Mapping of The Ionian Mission Complete

My map of the events in The Ionian Mission is complete. From blockade in the Worcester, a return to dear Suprise and an encounter with the three Beys.

When I finished The Surgeons Mate, after an 18 month slog on that book, I decided to make a concerted effort to finish this one sooner. I am as proud as Lucifer (upon my soul) that my schedule of weekly updates has allowed me to finished this map in a year and a day. There was lots of guess work on this one, with fictional ports from the north coast of Africa to the Ionian shore, but I hope my logic has resulted in charts that reflect the events reasonably well.

I have linked to Charles Keller's wonderful map and article of the Torgud, Kitabi & Suprise engagement, as it was a huge help in the final stages of the book. Although I differ slightly with him on the location of that battle.

At this prodigious rate I will be finished in eleven years, so on to Treason's Harbour. Wish me luck.

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Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire

A very clever novel. Prose and plot that would probably stand on its own.

as if her form were knit with iron and whiskey instead of bones and blood.

Strangely, built on top of 'The Wizard of Oz' turns this book into something special.

The alien girl- she called herself Dorothy- was by virtue of her survival, elevated to living sainthood. The dog was merely annoying

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Strong Men Armed - The United States Marines Against Japan - Robert Leckie

A detailed account of the extraordinary conflict that made its way across the vast ocean from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. This is not a personal history (despite it's author being a marine veteran), instead it reveals the scale and significance of the sacrifices made during that long Pacific war.

Probably the most striking insight of the book is the deliberate description of every instance of soldiers who had thrown themselves on live grenades to save their comrades. Their frequency is difficult to comprehend:

Among the Americans serving on Iwo island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.

Admiral Chester Nimitz

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No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864 - Richard Slotkin

My understanding of the Battle of the Crater prior to reading this book was a vague impression of misguided troops stumbling into a breach made by a mine explosion, trapped by the sheer sided walls and shot to a man by a ragged line of Confederates perched along its rim.

The battle was dramatized in Cold Mountain and my view of events certainly came from that film. The reality was incomprehensible gallantry in the face of infuriating incompetence, horror, slaughter and racist violence played out over twelve hours under a relentless Virginian sun.

This book reaches to the core of the brutal, racist world view that permeated society at that time and drove a nation to war with itself.

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In The Plex - Steven Levy

A compelling, inspiring look at the inner workings of one of my favorite companies. The early years particularly interesting.

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