The Death Giver (The Shadow #30) 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 WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Death Giver
Series: The Shadow #30
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 160
Words: 50K
Publish: 1933

A disgruntled scyentist turns his ire against rich people to get their money, but also so he can get his jollies off by randomly killing people just for funsies.

Oh, this was fun! Thade, the Death Giver, who always refers to himself in the third person as “The Death Giver” (maybe a literary trick by the author to show he’s in opposition to “The Shadow”?), is dead set on killing a bunch of important people at a ticker tape parade in Manhattan. He has some practice runs on a couple of millionaires and that’s what puts him The Shadow’s radar. Also the police, but they are stumped as a Canadian forest, so they are essentially useless.

On a side note, I do wonder if law enforcement ever read these stories in the 1930’s and what they thought of them? Sadly, the kind of people who were buying these pulp magazines and reading them usually weren’t the sort to go home and write their thoughts out in beautiful journals meant to stand the test of time. They had stuff like food and rent to worry about. But it leaves me curious because the police are truly inept in this case.

The Shadow does his usual “clew” investigating and Harry Vincent gets into trouble yet again. This time he almost gets blown up but The Shadow throws him like a bag of garbage out of a garage and saves his life. I just laughed. Good ol’ Harry, our comedic “I almost died!” bit character. The Shadow stories just wouldn’t be the same without his hijinks.

I enjoyed the villain’s ending too. He runs into an elevator shaft trying to escape, only the elevator car isn’t there and he plummets multiple stories to his messy death. I think I raised a fist and went “Booyah!” when that happened :-D

This was the final story in the sixth Shadow omnibus that I have and it feels like it is time for a little break from The Shadow. I’ll be putting this series on hiatus until sometime next year, but don’t worry, I’m not permanently stopping. There are just too many clews to check out after all ;-)

★★★✬☆

From the Internet

The Main Villain:

The story follows a sadistic criminal mastermind named Lucius Olney—better known as Thade, "The Death Giver".

The Conflict:

Unlike villains motivated strictly by financial gain or political power, Thade spreads murder and terror purely for the dark pleasure of killing. He uses cunning schemes, blackmail, and fatal traps (infamously featuring his calling card of "bubbles of death") to eliminate victims and even dispose of his own henchmen.

The Shadow's Intervention:

As Thade's web of terror tightens across New York City, The Shadow steps in from the shadows. Utilizing his trademark stealth, disguises, and network of agents, he unravels the mastermind's plots, outwits the deadly traps, and brings down the killer.

• All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

The Icarus Plot (The Icarus Saga #2) 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: The Icarus Plot
Series: The Icarus Saga #2
Author: Timothy Zahn
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 287
Words: 114K
Publish: 2023

So twisty, so fun. By this time in my association with Zahn, I’ve realized my brain just can’t keep up with the twists and turns and so I don’t try. I just sit back and hang on while Zahn rockets me forward on the ride. It was a good ride too.

I’d like to talk more about the book, but really, I just had fun. It is part of a series and the series is going well. I’m good with that.

★★★✬☆

From the Internet

For years Gregory Roarke and his Kadolian partner Selene worked as crocketts, combing through the atmospheres of uninhabited worlds for places that might be colonized or hold valuable resources. Now, they quietly work for the Icarus Group, a top-secret government organization hunting for portals created by a long-vanished alien race, portals that can teleport a person hundreds or thousands of light-years in the blink of an eye.

Roarke and Selene are searching one such possibility when they find that someone appears to be stalking them. They evade their pursuers and return to find that a man named Easton Dent has been searching the Spiral’s databases for the names Gregory Roarke and Icarus.

Roarke reluctantly agrees to meet with him. But that first contact is cut short, and hours later Roarke is arrested and accused of Dent’s murder.

More importantly to Roarke’s Icarus Group overseers, that brief meeting also confirms that Dent was in recent contact with a portal.

But the alien Patth are also searching for such portals, and they are also on the trail. It’s now a race . . . and the Patth have resources and ruthlessness far beyond anything Roarke and Selene can match.

In a universe where transportation is subsumed by the Paath monopoly, Gregory Roarke and his partner Selena have been hired by the Icarus program to find interstellar gates that allow instantaneous transportation between any two points in the galaxy. But when a conman and thief named Easton Dent continuously searches for “Gregory Roarke” and “Icarus,” everyone wants to hunt Dent down. The con man will only make contact with Roarke.

But when a body drops near the contact point, with Roarke’s wallet near the corpse, the problems expand exponentially. The Paath are after the portal. Roarke’s old mob boss employer is after Roarke and Dent. Icarus has secrets of its own, and playing its own long game. On top of everything else is Easton Dent’s brother, Weston—an omnipresent threat that always watches Easton’s back. Worst of all: The badgemen are after Roarke for the murder of Easton Dent.

Mind Twist - MTG 4E

 

Having a handful of cards is what gives you options in Magic the Gathering. If you don't have any cards in your hand, you can't do anything and your opponent can just wale on you while you sit there and take it.

This card removes those cards from your opponent's hand. Remove his ability to play or fight back and you've got the game all sewn up. Unless he's a blue player, in which case he'll probably screw you over instead :-/

Goddess of the Ice Realm (Lord of the Isles #5) 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: Goddess of the Ice Realm
Series: Lord of the Isles #5
Author: David Drake
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 533
Words: 190K
Publish: 2003

I read this Book in 2006, twenty years ago. It doesn’t feel that long at all. Crap. I guess I have to acknowledge that I’ve fully entered into the next stage of my life. Or I can keep denying it and be “amazed and astounded” every time it is rubbed into my face. I’ll let you guess which is the more likely outcome ;-)

I enjoyed the story but I have to admit, having an “alternate” Ilna (one of the main characters) being the villainous goddess set on multiverse domination wasn’t leaned into nearly as hard as it could be. It was interesting to see how the demon tree was involved but there wasn’t enough detail given to make it feel like a real alternate Ilna. And the real Ilna disposing of her goddess level alternate? It felt almost accidental. I mean, our Ilna cracks the ice beneath goddess Ilna’s throne and the goddess falls into the water and is devoured by hungry creatures. That is it. It felt like Drake had a very good idea and then puffed it out to about 500 pages and then decided enough was enough and just killed the badguys as needed. But to be honest, I think that’s been how things have gone in every book so far and I’m just now really noticing it.

The artist Donato has done previous Lord of the Isles covers and I showcased a slightly more full picture for Queen of Demons. For this book, I tracked down the original drawing and I’d like to showcase it here. It is a portrayal of the royal guards and army pushing into the Ice Realm and using long spears, etc to fend off giant magical creatures long enough for those with axes to get in close and do the dirty work. Donato has captured that spirit of the soldier fighting against something unspeakable, by not showing the horrors but showing the soldiers faces. I was pretty impressed.

I think the guy in the silver cuirass is supposed to be Prince Garric and the man to the left, with the very prominent ear-ring, is supposed to be Chalcus. I’m not sure if there are other named characters surrounding Garric or not. It’s a busy scene depicting a very busy part of the story, so I’m happy to just recognize two of the main characters :-D

★★★✬☆

From Grokipedia

Goddess of the Ice Realm opens with Garric and his retinue arriving at the island city of Carcosa as part of his ongoing campaign to reunite the island kingdoms into a single empire, where the wizard Tenoctris immediately perceives a powerful supernatural assault directed against them. Concurrently, Ilna and her beloved Chalcus are dispatched to investigate a magical threat disrupting shipping in the northern regions. Soon afterward, Cashel is translated to another world through evil magic, while Sharina is sent to yet a separate world, separating the main protagonists amid the heightened cosmic forces that empower even minor wizards during this thousand-year magical peak. In their respective realms, the separated characters confront deadly dangers and challenges: Cashel finds himself in an alien world where he must protect native inhabitants from a powerful inter-dimensional threat, while Sharina navigates a world involving wizards pursuing magical artifacts, and Ilna and Chalcus encounter the titular goddess more directly in the north. Garric contends with the supernatural assault and related threats in Carcosa, with the goddess exerting a potent, sinister influence throughout the narrative even when not physically present. Each overcomes their individual perils through courage, skill, and resourcefulness before the storylines converge. The protagonists reunite in a terrifying and dramatic climax centered on the goddess, resulting in a grand and compelling resolution that propels forward the overarching quest to reunify the Isles despite the intensified magical energies and human evils they amplify. This installment maintains the series pattern of separation and reunion while escalating the stakes through these parallel adventures and the direct confrontation with the title entity.

Characters

The central protagonists of Goddess of the Ice Realm are the young brother-sister pairs Garric or-Reise and Sharina os-Reise, along with Cashel or-Kenset and Ilna os-Kenset, who continue their roles as key figures navigating supernatural threats in the Isles. Garric or-Reise exercises leadership over his retinue and stands central to events in the island city of Carcosa, where he confronts mounting dangers alongside his companions. The wizard Tenoctris, serving in an advisory capacity, detects a powerful supernatural assault directed against the group upon their arrival in Carcosa.Sharina os-Reise experiences displacement to another world through magical means, encountering personal dangers that test her resilience and contribute to her development amid unfamiliar perils. Cashel or-Kenset is likewise translated to a separate world by evil magic, where he draws upon his physical strength and combat prowess to meet substantial challenges. Ilna os-Kenset, characterized by her strong-willed determination, undertakes an investigation into a magical threat disrupting northern shipping, joined by her beloved partner Chalcus. Chalcus, an action-oriented companion skilled in seafaring and combat, forms a close partnership with Ilna during this mission. These narratives underscore supporting dynamics such as the sibling bonds between Garric and Sharina as well as Cashel and Ilna, complemented by the romantic relationship between Ilna and Chalcus.

"Scrye'ing" Old Memories

 

This picture from Scryenotes.wordpress.com

If you have followed me for a couple of weeks, you'll have noticed that each Monday I post a picture of a Magic the Gathering card and usually some of my thoughts on it. Today there is the internet which will tell you all you need to know about the various cards, from price to all the info about it. However back in the 90's the internet was just getting off the ground and we still relied on magazines to give us previews of upcoming cards, sets and any price changes.

I used the magazine Scrye as my fount of knowledge. It came out a couple of times a year and it was usually a pretty thick publication. It had to be, since it was a big old price guide. If you look at the cover featuring the Star Wars cards, you can see the blurb in the upper left corner "Complete Price List for Mirage", which was the latest MtG set. Scrye also covered a multitude of other CCG's (collectable card games), as you can see from the cover. There was Star Wars, X-Files, Middle Earth, Legends of the Five Rings, Star Trek, Netrunner, DC comics and other various card games that came and then usually went. It was the Wild West time of the CCG's.

While the price list part of the magazine was the biggest draw for me (it did take up about 3/4's of the magazine), the articles were a good read too, especially if you weren't into a particular other card game. You could learn about the game, see some of the cards and in most issues, get some promo cards. They were all mass produced junk, but it still gave you an idea of what the game was like and how it differed from Magic.

I think I only ever bought two, maybe three of these magazines. They were expensive (compared to a comic book that cost you $1.25) and only came out every couple of months. I know I bought the one in the featured image (the greenman impression) and I'm pretty sure I also bought this Star Wars one. So I bought two in a row and realized Magic prices didn't change THAT much in a couple of months and the articles didn't really apply to the type of Magic me and my friends played, ie, casual kitchen table Magic while the articles were more about Competitive Magic. I didn't want to dominate my gaming circle, I just wanted to have fun. And when all you focus on is winning, the fun goes right out the door.

I do remember though seeing one of my cards having gone up 5 or 10 cents and that I had like 10 of them. I was elated! I had just made a whole dollar without doing anything. Man, the sky was the limit at that point, hahahahahaa. I hadn't yet realized that those prices were what the cards were selling for in a store, not what "I" could sell them for. But what it did do was help me and my friends when we were trading. It was not a 1 for 1 trade. The prices took into account how good the cards were and since we didn't really understand that, it helped us to keep parity.

That is about all I have to write here. Enjoy your weekend :-)

Doctor No (James Bond #6) 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: Doctor No
Series: James Bond #6
Author: Ian Fleming
Rating: 3,5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 205
Words: 79K
Publish: 1958

This was the best Bond story that I’ve read so far. Bond goes on an easy assignment to recover from his time during “From Russia with Love” and ends up fighting against a megalomaniac who is paying to grow his little personal empire with bird guano.

Things actually move along at a decent clip here. Bond does things instead of just sitting around on a flipping train considering the future morosely. A couple of British agents are kidnapped and killed. Bond and an old friend kayak to a forbidden island. Dr No’s minions shoot up the beach where the kayak is stored with big ol’ machine guns and then use a modified dune buggy with a flame thrower and guns to track Bond and his most recent female acquaintance and capture them. Bond is put through a torture obstacle course and ends up fighting a giant squid, and pokes its eye out with a homemade spear (atta boy Bond!) and then he buries Dr No in tons of dried guano. That’s almost more action that what was in the previous 5 books combined! Also, beyond a light seasoning of Communists helping Doctor No with his missile control program, there is no cold war antics. Thank goodness for that!

My only issue is that Dr No’s master plan about either holding American cities hostage by controlling American missiles or just outright destroying them, didn’t seem to actually take into account Russia. If Dr No had done that, he still wouldn’t be able to take over a large chunk of real estate and become an absolute Dictator. The Russkies would have moved in and swept him aside. For someone so smart, it seemed like a glaring oversight. But that’s a pretty small quibble considering he died by asphyxiating in bird poop, hahahahaa.

I like the cover that Devilreads had for this ebook version (as seen in the featured image) but I couldn’t find a high quality version of it, so I looked around and found the first edition for the hardcover. It’s a good quality cover that hadn’t bought into the movie franchise just yet, so it is distinctly its own thing. I approve of books staying their own thing and not whoring themselves out to the movie versions.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia

After recovering from serious poisoning inflicted by the SMERSH agent Rosa Klebb (in From Russia, with Love) the Secret Service agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M, on an undemanding mission to the British colony of Jamaica. He is instructed to investigate the disappearance of Commander John Strangways, the head of MI6's Station J in Kingston, and his secretary. Bond is briefed that Strangways had been investigating the activities of Doctor Julius No, a reclusive Chinese-German who lives on the fictional island of Crab Key and runs a guano mine. The island has a colony of roseate spoonbills at one end while local rumour is that a vicious dragon also lives there. The spoonbills are protected by the American National Audubon Society, two of whose representatives died when their plane crashed on No's airstrip.

On his arrival in Jamaica, Bond soon realises that he is being watched. His hotel room is searched, a basket of poisoned fruit is delivered to the room—supposedly a gift from the colonial governor—and a deadly centipede is placed in his bed while he is sleeping. With the help of an old friend, Quarrel, Bond surreptitiously visits Crab Key to establish whether there is a connection between No and the disappearance of the MI6 personnel. Bond and Quarrel meet Honeychile Rider, who is there to collect valuable shells. Bond and Rider are captured by No's men after Quarrel is burned to death by the doctor's "dragon"—a flamethrowing, armoured swamp buggy designed to keep away trespassers. Bond and Rider are taken to a luxurious facility carved into the mountain.

No tells Bond that he is working with the Russians and has built an elaborate underground facility from which he can sabotage US test missiles launched from Cape Canaveral. He had previously been a member of a Chinese tong, but after he stole a large sum of money from their treasury, he was captured by the organisation. The tong's leaders had No's hands cut off as a warning to others, and then shot him. Because No's heart was on the right side of his body, the bullet missed it and he survived.

Interested in the ability of the human body to withstand and survive pain, No forces Bond to navigate his way through an obstacle course constructed in the facility's ventilation system. Bond is kept under observation as he suffers electric shocks, burns and an encounter with large, venomous spiders. Bond's ordeal ends in a fight with a captive giant squid, which he defeats by using improvised weapons. After his escape he encounters Rider, who had been pegged out to be eaten by crabs; they had ignored her and she managed to escape.

Bond kills No by taking over the guano-loading machine at the docks and diverting the flow of guano to bury him alive. Bond and Rider then escape from No's complex in the "dragon" buggy, sail back to Jamaica and notify the colonial authorities.

September '26 Circum et Pervagatus

 

Raw Data:

Novels/Novellas - 9 ↓

Short Stories - 2 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels - 0 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.63 ↑↑

Pages - 2897 ↓

Words - 874K ↓

The Bad:

Groo 55 - 2stars. The first time Groo has let me down. I was devastated.

The Good:

The Possessed - 5Stars!

I, Asimov - ALSO 5STARS!!!!

Movie:

Monsters Inc was a fun movie, but definitely for the kids. Glad I rewatched it on dvd so I won't waste any money upgrading to bluray. I don't plan on ever watching it again.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• [Art] Day & Night, Sun & Moon
• Merfolk of the Pearl Trident - MTG 4E
• Imperatoris Chronicorum VII
• Mesa Pegasus - MTG 4E
• Millstone - MTG 4E
• [Art] Maiden of the Fall 2026
• My TBR Lists - The Deep Dive
• Mind Bomb - MTG 4E

Personal:

First off, can we just stop for a moment and appreciate that I read TWO 5star books, in one month? That is practically hitting the book lottery. and that bumped my monthly average up to 3.63. Talk about moving in the rarified circles of Bookdom!

September was yet another discombobulating month. Work was topsy turvy, what with my coworker being out for 2 weeks due to his wife having their first kid. Throw in a new crew chief getting trained for our Northern office and everyone wondering when SlowBoy2.0 was going to get the axe and well, we came in each day not knowing what the day held. It must have been hellacious on the office manager as he had to schedule all that chaos!

Mrs B and I celebrated 18 years of marriage and ate like there was no tomorrow! We have had our various ups and downs during those 18 years, but I wouldn't trade a day of them if it meant it was with someone else.

Of course, 2 weeks later we both were sick, with different things. I had some sort of seasonal allergies and exhaustion going on while Mrs B ran a temperature and was throwing up. That made for a thoroughly miserable couple of days. But we got through it and that was that.

Some summers September is very summerlike. This time around, it was leaning into the whole Autumn thing. It was much cooler than expected, it rained a bit more, the leaves started changing colors and the ragwort was pollinating all over the place (hence my seasonal allergies this year). I would like Autumn a lot more if Spring came after it ;-)

Cover Love:

Those Without Mercy definitely takes the cake when it comes to cover love this month. Grim and creepy!

Plans for Next Month:

October is the Pumpkin Festival. I plan to have a post on that the second Saturday of the month.

Now that we are approaching the end of the year, it is time I begin catching up on my book reviews, so expect Wednesdays to be filled again. In fact, I suspect that my calendar will be full up to make sure I am all caught up by year's end. That means you can expect more book reviews each month. Aren't you so lucky!