T.S. Ransdell's The Last Marine: Books One and Two

Listen, I'm a fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I've been an SF fan since my dad sat me down in front of a TV with Star Trek on it. Science Fiction literature had to wait a few years, because I hadn't learned to read by the age of three days.

*SIGH*

It's a failing on my part I know, but can't you cut your boy some slack?

 With fantasy, it started a little later when I first saw the animated version of The Hobbit in like first or second grade. Not my fault that time, I hadn't been exposed.

Anyway...

As a fan, there are some universes you'd love to live in. Star Trek comes to mind, although I would perhaps prefer a place not up against one of the Neutral Zones. There is no such thing as a Harry Potter fan who doesn't want to attend Hogwarts. I'm not convinced that Westeros would be my favorite place, but Valdemar just might. I don't trust Jayne, but I'd love to work for Captain Mal. And, let's face it, I'd run spice with Han and Chewie if I thought I'd make enough to make it worth my while.

But when it comes to the universe that T.S. Ransdell created for his series The Last Marine I think I'll stay home if given the choice. If. Given. The. Choice. The problem being that I may not be. See, the United States of The Last Marine is a wokesters paradise. In other words, it's a Communist Hell.

The society of The Last Marine is divided into Elites (people who have the right politics and express them in ways that benefit the Democrat Party) and everyone else. The Elites get the best food, the best drinks, the best seats on a plane...

You get the idea. It's remarkably close to the Marxist society of the Soviet Union, where the average worker got a tiny apartment and Josef Stalin got five dachas and a chauffeur driven limo because SOLIDARITY COMRADE!!!

Yeah, it's scary because it's so close to coming true.

Of course, we didn't just happen to get there by accident and Ransdell's world-building is amazing.

Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. I hate it when I do that...

The story starts out with a young reporter trying to make something of himself. His name is Joel Levine and he has a mission: He is to interview the last known living member of the United States Marine Corps, one Sean Harris, and show the citizens of the United States, indeed the entire human race, what a bunch of violent, misogynistic, homophobic, racist baby killers the Marines were. 

And yeah, I know I don't do spoilers but this all comes out in the first chapter so it's not reeeeeeallly a spoiler right?

*WINK*

Most of the two novels are told by use of the flashback technique, following Harris's real world experiences through a war and his return home, which was not all that he could have hoped for. There are reasons for that which I don't want to spoil, so let's just say that it ain't pretty if you're a returning GI. I feel bad for these dudes and I'm not really the empathetic type if you wanna know the truth.

 Ransdell's use of the flashback, and corresponding occasional return to the present, is amazingly effective. It's like watching someone's memories in the Pensieve, ala Harry Potter, and then being able to discuss what you've just seen with that same person. He makes you feel like you were there. Harris has been through a lot, having experienced war and all its horrors first hand on top of a rotten homecoming. It's seamless.There were times when I almost forgot that I was reading a book and felt like I was sitting there WITH Harris and Levine. Spellbinding sounds like a good term. I'll go with that. It was spellbinding.

I've taken a look at Ransdell's Amazon biography and it says that he teaches, or possibly taught, history. I'm guessing this guy has studied the time period around the Vietnam War because what he's got here rings true and is reminiscent of accounts I've read written by Vietnam vets. The Last Marine has spots that are enough to make me a bit uncomfortable, so if you lived that mess go in prepared. Oh, and while we're list bona fides, let me mention that Ransdell's Amazon page states that he is a Marine and a veteran of Desert Shield/Storm. This is some slimy civilian who doesn't know what he's talking about. He was infantry and it sounds like he's been there and done that. He gets it right. 

I'll admit that I find myself wondering if Ransdell wrote The Last Marine, at least partially, out of a desire to be the guy who got to interview the vet. Seriously, I have a degree in history myself (albeit only a BA) and I've always wanted to conduct this type of an interview with a vet: Just me and him and his stories about the war. No historian wouldn't recognize the impulse, although many would interview someone from a different occupation, but still: The people who were there are the greatest primary source and Levine gets access to the last one. I find myself a bit jealous of a person that doesn't exist. I suppose I'll get over it. 

I do have one complaint about the works and it's why I decided to review both books together instead of only reviewing one: The first book doesn't really have an ending. I don't mean it ends on a cliff hanger. I mean just cuts off. It was kind of like watching a VHS and having the VCR eat the tape halfway through the movie. It really threw me. In a way, I guess that's a good thing. I didn't know I was at the end of the book and I wanted more, but it really jarred me. That much having been said, it didn't jar me hard enough to make me not want to read the next book. As a matter of fact, thanks to the magic of the internet, I got the Book Two seconds after I had completed Book One. I couldn't wait. That's a good thing in and of itself. But seriously, when you download the first one, download the second one too. It'll be worth your time and you'll be glad you saved yourself the trouble of having to pause in between. Except that there's a sequel on the way and you'll have to pause for that, because it's not out yet.

Bottom Line:  4.75 out of 5 Scarred Faces

The Last Marine: Book One
T.S. Ransdell
Self Published, 2016

The Last Marine: Book Two
T.S. Ransdell
Self Published, 2019

Both books from The Last Marine can be purchased at the following links. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage of your purchase at no additional cost to you.

L.S. King's Sword's Edge

 

 I love Sciencie Fiction. I love Fantasy. I've seen Star Wars, with its setting that is primarily SF (Lightsabers, FTL Travel, Aliens, Giant Space Stations, etc) but partially Fantasy (The Force) but L.S. King has done the opposite in Sword's Edge (Sword's Edge Chronicles, Book One).  She's created a setting that is primarily Fantasy (Rangers, Psychic Powers, Nobility, etc.) and partially SF. (Nope, not saying why. Read the book.)  So I guess, in a way, it's reverse Star Wars, except that it takes place on one planet. Then again, that makes it even more reverse Star Wars, right?

So yes, the setting does a lot for the story. Sword's Edge is a book that works based on the world where it's at as much as it does on its characters. (More on that in a minute.) The politics of the world move the story, as does the science fiction aspect of it, which we really don't get all that good a glimpse of at first. We're kept guessing for quite awhile as to certain aspects and I like that about it. We get hints here and hints there, but nothing concrete for quite awhile. And, getting back to the politics, they're complicate, convoluted and corrupt. There are only two political figures in the entire work that read as not evil and treacherous but that's necessary to the plot and makes a lot of sense given the internal logic of the book. 

Our main character is a girl named Tamissa, Tam for short. Tam is a young girl who has been raised in seclusion by her father. She is a member of the Ranger clan, which is responsible for both police and military duties in the Lairdom, but was brought up believing that she had no family. She belongs to the Clan but knows nothing of it. In short, King seems to have used a technique very similar to one used by a certain Mrs. Rowling: Her character is accepted as a member of the society she is in, so we can see her functioning within it, but she views it the way an outsider would. Another apt comparison would probably be Data. Everyone seems to know how to fit in, but her.

This leads Tam to be a bit naive about some things, even for a girl in her early teens. This can cause a bit of consternation among those of us who were born into a more egalitarian age. Tam knows nothing of romantic love and less of sex. She has no real concept of marriage. She can't even recognize her society's version of a wedding ring for what it is. She has no idea why women fear men, since she had no fear of her father and no interactions with any other man. But the thing is, she is actually an extremely intelligent young lady. She learns quickly, but has had no context. 

That's not to say that Valdor didn't teach his daughter anything: She can read. She can write. She can grow a garden, hunt and cook the proceeds from both endeavors. She knows uses of spices and herbs both medicinal and nutritional. She can make a poultice to cure a wound and identify plants that are harmful.  There's got to be something else, too. I feel like I'm missing something...

Oh yeah. Tam can fight. Tam will kick your scrawny (or fat, well proportioned, heavily muscled, etc) ass barehanded and won't feel bad about it. In the Rangers, they call it matching and it's basically like Mixed Martial Arts (watch the backfist bro, trust me) except less formalized. She also seems to know quite a bit about swordplay and archery to go with a working knowledge of tracking. In short, she's every bit as tough as any man in the book, but it gets more complicated from there.

King has done her research well. Sword's Edge features a type of reality that everyone else misses: Tam suffers the mental consequences of succeeding in battle. Here in the real world, Planet Earth, circa the last probably hundred and ten years at least, the leading cause of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder among combat veterans is that they were forced to kill. Having studied history (and I got one of them fancy pieces of paper what has my name and the words "Bachelor of Arts in History" written on it) I can attest that everything I've read agrees to that fact, but most authors and play/screenwriters ignore that fact. It makes me a little batty sometimes watching a hero make his first kill and walk away like nothing happened. The act of killing effects people. Kudos to king for looking the real world in the eye and not backing down. Other authors would do well to follow her example.

That's not to call Sword's Edge overly maudlin. The plot moves quickly. Points of view bounce around at times and we see things when we need to. The fight scenes actually gave me a burst of adrenaline at points. There is no navel gazing. There's no time for it. Tam is hard-core and even when she is relaxing it seems that there's always a prankster around to keep it interesting. Somehow, she makes it through the novel without developing a love interest even though I had two separate dudes picked out at her at different points in the novel.

The only weird part of Sword's Edge was that it didn't end when I thought it would. I was reading it on an app called FB Reader. Page numbers appear in the lower right corner of the screen and often don't match up with Kindle or print page numbers. When I got to what I thought was the end is still had fiftiesh (I think) pages left. What followed was both fun and interesting and ended up with me being very frustrated with my dispatcher at work (Seriously, if the whole day sucks and I'm not making anything don't interrupt me just when the weird stuff starts. It makes me cranky.) but in some ways it felt like it was more set up for the rest of the series than it was part of the story I was reading. Then again, it must have been a good ending because I've already snagged a copy of the omnibus edition containing not only Sword's Edge but also the sequels Children of the Enaisi and Laws and Prophecies. Maybe if you're lucky, I'll let you know what I think about those too.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Bells and Stars

Sword's Edge 
L.S.King
2014, Self Published

Sword's Edge and the Sword's Edge Chronicles Omnibus are available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and then buy literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

RIP Alex Trebek

“I'll take Nerd Knowledge for $200 please” 

“The long time host of Jeopardy, he was adored by millions before losing his battle to cancer on November 8, 2020.” 

“Who was Alex Trebek?” 

Was there ever an easier question? Ya know, it's weird. When I talk about entertainment and the influences I've had I always think of Trek, Wars, Harry Turtledove, many Baen authors, etc. If I really stop and think about it (and I try not to. My mama always said that thinkin' gets you in trouble.) the three entertainers I've watched the most over the years are Pat Sajak, Vanna White, and Alex Trebec. 

As a kid growing up, if I wasn't out of the house working (I got my first job at fourteen) or at band rehearsals/performances or chasing some young lady around, etc. I was in front of my TV at seven PM and wouldn't move for an hour, because it was Wheel of and Jeopardy time. Once I wasted all of my money buying vowels, it was time to win them all back questioning answers. Some nights I owned. Some nights, I'd have been better off reading a book in my bedroom. I always had fun though. 

Jeopardy was always an awesome show, but it was also kind of weird. There have been soap operas since before there was a Jimbo. Sports have been extremely popular on both TV and radio for decades as well. Game shows have been popular basically forever as well, but... Well... The Dating Game (or the 90's equivalent Studs) and the Newlywed Game covered romance, which a lot of geekish types aren't all that comfortable with or good at. Producers of The Price is Right have admitted publicly for decades that that pick people for their enthusiasm standing in line. Screaming “Big money, no Whammies, STOP!” doesn't exactly require a nerdish IQ, although there were some very intelligent players. Even solving words on Wheel of Fortune was never really all that hard. 

But Jeopardy...  

Ah, Jeopardy. 

For Jeopardy, you have to pass a test just to get an audition. Then you have to pass the audition by proving that you can answer the questions under pressure. You can't fake your way through something like that. Anyone who has been on Jeopardy as a contestant (other than some of the celebrities) is one of ours. They're geeks, They're nerds. They're tribe. And listen, I love Pat Sajak. I had one of my earliest celebrity crushes on Vanna White. I used to go to my buddies house during my lunch hour at school to watch Bob Barker. I love Drew Carey. (I even read Dirty Jokes and Beer) Chuck Woolery is welcome to stop by any time he wants. Steve Harvey is my guy. But Alex Trebek... Alex Trebec was one of us. He was the guy who had the questions that only we could answer. 

Anyone can look at “E-T MY S - - -R T S” and know that the answer is “Eat my shorts” but how many people can give you five different “Q Foods”? Most of the guys on The Dating Game couldn't answer the question “What would we do on a date?” when they knew it was coming. Yes, your eighteen year old kid can listen to a bunch of other people bid big numbers and decide to bid a dollar, but can they regurgitate the principles of fiction in question form before the other competitors can? (And yes, I've seen questions that stumped the competitors. I always get a chuckle and remember that I'm not alone in not having all the answers.) 

I was at a con once (CONfusion in Dearborn, Michigan) and one of the panelists -I want to say it was Brandon Sanderson – made a statement to the effect that “We're nerds. We like to be experts on things.” He was right. If you can run five straight in a Jeopardy category you are an expert in that subject. Sports fans like to point to statistics to argue over who the best athlete in a given sport/at a given position were. I am here to tell you that, short of an amazing academic CV or appearing on a documentary there is no way to get better nerd cred than to say “I won an episode of Jeopardy.” We don't really care so much about total money, just the fact that you've done it. Honestly. Especially since in my case I've met more NBA Championship winners (Rick Mahorn and Tayshaun Prince) than I have Jeopardy winners (none). 

If there is a nerd heaven – and Dear Lord, I hope there is – it's going to be Alex Trebec standing at the gate. There is going to be a trivia question to get in. Don't worry, he'll know your areas of expertise, but he's still not going to let you in until you get it right and answer in question form. And when he lets you in, he'll be smiling while you hum the Jeopardy theme song. Or whistle it. I'll probably whistle the thing, but whatever works, right? The important part is just to enjoy the ride. That's what Jeopardy was really all about. People enjoying watching other people compete in an arena that many of us felt more comfortable in than we ever could on an athletic field. Prime time television will never be the same. Even though Jeopardy will continue, we've lost an icon. People my age, especially nerdish types like myself, my age have lost yet another piece of our childhood. Life will go on as it always does, but we'll still remember him. So Rest in Peace Mr. Trebek. Your fans will miss you. At least know that you were one of my two favorite Canadians. (The other one being the shooter bar girl at Jokers back in the day. I wonder if she's single...) I'll catch you on the flip side. Save a spot for me. I'll be the guy making dad jokes and sporting an Honorverse cosplay with Spock ears. I know where you'll be. A: It's former Jeopardy host Alex Trebec's natural habitat. Q: What is behind the podium? See you there, brother.