Reviews by Donald J. Bingle

 

Book Reviews

I have a hundred thirty-five or so book reviews on Amazon.com.  See them by clicking here: Reviews by Donald J. Bingle.

Books reviewed include:  12-21: A Novel (5 stars); Year Zero (5 stars); The Cryptos Continuum (2 stars); The View from the River (5 stars); The Third Gate (4 stars); A Vetted Asset (3 stars); The Deep Zone (4 stars); Warcry (5 stars); Absolute Risk (2 stars); Feed (4 stars); The Jefferson Key (2 stars); Ghost Wave (4 stars); Life's That Way (5 stars); Rogue Wave (4 stars); Ready Player One (5 stars); Supernatural:  The Unholy Cause (5 stars); My Occasional Torment (4 stars); Winged Obsession (2 stars); Zombiesque (5 stars); Frankenstein's Monster (5 stars); Tied-In:  The Business, History and Craft of Media Tie-In Writing (4 stars); Agent to the Stars (5 stars); Disaster Preparedness:  A Memoir (2 stars); Blue Kingdoms:  Shades and Spectres (4 stars); Time Scene Investigators:  The Influenza Bomb (3 stars); Paul is Undead (3 stars); Deja Dead (2 stars); Bad Bargain (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (4 stars); Torchwood:  House That Jack Built (3 stars); Destiny's Star (5 stars); Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth (3 stars); Close Encounters of the Urban Kind (4 stars); A Girl's Guide to Guns and Monsters (5 stars); The Serialist (4 stars); Afterimage (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) (4 stars); The Thirteenth Hour (2 stars); Heat Wave (3 stars); Depraved Indifference (3 stars); Seventh Son (3 stars); Veracity (2 stars); War and Peace (5 stars); Black Rain (5 stars); Pirate Latitudes (4 stars); The Lost Symbol (5 stars); Time (1 star); The Maze Runner (5 stars); Weapons of Choice (2 stars); Second Sight (2 stars); Demon Chick (3 stars); White Star (5 stars); Top Producer (3 stars); FlashForward (5 stars); The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (3 stars); Devil May Care (2 stars); Invasive Procedures (3 stars); The Dragon Hunters (5 stars); Rogue Angel: Eternal Journey (5 stars); In a Sunburned Country (5 stars); Rogue Angel: Destiny (5 stars); Freezing Point (2 stars); Flatland (3 stars); Moby Dick (2 stars); The Golden Cord (5 stars); Dagger-Star (5 stars); River Ghosts (5 stars); World War Z (4 stars); Blasphemy (3 stars); Queen of the Slayers (2 stars); Velocity (3 stars); Outrageous Fortune (2 stars); The Book of the Dead (1 star); Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (1 star); The Time Traveler's Wife (3 stars); Cool It:  The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming (4 stars); The Third Secret (4 stars); That Darn Squid God (5 stars); Bitten (4 stars); Old Twentieth (5 stars); Warlord (5 stars); Treasure Box (4 stars); Boomsday (3 stars); Diamonds are Forever (3 stars); Prey (4 stars); Fenzig's Fortune (5 stars); Return of the Dinosaurs (3 stars); Burn (3 stars); Next (3 stars); The Traveler (2 stars); Ender's Shadow (5 stars); The Finest Challenge (5 stars); Tyrannosaur Canyon (3 stars); Replay (5 stars); The World Turned Upside Down (3 stars); Left Behind (2 stars); Sally! Sally! Sally! Sally! (5 stars); Shane (5 stars); The Templar Legacy (2 stars); Siege of Night and Fire (5 stars); Warsworn (5 stars); Thank You for Smoking (5 stars); Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III (4 stars); Riptide (4 stars); The Codex  (4 stars); The Widow's Son (5 stars); The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (3 stars); Wild Animus (2 stars); Return to Quag Keep (5 stars); In the Shadow of Evil (5 stars); War of the Worlds: New Millennium (5 stars); The Princess Bride (5 stars); The Finest Choice (5 stars); Quag Keep (3 stars); Aftermath (2 stars); Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (5 stars); Dream Park (5 stars); Iterations (5 stars); Search for Power (4 stars); Warprize (5 stars); Digital Fortress (3 stars); Camouflage (4 stars); Mindscan (5 stars); The Coming (2 stars); The Finest Creation (5 stars); State of Fear (4 stars); The Time Ships (5 stars); Relativity (5 stars); GoblinQuest (5 stars); Hybrids (5 stars); and Calculating God (5 stars).

Don's review of the month:  Year Zero by Rob Reid:  "Too many reviews of humorous books try to oversell them with lines about how they are laugh-out-loud funny on every page, leaving the reader vaguely disappointed later when the hype is not matched by the reality. No, I didn't laugh-out-loud on every page or squirt Coke Zero through my nose on the commuter train, or anything like that. But what you do have here is a wry, amusing look at lawyers and the music industry in a kind of mash-up of John Scalzi's Agent to the Stars and Ernest Cline's Ready Player One. The situations are bizarre and outrageous, but connected closely enough to reality to be telling and satiric, the pop-culture references (mostly to music, but some not) are frequent and subtle enough that I am sure there are more for the true music aficionados than I was able to recognize (given that my eclectic tastes run from Meat Loaf to Mannheim Steamroller to Nerf Herder). While less pretentious, zany, and British than Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy (which too many reviews compare it to), this humorous, satirical scifi romp got more and more engaging as it went along and added more odd and interesting alien species to the scifi pantheon than I can count. Add in an offhand reference to the DIA conpiracy and the continuing battle between Apple and Microsoft enthusiasts (which readers of my works know are subjects near and dear to my heart) and a main plot involving lawyers and illegal downloading of music (also issues near and dear to me) and I have to say I had a very good time reading this engaging and enjoyable book. Much better than expected. May all your reading experiences be the same. Yep, I got this book for free under Amazon's Vine reviewer program, but it is worth paying full price ... throughout the universe. Donald J. Bingle, author of Net Impact."

Here are links for other's reviews of Don's latest book, Net Impact:

"... True Lies and Mission Impossible meets Ready Player One ..." says author Kelly Swails.

"Superlative Spy Thriller" says author B.R. Robb.

"Realistic Spy Thriller for the Modern Age" says author Paul Genesse.

"Net Impact was a great read and has completely changed my perspective on spy thrillers." says Geekcentricity.com.

Movie Reviews

Don Bingle has written a column called A Gamer's View of the Movies that was published in the Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine/Comic and in The Evening Post:   The Newsletter of the PM Players.  All movie reviews are Copyright ©1998-2001 Donald J. Bingle.

A Gamer's View of the News
BASEketball
Blade
Deep Impact/Armageddon
Dungeons & Dragons
Enemy of the State
From Dusk 'til Dawn
Lost in Space
Man in the Iron Mask
Mission Impossible
Movies Every Gamer Should See
Ransom
Saving Private Ryan
Scream 2
Sphere
Starship Troopers
Survivor
The Game
The Peacemaker
The Truman Show
Titanic
Tomorrow Never Dies