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Spam deleted by QuickTopic 10-28-2012 07:16
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Otherwhen@aol.com
05-29-2011
05:42 UT
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Oman's "Art of War in the Middle Ages" is a classic text. I first read
it for a graduate history course in Medieval History. But the book I
was assigned for class was the short paperback version available (at
the time) in most college bookstores.
When I started
working on "Great Kings' War" I bought the 2 volume 1928 revised
edition set from a rare book dealer, which was quite expensive. It's
probably not so much now, since the Internet book explosion. Used
paperbacks of both volumes are listed on Amazon at under $15.00.
However, Oman's follow up book, "A History of the Art of War in the
Sixteenth Century" (784 pages), was even more helpful since it detailed
wars and warfare during the early gunpowder era. This one is much
rarer and runs $80.00 to $95.00. Both books are highly recommended.
John Carr
In "Lord Kalvan", it tells how Calvin Morrison "was reading Sir
Carles Oman's Art of War" instead of paying attention to his
lessons. I did a little digging, and found some books by Sir
Charles Oman called "The Art of War in the Middle Ages", revised expanded edition dated 1924.
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Jon Crocker  05-29-2011
04:10 UT
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In "Lord Kalvan", it tells how Calvin Morrison "was reading Sir Carles
Oman's Art of War" instead of paying attention to his lessons. I did a
little digging, and found some books by Sir Charles Oman called "The Art
of War in the Middle Ages", revised expanded edition dated 1924.
It's
a good long read, and it's taken me a while to read them all through,
but today I was working through the section on the English Civil War.
During
that war was the Battle of Barnet, 1471. The two sides formed up in
the dark, and it turns out they formed up closer to each other than they
thought, with each side overlapping the enemy's flank a bit. The
morning dawned with a thick fog, and because of the overlapping flanks,
the out-flanked portion of each side had a hard time of it. The Earl of
Oxford and his men started chasing some of their fleeing enemy in the
fog.
Because of the collapsing flanks, the main battle started to
rotate - eventually each side was facing the direction that it had come
from. Guess who comes charging back in to save the day? Because of
the turn, however, the Earl of Oxford was really smashing into the
unprotected rear of his allies, not his enemy as he thought - many cries
of "treason" rent the air.
Of course by this point I was impressed that Lord Kalvan's Battle of Fyk had really happened.
Sir
Charles' book is surprisingly engaging - the first edition was 1885,
and I was expecting it to be as dry as dust, but I enjoy it, it has some
memorable lines. One of the most memorable sections is also about the
English Civil War, the Battle of Tewkesbury: "As a mark of the temper
of the time we may mention that Somerset's first act when he got back to
the position, was to seek out Lord Wenlock, the commander of the
center, furiously accuse him of treachery for not joining in a general
charge, and then to beat out his brains with his battle-axe. This
summary removal of a division general seems, however, to have had no
actual effect on the fate of the battle, though it must surely have had
some discouraging results on the morale of the actual spectators."
Of
course if you're not a history buff, the books are really not going to
be your cup of tea - but I enjoyed them, and now I know I've read a book
that Piper - and His Majesty, Great King Kalvan - have read, too.
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Mike Robertson 05-17-2011
15:25 UT
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This year's Irregular's Muster will be on Saturday, May 28th. We will be
meeting at the Original Waffle Shop on North Atherton at 11:00 a.m.
I'll be there.
Mike Robertson
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David Johnson
05-12-2011
06:57 UT
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~
I've gotten about six chapters into Scalzi's ~Fuzzy Nation~, maybe
one-eighth of the way through the book. (Jack Holloway has just given
his first video of Little Fuzzy to the local naturalist--who most
assuredly is _not_ Ben Rainsford in this version!)
WARNING: Some minor spoilers to follow.
I'm
enjoying the yarn but this is a _major_ reboot. Jack Holloway is at
least three decades younger and rather than being an independent
prospector is under contract to the Chartered Zarathustra Company
("ZaraCorp"). His personality is different too, more smart-aleck "Han
Solo" instead of Beam's straight-shooting-but-aging "Indiana Jones."
ZaraCorp is a multi-planet interstellar conglomerate, not restricted
simply to the single world ("Zara-23"). The colony on Zara-23 is much
smaller, with nearly _everyone_ on planet a ZaraCorp employee or
contractor. A couple of other non-human, sentient beings are mentioned
but none of them are the familiar Thorans or Ullerans or Kwanns or
Khoograhs of Beam's Terro-human Future History. Terra--Earth, here--is
different too. Apparently there were no Northern-Hemisphere-devastating
Atomic Wars; Holloway recalls mining operations in Pennsylvania and has
a _juris_doctor_ from Duke University.
There's a short intro to the
audiobook by Scalzi himself explaining his purpose of trying to make
the story less dated. Mostly, this seems to mean contemporary
language--it's all "dude" and "awesome" and assorted versions of
[expurgated unprintability]--plus a lot of futuristic versions of
contemporary technology. Holloway has an iPad--"info-panel"--and his
ZaraCorp employers monitor him via orbital satellite imaging when he
makes that first sunstone find. All of this would seem to meet Scalzi's
purpose of making the yarn more accessible to contemporary readers but
it doesn't seem to make it any more _believable_ as a _future_ setting
than is what Beam wrote in the late 1950s and early 1960s. (Will
star-travelers of the future be saying "dude" and "awesome" all the
time?)
It looks like Holloway and Little Fuzzy are the only
characters to survive from the original story. The above-mentioned
naturalist is a woman with whom Holloway has recently had an
unsuccessful affair. There is no George Lunt, no Victor Grego, no Gus
Brannhard, no Alex Napier. And so far, no Extee Three (Holloway feeds
Little Fuzzy a local fruit instead).
And there's a new character
from the very beginning: Carl, Holloway's dog. Holloway talks to Carl
in the way the original Holloway ends up talking to Little Fuzzy (before
he learns to communicate with the Fuzzies). It's a nice touch that
makes that particular aspect of Holloway's original behavior make a bit
more sense. (I always wondered why this tough, rugged loner so quickly
took to calling himself "Pappy Jack" and rambled on and on to Little
Fuzzy from the get-go. Scalzi clearly believes it was because he missed
his dog!)
Again, it's keeping my attention and I look forward to the rest of the story.
Yeek!
David
--
"_Space_Viking_
itself is . . . a yarn that will be cited, years hence, as one of the
science-fiction classics. It's got solid philosophy for the mature
thinker, and bang-bang-chop-'em-up action for the space-pirate fans. As
a truly good yarn should have!" - John W. Campbell, 1962 ~
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John Carr
05-11-2011
17:59 UT
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This year's Irregular's Muster will be on Saturday, May 28th. We will be
meeting at the Original Waffle Shop on North Atherton at 11:00 a.m.
I hope to see some of you there. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at otherwhen@aol.com
John Carr
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David Johnson
05-11-2011
13:36 UT
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~
Gilmoure wrote:
> There is an audio book. I believe it's Wil Wheaton reading it.
Woo hoo! And it was released today:
http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B004YXLK7G
I'm already downloading it!
Thanks for the tip.
David
--
"We
talk glibly about ten to the hundredth power, but emotionally we still
count, 'One, Two, Three, Many.'" - Otto Harkaman (H. Beam Piper),
_Space_Viking_ ~
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Glenn G. Amspaugh
05-11-2011
13:25 UT
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There is an audio book. I believe it's Wil Wheaton reading it. http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/05/06/and-...y-nation-audiobook/
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David Johnson
05-11-2011
04:56 UT
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~
Gilmoure wrote:
> http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/05/fuzzy-nation-excerpt
> For myself, I like it. I have it on pre-order and am looking
> forward to it.
I'm
eagerly waiting its arrival too. (I just wish it were available as an
audiobook. About the only time I have for "reading" these days is
during the two-hour daily commute.)
> He's also been pushing folks to check out original Piper
> so that's cool. Can tell that he really likes Piper's work.
Yeah, that's a nice knock-on benefit. Anything that helps to introduce Beam's work to new folks is a "good thing" in my view!
Yeek!
David
--
"Good things in the long run are often tough while they're happening." - Otto Harkaman (H. Beam Piper), _Space_Viking_ ~
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Spam deleted by QuickTopic 10-28-2012 07:16
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Jackson Russell
05-07-2011
19:20 UT
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Cool. What about the other fuzzy book coming out?
Jack
< replied-to message removed by QT >
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Glenn G. Amspaugh
05-07-2011
19:06 UT
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John Scalzi's reboot of Little Fuzzy (Fuzzy Nation) is out 10 May.
Tor.com has first two chapters so you see if you like his take on it: http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/05/fuzzy-nation-excerpt
For
myself, I like it. I have it on pre-order and am looking forward to it.
Scalzi, if you're not familiar with his original work (Old Man's War)
has been compared to Heinlein in writing style. He's also been pushing
folks to check out original Piper so that's cool. Can tell that he
really likes Piper's work. He says that Fuzzy Nation was written for him
self, at first, as something fun to do and then he decided to see if
publisher was interested.
Gilmoure
On May 7, 2011, at 11:42 AM, QT - Jackson Russell wrote:
< replied-to message removed by QT >
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Jackson Russell
05-07-2011
18:42 UT
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Speaking of the TFH, what is the latest on the new fuzzy books? I've been out of touch and would like to get caught up.
Jack Russell
< replied-to message removed by QT >
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