Thursday, November 1, 2012

The Surgeon's Mate, by Patrick O'Brian

  • Title: The Surgeon's Mate
  • Author:  Patrick O'Brian
  • Borrowed from DC Public Library
  • Started:  10/1/2012
  • Finished:  10/25/2012
 
This is the 7th book in the "Master & Commander" series (aka Aubrey/Maturin), probably my least favorite so far.  But I am enjoying the series overall so no real complaints.  But you can see that I took almost a full month to read this when I could have polished it off in a weekend had I been really into it.

Cadaver In Chief, by Steven Hockensmith

  • Title:  Cadaver In Cheif
  • Author:  Steve Hockensmith
  • Purchased from Amazon.com (Kindle Edition)
  • Started: 9/20/2012
  • Finished: 9/27/2012
 
The author of this book writes a Western/Sherlock Holmes series (Holmes on the Range) that I enjoy, and he (the author) is also big on social media and trying to get the word out about his books.  This book was one that he offered for free for a short time, in a effort to boost its Amazon rating in the hopes that more people would see it and buy it.  I grabbed it during that free period and gave it a go, my first non Holmes on the Range piece I had read by Hockensmith. 
 
It pains me to say it, but it wasn't a very good book.  I like zombie movies, haven't really read any zombie books, but the overall idea here was pretty good.  In fact it was worth reading for one new (new to me) zombi plague idea:  The remaining humans (all armed) constantly saying "hello" to people they pass to avoid being killed on the spot.  What an elegantly simple solution to such a problem, that would be fun to see shown in a movie.
 
Anyway that one idea aside (although I thought it was a great idea) the book is pretty terrible.  I wish that wasn't the case.