"The Romanov Prophecy" and Buc bits

Amazon

The Romanov Prophecy is a book I picked up a long time ago and was saving for a rainy day. With the next emberverse book taking forever to get into paperback, I figured that for me, it was a literary rainy day and so I grabbed the book from it's place on the shelf and started to read. The Romanov's and the events surrounding their murder have always intrigued me and I'm happy to say that this book did not disappoint in the amount of true history it mixed in along with the fictional story.
Synopsis

The Romanov Prophecy is the story of a young lawyer from the states, who runs afoul of the turmoil in the re-establishment of a monarchy in Russia. Originally, the lawyer was simply there to do research into the claim of the pretender that his firm was supporting, however in his research he learned that it was possible that some of the Romanov children survived the terrible tragedy that occured in 1918 and took the lives of the ruling house of Russia. This, of course, jeopardizes the interests of some very powerful men, who would prefer that they establish their own puppet ruler, instead of the actual person who should be ruling. He ends up running for his life while the Russian mafia tries to put an end to his research.

Review

Honestly? I was a bit disappointed in this book. Don't get me wrong...it was a good book. However, after reading "The Amber Room" and "The Third Secret", I was expecting much more from Steve Berry. This particular tale was just a bit too cliched and predictible for my tastes, however I eagerly look forward to more by Mr. Berry. I must point out as well that this book seemed to be more of an effort to make the public aware of the awful events that destroyed the Romanov family. Truly, one of the most tragic events to befall Russia, and the entire world. This novel brings home the fateful day when the Romanov's were marched down to a cold basement for 'a picture', and ended up being slaughtered by the Bolsheviks. This novel also addresses some of the claims that Romanov children might have survived the slaughter. The story told by Berry was not a very good one, however it didn't really need to be, since the story that occurred in real life is one of the most tragic of all time. Had Berry upstaged the story of the Romanov's with his fiction...this book probably would not have been as good as it was. 4/5






What can I say about the Bucs? Everyone knew this was a rebuilding year. Everyone knew we were not going to contend. Still, with the good preseason play of Leftwich and Johnson, I think there was guarded optimism that the Bucs might end up being a darkhorse contender for the superbowl. Now the Bucs are sitting at 0-3, with no possibility for a win in sight as we head first to Washington, then Philadelphia, come home to face the panthers and then head off to London to take on the Patriots. Perhaps, just perhaps we could eak out a win in the Carolina game...but I wouldn't bet on it. Our offense is doing adequately well. Better than can be expected, but our defense is giving up the long ball and letting the opposing runners gash us for long gains on the ground. Our secondary is in shambles after Tanard Jackson's suspension, the loss of Jermaine Phillips for the year with a destroyed thumb, and the realization that while Sabby Piscatelli has a nose for the ball, he has no nose for making a tackle. The entire team as a matter of fact, needs to take a class on football fundamentals and wrapping up the tackle. There is no excuse for it requiring 3-4 guys to bring down a wide receiver. The only consolation is that with this kind of a showing, the offseason will be more interesting with a high draft pick and the possibility of finding some big name free agents. We sorely need to address the Defensive Tackle position. I don't see why the Bucs don't understand that the Defensive Tackle is nearly the most important defensive position on the field. With a good tackle applying pressure in the middle, the ends don't get double teamed so much and can apply pressure to the qb who will have to get rid of the ball quicker. This allows the corners and safetys to not get as tired in coverage and not have to chase a receiver all over the field. 6 and 7 seconds in the pocket simply allows the qb to scan the field and gives the receivers time to get open. Address the DT position this offseason. Hell, make a trade and address it now. Then again, Gaines Adams is looking more and more like a bust...so even with the help of an elite DT, he might not be able to get any pressure. So it goes I suppose.

So what's next literature-wise? Well, I'm about halfway through Dan Brown's next book "The Lost Symbol". After that, "The Scourge of God" FINALLY came out in paperback and I'm eagerly waiting to devour it as soon as I finish Brown. With tons of school work and a 10 page paper coming up...that appears to be about all I'll be able to finish for a little while.

The Monster of Florence, Madden 10, and thoughts on the Bucs

Amazon

The Monster of Florence is a book I had been waiting for since I had learned
of it's writing. When I learned that the authors had been put in jail for the very crime that they were writing about...I knew I had to read the book. Especially when one of the authors is one of my favorite thriller writers. I came into this book expecting something akin to the true crime mafia books that my mother reads occasionally (being Sicilian, I suppose its difficult to get away from that sort of thing). I got that, and so much more.

Synopsis
In 1968, two people were murdered while making love in their car. This began a decades long murder spree committed by someone who has come to be known as the Monster of Florence. Italy had never before seen a serial killer and so the investigation of these atrocitys has become almost like a national pastime for some Italians. Among these are Mario Spezi and Douglas Preston, the authors of this book. There is incompetence among the Italian investigators, stupidity among the judges, and a general lack of anything even slightly resembling a fact finding mission. Mario and Douglas lay out in excellent form the facts and history of the case, as well as putting forth their suspect for just whom the monster might be.

Review
I'm honestly not a big fan of true crime books. I'm not a big fan of nonfiction in general. This book however interested me because it was directly related to one of the authors I read on a regular basis. The evidence is presented well, and conclusions are rightly met. I'm not entirely sure as to the authors bias in this book however. There is definitely an element of revenge toward the Italian legal system in this book. Preston is trying to make them look like fools for their handling of this and other cases (and he aptly succeeds). I liked this book, I liked the pacing, and I looked forward to each new chapter. In general though, even though this was a good book, it doesn't make me want to go out and read more nonfiction. It does however, make me want to keep up with and find the eventual outcome of the monster of florence case. 3/5 (good story, I'm not just not a fan of nonfiction. The world outside my 4 walls sucks enough without having to read about the parts that suck just a little bit more).




I'm not prepared to give a full, in depth review of Madden 10 (and truly I probably never will be. Im more of an RPG guy). I must say though that from having played the last few iterations of the Madden franchise...I am very pleased with this latest version. Previous Madden games were filled with little things to do in order to make your team better and to progress them. I'm not sure I am altogether in favor of their removal in this latest game, but I must say that it definitely takes the game back to it's roots of being a football game, as opposed to some sort of football hybrid/RPG thing. I do miss some of the advancement elements. I'd like to be able to easily see how my players are progressing through the seasons. I know that my players get better in their first few years and decline in their...declining years...but without memorizing the stats, it's just too difficult to see where those changes are.

The pro-tak technology is a plus...I like how all aspects of it's implementation have added to the overall feel of the game. I like the Extra Point bonus show. And I especially like how the defensive line play is much more intuitive than it has been in the past. A few things I don't like? holding calls. No one plays as an offensive lineman. Holding is a great thing to have in the game...but I got called on holding 4 straight extra point trys in a row (i mean...one extra point try, 4 holding calls in a row). thats freakin ridiculous. It was a 50 yard extra point. Having holding is great, but reducing the number of times you see it per game would be awesome. Also, they went crazy with interceptions. Seems its much more easier to make them and much more difficult to throw them.

In general though, I like how the focus has moved back to the actual game of football as opposed to the minutiae of running a franchise. However, I would like to keep in mind that there IS a place in a game such as Madden for that kind of thing. Sometimes I WOULD like to create an expansion franchise and go through the entire rigamarole of getting funding, creating a team and seeing where I can get them...bidding for free agents...talking to their agents...etc. Running the game more as a football simulator/RPG than a football game. Either way...I'm happy with how this game turned out.




The Bucs have only played one preseason game and already I'm getting excited. The defense, long the mainstay of the Bucs teams has taken a hit in recent years with aging veterans (who have mostly been turned loose) and the loss of key coaching staff members. The assumed focus this year would be on our offense (and indeed, thats how free agency seemed to go, and our first round draft pick being a new quarterback). So when the first preseason game was played, it came as a shock of just how good our first team defense played. We scored 2 interceptions early and a sack against the Titans first team offense. This is good news. Sabby Piscatelli...who MUST play well this upcoming season made some nice tackles and was responsible for one of those interceptions. Our drafted defensive tackle and end both played decently well as well. The offense...was not quite as stellar as it should have been (welcome to life as a Bucs fan). It took a bit before we got the running game going...in fact our first team running backs didnt get much going at all...our running game ended up relying on our third string back. In the preseason though...backs don't get much action. It's so easy to hurt a running back that many teams dont even play their feature backs in the preseason. The quarterbacks though...aye yiah yiah. Only one of them had over a 50 percent completion rate. And that just barely over 50 percent (the NFL average is about 60 percent). Byron throws ropes that might just be too hard for our receivers to grab a hold of. Luke looks...ready to move on. Josh Freeman looks like a rookie, making rookie mistakes (which hes allowed to do at this stage of the game...better start making some better decisions though). Josh Johnson honestly looked like our best option during that game. He ran for a 43 yard td, passed for over 50% with no ints. Unfortunately...hes probably the guy we are going to let go :(

Lets see how things go next week when we get one of our top 2 receivers back. That should make a difference at QB at least.

Up next to read? Perhaps T.S. Spivet. School is starting in a week though, and I have a...workfilled (not difficult, but definitely a lot to do) schedule this semester. Also, I'm going to get myself a kindle for my birthday, and it feels wrong to purchase books when I would rather have them on kindle in the coming months.

"The City of Ember" and Buccaneers season

I just finished "The City of Ember" tonight. I must say that the book is drastically different from the movie. I see why they would change things though, a direct conversion would have resulted in a very short movie with very little conflict.

Ember follows the actions of two children who have recently come of age in a city located deep underground (although the children don't know this at first, it is pretty apparent to the reader from the beginning). These children are horrified at the dwindling resources in their city and embark on a quest to find a way out of Ember.

This book is much more a children's book than I suspected it might be. The related movie got my hopes up for a slightly older audience...say in the teens instead of the less than ten type audience. Then again, I'm not sure if most children will get the 'twist' at the end of the book.

In general "The City of Ember" was a quick and entertaining read, although I'm not honestly sure if I'm going to read the next book in the series.

The Buccaneers.

What can I say? After starting the season 9-3, the Bucs dropped the last 4 games to end up 9-7. A winning record yes, but not one to be overly proud of seeing as how we dropped from fourth to ninth in the league in defense in those 4 weeks. The defense gave up records for most rushing yards, and matched the most touchdowns thrown against them in 10 years.

Clearly something broke down at the end, and I have my suspicions that it was Monte Kiffin. It seems to me that either he gave up, or the players decided they weren't going to play for a guy who left them. Either way, the Bucs now own the number 19 overall draft pick in the 2009 NFL draft in April.

What to draft...

...that depends a lot on who we resign over the offseason. 2 of our wide receivers contracts are up at the end of this year, and Antonio Bryant NEEDS to be resigned. I don't think that the Bucs will resign him though. I think he will want to go someplace that has more of a killer instinct than the Bucs have at the moment.

That being the case, we will need wide receivers. Badly. Michael Clayton will not be resigned. He is looking for a big payday and quite frankly has not earned it here.

We could still use another cornerback...although I think a late round one would be the best option at this point.

We need a weakside linebacker. Although there has been some discussion of Cato June filling that role for us when Derrick retires...that just means we would need a strongside linebacker instead.

Running Back? Quarterback? I don't think we will need a running back with Caddy probably returning before training camp next year. Caddy and Graham will be a powerful duo to deal with in the backfield. QB? yeah. I think we will go with another aged veteran. Either to give time to develop Josh Johnson, or to stop gap waiting for one of the excellent quarterbacks coming out in two years.

Defensive Tackle. Ahhh...now heres the crux of the situation. Our defensive scheme DEPENDS on a strong, dominating, kill the bad guys DT. We don't have one now. I forsee us either going out and getting the biggest strongest tackle we can on the freeagent market...or using our first round draft pick on one.

Lastly. The next book will be "Still Life with Crows" in continuation of the Pendergast series while I wait for "The Scourge of God" to come out in paperback. School is starting up pretty soon too, so it will probably take me a while to finish.

Happy New Year :)