Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #14 ★✬☆☆☆

 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 by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #14
Authors: Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 51
Words: 2K

Everyone is hanging out in Casey’s old hometown. A bronze cow is stolen from the roof of a convenience store and Casey decides to solve the case. Turns out the cow is solid gold and a national treasure of Slavakia. An unscrupulous businessman is trying to buy it and the Feds are on the case. While Casey, with help from the turtles and April, bumbles about like an idiot.

Yep. I’m done. This was stupid and idiotic. Casey is just dumb and the turtles do nothing to make him smarter but simply enable his stupidity. Plus, we have ninja turtles and all the authors can think of for a storyline is a gold cow? It’s not even bad, it is worse, it is banal.

I’ve got a marvel comic I want to try next, so that will be coming later today. I figure there’s no sense wasting time and waiting until next month.

★✬☆☆☆

• All My “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” Reviews

Universe 2 ★★★☆☆

 

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 by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Universe 2
Series: Universe Anthology #2
Author: Terry Carr (ed)
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 231
Words: 70K

Marginally better than the previous volume, but with some of the names involved, I expected a LOT better. Here’s the TOC:

RETROACTIVE

by Bob Shaw

WHEN WE WENT TO SEE THE END OF THE WORLD

by Robert Silverberg

FUNERAL SERVICE

by Gerard F. Conway

A SPECIAL CONDITION IN SUMMIT CITY

by R. A. Lafferty

PATRON OF THE ARTS

by William Rotsler

USEFUL PHRASES FOR THE TOURIST

by Joanna Russ

ON THE DOWNHILL SIDE

by Harlan Ellison

THE OTHER PERCEIVER

by Pamela Sargent

MY HEAD’S IN A DIFFERENT PLACE, NOW

by Grania Davis

STALKING THE SUN

by Gordon Eklund

THE MAN WHO WAVED HELLO

by Gardner R. Dozois

THE HEADLESS MAN

by Gene Wolfe

TIGER BOY
by Edgar Pangborn

The weirdest, out there, completely bonzo’d gourd story was without a doubt the one by Grania Davis. A couple of druggies go to Mexico or South America, or some place south of California and get stoned out of their gourd and eventually turn into monsters. It was very disturbing.

However, I still wasn’t sold on this series. I’ll give it one more book to try to actually interest me but if it doesn’t, I’m going to have to call it quits. I’d probably be better off quitting now but I don’t have another anthology series lined up and I want that. Now that I just wrote that, that is absolutely silly. I would be better served simply not reading something than something that is sub-par, like this Universes series. So I’m done.

And this is one reason WHY I write reviews as well as rate the books I read. Being introspective sometimes takes time to allow my thoughts to stop swirling and to settle and that is when I have moments of clarity like the above paragraph.

★★★☆☆

• Universe 1

Liberation (Seal Team 13 #2) ★★✬☆☆

 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 by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Liberation
Series: Seal Team 13 #2
Authors: Evan Currie
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 321
Words: 117.5K

While slightly better executed than the first book, the nonsense about the Veil still continues (if you are ignorant of the supernatural you supposedly can't be affected by it. But that rule is broken so many times that I wonder why it was even included.)

A mediocre urban fantasy tale that I won't bother with any future installments. Currie just isn't worth my time any more.

★★✬☆☆

• Seal Team 13 (Book 1)

The Devil in Miss Urd (Oh My Goddess! #11) ★★☆☆☆ (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: The Devil in Miss Urd
Series: Oh My Goddess! #11
Author: Kosuke Fujishima
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 176
Format: Paperback

Synopsis:

Kei, Bell and the gang all “win” a trip to a hotsprings. There, they run across Mara and they all decide to call a truce while on vacation. Of course, it is all a ruse by Mara to gain a strand of Urd's hair, which she uses to make a clone of Urd. The clone is empty and needs a soul.

Mara kidnapps Urd and using junkstore equipment, separates her goddess half from her demon half. The demon half Mara sends into the clone and lets it loose. Belldandy realizes what is going on and knows that if one half of Urd's soul perishes, the other will as well. So they can't destroy Demon Urd, just try to subdue her. Goddess Urd gets free and with the help of Belldandy and Skuld, Urd is put back together again. Of course, there is an empty “Urd skin” lying around.

The book ends with a one shot story of Banpei the robot putting on the Urd skin and going around helping people.

My Thoughts:

This was amusing. Convoluted, silly and not well thought out, but amusing nonetheless.

I think my biggest problem with this series is that I constantly see the manga-ka undercutting himself in the longterm to get what he wants in the short term. Take Urd. She's supposedly half-goddess and half-demon. Gods and Demons are supposedly the antithesis of each other, so how did she come about? And then it is revealed that even the Almighty couldn't separate Urd's two natures but we're supposed to believe that imbecilic Mara can do it? It is just too evident that Fujishima is making things up as he goes and the inconsistancies are glaring.

Going to be talking to myself for a minute, so bear with it. This series is making me not want to read manga at all. I dread having to read this because it is so blah and this re-read has destroyed all my good memories of what I read before. The romance and humor that appealed to me when I was 24 has not matured along with me. I've outgrown this and cannot overlook the faults. And yet I paid for the whole 48 volumes. I feel like I've got a ball and chain wrapped around my neck and I've been tossed off the dock.

And when I put it as bluntly as that, I realize something. I don't like this manga anymore and while I spent some good money on it, spending TIME on it will not justify the money. I need to cut my losses and just let it go. I am done with this series. Hopefully I can at least sell it on Craigslist and not lose all my money.

I think this final picture is appropriate. Goodbye Oh My Goddess! Only the anime ova shall live on in my memory. This manga has punished me enough.

Sweet Belldandy, it wasn't only Kei who loved you back then

★★☆☆☆ 

• Previous Oh My Goddess! Reviews

Curse of the Wendigo (The Monstrumologist #2) ☆☆☆☆½ DNF'd@64%

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: Curse of the Wendigo
Series: The Monstrumologist #2
Author: Rick Yancey
Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Horror
Pages: 464/DNF'd at 64%
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Will Henry and his master rescue a friend of the Monstrumologist's at the man's wife's behest. Upon their return, they attend the annual Monstrumologist meeting in New York. The man is not better and the wife is an ex-fiance of the Monstrumologist.

I abandoned this at the 64% mark.

My Thoughts:

Warthrop the monstrumologist had a fiance who then married his best friend. The woman reveals that she is still in love with Warthrop and they commit adultery while the best friend lays dying in a hospital. Ouch, right?

Then there is this wonderful piece of narration about it from Will Henry:

'Some would judge them. I do not.

If it was a sin, it was sanctified-

the trespass consecrated by the act itself.

He met himself in the purity of her eyes

and obtained absolution upon her altar.'

~Page 215

All I could think of was the verse from Isaiah:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,

who put darkness for light and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Isaiah 5:20

What kind of messed up thinking is Yancey putting into his book? I want NO part of something so abhorrent. I DNF'd this book and I'm abandoning the series and I'm now going to avoid Yancey.

☆☆☆☆½

• The Monstrumologist (Book 1)

Bookburners: Season One Volume One ☆☆☆☆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: Bookburners: Season One Volume One
Series: Bookburners
Author: Max Gladstone
Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 295
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

New York Police Detective Sal gets sucked into the world of the Bookburners when her brother opens a magical book and ends up in a coma after a demon possesses him.

Now under the auspices of the Catholic church with Father Menchu, with Presbyterian layman and former demon possessed Liam, super duper fighter secret keeper Grace and Archivist Asanti, Sal is out to capture dangerous magical books that could have a huge negative impact on the human race.

My Thoughts:

This is the first half, 8 short stories, of the first volume of the Bookburners. It is a collection of short stories that tell an overall bigger story. Things were flying along right up until the last story. Then I had 2 serious issues.

A transgender character is one of the main side characters and everybody in the group is perfectly fine with it, including the Catholic Priest and the layman Presbyter. The one character who does have a problem with the whole transgender issue is literally demonized by the author. Not going to be reading more of that!

Then you have the relationship between Sal and Liam. They end up sleeping together once and then wonder where things are going. By the end of this volume, Liam has decided since he was damned for being demon possessed, what's a little fornication on the side? It was horrible to read and yet shows the mind set of most 21^st century people in this day and age. There is no mention of Jesus Christ, just the Catholic Church's traditions. There was no power towards Salvation.

So no more of this for me.

☆☆☆☆½