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Book Review: Tesla–Wizard at War

Posted by Staff on Sunday, July 10, 2022

By Robert McCool

What hasn't been written about Nikola Tesla in the past century? Books and documentaries abound around the genius of the inventor, and even Marc J. Seifer, the writer of this non-fiction tome had published a previous book in 1999, Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla. But this book, Wizard at War (Kensington Publishing Corp. ISBN  978-8065-4096-2) to be released at the end of August 2022, takes on a narrower subject, as it chronicles the inventions that interested the military of more than one country.

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Book Review: The roots of an assassin

Posted by Staff on Sunday, July 3, 2022

Review by Robert McCool

Occasionally a book comes along that captures and holds my interest until it's finished. Whether it is story or plot or writing skill, I'm pulled in and all other activities I'm doing fade away because I'm hooked into the book.

Booth (Random House, ISBN 978-0-593-55649-8) is Karen Joy Fowler's 2022 release, and her second novel. (Her first novel is We are All Completely Besides Ourselves). The well-written story is a meticulous glimpse into the past before Abraham Lincoln was killed in cold blood by John Wilkes Booth.

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Book Review: Aurora, when the lights went out

Posted by Staff on Sunday, June 26, 2022

By Robert McCool

When a monster solar coronal mass ejection (CME) strikes the Earth it destroys all of the power grids in the world, leaving our Earth in the literal dark as the electricity disappears worldwide. This is what  occurs in David Koepp's second book titled Aurora (ISBN 978-0-06-291647-1). Koepp is the screenwriter of many popular movies, including the first two Jurassic Park releases, Mission: Impossible, and War of the Worlds,  plus many more, some of which he also directed.

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Book Review: Two Gabriel Du Pre' novels by Peter Bowen

Posted by Staff on Sunday, June 19, 2022

By Robert McCool, Icon columnist

Welcome to the new Old West and a colorful cowboy and sometime deputy.

Life in Toussaint, Montana is all but disappeared. The Me'tis Indian people cling to their old ways while outsiders move into the area by the Wolf Mountains and bring their own problems to the town of five hundred survivors in this modern world.

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On a bonus writing lecture

Posted by Staff on Sunday, June 12, 2022

By Craig Hoffman
Blogger at Grey, Grizzled and Gaijin

Editor's note: The new Ada Icon editor is just getting to know Craig Hoffman and perhaps some of our readers are, too. Craig graduated from Ada High School in 1994 and has been on the pages of the Icons since 2014. He lives in and blogs from Japan. In this installment, Craig has some advice for aspiring novelists.

We had a couple of days off from our regular gig in the salt mines, so we thought we would address a recent Grey, Grizzled, and Gaijin mailbag question that came in to us.

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Cloud Cuckoo Land, take two

A second look at a complex book 
Posted by Staff on Sunday, June 5, 2022

Review by Robert McCool 

I reviewed this book once before, but felt the need to look again at this very complex novel. Some readers will not like it for its complexity and length. All I can say is that it’s worth the investment of time and thought it takes. I hope you give it a chance and become a fan of Doerr’s twists and turns. 

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