To Green Angel Tower (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #3) 5Stars

 

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

Title: To Green Angel Tower
Series: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #3
Author: Tad Williams
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 1374
Words: 532K
Publish: 1993

Well, THAT was a chunkster of a book and I loved every second of it too. You know you’ve hit gold when you can read over 1300 pages and enjoy it all. This was slow paced but well done and I was never bored. It really helped my mindset knowing I had no other books to read and review for the rest of January. I just read this when I felt like it and let it soak into me, like a fine mist.

I had also forgotten the “catch”. I knew that there was a catch, but I just couldn’t remember what it was until it was revealed. Man, re-reading is great! By the by, the catch is that Ineluki (the disembodied spirit who is the villain) is going to possess King Elias’s body and rule Osten Ard eternally. He needed the 3 swords to complete the ritual, hence the prophecy about gathering the 3 Swords, and hence the name of this trilogy.

Everything comes together in the last 100-200 pages. Which considering the page count overall, is really rushing things at the end. At the same time, 200 pages is almost a full novel by itself, so it’s not really rushed at all. It was a very odd juxtaposition to be in. Feeling rushed and yet realizing it wasn’t rushed one tiny bit. I also liked how Williams focused on the emotions of his various characters near the end and how Simon’s decision (Simon has been one of the main male protagonists from the beginning) to NOT hate Ineluku helped bring about Ineluki’s downfall. In modern Yugioh parliance, The Power of Friendship wins the day, hahahahahaa.

Overall though, this whole trilogy was never about the ending, but about the journey getting to that ending. I guess you have to be in a certain mindset to truly appreciate this trilogy and I got lucky enough to be there this time around and loved every second, every meandering side quest, etc. One more thing I liked this time is that knowing there is now more Osten Ard related stories, I paid attention to some of the details about the elder races and I hope that pays off when I read those books. The Niskies, the Dwarrows, the Navigator’s Children, they held the promise of more and were not just one off names, because I know there is more to come. That aspect really made this a fuller reading than my previous times. I also suspect that once I read the later (and newer) Osten Ard books that when I inevitably re-read this trilogy again I’ll be able to appreciate small things in a whole new light. I pity people who don’t re-read, because they’ll never get to have an experience like that. Sure, they will read more new-to-them books, but my reading experience will be deeper, fuller and more satisfying. What more can you ask for?

Finally, I’d like to talk about the cover and the artwork. To Green Angel Tower was released in hardback and it had wraparound art. When it was released in paperback, it was too big and had to be split into two volumes, hence you’ll sometimes see TGAT Part I or Part II. Each of those paperbacks had one half of the original cover, which I think is great, because how many of us turn our books around to see the cover going all the way around? Not me! But the cover I chose as my featured image only shows one half of the hardcover. Michael Whelan is the artist and man, can he do drawings or what? The first picture is the original hardcover in all its wraparound glory. The characters on the left are Simon and Miriamelle (who are the young protagonists of the series) and on the right we have Jiriki and his sister Aditu, who are Sithi (elves, kind of) who help the humans against Ineluki, who was once a Sithi himself.

This second picture is the original artwork by Whelan and is for sale on his website. I have actually given some serious thought about buying the whole trilogy but $200 is something I need to give some thought to and not buy spur of the moment.

And with that, I bid you adieu until tomorrow’s post which will feature more wonderful cover love :-D

★★★★★

From Wikipedia

The story begins with the forces of Prince Josua Lackhand rallied at the Stone of Farewell, where the icy hand of the Storm King Ineluki has yet to take a deathgrip on the land. The remaining members of the League of the Scroll have also gathered at the Stone in hopes of unraveling an ancient prophecy. If deciphered, it could reveal to Josua and his army the only means of striking down the unslayable Storm King.

After Simon/Seoman Snowlock and Binabik have their reunion, they come to the realization that Memory – one of the three Great Swords recognized as being key to defeating the Storm King – is one and the same with Bright-Nail, old King John’s sword that was buried with him not three years previously. The trouble is, the grave of King John Presbyter lies in the shadow of the Hayholt, the stronghold of King Elias, and between the Stone of Farewell and Hayholt marches the army Elias has sent to besiege the defenders.

Meanwhile, Miriamele, Elias’s daughter who has joined Josua’s cause, is an unhappy prisoner on the ship of a lascivious and ambitious lordling to whom she has surrendered her virtue knowing only too late of his true nature. Another princess, Maegwin of Hernystir, falls deeper into madness, leading her people in a seemingly futile resistance against Elias’s allies who have conquered her kingdom, and deep in the ancient forest of Aldheorte, the immortal Sithi are mustering for a final conflict.

While Josua and his army must make a final stand to try to delay the forces of King Elias, Simon embarks upon a quest to Hayholt Castle to try to obtain the last of the three legendary swords and use their hidden magics to defeat The Storm King Ineluki and restore peace to Osten Ard once and for all.

• To Green Angel Tower (2003 Review)

• To Green Angel Tower (2011 Review)

Dune (Dune Chronicles #1) 5Stars

 

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

Title: Dune
Series: Dune Chronicles #1
Author: Frank Herbert
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 604
Words: 206K
Publish: 1965

Technically, this is the Deluxe Edition released in 2019. I did a “Book Catch” post when I received it for Christmas the year after it was released. The reasons it is “deluxe” is because it has new (delicious!) cover art, some maps and stuff and then some blatherings by Herbert’s son Brian. Brian has blathered on in other previous editions of Dune, mainly because he’s not man enough to write something successful like Dune so he’s getting by on daddy’s coat tails. In the older editions, Brian did an “Afterwards” where he self-promoted the new Dune stuff he and that no-good lousy pathetic Kevin J Anderson co-wrote along with teasing about Dune 7, the mythical book Frank was going to write to finish up the Dune Chronicles, but died before that happened. Baby Herbert and KJ(ack)A(ss) wrote Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune and both sucked donkieballz. I compared this “new” Forward to that older Afterwards and the only difference is that Baby Herbert adds a paragraph talking about the upcoming new Dune movies (Dune: Part I and Dune: Part II) as well as various games coming (Dune Imperium I believe, which Spalanz has talked about extensively) out soon. What a fething loser, can’t even write a new Foreward, how pathetic is that?

And enough of that! Onward to the good stuff.

This is my fourth “Official” read through of Dune. Down at the end of the review, under my avatar, you’ll see links to the previous three reviews. However, like many of my favorite books here on my blog, I read and re-read this book many times before I started recording my reviews. I think I was 14 or 15 when I first read Dune. I saw a paperback at the library and it had the atrocious movie cover of the 1984 movie, but to teenager me, it looked awesome (and while I abominate that movie as a “Dune” movie, I like it well enough on its own) and when I read it, the scope just blew me away. Then when I was a bit older I found out the library had the rest of the Dune Chronicles in hardcover and I devoured them, even while not necessarily understanding all that was going on. But based on my reading habits as a teen, I suspect I read Dune three times between 1993 and 2000, which is when I began recording when I read books. So this is probably my 7^th time reading it, possibly my 8^th and I still love it and think it is a complete and utter 5star book. It doesn’t get much better than this.

This is not an action book. There is the fight scene between Paul and Jamis when Paul and his mother are escaping to the desert and the dubious safety of the Fremen, but it is no more than a couple of paragraphs. There is also the fight scene near the end of the book between Paul and his cousin Feyd-Rautha Harkonnon but once again, only a couple of paragraphs long. Any of the battle scenes between the Fremen and smugglers or the Sardakaur are only given the broad brushstroke treatment. If you read much of Herbert, you will come to discover that he doesn’t like action scenes. He prefers things to happen off page and then just state that they happened. That proclivity isn’t as apparent here, but the roots of that mindset are shown for those who are looking. I’ve noted that before, but I think it bears proclaiming because of how the damnable new movies show the stories. There is lots of action shown in those that are simply glossed over in the book. Dune is not a simple adventure story.

I hesitate to say the following, and I’ll explain why after. Dune is a thinking man’s story. I don’t like saying that because it smacks of literary snobbery and the kind of people who think absolute garbage writing is the best. I despise literary types, who wouldn’t know a good story if it grabbed them by the throat and choked them to death. To them, the story is the least important part of a book. A “good” book is one that either preaches what they are preaching, or is one that they can shoehorn in their own despicable baby killing world view and try to destroy everything good and decent. They are the kind of people who read a book and then try to tell everyone “what it really means” no matter what is patently obvious or even stated by the author himself. They are the militant vegetarians of the book world. But vegetarians have some very good points to make when it comes to health and it would behoove most Americans to listen to them more. And thus it is with Frank Herbert and Dune. The story is a good story AND Herbert brings up many different aspects of humanity and sets forth his thoughts on the issues. It’s not that he’s baldly pontificating and denigrating everyone who disagrees with him, but he’s putting forth ideas and letting the reader decide how deep they want to follow that rabbit trail he has exposed to their view. Herbert won’t be put into just one box.

He doesn’t do this through just one avenue of thought, but through a multiplicity of story ideas. You have the government of the Landsraad and the Imperial House. You have the Bene Gesserit and their breeding program for the next step of human evolution. You have the Fremen and the Sardakaur as objects of war, both secular and religious. You have prophetic visions on one hand and manipulations of the space/time continuum on the other in the Spacing Guild. Paul himself brings most of these ideas into himself and we are given little hints that he is cogitating some very deep things, things which Herbert doesn’t write about in this book.

Each time I read Dune I have to decide if I’ll continue the Chronicles or treat it as a standalone. It really changes how you view this book depending on which option you go with. When I last read this in 2017, I stated that I wanted to read Dune as a standalone from then on. I can understand why I wrote that. It is very hard to start reading the Chronicles and not finish, as the story keeps pulling you deeper and deeper into the mythos. The problem is that it leads you into the horrendous finale by Frank’s son (the aforementioned Dune 7 duology linked in the first paragraph above) and nothing is worth that, absolutely nothing. Now, Frank did write a trilogy for Dune. Dune, Dune Messiah and then Children of Dune. God Emperor of Dune is a pivot point in the series and heads the reader off into a much broader scope of a story, for good or ill is up to you to decide. This time around I’m thinking I’ll read the trilogy, as I’ve never done that before.

This book is over 600 pages, but that is because there is a glossary and several appendixes. I HIGHLY recommend reading those and not skipping them. In fact, you might want to keep your finger in the glossary section so you can look up terms, names and places when you come across them in the story and don’t understand them. Do be aware, if you do that, there will be spoilers. Reading these is a good refresher course for any Dune lover and whether this is your first time or your eighth, you can’t go wrong with reading the them.

Finally, the cover to the Deluxe Edition. I love it, period. I can already tell this is going to be the cover love choice for December. It is as inevitable as Paul Muad’dib’s jihad ;-)

★★★★★

From Wikipedia

Duke Leto Atreides of House Atreides, ruler of the ocean world Caladan, is assigned by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to serve as fief ruler of the planet Arrakis. Although Arrakis is a harsh and inhospitable desert planet, it is of enormous importance because it is the only planetary source of melange, or the "spice", a unique and incredibly valuable substance that extends human youth, vitality and lifespan. It is also through the consumption of spice that Spacing Guild Navigators are able to effect safe interstellar travel through a limited ability to see into the future. The Emperor is jealous of the Duke's rising popularity in the Landsraad, the council of Great Houses, and sees House Atreides as a potential rival and threat. He conspires with House Harkonnen, the former stewards of Arrakis and the longstanding enemies of the Atreides, to destroy Leto and his family after their arrival. Leto is aware his assignment is a trap of some kind, but is compelled to obey the Emperor's orders anyway.

Leto's concubine Lady Jessica is an acolyte of the Bene Gesserit, an exclusively female group that pursues mysterious political aims and wields seemingly superhuman physical and mental abilities, such as the ability to control their bodies down to the cellular level, and also decide the sex of their children. Though Jessica was instructed by the Bene Gesserit to bear a daughter as part of their breeding program, out of love for Leto she bore him a son, Paul. From a young age, Paul is trained in warfare by Leto's aides, the elite soldiers Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck. Thufir Hawat, the Duke's Mentat (human computers, able to store vast amounts of data and perform advanced calculations on demand), has instructed Paul in the ways of political intrigue. Jessica has also trained her son in Bene Gesserit disciplines.

Paul's prophetic dreams interest Jessica's superior, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. She subjects Paul to a deadly test. She holds a poisoned needle, the gom jabbar, to his neck, ready to strike should he withdraw his hand from a box which creates extreme pain by nerve induction but causes no physical damage. This is to test Paul's ability to endure the pain and override his animal instincts, proving that he is, in Bene Gesserit eyes, human. Paul passes, enduring greater pain than any woman has ever been subjected to in the test.

Paul and his parents travel with their household to occupy Arrakeen, the capital on Arrakis. Leto learns of the dangers involved in harvesting the spice, which is protected by giant sandworms, and seeks to negotiate with the planet's indigenous Fremen people, seeing them as a valuable ally rather than foes. Soon after the Atreides' arrival, Harkonnen forces attack, joined by the Emperor's ferocious Sardaukar troops in disguise. Leto is betrayed by his personal physician, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, who delivers a drugged Leto to the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his twisted Mentat, Piter De Vries.

Yueh, who delivered Leto under duress, arranges for Jessica and Paul to escape into the desert. Duncan is killed helping them flee, and they are subsequently presumed dead in a sandstorm by the Harkonnens. Yueh replaces one of Leto's teeth with a poison gas capsule, hoping Leto can kill Baron Harkonnen during their encounter. Piter kills Yueh, and the Baron narrowly avoids the gas (due to his defensive shield), which kills Leto, Piter, and the others in the room. The Baron forces Thufir to take over Piter's position by dosing him with a long-lasting, fatal poison and threatening to withhold the regular antidote doses. While he follows the Baron's orders, Thufir works secretly to undermine the Harkonnens.

Having fled into the desert, Paul is exposed to high concentrations of spice and has visions through which he realizes he has significant powers (as a result of the Bene Gesserit breeding scheme). He foresees potential futures in which he lives among the Fremen before leading them on a holy war across the known universe. Paul reveals that Jessica's father is Baron Harkonnen, a secret kept from her by the Bene Gesserit.

Paul and Jessica traverse the desert in search of Fremen people. After being captured by a Fremen band, Paul and Jessica agree to teach the Fremen the Bene Gesserit fighting technique known to the Fremen as the "weirding way" and are accepted into the community of Sietch Tabr. Paul proves his manhood by killing a Fremen man named Jamis in a ritualistic crysknife fight and chooses the Fremen name Muad'Dib, while Jessica opts to undergo a ritual to become a Reverend Mother by drinking and neutralizing the poisonous Water of Life. Pregnant with Leto's daughter, she inadvertently causes her unborn daughter Alia to become infused with the same powers in the womb. Paul takes a Fremen lover, Chani, who bears him a son he names Leto.

Two years pass, and Paul's powerful prescience manifests, which confirms to the Fremen that he is their prophesied "Lisan al-Gaib" messiah, a legend planted by the Bene Gesserit's Missionaria Protectiva. Paul embraces his father's belief that the Fremen could be a powerful fighting force to take back Arrakis, but also sees that if he does not control them, their jihad could consume the entire universe. Word of the new Fremen leader reaches both the Baron and the Emperor as spice production falls due to their increasingly destructive raids. The Baron encourages his brutish nephew Glossu "Beast" Rabban to rule with an iron fist, hoping the contrast with his shrewder nephew Feyd-Rautha will make the latter popular among the people of Arrakis when he eventually replaces Rabban. The Emperor, suspecting the Baron of trying to create troops more powerful than the Sardaukar to seize power, sends spies to Arrakis. Thufir uses the opportunity to sow seeds of doubt in the Baron about the Emperor's true plans, putting further strain on their alliance.

Gurney, who survived the Harkonnen coup and became a smuggler, reunites with Paul and Jessica after a Fremen raid on his harvester. Believing Jessica to be a traitor, Gurney threatens to kill her but is stopped by Paul. Paul did not foresee Gurney's attack and concludes he must increase his prescience by drinking the Water of Life, which is fatal to males. Paul falls into unconsciousness for three weeks after drinking the poison, but when he wakes, he has clairvoyance across time and space: he is the Kwisatz Haderach, the ultimate goal of the Bene Gesserit breeding program.

Paul senses the Emperor and the Baron are amassing fleets around Arrakis to quell the Fremen rebellion, and prepares the Fremen for a major offensive. The Emperor arrives with the Baron on Arrakis. The Sardaukar seize a Fremen outpost, killing many, including young Leto, while Alia is captured and taken to the Emperor. Under cover of an electric storm, which shorts out the Sardaukar's defensive shields, Paul and the Fremen, riding giant sandworms, destroy the capital's natural rock fortifications with atomics and attack, while Alia assassinates the Baron and escapes. The Fremen quickly defeat both the Harkonnen and Sardaukar troops, killing Rabban in the process. Thufir is ordered to assassinate Paul, who gives him the opportunity to take anything that Thufir wishes of him. Thufir chooses to stab himself with the poisoned needle intended for Paul.

Paul faces the Emperor, threatening to destroy spice production forever unless Shaddam abdicates the throne. Feyd-Rautha challenges Paul to a knife fight, during which he cheats and tries to kill Paul with a poison spur in his belt. Paul gains the upper hand and kills him. The Emperor reluctantly cedes the throne to Paul and promises his daughter Princess Irulan's hand in marriage. Paul takes control of the Empire, but realizes that he cannot stop the Fremen jihad, as their belief in him is too powerful to restrain.

• Dune (2011 Review)

• Dune (2016 Review)

• Dune (2017 Review)

Servant of the Dragon (Lord of the Isles #3) 3Stars

 

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

Title: Servant of the Dragon
Series: Lord of the Isles #3
Author: David Drake
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 573
Words: 206K
Publish: 1999

A magical tour-de-force where the adventures never stop. Thankfully, the group isn’t quite as broken up as in Queen of Demons, but man, they do stay apart right up until the very end.

This time it’s a cabal of old time’y wizards who have imprisoned their master and are using the mummified remains of a non-human wizard to power everything. For guys who are powerful enough to raise islands, animate the dead and bridge the multiverse, they are dumb as bricks. Several of them pretty much die from just standing there and looking dumb while guys with swords are running at them, with the obvious intent to kill them. They really weren’t characters in the story, just levers to make the plot clunk along :-D

I think these would have been better novels if Drake had cut them down to about 300+ pages. Get rid of one or two adventures and cut out the “Back in Barka’s Hamlet we….” schtick that every character goes through in every single chapter and easy peasy. It would also help hide the fact that Drake has deliberately made each character a non-character. I’m sure it makes them easier to write, but my goodness, it gets wearing.

I did enjoy this, because like I said, the adventures are non-stop and I was never bored. However, I am glad to stop this for a bit and start reading the Dracula Files again. Aye yi yi, the words that come out of my mouth sometimes….

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

In the introduction, seven wizards use a mummified reptilian creature to cast a spell to raise Yole from the depths. Meanwhile, the main characters are in Valles, where a magical blue bridge has appeared where there hasn't been a bridge for hundreds of years. Upon seeing it Tenoctris ascertains that while it is dangerous, it is not associated with the evil Throne of Malkar. While investigating the bridge and the mysterious happenings associated with it, a massive bird appears, snatches up Sharina, and disappears with her.

Cashel immediately determines to find Sharina and rescue her. Tenoctris uses her art and determines that whoever sent the bird to kidnap Sharina means her no harm. She sends Cashel to Landure, a wizard on another plane who can help him. Cashel arrives next to an ajar door; a beautiful woman rushes out, pursued by an angry wizard. Cashel fights the wizard, using his quarterstaff, and kills him. The woman, Colva, takes Cashel to Landure's castle where she puts him into a drug-induced stupor through which he discovers that she is actually a demoness. When Cashel recovers, he returns to the body of the wizard, who was in actuality Landure. Cashel discovers that Landure's sapphire ring contains a powerful demon, named Krias. Krias informs Cashel that he must take a small wafer from Landure's body which can be used to animate a new body and bring Landure back—but he must travel through the Underworld to reach Landure's extra bodies. Cashel takes Krias with him. Eventually Cashel reaches the entrance to the third level of the underworld where Colva originally stayed. While there, Cashel eats some of the fruit of the Tree of Life. At Krias' suggestion, Chashel puts one of the fruit in his satchel. Cashel comes to Landure's castle where he puts the wafer under the tongue of one of the paintings of Landure. Cashel gives Krias back to Landure. When Landure begins insulting Cashel, Krias refuses to serve him anymore, prompting Landure to give Krias back to Cashel. In exchange for his freedom from the sapphire, Krias helps Cashel to cross the Chasm and reach Sharina.

Garric, Liane, and Tenoctris stay in Valles to deal with the problem of the bridge. Garric also faces possible rebellion from several lords and bickering among others. Hoping to kill two birds with one stone, Garric assigns Lord Tadai to be ambassador to Sandrakkan. Garric has several dreams about Klestis, a city destroyed at the same time Yole was, and the wizard, Ansalem. Ansalem possessed many objects of power, including a mummy of a reptilian creature, a foot-wide fossilized ammonite, and a powerful amphisbaena. King Carus reveals that he once sought Ansalem's help in unifying the isles, but Ansalem refused. Ansalem had seven acolytes (the most dangerous of which was Purlio) who used the ammonite to imprison him while he was weak after rescuing Klestis from the destruction of Yole. Anselm reveals that he has nothing to do with the bridge, but if he can get his amphisbaena back, he can repair it. Tenoctris determines that she needs to visit a wizard named Alman and borrow his viewing crystal. Katchin the Miller, who raised Cashel, appears begging Garric for a job, but Garric turns him away (and he is later captured by Colva). Tenoctris takes them to the end of time. They find Alman in a ruined city and he discovers that his viewing crystal has been stolen from him. The group returns to their own time, leaving Alman in his solitude. After spending a few days tending to matters of state in Valles, Garric receives news that his uncle has helped someone to kidnap Tenoctris. Garric and some of the Blood Eagles cross through a portal to ancient Klestris, to retrieve her but are thwarted. Before returning to Valles, they rescue a woman who claims that she is Colva, wife of Landure, the Guardian, and warns them that seven necromancers intend to do battle with them. She opines that they have kidnapped Tenoctris in order to sacrifice her and increase their own magical powers. At midnight they cross the bridge which showed up at the beginning of the story, to attack the seven necromancers on Klestis. They are confronted with an army of undead under the control of three necromancers, whom they slay. They find Tenoctris unconscious in Ansalem's chambers. Purlio and another of the acolytes are casting spells on her. Purlio takes the fossil ammonite and merges it with himself, replacing his head with it. Armies of undead begin entering Klestis, coming across bridges similar to the one that first set these events in motion.

Ilna determines that she can be of no further help in Valles, so she negotiates passage to Sandrakkan with Lord Tadai. Ilna reluctantly makes friends with Lord Tadai's niece, Merota. The first night on the ship, Ilna and a tough-looking sailor named Chalcus, witness the beginnings of a mutiny. Ilna tries to warn the captain and Lord Tadai of the imminent mutiny, but they ignore her. The mutiny takes place, as Ilna had warned, and the sailors put everyone except Merota and Ilna ashore on an island. Eventually they arrive at Yole and put ashore. That night they are attacked by a monster. Frightened, the sailors put Ilna, Merota, and Chalcus ashore to reconnaissance. In the interior of the island they discover a harbor bordered by a polis full of reanimated dead people. As they watch, a swarm of Great Ones tow their now-empty ships into the harbor. As they make their way around the island, a creature called the Tall Thing (which was once Ansalemn's child) kidnaps Merota. While pursuing it, Ilna is captured by a wizard named Ewis (one of Ansalem's apprentices) who has the Lens of Rushila. In trying to escape, Ilna releases the Tall Thing which kills and eats Ewis. They meet back up with Chalcus and make their way to the harbor. There they discover that the crews of their ships have been murdered and then reanimated. They flee and spend the night in a cavern. They come to a chasm with a bridge which takes them to a frozen Klestis. There they find Purlio (with his ammonite head) performing incantations using the Dragon. A second necromancer attacks them with three ice beetles. Chalcus defeats the ice beetles while Ilna subdues the necromancer long enough for Merota to bash in his head with a rock. Then they attack Purlio.

Sharina is carried by the bird through several planes of existence, including some which are disturbing and grotesque. Finally it deposits her on a beach next to a forest and promptly disappears. Inside a broken-down temple covered with images of serpents she meets a reptilian creature, the Dragon. He reveals that he has brought her back to the past to send her on a mission to recover his mummy which is being used to raise Yole and reanimate the dead. He gives her a snakeskin which she is to take with her back to her own time. Then she goes through a portal and finds herself centuries into the future. She hires a graceful, large bird-like being, named Dalar, as her bodyguard. The pass through several more portals. The last takes them to Klestis at the time when Ansalem was rescuing it during the destruction of Yole. They climb to Ansalem's chambers where they find his seven acolytes and the Dragon. Ansalem is bound and his son has been vivisected and is being transformed into the Tall Thing.

Sharina and Dalar are locked out, but at that moment Cashel appears and uses his quarterstaff to punch open the door. When they come through, though, instead of the seven necromancers, they find Garric and Tenoctris. Purlio has escaped. Tenoctris casts a spell which takes them to the frozen time where they encounter Purlio as well as Ilna and her companions. Together they defeat Purlio, but he flees and takes refuge in the land of the dead. The companions are whisked back to Ansalem's chambers. There Sharina burns the mummy and gives the snakeskin to Tenoctris—it is from an amphisbaena. While everyone is distracted, Colva attacks and kills Garric. Liane then kills Colva. In the land of the dead, Garric encounters Purlio and severs his connection to the living world, thus killing him completely. Cashel revives Garric using the fruit from the Tree of Life in his satchel. Using the amphisbaena snakeskin, Tenoctris frees Ansalem from the cyst he was trapped in. Ansalem returns everyone to their homes—including Dalar—and then destroys the bridges that connect the different planes of existence.

Major characters

Garric—the Prince of Haft and future Lord of the Isles. His ancestor, King Carus, has taken up residence in his head and aids him in matters of sword and state.
Sharina—Garric's half-sister. The Dragon seeks her help in escaping bondage to seven necromancers.
Cashel—a large, simple shepherd who would be content to be just a sheepherder. He is half human, half sprite. His power is manifest through his use of an iron-ferruled quarterstaff.
Liane—a noblewoman who has some magical abilities and is romantically involved with Garric.
Ilna—Cashel's sister who doesn't feel she fits in with the others due to her past and her unrequited love for Garric. She is half human, half sprite. Her power is manifest through her use of thread and fabric.
Tenoctris—a wizardess from King Carus’ day who accidentally sent herself forward in time when Yole was being sunk into the ocean. Her power comes not from strength in magic, but from careful study and exact execution of spells. She is an atheist.

Minor characters

Alman—a wizard who prefers to live a life of solitude at the end of time
Ansalem the Wise—a powerful wizard from the time of King Carus
Lord Attaper—commander of the Blood Eagles
Celondre—a historical poet, philosopher, and aristocrat (modeled after Horace)
Chalcus—a chanteyman and former pirate who allies himself with Ilna
Colva—a demoness who escapes the Underworld with Cashel's unwitting help
Dalar—a member of the Rokonar and Sharina's bodyguard
Elfin—a human boy kidnapped by the People and taken to the Underworld
Ewis—one of Ansalem's apprentices
Harn—a spider-like creature which guards a bridge on Yole
Katchin—Cashel's sycophantic, self-serving uncle
Krias—a powerful demon imprisoned inside Landure's sapphire ring
Landure—a wizard on another plane, guardian of the Underworld
Count Lerdoc—ruler of Blaise
Merota—Lord Tadai's niece
Mykon—a prince who lived on Cordin before the sinking of Yole
Purlio of Mnar—principle acolyte of Ansalem the Wise and a powerful wizard in his own right who surrenders himself to one of the Great Ones
Reise—Garric's adoptive father
Lord Royhas—Garric's royal chancellor
Lord Tadai—Garric's Royal Treasurer and later Ambassador of the Prince to Sandrakkan
Tiglath—the captain of a brothel-barge
King Valence—current Lord of the Isles
Vonculo—sailing master of The Terror and a mutineer
Earl Wildulf—ruler of Sandrakkan

• Servant of the Dragon (2013 Review)

Witches Abroad (Discworld #12) 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: Witches Abroad
Series: Discworld #12
Author: Terry Pratchett
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 202
Words: 81K

I enjoyed this, had almost no problems with the philosophy presented by Pratchett and just watched as the story unfolded before me. This is how ALL of Pratchett’s stories should be. So I will appreciate it when it happens.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia.org

Following the death of the witch Desiderata Hollow, Magrat Garlick receives Desiderata's magic wand, for Desiderata was not only a witch but also a fairy godmother. By giving the wand to Magrat, she effectively makes Magrat the new fairy godmother to a young woman called Emberella, who lives across the Disc in Genua. Unfortunately, Desiderata does not give Magrat any instruction on how to use the wand, so almost everything that Magrat points it at simply becomes a pumpkin.

Desiderata had promised a servant girl (providing a twist on Cinderella) named Emberella that she would not be forced to marry the Duc, the figurehead leader of Genua, who is in actuality really a frog, transformed by the magic of Emberella's other fairy godmother, Lady Lilith de Tempscire. Now it is up to Magrat and her companions, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, to ensure Emberella does not marry the Duc, despite the desires of Lilith, who wishes to ensure a 'happy ending' by utilizing the Discworld's narrative-based nature - because the servant girl marrying the Prince makes for a happy fairy tale, Lilith reasons that on the Disc, this must hold true as well, whether the marriage is consensual or not.

The trio of witches journey to Genua, which takes some time and involves numerous mis-adventures, such as an encounter with a village terrorised by a Vampire (where Nanny Ogg's cat Greebo catches it in bat form and eats it), an incident where they encounter a Running of the Bulls-like event, and a house falling on Nanny's head which she survives thanks to her hat with the willow reinforcement. Upon arrival in Genua, Magrat goes to meet Emberella, while the two older witches meet Erzulie Gogol, a voodoo witch and her zombie servant, Baron Saturday (who was also her late lover).

It is at this time that Magrat finds out that Emberella has two fairy godmothers, Magrat and Lilith. It was Lilith who had manipulated many of the various stories that the Witches had traveled through and who was now manipulating Genua itself, wrapping the city around her version of the Cinderella story. Lilith has had people arrested for crimes against stories, including the arrest of a toymaker for not being jolly, not whistling and not telling the children stories. At this point it is revealed that Lilith is actually Lily, Granny Weatherwax's older sister. The trio learn that she is planning a masked ball where-in Emberella is supposed to meet the Duc.

Using hypnosis, Granny convinces Magrat to attend the masked ball in place of Emberella. Greebo is transformed into human form to aid the witches. Emberella's dress fits, but the glass slippers do not. After enjoying themselves for a while at the ball, the witches are discovered and are cast into a dungeon.

At that point, Emberella, Mrs. Gogol and Baron Saturday arrive at the ball, having broken the witches out of their prison with the aid of Cassanunda (a dwarf and the Disc's second greatest lover). A high concentration of magic causes the Duc to revert to his frog form, and he is trampled by Baron Saturday, causing Lily to flee. Granny starts to follow, but Mrs. Gogol, wanting to kill Lily, tries to stop Granny by using a voodoo doll. Granny thrusts her arm into a flaming torch and preys upon Mrs. Gogol's own belief in the power of the doll to make it burst into flames. Granny Weatherwax then pursues Lily.

Emberella is informed that, as the daughter of the late Baron Saturday, the previous ruler of Genua, she is now Duchess of Genua. Her first command is to end the ball (she dislikes them) and attend the Mardi Gras parade, a form of binge-drinking carnival.

Granny manages to defeat Lily by trapping her in a mirror, unable to 'find herself', and the three witches return home. Granny shows Magrat how to use the wand to do magic, and that it takes more than wishing - the secret is that there are adjustable dials on the wand. Magrat throws the wand into a river, to be lost forever. Then the Witches go home, the long way, and see the elephant.

• Witches Abroad (2007 Review)

• All of My “Discworld” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: Rincewind” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: Witches” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: Death” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: The Watch” Reviews

The Farthest Shore (Earthsea Cycle #3) 4Stars

 

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

Title: The Farthest Shore
Series: Earthsea Cycle #3
Author: Ursula LeGuin
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy / Middle Grade
Pages: 135
Words: 66K
Publish: 1972

This just didn’t grip me the same way as the previous two books did. It is still a rousing tale, but in this, LeGuin preaches up a storm and while it doesn’t overshadow the story, it is still in the sky, like a harpy, scree’ing at the reader.

But man, can LeGuin spin a tale. Magic is draining from the world and things are getting worse, even though the Ring of Erreth Akbe has been restored (the story told in The Tombs of Atuan). And it is all springing from a time when Sparrowhawk, Ged the Highmage now, dealt with a necromancer in an arrogant and high handed way. LeGuin is trying to make the point that we should all hold hands and sing kum-by-ya together. The lesson “I” learned was to never leave an enemy alive behind you. Cobb, the aforementioned necromancer (and how awesome is it that a guy who is cheating death and destroying the world itself is just called Cobb? LeGuin’s wit is rapier sharp!) was playing with dark powers and Ged tried to “rehabilitate” him (by scaring the living daylights out of him), only for Cobb to return 10x worse. If Get had put his staff through Cobb’s head at their first meeting, none of this would have happened. And yet that leads into even more goodness. Because not only does Ged have to face Cobb again, now much older, wiser and gentler, but he picks up the prince Arren and in the process fulfills a prophecy about the final king of the Archipelago, who of course through their journey, turns out to be Arren. The story is just fantastic.

I’m going to end the review with that.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia

An ominous, inexplicable malaise is spreading throughout Earthsea. Magic is losing its power; songs are being forgotten; people and animals are sickening or going mad. Accompanied by Arren, the young Prince of Enlad, the Archmage Ged leaves Roke Island to find the cause. On his boat Lookfar, they sail south to Hort Town, where they encounter a drug-addled wizard called Hare. They realize that Hare and many others are under the dream-spell of a powerful wizard who promises them life after death at the cost of their magic, their identity, and all names, that is, all reality. Ged and Arren continue southwest to the island of Lorbanery, once famous for its dyed silk, but the magic of dyeing has been lost and the local people are listless and hostile.

Fleeing the stifling despair, Ged and Arren keep on southwest to the furthest islands of the Reaches. Arren is drawn under the influence of the dark wizard, and when Ged is injured by hostile islanders, Arren cannot rouse himself to help. As Ged's life ebbs, and they drift into the open ocean, they are saved by the Raft People, nomads who live on great rafts beyond any land. The spreading evil has not yet reached them, and they nurse Ged and Arren back to health. At the midsummer festival, the sickness arrives, and the singers are struck dumb, unable to remember the songs.

The dragon Orm Embar arrives on the wind, and begs Ged to sail to Selidor, the westernmost of all islands, where the dark wizard is destroying the dragons, beings who embody magic. Ged and Arren voyage past the Dragons' Run south of Selidor, encountering dragons flying about and devouring each other in a state of madness. On Selidor, Orm Embar is waiting for them, but he too has lost the power of speech. After a search, they find the wizard in a house of dragon bones at the western tip of Selidor – the end of the world.

Ged recognises the wizard as Cob, a dark mage whom he defeated many years before. After his defeat, Cob became expert in the dark arts of necromancy, desperate to escape death and live forever. In doing so, he has opened a breach between worlds which is sucking away all life. As Cob paralyzes Ged with the staff of a long-dead mage, Orm Embar impales himself on it, crushing Cob in a final effort. But the undead Cob cannot be killed, and he crawls back to the Dry Land of the dead, pursued by Ged and Arren. In the Dry Land, Ged manages to defeat Cob and closes the breach in the world, but it requires the sacrifice of all his magic power.

They travel even further, crawling over the Mountains of Pain back to the living world, where the eldest dragon Kalessin is waiting. He flies them to Roke, leaving Ged on his childhood home of Gont Island. Arren has fulfilled the centuries-old prediction of the last King of Earthsea: "He shall inherit my throne who has crossed the dark land living and come to the far shores of the day." Arren will reunite the fractious islands as the future King Lebannen (his true name).

The Stone of Farewell (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #2) 5Stars

 

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

Title: The Stone of Farewell
Series: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #2
Author: Tad Williams
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 727
Words: 268K
Publish: 1990

My fourth chunkster of a book this month and thankfully, NOT a dnf. I couldn’t have dealt with another dnf, I just couldn’t have. Tad Williams was writing massive books 15 years before Sanderson ever hit the scene. You go Tad, youdaman! Plus, this was even better in 2025 than when I read it in 2003 (technically, I read it at least twice before then, I just wasn’t recording my reading before 2000).

Ok, all the miscellaneous stuff is out of my system, time to get down to the nuts and bolts of this review.

I liked this. A lot. In fact, I liked this 5stars worth. Now, for any of you other reviewers out there who indiscriminately hand out fivestars, or even fourstars, like candy, ie, your average rating is 4 or above (and you are a bad reviewer if that is the case because it means you have no discriminating taste. You are a mindless bookivore), let’s put this in perspective. Up to this point, in the entire year of 2025, I have had SIX 5star reads. That is because I have high standards and I’m flipping proud of that. An author has to work to get a 5star from me. I don’t have a gold standard when it comes to books, I have the Bookstooge Standard. And Tad Williams, with The Stone of Farewell, has totally earned that 5star rating from me.

Unlike this month’s earlier The Resolve of Immortal Flesh, the characters in Farewell come across as real people, as fleshed out individuals, not just a set of characteristics with a name tacked on the cardboard they have for a chest. Now, don’t ask me HOW to do that, because I’m not an author, but as a dedicated reader, I can spot the difference a mile away. Even while having 3-4 different storylines going on at the same time, with tons of characters, I was never once tripping over who was who or thinking to myself “ok, who is this person again?” I am coming to realize that when I read a series, or a big book, that characters matter to me. In shorter books, or novellas, the Idea can be enough to carry things along, but in a chunkster of a book in a chunkster of a series, well, Characters Count.

Count Von Count knows that Characters Count!

The next important part is the story itself. Williams takes his time, as he did in the previous book The Dragonbone Chair, to slowly unspool events. I never felt like things were happening deus ex machina. He also balances the various threads in the story just right. We get enough of each story line to fill in what is needed and to set up what we are about to read in another story line. In that balancing act, much like with the characters, I once again never felt lost or confused or had any trouble remembering how the storylines were tying together. It felt like a wonderfully woven tapestry where you could appreciate each thread line or step back and appreciate the whole, as both were done with a deft touch.

Now you know, the talent and skill that Williams displays with this book, and with the whole Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, isn’t something that happened overnight. He didn’t write up some garbage, release it on Kindle Direct and then claim that he was a published author and then go on to demand that everyone pay him attention because he was “published”. Even talented people need to practice and increase their skill. Williams’ final products showcase this and I for one, as a discriminating reader with taste and standards, appreciate the living daylights out of it. The more so because I didn’t have to wade though his pile of unpublishable garbage. Writers, take note. Keep your crappy garbage in the drawer where it belongs and don’t inflict it on us, we don’t deserve that.

The synopsis below is once again so full that if you read it, you really won’t need to read the book itself if epic fantasy isn’t your bailiwick. It is mine though, so I know at some point I’ll be reading this trilogy again. I can’t think of any higher praise...

★★★★★

From Fandom.com

Simon, the Sitha Jiriki, and soldier Haestan are honored guests in the mountaintop city of the diminutive Qanuc trolls. But Sludig - whose Rimmersgard folk are the Quanuc's ancient enemies - and Simon's troll friend Binabik are not so well treated; Binabik's people hold them both captive, under sentence of death. An audience with the Herder and Huntress, rulers of the Qanuc, reveals that Binabik is being blamed not only for deserting his tribe, but for failing to fulfill his vow of marriage to Sisqi, youngest daughter of the reigning family. Simon begs Jiriki to intercede, but the Sitha has obligations to his own family, and will not in any case interfere with trollish justice. Shortly before the executions, Jiriki departs for this home.

Although Sisqi is bitter about Binabik's seeming fickleness, she cannot stand to see him killed. With Simon and Haestan, she arranges a rescue of the two prisoners but as they seek a scroll from Binabik's master's cave which will give them the information necessary to find a place named the Stone of Farewell - which Simon has learned of in a vision - they are recaptured by the angry Qanuc leaders. But Binabik's master's death-testament confirms the troll's story of his absence, and its warnings finally convince the Herder and the Huntress that there are indeed dangers to all the land which they have not understood. After some discussion, the prisoners are pardoned and Simon and his companions are given permission to leave Yiqanuc and take the powerful sword Thorn to exiled Prince Josua. Sisqi and other trolls will accompany them as far as the base of the mountains.

Meanwhile, Josua and a small band of followers have escaped the destruction of Naglimund and are wandering through the Aldheorte Forest, chased by the Storm King's Norns. They must defend themselves against not only arrows and spears but dark magic, but at last they are met by Geloe, the forest woman, and Leleth, the mute child Simon had rescued from the terrible hounds of Stormspike. The stange pair lead Josua's party through the forest to a place that once belonged to the Sithi, where the Norns dare not pursue them for fear of breaking the ancient Pact between the sundered kin. Geloe then tells them they should travel on to another place even more sacred to the Sithi, the same Stone of Farewell to which she had directed Simon in the vision she sent him.

Miriamele, daughter of High King Elias and niece of Josua, is traveling south in hope of finding allies for Josua among her relatives in the courts of Nabban; she is accompanied by the dissolute monk Cadrach. They are captured by Count Streawe of Perdruin, a cunning and mercenary man, who tells Miriamele he is going to deliver her to an unnamed person to whom he owes a debt. To Miriamele's joy, this mysterious personage turns out to be a friend, the priest Dinivan, who is secretary to Lector Ranessin, the leader of Mother Church. Dinivan is secretly a member of the League of the Scroll, and hopes that Miriamele can convince the lector to denounce Elias and his counselor, the renegade priest Pryrates. Mother Church is under siege, not only from Elias, who demands the church not interfere with him, but from the Fire dancers, religious fanatics who claim the Storm King comes to them in dreams. Ranessin listens to what Miriamele has to say and is very troubled.

Simon and his companions are attacked by snow-giants on their way down from the high mountains, and the soldier Haestan and many trolls are killed. Later, as he broods on the injustice of life and death, Simon inadvertently awakens the Sitha mirror Jiriki had given him as a summoning charm, and travels on the Dream Road to encounter the first the Sitha matriarch Amerasu, then the terrible Norn Queen Utuk'ku. Amerasu is trying to understand the schemes of Utuk'ku and the Storm King, and is traveling the Dream Road in search of both wisdom and allies.

Josua and the remainder of his company at last emerge from the forest onto the grasslands of the High Thrithing, where they are almost immediately captured by the nomadic clan led by March-Thane Fikolmij, who is the father of Josua's lover Vorzheva. Fikolmij begrudges the loss of his daughter, and after beating the prince severly, arranges a duel in which he intends that Josua should be killed; Fikolmij's plan fails and Josua survives. Fikolmij is then forced to pay off a bet by giving the prince's company horses. Josua is strongly affected the shame Vorzheva feels at seeing her people again, marries her in front of Fikolmij and the assembled clan. When Vorzheva's father gleefully announces that soldiers of King Elias are coming across the grasslands to capture them, the prince and his followers ride away east toward the Stone of Farewell.

In far off Hernystir, Maegwin is the last of her line. Her father the king and her brother have both been killed fighting Elias' pawn Skali, and she and her people have taken refuge in caves in the Grianspog Mountains. Maegwin has been troubled by strange dreams, and finds herself drawn into the old mines and caverns beneath the Grianspog. Count Eolair, her father's most trusted liege-man, goes in search of her, and together he and Maegwin enter the great underground city of Mezutu'a. Maegwin is convinced that the Sithi live there, and that they will come to the rescue of the Hernystiri as they did in the old days, but the only inhabitants they discover in the crumbling city are the dwarrows, a strange timid group of delvers distantly related to the immortals. The dwarrows, who are metalwrights as well as stonecrafters, reveal that the sword Minneyar that Josua's people seek is actually the blade known as Bright-Nail, which was buried with Prester John, father of Josua and Elias. This news means little to Maegwin, who is shattered to find that her dreams have brought her people no real assistance. She is also at least as troubled by what she considers her foolish love for Eolair, so she invents an errand for him - taking news of Minneyar and maps of dwarrows' diggings, which include tunnels below Elias' castle, the Hayholt, to Josua and his band of survivors. Eolair is puzzled and angry at being sent away, but goes.

Simon and Binabik and Sludig leave Sisqi and the other trolls at the base of the mountain and continue across the icy vastness of the White Waste. Just at the northern edge of the great forest, they find an old abbey inhabited by children and their caretaker, an older girl named Skodi. They stay the night, glad to be out of the cold, but Skodi proves to be more than she seems: in the darkness she traps three of them by witchcraft, then begins a ceremony in which she intends to invoke the Storm King and show him that she has captured the sword Thorn. One of the undead Red Hand appears because of Skodi's spell, but a child disrupts the ritual and brings up a monstrous swarm of diggers. Skodi and the children are killed, but Simon and the others escape, thanks largely to Binabik's fierce wolf Qantaqa. But Simon is almost mad from the mind-touch of the Red Hand, and rides away from his companions, crashing into a tree at last and striking himself senseless. He falls down a gulley, and Binabi and Sludig are unable to find him. At last, full of remorse, they take the sword Thorn and continue on toward the Stone of Farewell without him.

Several people besides Miriamele and Cadrach have arrived the lector's palace in Nabban. One of them is Josua's ally Duke Isgrimnur, who is searching for Miriamele. Another is Pryrates, who has come to bring Lector Ranessin an ultimatum from the king. The lector angrily denounces both Pryrates and Elias; the king's emissary walks out of the banquet, threatening revenge.

That night, Pryrates metamorphoses himself with a spell he has been given by the Storm King's servitors, and becomes a shadowy thing. He kills Dinivan and then brutally murders the lector. Afterward, he sets the halls aflame to cast suspicion on the Fire Dancers. Cadrach, who greatly fears Pryrates and has spent the night urging Miriamele to flee the lector's palace with him, finally knocks her senseless and drags her away. Isgrimnur finds the dying Dinivan, and is given a Scroll League token for the Wrannaman Tiamak and instructions to go the inn named Pelippa's Bowl in Kwantipul, a city of the edge of the marshes south of Nabban.

Tiamak, meanwhile, has received an earlier message from Dinivan and is on his way to Kwantipul, although his journey almost ends when he is attacked by a crocodile. Wounded and feverish, he arrives at Pelippa's Bowl at last and gets an unsympathetic welcome from the new landlady.

Miriamele awakens to find that Cadrach has smuggled her into the hold of a ship. While the monk has lain in drunken sleep, the ship has set sail. They are quickly found by Gan Itai, a Niskie, whose job is to keep the ship safe from the menacing aquatic creatures called kilpa. Although Gan Itai takes a liking to the stowaways, she nevertheless turns them over to the ship's master, Aspitis Preves, a young Nabbanai nobleman.

Far to the north, Simon has awakened from a dream in which he again heard the Sitha-woman Amerasu, and in which he has discovered that Ineluki the Storm King is her son. Simon is now lost and alone in the trackless, snow-covered Aldheorte Forest. He tries to use Jirki's mirror to summon help, but no one answers his plea. At last he sets out in what he hopes is the right direction, although he knows he has little chance of crossing the scores of leagues of winterbound woods alive. He ekes out a meager living on bugs and grass, but it seems only a question of whether he will first go completely mad or starve to death. He is finally saved by the appearance of Jiriki's sister Aditu, who has come in response to the mirror-summoning. She works a kind of traveling-magic that appears to turn winter into summer, and when it is finished, she and Simon enter the hidden Sithi stronghold of Jao e-Tinukai'i. It is a place of magical beauty and timelessness. When Jiriki welcomes him, Simon's joy is great; moments later, when he is taken to see Likimeya and Shima'onari, parents of Jiriki and Aditu, that joy turns to horror. The leaders of the Sithi say that since no mortal has ever been permitted in secret Jao e-Tinukai'i, Simon must stay there forever.

Josua and his company are pursued into the northern grasslands, but when they turn at last in desperate resistance, it is to find these latest pursuers are not Elias' soldiers, but Thrithings-folk who have deserted Fikolmij's clan to throw in their lot with the prince. Together, and with Geloe leading the way, they at last reach Sesuad'ra, the Stone of Farewell.

• Stone of Farewell (2003 Review)

• Stone of Farewell (2011 Review)

Bloodlines (MHI #9) 4.5Stars

 

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

Title: Bloodlines
Series: MHI #9
Author: Larry Correia
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 307
Words: 118K
Publish: 2021

Owen Pitt has made it back from the Nightmare Dimension, Julie Pitt has rescued their son and now life goes on. Only they both know Asag the god of chaos is still out there, just waiting to destroy them in some way. Because they aren’t damned woke pansies, they decide to get proactive. They know that a wardstone, a creation of Isaac Newton, will destroy such a being and they set out to find one. They do, only to find out that a LOT of other people are also interested in it, and not just other monster hunters either. The stone is stolen and Stricken gets involved. He makes a deal with the MCB and Agent Franks, only to shaft EVERYONE. So the MCB and MHI team up to, only for Stricken to still trick them all, again. That man is pure evil. The book ends with Pitt, Chad Gardener’s daughter and Agent Franks working with Stricken in a Court of the Fay to prevent two other cosmic entities from swallowing up Earth.

Oh my goodness.

Stricken is pure evil. Even with him knowing what he knows, somebody should have just put a bullet through his head. You do not work with evil, you destroy it.

The thing I enjoyed most about this story was the supernatural bounty hunter (the Drekavac) hired to retrieve the wardstone when it was stolen. He was a Puritan judge who sold his soul to the devil to do evil, for immortality. He rides a demon horse motorcycle and uses a plasma blunderbuss. How cool is that. He has 13 lives and each time he gets stronger. On his 12^th incarnation he was 30feet tall and shrugging off missiles. The battle between him and MHI and Agent Franks was fantastic. It epitomized why I enjoy the battles in MHI so much. What I enjoyed EVEN MORE was right at the end. Stricken thinks he has blackmailed the Drekavac into doing his will only for it to say it would rather suffer the worst fires of hell than submit to such a person as Stricken. It turns its back on Stricken and walks away. Not “quite” as good as a bullet to the head, but the next best thing :-D

I originally read this in 2022 and at the time thought MHI was just going to keep on going. Since then Larry Correia has announced there will be 2 or 3 more books in the main MHI series and then the story surrounding Owen Zastava Pitt will be over. That means the main MHI story franchise will be done with. I’m ok with that. I’d much rather Correia end things on a high note than keep on going until it becomes total garbage. I’m sure there will be more standalone MHI books or trilogies, co-authored. That should keep me in the good stuff for years to come :-D

★★★★✬

From the Publisher

In a business like monster hunting, it's all about setting priorities.

The chaos god Asag has been quiet since the destruction of the City of Monsters, but Monster Hunter International knows that he is still out there somewhere—plotting, waiting for his chance to unravel reality.

When Owen and the MHI team discover that one of Isaac Newton's Ward Stones is being auctioned off by Reptoids who live deep beneath Atlanta, they decide to steal the magical superweapon and use it to destroy Asag once and for all. But before the stone can be handed off, it is stolen by a mysterious thief with ties to MHI and the Vatican's Secret Guard.

It's a race against time, the Secret Guard, a spectral bounty hunter, and a whole bunch of monsters to acquire the Ward Stone and use it against Asag. For as dangerous as the chaos god is, there is something much older—and infinitely more evil—awakening deep in the jungles of South America.

• Monster Hunter Bloodlines (2022 Review)

• All of My “MHI” Reviews