Part of the fun for me in reading Ace Doubles is the pleasure of sampling science fiction written by people who had different perspectives and views from those of writers today. This is most obvious in the plot-driven nature of the novels, in which character development takes a back seat (if not escorted out of the room altogether) in favor of the premise and the resulting action. It's also interesting to read them as artifacts reflecting the concerns of their times, which may seem dated and quaint to us today but were very real to them. In that respect their very datedness can make them worthwhile reading.

This datedness emerges in ways that are not as quaint or appealing, however, as most of these novels about the future embody the social attitudes of the authors' time. This was especially evident in the latest pair I read, which offered two very different adventures. The first one was G. Harry Stine's Contraband Rocket. Published under Stine's pseudonym "Lee Corey"), it's about a group of near-future rocket enthusiasts who decide to refurbish a decommissioned rocket and travel to the moon. As a rocket engineer who played a major role in model rocketry, Stine's novel captures well the passion of a group of enthusiasts for the dream of flying in space and makes for interesting for this reason alone. Yet Stine's subplot, in which the wife of one of the central characters leaves him over his obsession with the project, absolutely grates today. What could have added a sense of emotional drama becomes instead a vehicle for taking some Scientology-esque digs at psychiatry (in Stine's future, divorce proceedings are a pretense for court-mandated brainwashing) culminating in an ending in which the wife realizes that it's really her problem and not his. Once again, the Fifties-era patriarchy emerges triumphant.

Ironically, the issue of datedness was less evident in the other novel, even though it was the older of the two works. Murray Leinster's The Forgotten Planet was a fix-up of three short stories two of which were written in the early 1920s. In it a terraforming project is unintentionally abandoned midway through its centuries-long process due to a lost record, leaving a planet seeded by Terran plants and insects that without the presence of other animals grow unchecked. After a space liner crashes on the planet, the savage descendants of its survivors must cope with swarms of foot-long ants, wasps the size of sofas, and spiders that would barely fit comfortably in a garage. Like the writers of the "big-bug" movies of the 1950s Leinster glosses over the impossibility of insect physiology at that size, preferring to focus on his tale of a human (male, of course), who gradually rediscovers the value of tools and leads his tribe to survival. It's a gripping adventure (if a bit monotonous) but it ends with a casual embrace of hunting that is increasing at odds with our ethical development today. Like Stine Leinster is reflecting the attitudes of his class and time, but it's still jarring to see supposedly advanced humans embrace the slaughtering of unique species so eagerly.

Ugh, no sooner do I develop warm feelings for Stine's book then he gives me a dose of his shallow libertarianism seasoned with some psychiatrist-bashing strong enough to make me wonder whether he was an early Scientologist.

Now this is proving a fun read! I started with Harry Stine's Contraband Rocket, the premise of which is that, in a future where space travel throughout the solar system is an established thing, a group of rocket enthusiasts decide to refurbish a rocket and travel to the moon. It reminds me more than a little of the Salvage 1 TV movie from the 1970s — so much so that I'm surprised Harry Stine didn't sue ABC for copyright infringement.

What makes the novel work for me, though, is Stine's depiction of the enthusiasts, which is absolutely spot-on. My father volunteers at a railway museum, and the wannabe astronauts in Stine's book are exactly like the train enthusiasts who devote their time and effort to their passion for rail.

After sitting in a doorway unnoticed for a couple of days, someone finally sees that the homeless man isn't huddled there for a safe place to sleep, but because he's been killed. The police begin investigating, determining quickly that he wasn't killed where he was found—so they know this isn't going to be a quick case, but things quickly escalate beyond that to make this even more complicated.

Two things happen when they ascertain the identity of the man. First, they learn that he's a police detective working undercover far from home. Later, when his DNA is checked, they discover a shocking tie between the deceased detective and a cold case murder. The squad investigating the murder is split in direction then—two go undercover themselves to attempt to complete his investigation. The rest follow-up on his murder as well as this cold case, hoping to find a connection.

The undercover operation's target and the way it's set up if pretty clever, and not that common, I don't think, among Crime Fiction (I don't know, it might be run-of-the-mill in reality). It's pretty easy for the two new detectives to pick up where their fallen comrade left off—but it's hard to tell where he was, and how they should proceed in tying their target to this murder. The cold case is even more intricate, and complicated by the space and history between the original crime and the present—this is the highlight of the book, if you ask me—I really enjoyed it. The present-day murder is far less complex once they determine who he is, everything from that point is straightforward (which is not a criticism, even police procedurals need some straightforward cases.

But everything seems too compressed, too easy for the undercover officers to infiltrate enough to get into a trusted position necessary to bring the group down and the murder cases come together pretty easily, too. Everything about the novel—all three cases and the inter-personal character development—seems rushed (and therefore the prose is a little clunky). The characters, also, seemed sketchy and ill-defined (which is a shame, at least 3-4 would be well worth fleshing out). There was a lot of telling, rather than trusting the readers to pick up on subtle showing about them. If the book was another 25-40% longer, I think it would've helped tremendously.

This book had all the makings of a great read—but it missed. It's a decent way to spend a few hours, and it's worth paying for it. I liked it, but I think if Murray had explored things a little, built in some more suspense, and just made all the various officers work a little harder before getting to the closings of the cases, it could've been great, not simply good.

My thanks to <a href="https://www.bloodhoundbooks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloodhound Books</a> for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the novel) they provided.

I received this book via Goodreads First Reads program in exchanged for an honest review.

The premier women’s national team in the world and the gold standard all are judged upon, saved soccer in the United States not that US Soccer cares to pay them for it.  The National Team: The Inside Story of the Women Who Change Soccer by Caitlin Murray reveals the struggles and triumphs of the United States Women’s National Team from its inception through to the present day both on the field and within the confines of power within the U.S. Soccer Federation.

The Women’s National Team came together by accident in 1985 for a FIFA sponsored mini-tournament in Italy, from that small start began the rise of the powerhouse of Women’s soccer.  The circumstances around this beginning would color the program in the eyes of U.S. Soccer as being unimportant for decades to comes and the uncaring concern of FIFA for developing the Women’s game was another hindrance, including calling the first Women’s World Cup anything but.  Yet beginning in 1996 with the inclusion of Women’s soccer in that year’s Olympics in Atlanta, the U.S. Women would begin changing the face of the sport in the American consciousness.  The pivotal moment came in 1999 with the third World Cup tournament taking place on home soil, without much hype brought about by either FIFA or U.S. Soccer, it was the players themselves that for half a year prior to the tournament promoted it in every city that would host games with clinics and friendlies that made the tournament a success in the beginning but also put pressure on the team itself to perform on the field.  The victory of the U.S. Women in 1999 followed by the 2000 gold medal saved the sport of soccer in the United States—this from a Hall of Fame men’s player—after the U.S. Men’s disastrous 1998 World Cup performance.  Yet after all their success, the women weren’t paid better nor given better overall treatment by U.S. Soccer.  This trend would continue until present; the U.S. Women would continually have success while the U.S. Men would struggle though it was the latter that U.S. Soccer would treat like princes.  The repeated failures of women’s professional leagues, two sabotaged by Major League Soccer, has been a financial burden for women players and the third attempt funded and run by U.S. Soccer has become a bargaining chip between both players and federation in the long running pay equality struggle between the two for almost two decades.

Chronicling the ups and downs both on and off the field of the USWNT in a readable manner was not an easy task for Murray.  Devoting herself to the “Team” as a whole and its members at a given time, Murray would only give brief biographical sketches of historically important and momentarily prominent players but enough to help the overall work.  Dealing with the team dynamic over the decades and the team vs. federation battle over the same period, Murray was able to shift between one and the other seamlessly mainly because both go together hand-to-glove.  The financial issues that are prominent in the news today are nothing new between the two, it is just that the players have decided to come out in public including using U.S. Soccer’s own 2016 budget showing the organization is only profitable because of the Women’s team, a situation even more pronounced after the Men failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.  However, the team dynamics of players relationship with themselves and with their coaches shows that Women’s team is not immune to human nature and egos especially as seen in the 2007 World Cup in which the veteran’s backstabbed Hope Solo and then convinced the team to shun her when she spoke out for having been replaced in goal for a semifinal match.

The National Team is quick-paced biography and history of a group of players that join, stay, then leave to make room for the next generation, but everyone deals with the same burden to succeed and fight U.S. Soccer.  Caitlin Murray’s gives the reader both an overview and intimate look at the team, it’s accomplishments, and failures.  With the 2019 World Cup just around the corner, this is a must read for fans of the best Women’s Team in the world.