INUYASHA #27
-R. Takahashi-manga
THE BRONZE CANTICLES: MYSTIC QUEST
-T. & L. Hickman-fantasy
-453-the saga continues, in 3 stories again. Deals with a new set of people, mostly the children or relatives of those from Mystic Warrior. The human world is about a group of mystics trying to find the original city of the gods. The elven world is about a group trying to find an artifact in the capital city of the Kyree. The goblin story is about a goblin sent to spy out on a trollish city and discovers a whole library of books. Overall, I actually liked this better than the first. More going on, and a better understanding of everything. Not sure how the 3 worlds coming together is going to work out, interesting to find out.
THE SWAN'S WAR: THE SHADOW ROADS
-S. Russell-fantasy
-433-the conclusion to The Swan's War trilogy. Alaan, Elise and their respective groups face off against Hafydd and his. Death, also known as Meachi, is trying to get free from the spell that walled him in from the living. Everything comes together quickly in the end and Death is walled in again, Hafydd goes back to the river and Alaan and Elise go their ways. The groups all go back to their ways of life, forever changed. To be honest, it seemed a bit to pat and quick. I enjoyed the ending, but with such humble beginnings[the feud between the Will's and the Renne's], to escalate things to Death himself trying to walk the earth again, it just seemed almost anti-climactic. Well written, well thought out though. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this trilogy and am looking forward to re-reads already :-)
VAMPIRE HUNTER D
-H. Kikuchi-fantasy
-238-the first novel in the Vampire Hunter D light novel series. A young woman is bit by a local Noble and hires D to kill the Noble to free her. A local human thug, some mutant rebels and other demons all come together to make life hard for D as he just tries to do his job. Obviously a first novel. Descriptions go something like this "The wind snarled like a beast across the barren sky". It is like using fingerpaints to do a portrait. Gets the job done, but kind of makes you groan at the amateurishness of it. No real character development, but since I'm guessing D is the only character common in all the books, not surprising. A nice light read.
STAR WARS: THE BOUNTY HUNTER WARS: THE MANDALORIAN ARMOR
-K.W. Jeter-fantasy
-387-2 stories. One taking place around New Hope and the second during Return of the Jedi. About Boba Fett. First story is about Fett taking down the Bounty Hunters Guild. The second story is what happens to him after being eaten by the Sarlacc. Not really sure how canon this is, considering all that Traviss has written about the Mando and Fett himself. I'm enjoying it though. No jedi, lots of assassins and bounty hunters though. Looking forward to the next 2.
FAHRENHEIT 451
-R. Bradbury-science fiction
-190- in the nebulous future the masses are entertained with mindless drivel and books are banned, hunted and burned when found. One man discovers how empty everything is and goes on the run from the authorities and finds others like himself. Ends with the US being nuked and the premise that these "book rememberers" will help rebuild civilization. I can't say I really enjoyed this book. The writing style was annoying, too dramatic, over the top, when describing the internal struggle felt by the protagonist. And a culture that allows the youth to grow up to be cattle, it couldn't survive very long. The kind of people needed to make a culture survive that was described couldn't grow up in the culture described. It doesn't fit.
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
-Sir A.C. Doyle-mystery
-174-a series of short stories about the cases Holmes solves. Slowly but surely working my way through The Complete Sherlock Holmes.
THE BRONZE CANTICLES: MYSTIC EMPIRE
-T. & L. Hickman-fantasy
-391-the conclusion to the Bronze Canticles trilogy. The goblins get a rift gate to the human world and invade. The Shuraj[dead magic] elves are going to be destroyed by the Kyree and get a gate to the human world. The elves make alliance with the humans and work together to close the gates. The gates are closed and the goblins are hunted down. The end. I really didn't care for this ending. The story was cool and all the action was nice. But the whole point was the "Binding of Worlds", which never happened. The Hickman's just let it slide for a later time. Bleh to them!
INUYASHA #28
-R. Takahashi-manga
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS
-J. Verne-fiction, classic
-287- an englishman takes a bet that he can go around the world in 80 days. With his french manservant, he takes off. He saves an indian woman, is pursued by the police as a suspect in a huge bank robbery, and has lots of adventures. Gets home and to the Club exactly on time. Marries the girl and gets the bet money and the real robber is apprehended. This was a good read. Exciting, informative [for the time] and not real long either.
FRONTIER MAGIC: THIRTEENTH CHILD
-P.C. Wrede-fantasy
-344-Wrede turns her hand to the Americas, and specifically the Frontiers. Taking place in the mid 1800's, this is about a girl, whose brother is the 7th son of a seventh son, and she is the 13th child. Grows up thinking she is somehow bad because of being unlucky number 13, until the family moves west to help expand a college town. This is the pioneer story, like Caddy Woodlawn or Laura Ingals Wilder, with magic. This story ends with Eff, the girl, saving some pioneers by using a non-conventional way with some magic in dealing with some magical bugs. Sounds kind of funny, but this was a good book and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series as it comes out.
CAT-A-LYST
-A.D. Foster-fantasy
-206-super beings, that are catlike, watch over earth to let it grow up at its own pace. A rogue SB tries to ruin everything. Humans end up setting things straight. This was a stupid novel and I don't have anything good to say about it. Might have been a good short story though.
STAR WARS: THE BOUNTY HUNTER WARS: SLAVE SHIP
-K.W. Jeter-fantasy
-324-having 2 different storylines at different time periods is confusing when trying to write a review. Boba Fett does this, Boba Fett does that. It is just reading adventures about Boba Fett that have a very thin connection.
NIGHT ANGEL: THE WAY OF SHADOWS
-B. Weeks-fantasy
-661-a young boy becomes the apprentice to the cities top wetboy [super duper assassins] and grows up. Lots of intrigue and politics and the city falls to a northern kingdom. Turns out the Wetboy had a magical item and it ends up bonding with the apprentice, allowing him to become the next Night Angel, a creature that is a balance to 6 other magical creations. It was a bit brutal and graphic. I'll be reading the next 2, but have no desire to own them. Really well written for a first novel though.
STAR WARS: CORUSCANT NIGHTS: PATTERNS OF FORCE
-M. Reaves-fantasy
-288-the conclusion. A young force adept, very powerful is found and hunted. Hooks up with the Pavan group. There is a confrontation with Vader and bota [from the Medstar books] is used. Vader has a bad "trip on bota" and the good parts of the group escape. Jax learns his father loved him and I5, the sentient robot, ends up getting a "soul", or something that can be sensed in the Force anyway. This series almost seems to make light of how the hunt for the remaining Jedi went. This was a mediocre series that wasn't interesting. Not anything like the MedStar duology, sadly.
INUYASHA #29
-R. Takahashi-manga
FIREBIRDS
-S. November, editor-fantasy
-420-an anthology of scifi and fantasy. A bunch of short stories. Some were good, some were simply mediocre and some I thought were stupid. Not a bad collection to introduce to a YA though.
NO NEED FOR TENCHI! #1-12
-H. Okuda-manga
- this takes place after Episode 6 of the OVA. Lots of enemies popping up and bothering Tenchi and the girls. Or silly side adventures. Way too much shojo stuff. Nothing really like the anime. It wasn't very funny and it wasn't very moving. I'm thinking about getting rid of them now.
COREAN CHRONICLES: CADMIAN'S CHOICE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-510-the second book dealing with Dalyn and Mikel, an Alector and a Cadmian. Rogue Alectors are transferring in and it is up to Dalyn and Mikel to navigate the political hidden agendas and figure out what to do and how to do it semi-safely. This was annoying. The politics are as confusing to us the reader, probably more so since we don't have prior experience and knowledge, as to the main characters. Keeping track of what Alector is supposedly supporting which Duarch and Highest and all the military ranking, it is confusing and does not make the read interesting.
YU-GI-OH! #4-7
-K. Takahashi-manga
-the final volumes of the original Yugioh manga. I enjoyed it, but at times the way the badguys were allowed to cheat and get away with it was almost eye-rolling. I mean, Kaiba kidnaps Yugi's Grandfather and displays him dying in a cage in front of a huge crowd of kids and everyone is like "Yeah, Kaiba, you're the coolest" while Yugi's group is "We believe in you Yugi, you can DO it". A little to much sometimes. The final 2 books, dealing with Bakura though, were pretty cool.
THE DARKWAR SAGA: FLIGHT OF THE NIGHT HAWKS
-R. Feist-fantasy
-UNFINISHED
THE ALL-NEW TENCHI MUYO! #1-10
-H. Okuda-manga
-I think I actually liked this better than the original manga series. More action and fighting and less Sasami rescuing little animals and being cutesy. Ends and I don't think that there will be any more. Enjoyable.
THE LAST RUNE: THE KEEP OF FIRE
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-593
THE LAST RUNE: THE DARK REMAINS
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-643
THE LAST RUNE: BLOOD OF MYSTERY
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-579
THE LAST RUNE: THE GATES OF WINTER
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-565
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
May '09
BLEACH #23-25
-T. Kubo-manga
THE LOST FLEET: VALIANT
-J. Campbell-scifi
-284-much better than the 3rd book. More space fighting. Also a traitor trying to kill Alliance people and ships. And the alien side of things gets explored a little more. Geary admits he is in love with Capt Desjani. Enjoyed this.
THE SWAN'S WAR: THE ONE KINGDOM
-S. Russell-fantasy
-517-a land was torn asunder in the distant past by 3 siblings. Today the land groans under a schism of two families. But the Siblings' spirits have returned to finish what they could not last time, conquer all. Follows the adventures of different people caught up in this whirlwind. Very slow for the first 9/10th's of the book and no huge gratuitous displays of magic. 3 people have been "possessed" by the ancient siblings. I'm looking forward to the next book.
XXXHOLIC #13
-Clamp-manga
THE LOST FLEET: RELENTLESS
-J. Campbell-scifi
-320-the Lost Fleet finally makes it back to Alliance territory. In spite of overwhelming odds, alien intervention and sabotage by officers in his own fleet, Geary makes it home. Ends with them planning a raid on the Syndic CEO homeworld to cut the head off of the snake and then deal with the aliens as best they can. A good cut off point for the series, but maybe he'll do one more in this series? Just checked the bibliography on his website, John G Hemry and it looks like he WILL be writing another book, due out in '10.
KING RAVEN: TUCK
-S. Lawhead-historical fiction
-443-the finale to the Robin Hood legend. Bran enlists the help of other Cymry [welshmen] and some Freinc lords and forces Rufus for the rulership of Elfael. So the story ends happily, unlike the original Robin Hood legend. I enjoyed this, but it all just seemed a bit to pat at the end. Everybody just goes "oh, ok, lets do the right thing after years of not and call it a day". But it was an ending that made sense, even if I didn't particularly care for it :-)
TAKEN: THE CANDLE OF DISTANT EARTH
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-262-the gang all make home to their respective homeworlds. However, Walker and George both decide, just as they find our solar system, that they have "grown" and that now they want to travel. Gee, wish they had decided that before they set out with a whole fleet! And the Villinji who kidnapped them and has been chasing them, well, what do you know? He has a sudden change of perspective and sees that maybe other sentients aren't just "goods" to be sold. How heartwarming . Foster forced this ending and it didn't fit with everything that had gone on before. Glad I never bought these.
STAR WARS: CORUSCANT NIGHTS: JEDI TWILIGHT
-M. Reaves-fantasy
-343- Den and I-Five, from the Med-Star duology show up trying to find Pavan's son[from Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter]. Jax is his name and he is/was a jedi. Takes place after Revenge of the Sith, so the Jedi are being hunted. Jax is a whiner and a loser and I didn't like him at all. I was more interested in Den and I-Five. Also has a big Xizor tie-in[prequel info for Shadows of the Empire]. This book could go either way with fans. Either like it for the tie-in info or dislike it for its complete mediocrity. While I enjoyed the Med-Star duology, I didn't care for this at all. It does, however, show how the remaining Jedi felt after Revenge of the Sith.
THE CHARMED SPHERE
-C. Asara-fantasy
-473-a world where magic is defined by shape [for power] and color[for type]. A really cool premise. A small kingdom is under threat from a neighboring kingdom and must use its mages to supplement it's army. So it sounded good. Then I met the characters. Bunch of whiny, pansy, selfish, no self confidence bunch of pathetic losers. The characters teenager'ish angst and self-doubt completely ruined this book for me. It was not enjoyable and I will not be reading any more by Asara.
VISIONS OF FANTASY
-I. Asimov, editor-fantasy
-180-a series of short stories by different well know fantasy writers. YA, but written well enough that I enjoyed the stories very much too.
THE CROWN OF THE ISLES: THE GODS RETURN
-D. Drake-fantasy
-398-a VERY satisfying ending to the Lord of the Isles, Crown of the Isles series. Garric and Co face the invasion of 'new' gods since the Change did away with all of their old familiar gods. So of course, they break up into groups and go fight. And by the end, Ilna, Cashel and Sharina end up Ascending and become the new Sister, Shepherd and Lady. Pretty cool actually. I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. The writing, while familiar, didn't grate on me like Mirror of Worlds did. It seemed a bit fresher, more polished. Really enjoyable and a good, happy ending.
REBORN! #6 & 7
-A. Amano-manga
FRUITS BASKET #22
-N. Takaya-manga
CROSSROADS: SHADOW GATE
-K. Elliott-fantasy
-475-the hopelessness of the characters really grated on me. What can they do, as mere humans, when supernatural powers, for good, have turned bad? It was once again unnecessarily sensual. Violent. I just don't know if I'll even read the others as they come out. This just depressed me.
PIP & FLINX: RUNNING FROM THE DEITY
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-255-Pip goes to a low tech world to hide and get repairs. Instead of staying hidden in his ship, he goes out and makes contact with the natives, setting a war in motion. He, and the A.I. of the ship, stop the war and take off. This was PATHETIC! Nothing but Pip feeling bad for himself and doing stupid things and feeling bad about those, etc, etc. Foster has totally lost the FUN that started this series. Boooo!
STAR WARS: CORUSCANT NIGHTS: STREET OF SHADOWS
-M. Reaves-fantasy
-306- much better! Jax has matured enough to stop being a whiner. The gang ends up trying to find out who the murderer of a famous Camaasi artist is, because his assistant wants help getting off world. Vader hires a jedi-killer to hunt Jax. That doofus Captain from the prequels, Typho, is on some vendetta to avenge Padme, cause apparently he was in love with her. That story arc was just LAME! Better than the first book, but definitely NOT a "buy" book.
COREAN CHRONICLES: ALECTOR'S CHOICE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-510-set thousands of years before the first trilogy. The ifrit's are cultivating Corus, and another planet Efron, as possible replacements to their current homeworld. Both are vying to be the home of the Master Scepter. This story deals with the Alector [ifrit] and the Cadmium [human] who have to deal with uprisings, etc that threaten to bias the Archon on their current homeworld against Corus. Overall this story reminded me a LOT more of a Recluce book. It took me over a week to read it and it just didn't engage me like the original trilogy. Plodding, that is a good word for this book. The 2 main characters were completely un-engaging. The plot has enough stuff hidden way for the future books that I was constantly trying to figure out if something I didn't understand would be explained later in this book, in another book, or not at all. Not a good thing for a smooth read.
TRANSLUCENT #1
-K. Okamoto-manga
YU-GI-OH! #1-3
-K. Takahashi-manga
THE SWAN'S WAR: THE ISLE OF BATTLE
-S. Russell-fantasy
-467-absolutely fantastic. Haffyd goes after Alaard to kill him and Elise chases after Alaard to save him. Fills out the picture in regards to the Children of Wyrr, who have taken on human hosts to live again. Engaging, quick [not slow like The One Kingdom] and opens up an even bigger world than we thought. Wyrr, and his Brother Aillyn are at odds. I know this is a trilogy, so I have to wonder how Russell is going to wrap everything up in 1 book.
CRYPTONOMICON
-N. Stephenson-fiction
-UNFINISHED-gay brits, violent marines, math, and 3 story lines that have no relation to eachother 150 pages into the story. Not going to waste any more of my time.
THE COUNCIL WARS: EMERALD SEA
-J. Ringo-fantasy
-490-Herzer and Co go south to some islands to make an alliance with mer-people to take preventative action against Paul's plans to invade across the ocean. Ok, no more of this series for me. Lots and lots of sex stuff. It was a naval story with dragons. And lots of sex, that didn't have anything to do with the story other than to spice it up. Bleh.
REBORN! #8
-A. Amano-manga
NOBLE DEAD: REBEL FAY
-B. & J.C. Hendee-fantasy
-416-the group goes into Elven land to find Leesil's mom. They give up their weapons and "trust" the elves, who are really bent on destroying them. Kind of like the U.N. and the United States. So basically everybody acts like a complete idiot and nobody even tries to think. They rescue his mom and then leave. Chap finds out his memory has been selectively sliced, at birth, by the Fay, so he is just a tool. It was just to much with everybody reacting like they were on hair-triggers instead of actually trying to think. And Leesil needs a good beatdown to get rid of his attitude.
PIP & FLINX: TROUBLE MAGNET
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-272-Flinx gets involved with some gang kids while trying to decide if humanity is worth saving. Basically, Foster slaps on the name of Pip and Flinx to sell this mediocre Commonwealth novel. A bit of action, and very little whining by Flinx, make this book mediocre instead of abysmal. Foster appears to have run out of ideas, real ideas, for Flinx and this novel really shows that. Nothing original, nothing exciting, no advancement of the "Must stop the BIG BAD Thing that will destroy us all" plot [which is really lame imo anyway], in fact, so much nothing that without Foster's name on it, this book would have died before ever getting out into the wild. I just want this series to end now. Foster has ruined it completely by trying to milk it for close to 30 years. Shame on him!
-T. Kubo-manga
THE LOST FLEET: VALIANT
-J. Campbell-scifi
-284-much better than the 3rd book. More space fighting. Also a traitor trying to kill Alliance people and ships. And the alien side of things gets explored a little more. Geary admits he is in love with Capt Desjani. Enjoyed this.
THE SWAN'S WAR: THE ONE KINGDOM
-S. Russell-fantasy
-517-a land was torn asunder in the distant past by 3 siblings. Today the land groans under a schism of two families. But the Siblings' spirits have returned to finish what they could not last time, conquer all. Follows the adventures of different people caught up in this whirlwind. Very slow for the first 9/10th's of the book and no huge gratuitous displays of magic. 3 people have been "possessed" by the ancient siblings. I'm looking forward to the next book.
XXXHOLIC #13
-Clamp-manga
THE LOST FLEET: RELENTLESS
-J. Campbell-scifi
-320-the Lost Fleet finally makes it back to Alliance territory. In spite of overwhelming odds, alien intervention and sabotage by officers in his own fleet, Geary makes it home. Ends with them planning a raid on the Syndic CEO homeworld to cut the head off of the snake and then deal with the aliens as best they can. A good cut off point for the series, but maybe he'll do one more in this series? Just checked the bibliography on his website, John G Hemry and it looks like he WILL be writing another book, due out in '10.
KING RAVEN: TUCK
-S. Lawhead-historical fiction
-443-the finale to the Robin Hood legend. Bran enlists the help of other Cymry [welshmen] and some Freinc lords and forces Rufus for the rulership of Elfael. So the story ends happily, unlike the original Robin Hood legend. I enjoyed this, but it all just seemed a bit to pat at the end. Everybody just goes "oh, ok, lets do the right thing after years of not and call it a day". But it was an ending that made sense, even if I didn't particularly care for it :-)
TAKEN: THE CANDLE OF DISTANT EARTH
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-262-the gang all make home to their respective homeworlds. However, Walker and George both decide, just as they find our solar system, that they have "grown" and that now they want to travel. Gee, wish they had decided that before they set out with a whole fleet! And the Villinji who kidnapped them and has been chasing them, well, what do you know? He has a sudden change of perspective and sees that maybe other sentients aren't just "goods" to be sold. How heartwarming . Foster forced this ending and it didn't fit with everything that had gone on before. Glad I never bought these.
STAR WARS: CORUSCANT NIGHTS: JEDI TWILIGHT
-M. Reaves-fantasy
-343- Den and I-Five, from the Med-Star duology show up trying to find Pavan's son[from Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter]. Jax is his name and he is/was a jedi. Takes place after Revenge of the Sith, so the Jedi are being hunted. Jax is a whiner and a loser and I didn't like him at all. I was more interested in Den and I-Five. Also has a big Xizor tie-in[prequel info for Shadows of the Empire]. This book could go either way with fans. Either like it for the tie-in info or dislike it for its complete mediocrity. While I enjoyed the Med-Star duology, I didn't care for this at all. It does, however, show how the remaining Jedi felt after Revenge of the Sith.
THE CHARMED SPHERE
-C. Asara-fantasy
-473-a world where magic is defined by shape [for power] and color[for type]. A really cool premise. A small kingdom is under threat from a neighboring kingdom and must use its mages to supplement it's army. So it sounded good. Then I met the characters. Bunch of whiny, pansy, selfish, no self confidence bunch of pathetic losers. The characters teenager'ish angst and self-doubt completely ruined this book for me. It was not enjoyable and I will not be reading any more by Asara.
VISIONS OF FANTASY
-I. Asimov, editor-fantasy
-180-a series of short stories by different well know fantasy writers. YA, but written well enough that I enjoyed the stories very much too.
THE CROWN OF THE ISLES: THE GODS RETURN
-D. Drake-fantasy
-398-a VERY satisfying ending to the Lord of the Isles, Crown of the Isles series. Garric and Co face the invasion of 'new' gods since the Change did away with all of their old familiar gods. So of course, they break up into groups and go fight. And by the end, Ilna, Cashel and Sharina end up Ascending and become the new Sister, Shepherd and Lady. Pretty cool actually. I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. The writing, while familiar, didn't grate on me like Mirror of Worlds did. It seemed a bit fresher, more polished. Really enjoyable and a good, happy ending.
REBORN! #6 & 7
-A. Amano-manga
FRUITS BASKET #22
-N. Takaya-manga
CROSSROADS: SHADOW GATE
-K. Elliott-fantasy
-475-the hopelessness of the characters really grated on me. What can they do, as mere humans, when supernatural powers, for good, have turned bad? It was once again unnecessarily sensual. Violent. I just don't know if I'll even read the others as they come out. This just depressed me.
PIP & FLINX: RUNNING FROM THE DEITY
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-255-Pip goes to a low tech world to hide and get repairs. Instead of staying hidden in his ship, he goes out and makes contact with the natives, setting a war in motion. He, and the A.I. of the ship, stop the war and take off. This was PATHETIC! Nothing but Pip feeling bad for himself and doing stupid things and feeling bad about those, etc, etc. Foster has totally lost the FUN that started this series. Boooo!
STAR WARS: CORUSCANT NIGHTS: STREET OF SHADOWS
-M. Reaves-fantasy
-306- much better! Jax has matured enough to stop being a whiner. The gang ends up trying to find out who the murderer of a famous Camaasi artist is, because his assistant wants help getting off world. Vader hires a jedi-killer to hunt Jax. That doofus Captain from the prequels, Typho, is on some vendetta to avenge Padme, cause apparently he was in love with her. That story arc was just LAME! Better than the first book, but definitely NOT a "buy" book.
COREAN CHRONICLES: ALECTOR'S CHOICE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-510-set thousands of years before the first trilogy. The ifrit's are cultivating Corus, and another planet Efron, as possible replacements to their current homeworld. Both are vying to be the home of the Master Scepter. This story deals with the Alector [ifrit] and the Cadmium [human] who have to deal with uprisings, etc that threaten to bias the Archon on their current homeworld against Corus. Overall this story reminded me a LOT more of a Recluce book. It took me over a week to read it and it just didn't engage me like the original trilogy. Plodding, that is a good word for this book. The 2 main characters were completely un-engaging. The plot has enough stuff hidden way for the future books that I was constantly trying to figure out if something I didn't understand would be explained later in this book, in another book, or not at all. Not a good thing for a smooth read.
TRANSLUCENT #1
-K. Okamoto-manga
YU-GI-OH! #1-3
-K. Takahashi-manga
THE SWAN'S WAR: THE ISLE OF BATTLE
-S. Russell-fantasy
-467-absolutely fantastic. Haffyd goes after Alaard to kill him and Elise chases after Alaard to save him. Fills out the picture in regards to the Children of Wyrr, who have taken on human hosts to live again. Engaging, quick [not slow like The One Kingdom] and opens up an even bigger world than we thought. Wyrr, and his Brother Aillyn are at odds. I know this is a trilogy, so I have to wonder how Russell is going to wrap everything up in 1 book.
CRYPTONOMICON
-N. Stephenson-fiction
-UNFINISHED-gay brits, violent marines, math, and 3 story lines that have no relation to eachother 150 pages into the story. Not going to waste any more of my time.
THE COUNCIL WARS: EMERALD SEA
-J. Ringo-fantasy
-490-Herzer and Co go south to some islands to make an alliance with mer-people to take preventative action against Paul's plans to invade across the ocean. Ok, no more of this series for me. Lots and lots of sex stuff. It was a naval story with dragons. And lots of sex, that didn't have anything to do with the story other than to spice it up. Bleh.
REBORN! #8
-A. Amano-manga
NOBLE DEAD: REBEL FAY
-B. & J.C. Hendee-fantasy
-416-the group goes into Elven land to find Leesil's mom. They give up their weapons and "trust" the elves, who are really bent on destroying them. Kind of like the U.N. and the United States. So basically everybody acts like a complete idiot and nobody even tries to think. They rescue his mom and then leave. Chap finds out his memory has been selectively sliced, at birth, by the Fay, so he is just a tool. It was just to much with everybody reacting like they were on hair-triggers instead of actually trying to think. And Leesil needs a good beatdown to get rid of his attitude.
PIP & FLINX: TROUBLE MAGNET
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-272-Flinx gets involved with some gang kids while trying to decide if humanity is worth saving. Basically, Foster slaps on the name of Pip and Flinx to sell this mediocre Commonwealth novel. A bit of action, and very little whining by Flinx, make this book mediocre instead of abysmal. Foster appears to have run out of ideas, real ideas, for Flinx and this novel really shows that. Nothing original, nothing exciting, no advancement of the "Must stop the BIG BAD Thing that will destroy us all" plot [which is really lame imo anyway], in fact, so much nothing that without Foster's name on it, this book would have died before ever getting out into the wild. I just want this series to end now. Foster has ruined it completely by trying to milk it for close to 30 years. Shame on him!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
April '09
THE COUNCIL WARS: THERE WILL BE DRAGONS
-J. Ringo-fantasy
-719-in the 41st century mankind lives in a utopia. People do whatever they feel like while a computer program called 'mother' makes sure that nobody kills somebody else and that everyone gets all the energy they need. 'Mother' is overseen by a council of humans. It has split into 2 factions. One wants to just keep things the way they are, the other wants to return to the "good old days of hard work and character building" with them in charge, of course. A coup happens. In the ensuing fight, earth is deprived of all her energy, and hence her gadgets. So everyone has to go back to pre-coal industrial happenings. One guy rallies a town and prepares for the attack by the other people. The good guys win but the council wars look like it could be generational, so everybody settles down to live a long, pre-industrial life. It was quite interesting. Ringo confuses me though. One minute he is talking about patriotism, importance of a strong military and the dangers of a bloated federal govt, etc, etc and then 2 people are shacking it up like it is totally normal.
INUYASHA #25 & 26
-R. Takahashi-manga
STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
-K. Traviss-fantasy
-256-Jabba's son is kidnapped by the Separatists who make it look like it was the Jedi. The Jedi have to rescue the little slimer. Anakin has a padawan. LOTS of clone troopers die. Kenobi fights Asajj Ventress. Once again, Traviss's anti-jedi streak shows, strongly. Asajj is shown as some hurt little girl who is just trying to make up for her masters death by becoming a mass murderer.
RECLUCE: NATURAL ORDERMAGE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-496-a young punk is exiled from Recluce to Hamor. He turns out to be a "natural ordermage", basically someone who can't learn, just can or can't, do things with his power. Interesting and better writing than the early Recluce books.
A MADNESS OF ANGELS
-K. Griffin-fantasy
-538-urban fantasy. A sorcerer comes back from the dead 2 years after being killed. He has hooked up with a magic in the telephone lines. He was killed by his old master who wanted the telephone magic, the Blue Angels. Matthew, the resurrected guy, goes after his former master and lackeys to get revenge. The word that came to mind after reading this was "guttural". I don't like urban fantasy. If fantasy can be compared to water, urban fantasy is dark scummy water. There was no redeeming value about this book. There was SO much profanity/obscenity spewed out that I felt like I was standing in a sewer hole. I would never recommend this to anyone.
THE TWO HANDED ENGINE
-H. Kuttner and C.L.Moore-scifi
-unfinished. A bunch of short stories that all seemed to be gloomy and "psy" this and "psy" that. There was a nameless dread in almost every story that just got old after about the 3rd story.
OZ: THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ
-F. Baum-juvenile fantasy
-unfinished-Dorothy's aunt and uncle come to Oz after failing to make the farm work. It was just to much "oh, everyone is good and happy in Oz" in one chapter while the next shows some neerdowell getting together all the malcontent elements of Oz. Baum just contradicted himself and it was all extremely, to much so for me, sugary syrupy sap.
THIS IS NOT A GAME
-W.J. Williams-tech fiction
-367-This was great! Real world, bots, net gaming, social networking, murder, Russian mafya, national economies attacked, this book ties them all together. It started off kind of slow and odd, with the main character in a 3rd world country that was collapsing. But once she got back to LA, the main story took off. The ending was a bit rushed, imo. Basically, an overlapping and intertwining of the real world and the networld. It was a cool ride. However, due to the slow start and rushed, almost simplistic, ending, I don't think it was as good as it could have been. Really recommend it though to anyone who thinks that the net can't affect the real world :-0
BLEACH #21 & 22
-T. Kubo-manga
REBORN! #3-5
-A. Amano-manga
STAR WARS: CLOAK OF DECEPTION
-J. Luceno-fantasy
-342-An immediate prequel to Episode 1. I never was a big fan of Qui Gon, so that aspect of things didn't appeal to me. This was more a book of the politics of the day and as such, wasn't very exciting. More about Palps manipulating things. That was interesting :-) One thing I did like was the inclusion of Vergere. I wish we had the actual story of her turning though. Sadly, this was much like of most of Luceno's Star Wars books. Not badly written, but not exciting by any stretch of the imagination. I wouldn't recommend this to a casual Star Wars fan.
RED MARS
-K.S. Robinson-scifi
-572-a story about the colonization of Mars. It was filled with characters who had no redeeming qualities. Nothing in this book appealed to me at all. From dysfunctionality on a 100+people size to large paragraphs rambling about Mars to the pure pettiness of the characters involved, nothing interested me. It was almost like Robinson set out to write a book about the worst set of exceptional characters he could. I certainly won't be reading the other 2 Mars books.
THE LOST FLEET: COURAGEOUS
-J. Campbell-scifi
-299-things started to wear a bit in this book. Geary saves them, they complain. They get smacked up. Geary does this, Geary thinks that. Really need to move past the whole "running around in enemy territory" thing. This was almost a carbon copy of the 2nd book. Different names and places, but same idea. I want something new.
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-232-a collection of short stories of some of Foster's early stuff. I enjoyed this. It was cool seeing ideas that were later expanded in his novels. Nothing really stood out but it was a nice light read and now my collection looks better, with this sitting next to ...Who Needs Enemies?.
-J. Ringo-fantasy
-719-in the 41st century mankind lives in a utopia. People do whatever they feel like while a computer program called 'mother' makes sure that nobody kills somebody else and that everyone gets all the energy they need. 'Mother' is overseen by a council of humans. It has split into 2 factions. One wants to just keep things the way they are, the other wants to return to the "good old days of hard work and character building" with them in charge, of course. A coup happens. In the ensuing fight, earth is deprived of all her energy, and hence her gadgets. So everyone has to go back to pre-coal industrial happenings. One guy rallies a town and prepares for the attack by the other people. The good guys win but the council wars look like it could be generational, so everybody settles down to live a long, pre-industrial life. It was quite interesting. Ringo confuses me though. One minute he is talking about patriotism, importance of a strong military and the dangers of a bloated federal govt, etc, etc and then 2 people are shacking it up like it is totally normal.
INUYASHA #25 & 26
-R. Takahashi-manga
STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
-K. Traviss-fantasy
-256-Jabba's son is kidnapped by the Separatists who make it look like it was the Jedi. The Jedi have to rescue the little slimer. Anakin has a padawan. LOTS of clone troopers die. Kenobi fights Asajj Ventress. Once again, Traviss's anti-jedi streak shows, strongly. Asajj is shown as some hurt little girl who is just trying to make up for her masters death by becoming a mass murderer.
RECLUCE: NATURAL ORDERMAGE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-496-a young punk is exiled from Recluce to Hamor. He turns out to be a "natural ordermage", basically someone who can't learn, just can or can't, do things with his power. Interesting and better writing than the early Recluce books.
A MADNESS OF ANGELS
-K. Griffin-fantasy
-538-urban fantasy. A sorcerer comes back from the dead 2 years after being killed. He has hooked up with a magic in the telephone lines. He was killed by his old master who wanted the telephone magic, the Blue Angels. Matthew, the resurrected guy, goes after his former master and lackeys to get revenge. The word that came to mind after reading this was "guttural". I don't like urban fantasy. If fantasy can be compared to water, urban fantasy is dark scummy water. There was no redeeming value about this book. There was SO much profanity/obscenity spewed out that I felt like I was standing in a sewer hole. I would never recommend this to anyone.
THE TWO HANDED ENGINE
-H. Kuttner and C.L.Moore-scifi
-unfinished. A bunch of short stories that all seemed to be gloomy and "psy" this and "psy" that. There was a nameless dread in almost every story that just got old after about the 3rd story.
OZ: THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ
-F. Baum-juvenile fantasy
-unfinished-Dorothy's aunt and uncle come to Oz after failing to make the farm work. It was just to much "oh, everyone is good and happy in Oz" in one chapter while the next shows some neerdowell getting together all the malcontent elements of Oz. Baum just contradicted himself and it was all extremely, to much so for me, sugary syrupy sap.
THIS IS NOT A GAME
-W.J. Williams-tech fiction
-367-This was great! Real world, bots, net gaming, social networking, murder, Russian mafya, national economies attacked, this book ties them all together. It started off kind of slow and odd, with the main character in a 3rd world country that was collapsing. But once she got back to LA, the main story took off. The ending was a bit rushed, imo. Basically, an overlapping and intertwining of the real world and the networld. It was a cool ride. However, due to the slow start and rushed, almost simplistic, ending, I don't think it was as good as it could have been. Really recommend it though to anyone who thinks that the net can't affect the real world :-0
BLEACH #21 & 22
-T. Kubo-manga
REBORN! #3-5
-A. Amano-manga
STAR WARS: CLOAK OF DECEPTION
-J. Luceno-fantasy
-342-An immediate prequel to Episode 1. I never was a big fan of Qui Gon, so that aspect of things didn't appeal to me. This was more a book of the politics of the day and as such, wasn't very exciting. More about Palps manipulating things. That was interesting :-) One thing I did like was the inclusion of Vergere. I wish we had the actual story of her turning though. Sadly, this was much like of most of Luceno's Star Wars books. Not badly written, but not exciting by any stretch of the imagination. I wouldn't recommend this to a casual Star Wars fan.
RED MARS
-K.S. Robinson-scifi
-572-a story about the colonization of Mars. It was filled with characters who had no redeeming qualities. Nothing in this book appealed to me at all. From dysfunctionality on a 100+people size to large paragraphs rambling about Mars to the pure pettiness of the characters involved, nothing interested me. It was almost like Robinson set out to write a book about the worst set of exceptional characters he could. I certainly won't be reading the other 2 Mars books.
THE LOST FLEET: COURAGEOUS
-J. Campbell-scifi
-299-things started to wear a bit in this book. Geary saves them, they complain. They get smacked up. Geary does this, Geary thinks that. Really need to move past the whole "running around in enemy territory" thing. This was almost a carbon copy of the 2nd book. Different names and places, but same idea. I want something new.
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-232-a collection of short stories of some of Foster's early stuff. I enjoyed this. It was cool seeing ideas that were later expanded in his novels. Nothing really stood out but it was a nice light read and now my collection looks better, with this sitting next to ...Who Needs Enemies?.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
March '09
OZ: OZMA OF OZ
-F. Baum-children's fantasy
-272-Dorothy goes back to Oz and with the help of her old friends and Ozma and a yellow chicken, saves the Queen and children of Ev from the goblin king.
INUYASHA #3-6
-R. Takahashi-manga
SCHOOL RUMBLE #1-5
-J. Kobayashi-manga
AMERICAN NOTES & PICTURES FROM ITALY
-C. Dickens-non-fiction
-UNFINISHED- a travelogue from Dickens' trips to America and Italy. Boring. I got about 100 pages in and then started skimming the American Notes. By the end of that, I didn't even try to skim Pictures from Italy. Not like his fiction at all, really. But that is to be expected.
THE HARPER HALL OF PERN: DRAGONSONG
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-140- a young girl from a fishing hold has great musical talent. Due to her fathers holding to the old ways, however, it is discouraged. She runs away and in the process impresses 9 firelizards. Then she is picked up by a dragon rider and taken to the Harper Hall.
THE HARPER HALL OF PERN: DRAGONSINGER
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-192- Menolly's adventures in the Harper Hold. Trials to be overcome as she learns much about music and such.
THE HARPER HALL OF PERN: DRAGONDRUMS
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-167-follows the adventures of Piemur, a young lad whose voice changes. His adventures as the apprentice to the Master Harper, Robinton. Ends up on the Southern Continent. These 3 novels were in the same vain as her Dragonrider trilogy. Fresh, funny with just the right amount of adventure and adversity to keep you interested without getting you depressed or sad.
INUYASHA #7-18
-R. Takahashi-manga
LOOKING GLASS: MANXOME FOE
-J. Ringo & T. Taylor-scifi
-463-the Vorpal Blade and crew investigate a lost communications outpost. Stumble upon a new species who are being wiped out by the Dreen. Rescue them and come back to earth with the news that the Dreen will arrive within the next 10 years by spaceship. Bergstresser, aka Two-Gun, seems to be taking over as the main protaganist. No Mimi or anything. :-( Some things felt very shallow though. Like two-gun getting married. He meets a girl, talks to her for all of 4-6hrs, and when he comes back, they are planning on getting married. It just didn't seem at all plausible. I still am disappointed in this series though. The first book was JUST so good, oh well.
INUYASHA #19-24
-R. Takahashi-manga
STARWARS: LUKE SKYWALKER AND THE SHADOWS OF MINDOR
-M. Stover-fantasy
-331-soon after the Empire has fallen. A shadowy figure returns to reunite the empire. But it turns out he has some power to transfer his consciousness and he wants to trap Luke and take him over. Overall, this was on the level of The Crystal Star. It was just not on the same level as Stover's other StarWars books and that was very disappointing. It was more like reading some melodramatic play or something.
A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND
-C. Dickens-nonfiction
-UNFINISHED- Dickens writing a history of England for his son. BORING!
NOBLE DEAD: TRAITOR TO THE BLOOD
-B. & JC Hendee-fantasy
-396-Everyone goes back to Leesil's home so he can figure out what happened to his parents. He is a big ball of wussiness in my opinion. Find out a bit more about his past and some about the elves. I just wish everyone in the story would stop having such emotional hangups. Get over yourself and go do what needs to be done!
CASE CLOSED #1-4
-G. Aoyama-manga
JANE EYRE
-C. Bronte-classic
-502- a girl grows up in a school. Becomes a governess. Falls in love with the Master and the Master with her. He is already married though, to a mad woman. Jane leaves, finds her relatives and ends up with Mr Rochester when his wife commits suicide. I can see why this is a classic. Simple but not shallow. This showed the struggle of someone who did what was right, not necessarily exactly what they wanted. And it turned out all ok in the end.
MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK
-C. Dickens-short stories
-144- an old man and 3 others sit around and palaver. Basically this was a serialization between novels. It was not a story in and of itself. Not very interesting. The only thing going for it was the inclusion of Pickwick and the Weller's.
THE BOURNE IDENTITY
-R. Ludlum-fiction
-535- a man wakes up, bullet riddled and with no memory. Through the next couple of months he finds out he is a special forces agent gone outside cover to draw out and destroy an international terrorist. By becoming an international terrorist. Hunted by all, helped and loved by only 1 woman, Bourne must survive to find the truth, about himself and about Carlos. Very different from the movie with Matt Damon. This has another whole layer of politics and intrigue. Global. Complicated. I liked the movie better :-) I do plan on reading the next 2 books though to get the whole story.
OZ: DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ
-F. Baum-childrens fantasy
-256-Dorothy, her cat, a boy named Zeb and his horse get caught in an earthquake and go to the center of the earth. After many adventures they make it to the surface and go to Oz where they go home. This felt like a churned out novel. I didn't enjoy it like I have the other Oz books.
THE BELL AT SEALEY HEAD
-P. McKillip-fantasy
-277- A bell is heard at sunsight every day at a town. It has rung for hundreds of years. A magician comes to find it. In the process he sets free a magical realm that was taken over by his ever so great uncle. A house that hides doorways to the other kingdom. This was more prosey than her other stuff. I really enjoyed it.
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
-R. Ludlum-fiction
-646- first, this has nothing to do with the movie. nothing. Webb's wife is kidnapped and Bourne must live again in order to save her. Everything is happening in HongKong and China. Turns out Marie was kidnapped by US forces to force Bourne to go after a rogue Mainland China guy who wants to take over HongKong and plunge the world into war. It was sickening to see how people were manipulated and used. Lots of profanity too, bleh.
THE TWELVE KINGDOMS: THE VAST SPREAD OF THE SEAS
-F. Ono-fantasy
-294- the story of En. The Taiho chooses a king. The king appears lacksadaisical and everything. A regent of the land starts up a rebellion ostensibly to make things better for the people. In truth he just wants praise. The King gets things taken care of with minimal bloodshed and the Enkai/Taiho, etc, etc, learn to trust the king. I really hope Tokyopop lasts long enough in the publishing biz to bring out all 7 novels. This was enjoyable.
REBORN! #1-2
-A. Amano-manga
OZ: THE ROAD TO OZ
-F. Baum-childrens fantasy
-261-Dorothy helps a shaggy man find a road and in the process they all end up in Oz for Ozma's birthday party.
MORE THAN ONE UNIVERSE
-A.C. Clarke-scifi
-554- a whole bunch of his short stories from the late 40's til the very early 80's. Recurring themes of American/Russian conflict, self-destruction on a planetary scale and the idea of man going to the stars. Depressing really.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
-R. Ludlum-fiction
-Unfinished-Carlos the Jackal is back and gunning for Bourne/Webb. I'd had enough about a man always on the run/hunt. Webb is now 50. Let the guy alone!
STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS: THE CESTUS DECEPTION
-S. Barnes-fantasy
-457- Obi-wan goes to Cestus to stop the creation of semi-force sensitive robots. Diplomacy and fighting. A quad of clone troopers are involved too. Asajj Ventress is Dooku's representative. Having only read about her in the Legacy of the Force series, it helped me understand what went on then better. However, several references were made to previous encounters between her and Obi-wan which I'm guessing must have been comics only. That is stupid, referring to comics in a novel. Stick to other novels. Other than that, I thought this was ok, not wonderful or great, but not horrible either.
BRIDGE TO TEREBITHIA
-K. Paterson-ya fiction
-192-winner of the 1978 Newberry Award. Back in the 70's in some backwoods place. A 10 year old boy makes friends with a new girl from the city. Together they imagine Terebithia, a magic place safe from all the problems of school, home and the world. Jess's world is torn down when Leslie dies one day going to Terebithia when he doesn't. He stands back up though and continues on and introduces his younger sister to Terebithia, after building a bridge over the river. This was a very evocative book. It really showed the pain of growing up, of being a kid, the inherent unfairness that is practiced among kids and it showed the freedom available if one puts forth the effort to take it. This was a fantastic book. One sentence stood out though "It took them a long time to accept there what everyone could see by their TV's was OK anywhere else".[italics mine] It just made me realize how susceptible we humans are to having our reality defined by fiction. God spoke Truth. Satan spoke lies. Guess which we chose, and continue to choose? But this was a fantastic book. Definitely worth a hardcover buy.
-F. Baum-children's fantasy
-272-Dorothy goes back to Oz and with the help of her old friends and Ozma and a yellow chicken, saves the Queen and children of Ev from the goblin king.
INUYASHA #3-6
-R. Takahashi-manga
SCHOOL RUMBLE #1-5
-J. Kobayashi-manga
AMERICAN NOTES & PICTURES FROM ITALY
-C. Dickens-non-fiction
-UNFINISHED- a travelogue from Dickens' trips to America and Italy. Boring. I got about 100 pages in and then started skimming the American Notes. By the end of that, I didn't even try to skim Pictures from Italy. Not like his fiction at all, really. But that is to be expected.
THE HARPER HALL OF PERN: DRAGONSONG
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-140- a young girl from a fishing hold has great musical talent. Due to her fathers holding to the old ways, however, it is discouraged. She runs away and in the process impresses 9 firelizards. Then she is picked up by a dragon rider and taken to the Harper Hall.
THE HARPER HALL OF PERN: DRAGONSINGER
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-192- Menolly's adventures in the Harper Hold. Trials to be overcome as she learns much about music and such.
THE HARPER HALL OF PERN: DRAGONDRUMS
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-167-follows the adventures of Piemur, a young lad whose voice changes. His adventures as the apprentice to the Master Harper, Robinton. Ends up on the Southern Continent. These 3 novels were in the same vain as her Dragonrider trilogy. Fresh, funny with just the right amount of adventure and adversity to keep you interested without getting you depressed or sad.
INUYASHA #7-18
-R. Takahashi-manga
LOOKING GLASS: MANXOME FOE
-J. Ringo & T. Taylor-scifi
-463-the Vorpal Blade and crew investigate a lost communications outpost. Stumble upon a new species who are being wiped out by the Dreen. Rescue them and come back to earth with the news that the Dreen will arrive within the next 10 years by spaceship. Bergstresser, aka Two-Gun, seems to be taking over as the main protaganist. No Mimi or anything. :-( Some things felt very shallow though. Like two-gun getting married. He meets a girl, talks to her for all of 4-6hrs, and when he comes back, they are planning on getting married. It just didn't seem at all plausible. I still am disappointed in this series though. The first book was JUST so good, oh well.
INUYASHA #19-24
-R. Takahashi-manga
STARWARS: LUKE SKYWALKER AND THE SHADOWS OF MINDOR
-M. Stover-fantasy
-331-soon after the Empire has fallen. A shadowy figure returns to reunite the empire. But it turns out he has some power to transfer his consciousness and he wants to trap Luke and take him over. Overall, this was on the level of The Crystal Star. It was just not on the same level as Stover's other StarWars books and that was very disappointing. It was more like reading some melodramatic play or something.
A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND
-C. Dickens-nonfiction
-UNFINISHED- Dickens writing a history of England for his son. BORING!
NOBLE DEAD: TRAITOR TO THE BLOOD
-B. & JC Hendee-fantasy
-396-Everyone goes back to Leesil's home so he can figure out what happened to his parents. He is a big ball of wussiness in my opinion. Find out a bit more about his past and some about the elves. I just wish everyone in the story would stop having such emotional hangups. Get over yourself and go do what needs to be done!
CASE CLOSED #1-4
-G. Aoyama-manga
JANE EYRE
-C. Bronte-classic
-502- a girl grows up in a school. Becomes a governess. Falls in love with the Master and the Master with her. He is already married though, to a mad woman. Jane leaves, finds her relatives and ends up with Mr Rochester when his wife commits suicide. I can see why this is a classic. Simple but not shallow. This showed the struggle of someone who did what was right, not necessarily exactly what they wanted. And it turned out all ok in the end.
MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK
-C. Dickens-short stories
-144- an old man and 3 others sit around and palaver. Basically this was a serialization between novels. It was not a story in and of itself. Not very interesting. The only thing going for it was the inclusion of Pickwick and the Weller's.
THE BOURNE IDENTITY
-R. Ludlum-fiction
-535- a man wakes up, bullet riddled and with no memory. Through the next couple of months he finds out he is a special forces agent gone outside cover to draw out and destroy an international terrorist. By becoming an international terrorist. Hunted by all, helped and loved by only 1 woman, Bourne must survive to find the truth, about himself and about Carlos. Very different from the movie with Matt Damon. This has another whole layer of politics and intrigue. Global. Complicated. I liked the movie better :-) I do plan on reading the next 2 books though to get the whole story.
OZ: DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ
-F. Baum-childrens fantasy
-256-Dorothy, her cat, a boy named Zeb and his horse get caught in an earthquake and go to the center of the earth. After many adventures they make it to the surface and go to Oz where they go home. This felt like a churned out novel. I didn't enjoy it like I have the other Oz books.
THE BELL AT SEALEY HEAD
-P. McKillip-fantasy
-277- A bell is heard at sunsight every day at a town. It has rung for hundreds of years. A magician comes to find it. In the process he sets free a magical realm that was taken over by his ever so great uncle. A house that hides doorways to the other kingdom. This was more prosey than her other stuff. I really enjoyed it.
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
-R. Ludlum-fiction
-646- first, this has nothing to do with the movie. nothing. Webb's wife is kidnapped and Bourne must live again in order to save her. Everything is happening in HongKong and China. Turns out Marie was kidnapped by US forces to force Bourne to go after a rogue Mainland China guy who wants to take over HongKong and plunge the world into war. It was sickening to see how people were manipulated and used. Lots of profanity too, bleh.
THE TWELVE KINGDOMS: THE VAST SPREAD OF THE SEAS
-F. Ono-fantasy
-294- the story of En. The Taiho chooses a king. The king appears lacksadaisical and everything. A regent of the land starts up a rebellion ostensibly to make things better for the people. In truth he just wants praise. The King gets things taken care of with minimal bloodshed and the Enkai/Taiho, etc, etc, learn to trust the king. I really hope Tokyopop lasts long enough in the publishing biz to bring out all 7 novels. This was enjoyable.
REBORN! #1-2
-A. Amano-manga
OZ: THE ROAD TO OZ
-F. Baum-childrens fantasy
-261-Dorothy helps a shaggy man find a road and in the process they all end up in Oz for Ozma's birthday party.
MORE THAN ONE UNIVERSE
-A.C. Clarke-scifi
-554- a whole bunch of his short stories from the late 40's til the very early 80's. Recurring themes of American/Russian conflict, self-destruction on a planetary scale and the idea of man going to the stars. Depressing really.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
-R. Ludlum-fiction
-Unfinished-Carlos the Jackal is back and gunning for Bourne/Webb. I'd had enough about a man always on the run/hunt. Webb is now 50. Let the guy alone!
STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS: THE CESTUS DECEPTION
-S. Barnes-fantasy
-457- Obi-wan goes to Cestus to stop the creation of semi-force sensitive robots. Diplomacy and fighting. A quad of clone troopers are involved too. Asajj Ventress is Dooku's representative. Having only read about her in the Legacy of the Force series, it helped me understand what went on then better. However, several references were made to previous encounters between her and Obi-wan which I'm guessing must have been comics only. That is stupid, referring to comics in a novel. Stick to other novels. Other than that, I thought this was ok, not wonderful or great, but not horrible either.
BRIDGE TO TEREBITHIA
-K. Paterson-ya fiction
-192-winner of the 1978 Newberry Award. Back in the 70's in some backwoods place. A 10 year old boy makes friends with a new girl from the city. Together they imagine Terebithia, a magic place safe from all the problems of school, home and the world. Jess's world is torn down when Leslie dies one day going to Terebithia when he doesn't. He stands back up though and continues on and introduces his younger sister to Terebithia, after building a bridge over the river. This was a very evocative book. It really showed the pain of growing up, of being a kid, the inherent unfairness that is practiced among kids and it showed the freedom available if one puts forth the effort to take it. This was a fantastic book. One sentence stood out though "It took them a long time to accept there what everyone could see by their TV's was OK anywhere else".[italics mine] It just made me realize how susceptible we humans are to having our reality defined by fiction. God spoke Truth. Satan spoke lies. Guess which we chose, and continue to choose? But this was a fantastic book. Definitely worth a hardcover buy.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
February '09
THE ULTIMATE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE
-D. Adams-scifi
-815-comprising Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe and Everything
So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
Young Zaphod Plays it Safe
Mostly Harmless
Stories about a man from earth who survives the earth being blown up. Lots of silliness ensues, multiple universes/earths happen, Arthur finds his way back to Earth, just in time to have ALL the earths wiped out of the space/time continuum. Very silly stuff that I remember making my sides hurt back in bibleschool, but to be honest, I just found it stupid this time around. Maybe it is a one time thing? And what a cop out of an ending. All the main characters are on earth when all the earths are erased. Fits with the series profile though.
SHAMAN KING #13-15
-H. Takei-manga
-had read these last year and totally forgotten. Library has no new ones either, sigh.
DINOSAUR BEACH
-K. Laumer-scifi
-186-a time agent from Era4 gets into some serious time screwups. Messes with Era5-7 and turns out to be a robot from the WAY future allowing humanity a chance to survive without timetravel. He loves a woman from 1936 and as a reward goes back there and forgets everything but his cover story about living in that age. Weird.
CATCH-22
-J. Heller-fiction
-443- This was a novel that I absolutely hated. It was about a man in the airforce, in WWII, named Yossarian who is a cowardly son of a bitch. He thinks of nobody but himself. All his peers die throughout the book due to the war. Comedic, horrible, outrageous, pretentious. Heller takes the worst traits of human nature, throws them all together and presents it as an airforce unit. There was not a single good man in this book. All were cheats, adulterers, cowards, liars, etc, etc. It was not pleasant to read. The whole thrust of Heller's book seems to be that humans are totally horrible creatures and that one must do whatever is necessary to survive. Look out for number one. If he was alive today, even if in a wheelchair with an oxygen can, I'd go right up to him and beat the living snot out of him. Satirizing men who gave up their lives for me is not funny imo.
BLESSED CHILD
-T. Dekker & B. Bright-fiction
-351- a young boy, who has a complete rapport with God, changes the lives of a man and woman who rescue him in Ethiopia. Brought to the US, he changes the lives of hundreds of thousands, physically. Ends up with him and the man and woman going back to Ethiopia to restart the mission that was destroyed at the beginning of the book. This was good. This was Dekker's writing coupled with Bright's theology, and it was terrific. A heart healed, a soul reclaimed, is more important than a million miracles of physical restoration. That is what I got from this book. This was what I wish Dekker had stayed like.
A MAN CALLED BLESSED
-T. Dekker & B. Bright-fiction
-356- the sequel to Blessed Child. Caleb is now a man of 25. The Ark of the Covenant is discovered at the monastery where he and his parents now reside. An Israeli woman and an Arab man are the other 2 main characters. Ends with the ark melting, the Arab dying and the Israeli probably going to marry Caleb. The thrust of this book was that God no longer dwelt within an ark of wood and gold, but within the ark of our hearts. Not nearly as good as its predecessor.
KING KELSON'S BRIDE
-K. Kurtz-fantasy
-374-finishes, happily, the story of King Kelson. At least, he finally gets married successfully. I'm guessing there was enough outcry at how she left her Histories of King Kelson series that her publisher wanted to wrap it up happily. It was just to wordy though. To much description of everything: clothes, scenery, people, objects, ceremonies. She described a bloody picnic for almost 2 pages. I was glad to see a happy ending for Kelson, but I have no real interest in any more of her stuff. It seems to be church history with a tiny bit of magic thrown in. I was not enthralled.
THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN: DRAGONFLIGHT
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-180- introduced to the world of Pern. Dragons are in symbiosis with men, to fight thread, a parasitic thing that falls every 200 to 400 years. It has been very long since last threadfall in this story and nobody believes it will come again. One dragonrider, F'lar, believes it will. He searches out a woman to be queen of the Weir for the next queen egg. Lessa gets it and ends up discovering that dragons can jump between times as well as distances. Not enough dragons to fight thread. So Lessa goes back 400+ years to get the last known large group of dragonriders. Works and saves Pern.
THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN: DRAGONQUEST
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-250-The "oldtimers" aren't fitting in. So they are exiled to the southern continent. Lots of problems between dragonmen, holders and craftsmen. Lots of intrigue among northern dragonmen as well. Things get sorted out and "ancient timer" technology is discovered.
THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN: THE WHITE DRAGON
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-295- a young holder lord impresses a runt dragon. The southern continent is shown to be HUGE and the northerners want it opened up for their landless children. F'lar wants the best of the continent for dragonmen so they won't be beholden to the holds once threadfall passes. Everything works out and it is discovered that man is not indigenous to Pern.
HELLSING #1-4
-K. Hirano-manga
-a protestant organization fights vampires and such and their trump card is a vampire. They have a catholic counterpart. By book4 it had degenerated into nazi vampires in South America trying to take over the world.
AMAZING AGENT LUNA OMNIBUS #1
-N. DeFilippis & C. Weir-manga
-502-the first 3 volumes of Amazing Agent Luna. Ameri-manga. Testtube girl/superagent goes to highschool to find out what stereotypical villain is up to. Funny. To bad library doesn't have more.
MISS MARJORIBANKS
-M. Oliphant-classic
-497- a strong willed young lady takes over the social scene when she returns from school. Her duty is "to be a comfort to her papa". The first 2/3rds of the book deal with her at 19. Interesting and comical. The last third deals with her 10 years later when her father dies. Ends with her marrying her cousin Tom and setting out to conquer a new village/town. I liked the earlier part, not the later. First was refreshing and interesting. Later was same old, same old and you wanted her to get on with it. Good to read once.
NOBLE DEAD: DHAMPIR
-B & JC Hendee-fantasy
-376- a woman and a half elf scam villagers by pretending to kill some imaginary vampire threat. They settle down to run an inn and have their old business come back to haunt them, only this time there are real vampires. The woman turns out to be the daughter of a vampire and is consequently a dhampir, a human with some vampiric powers. This was a very simple book, with many details glossed over or left out, but it was a good entertaining read. I would call it trash fantasy, but not in a bad way, more of a disposable way. I'll probably read more of this series.
THE LOST FLEET: DAUNTLESS
-J. Campbell/John Hemry-scifi
-283- a space captain is rescued from his escape pod 100 years after the battle he won. The alliance and the syndic are still at war. Through a variety of bad decisions on the alliance's part, all their military leaders are butchered by the syndic, leaving John Geary in charge. His mission is to take the fleet home and deliver a hypernet key to the alliance. The current military is a bunch of amateurs and Geary must navigate politics as well as the enemy if he is to survive, much less succeed. Darren suggested this author to me and I'm really liking it so far. Geary doesn't want to be in charge, especially in charge of idiots. But he is and he does his duty.
THE LOST FLEET: FEARLESS
-J. Campbell/John Hemry-scifi
-295- the second leg of the journey home. They rescue a bunch of POW's and one turns out to be a charismatic "hero" who was a real blunderer. The blunderer convinces 40 ships to follow him and they take off on their own. Only 12 survive and hook backup with the main fleet. I really like this series. Unfortunately, the library doesn't have book 3. It does have book 4, but that is it. And they were never printed in hardcover, so I won't be buying them. Sigh...
OZ: THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ
-F. Baum-juvenile fantasy
-272- Dorothy is taken to Oz, from Kansas, by a cyclone. She defeats 2 evil witches and helps out her friends, the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Cowardly Lion and returns back to Kansas. I really enjoyed this. It wasn't like the movie in that it was much more kid friendly without all the dark overtones. I never realized that there were at least 12 books in the Oz series. Looking forward to reading them this year.
INUYASHA #1-2
-R. Takahashi-manga
HELLSING #5-7
-K. Hirano-manga
BATTLEFIELD EARTH
-L.R. Hubbard-scifi
-942- earth is conquered by the Psychlos for 1000 years. A man ends up destroying them, saving earth, and also pretty much saving all the galaxies in the bargain. Good writing.
OZ: THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ
-F. Baum-juvenile fantasy
-292- a young boy runs away from a witch with a pumpkin head man. Meets up with the Tin man and the Scarecrow. Emerald City is taken over. Glinda helps them retake it and it turns out that Tip, the boy, is actually a girl who is the real ruler. Light and engaging.
NOBLE DEAD: THIEF OF LIVES
-B & JC Hendee-fantasy
-410- Magierre and Leesil are asked to take care of a vampire in a bigger city. Turns out to be just a setup by Westiel to train her. Find out more about Leesil's past. Very clean for a vamp novel. No graphic sex or even gore.
NOBLE DEAD: SISTER OF THE DEAD
-B & JC Hendee-fantasy
-405- Magierre is trying to find out her past. Turns out she was specifically made to serve some long dead thing that wants to be resurrected with her at its side. Chap, the fey dog, is watching her to take her out if she goes down the dark path.
-D. Adams-scifi
-815-comprising Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe and Everything
So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
Young Zaphod Plays it Safe
Mostly Harmless
Stories about a man from earth who survives the earth being blown up. Lots of silliness ensues, multiple universes/earths happen, Arthur finds his way back to Earth, just in time to have ALL the earths wiped out of the space/time continuum. Very silly stuff that I remember making my sides hurt back in bibleschool, but to be honest, I just found it stupid this time around. Maybe it is a one time thing? And what a cop out of an ending. All the main characters are on earth when all the earths are erased. Fits with the series profile though.
SHAMAN KING #13-15
-H. Takei-manga
-had read these last year and totally forgotten. Library has no new ones either, sigh.
DINOSAUR BEACH
-K. Laumer-scifi
-186-a time agent from Era4 gets into some serious time screwups. Messes with Era5-7 and turns out to be a robot from the WAY future allowing humanity a chance to survive without timetravel. He loves a woman from 1936 and as a reward goes back there and forgets everything but his cover story about living in that age. Weird.
CATCH-22
-J. Heller-fiction
-443- This was a novel that I absolutely hated. It was about a man in the airforce, in WWII, named Yossarian who is a cowardly son of a bitch. He thinks of nobody but himself. All his peers die throughout the book due to the war. Comedic, horrible, outrageous, pretentious. Heller takes the worst traits of human nature, throws them all together and presents it as an airforce unit. There was not a single good man in this book. All were cheats, adulterers, cowards, liars, etc, etc. It was not pleasant to read. The whole thrust of Heller's book seems to be that humans are totally horrible creatures and that one must do whatever is necessary to survive. Look out for number one. If he was alive today, even if in a wheelchair with an oxygen can, I'd go right up to him and beat the living snot out of him. Satirizing men who gave up their lives for me is not funny imo.
BLESSED CHILD
-T. Dekker & B. Bright-fiction
-351- a young boy, who has a complete rapport with God, changes the lives of a man and woman who rescue him in Ethiopia. Brought to the US, he changes the lives of hundreds of thousands, physically. Ends up with him and the man and woman going back to Ethiopia to restart the mission that was destroyed at the beginning of the book. This was good. This was Dekker's writing coupled with Bright's theology, and it was terrific. A heart healed, a soul reclaimed, is more important than a million miracles of physical restoration. That is what I got from this book. This was what I wish Dekker had stayed like.
A MAN CALLED BLESSED
-T. Dekker & B. Bright-fiction
-356- the sequel to Blessed Child. Caleb is now a man of 25. The Ark of the Covenant is discovered at the monastery where he and his parents now reside. An Israeli woman and an Arab man are the other 2 main characters. Ends with the ark melting, the Arab dying and the Israeli probably going to marry Caleb. The thrust of this book was that God no longer dwelt within an ark of wood and gold, but within the ark of our hearts. Not nearly as good as its predecessor.
KING KELSON'S BRIDE
-K. Kurtz-fantasy
-374-finishes, happily, the story of King Kelson. At least, he finally gets married successfully. I'm guessing there was enough outcry at how she left her Histories of King Kelson series that her publisher wanted to wrap it up happily. It was just to wordy though. To much description of everything: clothes, scenery, people, objects, ceremonies. She described a bloody picnic for almost 2 pages. I was glad to see a happy ending for Kelson, but I have no real interest in any more of her stuff. It seems to be church history with a tiny bit of magic thrown in. I was not enthralled.
THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN: DRAGONFLIGHT
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-180- introduced to the world of Pern. Dragons are in symbiosis with men, to fight thread, a parasitic thing that falls every 200 to 400 years. It has been very long since last threadfall in this story and nobody believes it will come again. One dragonrider, F'lar, believes it will. He searches out a woman to be queen of the Weir for the next queen egg. Lessa gets it and ends up discovering that dragons can jump between times as well as distances. Not enough dragons to fight thread. So Lessa goes back 400+ years to get the last known large group of dragonriders. Works and saves Pern.
THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN: DRAGONQUEST
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-250-The "oldtimers" aren't fitting in. So they are exiled to the southern continent. Lots of problems between dragonmen, holders and craftsmen. Lots of intrigue among northern dragonmen as well. Things get sorted out and "ancient timer" technology is discovered.
THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN: THE WHITE DRAGON
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-295- a young holder lord impresses a runt dragon. The southern continent is shown to be HUGE and the northerners want it opened up for their landless children. F'lar wants the best of the continent for dragonmen so they won't be beholden to the holds once threadfall passes. Everything works out and it is discovered that man is not indigenous to Pern.
HELLSING #1-4
-K. Hirano-manga
-a protestant organization fights vampires and such and their trump card is a vampire. They have a catholic counterpart. By book4 it had degenerated into nazi vampires in South America trying to take over the world.
AMAZING AGENT LUNA OMNIBUS #1
-N. DeFilippis & C. Weir-manga
-502-the first 3 volumes of Amazing Agent Luna. Ameri-manga. Testtube girl/superagent goes to highschool to find out what stereotypical villain is up to. Funny. To bad library doesn't have more.
MISS MARJORIBANKS
-M. Oliphant-classic
-497- a strong willed young lady takes over the social scene when she returns from school. Her duty is "to be a comfort to her papa". The first 2/3rds of the book deal with her at 19. Interesting and comical. The last third deals with her 10 years later when her father dies. Ends with her marrying her cousin Tom and setting out to conquer a new village/town. I liked the earlier part, not the later. First was refreshing and interesting. Later was same old, same old and you wanted her to get on with it. Good to read once.
NOBLE DEAD: DHAMPIR
-B & JC Hendee-fantasy
-376- a woman and a half elf scam villagers by pretending to kill some imaginary vampire threat. They settle down to run an inn and have their old business come back to haunt them, only this time there are real vampires. The woman turns out to be the daughter of a vampire and is consequently a dhampir, a human with some vampiric powers. This was a very simple book, with many details glossed over or left out, but it was a good entertaining read. I would call it trash fantasy, but not in a bad way, more of a disposable way. I'll probably read more of this series.
THE LOST FLEET: DAUNTLESS
-J. Campbell/John Hemry-scifi
-283- a space captain is rescued from his escape pod 100 years after the battle he won. The alliance and the syndic are still at war. Through a variety of bad decisions on the alliance's part, all their military leaders are butchered by the syndic, leaving John Geary in charge. His mission is to take the fleet home and deliver a hypernet key to the alliance. The current military is a bunch of amateurs and Geary must navigate politics as well as the enemy if he is to survive, much less succeed. Darren suggested this author to me and I'm really liking it so far. Geary doesn't want to be in charge, especially in charge of idiots. But he is and he does his duty.
THE LOST FLEET: FEARLESS
-J. Campbell/John Hemry-scifi
-295- the second leg of the journey home. They rescue a bunch of POW's and one turns out to be a charismatic "hero" who was a real blunderer. The blunderer convinces 40 ships to follow him and they take off on their own. Only 12 survive and hook backup with the main fleet. I really like this series. Unfortunately, the library doesn't have book 3. It does have book 4, but that is it. And they were never printed in hardcover, so I won't be buying them. Sigh...
OZ: THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ
-F. Baum-juvenile fantasy
-272- Dorothy is taken to Oz, from Kansas, by a cyclone. She defeats 2 evil witches and helps out her friends, the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Cowardly Lion and returns back to Kansas. I really enjoyed this. It wasn't like the movie in that it was much more kid friendly without all the dark overtones. I never realized that there were at least 12 books in the Oz series. Looking forward to reading them this year.
INUYASHA #1-2
-R. Takahashi-manga
HELLSING #5-7
-K. Hirano-manga
BATTLEFIELD EARTH
-L.R. Hubbard-scifi
-942- earth is conquered by the Psychlos for 1000 years. A man ends up destroying them, saving earth, and also pretty much saving all the galaxies in the bargain. Good writing.
OZ: THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ
-F. Baum-juvenile fantasy
-292- a young boy runs away from a witch with a pumpkin head man. Meets up with the Tin man and the Scarecrow. Emerald City is taken over. Glinda helps them retake it and it turns out that Tip, the boy, is actually a girl who is the real ruler. Light and engaging.
NOBLE DEAD: THIEF OF LIVES
-B & JC Hendee-fantasy
-410- Magierre and Leesil are asked to take care of a vampire in a bigger city. Turns out to be just a setup by Westiel to train her. Find out more about Leesil's past. Very clean for a vamp novel. No graphic sex or even gore.
NOBLE DEAD: SISTER OF THE DEAD
-B & JC Hendee-fantasy
-405- Magierre is trying to find out her past. Turns out she was specifically made to serve some long dead thing that wants to be resurrected with her at its side. Chap, the fey dog, is watching her to take her out if she goes down the dark path.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
January '09
SHADOW OF THE HEGEMON
-O.S. Card-scifi
-442- a sequel to Ender's Shadow. All the Battleschool children, except Ender, are back on earth. Achilles kidnaps a bunch of them to take over the world, tries to kill Bean. Bean hooks up with Peter Wiggins, who reveals himself and the world changes. I doubt I will read any of the novels after this one. Ender's War and Ender's Shadow were engrossing, not this one. Just politics "in the future", oooooohhhhhh.
RESERVOIR CHRONICLE TSUBASA #16-19
-Clamp-manga
OH MY GODDESS! #30
-K. Fujishima-manga
-151
ACORNA: THE UNICORN GIRL
-A. McCaffrey & Margaret Ball-scifi
-254-this was much more YA than I remembered. I doubt I'll read this again for a very long time.
THE THREE MUSKETEERS
-A. Dumas-classic
-738-I enjoyed this. A tale of swashbucklers and mindless bravery. Unfortunately, the immorality was so blatant and so mixed with "christian" ideals that it was ridiculous. What scares me is the fact that a national character can change so drastically over a couple hundred of years. The French were fighters. Now? Look at them. What about us Americans? Brrr...
ONE PIECE #19
-E. Oda-manga
-210
ACORNA: ACORNA'S QUEST
-A. McCaffrey & M. Ball-scifi
-282-Acorna goes to find her homeworld. 4 linyarri find humanity. Humanity meets, fights and sends packing, the kleevi. Done with this series.
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
-A. Dumas-classic
-618-Wow! This was gripping, well told, fascinating and almost perfect. The way it was told just sucked me in. A man is unjustly accused and throught several people betraying him, ends up in a prison left to die. Befriends another prisoner, escapes, gets a fabulous treasure and returns to wreak his vengeance. The emotions portrayed were so good, so true. The only thing I didn't like is that one of his vengeances is explained almost as a sidenote and you never really find out what happened. But other than that, awesome. If I couldn't read another book this year, this one would be the perfect one to end on. Incredible!
DRAGON BALL #1
-A. Toriyama-manga
-175-Bulma meets Goku and they start out looking for the rest of the Dragon Balls. Crude, childish humor and for a 34C, Bulma sure is flat.
ADAM
-T. Dekker-suspense/thriller
-400- an investigator goes after a serial killer who turns out to be demon possessed. This was disturbing. There was very little of the power of Jesus involved. Dekker also seems to be trying to include Islam in his "appeal to those of faith" approach. I did not like this book.
THE PRINCE OF NOTHING: THE DARKNESS THAT COMES BEFORE
-R.S. Bakker-fantasy
-577-this was a callously cold and brutal book. Some of the violence and most of the graphic sex seemed to be there just to shock the reader at how pathetic the characters were. Gods, wizards, warriors, politicians, all coming together for another apocalypse 2 thousand years after the previous apocalypse. Nothing in this book made me want to read the next book in the series.
THE DRAGON KEEPER CHRONICLES: DRAGONSPELL
-D.K. Paul-ya fantasy
-334-a young girl finds a dragons egg and is sent to the Hall of Learning to serve under Paladin, the earthly representative of Wulder, the one true God. She gets caught up on a quest before she ever gets to the hall and ends up saving a special dragon egg. This lady is a Christian and she sets her fantasy in a world very similar to ours in regards to God and satan. This was geared towards young adults and not really toward adults. Had a hard time paying attention because it was "simplified". I doubt I'll be reading any more of her YA stuff.
THE LAST RUNE: BEYOND THE PALE
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-622-2 people from earth are whisked away to another world where magic, etc, etc, is real. An evil king from a millenia ago is on the rise and it is up to the 2 travelers to stop or slow him down. I enjoyed this book. It is a finished series, with 6 total. Sadly, the libraries do not carry any more. Glad I got to read this one anyway.
-O.S. Card-scifi
-442- a sequel to Ender's Shadow. All the Battleschool children, except Ender, are back on earth. Achilles kidnaps a bunch of them to take over the world, tries to kill Bean. Bean hooks up with Peter Wiggins, who reveals himself and the world changes. I doubt I will read any of the novels after this one. Ender's War and Ender's Shadow were engrossing, not this one. Just politics "in the future", oooooohhhhhh.
RESERVOIR CHRONICLE TSUBASA #16-19
-Clamp-manga
OH MY GODDESS! #30
-K. Fujishima-manga
-151
ACORNA: THE UNICORN GIRL
-A. McCaffrey & Margaret Ball-scifi
-254-this was much more YA than I remembered. I doubt I'll read this again for a very long time.
THE THREE MUSKETEERS
-A. Dumas-classic
-738-I enjoyed this. A tale of swashbucklers and mindless bravery. Unfortunately, the immorality was so blatant and so mixed with "christian" ideals that it was ridiculous. What scares me is the fact that a national character can change so drastically over a couple hundred of years. The French were fighters. Now? Look at them. What about us Americans? Brrr...
ONE PIECE #19
-E. Oda-manga
-210
ACORNA: ACORNA'S QUEST
-A. McCaffrey & M. Ball-scifi
-282-Acorna goes to find her homeworld. 4 linyarri find humanity. Humanity meets, fights and sends packing, the kleevi. Done with this series.
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
-A. Dumas-classic
-618-Wow! This was gripping, well told, fascinating and almost perfect. The way it was told just sucked me in. A man is unjustly accused and throught several people betraying him, ends up in a prison left to die. Befriends another prisoner, escapes, gets a fabulous treasure and returns to wreak his vengeance. The emotions portrayed were so good, so true. The only thing I didn't like is that one of his vengeances is explained almost as a sidenote and you never really find out what happened. But other than that, awesome. If I couldn't read another book this year, this one would be the perfect one to end on. Incredible!
DRAGON BALL #1
-A. Toriyama-manga
-175-Bulma meets Goku and they start out looking for the rest of the Dragon Balls. Crude, childish humor and for a 34C, Bulma sure is flat.
ADAM
-T. Dekker-suspense/thriller
-400- an investigator goes after a serial killer who turns out to be demon possessed. This was disturbing. There was very little of the power of Jesus involved. Dekker also seems to be trying to include Islam in his "appeal to those of faith" approach. I did not like this book.
THE PRINCE OF NOTHING: THE DARKNESS THAT COMES BEFORE
-R.S. Bakker-fantasy
-577-this was a callously cold and brutal book. Some of the violence and most of the graphic sex seemed to be there just to shock the reader at how pathetic the characters were. Gods, wizards, warriors, politicians, all coming together for another apocalypse 2 thousand years after the previous apocalypse. Nothing in this book made me want to read the next book in the series.
THE DRAGON KEEPER CHRONICLES: DRAGONSPELL
-D.K. Paul-ya fantasy
-334-a young girl finds a dragons egg and is sent to the Hall of Learning to serve under Paladin, the earthly representative of Wulder, the one true God. She gets caught up on a quest before she ever gets to the hall and ends up saving a special dragon egg. This lady is a Christian and she sets her fantasy in a world very similar to ours in regards to God and satan. This was geared towards young adults and not really toward adults. Had a hard time paying attention because it was "simplified". I doubt I'll be reading any more of her YA stuff.
THE LAST RUNE: BEYOND THE PALE
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-622-2 people from earth are whisked away to another world where magic, etc, etc, is real. An evil king from a millenia ago is on the rise and it is up to the 2 travelers to stop or slow him down. I enjoyed this book. It is a finished series, with 6 total. Sadly, the libraries do not carry any more. Glad I got to read this one anyway.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
2008 In Review
1: Hogfather-Terry Pratchett-354
2: Hyperion Cantos: Endymion-Dan Simmons-563
3: Hyperion Cantos: The Rise of Endymion-Dan Simmons-709
4: Recluce: The Towers of the Sunset-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-359
5: Rurouni Kenshin #1-Nobuhiro Watsuki-199
6: Mars: A Princess of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-160
7: Recluce: The Magic Engineer-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-617
8: Mars: The Gods of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-195
9: Mars: The Warlord of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-138
10: Les Miserables-Victor Hugo-1463
11: Recluce: The Order War-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-598
12: Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two-Drew Karpyshyn-318
13: Mars: Thuvia, Maid of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-125
14: Spellsong: The Soprano Sorceress-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-664
15: Castle in the Air-Diana Wynne Jones-199
16: Dark Lord of Derkhom-Diana Wynne Jones-345
17: Spellsong: The Spellsong War-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-672
18: Bleak House Part I-Charles Dickens-511
19: The Martian Chronicles- Ray Bradbury-182
20: Something Wicked This Way Comes-Ray Bradbury-290
21: Quadrail: The Third Lynx-Timothy Zahn-350
22: Mars: The Chessmen of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-222
23: Bleak House Part II-Charles Dickens-540
24: The Illustrated Man-Ray Bradbury-253
25: Princess and the Goblin-George MacDonald-161
26: Princess and Curdie-George MacDonald-160
27: The Roald Dahl Omnibus-Roald Dahl-682
28: Martin Chuzzlewit Part I-Charles Dickens-568
29: The Old Man and the Sea-Ernest Hemingway-140
30: Howl's Moving Castle-Diana Wynne Jones-329
31: Recluce: The Death of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-640
32: Hikaru No Go #1-Yumi Hotta-192
33: Hikaru No Go #2-Yumi Hotta-192
34: Hikaru No Go #3-Yumi Hotta-192
35: Hikaru No Go #4-Yumi Hotta-192
36: Hikaru No Go #5-Yumi Hotta-192
37: Hikaru No Go #6-Yumi Hotta-192
38: Book of the Gods: Ariadne's Web-Fred Saberhagen-412
39: Martin Chuzzlewit Part II-Charles Dickens-563
40: Little Women-Louisa May Alcott-669
41: Mars: Mastermind of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-160
42: Hikaru No Go #7-Yumi Hotta-192
43: Hikaru No Go #8-Yumi Hotta-192
44: Hikaru No Go #9-Yumi Hotta-192
45: Hikaru No Go #10-Yumi Hotta-192
46: Hikaru No Go #11-Yumi Hotta-192
47: Hikaru No Go #12-Yumi Hotta-192
48: Hikaru No Go #13-Yumi Hotta-192
49: Hikaru No Go #14-Yumi Hotta-192
50: Hikaru No Go #15-Yumi Hotta-192
51: Hikaru No Go #16-Yumi Hotta-192
52: Battle Royale #1-Koushun Takami-216
53: Gravity Dreams-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-468
54: The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind-Fuyumi Ono-317
55: Hikaru No Go #17-Yumi Hotta-192
56: Hikaru No Go #18-Yumi Hotta-192
57: Hikaru No Go #19-Yumi Hotta-192
58: Hikaru No Go #20-Yumi Hotta-192
59: Hikaru No Go #21-Yumi Hotta-192
60: Hikaru No Go #22-Yumi Hotta-192
61: Hikaru No Go #23-Yumi Hotta-192
62: MeruPuri #1-Matsuri Hino-200
63: MeruPuri #2-Matsuri Hino-200
64: MeruPuri #3-Matsuri Hino-200
65: MeruPuri #4-Matsuri Hino-200
66: IT-Stephen King-1138
67: The Old Curiosity Shop Part I-Charles Dickens-362
68: The Old Curiosity Shop Part II-Charles Dickens-355
69: Recluce: Fall of Angels-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-592
70: Azazel-Isaac Asimov-221
71: The Stand-Stephen King-1153
72: Star Wars: Republic Commando: True Colors-Karen Traviss-472
73: Mars: A Fighting Man of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-200
74: Recluce: The Chaos Balance-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-596
75: One Piece #16-Eiichiro Oda-188
76: Shaman King #13- Hiroyuki Takei-190
77: The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald-159
78: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #13-Clamp-208
79: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #14-Clamp-192
80: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #15-Clamp-192
81: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #16-Clamp-192
82: Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet-Arthur Conan Doyle-86
83: Founding of the Commonwealth: Phylogenesis-Alan Dean Foster-327
84: Founding of the Commonwealth: Dirge-Alan Dean Foster-310
85: Shaman King #14- Hiroyuki Takei-190
86: Shaman King #15- Hiroyuki Takei-185
88: One Piece #17-Eiichiro Oda-206
89: Middlemarch-George Elliot-800
90: Founding of the Commonwealth: Diuturnity's Dawn-Alan Dean Foster-341
91: Pudd'nhead Wilson-Mark Twain-224
92: Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four-Arthur Conan Doyle-100
93: Little Dorrit Part I-Charles Dickens-433
94: Recluce: The White Order-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-468
95: Temeraire: Empire of Ivory-Naomi Novik-404
96: Little Dorrit Part II-Charles Dickens-398
97: The Four Loves-Clive Staples Lewis-192
98: Deathnote #13: How to Read-Tsugumi Ohba-270
99: The Catteni: Freedom's Landing-Anne McCaffrey-342
100: Cheaper By The Dozen-Frank Gilbreth, Jr & Ernestine Carey-180
101: Runelords: The Sum of All Men-David Farland-613
102: Retief!-Keith Laumer-589
103: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #17-Clamp-182
104: Recluce: Colors of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-798
105: The Fifth Elephant-Terry Pratchett-494
105: Recluce: Magi'i of Cyador-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-560
106: Prophet-Frank Peretti-461
107: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Gardens of the Moon-Steven Erikson-488
108: Night Watch-Terry Pratchett-338
109: The Dark Side of the Sun-Terry Pratchett-158
110: Fruits Basket #18-Natsuki Takaya-209
111: Barnaby Rudge-Charles Dickens-599
112: Corean Chronicles: Legacies-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-558
113: Recluce: Scion of Cyador-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-720
114: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Deadhouse Gates-Steven Erikson-598
115: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Fury- Aaron Allston-356
116: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Revelation- Karen Traviss-410
117: Corean Chronicles: Darkness-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-492
118: Starswarm-Jerry Pournelle-349
119: In Legend Born-Laura Resnick-461
120: Taken: The Light-Years Beneath My Feet-Alan Dean Foster-245
121: In Fire Forged: The White Dragon-Laura Resnick-491
122: Green Rider: Green Rider-Kristen Britain-504
123: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Memories of Ice-Steven Erikson-781
124: Invasive Procedures-Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston-352
125: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible- Troy Denning-299
126: Corean Chronicles: Scepters-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-624
127: In Fire Forged: The Destroyer Goddess-Laura Resnick-478
128: Green Rider: First Rider's Call-Kristen Britain-484
129: Oh My Goddess! #29-Kosuke Fujishima-156
130: The Looking Glass Wars-Frank Beddor-376
131: Green Rider: The High King's Tomb-Kristen Britain-679
132: Forward the Foundation-Isaac Asimov-480
133: Hard Times-Charles Dickens-257
134: The Holly-Tree- Charles Dickens-32
135: StarWars: Republic Commando: Order 66-Karen Traviss-432
136: Shannara: Genesis of Shannara: The Gypsy Morph-Terry Brooks-402
137: The Octagonal Raven-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-432
138: Dune: Paul of Dune-Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderseron-512
139: Temeraire: Victory of Eagles-Naomi Novik-329
140: Great Expectations- Charles Dickens- 479
141: The Mystery of Edwin Drood- Charles Dickens-230
142: Oliver Twist-Charles Dickens-501
143: Recluce: Wellspring of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-400
144: Paradise: Saint-Ted Dekker-347
145: Foundation-Isaac Asimov-227
146: Foundation & Empire-Isaac Asimov-227
147: Second Foundation-Isaac Asimov-225
148: Mars: Swords of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-208
149: Landover: Witches' Brew-Terry Brooks-304
150: Skin-Ted Dekker-349
151: Recluce: Ordermaster-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-494
152: Quadrail: Odd Girl Out-Timothy Zahn-379
153: Looking Glass: Into the Looking Glass-John Ringo-366
154: The Bronze Canticles: Mystic Warrior-Tracy and Laura Hickman-433
155: The Singer's Crown-Elaine Isaak-469
156: War of the Spider Queen: Dissolution-Richard Byers-344
157: War of the Spider Queen: Insurrection-Thomas Reid-338
158: Elminster: The Making of a Mage-Ed Greenwood-312
159: Where the Sidewalk Ends-Shel Silverstein-166
160: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed-Sean Williams-319
161: Looking Glass: Vorpal Blade- John Ringo & Travis Taylor-400
162: Alice's Adventure in Wonderland-Lewis Carroll-144
163: Through the Looking Glass-Lewis Carrol-164
164: War of the Spider Queen: Condemnation-Richard Baker-344
165: Not For Glory-Joel Rosenberg-232
166: Mistborn: The Hero of Ages-Brandon Sanderson-572
167: Elminster: In Myth Drannor-Ed Greenwood-378
168: Fruits Basket #19-Natsuki Takaya-216
169: Fruits Basket #20-Natsuki Takaya-192
170: At the Back of the North Wind-George MacDonald-292
171: Eon-Greg Bear-412
172: Eternity-Greg Bear-346
173: Kare Kano #4-Masami Tsuda-194
174: Kare Kano #5-Masami Tsuda-197
175: Vellum: The Book of All Hours-Hal Duncan-463
176: One Piece #17-Eiichiro Oda-206
177: One Piece #18-Eiichiro Oda-223
2: Hyperion Cantos: Endymion-Dan Simmons-563
3: Hyperion Cantos: The Rise of Endymion-Dan Simmons-709
4: Recluce: The Towers of the Sunset-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-359
5: Rurouni Kenshin #1-Nobuhiro Watsuki-199
6: Mars: A Princess of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-160
7: Recluce: The Magic Engineer-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-617
8: Mars: The Gods of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-195
9: Mars: The Warlord of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-138
10: Les Miserables-Victor Hugo-1463
11: Recluce: The Order War-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-598
12: Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two-Drew Karpyshyn-318
13: Mars: Thuvia, Maid of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-125
14: Spellsong: The Soprano Sorceress-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-664
15: Castle in the Air-Diana Wynne Jones-199
16: Dark Lord of Derkhom-Diana Wynne Jones-345
17: Spellsong: The Spellsong War-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-672
18: Bleak House Part I-Charles Dickens-511
19: The Martian Chronicles- Ray Bradbury-182
20: Something Wicked This Way Comes-Ray Bradbury-290
21: Quadrail: The Third Lynx-Timothy Zahn-350
22: Mars: The Chessmen of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-222
23: Bleak House Part II-Charles Dickens-540
24: The Illustrated Man-Ray Bradbury-253
25: Princess and the Goblin-George MacDonald-161
26: Princess and Curdie-George MacDonald-160
27: The Roald Dahl Omnibus-Roald Dahl-682
28: Martin Chuzzlewit Part I-Charles Dickens-568
29: The Old Man and the Sea-Ernest Hemingway-140
30: Howl's Moving Castle-Diana Wynne Jones-329
31: Recluce: The Death of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-640
32: Hikaru No Go #1-Yumi Hotta-192
33: Hikaru No Go #2-Yumi Hotta-192
34: Hikaru No Go #3-Yumi Hotta-192
35: Hikaru No Go #4-Yumi Hotta-192
36: Hikaru No Go #5-Yumi Hotta-192
37: Hikaru No Go #6-Yumi Hotta-192
38: Book of the Gods: Ariadne's Web-Fred Saberhagen-412
39: Martin Chuzzlewit Part II-Charles Dickens-563
40: Little Women-Louisa May Alcott-669
41: Mars: Mastermind of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-160
42: Hikaru No Go #7-Yumi Hotta-192
43: Hikaru No Go #8-Yumi Hotta-192
44: Hikaru No Go #9-Yumi Hotta-192
45: Hikaru No Go #10-Yumi Hotta-192
46: Hikaru No Go #11-Yumi Hotta-192
47: Hikaru No Go #12-Yumi Hotta-192
48: Hikaru No Go #13-Yumi Hotta-192
49: Hikaru No Go #14-Yumi Hotta-192
50: Hikaru No Go #15-Yumi Hotta-192
51: Hikaru No Go #16-Yumi Hotta-192
52: Battle Royale #1-Koushun Takami-216
53: Gravity Dreams-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-468
54: The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind-Fuyumi Ono-317
55: Hikaru No Go #17-Yumi Hotta-192
56: Hikaru No Go #18-Yumi Hotta-192
57: Hikaru No Go #19-Yumi Hotta-192
58: Hikaru No Go #20-Yumi Hotta-192
59: Hikaru No Go #21-Yumi Hotta-192
60: Hikaru No Go #22-Yumi Hotta-192
61: Hikaru No Go #23-Yumi Hotta-192
62: MeruPuri #1-Matsuri Hino-200
63: MeruPuri #2-Matsuri Hino-200
64: MeruPuri #3-Matsuri Hino-200
65: MeruPuri #4-Matsuri Hino-200
66: IT-Stephen King-1138
67: The Old Curiosity Shop Part I-Charles Dickens-362
68: The Old Curiosity Shop Part II-Charles Dickens-355
69: Recluce: Fall of Angels-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-592
70: Azazel-Isaac Asimov-221
71: The Stand-Stephen King-1153
72: Star Wars: Republic Commando: True Colors-Karen Traviss-472
73: Mars: A Fighting Man of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-200
74: Recluce: The Chaos Balance-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-596
75: One Piece #16-Eiichiro Oda-188
76: Shaman King #13- Hiroyuki Takei-190
77: The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald-159
78: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #13-Clamp-208
79: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #14-Clamp-192
80: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #15-Clamp-192
81: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #16-Clamp-192
82: Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet-Arthur Conan Doyle-86
83: Founding of the Commonwealth: Phylogenesis-Alan Dean Foster-327
84: Founding of the Commonwealth: Dirge-Alan Dean Foster-310
85: Shaman King #14- Hiroyuki Takei-190
86: Shaman King #15- Hiroyuki Takei-185
88: One Piece #17-Eiichiro Oda-206
89: Middlemarch-George Elliot-800
90: Founding of the Commonwealth: Diuturnity's Dawn-Alan Dean Foster-341
91: Pudd'nhead Wilson-Mark Twain-224
92: Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four-Arthur Conan Doyle-100
93: Little Dorrit Part I-Charles Dickens-433
94: Recluce: The White Order-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-468
95: Temeraire: Empire of Ivory-Naomi Novik-404
96: Little Dorrit Part II-Charles Dickens-398
97: The Four Loves-Clive Staples Lewis-192
98: Deathnote #13: How to Read-Tsugumi Ohba-270
99: The Catteni: Freedom's Landing-Anne McCaffrey-342
100: Cheaper By The Dozen-Frank Gilbreth, Jr & Ernestine Carey-180
101: Runelords: The Sum of All Men-David Farland-613
102: Retief!-Keith Laumer-589
103: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #17-Clamp-182
104: Recluce: Colors of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-798
105: The Fifth Elephant-Terry Pratchett-494
105: Recluce: Magi'i of Cyador-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-560
106: Prophet-Frank Peretti-461
107: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Gardens of the Moon-Steven Erikson-488
108: Night Watch-Terry Pratchett-338
109: The Dark Side of the Sun-Terry Pratchett-158
110: Fruits Basket #18-Natsuki Takaya-209
111: Barnaby Rudge-Charles Dickens-599
112: Corean Chronicles: Legacies-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-558
113: Recluce: Scion of Cyador-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-720
114: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Deadhouse Gates-Steven Erikson-598
115: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Fury- Aaron Allston-356
116: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Revelation- Karen Traviss-410
117: Corean Chronicles: Darkness-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-492
118: Starswarm-Jerry Pournelle-349
119: In Legend Born-Laura Resnick-461
120: Taken: The Light-Years Beneath My Feet-Alan Dean Foster-245
121: In Fire Forged: The White Dragon-Laura Resnick-491
122: Green Rider: Green Rider-Kristen Britain-504
123: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Memories of Ice-Steven Erikson-781
124: Invasive Procedures-Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston-352
125: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible- Troy Denning-299
126: Corean Chronicles: Scepters-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-624
127: In Fire Forged: The Destroyer Goddess-Laura Resnick-478
128: Green Rider: First Rider's Call-Kristen Britain-484
129: Oh My Goddess! #29-Kosuke Fujishima-156
130: The Looking Glass Wars-Frank Beddor-376
131: Green Rider: The High King's Tomb-Kristen Britain-679
132: Forward the Foundation-Isaac Asimov-480
133: Hard Times-Charles Dickens-257
134: The Holly-Tree- Charles Dickens-32
135: StarWars: Republic Commando: Order 66-Karen Traviss-432
136: Shannara: Genesis of Shannara: The Gypsy Morph-Terry Brooks-402
137: The Octagonal Raven-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-432
138: Dune: Paul of Dune-Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderseron-512
139: Temeraire: Victory of Eagles-Naomi Novik-329
140: Great Expectations- Charles Dickens- 479
141: The Mystery of Edwin Drood- Charles Dickens-230
142: Oliver Twist-Charles Dickens-501
143: Recluce: Wellspring of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-400
144: Paradise: Saint-Ted Dekker-347
145: Foundation-Isaac Asimov-227
146: Foundation & Empire-Isaac Asimov-227
147: Second Foundation-Isaac Asimov-225
148: Mars: Swords of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-208
149: Landover: Witches' Brew-Terry Brooks-304
150: Skin-Ted Dekker-349
151: Recluce: Ordermaster-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-494
152: Quadrail: Odd Girl Out-Timothy Zahn-379
153: Looking Glass: Into the Looking Glass-John Ringo-366
154: The Bronze Canticles: Mystic Warrior-Tracy and Laura Hickman-433
155: The Singer's Crown-Elaine Isaak-469
156: War of the Spider Queen: Dissolution-Richard Byers-344
157: War of the Spider Queen: Insurrection-Thomas Reid-338
158: Elminster: The Making of a Mage-Ed Greenwood-312
159: Where the Sidewalk Ends-Shel Silverstein-166
160: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed-Sean Williams-319
161: Looking Glass: Vorpal Blade- John Ringo & Travis Taylor-400
162: Alice's Adventure in Wonderland-Lewis Carroll-144
163: Through the Looking Glass-Lewis Carrol-164
164: War of the Spider Queen: Condemnation-Richard Baker-344
165: Not For Glory-Joel Rosenberg-232
166: Mistborn: The Hero of Ages-Brandon Sanderson-572
167: Elminster: In Myth Drannor-Ed Greenwood-378
168: Fruits Basket #19-Natsuki Takaya-216
169: Fruits Basket #20-Natsuki Takaya-192
170: At the Back of the North Wind-George MacDonald-292
171: Eon-Greg Bear-412
172: Eternity-Greg Bear-346
173: Kare Kano #4-Masami Tsuda-194
174: Kare Kano #5-Masami Tsuda-197
175: Vellum: The Book of All Hours-Hal Duncan-463
176: One Piece #17-Eiichiro Oda-206
177: One Piece #18-Eiichiro Oda-223
Monday, December 29, 2008
December '08
WAR OF THE SPIDERQUEEN: INSURRECTION
-T. Reid-fantasy
-338- a group of drow go to another city to see if they too are plagued by Lolth's absence. They are and lesser houses are plotting to overthrow greater houses. Dwarven merc's are hired. The slaves revolt. The whole city is pretty much ruined. The group from the first city gets out at the end on their way to meet a priest who will hopefully help them find out why their god is absent. Sucks to be a drow, that is for sure. I'll read the 3rd book that I have, but that will be it. Not worth spending any more money on unless it is for a dollar or something.
ELMINSTER: THE MAKING OF A MAGE
-E. Greenwood-fantasy
-312-the beginnings of the mage known as Elminster. A huge hero in the forgotten realms lore, I gather. This book didn't so much read as it was almost a script for a D&D campaign. Given, Ed did make up D&D, but still. This was more 2D than a Terry Brooks book. So if you want a brainless magic read, this is the type of series for you. I shall be reading more Forgotten Realms to see if they are all like this. Might depend on the author I guess.
WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS
-S. Silverstein-children's poetry
-166-This had illustrations to go with it. Some of the poems would only make sense WITH the picture in fact. It was something silly to introduce the idea of poetry to children, imo. I'd read it to my kids.
STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED
-S. Williams-fantasy
-319-based upon the videogame of the same name. A nameless secret apprentice of Darth Vader's ends up helping to create the rebellion. This book was yet another good reason why most games don't make good books. This read like a game. Go here, do this, go there, do that. The character development was pretty nil. The contradictions in this story were huge, imo. A sith apprentice who easily switches over to the light? He changed the course of a StarDestroyer for goodness sake, with darkside power. That should have twisted him beyond recognition. It was just one big piece of crap. I didn't enjoy reading it and am glad it is not the beginning of a series, for I would have to skip it.
LOOKING GLASS: VORPAL BLADE
-J. Ringo & T. Taylor-military scifi
-400- the Vorpal Blade is a converted sub for space travel. Weaver and Miller and Mimi and Tuffi are all on board. The whole purpose of the sub is to explore and look for Dreen presence. They come across a couple of planets, the last which was inhabited. This book was ok. Not as much action as Into the Looking Glass, and the action that does happen seems to be mainly in the last half or so of the book. I thought Into the Looking Glass was worth owning. This was worth reading. I don't know if the libraries have any more of the series though.
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
-L. Carroll-juvenile fiction
-144-young Alice is bored, so she follows a rabbit down a rabbit hole and ends up in Wonderland. She shrinks and grows and shrinks and grows and meets all sorts of interesting characters. Then her sister wakes her up.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
-L. Carroll-juvenile Fiction
-164-Alice walks through a Mirror and sees what is on the other side. It is a living chess board. She makes her way across the board and becomes a Queen. Then she wakes up. Both of the Alice books were a bit more on the light side than I'd remembered. Not bad, just I remembered them as having more of a "heft" than I found this time :-) Guess I am just getting old, hahaha.
WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: CONDEMNATION
-R. Baker-fantasy
-344-the group tries to find a wizard of another god to help them. He does, but betrays them and allows his god to enter and try to kill Lolth. No real desire to read the rest of the series. I certainly won't be buying them. The drow are jut horrible. Backstabbing, no trust, no hope. No race could have gone on like that for real. It would have imploded or torn itself apart.
NOT FOR GLORY
-J. Rosenberg-scifi
-232-first, this author should not be confused with Joel C[!!!!] Rosenberg. Completely different guy. Writes about Israel though, go figure. Anyway, Israel was kicked out of the promised land and took over a desolate ball of a planet. Now they are mercenaries to support themselves. It was dedicated to a "Bob Adams". I'm going to find out if it is the Bob Adams I know. Wouldn't that be a kicker. Bleh story though. Grey describes it very well.
MISTBORN: THE HERO OF AGES
-B. Sanderson-fantasy
-572- the conclusion to the Mistborn trilogy. The power Vin released was Ruin. It was a force opposed by Preservation. Preservation made humans with some ruin so as to get an edge on Ruin. Ruin was trying to destroy the world, period. Preservation gave up its sentience to imprison Ruin. Vin freed Ruin in Well of Ascension but joined the mists and took on Preservations power. Fought with, and joined with, Ruin. Sazed took both those powers and became The Hero of Ages, basically a god watching over the world. Vin is no more and Elend dies to, so no loose ends. The story ends with Sazed fixing the world and keeping it safe for the remnant of humanity saved by the Lord Ruler's foresight. Definitely didn't take the direction I thought it would, but it was good none the less. Hope Sanderson does a good job on Memories of Light, the final Wheel of Time book.
ELMINSTER: IN MYTH DRANNOR
-E. Greenwood-fantasy
-378- Elminster goes to the Elven kingdom to learn lots of magic and help the elves open up their kingdom. Almost all the elves want to kill him so he ends up spending 20+ years apprenticing to some unknown elven sorcerer. Everything works out in the end with one elvenhouse swearing eternal vengeance against him, so as to make room for more books ;-) Blase writing but a good time killer. Light.
FRUITS BASKET 19 & 20
-N. Takaya-manga
-blah, blah. Kyo confesses he could have saved Tohru's mom but didn't. Tohru continues to look for a cure to the bond, which basically consists of her moaning about how unworthy she is. I just read these books without remembering a thing from 18. To many people who look alike and act alike. Everytime I am like "Ok, who is THIS character again?". Bleh.
AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
-G. MacDonald-children's fiction
-292- a little boy gets to know the North Wind, which is basically an angel of death for children. Sees the world, has adventures with his family, and then goes to the Back of the North Wind at the end of the book, which means he died. Can't say I really understood this very well. Filled with poems, songs, etc that I just skipped over. In essence, it seems to be a story about a little boy who dies. But it wasn't really sad.
EON
-G. Bear-scifi
-412- humanity discovers an "alien" artifact in orbit around our world. Turns out to be from an alternate future in which the world almost destroyed itself. It appearing heightens tension between the Russians and the Americans and sets off what is called "The Death", the world almost destroying itself. Lots of humanity going digital. Assumes that that is possible. A pretty cool read. Lots of action with the Russians trying to take over the artifact. Bear wrote well, unlike his starwars stuff. He should stick to straight scifi.
ETERNITY
-G. Bear- scifi
-346-the sequel to Eon. Not nearly as interesting. Lots of junk about the future affecting the past to cause itself. Explored what humanity might become. Why does it seem that most evolutionistic authors assume that we will all become some sort of group mind meld? More likely we will kill ourselves off first. I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as Eon.
KARE KANO #4-5
-M. Tsuda-manga
VELLUM: THE BOOK OF ALL HOURS
-H. Duncan-fantasy
-463- profanity, obscenity, blasphemy, all these were what this book centered around. Humans become angels, the top angel became god, was overthrown. Angels, demons, whatever, are unkin. And a war wages between them all. The Vellum is under all, the "true reality" that can be rewritten. This book was very non-linear, almost like the author was on an acid trip or smoking pot when he wrote this. Duncan gloried in profanity and homosexuality, and a refusal to "choose" sides in a divine war. And it was just so full of emptiness, hopelessness and despair. Who would want that kind of world view? Ugh.
ONE PIECE #17-18
-E. Oda-manga
-reread 17 to orient myself properly for 18.
-T. Reid-fantasy
-338- a group of drow go to another city to see if they too are plagued by Lolth's absence. They are and lesser houses are plotting to overthrow greater houses. Dwarven merc's are hired. The slaves revolt. The whole city is pretty much ruined. The group from the first city gets out at the end on their way to meet a priest who will hopefully help them find out why their god is absent. Sucks to be a drow, that is for sure. I'll read the 3rd book that I have, but that will be it. Not worth spending any more money on unless it is for a dollar or something.
ELMINSTER: THE MAKING OF A MAGE
-E. Greenwood-fantasy
-312-the beginnings of the mage known as Elminster. A huge hero in the forgotten realms lore, I gather. This book didn't so much read as it was almost a script for a D&D campaign. Given, Ed did make up D&D, but still. This was more 2D than a Terry Brooks book. So if you want a brainless magic read, this is the type of series for you. I shall be reading more Forgotten Realms to see if they are all like this. Might depend on the author I guess.
WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS
-S. Silverstein-children's poetry
-166-This had illustrations to go with it. Some of the poems would only make sense WITH the picture in fact. It was something silly to introduce the idea of poetry to children, imo. I'd read it to my kids.
STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED
-S. Williams-fantasy
-319-based upon the videogame of the same name. A nameless secret apprentice of Darth Vader's ends up helping to create the rebellion. This book was yet another good reason why most games don't make good books. This read like a game. Go here, do this, go there, do that. The character development was pretty nil. The contradictions in this story were huge, imo. A sith apprentice who easily switches over to the light? He changed the course of a StarDestroyer for goodness sake, with darkside power. That should have twisted him beyond recognition. It was just one big piece of crap. I didn't enjoy reading it and am glad it is not the beginning of a series, for I would have to skip it.
LOOKING GLASS: VORPAL BLADE
-J. Ringo & T. Taylor-military scifi
-400- the Vorpal Blade is a converted sub for space travel. Weaver and Miller and Mimi and Tuffi are all on board. The whole purpose of the sub is to explore and look for Dreen presence. They come across a couple of planets, the last which was inhabited. This book was ok. Not as much action as Into the Looking Glass, and the action that does happen seems to be mainly in the last half or so of the book. I thought Into the Looking Glass was worth owning. This was worth reading. I don't know if the libraries have any more of the series though.
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
-L. Carroll-juvenile fiction
-144-young Alice is bored, so she follows a rabbit down a rabbit hole and ends up in Wonderland. She shrinks and grows and shrinks and grows and meets all sorts of interesting characters. Then her sister wakes her up.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
-L. Carroll-juvenile Fiction
-164-Alice walks through a Mirror and sees what is on the other side. It is a living chess board. She makes her way across the board and becomes a Queen. Then she wakes up. Both of the Alice books were a bit more on the light side than I'd remembered. Not bad, just I remembered them as having more of a "heft" than I found this time :-) Guess I am just getting old, hahaha.
WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: CONDEMNATION
-R. Baker-fantasy
-344-the group tries to find a wizard of another god to help them. He does, but betrays them and allows his god to enter and try to kill Lolth. No real desire to read the rest of the series. I certainly won't be buying them. The drow are jut horrible. Backstabbing, no trust, no hope. No race could have gone on like that for real. It would have imploded or torn itself apart.
NOT FOR GLORY
-J. Rosenberg-scifi
-232-first, this author should not be confused with Joel C[!!!!] Rosenberg. Completely different guy. Writes about Israel though, go figure. Anyway, Israel was kicked out of the promised land and took over a desolate ball of a planet. Now they are mercenaries to support themselves. It was dedicated to a "Bob Adams". I'm going to find out if it is the Bob Adams I know. Wouldn't that be a kicker. Bleh story though. Grey describes it very well.
MISTBORN: THE HERO OF AGES
-B. Sanderson-fantasy
-572- the conclusion to the Mistborn trilogy. The power Vin released was Ruin. It was a force opposed by Preservation. Preservation made humans with some ruin so as to get an edge on Ruin. Ruin was trying to destroy the world, period. Preservation gave up its sentience to imprison Ruin. Vin freed Ruin in Well of Ascension but joined the mists and took on Preservations power. Fought with, and joined with, Ruin. Sazed took both those powers and became The Hero of Ages, basically a god watching over the world. Vin is no more and Elend dies to, so no loose ends. The story ends with Sazed fixing the world and keeping it safe for the remnant of humanity saved by the Lord Ruler's foresight. Definitely didn't take the direction I thought it would, but it was good none the less. Hope Sanderson does a good job on Memories of Light, the final Wheel of Time book.
ELMINSTER: IN MYTH DRANNOR
-E. Greenwood-fantasy
-378- Elminster goes to the Elven kingdom to learn lots of magic and help the elves open up their kingdom. Almost all the elves want to kill him so he ends up spending 20+ years apprenticing to some unknown elven sorcerer. Everything works out in the end with one elvenhouse swearing eternal vengeance against him, so as to make room for more books ;-) Blase writing but a good time killer. Light.
FRUITS BASKET 19 & 20
-N. Takaya-manga
-blah, blah. Kyo confesses he could have saved Tohru's mom but didn't. Tohru continues to look for a cure to the bond, which basically consists of her moaning about how unworthy she is. I just read these books without remembering a thing from 18. To many people who look alike and act alike. Everytime I am like "Ok, who is THIS character again?". Bleh.
AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
-G. MacDonald-children's fiction
-292- a little boy gets to know the North Wind, which is basically an angel of death for children. Sees the world, has adventures with his family, and then goes to the Back of the North Wind at the end of the book, which means he died. Can't say I really understood this very well. Filled with poems, songs, etc that I just skipped over. In essence, it seems to be a story about a little boy who dies. But it wasn't really sad.
EON
-G. Bear-scifi
-412- humanity discovers an "alien" artifact in orbit around our world. Turns out to be from an alternate future in which the world almost destroyed itself. It appearing heightens tension between the Russians and the Americans and sets off what is called "The Death", the world almost destroying itself. Lots of humanity going digital. Assumes that that is possible. A pretty cool read. Lots of action with the Russians trying to take over the artifact. Bear wrote well, unlike his starwars stuff. He should stick to straight scifi.
ETERNITY
-G. Bear- scifi
-346-the sequel to Eon. Not nearly as interesting. Lots of junk about the future affecting the past to cause itself. Explored what humanity might become. Why does it seem that most evolutionistic authors assume that we will all become some sort of group mind meld? More likely we will kill ourselves off first. I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as Eon.
KARE KANO #4-5
-M. Tsuda-manga
VELLUM: THE BOOK OF ALL HOURS
-H. Duncan-fantasy
-463- profanity, obscenity, blasphemy, all these were what this book centered around. Humans become angels, the top angel became god, was overthrown. Angels, demons, whatever, are unkin. And a war wages between them all. The Vellum is under all, the "true reality" that can be rewritten. This book was very non-linear, almost like the author was on an acid trip or smoking pot when he wrote this. Duncan gloried in profanity and homosexuality, and a refusal to "choose" sides in a divine war. And it was just so full of emptiness, hopelessness and despair. Who would want that kind of world view? Ugh.
ONE PIECE #17-18
-E. Oda-manga
-reread 17 to orient myself properly for 18.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
November '08
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
-C. Dickens-classic
-479- a young boy helps a convict and he in turns makes the boy's fortune later in life and in secret. It all comes to naught though and the convict dies and the boy, now a man, must make it on his own. I enjoyed this story, but the main character, except right at the end, is one of the typical "gentlemen" of the times. Loose with money, miserable and doing anything to make that misery disappear. He is a shallow, selfish jerk. Redeemed at the end, but 20-30 pages against 430+ doesn't do a whole lot.
THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD
-C. Dickens-classic
-230- Dickens' last novel, unfinished. A young man, Edwin Drood, is affianced to a young lady who his uncle is in love with. The uncle is a scoundrel, in secret. Edwin disappears and suspicion is thrown on a young man who is also in love with the fiance. Probably the uncle though. But we will never know. It just ends, very abruptly. Drat that Dickens' for dying! As bad that Jordan guy ;-)
OLIVER TWIST
-C. Dickens-classic
-501- a young boy is brought up on the streets but taken in by kind people. Goes through various struggles and ends up being the rightful heir to a deadman. More of a social commentary on the workhouses of the times. Horrible places and run by hypocrites. Young Oliver is an innocent and a joy to read about.
RECLUCE: WELLSPRING OF CHAOS
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-400- Kharl the cooper saves a neighbors daughter from rape. Then he saves a young black staffer from Recluce. The man he thwarts is the son of the local lord. Kharl's consort is killed, his sons leave him and his cooperage is taxed out of his control. He leaves, learns some about Order on his own and helps a ruler from being displaced. Gets lands and a title in another land. Probably going to be a sequel about him going back to his land and giving justice. This was the most "novel" of them to date. Not much repetition and noise words.
PARADISE: SAINT
-T. Dekker-fiction
-347- a sequel to Showdown, of sorts. A man has been stripped of his very identity and memories and rebuilt, many times. He is an assassin. He doesn't know when something is a test or the real thing as he is conditioned. He is sent to kill the US President but meets up with Samuel and David Abraham from Showdown. Turns out he is Johnny from Paradise and he has special powers. He comes to a showdown of his own with a fictitious character named The Englishman who has similar powers. Johnny ends up 'believing' and loses his normal eyesight but gains something like Ghostriders soulsear eyesight or something. Also uses 2 sentences to tie in House, which I thought was wicked cool. Pretty shallow, but I enjoyed it and would consider buying it.
FOUNDATION
-I. Asimov-scifi
-227-a galaxy spanning empire of 12 millenia is crumbling. One man, Hari Seldon, uses psychohistory to plot a course to shorten the new dark age from 30,000 years to 1000 years. To do this, he establishes 2 Foundations. This book deals with the First Foundation, a collection of scientists who embody all the collective knowledge needed to bring about the Second Galactic Empire. Follows the Foundation through the first couple of hundred years as it weathers "Seldon Crises" and becomes the nucleus of the New Empire.
FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE
-I. Asimov-scifi
-227-the Foundation comes head to head with the remnant of the First Empire and conquers it. A genetic mutant with the ability to twist peoples emotions ends up foiling the Seldon Plan and taking over the galaxy. Introduces the Second Foundation, a foundation of Mentalists. The Mule, the mutant, hunts them down to destroy them. The book ends with him being foiled by a couple who are First Foundationers.
SECOND FOUNDATION
-I. Asimov-scifi
-225- the Mule continues his hunt. Comes head to head with the Second Foundation, loses and never realizes it. After his demise, the First Foundation feels threatened and begins to try to hunt down the Second Foundation so as to be unrivaled. Through some tricky mindstuff, the Second Foundation, which is to be the true guardian of psychohistory, convinces the First Foundation that they have been destroyed. These three novels were written back in the 50's and they are just good vintage scifi. Simple, easy and yet extremely enjoyable.
MARS: SWORDS OF MARS
-E.R. Burroughs-scifi
-208-John Carter goes to another city to break up an assassins guild. They in turn kidnap his wife. End up going to a moon of mars and back to rescue her. Ugh. I can't stand these anymore. I wish I hadn't bought them. Well, I will end up finishing the series next year. Only 3 more stories to go. But I need at least 4 months between these.
LANDOVER: WITCHES' BREW
-T. Brooks-fantasy
-304-Ben and Willow's child is kidnapped by Nightshade. Nightshade uses the child's magic against Ben before he gets a clue and realizes what is going on. Ends with everything ok and Nightshade as a crow in our world. This book had absolutely nothing interesting in it. Which is why it was the last of the Landover novels. But it was typical Brooks, so who knows why this series didn't take off like the Shannara one.
SKIN
-T. Dekker-suspense/thriller
-349- a killer is on the loose in a smalltown and seems hellbent on having 5 specific people kill each other, based on who is most ugly. It is just weird. Turns out it is all in a "game" that is testing new tech on epileptic people. But the badguy is one of the players turned bad. This was a thriller through and through. Some very vague references to universal truths, but without Christ, so it seemed like they were just kind of thrown in. I enjoyed this, knowing that things were NOT as they seemed, but having no idea how they were not :-) Dekker likes colors in regards to his villians names-Marsuvees Black, Barsidious White, Sterling Red in this one. Two things I didn't care for; 1: Tied it to the Circle Trilogy world, probably in reference to his new Lost Books quaddrilogy, just too blatant. 2: It ends with them still in the game, and you never know when or if they'll get out. Other than those 2 things, this was a fantastic page turner that just entertained the darkside of me :-)
RECLUCE: ORDERMASTER
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-494- Kharl goes back to his homecountry and ends up finding a new consort and killing off a bunch of white mages and Egen, the man responsible for killing his family and driving him from Brysta. I enjoyed this, but nothing special in any way.
QUADRAIL: ODD GIRL OUT
-T. Zahn-scifi
-379-Compton and Bayta help a girl who is part of a group. This group is in symbiosis with a variant of the Mhodri, in an attempt for the Chahwyn to create an army of their own to fight back against the Mhodri. This was so filled with "I know that they know that I know that I will do this to..." that it was just confusing. Read the first 2 or 3 chapters, read the last 3 chapters, and your have the story in a nutshell. I enjoyed this only because I enjoyed the previous 2 books in the series. Pretty blase work though. I really hope Zahn ups his game in any forthcoming Quadrail books or I'm afraid they just won't be worth reading.
LOOKING GLASS: INTO THE LOOKING GLASS
-J. Ringo-military scifi
-366- basically take Doom and parts of Starcraft, specificall the Zerg, add in some military hardware jargon and you've got this book. Some rogue physicist creates some kind of gate that throws out bosun particles, which allow gates to be opened to other planets. The dreen come through one and we go through another and meet some friendly aliens. The dreen take over planets and suck them dry of resources. The dreen are zerglike, growing creatures for specific needs. Besides some profanity and some seriously over the top weapon specifications[it IS military scifi though], this was enjoyable. I plan on reading some more in this series.
THE BRONZE CANTICLES: MYSTIC WARRIOR
-T.&L. Hickman-fantasy
-433- 3 worlds. One of men, dragons and dwarves. One of goblins and mechanical titans. One of elves, dryads, nyads, etc. One man, Galen, is taken as an "Elect", or madman under the laws of the dragonkings. He dreams of another world. The fae world. His dreams and communications within them become real. Begins the start of humanity throwing off the chains of the dragonkings. It seems that all 3 worlds are somehow going to become one and the dreams are precursor to it. It seems that communication between worlds opens up the user to a well of "deep magic". Plan on finishing the series.
THE SINGER'S CROWN
-E. Isaak-fantasy
-469- this novel had an interesting plotline. A king dies, his brother kills his heirs and wife but lets his fave nephew live, but castrates him and sends him to live with singing monks. The nephew comes back many years later and retakes his throne. Ok, now the real review. This was a HORRIBLE book. By horrible, I mean I would gladly do physical violence to the author to prevent her from ever writing again. Why, you ask? Let me tell you. This lady either hates men, doesn't understand them AT all OR has some insane desire for men to actually be women inside. ALL the male good characters are the most effeminate, emotional, wussy and plain cowardly wusses I have ever wanted to throttle and then run through. How many times can you read about men "...touched his shoulder and gazed into his eyes" without wanting to just totally puke it all up! And the thing is, it is not at all homosexual. It is just girly. Men acting like women, WRONGO!
WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: DISSOLUTION
-L. Byers-fantasy
-344-a forgotten realms novel. This series is about the drow, dark elves. The ones living beneath the earth. They worship some spider goddess, who is apparently doing something of her own and leaving them to fend for themselves. Chronicles what is happening as the ruling caste loses their power. The drow appear to be the worst kind of creature I could imagine. Elves, but with no love, no honor, nothing good. Pure ambition, even to the hurt of their own houses. I only have the first 3 books and the libraries don't have the rest, so I don't know if I'll be finishing this series or not.
-C. Dickens-classic
-479- a young boy helps a convict and he in turns makes the boy's fortune later in life and in secret. It all comes to naught though and the convict dies and the boy, now a man, must make it on his own. I enjoyed this story, but the main character, except right at the end, is one of the typical "gentlemen" of the times. Loose with money, miserable and doing anything to make that misery disappear. He is a shallow, selfish jerk. Redeemed at the end, but 20-30 pages against 430+ doesn't do a whole lot.
THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD
-C. Dickens-classic
-230- Dickens' last novel, unfinished. A young man, Edwin Drood, is affianced to a young lady who his uncle is in love with. The uncle is a scoundrel, in secret. Edwin disappears and suspicion is thrown on a young man who is also in love with the fiance. Probably the uncle though. But we will never know. It just ends, very abruptly. Drat that Dickens' for dying! As bad that Jordan guy ;-)
OLIVER TWIST
-C. Dickens-classic
-501- a young boy is brought up on the streets but taken in by kind people. Goes through various struggles and ends up being the rightful heir to a deadman. More of a social commentary on the workhouses of the times. Horrible places and run by hypocrites. Young Oliver is an innocent and a joy to read about.
RECLUCE: WELLSPRING OF CHAOS
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-400- Kharl the cooper saves a neighbors daughter from rape. Then he saves a young black staffer from Recluce. The man he thwarts is the son of the local lord. Kharl's consort is killed, his sons leave him and his cooperage is taxed out of his control. He leaves, learns some about Order on his own and helps a ruler from being displaced. Gets lands and a title in another land. Probably going to be a sequel about him going back to his land and giving justice. This was the most "novel" of them to date. Not much repetition and noise words.
PARADISE: SAINT
-T. Dekker-fiction
-347- a sequel to Showdown, of sorts. A man has been stripped of his very identity and memories and rebuilt, many times. He is an assassin. He doesn't know when something is a test or the real thing as he is conditioned. He is sent to kill the US President but meets up with Samuel and David Abraham from Showdown. Turns out he is Johnny from Paradise and he has special powers. He comes to a showdown of his own with a fictitious character named The Englishman who has similar powers. Johnny ends up 'believing' and loses his normal eyesight but gains something like Ghostriders soulsear eyesight or something. Also uses 2 sentences to tie in House, which I thought was wicked cool. Pretty shallow, but I enjoyed it and would consider buying it.
FOUNDATION
-I. Asimov-scifi
-227-a galaxy spanning empire of 12 millenia is crumbling. One man, Hari Seldon, uses psychohistory to plot a course to shorten the new dark age from 30,000 years to 1000 years. To do this, he establishes 2 Foundations. This book deals with the First Foundation, a collection of scientists who embody all the collective knowledge needed to bring about the Second Galactic Empire. Follows the Foundation through the first couple of hundred years as it weathers "Seldon Crises" and becomes the nucleus of the New Empire.
FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE
-I. Asimov-scifi
-227-the Foundation comes head to head with the remnant of the First Empire and conquers it. A genetic mutant with the ability to twist peoples emotions ends up foiling the Seldon Plan and taking over the galaxy. Introduces the Second Foundation, a foundation of Mentalists. The Mule, the mutant, hunts them down to destroy them. The book ends with him being foiled by a couple who are First Foundationers.
SECOND FOUNDATION
-I. Asimov-scifi
-225- the Mule continues his hunt. Comes head to head with the Second Foundation, loses and never realizes it. After his demise, the First Foundation feels threatened and begins to try to hunt down the Second Foundation so as to be unrivaled. Through some tricky mindstuff, the Second Foundation, which is to be the true guardian of psychohistory, convinces the First Foundation that they have been destroyed. These three novels were written back in the 50's and they are just good vintage scifi. Simple, easy and yet extremely enjoyable.
MARS: SWORDS OF MARS
-E.R. Burroughs-scifi
-208-John Carter goes to another city to break up an assassins guild. They in turn kidnap his wife. End up going to a moon of mars and back to rescue her. Ugh. I can't stand these anymore. I wish I hadn't bought them. Well, I will end up finishing the series next year. Only 3 more stories to go. But I need at least 4 months between these.
LANDOVER: WITCHES' BREW
-T. Brooks-fantasy
-304-Ben and Willow's child is kidnapped by Nightshade. Nightshade uses the child's magic against Ben before he gets a clue and realizes what is going on. Ends with everything ok and Nightshade as a crow in our world. This book had absolutely nothing interesting in it. Which is why it was the last of the Landover novels. But it was typical Brooks, so who knows why this series didn't take off like the Shannara one.
SKIN
-T. Dekker-suspense/thriller
-349- a killer is on the loose in a smalltown and seems hellbent on having 5 specific people kill each other, based on who is most ugly. It is just weird. Turns out it is all in a "game" that is testing new tech on epileptic people. But the badguy is one of the players turned bad. This was a thriller through and through. Some very vague references to universal truths, but without Christ, so it seemed like they were just kind of thrown in. I enjoyed this, knowing that things were NOT as they seemed, but having no idea how they were not :-) Dekker likes colors in regards to his villians names-Marsuvees Black, Barsidious White, Sterling Red in this one. Two things I didn't care for; 1: Tied it to the Circle Trilogy world, probably in reference to his new Lost Books quaddrilogy, just too blatant. 2: It ends with them still in the game, and you never know when or if they'll get out. Other than those 2 things, this was a fantastic page turner that just entertained the darkside of me :-)
RECLUCE: ORDERMASTER
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-494- Kharl goes back to his homecountry and ends up finding a new consort and killing off a bunch of white mages and Egen, the man responsible for killing his family and driving him from Brysta. I enjoyed this, but nothing special in any way.
QUADRAIL: ODD GIRL OUT
-T. Zahn-scifi
-379-Compton and Bayta help a girl who is part of a group. This group is in symbiosis with a variant of the Mhodri, in an attempt for the Chahwyn to create an army of their own to fight back against the Mhodri. This was so filled with "I know that they know that I know that I will do this to..." that it was just confusing. Read the first 2 or 3 chapters, read the last 3 chapters, and your have the story in a nutshell. I enjoyed this only because I enjoyed the previous 2 books in the series. Pretty blase work though. I really hope Zahn ups his game in any forthcoming Quadrail books or I'm afraid they just won't be worth reading.
LOOKING GLASS: INTO THE LOOKING GLASS
-J. Ringo-military scifi
-366- basically take Doom and parts of Starcraft, specificall the Zerg, add in some military hardware jargon and you've got this book. Some rogue physicist creates some kind of gate that throws out bosun particles, which allow gates to be opened to other planets. The dreen come through one and we go through another and meet some friendly aliens. The dreen take over planets and suck them dry of resources. The dreen are zerglike, growing creatures for specific needs. Besides some profanity and some seriously over the top weapon specifications[it IS military scifi though], this was enjoyable. I plan on reading some more in this series.
THE BRONZE CANTICLES: MYSTIC WARRIOR
-T.&L. Hickman-fantasy
-433- 3 worlds. One of men, dragons and dwarves. One of goblins and mechanical titans. One of elves, dryads, nyads, etc. One man, Galen, is taken as an "Elect", or madman under the laws of the dragonkings. He dreams of another world. The fae world. His dreams and communications within them become real. Begins the start of humanity throwing off the chains of the dragonkings. It seems that all 3 worlds are somehow going to become one and the dreams are precursor to it. It seems that communication between worlds opens up the user to a well of "deep magic". Plan on finishing the series.
THE SINGER'S CROWN
-E. Isaak-fantasy
-469- this novel had an interesting plotline. A king dies, his brother kills his heirs and wife but lets his fave nephew live, but castrates him and sends him to live with singing monks. The nephew comes back many years later and retakes his throne. Ok, now the real review. This was a HORRIBLE book. By horrible, I mean I would gladly do physical violence to the author to prevent her from ever writing again. Why, you ask? Let me tell you. This lady either hates men, doesn't understand them AT all OR has some insane desire for men to actually be women inside. ALL the male good characters are the most effeminate, emotional, wussy and plain cowardly wusses I have ever wanted to throttle and then run through. How many times can you read about men "...touched his shoulder and gazed into his eyes" without wanting to just totally puke it all up! And the thing is, it is not at all homosexual. It is just girly. Men acting like women, WRONGO!
WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: DISSOLUTION
-L. Byers-fantasy
-344-a forgotten realms novel. This series is about the drow, dark elves. The ones living beneath the earth. They worship some spider goddess, who is apparently doing something of her own and leaving them to fend for themselves. Chronicles what is happening as the ruling caste loses their power. The drow appear to be the worst kind of creature I could imagine. Elves, but with no love, no honor, nothing good. Pure ambition, even to the hurt of their own houses. I only have the first 3 books and the libraries don't have the rest, so I don't know if I'll be finishing this series or not.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
October '08
GREEN RIDER: THE HIGH KING'S TOMB
-K. Britain-fantasy
-679-well, this is turning into a series. A VERY good series to! This deals with King Zachary and more remnants of the Second Empire. An old woman, a necromancer awakened by Mornhavon's awakening, plans the kidnapping of Estoria, Zachary's bride to be. This is simply a diversion to allow the Second Empire to use black magic to take down the Deyer Wall. This book focuses on the wall. Alton plays a big part. Find out the history of the land and what happened after Mornhavon's defeat. I really am looking forward to the rest of this series.
FORWARD THE FOUNDATION
-I. Asimov-scifi
-480-the immediate prequel to the Foundation Trilogy [which I shall now have to reread]. Seldon is on Trantor and trying to get psychohistory ready in time. This book covers about 30+ years. Not really interesting unless one was a big Foundation buff, which I am not. Founds the first Foundation and uses his granddaughter as the nucleus for the Second Foundation.
HARD TIMES
-C. Dickens-257
-classic-a story set in a small town. A man raises his children with regard for nothing but "Facts!" One marries a much older man because she doesn't care about anything and it will help her brother and the brother becomes a selfish idiot. Brother robs a bank and through it all the family realizes that there is much MORE than just "facts!" to life.
THE HOLLY-TREE
-C. Dickens-32
-classic-a short story. A man believes his beloved is in love with his friend, so he determines to leave for America and forget his troubles. A snowstorm strands him at an inn, the Holly-Tree, and he thinks about all the inns he's been in. After the snowstorm his friend rides up with his new bride, who turns out to be the main character's beloved's cousin. So the main character goes back to his love and marries her. Just a short little narrative that is filled with Dicken's way of describing everything, very evocative.
STAR WARS: REPUBLIC COMMANDO: ORDER 66
-K. Traviss-432
-scifi-the final Republic Commando novel, supposedly. We will see though, since she left several "openings" for later stories. Basically, everything comes to a head and the RC's under Skirata disappear and go to Mandalore to start their new lives. Etain, the jedi who had a baby with a clone, is killed as they are trying to leave Coruscant. I really enjoyed this story, much more story than the previous. I really hope the bookclub carries this and the previous as a combo.
SHANNARA: GENESIS OF SHANNARA: THE GYPSY MORPH
-T. Brooks-402
-fantasy- a typical Brooks novel. Hawk, the gypsy morph, gathers a group and goes to a safe place. Elves all go into the Lodenstone and are also taken to the Safehaven. Findo Gask is supposedly destroyed by a combination of the Elfstone magic and Tom Logan's Knight of the Word magic. I don't believe it. I think he is the Warlock/Morgawr. Ends with Hawk going into a magical sleep and placing a protective mist around the new enclave and some insane soldier firing off all the remaining nukes that America has. Really doesn't say how our world "changed" into Shannara, just shows the end of ours. I was really hoping for more. I bet he writes another trilogy taking place one generation after this one though. Milk that cash cow ;-)
THE OCTAGONAL RAVEN
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-432
-scifi- this is comparable to Gravity Dreams, but not quite so sickeningly preachy. I didn't enjoy it at all though. In the future, humans are augmented by nanites, but the well off get more, etc, etc. A class of augments wants to become the ruling elite and attempts to use the media to do it. A younger son of one of the Big Three in the media ends up opposing them and winning. It was SO boring. I shall stick to his Corean Chronicles and Recluce stuff from now on.
DUNE: PAUL OF DUNE
-B. Herbert & K. Anderson-scifi
-512- Two stories about Paul Atreides. One is set between Dune and Dune Messiah. Tells of the beginning of the Jihad and the starting of the Empire of Maud'dib. The other is from Paul's childhood. Both are interesting but it felt like they were put together in one book because neither had enough substance on its own. Enjoyable if one is a Dune fan, but I couldn't really recommend it to anyone else.
TEMERAIRE: VICTORY OF EAGLES
-N. Novik-fantasy
-329- Now this was a good story. Napolean has landed in England and the English are in shambles. Lots of politic'ing and Laurence and Temeraire are allowed to do what they need to. Fighting and dragons making their own tactics, quite interesting. Ends with Napolean's army being smashed and Britain liberated. Laurence is exiled to Australia and Temeraire too, since the House of Lords don't want a rogue dragon around. Hopefully Novik's next book will follow in the action vein of this one.
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