Palace of Kings (Loremasters of Elundium #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.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Palace of Kings
Series: Loremasters of Elundium
Author: Mike Jefferies
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis:
Thane has risen to lead the alliance to destroy Krullshards. Only, he chooses the life of his grandfather Thoron over the death of Krullshards and that opens up a whole new can of worms.
Kyot, Thane's friend and archer, must find the Maker of the glass arrows of Clatterford. For only these arrows, with light imbedded in them, can truly harm Krullshards.

My Thoughts:
I DNF'd this, not because it was badly written, or horrible or the author was a troll or even a democrat, but because I realized I had outgrown it.
I have such fond memories of adventuring with Thane, rescuing Elionbel, finding Clatterford with Kyot and just being a Heroic Knight in a Grand Adventure that I decided to not finish this book. If I were to finish this my memories would be destroyed with my current thoughts about the book and I don't want that.

I would highly recommend this to young and older teens who love epic fantasy, like Tolkien but didn't necessarily like the slow pace of Tolkien.

Now I am just sad. I guess that is part of growing up and getting older. But I don't have to like it, nor do I have to mar the past. I'll remember these books very fondly for the future and just not re-read them is all.

Where Angels Fear to Tread (Classic)

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Title: Where Angels Fear to Tread
Series: N/A
Author: E. M. Forster
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic

Synopsis:
A stupid widow, neglected by her husband's family who at the same time try to rule her behavior, goes to Italy for some reason or other.
There she falls in love with a young peasant, marries him, has a kid, dies and then the family tries to take the child to have a "proper" upbringing. Nothing good comes of that line of action and in the end nothing good comes of anybody's actions.

My Thoughts
I enjoyed Room with a View. Unfortunately, I hated this book right from the beginning, through the middle and couldn't wait for the end to be over.

I need somebody to cheer for in a book. Just one person. In this book I found every person distasteful and it really seems like Forster did this on purpose to get his point across.

Messed up families, deliberate stupidity, pride, greed, sloth, uncontrolled lust and apathy were what I saw and read about. I am a firm believer in not just showing up bad behavior but also showing what COULD be, ie, good behavior.

So I'm 50/50 with Forster. Not good odds in my books.

Daring (Kris Longknife #9)

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Title: Daring
Series: Kris Longknife
Author: Mike Shepherd
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF

Synopsis:
Kris heads out into the vast reaches of space to investigate the area where Iteechee ships are disappearing. She wants a quick, small force that can get in, look and get out like hell was on their tails.
Due to politics however, she gets saddled with ships from all the main political groups [United Sentients, Peterwald Empire, etc, etc] and must forge them into one unit while keeping command herself.
And when the aliens are found, and found to be humanlike, but so hostile that they kill themselves, families and all, before there is even the chance of capture, Kris must decide how to play this. Does she start the next interstellar war, or does she toss in the chips and let the politicians at home make the decision.

My Thoughts:
This was a pretty good action/adventure story. However, the death of billions of the aliens by Kris's hands was a hard pill to swallow. What kind of man is Shepherd that he thinks up a scenario where his character has to kill BILLIONS of people all at once to survive? The setup made it the correct and the ethical choice, but that scope? If this story was real life, Kris would soon go crazy from the guilt of her actions, no matter how right. That scope of death is not something that can be lightly shouldered.

The emergence of the romance between Kris and Jack is no surprise, to anyone. It really felt more like a plot device than anything else.

And the ending, where Kris is going to have face a court for her "crimes" against the aliens? It is a great setup for the next book but it really sucks as an ending for this one.

Road to Underfall (Loremasters of Elundium #1)

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Title: The Road to Underfall
Series: Loremasters of Elundium
Author: Mike Jefferies
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy/YA

Synopsis:
Holbian, the last of the Granite Kings, is afraid of the dark. With that hidden fear, he allows Krullshards, master of Nightmares, to escape into his City of Night. Because of this act of cowardice, the Bond between Men, Owls, War Horses and Border Runners [dogs] is broken.
Nevian, Master Magician, foretells of a King to Come who will not be afraid of the dark and will reforge the bonds between the races.
To protect this chosen one, Holbian sends him to the End of World, to Underfall, Fortress against the Darkness. Along this journey he becomes legendary swordsmen, leader of men and re-forger of the bonds.
This is the story of Thane.

My Thoughts:
Having read this multiple times in highschool and in college and read it a last time in 2000, I loved this.

This directly falls into the Fairy Tale style [Bigger than big, no small details were talked about, Highlights of main points] and Epic Gloss. Epic Gloss I define as being like Tolkien in scope, tone and language, but not the depth of Tolkien. The talking was the main thing I noticed. In many ways it was like reading from the King James Bible. A different form of English when talking.

The older, more experienced me recognized the young adult in this book. It isn't a bad thing in any way, it simply is.

The story is cliched enough to captivate and enjoy. Kind of like mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives. It tastes good and you can end up eating too much but it doesn't really fill you up.

I know I would have given this a 5 back in the day, but now, I find I can only give 3.5 stars. I now need new things to feed my insatiable hunger, or a book that is deep enough to stand up to re-readings.

In a little side note, I apologize to those of you who liked my accidentally pre-released post. I hadn't written this all and clicked the post button by accident. Then I somehow deleted the whole post and had to rewrite this.

The Lost Scrolls (Rogue Angel #6)

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

Title: The Lost Scrolls
Series: Rogue Angel
Author: Alex Archer
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller/Urban Fantasy

Synopsis:
Annja is on a digsite helping out a group that is trying to discover some information about Atlantis when a para-military group descends upon the camp, kills almost everyone and takes all the scrolls they can.
Annja is stuck with a whiny, immature, genius of a girl and together they must figure out who is after them and what is so important about the scrolls in their possession.

My Thoughts:
This started out ok, but about 3 or 4 pages in, we meet the most horrible girl ever. I don't remember her name now, but she was the epitome of a stuck up, arrogant, immature, selfish genius. I hated her.

And Annja had to deal with her through the entire book and that ruined this book for me. The story, about losts scrolls that might lead to more info about Atlantis and super-civilization, could have been pretty good.  You get a lot of action and a cool battle scene on an oil rig, but the pretentious prig ruined it for me.

I didn't understand why Annja kept helping her out, or being nice to her or anything. The brat was in her 20's, able to take care of herself and smart enough to know better. But she acted like she was 12 or 14 the whole time.

I hate it when a side character makes such a big impact that it completely affects my enjoyment of the book overall.

New Orleans Knockout (The Executioner #20)

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Title: New Orleans Knockout
Series: The Executioner
Author: Don Pendleton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller/Action

Synopsis:
Mack heads to New Orleans to shake things up for Mardi Gras. However, once there, his plans of mayhem and carnage are interrupted when he finds out that the last 2 survivors of his Death Squad [from book 2] were undercover and have gone missing. Bolan teams up with the little sister of one of the Deathsquad and puts priority on finding and rescuing them over killing the mafia.

My Thoughts:
A thoroughly enjoyable romp through New Orleans as Bolan must balance rescue and revenge.

These books are a formula, but one that really works well for me. So unless the book really stinks, or somehow rises above the formula [neither is going to happen very often, if at all] I know I am in for a quick thrill ride with acceptable grammar, plot and thrill parameters.

The synopses for the books really do an adequate job of summing them up.

xxxHolic #9 & 10 (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.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer

Title: xxxHolic #9 & 10
Series: xxxHolic
Author & Artist: CLAMP
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga

Synopsis:
Watanuki has several adventures, but is introduced to a young psychic girl whose mother is keeping her under lock and key to keep her 'pure' so her gift doesn't go away. Seems she can sense and instinctively know what to do about dead people who haven't passed on
At the same time, he is forced to accept that really bad things happen to him around Himiwari but Watanuki being Watanuki, he refuses to allow that to change how he thinks about her or acts towards her.

My Thoughts:
I found these 2 books to be very melancholic and yet at the very end, hopeful.

Meeting the little psychic girl was just sad. Her mother is using her for her own profit and not thinking about the girl at all. Watanuki just sees a little girl who is alone and has to deal with the spirit world on her own and he simply reaches out to her and is her friend. He gives her a dream balloon, goes on a picnic date with her and generally connects her to humanity. It was kind of heart breaking.

The second main thing was dealing with Himawari and Watanuki almost dies [falls out a second story window at school]. During his recovering we find out that it isn't just Watanuki who has bad luck around her, but everyone, except for her parents and Domeki, who seems to be immune to most things spiritual. Himawari attempts to give up her friendship with Watanuki to save him, but he rejects that and tells her she makes him happy, even when things go bad and that he won't give up their friendship.
Yuko makes a gift that he can give Himawari that won't be affected by her, so that she'll have some companionship and be reminded of Watanuki.

I am finding this series to be deep in developing characters, funny with humor and interesting, creepy, sad and lovely with all the little stories. Definitely glad I own this series.

Sentenced to Prism (HumanX Commonwealth)

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

Title: Sentenced to Prism
Series: HumanX Commonwealth
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF

Synopsis:
Evan  Orgil, Fixer for a large Corporate Entity, is sent to a newly discovered world to see why their Exploration Team has suddenly stopped communicating. Everything is under the down low, as the world should be explored by the Commonwealth Authority before being exploited.
Orgil has lived his entire life in various powered suits and for his trip to Prism, he gets a prototype super suit to keep him safe. Of course, you all know what that means.

My Thoughts:
When I read this back in 2000 and in 2006, I gave it 5 Stars both times. It was a lot of fun, it was standalone and I found the world of Prism to be pretty unique.

This time around, I still found all those elements applicable. However, in the last couple of years I've read a tiny  bit about biology and you know what I've discovered, our bodies are truly fearfully and wonderfully made. So Foster's asides about how inefficient and simple our biology is and how the sentients on Prism just replaced things with silicon and made them better rang completely false. That is why I knocked a star off, because I know better now.

With all that being said, this was still just a great fun ride! I would consider this a classic SFF read. To bad this isn't more widely known.

Heirs of Prophecy (Sembia #5) (Forgotten Realms)

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Title: Heirs of Prophecy
Series: Sembia #5, Forgotten Realms
Author: Lisa Smedman
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars

Synopsis:
Larajin, illegitimate daughter of Thamalon Uskevren by an elf, tries to find out her past and connect to her elvish heritage. In that process she finds out she has a full on twin brother, is the priestess of 2 goddesses and is prophesied, along with her brother, to avert a war between the elves of the 'local' forest and Sembia and surrounding human cities.
And we get a little bit o' drow *grin*

My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed Smedman's Lady Penitent trilogy and so was looking forward to this. Sadly, I found it to be the weakest book of the Sembia series so far. Not because of the story or any egregious errors of the wordsmithing craft but because of the characters.

All of Thamalon's other children have been whiny brats in the books they've starred in and while I didn't care for them, I could kind of understand the whole rich spoiled brat thing. But Larajin has been hidden as a maid and didn't find out about her heritage until the last couple of years, so she isn't a rich spoiled brat.  Instead, she is a sentimental drip with barely an ounce of sense in her head. Her brother, who while half-elf appears fully elvish, is a human hating machine. We're talking "It is better to die while killing one human than to live on in dishonor of sharing the world with humans" type of hate. Eye rolling, cringe worthy kind of hatred.

Thankfully there is a good bit of action to the story and we get a tiny bit of Drow involvement [I've been a huge fan of the drow ever since the War of the Spiderqueen series, not that wretch Drizz't] which always perks the story up.

While most series have a weak book, this was definitely weaker than expected. I just hope the series can pick up again. Only 2 more books left!

On a completely different note, I am absolutely LOVING these covers. They are very busy and dark, but once you read the story you can look at the cover and pick out details that make complete sense. I love that kind of thing. Almost makes me want to buy these, even if they are only in paperback with no chance of ever seeing hardcover.

A Dance of Cloaks (Shadowdance #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.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis:
A city torn by 3 factions: a self-proclaimed King of Thieves, the 3 Merchant Princes and the effete, corrupt and useless "real" King.
Thiefman wants the Merchant Princes gone, for some reason or other and is waging all out underworld war on them. To further his aim, he is training his son to be the ultimate emotionless killer and he's doing a great job of that.
The son decides that he doesn't want to follow his father's plans and tries to strike out on his own. But he's only 13.
The Merchant Princes want the Thiefman gone, as he is strangling their businesses. They too are waging war, but lesser merchants are nibbling at their borders, intriguing to bring them down and become the next set of Merchant Princes.
Finally, the King. Playing all sides against the other for fear of losing his throne, his crown and ultimately his head.

My Thoughts:
This reminded me a lot of Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy, with everything kind of happening in one city but spreading out a little.
Sadly, only Aaron, the son of the Thiefman, is halfway likeable. There were 1 or 2 minor characters who weren't bad either [and they both die], but other than that, everyone was a backstabbing, traitorous, greedy and vicious son of a gun.

It was all about grabbing power but with no one of good character to cheer for. I am opposed to this type of writing on so many levels that it is really hard to enjoy it. Dalglish has another series, the Half Orc series, that I'm going to try. If it is less gloomy I'll probably return to this series and continue on. But if it is in the same vein, then I'll be done.

Life is tough enough and heroes few and far between for me to immerse myself in the hopeless, abject despair of fallen humanity.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Author: David Dalglish