Sunday, December 30, 2012

Review: Ylesia


Ylesia
Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Very few short Star Wars stories have appeared after the few taking place in the NJO sub-series.
I am not surprised.



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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Review: Recovery


Recovery
Recovery by Troy Denning

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This short story served to remind me how dark and hopeless the whole NJO series delved deeply into.



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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Review: The Body in the Library


The Body in the Library
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A thoroughly enjoyable murder mystery.

She hadn't turned up and it was time to begin. I was vexed, I can tell you! That's the sort of silly things girls do and get the management's back up, and then they get the sack!


Sadly, and humorously, young people haven't changed at all since that was written back in the 1920's...



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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Review: The Gripping Hand


The Gripping Hand
The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



After reading The Mote in God's Eye, I was at least interested in reading this sequel.

And I was bored out of my skull. For the whole book.



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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Review: Passage to Dawn


Passage to Dawn
Passage to Dawn by R.A. Salvatore

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



The last Drizz't book I'll be reading.

While Salvatore can write a good battle scene, it seems that he writes like a crap author in every other situation. Which is odd, as I've read his Star Wars books, and while not terribly impressed, I didn't feel like a 10year old was writing the dialogue.

So farewell Mr Drizz't. May you find a luscious dark elf who also likes goodness, mainly so that Salvatore can stop yanking your chain with these terribly forced, awkward, cross-species wannabe romances...



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Monday, December 24, 2012

Review: Stormbringer


Stormbringer
Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I hadn't remembered that this book was about the End of the World, not just Elric's end. So it was definitely a different tone for me than the previous books.

Blast those Pan Tang'ians :) Always causing trouble...




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Sunday, December 23, 2012

Review: The Far West


The Far West
The Far West by Patricia C. Wrede

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The conclusion to the trilogy.

The "Far West" part didn't come into play until about 40% into the book. Lots of other stuff going on.
Cathayan magicians/magic are part of this story too.

so basically the expedition goes farther west than anyone else in recorded history, solves a big problem and comes home.

Eff gets married and they decide that they will move to a frontier settlement so they can continue their studies of all the new stuff.



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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Review: The Chosen


The Chosen
The Chosen by Dwight K. Nelson

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



This was supposed to be a daily devotional, with a reading a day. I was expecting some kind of verse or thought from the Bible, expounded upon.
It was all based upon the theme of "The Chosen", hence the title. The Chosen refers to those who are staying close to God in their walk through life.

I was disappointed. Many of the daily readings were very "Ellen White" centric instead of Christ centered.
Others kind of rambled on about vagaries without saying very much.

I don't consider this a waste of my time, and I'm sure it will help out other people, who are at different stages in the their Christian walk, but it was not for me at this time.



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Friday, December 21, 2012

Review: Prince Caspian


Prince Caspian
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The 4 Pevensy's [spelling?] return to Narnia to right the wrongs.
This is a morality tale, but told in such a way that youngsters would be enthralled by the story even if they missed the deeper connotations. Which is why Dad or Mom should read this to them, and ask questions, to make the child think.
An evil king, an outcast prince, kings and queens of legend, magical beasts, battles and a resolution that rights all wrongs, all rolled together to tell in engaging story.
It is a testament to Lewis's writing that he is able to preach in this book without preaching.



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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Review: The Engineer Reconditioned


The Engineer Reconditioned
The Engineer Reconditioned by Neal Asher

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Sadly, I am finding I don't care for Asher's short stories as much as his novels. Mainly, because it seems he allows himself to vent against Christianity & religion with his stories.

Some Polity stories, some Hivemind stories and some Owner stories. I kind of wish I'd read this and the Owner stories BEFORE starting the Owner series.



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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Review: The Secret Garden


The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Some books are classics for a reason. This is one of them.

Even though this was written for children, I found it completely un-put-down'ble. I thoroughly enjoyed it all, from beginning to end.



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Monday, December 17, 2012

Review: Resolute


Resolute
Resolute by Mike Shepherd

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A thoroughly enjoyable romp through a military scifi book.

However, just like the previous books, the beginning made me go confirm that I was indeed reading the next book in the series.



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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Review: Hard Magic


Hard Magic
Hard Magic by Larry Correia

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was recommended to me by Geoff, and I have to say, it was a GREAT recommendation.

1920's Noir Alt-Hist Urban Fantasy. Yeah, it's all that.

As good as the MHI series is, I enjoyed this more.



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Saturday, December 15, 2012

Review: The Rook


The Rook
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The only reason this isn't getting a 5star from me is because I'm not sure about its re-readability. If I ever re-read this, and like it as much as I did this time, I'll be bumping it up to 5.

The writing was clean and tight. No spelling gaffs, or grammatical errors or awkward sentence structures to pull you out of the story. this was written well, then even better, EDITED well. with the influx of indies, good editing shows, sadly.

The story. Mysterious, engaging, cool, neat and wraps up well. Thankfully Mr. O'Malley doesn't spend time on WHY the Rook has lost her memory, it is just an event that catapults the story forward.

The humor. I was grinning for a lot of this book. Not laughing out loud, or rolling on the floor, but grinning. Wise-ass humor was rife and I loved it.
"Oh thank God."Not to worry, it's not a weird monster. It's just three rotting dead people. Page 290 ebook edition

How can you NOT love humor like that?

Characters. Good, bad, mean, nice, nasty, innocent, naive and disgusting. They were all there and nobody was a cookie cutter throwaway. Given, some characters had more facetime and were developed on a deeper level, but everyone felt like a real person, not just a name with some actions attached to them.



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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Review: Queen of Demons: The second book in the epic saga of 'The Lord of the Isles'


Queen of Demons: The second book in the epic saga of 'The Lord of the Isles'
Queen of Demons: The second book in the epic saga of 'The Lord of the Isles' by David Drake

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The full title for this edition is Queen of Demons: The second book in the Epic Saga of 'The Lord of the Isles'. The story is as pretentious as this title.

Which considering that everything in this series is big, bigger than life, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is still pretentious though.

Now, the overall plot revolves around Garric becoming Prince Garric, titular heir to the Islands. Along the way the group gets split up and faces various trials and horrors. A nice cast of side characters are served up, just waiting to be killed off, which they mostly are in various ways.

Around page 400 [of roughly 600] I realized that I was ready for the story to be over. The side journeys were continued much longer than they needed to be.



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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Review: War Against the Mafia


War Against the Mafia
War Against the Mafia by Don Pendleton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



If Marvel didn't base their character of the Punisher on Mack Bolan, then I'll eat my shoes.

Sniper trained, Vietnam vet, family lost due to the Mafia, personal war, etc. Bolan ends up taking out one branch of the Mafia, while dodging the police and making to love to prostitutes, extra busty prostitutes and a supposedly innocent school teacher. Yeah, a school teacher. Who he then leaves at the end of the book.

This was extremely violent. And considering that I've read, and loved, [a:Neal Asher|56353|Neal Asher|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1207862001p2/56353.jpg] and [a:David Drake|19472|David Drake|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1207164263p2/19472.jpg], that is saying something.



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Monday, December 10, 2012

Review: The Pale Horse


The Pale Horse
The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Whenever the occult is part of a novel, I never like its inclusion.
I wasn't sure where Christie was going with this, so I was uncomfortable right up to the last chapter.
Still enjoyed the mystery...



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Sunday, December 09, 2012

Review: Daughter of the Sword


Daughter of the Sword
Daughter of the Sword by Steve Bein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I thoroughly enjoyed this "Special Swords" book.
The 4 storylines, [1 current, 3 historical for each of the swords], eh, I wouldn't have minded if the story had been all in the 21st century, but the history gave us the background and depth needed to make the current storyline have some "oomph".

Samurai, swords, cops and killers. If the author writes more, I'll be reading...



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Saturday, December 08, 2012

Review: Slag Attack


Slag Attack
Slag Attack by Andersen Prunty

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



This was disgusting material to read. I am not a fan of dystopian stories as it is, but this went beyond dystopia and into drug induced incoherence.

Death, debauchery,, betrayal and no hope.

Not my thing at all...



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Review: Orphanage


Orphanage
Orphanage by Robert Buettner

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Part of being a good author is having a good story to tell. That, Buettner got right.
Another part of being a good author is having the grammatical and literary skills to tell your story, not only accurately, but engagingly. And Buettner failed at this.

Basically this is a coming of age story for a boy who has lost it all and spirals downward self-destructively, only to come back up and turn into a man through the military. Aliens on Ganymede and meteors all play their part as well.

The core of this book is good. But the outerlayer is just horrific. Get an editor for goodness sake, not your brother's nephew's grandmother's cousin's kid.
I would like to read more in this series, but I am not willing to subject myself to sub-par writing...



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Friday, December 07, 2012

Review: Myth-Ing Persons


Myth-Ing Persons
Myth-Ing Persons by Robert Lynn Asprin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Skeeve has to rescue Aahz, outwit a world of vampires and lose a hot chick to a some annoying con artist.
All in one book.
Fluff-a-roo...



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Thursday, December 06, 2012

Review: The Spirit Well


The Spirit Well
The Spirit Well by Stephen R. Lawhead

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The story plodded along. I was also concerned by the theology expressed by some of the characters, as I wasn't able to tell if it was just the characters talking or Lawhead being extremely ecumenical...



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Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Review: The Bane of the Black Sword


The Bane of the Black Sword
The Bane of the Black Sword by Michael Moorcock

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



So close to contentment, and then it is ripped away.

I think this typifies the Elric experience. Pure melancholy undiluted by even a shard of true happiness...



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Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Review: Santiago


Santiago
Santiago by Mike Resnick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



What a great book!
A cast of characters who take their names from a balladeer, all focused on taking out the King of the Outlaws.
Who it turns out is pretty much in the same role as the captain in Resnick's Starship series.

Bounty hunters, journalists, thieves, tramps, swindlers and killers.

A tapestry of humanity, woven together for a fun read. Not a classic by any means, but a great read and re-read.



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Monday, December 03, 2012

Review: Graceling


Graceling
Graceling by Kristin Cashore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I enjoyed this story very much. The idea of "Graces", an ability that allows the user to become the best at something, ie, fighting ability, seeing, hearing, green thumb, etc.

This revolves around Katsa,a young royal Graced with the ability to survive. Her ability is misused by the King until she breaks the ties and goes on her own. After that, nefarious schemes are revealed about another king and a young princess and Katsa must kill the one and save the other.

The upsides:
A lot of cool action, fighting, locales all over the various kingdoms, meeting various members of the "Council" [an underground movement to limit the damage done by uncontrolled kings] and seeing the beginnings of a united government because of the council.

The downsides:
Katsa's view that marriage was a bad thing. Commitment and self-sacrifice for another, in a marriage relationship, was put lower than eating pig swill. Then the author elevates "being lovers with the ability to walk away with no strings attached" as somehow being good. I wouldn't let kids read this, not until they had a good foundational understanding of what Love truly is, not just the fuzzy, wuzzy feelings.

Overall, a good story. There were times that I rolled my eyes at Katsa's actions, but seeing as how this was written by a woman, about a woman for young women, the eyerolling was just a natural manly reaction on my part.




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Sunday, December 02, 2012

Review: Hit or Myth


Hit or Myth
Hit or Myth by Robert Lynn Asprin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Mister Skeeve! I laughed so hard.

Mob, Fairy Godfather and Deevils, oh my. My favorite Myth book so far...



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Review: Myth Directions


Myth Directions
Myth Directions by Robert Lynn Asprin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Skeeve and co have some more adventures. Ahz really doesn't seem to be training Skeeve, just throwing him into situations and letting him sink or swim.
I plan on reading more of these, but with the expectation of complete fluff and no substance...



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Saturday, December 01, 2012

Review: Star Wars: Shadow Games


Star Wars: Shadow Games
Star Wars: Shadow Games by Michael Reaves

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This barely deserves the 3stars I gave it, but I am a sucker for all things Star Wars, even the bad stuff.

This was technically written well,nothing awkward structure-wise and the plot moved at a reasonable rate.

But Dash, well, Dash is an idiot and I didn't care for him in [b:Shadows of the Empire|9549|Shadows of the Empire (Star Wars)|Steve Perry|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1361481442s/9549.jpg|858558] and this rendering didn't endear him to me any more. Leebo was still a wise-ass robot and Han was, well, Han.

Glad I didn't buy this, only borrowed from the library...



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