A Rainbow to Heaven Chapters 1-3 (1.5Star DNF@21%)

 

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Title: A Rainbow to Heaven DNF@21%
Series: -----
Author: Barbara Cartland
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Romance
Pages: 134 / 28
Words: 52K / 11K
Publish: 1934

Chapter 1

We are introduced to our heroine, Diana Headley, as she prepares to go to a party. We learn that she's a thorough socialite but well off and sought after by the newspapers to have her picture taken. At the same time we're reassured she's not a vapid, empty headed numpkin but a woman of taste and talent, albeit one who is fast approaching that line of "tired" that overtakes many in the upperclasses.

We are also introduced to Lord Hugo Dalk, a 37 year old Lord who is independently wealthy and has decided that Diana is the woman for him. They get along well, like a pair of friends and Diana doesn't appear that she wants more than that, as something deep inside doesn't feel that Dalk is the one. Yet Dalk proposes to her in a casual, off hand manner that seems to imply he at least feels they are the only ones worthy of the other.

We also meet the hosts of the party, the Schnibers. They come from new money, as Mr Schniber made his fortune in "hooks and eyes", so I'm guessing women's undergarments? He's not comfortable nor are his wife and daughter, but they so want to be part of the "crowd" that even throwing a society party for complete strangers is not out of bounds.

The contrast between Diana, Hugo and Mr Schniber is well sketched. Diana is a worldly woman but not yet taken over by ennui. Hugo has all the hallmarks of a socialite bored with life itself while Schniber is the prototypical "country bumpkin", wide eyed and convinced all the socialites are better people than he.

Chapter 2

Diana doesn't want to deal with Hugo's proposal. She's very attracted to him but is contrary enough to not want him out of hand. She comes across some old friends, the Standish's and finagles a visit down to their home, thus giving her space and time from Hugo. Hugo is understandably upset but self-centered enough to think Diana will say yes eventually.

The Standish's introduce us to Barry Dunbar, "one of the most brilliant men" the Standish's have ever met as well as being "one of the greatest young intellects in Europe today." He's deep into Eastern mysticism and spends his days seeking out old scrolls to bring them to the eyes of Europe. Barry is convinced that Eastern Mysticism is the key to the spiritual salvation of Europe. We find out that the Standish's have given a part of their home over to Barry and he runs it like a tyrant, ie, his rules, his way. They admire him so much that they give way on everything.

Diana heads down to Standish Castle, still wondering why she hasn't accepted Hugo's proposal. Lots of garbage is thrown around but it amounts to "I just don't want to, so there".

I am not liking Barry from the get-go. Hugo is an arrogant ass, but I understand him. Barry is all second hand introduction and the way the Standishes fawn over him makes me sick. Plus, anyone who thinks that Eastern Mysticism is going to solve any problems is about as empty and shallow as possible. It's a new bauble, that is all and they are entranced by the shininess of it. I despise people like that.

Chapter 3

We start out with a background sketch of how Mrs Standish became Mrs Standish and how fulfilled she is now that she is married to Jack Standish. This gives her "spiritual" weight so her thoughts and pronouncements about and to Diana aren't just the blatherings of a busybody. But they are. Mrs Standish is presented as a "good person" because she tries to help others. This excuses any behavior by her, because "she is a good person". Then we get some more secondhand Barry praise and how deeply spiritual and philosophical he is, thus ALSO making him "a good person".

Diana meets Barry at dinner and is impressed that he's not a society bore and a shallow jackass (my words obviously) like her other acquaintances. Barry "only talks about important things" and this also impresses Diana while at the same time making her feel her inferiority, to which feeling she is not used to. After dinner Barry and Diana have a little one on one talk and Barry makes it quite clear that he considers her and her kind the bane of England and the beginning of the end for England's greatness.

This is a shallow romance and it touches on theology and philosophy, but sadly, in the same trite, pathetic and non-thinking way that it deals with romance. You do not treat theology that way. Theology, whether you like it or not, is what sets the boundaries of your world and defines everything you do for your whole life.

I should not have chosen this book. It was a big mistake considering how high of a regard I hold my theology in. I felt like Cartland spit in my face and then wondered what the big fuss was about. I am dnf'ing this now and this is my review. I sincerely apologize to anyone else who chose to read this and thought there would be several more weeks of lighthearted fun to be had. To expiate my literary sins, I will now commit seppuku, the practice of which people like Barry Dunbar are apparently fully in favor of. So screw that. I’m seppuku’ing Barry Dunbar. That’s him under the motorcycle helmet, not me!

Tower Lord (A Raven’s Shadow #2) 1Star DNF@74%

 

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Title: Tower Lord
Series: A Raven’s Shadow #2
Author: Anthony Ryan
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars DNF@74%
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 638 / 471
Words: 239K / 176K
Publish: 2014

Due to some of the moral subject matters brought up in this story, I decided to dnf this book and to add Ryan to my list of authors to avoid in the future. I am leaving the synopsis unhidden so this post isn't just 5 words long :-/

★☆☆☆☆

From Fandom.com

The book follows four POV characters, each with their own separate plot lines that overlap and interweave to tell the story: Vaelin Al Sorna, Frentis, Princess Lyrna Al Nieren, and new character Reva Mustor. The chapters are divided into sections, each proceeded by a first person narrative recounting from Lord Verniers, the Alpiran Imperial Chronicler (much like Blood Song). Lord Verniers is in the captivity of a high-ranking Volarian noble, who commands the army attacking Alltor, and his wife.

Vaelin returns to the Realm determined to reunite with his sister and find his lost brother Frentis. After he disembarks from a ship, presumably from the Alpiran Empire, he encounters Reva, who is given the task of retrieving the sword of the deceased Trueblade, her father Hentes Mustor. Reva detests him at first, but gradually accepts his companionship and training when Vaelin tells her he knows where the sword can be found. She is confused as to why he trains her when she plans to kill him, but the blood song tells him it will be necessary later. They travel together until by complete happenstance, they meet Vaelin's old sergeant turned traveling minstrel Janril Norin and his wife, Ellora. They eventually reach Varinshold, where Vaelin finds his sister Alornis and Alucius Al Hestian, a former soldier and companion to Princess Lyrna, residing in his family's old run-down estate.

Vaelin attempted to keep his return to the realm a secret until this point, but he has no choice but to reveal his identity to petition for his sister and their family estate. He meets with King Malcius and his queen, who apparently is not of the Faith, and swears his loyalty to them. He requests the opportunity to search for Brother Frentis, however the well-meaning but weak King Malcius Al Nieren has other ideas, and appoints him Tower Lord of the Northern Reaches. Vaelin is initially tempted to refuse, but the blood song tells him to accept. After he consults with Alornis' master, the famed artist Master Lenial, and brief meetings with Brother Caenis (now Brother Commander), Aspect Tendris al Forne and Aspect Arlyn, they depart for the North, much to the reluctance of Alornis. Along the way, Vaelin reveals the truth about the Trueblade's sword to Reva, telling her he doesn't know where the sword is. He tries to convince her to leave her old ways and join them as a true friend and sister, but her internal conflict overpowers her and she flees, now armed with great skill in combat due to Vaelin's training. Alornis, who grew fond of Reva, is upset about this, but Vaelin soothes over her anger by telling her his complete history, including the details of his blood song and how it instructed him to let her go. In the north, Vaelin proves himself a peacemaker among the many Dark gifted people, despite his reputation and their initial uncertainty and hostility towards him.

We follow Princess Lyrna on her journey as an ambassador to the High Priestess of the Lonak. Her journey opens her eyes to many things, she meets a minion of the One Who Waits and finally finds proof that the Dark exists. However, she has countless more new questions than answers.

Reva, the orphaned daughter of the Trueblade, has been pushed to seek revenge for her father’s death, but after an encounter with Vaelin she begins to question many facts about her life. When she foils an assassination attempt on her estranged uncle, the Fief Lord of Cumbrael, she finally breaks from her past, and finds a family and a future as heir to the Fief Lord.

And finally, Frentis is in fact alive, and finds himself magically enslaved by a mysterious woman on an assassination spree all across the world in preparation for a dark purpose. The purpose is finally revealed when Frentis’s journey ends in the Unified Realm where he is forced to kill King Malcius, triggering the massive invasion of the Realm by the Volarian Empire.

Vaelin learns of the invasion from his Blood Song, and gathers an eclectic army of North Guards, some gifted northerners, Eorhil horsemen, Seordah warriors, the remnants of the Realm Guard, and his old friends and former brothers Caenis and Nortah.

Meanwhile, Princess Lyrna is taken captive by the Volarians like many of her people, but no one knows who she is because her face was badly burned during the initial attack. Thanks to her shrewdness and intelligence, and a surprisingly friendly shark, she escapes to the Meldenean Islands, where she and the Shield destroy the Volarian fleet.

At last Frentis has escaped his magical enslavement, and fights a desperate guerrilla war against the Volarians, during which he finally learns who is the mysterious Aspect of the Seventh Order.

The action culminates at the siege of the Cumbraelin capital Alltor, where Reva fights a desperate defence of the city against the Volarian host. Just as Alltor seems lost, Vaelin and his host, and Princess Lyrna and her Meldenean fleet, arrive and crush the Volarians.

As she walks ashore after the victory, Princess Lyrna is recognised as the new Queen of the Unified Realm. Now all she needs to do is free Asreal from the enemy, deal with the traitorous Renfaelins, and ultimately destroy the Volarian Empire and their ally the One Who Waits. At her side will be the ultimate warrior Vaelin Al Sorna, although he seems to have lost his Blood Song. What could possibly go wrong?

• All of My “Anthony Ryan” Reviews

Lavondyss / DNF (Mythago Wood #2) 2Stars

 

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Title: Lavondyss / DNF
Series: Mythago Wood #2
Author: Robert Holdstock
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 200/325
Words: 84K/137K
Publish: 1988

I wasn’t particularly enjoying this read but wasn’t really hating it either, so I guess I was coasting along, being lazy.

Then one of the characters says to another something along the lines of “Now you’re just talking nonsense” and it suddenly hit me, this entire book is nonsense and the WHOLE idea by Holdstock is nonsense and so I just stopped reading without further ado.

I was wasting my time on utter nonsense and when I realized that, I stopped. Not as good as not starting the nonsense in the first place, but much better than continuing it to the end and allowing it to infest my mind, even if negatively. I’m also giving this book the “garbage” tag because it’s not fun nonsense :-(

The cover is awesome however. I would have picked this book up based on it alone. It’s a real shame such garbage is hiding inside.

★★☆☆☆

From Wikipedia

During her formative years, Tallis encounters the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (not a mythago, but real flesh and blood). Tallis sings him a song that she thinks she has made up herself, but the composer identifies its tune as that of a folk song he has collected personally in Norfolk. Slowly Tallis's links with the wood intensify. She makes ten chthonic wooden masks, each of which represents one of the ten first legends in Ryhope wood. Within the context of the story, these masks are talismans that help to engage certain parts of her subconscious and so link her with the characters and landscapes which are forming within the wood. When properly used (especially later in the book), these masks allow Tallis to see things that cannot be seen without them, and they can also be used to create 'Hollowings' — pathways in space and time which allow her to step into far-off places within the wood which would otherwise take days, weeks, or even months to travel to on foot. Tallis makes the masks in the following order:

1. The Hollower — made from elm, this female mask is painted red and white.

2. Gaberlungi — made from oak and painted white, this mask is known as "memory of the land".

3. Skogen — made from hazel and painted green, this mask is known as "shadow of the forest".

4. Lament — made from willow bark, this simple mask is painted gray.

5. Falkenna — the first of three journey masks is painted like a hawk; this mask is known as "the flight of a bird into an unknown region".

6. Silvering — the second of three journey masks is painted in colored circles; this mask is known as "the movement of a salmon into the rivers of an unknown region". The Silvering is also the name of a short story included in Merlin's Wood.

7. Cunhaval — the third of three journey masks is made from elder wood; this mask is known as "the running of a hunting dog through the forest tracks of an unknown region".

8. Moondream — made from beechwood, this mask is painted with moon symbols on its face. This mask plays a prominent role in The Hollowing.

9. Sinisalo — made from wych elm and painted white and azure, this mask is known as "seeing the child in the land".

10. Morndun — this mask appears dead from the front, but alive from behind and is known as "the first journey of a ghost into an unknown region".

Before setting foot in the wood, Tallis has one particular encounter that has major repercussions through the rest of the story: with the 'help' of one of the mythagos, she 'hollows' (creates a Hollowing) and observes Scathach, a young warrior, dying on a battlefield beneath a tree. Tallis' misdirected magic used to help this young warrior changes both her story and Harry Keeton's story in Ryhope wood.

Deep within Ryhope wood Tallis eventually meets up with Edward Wynne-Jones (human, not mythago) who was only mentioned in Mythago Wood. He is now living in the wood as a shaman to a small village of ancient people. Through his understanding of the wood (which he studied with the scientist George Huxley from the first book), Tallis herself gains an understanding of her connections with all that surrounds her; most importantly, she asks him how she might find her lost brother Harry Keeton

A Kiss Before Dying (Standalone) 1.5Stars

 

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Title: A Kiss Before Dying
Series: ----------
Author: Ira Levin
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 268
Words: 79K
Publish: 1953

I hated almost every second of this book. It was Levin’s debut novel and while his talent was top notch, his choice of material made me sick. We follow the trail of a psychopath as he murders his way through a family because he’s trying to marry into said family for their money. What really set me off was the first murder, where the main character pushes his pregnant girlfriend off of a tall building. That’s when I knew I was in for a bad time.

I think I reacted so strongly against this book because more attention is given to Bud Corliss, the murderer than anything. While some may claim that Levin isn’t glorifying such behavior because Corliss dies at the end, I find that fatuous given that Levin decided to make Bud the main character. It made me sick when we got into Bud’s head.

I regret reading this and I will be assiduously avoiding Levin’s works from here on out.

★✬☆☆☆

From Wikipedia

Burton “Bud” Corliss is a young man with a ruthless drive to rise above his working-class origins to a life of wealth and importance. He serves in the Pacific in World War II, and upon his honorable discharge in 1947 he learns that his father was killed in an automobile accident while he was overseas.

The most pivotal moment in his life occurs during the war, when he first wounds, then kills, a Japanese sniper, who is so terrified that he wets his pants and begs for mercy. Corliss is elated by the total power he holds over the soldier; at the same time, he is disgusted by the man's display of abject terror.

Upon returning to the U.S., he enrolls in college and meets Dorothy Kingship, the daughter of a wealthy copper tycoon. Seeing an opportunity to attain the riches he has always craved, he becomes Dorothy's lover. When she tells him she is pregnant, however, he panics; he is sure that her stern, conservative father will disinherit her. Resolving to get rid of Dorothy, he tricks her into writing a letter that, to an unknowing observer, would look like a suicide note, and then throws her from the roof of a tall building. He runs no risk of getting caught, having urged Dorothy to keep their relationship a secret from her family and friends. He continues to live with his mother, who dotes on him and has no clue as to what he has done.

Corliss lies low for a few months until the press coverage of Dorothy's death has subsided. Then he pursues Dorothy's sister, Ellen, who does not know he was Dorothy's boyfriend. The romance is going according to plan until Ellen begins to probe into Dorothy's death, convinced her sister did not kill herself. Eventually, Ellen uncovers the truth about Corliss and confronts him. Corliss nonchalantly confesses to the crime and kills Ellen as well.

Unfazed by this setback, Corliss courts the last remaining Kingship daughter, Marion. This affair is the most successful; Corliss sweeps her off her feet and charms her father, and soon he and Marion are engaged.

Local college DJ Gordon Gant, who met Ellen during her investigation of Dorothy's death, begins investigating the case, and is immediately suspicious of Corliss. He breaks into Corliss' childhood home and steals a written plan for meeting and seducing Marion to get her family's money. Days before the wedding, he shows up at the Kingship family home and presents Marion and her father with the evidence of Corliss' deception.

Marion, her father, and Gant all corner Corliss during a visit to one of the Kingship family's copper manufacturing plants, threatening to push him into a vat of molten copper unless he confesses his crimes. When they refuse to believe his protestations of innocence, Corliss panics and wets his pants – just as the Japanese soldier, his symbol of pathetic cowardice, had done. He begins to confess, then, delirious with fear and shame, falls to his death in the vat below. The accusers, whose threat was only a bluff, return home in shock. They face the prospect of explaining the incident to Corliss' mother.

Bone Swans 2Stars

 

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Title: Bone Swans
Series: -----
Author: Claire Cooney
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 236
Words: 95K
Publish: 2015

Last year Bookforager reviewed this collection. In her review, she sounded exactly how I felt when I would read a Patricia McKillip book. As McKillip is now dead and will not be writing any more stories, I was hoping that maybe this Cooney girl could pick up the slack. Saying I had high hopes was putting it mildly.

Things got off to a rocky start. There was an introduction by Gene Wolfe, as he knew Cooney. I despise Wolfe’s writings, so when he praises someone, that’s a big old warning sign to me. I knew that biased me so I went into the actual stories determined not to let Wolfe ruin this for me. No fear on that account, Cooney did that all by herself with no help from anyone.

I have described McKillip’s writing as fire and silk, rounded stones in a small brook creating that soothing babbling sound. Her writing was poetry in lyrical form. Cooney had that same poetical format and even I could appreciate it. However, Cooney was rotting granite (if you have ever come into contact with rotting rock, you know how vile it is) in the midst of a swamp of effluent. Every story set my teeth on edge. My back was completely riled. I hated this collection. I’m not going to go into specifics in this review because I don’t want to give any more of my time to even thinking about Cooney. I know nothing about her beyond the introduction by Wolfe and I want to keep it that way.

If you are curious about the book’s contents, read Bookforager’s review. She did an admirable job and I have no hesitation about recommending her review.

★★☆☆☆

From the Publisher & ToC

A swan princess hunted for her bones, a broken musician and his silver pipe, and a rat named Maurice bring justice to a town under fell enchantment. A gang of courageous kids confronts both a plague-destroyed world and an afterlife infested with clowns but robbed of laughter. In an island city, the murder of a child unites two lovers, but vengeance will part them. Only human sacrifice will save a city trapped in ice and darkness. Gold spun out of straw has a price, but not the one you expect.

Introducing C. S. E. Cooney

Life on the Sun

The Bone Swans of Amandale

Martyr’s Gem

How the Milkmaid Struck a Bargain with the Crooked One

The Big Bah-Ha

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

 

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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.

★☆☆☆☆

Death in Ecstasy (Roderick Alleyn #4) 2Stars

 

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Title: Death in Ecstasy
Series: Roderick Alleyn #4
Author: Ngaio Marsh
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 209
Words: 73K

Whereas Rex Stout wrote about an oversexed man with a love cave, in Too Many Clients, and whereas Rex Stout wrote it in such a way as not to be prurient, I am forced to compare yesterday’s book with this one.

Mrs Marsh writes about a love cult that deals in drugs and sex. Mrs Marsh writes pruriently even while not being graphic at all. Mrs Marsh writes about the subject in such a sordid manner that it disgusted me.

There are the two comparisons. I didn’t read or review that way on purpose, it just happened. But I am glad it did. Because it has brought to light just how vile Mrs Marsh is in her writings. There has been something “off” in every book and the comparison brought what it was to light for me. Mrs Marsh seems to delight in writing about evil, almost gleefully and clapping her hands about it, while making sure no one could point to any one particular scene and say “This is graphically vile, you should be ashamed of writing that.”

After four books of things feeling “off” and making this conclusion, I think I am done with the Inspector Alleyn series and with Ngaio Marsh as an author. Not how I wanted things to go, but I refuse to read things that make me feel like these books do.

★★☆☆☆

From Wikipedia

Journalist Nigel Bathgate lets curiosity get the better of him when he decides to attend services at The Temple of the Sacred Flame. He sneaks in and witnesses the ceremony. One of the initiates, Cara Quayne, has been chosen to be the Chosen Vessel. As part of the ritual, Miss Quayne drinks from a goblet of wine, seemingly enters ecstasy and falls down dead.

Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called in to investigate. Nigel relays everything he witnessed. All of the initiates drank from the goblet with Cara Quayne having done so last. Father Garnette blessed the goblet then passed it to the initiates who drank from it with their eyes closed. A partially dissolved scrap of paper is discovered in the goblet, leading Alleyn to believe one of the initiates dropped the cyanide into the goblet in that manner. Moreover, Alleyn finds an old book in Garnette's quarters that opens up to a page on how to make cyanide at home. The book belongs to Samuel Ogden who claims it went missing some days or weeks earlier.

Alleyn's questioning reveals very little. Several initiates have a god complex for Garnette and many are clearly jealous over the attention the wealthy Cara Quayne received from the priest. Miss Ernestine Wade claims she overheard Miss Quayne arguing with someone the afternoon of the murder where Quayne threatened to expose someone. Alleyn suspects this is about some missing bonds Miss Quayne donated to the church but were stolen from the priest's safe.

Alleyn's attention moves toward Maurice Pringle, an initiate who is addicted to drugs. Maurice is in love with fellow initiate Janey Jenkins who befriends Nigel and tells him about Maurice's addiction. She believes Father Garnette is the one responsible. Alleyn begins investigating the finances of the church and learns Ogden has a very large financial stake in the church because he provided most of the founding capital. Garnette receives a certain percentage of the income and M. Raoul de Ravigne receives a much smaller percentage. Cara Quayne's will leaves much of her vast fortune to the Church of the Sacred Flame.

Alleyn arrests Garnette for drug smuggling and Samuel Ogden for murder. Ogden is a well-known figure wanted for drug smuggling and murder in Australia. He has also partaken in a number of schemes such as the Church of the Sacred Flame. He murdered Cara Quayne because she knew he stole the bonds from the priest's safe and also because he would receive the bulk of her estate through his own stake in the church. Ogden was the last person to drink from the goblet during the ceremony, which gave him the most advantageous position to slip the poison into the wine.

Mephisto’s Game (Galaxy's Edge: Tyrus Rechs #4) 2Stars

 

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Title: Mephisto’s Game
Series: Galaxy's Edge: Tyrus Rechs #4
Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Military SF
Pages: 273
Words: 89K

After the end of the Galaxy’s Edge series where the authors unceremoniously just dumped the series to finish it up, I didn’t have high hopes for them at all. But I wanted to give them another chance, sigh.

Well, this was that chance. It wasn’t bad, but it was not good either.

Now, I am absolutely open to the possibility that my disillusionment with the authors has now colored every interaction I have with them (ie, every book I read), but this didn’t feel like what I wanted.

So I’m done with these guys and I am done with the Galaxy’s Edge in any form. I do have a couple more books on my ereader, but I’m simply going to delete them off, wipe this series and add a different one. I’m tired of them continually disappointing me and since I have the power to DO something about that, I will.

★★☆☆☆

From the Publisher

The Hunter Becomes the HuntedThe fearsome bounty hunter Tyrus Rechs has laid a careful trap to kill an elusive and powerful criminal known as Mister Zauro for crimes orchestrated on the planet Detron. But unbeknownst to the bounty hunter, another trap has been laid just as carefully… a trap for Tyrus Rechs himself.
For Zauro is a Lizzaar, and Lizzaar crime lords are not without their defenses.
Rechs is mere moments away from finishing his termination when the counter-trap is triggered. In an instant the tables are turned, the hunter becomes the hunted, and it is Rechs who is on the run as he is battered by an army of mercenaries, assassins, and war bots led by a mysterious and ruthless killer named Mephisto.
Now Tyrus Rechs, the perpetual loner, must rely on a growing group of unlikely allies if he hopes to survive to see the end of… Mephisto’s Game!

• All My "Galaxy's Edge" Reviews

• Galaxy’s Edge: Season Two

• Galaxy's Edge: Season One

• Galaxy's Edge: Tyrus Rechs

• Galaxy's Edge: The Savage Wars

• Galaxy's Edge: Order of the Centurion

• Galaxy's Edge: Dark Operator

False Flag (Jason Trapp #2) 1.5Stars

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Title: False Flag
Series: Jason Trapp #2
Author: Jack Slater
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 362
Words: 114K

---

This was an absolute piece of garbage, trash, whatever word you’d like to refer to it as. I’ll be done with this writer after this.

To give any of those of you who have hung around for awhile a comparison, this reminded me exactly of the Agent Zero series and the Jet series, both of which were also about supposedly super duper secret agents written by authors who obviously don’t know a thing about that subject, and I do mean absolutely nothing about it.

I ended up emailing Fraggle to run some things across her radar to make sure I wasn’t completely out to lunch. I wasn’t. So I’m going to copy/paste the majority of that email to show just how stupid this author this and why a brick wall is smarter than he supposedly is.

---

I didn’t start taking notes until later. I wish I had started from the get-go. But I’ll try to list the chapter, the relevant sentence or sentences in italics and then my question or comment.

I also had a ton more notes after where I leave off, but most of it was around Trapp being wildly inconsistent in his methodology (who he kills, why, etc) that shows he’s not a professional at all. We’re just told that he is. I was getting steamed, again, so figured I’d leave off 😀

Plus a lot more pro-China stuff. The President of the United States would NEVER lower himself to talk to some random ambassador. He’d be on the Red Phone, or whatever color it is, with the General Secretary (ie, China’s president) himself. And this is an instance of the author just not getting the American mindset. Whether it is of Trapp or anyone else, they do not THINK like Americans who are in those positions. It is Hollywood’ized beyond even Hollywood.

Chapter 14: about Trapp

“Maybe he was being irrational, but he couldn’t help it.“

The “best in the business” agent, like Trapp supposedly is, has that kind of feelingzzz trained out of him. He CAN help it, or he would have been dead long before this.

Chapter 23: about Ikeda (female agent)

“Alstyne was her first kill. He deserved it, but the CIA operative was no psychopath. She should have been flown directly to an Agency shrink after completing the operation, for a debrief to check he mental state.”

Is equating killing of any kind with being a psychopath. I can’t even begin to describe how wrong that mindset is. Especially for those in a military/black ops situation.

Killing is part and parcel of an agents job. It is beyond unbelievable that she would have immediately flown back to have her little feelingz coddled. She’d get a 10min exam to make sure she didn’t enjoy it and that would be it. She’d spend more time on paperwork for the poison lipstick. And only a naive idiot in the business would think otherwise. Or an uninformed writer.

Chapter 28: about Trapp arriving in China

“he knew that if America picked a fight with this country, it would be like Germany invading the Soviet Union in 1941, or Napoleon doing the same a hundred and fifty years earlier.”

Choice of the word “picked a fight”. The whole book is pro-China, anti-America and no agent of the United States black ops would even THINK that way.  And numbers aren’t everything. Sure, China has 4 times the US’s population, but 9/10ths of them are still uneducated peasants, because China’s communist party keeps them that way to control them.  We’d kill the leadership and let the country wallow like a ship without a rudder. I’m a civilian and even I know that much military doctrine.

Chapter 39: about Trapp and his boss talking about Ikeda

““Ikeda isn’t the priority,” Mitchell said sharply. “She knew what she was signing up for. Those are the risks in this business.”
Trapp’s fist clenched, and a pang of anger shot through his body. He knew that Mitchell wasn’t saying anything that he himself didn’t believe. Hell, he’d said exactly the same to others many times.
But this, somehow, was different. It wasn’t academic, or cut and dry. He had sent Eliza into that room and hadn’t been able to protect her.
She might have known what she was signing up for. But she couldn’t possibly have expected to have been failed in that way.
This was Trapp’s mess. And he damn well intended to clean it up.“

He obviously doesn’t believe it, otherwise he wouldn’t be “reacting” this way.  He’s no professional. It isn’t different. Every agent can expect to die on a mission, and to be tortured first. Trapp knows this, Ikeda knows this.  And it isn’t Trapp’s job to “protect” Ikeda, she’s a full fledged agent after all. Nor is it his “mess”. His job was to kill the scumbag and recover the info/flash drive. He did both of those. Rescuing Ikeda is a good thing, but it’s not priority, just like his boss says at the beginning. 

Chapter 42:

“”But in all those years, at least since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the real threat had come from terrorists, not nation states.“

And those terrorists were and continue to be, funded by Nation States. It’s a series of proxy wars. 9/11 was funded by the Saudis. Libya trained and funded terrorist cells all during the 70’s and up until Qaddafi died. And a “trained agent” would know this and not make asinine statements like the above. 

★✬☆☆☆

---

From Devilreads.com

Synopsis – click to open

They say revenge is a dish best served cold.
But Jason Trapp is losing his taste for it. For six months, his personal crusade has taken him around the world, mopping up the last of the Bloody Monday conspirators. There’s only one left, and after the crooked financier Emmanuel Alstyne meets his maker, Trapp’s debt will be paid in full. He vows he’s done with the business of death.
Unfortunately, it isn’t done with him.
After a simple kill mission goes sideways in Macau, leaving a CIA spy kidnapped, half a dozen Chinese agents dead, and America’s satellites burning in the skies, Trapp is propelled back into the game. Eliza Ikeda was taken on his watch, and he’s determined to get her back–no matter the cost. The problem is, he has no idea who took her, why, or what they plan to do next.
Trapp knows he’s being played. And with the world’s only two superpowers hurtling toward the precipice of war, time is running out…

ps,
Due to work, my online presence for the next couple of days will be very sporadic.

The Dragon’s Den (The Metaframe War #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 Dragon’s Den
Series: The Metaframe War #3
Author: Graeme Rodaughan
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 219
Words: 85K

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This is where I DNF the series and add Rodaughan to my list of Authors to Avoid

This read exactly like some mindless action video game, with “missions” and “side missions” that don’t make ANY sense if you give them more than a cursory examination.

In the previous book the Leader of the Order of Thoth (one faction of super humans who are fighting against the Vampires) was kidnapped by the Vampires and this book was all about the main characters trying to rescue him.

Once again, the author just doesn’t know how to write effective, mature leaders. The guy who Anton (the main character, The Chosen One) is following is as effective a leader as one of the Minions from the Despicable Me movies.

The Minion in the middle is the “Leader”…

He doesn’t lead, he doesn’t plan, he doesn’t do anything other than say obvious things like “Ok, we have to rescue the boss” or “Ok, we have to attack the vampires”. When Anton goes off the rails, he doesn’t corral him in any way. At the end, when his wife dies, he just gives up and Anton takes over as leader. We’re not talking about some jamoke with an office job here. This is supposed to be a guy who has successfully fought vampires for possibly decades. And he is a complete and utter joke.

In this same area, the other leaders are as much a joke as he is. There is a military guy working for the Vampires who totally gets outsmarted by Anton, in a helicopter duel. Then the kidnapped leader, while being corrupt, is also monumentally stupid and every decision he makes is bad. And finally, a group of Super Assassins from the Red Empire (another faction of super humans fighting the Vampires) are led by a guy who decides that keeping his word to a Vampire General is the thing to do even when she turns him and his entire team into vampires. They literally become the thing they were created to destroy and they don’t instantly kill each other in a death pact? That’s stupid. That’s beyond stupid, it’s 100% asinine.

Now we come to the biggest reason that I am stopping the series. Anton Slayde, the main character. He’s reckless, impulsive, anti-authority, selfish, self-centered, ignorant (which I can forgive, because ALL teenagers are ignorant, it’s why they have to be taught) but worst of all, he’s stupid. He’s beyond even asinine stupid. I’m debating whether it’s worth it to list all the things that led me to that conclusion.

1) His best friend is captured while allowing the rest of the group to escape the clutches of Shadowstone (the human military wing of the Vampires). So Anton insists on rescuing him with no real plan and puts everyone in jeopardy all over again.

2) His “plan” to rescue his friend involves hijacking a super tank and driving around the compound shooting stuff while looking for his friend, forcing the group to back him up or risking him being captured as well.

3) When that rescue doesn’t happen, he decides he still needs to rescue the guy, this time from an armored convoy that has four military equipped helicopters attached to it. He jumps out of the tank and onto the prison truck, once again forcing his team mates to follow or risk him being captured too.

4) All of this happens WHILE the leader of the Order is captured and being interrogated by Vampires. What’s the best way for a Vampire to interrogate a human? To turn him into a vampire of course, which then means his loyalty is now to the Vampires. Does Anton consider ANY of that, at all? Nope. Operational security, secrets, codes, it can all go take a flying leap because Anton has to rescue his friend, WHO VOLUNTEERED KNOWING THIS COULD HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!

5) Anton’s real goal is to kill the Vampire, General Armitage because she killed his parents. He can barely face a regular vampire, but fully expects to just waltz in and kill the most talented Vampire ever? He’s seen her in one fight, where she killed his mentor, who was about 100 times a better fighter than Anton. He has no idea of her style of fighting, her weaknesses or disposition. He knows nothing but is convinced by Plot Armor that he will be The Chosen One, to kill her.

6) I’m getting myself worked up, so I’m just going to stop.

I have a strict “No Stupid People” policy when it comes to the characters I read. I don’t mind if a minor side character is stupid, that just makes them fodder and I’m ok with fodder in my books. But for the main character to be like this, that’s only ok for 12-15 year olds. Anton is not in that age bracket.

The series has been toe’ing that Line of Stupid ever since book one, but it crossed it completely in this book. So I am done. I simply don’t care how the story ends because Plot Armor will overcome everything and I won’t read more Stupid.

★★☆☆☆

---

From the Publisher

Synopsis – click to open

IT’S A TRAP! – Anton Slayne knows it’s a trap. One laid for him by his most powerful opponent – Chloe Armitage, rogue general of the Vampire Dominion.
The chase is on. Agents of the Red Empire and the Vampire Dominion have abducted Ramin Kain, the Head of the Order of Thoth. Anton and the Mirovar force team are the only ones in a position to act. They know Ramin is bait, but have to rescue him before he’s forced to reveal everything he knows to the Order’s sworn enemies.
Will Anton and his friends in the Mirovar force team rescue Ramin Kain, or will Chloe Armitage discover the secrets of the Order of Thoth, destroy the Mirovar force team, and enslave Anton to her will?

Betrayal (Jet #2) 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: Betrayal
Series: Jet #2
Author: Russell Blake
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 238
Words: 75K

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I am a fan of the Bourne movies, not the books. The books are slow and while not technically boring, are not action/thriller books. They are 1980/90’s spy books. I bring this up because in the synopsis it claims that fans of the Bourne trilogy will be delighted by this book. They lied. I was NOT delighted. I wasn’t enthralled. I was not even amused slightly.

Pretty much everything I wrote in my review for Jet (book 1) applies to this one as well.

Jet is not professional. In fact, I might be a better assassin than she is. She’s just lucky. All the time, every time. Even when she’s not, she’s still lucky because she lives and doesn’t die.

Jet is stupid. Plain and simple. This book starts with her heading to the US to kidnap her daughter from the family she was hidden with to protect her from any enemies that Jet has. Does she give ANY thought to the family she is taking her daughter from? Exactly zero fucks were given by Jet about them. As far as I could tell, she didn’t even research who they were, beyond where they lived. Are they good people, are they bad people, are they stable people? None of those questions are asked by Jet because all she wants is her daughter and she doesn’t take even one second to think if she SHOULD take her daughter or what is best for her daughter. It is all about Jet and nobody else.

Jet is too emotional. In fact, Jet reminded me of Agent Zero, in every worst possible way. She regularly jeopardizes whatever current mission she is on because she reacts to circumstances she encounters. She also regularly has emotional outbursts that translate into violence to those around her, with no regard for what those outbursts will lead too. Which in most cases would her being killed, if it weren’t for the author making her so lucky and staying alive (see the first point above).

The action was still awesome. In some ways, it was even better than the first book. But that is not enough.

I will be abandoning this series and I’m going to be avoiding this writer. Someone who writes such stupid people and saves them from their decisions by authorial fiat is not a writer who I want anything to do with. That is bad writing folks, just plain bad writing. There is no need for it and I won’t contribute to its perpetuation any more.

So adios Blake. You’re a wanker, a bad writer and you are making the world a worse place with your subpar crap.

★★☆☆☆

---

From the Publisher
Twenty-eight year old Jet, the former Mossad operative from the eponymous novel JET, must battle insurmountable odds to protect those she loves in a deadly race that stretches from the heartland of Nebraska to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., from the lurid streets of Bangkok to the deadly jungles of Laos and Myanmar. Fans of Kill Bill, The Bourne Trilogy, and 24 will be delighted by this roller-coaster of action, intrigue and suspense.

Drop Shot (Myron Bolitar #2) 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 by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Drop Shot
Series: Myron Bolitar #2
Author: Harlan Coben
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 252
Words: 77K

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Sigh, not the way I wanted to start the month’s reading. First, I won’t be continuing this series or reading any more by this author. For the usual immoral reasons, sigh. It was so flipping checkmark too. Then you had an almost rape scene. While I acknowledge that bad men do very bad things, bringing it into fiction as “entertainment” isn’t right. Finally, Myron lets a murderer kill herself to cover up what she did because she’s the mother of his big client and it would destroy his client and he (Bolitar) would lose all the money from being his agent. There are times I can see letting someone get away with murder, I really can. But not for a base motive like money. So all those things coming together made this a very unpleasant read.

★☆☆☆☆

---

From Wikipedia

A young woman is shot in cold blood, her lifeless body dumped outside the stadium at the height of the US Open. At one point, her tennis career had skyrocketed. Now headlines were being made by a different young player from the wrong side of the tracks.

When Myron Bolitar investigates the killing, he uncovers a connection between the two players and a six-year-old murder at an exclusive club. Suddenly, Myron is in over his head. And with a dirty senator, a jealous mother, and the mob all drawn into the case, he finds himself playing the most dangerous game of all.

• All My “Harlan Coben” Reviews

The Expanding Universe #1 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 by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Expanding Universe #1
Series:
Editor: Craig Martelle
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 432
Words: 178K

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Where do I even start? That’s the thought that kept running through my head as I waded through this pile of utter drek. Every new story would bring me hope that maybe “this” writer would write a good story and then the first paragraph would show me they were just as much a talentless hack as the previous writers.

I had seen Martelle’s name in the Larry Correia collection No Game for Knights. I am always on the lookout for SF anthologies of short stories and thought I’d give this a try. It was a big mistake.

My first clue to the impending disaster to come was the big fat inclusion of Michael Anderle’s name on the front cover. He wrote the introduction. If you don’t know, Anderle is a whore who writes bad space vampire fiction and will put his name on anything, written by anybody. He has no talent, no shame and no limits. But he just wrote the introduction I reasoned, I can’t blame the other authors for that. I do now.

This was published in 2016, and Martelle hadn’t written anything on his own before ‘16 as well. He’s one of those turn and churn authors. But even a mediocre author can be a decent editor, or so I thought. Martelle also belongs to an organization of Indie Writers who support each other. Apparently, what that means is that if one of them edits an anthology, they will automatically include stories from other writers in the organization, no matter how terrible or badly written those stories might be. Martelle could have gone to any Science Fiction forum on the internet, copy/pasted some of the fan fic on there and he couldn’t possible have done a worse job than he did with these stories.

Another issue was that almost all of these stories took place in existing universes or storylines of the writers and were not standalone stories at all. They were prequels, sequels, side stories, to already established storylines and were nothing more than advertisements by the writers waving their wares obnoxiously in my face. Over half of these had some sort of “and if you want to find out how the story resolves, read the writers other books”. That really got my goat.

Another issue is that many of these stories were not actually science fiction. They were modern dramas set on a spaceship or had some fantasy element. Putting a spaceship into a story doesn’t automatically make it a science fiction story. I’m afraid that all of these authors do not understand that very fundamental concept and I’m also afraid that they will never learn it. Because they are all chowderheads with no talent.

The lack of skill here was atrocious. I mentioned internet forum fan fiction early and this is that level of writing. These stories are the things you write when you are practicing to learn the very basic basic of writing. None of these stories should have seen the light of day. Some were definitely better than others, but not a single one of them deserved to be in print. There’s a reason these writers belong to that organization that Martelle belongs to.

Then you had the moral content. I knew going in that since this was published in 2016, that the chances of at least one of these authors would be some woke dill head pushing a perverted agenda was high. I made it almost to the end and was pleasantly surprised that perversion hadn’t reared its ugly head when bam. Sho’ nuff, one writer just had to add it to their story, for no apparent reason either. It was the literal expression of “check box” writing.

Finally, I want to highlight the worst two of the stories here.
Taken for a Walk describes itself thusly:

“The short story that follows is Justin’s teaser for a novel he hopes to one day write in what he thinks will be something like Alien meets The Matrix meets Braveheart. The short story is at times silly, but leads into a very serious moment and situation”

The only good thing about this story was that I think it was the shortest of the collection. It was just plain bad.

Worlds Revealed has this for its intro:

“This is a brand new story in the Alpha Alien Abduction Tales series. It starts out with the couples we know from the first two books in the series, Worlds Away and Worlds Collide. But it quickly goes back to the summer of 1947 when a spaceship crashed in Roswell, New Mexico. Venay’s grandfather was the Commander of the ship that was involved in that nightmare. But it wasn’t the V’Zenians, or even the Zateelians, who crashed on Earth! You can expect to learn the true story of the Roswell Aliens, and who they really were.”

When I read that intro, I immediately made a note in my kindle along the lines of “Frak No!” Aliens abduct human women, use their mind powers to make them fall in love with them and then marry and mate them. Just for the record, the author is a woman. This is not some man’s fantasy, it’s a woman’s fantasy.

To end, I had several of these collections lined up, but after this Titanic level of reading disaster, I’m dumping them like a pile of nuclear waste.

★☆☆☆☆

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Table of Contents

Click to Open

• Fear Peace – Craig Martelle
• Taken for a Walk Justin Sloan
• Fall to Earth TJ Ryan
• Blue Eyed Devil Spencer Pierson
• Those Who Breathe Under the End James Osiris Baldwin
• Pilgrim Andrew Dobell
• DROP Andrew Broderick
• Worlds Revealed J.L. Hendricks
• Within a Phrygian Sky Jim Johnson
• And the Kat Came Back RJ Crayton
• The Signal and the Boys Felix R. Savage
• Smuggler for Hire Bradford Bates
• Light in the Dark H.J. Lawson
• Origins of the Gemini Project E.R. Starling
• An Attitude Adjustment Taki Drake
• The Iron and the Mud James Aaron
• The Last Human: Fire of Truth E.E. Isherwood
• New Beginnings Paul C. Middleton

The Woman in White 1Star DNF@10%

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 Woman in White
Series: ———-
Author: Wilkie Collins
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars / DNF@10%
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 900 / 90
Words: 246K / 25K

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If you read the synopsis down below, you’ll see this sounds like a great story and I would fully agree with you.

But Collins writing and his choice of characters is beyond what I can stand. Hartright is another young spineless jellyfish and the prose is purple enough that I immediately thought of The Boy and the Peddler of Death, a book I excoriated back in ‘15. There was NO WAY I was going to force myself to read 810 more pages of this drivel.

This one star rating is not for the story at all. I almost feel bad in fact because I think the story could have been really interesting and something I would have loved. But this Rating is Bookstooge’s Final Judgement on Wilkie Collins. He has been judged, found wanting and I assign him to the dreaded Authors to Avoid limbo where he will languish until I die, knowing he was a complete failure. Writhe in agony you miserable excrescence on the literary world, for one day you will be completely forgotten and nobody will have to suffer dealing with your complete tripe anymore.

★☆☆☆☆ DNF@10%

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From Wilkie-Collins.info

Click to Open

Walter Hartright, a young drawing master, has secured a position in Cumberland on the recommendation of his old friend Professor Pesca, a political refugee from Italy. While walking home from Hampstead on his last evening in London, Hartright meets a mysterious woman dressed in white, apparently in deep distress. He helps her on her way but later learns that she has escaped from an asylum. The next day he travels north to Limmeridge House. The household comprises Mr Frederick Fairlie, a reclusive valetudinarian; Laura Fairlie, his niece; and Marian Halcombe, her devoted half-sister. Hartright finds that Laura bears an astonishing resemblance to the woman in white, called Anne Catherick. The simple-minded Anne had lived for a time in Cumberland as a child and was devoted to Laura’s mother, who first dressed her in white.

Hartright and Laura fall in love. Laura, however, has promised her late father that she will marry Sir Percival Glyde, and Marian advises Walter to leave Limmeridge. Anne Catherick, after sending a letter to Laura warning her against Glyde, meets Hartright who is convinced that Glyde was responsible for shutting her in the asylum. Laura and Glyde marry in December 1849 and travel to Italy. Hartright also leaves England, joining an expedition to Honduras.

After their honeymoon, Sir Percival and Lady Glyde return the following June to his family estate in Hampshire, Blackwater Park. They are accompanied by Glyde’s friend, Count Fosco, who married Laura’s aunt, Eleanor Fairlie. Marian Halcombe is also living at Blackwater and learns that Glyde is in financial difficulties. Sir Percival unsuccessfully attempts to bully Laura into signing a document which would allow him to use her marriage settlement of £20,000. Marian now realises that Fosco is the true villain and is plotting something more sinister, especially as Anne has reappeared, promising to reveal to Laura a secret which will ruin Glyde. Marian eavesdrops on Fosco and Glyde but is caught in the rain. She collapses with a fever which turns to typhus. While she is ill Laura is tricked into travelling to London. Her identity and that of Anne Catherick are then switched. Anne Catherick dies of a heart condition and is buried in Cumberland as Laura, while Laura is drugged and placed in the asylum as Anne Catherick. When Marian recovers and visits the asylum hoping to learn something from Anne Catherick, she finds Laura, supposedly suffering from the delusion that she is Lady Glyde.

Marian bribes the attendant and Laura escapes. Hartright has safely returned and the three live together in obscure poverty, determined to restore Laura’s identity. Exposing the conspiracy depends on proving that Laura’s journey to London took place after the date on the death certificate. While looking for evidence, Hartright discovers Glyde’s secret. Several years earlier, Glyde had forged the marriage register at Old Welmingham Church to conceal his illegitimacy. Glyde attempts to destroy the register entry, but the church vestry catches fire and he perishes in the flames. Hartright then discovers that Anne was the illegitimate child of Laura’s father, which accounts for their resemblance.

Hartright hopes that Pesca can identify Fosco but to his surprise finds that the Count is terrified when he recognises Pesca as a fellow member of a secret society. Hartright now has the power to force a written confession from Fosco and Laura’s identity is restored. Hartright and Laura have married and, on the death of Frederick Fairlie, their son becomes the Heir of Limmeridge.

• All of My “Wilkie Collins” Reviews

Cthulhu’s Daughter and Other Horror Stories 1Star DNF@50%

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: Cthulhu’s Daughter and Other Horror Stories
Series:
Author: Rhiannon Frater
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars /DNF@50%
Genre: Horror
Pages: 103 / 52
Words: 35K / 18K

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I was going to add this to the Cthulhu Anthology series, but once I opened this up and found only the first story was Cthulhu related, I put paid to that.

The rest of what I read was so wrapped up in mommy issues that I wondered why the author hadn’t sought out professional help. It was that bad.

Then I got to the lesbian vampire story and that put paid to the book. I wasn’t sad about stopping, that’s for sure.

★☆☆☆☆

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Table of Contents

Click to Open

The Old Ones / Cthulhu’s Daughter

The Monster with the Human Face

The Vampires

The Werewolves

The Mummy

The Zombies

The Monsters from Beyond