A couple of weeks ago someone (unidentified) posted a comment to one of my book reviews of March 2022:
The first book, Time Tunnel: Twin Towers was well done. Empire was not. I know science fiction can be interesting, but Todd’s “Empire” is molded into pure unrealistic fantasy. Worse, it shows a real left leaning bias. It portrays southern people, particularly Texans as far right nationalists and stupid. Todd chose “Empire” to change history at Wounded Knee. He even uses the “stolen land” phrase as if the native Americans were not as bad, when in fact the war like tribes, stole land, murdered, raped and enslaved peaceful tribes. Todd’s preachy revisionist utopian fantasy is just that. One army female officer is portrayed as a special forces soldier. Fantasy yes, plausible? No. It is a shame Empire was science fiction with ridiculous plot. I haven’t read ” Eclipse”yet, I hope it is not looney left wing propaganda again.
I had to check, because I didn’t remember the books, so I checked my trusty log and found that I reviewed the series of three Time Tunnel books all within a week in March of 2022. Here are the reviews:
I wrote those only about four years ago, and when I read them again, I could not remember anything about those books. Is it my memory that’s failing? Is it that I just read too many books and they all blend together over time? Is it that these books were not very good and therefore didn’t leave a lasting impression? Whatever it is, I was intrigued, and I simply picked up The Twin Towers again last week and read it again. I liked it again. Re-reading it, there were passages that I remembered, vignettes only, that reminded me I had read the story, but I didn’t remember enough that it spoiled my second reading.
One of the passages I remembered was good enough I thought I’d quote it here:
Annika is a Blackhawk helicopter pilot, flying a General (an African American) out of a battle zone in Iraq. To pass the time during the flight, they chat:
“Forward Operating Base Cobra. Roger that,” repeated Annika as she banked the Blackhawk east-northeast toward the new destination.
“So, what’s your story, Captain?” asked the general.
“The short version is that I tried to get into Special Forces, but I was denied because of a birth defect.”
“What’s that?”
“Born without a penis.”
The general nodded. “If it’s any consolation, Captain, we black folks know a thing or two about bias.
I have read a number of books multiple times – I’ll have to do a post about that sometime – but never because I could not remember the first time. This was unique.
I have committed to myself that I review every book I read partly for this reason – so I read more conscientiously and remember more about the books. It certainly didn’t work this time, for these three books. But it did validate my practice to review and log all the books, so I can quickly look them up and re-read if necessary.
And now for my memory…..