Charles Mcgrew

An author who has microphones inside peoples heads

Revisado: 04-27-25

A deep loathing of Don Trump makes the 'history' this purports to show extremely suspect. The authors repeatedly quote what people are thinking, which is really annoying. That's not history, that's making up 'supporting information.' It makes the entire story unconvincing. The democrats lost because of Biden. Harris was a shining example of... well, something. Trump is a cackling troll, who sneaks into the White House he should have been locked out of. All the 'campaign specialists' are psychopaths who are paid extreme amounts of money and claim to know what they are doing - and don't. This is not history. This is endless character assassination. Give it a pass. I sure wish I had. Fortunately, better accounts will come out as time passes. But if you binge-watch Rachel Maddow, you'll love this.

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The Last Months of Hitler, Patton and others

Revisado: 04-21-24

I was greatly disappointed. First off, it starts in the fall of 1944, hardly "the last days." For another, it's interspersed with needless detail about people who *aren't* Hitler. For another, it doesn't have any new information, nor does it have any detail that can't be found in other, equally lightweight histories-that-claim-to-be-histories.
Mr. O'Reilly has written substantially better. Check some of the others out, but this one is not worth your time.

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an interesting sequel to Buffy by a participant!

Revisado: 03-04-24

good story, but I had trouble keeping track of which woman was which, however it was worth it!

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Good fun; great story... but

Revisado: 05-10-22

Another cracking good story, well-presented by Kafer (as always). The story twists and turns in pleasing ways, but...

It's at least 300 years in the future. Do late-20th Century pop-culture references really fit? It's explained, but really, really badly. They really kind of take you (or at least me) out of the story. They certainly are enjoyable in the "Supervillian" series; but if there are more in this series, the authors really need to stop doing that. The humor and interplay is entertaining enough. This is a good enough story that modern pop-culture references are simply not necessary.

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A lesser Gualteri effort

Revisado: 02-19-22

I'm a huge fan of the "Bill" series (even the J'hobich parts). but this one just left me cold. It's more of a YA novel than a horror-comedy, and I'm not a YA any more - an OA, more like it. After a short while, I discovered I just didn't care about the characters, and the twist was staring out of the title. I didn't care what the beastie thought, I didn't care who loved who, just couldn't get engaged. Pass this one by, and get the Tome of Bill and Bill of the Dead series. That'll give you a listen to a saga worth the listen.

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A remarkably shallow series

Revisado: 07-14-20

"Days in living memory"? Let's put aside that 'living memory' is a silly parameter (because it is -- it just allows the author to put interviews in that happen to be available as filler.) I'll just go through these 'carefully selected' chapters, and point out one or two better choices in the same theme -- there are lots of them.

1) A WWII camouflage expert? Really? Not Trinity? Not WWI? 2)Stuxnet? Really? Not the internet worm of 1988? Not "Cockoo's Egg?" 3) The "black power salute of 1968"? Really? Not Selma? Not the civil rights act of 1964? 4) Gulf of Tonkin? Really? Not Dien Ben Phu? 5) The first space walk? Really? Not Yuri Gegarin? Not Sputnik? 6)Cable Street? Really? Not the Siege of Sidney Street? The attack on the Bonus Army? 7) Destroying two buddhas in afghanistan? Really? How about destroying Dresden? Or Hiroshima? 8) Chernobyl? Really? Not Texas City? Not the Johnstown flood? 9) Rivonia? Really? How about James Baldwin's speech "What do Negros Want"? Malcolm X's "Chickens come home to roost" speech? 10) Deep Blue? Really? Not Doug Engbard's 1968 Mouse and Chord Keyboard demonstration? Introduction of the IBM 360? Cray-1?

... anyway, this is a pretty terrible selections of "world changes." I recommend you not waste your time, because it will give you a sound-bite view of history, which is the most "Really?" thing of all.

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A remarkably shallow series

Revisado: 07-14-20

"Days in living memory"? Let's put aside that 'living memory' is a silly parameter (because it is -- it just allows the author to put interviews in that happen to be available as filler.) I'll just go through these 'carefully selected' chapters, and point out one or two better choices in the same theme -- there are lots of them.

1) A WWII camouflage expert? Really? Not Trinity? Not WWI? 2)Stuxnet? Really? Not the internet worm of 1988? Not "Cockoo's Egg?" 3) The "black power salute of 1968"? Really? Not Selma? Not the civil rights act of 1964? 4) Gulf of Tonkin? Really? Not Dien Ben Phu? 5) The first space walk? Really? Not Yuri Gegarin? Not Sputnik? 6)Cable Street? Really? Not the Siege of Sidney Street? The attack on the Bonus Army? 7) Destroying two buddhas in afghanistan? Really? How about destroying Dresden? Or Hiroshima? 8) Chernobyl? Really? Not Texas City? Not the Johnstown flood? 9) Rivonia? Really? How about James Baldwin's speech "What do Negros Want"? Malcolm X's "Chickens come home to roost" speech? 10) Deep Blue? Really? Not Doug Engbard's 1968 Mouse and Chord Keyboard demonstration? Introduction of the IBM 360? Cray-1?

... anyway, this is a pretty terrible selections of "world changes." I recommend you not waste your time, because it will give you a sound-bite view of history, which is the most "Really?" thing of all.

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Clearly influenced by “Tunnel in the Sky”

Revisado: 10-22-19

Long ago, Robert Heinlein wrote a novel of young people in a new, strange land. In it, the young people had to overcome challenges from the new planet. — and predators from within their own. That story clearly echos here, though Mr. Taylor’s protagonists can occasionally haul (literally) tons of supplies, which leaves them in a more millennial-oriented ‘primitivism’. Taylor’s obligatory coffee, for instance, never runs out.

Mr. Taylor’s breezy writing style is as welcome as always, but his habit of trying to jump back and forth between competing storylines is not.

The endless “in the news” breaks just derail the story, for instance. They’re basically filler, and can be skipped without effect to the main story. I hope Mr. Taylor can have more confidence in his storytelling (which, when not interrupted, are excellent) in future.

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Too much side story.

Revisado: 06-01-19

My only complaint about the bobiverse evolution is that it grew segments that I simply didn’t care about - Bob-in-love, the nearly endless Archimedes saga, and floating cities, for instance. They became a sort of tax on my time to get to the amazingly good story of The Others and how to fight them. Going back to the previous book, Riker’s story is the most interesting, while Bob himself seems dull. Mr. Taylor, that said, still writes compactly and well, throwing off interesting ideas like sparks.

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The "Tramp Steamer" genre into space

Revisado: 11-02-18

A number of reviewers have said this was a "Firefly" kind of story, but it really has a much older pedigree. In the 1930's, in particular, the "Tramp Steamer" pulp novels were extremely popular. Exotic locales, crewmen with mysterious pasts, world-altering stakes to play for, it was all there. In them, the hero (a man with a mysterious, guilty past - back then often connected with WWI, or Chicago gang wars, or whatever) would find people who changed sides regularly, saving the day and putting everyone in danger alternatively, mysterious, evil locals at the current port of call would threaten... something, and so on. In the era of Doc Savage (reborn 50 years later as Buckaroo Banzai), this pulp stuff was immensely popular. With titles like "The Jinx Ship", "Shanghai Passage", "The Lucky Bargees", and such, they were adventure novels for a generation.

This one has all that, and has CT Phipps breezy humor (the "Supervillainy" saga), with far fewer pop-culture references (thank goodness) to keep things moving. Our hero ruminates about his evil past, swears never to kill anyone ever again, and then does exactly that - a lot - in search of... well, even he's not quite sure what. Spies, aliens, fusion rifles and proton swords, sex-androids, who could ask for anything more?

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