Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: sad

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Jaguar Knights (A Chronicle of the King's Blades #3) (King's Blades #6)

Synopsis:

An attack on an outpost in Chivial, where the former Royal Mistress resides, leads to her kidnapping. An apparently new kind of magic that even the Inquisitors haven't seen before leads to Sir Wolfe being sent on a mission to far away Txiltia. With an Inquisitor as a wife!
Mix in Sir Wolfe's brother, who was the Blade protecting the Royal Mistress and a world based on the Aztecs and you have tale that drags you along!

My Thoughts:

With this being my 6th, and final, King's Blades book, I have realized that Duncan seems to delight in telling a completely different tale with each story. He also seems to like turning characters from former books on their heads.

This was brutal on so many levels. The blood magic of the Txlitians was definitely human sacrifice, harvesting bloody hearts to perform incredible feats of magic. It turned my stomach even while not being gone into detail. Then near the end where Wolfe's wife dies. That cut! Duncan did a fantastic job of making Dolores and Wolfe a real thing.

I also had NO idea where the story was going, or what the end would be until I got there. It was good.

Friday, May 06, 2016

The Straw Men (Straw Men #1)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Straw Men
Series: The Straw Men
Author: Michael Marshall
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Horror
Pages: 404
Format: Kindle digital edition

Synopsis:
A man's parents die and leave him a clue that will start him down a mysterious and dark path.
A young teen girl is kidnapped and a former cop, who's own daughter was abducted, is brought on board by an FBI agent to try to save the girl.
Both of these plots weave and twine together in a horrific clash of the worst of humanity.

My Thoughts:
I'd like to thank Runner for putting this book, and this trilogy, on my radar.

I was conflicted during the whole read. On one hand, it was gripping, well written and I DID NOT WANT TO STOP READING. On the other hand, dipping my mind, no matter how tangentially, into the cess pool of an insane killer who has formed a whole group of uber-rich killers of like mind, was disgusting and left me feeling filthy.

I also noticed just how bleak and hopeless everything was. I don't want that type of thinking to invade my mind. There is hope and there is meaning and there is purpose. As Browning wrote,

God’s in His heaven—All’s right with the world!

The above is why I gave this book 3 stars. On the writing side, it was a strong 4, maybe 4.5. I just couldn't put this down and wanted to read and read and read. I'll be finishing the trilogy but after that I suspect I won't be reading any more by Marshall. Bleak and Hopeless aren't things I can deal real well with on a continual basis.

If you want a taut, horrific thriller, this is the book for you.