The Icarus Job (The Icarus Saga #3) 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 Job
Series: The Icarus Saga #3
Author: Timothy Zahn
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 287
Words: 108K
Publish: 2024

This time around we have more Space Mafia doing corrupt Space Mafia things (and forcing Roarke and Selene to help), more Patth doing Patth’y things, more Icarus modules popping up like balloons and then throw in an intergalactic assassin, bake it in the oven at 350° for 3hours and voila, a perfect space opera thiller, just like Momma used to make, the old fashioned way, in her space oven!

I am thoroughly enjoying this series. It is fun, it is zippy, I like the characters (both good and bad) and the situations from book to book are never the same. New people, new settings, new adventures. Zahn is really impressing me with this series and I’m not sure why. I can say all the reasons why it shouldn’t, but that just hasn’t mattered to me. That is why reading is such a subjective activity. It is also one of the reasons I wax so eloquently and so opinionatedly on books. Just like the word “opinionatedly”, it is correct because I used it that way and thus the books I read are good books if I enjoy them because “I” enjoyed them. That sounds egotistical I know, but considering the majority of other readers have a taste for mud and filth, I’m the only one with good taste that I can trust. You can trust me too!

★★★✬☆

From the Internet

Narrative Setup & Inciting Incident

The story begins with a localized conflict that rapidly escalates into galactic corporate warfare. Protagonist Gregory Roarke is cornered in a bar by a bitter bounty hunter named Oberon, seeking vengeance because Roarke previously freed a group of aliens Oberon intended to sell into gladiatorial slavery. Roarke is saved by fellow hunter Sebastian Trent, who uses the distraction to capture Oberon. Trent offers Roarke a high-stakes hijacking job.

Though tempted, Roarke declines because he is contacted by Floyd—a mob enforcer tied to organized crime syndicates from Roarke's past. Floyd connects Roarke and his scent-tracking partner, Selene, with criminal underworld boss Robertine Cherno.

The Ultimate Trade

Cherno presents an incredible proposition to the Icarus Group. In exchange for the exact coordinates of a hidden, unmapped alien teleportation portal, Roarke and Selene must act as transporters for a passenger named Nikki. The massive complication is that Nikki is an active, elite, and highly feared professional assassin who is currently in the middle of executing a contract across the Spiral.

Multi-Sided Conflict & Complications

Once Roarke and Selene accept the assignment and get underway, the mission turns into a lethal chess game with shifting layers of deception:

• The Assassin's Secret: Nikki is playing by her own enigmatic set of rules. She isn't just running a routine hit; she is actively being hunted by a ruthless, unknown stalker who tracks her every move.

• The Patth Intervention: The powerful alien Patth catch wind of the portal's existence. Because their economic dominance relies entirely on their monopoly over galactic shipping, the discovery of free, instantaneous ancient portals threatens their empire. They deploy aggressive agents to intercept Roarke and seize the portal by force.

• The Syndicate's Hidden Hand: As Roarke and Selene navigate deep-space ambushes and assassination attempts, they realize the mafia hierarchy, Cherno, and even the initial bar fight are interconnected parts of a massive trap designed to exploit the portal's ancient creators.

Climax & Resolution

Roarke is forced to rely on his old bounty hunting instincts while Selene utilizes her acute alien senses to survive crossfires between rival hunters, mafia hit squads, and the Patth military machine. By untangling Nikki's true target and outmaneuvering the Patth, Roarke manages to secure the portal coordinates for the Icarus Group while preventing the tech from triggering a sector-wide corporate war. The novel concludes by deepening the overarching mystery of the vanished alien civilization that constructed the network, setting up the events of The Icarus Changeling

Mountain - MTG 4E

 

Far over the Misty Mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day
To seek our pale enchanted gold

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep
In hollow halls beneath the fells

For ancient king and elvish lord
There many a gleaming golden hoard
They shaped and wrought, and light they caught
To hide in gems on hilt of sword

On silver necklaces they strung
The flowering stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, on twisted wire
They meshed the light of moon and sun

Far over the Misty Mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day
To claim our long-forgotten gold

Goblets they carved there for themselves
And harps of gold, where no man delves
There lay they long, and many a song
Was sung unheard by men or elves

The pines were roaring on the heights
The wind was moaning in the night
The fire was red, it flaming spread
The trees like torches blazed with light

The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale
The dragon's ire, more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail

The mountain smoked beneath the moon
The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom
They fled the hall to dying fall
Beneath his feet, beneath the moon

Far over the Misty Mountains grim
To dungeons deep and caverns dim
We must away, ere break of day
To win our harps and gold from him!

The wind was on the withered heath
But in the forest stirred no leaf
There shadows lay be night or day
And dark things silent crept beneath

The wind came down from mountains cold
And like a tide it roared and rolled
The branches groaned, the forest moaned
And leaves were laid upon the mould

The wind went on from West to East;
All movement in the forest ceased
But shrill and harsh across the marsh
Its whistling voices were released

The grasses hissed, their tassels bent
The reeds were rattling--on it went
O'er shaken pool under heavens cool
Where racing clouds were torn and rent

It passed the Lonely Mountain bare
And swept above the dragon's lair
There black and dark lay boulders stark
And flying smoke was in the air

It left the world and took its flight
Over the wide seas of the night
The moon set sail upon the gale
And stars were fanned to leaping light

Under the Mountain dark and tall
The King has come unto his hall!
His foe is dead, the Worm of Dread
And ever so his foes shall fall!

The sword is sharp, the spear is long
The arrow swift, the Gate is strong
The heart is bold that looks on gold
The dwarves no more shall suffer wrong

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep
In hollow halls beneath the fells

On silver necklaces they strung
The light of stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, from twisted wire
The melody of harps they wrung

The mountain throne once more is freed!
O! Wandering folk, the summons heed!
Come haste! Come haste! Across the waste!
The king of friend and kin has need

Now call we over the mountains cold
'Come back unto the caverns old!
Here at the gates the king awaits
His hands are rich with gems and gold

The king has come unto his hall
Under the Mountain dark and tall
The Wyrm of Dread is slain and dead
And ever so our foes shall fall

Farewell we call to hearth and hall!
Though wind may blow and rain may fall
We must away, ere break of day
Far over the wood and mountain tall

To Rivendell, where Elves yet dwell
In glades beneath the misty fell
Through moor and waste we ride in haste
And whither then we cannot tell

With foes ahead, behind us dread
Beneath the sky shall be our bed
Until at last our toil be passed
Our journey done, our errand sped

We must away! We must away!
We ride before the break of day!

That is the poem the dwarves sang in the Hobbit. It seemed very appropriate for these 3 Mountain cards. The dolorous tone of the song fits the cards. Mana is the base of the game. It isn't necessarily exciting or cool or anything to get your excitement level up, but without it there is no Magic the Gathering. 

Master of the Cauldron (Lord of the Isles #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: Master of the Cauldron
Series: Lord of the Isles #6
Author: David Drake
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 473
Words: 170K
Publish: 2004

As Prince Garric continues his royal visits to the various Islands to help consolidate his reign as the Central Power of the Isles, yet another power hungry noblewoman and her pet wizard cause problems.

Several different adventures all culminate in one final battle that solves all the various problems as usual.

These are very formulaic books and I must admit, I’m really ok with that at this point. I wasn’t sure I was going to be when I started this series re-read but I have to admit, it is almost comforting to know the layout. Bad things happen, people get separated, more bad things happen, everybody wins separately and then comes back together to win together. I like it when the Good Guys win and you always get that in these Lord of the Isles books :-)

On previous books I’ve talked about the covers but this time, it wasn’t a semi-famous artist doing it and I simply have zero idea what is going on for it. I don’t remember a scene like that from the whole book and if it was just one tiny scene I could have easily overlooked it in the almost 500 pages I read. I guess I should be thankful I at least get a real fantasy looking cover at all and not some cubist neo-crap modernist bullshit. Because as we all know, the cubist neo-crap modernists are out to get us. I would even give you an example to help warn you, but when I google it, Net Nanny blocks all results, probably because of how vile and evil it is. And if Net Nanny blocks it, you know it must be the vilest of the vile, kind of like Dictator Xi Jinping and his goat humping ways.

★★★✬☆

From the Internet

The Core Threads

As is custom for the Lord of the Isles series, the core group of heroes undergoes a diaspora. They are quickly separated into distinct narrative tracks across material and magical planes to tackle different facets of the crisis.

• The Royal Progress & The Political Conspiracy:
  Prince Garric, acting as the Regent of Haft, organizes a massive Royal Progress. Accompanied by his consort Liane, a vast army, and a naval fleet, he sets out to solidify his rule and secure oaths of fealty from the scattered territories. Their destination is Sandrakkan, a proud and deeply restless province that Haft conquered during a bloody war less than a generation ago.The political tension turns deadly upon arrival. Balila, the ruthless Countess of Sandrakkan, refuses to bow to the "boy king" representing the hated island of Haft. She forms a treasonous alliance with her court wizard to assassinate Garric. Unconcerned with the global consequences of uncontrolled magic, Countess Balila taps into forbidden mystical resources to destroy the royal forces and place her husband, Wilduf, on the throne of the Isles.

• The Awakening of Volita:
  While political treachery brews on Sandrakkan, the unstable flood of magic triggers ancient terrors nearby on the demon-haunted isle of Volita. Countess Balila intentionally risks waking these dormant, preternatural entities to weaponize them against Garric. This forces the rest of Garric's companions—his fierce sister Sharina, her herculean lover Cashel, the formidable weaver-witch Ilna, and her husband Chalcus—to directly confront horrors rising from otherworldly depths

Shelf Control: The King and the Pallid Mask

 

Shelf Control is a weekly feature created by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. Since early January 2023, Shelf Control has moved base to Literary Potpourri. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile and write a post about it–what it’s about, when/where you got it, why you want to read it and such.

There's a confusing story of how this book ended up on my TBR. Given that it is a King in Yellow story, that should almost be a given at this point! :-D

Back in 2018, before I started my Cosmic Horror reading in earnest (both of the King in Yellow and the Cthulhu lore), I read a book called The Rites of Azathoth by Frank Cavallo. I had enough Lovecraft reading under my belt to read it without being lost and I must say, I wasn't exactly impressed. Several very unlikeable characters, the elder god Azathoth trying to prevent the destruction of Earth (Azathoth is the essence of destruction in the HP Lovecraft lore) and a LOT of profanity all came together in one mediocre 2.5star rating.

By 2023 I was well on my way to reading a lot of the King in Yellow stories and stumbled across a full novel by James Hodge, The Yellow Sign. I was incredibly impressed but that was Hodge's only book that I could find. I continued searching out other King in Yellow anthologies and stories but had to take a break due to the unrelenting grimness and hopelessness of the Mythos as a whole.

Fast forward to 2026 and I decided to get back into the KiY books again. The problem was, and continues to be, that my memory can no longer retain all of the information about what I've read in the past. It is one of the big reasons I review every book I read and keep an electronic review copy in Calibre. My brain needs memory aides. Just to give you some perspective, yesterday's book "Outpost" was my 4878th book read since April 2000. So I knew that I wanted more King in Yellow stories and I "remembered" that I had read a full novel by somebody and that I thoroughly enjoyed it. So I googled up some info and found this book and the author's name rang a bell and I thought "Oh, it must be the guy who did the full KiY novel I enjoyed so much in the past".

So I added "The King and the Pallid Mask" to my tbr, only to realize as I started writing this post that all of my assumptions were completely wrong. Which means that I have NO idea what I'll be getting into when I eventually do read this. I consider that a big positive though, as the King in Yellow cannot be contained by a mere human mind, hahahahaa ;-)

That wraps up this post. Literary Potpourri's latest Shelf Control post can be found HERE. Please do visit it and say hello. 

Outpost (Donovan #1) 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: Outpost
Series: Donovan #1
Author: William Gear
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 445
Words: 133K
Publish: 2018

When the “Donovan” series started coming out in 2018, it made a decent sized splash. People were reading it, reviewing it and talking about it (it was Mogsy who brought it to my attention first with her Review). It was touted as a trilogy and given that Gear had written the People of Spider sf as a trilogy, that seemed par for the course. Then the series kept going up until Book 6 in 2022. Then it just abruptly stopped. I was interested but only having read one book by Gear back in the 90’s, I wanted to read some of his earlier works before diving into something new. That desire led me to read the aforementioned People of Spider trilogy. I was less than impressed but it wasn’t horrible. So when it became evident that Donovan was on a permanent hiatus (or the publishing issues were sorted out), I decided to add the 6 books to my tbr which brings you all up to speed.

The first thing I noticed was just how similar this was to his Spider trilogy. I don’t know if he’s placing it in the same universe as the Spider books, but if so, it’s much earlier chronologically, as there is no triumvirate of superbrains running the government. However, things are such that it wouldn’t take much for that to happen. So either Donovan takes place in the same universe as Spider, just earlier, OR Gear has one setting for any of his SF tales. Neither option is preferable to me so that was a strike.

I was doing ok with Donovan as a hostile planet that was slowly killing off the settlers. Then a ship appears (gasp, just like in Spider) and things change. Sadly, one of those changes was that Dan Wirth is one of the main characters and he’s an evil, murdering, rapist psychopath. I don’t mind reading about his campaign to create and rule a criminal element on Donovan, but I did not appreciate him being so much in the forefront of the story. I felt like I needed to take a shower after every section featuring him. I knocked a solid 1 ½ stars off just for him. And to make things worse, everyone just lets him get away with what he is doing. And the author doesn’t let Donovan have a go at him either. For a world that seems to be actively trying to kill the inhabitants, there’s not much planet killing going on around Dan Wirth. I didn’t like him and I didn’t like having him be saved by plot armor.

What I did like was Donovan. The whole world is literally out to get the colonists and yet at the same time we hear about “wilders”, people who seem to have made peace and are living on their own. Gear is a big “nature is wonderful if you just live with it and accept it” kind of guy and it really colors his story telling. While I’m not a fan of that philosophy, he is pretty consistent in its execution (except when it comes to Dan Wirth, booo!) for good or bad. The little glimpses we get of Donovan are wonderfully wild and dangerous and I wish there was more of that and less of the politic’ing that goes on.

On top of all of that, you have the mystery of faster than light space travel. I DEFINITELY picked up “Event Horizon” vibes. This part of the story was more about adding addition pressure to everyone and not an actual plot point in and of itself. But the dead ship that ports in during the story had a death cult on it, before everyone died and they built a shrine, a wall, a something, of bones and that is the cover picture. It’s really the only reason I’m even mentioning that aspect, because it doesn’t affect the citizens of Donovan at all.

After this book, I’ll be taking this series one book at a time. If at any time I’m not pleased with something, I think I will be dnf’ing the series. It’s on a hair trigger right now.

★★★✬☆

From the Internet

The Core Premise & Setup

For thirty years, the colony town of Port Authority on the resource-rich but highly lethal planet Donovan has been left entirely to its own devices. The Corporate supply ships simply stopped arriving. Over unmatched attrition from predatory wildlife (like flying quetzals, stealthy nightmares, and constricting gotcha vines), a population of thousands has dwindled down to a gritty, fiercely independent group of roughly 300 survivors.

The novel kicks off when a new corporate starship, the Turalon, finally drops out of faster-than-light travel into Donovan’s orbit. The ship is led by Supervisor Kalico Aguila, a young and ambitious corporate bureaucrat eager to claim credit for a functioning mining operation. Instead, she finds an independent, hardened settlement that has overthrown original corporate contracts just to survive.

---

The Three Primary Interlocking Conflicts

1. The Clash for Political Control

Planetside, the colony is ruled by a triumvirate: Yvette Dushane, Shig Mosadek, and Talina Perez. Talina is a lethal huntress and a de facto law enforcer who made brutal, morally gray choices to keep the colony from starving or being eaten alive during the abandonment.

When Kalico Aguila lands with her ruthless security enforcer, Captain Max Taggart, they demand strict corporate accountability and threaten to try the colonists for corporate treason. A tense, ideological standstill forms: the corporate authorities want to re-establish a profitable hierarchy, while the "Donovanians" refuse to give up their freedom to an entity that left them to die.

2. The Psychopath in Paradise

As part of the Turalon's manifest, a massive wave of new contractors and criminals are brought to the planet. Among them is Dan Wirth, a brilliant, completely unhinged psychopath facing a delayed death sentence back on Earth. For Dan, the lawless, chaotic frontier of Port Authority isn't a nightmare—it's an absolute playground. He immediately begins a stealthy, bloody campaign to manipulate, murder, and corrupt local factions, aiming to seize complete criminal control of the settlement from the inside out.

3. The Reappearance of the Ghost Ship

Just as political tensions on the ground reach a boiling point, an eerie astronomical event occurs: a lost corporate vessel, the Freelander, abruptly materializes in orbit after being missing for two years.

When a team investigates, they find a horror scene: the ship is functional, but the entire crew has died of extreme old age, their skeletal remains arranged in what looks like a bizarre death-cult ritual. The ship’s spatial equipment appears trapped in a temporal anomaly. This reveals a terrifying truth to the characters: the other missing resupply ships weren't destroyed by colonists; space travel around Donovan is fundamentally broken, and any attempt to return to Earth might mean certain death.

---

The Biological Twist: Donovan's Agenda

While humans fight over politics and power, the planet itself acts as a silent character. Early in the novel, Talina Perez survives a brutal encounter with a quetzal. However, the attack alters her. It is revealed that she carries a unique biological marker or change in her blood—a side effect of surviving the world's ecosystem—that hints at a deeper, symbiotic connection between the planet's collective consciousness and certain colonists.

Climax and Resolution

As Captain Taggart and Supervisor Aguila spend more time planetside, they realize corporate bureaucracy is useless against wild predators and a lethal ecosystem. Taggart’s rigid military mindset cracks as he develops an uneasy respect for Talina and the colonists' way of life.

The book wraps up with the corporate leaders forced to abandon their corporate handbooks just to stay alive, making a fragile alliance with the locals to fend off the compounding threats of Dan Wirth's criminal uprising, the looming mysteries of the Freelander and a planet that actively tries to purge foreign invaders.

For Kicks (Standalone) 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: For Kicks
Series: Standalone
Author: Dick Francis
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 219
Words: 88K
Publish: 1965

In this story, the main character isn’t a jockey and I appreciated that change up. Daniel is the owner of a horse breeding farm in Australia and gets roped in to investigating possible horse doping in England. His motivation is of course money at the first, but as the story progresses it becomes apparent that Daniel wants some excitement in his life and he definitely gets it here.

I also appreciated that there is no romance in this story. There are two beautiful daughters of the man he’s working for, but one is a terrible hussy and the other just isn’t quite what he’s looking for, so he doesn’t get involved with them. They are part of the story, but not in a romantic way and I enjoyed that.

This takes place in England and once again, how the law operates there is just so different from what I am use to, either in real life or even in entertainment, here in the US that it felt like a shock. Daniel is held in jail for 3 days even though his story checks out, just because the police don’t want to bother to tell him he was correct in all his statements. It takes his powerful, aristocratic employer to get him out. Not a lawyer or due process was seen in the tiniest way.

The ending, with him being wooed into an Intelligence Agency was not at all what I was expecting. The whole idea of doing things “for kicks” is also so far outside of my mindset and temperament that it might as well be Martian :-D

This cover is a run of the more recent ones and while it is much better than the one shown on Dead Cert (which was just absolutely horrible), it is rather lifeless and blasé. I found this earlier edition and I like it much better.

★★★✬☆

From the Internet

The Setup & Motivation

Daniel Roke is a young, intelligent, and highly capable Australian who successfully runs a horse stud farm in the Snowy Mountains. He built this business from the ground up to support and raise his younger orphaned siblings. While he has achieved financial stability, the grueling routine has left him feeling restless, trapped, and desperate for a change of pace.

He is approached by the Earl of October, a wealthy representative of the British racing authorities. The Earl is desperate: at least ten horses have miraculously won steeplechase races while visibly under the influence of an adrenaline-high stimulant, yet standard post-race laboratory drug tests consistently turn up entirely clean. A racing journalist who previously tried to investigate the matter has just died in a highly suspicious car accident. Though initially reluctant, the immense financial payout—and Daniel's own craving for adventure—convinces him to take the assignment.

Going Undercover

To successfully infiltrate the British racing community, Daniel has to completely shed his natural air of competence, leadership, and authority. He travels to England and adopts a completely fabricated persona: a lazy, slightly dishonest, and highly corruptible stable hand who is open to taking bribes and cutting corners.

He begins working at the bottom rung of the ladder, enduring intense physical humiliation, grueling labor, and squalid living conditions to blend in. His strategy is to map out the doping incidents geographically, looking for a common denominator among specific racetracks and trainers. After a stint at the Earl's own pristine racing stable, his investigation leads him to seek employment under a abusive trainer with a notoriously dreadful reputation.

Complications and Climax

Daniel's mission becomes dangerously complicated by two major factors:

• The Doping Method: Daniel eventually uncovers the horrific and highly unconventional method the conspirators are using to drug the horses. Instead of relying on traditional chemical substances fed or injected before a race, the syndicate is using fire coupled with a dog whistle to induce a Pavlovian response in the horses. The systemic physical torture triggers a massive, natural surge of adrenaline in the horses just before they race, allowing them to sprint past their physical limits without leaving any foreign chemical traces in their blood or urine.

• The Earl's Daughters: Daniel's cover is severely compromised by the Earl of October’s two beautiful but reckless daughters. Their constant, intrusive interactions with the "stable boy" distract him, blow his anonymity, and inadvertently tip off the ruthless criminal syndicate running the operation.

Once the ringleaders realize they have a spy in their midst, the novel builds from a slow, methodical investigation into a fast-paced, nail-biting thriller. Daniel is captured and subjected to extreme physical peril, culminating in a brutal, explosive fight for survival against criminals who are perfectly willing to murder a human being to protect their multi-million dollar betting scam. Ultimately, Daniel uses his wits and newly discovered resilience to break the ring and escape with his life. Daniel is hired by an Intelligence Agency of the UK, because he fits the profile of someone willing to do these adventurous chores, just “for kicks”, hence the title of the book.

Morale - MTG 4E

 

This is a similar card to Crusade, except it is only for one turn, only for attacking creatures but it is to ALL your creatures and not just white ones, thus making it acceptable to use in dual colored deck.

One shot cards are good for the traditional 60card game of Magic, where a game can take 10-20minutes. A one shot card can come out of nowhere and instantly shift the balance of the game or even provide that tiny bump you need to win the game. In Commander, a 100card variant with twice as many life points, one shot cards aren't nearly as powerful. Of course, Commander didn't exist when this card was created, so nobody worried about things like that.

Ahhhh, the spring time of Magic, when everything was fresh and "magical".
BA DUM TISH
Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week! :-D