Weird Golf: 18 Tales of Fantastic, Horrific, Scientifically Impossible, and Morally Reprehensible Golf by Dave Donelson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Disclosure: I received this book through a Firstreads giveaway in the expectation that I would review it.

To make where I'm coming from clearer, I'm not a sports fan, and in specific not a golf fan. I've played just enough golf to know the game doesn't appeal to me as a player, and I don't believe I have ever watched an entire match on TV. However, I'm a big fan of "strange sports stories" which blend a real-life sport with fantastic elements.

As you might gather, this is a single-author anthology which is exclusively about golf. Thus, the changes are rung by introducing different unusual elements, not all impossible. It's double-spaced for easy reading.

The best single story is "Grand Slam", where a veteran golf writer (much like the author) realizes there's something more unusual than most about an up and coming golfer. The ending's very predictable, but the research is good.

Mr. Donelson appears to have been his own editor/proofreader, as there are a couple of "relies on spellchecker" errors.

And then there is the story "Superhero Grudge Match", in which Superman and Batman compete to join a pro-am golf tournatment. I was very surprised to not see a fanfic disclaimer, or an indication that Mr. Donelson got permission to use the characters for his book.

It really felt like the writer hadn't done the research on the comic book characters nearly as well as he'd researched Pebble Beach. The story references some current events that might have made the business pages, but the Batman and Robin combo used were clearly the ones from the 1960e TV series. The characterizations are closest to the Silver Age "World's Finest" comic books, in which Superman, Batman or both suddenly start acting dickishly for reasons given at the end of the story. Except that this time they're dickish for the sole purpose of winning a golf game.

Notably, though both heroes end up cheating during the match, neither of them uses the skills/powers that would allow them to be freakishly good at golf. As a comic book fanfic reader, I have to say it's not very good.

I would only recommend this book to people looking for a gift their golf-mad relative probably doesn't have already. It's a light read, suitable for rainy days and waiting for tee times.



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Spent most of the night putting together a basket of comics and related items for the United Way raffle at work. Not as pretty as I'd like, but I'm not good with Saran wrap.

A reminder that there's still time to sign up for the Mix CD exchange mentioned in an earlier post.

This is a bit later in the year than usual. as barondave, our usual facilitator, has been extra-busy.

For those of you who haven't done this before, each participant makes a themed music mix, with enough CD copies for all the other participants. For this year, you'll be sending the copies to a Central Mailer (me) for redistribution.

Schedule: Respond to this post on Dreamwidth or Livejournal (or have someone with an account sponsor you, no anonymous replies this time) by May 31, 2012 so we know how many copies to make. Please indicate in your reply if you want to pick up your CDs at ConVergence 2012, or would prefer them to be mailed out to you. (Do not put your mailing address in the public comments; I'll contact you privately.) You will then have until June 30, 2012 to get your CDs to the Central Mailer, who will redistribute them ASAP.

Cost: Materials. Donations of postage stamps to the CM would be helpful.

Theme: IDIC, Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. That is, each participant gets to decide what theme they want their mix to be, something a little more structured than "What I have on shuffle" preferred.

If you need an idea for a mix theme, here's a few:

* "So Very Tired"--songs for the end of the day.
* "Recursive"--songs about music and singing.
* "My Favorite Hero"--songs that remind you of a favorite fictional character.
* "Summer Blockbuster"--arrange the songs to resemble an action movie soundtrack (bonus points for not using any actual movie soundtracks.)

I hope we can get enough participants to make this a good showing!

George W. Hamilton, USMC: America's Greatest World War I Hero by Mark Mortensen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Disclosure: I received this book through a Firstreads giveaway, on the premise that I would review it.

Everyone who served in a military in World War One is dead, and we're rapidly coming up on the centennial of the Great War itself. I expect we'll be seeing a flood of books, TV series and films on the subject. So it's no surprise that someone decided to do a biography of George W. Hamilton, one of the most impressive people involved in the war.

It's not as good a book as it could be, however. The problems start with the introductory material, which overdoes trying to sell the reader on why this book should be written about this person. Some of the famous Marine terseness would have served well here.

Major Hamilton did not keep a journal and did not get around to writing his memoirs, and very few of his letters are still in existence. To cover for this lack of primary source material, particularly in the earlier chapters, the author lists various historical timeline events that Hamilton might have heard about or been in the vicinity of. There's also a fair amount of attempted mindreading. "Hamilton would surely have been interested in..."

Once the book gets to Hamilton's war service, the book gets more solid--probably both because of the extensive documentation of events, and because it's the meat of the story. I'll just say that the subtitle of the book is well supported.

The disappointing and short post-war years are covered, followed by a "where are they now" segment for people George W. Hamilton was close to. There's a postscript that sounds like the author's attempt to start another attempt to get Hamilton the Medal of Honor (arguably, he was robbed.) Extensive footnotes, a fine bibliography and an index round out the volume.

The book is primarily intended for schools and libraries, and is retailing at $45 a pop; I'd suggest checking your local library for a copy and skipping straight to the war chapters.



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Tom Swift and His Ocean Airport, or, Foiling the Haargolanders by Victor Appleton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is much further along in the Tom Swift (Sr) series than my previous review, Tom Swift and his Motorboat. Tom is now the owner of a factory that produces his inventions, Ned is his business manager, Eradicate is now a full-time employee of the Swifts, and they've added the giant South American Koku to the team as Tom's bodyguard. Tom is also now married, although you can hardly tell. We don't learn the wife's name in this volume, she is never "on stage" and is mentioned only twice, once to establish that she exists, and once to let us know she's not going on the adventure. We hear a bit more about Mr. Damon's wife, who he keeps ditching to visit Tom.

Oh, the plot. One of Tom's old friends we (and Ned) have never heard of before has his plane forced down by a competitor in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Tom decides to avert any such future disaster by building a floating airport for emergency landings. About this time, a new engineer is employed by the Swift firm, a swarthy foreigner named Emil Gurg. Yeah. He's actually useful at first, since his home country of Haargoland just happens to have exactly the kind of wood Tom needs to make the airport feasible. But once it's actually built....

Ned comes off the best in this vclume. He correctly suspects Gurg from the start, and expresses a wish for Tom's new silent wireless transmitter to make a lot of money...so that he can give raises to their employees.

Tom means well, but sees nothing wrong with rearranging another country's government to suit his needs, as long as there's no violence. Gurg exploits this for all it's worth.

It's Eradicate and Koku that raise my hackles. They've become the "bickering sidekicks" so beloved of early 20th Century action stories, the comic relief characters that constantly fight, but secretly would lay down their lives for each other. Except that what they bicker about in this volume is which of them is more properly servile towards Tom. Rad had some dignity in the motorboat story, not so much here.

Between the ethnic stereotypes and the way Tom never learns his lesson about interfering in other countries' politics, I cannot recommend this book to anyone who isn't already a Tom Swift fan.



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City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago by Gary Krist

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Full disclosure: I was sent this volume as a Firstreads giveaway on the premise that I would write a review of it. (I would not be surprised to learn that the fact I have reviewed two previous Chicago history books influenced the contest.) Also, my copy is an uncorrected proof, and small changes may have been made between it and the final product.

Late July of 1919 was certainly a troubled time for the city of Chicago, and thus one ripe for interesting history. The book opens with an account of the Wingfoot disaster to hook the reader, then moves back to the beginning of the year to set the stage for the more politically oriented events. After the main narrative, there's a summary of later events and finally a "where are they now" section.

The central figure is colorful mayor "Big Bill" Thompson, but space is made for the stories of others, including a ordinary Chicago woman, Emily Frankenstein, who happened to keep a very good diary. There are copious footnotes, a full bibliography, and an index.

The book is written in clear, understandable language and was a quick but not insubstantial read. I would have liked a bit more information on Chicago's dealing with the "moron" problem after the events covered, but was otherwise satisfied.

Be aware that as a race riot is part of the history, there are quotes from racist people--and some early 20th Century sexism.


I'd especially recommend this book to high school history students looking for an interesting subject not as yet overdone.



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So, I should probably say a bit about Minicon while I still have some memory of it.

It's hard to think of a bigger contrast to Anime Detour that still resembles a convention. From circa five thousand attendees to less than five hundred. And since the Doubletree started remodeling the second Detour was over, almost the entirety of Minicon was squeezed into the Plaza Tower. I am deeply impressed by the work of both the concom and the Doubletree staff to get everything set up and working properly in the very short time they had.

I am happy to report that despite my room being on "the party floor" a combination of good manners on the part of attendees and decent soundproofing allowed me to get a full night's sleep.

I thought the panels I was on went well, and enjoyed most of the ones I went to. (I was kind of groggy during the "funny stories about computer history" panel, so missed many of the jokes.)

Got a nice affordable piece of art by one of the guests of honor--safe for work, too!

Looking forward to seeing the remodeled Doubletree in July, though I alas will be sleeping in the Crowne Plaza, so once again no late night parties for me.

Tom Swift And His Motor-boat by Victor Appleton II

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Another of the boys' adventure books from the early 20th Century I love so much. Young Tom acquires the motor-boat seen towards the end of the previous volume, repairs and improves it, and has a series of adventures on the local (very large) lake.

It illustrates how much the technology of gasoline motors has advanced in the intervening century--Tom and the other motorboat pilots must frequently tinker with the engines mid-race to get the best performance or prevent breakdowns.

The last quarter of the book sets up the airship that will be the focus of the next volume.

The character of Eradicate may come off as offensively stereotyped, and Tom shows some mild sexism when it comes to girls and motors. (The romantic interest gets better at it, but only because of his tutoring.) And towards the end, one character suddenly reveals he has more political power than he'd let on, with no foreshadowing.

But these are minor quibbles, and I think this book would be fine to share with a son, grandson or nephew.



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Mingo Dabney by James Street

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


As I am apparently the first person on Goodreads to have read this book (I had to manually add it); I'll be a bit more descriptive than I might otherwise be.



Mingo Dabney is a Mississippi woodsman from Lebanon who falls in love with the lovely but exotic (white-haired) Cuban woman Rafaela Galbran when she comes to his hometown seeking money and arms for the 1895 Cuban revolution. Being a passionate young fellow, he winds up following her to Cuba and getting mixed up in the fighting.



The story is based on real events and several of the people involved actually existed. Jose Marti, the author of "Guantanamera", has a small but key role, for example. However, as the author admits in the foreword, he's a storyteller, not a historian, and has rearranged things to make a better tale. In particular, one incident is moved from the 1868 revolution to 1895.



Racism is acknowledged in the story; while Mingo himself is surprisingly unbigoted for his time and place, the reputation of Southerners for racial prejudice works against him in the early part of the story. The revolutionaries' fear that American intervention would result in a loss of sovereignity for Cuba is also mentioned. Rafaela is the only woman with a substantial role in the book, and is primarily a symbol for the troops to rally around.



The book ends before the end of the revolution and the beginning of the Spanish-American War; it could easily have a sequel as there are several plot threads left loose, but Mingo Dabney's character arc is complete, so it's a satisfying ending.



You might have a little trouble finding this one--it appears that the most recent Cuban Revolution soured American readers on the topic, and it was not reprinted past the 1950s. But it's a solid read about a period of history little taught in US schools.



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Minicon is this weekend, and I've just heard back on my panel requests. I'm on three panels, all on Saturday.

SAT 11:30 AM Krushenko's - Atrium 7
Believable Antagonists
What makes a good antagonist? What makes an antagonist believable? Why does Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica work better than Anakin Skywalker in Episode III? Is the antagonist more about motivations, or contrast with the protagonist?

(This one has lots of name authors on it, including Will Shetterly and Lois McMaster Bujold, so I don't think I'll need to say very much.)


SAT 2:30 PM Atrium 3
Let Me Tell You About My Character!
What gaming conversations make you want to flee in terror? Why are these conversations so fascinating to the storyteller, and so horribly boring for the listener? What is unique about RPGs that cause this phenomenon?

(I'll likely have quite a bit more to say here.)


SAT 4:00 PM Bloomington
Fanfic: Playing in Someone Else's Sandbox
Fanfiction isn't new, though the internet has made it much more accessible in the last two decades. Where is it growing? What is there to know about the explosion of fanfiction? How can we find fanfiction that we
like? How can we find communities to help us develop our work? How do fanfic authors critique each other's writing?

(And this one is near and dear to my heart.)


Hope to see some of you there!
SKJAM!