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Jim DeFelice

Autor(a) de Deep Black

38+ Works 1,481 Membros 32 Reviews

About the Author

Jim DeFelice has written over a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction for young people. His works include: Havana Strike, published in 1997, and Brother's Keeper published in 2000. He is the co-author of Dreamland with Dale Brown. He also co-authored best sellers American Sniper and American Gun mostrar mais with Chris Kyle. In 2014, his nonfiction ebook made the New York Times bestseller list; it was entitled Code Name: Johnny Walker. DeFelice co-authored 2015 New York Times and Publisher's Weelky bestseller American Wife with Chris Kyle's widow, Taya Kyle. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos

Includes the name: James Ferro

Séries

Obras de Jim DeFelice

Deep Black (2003) 384 cópias
Larry Bond's First Team: Angels of Wrath (2006) — Autor — 112 cópias
Vengeance (2005) 92 cópias
Holy Terror (2006) 90 cópias
Dictator's Ransom (2008) 77 cópias
Seize the Day (2009) 68 cópias
Omar Bradley: General at War (2011) 66 cópias
Coyote Bird (1992) 41 cópias
Leopards Kill (2007) 36 cópias
Kill Grandma For Me (1998) 31 cópias
Cyclops One (2003) 28 cópias
War Breaker (1993) 22 cópias
Threat Level Black (2005) 20 cópias
Brother's Keeper (2000) 19 cópias
The Helios Conspiracy (2012) 18 cópias
Havana Strike (1997) 18 cópias
Hogs: Hog Down (1999) 13 cópias
The Golden Flask (1996) 11 cópias
Hogs: Fort Apache (2000) 9 cópias
Hogs: Going Deep (1999) 9 cópias
The Iron Chain (1995) 6 cópias
The Silver Bullet (1995) 6 cópias
Hogs: Snake Eaters (2001) 6 cópias
Hogs: Death Wish (2002) 5 cópias
Hogs: Target Saddam (2001) 4 cópias
Rogue Warrior 2 cópias
Hogs: Hog Noel (2013) 1 exemplar(es)
Hogs: Birthday in Iraq (2013) 1 exemplar(es)
Wolf Flight (2012) 1 exemplar(es)
Projekt Coyote (2003) 1 exemplar(es)
Tajný trumf (2004) 1 exemplar(es)
Hogs: Hog Born (2014) 1 exemplar(es)

Associated Works

American Sniper (2012) 3,372 cópias
Larry Bond's First Team: Fires of War (2006) — Autor, algumas edições94 cópias
Victory (2003) — Contribuinte — 83 cópias
Larry Bond's First Team: Soul of the Assassin (2008) — Autor — 70 cópias
Alternate Gettysburgs (2002) — Contribuinte — 66 cópias
Victory: On the Attack (2004) — Contribuinte — 46 cópias
Crash Dive (Anthology 9-in-1) (2003) — Contribuinte — 21 cópias

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Outros nomes
Ferro, James
Data de nascimento
1956-08-23
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
USA (birth)
Local de nascimento
New York, New York, USA
Ocupação
journalist
Political columnist
Editor

Membros

Resenhas

In West Like Lightning, author Jim DeFelice details the history of the legendary Pony Express. Amazingly this service existed only about eighteen months, from it’s launching at St. Joseph, Missouri on April 3, 1860 to it’s close in October 1861. Mail was carried by young men across Western America from it’s start in Missouri to San Francisco, California. This unique service was closed for a number of reasons from politics to competition and economic difficulties. But the spirit of the Pony Express lives on today having won a place in America’s cultural history.

Although it’s almost impossible to separate the myths from the truths, the author did try. He also described in detail the rapid rides along with some of the challenges posed by terrain, weather and raiding Indians. He also catalogued the involvement of some notable Western figures, such as Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok. Unfortunately almost all of the express company records have been lost so we have to rely on stories that have been passed on by word of mouth. He did manage to compile a list of everyone confirmed as a rider by at least one reliable source. He also managed to assemble a roster of the Pony Stations, east to west.

For anyone with an interest in the development of the American West, this book is an excellent source of information. Well researched and written, it is an engaging account about the 1,900 miles that this service covered. Today, the legend lives on as a symbol of American enterprise.
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Marcado
DeltaQueen50 | outras 15 resenhas | Aug 3, 2022 |
I just could not throw the feeling that I was reading the script to a brainless action movie rather than a techno-thriller-novel. The book, as so easily happens, is now a bit dated on technical details but it still has enough amazing details to make it half science fiction.

A secret part of NSA has access to technology that can monitor almost everything and the book starts off with a mission to scan a hard drive from 10000 meters height. Good luck I say. Well, it's just fiction, but I would expect something a little more plausible.

We then follow two super hot NSA agents (of both genders) and their slightly aged (but still very handsome in a rugged way) companion from the military through Russia.

I guess the book can be compared to some of [a:Andy McNab|12673|Andy McNab|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1266621942p2/12673.jpg]'s less good novels in quality. The one redeeming factor is that the structure of short sections add to the "just one more chapter" feeling. Unless you throw the book away for a better book.
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Marcado
bratell | outras 5 resenhas | Dec 25, 2020 |
When Fidel Castro dies, his children fight for supreme reign but are deterred by guerilla rebels and the U.S. military, which offers technologically advanced tools to restore stability, until it is discoverd that Castro left behind a secret that could start a war and ultimately destroy the world. Original.
 
Marcado
PPLL2020 | Aug 27, 2020 |
I received this book through Goodreads giveaways, and I suspect the publisher will regret that choice lol.

I majored in American history, and studied western history in grad school, but never completed my master's thesis (I received a graduate certificate and unexpectedly found a full-time job right away).

The blurb on the cover is "A groundbreaking work."--True West. What is True West? It's a magazine for fans of the "history of the American frontier". It's a magazine that romanticizes western history and westerners of today (as long as they fit the rancher, western artist, western author, musician, gatekeeper of Western Lore theme). Anyway, I couldn't read the blurb when I entered the giveaway. And I fail to see how this is groundbreaking. DeFelice may have combined the works of others into one book, but honestly this feels like a high school history paper. It doesn't even have a map! If any book needed a map, it's this one.

The book starts off in a promising fashion--Lincoln has just been elected, and we are going to follow the riders as they take that news West to Utah and California. Only then the book spins out of control. The chapters are all over the place. The book actually follows no timeline--the creation of the Pony is in the middle, Buffalo Bill is nearer the beginning when his chapter should be at the end (where he currently has a page or 2), discussing in full how his show was so important to the romanticization of the Pony Express. Yes, there are chapters following the riders, with a lot of mention of "we don't know where this station was, or if this was a station." There is also a chapter on Buffalo Bill (who was not involved in the Pony Express until he put it in his show many years later). There is a chapter about the LDS church and how/why they ended up in Utah. There is a lot of Civil War background. There is the Donner Party. There is the Comstock Lode.

DeFelice's original research seems to have been his trip driving the route and visiting museums. He relies very heavily on Richard Burton, a British traveler who recorded his experiences in depth. He is liberally quoted. DeFelice "liberally paraphrases" two chapters of an 1879 book on Buffalo Bill. In the acknowledgments, he says "previous stories and studies of the Pony were a foundation I've tried to build on." He has taken some primary sources, a lot of secondary sources that also use those primary sources, some newspapers and censuses, and a road trip to put this book together. He does not seem to have done any new work to attempt to locate stations (or to determine if some stations really were stations at all), he mentions looking at Congressional records to try to determine the exact nature of the house of cards (house of bonds, really) to keep the Pony afloat. He writes rumor as fact and then backs off in the notes (how many people read the notes? see page 129 and note 8). He also has a number of statements like "...and probably questions about whether they would be paid or not" (250)--regarding the service continuing even as the offices were in financial turmoil. Probably? Is there any evidence one way or the other? Had they ever not paid? Did the riders even know of the turmoil? He makes statements like this and provides no citations, no mention of research attempted, nothing.

I also struggle to take seriously a history book that characterizes real people in the past as "a rough SOB", "a world class hard-ass", "badass", "government being government", and "verifiably awesome".

And the errors. So many errors! p 12 implant instead of transplant; p 19 William Russell is a native of Missouri p 20 he was born in Vermont; p 31 describes a log cabin quilt as "patchwork...in various shapes"--no, just squares and rectangles, this is a very common pattern to this day; 121 midfall instead of mid-fall; and honestly I stopped keeping track. My copy is not an ARC.

Overall, just painfully disappointing. This is not a self-published book, it's from Wm Morrow!
… (mais)
 
Marcado
Dreesie | outras 15 resenhas | Oct 14, 2019 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
38
Also by
10
Membros
1,481
Popularidade
#17,343
Avaliação
½ 3.6
Resenhas
32
ISBNs
125
Idiomas
4

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