The Joy Makers (Standalone) 2Stars

 

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 Joy Makers
Series: Standalone
Author: James Gunn
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 223
Words: 67K
Publish: 1961

Back in 2024 (waaaaaaay back then, a whole two years, whoooohoooooo), I did a series of posts asking for book recommendations. In one such post (Book Recommendations III), Marzaat recommended this book to me. The names “James Gunn” caught my interest because that’s the director for several Super Hero movies that I’ve enjoyed. Obviously this was a different Jame Gunn and one that I hoped was superior to that pathetic excuse of a human that trafficked in total mediocrity ;-)

If you’ve paid attention, you’ll have already seen my rating and deduced that it was not a smashing success for me.

Ever since I finished I’ve been wondering how to write what I really think without casting any aspersions on Marzaat for suggesting the book to me :-) It has been a real struggle, because despite my sometimes brash and gruff words, I care deeply what the people who know me think of me. If Marzaat was just some rando on Devilreads, I’d roast him without a thought. Which is why I don’t review books for people I know.

This was a philosophically oriented SF story. About hedonism. That’s the first strike. It is the rise and fall and then steadying out of Hedonism as a thoughtful philosophy to live your life by.

That is so ridiculous that I won’t even go down the rampaging path. Saying that Hedonism is a viable lifestyle for the human race is like saying that Moloch worship is a viable way for Humanity to live.

So I’m chalking this one up to Experience and moving on. I’m definitely not going to read any more by Gunn and I’ll leave him to those who enjoy his brand of ivorytower-SF.

★★☆☆☆

From TheRuinedChapel.com

The first section deals with a company called Hedonics, Inc., a business which promises to make people happy, or give them their money back. A hardboiled businessman thinks he sees through this obvious scam. But after awhile, he starts to find that maybe it isn’t just a scam after all.

In part two, Hedonics has basically taken over the world, to the point where there are professional “hedonists,” who are essentially doctors assigned to make sure that their charges are in a state of happiness. This section follows one such hedonist, whose name we learn very late in the section, is Morgan. Morgan gradually uncovers… let’s say… issues within the structure of the government-sponsored philosophy of absolute happiness.

The third section deals with a Venus-born man returning to Earth to warn of what appears to be an impending alien attack. What he finds on returning to Earth is that it has been nearly entirely taken over by machines, whose prime directive is ensuring that humans are happy at all times. And being machines, they followed this logic to its inevitable conclusion.

Manabarbs - MTG 4E

 

Man, Red just wants to hurt people, even if it involved hurting themselves. I don't think I ever got this card to work for me and I'm not sure I even tried really. Imagine those things jabbing into your thigh? You'd be hooked like a slab of beef!

Death Bag (Standalone) 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: Death Bag
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 144
Words: 55K
Publish: 1969

This was a decent overall collection. The only story that really stood out to me though was “Murder and Lonely Hearts” by Helen Nielsen and even that was because I remembered the song “Escape”, better known as the Pina Colada song. Of course, while Pina Colada has a happy ending with a man and wife realizing they both still love the other, this is a murder story, so at least one of the pair has to die :-D For some very perverse reason, it just made me grin.

The rest of the stories were typical Alfred Hitchcock Presents kind of stories and by the end of this book I realized I needed to take another break from Alfie. This was the last Hitchcock book on my ereader, so when I removed it from my Era, I simply deleted the “Hitchcock” category and won’t put any more on until I feel the need for it. That might be a while. It also opens up another space so I can start some new series or author if I wish. Or I can just have a smaller selection on my Era. Considering how slowly I went through books in June, I’ll probably go with that second option. I’ve got over 20 series/author categories right now, which at the pace I read in June means it’ll take me two months to cycle through them all. That’s pushing the envelope for how long I like to have between books in a category.

★★★☆☆

Publisher’s Blurb & Table of Contents:

OUR GUARANTEE OF QUALITY IN CRIME

When you see the name of Alfred Hitchcock, you can be sure of the very finest in ingenious evil and shivery surprise—and the master of the macabre has never been in finer form than in this superb collection of the choicest tales ever to keep the pages turning far into the night.

INTRODUCTION

by Alfred Hitchcock

DYING A THOUSAND DEATHS

by Hal Ellson

YEAR-END CLEARANCE

by Mary Linn Roby

RUBY MARTINSON, EX-CON

by Henry Slesar

BEWARE: DANGEROUS MAN

by C. B. Gilford

MURDER AND LONELY HEARTS

by Helen Nielsen

TO AVOID A SCANDAL

by Talmage Powell

REVENGE IS BITTER-SWEET

by H. A. DeRosso

HOSPITALITY MOST SERENE

by Jack Ritchie

THE TENTH PART OF A MILLION

by Robert Colby

HORSE-COLLAR HOMICIDE

by Arthur Porges

SCHEDULE FOR AN ASSASSINATION

by Robert Edmond Alter

AMBITION

by Michael Brett

SUCCESSOR

by Richard H. Hardwick

STOP KILLING ME

by Hal Dresner

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

The Call of Honor (Empire Rising #18) 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 Call of Honor
Series: Empire Rising #18
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 431
Words: 162K
Publish: 2023

Some people die, some surprises are pulled by both humans and karacknids, lots of missiles are fired, lots of missiles blow up, lots of ships blow up. Jonathan Somerville is a clone of his father, at least in terms of character make up. James is now just an old guy, that’s about the limit of his characterization now.

And that’s about the limit of these books. Take from it what you will.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher
The Karacknid Civil War has ended. Tanaka-lan is the uncontested Imperator of the Karacknid Empire. One task now dominates his desires: the complete conquest of Humanity.

On Earth, James and Christine are all too aware of what the end of the civil war means. For over two decades they have been preparing their civilization for the showdown they always knew was coming. Not content to sit back and let Tanaka-lan bring the war to them, James and his Admirals hatch a plan to go on the offensive first. By striking at the Karacknids’ distant colonies, they hope to goad Tanaka-lan into defending his worlds instead of attacking Humanity’s. Yet Tanaka-lan’s desires are not easily set aside.

Unbeknown to his father, Jonathan Somerville also finds himself thrust into the midst of the developing war. Forced by his sense of honor to lead his own foray into Karacknid space, he may very well ignite the Second Karacknid War before either James or Tanaka-lan desire.

• All of My “Empire Rising” Reviews

Announcement: Barbara Cartland Buddy Read

 

Well, after last year's debacle where I dnf'd the Barby book and left everyone on the hook, I debated whether I wanted to do another for 2026. Thankfully, I manned up and told myself "Imperator, you ARE going to do another Barbara Cartland Buddy Read and you ARE going to read the entire book and you WILL enjoy it". Two out of three isn't bad, right?

This year's selection is "A Ghost in Monte Carlo". It is slightly longer than previous years selections. It is a bit over 200 pages long and has 15 chapters.

Now, before anyone gets worried that I'll dnf the book (again!), I can assure you that I won't, by the simple expedience of stating that I've already read it by the time this post has gone up. I'll obviously re-read it for the weekly chapter updates in December. Speaking of that, here's the schedule for things in December:

• Chapters 1-3 - Tuesday, December 1st
• Chapters 4-6 - Tuesday, December 8th
• Chapters 7-9 - Tuesday, December 15th
• Chapters 10-12 - Tuesday, December 22nd
• Chapters 12-15 - Tuesday, December 29th
• Review of "A Ghost in Monte Carlo" - Sunday, January 3rd, 2027

Scheduling stuff so far in advance might seem a bit much, but this gives anyone plenty of time to think about it, decide if they want to participate, read the book, write their thoughts on the chapters and then write their review, all before December even hits, if they so desire. December can be a busy month and if you have posts already scheduled, that will help with the blogging burden.

In any post you choose to mention this buddyread, please do include the tag "Barbara Cartland Buddy Read", as it will help others find your posts. If you also decide that you do want to read and review the book, I can leave space in my review for links to your reviews. Just let me know and I'll adjust things as necessary.

Any questions? Ask away in the comments! Au Revoir....

June '26 Circum et Pervagatus

 

Raw Data:

Novels/Novellas - 6 ↓

Short Stories - 2 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels - 0 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.17 ↓

Pages - 1898 ↓

Words - 725K ↑

The Bad:

Dragons of Autumn Twilight - 1.5stars of dnf'ing of my youth

The Good:

The White Rose - 4stars of Black Company goodness

Movie:

Resident Evil 5: Retribution was an absolute action packed blast of a time.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Lost Soul - MTG 4E
• Lure - MTG 4E
• Imperatoris Chronicorum IV
• Magical Hack - MTG 4E
• [Art] Summer Maiden 2026
• Magnetic Mountain - MTG 4E
• Mahamoti Djinn - MTG 4E

Personal:

This was a busy work month. I had more 10hr days this month than I've had since January. I am not a fan of this. If it continues, and given the work load and how the office people are pushing I suspect it will, I will be having a talk with Human Resources. Just to air my concerns. We (Mrs B and I) will be able to pay off our condo by year's end I believe and once that happens, I am going to be looking long and hard at this whole 45+hr work thing. So that has been in the back of my mind all month.

I pretty much used up all my creativity with the Imperatoris Chronicorum IV post, so I just didn't have much else to say this month outside of book reviews. It did feel good to not blog as much, but that was a general words malaise thing, as my journaling time plunged too. I'm going to blame it on work though. When I'm exhausted, the words just dry up and they stay as stillborn thoughts inside my head.

Reading wasn't bad this month, but DNF'ing Dragons of Autumn Twilight really did a hatchet job on my rating average and page numbers. With only 9 books that had a lot more weight than it would have if I'd read closer to 15. Thank goodness July is a new month with a new start!

Plans for Next Month:

This past month was a nice break from the frenetic hurly burly of blogging. However, my reading is picking up, so then must my reviews. Which means I'll probably be doing more posts in July. I'm planning on going back to taking Wednesday and Saturday's off. I know I've been changing my posting days each month and I'd like to thank you all for putting up with that.

I will be making my annual announcement about the Barbara Cartland Buddy Read this coming Thursday. After last year's little dustup, I've made sure there won't be a repeat. So please look forward to that announcement where I spell everything out. So pull out your favorite pair of dice, buy a sealed deck of cards and get James Bond on the phone because we're heading to Monte Carlo this year! And that's all I'll say about it until Thursday.

Mahamoti Djinn - MTG 4E

 

Disney's Genie could totally take this guy! Just saying....