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Title:
His Face Like Mine Series: ----- Author:
Russell Joyce Rating: Unrated Genre:
Non-Fiction Pages: 217 Words:
65K Publish: 2024
I
am not rating this book because it was not written for me at all, not
one tiny bit. It was written for Christians who are wondering if God
does love them, or even can. This book is for people who feel that
God doesn’t or can’t love them. Hurt people, broken people, who
cannot see and accept the Truth. It is for the people who are so
badly broken that they need to feel the Truth.
The
author is a skinny jean wearing, latte sipping, new york city pastor
seeing a therapist. He was born with a rare disorder where half his
face wasn’t formed and spent years with reconstructive surgery.
Even now, he knows he’ll always draw stares. He was broken from the
get-go and the longer he lived, the more pain he experienced. This is
his story of how God overcame that lifetime’s worth of pain and
made Russell feel His love.
I
am not rating this book because there are people in just such a
position as this author and this might very well give them exactly
what they need in their Christian walk. I cried during almost every
chapter while reading this. It was emotionalism ramped up.
Christianity
is about the Truth. We are emotional beings and God created us that
way, it’s not a bad thing. Those emotions get twisted and broken
and so completely screwed up that it takes God’s intervention. But
that NEVER changes the Truth. How I feel doesn’t affect the Truth
of the Gospel. It might affect how I react to the Gospel, but the
Center doesn’t change. What concerns me is that Russell seems to be
hewing pretty close to the line of saying that your feelings dictate
the reality of the Gospel. He definitely is one of those people who
“has” to have an emotional experience to think he’s worshipping
God. Give him a hymn and he’ll sing it and be like “That’s
nice”. Then give him a contemporary worship song where he’s
jumping around and dancing and he’ll be all like “Praise Jesus!”
He can’t seem to worship without an emotional experience. The
problem is that CCM is built around exciting the emotions and is
false worship.
When
you are as broken as Russell was, you need to feel the love of God. I
don’t know that you could experience it any other way. But when
you’re a bit more emotionally healthy, it’s time to control your
emotions and not let them run riot through your life. God doesn’t
want your emotions controlling your life any more than He wants food
or drink or sex or money controlling your life.
I
would only recommend this book to the people who are so broken that
this is all they can take at the moment. For them, I suspect it will
be a true balm to their souls. For anyone else, stay away from this.
5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he[a] lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Matthew 28:5-10
3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
Acts 1:3
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me….
….13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain….
….19 If in Christ we have hope[b] in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep….
I Corinthians 15:3-8, 13-14, 19-20
I have Hope this morning because Jesus is God. He demonstrated that by dying and coming back to life again. Death has no power over Him and I have put my trust in Him so death has no power over me beyond what God has decreed. What is even better is that YOU can have that same Hope too, if you will turn your life over to Jesus.
This
review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
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copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted
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Title:
Monster Hunter Nemesis Series: MHI #5 Author:
Larry Correia Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre:
Urban Fantasy Pages: 336 Words:
133K
I
made the mistake of reading my review from 2014. Boy, everything I
was going to say now, I said it a decade ago.
The
only difference is that I gave a bit more weight to the theological
side of things and thus removed yet another half star. God is
presented as the Ruler of just our universe and just one amongst the
multiverse, which while perfectly fine within Mormon theology goes
directly against what the Bible says. Which is one more reason
Mormonism is accounted a cult instead of just another denomination.
A
good time reading and lots of fun. I think most people would just
read this and enjoy it. I recommend you try that.
★★★★☆
From
MHI.Fandom.com & Bookstooge
Agent Franks of
the U.S. Monster Control Bureau is a man of many
parts—parts from other people, that is. Franks is nearly seven feet
tall and all muscle. He's nearly indestructible. Plus he’s animated
by a powerful alchemical substance and inhabited by a
super-intelligent spirit more ancient than humanity itself.
Good
thing he’s on our side. More or less.
Sworn
to serve and protect the United States of America from all monsters
by one of the country’s founding fathers, Franks has only one
condition to the agreement: no matter what the government learns of
him, no matter what is discovered concerning his odd physiology or
the alchemy behind the elixir that made him, the government is never,
ever allowed to try and make more like him. Such is absolutely
forbidden and should the powers-that-be do so, then the agreement is
null and void.
Project
Nemesis: in a secret location, using sophisticated technology and
advanced genetic engineering, the director of the very agency Franks
works for is making more like him. And the director is not content
with making one. Nope, he’s making thirteen.
Now
all bets are off, and Hell hath no fury like a monster betrayed.
Particularly if that monster happens to be an undying killing machine
capable of taking out vampires and werewolves with one hand tied
behind his back.
Agent
Franks is center stage in a Special Task Force Unicorn vendetta.
Franks is on the run while he must clear his name, destroy a whole
set of bodies based upon him AND prevent an invasion of the original
fallen angels.
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 Web of Spider Series: Spider #3 Author: William Gear Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 668 Words: 241K
This was twice as long as the first book and it was NOT twice as good.
This was very much a religious treatise as much as it was a science fiction “story”. There were pages of Gear using his characters to talk about neo-shamanism and how wonderful it is to serve a god who doesn’t know everything and who is both good and evil.
How anyone could find that desirable is well beyond me.
Gear also takes some heavy handed swipes at monotheistic religions, ie Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Unfortunately, Christianity is the one he focuses on and just ignores the other two.
I wanted to quit several times, but I was reading this concurrently with Neuromancer and that was so bad that I couldn’t tell if my desire to quit was because this book was really that unenjoyable or if Neuromancer was just sucking the reading joy from my life. Looking back now, its obvious to me this book WAS that bad and I should have dnf’d right near the start. One more mark against Neuromancer for destroying my senses in regarding other books.
★✬☆☆☆
From the publisher
Click to Open
THE FINAL CONFLICT!
The Sirian rebellion had proved the catalyst for the rise of two powerful new forces in the galaxy. Ngen Van Chow, leader of the failed rebellion, had fled to a distant world, establishing a base from which he would launch an interstellar holy war of destruction, a war fuelled by the discovery of a long-hidden technology which could transform ordinary men and women into fanatical soldiers of Deus.
While on the long-lost colony planet of World, the Romanans, known as the warriors of Spider, and their Patrol allies – formerly part of the military and police force which kept order among the worlds and stations controlled by the computer network of the Directorate – prepared for civilization’s final stand against this seemingly unstoppable conqueror.
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: Pyramids Series: Discworld #7 Author: Terry Pratchett Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 253 Words: 88K
This is the first “standalone” Discworld novel. By that I mean that none of the characters in this book ever return as main characters nor do we ever go back to the country the main character is from. This is simply a “Discworld” novel. While having read the previous six books will give you a slightly better overall view of Ankh-Morpork, not very much of the story actually takes place there and a better knowledge of that city will not actually affect your enjoyment of this book. But just like I stated in the previous book, Discworld “should” be read in the order that Pratchett published them. It “can” be read in almost any order, but it is just better the other way.
I was hoping that more of the story would take place in Ankh-Morpork, mainly because I wanted to see more of the Assassins Guild. That didn’t happen. So I pinned my hopes that when Teppic went back to be king that I’d get assassin guild hijinks then. Still didn’t happen. Teppic sneaks around a bit, but that’s the extent of we see of his years of training. I was disappointed. Pratchett seemed more focused on taking his bile out on religion in general in this novel than in telling a fun and engaging story. It was still a fun story, but if he’d written more like some of the earlier books (the Death books in particular, where he tackles a controversial subject, but without coming across like an angry jackass), this could have been so much better. I suspect the acolytes of Scyenze would like this more, as that is/was Pratchett’s pet godling.
Now that I’ve vented MY bile, do I have anything left? That’s a good question. It colors every word in this review. Huh, just like the novel! Amazing, hahahahahaa.
I would not recommend this as a starting place for Discworld even though it is a standalone. The writing isn’t as on point, the humor isn’t as funny and this gives you a glimpse of the author Pratchett would fully turn into near the end of the series. Spare yourself. At the same time, it’s still fun, it’s still entertaining and I don’t feel bad about re-reading this. I do know I would never choose to read this for a third time on it’s own again though.
★★★★☆
From Wikipedia.org
Synopsis – click to open
The main character of Pyramids is Teppic (short for Pteppicymon), the crown prince of the tiny kingdom of Djelibeybi (a pun on the candy Jelly Baby, meaning “Child of the Djel”), the Discworld counterpart to Ancient Egypt. The kingdom, founded seven-thousand years ago and formerly a great empire which dominated the continent of Klatch, has been in debt and recession for generations due to the construction of pyramids for the burial of its pharaohs (primarily on prime agricultural land) and now occupies an area two miles wide along the 150-mile-long River Djel.
Young Teppic has been in training at the Assassins Guild in Ankh-Morpork for the past seven years, having been sent to bring in revenue for the kingdom. The day after passing his final exam by chance, he mystically senses that his father, Pteppicymon XXVII, has died and that he must return home. Being the first Djelibeybian king raised outside the kingdom leads to some interesting problems, as Dios, the high priest, is a stickler for tradition, and does not actually allow the pharaohs to rule the country.
When plans are being laid out for the old pharaoh’s tomb, Teppic (now Pteppicymon XXVIII) mentions that his father did not wish to be buried in a pyramid; in reaction to Dios’s rejection of this idea, Teppic ends up ordering the construction of a pyramid twice the size of the largest one previously built in Djelibeybi. Whilst the pyramid-building Ptaclusp dynasty work out how to build the pyramid within budget and on time (eventually taking advantage of the unfinished pyramid’s premature temporal distortions), the late Pteppicymon XXVII spends his time observing the embalming of his mortal remains and taking an interest in the lives of his embalmers, Dil and Gurn.
After numerous adventures and misunderstandings, Teppic is forced to escape from the palace with a handmaiden named Ptraci, who was condemned to death for not wishing to die and serve the late pharaoh in the afterlife (effectively on Dios’ orders since Teppic wished to pardon her). However, during the attempt, Dios discovers them and decrees that Teppic has killed the King (as the King is only recognised whilst wearing the Mask of the Sun and Dios reasons that Teppic’s actions to save Ptraci would not be those of the King) and should be put to death. Meanwhile, the massive pyramid warps space-time so much that it “rotates” Djelibeybi out of alignment with the space/time of the rest of the Disc by ninety degrees.
After Teppic and Ptraci manage to escape Djelibeybi, they travel to Ephebe to consult with the philosophers there as to how to get back. Meanwhile, pandemonium takes hold in Djelibeybi, as the kingdom’s multifarious gods (many of whom occupy the same roles, such as Supreme God, God of the Sun, or God of the Djel) descend upon the populace, and all of Djelibeybi’s dead rulers come back to life. Also, the nations of Ephebe and Tsort prepare for war with one another, as Djelibeybi can no longer act as a buffer zone between the two.
Eventually, Teppic re-enters the Kingdom and attempts to destroy the Great Pyramid, with the help of all of his newly resurrected ancestors. They are confronted by Dios, who, it turns out, is as old as the kingdom itself, and has advised every pharaoh throughout its history. Dios hates change and thinks Djelibeybi should stay the same. Teppic succeeds in destroying the Pyramid, returning Djelibeybi to the real world and sending Dios back through time (where he meets the original founder of the Kingdom, thereby restarting the cycle). Teppic then abdicates, allowing Ptraci (who turns out to be his half-sister) to rule. Ptraci immediately institutes much-needed changes, Teppic decides to travel the Disc, Death comes to ferry the former rulers of Djelibeybi to the afterlife, and Djelibeybi’s former embalmers and pyramid-builders adjust to life without the pyramids.
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 Warriors of Spider Series: Spider #1 Author: William Gear Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 326 Words: 125K
William Gear is publicly known as “W. Michael Gear”, an author recently known for his “Donovan” series. But he’s been around for quite some time. I hate “public names”, so I’ll be giving the author as “William Gear” because that’s his name.
I read this originally back in middleschool or highschool, because the cover on the paperback at the library looked wicked cool. I have also recently decided to dive into the Donovan series but wanted to read some of Gear’s older stuff so I have a decent comparison for his writing style changes. I believe his wife Kathleen is credited on many of their books (they’ve written something like 90) and I could see her finger prints all over this. The descriptions of the clothing alone would have told me that.
They are also very native american in their theology and beliefs and that aspect comes through loud and clear. Sadly, it’s just the “God is everything and whatever you call god is god” kind of feel-good bullshit. Nothing with actual epistemology. No bones to support things as it were.
The story itself was decent. Cowboys and Indians fighting off space marines and winning. Tragic losses, heroic sacrifices, battles, this story has it all.
Back in the 90’s the library only had this one book and it ended satisfactorily enough that my young self never felt the need to go out to a Barnes & Noble and search out the rest of the trilogy. To be perfectly honest, I could stop right now and call this a standalone and it would be A-OK. But I do have the rest of the trilogy and so I’ll be reading them. Of course, if the empty mumbo-jumbo shamanism gets too heavy, I might just call it a day. But I suspect Gear is a good writer and a story teller first and a preacher second. As it should be for fiction books.
★★★✬☆
From Wikipedia & Bookstooge.blog
Synopsis – Click to Open
The human race consists of billions of people spread throughout a relatively small area of space containing Earth and several other inhabited planets. The majority of the population lives on giant space stations, either in orbit or moving like giant ships. A change occurred over the generations that was caused by zero-gravity conditions and exposure to different radiations. Most are pale-skinned, thin and frail-boned; some would die if they experienced gravity. The human race is ruled over by the Directorate, a group of three genetically modified humans, through whom all information must pass before it is released; this has given the Directorate complete control over information for the last 600 years. They stopped all war and religion and caused humanity to be composed of mostly obedient cowards.
Before this 600-year period, the Soviets ruled humanity after conquering North America. The Native American tribes, angered that the position of reservations had not changed, fought back against the Soviets and succeeded, to the point that they were all loaded onto a giant prison ship and deported to deep space along with other rebels of Latino and Caucasian descent—a population of over 5,000 consisting entirely of people with the will and heritage to survive. The ship crashes onto a planet that they name World. 600 years later the survivors have mixed into many different clans that comprise two distinctly different and opposing peoples, the Spiders and the Santos. Their culture is mainly Native American with the addition of large bore rifles, hand-forged from metal of the wrecked prison ship and used to deal with beings they call “bears,” natural predators existing on World. The World bear is similar to a dragon-squid combination, having two spines that connect at the base and a tentacle on each side with suction cups on it that it shoots toward its prey.
The Directorate accidentally picks up a bit of radio chatter from World, as the warriors use hand radios. They send out the Patrol, a combination military/police force that, under the guidance of the Directorate, has had no violence or wars to quell in over 200 years. They arrive at World expecting to find civilized people barely surviving, as with most other lost stations or colonies. On the contrary, the native warriors are savage fighters following the Native American tradition of “coup” taking, or scalping killed enemies as a method of showing how many they had killed.
They then try to conquer the Romanans, as they take to calling the descendants of the crashed star ship the natives arrived in, the Nicholai Romanan, but find that these natives aren’t going down without a fight, as the Spiders, who believe Spider is the name of God and the Santos, a mix of Christian and Mexican beliefs, who call God Haysoos, are all about warfare and following what they interpret God is telling them what to do.
The Spiders and the Santos form an uneasy alliance and subvert the soldiers. They eventually take over a warship, and the prophet of the Spiders convinces the Top Directorate not to destroy their world. The Romanans survive but are irrevocably changed socially and culturally. The Directorate hires the Romanans as the last real warriors to fight a rebellion starting up in another star system.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1st Corinthians 1: 18
Despite a world experiencing increasing lawlessness and chaos, despite whatever issues I am experiencing, the truth is that God is in control. He had a plan for the salvation of mankind before He even created the cosmos. He knew me by name. When I stand before the throne of Judgement on the last day, all of my sins, all of my faults, all of the evil within me, will have been paid for by Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross. The proof is His resurrection. And I celebrate that today. And you can too.
You are not perfect. You know this. And God demands perfection. Not because He is a hateful tyrant but because He is perfect and can accept nothing less. He is Perfect Justice. He is also Perfect Mercy. He has shown you that mercy by giving you the chance to accept His Son Jesus as your Savior and your Lord. Jesus was perfect and He will take your sins and imperfection if you give them to Him. For the love of God people, don’t turn away and reject that!!! Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. The least you can do is ASK! It costs you nothing. A mere five seconds of your time.
I know most of the time I deliberately try to be positive and upbeat about what the Resurrection of Jesus means to me personally. But I have that hope and I don’t know that you do. I want you to have that hope and eternal assurance. So please, I beg you, ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you.
The following is the ending of a Resurrection Day Sermon preached by Bishop Melito sometime in the late AD 200’s.
Who is my opponent? I, he says, am the Christ. I am the one who destroyed death, and triumphed over the enemy, and trampled Hades under foot, and bound the strong one, and carried off man to the heights of heaven, I, he says, am the Christ. Therefore, come, all families of men, you who have been befouled with sins, and receive forgiveness for your sins. I am your forgiveness, I am the passover of your salvation, I am the lamb which was sacrificed for you, I am your ransom, I am your light, I am your saviour, I am your resurrection, I am your king, I am leading you up to the heights of heaven, I will show you the eternal Father, I will raise you up by my right hand.
This is the one who made the heavens and the earth, and who in the beginning created man, who was proclaimed through the law and prophets, who became human via the virgin, who was hanged upon a tree, who was buried in the earth, who was resurrected from the dead, and who ascended to the heights of heaven, who sits at the right hand of the Father, who has authority to judge and to save everything, through whom the Father created everything from the beginning of the world to the end of the age. This is the alpha and the omega. This is the beginning and the end–an indescribable beginning and an incomprehensible end. This is the Christ. This is the king. This is Jesus. This is the general. This is the Lord. This is the one who rose up from the dead. This is the one who sits at the right hand of the Father. He bears the Father and is borne by the Father, to whom be the glory and the power forever. Amen.
The Peri Pascha of Melito. Peace to the one who wrote, and to the one who reads, and to those who love the Lord in simplicity of heart.
Christ’s death and resurrection was for you. I am praying that anyone who reads the above will be moved by God’s Spirit to seriously consider that.
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: Cat Magic Author: Whitley Strieber & Jonathan Barry Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 353 Words: 134K
Ooooooh boy. * puffs out cheeks *
I’ve never read anything by Strieber before and wanted to give his writings a go. I knew he was horror’ish or real life aliens or something weird, so I thought I was prepared. I had no idea.
I saw the subtitle for this book on a later edition and it was “A Tale of Modern Witchcraft”. I really wish I had seen that before deciding to start with this book. I guess if I could sum up this book I’d go with “sexual orgies while children watch and the only sin is Guilt itself”. Ughhh. There was a lot of theological ideas put forth that I really had to disagree with. Not in an angry way but more in a “are you serious?” way.
While I have a bunch of Strieber’s books on tap, I think I’m going to try his Omega Point duology next. It’s about aliens somehow. If he puts forth more bad theology though, I’ll be done with him. I have no idea who this Barry fellow is or what part he played in writing the story. I wonder if he did the heavy lifting though.
Overall, this was not a good first impression and I certainly won’t be recommending Strieber even if his later books improve.
While Mrs B and I both aggressively work on keeping our lives from being overcome with busy’ness, sometimes an idea needs some concrete forms to crystalize. I found the following Sabbath email very helpful in that regards.
“Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10
I was recently given a book with a very odd title: Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, by Tyler Staton. Mr. Staton is the lead pastor of a church in Oregon and the national director of the the 24-7 Prayer Movement in the United States. The book cover tells me that it will “open or reopen the lines of communication with your Creator,” and will show you how to “practice multiple positions of prayer, including silence, persistence, confession, and more. I want to share with you for this Sabbath message the first of the monks’ prayer postures—“Be still and know.”
Mr. Staton begins the second chapter reminding us of how truly difficult it is to “be still,” compared to the days before the invention of the clock, the light bulb, and the I-phone. For example, a 2019 survey found the average I-phone user was staring at his phone screen for over five hours each day! He includes an anecdote about the Christian philosopher, Dallas Willard, who was asked, “What do I need to do to be spiritually healthy?” After a long pause he answered, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life!” So if hurry, along with “busyness and overload,” crowds God out of many Christians’ lives, learning to “be still” is a good antidote.
For being still, Mr. Staton suggests that his readers try this method, and perhaps you would like to try it sometime this Sabbath day!
First, create a daily ritual. Choose an ordinary quiet place like your favorite chair in your bedroom.
Second, sit straight up with your two feet planted firmly on the floor.
Third, lay your hands in your lap, palms open, facing up.
Fourth, close your eyes and breathe in deeply and slowly three times.
Fifth, pray something simple and invitational like “Here I am Lord” or “Come, Holy Spirit.”
Sixth, be quiet. Be still. Wait!
Seventh, set a goal of at least two minutes before you open your eyes. Gradually work this up over a period of weeks to ten minutes.
When I tried this, I kept repeating to myself, “Be still and know that I am God” to keep out distracting thoughts. Finally, I decided it had been a good five minutes and opened my eyes. When I looked at my watch, it had only been two and a half minutes!
God help us all to learn to “Be still” in this hurried, frantic world of instant gratification. The Sabbath is a great time to practice this! Shabbat shalom,
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: Feast and Famine Series: ———- Authors: Adrian Tchaikovsky Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SFF Pages: 157 Words: 60.5K
Synopsis:
From the Inside Cover and TOC
In Feast and Famine Adrian Tchaikovsky delivers an ambitious and varied collections of stories. Ranging from the deep space hard SF of the title story (originally in Solaris Rising 2) to the high fantasy of “The Sun in the Morning” (a Shadows of the Apt tale originally featured in Deathray magazine), from the Peter S Beagle influenced “The Roar of the Crowd” to the supernatural Holmes-esque intrigue of “The Dissipation Club” the author delivers a dazzling array of quality short stories that traverse genre. Ten stories in all, five of which appear here for the very first time.
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Feast & Famine
3. The Artificial Man
4. The Roar of the Crowd
5. Good Taste
6. The Dissipation Club
7. Rapture
8. Care
9. 2144 and All That
10. The God Shark
11. The Sun of the Morning
12. About the Author
My Thoughts:
That’s right, there’s a reason I’ve been avoiding Tchaikovsky for the last year or two. While he can tell some good stories, he also really digs the knife into Christianity. Not organized religion, or Buddhism, or Islam, or any other religion, just Christianity. I “think” I could handle it if he were an equal opportunity mocker, but he’s not. He really lets fly with the story “Rapture” and I realized that while the other stories might be interesting that my time with him is done for good now.
If I need any more fixes of Tchaikovsky, I’ll just go and re-read the Shadows of the Apt decology.
