The Shadow of Doctor Syn (Doctor Syn #7) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Shadow of Doctor Syn
Series: Doctor Syn #7
Author: Arthur Russell Thorndike
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 177
Words: 83K

This was a good end to the Scarecrow/Dr Syn series. The action and the smuggler scenes were just as enjoyable as ever. Sadly, The Scarecrow in France during The Terror is only a tiny part, but he does make a complete fool of Robespierre, so I was happy with what I got.

My biggest gripe, and what prevented this from being 3.5stars, was the infernal romance story. Yet another daughter of Dr Syn’s best friend Tony falls in love with him, with quite predictable results. That Dr Syn, he’s just got ZERO chance with women. His wife cheats on him and runs off. His second fiance is killed while pretending to be the Scarecrow and so of course, the younger sister also dies while pretending to be the Scarecrow. It does remind me of the whole Age Gap thing in romances. I’ve talked about this in other books (namely Jane Austen’s books) and don’t feel the need to rehash the whole thing. BUT. At this point in time, Dr Syn is in his mid to late 40’s and Cicily is either 17 or 19. That is a MUCH bigger age gap than even Marianne and Col. Brandon in Sense and Sensibility. I didn’t honestly see how it was going to work. The author makes it work by making Dr Syn pretty much be the same person he was in his 20’s. While he’s had all these experiences, they didn’t change him, and they should have. No offense to any teens who might read this, but you’re all a bunch of muffinheads to be honest and being married to a teenager at my age would be its own special brand of heck. The author just cheated and used the “Love conquers all” trope so he could shoehorn in a romance subplot. But it was awkward and since I read the first book first, well, I knew Dr Syn was single then, so Cicily had to go one way or another.

The cover is ridiculous. It’s a great cover, but it’s still ridiculous. Dr Syn is very careful to keep his shirt on because of a tattoo that would prove he was Captain Clegg the notorious pirate. And him being next to the guillotine, well, I addressed that earlier. But it sure is eye catching and garish, just what you want to sell a book!

Overall, the fact that I finished this series when I wasn’t sure near the beginning means it was enjoyable enough to keep me hooked despite my issues with treating the clergy like an unbeliever.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Set in 1793 during the events of the French Revolution, Syn travels to France amidst the Reign of Terror. He has fallen in love with young Cicily Cobtree and hopes his actions against Robespierre will earn him a pardon from the King. When Cicily dies, Syn gives up his ideas of pardon and nearly loses his sanity. This sets the stage for the fiendish character he becomes in Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh.

City of Stairs (The Divine Cities #1) DNF@19%

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: City of Stairs
Series: The Divine Cities #1
Author: Robert Bennett
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 88/464
Words: 28K/148K
Publish: 2014

Due to the inclusion of certain subject matters, I am dnf’ing this book and will not be reading any more by Bennett.

★☆☆☆☆

Green Mana Battery - MTG 4E

 

This doesn't look like ANY sort of battery, but it looks wicked cool. That was enough for me back in '95 anyway :-D

Sunshine Blogger Award - 2025 Edition

 

Pooja recently did an SBA and when I went looking, the last time I had done one was back in '19, so it seemed like it was time to participate again. Give me something to write about besides a book review anyway :-D Plus, sunshine, amiright?

Rules For The Sunshine Blogger Award:

• Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
• Thank the person who nominated you.
• Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
• Answer your nominators’ questions.
• Nominate up to 11 bloggers.
• Ask your nominees 11 questions.
• Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts.

Questions:

What inspired you to start blogging?

I discovered Blogspot when google bought it in 2003 or so. It allowed me to write and to stay in contact with my scattered friends and family. Over the years blogging has changed as I have changed and now I mainly blog about the books I read. Of which there are a lot.

What is your favourite movie?

Die Hard. Bruce Willis will always live in my head as John McClane.

Which season do you prefer most and why?

The Autumn. The mornings are crisp, the sun is still strong in the afternoons, harvests are happening and the Pumpkin Festival is right around the corner!

If you could be a fictional character for a day, who would you be?

Garric, the main character from David Drake's Lord of the Isles series. He is a Chosen One and I love those kind of stories.

What was your favourite game growing up?

The Farming Game. It made Monopoly look like a scrawny chicken. My friends and I would have sleepovers and we'd set things up the night before, get up at 7am and then play the entire day and if we were lucky, finish that night.

Other than blogging, what hobby or hobbies do you enjoy?

Reading. It's actually what drives my blogging :-D

What is the last TV show you watched?

The 3 Stooges on Tubi.

What is a dish or food that reminds you of your childhood?

Chicken pot pie, just like Mom used to make it!

Is cereal technically soup, why or why not?

Cereal is most definitely NOT soup. I don't know how anyone could ask that question with a straight face.

What would you do if you could live forever?

Pull of a massive heist so I could hire authors to write books for me. I'm going to need a LOT of books to last forever ;-)

Who was your first celebrity crush?

This was an easy one. Cindy Crawford doing that Pepsi commercial in '92. It burned itself into my brain and has never left.

Now comes the part where I'm supposed to nominate 11 of you and ask 11 new questions and continue things.

First, consider yourself nominated. Because if you are reading this, that means you have a pulse. That's an absolute must for bloggers! ;-)

Second, I will officially nominate 11 bloggers who "follow" me and appear to be active but don't interact with me.

Thirdly, I will actually ask 11 new questions, but they will be Bookstooge-esque questions, so you might have to think a couple of extra seconds to answer them. And thanks to Pooja for kicking things off.

My Nominees:

The Silmaril Chick

Texeira

Ovat Friday

Willy Stevens

Godly Chic Diaries

Joseph Newcomer

Myrelar

Joyce O'Day

Marilyn Gardner Milton

Uncommonly Bound

Radiant Creations in Motion

My Questions:

1. Why Would Anyone Consider Cereal to be Soup?
2. Why Do You Blog?
3. How Do You Justify Your Existence? (I got that one from the Tales of the Black Widowers, good isn't it?)
4. How Do You Choose Who to Follow?
5. If John McClane and John Wick were tied on a railroad track and you could only set one of them free, which would you choose and why?
6. In a game of Parcheesi, who would win, Spongebob Squarepants or the Doom Slayer?
7. Do you feel guilty about all of my oxygen that you are breathing?
8. What is your favorite movie?
9. If you were going to be "accidentally but on purpose" killed tomorrow, how would you spend today?
10. Are mirrors Friend, or Foe?
11. If you could change ONE THING about your blog, what would it be?

• Sunshine Blogger Award - Grumpy Cat Edition
• Sunshine Blogger Award - Part Shnayim

Casino Royale (James Bond #1) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Casino Royale
Series: James Bond #1
Author: Ian Fleming
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 157
Words: 51K
Publish: 1953

I’ve seen various Bond films over the years, just at random and usually thought of them as empty action films (except for the ones where the directors tried to make Bond a comedian) but enjoyable, like popcorn. I’m pretty sure I read one or two of the novels in highschool too, but I couldn’t even tell you which ones. I’ve also heard what I consider “woke” talk about the books and I wanted to make up my own mind and see what the books actually said, as opposed to some kid spouting off about things he doesn’t know a thing about. This has led me to start reading the entire collection. Or at least, starting the journey and seeing how far I get!

This book was not what I was expecting. At times completely banal (the gambling scenes at the casino were mostly boring) and at others brutal (Bond getting his balls hit/whipped/whatever), I felt some whiplash reading this. Then you had Bond himself. He was definitely a jerk. There’s a scene where the girl, Lynd, is introduced to Bond and she ignores his come on. Bond thinks about how’d like to break her because of that. It was SO wrong. He wasn’t displaying masculinity, but selfish brutishness. There was another instance where Fleming shows us the inside of Bond’s mind and it isn’t a nice place, not a good place. Why Fleming chose to portray Bond this way baffles me.

The twist I never saw coming. I probably should have, given how double agents were such a big thing during the Cold War, but nope, it completely cut me off at the knees.

This was a very see-saw read. It’s why it is getting 3stars and not something higher. I think I’ll have to take each book one at a time too and not make any big decisions, yay or nay, about the series as a whole. I guess I’m hoping Fleming’s writing evolves.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

M, the Head of the British Secret Service, assigns James Bond, 007, to play against and bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster for a SMERSH-controlled trade union, in a high-stakes baccarat game at the Royale-les-Eaux casino in northern France. As part of Bond's cover as a rich Jamaican playboy, M also assigns as his companion Vesper Lynd, personal assistant to the Head of Section S (Soviet Union). The CIA and the French Deuxième Bureau also send agents as observers. The game soon turns into an intense confrontation between Le Chiffre and Bond; Le Chiffre wins the first round, cleaning Bond out of his funds. As Bond contemplates the prospect of reporting his failure to M, the CIA agent, Felix Leiter, gives him an envelope of money and a note: "Marshall Aid. Thirty-two million francs. With the compliments of the USA." The game continues, despite the attempts of one of Le Chiffre's minders to kill Bond. Bond eventually wins, taking from Le Chiffre eighty million francs belonging to SMERSH.

Desperate to recover the money, Le Chiffre kidnaps Lynd and tortures Bond, threatening to kill them both if he does not get the money back. During the torture, a SMERSH assassin enters and kills Le Chiffre as punishment for losing the money. The agent does not kill Bond, saying that he has no orders to do so, but cuts a Cyrillic 'Ш' for шпион (shpión, Russian for spy) into Bond's hand so that future SMERSH agents will be able to identify him as such.

Lynd visits Bond every day as he recuperates in hospital, and he gradually realises that he loves her; he even contemplates leaving the Secret Service to settle down with her. When he is released from hospital they spend time together at a quiet guest house and eventually become lovers. One day they see a mysterious man named Gettler tracking their movements, which greatly distresses Lynd. The following morning, Bond finds that she has committed suicide. She leaves behind a note explaining that she had been working as an unwilling double agent for the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. SMERSH had kidnapped her lover, a Polish Royal Air Force pilot, who had revealed information about her under torture; SMERSH then used that information to blackmail her into helping them undermine Bond's mission, including her own faked kidnapping. She had tried to start a new life with Bond, but upon seeing Gettler—a SMERSH agent—she realised that she would never be free of her tormentors, and that staying with Bond would only put him in danger. Bond informs his service of Lynd's duplicity, coldly telling his contact, "The bitch is dead now."

A Gathering Evil (Dark Conspiracy #1) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: A Gathering Evil
Series: Dark Conspiracy #1
Author: Michael Stackpole
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 276
Words: 98K
Publish: 1991

This is a trilogy by Michael Stackpole. He was a staple for me growing up. He wrote some kickass standalone fantasy novels, he wrote a bunch in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (back when Star Wars’ book were still good, even when they were bad) and he wrote a couple of original series. He also wrote in other universes, what I now call Franchise Fiction. He wrote in the BattleTech series, and really, his Star Wars stuff was franchise fiction too. But it was stuff I grew up on in the 90’s and early ‘00’s and formed what I wanted and looked for in stories. He pretty much stopped by the early ‘Teens and as such, I haven’t seen new stuff from him in years.

So I decided to go back and read some of his older stuff. Stuff I hadn’t read. I wasn’t interested in his Battletech stuff, as I tried to read a couple of books by other authors in that Franchise and didn’t care for it at all. I’d never played the game and had no connection, which meant I wasn’t going to try. That left me with this trilogy, originally called The Fiddleback trilogy and some standalones. I wanted to get a taste and a trilogy is the best way to do so in my opinion. Longer than a standalone book but not a bloated, unfinished monstrosity like Game of Thrones.

Only to find that this trilogy was based on an Role Playing Game (rpg) called Dark Conspiracy. And that this was now known as the Dark Conspiracy trilogy. I found all of this out AFTER reading the book. You might be wondering why I am going on and on and on about this.

That is simple. 

This is Proto-Litrpg and next to the Romance genre, Litrpg is the lowest rung on the ladder. I spit on Litrpg. If I was the hero, Litrpg would be a Nazi Zombie and I would be doing the world a favor by killing it. If Litrpg was a hero, it would be as a pathetic, spineless pos protagonist like Shinji Akari (from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion) and it would be my DUTY to kill him and get a real hero in his place. Needless to say, I don’t like Litrpg. Thus, finding out that this trilogy is proto-litrpg was like drinking a bottle of coke only to find out afterwards that someone had peed in it. GROSS!

And Yet.

Stackpole was still good enough of an author to make me enjoy the story. That’s why it got 3stars. Now that I know he has “pee’d in the Coke bottle” I’m not sure how I’ll feel about the next two books. But that’s another month’s problem, right? I know, I’ll just buy a new, sealed Coke bottle for the next book and call it good enough ;-)

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher & Bookstooge

Tycho Caine is a man with a mission. He's sure of that. But, waking up in a body bag with amnesia, he not sure of much else. Except that someone wants him dead. An exciting adventure novel of a near-future world where technology and occult mysticism merge. Dark forces and hidden masters conspire to control humanity, and Tycho Caine needs to figure out which side he's on.

An interdimensional being wants to invade Earth and Caine was his catspaw. But an opposing Earthly psychic has turned Caine to his side and now it is up to Caine and small group of misfits to stop this Entity from entering their world and devouring it.

The History of England 2.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The History of England
Series: ----------
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Juvenilia short story
Pages: 28
Words: 7K

This is just what you’d expect from a snarky teen writing about a subject they didn’t want to be writing about. I just rolled my eyes and plowed through.

★★✬☆☆

From Wikipedia.org

The work is a burlesque which pokes fun at widely used schoolroom history books such as Oliver Goldsmith's 1771 The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II. Austen mockingly imitates the style of textbook histories of English monarchs, while ridiculing historians' pretensions to objectivity. It was illustrated with coloured portraits by Austen's elder sister Cassandra, to whom the work is dedicated.

The second page of the History reads:

The History of England

from the reign of

Henry the 4th

to the death of

Charles the 1st

By a partial, prejudiced, & ignorant Historian

To Miss Austen, eldest daughter of the Revd

George Austen, this work is inscribed with

all due respect by

The Author

N.B. There will be very few Dates in

this History.

Her History cites as sources works of fiction such as the plays of Shakespeare and Sheridan, a novel by Charlotte Turner Smith and the opinions of Austen's family and friends. Along with accounts of English kings and queens which contain little factual information but a great deal of comically exaggerated opining about their characters and behaviour, the work includes material such as charades and puns on names.

While the work offers her family humorous vignettes on English rulers from Henry II to Charles I, many entries focus on royal women, such as Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary, Queen of Scots, who are denied entries but are significant figures in English history. Mary, Queen of Scots, in particular plays an important role in Austen's History, which also acts as a vindication of the executed cousin of Elizabeth I. Elizabeth I is treated as a tyrant, rather than a good leader, thus showing Austen's affinity for Mary and the Stuart monarchs.

• Jane Austen’s Minor Works (2013 Review)

• All My “Jane Austen” Reviews

• Reading Austen 2025 Master Post

To Become a Marked One (Demon Slayer #15) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: To Become a Marked One
Series: Demon Slayer #15
Author: Koyoharu Gotouge
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 192
Words: 9K
Publish: 2019

I did enjoy this volume more than the previous one, but that was because the focus was on Tanjiro and him doing all the additional training that each of the demon slayers and Pillars had to go through. The parts where it was group oriented or about the Society of Pillars discussing things, I lost interest. I am not a group oriented guy and I like reading about the Lone Hero, not the Avengers. When I was perusing Wikipedia for the chapter titles and summary, I read through the summaries for the rest of the volumes. I think I’m going to stop reading with this volume. Too much group stuff going on.

If this manga had stayed focused on Tanjiro, I suspect I would have kept on to the end. The following page is WHY I like Tanjiro as a character so much. He’s still smiling and being friendly, but he tells the unvarnished truth to the Pillar. No hate, no fear, just wanting to move on with his training so he can reach his goal.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia

"Dawn Approaches"

"Daybreak and First Light"

"The Rumble of Victory"

"A Request for Instruction"

"To Become a Marked One"

"A Place to Be"

"Visitor"

"Full-Strength Training"

"Welcome..."

With his new sword Tanjiro destroys Hantengu, and after risking herself to protect the villagers, Nezuko is bathed in sunlight, but to everybody's surprise she is not harmed by it. Once learning of it, Muzan discovers that Nezuko attained the power he spent his entire life looking for. Knowing that Muzan is determined to confront them directly to capture her, the Demon Slayers make preparations for the final battle against him.

The Twice Dead King: Reign (Warhammer 40K: Necrons) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Twice Dead King: Reign
Series: Warhammer 40K: Necrons
Author: Nate Crowley
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 317
Words: 113K
Publish: 2022

This wasn’t as enjoyable as the previous book, Ruin. Most of that was due to Oltyx and his remaining Necrons doing nothing but running for 75% of the book. It was boring. A book about nigh-immortal killing machines should not be boring. The thing is, Crowley (the author) did a great job of showing how kickass the Necrons were in Ruin, so I don’t understand why he went the boring route here. It had to have been a deliberate choice on his part, but it made no sense to me. Now that I’ve this Twice Dead King duology, I’m just as likely to avoid Crowley as seek him out. That’s not good “branding”.

The ending was just plain weird. It wasn’t bad, but it left me going “huh?” Basically, Necrons can go crazy and try to eat flesh and pretend they are the biological Necrontyrs again. But it turns out the Flayers (the name given to Necrons who go crazy and try to eat flesh) have access to a special dimension in space and go almost anywhere in no time. Oltyx fully embraces this by book’s end, but it just ignores the fact that they are still crazy. They are insane. Insane beings usually don’t think they are insane, but that doesn’t change that they are. By the end you realize Oltyx is insane as any Flayer and that the Ithacan Empire is really no more.

The cover once again is pretty cool, with a gold plated Oltyx (the way the Necrons show someone is royalty) holding some sort of glow’y green spear/ax/staff thing. Whatever it is, it looks cool. Halberd, that’s what its Earth equivalent would be! A space-halberd powered by raw fusion. Yeah baby, that is just awesomesauce!

★★★☆☆

From WH40k.lexicanum.com/

After centuries of exile, the necron lord Oltyx has at last been granted the thing he has always craved: the throne of the Ithakas Dynasty. Kingship, however, is not quite what he had hoped for – Oltyx's reign currently exists aboard the dying battleship Akrops, as it lumbers away from the ruins of his crownworld. Behind it is a hostile armada of unfathomable size, launched by the barbaric alien war-cult known as the Imperium of Man. And within the Akrops' sepulchral hold, an even greater threat festers – the creeping horror of the flayer curse. Faced with such overwhelming odds, Oltyx leads a desperate voyage into a darkness so profound that salvation and doom look much the same. If he and his dynasty are to make it through that long night, Oltyx will have to become a very different sort of king

Greed - MTG 4E

 

Hurray, another funny Foglio piece of art! And this time I actually like it :-D