The Krytos Trap (X-Wing #3) (Star Wars)

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Title: The Krytos Trap
Series: X-Wing, Star Wars
Author: Michael Stackpole
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 355


Synopsis:
Having just lost my review due to one stupid unfortunate swipe of the mousepad, yet again, this will be the last review I compose here in Booklikes.
I will be using a word processing program and reduce my stress and general level of profanity, which our neighbors will greatly appreciate.

Ok, Corran is captured, not dead and in his escape finds out his Gramps was a jedi and he is too.

Rogue Squadron plays politics because that scumbag Bothan Borsk Fey'la has decided he will be a player in galactic politics.

My Thoughts:
Reading this again was probably a mistake. Not because it was bad, but because it was just plain mediocre. And considering that these are probably near the top of the stack in quality, that is sad.

Not that I'm bitter about Disney's total raping of the Extended Universe or anything. That doesn't color my thinking at all, oh no. /sarcasm 
Sadly, I feel like Star Wars has been ruined all over for me now.

Anyhow, this was an enjoyable read and there was a lot I had forgotten. I plan to finish out this series but re-reading this series that I had enjoyed so much in the past has made me seriously consider selling all my Star Wars books. Bleh...

Lord of Stormweather (Sembia #7 Final) (Forgotten Realms)

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Title: Lord of Stormweather
Series: Sembia,  Forgotten Realms
Author: Dave Gross
Rating: 3  of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 316


Synopsis:
Tamlin Uskevren, Heir of the Uskevren House, is kidnapped and then rescued by his brother and sister.
At the same time, the Hulorn [supreme ruler of the City] has hired an assassin to kill of his opposition. Mundane or magical, the Hulorn doesn't care.
And because of that, Thamalon, his lady and Erevis Cale are all transported to a magical land that is ruled by an apparently Powerful and Cruel Tamlin.
All threads come together in the end as this series about the Uskevren family comes to a close as well.

My Thoughts:
The series ends and we get to see the end of one Generation of the Uskevrens and the beginnings of another.
I really, really wish I had finished this series before starting the Erevis Cale trilogies, it would have filled in a lot of blanks.

Basically, Thamalon dies, Tamlin takes over and the city of Sembia goes on as before. This was a good adventure story with lots of fighting, magic and mystery.  A good end to Erevis Cale and his connections to the Uskevrens. It also ends the rise of the House of Uskevren and begins its plateau.

This series overall is a good intro to Erevis Cale in the first 2 books and the next 5 fill in information that is relevant to Cale in the two trilogies. Pretty good 7 book series in the Forgotten Realms world.

Moll Flanders (Classic)

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Title: Moll Flanders
Series: -----
Author: Daniel Defoe
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 337


Synopsis:
The Life and Adventures in Crime of Moll Flanders. As told by Moll Flanders after she was exiled to America, made her fortune and came back to England as a rich socialite.

My Thoughts:
I can see why this was on the banned books list. Seduction of the innocent [Moll], crime sprees, incest and bigamy on a grand scale.

Now, as Moll writes, she is supposedly repented from her former life and is writing these memoirs as a warning to others. However,  that is a load of crock. Moll is proud of what she has done, the stealing, the lying, the whoring, all of it. Every line written, every word used reflects Moll's true attitude.

Nothing was ever graphic but there was never any doubt of the acts that Moll committed.

Defoe does a great job with his writing and I enjoyed this story, even as the story is not uplifting, inspiring  or in anywise about anything good.

Thief River Falls Run (Endworld #2)

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Title: Thief River Falls Run
Series: Endworld
Author: David Robbins
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 204


Synopsis:
Alpha group with Non-violence Spiritual Guy head out to try to get to the Twin Cities, again.
But they get waylaid by a new group. This group seems really organized, has info about the Family, controls mutates and the area surrounding the Twin Cities.

White hick cowboy man finds a 70's retro blackgirl who just digs his jivey whitemeat and Big Burly main character wonders if his true blue eyed blond love still loves him after he's been away a whole 2 days. And Indian man has a stereotypical cherokee beauty and her daughter show up at the Family's compound. Babes abound for everyone!

My Thoughts:
I ended up giving this the Parody tag because it is impossible to take seriously. The supposed cream of the Warriors act like total idiots and even someone as civilianized as me can spot the issues they just ignore.

The women. Oh lordy, what a pubescent wetdream. A super busty black woman has fallen into enemy hands, is tortured and raped repeatedly and when rescued by the Intrepid Group, falls in love with the whitest of the white guys and acts like she hasn't had anything happen to her. Goes so far as to offer herself to Cowboy man.
Thankfully the Indian women only shows up sick for about a page before the story moves on.
But what really got my goat was Blade [the main character] and his love interest. They are going to get married after the group successfully makes the Twin Cities run, but when the group stops at Thief River Falls and they spend 2 nights there, Blade is wracked with doubt and wonders if Lover Girl is thinking of him as much as he is thinking of her.

But even with all that, this story was fun and quick and showed a lot more potential than the first book. It also was very evident that this would be a paint by numbers series, which helped me to just ignore all the impossibly stupid things and enjoy the adventure side. This is going to be one of those series that I like to read and like to rip apart. It just will be :-)

The Source (Necroscope #3)

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Title: The Source
Series: Necroscope
Author: Brian Lumley
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Pages: 464


Synopsis:
The Russians, oh those naughty Ruskies!, are fooling around with a laser defense thingy so they can negate the United States' Star Wars program. Problem is, something goes wrong and they open a portal to the homeworld of the Vampires.
Yeah, pretty bad eh?
And they compound things by hiding it.
The Brits send in a spy to find out what is going on. He gets captured, and eventually sent to the other side along with some others.
Meanwhile Harry is down in the dumps with his new body and is pining away for his missing son and wife. So when things go South for the brit spy, E-branch sends in the necroscope to save the day.
He hooks up with his now 20'something year old son [his wife has gone insane, poor thing], finds the other humans and joins in a  big battle with the Vampire Lords.
And he finds out that his son

, while having stupendous mental abilities, is now also a vampire.

(hide spoiler) Ouch.

My Thoughts:
I am enjoying these book more and more. Most of the book was spent on the British spy finding out about the vampires and his time on the other world. Another 1/3rd was spent at the Russian base as a vampire has gotten loose and is slowly destroying it from within. And we get a little bit of Harry and lots of Harry right at the end.
The mix worked perfectly for me.

I had visions of something like a Vampire Hunter D storyline going on, but thankfully it wasn't. The vampire lords on the other world were so divided that it took Harry's son to unite them [and for most of them to be destroyed in the battle].

The psychological side of things was pretty tense in the Russian base. The scientists are doing their thing, the KGB their thing, the Russian E-branch their thing. We get to see how the vampire escapes and begins to haunt the base. It was great!

The gore and sex factor were almost nil in this book, which I found refreshing and why I added kept the 4 star rating. Very tense the whole book through and I found myself wanting to keep reading, which is always a good sign for me.

Akira #6 (Manga Monday)

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Title: Akira #6
Series: Akira
Author & Artist: Katsuhiro Otomo
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 460


Synopsis:
Tetsuo pretty much fights with everybody-the Americans, Kaneda & Kei, Lady Miyako and the Specials- and loses control. Loses control of his power, his body and his mind and keeps morphing between being Tetsuo and an amorphous conduit for the Energy of Life.

Neo-Tokyo is bombed, solar lasered multiple times and then Akira'd.

The Ending, where Kaneda and Kei take up where Tetsuo left off with the Great Tokyo Empire, was a bit of a disappointment but considering when this was written and what the culture was at the time, not surprising.

My Thoughts:
This had some seriously awesome battles. Tetsuo morphing into a giant blob and destroying things, Tetsuo capturing one of the laser arrays and crashing it into the American naval group, Tetsuo and Akira's energy getting jiggy.
Kaneda shooting, laser gunning and then just punching out Tetsuo.

It was great.  5 star Great in fact.

However, the ending, where it turns out that Akira and the specials were the next genetic step of Mankind but had been forced by the scientists to become what they were and Akira's desire to just be with his friends, was a let down.
The kid started/ended World War III, was cryogenically frozen and was the Fear of the whole freaking world, turns out to just want his friends? Yeah, lame.

I don't understand the whole Tetsuo/Akira thing. Somehow they had to meet at just the right time, their energies combine and then all the kids could be together? I realize manga likes to be vague, but this was positively opaque.

The final message, that Japan was going to stand on its own 2 feet and would no longer brook foreign intervention was definite political pandering of the day.

Overall, the series was good and I am glad I bought these. I highly recommend this to older teens and up, as this is a good series to show the roots of manga in America.

Canadian Crisis (The Executioner #24)

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Title: Canadian Crisis
Series: The Executioner
Author: Don Pendleton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 123

Synopsis:
The freaking residents of Quebec, guided by the hidden hand of the Mafia, are agitating for an independent state. Little do the stupid pinheads know that they are only setting the stage for a Mafia Country, a World Headquarters of Crime.

Thankfully, Mack Bolan knows that what is good for the Mafia is bad for Canada AND the United States.

My Thoughts:
Mack saves Canada from the damned Quebecois and in the process gets to kill a ton of Mafia dons.

All the action and adventure takes place in a hotel riddled with secret passages and Bolan makes the most of them. Posing as a Mafia Enforcer, he uses his status to get in the midst of them and with the help of the passages, appear to be in 2 places at once.

This was a good read. When the 9mil and the 44magnum get going, the action is a full frontal assault that doesn't stop until it is over. blam, Blam, BLAM!

Wedge's Gamble (X-Wing #2) (Star Wars)

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Title: Wedge's Gamble
Series: X-Wing, Star Wars
Author: Michael Stackpole
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 358


Synopsis:
The New Republic MUST take over Coruscant if they want to truly be a Galactic Power. With that in mind, Rogue Squadron heads to Coruscant to scout out the lay of the land. However, due to scheming and politics, the invasion must begin NOW and it is up to Rogue Squadron to figure out how to peel the hard fruit that is Coruscant.

And they are not unopposed. Ysanne Isard, the new Head of Security and Empress of the Empire in all but name, is preparing for the invasion and has brewed up a nasty plague to welcome the New Republic.

And the traitor is still in the midst of Rogue Squadron, reporting to Kirtan Loor. Who can it be?

My Thoughts:
No one ever said that Star Wars books are finely crafted pieces of literature. But some are better than others and they all fall prey to the drama of Space Opera.
This book was a bit fuller of said drama than the previous book, hence the 1/2star reduction.

I mean, 12'ish people go to a planet that is one giant city of 3+ trillion people and they have separate missions and they all end up together? Cue the eye rolling please.

Corran lusts after the hot babe Erisi and knows deep down that they aren't for each other? But he and Mirax have so much in common so the seed of love is there? Cue the eye rolling again!

Thankfully, there is a lot of speederbike fights, shoot outs and general adventure and mayhem to distract from the eye rolling'ness. One thing I do like is that even though Corran is the main character, Wedge Antilles has as big a part in the story as he does. I like finding out more about side movie characters.

Mentats of Dune (Schools of Dune) (Dune)

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Title: Mentats of Dune
Series: Dune
Author: Kevin Anderson & Brian Herbert
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 448


Synopsis:
A direct sequel to Sisterhood of Dune. The Mentats are truly coming into their own while placed between the battles of the Anti-Technologist Jihadis and Venport and his newly birthed Spacing Guild.

At the same time Vorian Atreides is whining and whinging his way across the universe trying to make up with his several generations removed family. And the despicable Harkonnens set in motion the feud that will consume both families.

And lots of other bits and bobs.

My Thoughts:
This book got the "trash" tag. Not because the grammar or writing was crap, but because Anderson and Herbert are so small minded that they can't write anything in the Dune Universe without ruining it with their banality.

I've read all the sequels/prequels and forgiven this Duo quite a bit, but this was just crap. Many, many instances of something about to happen, chapter ends, then the aftermath 2-3 chapters later, while the actual event isn't written about.
It was a deliberate choice, but it was a poor choice and made them look like the posers they are.

I am a big Frank Herbert Dune fan. Which is why I judge these more harshly than if they were just some random SFF books. These are money makers and it shows.  And as I've said before, these 2 authors don't even make one half of the writer that Frank Herbert was.

Not recommended.

Nevermore (Supernatural #1)

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Title: Nevermore
Series: Supernatural
Author: Keith DeCandido
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 318


Synopsis:
Dean and Sam, the [in]famous Winchester brothers, are doing a favor for Ash, the computer genius who hunts demons online. Ash's friend is being haunted by a ghost and it is escalating.

Along the way, the boys come across a series of murders that seem to tie in to a resurrection ceremony based on the stories and poems of Poe.

My Thoughts:
This story takes place during Season 2, I believe, which needs to be taken into account since that is all the author has to deal with when it comes to characterization.

This would have been a typical 2 part tv episode. 2 storylines that aren't related except by location.  This story was nothing special, the Poe aspect felt very tacked on. It felt like it was added for the "Urban Fantasy" side of things, like a ghost haunting a washed up bar rockstar wasn't enough? But at the time, the tv show was focusing on urban legends, etc, so it makes sense.

If this had been my introduction to Supernatural, I wouldn't be bothering with any more. But like most novelizations of movies and shows, the books never live up to the show. So if you like Supernatural then I do recommend this. I did like it enough to put the next book on my TBR list.