Golish has produced a technically well-written science fiction, based on near future power politics and warfare. The twist with a difference is the medical enhancement of two rival leaders brain function; enhancements that has been compromised by the Perfect Recall team for a third superpower. Doctored memories are replayed in the protagonists’ minds, upsetting mental balance and so altering tactical decisions. One is eventually driven to a mental and physical breakdown, but only after his has ruined any chance of military success.

We are in a post polar ice-caped world, which has managed to maintain current levels of technology, but at great cost to humanity. The world is in power blocks based on existing geo-political realities, projected forward through the growing climate and general environmental crisis. The blocks are in an almost constant state of military rivalry that breaks out into regional war. The book has very much a male mindset, relying to a high degree on the escalation to war to drive the drama.

Note that that Golish concentrates his words on building his political and technological space in near future time rather than on looking deeply into the characters than populate the story. There are spells of character development of at least two or three of the main players, though more would help emotional buy-in, for at least this reader. Many of the cast are one dimensional, so the opening ‘dramatis personae’ is useful if one loses the plot. Despite some difficulty in developing any emotional connection with individuals the book has an exciting build. There is a balanced mix of near future technology and familiar superpower real politic and warcraft. I found no flaws in the plot, or in its execution; allowing for medical and technological inventions that are, for now at least, science fiction. Some of the content Is written a little long, and even superfluous. Deep description can be welcomed if one is building empathy or disdain for individuals. It is demanding of concentration here where the detail of technology and plot dominates.

This book is intended to be a pacesetter for a series of books based on mind enhancing technology. This should excuse some of the over-writing in the first outing. I really enjoyed reading this book, and his rather dystopian take on the future, aren’t they all. It is certainly worth five of those stupid stars that seem designed to empower those that relish doing more harm than good, by so woefully reducing every aspect of a book to individual reader’s taste. Five gold ‘kisses’ doesn’t mean this work couldn’t be made better if the author worked with a suitably exacting content editor. Or else, Golash like so many new writers, needs to play his own devil’s advocate much harder. The unknown, unconnected, independent author is usually highly financially constrained, making the job of producing first-class books far more difficult than it is for the very few, usually ‘known’ insiders, who manage to get big publisher support. That doesn’t mean we ‘the unlauded’ shouldn’t strive for perfection. Copy editing errors mostly relate to verb tense selection, and lack of full liaison between some sentences.

This book deserves to be read and positively reviewed. I very much look forward to the next instalment.

AMAZON LINK

Crazy Is My Superpower: How I Triumphed ...

Crazy is My Superpower

AJ Mendez Brooks

Wow this Autobiography was amazing I could not put it down and binge read the entire thing is two days which for me in this moment of time is amazing for me. She wrote it in so much detail and truth that there was no question unanswered for me I recommend this to anyone that is a fan of AJ Lee inside or outside of the ring.

April is an amazing and an inspiration to read and reading her story and her journey of how she got into the ring which wasn't an easy road at all for anyone to endure this and still be strong and positive like she was is amazing and also her story while she was in the ring like a lot of wrestling autobiography that I have read she did not have it easy in her life before she got to an age to think about going into the ring.

April was such an inspiration because she openly spoke about Bipolar and the effects it can have on a family and the effect it can have on someone if it is mis treated she has inspired me to want to work toward a profession in mental health because I want to be able to help people that doctors can't because they can't see the problem and it isn't physical.

she was also very open with her opinions on her job and the people that she worked with and that her plan was to change how women where seen in the wrestling industry and I would like to think that she done an amazing job at accomplishing that because she wasn't the usual skinny blonde that liked to wear tight dresses she was different in a brilliant way that changed the way women where looked at in a  male dominated industry.

Brenn has spent her life being quiet and avoiding the attention of her father, the psychopathic emperor. He keeps her close and anyone who befriends her is in immediate danger.

Review

The backstory of the heroine is very sad and very compelling. 

The hero is a dragon shifter which is always cool.

Her talent is nifty.

A very good short story in the series. 

Americans have long preferred to ignore events beyond the borders of their country.  Yet to adopt such an attitude, as George Herring contends in this book, is to ignore a key element of the national experience.  In this book, a survey of American foreign policy from the late 18^th century to the present day, Herring seeks to demonstrate the role international relations have played in shaping our nation’s history.  It is one, he argues, that has been long influenced by Americans’ self-perception of themselves as a chosen people living in a nation with a unique and special place in the world.  This belief often is often tempered by pragmatism, however, as Americans frequently subordinated their ideals to the realities of the situation and their own economic self interest.

These elements were present at the nation’s birth.  Claiming its independence in a document filled with assertions of rights, the revolutionary government soon found itself in an alliance with France, only recently a hated foe of the colonists and an embodiment of much the revolutionaries opposed.  Yet such a partnership was necessary given the United States’s weakness in the early decades of the nation’s existence, which was hardly assured.  Once it was, however, the justifications of idealism and pragmatism united as U.S. foreign policy turned towards the goal of extending the nation’s borders.  Americans cited their sense of national mission and destiny to explain their acquisition of new lands to themselves and others.  Even the bloody internecine conflict of the Civil War slowed the country’s growth only temporarily, and by the late 19^th century the focus widened from the Western Hemisphere to establishing a global presence.

The increasing economic predominance of the U.S. in the world, however, was not mirrored at first by a concomitant involvement in international politics.  Though Woodrow Wilson brought to the presidency a desire to spread American ideals abroad, his effort to involve the country in the League of Nations was rejected by the public after the First World War.  It was not until the Second World War that foreign policy again became a dominant concern for the American people, one perpetuated by the postwar insecurity of the Cold War.  Here Herring loses the proverbial forest for the trees, as his thesis recedes amidst the details of the multifaceted struggle with the Soviet Union.  Yet even the United States’s ultimate victory and its status as the world’s “hyperpower” did not offer a guarantee of safety from global threats, as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 demonstrated.  After examining the policies that followed the attacks, Herring concludes by arguing for an abandonment of long-held hubristic ideals and the embracing of the pragmatic tradition as the best means of addressing the U.S.’s concerns in today’s rapidly changing world.

Herring’s book is a sweeping and comprehensive account of America’s interaction with the world.  Though his focus is on United States foreign policy, he addresses as well the broader relationship between its citizens and the world, a dynamic that both drives national policy and is influenced by it.  His coverage is impressive, as he succeeds in addressing the major foreign policy concerns while not letting them overshadow America’s simultaneous relations with other nations.  With two-thirds of his text covering American foreign policy in the 20^th century, some might quibble with his emphasis on the past hundred years, yet such a focus is understandable given Herring’s background as a historian of post-Second World War policy and his narrative never bogs down in detail as a consequence.  Overall, this book provides an incomparable examination of nearly two and a half centuries of American foreign policy, one that will enlighten readers familiar with the topic as well as those seeking an introduction to the subject.