The Alabaster Staff (The Rogues #1) (Forgotten Realms)

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Title: The Alabaster Staff
Series: The Rogues, Forgotten Realms
Author: Edward Bolme
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 320


Synopsis:
A young girl is entangled in a plot between factions of the gods Tiamat and the fallen god of Unther [where this story takes place]. Also in play are the political powers of Unther and another nation that is trying to take them over.
Kersin [or whatever "exotic" spelling the author makes it to be], the young woman, is forced to steal the Staff of Necromancy, give it away, watch her erstwhile allies get slaughtered, taken into protection by a powerful lord, shadowed by said lord's bodyguard and in the end, try to prevent the raising of a dead mad god.

My Thoughts:
The first chapter is very misleading, as it follows a young boy who steals into the city and steals some fruit to survive. He then gives some fruit to Kersin and we never see him again. I felt very bait-n-switch'ed.

But after that, I enjoyed this. The purple prose was really kept to a minimum and that in and of itself made this worthy of enjoyment. Kersin was a likeable main character and there was no love story, or even worse, a love triangle. Thank goodness for that!
The inclusion of the Harpers was a nice touch too, especially since I like the idea of an underground group of Good Guys doing good things to make the world a gooder place :-)

The ending fight was nice and climactic, with a zombie god and all. Looking forward to the next book in the Rogue series.

Seal of the Worm (Shadows of the Apt #10) (Final)

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Title: Seal of the Worm
Series: Shadows of the Apt
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 624


Synopsis:
The Wasp Empire is collapsing beneath Seda's actions. The Worm's Empire is breaking free.
And the world as the Kinden all know it is changing.


My Thoughts:
This was more enjoyable and a good bit deeper than I was expecting.  I suspect it had as much to do with my frame of mind [ie, Thanksgiving] than with the actual book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It wraps things up while giving us a rousing good adventure story.

The series overall made me feel like I was on a roller coaster. Not because Tchaikovsky's style significantly changed, but because it seemed the focus, the sub-genre almost, changed at the midpoint.

From starting out as a Heroic Quest to save Collegium from the Wasp Empire it changed to a much more relational, "think out the consequences" type of story.
I have to admit, I did NOT like the change after book 5. But the stories were still good, just different than what I had started out with.

With this ending book and seeing how everything works together, I do heartily recommend this series to any Fantasy fan who wants something that is just a tiny "bit" different. I did find the whole Kinden aspect to be wicked cool.

Masters of Doom

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.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Masters of Doom
Series: -----
Author: David Kushner
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Biography
Pages: 301


Synopsis:
A Quick and Dirty Biography of John Romero and John Carmack, the Co-Creators of ID Software, which gave us Doom and Quake.

My Thoughts:
Overall, I'd say this was a pretty lackluster book. Serious issues were quickly gone over, motivations and thoughts barely sketched out, no footnotes, quotes or anything of substance.

However, it brought such a dose of Nostalgia that I practically felt like a kid again! I remember my first computer, a dx2-66, on which I ran DOS 6.22 [not that nasty ol' 6.20 mind you!] and was the envy of my friends because I'd saved up and bought a cd-rom 4x. Oh man, I was blazing.

I didn't really play Doom, but was introduced to Doom II: Hell on Earth. It was fantastic. It was everything my young self craved. Guns. Violence against a legitimate target. Being a bad ass hero. Double barreled shotgun. Puzzle solving along aside adrenalin inducing action.

Then Heretic and Hexxen came out, based on Doom's graphic engine. Medieval Doom with bows and arrows, magic arcane items, more intricate puzzles. And Hexxen with its multi-hub puzzles. It was all awesome.

Then Quake. I remember Quake so well because it required a Pentium 75 and my neighbor had just gotten one and there was no way I was going to be able to afford one for quite some time.

And this book brought back all those memories and feelings. And that is why this was rated so high.

The book itself was about two raging egomaniacs with different strengths who wouldn't and couldn't work together or with others. Because of that, they made and lost great people, companies and games.
Kushner tries to end on a happy note, but you know it won't last because nothing has changed in the John's lives except their current circumstances.

Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Longstocking #1)

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Title: Pippi Longstocking
Series: Pippi Longstocking
Author: Astrid Lindgren
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Children
Pages: 80


Synopsis:
Pippi Longstocking, the strongest girl in the world, moves into Villa Villecula, all by herself.
Her neighbors have adventures with her and romps ensue.

My Thoughts:
I remember reading this back in gradeschool and thinking it was the most humorous book ever. It was the Gold Standard of Funny.

Reading this now, I can understand why my young self was so enamored. It is immature, all about the kids and them having Adventures that every kid can only dream about.
The adults are adults from a kids perspective, existing but usually getting in the way.

I'm rating this 3 because I'm an adult. But for kids, and my Inner Kid, I'm giving it a 5.

The Ivanhoe Gambit (Time Wars #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.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: The Ivanhoe Gambit
Series: Time Wars
Author: Simon Hawke
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 228


Synopsis:
In the "Future", war is waged by keeping points of soldiers who fight in past battles. Those keep track of the points are the Elite, who also double as Time Agents who prevent paradoxes from occurring.
Well, one of these Refs goes rogue and tries to derail the timeline by taking Richard the Lionhearted's place in History and changing everything.
A group of soldiers are sent in to stop a Paradox from happening and they happen to land in the story of Ivanhoe. And thus the story proceeds.

My Thoughts:
I would have eaten this stuff up like pudding back in the early 90's, but since I've read a good bit of Time Travel, Time Paradox AND the original Ivanhoe, well, this was only so-so.

First off, Hawke takes the Ivanhoe story as his outline and then interweaves his own, so to be honest, I felt like he was cheating. Yeah, you heard me, cheating. If someone reads this and it gets them to read the actual Ivanhoe, then I'm ok with that, but to be honest, I don't see that happening.

If I compared this to food [ I'm hungry right now :-D ] I'd have to go with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, made with skippy peanut "spread", on super de duper processed sliced white bread. It does its job, but you don't want more than 1 in a great while.

There are 12 in the series. I wonder if I can read them all? At least unlike that terrible Endworld series, this is internally consistent with how the characters act.

Bone Key (Supernatural #3) DNF @30%

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Title: Bone Key
Series: Supernatural
Author: Keith DeCandido
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: DNF


My Thoughts:
Due to personal and religious reasons, I will not be finishing this book.

Savage Fire (Executioner #28)

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.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer


Title: Savage Fire
Series: The Executioner
Author: Don Pendleton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 138


Synopsis:
Leo Turin is apparently under a kill order from the Mafia and someone knows he's a fed. And someone in the feds is a dirty fink linked to the mafia.
If he stays, he dies, if he leaves, he dies.
Mack doesn't turn his back on his friends. And if it means killing even more outrageous amounts of mafioso, then so much the better.

My Thoughts:
Really enjoyed this one. The head of the Mafia, whom Mack spared [even while blowing his legs off] a couple of books back, is fighting for what's left of his life and his position. Leo is caught in the crossfire and nobody knows who is fighting for who because of the veil of secrecy the mafia uses.

But Bolan won't be stopped. He kills, he destroys and in the process he sets up Leo to a new mafia lord who can feed the Feds even more info. Everyone but the Mafia wins!

Man, I love it when the badguys get moyduhed!

Gankutsuou Vol. 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.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer

Title: Gankutsuou
Series: Gankutsuou
Author & Artist: Mahiro Maeda, Yuri Ariwara
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 600+

Synopsis:
A manga adaptation of the anime, which in turn was based on the novel, The Count of Monte Cristo.
Sadly, while the book was Brilliant and the Anime was gorgeous, this was disjointed, disturbing and overall a real disappointment.

My Thoughts:
I was very disappointed in this.  The focus was on only one of the antagonists, the young people were almost cutout and there were some seriously messed up Freudian expressions.
My main problems with this were the following:
1) Villeforte kills his second wife and Gankutsuou brings her back to life.
2) Villeforte uses his daughter Valentine to replace his dead first wife, and I do mean uses.
3) Madame Villeforte, kidnaps her child and Valentine and does some seriously perverted things with Valentine.
4) The whole family end up torturing and keeping Villeforte as they torture slave.

Most of this was implied, [except #3, & 4] and not graphic but it was even more disturbing for not being in your face.

Also, Gankutsuou is shown to be the mega-mind of Chateau D'if that merges with Edmond Dantes, thus allowing Edmund to live and Gankutsuou to roam the universe. This made things to be almost Gothic, like Science Not Understood.

I can't recommend this manga. Go watch the anime and be amazed however.

Paragon Lost (A Chronicle of the King's Blades #1) (King's Blades #4)

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.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer

Title: Paragon Lost
Series: A Chronicle of the King's Blades, King's Blades
Author: Dave Duncan
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 348


Synopsis:
Sir Beaumont heads up a special journey to get a new Queen for their King. And because of Politics and other bad things, completes the mission but loses all status and is kicked out of Iron Hall.
And the story finishes with him really completing the Mission and getting it all back.

My Thoughts:
There are times where I hate Duncan's use of the split timeline. We start the book at the 2/3rds mark chronologically, get introduced to the situation, then immediately jump back to the beginning, hear about that, then jump to the resolution.
It isn't nice neat segments though. But huge parts so you forget where you were or where you were heading. That is the main reason I took a star off.

Other than that, this was a great King's Blades story. While it is a stand-alone story, you are definitely served by knowing the history of the previous 3 books in the series.

Think European magic swordsmen in Russia. Messy, cold, brutal and lots of paranoia and fear.  More about politics and international incidents than magic sword fighting though. Well, you can't win them all.

The Rowan (The Tower and the Hive #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.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer

Title: The Rowan
Series: The Tower and the Hive
Author: Anne McCaffrey
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 334


Synopsis:
Humanity has moved out into space, with help of the Talented. Those special people who have Extra Abilities, whether of the mind or body.
The most sought after, the rarest, are the Primes, Talents with multiple abilities and who can transport cargo from planet to planet, system to system.

One day, a Prime is discovered, a young child with no memories and no antecedents. She will grow up to become The Rowan, one of the Most Powerful Primes Earth has ever seen.
But what she discovers is even greater than her.

My Thoughts:
I remember reading this when it first came out. It was probably my first SFF book that was as heavy on the romance as it was on the SFF. So that was my memory, but it has been some time so I wanted to re-read this series and get my thoughts in writing.

I'd like to start out by saying that I did enjoy this book and will be continuing the series. However, this was a puff piece of girl power and the Perfect Man. Much like the Mack Bolan/Executioner series is a puff piece of Macho'ness.

It was fun seeing Rowan grow up. Meeting the heretofore new Prime and finding out about the Alien Menace. And dealing the first decisive blow. I am glad McCaffrey didn't make her characters sit around and debate the ethics of dealing with a real menace.

A good solid dray horse of a tale, even if not a racing stallion.