Paul BrennanBesprekingen

I received this book from the Early Reviewers group.
This was a historical fiction tale about the waning days of the American Civil War and a tragedy that took place when a Steamboat on the Mississippi carrying thousands of returning prisoners of war exploded off the shores by Memphis. It was a terrible tragedy. This is an adventure story told through the eyes of a young Dr. from Chicago traveling South to retrieve his sister so she can make it home in time to see their dying mother. Unfortunately, he gets caught up in the brutality of the war from both sides and has to make a perilous journey home, helping a s many as he can along the way. The story culminates in the voyage of the Sultana and the tragedy that occured.
This was an easy to read, adventurous story although not for everyone as it has some graphic content on the nature of war and it's inhumanity. Enjoyable, exciting read. My only comments would be on the few punctuation and grammatical errors that i noticed.

I received The Sultana Odyssey through the Librarything Early Readers program. Out of all the books I had requested, this was the one about which I was most excited. As a fan of American Civil War history, the side wheel steamer Sultana disaster has interested me for decades and I've read several non-fiction accounts of it.

I was, therefore, quite disappointed with this fictional telling of the disaster. The Prologue recounted a train disaster fifteen years prior to the Sultana explosion. If the rest of the novel had been written as well as the Prologue, this would be a different review. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

The exposition phase lasts far longer than needed. In fact, the Sultana is not seen until page 186 of the 282 page novel. The voyage and explosion don't begin until page 220, leaving only 60 pages to tell the story that is the subject of the book.

Frankly, it was difficult to finish the book. I decided a decade age that life is too short to struggle and suffer through a book you aren't enjoying. If I had not felt obligated to write this review, I would have set it down. I feel the author was attempting to mimic the more formalized writing style of the mid-nineteenth century, but when it was translated into dialogue, it felt stilted. I've read many YA novels that were more complex and imparted more genuine humanity on their characters.

Another quibble is the editorial/printer decision to double space paragraphs. It was probably done to give the trade paperback a bit more heft. However, it made for some awkward sections. There was one page in the middle of the book that had single sentence paragraphs for three-quarters of the page. Because of the double spacing, it was distracting to read.

When I requested this book, I had hopes that it was akin to Dead Wake, by Erik Larson. I set my expectations too high. I feel for the author, Paul Brennan. He has written acclaimed non-fiction and was clearly passionate about this work. The Sultana Odyssey missed the mark.

Mr. Brennan created an interesting and engaging historical novel. His narrative creates the vivid images and moves you along smoothly. While the novel deals with Sultana tragedy in a very detailed and direct manner, it puts the event in the context of the troubling and chaotic times. His excellent choice of characters and their experiences pulls this off. A wonderful reading experience that I recommend for all, especially for those enjoy a good historical novel.

My teenage daughter and I were both interested after reading the blurb of this book, so we are using it as the book I read to her before bedtime. That might not have been a great choice for a 14-year-old since there is language and violence that may keep her up at night but oh well. Live and learn.

While we enjoy the history in the book - rarely covered pieces of the Civil War experience - the writing is cumbersome. Many more words are used that don't affect the general outcome of either character creation or setting. I'm reading aloud and I often stumble over passages due to their construction. This is an annoyance for both of us and a good editor should have helped fix these issues.

The language being used in the book is also a detriment - the style if you will. Too fancy for a story with so many basic ideas being explained about place and time. That kind of language is better used for dialogue, not the entire text.

Those points aside, this book is worth the read just to familiarize yourself with a time of history that is often only seen from one or two views.

The idea of a Northerner going into the South and trying to get another Northerner back to where she belongs in Chicago shows you that it's going to get complicated. And it does.

The book's story paces fairly well but I would not call it an easy or enjoyable read due to the style/language choices. The sentences will frustrate you and it's a bit of a slog because of that.

A fictional account of America's worst Civil War Maritime Tragedy. Although the Sultana is not mentioned until you are halfway through the book. This seems to be an easy read and I might even recommend this to a young adult reader interested in all things mechanical and history. An interesting saga overshadowed by the death of President Abraham Lincoln.
Thank you to Librarything.com and Mr. Paul Brennan for a copy of this book.

Truly a fictional account of Civil War events. Mr. Brennan, the author, attempts to use the event of the 1865 steam ship Sultana explosion as a unifying point for brief accounts of other aspects of the American Civil War -- some aspects more related to the ship disaster than others His topics include war-time travel, renegades, military prisons, Black Union troops, and the extended War's effects on the Southern economy and people. His scope is perhaps too broad, and his descriptions tend to be stereotypical and generalized. Even the actual Sultana explosion and subsequent disaster is somewhat lacking in factual detail.
All of that being said, as a novel and fictional account, the book does read quite well, and the book's pace and style of writing is rather enjoyable. With that in mind, perhaps the book will also succeed in prompting further reading about many of the other, little-known aspects of the War that the Author touches upon.

Unlike everyone else, it seems, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Remember it is FICTION! I thought it was quite impressive and had no problems getting through it. I don't think he glorified either side. I would love to read another of his books, I received this book through LT for my honest review.

We meet characters throughout who all will travel on the steamship Sultana: the main ones being a Chicago doctor, Findley Horne, and his sister, Isabelle, whom he accompanies to visit an aunt in Alabama. The Civil War is winding down and Isabelle is escaping an overbearing, obnoxious suitor and his persistence. Findley endures a Confederate prison camp, from which he and several others escape. Finally, the siblings and others who they've met on the way board the Sultana. They hope to reach home safely, but the ship blows up due to a defective boiler that has not been repaired properly.
The Sultana is not even mentioned until over halfway through the story. Union prisoners are being returned to the North along with the other passengers. Then follow statements from some of her survivors and a letter Isabelle writes to her Southern aunt telling of the fates of the other characters in the story. Interesting to read of an incident so horrific which has been overshadowed by Lincoln's assassination. So many sentence fragments bothered me but did not spoil any enjoyment.½

Any good book on industrial disasters will provide food for thought for the would-be saboteur, but this one is outstanding. The breadth of coverage is excellent, not just boiler explosions. Several of the major disasters covered in this book may have been sabotage, but the cause remains unknown.
Furnaces, hot water heaters, propane tanks, and natural gas supply lines are often overlooked weaknesses of many buildings. Empty beer kegs and asthma inhalers aren’t garbage to the creative saboteur: they are weapons.

Received through Early Reviewers Group. This was an interesting informative work. Describes many historical incidents involving pressure equipment. Descriptions are illustrated with many photos. Safety practices concerning pressure equipment in industry as well as daily life are emphasized. many examples from daily life are given. Found this to be an enjoyable read.

An interesting and attractive coffee table type look at the dangers of a variety of pressure devices, including steamboats (frequently lethal to their passengers), locomotives (slightly less dangerous but with impressive destructive potential), gas-connected explosions (wow!), boilers (ditto), cable cars, distilleries, and such common items as beer kegs and asthma inhalers (never throw either of them in a fire). I'll never feel quite the same about a beer keg again.½

I received a copy of Blowback as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers group. As others have indicated, this is a perfect coffee table book (stayed on ours for several months). The quick hit stories are engaging, yet short enough to be casually enjoyed as time allows. I appreciated the fact that each chapter stood on it's own, so picking up where you left off was easy. Admittedly, it took me several months to work my way from cover to cover. Normally that would indicate that the content was not very captivating. However, in this case it is more a matter of getting to the end of a section and feeling comfortable putting the book down to come back for more later. I thoroughly enjoyed making my way through this book.

I got this book mostly for my husband, the engineer. He very much enjoyed reading through it, and the presentation of historical events and details. This is definitely more a coffee table book than a technical manual. The photos are large and glossy, and it's quite nicely illustrated. Even as a non-engineer I found it fascinating.½

Despite Brennan's acknowledgement that society has moved beyond using gruesome photos of carnage in order to underscore the importance of safety devices/proper maintenance and regulation, I felt like I was rubber necking at an accident scene while reading most of his descriptions of boiler explosions/mishaps. I was interested in the incidents that directly resulted in regulations being set - even a description of the obstacles that had to be overcome in order to get to the stringent safety requirements that are in place today for this kind of equipment, but was disappointed. The book is scattered, albeit most of the information is interesting. The vast majority of modern day incidents read like the Darwin awards, which didn't really serve to heighten my awareness of the machineries' dangers, but remind me of how inane humans can be.

I expected Blowback to be a mildly interesting technical book about boiler explosions (and avoiding them, of course). Instead, it is a comprehensive overview of pressure explosions of all sorts, from beer kegs to natural gas storage facilities. There is a very interesting chapter on steam cars. Very well-illustrated and printed on glossy paper, it’s more like a coffee-table book than a tech manual.
The book takes a historical approach, reviewing many major explosions caused by pressure vessel failures. These include railroad and steamboat accidents. There is an excellent chapter on the explosion of the Sultana, where more lives were lost than on the Titanic. The explosion of a molasses tank or a huge vat of beer sounds amusing, but the loss of life was great.
This book will be enjoyed by history buffs. If you work with pressure vessels of any kind, the photos and anecdotes of the carnage wrought by stupidity and carelessness will inspire you to pay attention to what you are doing. A copy of this in the lunch room of any facility working with pressurized gases or liquids would do more good than another safety poster.

When I received this book, I immediately sat down to flip through it from cover to cover and skim through all the parts that looked the most interesting. It took me many weeks after that to return and read it word-for-word. Then, it turned out that the most interesting part was a chapter I hadn't even noticed the first time around: "Steam Car Technology: Built for the Fast Lane".

I appreciated the way Brennan mentioned Jay Leno's and Howard Hughes's ownership of this type of car; and the way he mentioned that the public just wanted a vehicle that was easy to operate and maintain instead of appreciating superior performance. So true!

The chapter about the Sultana gave me a horrendous and graphic nightmare about a woman with peeling, scalded skin, but luckily, several of the other sections were amusing. I'm still not sure if Brennan intended to be so droll in his column about "evil-boding boiler rooms", the "boiler's address of record". The title of his last chapter, "Nothing Says Love Like a Boiler Explosion", was quite quotable (hey, I'm a big Boilermakers fan).

Two things I would've liked to be different: he skipped around from century to century and continent to continent. I wonder if it would've been more readable if it had been kept to a strict chronological order, or at least had put all the anecdotes from Europe, all the anecdotes from Asia, and all the anecdotes from the Americas together.

Finally, sometimes Brennan would mention something fascinating, but would not include a photo of it. Case in point: he talked about a smokestack remaining in truncated form from the steam era of San Francisco cable cars, but instead of featuring its image, he put in a typical postcard view of a cable car with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

The very attractive, large book will be staying on our coffee table for our guests' enjoyment. Thanks for LibraryThing Early Reviewers and the publisher for the complimentary copy.½

I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers program.
Blowback took a subject that should be boring and insufferable (not something I would normally have chosen for myself) and instead produced a thoroughly informative, entertaining, and terrifying read. The first 4 chapters, mostly a history of pressure vessels and steam engines, were pretty dry and I almost gave up. However, when I got into the case study chapters my interest was captured and I could not stop reading. As I read I would keep stopping and telling my husband about all the crazy things I was reading (for instance, the reason natural gas now has that stinky smell added to it is because of the disaster at the school in New London, TX which killed 276 children). The pictures throughout the book drove the descriptions of the different tragedies home and served as a chilling reminder of the dangers of pressure equipment. Overall, I enjoyed this book (except the first 4 chapters) and I will never be able to look at a water heater the same again.

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If I had to pick five words to describe this book, they’d be: educational, entertaining, cautionary, tragic and beautiful.

Educational: A ton of facts and history about pressure equipment/devices and disasters involving them are presented in the form of narrative and timelines. Some particularly devastating incidents even have their own chapters. Gotta say, I learned a lot. Bonus points to the author for including an extensive index and selected bibliography. This would be a great book to consult for school reports or research, or as a gift for history buffs or people interested in things that explode.

Entertaining: The topic and content were interesting, and there were a few offbeat chapters (like the one on human cannonballs, or the one on “postcards from hell”). Though the grim topic is treated seriously, there are places where the author’s (tasteful) humor shines through. A very enjoyable read overall.

Cautionary: Many of the disastrous incidents were the result of negligence or recklessness, and reading about them definitely drives home the idea that pressure equipment/devices are capable of powerful explosions and should be regarded with respect and prudence. Inadequate or improper safety measures, setup or maintenance, or doing something foolhardy like throwing a beer keg in a fire, can yield deadly and destructive consequences. I’ll never look at pressure equipment/devices the same way again.

Tragic: A lot of horrific death and destruction is covered in this book, much of it accompanied by chilling photos. (The photos are mainly of destroyed buildings, pressure equipment, trains, etc. Nothing graphic in the photos, though if you get squeamish over details of how people died, you might want to skip this book.)

Beautiful: The book itself looks fantastic. It's hefty and a bit wider than a typical hardcover. The cream-colored glossy pages have white and maroon accents, and they're filled with historical photos and images of paper artifacts (old ads, newspapers, letters, etc.). There's a lot packed into the book, but it's not cluttered--the layout is perfectly spaced. Someone put a lot of time and effort into designing this thing!

"Blowback" is a BLAST!! Ha-ha! Play on words but totally and completely meant! Not only do we get a general history and importance of the steam engine/boilers, we get a good, solid understanding of how they work - what they do when they work properly and what they do when they don't work properly.
*Tales of disasters in short story form
*Timelines of similar disasters - ex: industrial, ship, home.
*Photos of the aftermath of blowback disasters
This book is written for the everyman (and everywoman for those of you still into the PC world!). It reads easily and is very enjoyable.
No one will regret adding this to their home library.

This was an interesting book. You knew pressure equipment was dangerous but the tragedies shown in the book far outweigh the knowledge I had about the real dangers and destructive power of pressure equipment that is not only defective but poorly maintained.

The book is well written with many actual photos of many of the disasters caused by exploding boilers in homes, factories or locomotives. You'll look differently at even your hot water heater than you ever did before. Many things have improved over the years but the possibilities are always there.½

I was sent this book as part of the Early Reviewers program. Maybe this wasn’t the best book for someone with an imagination to read! Clearly written, factual, informative, and giving me a new regard for some of the items around me, Blowback is an enjoyable (yet sobering) read.

Although there is sometimes humor in the detailed write-ups, much of the book’s strength is in the way the stories of these pressure equipment/devices are written. Accompanying photographs better define the subject matter. I’ll not be looking at the items the same way again. (or at how people can really mess things up.)

It’s not just the objects (the title says it all – and Other Harmless Devices) it’s also the way people have used it. I used to wonder about the curling irons that had accompanying notes stating “do not use on fingers or other appendages;” after reading this book, I have little doubt that such things are needed.

Well researched and explained, Blowback is a book I’m happy to have on my shelves.

An alarmingly entertaining as well as informative read. Never would have been thought a book on pressure vessels would be so worthwhile. While the book centers around tragedies associated with misused pressure vessels, it does document that we are just too human for our own good.
Well-written and lots of photos really compliment the text and drive home the lessons of those dangers, especially tragic are the school incidents and the heartbreaking and ironic Sultana explosion. When appropriate, some humor works it way into the narrative about among other things - exploding beer kegs, chairs, caskets, and exploding breweries and distilleries, and even an engineered head-on collision between steam locomotives.½

I am not impressed with Mr. Brennan's interpretation of history. He is lacking in period terminology and practice. His hatred of the Confederacy is apparent in his derogatory portrayal of random Confederates verses ambivalence toward Union thieves. I was hoping for an insightful story of the hardship of prisoner of war camp and the disastrous loss of life with the Sultana explosion, only to get a political narrative that is grossly inaccurate.