Got sick at the beginning of the month and missed the July 4th extended weekend. That was a real bummer. Going to California for a couple of days was a nice relaxer time though. Other than that, work, work, work. With the housing market still being wicked hot (despite the best efforts of certain people), my work is NOT slowing down like I thought it might. Maybe later this year in winter I’ll get a break? I can hope.
On the book side of things, my numbers were looking pretty good. My average rating went down but with the various stinkers I had I was expecting that. So all the other numbers going up was great. I like my numbers going up.
On the blog side, the numbers are all over the place and still make no sense to me. Of course, it feels like people are either taking breaks or flaming out. In all honesty, it just takes one person leaving blogging to make me feel that way, so it’s not hard to get to that place, sigh. It is not hard to mess with my head 😉
One of the big lotteries here in the US, Mega Millions, got up to over 1 Billion dollars. Talk about a boatload of cash! I obviously didn’t win. But even if I had, I certainly wouldn’t be telling all of you and shouting it out on my blog, now would I? I might be one of the world’s biggest egotists, but I’m not that stupid 😀 But it was really fun to think what it would be like to win that.
Plans for Next Month:
I got nothing. Just trying to pump those reviews out and not fall too far behind. I’ve still got like 8 reviews to write just to get caught up and every day that passes brings yet another to write. Oh, I might try for a Binstagramm post. I hear it’s the next big thing online. One post and I’ll become an Internet Celebrity. But don’t worry, I won’t forget all you little people.
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, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 Series: ———- Authors: L. Ron Hubbard Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 1243 Words: 402K
Synopsis:
From Wikipedia.org
In the year 3000, Earth has been ruled by an alien race, the Psychlos, for a millennium. The Psychlos discovered a deep space probe (suggested to be Voyager 1) with directions and pictures mounted on it and the precious material, gold, that led them straight to Earth.
After one thousand years, humanity is an endangered species numbering fewer than 35,000 and reduced to a few tribes in isolated parts of the world while the Psychlos strip the planet of its mineral wealth. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a young man in one such tribe, lives in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. Depressed by the recent death of his father and both the lethargy and sickness of most of the surviving adults in his tribe, later determined to be caused by radiation-leakage from decaying nuclear land-mines, he leaves his village to explore the lowlands and to disprove the superstitions long held by his people of monsters in those areas. He is soon captured in the ruins of Denver by Terl, the Psychlo chief of planetary security.
Psychlos stand up to 9 feet (2.7 m) tall and weigh up to 1,000 pounds (450 kg). They originate from Psychlo, a planet with an atmosphere radically different from Earth, located in another universe with a different set of elements. Their “breathe-gas” explodes on contact with even trace amounts of radioactive material, such as uranium. The Psychlos have been the dominant species across multiple universes for at least 100,000 years. It becomes apparent in the later chapters that the Psychlos were originally non-violent miners but were subjugated by a ruling class called “Catrists” to become malicious, sadistic sociopaths.
Terl has been assigned to Earth, and his term has been arbitrarily extended by Numph, the planetary head of mining operations. Fearful at the thought of spending several more years on Earth, Terl decides to make himself a multi-millionaire to escape, by secretly mining a lode of gold in the Rocky Mountains that his planetary scanner drones have recently found. It is surrounded by uranium deposits that make Psychlo mining impossible, so Terl decided to capture a Man-Animal to mine the gold for him.
Terl forces Jonnie to submit to a learning machine programmed by a servile race that was exterminated centuries earlier for going on strike. It quickly teaches him numerous subjects, including the Psychlo language, by implanting the information directly into Jonnie’s brain. He befriends a Psychlo midget named Ker, who is only 7 feet tall but still possesses the impressive strength of a Psychlo, and is markedly less psychotic than the others.
Looking for leverage against Jonnie, Terl captures his childhood-love Chrissie and her sister, Pattie, who went searching for Jonnie a year after he left their clan, and holds them hostage to ensure his continued cooperation. Thereafter, Jonnie is free to move around the mining area. Terl and Jonnie travel to Scotland where Jonnie recruits eighty-three Scottish people to help with the mining, including several deliberately selected body-doubles for Jonnie, older women to perform the cooking and clothes mending, a doctor, a teacher, and a historian. Jonnie tells the Scots about the evil deeds of Terl, to include how he has imprisoned Jonnie’s love and her little sister. Led by Robert the Fox, the Scots agree to help him fight against the Psychlo rule on Earth and rescue Chrissie and Pattie. Terl does not understand English, and is instead convinced that the Scots are motivated by a promise of pay on project completion.
While Jonnie and his Scottish allies mine the gold deposit, they also secretly explore the ruins of humanity to look for uranium that can be weaponized for use against their Psychlo oppressors. This subterfuge is aided by the aforementioned body-doubles, making it appear to Terl’s surveillance that the mining operation is the sole priority of the human contingent. Meanwhile, Terl finally gains leverage on Numph, discovering that he has been stealing company funds. Terl blackmails him, effectively negating Numph’s power over him, allowing Terl to continue with his mining plans.
Terl has been busy obfuscating the purpose of the gold-mining operation and implementing his plan to ship the human-mined gold back to the Psychlo home-planet. Terl’s plan involves replacing lead coffin-lids with lead-plated facsimiles made from the gold mined by the Scots, and shipping these coffins with dead Psychlos in them, home. When he finally returned to Psychlo, he could then dig up the coffins and sell the lids to make his fortune. All dead Psychlos are to be returned to home planet for burial, but recent safety measures have reduced accidents. Terl thus has to manufacture accidents to kill Psychlos, and decides to assassinate Numph as well, to get the bodies needed.
During the semi-annual teleportation of personnel, goods, and coffins to Psychlo, Jonnie and his allies co-opt Terl’s plan by packing the coffins with “dirty nukes” and “planet busters” they have found, and replacing the golden coffin-lids with the original lead lids. After the last teleportation, the humans use the Psychlos’ own weapons against them and gain control of the planet. With humans in control of Earth, Jonnie works to discover the secret of Psychlo mathematics and teleportation. This is a difficult task, compounded by the fact that Psychlo math is based on the number eleven, and Psychlo equations appear to make no sense.
Before the teleportation, Jonnie is forced to oppose a longtime rival from his own clan, Brown Limper Staffor, who is seeking to wrest control of Earth for himself. Unwittingly used by Terl to advance his own plans, Brown Limper nearly succeeds after gaining assistance from a group of cannibalistic mercenaries from southern Africa called the Brigantes, and their leader, General Snith. But Brown Limper is killed by Terl just before the Psychlo’s teleportation, and the Brigantes are defeated.
It is discovered that all Psychlos have a deep brain-stimulation device implanted in their brains to make them controllable. Meant to make work pleasant for them, the device promotes extreme sadism in the males, causing them to attack any non-Psychlo who shows interest in Psychlo mathematics and teleportation. If the Psychlos are unsuccessful in killing their intended victims, the device compels them to commit suicide. The removal of this device frees the handful of remaining Psychlos on Earth from its affects. Curiously, Ker did not have any such device implanted in his brain.
With the Earth being threatened by other alien races looking for restitution because they had suffered under the harsh rule of the Psychlos, Jonnie opposes a race of intergalactic bankers seeking to repossess the Earth for unpaid debts. The security and independence of humanity once again threatened, Jonnie redoubles his efforts to figure out Psychlo teleportation.
It is eventually discovered that the dirty nukes sent with the intent of destroying the capital city on Psychlo instead started a chain reaction which reached into the planet’s core due to over-mining, causing the planet to explode and transform into a star. Jonnie also discovers that other Psychlo facilities scattered about the multiple universes were destroyed by their own reliance on teleportation as they performed their scheduled teleportation shipments, and instead, brought back radioactive solar matter. This holocaust killed every single Psychlo in the multiple universes except for the handful remaining on Earth. Once it is revealed that all female Psychlos who leave the homeworld are sterilized to prevent off-world births, Johnny realizes that the Psychlos on Earth will not be able to reproduce, and eventually, the Psychlo race will become extinct.
Jonnie then works out a way to prevent the repossession of Earth via contracts Terl had signed with Brown Limper Staffor. The Psychlo had thought that it would be amusing to make Staffor believe that he was the legal owner of Earth as well as all Psychlo possessions across the multiple universes, by signing a contract that stated as much before his final teleportation to Planet Psychlo. Terl had no way of knowing that he was about to die, along with almost his entire race, with the destruction of his homeworld. Once planet Psychlo was destroyed, Terl was the highest ranking member of the Intergalactic Mining Company left alive, and his signature on Staffor’s contract became legal. That meant that Jonnie, as the recognized leader of Earth with the death of Brown Limper, now owned what was left of the entire Psychlo empire. Using these contracts, the Earth Planetary Bank pays off all debts to the intergalactic bankers.
However, Jonnie is still perplexed by Psychlo mathematics. With the help of an aged Psychlo engineer, he learns about Psychlos using a cipher system and dummy equations to make their mathematics unsolvable. At the same time, he also discovers how the Psychlos protected their teleportation technology in their local equipment, and records the circuits for future use. Using the existing teleportation console, Jonnie is able to bring back breathe-gas from a planet in the Psychlo star system that was never officially recorded. With the Psychlo math and the circuits, Earth begins to manufacture teleportation equipment, sold to numerous planetary systems via the intergalactic bankers. At the same time, Jonnie uses the Earth’s newly acquired wealth to buy impenetrable force fields and automated orbiting defense platforms to protect the Earth from future threats.
With the Earth secure and the human population growing and learning about its true history, Jonnie gives ownership of the Earth back to its people. A few years later, Jonnie and Chrissie are married and they have a son and a daughter. With human civilization being rebuilt and thriving, Jonnie and Chrissie take their children and leave for an isolated part of the world to train them in the old ways of survival, and to live out the rest of their lives in peace. But, after a year, their friends find them and implore them to return to civilization, which Jonnie reluctantly agrees to.
Years later, frustrated with un-ending fame and life away from nature, a middle-aged Jonnie takes some supplies and quietly slips away to the Rocky Mountains, never to be seen again. He becomes a figure of legend.
My Thoughts:
Having read this several times in highschool and Bibleschool and then again in 2009, I am pretty familiar with the story. After my disastrous attempt at re-reading the Mission: Earth series in ’14, I’d held off any more re-reads authored by Hubbard. But the time seemed right and I’d given Battlefield Earth 5stars in ’09, so it seemed like a safe bet.
Thankfully, it was. This is still a 5star read for me.
Now, I found on this re-read that this felt more cartoony, almost space opera than in years past. In the intro Hubbard goes on for many, many pages talking about what led up to this book and I must admit, he pontificates. Given that he was a cult leader, that shouldn’t surprise anyone though. But his goal with this book was to write a “real science fiction” novel and off he goes for pages explaining what he means by that. I found it interesting but I think he missed the mark to be honest. This book is a romance. One lone warrior saving not only the Earth, but the entire 16 universes, pretty much all by himself? It’s definitely SF alright, but like any genre, proliferation has led to fragmentation and just what is “real science fiction” now? So while still enjoyed this, I don’t think I would have if I had been introduced to it for the first time right now.
This massive tome (it makes even Sanderson seem normal. The mass market paperback is almost 1500 pages!) never felt weighed down though. While Hubbard definitely introduces pet economic and social theories, and explains them, they are explained in just a paragraph or 2 without turning the book into a vessel of preaching. The story moves right along while action isn’t the main focus, it is generously sprinkled throughout so I was never bored. The story is split into 2 main sections. The first deals with Johnny and the Psychlos and the second deals with Johnny and the other space faring races. Humanity kicks butt and I felt like saying “hoo rah” at several points.
For you movie people, there is a movie based on this book. It was pushed forward by John Travolta, a scientologist himself. Don’t watch it. It is the worst thing ever and why Travolta thought it would be a good thing to link to scientology is beyond me. Many, many changes are made from the book, all for the worse and Travolta’s ego is front and center. I’ve pretty much blanked it out of my memory and simply remember it as A Bad Movie.
I am not sure that I will be re-reading this again though. I’ve gotten what I want from this book over the years and I think this is the last time I could read it and still enjoy it this much. It feels like time to shelve this for good.
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, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Conan the Marauder Series: Conan the Barbarian Authors: John Maddox Roberts Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 176 Words: 80K
Synopsis:
From Wikipedia.org & Me
The warlord, Bartatua, is uniting all the Hyrkanian tribes east of the Vilayet Sea into an army for world conquest, beginning with the resistant city of Sogaria. Meanwhile, an exiled Turanian wizard, Khondemir, plans on taking control over Bartatua’s soldiers in pursuit of his own agenda. Caught in the middle are Princess Ishkala of Sogaria, a seductive spy named Lakhme, and the enslaved Conan, who must prove his loyalty towards Bartatua to escape his fate. Everything comes to a thrilling climax near an ancient Hyrkanian necropolis known as the City of Mounds.
Khondemir raises an elder god and gets eaten by it. The warlord is killed by his mistress who had her own plans with the wizard. She in turn is killed as well. The princess is rescued by her lover and Conan escapes to go have another adventure somewhere.
My Thoughts:
Now this was a rousing Conan adventure. I think the biggest part is the villainess in this case. Yes, there’s a bad wizard, but she’s the driving force behind everything happening in this story. It was a joy to read about her machinations because it provided good fodder for Conan to struggle against.
I don’t know why this worked so well for me but man, it was the best Conan story by Maddox yet. Conan was shown in a variety of roles and there was everything from a siege to a sorcerous showdown with an Old One.
I am feeling much better about this series now. Knowing that there is the chance of stories this interesting makes it worth hanging around the average ones 🙂
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, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #7 Authors: Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Comics Pages: 42 Words: 2.5K
Synopsis:
The Turtles are beamed back to the TCRI building, along with the champion warriors of the Triceratons. Who promptly realize that the gizmo used on them is a working transmat device. They immediately go on the offensive and attack everyone. The brain blob robots use their stunners on them and the Turtles try to stay out of it. Master Splinter appears and tells the boys everything that has happened, from his perspective and that the brain blob aliens just want to go home now.
Outside the building, police, swat and the national guard are gathering. They assault the building, enter and begin making their way to the 3rd floor where the brain blobs have reconfigured the transmat to take them back to their homeworld. They take the Turtles with them and the building self-destructs 5minutes later, destroying all evidence of their existence.
The issue ends with the boys and Splinter getting transported into a bathtub in April’s apartment.
My Thoughts:
This issue had the first “news” article in it that comics soon began using to inform their readers of upcoming events and what not. It was very handy to learn that this was the end of this particular story arc and that the next couple issues would be standalones.
While not as exciting as the Arena Games of the previous issue, this still had plenty of soldiers and robots blasting away at each other. Sadly, the Turtles didn’t really get in on the action and so the “ninja” side of things was pretty non-existent. Rocket launchers vs robots with stun beam guns. Definitely made for some good pictures.
Of course, this was mostly backstory and thus allowed Eastman and Laird to really pad things. We get the Turtles origin all over again, just with the bit about the brain blobs being the ones who had created the goo. Then Splinter retells how he escaped from the killer mousers and that was all filler too. I would have been VERY disappointed in this volume if I had waited over 3 months from the previous issue only to get this one. Thankfully, I have scads more ahead of me so I can just whiz on through and do the Queen Wave at this issue.
Pip pip, cheerio, crumpets and tea at 2? Righto then, onto the rocket launcher.
Nothing says “trained professional” like standing right out in the open 2 feet from the door you’re about to try to blast open. Why do comic artists draw such stupid things? Maybe I’m just being extra picky but it just stuck in my craw. And yes, I do realize I’m talking about “stupid” within the context of a comic that has brain blob aliens riding around in Terminator800 shells and warrior Space Triceratops. So upon reflection, maybe I just need to ease up.
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 & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
A legionnaire’s only failure is the failure to do what’s right.
Kel Turner is a victim of his own success. His exploits and victories as part of Kill Team Three bring the attention of forces seeking hegemony over the Republic.
These shadowy power brokers know that a man like Kel represents a threat to their plans… unless he can be persuaded to join them. And if the operator declines his hidden enemy will stop at nothing to destroy him.
At a deadly crossroads, Kel is told to choose between love and duty. But his foes are ignorant that he has a third choice.
Win.
The dark operator is the master of all the tools of lethal combat. Kel will need them all to succeed.
Experience the epic fourth installment of the Dark Operator series and join Kel on a desperate, daring mission against an evil that runs deep in the heart of the Republic. Become a Dark Operator and escape the expected.
Kel tells his buddies and superiors about the blackmail and they formulate a plan to root out the mastermind behind this corruption of the Dark Ops. They succeed and the Head of the Senate appears to be behind things. They disappear him and suddenly Kel has a real chance at living the life of a civvie with a spacefaring family. The book ends with him not sure which way he’ll go.
My Thoughts:
Yeah, THIS is what I expect from a Galaxy’s Edge book. This showed how Nether Ops, those dastardly evil spawn of hell, got their start. And it showed them getting their butts totally kicked by the good guys! Now THAT is how a story is supposed to be told.
Near the beginning I was afraid Kel was going to try do the Lone Wolf thing and go against the Legion, but I should have known better. The author isn’t an idiot and as such his characters aren’t idiots just to propel the plot. Thank goodness for good story telling (again).
There is only one more Dark Operator book left and I suspect it will end with Kel either leaving the Legion for a family, or they all die and he becomes a hardened warrior out to KTF. I hope he gets his happy ending, he deserves it after what he’s gone through in these 4 books so far!
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, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Best of Lester Del Rey Series: ———- Authors: Lester Del Rey Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Short Story Collection Pages: 350 DNF / 259 Words: 130K DNF / 96K
“Superstition” (from Astounding Science Fiction, Aug. 1954)
“For I Am a Jealous People!” (from Star Short Novels, Oct. 1954)
“The Keepers of the House” (from Fantastic Universe, Jan. 1956)
“Little Jimmy” (from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Apr. 1957)
“The Seat of Judgment” (from Venture Science Fiction Magazine, Jul. 1957)
“Vengeance Is Mine” (from Galaxy Magazine, Dec, 1964)
“Author’s Afterword”
My Thoughts:
Several of these stories made quite clear what Del Rey thought about Christianity as a whole but I was able to read past them. Then I got to “For I Am a Jealous People” and it got downright blasphemous. I was teetering on dnf’ing and trying to make up my mind when another sentence hit me. A character is talking about the Bible and God and says something like “I just wish I knew where Jesus fit into all of this”. That did it. The Bible is crystal clear that Jesus is the second person of the Godhead, is not a created being AND is the only way for humanity to get to heaven. It was obvious that Del Rey knew exactly what he was doing as his deliberate misuse of Scripture by a character showed his was very familiar with it.
This is going to be a text heavy, picture-lite post. Mrs B took most of the pictures while I was out in California with her and since she’s not coming back for another 2 weeks, it’ll be at least that long before I get any 😀
Thursday’s Schedule:
Get up at 2:45am
get to the airport, park the car, check in luggage, breeze through security
I get the “special patdown” because my blood glucose sensor and insulin pump have sensitive enough electronics that the big whole body x-ray machine destroys them.
Get on the plane, read for 2.5hrs, land at Midway airport.
Sit around for 2.5hrs, eating and reading.
Get on the plane, fly to Ontario California airport. 4.5hrs of MORE reading
pick up our luggage and have the inlaws pick us up.
Go to their place and take a nap.
Got to Medieval Times for dinner and a show. I’ve been to Medieval Times once before about 15/16 years ago when Mrs B and I were courting. It was a blast then and I had a boatload of fun this time around too. Screamed myself hoarse in support of “our” knight, the Red Knight. Who turned out to be the good guy and won it all while defeating the evil Green Knight. Good stuff!
Go home and sack out like the dead
Friday I remembered why I didn’t go with Mrs B to visit her family very often. I am a list oriented, goal driven kind of guy. You make plans for a day, you stick to those plans. The first problem is that nobody in that family makes plans. They all have “ideas”. And they end up doing what they want at a whim. Thankfully, I had fully put myself in vacation mode, so it didn’t bother me, but I ended up sitting at home while they did various errands they had all forgotten about. I did go grocery shopping with them and fortified myself with an arsenal of caffeine drinks. Both Mrs B and I would sack out around 8pm (11pm our time, as there’s a 3hr time zone difference) and then wake up at 2-3am. It made for some very long days. Thankfully, naps were always in order 🙂
Saturday we went to a gothic cathedral SDA church in Perris Lake. Mrs B took a bunch of pictures so I’m sure at some point they’ll show up here. I found this one online, so you at least get an idea of what it looked like. It was about an hrs drive each way and we arrived at 9:30 and didn’t leave until a bit after 1pm.
We celebrated Mrs B’s birthday once we were home and thankfully her brother was up and about (he works the night shift) so he could join the festivities too. It was a nice family affair. I had plans for the evening, but made the mistake of laying down for a power nap at 7pm and next thing I knew it was 3am on Sunday morning! 😀
Sunday was when I had to fly home. They dropped me off at the airport where I got that special pat down again and then I read and read and read. I read on the plane, I read at the layovers, I read as much as possible. There were some delays so my flight didn’t arrive until about 2am, so I chugged a monster energy drink for the drive home and booked it.
Now I have today to recover, get fully back on East Coast Time and prepare to go back to work tomorrow. See you around…
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 & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Henry VIII Author: William Shakespeare Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Play Pages: 261 Words: 75K
Synopsis:
From Wikipedia
The play opens with a Prologue (by a figure otherwise unidentified), who stresses that the audience will see a serious play, and appeals to the audience members: “The first and happiest hearers of the town,” to “Be sad, as we would make ye.”
Act I opens with a conversation between the Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham and Lord Abergavenny. Their speeches express their mutual resentment over the ruthless power and overweening pride of Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey passes over the stage with his attendants, and expresses his own hostility toward Buckingham. Later Buckingham is arrested on treason charges—Wolsey’s doing.
The play’s second scene introduces King Henry VIII, and shows his reliance on Wolsey as his favourite. Queen Katherine enters to protest about Wolsey’s abuse of the tax system for his own purposes; Wolsey defends himself, but when the King revokes the Cardinal’s measures, Wolsey spreads a rumour that he himself is responsible for the King’s action. Katherine also challenges the arrest of Buckingham, but Wolsey defends the arrest by producing the Duke’s Surveyor, the primary accuser. After hearing the Surveyor, the King orders Buckingham’s trial to occur.
At a banquet thrown by Wolsey, the King and his attendants enter in disguise as masquers. The King dances with Anne Bullen.
Two anonymous Gentlemen open Act II, one giving the other an account of Buckingham’s treason trial. Buckingham himself enters in custody after his conviction, and makes his farewells to his followers and to the public. After his exit, the two Gentlemen talk about court gossip, especially Wolsey’s hostility toward Katherine. The next scene shows Wolsey beginning to move against the Queen, while the nobles Norfolk and Suffolk look on critically. Wolsey introduces Cardinal Campeius and Gardiner to the King; Campeius has come to serve as a judge in the trial Wolsey is arranging for Katherine.
Anne Bullen is shown conversing with the Old Lady who is her attendant. Anne expresses her sympathy at the Queen’s troubles; but then the Lord Chamberlain enters to inform her that the King has made her Marchioness of Pembroke. Once the Lord Chamberlain leaves, the Old Lady jokes about Anne’s sudden advancement in the King’s favour.
A lavishly-staged trial scene (Act II Scene 4) portrays Katherine’s hearing before the King and his courtiers. Katherine reproaches Wolsey for his machinations against her, and refuses to stay for the proceedings. But the King defends Wolsey, and states that it was his own doubts about the legitimacy of their marriage that led to the trial. Campeius protests that the hearing cannot continue in the Queen’s absence, and the King grudgingly adjourns the proceeding. (Act III) Wolsey and Campeius confront Katherine among her ladies-in-waiting; Katherine makes an emotional protest about her treatment.
Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, and the Lord Chamberlain are shown (Act III Scene 2) plotting against Wolsey. A packet of Wolsey’s letters to the Pope have been re-directed to the King; the letters show that Wolsey is playing a double game, opposing Henry’s planned divorce from Katherine to the Pope while supporting it to the King. The King shows Wolsey his displeasure, and Wolsey for the first time realises that he has lost Henry’s favour. The noblemen mock Wolsey, and the Cardinal sends his follower Cromwell away so that Cromwell will not be brought down in Wolsey’s fall from grace.
The two Gentlemen return in Act IV to observe and comment upon the lavish procession for Anne Bullen’s coronation as Queen, which passes over the stage in their presence. Afterward they are joined by a third Gentleman, who updates them on more court gossip – the rise of Thomas Cromwell in royal favour, and plots against Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. (Scene 2) Katherine is shown ill; is told of Wolsey’s death; has a vision of dancing spirits. Caputius visits her. Katherine expresses her continuing loyalty to the King, despite the divorce, and wishes the new queen well.
Act V. The King summons a nervous Cranmer to his presence, and expresses his support; later, when Cranmer is shown disrespect by the King’s Council, Henry reproves them and displays his favour of the churchman. Anne Bullen gives birth to a daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth. In the play’s closing scenes, the Porter and his Man complain about trying to control the massive and enthusiastic crowds that attend the infant Elizabeth’s christening; another lush procession is followed by a prediction of the glories of the new born princess’s future reign and that of her successor. The Epilogue, acknowledging that the play is unlikely to please everyone, asks nonetheless for the audience’s approval.
My Thoughts:
The edition of The Complete Shakespeare I am reading has these “History” plays in alphabetical order instead of chronological order, so we skipped right over Richard III. That’ll probably be next.
I didn’t actually care. I cared less about this than I did for the entire Henry VI trilogy, which I didn’t think was possible.
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, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Skull Sessions Series: ———- Editor: Alfred Hitchcock Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 161 Words: 62.5K
Synopsis:
From the Inside Cover & TOC
THE DO-IT-YOURSELF MURDER KIT
To do a good, honest job of murder (and nowadays you pretty much have to do it yourself, labor costs being what they are) you need several all-important ingredients.
Choose a weapon. That’s hard. There are just so many of them. But remember, a workman is no better than his tools.
Find a victim. That’s easy. There are just so many of them. But remember, an artist is no better than his material.
Then a plan.
That’s where this book will come in handy. . .
SKULL SESSION
A DEGREE OF INNOCENCE—Helen Nielsen
ONE UNNECESSARY MAN—Talmage Powell
KILL ME, MY SWEET—C.B. Gilford
SAM’S HEART—Henry Slesar
THE INCOMPLETE CORPSE—Jack Webb
LUCK IS NO LADY—Robert Bloch
SWEET SPIRIT—Donald Honig
THE ONLY BAD POLICEMAN—Paul Eiden
THE WITNESS WAS A LADY—Fletcher Flora
THE EPISODE OF THE TELEPHONE NUMBER—Charles Einstein
COME BACK, COME BACK—Donald E. Westlake
ADVENTURES OF THE SUSSEX ARCHERS—August Derleth
FAT JOW—Robert Alan Blair
VACATION—Mike Brett
My Thoughts:
The only fly in the ointment was the “Pons & Parker” story by Derleth (P&P are a complete ripoff of Sherlock Holmes and Watson, not even trying to cover it up at all) and the Fat Jow story by Blair. I just don’t like Jow, as I experienced him in another Hitchcock collection.
Other than that, this was a great collection of crime stories and nasty things happening to unpleasant people. Of course, not all of them followed that formula. “The Only Bad Policeman” is the perfect example. A man defends himself and his 2 boys against a drunk policeman with a martial art from his home country. Everyone cheers him on but the story ends with him getting arrested as he accidentally killed the policeman. Now that’s a downer of a story!
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, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
The book begins with Vercingetorix conceding defeat to Julius Caesar. His surrendered weapons remain at Caesar’s chair for several hours, until a Roman archer steals Vercingetorix’s famous shield, which he loses in a game of dice to another legionary, who then loses it to a drunken centurion, in return for the centurion not reporting him for a military offence. The centurion himself uses the shield to pay for a jar of wine at a nearby Gaulish inn; later, the shield is given by the innkeeper to a survivor of the Battle of Alesia.
Following this prologue, Chief Vitalstatistix is made helpless by a sore liver, a consequence of overeating and drinking at his last banquet. Having demonstrated this, and temporarily eased the chief’s pain, the druid Getafix sends Vitalstatistix to a hydrotherapeutic center in Arverne to be cured, with Asterix and Obelix (and Dogmatix) as his escort. On the way, they stop at various inns, where the heavy food revives the chief’s sickness. At Arverne, the Gauls initially remain together; but because Asterix, Obelix, and Dogmatix are in no need of special diets, they feast on wild boar and beer while everyone else eats “boiled vegetables”. When other patients complain, Vitalstatistix sends Asterix, Obelix, and Dogmatix to Gergovia.
Along the way, the Gauls are offended by Roman envoy Noxius Vapus, and vanquish his guards. In the aftermath, Asterix, Obelix, and Dogmatix befriend the local tavern-keeper Winesanspirix, who retains them thereafter as guests. When Noxius Vapus makes his report to Caesar in Rome, Caesar plans a triumph on Vercingetorix’s shield to “show them who’s boss”, and orders Vapus to search Arverne for it. When the initial investigations fail, the Romans send a spy, Legionary Pusillanimus; but on drinking too much wine at Winesanspirix’s tavern, the latter discloses Caesar’s plan and reveals his own knowledge of the shield’s history, whereupon Asterix, Obelix, and Dogmatix set off in search of the shield themselves. To that end, they interrogate the archer, Lucius Circumbendibus, who now owns a wheel manufacturing business; the second legionary, Marcus Carniverus, who worked at a health resort before opening a restaurant; and the drunken Centurion Crapulus. Vapus and his men in turn search in vain for both the shield and Asterix and Obelix, as a running gag dirtying themselves with charcoal dust while searching the coal heaps belonging to Winesanspirix and their neighbors.
The search eventually leads the two Gauls back to Winesanspirix, to whom Crapulus had given the shield in the prologue. Upon the protagonists’ reunion with him, Winesanspirix confesses having given the shield to a dispirited Gaulish warrior, who is thereupon identified with the arrival of a newly cured and much slimmer Vitalstatistix. Vitalstatistix reveals he had the shield the whole time and it is the very one he is always carried upon. Upon Caesar’s arrival at Gergovia, Asterix and the locals organize a triumph in which Vitalstatistix is carried on Vercingetorix’s shield. Caesar then deports Vapus and his troops to Numidia, and Caesar promotes Centurion Crapulus to command of the garrison of Gergovia, and Legionary Pusillanimus to Centurion, on the grounds that they are the only “clean” legionaries present (despite both being visibly drunk). The Gauls return to their village (Vitalstatistix regaining his customary weight at the inns visited earlier in the story) to celebrate; but Vitalstatistix is forced into abstinence from the latter by his wife Impedimenta.
My Thoughts:
Hmm, this one was hard to get enthused about. The word plays seemed even worse than normal (or I just might be reaching the end of what I’ll accept anymore), the plot was utter nonsense (not bonkers funny, but just nonsense) and no pirates were sunk.
This felt very dated, ie going to a health farm to lose weight. This was originally done in ’68 and that kind of thing was way more prevalent then. It would have been like if Asterix and Obelix had made jokes about 8track tapes or something. It didn’t help that the Chief was pretty much forced to do this by his wife and that the Druid wouldn’t keep fixing him up. He was a middle aged man trying to still act like a 20 year old and it hit home, and not in a nice comfy way either!
With all of that complaining, this was still a good riotous story. Julius Caesaer wants a shield to hold a Triumph with and Asterix and Obelix have to find the shield first to prevent that from happening. So of course their Chief has the shield all along, sigh. While no pirates were sunk, plenty of romans were biffed and bammed and ol Julius Caesar himself shows up only to slink away when the boys parade their chief Vitalstatistix on the shield.
I was amused the whole time but just barely and if I feel this same way for the next book, I’m going to take it as a sign that I need to take a break. There can be too much of a good thing and my refined literary palate can only take so much cleansing after all.
One Score and Four Months ago Mrs B and I headed South to take a vacation and visit my parental pods. Tomorrow we embark on another adventure Out West to the violent and dangerous hills of California to visit the other set of parental pods. Sadly, this time around I will only be able to go for an extended weekend, but Mrs B will be able to take a full 2 weeks.
There will be posts going up while I’m gone but I will be incommunicado until sometime late next Monday, or possibly Tuesday (if the airlines screw me over like they have lots of other people in the last year).
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 & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Adventure on Kami’s Island Series: One Piece #26 Arc: Skypiea #3 Author: Eiichiro Oda Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Manga Pages: 208 Words: 9K
Synopsis:
From Wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_One_Piece_chapters_(187_388)
“High in the Sky”
“Heaven’s Gate”
“Angel Beach”
“Dial Power”
“Heaven’s Judgment”
“Class-2 Criminals”
“Trial”
“SOS”
“Adventure on Kami’s Island”
“Satori, Vassal of the Forest of no Return”
The Straw Hats successfully reach the cloud harboring Skypiea, and soon after their arrival meet some of its inhabitants: a hostile group of apparently primitive natives, and a friendlier people of the more civilized town of Angel Island. While the rest of Straw Hats mingle with them, learning of the town’s history, and enjoying its unique technology, the ship’s navigator Nami explores the endless sea of clouds. She finds Skypiea, but learns that the Straw Hats have been labeled as trespassers and will be dealt with accordingly. Although able to fend off an initial arrest attempt, their ship, and some of the crew, is taken away by Eneru, the current god of all that lies atop the cloud. Free, but wishing to reunite with their friends, Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp enter Skypiea, Eneru’s domain.
My Thoughts:
Now that the crew are in Skypiea, of course things aren’t easy. First they’re tricked into trespassing, then they’re supposed to be punished and so of course a whole lot of fighting is going to happen. They run into some guy who takes out Luffy, Zoro and Sanji with one punch, and he appears to be some sort of psycho as well, so of course we know he’s going to be prominently featured.
We also get some old guy dressed up in armor and flying around on a polka-dotted pegasus and it’s hinted that he’s the former ruler of Skypiea, so my guess is this story arc will be about the Straw Hats defeating the false ruler and putting the nice ruler back on the throne. Hmmmm, doesn’t that sound familiar?
In a previous review Misaki mentioned that Luffy seemed to like to choose the impossible option whenever it was available and we get a prime example of that in this volume. He’s told there’s a forbidden forest and anyone who goes there will be punished so of course he wants to go there. And what’s funnier, ALL of his friends know what he’s thinking. Check it out:
