Grand unified books thread

[Habbaku]

 

[Oexmelin]

Thus far, it's definitely the tidiest narrative of that era of the EIC that I've read. He keeps everything flowing properly, doesn't confuse the reader with too many terms at the same time, and has been doing an excellent job of putting the Company's actions in context of what's going on with the rest of India.

Working on deepening those Pax Pamir / Johns Company skills, I see... 

[Habbaku]

I have to prepare for the release of John Company 2nd ed., yes. 

[Habbaku]

  I made the mistake of going on to Goodreads and seeing what the 1-star reviews had to say. It's awash in Hindu nationalists who clearly haven't read the book and are furious that Dalrymple portrays the Mughals as anything other than bloodthirsty, Hindu-genociding savages.

[viper37]

The Last Dying Light, A novel of Belisarius
(Last of the Romans book #1)

It's an historical novel, and I think it's my first in English, a non sci-fi/fantasy novel.

It's about the Byzantine Empire, about a slave who became General, who challenged an Emp... nah. 

I thought it would be interesting as the Eastern Roman Empire is not something I am that well versed in, compared to the Western part of the Empire.  My latin classes focused on Pompeii and Rome after all.

Despite the title, it ain't much about Belisarius.  In the first novel, you see him a quarter of the way in, for a few lines, as he intervenes to secure the last leg of the hero's journey saving the future Empress Theodora from a riot in Constantinople.
He later reappears to fight the Avars in Crimea, with our hero.

So, the book focuses on Varus, at the beginning, a slave to Roman Emperor Justin.  Despite his status as a slave, he and his brother have received decent education and martial training.  After saving the future empress from a mob, he is granted his freedom and offered the choice to merrily go in his way or join the army to fight for Justin&Justinian's dreams of recreating the full Roman Empire.

Varus is an historical character, a Byzantine general of Heruli origins who rose the ranks to command an Heruli foederati (which he does in the 2nd book), fighting in Persia, among other things.  He is mentioned by Procopius, but I can't find much more than that. 

The author freely admits that he changed the order of some events, sometimes placed historical characters where they weren't and of course, added some new characters.

All in all, it's a good book about the Byzantine life of the early 6th century and some of its military campaigns.  I still prefer some good SW books over this , but it's a pretty interesting read.  2.99$/books on Amazon Kindle.

[Berkut]

The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command

https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Game-Jutland-British-Command/dp/1591143365/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1642604380&sr=8-1


My latest audible book. It is detailed, VERY detailed, tear apart of the Battle of Jutland. Tries to pick apart a lot of the controversy - seems pretty even handed to me so far.


But it goes into GREAT detail. Like....minute by minute analysis of the opening moments of the battle, how the BCF was deployed, signalling, who order who to do what, why, and when.


Then it breaks off, and spends some hours of narration talking about the Victorian Navy, the long peace, and how that effected who was rewarded, who was promoted, and why the men who ended up in charge at Jutland were THOSE men, instead of some other men, and how their training and culture resulted in the leadership that the British Navy ended up with.


I freaking love this kind of shit, but I could imagine a lot of people falling asleep once they get into the nuance of why Beatty signalled this instead of that at minute XYZ, and whether or not it was obeyed immediately, and if not, why not, etc., etc., etc.


Highly recommend if you like this kind of thing.

[Gups]

The Last Dying Light, A novel of Belisarius
(Last of the Romans book #1)

It's an historical novel, and I think it's my first in English, a non sci-fi/fantasy novel.

It's about the Byzantine Empire, about a slave who became General, who challenged an Emp... nah. 

I thought it would be interesting as the Eastern Roman Empire is not something I am that well versed in, compared to the Western part of the Empire.  My latin classes focused on Pompeii and Rome after all.

Despite the title, it ain't much about Belisarius.  In the first novel, you see him a quarter of the way in, for a few lines, as he intervenes to secure the last leg of the hero's journey saving the future Empress Theodora from a riot in Constantinople.
He later reappears to fight the Avars in Crimea, with our hero.

So, the book focuses on Varus, at the beginning, a slave to Roman Emperor Justin.  Despite his status as a slave, he and his brother have received decent education and martial training.  After saving the future empress from a mob, he is granted his freedom and offered the choice to merrily go in his way or join the army to fight for Justin&Justinian's dreams of recreating the full Roman Empire.

Varus is an historical character, a Byzantine general of Heruli origins who rose the ranks to command an Heruli foederati (which he does in the 2nd book), fighting in Persia, among other things.  He is mentioned by Procopius, but I can't find much more than that. 

The author freely admits that he changed the order of some events, sometimes placed historical characters where they weren't and of course, added some new characters.

All in all, it's a good book about the Byzantine life of the early 6th century and some of its military campaigns.  I still prefer some good SW books over this , but it's a pretty interesting read.  2.99$/books on Amazon Kindle.

Robert Graves write a novel on Belisarious. I remember it being very good, if not quite at the level of I, Claudius.

[viper37]

I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

[Malthus]

The Last Dying Light, A novel of Belisarius
(Last of the Romans book #1)

It's an historical novel, and I think it's my first in English, a non sci-fi/fantasy novel.

It's about the Byzantine Empire, about a slave who became General, who challenged an Emp... nah. 

I thought it would be interesting as the Eastern Roman Empire is not something I am that well versed in, compared to the Western part of the Empire.  My latin classes focused on Pompeii and Rome after all.

Despite the title, it ain't much about Belisarius.  In the first novel, you see him a quarter of the way in, for a few lines, as he intervenes to secure the last leg of the hero's journey saving the future Empress Theodora from a riot in Constantinople.
He later reappears to fight the Avars in Crimea, with our hero.

So, the book focuses on Varus, at the beginning, a slave to Roman Emperor Justin.  Despite his status as a slave, he and his brother have received decent education and martial training.  After saving the future empress from a mob, he is granted his freedom and offered the choice to merrily go in his way or join the army to fight for Justin&Justinian's dreams of recreating the full Roman Empire.

Varus is an historical character, a Byzantine general of Heruli origins who rose the ranks to command an Heruli foederati (which he does in the 2nd book), fighting in Persia, among other things.  He is mentioned by Procopius, but I can't find much more than that. 

The author freely admits that he changed the order of some events, sometimes placed historical characters where they weren't and of course, added some new characters.

All in all, it's a good book about the Byzantine life of the early 6th century and some of its military campaigns.  I still prefer some good SW books over this , but it's a pretty interesting read.  2.99$/books on Amazon Kindle.

Robert Graves write a novel on Belisarious. I remember it being very good, if not quite at the level of I, Claudius.

Yup, called Count Belisarius. I enjoyed it.

Main drawback was the character of Belisarius - too decent and honourable for his own good (or for the good of anyone else). Reading it, I kinda felt annoyed - everyone is telling him "overthrow Justinian already", and you aren't given much reason in the novel to disagree that this would be a good idea!

[grumbler]

The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command

https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Game-Jutland-British-Command/dp/1591143365/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1642604380&sr=8-1


My latest audible book. It is detailed, VERY detailed, tear apart of the Battle of Jutland. Tries to pick apart a lot of the controversy - seems pretty even handed to me so far.


But it goes into GREAT detail. Like....minute by minute analysis of the opening moments of the battle, how the BCF was deployed, signalling, who order who to do what, why, and when.


Then it breaks off, and spends some hours of narration talking about the Victorian Navy, the long peace, and how that effected who was rewarded, who was promoted, and why the men who ended up in charge at Jutland were THOSE men, instead of some other men, and how their training and culture resulted in the leadership that the British Navy ended up with.


I freaking love this kind of shit, but I could imagine a lot of people falling asleep once they get into the nuance of why Beatty signalled this instead of that at minute XYZ, and whether or not it was obeyed immediately, and if not, why not, etc., etc., etc.


Highly recommend if you like this kind of thing.

We've discussed that book several times here.  Glad you enjoyed it.

If you want some good outside-the-box WW2 naval reading, try The Royal Navy in Eastern Waters https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07216DCX7/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1.  While the author over-eggs the pudding a bit with regard to his claims of being the only guy to figure out some of these things (a frequent problem with academic works extended into books), he does give some refreshing new insights on things like: why were HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales placed in such an exposed position at Singapore?  Conventional wisdom has it that this was just another of Winston Churchill's impulsive moves, but Boyd shows that it was the Admiralty who wanted them there; Churchill wanted them in Ceylon.

The book's main theme is that the Indian Ocean was the second-most-important British naval concern, for reasons that are largely ignored by more combat-centric histories.  I liked it a lot, and think that you would, as well.

[Jacob]

The book's main theme is that the Indian Ocean was the second-most-important British naval concern, for reasons that are largely ignored by more combat-centric histories.  I liked it a lot, and think that you would, as well.

Interesting. What were those reasons? Commerce? Maintaining the Empire? Logistics?

[Sheilbh]

Interesting. What were those reasons? Commerce? Maintaining the Empire? Logistics?

Empire makes most sense to me. India was key not least because of the role of the Indian Army in enforcing imperial rule everywhere else (plus, obviously, fighting in all of Britain's wars).

[grumbler]

The book's main theme is that the Indian Ocean was the second-most-important British naval concern, for reasons that are largely ignored by more combat-centric histories.  I liked it a lot, and think that you would, as well.

Interesting. What were those reasons? Commerce? Maintaining the Empire? Logistics?

The oil refineries at Abadan fueled the entire empire war effort in the eastern hemisphere.  Plus, it was the supply line to the Middle East. 

It was ironic that the UK couldn't find the ships to create an eastern Fleet in late 1941 but could in early 1942, when they'd lost some of the key elements of it.

[Syt]

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[Savonarola]

I read a collection of articles by Harriet Beecher Stowe about her time here in Florida.  In the Antebellum period Florida's economy centered around cotton grown in the panhandle.  During Reconstruction three of modern Florida's industry began to take shape, winter crops, tourism and wealthy northerners "Wintering" in Florida; Stowe was one such northerner.

While the panhandle was strongly Confederate territory (Florida has the dubious distinction of having slaveholders with the most slaves per capita); the peninsula was more Union, it's primary industries had been shipping and cattle rustling raising; both of which were damaged by the Confederacy.  (During the war the "Crackers" who raised cattle preferred to sell livestock to the Spaniards in Cuba, who paid in gold rather than the CSA who paid in Confederate money.)  During reconstruction some northerners (including Stowe's brother Charles Beecher) had the idea that pro-Union men would move in and overwhelm the unreconstructed southerners and repeat the Bleeding Kansas of the pre-Civil War era.  (Florida was referred to as "America's Italy" by this crowd.  That reminded me of a quote from "The Third Man.")  A number of Stowe's articles try to sell Florida as a beautiful land of opportunity.  "Opportunity" was plausible; Florida was so underpopulated at the time that homesteading was still a practice here.  "Beautiful" is more of a stretch; Stowe only lived here during the winters and returned to New England for the summer.  Of course the plan didn't pan out; for obvious reasons northerners didn't move down here full time in any number until the era of DDT and air conditioning.

Regardless the articles are interesting.  Stowe did have a sharp eye for detail, especially in nature.  She was an early advocate for the environment and inspired some of the first restrictions on shooting birds in Florida.  You can tell she came from a family of preachers as she'll sometimes slip into a sermon.