Friday, April 24, 2026

Hard Magic (Grimnoir Chronicles #1) 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: Hard Magic
Series: Grimnoir Chronicles #1
Author: Larry Correia
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 379
Words: 145K
Publish: 2011



Ahhhh, a re-read that lives up to my memories of it.

I read this while still (originally) on Devilreads (where I used my real name and picture, ohhhh the naivete of a misspent social youth!) and a friend there had recommended it to me. His account is still on Devilreads, but he did make the jump to Booklikes and then he’s sputtered out all over the place, so I don’t know if he’s even online any more. That’s how online friendships (come and) go I guess. I loved this book back then, even more so than Correia’s Monster Hunter International series but once I finished the trilogy in 2013, I hesitated for 13 years before taking this plunge and re-reading it.

But I have re-read this and it is just as good if not better than when I read it back in ‘13. Correia gets the vibe just correct for an Alternate History Urban Fantasy. Normally, I’d hate that subslice of genre bastardization, but Correia makes me like it, a lot.

The story is literally punchy, as Jake Sullivan, one of two main characters, is a “heavy”, someone who can manipulate gravity around himself. But he’s smart and he’s figuring stuff out about how to use his powers that no one else has even thought of. I LIKE that in a main character. Don’t make him stupid because you’re a stupid writer. Correia has never gone down that path and I respect him for that. The other main character is Faye, a teen girl who can teleport. She seems to have unlimited power though and it hints at the greater conflict that is coming, a conflict of cosmic horror’esque proportions. I had not read any cosmic horror before this back then, nor did I even know what it was. Given how I’ve gravitated to that genre over the years, I can understand why I was so attracted to this series without quite knowing why. Correia does cosmic horror in his MHI series too, but it’s not quite as in your face as here. But it isn’t the grim, hopeless, void of despair that Cthulhu type cosmic horror is supposed to be, but a more hopeful, humanity can survive if we just try hard enough (think of the optimism from the original Star Trek show). I like that threat of reality being destroyed but it is skillfully balanced by the hope, which I also like.

In my usual reading rotation, I have 6-8 weeks before cycling back to a series. That gives me time to sample a wide variety of other styles so that one series or author doesn’t overwhelm and I get burnt out on them. I’m going to be making an exception for this trilogy. I’ll be reading and reviewing the rest of the trilogy over the next two weeks. Each Friday  I’ll be putting up the next review. Spellbound will go up May 1st and Warbound will go up May 8th. That is very high praise in my estimation.

Also, Wikipedia has NO individual pages for ANY of Correia’s books so there is no indepth synopsis. With how popular Correia is with his fanbase, I cannot fathom why this is the case. I have my suspicions, but no concrete proof, nor do I care enough to try to do one of the books myself just to see it deleted by the damn commies who run wikipedia. There, that rant is out of my system so it shouldn’t show up again in the reviews for the next two books :-D

★★★★★


From Fandom.com

The year is 1930. Opening the story is a chance meeting by a Portuguese cow farmer Active Joe Vierra and a traveling family with a teenage Active named Sally Faye. The farmer realizes she has the same Power as him (Travel) and adopts her. A covert meeting from wealthy blimp business mogul Cornelius Stuyvesant with the Pale Horse, Jonathan Harkness, begins a plot to murder another man through the Power of Plague. As payment for his work, the Pale Horse requests a future favor from Stuyvesant who reluctantly agrees.

Three years later, Jake Sullivan, a former soldier and now ex-convict Active with the Power to manipulate gravity (colloquially called a 'Heavy') is serving off the last of his sentence under the federal government to bring in criminal Actives. Sullivan is a slow-talking, brutish looking man, but is ferociously intelligent and a master at using his seemingly simple Power in clever and creative ways after years of intense practice while in prison at Rockfell. His last job with the feds is to bring in an old friend (and flame) from his criminal days: Delilah Jones, an Active with the 'Brute' ability to imbue her muscles with extraordinary strength. On the run for mass murder, Delilah gives the Feds trouble and is almost captured by Jake when a group of vigilantes appear and assist Delilah's escape on a blimp. Sullivan is left with more questions than the government will answer, and so goes to begin an investigation into Delilah and the group who involved themselves to whisk her away.

The young Sally Faye has grown into her power, able to Travel with ease and beginning to ask Joe questions about the limits of the power and possible ways of using it. Their lives are interrupted when a group of men arrive at the farm looking for something Joe had been tasked to guard years prior. Refusing to give up the item, a firefight erupts. Joe is able to evade the enemy for just long enough to give the device to Sally before being killed by a big man with a terribly scarred face and a white eye called 'Mr Madi'. Telling Sally to flee, Joe gives her instructions to find the Grimnoir.

Turning up a few leads from an old mafia acquaintance unfortunately puts Jake on the radar for the Red Imperium: a foreign Japanese shadow organization that seeks to obtain world dominance. The Red Imperium sends members of the elite Iron Guard to kill Sullivan, but are stopped by the very same party that assisted Delilah: The Grimnoir. Another secret organization, their purpose is to uphold justice and protect the world with their Grimnoir Knights.

Dark forces are at work to gather components of a deadly Tesla device, and it becomes a race to recover the missing pieces before the enemy can put the device back together.



Thursday, April 23, 2026

Chakaal, Again! (Groo the Wanderer #50) 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: Chakaal, Again!
Series: Groo the Wanderer #50
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 44
Words: 4K
Publish: 1989



Ahhh, a 50th issue. It’s a big milestone for any comic, especially back in the late 80’s. At the end of issue 49, Groo was in a land where nobody knew him and was trying to force a village to hire him to protect them and came across a female warrior who seemed to know him.

Well, in this double issue we find out all about Chakaal and how Groo “helps” her at every turn with rather usual Groo results, hahahaaha.

Groo had proposed marriage to Chakaal long ago and wouldn’t take no for an answer. So Chakaal sailed to the farthest land she could find and started protecting a village from a bunch of amazons. Chakaal has a Master Plan to discover the amazon’s hidden fortress but Groo obviously messes that up. Then when Chakaal gets captured and Groo goes to “rescue” her, he messes up her Master Plan B, predictable as the sun rising. Finally, when he gives up trying to rescue her, he accidentally blows up the island and reveals its location to the kings navy and they invade and set all the captives free. Chakaal still tells Groo “no” and this time he finally gets it.

Even though this was a double issue, it did not feel any longer than usual. It helped that there was a concurrent side story running about Rufferto (Groo’s mongrel dog) being super jealous of Chakaal. Rufferto isn’t much smarter than Groo and doesn’t realize that Chakaal just won’t have Groo, period. So he’s worried and jealous the whole comic and it is funny :-D


★★★✬☆



Wednesday, April 22, 2026

The Sum of Its Parts (Warhammer 40K: Astra Militarum) 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 Sum of Its Parts
Series: Warhammer 40K: Astra Militarum
Author: Rhuairidh James
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 33
Words: 8K
Publish: 2023



These little snippets of stories from the Warhammer 40K universe are working out for me perfectly. Just enough to keep my appetite whetted without actually filling me up. The perfect appetizer.

That’s what these are and I’m ok with that. Doesn’t make for great reviews but hey, not everything can make that cut, you know?

★★★☆☆


From the Publisher:

Follow the history of one of the Guard’s finest weapons.

THE STORY
Through a series of vignettes, we learn the history of the Leman Russ tank Sebastian's Lance over hundreds of years of Imperial warfare.



Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Way-farer (Kensho #1) 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: Way-farer
Series: Kensho #1
Author: Dennis Schmidt
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 170
Words: 67K
Publish: 1978



This is one of those books I read as a teen, then a 20something, then a 30something now as a 40something. I loved this book, I loved it a lot. This time, not so much. This is a much younger man’s book and it is time for me to acknowledge that fact.

I desperately wanted to give this 5stars, like all my previous times but I’m honest enough with myself to know I can’t. This is a vanity project by the author about Zen Buddhism wrapped inside a science fiction story that is actually a swords and sorcery story.

Ahhhh, another youthful book that I’ve finally outgrown. That’s not a good or bad thing, it just is. While that makes a part of me sad, another part acknowledges that is just how it is, like aching joints and reduced energy levels. Well, if I managed to push off growing up for 48 years, I’d say that was a good run.

Ok cranky old man stage, here I come!!!

★★✬☆☆


From the Publisher

According to every reading it was a paradise planet—a warm and fecund world far more desirable than the teeming, polluted warrens of the planet-city that Earth had become. Yet when the last of the one-way transports had landed its cargo of Pilgrims, the men of Earth were to learn of a danger that no machine could detect, and against which no machine could defend them—the Mushin, mental entities that stimulate and amplify the dark streak of violence that lies near the core of every human being.Seven generations would pass before a descendant of the scattered remnant of the original colonists would be ready to face the power of the Mushin. But first he would have to learn to wield the weapon that is no weapon—and that only where there is no Will, is there a Way…His name is Jerome. This is his story. He is the WAY-FARER.



Monday, April 20, 2026

Lightning Bolt - MTG 4E

 

While Sol Ring might be the face card of Magic the Gathering to me, to the community at large, Lightning Bolt IS the card that embodies every aspect of Magic the Gathering in one distinct picture. Part of that is the card itself. Doing three damage for one red pip is about the best you can hope for. But the image as well just sits in your mind. Everyone has seen lightning at one point or another in their lifetime and they can relate to this image in some way. Some of us love lightning, some of us hate lightning, but none of us simply shrug lightning aside. That is why I think this became the face card of Magic for the general community.

If you disagree with me, well, I play Lightning Bolt and kill your argument, which is only a 2/2 creature, ha! ;-)


Sunday, April 19, 2026

14 of My Favorites in Suspense 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: 14 of My Favorites in Suspense
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 181
Words: 71K
Publish: 1959


I’ve noted this on multiple other Alfred Hitchcock Presents collections, but sometimes they just rub me the wrong way. It’s like the writers are almost gleeful in how they are writing about about madness and murder and mayhem. I do not like that. The problem is that I can’t tell if it is actually the authors or just because of a mood that I’m in and not truly aware of.

I didn’t dislike this collection but I was glad to see the end of it. In the table of contents there are little blurbs for each story with spoilers galore. I’m not particularly worried as I doubt a single one of you will read this book, but just in case, do be aware. The other thing that might happen is that I win a big lottery, become super rich and famous and so some lowlife sues me because I spoiled this book for him. So I’m heading that problem off at the pass! (besides the obvious one, you know, of not buying a lottery ticket in the first place) (except on blogger, so total spoilers here)

★★✬☆☆


Blurb & Table of Contents & Synopses:

Sardonic Shockers

Selected by

Alfred Hitchcock. . .

The not so gentle man who knows all the angles (especially the sharp ones) and all the ropes (the hanging kind). From his deep-freeze of ingenious chillers incredible only to the unimaginative and horrifyingly real to the shrewd and daring—the following fourteen tales of intrigue were cunningly chosen to startle as well as satisfy, while above all holding you in the clammy grasp of. . .

SUSPENSE


 "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier, the source material for the film Hitchcock would do sometime later.

"Man with a Problem" by Donald Honig is a story about a man about to jump off a building and the beat cop trying to talk him down. The twist is that the cop was having an affair with the jumper’s wife and jumper takes them both over the edge at the end.

"They Bite" by Anthony Boucher is a straight up horror story, in which a foreign agent spying on an American desert installation learns of the ancient, bloodthirsty evil dwelling in the old abandoned adobes and dies.

In "The Enemy" by Charlotte Armstrong, a young man tries to help some kids find out who killed their dog and stumbles across a bold murder attempt.

H.G. Wells' "The Inexperience Ghost" starst with some well-bred gentlemen in their exclusive club telling tales to each other.

In "Sentence of Death" by Thomas Walsh, a cop tries to nab a killer with the help of the only reliable witness, and begins developing feelings for her.

"Spring Fever" by Dorthothy Salisbury Davis: a lonely housewife is tempted, then repelled, by a lecherous neighbor pursuing her, ending with violence.

Matthew Gant's "The Crate at Outpost One" has two soldiers guarding an important box with a secret weapon they have to withhold from the enemy. Turns out to be books.

Guy Cullingford's "My Unfair Lady" is about a man worried that he'll be accused of murdering the woman he found dead in the woods. He tries to find the little girl who initially witnessed the crime, only to discover the little girl has an agenda of her own, blackmailing the handsome murderer for free icecream and candy.

In Carter Dickson's "New Murders for Old", a man trying to recover from a nervous breakdown has either been targeted for murder or is losing his mind.

"Terrified" by C.B. Gifford has a man dying slowly after being run off the road, tormented by the young couple who did it. He dies but the cop easily figures it out at the end.

Joan Vatsik's "The Duel" a disturbed woman becomes convinced that a lothario ghost is in love with her, leading to tragic consequences for her husband who dies while she goes insane.

"Four O'Clock" by Price Day is about a man with the power to show the evil in men’s hearts. He decides to make everyone who is evil half the size of a regular man, at 4pm. With himself getting shrunk too as the twist.

Paul Eiden's "Too Many Coincidences" ends the collection. An insurance man ignores his gut feelings about potential danger to his wife because it goes against “the science of math” and she dies. Serves him right for being such a jackass.




Friday, April 17, 2026

[Art] Seasonal Trees

 

Pooja, over at Life's Fine Whine, recently did an Art Therapy post. One of the pictures was this picture of seasonal trees. I'm a huge sucker for Seasonal Anythings, (hence my Maidens of the Year series) so I immediately asked her if I could get a scanned copy for my blog. She was gracious enough to send over a nice version and here we are :-) After the winter we have had, I am SO happy to see pictures of bare ground.

So thank you Pooja. I'm always happy to get new pieces of art for the blog! And the rest of you, have a great day too.


Hard Magic (Grimnoir Chronicles #1) 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...