January '25 Roundup & Ramblings

Novels/Novellas - 13 ↑

Short Stories - 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 ↓

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.27 ↑

Pages - 2648 ↓

Words - 896K ↓

The Bad:

That Is Not Dead - 1star of blasphemous cosmic horror

The Beggar Queen - 2stars of depressing non-fantasy fantasy

The Good:

Legion - 5stars of monster killing awesomeness

The Throme of the Erril of Sherill - 4stars of delightful whimsy and muse

Movie:

Friends and Family. Giving up on the Cardcaptor Sakura franchise for right now. Need to find a different way to engage with anime. 3-4 episodes a month just isn't working for me.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Bookstooge Reviews 2024
• A Decade in Review: 2015-2024
• [Food] Red Flannel Hash
• Fortified Area - MTG 4E
• [Journal] Yeats, Easter 1916
• Frozen Shade - MTG 4E
• My Week XVIII
• Fungusaur - MTG 4E
• My Week XIX
• Book Recommendation V
• Gaea's Liege - MTG 4E
• Marvel Champions: The Organizingening

Personal:

January did not start out very well. Meth-heads and car parts stolen, flat tires and tools that didn't fit, missing doctors, cold weather enough to kill you, it was just one big fat unhappy mash. I will say that venting through the My Week posts really helps though. I get all upset about something, am able to write it out and vent and then I'm past it. Whereas if I kept all inside until now, I'd be just like a stewed prune. Disgusting! (I was going to put in a picture of stewed prunes, but I ended up grossing myself out) Blogging is so therapeutic when I let it be.

Mrs B got her cast off and returned to work. For a half shift. Because she was "on leave", there were a ton of hoops the store had to jump through to get her "off leave" and back into the schedule. And they did that as well as could be expected, ie, not very. But starting next week, she's In The System! Oh, she's so excited /sarcasm

Cover Love:

After Dark by Manly Wade Wellman. It's the second Silver John novel. Creepy, in a delicious way.

Plans for Next Month:

Have another food post for this upcoming Sunday. I'll even include the cookbook and recipe! Yowzers ;-)

Speaking of Sundays, I'm going to reserve them for non-book review posts. Then Mondays will probably be double posting of a Magic card and a book review. Fridays will be either a Journal post or a My Week post. With Valentines falling on a Friday, I do plan on posting something oriented that way.

I've got my next anime picked out and will be reviewing an entire season instead of just one disc. 28 episodes of shonen goodness coming your way!

Then everything else will be book reviews, book reviews and book reviews! And not an oxford comma to be seen anywhere! ;-)

Rhyme Nor Reason (Groo the Wanderer #36) 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: Rhyme Nor Reason
Series: Groo the Wanderer #36
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 25
Words: 2K

This was a direct sequel to the previous comic where Groo gets the All Powerful Amulet and makes very bad choices with it, despite the Sage desperately trying to help him NOT make bad wishes. I laughed so hard at this that Mrs B told me to just give this 5stars. She was right.

I’m including the three pages that I found the most amusing. Even thinking about them right now makes me grin and a chuckle begin to well up.

The rapid fire change just goes boom, boom, boom and for it to end with the wizard being turned into Groo is just priceless. I don’t know why, but man, it totally struck my funny bone.

It all works out in the end with the Amulet ceasing to exist. I think Aragones had stretched out the story for all it was worth and I applaud him for knowing when to end a joke.

★★★★★

From Bookstooge

Groo’s adventure with The Amulet continues. He continues to make ill-informed wishes and eventually Arba and Dakarba wish the Amulet to themselves. They in turn torment a wizard by turning him into various animals and then into Groo. Groo regrets some of his wishes and goes on a quest to recover the Amulet and make good. He does and in a fit of total stupidity, wishes that the Amulet didn’t exist. It ceases to exist much to everyone’s relief!

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

Marvel Champions: The Organizingening

 

Bookstooge McLeod, better known as the Immortal Lowlander, realized that he'd been sitting on his bonnie backside far too long and that it was time to Enter The Games once again. When he opened his shed to get his gear, he realized what a flipping mess it was and decided his time would be better spent organizing things. THEN he could go to The Games.

All of THAT was simply not going to fit into the standard plastic shell the game came with.

There were a plethora of options. Several companies made inserts specifically for Marvel Champions. Sadly, most of them were of the balsa wood or foam variety that needed to be glued together following a manual. Bookstooge MacLeod was a WARRIOR, not some lowly manual laborer. It was below his honor to do such work. Plus, he wasn't very good at it anyway. BUT HONOR! Remember, that's the important part. Thankfully, Feldherr & Associates didn't hold HONOR! as important as MacLeod did and thus they provided him with a nice premade plastic organizer. Well done, peasants.

With many life counters, little status cards and tokens galore, the Lowlander knew it was imperative to get the little things taken care of first.

 

Now that all the piddling stuff was out of the way, it was time to GET SERIOUS! Let the Sleevening Part II Begin!
*insert lightning strikes!!!!

Each Hero Pack came with a 40card premade deck built around the hero on the cover. There were also 10-20 additional cards that allowed you to grow your general collection or to modify the premade deck. That's over 300 cards just for the Hero Packs right there. There are 53 cards in the Green Goblin scenario pack and 60 in the Wrecking Crew scenario pack. Therefore, if you do the math correctly, I ended up sleeving between 400-500 cards. Thankfully, Mrs Lowlander was willing to help, even with her broken arm. What a trooper!

 

By the end, I was able to fit everything except the Wrecking Crew scenario pack into the box. That was easily remedied by taking out a hero deck and a villain deck. I put them into a deck box (pictured on the right) and everything now fits into the marvel champions coreset box. Everything is grouped by Hero, Villain, Aspect and Scenario, so creating a deck is simply a matter of taking out which hero I want, which aspect cards I want (along with any basics), which villain and which villain scenario. Very modular.  My only issue was that getting the sleeved cards into the trays was a tight fit. They still fit, but they would have fit easier unsleeved. If I hadn't trained myself over the years to sleeve every game card I use, I'd probably say "phooie" and let them be. They aren't valuable after all. 

There Can Be…..
…..Only None!

That Is Not Dead (Cthulhu Anthology #20) 1Star

 

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: That Is Not Dead
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #20
Editor: Darrell Schweitzer
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 212
Words: 82K

Last time I read something edited by Schweitzer, it was Cthulhu’s Reign. I enjoyed that. This time, there was a story, by Schweitzer himself, that was out and out blasphemous. While I usually will dnf a book with issues like that, in a collection of short stories I feel ok with not. But the rating tanked right down to 1star. I was surprised, because there was a story by S.T. Joshi and he’s a total twat, so I was expecting HIS story to be the one I hated on.

It also leads to another observation about the Cthulhu Mythos that continues to bug me. It is always Christianity and Jehovah and Jesus that get the shaft in these stories. Always. No Buddha getting his serenity all butt raped. No Allah eating shit and saying he likes it. Not even Joseph Smith for goodness sake! The least they could do is make his magic glasses eat his brains or something. But nope, none of that now. And I wonder why. I have some ideas but they are pure conjecture and baseless speculation.

So really, while I enjoyed some of these stories, the ones I didn’t dragged me down paths I didn’t really want to perambulate on and I feel like I was mugged. That is NOT the feeling I want when I read a book.

★☆☆☆☆

From Wikipedia

The book collects fourteen short stories by various authors, with an introduction by the editor. All share the Cthulhu Mythos setting originated by H. P. Lovecraft, but unlike his stories, which generally take place in modern times, they are set in previous historical eras. The effect is to take the Mythos from the realm of contemporary horror into that of historical fiction. The stories are presented in chronological order from the 2nd millennium BC to the late 19th century, with the last set in the present but looking back to medieval events

TOC

• "Introduction: Horror of the Carnivàle" (Darrell Schweitzer)

• "Egypt, 1200 BC: Herald of Chaos" (Keith Taylor)

• "Mesopotamia, second millennium BC: What a Girl Needs" (Esther Friesner)

• "Judaea, second century AD: The Horn of the World’s Ending" (John Langan)

• "Central Asia, second century AD: Monsters in the Mountains at the Edge of the World" (Jay Lake)

• "Palestine, Asia Minor, and Central Asia; late eleventh and mid twelfth centuries AD: Come, Follow Me" (Darrell Schweitzer)

• "England, 1605: Ophiuchus" (Don Webb)

• "Russia, late seventeenth century: Of Queens and Pawns" (Lois H. Gresh)

• "Mexico, 1753: Smoking Mirror" (Will Murray)

• "France, 1762: Incident at Ferney" (S. T. Joshi)

• "Arizona Territory, 1781: Anno Domini Azathoth" (John R. Fultz)

• "Massachusetts, USA, early twentieth century. Italy, early nineteenth century: Slowness" (Don Webb)

• "Massachusetts, USA, and Spain, late nineteenth century: The Salamanca Encounter" (Richard A. Lupoff)

• "Seattle, Washington, USA, 1889: Old Time Entombed" (W. H. Pugmire)

• "England, twenty-first century and the Middle Ages: Nine Drowned Churches" (Harry Turtledove)

• All of My “Cthulhu Anthology” Reviews

Resolute (Lost Fleet: Outlands #2) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Resolute
Series: Lost Fleet: Outlands #2
Author: Jack Campbell
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mil-SF
Pages: 295
Words: 115K

Black Jack is hampered by traitors in his own ranks, men and women who are trying to sabotage the diplomatic mission to the Dancers. Then more aliens show up and bring their own set of problems to the table.

This is basically Geary handling one problem after another and doing his best to not turn into a Tyrant to sweep the Alliance away and start it over.

I enjoyed it. It’s very typical Jack Campbell writing and story telling and while it didn’t blow me out of the water, it more than did its job of entertaining me and helping me wile away a couple of hours. That is really all I expect from a Lost Fleet novel. It delivered and I am satisfied.

End of Review.

On a different subject.

With some of these “series” that are long going but have different sub-series (Lost Fleet, for example, has the original Lost Fleet books, then the Beyond the Frontiers and then Lost Stars, the Genesis Fleet and now this Outlands series but they are all one continuing story’ish), I include links at the bottom of a review so you can see all of the books in that series or sub-series. My recent review of Pyramids is a good example of that. At the very bottom I have a list of links to various categories of Discworld. I’ve done that with earlier Lost Fleet books, but I haven’t with the recent series (Outlands and Genesis Fleet) and I wonder, does anyone ever use those links? If I am interested in a series that another blogger is reviewing, I will frequently click something like that if they offer it. But I am not interested in them very often. Thanks for any input.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher

Geary knows that some political factions in the Alliance were just trying to get rid of him when he was assigned to escort a diplomatic and scientific mission to the far reaches of humanity's expansion into the galaxy . . . and beyond. But he views his mission as both a duty and an opportunity to make things better wherever he can. And when a crippled Rift Federation ship tumbles out of jump space, Geary leaps into action. But the survivors' story isn't completely adding up.

As Geary investigates, he soon finds himself fending off spies and assassins while leading the fleet as it fights its way across space controlled by the mysterious and hostile aliens whom humans call enigmas. Challenges arrive at every turn, including an unknown alien species that invites the fleet to visit one of their star systems. With little information to go on, Geary must weigh the benefits of potential new allies against the possibility of a trap. The fate of the fleet--and perhaps even the future of humanity--will depend on him making the right decision.

If he can stay alive long enough to do that.

My Week XIX

Well, another doozy of a week! But in different way, thankfully, I guess?

Sunday was our church's annual business meeting, where they ratify the budget and do all the usual church business'y stuff. Even though Mrs B and I aren't members, I like to keep abreast of what is going on. We're growing. I think I've mentioned it before, but the pews are getting full. To the point where you actually have to sit right next to someone else. It's incredibly uncomfortable for me personally. Thankfully, the leadership is aware and are looking at options. Right now we're too small to move (not enough tithing members to support leasing a building) but too big to stay in the building we're in, long term. Our church is also in the historic district, so expanding the building is almost certainly out. The Historic Committee takes their job very seriously, the prigs. Makes me glad I'm not in charge :-D

This winter has been mild in terms of snow, but as for temps, we've definitely gotten "winter" down pat. Tuesday morning it was -8F (-22C) when we started work. Even with gloves on, my hands ached just from brushing the work vans off from the little bit of snow we got. It was instant arthritis and I sure hope I don't have to deal with a lot of that later on in life.

Mrs B began gearing up to go back to work next week after her cast comes off. She is not looking forward to that at all and I don't blame her on bit.

Been doing a bit of cleaning as some family is coming to the area on Friday and we're having visitors over on Sunday. Thankfully, having a small place pays dividends in the cleaning department, hahhahaha.

Wednesday evening I got a call from my endocrinologist's office. I was supposed to have a visit on Thursday. Well, it turns out the endo just up and quit that morning so they had to cancel my appointment. The kicker is that another endo is retiring in March and the other endo accepting new patients is booked up through October. I'll still be able to get my prescriptions through the office, but man, things are going to be unsettled for a while. Might even have to start seeing my primary care doctor as my diabetes manager. Like that poor lady needs yet another thing on her shoulders. I thought I was ok with this happening, but this morning when I was getting ready for work I had dry heaves and I could tell it was from being nervous about the future. Did just fine the rest of the day, so I suspect I'll be just fine later on too.

I was hoping to have some heartwarming stories that would make you go "Awwww", but you know, New England in January just isn't known for heartwarming. I came home from work, did the absolute minimum for existence and then went to bed. So here's a fluffy bunny to fool you into thinking I DID write a heart warming post that made you go "Awwww". Man, some people will believe anything, you know?

The Throme of the Erril of Sherill 4Stars

 

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 Throme of the Erril of Sherill
Series: -----
Author: Patricia McKillip
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 22
Words: 10K

With this reading, I have read all of McKillip’s bibliography except one semi-biographical novel and a few short stories not gathered together into her own books of short stories. The novel I have zero interest in reading and I am not enough of a fan (despite loving her works immensely) to search out individual short stories just so I can say I have read them all.

This is a bittersweet moment. The last new-to-me McKillip story that I will probably ever read. This is just like that moment when, over a year ago, I drank the very Last of the Coconut Pineapple Rockstars. I was happy and sad, all at the same time, filled to the brim with conflicting emotions. So to with this read.

This was early McKillip and thus it was more prose’y than her later stuff, but it was still had that weird, otherworldly flavor. Just look at the title for goodness sake. Throme instead of Tome. All of the names and creatures are just slightly off. Dagon instead of Dragon. Norange instead of orange. Plus plenty of other instances throughout the story. Reading this was like looking at a familiar picture upside down and not seeing that it IS a familiar picture until your brain “clicks”. That time of discombobulation when it’s all unfamiliar, I love that feeling in a story by McKillip.

This story felt like a colored ribbon of paper instead of a piece of silk like some of her later works. I’m ok with that. Being able to tell a difference in an author’s style is a nice feeling to be honest. One, it means they changed and matured and got better over the years and Two, it means my taste has matured enough to be able to see those differences. Growth and maturation, and acceptance of them, are signs I want to see in myself and hopefully in others too.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia & Bookstooge

Magnus Thrall, King of Everywhere, welters away in misery, pining for the nonexistent Throme, supposedly written by the Erril of Sherill ages past in another world. In his suffering he will not allow anyone around him to know happiness, including his weeping daughter Damsen, who yearns for the world outside the castle, and his loyal Chief Cnite Caerles, who seeks Damsen's hand. The king refuses to allow the match unless Caerles finds him the Throme.

So in an atypical quest, the Cnite goes seeking what the king demands. With small hope of success, he seeks it in various strange places, only to be misdirected and receive confusing advice as he in turn gradually loses his sword, shield and armor. He borrows a dagon from a girl named Elfwyth, falls victim to a boy's borebel trap, and is cautioned against the cold-hearted Lady Gringold by a jingler in a norange orchard. He visits the Mirk-Well of Morg, the Floral Wold, the Dolorous House of the dead Dolerman, and, in the end, the Western Wellsprings, repository of the answer to Everything.

Ultimately, he solves his dilemma in an imaginative way by writing his own Throme from "the tales and dreams and happenings of his quest."

King Thrall rejects this wonderous throme and continues living in his misery. Damsen throws off his shackles and marries Caerles and they have a treeful of children and live contentedly together.

Across Space 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: Across Space
Series: -----
Author: Edmond Hamilton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 67
Words: 21K

This was a serialized story in one of those old pulp magazines, Weird Tales, and was a decent adventure novella. The beginning, where the populace of the world panics reminded me EXACTLY of When Worlds Collide. So much so that I went and looked up the publication date for this and Worlds to see which came first. Worlds was published in 1933. Across Space was published in 1926, which leads me to speculate whether the authors of Worlds had read this story originally and allowed it to color their story telling. We’ll never know.

I’m also giving this the “Scyenze” tag because it’s obvious the author worships Science as his god and thinks it will solve every problem encountered by mankind. I don’t hold that personally against him, as a lot of people thought that, but it is something to be aware of as that kind of thinking still persists today. If you find yourself automatically obeying some Butcher (who explicitly wants to experiment on death viruses without thought of the possible consequences, aka Anthony Fauci) because he has some letters after his name, you too might belong to the Cult of Scyenze. Don’t reject what they say automatically, but understand their background and the biases they are hiding while they proclaim their “great wisdom”.

Ok, I’m getting off my soapbox now.

This was a good story with cosmic horror overtones. Call of Cthulhu wasn’t published until 1928, but Lovecraft had published other stories in Weird Tales previous to this story, so it is entirely possible Hamilton was influenced. Either way, it didn’t feel like a rip off, just gave off that weird vibe. Which is what most stories needed I suspect to be included in Weird Tales.

This was also a straight up adventure story with no characterization, very little setting and most of that was held for the underground world inhabited by the ancient Martians.

When I read Hamilton’s Starwolf Trilogy, I wasn’t sure if wanted to read more by him or not. After reading this novella, I definitely want to explore more by him. I have collection of his works that’s about 6800 pages long. Not sure if it’s a complete collection, but it is in publication order and it should give me enough. I suspect I’ll read a story or two and then take a break and then come back. Let him steep in the Bookstooge Percolator as it were.

★★✬☆☆

From Bookstooge

One night astronomers discover that Mars has stopped dead in its orbit. The next night Mars begins falling towards Earth. This causes chaos and hysteria among the populace. One man, our hero, knows a famous Scientist. He goes to him and asks what is going on. Said scientist goes all “secret’y” on him and flies him down to Easter Island, where a previous scientist and his group have gone missing. They find that a group of subterranean Martians, with their super scyenze rays, are drawing Mars close enough to Earth to facilitate an invasion, allowing them to rule the earth. Our Hero and The Scientist figure everything out, overcome their psychic guards and reverse the deadly ray, thus putting Mars in orbit around one of the other large gas giants. The Scientist sends Our Hero away ostensibly to get reinforcements but uses the time to explode the Ray Machine and trap all the malevolent Martians underground, and quite possibly killing them all. Our Hero sheds a tear and goes on with his life.

• All of My “Edmund Hamilton” Reviews

Guards! Guards! (Discworld #8) 4Stars

 

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: Guards! Guards!
Series: Discworld #8
Author: Terry Pratchett
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 259
Words: 98K

One hundred percent better than when I read this back in 2007 (link at the bottom of the review). A lot of that is that I’ve read enough of Discworld to know now that it’s not all madcap silliness, like I was expecting back then. It also helps that I’m reading these in publication order and keeps me from getting tunnel vision on one set of characters (Rincewind, the Witches, Death, etc) and hitting a wall when a book is about a different set. I am really liking reading these this way because it feels more well rounded and Discworld as a setting is fleshed out more by the various characters instead of being seen from just one perspective.

I had forgotten just how broken Vimes is at the beginning. In many ways this is a redemption story and yet, it’s not. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but part of it is more about Vimes himself pulling himself up by the bootstraps than any redemption. Vimes (for some reason I always want to say “Grimes”) is a very humanistic literary character and I can see why Pratchett chose to create him and why many readers of Discworld identify with him. There’s nothing of the supernatural intruding into Vime’s life to make him question life’s basic questions. There’s just crime and grime and apathy. He can overcome those things on his own with no help (as thus enable the reader to feel that they can too). I have a feeling that is one of the reasons I didn’t care for The Watch sub-series as much before.

I still don’t like that direction, but having interacted a lot more with people of no faith in the last 17 years has given me a broader and hopefully more sympathetic feeling towards those who would feel like Vimes does. They are wrong, but I’m not so likely to shake my finger at them and lecture them for 30 min. I cut that down to just 10 minutes now ;-)

The story was fun. Rogue magic user politician wannabe takes over the city and gets in WAY over his head. Vimes and the Night Watch help figure things out while the Patrician sits back and lets things play out. It was a relatively light story with only Ankh-Morpork at stake and not the whole of Discworld. Grimes, blast it, Vimes, has enough Everyman Banal Thoughts to make those not used to thinking for themselves feel like they are reading something deep while the rest of us can safely roll our eyes and think about kicking Vimes in the pants to get him out of his funk.

Now that I’ve read the first of The Watch books again and enjoyed it so much, I am looking forward to the rest of them. I really wasn’t before, but I think that reading the books in publication order is going to continue to make a night and day difference for me.

Cheers to that!

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia.org

A secret monastic order plots to overthrow the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork and install a puppet monarch under the control of the Order. They summon a dragon to terrorise the city and plan to have the puppet "slay" the dragon and claim to be the lost heir of the defunct royal house.

The Night Watch, which is generally seen as both corrupt and incompetent, starts to change with the arrival of idealistic new recruit Carrot Ironfoundersson, a human orphan raised by dwarfish parents. When the Librarian of the Unseen University (an orangutan) reports a book of magic stolen, Vimes links the theft to the dragon's appearances. The Watch's investigation makes the acquaintance of Lady Sybil Ramkin, who breeds small swamp dragons, and gives an underdeveloped dragon named Errol to the Watch as a mascot.

At first, the plot works flawlessly. The Patrician is ousted in favor of the new king, but the banished dragon returns and makes itself king, demanding gold and virgin sacrifices, and prepares to wage war against Ankh-Morpork's neighbours for the further acquisition of both (which the citizenry generally seem to approve of).

Vimes confronts his old childhood friend, the Patrician's Secretary Lupine Wonse, having figured out that he is the Supreme Grand Master, and responsible for the dragon's appearance. Vimes is imprisoned in the same cell as the Patrician. Vimes escapes with the help of the Librarian and runs to rescue Sybil, chosen as the first sacrificed maiden. After the remaining Watch fail to kill the king through a 'million-to-one chance' arrowshot, Errol fights it, and knocks it from the sky. The assembled crowd closes in to kill the king, and Sybil pleads for the dragon's life. Carrot arrests it, but Errol lets it escape. The dragon is in fact female, and the battle between them was a courtship ritual.

Vimes arrests Wonse, as he tries to summon another dragon, telling Carrot to "throw the book at him". Wonse falls to his death after the very literal Carrot hits him with a thrown copy of Laws and Ordinances of Ankh-Morpork.

The Patrician is reinstated as ruler of Ankh-Morpork, and offers the Watch anything they want as a reward. They ask only for a modest pay raise, a new tea kettle, and a dartboard. However, since the Watch's original station house was destroyed by the dragon, Lady Ramkin donates her childhood home at Pseudopolis Yard to serve as the new one.

• Guards! Guards! (2007 Review)

• All of My “Discworld” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: Rincewind” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: Witches” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: Death” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: The Watch” Reviews

The Beggar Queen (Westmark #3) 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 Beggar Queen
Series: Westmark #3
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: MG Fantasy
Pages: 187
Words: 57K

A grungy, death filled finale to the Westmark trilogy.

I regret reading this trilogy.

Lloyd Alexander is now tainted in my mind by the writing of this. I will no longer see him as the great author of the Prydain Chronicles. I see that as a fluke. His name will forever be attached to this coming of age story in the midst of war where only bad things happen. That is a big step down and it is why I regret reading this.

★★☆☆☆

From Wikipedia

The peace between the new constitutional order in Westmark and the kingdom of Regia is fragile. Regia's king, Constantine, supports the liberal and representative reforms that Westmark is implementing. Reactionary elites, including his uncle, do not. Constantine's uncle cooperates with other opponents of the new Westmark regime to fund a coup supporting the return of Cabbarus and supply him with mercenaries. Constantine discovers his uncle's plot to assassinate him to stop the reformist movement and sentences him to a firing squad. Meanwhile, Cabbarus, styling himself as the Director, has set sail for Westmark with his troops.

In Westmark, Theo is wrestling with his duties as a consul. His two counterparts, Florian (the erstwhile revolutionary) and Justin (a radical and Theo's rival), prove difficult to coordinate with. The indefinite postponement of his marriage to Mickle, the reigning Queen of Westmark, does not help matters. For her part, Mickle has been seeking a path to transition to a more republican form of government and therefore freedom to marry Theo and rule her life as she pleases. Her research and politicking are interrupted when armed soldiers burst into her room. The ailing Queen Mother and other Mickle loyalists perish as a result of the coup. Theo and the other consuls manage to avoid arrest, with Justin fleeing the capital into the countryside and Florian getting into contact with Theo and Mickle. It is decided that Florian will attempt to solicit aid from Constantine in Regia while Mickle and Theo organize the citizenry in armed urban resistance to Cabbarus and his regime.

Cabbarus's Directorate begins public executions and utilizes agents, such as Theo's would-be assassin Skeit, to surveil the population. Justin makes contact with Theo, Las Bombas, and other leaders of the pro-Mickle faction and insists that the urban resistance begin to fight violently instead of passively smuggling arms and slowing down the occupation. Theo in particular is troubled by this and wishes to avoid reenacting his past as Colonel Kestrel. Mickle warns Theo against trying to impress Justin and then the raids begin. The violence of the resistance is met with reprisals at the gallows and in the streets. As the resistance intensifies, Mickle and Theo receive word that Florian is on his way back with supporters. After Theo informs Justin that Florian is about to return, he is informed that Justin's army is positioning itself for an invasion of the capital city. Justin also demands that Theo recognize his command authority.

While the resistance and revolutionaries are feuding, Cabbarus's government proceeds to shut down independent publications and seize printing presses. In response, anti-Cabbarus publications become more popular than ever. Even the constabulary sways against Cabbarus. When Theo is arrested, the leading anti-Cabbarus writer, a man named Keller, coordinates with Mickle and her coalition to spring him out of prison. As the raid to free Theo commences, the city bursts into an uprising unprompted by either Justin's army or the resistance led by Mickle and Theo. Everyday citizens set the Directorate's gallows ablaze. Barricades rise and the mercenaries and regime loyalists find themselves being fired upon from every angle. Justin's army chooses this as the moment to enter the city and Justin confronts Theo for refusing to cooperate with him. Theo informs Justin that the people have taken it upon themselves to revolt. Mickle and Theo are then seized by the men of Cabbarus while Justin is mortally wounded. Before Justin dies, Theo promises him to support Westmark's transformation into a republic.

As Mickle and Theo are brought before Cabbarus, Skeit (Cabbarus's secret agent) notices that Florian and his army have arrived. Skeit does not inform Cabbarus of this and disputes with the Director about his payment. Cabbarus initially refuses to pay Skeit and then strikes him in the head with a candlestick before bringing Mickle and Theo into his office. He attempts to negotiate Mickle's return to the throne, as well as Theo's marriage to her, in exchange for supporting his rule. Skeit interrupts the Director with a dagger to the heart and then falls dead to the floor. Mickle and Theo escape from the office using the same trapdoor that Cabbarus had used to try to kill her as a child. They are then found and rescued by some of the victorious citizenry.

Most of the resistance's leadership has fallen in the streets fighting, but the survivors have formed a provisional government headed by Count Las Bombas. Mickle, Theo, Las Bombas, Florian, and other leaders meet. Mickle announces that she is abdicating in favor of a republic and declares her official marriage to Theo. Florian warns her that for her safety and the stability of Westmark she must go into exile if she follows through with the abdication. She acknowledges this and plans to travel the world with Theo, Las Bombas, and Musket the dwarf (Las Bombas's loyal attendant). The story ends with Mickle honoring her loyalists and the citizens of Westmark as the four set sail to a new life.

• All of my “Lloyd Alexander” Reviews

Kings of Crime (The Shadow #20) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Kings of Crime
Series: The Shadow #20
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 160
Words: 50K

The Shadow takes on another group of villainous masterminds of crime. This time we know that the Ace of Crime is somebody important in the town, we just don’t know exactly who until the end. There were some obvious red herrings, so I knew it wasn’t them. For me, I KNEW it had to be either the Police Chief or the Mayor. But almost up until the reveal, I was still guessing which. Which means the author did things write. I appreciate that tension.

Once again, speed of communication makes such a world of difference. Half this story could have not mattered if there had been faster ways to communicate. I feel like I am peeking into a completely different world when I read these stories and in some ways, I am. It’s good to be reminded that times were different and those differences drove innovation, etc in ways we can’t imagine today.

Once again, this was another tight little adventure story where The Shadow outthinks, outshoots and outpunches everyone. While I wouldn’t want a steady diet of that, a drip feed of it does wonders for my morale. While I know evil will be destroyed at the end of time, seeing it gets its butt kicked in the here and now is quite satisfying.

★★★✬☆

From Bookstooge

Four villains are called together by a mysterious Ace of Crime. Their goal? The total take over of a town so the money pours in continually. Facing off against them is the mayor of the town, the police chief and unbeknownst to anyone, The Shadow and his agents!

The Shadow shuts down each villain and their part of the plan, but not until the Mayor is revealed as the Ace of Crime can The Shadow reveal that HE is the Joker of the Deck and he trumps all the Kings and Aces.

• All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

My Week XVIII

 

Technically,  this will cover the last two weeks because January has been just as challenging as December,  unfortunately.

Sunday, two weeks ago, I and another guy from church helped an older couple finish their move into a condo. It only took 20-30 minutes and I was inside for about 15min. On my drive home from their place my car engine began overheating and I saw steam coming from under the hood. I made it home safely,  but when I lifted the hood, the engine block was just covered in what turned out to be coolant. I figured my radiator had blown, as this has happened before, one of those joys of owning used cars. One of the guys at work is a gear head and said he could install a new radiator. His rates were half those at a shop, so I dropped the Subaru off at his house Friday evening.

He contacted me Saturday letting me know the radiator was just fine. The problem is that the plastic overflow reservoir was missing. Someone had torn it out. He said he's seen this before. Meth heads like them to cook meth in and it takes all of 2 minutes to lift the car hood, rip it out and lower the car hood. So he just had to replace that. Less than half the price of a radiator.  Hurray!

But wait, the drama continues...

Saturday it snowed several inches. Since we don't transact business on the Sabbath, we picked up the Subaru Sunday morning.  There was a little stone retaining wall covered by snow that I didn't see and I backed into it. I was halfway home when I realized that had popped my tire. Pulled into someone's driveway to get off the road and jacked the car up with the little emergency jack. Only to find I was missing my tire iron to remove the lugnuts. Thankfully, Mrs B was parked next door, as she was following me home. I grabbed the tire iron from that car only to find it didn't fit. Oh, I was not a happy camper! Thankfully,  one of the men from church stopped by with a tire iron that fit, so we got the spare tire on and trundled home.

Work has been brutal the last 2 weeks as well. It's not only been cold, but the windchills have kept the temps feeling like -5 to 5F, which just drains me to be out in for hours on end. And next week is supposed to be in the teens too. I'm trying not to think about it too much to be honest.

Mrs B continues to heal up but won't be returning to work for another two weeks.

I had my latest round of eye injections on Wednesday.  That's always a good time, sigh. It's my new normal though so I have to get used to it.  A combination of Tylenol,  advil and a sleeping pill helped the recovery process. I hate sleeping pills because they always make me feel so groggy when I first wake up the next morning.  But sleeping a solid 10-11hrs really helps my eyes feel better.

Sadly, while I was hoping to get a new, positive start in 2025, it's been more of the same from the tail end of '24. So now I'm looking forward to the end of January and pinning my hopes on February,  hahaha!

♪Get in the Zone, the Judge Zone!♪

How has YOUR month gone so far? Feel free to unload in the comments. It is a Judge Zone, but I'm the only one doing any judging and since I read so much you know my judgements are classy.
*raises pinky finger