Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: 2025

Showing posts with label 2025. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 03, 2025

Monster Hunter Siege (MHI #6) 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: Monster Hunter Siege
Series: MHI #6
Author: Larry Correia
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 348
Words: 137K
Publish: 2017

A couple of books ago (Alpha) we were introduced to a character named Jason Lococo. He was a big ol’ brute who had a heart of gold and helped the boss of Monster Hunter International stop a werewolf invasion from taking over the United States. He got sucked into the Nightmare Dimension in Legion and was making the main character, Own Pitt, feel really guilty. So Owen sets off to rescue him and some other survivors. It snowballs into a massive multi-Hunter Company taskforce and they basically attack a Russian island with US military level power. Then Owen has to go through the gate to the Nightmare Dimension and save everyone. He has to fight off a High Hunt and he does so with Lococo’s help. He rescues the other guys and Lococo disappears. Only in the end to find out that Lococo was just a meat suit for a super demon named Asag who wants to destroy our world and that Asag needed a meat suit to get back to our dimension. Just like the Smoke Monster in LOST.

So this whole book was a longcon game by Asag, who was manipulating Owen the entire time. How cool is that?

All the fighting monsters was cool too. But I liked getting to the end and realizing that Owen, the Chosen One, was fooled like everyone else. I love this series but I don’t love Owen. Almost everybody else I enjoy reading about. But Owen, while I don’t hate him, I don’t actively enjoy him as a character at all. It’s too bad, since he IS the main character, hahahahaa.

Reading this MHI series months apart (as opposed to the years between initial releases) makes the overall big picture storyline much clearer. I can put pieces together now that I didn’t even realize were pieces back on my first read. I like that, a lot. It’s fun, it’s engaging and it is good writing. Also makes me realize that I could never BE a series writer. Not that I want to be an author mind you (I’d rather poke your eyes out than become an author), but knowing I don’t have that skillset is reassuring. No accidentally becoming an author for me! (crisis averted)

★★★★☆

From MHI.Fandom.com & Bookstooge

GO BIG OR GO HOME

When Monster Hunter International's top hunter, Owen Zastava Pitt, was given a tip about some hunters who had gone missing in action, he didn’t realize their rescue mission would snowball into the single biggest operation in MHI's history. Their men are being held prisoner in a horrific nightmare dimension, and the only way to reach them is through the radioactive ruins of a monster-infested war zone.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it's also the home base of the powerful creature behind the devastating attacks on the Last Dragon and Copper Lake. It turns out ancient gods of chaos really hate trespassers. But this god picked a fight with the wrong crew, and now MHI wants payback. Calling on their allies, a massive expedition is formed, and with the odds stacked against them, a legion of hunters goes to war.

It's D-Day at the City of Monsters.

Pitt rescues the survivors and even makes it back himself, against all odds. But just like in LOST, Asag needed a dead meat suit to escape the Nightmare Dimension and now he’s in our world, free to cause chaos and destruction to his heart’s content.

Monday, June 02, 2025

Grizzly Bear - MTG 4E

OR....

...........you can knock your friend down and hope the bear eats him instead! Worth a shot, right?

Sunday, June 01, 2025

A Choice of Evils 4Stars

Title: A Choice of Evils
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 343
Words: 134K
Publish: 1983

In March of ‘24, I read “Portraits of Murder”, a large collection of short stories that I assumed would be my last hurrah with the Alfred Hitchcock Presents series. I tried a couple of issues of the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, but the less said about that, the better. Portraits was the 28^th volume I’d read and I had assumed I had pretty much drained the well dry. Therefore imagine my surprise when I came across a website dedicated to the “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” books that listed them all out. Turns out there were at least another 22. So let the screaming recommence!

One thing that I have come to realize about these collections vs the magazine is that I “need” a lot more stories all together than the magazines can provide. Each story is like a little cream puff of villainy and one or even four will just leave you wanting more. You need a surfeit of them, a gluttonous feast that leaves you in a food coma for the next 8-12hrs. THAT is what these collections attempt to do and definitely succeeded here.

With collections like these, I never even attempt to take notes for each story. There are 34 stories here. Can you imagine the size of this review if I tried to write out notes for 34 stories? I could probably do a short story review for the entire month if I reviewed one short story a day. Maybe some month I’ll do that if I don’t feel like reading. I hear that reading slumps still exist in our world, so maybe it will hit me too. You could only be so lucky ;-)

The one story that did really stand out to me was “Knight of the Road” by Thomasina Weber. It’s about a conman who travels up and down the major highways of the East Coast of the US looking for women to bamboozle and steal their money. He gets conned himself and the story ends with him looking forward to meeting that woman again so they can team up. It just had that self-effacing, ironic biting humor that can appeal to me. It was also one of the few stories that didn’t involve murder or violence in one way or another. It was clever.

So Alfie’s back baby and he’s here to stay until you’re sick of him.

*slow clap

★★★★☆

Table of Contents:

The Battered Mailbox by Stanley Cohen

Center of Attention by Dan J. Marlowe

Lesson for a Pro by Stephen Wasylyk

Aftermath of Death by Talmage Powell — AHMM 8(7)

Enough Rope for Two by Clark Howard

A Change for the Better by Arthur Porges

A Killing in the Market by Robert Bloch

Do It Yourself by Charles Mergendahl

Lost and Found by James Michael Ullman — AHMM 18(8)

Passport in Order by Lawrence Block

Moonlight Gardener by Robert L. Fish

Courtesy Call by Sonora Morrow

Restored Evidence by Patrick O'Keeffe

The Standoff by Frank Sisk

A Fine and Private Place by Virginia Long

Dead, You Know by John Lutz — AHMM 13(1)

A Certain Power by Edward D. Hoch

Hunters by Borden Deal

The Driver by William Brittain

Class Reunion by Charles Boeckman

Mean Cop by W. Sherwood Hartman — AHMM 13(11)

Kill, If You Want Me! by Richard Deming

Welcome to My Prison by Jack Ritchie

Come into My Parlor by Gloria Amoury

Lend Me Your Ears by Edward Wellen

Killer Scent by Joe E. Hensley

Dear Corpus Delicti by William Link and Richard Levinson

Knight of the Road by Thomasina Weber — AHMM 8(9)

The Truth that Kills by Donald Olson — AHMM 17(12)

Where is Thy Sting? by John F. Suter

Anatomy of an Anatomy by Donald E. Westlake

Murder Me Twice by Lawrence Treat

Not a Laughing Matter by Evan Hunter

The Graft is Green by Harold Q. Masur

All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

Saturday, May 31, 2025

May '25 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels - 17 ↑

Short Stories - 1 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.10 ↑

Pages - 4195 ↑

Words - 1376K ↑

The Bad:

City of Stairs - 1star dnf of the now-typical usual suspects

Blades of Damocles - 2.5stars of the Hated Astartes, aka Space Marines

The Good:

Blood Debt - 4stars of Victor the Assassin being Victor the Assassin

The Final Deduction - 4stars of Death and Taxes ;-)

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

First and foremost, my "Bookstooge's Criteria" post was the top post for this month and this year. even topping the hits for my "About" page (who can resist that lovable Mr Zip after all?). It even tops all but 5 posts from 2024, and that is in this month alone. That kind of post only happens once or twice a year. But I am glad it resonated with so many of you, as that is a good feeling as a blogger. And that's enough bragging from me ;-)

Mrs B contributed a post midmonth and that always makes me happy. She read my review of Austen's "History of England" and decided to do her own farce of a farce based on the fictious land of Bookstoogia.

Work was all over the place. New Guy is now fully in the Environmental Department so I got bounced around with Tall Guy (he's over a foot taller than me), by myself or with whoever. It was a very unsettling time. I knew it was coming though, so I just rolled with the punches. I have a feeling this whole summer is going to be like this.

Mrs B and I have started attending the Seventh Day Adventist church full time this month. It's a bit of a change, but with how I was dealing with the contemporary worship music at the Sunday church (ie, I wasn't, I had to sit out in the vestibule because I couldn't stand to even listen to it any more), something needed to change. Thankfully, it's an amicable change and we still have our circle of friends from the Sunday church. They are a real blessing to us.

My reading for May was insane. 20 books/comics are the kind of numbers I would expect to pull down if I had two weeks off from work. But I was just insatiable and tore through the books like a beast. My average rating went up quite a bit too. After last month's 2.86 fiasco, getting back to 3.1 feels good, real good!

Cover Love:

This actually had THREE contenders, first time that has happened in years. There was the Warhammer 40,000 novel about the Necrons (immortal but insane ultimate killing robots), called Reign. Next was the Shadow novel, Shadowed Millions. Finally, and the winner in my books, was the fantastically despicable Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu. Like I wrote in the review, the Arcane Casebook vibes were superduper strong with that cover and I couldn't resist.

Plans for Next Month:

Because I read so fething much this month, I am going to ease WAY back on that. Which in turn means less posts, so I'm going to go back to taking Saturday's off again. I was ok with posting this month, but it was ALL because of how much I read and I don't foresee that happening again.

Going to watch and review the final story arc for the Yu Yu Hakusho anime. Since I stopped reading the Demon Slayer manga, I hope to sneak in a graphic novel in it's place. Not sure which one though. Probably either the Shadow/Batman: Murder Geniuses recommended by Lashaan or the next Usagi Yojimbo, which is the samura rabbit that I started last year :-)

Friday, May 30, 2025

The Blades of Damocles (Warhammer 40K: Tau) 2.5Stars

Title: The Blades of Damocles
Series: Warhammer 40K: Tau
Author: Phil Kelly
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 292
Words: 104K
Publish: 2016

When I read Farsight: Crisis of Faith back in August of last year, I noted how some big events had happened between Farsight and Farsight: Crisis of Faith. It bewildered me and I was convinced that Black Library (the company, I think, that produces the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 books) were a bunch of jackasses who deliberately messed with their readers. Well, this novel is the missing link! It explains everything hinted at in Crisis and explains all the background.

But it is listed as an Astartes novels (the Astartes are the Space Marines, the boys in blue, the gigantic freaks who rule earth as absolute tyrants and are as evil as Chaos itself in my opinion. I HATE the Astartes, hatehatehatehatehate them!) and hence I never would have read this book, not touched it with a 10foot pole, not even glanced at it, if it weren’t for Dave suggesting it as a buddy read, since he knew both Mark and I were interested in Tau stories. I am extremely thankful for that suggestion.

I still hate Black Library though. They are as disorganized as you can possible get. I shouldn’t have to rely on another fan’s information to be able to find out what books are related. That is just fething wrong. So that was my mind set when I started this. Happy that I was finding out what I had missed (in Calibre I am calling this WH40K: Tau 1.5) but pretty angry at Black Library.

Then I find out WHY it was listed as an Astartes novel, because over half the story revolves those fething tyrants. Not just generic ultimate fighters on super steroids, but Named Characters. Who banter and quip while still being ultimate dumb meatheads. I hated them with a passion and I raised a victory cry every time one of the boyz in bloo died. Sadly, the named characters didn’t die, but I can’t have everything. On the Tau side, it was almost as much politics as it was action. Commander Farsight didn’t have nearly enough page time and when he does appear, like I said, politics. It really got under my skin.

The thing that saved this book from being a total loss was the incredible action. When things get going, they REALLY get going. I enjoyed that aspect a lot and if this book had just been about that, probably would have gotten close to 4stars. But, Astartes. That just sank this ship before it even took off.

This was a buddy-read with Dave and Mark, and you can find their reviews here:

Dave’s Review

Mark’s Review

★★✬☆☆

From WH40K.Lexicanum.com

The Imperium of Man takes its bloody revenge upon the expansionist Tau in a war of dizzying spectacle. Chainsword and jump pack is pitted against cutting edge battlesuit technology, whilst the Codex Astartes is matched against the tau Code of Fire. For the first time, the daredevil warriors of the Ultramarines Assault Company go to war en masse, fighting in the skies, in the streets, and even in the prototype testing facilities of the Earth caste. Sergeants Sicarius and Numitor must overcome their hunger for glory as the brightest stars of the Tau Empire, Commanders Farsight and Shadowsun, hunt them to the brink of disaster. As a white-knuckle ride of conflict sees the Space Marines fight through one lethal ambush after another, they must deal with conflicts from within the ranks as well as from without. Tempers run short as battle-brothers fall, ammunition runs out and the course of the war takes ever-darker twists and turns. With two warrior cultures struggling for a vital edge and the body count spiralling towards a terrible conclusion, can notions of honour and duty survive at all?

Only with the advent of a tyranid swarm fleet approaching the Blue Bro’s sector planet do the Astartes retreat.

Thursday, May 29, 2025

The Glass Carafe (Groo the Wanderer #40) 3.5Stars

Title: The Glass Carafe
Series: Groo the Wanderer #40
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 26
Words: 2K
Publish: 1988

Groo is trying to get a job but there is a very long line. Rufferto decides to “help” and it actually works! What do you say when a dog is smarter than his owner? Groo!

★★★✬☆

From Bookstooge

Groo is hungry and wants a job to earn some kopins to buy a meal. So he goes to a glassblower factory (without realizing what it is) and accidentally breaks a glass carafe. The owner tells him he will give him a job if Groo can replace the glass carafe.

So instead of making a new carafe in the factory, Groo goes on a quest that takes him months, to find a carafe. Every time he does though, it breaks through circumstances, and hence the quest goes on. Finally, Groo gets a carafe back to the owner, who immediately throws him out the front door. Ha!

All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Hell Divers (Hell Divers #1) 3Stars

Title: Hell Divers
Series: Hell Divers #1
Author: Nicholas Smith
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 290
Words: 104K
Publish: 2016

Normally, I add links to other bloggers’ reviews at the end of my review, but I wanted to make sure that the two bloggers who inspired me to read this got their credit. So bear with me as I digress momentarily.

Dave read this back in December ‘24 and put up his review earlier this month. He talks about his own little journey of discovery with this book and the video game that came after. It’s the kind of “journey” review that I enjoy reading.

Dave’s Hell Divers Review

Both Dave’s and my own journey began with Swords and Spectres’ review of the book in 2019. He gave it 5stars and it sounded really good. So it was on my radar but not quite enough to get on my tbr list. Then in January of this year Swords reviewed an audio version and downgraded his review to 3stars. I still liked what he wrote so between his and Dave’s reviews, I added it to my tbr and I finally got around it to it this month. That’s actually a pretty quick turnaround, as my tbr is about two years long.

Ok, now to the important part, MY PART. I read this book and gave it 3stars. The end.

Hahahahaha, just kidding. Yeah, yeah, I know, I’ve done that in the past, but not today. Today you will read every word I write, no matter how long winded I get or how off topic I go, because I AM BOOKSTOOGECUS!!!! (parades around with a gladius upraised)

The (yawn) post-apocalyptic setting is offset by the fact that there are only 1000 humans left (approximately) and they all live in two giant skyships. These skyships were the original instruments of doom that delivered the bombs that destroyed the Earth as we know it back in World War III. Originally, there were a lot of these skyships, but now, roughly 250 years after dooms day, there are only two left. The others have all fallen to the Earth through various issues, whether mechanical or societal. They are nuclear powered and thus mutation is at play, and it’s not the X-Men kind of mutation, but REAL mutation that leads to death. Things are desperate and have been since the beginning.

In this story one of the two ships crashes in the worst place on Earth, called Hades, because it was desperate to recover some nuclear thingamajigs so it could stay aloft. The other skyship attempts to come to its rescue, but by the time they arrive, the other ship has already crashed. The problem is that in attempting to reach Hades, “our” skyship sustained damage, necessitating that a group of Helldivers go into Hades on a do or die (for everyone) mission. They need Power and Parts.

Our main character is named Xavier but goes by X. It is almost like the author WANTED this to get turned into a video game with a nameless protagonist for the gamers to step into his shoes. He’s been on almost 100 dives, while the typical life span of a Helldiver is 15 dives. He goes on one dive and is the only man to survive. It pretty much breaks him and THEN the other ship crashes and everything I said before comes to the forefront. So X has to lead a new team and all the other teams to Hades, the worst place in the world, to recover stuff. Half of them die on the dive down, alone. Then they come across mutants that reminded me of the various zombie things in the Resident Evil movies. Lots of running, shooting, jumping and chasing. Eventually, they find what they need, get the supplies back to the dropship, send it back up to the skyship and the surviving Helldivers also ascend. Only X is left behind. And there is no way for anyone to know that he is still alive on the ground.

Like I said, VERY video-game’y. Not necessarily a bad thing, but one that kept it from being a real novel in my opinion. It read like those novelizations of games or movies. So there was 1star knocked off for that.

The second knocked off star was because of how things were setup “in book” that didn’t make sense to me. Helldivers are putting their lives on the line every time they jump, so they get special privileges the night before, ie, booze, drugs and sex. Why? Having your divers go into a mission hungover, strung out, whacked sideways is a recipe for disaster. You have all that crap AFTER the mission, help motivate them to come back alive. And you train them in small group tactics!!!!! They train for jumping, etc, but every time a group jumped, once they hit the ground, they always, ALWAYS split up to cover more ground, even though they knew how dangerous everything was. With absolutely predictable results of people dying by the bucketload. It made me gnash my teeth, especially when the number of people left is dwindling so fast. And of course, it is at this EXACT moment in time that a revolution by the Underdecker’s takes place. It was too much happening all at once, all of it bad, for me to accept. I just rolled my eyes, muttered “stupid writer” and kept plowing through to the end.

Now I know that’s a lot of bad and you might wonder why this wasn’t 2stars or even a dnf.

The action and the corrupted Earth. That Resident Evil vibe I got was more than enough to keep me going. I love those movies to pieces even while I know what absolute pieces of trash they are. But they are fun and awesome. Which leads into the action. The dives themselves were fraught with peril and with teams getting fried by lightning or smashing into buildings when their paraglide chutes don’t work right or monsters eating them as soon as they touched down, the tension for each dive until the divers returned was dialed up to 7, maybe even 9 every time and then the final dive into Hades at the end was an 11 from start to finish.

I plan to keep on reading this series. I’ll read a couple more, take a break with a different series, then come back. Keep things from getting stale, or overdone. Nothing is worse than an overdone action series.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

More than two centuries after World War III poisoned the planet, the final bastion of humanity lives on massive airships circling the globe in search of a habitable area to call home. Aging and outdated, most of the ships plummeted back to Earth long ago. The only thing keeping the two surviving lifeboats in the sky are Hell Divers - men and women who risk their lives by skydiving to the surface to scavenge for parts the ships desperately need.

When one of the remaining airships is damaged in an electrical storm, a Hell Diver team is deployed to a hostile zone called Hades. But there's something down there far worse than the mutated creatures discovered on dives in the past - something that threatens the fragile future of humanity.

The Hell Divers, led by X, get what they need to allow their airship to survive, but in the process X is left in Hades and that is where the book ends.

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu (Dr Fu-Manchu #1) 3Stars

Title: The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu
Series: Dr Fu-Manchu #1
Author: Sax Rohmer
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Pulp Mystery
Pages: 267
Words: 72K
Publish: 1913

Oh, this is going to be a tough review. So many different thoughts, many conflicting, ran though my head as I read this book.

The first thought. I enjoyed the heck out of this story. It was a fantastic 1913 mystery pulp with a series of stories connected together as we are introduced to our protagonists, the heroes opposing the deadly Dr Fu-Manchu. Fu-Manchu might have the title, but he’s the villain and doesn’t show up that often. In many ways, he seems modeled on a Moriarty sketchboard. The smartest, evilist genius the world has ever known. He’s ALWAYS in control. It was awesome (yeah, yeah, that word doesn’t mean what I think it means…) I had so much fun reading the short stories. The stories weren’t disconnected though and always were just a step along the path for the heroes to finally confront the Dr. Only for us the readers to realize that the Dr had been in complete control the entire time. He really is the epitome of an Evil Genius. I almost clapped my hands in glee to be honest. And there is no Sherlock Holmes to oppose him, just two Englishman with all the faults and blindspots of their time and one Arab woman in thrall to Dr Fu-Manchu but in love with one of the heroes. It made the situations all the more desperate and that desperation came through. The threat presented by Dr Fu-Manchu was real.

That leads me to my second thought. This book would send the WOKE kids of today into catatonic shock. Or they’d go burn some more tesla cars or loot a drugstore or say it’s ok to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, you know, the typical things over-privileged, under-disciplined stupid kids are doing nowadays. I could totally see New Guy from work reading the first story in ten minutes, then ranting for thirty minutes about how “evil” the book is. I am not WOKE at all, period.

But that leads to my third thought. Even “I” had a tough time with the continued references to the Yellow Peril or the Danger to the White Race. I don’t know anything about Rohmer as a person (except that Sax Rohmer was a pen name) and thus I don’t know if he had a thing against Asians or if he was just writing to the zeitgeist of the times. I CAN understand using skin color as a descriptor though. So that’s where the conflicted thoughts come in. I am trying to keep in mind when this was written as well. The thing that made it tough was that it was mentioned in almost those exact terms at least twice in every story. It’s the kind of thing I don’t want to get used to, just like I don’t want to get used to profanity in the books I read, or violence, or blasphemy.

Finally, the cover. I showcased this cover on an earlier “My Week” post but didn’t say why I liked it or anything specific. What I enjoy about this one is that it reminds me, very strongly, of the Arcane Casebook covers. Those are great stories with some seriously cool covers and I get that same vibe from this version of The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Dr. Petrie is surprised by a late night visitor, "a tall, lean ... square cut ... sun baked" man who turns out to be his good friend (ex-Assistant Commissioner Sir Denis) Nayland Smith of Burma, formerly of Scotland Yard, who has come directly from Burma. We then learn that various men associated with India are the target of assassination by the Chinese master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu, who seems to have been active in Burma (as distinct from India), in places such as Rangoon, Prome, Moulmein and the "Upper Irrawaddy" and who comes to England with dacoits and thugs.

Fu Manchu is pursued from the opium dens of Limehouse in the East End of London to various country estates. We learn that Dr. Fu Manchu is a leading member not of "old China", the Mandarin class of the Manchu dynasty, or "young China", a new generation of "youthful and unbalanced reformers" with "western polish" – but a "Third Party". Nayland Smith is outwitted several times by Fu Manchu and thus he reflects more the narrow escapes of the later Bulldog Drummond rather than the "logical" superior approach of the earlier Sherlock Holmes.

Fu Manchu is a master poisoner and chemist, a cunning member of the Yellow Peril, "the greatest genius which the powers of evil have put on the earth for centuries", though his mission is not exactly clear at this stage. He appears to be trying to capture and take back to China the best engineers of Europe for some larger criminal purpose.

By the end of the book, Fu Manchu's slave girl Karamaneh, a beautiful Arab woman, apparently now in love with Dr Petrie, and her brother Aziz are freed from Fu Manchu's captivity, and Inspector Weymouth, driven mad by an injection of serum from Fu Manchu, is restored to sanity by Fu Manchu, who appears to have escaped from a fire which destroys the house that he had previously entered.

Monday, May 26, 2025

Green Ward - MTG 4E

I never used the wards very much because they only affected one creature and I was always about getting as many creatures out onto the field as I could. I think they would be much more effective now in the Commander variant, giving your commander protection from whatever threats you faced across the table.

Sunday, May 25, 2025

The Burden of Command (Empire Rising #14) 3.5Stars

Title: The Burden of Command
Series: Empire Rising #14
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 387
Words: 148K
Publish: 2022

This book was 25% shorter than the previous one and I think it was better for it. This feels like it is the start of a new “series” as it has been 20 years since the previous book and the children we were introduced to in Empire’s Gambit are now adults and making their own way in the world. Emperor James is still the main character but he’s not the sole focus. That really gets spread around.

I think the typical weaknesses/strengths that I’ve talked about before for this series are here in spades. James feels the same as he did in book one. Characterization is not Holmes’ strong point. Action is top notch but mainly focuses on ship to ship space battles.

The torch is being passed from one generation to the next and I am looking forward to seeing how Holmes handles the transition. I don’t think it will be that hard for him though, as this series is more of a chronicles of the events and not as much a character driven series. Characters play their part, but it is only a part.

I still enjoyed this, I had a good time and nothing about the story made me think I need to stop.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher
For twenty years Humanity has enjoyed an uneasy peace after the Battle of Gayla and the death of the Karacknid Imperator. His death caused the Karacknid Empire to collapse into a bitter civil war. Yet Emperor Somerville is certain the peace will not last. Tanaka-lan is one of three contenders left vying for the title of Imperator, and James knows that if he wins, the flames of war will ignite once again.

The Human Empire has not squandered the respite it was given. Fleets have been rebuilt and defenses put in place. Yet a new generation of Imperial citizens has grown up who have known only peace. They are growing restless with the burden of Imperial taxes, and secession is on the lips of many. Just when it seems the Karacknid civil war is coming to an end, James is confronted by the prospect that his own Empire may fall to infighting and divisions. Faced with threats from within and without, he and Christine must rely on a new cadre of Imperial naval officers to keep the peace. Officers who must learn for themselves the true Burden of Command.

All of My “Empire Rising” Reviews

Saturday, May 24, 2025

My Week XXV

Well, another week come and gone. Amazing how time flies. I'm wondering when I'll get to the stage where I judge things by the month, instead of the week? I mean, I'm thankful I've matured enough to do a week at a time instead of a day at a time, but just like a teenager champing at the bit to be an "adult", I want to be old enough for time to fly by. I have found myself referring to things by who was President at the time and not just the year, so that's a start ;-)

Didn't work a lot this week. I had to take Tuesday off because Mrs B had a procedure where she couldn't operate machinery afterwards, so I had to do the driving and make the decisions while she was still loopy. We went out to a diner afterwards and had some seriously delicious omelets. Mrs B had a cheese omelet with toast and homefries while I had the cheeseburger omelet with toast and homefries. Oh man, we were both so stuffed afterwards, it was great!

Thursday was a rain day. It started raining around 7am and went all day and into the evening. Maybe 25 years ago I would have gone in, but at some point I have decided that being soaked and miserable all day, while accomplishing almost nothing, isn't worth being paid for. So I called out. It helped that the office manager knew the storm was coming and gave all the field crews the option to call out. All of us took that option ;-)

I spent the day putting together my new tv setup. I had bought a 50in tv about a month ago and ordered a tv stand to go with it. There were missing parts and it was a bleeding process to get 8 little feet mailed to me. But I put it all together and then hooked everything up. Tv, soundbar, bluray player and I attached a 25ft hdmi cable for when I eventually will hook that up to my computer to play computer games on. I started at 8am and was expecting it to be a horrific experience. New electronics are picky and have a bajillion options and I was expecting things to go wrong at every step. Imagine my surprise when everything went smooth as glass and I had everything setup by 9am. I was shocked, in a good way. So I turned on the tv and watched the 3 Stooges until Mrs B got home that afternoon. That was a good day :-D

Friday it was back to work and boy, I did NOT want to go in. It didn't help knowing one of the other crew chiefs had taken the day off, so between the rain day on Thursday and having the next Monday off for Memorial Day, he was getting a 5day weekend, the lucky duck. The site we went to was about 90min away. So we had a lot of driving to do. And it was raining up there. Not enough to stop us, but enough to make it "slightly" miserable. On a Friday, sigh. Then we found out that one of the owners of the company said everyone could leave at 2pm if they wanted to. So we took lunch and hightailed it back to the office. It was a 7hr day and 3hrs of that was pure driving. It was a total waste, hahahahaa. But I was out at 2pm and ready to start my 3day weekend. That's a good feeling!

Today we're leaving for church in about 2hrs and once again, it is foggy, cloudy and drizzly. I hope that is going to help keep the traffic down, as we have to use a major highway and I don't want to share the road with a bajillion people all driving to their summer homes for the long weekend. Once we're back, I suspect I'll either be reading or writing up posts for June. Can you believe it is almost June already? I just blinked and it's the last week of May. Maybe I am getting old enough!

You all have a wonderful Sabbath, cheers!

Friday, May 23, 2025

The Holmes-Dracula File (The Dracula Files #2) 3Stars

Title: The Holmes-Dracula File
Series: The Dracula Files #2
Author: Fred Saberhagen
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 189
Words: 68K
Publish: 1978

Dracula gets conked on the head, loses his memory for a bit and spends the book tracking down the villains who did this to him. Sherlock Holmes is looking out for a crazy guy who drains people of their blood and a psychopathic doctor. Worlds collide as Dracula and Holmes team up to stop a second Black Plague from enveloping London.

Much, much, much more enjoyable than the previous book. Most of that is because this was a brand new, wholly original story. But still just a 3star read in general. I find it rather ironic that I enjoyed this book more than the previous one but still rated it the same. Part of that is because that’s all this book is worth. It’s a good, disposable read that I have zero interest in ever re-reading.

Thankfully, Dracula doesn’t completely change character here. He’s still the totally unreliable narrator from the first book, with an ego the size of Europe. In this book’s setting, that’s actually a good thing. It worked, unlike in the Dracula Tape. Holmes on the other hand, felt very cardboard cutout’y. Saberhagen uses Doyle’s style of Watson doing the narrating for Holmes’ side of the story and he didn’t quite have the writing chops to fully flesh out a character being written about by another character. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that’s an easy thing at all. Doyle did a masterful job of it and we’re all enriched by him making that conceit a “thing”, but it takes more skill than I feel Saberhagen had. Saberhagen aped it well enough, but didn’t have it down comfortably.

There was one thing that had me rolling eyes though. Holmes and Dracula look similar enough that even Watson gets them mixed up in a bar room brawl (♪bar room blitz♪). Turns out that Dracula is Holmes daddy from an affair Dracula had with Holmes’ serially unfaithful mother. Come on, really? And to make things even more awkward, young Mycroft had to kill Holmes’ mother because she’d turned, or something like that. It was all very “backstory” and didn’t work and made me cringe. And yet now, thinking about it, I’m laughing my head off at how badly it was executed. That obviously wasn’t Saberhagen’s intent, but hey, whatever gets me through the book ;-)

I’m definitely going to be reading more of these, eye rolls and all.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

1887, London, Victoria’s Jubilee -- criminals threaten to release thousands of plague infested rats on the day of celebration. The extraordinary powers of the Count and sharp mind of the Master Detective team up to avert a catastrophic public disaster. (And, the reader discovers more than a deerstalker hat and an Invernes Cape in Holmes’ family closet.)

Thursday, May 22, 2025

What Is A Healthy Church? (Non-fiction) 4Stars

Title: What Is A Healthy Church?
Series: -----
Author: Mark Dever
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 128
Words: 25K
Publish: 2007

The Sunday church read this together in the various small groups they have a while back. Due to the groups meeting in the evenings, I just didn’t have the ooomph to go, as I would end up falling asleep part way through. That happened enough times in the previous year or so that I gave up going. So I didn’t read this book with the group. I think it would have been a fantastic book to read within a group though.

First thing to know is that Dever is approaching this from a VERY Evangelical viewpoint. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is the lense through which he is viewing Scripture and how he interprets what it means. I don’t think I actually disagreed with a single point he made however.

This was written for Christians. Not necessarily for old or new Believers, but for anyone who calls themselves a Christian and wants to attend a church.

I thought the content was great. Like I said, I didn’t disagree with anything. But the reason this isn’t getting 5stars is because of how he laid things out. He would include snippets of Bible verses in italics and then include the actual reference, but in bold, to support the points he was making. It was incredibly hard to read through as I kept getting jogged out my reading flow by the setup. I guess it would be like I think, “therefore I am. But only on Tuesdays” (Bookstooge 1:47). So imagine each chapter being filled up like that. It was a big issue for me and I really noticed it. I feel kind of bad about dinging a whole star for it, but I was having to skip, hop and jump through the book instead of walking or even running smoothly. Maybe if you were taking one section at a time, like in a small group it wouldn’t be such an issue.

But to end, I am very glad I read this and would mightily recommend it

★★★★☆

From the Publisher & Table of Contents

What is an ideal church, and how can you tell?

How does it look different from other churches? More importantly, how does it act differently, especially in society? Many of us aren't sure how to answer those questions, even though we probably have some preconceived idea. But with this book, you don't have to wonder any more.

Author Mark Dever seeks to help believers recognize the key characteristics of a healthy church: expositional preaching, biblical theology, and a right understanding of the gospel. Dever then calls us to develop those characteristics in our own churches. By following the example of New Testament authors and addressing church members from pastors to pew sitters, Dever challenges all believers to do their part in maintaining the local church. What Is a Healthy Church? offers timeless truths and practical principles to help each of us fulfill our God-given roles in the body of Christ.

Toc:
Series Preface
Preface: A Parable
Introduction: What Are You Looking for in a Church?

Part 1: What Is a Healthy Church?
Chapter 1: Your Christianity and Your Church
Chapter 2: What a Church Is . . . and Isn’t
Chapter 3: What Every Church Should Aspire to Be: Healthy
Chapter 4: The Ultimate How-to Guide: How to Display God’s Character
Quick Tips: If You're Thinking about Leaving a Church . . .

Part 2: Essential Marks of a Healthy Church
Chapter 5: Expositional Preaching
Chapter 6: Gospel Doctrine
Quick Tips: How to Find a Good Church

Part 3: Important Marks of a Healthy Church
Chapter 7: A Biblical Understanding of Conversion and Evangelism
Chapter 8: A Biblical Understanding of Membership
Chapter 9: Biblical Church Discipline
Chapter 10: Biblical Discipleship and Growth
Chapter 11: Biblical Church Leadership
Chapter 12: A Biblical Understanding and Practice of Prayer
Chapter 13: A Biblical Understanding and Practice of Missions
Conclusion: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Appendix: A Typical Covenant of a Healthy Church
Special Thanks
General Index
Scripture Index

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

The Shadow of Doctor Syn (Doctor Syn #7) 3Stars

Title: The Shadow of Doctor Syn
Series: Doctor Syn #7
Author: Arthur Russell Thorndike
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 177
Words: 83K

This was a good end to the Scarecrow/Dr Syn series. The action and the smuggler scenes were just as enjoyable as ever. Sadly, The Scarecrow in France during The Terror is only a tiny part, but he does make a complete fool of Robespierre, so I was happy with what I got.

My biggest gripe, and what prevented this from being 3.5stars, was the infernal romance story. Yet another daughter of Dr Syn’s best friend Tony falls in love with him, with quite predictable results. That Dr Syn, he’s just got ZERO chance with women. His wife cheats on him and runs off. His second fiance is killed while pretending to be the Scarecrow and so of course, the younger sister also dies while pretending to be the Scarecrow. It does remind me of the whole Age Gap thing in romances. I’ve talked about this in other books (namely Jane Austen’s books) and don’t feel the need to rehash the whole thing. BUT. At this point in time, Dr Syn is in his mid to late 40’s and Cicily is either 17 or 19. That is a MUCH bigger age gap than even Marianne and Col. Brandon in Sense and Sensibility. I didn’t honestly see how it was going to work. The author makes it work by making Dr Syn pretty much be the same person he was in his 20’s. While he’s had all these experiences, they didn’t change him, and they should have. No offense to any teens who might read this, but you’re all a bunch of muffinheads to be honest and being married to a teenager at my age would be its own special brand of heck. The author just cheated and used the “Love conquers all” trope so he could shoehorn in a romance subplot. But it was awkward and since I read the first book first, well, I knew Dr Syn was single then, so Cicily had to go one way or another.

The cover is ridiculous. It’s a great cover, but it’s still ridiculous. Dr Syn is very careful to keep his shirt on because of a tattoo that would prove he was Captain Clegg the notorious pirate. And him being next to the guillotine, well, I addressed that earlier. But it sure is eye catching and garish, just what you want to sell a book!

Overall, the fact that I finished this series when I wasn’t sure near the beginning means it was enjoyable enough to keep me hooked despite my issues with treating the clergy like an unbeliever.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Set in 1793 during the events of the French Revolution, Syn travels to France amidst the Reign of Terror. He has fallen in love with young Cicily Cobtree and hopes his actions against Robespierre will earn him a pardon from the King. When Cicily dies, Syn gives up his ideas of pardon and nearly loses his sanity. This sets the stage for the fiendish character he becomes in Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh.

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

City of Stairs (The Divine Cities #1) DNF@19%

Title: City of Stairs
Series: The Divine Cities #1
Author: Robert Bennett
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 88/464
Words: 28K/148K
Publish: 2014

Due to the inclusion of certain subject matters, I am dnf’ing this book and will not be reading any more by Bennett.

★☆☆☆☆