Solomon's Jar (Rogue Angel #2)

 This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis

Annja Creed finds out about Solomon's jar, where he supposedly stored the demons he used to build the temple described in Kings and Chronicles. Of course, others want this jar for it's supposed occultic power.

My Thoughts
Let me start off by saying that I believe that demons are real, that possession can and does occur today and that suggesting that Solomon built a temple to Jehovah using demons is ludicrous and blasphemous. So some of what happened in this book touched a nerve instead of just being fantasy to me.

Ok, now that that is stated...

Annja continues on her quest to discover what it means to be an agent of Light. A lot of this story was babbling about "Goodness" and how God is too big to be nailed down to one belief, and other such new age non-sense that might sound comforting and is easy on the mind, but when examined, is just so much rubbish. Philosophy-Lite I'd call it.

But, a lot of action happens. And that was all that saved this story. Annja is attacked. Everywhere she goes. By mercenaries. By rogue Israelis. By an Amazonion super Model [I kid you not!]. By a group of Earth First nutters who want to wipe out humanity. By a group of scared fishermen. And finally by a group who is working for Garin Braden, Roux's old apprentice. [Roux is currently a kind of hit or miss tutor for Annja when it fits into the story] The ending was kind of besides the point it seemed to me, but it wasn't disappointing or anything.

I can't wait to see what further adventures happen with Miss Creed in the later books. I just checked Wikipedia and the series is up to something like 45. So I've got plenty to read, as long as I don't get sick of it :-)

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Author: Alex Archer

Kokoro (Classic)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
A young student in Tokyo finds a mentor, who happens to dislike humanity and promises that the student will only find disappointment in him. This happens during the time of the transition from the Meiji era to whatever the modern era is called.

My Thoughts
I have been wanting to expand my reading beyond my typical United States/England authors. Given, I read manga, and have read some European [Adrian Tchaikovsky is the main guy who springs to mind], and I've read the Russians and the French, but my Eastern reading was limited to half of The Art of War by Sun Tzu and some of Murakami's works [and those are just WEIRD!]

So I decided to read a Japanese author who was "acclaimed". Got a hold of Soseki's name and tracked down this book.

Basically, this was the fictional account of a young student growing up and having hero worship for someone who doesn't believe they deserve it. It is melancholic, dealing with death, the past, naivete.

I almost couldn't finish it when Sensei was telling his story, his fall from grace. I could totally relate to him as a young man. So full of self-righteousness, certainty & doubt, love & indecision, hope and despair.

And then Sensei's letter ends and so does the story. We never find out about the MC's father, or what he went on to do. It was almost like it was a cycle just waiting to repeat with small variations.

Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars

Author: Natsume Soseki

Unicorn (Legend of the Five Rings: Clan War #2) DNF

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Not even worth bothering with.

My Thoughts
The first book, Scorpion, was ok, even with it's purple prose.

Sadly, this wasn't even purple. It was the boring brown of wood. It seemed like Lassieur was told to write about "X" and so she did. Just like a 5th grader. Wooden beyond belief.

And then it was dealing with zombie. I am not a fan of zombies. The only zombies that I can remember liking was in the context of the Resident Evil movies. I liked the movies, a lot. But any other zombie movie or book has always struck me as puerile and stupid. And this was not the exception to the rule.

So between zombies, plague caused or otherwise, and horribly wooden writing, I decided to do myself a favor and stop reading, this book and this series. Because this author writes more in this series and I won't subject myself to that.

Rating: 1 of 5 Stars

Author: Allison Lassieur

Death Note #1-3 (Manga Monday)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

I've got a couple of series of manga that I want to get through this year and the best way I can think of is to make it a regular weekly feature here on my blog. I've got enough to read for at least a year's worth of posts.
I'm aiming for 3 volumes a week and then reviewing them in one go.

For the next 4 weeks I'll be reviewing Death Note, a 12 volume Supernatural Mental Battle between 2 geniuses. One wants to kill as a god, the other wants to bring the killer in for justice.

Synopsis
Light Yagami is a bored genius of a highschooler. He finds a Death Note which allows him to kill off people in a variety of ways. Light decides to start killing criminals worldwide in an effort to change the world. After several weeks Interpol realizes something is going on and hires the mysterious L to find out what is going on.

What ensues is one of the best Logic battles I've seen in a long time.

My Thoughts
Light is given a Death Note by a Shinigami. Light decides that he has been given a gift to clean up the world and remake it in the image of his own idea. All he has to do is write a name down in the notebook and visualize the person's face and they will die of a heart attack. There are also a whole host of rules that allow the owner of the notebook to kill in a variety of ways.
Light goes on a killing spree to test the notebook. Which attracts the attention of L, a genius investigator who figures out what is going on with a fantastic logic trap on live tv.

And that is what this is about. Light and L battling it out on the mental plane, trying to outwit each other. While Logic is the basis for the fights, a lot of gut instinct happens. And since this is a manga, those gut instincts are correct.

And at the end of volume 3, we are introduced to another Kira [what the public calls the Mysterious Killer, who is Light Yagami] and the complications begin to seriously ramp up.

I enjoyed this the first time I read through it and I'm enjoying it now. Of course, Light's megalomania shows up right from the first, which I missed on my initial go-around. And L's arrogance is just staggering.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Author: Tsugumi Ohba
Artist:Takeshi Obata

The Jewel of Seven Stars (Classic)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
The main character is in love with a young lady, whose father happens to be an egyptologist. And surprise, he's brought home a new Mummy. And as we all know, there's always tension in the family when Daddy brings home a new Mummy.

My Thoughts
If it wasn't for Dracula, Bram Stoker wouldn't be nearly as famous, and this book would have been left forgotten on the dust heaps of history.

Let's be honest, this was boring. The first 1/3rd of the book was taken up with the Main Character and Dutiful Daughter taking care of the her father, as he had collapsed into a coma.

Then you get a little action with the flashbacks about finding the mummy and the search for all the items.

Then it comes back to "today" and the group trying to raise the mummy. Without coffee. Can you imagine sleeping for 5000 years and then being woken up, without coffee?
Needless to say, that is not cool.

Which leads to the final point. This book has 2 endings. The original by Stoker, where the Mummy is revealed for the dastardly evil it is and everything goes horribly wrong. Stoker creates more horror and "hand to mouth" moments in about 3 paragraphs than in the previous whole book. Then there is the publisher forced ending. Where everything ends up sweetness and light and MC and Dutiful Daughter get happily married.

I wouldn't recommend this as a casual read. But if you want to read a "Classic" and you enjoyed Dracula, then I highly recommend this just for the experience. However, Dracula does stand head and shoulders above this.

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars

Author: Bram Stoker

Going Shogun

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Chris, or Brick [I think that's his nickname anyway], is a socio-economic climber in a cyberpunk world. All he has to do is steal some super secret recipes, hack into the completely controlled internetz AND avoid super agents.
But with a friend like Forklift, how can Brick fail?

My Thoughts
I started this book knowing NOTHING about it, not even a plot synopsis. So I was flying blind. And I couldn't tell what was going on, what was supposed to be going on or where the eventual destination was supposed to be.

I enjoy the occasional cyberpunk novel, as I enjoy the over the top techtalk, the swords and the darky gloomy grit. But this? It was all funny dark. Everything is gloomy and horrible, but Forklift is this irrepressible character who the MC gets swept along with. Jokes are cracked, violence is slapstick and the non-graphic sex was totally "first time".
Also, Japan does not appear to be ruling the world.

So what kind of cyberpunk book was this? Halfway through I recognized this was a parody, not a real cyberpunk novel that just sucked. And it all clicked.
And then the ending. Forklift changes so drastically that you have to wonder. If that society could produce him, how come it is still so monolithically stable?

Basically, I got a comedy when I wasn't expecting it. That'll teach me to read blindly ;-)

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars

Author: Ernie Lindsey

The Royal Ranger (Ranger's Apprentice #12)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

 Synopsis
15 to 20 years after The Lost Stories, Will is dealing with one of life's most grievous blows. At the same time Horace and Evanlyn are dealing with their rebellious daughter.

My Thoughts
First off, Will's wife is dead. Once you get past that, then the story moves on.


Will is turning into a shell and Maddy is running so wild that she is in danger of becoming a danger to the Royal Family.

Everybody else gets together and comes up with a plan to force them together. It works. Will gets happy, Maddy grows up and they rescue a bunch of stolen children and give justice to the killer of Will's wife.

I found this slightly disgusting to be honest. I thought that Will's story should have ended back in The Lost Stories and this just smacked of something slightly off. I don't have a problem with more stories about the Rangers or this land, but either go with a different ranger, or skip a generation and start a new sub-series.

Also, this smacked of trying to get the girl "vote". Keep your "girl power" story in another time line. Don't force into characters that I've already spent 11 books worth of time with. Like I wrote before, write this story. Tell this "girl growing up" story. It is a good story. But it isn't a Will Treaty story.

I guess it came down to that I didn't want to read a new Will Treaty story, but was willing to read a Will Treaty story and this was NOT about him. He was ancillary.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Author: John Flanagan

Three (Legends of the Duskwalker #1)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Three, a mysterious bounty hunter, ends up protecting a drugged out amped up mother and her potentially special son.

My Thoughts
This obviously takes place in a dystopian, post-apocolyptic world, so I wasn't sure how I was going to like this.

The further I read, the more I liked. This had it all. A damsel in distress. A talented cute kid. A reluctant yet willing Hero. An evil villain who is practically insane. A host of monsters that are futuristic and yet also atavistic. And even better, the Damsel and the Child are saved in the end by the heroic sacrifice of the Reluctant Hero.

This just pushed all the right buttons for me. Fast paced action, mystery, techno-thriller, romance. All these describe this book to a T. However, I can see it not being everyone's cup of coffee. Drug abuse, child abuse, domestic violence, plain old general violence, none of it in graphic detail thankfully, but they aren't danced around and euphemistically referred to either.

Jay Posey is now on my radar and I'm going to keep him on my short list.

Rating: Strong 4 of 5 Stars

Author: Jay Posey

Heidi {Classic}

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Orphan Heidi is abandoned by her cousin and foisted onto her mean Grandfather who lives all alone on a mountain. Her various adventures as she betters everybody who comes into contact with her.

My Thoughts
I actually read this because I didn't have any other paper books that I wanted to read at the time.

It is the classic story (Spyri lived back in the mid 1800's] about a young orphan girl who simply transforms everyone she comes into contact with. Think Swiss Pollyana.

My first reaction was "oh boy, saccharine out the wazoo!", but as I kept reading, I found Heidi not to be saccharine, but an agent of change. In many ways, she is in the background while the side characters stand out for a couple of chapters. But her presence is always there, making their life better, if even in ways that they are not aware of.

I also liked the acknowledgement that "good" doesn't simply happen. It has an Author.

I could see reading this book to a younger child, a chapter or two a night until it was done. None of the plot points are overly drawn out or tedious and everything seems to be "chunked up" into just the right size for someone with a smaller attention span, ie kids.

But it is a sweet story for adults too. After the grime and grit of a lot of modern SFF [which is what I mainly read], or even the hard realities presented by authors like Austen or Dickens, this was like eating an orange: sweet and yummy and good for you.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Author: Johanna Spyri

Fortress Frontier (Shadow Ops #2)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Alan Bookbinder, newly awakened Latent, is sent to the FOB and ends up dealing with the HUGE mess that Oscar Britton made in the first book.

My Thoughts
Ok, I hated the first book Control Point, so much so that I just had to give Myke Cole another chance. This book was twice as good as the previous, and I still hated it, so Myke and I are done.

Thankfully, Bookbinder isn't a complete and utter selfish douchebag like Oscar Britton. He starts out a spineless wimp, but soon is forced to grow one just to survive. I like that, a lot.

But the mess Oscar created when he released the witch ends up in the total destruction of the base and an untold number of deaths of the soldiers based there. Oscar, and Bookbinder, are right that the system needs changing, quickly. But Oscar isn't the one to do it. He's an unreliable dick. And worse, he's so gullible that he puts everyone who trusts him in danger.

If this had been the first book in the series, I might have stuck around, as I found Bookbinder to be the responsible kind even if not confident. I like the idea, which to be honest is really just "X-Men: In Real Life", but not the characters. So I'm not going to spend any more time on this. I gave Cole his second chance and I didn't find it compelling enough. Too little too late.

Rating: 2 of 5 Stars

Author: Myke Cole