Monday, December 31, 2012
Review: Morning by Morning: A Contemporary Version of a Devotional Classic Based on the King James Version
Morning by Morning: A Contemporary Version of a Devotional Classic Based on the King James Version by Charles H. Spurgeon
My rating: 0 of 5 stars
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Sunday, December 30, 2012
Review: 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 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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Friday, December 28, 2012
Review: Star Wars: Fool's Bargain
Star Wars: Fool's Bargain by Timothy Zahn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This drove home that Zahn likes Storm Troopers.
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Review: 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 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 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 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 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
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Saturday, December 22, 2012
Review: 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 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 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 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 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 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 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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Friday, December 14, 2012
Review: Warrior Wolf Women of the Wastelands
Warrior Wolf Women of the Wastelands by Carlton Mellick III
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Filthy, dirty, disgusting, perverted Vor.
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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' 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
Review: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A collection of 6 stories by Dahl. Sadly, not a funny collection, more of a rambling fiction'y whatever...
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Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Review: 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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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