Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: 2016

Showing posts with label 2016. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 07, 2016

The Tropic of Serpents (A Memoir by Lady Trent #2)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes. blogspot.wordpress.com & librarything.com/catalog/BookstoogeLT by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Tropic of Serpents
Series: A Memoir by Lady Trent #2
Author: Marie Brennan
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 332
Format: Kindle digital edition

Thus proclaimed Bookstooge, the Sage of the Diet of Sohdah and Utterer of Deep Mysteries, whilst traveling upon the highways and byways.

3 Dooms I pronounce against thee! Let all hear and tremble at my words.

DooM

21st Century Cant spewed, out of Time and Place
My soul loathes such an abomination

DoOoM

Where 10 words would do, yay 5 would suffice, 30 were squandered
Garner not my attention with vain repetitions and overly long descriptive paragraphs, for such things the Indies do, thinking to make their books be read on high
In the end, I cast them down into the pit, into the mire, to languish and such shall be done to thee

DoOoOoM

Bore. Me. Not.
Am I a god? Am I not mortal, like thee, with a mortal's lifespan?
Waste not my time, thou wretch, lest thou be consigned to the Dust Heaps of History

Here ends the 3 Dooms of Bookstooge

Tuesday, December 06, 2016

The Hermetic Millennia (Count to the Eschaton Sequence #2)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes. blogspot.wordpress.com & librarything.com/catalog/BookstoogeLT by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.

Title: The Hermetic Millennia Series: Count to the Eschaton Sequence #2
Author: John Wright
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 400
Format: Kindle digital edition

Synopsis:

The smartest man in the world goes to sleep so he can survive until his wife comes back. However, his enemies, the Hermeticists, wake him up every couple of hundred years by running amok.
In the main story, Montrose is taken captive and used as a translator as his captors search for the Judge of the Ages, ie, Montrose. Montrose learns everything he can so he can wreak his awful and terrible vengeance upon these interlopers, only to realize in the very end that as smart as he is, he can still be outsmarted.
Ends on a cliffhanger.

My Thoughts:

I did not enjoy this as much as Count to a Trillion. Part of that was the dreamlike aspect of the sequence of time. It reminded me a lot of Wolfe's The Wizard Knight with it's asperger syndrome main character. It was disconcerting to have chunks of time and events passed over and simply ignored, for no apparent reason.

The overview of humanity over 7000'ish years was really interesting. Each Hermeticist got their chance to create a humanity they thought were best. Each time Montrose was awakened and set forth events to combat their ideas, which led to the downfall of said race and the arising of a new. Finding out that he was being tricked each time to reveal a strand of super-duper-puper math was something else. While Montrose is the main character and you are kind of rooting for him, he's still an arrogant jerk so the schadenfreude was strong in me.

Make no mistake about this though, this was humanistic to its core. As such it reflects the base values of such a system. There were also times where it just felt like the author was indulging himself a little too much in his own fancy.

The cliffhanger ending was not appreciated. That was the main reason I bumped this down 1/2 star. Anyone who had read both the books so far is definitely going to continue the series. To end it like that smacked of one book being artificially broken up.

Monday, December 05, 2016

Open Season (Eyeshield 21 #11) (Manga Monday)

Synopsis:

The Devil Bats make it back to Japan in time to start the Autumn Football season, which will end with the Christmas Bowl, the aim of so many of the players. A lot of character growth goes on and we see the ups and downs as players realize their limits and what they can and can't do.
The Devil Bats first game is against the Amino Cyborgs and their super science football players. Sena is late and it is up to the rest of the team to hold the line until their star runner can make it to the stadium.

My Thoughts:

This one was not all happy skippy. Some of the devil bats who made it through the Death march weren't picked for the team, as they just weren't good enough. Other members of other teams were having teenage crisis's of their own as they came up against the barriers of their own bodies. It was all very drama'y but in a very shounen way.

Mamori takes one step further toward's becoming Hiruma's love interest, as odd as it is to think of him having a love interest. So much is made of Mamori being like an older sister to Sena that at this point I'm resigned to her and Sena never getting beyond that "sibling" level.

We also see quite a bit of family interaction, at least compared to earlier volumes. Sena's homelife is exactly what you'd expect from someone like Sena in volume one. His mother's a harridan and his father's a weak "yes dear" kind of husband. It is good to see Sena growing beyond the barriers put up by his upbringing.

The game with the Cyborgs starts out very interesting. The Cyborgs just muscle their way through until the Devil Bat's coach reminds them about how they pushed the truck and suddenly, their training comes into play and they just tear apart the Cyborgs. But even with that, the Devil Bats can't score consistently on only a passing game.

And finally, that is where Sena makes his entrance. He gets on the wrong bus, and has to be driven to the stadium by one of the rival teams who want to beat Hiruma. Sena gets catapaulted into the stadium and makes a 3 point landing [foot, knee and hand] and looks wicked cool. It made me smile. Now the game, in the next book, can really begin!

Saturday, December 03, 2016

Under Fallen Stars (Threat from the Sea #2) (Forgotten Realms)

Synopsis:

Jherek continues to mope and feel bad, just about things. He does travel all over and have adventures, so at least he's preparing to fight against the Taker. The Taker continues his rise to power and using of the Sahugin. The priestess buries her doubts about the Taker doing Sekola's will. The old song guy gets more of the song in his head and hooks up with a peg leg dwarf [no, I am NOT kidding] and some old mystical elf. The various strands are starting to come together as each part moves closer to its final end.

My Thoughts:

This wasn't a bad read but my goodness, Jherek and his whiny'ness got to be a bit much. It was just too true to life. Man, I'm glad I'm not a teenage boy anymore. Makes me wonder how my parents stood it.

Adventure-wise, this was a cracking good one. Sahugin and pirates invade a city, a ship battle between pirates, an attempt to capture someone in a crowded tavern. Brawls, fights and maneuvers abounded!

There were a couple of references to the downfall of the Elven empire millennia ago and it made me want to search out to see if any books dealt with that. I do know that some of the Elminster books take place during that time, but I can't stand Ed Greenwood so I won't be reading any by him and I don't know if anything else was ever written. Forgotten Realms books are written about the era currently happening.

Friday, December 02, 2016

The Parasite

Synopsis:

Jack is a space miner and in the process of getting some space ice, gets infected with something. Something that heals him, makes him stronger, makes him smarter but also something that will control his reactions in dangerous situations. Problem is, the parasite thinks that any fear from Jack is a dangerous situation.
Jack was supposed to go into quarantine, but the head honcho didn't want the space ice to go into quarantine as well, so Jack walked free. Now the World Health is after him, as well as the Head Honcho trying to cover up his tracks. Because Jack is contagious, contagious beyond belief and people are dying by the bucketload.

My Thoughts:

This novella exemplifies everything I like and don't like about Asher, all boiled down into one little story. On the hand, we have action and violence literally exploding everywhere. Asher does Ultra-Violence with a deft hand that while occasionally making me cringe never feels overboard to me, unlike say the Jack Reacher books. On the other hand, you get the interminable whining about Free Will from at least one, if not more, character.

For me, just because I am not choosing to make my heart beat but it does it on its own, doesn't mean I don't have free will. Non-Total Autonomy doesn't negate Free Will for me. I suspect the differences we hold on Free Will boil down to our views and thoughts on God. Surprise :-D

On the story itself. If you've ever wondered about trying Asher but were intimidated by the 14'ish books divided up into sub series and so threw up your hands and never tried, THIS is the story to try to see if you'll like him or not. It is self-contained but show cases his writing style and his ideas in one easy to digest sitting.

Glad I got around to reading this because I have to wait until March of '17 for his next Polity book to come out.

Thursday, December 01, 2016

November '16 Roundup & Ramblings

This month was pretty good, in the scheme of things. Made my way through 20 books, 4 of which were manga and 1 graphic novel.

I did have 3 DNF's, which is higher than usual, but each was for a different reason, so that helped soften the blow of wasting my time on something I didn't/couldn't finish. To balance that out, I did have One 5Star read and Five(!!) 4Star reads. Getting even a single 5star is a good accomplishment and to have so many 4's is wonderful.

After 6 months I finally got Superman: Doomed scratched off my list. That was a real weight off my shoulders. I'd left it on the couch arm where I sit to remind myself to keep on trying to read it, even a page here or there. That just never happened, so I had to dive in, seize the beast by the throat and just choke it into submission.

In general terms, I solidified the next years reading plans, started the move from Booklikes to Wordpress and continued my reading of Don Quixote. All of which made for a busy but satisfying month.

In finishing, here are my two picks of the month for cover love:

I LOVE hooded figures on covers. They are just cool.

I have always been, and most likely always will be, a Superman fan. Even though I was disappointed by the storyline, the Idea of Superman and Doomsday as one is wicked cool.

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Alien Morning DNF@20%

Title: Alien Morning
Series: -----
Author: Rick Wilber
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: DNF
Format: Hardcover edition

My Thoughts:

Rick Wilber chose to include a lesbian couple that were "married" in the storyline. I abandoned the book at that point and will not be reading more by this author.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

The Warrior's Path (Sacketts #3)

Synopsis:

Kin Sacket and his brother rescue a girl and young woman who were taken by indians. However, it turns out they were taken by white slave traders and that the head of said traders is a prominent man in the local community.
It is up to Kin, and Diana, to track down another kidnapped woman and get her sworn statement to bring the slaver to justice legally. But he isn't going down without a fight and it may be God's justice that he faces and not man's.

My Thoughts:

I gave this the "western" tag, as the Sackett boys are considering moving West by the end of the book, but it is more of a bridge between the historical fiction chronicled in Barnabas's story [their father] and the truly Cowboy Westerns later on.

This was fun. Kin ends up going to the Jamaican Islands and having adventures with pirates and then fighting off rogue slavers back at the Sackett settlement. A good adventure story.

There is the trademark L'amour monologuing which I think I have accustomed myself to, but I still feel like rolling my eyes at it. I can only take so much of it. Zoom through it and everything is ok though.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Is There A Loser in the House? (Eyeshield 21 #10) (Manga Monday)

Eyeshield 21, Vol. 10: Is There a Loser in the House? - Riichiro Inagaki, Yusuke Murata

Synopsis:

The Devil Bats begin their 1200mile training course from Texas to the city of Las Vegas. Along the way Sena meets a cute roller blade girl and her brother, who are wrapped into the storyline. Sena accidentally tries out for the NFL. The team as a whole gets a lot stronger [duh, pushing an 18 wheeler 1200 miles tends to do that].

Meanwhile, back in Japan, Shin begins extra training at Mt. Fuji. Panther shows up to test himself against Shin and realizes that he is an ant compared to Shin. Shin continues his non-ability to interact with electronics.

My Thoughts:

Another solid read. I found this volume to be very balanced between "Inspiration!" and humor. Shin training himself and rating Panther's ability in an eyeblink was the former. The 3 clowns from the Devil Bats pawning ALL the clothes so they could gamble [and being escorted from the casino by burly guards whilst unclothed] was very much the latter.

At Las Vegas we see Mamori in a cocktail gown and while it was just one little frame, it made it very obvious that Mamori is a young woman, not a girl. Not fan service'y at all but more that she could carry it off. Part of her emerging maturity is the fact that she is seeing how hard Hiruma is pushing the team, and himself. She is seeing beyond the "psycho gun toting madman" facade to the hardcore dedicated player and can appreciate it without making a big deal of it. It is also shown up with the emergence of Suzuna, the roller blade girl. She's Sena's age and is presented as such. I hope that the 2 of them have larger roles in the future.

The book ends with them winning all the money they need at the casino and getting ready to head back to Japan. The volumes about America have made me laugh because it is a view that is distorted yet just recognizable enough that I know where the distortion is coming from. Like looking in a fun house mirror.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Riotous Assembly (Piemburg #1)

Synopsis:

The misadventures of the Afrikaaner Van Heerden, head of the police force in Piemburg, South Africa, as he investigates the killing of a Zulu cook by the local (socially) ruling British matron.
Along the way there are police ambushes, latex fetishists, hand to paw combat with a doberman, hangings and a play by the local madhouse which ends with the shooting of some artillery that blows up.

Madcap

My Thoughts:

A bit of context was necessary before I got very far into this. Sharpe was in South Africa during apartheid and was a very vocal opponent of it. Eventually he was deported for his writings against it. Once you have that in mind you realize that what you are reading is not a raging rascist going for the humor angle, but a satirist at his most biting.

This was hilarious. I was wheezing in several places and my wife had to ask me if I was ok. I was more than ok in fact.

Every character was incompetent, looking out for themselves and bumbling. It made for some serious misadventures. One such was when one police underling is told to guard the gate and he takes an elephant gun with him. He hides in a bunker, it is dusk and some other plainclothes policemen are coming onsite. He starts shooting, they start shooting, armoured cars get involved and in the end 21 policeman are dead and the underling is desperately trying to figure out how he can spin it so it isn't his fault. That sums up this book.

There was a lot of crassness involved [anything to do with latex fetishists seems to go that way] and some unnecessary sexual details. Other than that, this was an uproariously fun read.

Friday, November 25, 2016

Demelza (Poldark Saga #2) DNF@6%

Demelza: A Novel of Cornwall, 1788-1790 - Winston Graham

My Thoughts:

This DNF was definitely a "me" thing and not because there was something truly wrong or outrageous with this book.

I tried at least 4 times to get into it and each time I found myself simply not caring one whit about any of the characters or the situation they were in. Not a dislike but a complete apathy that you could drown in. So I gave up. Forcing myself to read something is just going to waste my time and I'll end up writing a completely scathing review and wasting emotional strength that I need to save for something real.

Superman: Doomed (Superman)

Superman: Doomed - Aaron Kuder, Charles Soule, Greg Pak

Synopsis:

Taking place in the New52 timeline. Doomsday has been kept in the Phantom Zone and somehow is allowed out by somebody. He is literal poison to the world and his very presence kills. Superman tears him in half, gets infected and begins a battle with Doomsday over who will control his body. And it all turns out to be a masterplan by Brainiac to get control of everyone's minds so he can "change the perception of the universe" and hence, change the universe. Because he misses his dead wife and son. Who he killed.

Yeah...

My Thoughts:

This was first foray into the New52 reboot universe and I didn't like it. It also relied on the reader knowing the storyline from Reign of Doomsday. At least to explain why Doomsday is still around. Goodness, I hate these reboots.

This was a very messy read for me. The characters I knew were suddenly completely different. Superman and Wonderwoman? Superman and Lois Lane are just friends, not married? I felt like I was reading one huge Elseworlds storyline. Sadly, I wasn't and this is where things are.

This is a big, glossy book with some gorgeous art. Unfortunately, I had a hard time reading the text and trying to follow the action. There were so few panels used that I had to guess where I was supposed to look next to follow what was happening on ONE SINGLE PAGE. And half the time I couldn't tell if I was looking at a 2 page spread meant as one, or if I was actually supposed to read it as 2 pages.

The storyline itself just went all over the place and made me wonder WHO was in control at the helm of this idea. Superman and Doomsday argue with each other, Clarke gets angsty, Supes and Wonderwoman are all lovey dovey while making promises of mutual destruction, Brainiac is putting the whole world in a coma while whining about his dead family and there is so much more. It wasn't a clear, concise storyline. It was a soup with about 67 different cooks all trying to make it "their way".

It took me 6 months to finally finish this. I just didn't want to read about it. If this had been from the library I probably would have abandoned it very near the beginning. However, I bought this in February so I was going to get my money's worth, even if I had to suffer for every page of it. Yankee thrift and all that.

I could probably write a bunch more but it would just be more complaints. To end, I didn't like this, I didn't like my foray into the New52 and it will be quite some time before I try out new comics again.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

The Siege (The Return of the Archwizards #2) (Forgotten Realms)

Synopsis:

The Netherese are playing hardball with all the kingdoms, trying to dominate them under the guise of helping to stop the phaerim incursion.
Melegaunt died in the previous book but somehow his knowledge of the phaerim lives on in Galaeron and the Netherese are willing to do just about anything to get that knowledge, including abandoning Evereska and allowing Galaeron's dark shadow to control him more and more.
Battles and mayhem ensue and while the phaerim are weakened, so are the Netherese and the surrounding countries, as they all fight each other and betrayals abound.

My Thoughts:

i enjoyed this quite a bit more than the previous book but there were still points in the story that just left me scratching my head trying to figure out WHAT Denning meant or how he got from Point A to Point B. It is like what he thinks is obvious is completely opaque to me.

The big battle at the end was pretty cool and pretty much made up for none of the characters really being likable. I'd like to place an order for One Hero in the final book but I think that the menu is already prepared and that that option wasn't included.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Hell is for Devil Bats (Eyeshield 21 #9) (Manga Monday)

Eyeshield 21, Vol. 9: Hell is for Devil Bats - Riichiro Inagaki, Yusuke Murata

Synopsis:

The Devil Bats lose. But only by 1 point. So the American team has to stay in Japan, which leads to Hiruma taking their plane tickets and taking the Devil Bats to Texas. Where they promptly win a game of beach football, win $1000, spend $1000 on snacks and run across Hiruma's old coach.
He challenges them to accept the Death March, a grueling 40 day training period where they will pack in 1 years worth of training on the way to Las Vegas, where they will get enough money to fly back to Japan. Everyone accepts and thus begins a time that has killed all who have attempted it, da da dum!

My Thoughts:

The humor was in your face in this volume. As soon as Hiruma gets to Texas, he immediately heads to a gun store, where the owner tells him that he can't take the guns back to Japan, to which Hiruma responds "I'll be smuggling them". Then Sena and Monta try to shoot some handguns and go ass over teakettle. I was laughing my head off.

The beach game was a fun little interlude leading into the training. In classic shonen style, the training is shown as powering/leveling up instead of the boring,hard work it really is.

One thing to note is that everyone, but Mamori of course, now knows that Sena is Eyeshield 21. The team spirit begins to coalesce and the Devil Bats truly start becoming a team instead of just a group of individuals that Hiruma is tricking into working together.

And that's it for this week's Manga Monday.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Death's Messenger (Blood on the Reik #1) (Warhammer)

Death's Messenger (Warhammer) - Sandy Mitchell

Synopsis:

Rudy, the poor orphan who has been raised by the local forester, discovers signs of Beastmen near his village. At the same time, rot begins to afflict the crops and towns people as well.
A witch hunter comes to the village and a lot is revealed. A bunch of the villagers were chaos worshippers, including Rudy's adopted father. They had some plan in store for Rudi but the beastmen's attack changed things. The witch hunter is now after Rudi and a childhood acquaintance who is the daughter of a the local healer.
Once out of the village, things happen and the two young people have adventures until they are caught by the witch hunter. And the book ends.

My Thoughts:

I still don't know the difference between Warhammer and Warhammer 40k. I assume W is a fantasy series like the Forgotten Realms series and that the W40K is a scifi of the same. I tried some of the W40K and it didn't work for me, so I was hesitant to try plain old Warhammer.

It was alright. Not great, but not terrible. The first half of the book was all setup with very little happening and then whammo, once things got rolling, the 2 youngsters just couldn't stay out of trouble to save their lives. And the ending that was a complete cliff hanger? Nahhh, that didn't impress me.

Since I don't know anything about Warhammer, I don't know the significance, if any, of the title or the series. What is a reik? A person, a place, a thing? Is Death a personification in the Warhammer world? Does he have agents sowing chaos out in the world? If so, why? And really, so what? I have a bunch of options to choose from for series to read in the Warhammer so I am literally just pointing my finger and saying "I'll read YOU" and hoping for the best.

If anyone is a Warhammer fan, and has some advice, please feel free to chime in. I can use anything right about now.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Sasha ( A Trial of Blood and Steel #1)

Synopsis:

Sasha is a princess. A princess who gave up her family rights to become the apprentice of the greatest swordsman and tactician of the country. Now her country is being torn apart by politics and religion and Sasha must decide what course to take.

Seeing ancient accords broken, Sasha must defy her family and the most powerful houses of the nation but in doing so she will unleash civil war and tear apart what she is trying to preserve. But when your own brother is trying to kill you to further his own power, does national unity matter?

My Thoughts:

I was expecting something a bit more from Shepherd. After reading his Drysine Legacy series I was prepared for full frontal fantasy awesomeness.

What I got was a spoiled woman, a self-centered and self-absorbed king/father, siblings who were friends, enemies and allies, sometimes all at the same time. Political powers that were willing to kill off their own heirs, religious leaders willing to lend credence to any act if it furthered their power. In fact, everything in this book seemed to be about power. It wasn't that pleasant really. The only good thing was the big battle at the end.

I'll be trying the next book but if it flows in the same vein as this one, I won't be going farther. It is just odd because I liked his scifi series SO much. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

The Pirates of Pacta Servanda (Pillars of Reality #4)

The Pirates of Pacta Servanda - Jack Campbell

Synopsis:

Mari and Alain must gather a group of mages, mechanics and skilled commons so they can begin fixing the world, by fixing the place where it truly began to break: The Kingdom of Tiae.
But Mari must not only convince other mages and mechanics to work together but she must convince those still in Tiae that she is not just some rogue, upstart mechanic trying to be a warlord. All the while the Mechanics Guild and the Mages Guild are both still hunting her and Alain, using any means possible to stop them, including pirates and dragons.

My Thoughts:

Thoroughly enjoyed this. I continue to be impressed. Mari and Alain make a very dynamic duo but they aren't perfect nor does their love "conquer all". The romance between them isn't sappy and it really strengthens the tension in the story.

The action continues strong. Fighting pirates on the sea, yet another magical dragon, assaulting a Mechanic's Armoury and finally a warlord's host. It just never lets up.

I think that Campbell can write a duo more convincingly than he can a single character. The Lost Fleet series and the Lost Stars series are a very compelling first case and this series backs that up. It is like he can allow his characters greater leeway by bouncing off of another character, all the time, instead of being a pillar of Heroism all on their own. Even if I'm completely out to lunch on this, I still like the series where Campbell uses dual main characters.

I also just found out that the rest of the series [2 more books] is out. So I'll be getting those pronto and putting them into my High Priority list on my kindle. Which means that maybe I'll be done with those 2 books by February? What a tough life, eh?

Monday, November 14, 2016

True Warriors Seek Out Strong Foes (Eyeshield 21 #8) (Manga Monday)

Eyeshield 21, Vol. 8: True Warriors Seek Out Strong Foes - Riichiro Inagaki, Yusuke Murata

Synopsis:

Japan versus America in a game of American Football. Can the Devil Bats even hope to compete against a team that is made up of some of the toughest Americans out there? It is American Brute Force and Power versus Japanese strategy and speed.
But when Panther enters the game, can Sena up his game against a fresh opponent who isn't intimidated by Eyeshield 21's speed? In fact, can Sena keep up with Panther?

My Thoughts:

Another GREAT volume. This had my adrenaline up and running even as I sat on the couch and just read this volume. That is good story telling.

There was a lot of back and forth between strategies, point scoring, etc during this one. It wasn't one team dominating or the other pulling sneaky tricks to edge by by 1 point. This was all out war and the tides of fortune rose and fell appropriately.

I did have to roll my eyes at the coach's back story. It explained a lot but my goodness, it just showed him for the shallow guy he was. And his little "connecting" moment with Panther's desire to play had me groaning. However, the little montage with him getting kicked off the "46'ers" made me laugh, mainly because it was the "46'ers" instead of the 49er's. Just one of those things that strikes you funny at the right moment.

Hiruma is a freaking genius. I know that he is the quarterback but he's competing with the coach of the Alien's and coming out ahead. Coach and QB and doing a good job at both at the same time. I really hope that his character is given more serious attention in future volumes. He might be providing a lot of comic relief but there is a good amount of depth to be explored.

I do continue to be disappointed by Mamori's lack of a role. Even as a potential love interest. She shows up and is shown in various panels, but that is it. I sure do hope she takes a bigger role by the end of the series.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Soldiers of Fortune (Omega Force #2)

Synopsis:

Cap'n Jason and his mighty crew of rogue Do Gooders have pretty much spent all their money from their first mission on stuff for the ship and other missions. So now they need a job and they get one, from Da' Man, the Gubbamint, Big Brother.

A system is standing separate from the ConFed space government and suddenly their shipping lanes are being attacked by pirates, good stolen, commerce being ground to a halt. But they can't find the pirates hidden base so they hire Omega Force to get dirty, be dirtbag, scum loving, mercs and find the pirate base. Along the way, Jason and the Crew find out that it is the ConFed's, working in conjunction with a small group of power hungry individuals, that is working to bring the system to it's knees so it will be forced to join the ConFed.

And a beautiful woman is brought into the picture. Da Da Dum!

My Thoughts:

Ok, first off, I thought this was a slightly better book than the first one but I rated it 1/2star less. That is because this was 50% longer, which showed some of the Dalzelle's weakness in writing, and I was expecting more. Funny how expectations can really change things.

This was an enjoyable story of the crew getting into fights, doing some sleuthing, have a space battle or two and hooking up with a source of income that will allow them to continue The Good Fight. I didn't bother trying to figure out who or what was manipulating who or what, I was just along for the ride. Everything gets explained nice and neat by the end and the story ends.

In the first book, Jason thinks about "her" several times, but with no name or anything specific. Which bugged me, because if "she" was the love of his life, he'd be thinking of her by name. It felt like Dalzelle was trying to establish a character without actually doing any of the work. And in this book, "she" is referred to again, pretty much like that. The introduction of the beautiful space captain and how she and Jason pretty much don't hit it off telegraphs that she'll be the romance interest in the series. At least the space captain has a name, position and is a real character. I foresee a lot of drama being milked out of this potential relationship.

If you like SF that is about the action, this series will suit you. It certainly suits me just fine even while I wish that it was being handled with more skill. Hopefully that is something that time will solve.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

The Store DNF@25% w/ Extreme Prejudice

Synopsis:

The Store is coming to smallville, Arizona. Bad things have happened at other Store's across the country. Bad things have happened during the construction of the Store. Very Bad Things happen during the interview and initiation process to work at the Store.

And that is where I had to stop.

My Thoughts:

This book typifies Horror for me and why I don't read it as a genre. I don't have anything to say about the writing, or the story as a whole or anything else.

The 3 following happenings made me feel sick to my stomach and forced me to stop.

1) A sleazy young man is being interviewed to work at the Store. He's taken to the video surveillance room and is shown the women's dressing room, where he proceeds to watch the sister of the girl he's sleeping with, try on new jeans. The manager tells him that sometimes the women aren't wearing panties.

2) The aforementioned young woman applies to the Store. During her interview she is told that she'll have to take a polygraph test, with only the manager in the room. He tells her to take her blouse and bra off so he can affix the electrodes to her body. She does. And the manager leers at her the whole time. Then she has to give a urine sample. In the office, in front of the manager. She does.

3) The young woman is hired. She comes early on her first shift and is taken down to the basement. She is told to strip down to her bra and panties and forced to run a gauntlet between other employees [most of whom she knows] who inflict physical and verbal damage on her. At the end, they all say they love her and she responds in kind.

Now, I don't care if those instances are presented as wrong and bad, which they were. I don't want to read about the degradation, humiliation, torture and complete helplessness of a young woman. I don't want to invite the evil of that manager into my thoughts, and hence, into my house. That type of thing is sick and to use it for entertainment is sick as well.