Triplanetary

by E. E. "Doc" Smith

Every speaker in the space cruiser blared out the warning as he evacuated his lungs entirely empty. “Vee-Two Gas! Get tight!” Writhing and twisting in his fierce struggle to keep his lungs from gulping any noxious atmosphere, and with the unconscious girl draped limply over his left arm, Costigan leaped toward the portal to the nearest lifeboat.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Triplanetary by E.E. "Doc"Smith, Read in 2016 on 6/1 to page 71, on 6/22 to page 110, on 7/7 to page 211, on 7/16 until complete.

Before I begin rambling, I liked it. I recommend it to classic science fiction space opera fans. Triplanetary is the first of the Lensmen series by E.E. "Doc" Smith. A wonderfully successful series.

Triplanetary is Earth-centric in this galactic adventure. If memory serves (more on that later) the planets of the Triplanetary service are Earth, Venus, and Mars. It's a shoot-em up space adventure with rather clear good guys and bad guys. There are a number of threats that are also lingering as foretelling.

The hero-saves-damsel-in-distress-and-falls-in-love is 1930's contrived as are some Doc Savage-like escapes. You don't know who Doc Savage is? Shame on you!

A Criminal Defense

A Criminal Defense by William L. Myers Jr.

My rating:


Amazon ebook and Whispersync audiobook, read/listened in 2017 on 5/20 to page 238, and on 6/9 to the end. I loved it (4½ of 5) ?? and recommend it.

In addition to being a standard lawyer suspense novel, the type that first caught my attention when I binged on John Grisham's 1991 - The Firm, 1992 - The Pelican Brief, 1993 - The Client, it is also a mystery with more twists than a pretzel.


I'm certain the genre was around before John Grisham but, for me, he turned the genre from Graham Crackers into Hershey's Chocolate.

In March 2017 William L. Myers Jr.'s A Criminal Defense looked more appealing to me than the other Kindle First offerings that month. I'm glad I bumped this one to the top of a very long list of "to read" books.

Our author, Mr. Myers, gets us into the story quick enough. His protagonist, Mick McFarland is standing outside the home of a convicted murderer's mother who has begged him to appeal her only son's hopeless murder case. Mick took the case pro bono a and has lost two costly appeals already but his Hail Maryb legal maneuver was caught in the end zone, so now Justin Bauer will be getting a new trial. The mother has been so distraught she no longer answers the phone. So Mick is at her door to try to give her the good news. Great that Justin will get a new trial, nightmare that Mick's firm will be likely go broke from the trial.