Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Isis thwarted
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 26/12/2019
» Until the 20th century, jihadists had no bones to pick with the US. Their ire was directed at the UK and France who coveted their lands, and the Jews trying to carve out their own. They got good press when T.E. Lawrence led the Arabs against the enemy Ottoman Turks. The silent film The Sheik romanticised them. The Riffs were favoured in their uprising against Spain. They didn't participate in the North African campaign in World War II.
Religion and warfare
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/09/2019
» What all religions, sects, cults have in common is that each believes it is the true one, the others not only unworthy but spawns of the devil, deserving to be liquidated.
Just a thought
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 30/05/2019
» I don't mind admitting that I winced when I plucked an 800-page novel from my review bag, having long advocated that authors don't need more than 400 pages to say what needs be said. The back cover describes it as an espionage novel. I don't recall Ian Fleming or John le Carré penning tomes.
The end is nigh
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 28/03/2019
» It has been determined that we've been around for 4.5 billion years, Earth the only habitable planet in the solar system.
Ravens' feast
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 27/12/2018
» This reviewer's understanding of historical novels is that the authors do historical research on their topic, using actual figures and imaginary ones where need-be, to write essentially factual and hopefully interesting stories. But not all historical novelists follow this form. Some are more concerned about their own largely fictitious story than the actual events behind it.
Best of the best
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 16/02/2018
» Generations have their popular writers, but centuries' literary legends are few. Hugo and Tolstoy qualified, Hemingway and Grisham, Goethe and Dickens. Not to mention Shakespeare and Cervantes.
Quantum thriller
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 02/02/2018
» The upside of the digital age is our ability to contact one another in moments. The downside is our lack of privacy. The powers that be intercept and record our conversations and messages. Our thoughts and expressed feelings are common knowledge to authorities determining whether we are security risks.
Appeasement
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 25/01/2018
» World War I was so horrendous that it was universally believed another world war would mean Armageddon, the end of life on Earth. Imperialist conquest was one thing, but another world war had to be avoided at all cost. The way to settle conflicts was by talking, not shooting. An Austrian corporal, gassed and be-medalled, disagreed that the Great War was the War to End All Wars. Arguing that the Versailles Treaty ending it gave Germany -- his new country of citizenship -- a raw deal, he set about disclaiming it. Though talking peace, he set about arming the Third Reich.
Artificial intelligence
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 12/01/2018
» There are Vatican scholars. Then there are novelists who research the Vatican library to give the plots of their imaginative religious stories the aura of authenticity. It turns out that the lay writers usually pen more interesting books. Less authentic, yet more believable.
Food for thought
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 05/01/2018
» A corporal motorcycle courier on the Western Front during World War I, Hitler fancied himself the German Napoleon Bonaparte. While he had good political instincts, a military genius he was not. Still, he had several first-rate strategists and tacticians on his staff.