Review: 13 Degrees delivers 13 hits!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 9, 2014
For those of us who love the universe of the Wandering Engineer, this is a must have book. Most of the stories advance or backfill the adventures of several of the lesser characters of the two main series  - The Wandering Engineer series and the Jethro sequence.Those few stories that don't follow these characters help round out the Engineer's universe in general, like what has happened on Kathy's World during the Engineer's adventures or fill holes in the backstory of the main sequence itself.So what did I particularly like? The Magnum PI story based on the old Plague Planet made me grin and the continuing story of the crew left in charge in Pyrax were particularly memorable. Best of all though was the Yard Dog story from Antigua and the two stories based around a certain young pilot. No I won't say anymore - that would just ruin it for folks.An what didn't I like? The usual issues around tense occur - Hechtl has an issue with this in most of his books, but dang it, nowadays I don't really care. If anyone can write as prolifically and entertainingly as he does, then I'm going to give him a free pass on this from now on. Writers come in two varieties - story tellers and those that can write `technically' correct literature.Give me a story teller every time and Hechtl is rapidly becoming one of the best in his field.Five starts