Sentenced to Prism (HumanX Commonwealth #5) ★★★★★

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Sentenced to Prism
Series: HumanX Commonwealth #5
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 288
Format: Mass Market Paperback

Synopsis:

Evan Orgell: Troubleshooter, Fixer, Company Man, Confident. If there is a problem, you send in Evan Orgell and your problem gets taken care off. There is no one better on Samstead.

The Company has a problem. They've discovered a new world and their presence there isn't quite exactly legal. But the payoffs could be huge, so they've sent down a full research team with labs and defensive outpost. But the team has gone silent. The Company needs Evan to go in alone and find out what is going on. One man, alone, won't draw the attention of rival companies, the United Church or the Peace Forcers. Equipped with a suit of mobile armor with the latest gadgets, Evan is all set to investigate the mysteries of Prism.

Unfortunately, neither The Company or Evan are truly prepared for what Prism holds.

Evan finds the remains of the base and it is overrun by prismatic lifeforms feasting on all the rare-earth metals in the base. All of the staff, except for one Martine Ophemert, are dead. Evan begins the process of tracking down the missing staff member. During his pursuit, his suit, his superdupercan'tbreakcansolveeverything suit fails. Evan is forced to proceed on foot and comes into contact with a native, a scout named Azure. Azure saves Evan's life and they head back to Azure's Associative.

There Evan finds a fully functioning society. The lifeforms of Prism have all specialized and then come together instead of being multi-use creatures that standalone. Evan gives them the idea of a battery, as they are all photovores so they can function through the night. In turn they grow him a locator so he can track down Martine easier.

On the way to finding Martine's tracker, the group is attacked and Evan is partially destroyed. The Associative rebuilds him so he is part biological and part Prismatic. A true synthesis of Prism and the Commonwealth. They rescue Martine, who has also been rebuilt by another Associative and they all head back to the base to try to contact The Company.

Turns out one of the former crew was working for a Rival Company and said Rival Company is on site when they return. After being taken prisoner and then rescued by their Associative, Evan and Martine send the scouting party packing. The Rival Company returns with a military complement, only to run into the Peace Forcers and the United Church, who Evan has contacted using a homegrown space contact thingy grown by the Prismites.

Prism is now considered a Class One world and must be left alone. Evan and Martine are left as Liasons considering their new “forms” and their mission is now to get the various Associatives across Prism to form one Super Associative. And the Associatives have already considered this, agreed and are planning on growing a spaceship so Evan and Martine can travel as official representatives of Prism to the Commonwealth.

My Thoughts:

“You cannot steal information, Evan,” Azure said reprovingly. “Library says you can only borrow it...”

That just made me laugh coming from an author. Being intimately involved with the de-drm'ing of ebooks back in the day, I'm very aware of arguments on both sides of the Information Must Be Free fight. Anyway, on to the review.

This is the fourth recorded time that I've read this. Much like Way-farer though, I had also read this several times in highschool and through Bibleschool. So in reality, this is probably my sixth or seventh time and I still love it. Reading it for the first time now I'd probably pooh-pooh this as mediocre SF and move right on. But this is one of those books that got its hooks in me early on and has never let go.

This was a “fun” idea and Foster executes it well in one book. There is a lot of time building things up before Evan gets transformed into a Prismite and yet each time it comes as a surprise to me. I suspect part of it is that events with him and Martine as Prismites are bigger in scope whereas the previous stuff is smaller so it comes across as a bigger portion even though its not.

Basically, I like this book no matter what. For me, this is the quintessential standalone science fiction adventure story. It is Perfect even while I acknowledge that it really isn't. But reading it 4 times in 18 years? I think that speaks for itself and the fact that I still enjoyed it this time around as much as I did back in 2000. After my mis-adventure with Dragon's Gold and realizing how my tastes have matured, it is good to find that some books can withstand even me being more mature * wink *

Another plus to reading the same book multiple times is that I can see how I have grown as a reviewer and not just as a reader. I think you'd agree that this review is VERY different from my first one in 2000.

★★★★★

• Sentenced to Prism (2000 Review)
• Sentenced to Prism (2006 Review)
• Sentenced to Prism (2014 Review)

Ninja Master (Oh My Goddess! #9) ★★★★☆ (Manga Monday)

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Ninja Master
Series: Oh My Goddess! #9
Author: Kosuke Fujishima
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 117
Format: Paperback

Synopsis:

This volume starts out with Kei and the girls at a beach where Urd, always trying to hurry along Kei and Belldandy's romance, informs Kei that telling Belldandy he loves her under a full moon will result in their eternal happiness. Urd interferes to make things happen while Skuld interferes to stop them.

Next Skuld goes through a goddess growing up moment, only nobody tells her or Kei and Kei thinks she's started her periods. So he goes to the department store to buy her “feminine products” and almost gets sold a Happy Family Planning pack.

The final story of this book revolves around Mara siccing a bunch of chibi ninja's upon the household. Kodoma goes in first and is overcome by Bell's kindness and moves her loyalty to Bell. Then Kodoma's best friend Hikari makes her move, with the same result. Then the rest of the clan attacks everyone and Belldandy uses a spell to knock them all out. The little ninjas all renounce Mara and send her a break up letter. Oh, one of the Ninjettes is a Peeping Tom Boy.

My Thoughts:

Now this is the Oh My Goddess I remember. Funny vignette style stories that are light and fluffy and fun to read, as long as you don't poke at them.

It is evident that the manga-ka is poking fun at himself in regards to Kei and Bell's romance as the first little ninja writes down something like “Bell and Kei Romance: Kindergarten Level” on her first recon mission. It just made me grin.

This time around Fujishima's humor really worked for me. I was amused from start to finish. Not exactly sure if it was me just being in a good mood or if the humor was actually that funny. The end result was the same though. I laughed out loud several times.

What got me the most though was the whole Senrigan the Peeping Tom Boy. That is the picture this time and boy, did it strike my fancy. The scale isn't here in this picture, but these girls are all the size of your hand. So imagine something that small filled with that much attitude.

Better watch out or Senrigan will tell on you.

★★★★☆ 

• Previous Oh My Goddess! Reviews

Dragon's Gold (Kelvin of Rud #1) ★★☆☆☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Dragon's Gold
Series: Kelvin of Rud #1
Author: Piers Anthony
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 248
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Kelvin has round ears. His father had round ears as well, but everyone else in the world has pointed ears. There is prophecy about a Round Ear but Kelvin has never given it a thought.

His father is killed by agents of the Queen of Rud, a Usurper. Kelvin and his younger sister Jon are now out in the Sadlands looking for dragon scale so as to pay the taxes that the Queen has instituted. Kelvin ends up killing a dragon on accident and on their way home with its scales, are captured by a bandit. Jon, who has been dressing up as a boy, is taken as well and sold to the Boy Mart. Kelvin heads to the town where the Boy Mart is with the intentions of somehow rescuing her.

Kelvin finds a magic glove in a tree and hooks up with a group of people who are opposed to slavery and to the Queen in General. Said group tries to buy Jon, but she has come to the attention of the wizard Zantanna and they are outbid. They end up buying another girl, a round ear who can astrally project herself if she eats dragon berries. Kelvin and the group waylay the agent of the wizard and rescue Jon.

Kelvin is setup to be the Roundear of Prophecy and the group begins making plans to overthrow the queen. They hire mercenaries and begin the attack. Kelvin gets captured, finds out his dad is alive and is from earth and has a lot of technology at his disposal. Big battles, people die, blah, blah, John Knight and the Queen disappear down a river which leads to the Flaw, an interdimensional tear.

Jon hooks up with the son of the leader of the revolutionary group and Kelvin hooks up with the roundear girl, Heln. The prophecy isn't anywhere close to being fulfilled but as it is scattered all over the lands, no one has a complete version so nobody knows when it is finished or not.

My Thoughts:

I originally read this series back in the early 90's. I remember it mainly because of the covers (not the one I have for this edition but the one I'll be putting at the end) and because of the title names: Dragon's Gold, Serpent's Silver, Chimera's Copper, Orc's Opal and Mouvar's Magic. I also have faint recollections of there being sleazy sexual undertones throughout them all. But when you are 15, what you consider a sleazy sexual undertone can be quite different from what you consider when at 40.

Sadly, I remembered correctly. Jon is almost raped when it is discovered she is a girl whilst imprisoned at the Boy Mart. It wasn't graphic but considering that she is 14, the author seemed to enjoy stretching the scene out way more than was needed. From other Anthony books I've come to the conclusion that he's a pervert and this just confirmed it. Heln was also raped but before we met her, so that particular scene wasn't included. However, it was constantly alluded to every time she or Kelvin had a romantic thought towards the other.

I remember really enjoying the story and being fascinated by the plot and writing and thinking how good these were. Man, how I've grown up. This was terribly hackneyed and cliched crap. Ideas of how to forge ahead are written down like 2 players were playing Magic the Gathering, ie, one player puts down a card, then the second player puts down another card to counter it, etc. It was written that way! Ughh. Then you have people who can't think militarily to save their life. Yes, lets march 4 days through open land to attack the capital instead of shipping down the river and being there in 8 hours. And it was written that way so one character COULD go down the river to advance a plot point. Ughh again.

The writing itself was pretty bad too. A lot of “then he said so she did” writing. Along the lines of this (made up):

Kelvin ate the apple. Heln asked him if it was good. Kelvin said “Anything from your hands is good.” Heln blushed. This made Kelvin blush.

Needless to say, a teen probably wouldn't notice it (I certainly didn't back then) but any halfway competent adult will notice it right off. And a whole book that?

I had all 5 books lined up to re-read, but after this one I think I'm going to pass on the other books. I seem to remember the sleaze increases as well. So au revoir!

Oh, here's some of the covers as I remember them, not the crap this addition has:

 

★★☆☆☆ 

Heirs of the Blade (Shadows of the Apt #7) ★★★★☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Heirs of the Blade
Series: Shadows of the Apt #7
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 644
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Che, dragging Thalric in her wake, goes on a quest to save her foster-sister Tynisa, who has gone off into the hinterlands of the Commonweal to die nobly as a true Mantis would. Even though Tynisa is half-spider and looks fully spider-kinden.

Che, in her chase of Tynisa, must face the fact that she, Cheerwell Maker, is now a magician and inextricably linked with Seda the Wasp Empress as a cosmic joke by the Slug-kinden. Che has terrible premonitions about the Seal of the Worm, something so terrible that no one will talk to her about it and it has pretty much been erased from the history books. At the same time, with the ghost of Achaoes excised, Che begins to realize she is falling in love with Thalric, even with their horrible history.

Tynisa has a view of the Commonweal based on what she was of Salme Dien before he died. Unfortunately, Dien was a truly noble Dragonfly and the rest of his family and most of the nobles in fact, are nothing more than the usual spoilt aristocracy with no desire to actually shoulder their responsibilities. Tynisa ends up being possessed by her father's ghost, who had survived the destruction of the Darakyon box by haunting Che. When he was cast out by the Slug-kinden he was free to go where he wanted and ended up possessing Tynisa. This gave her all of his skill but also all of his twisted up ideas and thoughts. She hooks up with the Salme family and becomes a merchant of death for them against a peasant rebellion.

Che and Thalric hook up with a necromancer who promises she can free Tynisa from Tisamon's ghost. It doesn't go so well at first but eventually Tynisa is freed and end up siding with the rebels. The Salme family is brought to bloody justice by the King of the Commonweal for their multiple abuses of power.

While all of that is going on, Seda makes a pilgrimage to Kanaphes, city of the Slug-kinden. Ostensibly to investigate the “black mineral” found out in the desert, which will transform her army and give her a true airforce, but in reality to seek out the Slug-kinden and wrest power from them. Already a powerful sorceress from her instructions from various Inapt mystics, Seda knows she is capable of more. The Slug-kinden grant her wish but link her to Che where each can occasionally have visions of what the other is doing, has done or will do.

The book ends with the Empire of Black and Gold on the move again and breaking all treaties signed to that time. War is come again.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit, I was hoping that this time this book would go up a half star, maybe even a full star from my previous read of it back in '13. Earlier Shadows of the Apt had improved with a re-read and so my outlook was a rosy glow full of optimism and ♪Strength for ♪Today and Bright ♪Hope for Tomorrow♪ Sadly, it didn't improve. However, it was just as good as the time before, so don't take it that this was bad in any way.

This book is where the titular “Shadows” comes into play as far as I'm concerned. I don't know what Tchaikovsky meant when he titled this Shadows of the Apt but I've taken it to mean that the Apt cast a long shadow and bad things happen within that shadow (ie, war). It can also mean that things exist in their shadow (ie, blindspot) that they aren't aware of, like magic. Either way, this was a grim book full of shadows indeed. From Tynisa learning that the Commonweal was NOT a textbook fairytale filled with Heroes and Good Guys to Che sensing a glimpse of something truly horrific, to just the exigencies of war, it all casts a shadow.

There was another whole storyline in which Amnon, the First Champion of Kanaphes and his Collegium lover came back to Kanaphes and Dariandrephos and Totho are in the middle of trying to get the Iron Glave Consortium back into the good graces of the Empire. It started out feeling important and then just ends. That is one of the problems with a really big series. Not every storyline can be fully fleshed out.

My biggest issue that caused me to keep it at the same level as before is Che's refusal to accept that she is a magician and that magic is real. It came up so often in this book, her lack of belief, that it got rather annoying. Even with EVERYTHING that happened in the previous book, she still doesn't want to believe in magic. I wanted to slap her and tell her to accept reality as she knew it, not as she wanted it. And that was really my only complaint. So if people refusing to accept the truth before their eyes doesn't bother you, then it might not affect your read of this at all.

Overall, this series is just fantastic. This re-read is really cementing my love of Tchaikovsky's writing and the ideas he has. I no longer have any qualms about having bought all 10 books in trade paperback. Completely worth the money and the shelf-space.

★★★★☆ 

• Heirs of the Blade (2013 Review)
• Previous Shadows of the Apt Reviews

A Fire Upon the Deep ★★★☆½

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: A Fire Upon the Deep
Series: Zones of Thought #1
Author: Vernor Vinge
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 624
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Space is divided up into various Zones and in each Zone different levels of technology will work. As you descend Deeper, less and less tech will work.

An outpost of humanity has discovered some sort of hidden library, with all sorts of old, powerful information. Unfortunately for them, said tech is sentient and inimical to any concept of freedom. The humans are subverted or destroyed but one ship manages to get away. Inside this ship is 1 family, with 150 kids in cryo-sleep, along with a secret that could be the secret to stopping the Blight, what the sentient becomes known as.

The Blight, in an upper Zone, begins spreading and taking out Powers, other beings with potential to stop it. This spreads consternation among space faring civilizations across the universe but all assume that the Blight will be stuck in the upper Zones, unable to interfere with them in the middle Zone. This turns out not to be the case, as the Blight takes over its hosts and manipulates them like puppets. It destroys a space station, for lack of a better word, and sends one human, 1 created human and 2 plant aliens on a journey to find the ship that originally fled from the Blight.

The ship aformentioned, crashes on a pre-space tech world and they are immediately ambushed. The parents are killed and the 2 children are split up. The sentients of this world are packs and must be in groups of at leasat 4 to rationally think. Each child ends up in an opposing group and the groups leaders march on each other to take over the tech.

The ship from the Space Station has lots of misadventures and finally makes it to the world with the children. There the created human male sets loose the weapon on the crashed ship, which turns a huge area of space into a Deep Zone, one where faster than light travel is not physically possible. This puts an end to the Blight, as this Zone went up into the Transcendent Zone where the Blight resided and pretty much froze it into place.

The sibling are reunited and now the humans must live on a world where they are the interlopers and there is no chance of ever going back into Transcendant Space.

My Thoughts:

I went all over the place when reading this. First, I was just plain confused at the whole Zone thing. There was no reason given, no explanations, nothing. It was presented fait accompli and that type of attitude on the author's part, unless done really well, usually pisses me off. It pissed me of this time.

I enjoyed the dichotomy of storylines. The lady and created human and plant aliens were all on a spaceship and were definitely a SF storyline. Then the kids on the planet was almost fantasy, as it was medieval tech level but with pack intelligence. I enjoyed reading about that, as the “being” would change over time as pack members would die and be replaced by pack members that weren't the same. It would be like being able to change your arms and legs, etc, but to have those changes also affect your mental and emotional capabilities. It as the stuff of straight up fantasy. So to have both these storylines going on at once and then converge, I really enjoyed them.

However, a lot of the characters did some really stupid things and acted stupidly and acted irrationally and I hated that. No one character had the scoop on it and it got spread around. I didn't feel like I had anyone to root for, as even the intelligent people were crippled by fear and paranioa and other internal struggles.

Overall, this was a decent and enjoyable read. There is a prequel and a sequel but I have no desire to read them or to seek out more by this author. Maybe if I was more into SF these days, but my bent is definitely towards Fantasy and the Heroic Character.

★★★☆½

Dead and Alive (Frankenstein #3) ★★☆☆½

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Dead and Alive
Series: Frankenstein #3
Author: Dean Koontz
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 372
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Victor Helios' empire is crumbling. His new humans are all going insane, or changing in unexpected and uncontrolled ways. Murderous rampages, multiple genetic reorganizations, it is not good news for Victor. Then he gets a call from Wife #4, who he killed. Only she's not dead, but alive and well in the dump and the creature that brought her back to life wants to confront Victor and destroy him.

The two cops, buddies slash romance partners, whose names I can't even remember, are in touch with Deucalion and just drive around until it is time to meet up at the Dump. They have a “spiritual” moment, witness the end of the Victor and then get married, have a baby and start their own detective agency.

Deucalion steps through shadows, gets in touch with the freed new humans at the Dump and witnesses the end of Victor.

Victor denies that anything bad is happening, allows himself to be captured by the freed new humans and then dies. This sends a signal to some satellites in the sky which transmits a code and all the new humans, including the Dump Monster, die. Even though the coded deathkey didn't work when Victor spoke it earlier.

My Thoughts:

This was a mess of a story. Everything was so rushed and completely unbelievable. That is coming from within a story about Frankenstein for goodness sake. And don't give me crap about “Frankenstein's Monster”. Koontz might sidestep it by calling him Deucalion, but since the series title is Frankenstein, yeah, I rest my case.

These books started out interesting, with Victor Helios being one bad ass badguy. The newhumans were real threats and things looked grim at the best. But Victor pretty much going insane and believing his own reality instead of what was actually going on really wrecked the whole villain vibe. I am hesitant to assign a motive to Koontz but I wonder if he was simply trying to show how pride can blind and ultimately destroy even the most brilliant being? I know that Koontz is Catholic and the parallels with Satan are unmistakable, but am I reading my own ideas into this? I simply don't know.

Cop1 and Cop2 have guns, guns and guns and super ammo and only get to fight against two insane newhumans. Both of whom are naked. Cop2, the male, makes a big deal about the newhuman woman being naked. It didn't quite get into slimeball territory but it definitely didn't fit with “The End of Humanity as We Know It”. If you're running for your life, are you really going to notice how tight some woman's butt is? Especially when that woman is covered in blood, running faster than your car and trying to kill you with her barehands? If so, you really, really, really need to check your priorities.

There are 2 more books in this series and I do plan on reading them. I just hope they are standalones so that Koontz can pace himself a little better. As a trilogy I wouldn't recommend this series but I'll wait until the final book to see if this book was just the weak link or indicative of the overall direction.

★★☆☆½

• Previous Frankenstein Reviews

Thraxas and the Oracle (Thraxas #10) ★★★☆☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Thraxas and the Oracle
Series: Thraxas #10
Author: Martin Scott
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 184
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

The armies have come together and they all, under the leadership of Lisutaris, begin the march to Turai to take the fight to the orcs. Thraxas has been made head of Security and his number one job is to find Deeziz the Unseen before she wreaks havoc on the barely holding together armies. Add to that that Lisutaris must consult with an Oracle who has been banned and whose followers have been wiped out by the true church.

Thraxas is going to have a very hard time. Worst of all, there are no taverns and Lisutaris has told him to stop drinking.

The oracle proves right in all her accounts that do come to pass, Thraxas does find Deeziz (who escapes yet again) and the allied armies surprise an orcish one and completely route it. Now they can begin to head to Turai.

My Thoughts:

This was probably the weakest Thraxas story to date. In the middle of an army is not the place to have Thraxas being a gluttonous drunk. It just didn't work for me this time. Thraxas is just hit or miss for me and I can't figure out the why's and wherefore's of the formula regulating that. I guess it's just a mystery! In terms of enjoyment, this was a bunt. I still connected with the ball, but it didn't knock it out of the park for me.

If I were to recommend these books to anyone, I'd say to stop at book 8. Yes, there isn't any resolution at the end of that book, but 2 books later there still isn't any resolution. Also, considering that it has been 3 years since this book was published and there hasn't been another, I'd say Scott has dropped the creative ball and is done as an author. These are not long books. If you are on fire, it doesn't take 3 years to write a sub-200page book. It is only when struggling that that is the case.

Scott needs to write one more book where the armies take back the city of Turai, Thraxas marries Makri, becomes the proconsul of the newly renovated Turai and the whole gang (Lisutaris, Gurd, Tamrose, etc) all hang out at a brand new bar and shirk their duties. The End. Seriously.

★★★☆☆ 

• Previous Thraxas Reviews

The Algorithm of Power ★☆☆☆☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Algorithm of Power
Author: Pedro Barrento

Translator: Craig Patterson
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 701
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

In 2061, the world decides to be run by a computer program instead of governments and to divide the world up into 100 regions where various ideologies, religions, philosophies and whatever can have their own little place without needing to elect anyone or be in contact with anyone who disagrees with them.

One storyline, in 2300, follows a young woman who leaves her region after her sister's death and in the new region comes across a young man who has unfettered access to the network. She falls in love with another man and through machinations, ends up on a boat with both men heading for this Control Center.

The second storyline is about the rise of the Network and how the world we are introduced to in the beginning of the book came about.

My Thoughts:

Pig Ignorant Eurosnobbery.

North Korea, China, the US Army, they're not all going to just sit back and let something like this happen. A lot of individuals wouldn't just sit back and let this happen either.

And the passive energy field that separate the regions? Beyond handwavium, their application is completely ignored. That kind of tech would have gone into somebody's military and then gone to the world's militaries. World War III was much more likely of an outcome than what is shown.

Don't even get me started on the lack of Religious intelligence here. This author obviously doesn't understand ANY religion. I know that Christians wouldn't accept being corraled into one little part of the planet. The whole point of Christianity isn't to live with people you agree with, but to spread what you believe to others. You can't do that, there is no point in being a Christian. Then the muslims and their jihads? You think they're just going to lie down? Ahhh, the lack of understanding in this book was appalling.

I also didn't like a single character.

The writing. I've got conflicting data here. Antao, in his review, states that this was originally in English. The kindle edition I got states:

Translation: Craig Patterson

So, was that translation of certain phrases in the book, translation from English to Portuguese or from Portuguese to English. Mr Barrento lives in Portugal, so I wouldn't think he would need help translating his book to that language? I couldn't find which language this was written in first, nor did I look that hard. Not worth it.

Either way, no matter, the writing was choppy, didn't flow and kept me at arms length. I always felt narrated AT while reading this book and that was off putting.

I doubt I'll ever come across another book by this author, but if I some how do, I certainly won't be reading it.

★☆☆☆☆ 

Mara Strikes Back! (Oh My Goddess! #8) ★★★☆½

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Mara Strikes Back!
Series: Oh My Goddess! #8
Author: Kosuke Fujishima
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 176
Format: Paperback

Synopsis:

Chapter Stories.

Mara returns. She releases an unhappiness demon on Kei but because of Belldandy the unhappiness is turned to happiness. At the same time Mara also possesses Megumi to try to separate Kei and Bell. With predictable results all around.

Kei and the Auto Club go for a vacation to an old inn and there Kei is visited by a ghost. A ghost his grandfather made a promise to long ago. Kei must fulfill the promise or be possessed.

Skuld makes a new robot, Banpei and there are the typical misadventures. Urd is recalled to Heaven but the goddesses put their heads together and cast a warding around the house, to ostensibly keep Mara out but a side affect is that the gate for Urd can't open either. This crashes the system, again and so the girls are still dependent on moon rocks.

The final story is about Sora trying to make a box lunch for the guy she likes. Belldandy helps her out and Sora gives one to Kei and everyone, but Bell, thinks that Sora likes Kei. Turns out Kei was a test subject and Sora really likes Aoshima, that jerk cousin to Sayoko. No accounting for taste I guess.

My Thoughts:

The stories in this volume were a lot more enjoyable than in previous volumes. The whole Mara Strikes Back was probably the best with the others being slightly funny to meh.

There is so much potential here that Fujishima HAS to get a story right even if by accident. I like his drawings a lot, just kind of wish he'd had a separate manga-ka to do the storylines. But when you write for a monthly magazine, kind of tough to split the cut two ways and have enough to live on I guess.

This time around the picture I chose to showcase stood out to me the moment I saw it and I KNEW it was the one to include. Urd has just messed with Sora's boxlunch with one of her infamous love potions and Belldandy is NOT happy. While Belldandy is usually the levelheaded, peaceable one, she's also the most powerful. It is rather nice to see her looking so determined, with that “annoyed adult” look on her face.

Bell might be sweet but she's also the most mature

 ★★★☆½

• Previous Oh My Goddess! Reviews

A Murder of Mages (Maradaine Constabulary #1) ★★★☆☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: A Murder of Mages
Series: Maradaine Constabulary #1
Author: Marshall Maresca
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 341
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Satrine Rainey, former Intelligence Officer, wife of a former Maradaine Constable and mother of two, must forge her way into the Constabulary as an Inspector Third Class so as to provide for her family. Her husband, hurt on duty, is now a human vegetable and his superiors have hung him out to dry, financially speaking. Satrine successfully gets the job. She is paired up with Minox Welling, an uncircled mage who uses rather unorthodox investigative methods. Minox's nickname is Jinx, as he has already lost 3 partners.

They begin by investigating the murder of a mage who had his heart cut out. More murders follow, apparently without much rhyme or reason beyond them being of mages. At the same time Satrine has to worry about her deception being found out and kicked off the force.

Her deception is found out when her daughter gets involved with a college student and Satrine puts a very public stop to the relationship. The boy retaliates by telling his daddy who knows the Commisioner, whose seal Satrine forged to get her the job. It all comes crashing down and she is off the force and having to seriously think about being a prostitute to support her family.

Then she figures out what is going with the murders, discovers that her former partner is next on the list and sets out to rescue him even while not officially being on the force. She has the help of 2 other Constables and ends up saving Minox, getting reinstated in the Constabulary and bringing the murderer to justice.

There is another storyline involving Minox and another uncircled mage, but it is very much setup for future books and doesn't impact this one very much.

My Thoughts:

After my mis-adventure with the stupidity of the first Maradaine book, I came into this with extremely low expectations. It is a good thing I did.

Thankfully, none of the characters were complete idiots like the guy in the other book. However, everything, from characterers to plot to motivations, were still very simplistic. There are times I want a simple book, especially after reading one of the Malazan tomes, but there is a difference between simple and simplistic.

I was not impressed with this book at all, but I also didn't feel like throwing it out the window. That's about the only praise you'll get out of me for this. I'm done with Maresca and will leave him to those who enjoy his writing. I am not one of those people.

★★★☆☆ 

• The Thorn of Dentonhill (Maradaine #1)

Reaper's Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen #7) ★★★★☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Reaper's Gale
Series: Malazan Book of the Fallen #7
Author: Steven Erikson
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 940
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

The Edur/Letheri Empire continues to totter on. Rhulad Sengar, instrument of the Broken God, continues to fight against various champions and continues to die and be resurrected. He is cut off from his Edur family and allies by the Letheri beauracracy and it is really the Prime Minister who is running things.

The champions. Karsa Orlong has a plan and he can't let Icarium get in his way. But after a confrontation in the streets, he realizes that Icarium has his own plans which do not involve fighting with the Emperor. Icarium unleashes an instrument of magic but something goes wrong and we don't know if he survives the magical conflagration or not. Karsa faces Rhulad, treats like the boy he is, takes the magical sword and with the help of all the spirits chained to him, forces a path to where the Broken God resides. Instead of killing the Broken God, he simply rejects him and has the blacksmith who made the cursed sword destroy it, along with all the power invested in it by the Broken God.

Gnoll, the Prime Minister, has setup a secret police, the Patriotists. Their end goal is to destroy the Edur, take wealth for themselves and become the rulers in the shadow. Much like any secret police, they end up going to far and with all the other events going, the populace rises up and kills most of them.

Tehol Beddict, with the aide of his manservant Bugg who is the elder god Mael in disguise, continues his economic war against his own people. His goal is to bring down the whole economic system so as to bring about something different that can last. Successful in the end, Tehol becomes the new Emperor.

The Awl, tribal plainsmen, are the latest people under seige by the Letheri. With the arrival of a prophesied leader, Red Mask, who is guarded by two K'Chain Ch'malle, the Awl have a chance of not only surviving but of destroying the Letheri army sent after them. It turns out that the Greyshields were allies of the Awl against the Letheri but the Awl betrayed them and left them to die on the battlefield earlier. Redmask fails and his “guardians” turn on him and kill him for said failure. In his death it is revealed that he was an outcast Letheri and was simply using the Awl to get revenge on Lether. A handful of Awl children survive and are taken underwing by the newly arrived Barghast army which destroys the Letheri army. The two Ch'malle return to their matron, their reasons still a secret.

The Malazans, the outcast Bonehunter army, land on the shores of Lether and begin an invasion. Adjunct Tavore is as silent as ever and nobody in the army knows what is going on. Fiddler speculates that she is simply going after the Broken God and not just Lether. The Malazans split up and fight their way to the capital, only to find it already in chaos due to the Patriotists, Karsa Orlong's killing of the Emperor, Icarium's machine gone wrong and Tehol Beddict's plans. They put Tehol on the throne and are set to go elsewhere, whereever Tavore decides.

There is yet another storyline dealing with a disparate group of Tiste Andii, Letheri slaves, Tiste Edur, Imass, Eleint dragons and the birth of a new Azath House. Dealing with betrayals from long ago, it has no direct impact on the overall storyline in this book and as such, I'm not typing up the details. This “summary” is already longer than most of my whole reviews.

My Thoughts:

My “review” from 2010 is a good 1 paragraph sum up of the book. Obviously, as shown by my summary above, there is a bloody lot more to this book.

While I enjoyed the storyline immensely, I have to admit that Erikson's philosophy once again ruined what could have been a 5star book. Pages upon pages of selfish mutterings and hopeless thoughts and the dwelling upon of pain and hurt real and imagined, past and future. My main problem is that Erikson is great at pointing out flaws, in people, in situations, in institutions, in laws but then he doesn't have his characters propose any solutions beyond “I will Endure”. He spends a section using his characters to talk about how the whole of existance itself was nothing but a betrayal by forces of chaos conspiring against each other. If Erikson thinks even half of what he writes, how does the man get out of bed each morning? He writes the true Existential Existance. It is pointless. That is depressing and it really brought home to me how much Hope I have being a Christian. Thank God.

With so much going on, I had to simply sit back, enjoy each section as it was presented to me and not try to put it all together. Even though this is book 7 in the series, Erikson is still just giving us pieces of an overall puzzle that has a lot of missing pieces. Erikson knows the whole picture but is only giving the readers some of the pieces of the puzzle and forcing us to figure out what the whole might look like from the little we do know. Forcing each reader to become a literary archeologist or to give up the series in disgust.

Now, with all of that out of the way...

I still liked this a lot. When the various plots were rolling along, I couldn't put this book down. The Malazan storyline didn't start until past the halfway mark and I kept waiting for them to be included which I think took my attention away from earlier parts of the book. There was a Segulah woman as a champion but she never fought Rhulad. She escaped, which kind of disappointed me, as I wanted to see how she would have fared against the Emperor. Karsa was just an obnoxious twit the entire time and it was obvious that Rhulad couldn't defeat him.

The whole Awl storyline almost more about the mystery of the K'Chain Ch'malle than anything else. For a species supposedly extinct for a million years, they're surprisingly active. So where have they been hiding out? I also wondered who Redmask actually was. I'm sure there are two sentences in one of the earlier books that explains it but I suspect I'll just go on the Malazan Wiki and find out. Why do all the hardwork when someone else has already done it?

Aaaaaand I just looked. No other references to Redmask. Just one of those loose puzzle pieces that Erikson likes to scatter about.

While the storylines are interesting and engaging, there is almost no point in saying “this was a good part” because somebody dies in every “good part”. Hence the name of the series. And yet I still read this series for a second time. Not sure if that means that Erikson is actually a really good writer or that I'm just a sick reader who needs help.

This was the last book in the series that I rated highly when I read them initially. I have a feeling that the next 3 will be just as bad the second time around. I am girding up my loins for that.

★★★★☆ 

• Reaper's Gale (2010 Review)
• Previous Malazan Book of the Fallen Reviews