Master of the Game – Sidney Sheldon

Summary: The story of Kate Blackwell, the head of an international conglomerate. This book traces her fortune from the very beginning until her 90th birthday party. The story of her fortune begins with her father’s journey from Scotland to the rugged deserts of South Africa in the 1880’s, and follows her life (and the lives of her family) through both World Wars and beyond - to current day.

 

Setting: Late 1800’s through 1983, international

 

Plot: Our story starts with Jamie McGregor, a Scottish teenager who follows the diamond rush to South Africa. He’s deceived, beaten, and left for dead in the desert by a business partner, and he reinvents himself with one goal in mind: revenge.

 

Jamie recovers and eventually builds up a thriving enterprise, tearing apart the life of his former partner and eventually driving the man to suicide. In the process though, he passes along his overdeveloped sense of vengeance to his own daughter. The rest of the book follows her life as she manipulates everyone around her for her own purposes.

 

Kate Blackwell is enormously successful by every conventional definition of the word, but as she looks back upon her life, one question remains: was it all worth it?

 

Her manipulation effects her entire family; I can’t give a lot of details without giving up parts of the plot, but her manipulation effects every single member of her family. Deception, insanity, murder – it’s all in here.

 

The story begins at Kate’s 90th birthday party as she’s reflecting back on her life, and follows the entire story of the family over the last hundred plus years.

 

Criticisms: Absolutely none.

 

Wrap-up: My meager summary and plot sections can’t even come close to doing this book justice. This is one of my favorite books, and I re-read it every couple of years just to remind myself what the ultimate pinnacle of writing should look like.

 

It’s a bit weighty at 500 pages but while you’re reading it, you’ll have a hard time sleeping wondering what’s going to happen next. An impulsive page-turner, and I can’t think (off the top of my head) of a book that I would recommend higher than this. It’s got universal appeal, and is perfectly written – an absolute must read.

 

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, an A+ isn’t a high enough grade for this book – so I’m going to (metaphorically) circle the A+ in red and put two bold lines under it. READ THIS BOOK!

Flight of the Old Dog – Dale Brown

Summary: The USSR has developed an anti-satellite laser system, which they insist is purely for defensive purposes. All hell breaks loose when they start using the laser for offensive purposes, and it falls to a highly classified military unit to take on the might of the Soviet Bear.

 

Setting: Cold War USA and USSR

 

Plot: Patrick McLanahan is an award winning bombardier on B-52 bombers. He’s approached by the general in charge of Dreamland, a classified weapons testing facility in the Nevada desert, to help develop advanced weapons systems for the aging bomber.

At the same time, the USSR is completing work on a laser system which they assert is in compliance with existing treaties, since it’s only planned for defensive uses. Their deception catches up with them when they start using the laser to shoot down reconnaissance planes and satellites designed to provide launch detection capabilities over the Pacific Ocean.

 

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff puts together a strike package to take out the laser facility but the bombers are intercepted at their holding point, nullifying their capabilities. At the same time, a sneak attack on the Dreamland facility forces the General to take to the air in the modified B-52, and they turn out to be the only asset which has a chance against the laser facility.

 

Criticisms: Fairly technical. Military fiction might not be for all readers.

 

Wrap-up: This is it – the beginning of the McLanahan series. There are 16 books (thus far), and they’re all great books, but this book starts the whole series out with a bang. If you like military fiction, chances are you’ve already read this series cover to cover, but if you haven’t picked one up, you can’t go wrong with this one. This book is a bit dated (from the late 80’s), but it’s a gripping start to McLanahan’s journey; you get to follow him through most of his career, and he’s a very real character.

 

Dale Brown is the real deal; he flew on medium and heavy bombers, and knows his technical stuff cold. This gives him a solid technical base to start the rest of the series. A wonderful series!

 

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book a B+.