Thursday, December 31, 2015

December '15 Roundup





I'll be doing a Year in Review tomorrow, since I have the day off and can concentrate on the whole year.

December is all I can deal with tonight. It was a huge month book wise. I read 29 books. Almost twice my normal [for this year] amount. Most of that was due to my coworker leaving because of surgery. I started reading at lunchtimes again and stopped messing around with M:TG cards in the evening and that gave me a ton of time to read, which I put to good use.

I read some real crappers but I since I was basically reading a book a day I'd just start on the next book and not give it much thought. I also read Flowers for Algernon and that just made up for so much stuff that I can't begin to weigh the balances. I did have 3 one stars but I also had 6 four and above stars. I'm pretty ok with that ratio.

On a side note, I read enough that I couldn't fit all the covers into a collage on iPiccy.com and still have room to put in text. So I just filled it all up with covers. I rather liked that.

Solomon (Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin #10) (Manga)


Mobile Suit Gundam: The ORIGIN, Volume 10: Solomon - Yoshikazu Yasuhiko This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Solomon
Series: Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin
Author & Artist: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Rating:  of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 480




Synopsis:
The Feds make a major attack on the Zeon base of Solomon. Dozzle ends up dying in its defense while his siblings play political games to take the power from their father.
Char continues his downward spiral into megalomania and Lalah is caught between him and Amuro.

My Thoughts:
Once again, color me impressed. The Fed sun-weapon was really neat and Zeon's escalation of said weapon was scary. But considering that Zeon crashed a space habitat on Earth directly, it shouldn't be a surprise that they'd turn a habitat into a sun weapon.

Dozzle dying wasn't a big surprise and it was actually kind of sad. He seemed like the most grounded of the children and was concerned for the well being of his soldiers and the citizens of Zeon. Someone like that, with his siblings more concerned about power, is almost destined to be killed off.

One surprise is that it would almost appear that Char is NOT a newtype but just an excellent soldier. Amuro had some sort of connection when he met Lalah because they were both Newtypes and that connection is missing with Char. Not sure what to make of that. Something to either be answered in the last 2 volumes or upon a re-read.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Firefight (The Reckoners #2)


Firefight - Brandon Sanderson This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Firefight
Series: The Reckoners
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Rating: of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: SFF
Pages: 427
Format: Kindle





Synopsis:
David is convinced that Firefight isn't actually the traitor she appears to be. So he heads to Manhattan to take out an Epic that has been throwing smaller epics at Newcago and so he can find Firefight and convince everyone just how innocent and perfect she is.
We find out lots of info about Epics and surprise, surprise, David's hormones, instead of his brain, are right and Firefight is all sweetness and light.

My Thoughts:
I am done with this series. I did not really enjoy Steelheart and I found Mitosis to be yawn worthy.

It isn't that it is badly written, or telling a poor story. I simply cannot stand David the main character. I was a 19 year old young man at one time. I KNOW what it is like to have hormones practically controlling you. I also know that you can overcome that and use your brain to at least put the brakes on things, if not do the right thing, ie, don't endanger your whole crew to run after a girl.

I also know that hormones don't tell you the truth and in fact they confuse you so much that you can barely tell left from right sometimes. So to have David be right because he "felt" it just made me annoyed to the point of illness. If I am going to read about young adults, I need someone like Rigg from the Pathfinder trilogy by Orson Scott Card.

Problem is, most young adults don't control themselves and hence David would fit right in with them. Which is probably why I can't stand him. So my first series of Sanderson's that I'm leaving. Depending on how his Stormlight Archives series goes, that might be the second.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules


Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules - Tim Aten, Del Laugel, Glenn Jones This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes. blogspot.wordpress.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules
Series: -----
Editor: Del Laugel, Tim Aten
Rating:   of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 209
Format: Kindle




Synopsis:
As the title suggests, this is a set of comprehensive rules for the game Magic: The Gathering.
This rule set was created in March of 2015 and as such is already out of date.
Updated, downloadable versions can be found at:
Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rule Set

My Thoughts:
The 5 Battle Axes are not because I thought this was the bestest book EVAH, but because it accomplished what it was created to do, ie, explain all the rules, to date, about the game.

Let me tell you, those rules are comprehensive indeed and exhausting to read. But even with those rules, the whole Judge thing is still needed, with varying levels of Judges to interpret and adjudicate at tournaments.

I play M:TG very casually and recently have even moved away from playing with actual cards to the computer game version on Steam. Mainly because I don't like going to my local game shop and playing the people there. The fun of playing is outweighed by having to interact with people. I have also realized that most of the people there only play the new sets and as such their knowledge about how older cards work is flawed. I've lost several games because they said the rules meant "Y" but when I investigated further, the rules actually meant "X" and that would have changed the game. I'm just not confident enough of a player to force confrontation in the moment.

While I'm glad I read this, I don't think I'd use it much when playing. If my question is difficult enough for me to have to look it up, I'll just call my local store [Myriad Games for the record] and ask the guy there. They have some very knowledgeable people on staff.

Monday, December 28, 2015

The Seven Towers


The Seven Towers - Patricia Wrede This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Seven Towers
Series: -----
Author: Patricia Wrede
Rating: of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: SFF
Pages: 340
Format: Kindle





Synopsis:
The Seven Kingdoms are about to be invaded by the horde of barbarians from the South. Politics, romance and magic both new and very old, come into play.
Nothing is quite as it seems and the barbarians aren't invading, but fleeing. Can a rag tag group of people work together to prevent a massacre, stop a rogue dark wizard and put an end to a virulent magical plague, all at the same time.

My Thoughts:
I don't have a middle grade shelf/tag and tend to use either young adult or children. But this book would definitely fall into that category.
Characters are given just enough of a brush to make them unique without actual characterization, the plot is "vast" if you are new to this kind of thing and things just happen.

Now all of that can be a problem sometimes.But for this book, none of that bothered me at all. Just goes to show, sometimes you really do have to be in the right mood. I enjoyed my time reading this.

I do wonder, however, how much of that is because I already like Wrede's writing and hence let my foreknowledge affect things. An interesting conundrum if you're into that kind of thing.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Path of the Assassin (Scot Harvath #2)


Path Of The Assassin  - Brad Thor This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Path of the Assassin
Series: Scot Harvath
Author: Brad Thor
Rating: of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 496
Format: Kindle







Synopsis:
Scot breaks up with the woman from the previous book because of Reasons.
He then gets involved with the CIA in bringing down a terrorist who is trying to start WWIII in the Middle East. But only Scot knows Reasons and everyone else is an idiot so it is up to Scot to save the world.
And he meets Woman 2.

My Thoughts:
Let's start off with 2 quotes from early on in the book:



Religions were supposed to represent tolerance.
pg 39

"To tell you the truth, Father, I don't think God has a favorite football team, or a favorite religion"
pg 40

Now, what kind of idiot is Brad Thor? I couldn't tell if he was being deliberately obtuse or just shockingly ignorant and letting his ignorance hang out there for all to see.
So that was not a good start to the book.

Then him breaking up with Swiss Lawyer lady because of their work situations.  Well duh! You have to make choices that put the relationship first and if you are in a work situation where you can't do that, or choose not to do that, then it won't last. And that idea was, surprisingly, given lip service. But then 2 weeks later he falls for President of Her Own Company Lady and NO thought is given that maybe this will follow the same path? Scot Harvath is having Emotional one night stands. The women so far might as well be emotional whores and Scot is their John. I'd toss him in jail so fast...

With all of that being said, this sunk below the 2 star mark and I was ready to just put this down. But, because it is a thriller, the action ramped up from 0-160 in the blink of an eye. Terrorist attacks, planes & hostages, gun battles from fast cars in a hurricane, speedboat chases, Special Ops attack on a terrorist camp. You name it, it probably happened.

And all that action is the only reason I continued this and am going to read the next book. For the record, that is NOT a good footing to be on.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

The Fall of the White Ship Avatar (The Terran Inheritance #3)


Fall of the White Ship Avatar - Brian Daley This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Fall of the White Ship Avatar
Series: The Terran Inheritance
Author: Brian Daley
Rating: of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: SFF
Pages: 292
Format: Kindle






Synopsis:
Alacrity and Floyt are hot on the trail of Precursor artifacts and Alacrity is bound and determined to be on the council of the White Ship, which appears to be tied to his family's history.
Only Floyt has seen the future, from the causality harp, and knows that Alacrity will not be the Lord and Master of the White Ship.
Will their friendship survive? In fact, will they survive?

My Thoughts:
First, the kindle editions I have state on the inside cover that the series name is The Terran Inheritance. I don't have access to old paperbacks but I'd bet a dollar that that same page is in them as well. But everywhere I go I see the series as the protagonist's names. The Adventures of Alacrity Fitzhugh and Hobart Floyt, while descriptive, is simply to long and unwieldy. It is too bad that Daley still isn't around to kick some ass and get things straightened out.

This was partly about Fitz and Ho getting off a planet of sentient cattle-like beings and then about taking over the White Ship. While Alacrity's past has been hinted at in the previous books, here it takes front and center and it is a bit disconcerting. He goes from a talented space bum to some kind of Old School Space Admiral in about 2 breaths.  It wasn't that it didn't make sense but it was different from the previous 2 books. If I had wanted different I'd have gone and read a different book.

Daley was a good writer and a fun writer and that just shines on through even in the more serious moments. I have to hunt down his Coramande books but I'm in no big hurry as that is all I have to look forward to from him. Because he's dead.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Shadows of Sanctuary (Thieves' World #3)


Shadows of Sanctuary (Thieves World #3) - Robert Asprin This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Shadows of Sanctuary
Series: Thieves' World
Editor: Robert Asprin
Rating: of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: SFF
Pages: 338
Format: OCR Scan






Synopsis:
Further stories from the city of Sanctuary, recently taken over by the Empire.
It just keeps going lower into the gutter.

My Thoughts:
Janet Morris writes several of these stories and she seems to be a huge fan of the M/M mercenary idea. What a disgusting pervert. This was going downhill anyway, but that pushed this into the "won't be reading any more of this series" territory.

And it was becoming more about the Empire as much as Sanctuary. I don't want to read about some grubby Empire and some disgusting mercenaries.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Echoes in Time (Time Traders #6)


Echoes in Time -  Andre Norton,  Andre Norton, Sherwood Smith This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Echoes in Time
Series: Time Traders
Author: Andre Norton, Sherwood Smith
Rating: of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: SFF
Pages: 288
Format: Kindle





Synopsis:
Ross, his new bride Eveleen and a bunch of other Time Agents, both American and Russian, head to the world where they originally found the Baldie chrome ship.
A russian group of time agents have already been dispatched and have disappeared so Ross and Co must solve that mystery and figure out if it is some Baldie plot to destroy humanity.

My Thoughts:
My phracking goodness, relational, relational, relational. Ross and his wife. Americans and Russians. Agents and agents. Agents and aliens. Aliens and...
you name it, Sherwood sticks it in there.

The previous TT book I disliked because it was a romance, plain and simple. This was worse, in many ways, because it was all about feelings and self-introspection and solving deepseated issues. I can like those kinds of books, but Time Traders was about raw, powerful men getting a raw deal and then fixing it. Preferably with large amounts of violence of one sort or another while at the same time using their brains to keep things under control.

I feel that I was riding a Harley motorcycle for the first four books and then suddenly, when I stopped for gas, someone switched it out with a pink vespa. You don't change vehicles mid-ride. It is one thing to restart a series, but to change the tone this drastically, well, you might have done better to start a new series altogether because you sure lost this fan.

There is one more TT book and I plan on reading it but as far as I'm concerned, there are only 4 Time Traders books.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Badland (Warlord #3)


Badland - Jason Frost This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Badland
Series: Warlord
Author: Jason Frost
Rating:   of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 171
Format: Kindle






Synopsis:
Eric Ravensmith continues his hunt of Dirk Fallows who still has his son Tim.
And the United States is sending in a space shuttle to recover some secret science stuff that is on the now island of California.

My Thoughts:
Man, this was pretty bad. Cannibal children, the freaking space shuttle! Come on, if the mainland wanted something from California, there are easier ways than the space shuttle. And astronauts with a minimal of military training.

Eric almost rescues his son, Fallows is brainwashing Tim and one woman leaves on the space shuttle and the other stays behind. Gratuitous sex scenes allround.

Ugh....

A Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle (League of Princes #2)


The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle - Christopher Healy, Todd Harris This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: A Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle
Series: League of Princes
Author: Christopher Healy
Rating: of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: SFF
Pages: 497
Format: Kindle




Synopsis:
The Princes all come together, some willingly, some not so willingly, for another adventure to save ALL the kingdoms.
From Briar Rose.
And lots of other things happen along the way.

My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this, but not quite as much as the previous book, A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom.
Part of that was that the new'ness of the idea wasn't new now. Another part was the continued romance subplot about everybody not sure who they're actually in love with. I didn't like that at all.

I liked the pictures. They captured the various characters rather well and lent a humorous air to the book.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Double Crossfire (The Executioner #40)


Double Crossfire - Don Pendleton, Steven M. Krauzer This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Double Crossfire
Series: The Executioner
Author: Don Pendleton, Steven Krauzer
Rating: of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 185
Format: Kindle






Synopsis:
A flare up in the Turk/Armenian conflict draws in the USSR and a heapload of heroin.
It is up to Mack to stop the drugs and the commies!

My Thoughts:
This was tough to read. I don't know why NOW I have an issue with the trite shallowness but it was so glaring that I couldn't get past it. I suspect I'm going to have to limit these to one every month or two.

Sigh...

Pawn's Gambit: And Other Stratagems (ARC)


Pawn's Gambit: And Other Stratagems - Timothy Zahn I received this copy from the publisher through Netgalley.com and that in no way has influenced my opinion in regards to this review.

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.








Title: Pawn's Gambit: And Other Stratagems
Series: -----
Author: Timothy Zahn
Rating: of 5 Battle Axes
Genre: SFF
Pages: 342
Format: Kindle



Synopsis:
A collection of short stories that Zahn has published in magazines. The first half of the book was stories that I'd read in other paperback collections of Zahn's collected short stories and the last half of the book, with the exception of the titular story, Pawn's Gambit, were all new.

My Thoughts:
I was expecting all new stories, so to have the first half be ones that I'd read before, or multiple times [as I've bought almost all of Zahn's old books in paperback] was a bit of a letdown.
Even with that, those stories were still excellent.

Then came the new stories and it was evident that Zahn has NOT lost his touch for encapsulating an idea and creating a story around it. His latest Cobra books have been rather a disappointment to be honest and I've been wondering if Zahn's time as an author was starting to get near the end. These new stories show that he is on top of the game as never before.

Which leads me to wonder, who has changed more, me, or Zahn? I read Cobra back in middle school and it has stayed on my "I love this book!" shelf ever since. Maybe the latest books in that series are showing me how "I" have changed as a reader and not so much that Zahn has changed as an author.

All of that is just to say that this short story collection is good! It would be a great way to introduce someone to Zahn without overwhelming them with a series. For those of us in the old guard, who have devoured all the older books by Zahn, this is still worth it for the new stories.

One of the main reasons I took a star off was because several of the stories have ending commentary from Zahn, when they were part of another collection. Those commentaries show their age and in some cases, show they are part of another collection. Very lazy on the publisher's part. Cut or update. It was just jarring the way they cut n pasted.