Old Men And Infidels Books

Convergent Evolution of Maps

2019-02-02

Comparison between Kurt Schicter's dytopian cautionary tale of a near-future America with that of Old Men and Infidels

Fantasy Showcase: A Whisper in the Shadows by Tom Fallwell

2019-01-12

“The story is punctuated with numerous compelling scenes, the plot is spun to feature intense moments of conflict, and there are tons of surprises for the reader.” - Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

“A Whisper in the Shadows will titillate every fantasy fans’ senses with numerous epic battles, magical elements, awesome creatures, new species, shadow walking, and shadow beasts.” – Angel

“Faced paced and full of action and adventure, this book stands out as a 5-star read in the fantasy genre. Join a secret society of rangers on a mission that holds the fate of their world in the balance.” – Vanessa Haley

A Whisper in the Shadows (Rangers of Laerean #1)

When the Ranger Baric meets an exotic and alluring woman from Vaar'da called Whisper, he agrees to assist her on what seems a simple rescue mission, but it soon turns into something far more complicated than he expected. Their journey quickly becomes a deadly and suicidal quest into the Great Divide, an area of Hir where men fear to travel. They must enter the realm of the demonic Manenase, who live under a great volcano in the center of the Boiling Sea.

The fate of Hir depends on the courage and skills of the heroic Rangers and their small Vaar'da companion, as they struggle to save the world of Hir from impending disaster.

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About the Author

Early in life, Tom Fallwell discovered a love for fantasy and science-fiction, delighting in the wonderful escape into realms undreamed of. Weaned on the greats like J.R.R. Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert E. Howard, Roger Zelazny, Robert A. Heinlein, and Michael Moorcock, just to name a few, Tom's imagination was forever inspired by those marvelous tales.

One day, he discovered a simple book of rules called 'Chainmail', by Gary Gygax, and found a new love: the love of creating adventures and stories of his own. 'Chainmail' evolved into 'Dungeons & Dragons', and Tom played consistently with friends as both a player and a dungeon master (DM) for decades. Such activities helped him develop his ability to create worlds and stories for other players to enjoy.

Now retired from his long career as a software developer, Tom writes all the adventures and characters that constantly fill his mind and shares them with the world.

Connect with Tom Fallwell

Website: http://tomfallwell.com

Facebook: https://goo.gl/6KjdHz

Amazon: http://Author.to/Tom

Smashwords: https://goo.gl/adtpGn

Goodreads: http://goo.gl/hYZOso

Incense Rising by NJ Schrock-- a Chillingly Plausible Novel of the Near Future

2018-08-26

In a world where black is being called the new white, Dr. Incense Rising's world would fit right in.

This is the stuff of horror, not because of the red-eyed monsters but because regular men and women have let themselves become so. After the War for Peace, the world is divided into commercial zones, consumers becoming the new serfs to entities like Eu-Foria!, Wise Consumer and Nearly Dairy, with its unappetizing ads on toilet paper.

A new theory, spelling the destruction of the new feudalism, has already taken a life--that of its creator, Incense's Uncle Orion. She is on the lam to save herself and the theory.

This is political fiction in the spirit of 1984 and BNW. Smart dialogue, solid motivation and a niggling idea that this world might just come true make this a novel YOU MUST READ!

BULLYING IN PLAIN SIGHT: HOW INATTENTIVE ADULTS ENCOURAGE THE SCHOOL BULLIES–BY DANIEL CHANDLER

2017-11-30

“Questioning Islam” by Townsend– A Review

2017-04-25

The blind spot of the West in regards to Islam has been going on since the rise of the Muslim invaders in the 7th century. Muslims attacked and captured Jerusalem from the Byzantines even while they debated whether they were, in reality, a new cult of Christianity. There is little doubt that the ambivalence and uncertainty of the West have served Islam well in its many military campaigns over the last 1400 years.

Peter Townsend is attempting to arm us, protecting us from the misinformation and disinformation which have plagued our political institutions, most recently, from the fall of the last caliphate in Istanbul over a century ago. The Ottomans fell, probably more of a century-long dwindle, when the sultan retreated from the path demanded by the prophet: conquer until all submit.

Questioning Islam is a valuable tool in the education of the culture. Townsend, rather than engaging in a polemic for the West, examines the claims and the basic documents of the Muslim faith itself. Without reference to other belief systems he looks at what teachings are basic to Islam and how the Muslim believer formulates his world view.

It is not pretty. The Qur’an is held out to be the faithful as the very words of the creator deity, pure and “perfect in (its Arabic) language,” complete in its conceit and execution, and unsullied in its transmission. However, despite an empire-wide effort to burn all deviant copies in the eighth century, the fundamental document of Islam is revealed to be a hodge-podge of plagiarized sentiments (primarily Jewish), self-serving and convenient “revelations” to benefit only Mohammad in his venereal pursuits, and a high degree of plain old-fashioned bloody-mindedness. It is enough to make an Arab blush and apparently did. There are multiple examples where the companions of Mohammad wished to reduce, or at least limit, the rapine only to be urged back into the carnage by Mohammad.

Rather than being in the “purest Arabic” there are many words taken from the patois of seventh-century trade. Some words are completely indecipherable, yet supposedly sent from God via Mohammad as the end and culmination of all wisdom. Whole sections are known to be missing due to the dietary indiscretions of a family goat. Instead of being the highest form of literature the Qur’an amounts to a rag-tag assemblage of political and self-serving edicts. It documents not so much eternal verities as it does the rise of Islam from a despised minority, requesting tolerance, to a military Ponzi scheme demanding submission or blood.

The hadiths, i.e. traditions, providing the basic framework of what is now Islam, are obviously critical in understanding the faith. It is an inconvenient fact that none of the hadiths were written down within two hundred years of Mohammad’s death. Moreover by that time, the great schism had occurred, dividing Islam into the Sunni and Shi’a traditions. Hadiths conflict with each other both with and without each community. Mohammad, held out to be a “perfect example of conduct,” can only be glimpsed via these hadiths and what is shows of him is grasping, vacillating, and sanguinary religious tyrant.

Questioning Islam is extensively documented, with long passages from the original documents reproduced within the endnotes. Author Townsend has done a remarkable job in organizing a difficult subject topically. This leads to some redundancies which may, at time, strike readers are being overdone. Despite that, it is a very fast read. This should be required reading for anyone who is exposed to Islam. Today, that includes us all.

BOOK REVIEW: “HUNTERS IN THE DARK” BY LAWRENCE OSBOURNE

2016-02-07

This is in its own way a fascinating read, perhaps not for the reasons mentioned by other reviewers. It follows the intersecting lives of a dissolute American, a parsifalian Brit, a corrupt Khmer cop, a bloody-minded taxi driver, and several women whose heads you seldom enter. It is on the surface a tale of money tainted by greed and blood which, like the flood waters of the Mekong, seeks its own level. More accurately, it is a character study in the over-arching character of Cambodia, behind every scene and invading every conversation.

The schizophrenia of the Cambodia/Kampuchea is well illustrated. The brightest and best were elevated by Western education and philosophy, loosing the centered personality of their youth. They came back home and overturned that mellow state of affairs to triumph in 1975, becoming the “new men” of the nation: tense, driven and willing to sacrifice their countrymen on an altar of ideology.

The Pol Phot and Khmer Rouge are long gone, but the new men, now in their fifties are dealing with the ghosts of their youthful orthodoxy

Their children, in their own way intensely Westernized, have taken the message away that ideology is poison and that there is some critical benefit to being Khymer.

The dialogue is flawed by occasional jarring “head-hopping” of dubious effectiveness.

In the end, I was pulled in by the character of the country rather than the humans who operate within it.

ISBN-13: 978-0553447347 , published Jan. 2016, 320 pp,Hogarth

“Speak Now, The Story of Hollinsworth v. Perry”-Review

2016-03-14

Kenji Yoshino had his work cut out for him. This is a non-fiction work about a California trial that has been entirely superceded by the SCOTUS decision of last summer about homosexual marriage. Books about court cases need to spend most of their time trying to infuse life, in the form of relevancy, into proceedings that can be a riveting as a colonoscopy: the principal actor is invisible and inchoate, the practitioners are masked and unidentifiable and the results simultaneously obscure and much too intimate. To be successful, one must be erudite and dispassionate. You can’t have a dog in the fight if you want to get strangers to care about the outcome.

The book is well written but lacks the breadth of documentation that would have given the trial gravitas. Yoshino spends over 387 pages on this trial but does not even attempt to portray the issues with equanimity. His narrative frequently lapses into snarkiness and petty courtroom meanness.

The larger concern is the eternal tension between rights (as stated by the Declaration, divine rights) and democracy. Here we have multiple moving targets. Some peoples divine rights are sacrosanct and even the overwhelming will of the people s insufficient to overcome them, while the same champions enunciate the meme that democracy trumps other peoples divine rights.

It is a puzzle that this work made no attempt to unravel. Rather, Yoshino seemed to be enjoying the goring of someone’s ox, never imagining that what goes around might possibly come around.

Book Review: Kim Zetter’s Countdown to Zero Day

2015-09-15