re: Red October: it seems incredible that the Soviets would not suspect and/or know from the start, and act accordingly, that the renegade sub captain was in fact working with the USA to defect. Instead of trying to sink the sub (a disaster for them for a number of reasons), they could have used diplomacy and geo-political power plays - "give the sub back or we racket up the Cold War with XYZ military escalation in some other part of the world". Also the book presents the Soviets as somewhat unsophisticated and brutish, they were probably better at subterfuge than the US ever was, further making the idea that the US could get away with stealing a submarine without their knowledge (or repercussions) all the more incredible.

posted by Stbalbach at 9:20 am (EST) on Jun 12, 2008

I have not read much by Gilman. I read some of the Mrs. Pollifax stories as teen, and remember them as pleasant and fun, but not compelling. I have read a couple of others which I would call romantic suspense. I think they were well done of their type, but I suspect it mainly depends on whether you like that type of thing.

posted by quartzite at 1:19 am (EST) on May 10, 2008

Thanks for your friendship! I look forward to checking out your books and hope you enjoy mine.

posted by lisaunger at 6:47 am (EST) on Nov 19, 2007

I think I answered my own question looking at your library. You really must read Season on the Brink !!

posted by lindsacl at 8:21 pm (EST) on Jul 20, 2007

I saw you marked my library as "interesting." Thank you! Thought I'd take a look at your profile. Bloomington, IN eh? Are you in any way associated with the university? My brother graduated from there; I went to that other institution a bit further north. The one IU trades Oaken Buckets with.

posted by lindsacl at 8:19 pm (EST) on Jul 20, 2007

I saw your review of "So you want to be a wizard" by Diane Duane, and I just wanted to point out that the first few books in that series were written around 20 years ago - decades before any of the Harry Potter books.

posted by bluesalamanders at 11:15 am (EST) on May 31, 2007