizing New York. From reading the Preface, this story seems more like a biography about Cooper who is living his life vicariously through the character of Denham - especially with a film crew trying to film an unusual wildlife phenomenom. Greg Bear's introduction of the book gives a modern perspective of the story behind King Kong. The fact that the book is printed by Modern Library Classics shows how much of an impact this fictional story of a beast loving a beauty has had on the American popular culture for the movie story to be even considered to be a classic story.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language. 

Johnny Tremain

LAUREL LEAF BOOKS

Written by Esther Forbes

Copyright 1943 by Esther Forbes Hoskins
Copyright renewed 1971 by Linwood M. Erskine, Jr.
Executor of the Estate of Esther Forbes Hoskins



In Johnny Tremain, written by Esther Forbes, Johnny is a young silversmith apprentist who soon becomes involved with the start of the American Revolutionary War.

I have always wanted to read this book after watching the
Walt Disney Productions movie of Johnny Temain when I was a kid. In the book, Johnny appears to me as younger than what he was portrayed in the movie. Johnny was also more of an arrogant, egotistical kid in the book - at least in the beginning - than he was in the movie. I had difficulty liking Johnny as a result of his being so arrogant, as compared to Johnny being a hero to me in the movie. Johnny also does not have any good relationships with the people around him because of his arrogance. Aside from those things, most of the book was in the movie from what I can recall of the movie, as I have not seen the movie since I was a kid. Although, The Liberty Tree song was written for the movie of which the song was about the American Revolution. I was actually surprised at how much of the American Revolution events that was incorporated into the book that Johnny would be involved in, including Johnny being involved with several of the historical characters. Actually having the fictional characters of Johnny Tremain becoming involved in the American Revolution against the British Army Redcoats representing the British crown made the Revolutionary War come alive for me far more than it ever did for me in my American History classes of the revolutionary war battles as well as the American Minutemen coming alive for me as the Minutemen fought for the American War of Independence.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK and The Three Investigators in THE MYSTERY OF THE NERVOUS LION

Armada

Text by Nick West
Based on characters created by Robert Arthur

Copyright 1971 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.




In The Mystery of the Nervous Lion, written by Nick West, The Three Investigators are being sent by film director Alfred Hitchcock to the theme park - Jungle Land. The owner of Jungle Land, who is Hitchcock's friend, has rented out the park to a movie company - who has trouble with the owner's nervous lion.

Southern California is full of theme parks, some of which have come and gone, so this story of a theme park was rather appropriate for the series. Jungle Land is more like a zoo, rather than a typical theme park with attractions and rides. With only about four people to run Jungle Land, including the animal handler and the animal doctor, it is not surprising to me that Jungle Land was on the verge of bankruptcy and that they had allowed a film crew to film on their Land. I was surprised that Jim - the owner, along with Jim's nephew Mike - had made the trained lion as pretty much of a pet. So, while it was a surprise for Jim and Mike to find out that George the lion is nervous, it was not a surprise to me that the lion was a pretty dangerous animal to be around. Although, there was a good reason why the George the lion was nervous - having Jim and Mike in a sort of denial about George the lion being harmless was very reckless to me.

I liked the fact that the Three Investigators spent much more time at Jupiter's Uncle Titus's "Jones Salvage Yard" than they have spent in the earlier books. The Salvage Yard, after all, is Jupiter's home as well as The Three Investigator's Headquarters. So naturally the Investigators should spend more time in the Salvage Yard. There is more time spent with Uncle Titus and Aunt Matilda as well as time spent with their Bavarian helpers, the brothers Hans and Konrad. As a result, there was an equal amount of time spent between Hans and Konrad as well as spending the time with The Three Investigator's chauffeur Worthington.

There is quite a lot of danger for The Three Investigators involving escaped animals, as well as danger with an auto metal shredder.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

PRIVATE

VISION

Written by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Copyright © 2010 by James Patterson



In the first book of a new series Jack Morgan, Private written by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro, has former Marine Jack Morgan running an investigation company called Private. Morgan and his investigation company are investigating an NFL gambling scandal and the serial slayings of schoolgirls. But the case that gets to Morgan - is the murder of his former lover, who was also his best friend's wife.

Considering that Morgan has a team of high-tech investigators in his company, but also that his company is worldwide, it is hard to believe that Morgan's company makes that much money to pay for all of that. Granted Morgan's father had started the company, and had provided the money to both Morgan and his brother in order for them to run their own businesses - but when you consider that Morgan's father had wound up in jail, this made such an inheritance to the brothers confusing. Was the money from Morgan's father legitimate or not? The book was not very clear on the reasons of why Morgan's father went to jail in the first place, nor of how Morgan's father had built up enough money to start such businesses for both of his children. Supposedly Private was started by Morgan's father as well, but I had no idea of that from reading the book.

Considering what kind of cases that were involved in the book, the cases portrayed did not seem as intense to me as they should have been. This is probably because Morgan has a team of qualified, high-tech cyber investigators that was working all of the cases, instead of just Morgan working the cases by himself. With Morgan not working the cases, it lessons the intensity of the story for me that Morgan does not personally experience the chance of failure for not directly working the cases. The cyber investigators were especially important in the book for the investigation dealing with the cyber-related serial killings. As a result of the team of investigators, I felt no sense of desperation or code of honor from Morgan in the solving of these cases. Morgan seemed to me more like he was someone who was just developing his portfolio with his business operations, rather than as someone who was really interested in solving the cases. I cared more for Morgan's Second-in-Command Justine Smith, since Smith was the one who was in the streets determined to catch the serial killer.

Actually, what I liked best about the book and Morgan was of Morgan's guilt when he was in the military and survived a helicopter crash - in which Morgan was forced to leave a man to die inside the helicopter crash. The military aspect of Morgan was much more relatable to me than his dysfunctional relationship with his gambling brother, of which I could never really understand why they became at odds with each other in the first place. Morgan's brother was a real jerk, and I could not believe that the two of them ever had any kind of loving relationship when they were kids.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

DALE BROWN'S Dreamland - RETRIBUTION

HARPER

Written by Dale Brown and Jim DeFelice

Copyright © 2007 by Air Battle Force, Inc.



In Dale Brown's Dreamland - Retribution, written by Dale Brown and Jim DeFelice, the Dreamland team - which is based at a secret military facility in the Nevada desert - are searching for more than two dozen nuclear weapons that were lost when India and Pakistan launched these weapons against each other. Fortunately the Dreamland team were able to neutralize the nuclear weapons with their new systems, but now that war has been prevented, Dreamland must recover the weapons before other authorities and guerrilla fighters recover them - while two of their own have been lost at sea.

As the Dreamland team try to recover the nuclear weapons in the Mid-East, Lt. Colonel Tecumseh "Dog" Bastian searches for his daughter and her husband - who both have bailed out of their plane damaged from air combat, and are injured and marooned on a deserted island. Meanwhile, Air Force Major General Terrill "Earthmover" Samson tries to take over Bastian's command of Dreamland.

While I understand Samson may want command of Dreamland with no apologies, I can not appreciate the fact that Samson has no respect for what Dreamland does - whose personnel are the best of the best. Samson tries to remove everything that makes Dreamland what it is - including the specialized strategic hi-tech programs that Dreamland is developing, as well as removing the personnel in charge of the programs.

The use of the Whiplash UAV's (unmanned aerial vehicle) makes me appreciate more the capabilities of such aircraft. You are seeing the UAV's more and more in the media when dealing with the military or covert organizations. And when you consider that UAV's insures the safety of our pilots, it is a wonder that more of these aircraft are not in operation. Most of the media attention today is focused on manned aircraft, probably due to the high visibility of pilots and the more clandestine activities of UAV's. It is curious that even the remote pilots care about the fate of their remote planes, just as regular pilots care about their planes - even if the remote pilots are not physically flying the UAV planes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.