An old Year-end Review for 2004

While cleaning up my hard drive, I found files where I kept track of the books I read for a given year. Someone had given me the idea (back in the 90s, I believe) to open a text file, and add the name of the book I'd read. What follows below looks like an "end of the year" post made to a bulletin board somewhere. It's past my time on Usenet. Many of these may have appeared elsewhere in this blog, if not the entire post itself. I'll post these files one per month.

It looks like 2004 was a banner year for me, but given that many were Lemony Snicket books, it's a little less impressive.

2004: The Year in Review

2004 -- It was a year of catching up on a number of series books. And it was probably the most books I've read in a long time (even if 12 of them were Lemony Snicket)

The Return of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien
The Broken Blade, Ann Marston
The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket
The Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket
The Wide Window, Lemony Snicket
The Miserable Mill, Lemony Snicket
The Austere Academy, Lemony Snicket
Cloudbearer's Shadow, Ann Marston
Rogue Pirate, John Gregory Betancourt
The King of Shadows, Ann Marston
The Ersatz Elevator, Lemony Snicket
The Vile Village, Lemony Snicket
The Hostile Hospital, Lemony Snicket
The Carniverous Carnerval, Lemony Snicket
Let Freedom Ring, Sean Hannity
Maybe (Maybe Not), Robert Fulgrum
The Slippery Slope, Lemony Snicket
The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket
Eats, Shoots, & Leaves, Lynne Truss
Tom Clancy's Net Force: Night Moves
Tom Clancy's Net Force: Breaking Point
The Kingdom of Infinite Numbers: A Field Guide, Bryan Bunch
X-Files: Whirlwind, (does it matter who it's by?)
Tom Clancy's Net Force: Point of Impact
The Grim Grotto, Lemony Snicket
Tom Clancy's Net Force: Cybernation (in this one, the title actually had something to do with the story)
Vulcan!, Kathleen Sky
Stars & Stripes Forever, Harry Harrison
Stars & Stripes In Peril, Harry Harrison
Stars & Stripes Triumphant, Harry Harrison


Also
Graphic Novels: (I don't normally get to read these, but I found a stack at the local library and went through them!)
Batman: Terror (good)
Tales of the Slayers (very good, it was worth picking rather than the Buffy books)
Batman: Child of Dreams (pretty good, but pretty long)
Spiderman: The Death of Gwen Stacey (excellent -- even for reprints)
Spyboy/Young Justice (ick)
Batman: The Arrow, the Ring & the Bat (good story, but the splash pages were annoying) The family had our own little book club, with the Snicket series (so far) divided up amongst family members to be passed around. The Net Force books were a series that I received as a gift, except that the first book in the series wasn't there. Oh well. I picked up one of Harrison books at a book sale, and a friend told me he had the other two.

Star & Stripes Triumphant (Harrison)

Star & Stripes Triumphant, Harry Harrison (2001)

The satisfying conclusion to an excellent trilogy finds the United States at war with Great Britain, with Ireland playing an important role. The rules of engagement have changed as warfare has moved into a new age.

Stars & Stripes in Peril (Harrison)

Stars & Stripes in Peril, Harry Harrison, 2000

Book two of this alternate Civil War tale finds the Union and the Confederacy taking the fight to Great Britain and the rode to freedom may well be in Ireland.

Very well done. Excellent read.
(I believe I give my copy to the guy who loaned me the other two books because he couldn't find his copy.)

Star & Stripes Forever (Harrison)

Stars & Stripes Forever, Harry Harrison, 1998

Standing on line at Barnes & Noble's, I glanced over at the discount books and saw a book called Stars & Stripes in Peril, an alternate history book set during the Civil War, that takes the Union and the Confederacy into Ireland. Sounded interesting, so I scooped it up. It looked so interesting, that I hadn't noticed that it was book two of a trilogy. This was pointed out to me about an hour later by a couple of friends. The first reminded me that he had told me about the series at least a year earlier. The second was the one whom I gave the Net Force books to, and he in return loaned me the other two books in this trilogy. This is the first.

Harry Harrison does an excellent job with alternate history, and this is no exception. The premise is simple: what if Prince Albert had died a month earlier than he actually did. That is no small change for history. Prince Albert was key in defusing a standoff between Great Britain and President Lincoln, which could have ended in the United States fighting a war on two fronts.

Naturally, this would've ended badly for the Union and very quickly, so Harrison adds an extra twist. The British intend to attack Mississippi under cover of darkness. Unfortunately, the ships get lost in the fog and when they invade, they realize too late that they have actually attacked Louisiana, committing unspeakable acts.

The British decide that they'll have to take it all. The Confederacy can only respond by putting aside their differences and joining forces with the Union. And, no, I didn't give away the ending to the book. This happens around the middle, if I remember correctly.

I enjoyed this book. If you like alternate history novels or stories set in the Civil War or just have an interest in General Sherman, read this.