Amazon.com
Barry Eisler's half-breed freelance assassin John Rain returns to Tokyo for a second outing in Hard Rain, the sequel to Eisler's stunning 2002 debut, Rain Fall. Once again Rain is working with, or at least parallel to, Tatsu, a wily veteran of Japan's FBI equivalent, who aims to cleanse the Japanese government of its systemic corruption. To further this goal, he's persuaded the ever-cautious Rain to take out Murakami, a brutal gangster and hitman who specializes in making his killings look like suicide, a specialty Rain thought was his alone. Liquidating the dangerous and elusive Murakami proves to be a difficult task, however, one that leads to personal loss for Rain, and sets the plot on course for a climax that hits with the power of a well-delivered roundhouse kick.
Eisler builds on Rain's self-enforced isolation and loneliness as he expertly shows the reader Tokyo as channeled by Chandler, transforming the burgeoning metropolis into a noir catacomb of dimly lit hostess bars, scheming bureaucrats, shadowy intelligence agents, and outlaw martial arts dojos where thugged-up yakuza train for illicit death matches.
While the plot becomes complicated toward the novel's conclusion, Rain is a refreshing and complex character whom readers will want to see return for another installment. If you've a yen for a thriller that mixes suspense, intrigue, and action with a Japanese flavor and a hardboiled American attitude, Eisler's Hard Rain is an excellent choice. --Benjamin Reese
Book Description
Critics nationwide singled out Barry Eisler's first novel, Rain Fall, with high praise. Publishers Weekly named Rain Fall one of the Best Novels of 2002.
Hard Rain, Eisler's second John Rain novel, more than fulfills the promise of the first. Rain-half-Japanese, half-American, raised in both countries but at home in neither-is trying to leave his life as a freelance assassin. After killing a CIA officer who hunted him halfway around the globe, Rain goes underground, hoping to find the peace that has eluded him. But then Tatsu, his old nemesis from the Japanese FBI, comes to him with one last job: to find and eliminate a killer at large, a creature with neither compassion nor compunction, whose activities could tip the balance of power in Japan's corrupt politics and who seems to have designs on Rain's few friends. To protect them, Rain will have to pursue his most dangerous quarry yet through the crosshairs of the CIA and the Japanese mafia, where the differences between friend and foe and truth and deceit are as murky as the rain-slicked streets of Tokyo.
Customer Reviews:
Tokyo - As You've Never Seen it Before.......2007-03-03
Hard Rain is a good action book that traces the story of John Rain, a one-man-killing machine, as he helps clean up corrupt Japan and the hard-core Yakuza involved. The book's scenes were entertaining, as well as some of the characters. I especially appreciated the Japanese-Brazilian Naomi character as a realistic portrayal of the ever increasing Japanese-Brazilian population in Japan, as anyone who has been there in recent years could attest to. The best part of this book, however, is not the actual story itself (although the story is enough to keep you interested), but the beautiful depiction of Tokyo as a living city, ever changing, yet staying true to its Edo days. Tokyo and its 23 wards played a real part in this story, and I tip my hat to the author for making the world's largest city come alive.
Hard Rain by Barry Eisler.......2007-02-12
If you like Vince Flynn, and his character Rapp, you will love Barry Eisler, who I think provides a much less superman-type character than Flynn's Rapp. Rain is a more believable and a more realistic operative.
My only disappointment is the Eisler seems to only write one book a year, and I anxiously await each. My recommendation for those who are new to Rain, buy the first and read the series in order (not that it really matters) but at least you will have all those books to look forward to).
Eisler rocks, and a colleague of mine (who I bought the entire series for) is really enjoying Rain.
Hard Rain.......2007-01-28
This is the first book that I have read by Barry Eisler. I am looking forward to reading his other books. Excellent.
sequels not always as good as the original.......2007-01-10
I really liked the original, this one was missing some kind of panache that was to be found in the first, nor as much suspense. But still a good read, good fun, the lone wolf character Rain still shows through here.
light, absorbing spy thriller with insights into Japan.......2007-01-04
I've read the first four books in the John Rain series. All entertaining page-turners with good action, suspense, engaging plot lines. Insights into Japanese culture and martial arts set this series apart from garden-variety thrillers. Highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
- Simple
- Greek Boxer
- A salt and pepper mystery
- Awesome.
- Enjoyable if you like Character-Based Mysteries
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Right as Rain (Derek Strange/Terry Quinn)
George P. Pelecanos
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
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George Pelecanos's Washington, D.C., is a far cry from the upwardly mobile, tourist-attraction-speckled enclave of Margaret Truman (Murder at the National Cathedral, Murder in Georgetown). Pelecanos's capital is a haunting terrain of drugs and death, a no man's land of posturing dealers and skeletal warehouses that shelter their buyers:
A rat scurried into a dim side room, and a withered black face receded into the darkness. The face belonged to a junkie named Tonio Morris. He was one of the many bottom-of-the-food-chain junkies, near death and too weak to cut out a space of their own on the second floor; later, when the packets were delivered to those with cash, they'd trade anything they had, anything they'd stolen that day, or any orifice on their bodies for some rock or powder.
When PI Derek Strange is hired by Chris Wilson's mother to find out why her son, a black cop, was killed by a white cop, Terry Quinn, on a dark night in that no man's land, Strange figures that the answer is painfully clear: a typical case of mistaken identity, fueled by the assumptions and preconceptions of Quinn's innate racism. But what Strange finds is a tentative kinship with Quinn, who is desperate to proclaim himself "color-blind." Kicked off the force and convinced that there's more to his own story, Quinn asks to join Strange in his investigation. As the two pry into the past, drifting through the neighborhoods both men have known all their lives, they find themselves enmeshed in a tangle of cold-blooded competition and heated personal enmity.
Pelecanos generally has a light touch with the treacherous quagmire of -isms, veering only occasionally into sententious meanderings about the consequences of an economically and racially divided society. His wry humor, particularly in his descriptions of Earl and Ray, the heroin middlemen who bring the concept of white trash to a depressingly low level, leavens the novel's noir bleakness. And Strange himself is a compelling character: a middle-aged black man who has seen more of life's callousness than he cares to admit, and whose jitteriness about personal commitment speaks volumes about his own expectations for happiness. A strong character and a good read--Pelecanos fans can settle in and look forward to Strange's next appearance. --Kelly Flynn
Book Description
George Pelecanos's Washington, D.C., is a far cry from the upwardlymobile, tourist-attraction-speckled enclave of Margaret Truman (Murder at the National Cathedral, Murder in Georgetown). Pelecanos's capital is a haunting terrain of drugs and death, a no man's land of posturing dealers and skeletal warehouses that shelter their buyers:A rat scurried into a dim side room, and a withered black face receded into the darkness. The face belonged to a junkie named Tonio Morris. He was one of the many bottom-of-the-food-chain junkies, near death and too weak to cut out a space of their own on the second floor; later, when the packets were delivered to those with cash, they'd trade anything they had, anything they'd stolen that day, or any orifice on their bodies for some rock or powder.When PI Derek Strange is hired by Chris Wilson's mother to find out why her son, a black cop, was killed by a white cop, Terry Quinn, on a dark night inthat no man's land, Strange figures that the answer is painfully clear: a typical case of mistaken identity, fueled by the assumptions and preconceptions of Quinn's innate racism. But what Strange finds is a tentative kinship with Quinn, who is desperate to proclaim himself "color-blind." Kicked off the force and convinced that there's more to his own story, Quinn asks to join Strange in his investigation. As the two pry into the past, drifting through the neighborhoods both men have known all their lives, they find themselves enmeshed in a tangle of cold-blooded competition and heated personal enmity.Pelecanos generally has a light touch with the treacherous quagmire of -isms, veering only occasionally into sententious meanderings about the consequences of an economically and racially divided society. His wry humor, particularly in his descriptions of Earl and Ray, the heroin middlemen who bring the concept of white trash to a depressingly low level, leavens the novel's noir bleakness. And Strange himself is a compelling character: a middle-aged black man who has seen more of life'scallousness than he cares to admit, and whose jitteriness about personalcommitment speaks volumes about his own expectations for happiness. A strong character and a good read--Pelecanos fans can settle in and look forward to Strange's next appearance. --Kelly Flynn
Customer Reviews:
Simple.......2007-05-09
Terribly simplistic book. The only redeeming qualities are that it is a very fast read and it is always interesting to read books based in DC which do not involve politics. The story was weak and simplistic and the characters were right out of a cereal box. If only I could get/understand all of the music references, maybe that would have made the book more solid. In my opinion, find a different crime novel to read, maybe even another Pelecanos book.
Greek Boxer.......2007-03-03
Since I discovered Pelecanos, he is my favorite crime writer. (Rankin still writes my favorite cop stories though, followed by Connelly.) GP's style is unique: ethnically mixing Greeks with Blacks, in his subjects mixing ordinary, but explosive crime stories with sharp descriptions of social reality, in his main characters building on empathy with the good, the bad and the ugly. He wrote a series of related stories involving his Greek creations Nick Stefanos and Dimitri Karras, respectively their family history over several decades of DC history.
Right as Rain builds up new characters, a black and a white ex-cop, again both very contradictory and complex, involved in DC crime economics: drugs, prostitution, race conflicts...
As there is no Greek main character involved this time, at least the black hero with the strange name Strange (Strange Investigations, what a great company name!) has a dog named Greco.
Strange and his Irish pal Quinn keep dancing around race issues like a pair of Greek philosophers in a Platonian dialogue.
Great stuff, and right as rain.
A salt and pepper mystery.......2007-02-01
The only detective series featuring a black detective I know of besides this one is Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels. In my humble opinion, this one is better.
Derek Strange is a more well-rounded character for one thing. He's fifty-something years old, an ex-cop who retired from the force thirty years before. When on duty, he carries a Leatherman, a buck knife and advanced technology such as Night Vision goggles. He does not shy away from a fight. On the other hand, he goes to church and he visits his mother in a convalescent home. He also has commitment issues. He's in love with his secretary and would like a family, but he keeps several girls on the side and often visits massage parlors. He also has a love for old records, many of which are vinyl and secretly collects theme music from old western movies.
This is also a salt and pepper mystery in that Derek's sidekick in this yarn is Terry Quinn, another ex-cop who quit the force after being accused of shooting a black officer. Derek is hired by the victim's mother to rehabilitate her son's name. When Derek interviews Quinn about the case, they bond. For one thing, Quinn is addicted to western novels. Eventually the case revolves around the drug trade in Washington D.C., including Columbians, redneck middle men, and the heroine-addicted sister of the black officer Terry mistaken killed. Quinn is also conflicted as he's not sure the shooting wasn't racially motivated. This eventually affects his relationship with his black girlfriend, Juana.
Washington D.C. is an integral character in this narrative as Strange maneuvers his vintage car through avenues and streets named after states and the alphabet. This is modern noir with much of the action going down in the seedy sections of D.C.
Most detective series worry little about the personal lives of their protagonists. The story in RIGHT AS RAIN will remind you of Rockford File episode, but Pelecanos's emphasis on the personal lives of Strange, Quinn and the city of Washington D.C. brings it to invigorating life.
RIGHT AS RAIN was my first Derek Strange, but I'll definitely be reading him again.
Awesome........2006-08-18
Pelecanos is a great write no matter. But if you have any experience in DC then its all the more sweet. A tight, gripping novel and great characters and descriptions. Nice plots also. All of his novels are good and they are a great read. I happened upon his a an airport bookseller. It was a GREAT change of pace from the standard rubrick of NYPD Cops, International Spys, or War novels so frequently found around. If you're looking for an action-packed- but very well written novel then definitely pick up one by Pelecanos.
Enjoyable if you like Character-Based Mysteries.......2006-07-27
I ultimately enjoyed this novel, which is the first I've read by Pelecanos. If you read crime fiction, Pelecanos is often held up as the most underappreciated crime writer in the business. The critics adore him (as well as writers such as Michael Connelly, Elmore Leonard, and Dennis Lehane), but his books have never been bestsellers.
This book is certainly well written, but the plot is very slow paced. Pelecanos writes the stories as a series of vignettes involving a lot of different characters. You really don't understand how all these different characters relate to one another until you're about halfway through the novel. At that point, things begin to gel together and you understand what Pelecanos is getting at.
In short, this novel requires a certain amount of patience. This really isn't a thriller or a suspense book at all. It's more of a character-based crime drama. A lot of the characters in this book are in bleak situations and are not very attractive. Even the heroes have severe flaws. There's some humor in this book, but not a lot like Elmore Leonard's books. There also isn't a lot of action in this book until the last 50 pages or so. If you're looking for an entertaining beach read, this book probably won't satisfy you.
Still, I think the writing and dialogue in this book are top-notch. I therefore recommend this book to people who prefer crime novels that are darker and more literary in flavor. I'm glad I stuck with it to the end.
Book Description
New poetry from award-winning poet Tony Hoagland.
Customer Reviews:
poetry that challenges the essences of poetry.......2007-05-10
Tony Hoagland is a funny, smart and appropriately bitter man. I am not speaking of Tony Hoagland the person here, but the poet. He is funny in a poem like "Romantic Moment," when a speaker, on a second date and after a movie that has some of his more primal instincts going, has to censure his fantastical mating rituals in the face of ettiquette, and Tony Hoagland is smart in a poem like "Cement Truck" or "Allegory of the Temp Agency," when he examines the stuff of poetry itself through the need (or lack thereof) of a cement truck in a poem or in the easy conclusions offered by a painting out to make a point and the need to curtail self-indulgence for the sake of art. And he is appropriately bitter in "Foodcourt" or "Operations," where he takes to task the essence of the American character through mall culture and the political rhetoric of war and what it could be as opposed to what it allows itself to be.
But the Hoagland I like best is when there is something of all three Hoagland's wrapped together. Of late, as in _What Narcissism Means to Me_, as well as here, Hoagland has taken on cultural challenges and has taken on, with both humor and a shaking finger (in all directions, of course), our political and national identities. He doesn't resort to dogma, fortunately (although I would love to see the twists and turns he would execute if brought onto Hannity & Colmes), and his commentary is wonderfully biting and full of smirks, but I get far more interested in poems like "Hostess" and the aforementioned "Romantic Moment," where the personal includes in its background the cultural and even political, but doesn't take steps that unfortunately snap back on themselves, albeit in even somewhat anticipated ways.
Hoagland the man has been wonderfully argumentative and confrontational in otherwise overly (and boringly) polite poetic settings, and attitude that manifests in his poetry as work that constantly challenge what the stuff of poetry really is, though this chapbook at times feels more like the ground work that may build him up to working all this together into an inspired whole down the line. If Hoagland challenges himself as much as he challenges others towards that art, I am sure he will strike the motherlode soon.
Toward 21st Century Writing.......2006-04-04
I very much enjoyed this book and read it through breezily in two sittings, with a smile on my face, chuckling inside, now looking forward to reading it through again.
"Allegory of a Temp Agency," "Dialectical Materialism," "Hard Rain," and "Voyage" (which can be found at www.Poems.com)are among my favorites. I think Hoagland has written a book here that swallows and then displays our confused, polyglot, whirligig times. Plus, he leaves room for another poet to take some of the direction charted in "Hard Rain" the book, add more insight, and write not just a book that describes our times, but one that can change it.
If you liked Stephen Dunn's Different Hours, you'll like this. He has Billy Collins' clarity of sentence with more bite and substance. C.K. Williams' most recent The Singing would make an interesting companion to this. Good job T.H.! Thanks for the read. This book is prescient.
The cover is the review.......2005-12-04
I first came to Hoagland's poetry through his second book, Donkey Gospel. Very good stuff, I thought. I'll try some more. Sweet Ruin, Hoagland's first, may have been even better. I did not hesitate a year later to advance order number three, What Narcissism Means to Me. The opening poems are among his best, but then there seemed a drop off. The rest of the book wasn't that bad, wasn't that good, so I hesitated when Hard Rain said Buy me! Buy me! But I relented. I figured Hoagland had given me two and a half good books (most poetry volumes give you two and a half good POEMS, if you're lucky; you know it's true).
In Hard Rain Hoagland steps up to the next level. That's right, to major poet. He has NO chance of becoming our county's Poet Laureate; that's how great this chapbook is.
There are maybe two clinkers in the batch (I like where "Greed" is going; it just never gets there). When I read a volume of poetry, I mark the poems I'll want to return to. Usually a pencil lasts me a long time. Not here.
I'll teach "Allegory of the Temp Agence" in my Poetry: Peace and Social Justice course. And "Requests for Toy Piano." And "Summer," a brilliant and frighteningly beautiful example of Hoagland transmogifying news event (the D.C. sniper) into poem: "what will we do if the sniper chooses us tomorrow...each step has a slender string attached." "Operations" should be sent to the White House and to FOX news. But who would volunteer to read it to them, to stress properly "Operation Infinite Self-Indulgence" and how "we tied flags to the antennae of our cars/that snapped like fire when we drove"? And who among such listeners could survive a "naked room full of shadows and light"? Still, Hoagland makes it fun to imagine.
And Hard Rain is fun. Dark fun. Witness the title poem's letter to Dear Abby in which blood is ignored for presents, that is, until we are exposed as the bloodletters: "I used to think I was not a part of this...but that was just another song...taught to me since birth."
In his poetry Hoagland has always looked at himself honestly - often in ways that aren't flattering, never in ways that are sentimental. What Narcissism Means to Me started to pull the rest of us into the lab that is our America. Hard Rain conducts the tests; this is "our marvelous punishment." Hard Rain is Hoagland's marvelous present.
Book Description
I didn't set out to write a book. It was 1982, fourteen years after I had last set foot in Vietnam, and thirteen years after I returned to The World. I had a family and a career. I'd never written more than an occasional letter to the editor in my life. My twisted insides had spawned ulcers. The nightmares were more frequent. I needed to get Vietnam out into the open, but I couldn't talk about it. Not after all those years.
Thus begins John Ketwig's powerful memoir of the Vietnam War. Now, over 15 years after its initial publication, Sourcebooks is proud to bring and a hard rain fell back into print in a newly updated edition, with a new introduction by the author and eight pages of never-before-published photographs.
From the country roads of upstate New York to the jungles of Vietnam, and finally to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and a hard rain fell is a gripping and visceral account of one young man's struggle to make sense of his place in a world gone mad.
Customer Reviews:
A contrived bore.......2007-09-26
Don't be misled by this book. It's not the story of a combat veteran reflecting on the horrors of war. Rather, it is the story of a narrowly-focused guy "in the rear with the gear" complaining, endlessly, about the manner in which the war inconvenienced him.
In addition, the book is very poorly written. What Ketwig did was tell the fairly boring and un-compelling story of his military service and supplement it with a witless history of the war and a number of stories that are most likely apocryphal (his basic training stories and Special Forces tales are undoubtably make-believe...I am sure that anyone with some initiative could discover that there was no basic-training "suicide" at the fort he trained at in the manner he described) in order to spice-up an exceedingly dull tale.
Furthermore, there is something obscene about reading a litany of complaints from a rear echelon soldier when one considers that, not far from his boring but relatively safe posting, men were facing mortal danger. This is especially true in the case of Ketwig, who is myopic in the extreme when it comes to what he "suffered."
I will give Ketwig some credit for his unintentionally comical sketch of his unrequited love for a prostitute. That kept me in stitches for a while.
In closing, this is not an attack on Ketwig's politics. Indeed, there are a number of excellent books by anti-war combat veterans (Tim O'Brien for instance). My complaint is that for one to read Ketwig's book to get a feel for the war is akin to learning about sex from a voyeur.
We can ignore reality - or read and learn from history..........2007-09-01
This book is well written, captivating, balanced, and fair. I highly recommend it to anyone of any age with a brain - and the ability to use that brain to think for themselves. You don't have to agree with Ketwig to learn from his experiences - but the lessons are there.
Ketwig has written an outstanding book that contains much more wisdom about life (way beyond just The Nam) than the simple memoir it purports to be. Those who want to feel better about the Vietnam war say disparaging things about Ketwig. But do they say his experiences are misrepresented? No - they just don't like the way he REACTED to those experiences.
I wonder why not? I wouldn't want to sleep with rats and scorpions. I wouldn't like to see US war supplies sold on the black market by opportunistic, self-dealing traitors within our own ranks. I wouldn't like to see children maimed by napalm. I don't understand how other reviewers (supposedly intelligent people) can write such things off as mere "inconveniences." Does patriotism and duty require us to turn off our brains and accept mutely everything that is thrown at us by every situation? We can love our country and the American people and still find ample fault with the irresponsible and myopic fools who run the place.
Ketwig tells us what he felt as a participant in a ridiculous, ill-conceived war. As an American he is entitled to his opinion. As an American who served, he is MORE THAN entitled to his opinion. If more people read "...and a hard rain fell," perhaps we wouldn't find our country repeating the same sad, unnecessary sins of the past -and permitting today's clueless "leaders" to send the poor and the disadvantaged to fight battles for the rich and pampered who populate Congress - and the oil companies and the defense contractors who own them.
I am proud to be a Marine. Yet I am also very comfortable exercising my hard won right to confront and discuss the ugly horrors and realities of war - and not rationalize or bury such things because other Marines and servicemen died. Ketwig does a great job describing the lunacy of military bureaucracy and the stomach-churning frustration it causes. Good for him! Can ANYONE who has EVER served in the armed forces deny that the US military is the epitome of inefficiency and bureaucracy at its very worst? Really, let's be honest - as Ketwig has been.
Reading this book can help prepare the next generation for the uncomfortable but real dichotomies that await them wherever they may go - whether it's the military, Corporate America, or the local union office. All organizations are run by people who generally say one thing to rally the troops and get elected/promoted - and then do the polar opposite to ensure that their personal ambitions are met and their pockets well-lined, whether such actions support their constituents or not. This is a timeless lesson that too many people learn way too late in life - if at all. Ketwig helps the reader shorten that learning curve.
My late father, a decorated veteran of Korea, told me he'd gladly fight in the next war - just as soon as the Congressmen who declared it (or their own children) took the lead and led him into battle. He died knowing that this silliness would NEVER happen. The staff sergeant who ran my platoon, a Medal of Honor winner, confided the same attitude to me. Was he a dope-smoking shirker like some accuse Ketwig of being? No - he was a freakin' bona fide war hero - but a war hero WITH A BRAIN. The dirty work of war, as he and my father clarified for me, is the province of, as the late Leona Helmsley might have said, "the little people."
Ketwig helps us all understand the misery and ultimate futility of war. How can that be a bad thing?
A sad and disturbing book - most of it true?.......2007-08-26
I don't have any way to know with certainty how much of the content of this book is a true and realistic recounting of what actually happened to the author and how much may have been exaggeration or fabrication or stories borrowed from others or drug induced distortion. It may all be 100% accurate and straightforward. But, there have been many documented cases of Vietnam stories that were far from accurate and it wouldn't surprise me a bit to learn that this is another one. Maybe I'm just an unreasonable skeptic, but an awful lot of it just didn't seem credible.
In any event, if it's all true or not, it's a sad and disturbing story of a draftee who must have had many bad experiences. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than possibly someone looking for shock value.
Ketwig got it made........2007-06-06
Sorry that Ketwig has to serve in Vietnam but he got it made. He was a mechanic, never faced direct combat. Then he re-enlisted to get out of Vietnam. Stationed in Thailand and only once awhile he has to risk his neck to fly in Laos to repair artillery pieces. He even have the time to smoke lots of marijuana, went to R&R and had very good time with a prostitute. He had it so good that he should rename the book to something like "when rainbow appears...". He needs to stop smoking marijuana, that will stop the depression.
If you want good Vietnam story, read James Webb's Fields of Fire. Its a novel but its raw and very real.
"I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children...".......2006-04-22
...AND A HARD RAIN FELL, John Ketwig's memoir of his time in Southeast Asia is a crucial book to read for an understanding of the fog of war and the spiritual wounds all veterans face. ...AND A HARD RAIN FELL takes us inside Ketwig's experience with a clarity amazing for a memoir. This book is even more critical today, as Iraq and Afghanistan blaze across our national consciousness.
Unlike Ron Kovic (BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY) John Ketwig did not start out as a flag-wrapped patriot convinced of the rightness of stopping the Red Menace at any cost. In the first third of the book, Ketwig speaks frankly of his thoughts of draft avoidance and Canada. He is squarely antiwar from the first word. A few reviewers have derided Ketwig for "whining" about "everyday inconveniences" and for having a generally jaundiced view of the military and "his patriotic duty", but other authors and Vietnam Vets have documented well the miasma of depersonalization that characterized the U.S. military in the middle 1960s. Eighteen year old boys like Ketwig were not volunteer soldiers, they were essentially draftees or forced enlistees, ripped from the familiar and the comfortable to be dropped into a thoroughly alien and brutish environment designed to turn them into killing machines in a matter of weeks. The trauma of such a transformation is hard to understand unless one has lived through it.Therefore, Ketwig's complaints about glassless windows in the winter, sheetless bunks (both ostensibly to prevent suicides), and regimentation by insult seem self-indulgent except to one who has felt (and intrinsically resisted) the same internal twist and torque imposed by an outside force.
From the moment of Ketwig's arrival in Vietnam he recognizes (if he cannot yet admit) the futility of the American mission. Transported from Ton Son Nhut Airbase (under rocket fire) in a bus with screened windows (to keep out thrown trash and grenades), and sent to Long Binh to guard an ammo dump (frequently booby trapped by guerrillas), there seems no spot in Vietnam where order reigns or where the American presence has imposed any sort of real peace.
Ketwig's transfer "upcountry" to Pleiku is similarly fraught with trauma: He volunteers for a convoy to embattled Dak To, and is nearly killed by a land mine. His compound is shelled by South Vietnamese turncoats. He finds himself in a bunker with other terrified teenagers wondering just what the hell is happening as the Tet Offensive explodes all around him. Unspeakable filth, rats, scorpions, poisonous snakes, booby traps, friendly fire, Vietcong infiltrators, the curses of the local people, and bizarre accidents are a daily ration which callouses him and his fellow soldiers. Dead men, crushed, broken, bleeding and napalmed bodies sear their eyes. Vietnam is a huckster's bazaar, selling death and trinkets to all bidders.
Thoughtful, Ketwig wonders why. His answer, to provide seed and farm implements to the peasantry seems like a more sane and ultimately successful way to combat Communism, but as a lowly Pfc his opinion is neither required nor respected. Ketwig is required only to repair and remove the gore from hosts of battle-damaged vehicles. A reflective reader has to stand with Ketwig, and question authority.
After a year of soul-scarring experiences and unsure of his place in The World, he applies for a transfer to Thailand, where he discovers and embraces a version of the Buddhist culture he had sought to find in Vietnam. The year in Thailand is therapeutic (both for Ketwig and the reader, who is as overwhelmed as the author by this point), but it also allows him to shut his demons away largely without confronting them.
Despite his love affair with Thailand, The World beckons, and Ketwig goes home to suffer the dislocation common to many Vietnam Vets. In time he makes a life, but his demons never rest. At least until he begins to tap this story out painfully, page by page, hunt and peck.
...AND A HARD RAIN FELL is as much an exorcism as it is a story of one man's war. It may not be every man's war; but it is a valuable recollection of what war does to human beings. There are others, more Mom-And-Apple-Pie, more heroic, and even more jingoistic. This is one, a well-written one, that cannot be ignored.
Average customer rating:
- Great rural novel
- Best Mystery Set in Western Nebraska of 2006!!!!! so far
- Great Writing in Search of a Compelling Story
- Realistic Characters
- A book a can't leave home.
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Rain Dogs
Sean Doolittle
Manufacturer: Dell
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0440242819
Release Date: 2005-12-27 |
Book Description
It was one hell of an inheritance for former Chicago reporter Tom Coleman: a broken-down pickup truck, ramshackle campground, a canoe livery—and one pot-smoking, barely working employee he doesn’t need, doesn’t want, and can’t afford. But the truth is, after losing a child and a marriage, Tom doesn’t really care. And life is nice and quiet in the middle of nowhere. Until a drug lab blows up near his property—putting Tom in contact with the woman he once loved, a small-town cop with a chip on his shoulder, and a powerful local who doesn’t want him poking his nose where it doesn’t belong. Tom doesn’t want to get involved in the first place. But in the hardscrabble Nebraska Sandhills, storms gather suddenly and bad blood runs deep. Now a quiet summer on the river is turning into a dangerous season of grudges, betrayal, and violent reckoning—and it’s already too late to find shelter...
Download Description
Sean Doolittle is the author of Burn, winner of the gold medal in the mystery category of ForeWord Magazine's 2003 Book of the Year Award, and Dirt, an Amazon.com Top 100 Editor's Pick for 2001. The author lives with his family in Omaha, Nebraska. Visit him on the web at www.seandoolittle.com.
From the Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
Great rural novel.......2006-10-05
This is the first novel by Mr. Doolittle I've read -- an impressive,
first-rate read. His characterization (including a romance) and
setting (rural Nebraska) are dead on. The title concerns an
ex-reporter from Chicago returning home to run his late
grandfather's canoe/outdoor expedition camp. Our hero runs into
local nasties including a vicious deputy sheriff. The pacing is
smart and the dialogue is seamless. The narrative stays on
course and doesn't drift. IMO, one of the best books I've read
this year.
Best Mystery Set in Western Nebraska of 2006!!!!! so far.......2006-09-27
An OK read (I'm a hard grader). I liked the setting and the interplay of the local law enforcement types stuck in the middle of nowhere. You are not going to particularly like the "hero" but he has his moments. Toward the end the DEA comes in with enough resources to catch Pablo Escobar not to mention a Nebraska meth gang. I read it on a business trip to a third world country with few entertainment options. It was fine in that context and to be fair, fine as what I call "junk" reading. However, when I finished I didn't want to run out and get the author's other efforts (if any).
Great Writing in Search of a Compelling Story.......2006-05-15
"Rain Dogs" is a difficult novel to review. On the book's back cover, author Sean Doolittle is described as "a young writer with serious chops". And for sure, this is a well-written drama with all the right ingredients - finely drawn characters and a rich rural western-Nebraska setting pulled together with believable dialogue and confident prose. This is the story of Tom Coleman, a down-on-his-luck big city (Chicago) journalist summoned back to Nebraska's sand hills to claim his inheritance - a smalltime camp that caters to the summertime rafting and canoeing trade along the scenic Niobrara River. With a broken down pickup truck and the burned out camp-hand, Duane, the camp is the perfect escape for a man coming off a difficult divorce and the death of his young daughter. The explosion of a nearby fishing camp injures a trio of local teens and sets off rumors of meth labs and drug rings, and soon Coleman is in the center of a mild storm of local politics, cops with attitudes, and neighbors with memories.
The problem is that despite the finely written paragraphs and well-rendered cast, the story never really resonated with me. Coleman surely had enough sorrow in his life to evoke pity, but the ever-present flask, his blinding hangovers, and a generally depressing disposition made it tough to ever really be rooting for him. And while the plot held my interest, it was always just a sentence or two away from being just plain boring.
Nonetheless, Doolittle is indeed a writer with "serious chops", and while this was my first Doolittle book, "Rain Dogs" promises enough to make me want to give "Dirt" or "Burn" a try.
Realistic Characters.......2006-04-21
Don't read this book for the mystery, it is not very good, but that doesn't matter. This book is terrific for the characters.
The characters in the book are realistic. From the depressed main character who has quit his big city reporter job to run his late grandfather's canoe and camping gropund, to the local sheriff and deputies to the punk kids messing with drugs, the personalities all run true.
The reporter returns to his father's hometown and gets mixed up in drug deals when he would rather drink himself into oblivion over the loss of his daughter. There is no heroism here nor good feeling endings, just realism.
The writing is good. Mr. Doolittle has a stark and economical style that matches the tone of the book and keeps it moving. The plot leaves something to be desired, but it is more a vehicle to showcase the personalities and tribulations of the characters than the be all of the book.
As depressing as all this sounds - drinking, depression, etc., the book is not tear-jerker. It is the account of people, men and women, working through life's vicissitudes. Some do it successfully, others do not. Highly recommended. I will go on to other books by Mr. Doolittle.
A book a can't leave home........2006-04-21
I am a mother of three young children with little time to read. I started reading this book and I took it everywhere with so I could sneak a few minutes to read. I was addicted. The story is written casual and I could picture the people and places in my mind. I great read for people that like a good story and a good suspense. I didn't think Doolittle could beat his novel Dirt but he may have with this one.
Charlotte
Book Description
Detective Dave Robicheaux has fought too many battles: in Vietnam, with killers and hustlers, with police brass, and the bottle. Lost without his wife's love, Robicheaux's haunted soul mirrors the intensity and dusky mystery of New Orleans' French Quarter -- the place he calls home, and the place that nearly destroys him when he becomes involved in the case of a young prostitute whose body is found in a bayou. Thrust into the world of drug lords and arms smugglers, Robicheaux must face down a subterranean criminal world and come to terms with his own bruised heart in order to survive.
Customer Reviews:
I don't care what color the sunset is........2007-06-01
Okay, maybe an occasional sunset. But in reading a crime/mystery novel, do I really need to know how many clever ways a writer can describe the weather and the flora and fauna and every kind of thing that grows in New Orleans? I knew when he compared a skyline to cotton candy near the end he was running low on similes.
If you remove all of these exquisite descriptions about the environs, what you have is a 282 page book turned into 175 pages. It was that detailed. There was too much about the weather and the way the heat felt on his skin and not enough plot development.
If this book had been written in the third person, I could find this level of writing acceptable and maybe even appealing. But this book was written in the first person. Why do cops in books written in the first person always display the level of an MFA or Keats when it comes to their writing? And I thought Spenser was bad -- not anymore.
Elements of the story were implausible, starting with the love interest remaining interested when on their first date she nearly gets killed. Come on, I know there are crazy women out there, but I've never met one this dumb, and I've been to New Orleans plenty of times.
And near the end, after Paul has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to be insubordinate, and his captain tells him what a great cop he is and how much he trusts him, etc... Give me a break!
Burke is a great writer -- I'm duly impressed. But I think part of good writing, especially in the first person, is to resist the temptation to show the reader how smart you are by projecting your own intellect into that of your character. I think the narrative could have been a little more edgy just by removing 50 pages or so on what the sunset looked like every day. It aggravated the devil out of me. I couldn't wait to put this book down.
Blistering Burke!.......2007-05-02
Great title for a great book. This is my first James Lee Burke novel, won't be my last. This is the kind of mystery writer I like, the prose flows fast and furious, and it's tense but eloquent and persuasive. The pace is quick, the writing unpretentious and clear. Makes for a tidy storyline that never says in boring words what can be expressed gracefully and often startlingly with powerful and moving language--the opening sentence sets the tone of what is to follow. This type of mystery writer generates an overall tension in the book that keeps the pages turning far into the night. Burke sounds like a guy who knows of what he speaks. And, he turns Robicheaux into someone we care about, someone we'd be proud to call "partner." In fact, all of Burke's characters in this book have such a depth that we can imagine them in our mind's eye as though they truly walked the bayous of Burke's homeland. I started with this novel, even though it was written long ago and no longer available in the U.S. that I could find, because everyone advised to start here and then go on. Well, I will certainly go on, even though this novel finds Robicheaux retired and living in New Iberia, obviously that isn't gonna happen!
I did find a lot of similarities between Burke and John Connolly's writing. In fact, New Orleans figures prominently in both of their work, even down to some of the same landmarks. And, Connolly and Burke both share the same tight, riveting, chilling style that makes them both great writers of thrillers with believable, likeable protagonists. But I digress. Burke's Neon Rain introduces us to a thrilling piece of fiction that reads like yesterday's headlines. The sense of place was also deeply engrained in this story. Burke renders the countryside of his homeland to the point I could smell the bayou and feel the dripping humidity, not to mention taste the café au lait and sense the powdered sugar on my chin from Café du Monde's beignets. Burke pours life into characters like Didi Gee, his brother Jimmie, his father, Clete Purcel, and Annie. Is Annie a strange fit for Dave or is she a simple midwestern country girl who believes that "one day Dave will have a quiet heart?" I love the way Burke inhabits his characters and makes you care about them. You'll hate them, love them, try to understand them, maybe even want to kill them; but you won't come away untouched. Also, he brings to life what it must feel like to go through alcoholic withdrawals and cravings for something you know will be poison to your soul.
I have seldom read a gangster novel written with such elegance and finesse. Burke pumps out words like politicians puff out promises and everything goes down like smooth southern bourbon. Deep feelings are examined in minute detail by a rough and tumble Cajun cop and incessant rain, in all colors, figures prominently and poetically into this story. It's tough and violent writing and anyone who can remain untouched must not inhabit this world. You may wonder why some of his characters would take such outrageous chances or make such extreme choices or maybe you'd do the same, so you'll root for them to succeed. But, it's unlikely this book will leave you untouched. Highly recommended if you'd like to get your blood coursing through your body.
Read, Read, Read.......2007-04-10
It's hard to review James Lee Burke, because his books are always so chock-full of atmosphere and characterization and thought. Each of the Dave Robicheaux series is a stand-alone, but I really recommend that you read them in order and listen to them on UNabridged audiobook as well. The sequence will give you the thread of the Robicheaux and other close characters saga, and the audio will give you the accent if you are not from Louisiana - all of which adds a great deal of depth to your reading experience.
A Flawed Character, Makes a More Realistic Story.......2006-05-25
Dave Robicheaux is a detective lieutenant in the New Orleans PD. He seems to have more than his share of problems and heart break. The story is loosely based on events relating to his finding of a dead body while fishing. When he finds out the body is that of a black woman from the bayou who had become involved with drugs and drug dealers; he can't let it go, and has to find out what happened and why.
During the story, Dave, who has been sober for four years, ends up back on booze (not all by his own doing), and finds himself the object of two internal affairs investigations. Being put on suspension, does nothing to slow him down. In fact it seems to help him along with his investigation, during which he meets his future wife, sees his brother near death, shoots two people (who surely deserved it), and his partner's marriage and life go down the drain.
All in all a well constructed story, with a plausible plot and lots of good narrative description of New Orleans and the surrounding area.
Not your typical hero but I like him!.......2006-02-28
Dave Robicheaux is not your typical hero. He's a thick-skinned Cajun who isn't afraid to confront enemies head-on. His tenacity gets him into trouble with some major players in New Orleans, including the CIA. While I like Robicheaux, the story had too many bad guys, and in the end, it wasn't clear what happened. Robicheaux ends up killing them all, since "they dealt the play." Even though vindicated, Dave quits the force in the end, and while sober most of the book, he goes on a bender that's not so pretty. Actually the best part of this book is when Dave meets Annie. Their interactions and intimacy are very touching. You just fall in love with her. She is his conscience. It was ultimately a confusing plot but great descriptive scenes and dialogue.
Product Description
When John Rain, the Japanese/American "contract killer with a conscience" (Entertainment Weekly), learns that his former lover, Midori, has been raising their child in New York, he senses a chance for reconciliation, perhaps even for redemption. But Midori is being watched by Rains enemies, and his sudden appearance puts mother and child in terrible danger. To save them, Rain is forced to use the same deadly talents he had been hoping to leave behind. With the help of Tatsu, his friendly nemesis in the Japanese FBI, and Dox, the ex-marine sniper whose good ol boy persona masks a killer as deadly as Rain himself, Rain races against time to bring his enemies into the open and eliminate them forever. But to finish the job, hell need one more ally: Israeli intelligence agent Delilah, a woman who represents an altogether different kind of threat... Filled with "action-packed scenes worthy of a Jerry Bruckheimer film" (Sun-Sentinel), The Last Assassin is Barry Eislers most ambitious and most satisfying book yet.
Customer Reviews:
grabbed me less than his other books.......2003-09-17
A convoluted thriller which several sub-plots. Strangely this book did not grab me like other Peter Abrahams' books have done, and I can't quite put my finger on why. Having just read another review, I see that the reader did not understand the plot at all, even to the point of naming certain characters to be people whom they were not. Anyway, I finished the book with a certain disappointment - it just did not live up to my expectations. I still intend to read all his other books that I can get my hands on as the ones that I have read have been really gripping.
Excellent realistic thriller!.......2001-05-10
Convoluted and evasive right down to the wire, Hard Rain by Peter Abrahams is a bleak yet thrilling study in what happens when a woman marries a man she knows nothing about. With switched identities, retiring FBI agents, politics and a background involving Woodstock, Peter Abrahams has written a cautionary tale with more bangs for the buck than any recent book I've read. Very highly recommended.
A tense story that creeps you out and shocks you through it........1999-11-03
The main character's ex-husband is an ex-prisoner and and "60's" rock star who goes insane after everything that happened to him starts to take effect on him mentally. Jessie, the main character's, daughter Kate is kidnapped by her father. Who has multi identities, as Boa Dai and Pat Rodney just to name a couple, then Jessie's best friend Barbara a lawyer is murdered by a hit and run which seem's to be Pat who was driving the car. Jessie goes on through all the police investigations, which lead no where, and decides to find Kate herself. Looking through Pat's home and belonging's leads to a strange message on the kitchen blackboard that is written in French and German. This same message was recorded on Pat's answer machine butgot cut off half way through the message. She goes to Vermont talking to Pat's old friend's from the sixties, and a used-car salesman who tells her he seen her daughter and Pat a week ago. Becoming more anxious and losing hope every minute that goes bye, she finally finds him in a senator's home. The senator happened to be the husband of Pat's mother, who turns out trying to kill him and Kate and whoever gets in way. Jessie and the police scramble to get there before he kills anyone and successfully shot him down after a long gun chase through the snowy woods. In my opinion, this book was partially good, because the kidnapping and the killing were intense, but the traveling around and talking to Pat's old friends was dumb. Jessie should have never allowed Pat to take Kate away for the weekend, he was always a cocaine user before she met him and the drugs and his attitude got worse over the years. The book is all right and really strange mixed uo through the entire story.
Customer Reviews:
It doesn't get much pulpier.......2006-04-29
Why is this author so popular? I'm sorry but this is badly written trash- the plot isn't even very compelling. Mostly in the pulpy "bad cop" genre, roughing up bad guys and hitting on dames every other page. The only interesting thing was it showed that the Dutch are not as cool as I thought they were.
The Turtle Meditates.......2005-12-18
This is the eleventh book in Janwillem van de Wetering's famous series about the Amsterdam police force and is something of a masterpiece in a series that is noted for exceptional writing. A death that might be an assassination and a group of junkie art thieves who suddenly die from using uncut heroin start a story that pits the commissaris against a boyhood antagonist who has become a crime king. For the first time we see both sides of this fatherly old man - the wry, wise-cracking senior officer who can turn into an avenging angel with little or no warning.
Aiding the commissaris are two able and eccentric officers, Sargeant de Gier and Adjutant Grijpstra. These two have played jazz, meditated, and painted their way the many volumes. They manage to be both detectives and plotters, lulling the reader with their easy banter while the tear holes in alibis and commit outrages in the spirit of justice. Villains my find themselves the victims of police heists when de Gier and Gripstra enter the scene.
This time the target of the investigation is Willem Fernandus, and urbane and powerful sociopath whose position in society is almost unassailable. The commissaris and his troops find themselves the victims of corruption in the very police force they serve and wind up carrying on a freelance hunt for the tricks that will bring Fernandus down. But Fernandus and the police in his pocket have made so many enemies that the detectives soon find they have almost too many volunteers - a police secretary plays prostitute, a host of witnesses move into the commissaris' house, and civil servants jump ship.
The comedy masks grim truths, and van de Wetering reminds us just often enough that the Fernandus is the pleasant face that masks the horrors of organized crime. For all that the commissaris' quest is a personal one, his target really is genuinely evil - a man who has abandoned everything except his own satisfaction. But the world he has created for himself is the means of his undoing as the three knights (and a host of supporters) collaborate to unravel his power.
Into all of this is mixed just enough literary and philosophical material to remind us that thinking and police work are not necessarily mutually exclusive. And that action and good writing can happen at the same time. Hard Rain does depend on the character work that preceded it, so the reader will get the most out of it by starting earlier in the series. But you won't want to miss this when it is time to read it.
once upon a time in the little town of amsterdam..........2001-01-07
Way back when I had never heard of Janwillem van de Wetering, I picked up one of his novels off of a pile of used books just 'cause I liked the cover so much. Plus, I was out of ideas about what to read, having just suffered through a long exam period at school, which had left my brain feeling like a well-squeezed sponge. Anyway, I read "Hard Rain" in one night, finding that it was totally impossible to leave Grijpstra and de Gier and the commisaris in mid-chase. I won't give away the plot of this or any of the other great books that feature this oddball trio, but I will say that they are just about my favorite paperback detectives ever. I mean, yes, I still enjoy reading about Adam Dalgleish and Reg Wexford and Inspector Morse, but nobody's quite as likeable van de Wetering's characters, nor as much pure fun. Grijpstra is an out-of-shape realist with a fondness for drumming and a distinct lack of fondness for a nagging wife, de Gier is a judo-expert trumpet player who seeks answers to life's questions in Zen and women, and the commisaris is a keen-eyed old father-figure to both who keeps a pet turtle in his little garden. The three of them pursue murderers and other evil-doers through mostly non-traditional methods, reminding me sometimes of Hammett's Continental Op, who liked to throw monkey wrenches rather than follow clues, since that way he could often short-cut his way to a solution. In other words, the Grijpstra and de Gier books aren't really about solving puzzles, and really, the plots are often not nearly as important as the interplay of characters and the fleeting glimpses into the quirky texture of life in non-picturesque Amsterdam.
So, what I'm saying is, read at least one of the Grijpstra and de Gier books, just for the heck of it. But be aware that there's a pretty good chance you'll get addicted. Oh, and I still think the covers are great, at least the ones in the Soho Crime series; I have to put that plug in, though it's irrelevant to the stories, just because I'm a big fan of good book design.
Customer Reviews:
The Noir Way.......2006-11-14
Bobby Wells, journeyman pyschologist, is grasping for the brass ring. He has realized that his college-age mission to help the little people has failed him. His wife gone to marry a sell-out rival. No money, no children, stuck in decaying Baltimore. And suddenly he goes completely sociopathic and plans to betray his most interesting patient and get rich quick.
His transition from do-gooder to serial killer is somewhat rough, but his antiestablishment leanings certainly assert themselves with a vengence. Like many mysteries today this has a screenplay feel to it. But it has enough Chandler-Sayers in it to be a good read.
Four Kinds of Readers.......2006-11-02
"Four Kinds of Rain" is for four kinds of readers: those who have fallen in love, fallen from grace, sung the bllues, or been to Baltimore. If you've done all four, get this one. The devilishly devious pen of Robt Ward slowly pulls this fish-head out of the Chesapeake with his left hand (me blithely nibbling away) while his right hand cradles the crab-net. By page 60 I realized my goose was cooked. What a hoot! A touch of O. Henry, dash of Hitchcock, and just for good measure, a slash of King. I read it in Key West during Fantasy Fest_it fit right in.
This book is funny.......2006-10-28
I couldn't put it down. First it was like, this is sooo cheesy. Then heard the William Burroughs chuckling darkly in the background. It was faint, soft, almost a cough. This book is so wonderfully dark and strange. To follow Bob Wells' descent from middle-aged idealist to the hopelessly lost serial killer whose victims are, finally, his closest friends is to witness sixties American political and social idealism coming unstuck under great pressure. The terrible thing is that even at the end, when he has betrayed everything he ever stood for and everybody he ever loved, I still found myself caring about Robert Wells. Noboby but Robert Ward could write like this.
No Fat.......2006-10-20
I just finished reading Robert Ward's new novel, "Four Kinds of Rain." The thing about Mr. Ward and his writing, and the reason I bought this new book of his, is that he's a true story teller. Anyone who read "Red Baker" knows this. He sticks firmly to the plot. There is "no fat" in his work. What he consistently gives us is a fully-realized novel, devoid of self-indulgent prose.
"Four Kinds of Rain" confirms this. And then some. Here is a story of one Bob Wells, a Baltimore psychiatrist (and by the way, no contemporary writer I know of writes about the great city of Baltimore better than Mr. Ward) who is, shall I say, down on his luck. All his life Bob's been a good liberal guy serving the poor. Until temptation shows up in the name of one his paranoid patients, Emile Bardan.
Emile is an art dealer. And he's owns a priceless work of art - the lengendary Mask of Utu - worth millions.
You may think you know what happens next but this story has more twists than a pretzel. I, for one, really enjoyed the ride.
EYES ON STALKS.......2006-10-19
MY EYES ARE ON STALKS FROM BEING UP HALF THE NIGHT FINISHING FOUR KINDS OF RAIIN! I STARTED IT YESTERDAY AND COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN! IT IS GREAT!
FOUR KINDS OF RAIN IS UNIQUE. A MUST READ FOR MYSTERY FANS, SUSPENSE ADDICTS AND ANY ONE INTERESTED IN THE HUMAN DILEMMA. THIS IS MASTERFUL WRITING THAT IS FILLED WITH WIT AND DEPTH. I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK BY ROBERT WARD.
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- Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
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- Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
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