Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: vampires

Showing posts with label vampires. Show all posts

Monday, April 29, 2019

Under My Heel (Kurtherian Gambit #6) ★★★☆½

Title: Under My Heel
Series: Kurtherian Gambit #6
Author: Michael Anderle
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 306
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

BA and Michael and the rest of the Queen Bitch's Guard must take down the Forsaken so that they can begin dealing with the potential threat from space. At the same time the military has begun sniffing around the AI project. BA is going to have to accelerate her plans in acquiring a secure military base where she can move the AI and begin producing prototype starships.

The remaining son of Michael, the most powerful of the Forsaken, sets a trap for the Guard and eventually BA herself. BA and her crew get to test themselves against a whole host of nosferatu and have a test run of their new attack ships.

Of course BA and Co are successful, in just about all their endeavors. The ambush is unsuccessful, the military base is procured, the prototype ships a success and the AI is moved into the Ether and begins learning with TOM as a (rather unsuccessful) gatekeeper.

My Thoughts:

The profanity is just stupid. It's not amusing, it's not actually profane, it's just an ignorant stringing together of as many curse words as possible. It felt like a teenager trying to show how tough he was by saying everything he knows he's not supposed to.

I had fun reading this even while knowing the outcome. BA is just so powerful. But that is ok because I'm not reading these for dramatic tension but for butt kicking action, which is delivered in spades.

Sorry, I just don't feel like writing and I really don't have anything else to say. These are popcorn books. So if you like that, great. If you want epic fantasy or {L}iterature, then this won't do it for you. It really is that simple.

★★★☆½

Never Forsaken (Book 5)

Bite This (Book 4)

Love Lost (Book 3)

Queen Bitch (Book 2)

Death Becomes Her (Book 1)

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

Stormcaller (Twilight Reign #1) ★★☆☆½

Title: Stormcaller
Series: Twilight Reign #1
Author: Tom Lloyd
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 516
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Isak is a white-eye, a special sort of human that tends to be bigger, faster, stronger, longer lived and more angry. White eyes are something either the gods created or magicians and are now simply part of life. Isak's father blames him for his birthing killing his mother. Isak has been taken under wing by a retired “Ghost” soldier who has taken up the gypsy life and trained as much as a young man can be.

When the gypsy train is confronted by a high ranking White Eye, who claims to have come from the lord of the land, Lord Bahl, Isak refuses the summons but the gypsy train as a whole begins making their way to the Capital. Once they reach the city the men of the train work themselves into a drunken stupor and try to kill Isak for bringing them all to Lord Bahl's attention. Isak makes it to the palace and is given refuge. Turns out he is supposed to be Lord Bahl's heir. He is trained by a swordsmaster, given a magical suit of armor and a magic sword (from the elf warrior who started the revolt against the gods thousands of years ago and killed a bunch of them) and finds out that he might be the focus of a prophecy predicting the rise of the Elves, the fall of humanity and yet another round of god-slayings.

While Lord Bahl and Isak get along, they are both powerful white eyes and Lord Bahl sends Isak to a neighboring kingdom to learn as much diplomacy as is possible. Isak is beginning to surround himself with his own group of people so when the time comes for Lord Bahl to die, he can step in and rule the Land, with all the blessings of their god.

Mischief is afoot though and the neighboring kingdom is at the focus of several plots by powerful factions, all of whom want to control the Prophesied One. A coup is planned and while the king knows of the coup, he is counting on Isak and his soldiers' help in overcoming it. Isak sees Lord Bahl cut down by a mysterious figure in black armor in a vision during the battle. He then gets the blessing of the storm god and uses that power to smash those attempting the coup.

He meets up with some rebel Knight Templars who believe the prophesied one is to be their ultimate leader. They present Isak with two Crystal Skulls, which are artifacts of great power that can kill even the gods. It turns out to be a trap and Isak must face down the mysterious knight in black, who is the original elf warrior. Isak defeats him and now that prophecy has been turned aside, decide where to go next.

My Thoughts:

First, I did enjoy this. This review probably won't reflect that and neither does the rating, but there is reason for that. I am very glad that I started reading Lloyd's work with his God Fragments before this. Those were well written adventure stories with fleshed out characters and well crafted writing.

This book, and I'm guessing the series, is a very much a first attempt. Too many instances of things being described that don't advance the story and just bloat up the word count. I could tell the author was trying to flesh out characters or situations but it wasn't done right and just made things feel long. Transitions between scenes was horrible. A double line break was all we got, within chapters. I don't know how many times I had mental whiplash trying to get my head around that we were now on a boat where as in the last paragraph the whole group was riding horses and would be days into some vast plain.

There were a lot of names thrown about. Honestly, outside of the group of 4-5 people that Isak began surrounding himself with, I found it overwhelming. Especially so as I never knew until much later if this character was going to stick around or be central to the story or was just a one-off. The author tells a LOT of history and sadly, it is handled roughly and confusingly.

I don't know if it was just the edition I had (I'm reading the omnibus edition ebook offered through Amazon) but near the beginning of the story there were at least 5 instances of a word missing and “[MISSING]”, all in caps just like that, inserted in its place. It felt like I was reading a scanned copy of a paperback version that had been OCR''d and then not hand checked.

With all of that being said, I did enjoy the book. The author can write great fight scenes and that makes up for a lot. I also like the core idea of the story and want to see where it all leads. Having read his God Fragments series, I know he doesn't stay at this level of ability. I'd like to see if I can watch progress through the series.

If you want to check out Tom Lloyd, start with his God Fragments books. If you like those, then come back to check out these earlier works. Don't start with these as they're not representative of what he is capable of as a writer.

★★☆☆½

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Never Forsaken (Kurtherian Gambit #5) ★★★☆☆

Title: Never Forsaken
Series: Kurtherian Gambit #5
Author: Michael Anderle
Rating: 3.of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 328
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Bethany Anne (henceforth BA), must deal with bringing the Were into her elite Guardian Group. Pete takes on that chore and he and another recruit slug it out at the end of the training for Alpha status. Pete takes it and BA finds out from TOM that the Were are actually another line of nano-tech from a competing Kurtherian clan. BA and Tom experiment with Pete to give him a man-beast form. They are successful

BA also deals with having a dog be in the medical pod and having TOM messing with it. It seems to be a battery for the Etheric and allow BA to travel 1000's of km at once instead of just mere kilometers.

BA also tracks down two of the top Forsaken in South America and deals with them. She rescues Michael in the process and as penance for not dealing with the Forsaken centuries earlier puts him in charge of South America.

The 2 scientists awake their AI. Bobcat begins working with a rocket scientist to develop a strike craft for both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial purposes.

My Thoughts:

Once again, I had a blast reading this. It still does feel like Anderle is putting too much of various characters into the books, hence cutting down the time we get with them. The balance isn't right.

Also, while I enjoyed this as much as the previous books, if not more due to BA taking out the 2 top Forsaken, the rushed nature of this volume really stood out. Several spelling errors, sentences that weren't cleaned up or had had 2 ways to go and weren't completed properly, little grammar things here and there. I'll keep reading as long as I enjoy the story but these little things make me leery of recommending the books because it screams “unprofessional”.

Lots of fun and excitement as long as you don't mind the indie lack of concern.

★★★☆☆

Friday, December 07, 2018

Bite This (Kurtherian Gambit #4) ★★★☆½

Title: Bite This
Series: Kurtherian Gambit #4
Author: Michael Anderle
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 270
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Bethany Anne and Crew have a lot to do.

One of their smaller companies has created an AI but didn't tell anyone. They shut it down so there was no chance of it going all Skynet on the world. When BA finds out, she puts her father and some others on the case as they need some super intelligence to help guide them through the coming minefields.

The Company needs a military base as a “Corporate Headquarters” so they can start bringing their own people together, to work and to protect. If any nation state learns what BA is doing or capable of, they're going to have to protect themselves. They also need a place where scientists can start studying TOM's spaceship. The spaceship itself needs to be moved from the mountainous area to a secure birth on the super yacht.

BA has given the responsibility of getting Europe back under control to Stephen, another of Michael's direct children. He has to deal with young vamps on the edge of becoming Forsaken as well as Pack politics. European Were haven't been dealt with for decades and they are thinking that maybe vamps aren't tough as all that. Stephen shows them WHY vamps are top of the food chain and Europe starts to settle down.

And if that isn't enough, one of Michael's direct children, now a Forsaken in South America, is attacking BA using political connections. BA has to figure out who the politician is and where this Forsaken is actually located. Then she can deal with both of them. Just to complicate things even more, it looks like this Forsaken has a secret formula for making Nosferatu more intelligent and even stronger.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit, while reading this, I had the Beach Boys song “Fun, Fun, Fun” running through my head. And BA's daddy doesn't take the t-bird away, so yeah, lots and lots of fun.

I complained about the last book introducing a ton of characters really quickly. Thankfully, it pays off here. The book cycles through quite a few POV's which is only possible because of all the new people. I still say Anderle could have done it a bit slower but it isn't something I can complain about in this book. Gabby the vampire ends up in the medical box and becomes an alpha vamp probably on the level with Michael. I'm surprised that BA isn't running some of her own crew through the box to build up a small army of loyal alpha vamps. I consider BA to be Vamp Zero and maybe she doesn't want any alphas going wild and blowing her cover and destroying her chance to bring the world up to readiness to deal the the enemy aliens. I don't know. I do know that I would be biting my loyal guards until they were all vamps, especially since they would be daywalkers.

The whole AI storyline is just getting going. There is lot of relocation and talking and plans but the switch hasn't been thrown yet to bring it back online. I'm definitely interested to see where this plot line goes.

There is a battle scene where Gabby saves a german shepherd by giving it her blood. BA also gives it her blood. So we're going to end up with vampire dogs. I'm guessing Anderle will use them as Nosferatu detectors and such. I really didn't care for this inclusion, as I'm not an animal person.

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this. At under 300 pages, I felt like I just raced through it. I know Anderle has this series in omnibus editions with 3 books in each and I'm tempted to go that route just so I can get a big long draft of BA kicking butt. I know I won't though, as I'd rather stretch things out and stay a little hungry than burn out. Nothing worse than burnout.

★★★☆½

Friday, October 19, 2018

Love Lost (Kurtherian Gambit #3) ★★★☆☆

Title: Love Lost
Series: Kurtherian Gambit #3
Author: Michael Anderle
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 260
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

BA (which abbreviation I shall use from here-on out instead of Bethany Anne), has to start getting a handle on the Empire that Michael has left to her. With hundreds of companies under her control and trillions of dollars at her disposal, BA can coast if she wants to. Obviously, knowing the threat is Out There, coasting isn't an option. She has to start assembling a larger team that she can trust. A team not only for fighting the Forsaken but a team to start dealing with the spaceship that TOM came in.

So the recruitment begins. The Fighting Force is the easiest, as she starts picking up specialists that have been disillusioned with the military for one reason or another. The kind of people that don't blink at finding out that vampires are real AND that they are expected to kill such super powerful beings. BA must also recruit information specialists, business specialists, etc, etc, etc. The list is long and she needs to start spreading the responsibility. So she recruits her dad, The General.

The other part of this book was taking the fight to the Forsaken who had attacked her allies here in the United States. Her and her team head to South America and take down one of Michael's granddaughters. BA gives the children of said granddaughter mercy as long as they don't hunt humans, thus assuring herself of more potential allies in the future. She also finds out that one of Michael's First Children was ultimately responsible and BA realizes she has to take care of the Earth's Forsaken before she can concentrate on any extraterrestrial problems.

My Thoughts:

This book had a LOT of character introduction going on. BA is setting up her own personal infrastructure and it is going to take a boatload of people. Trying to make 10+ people memorable and a character on their own is a tough task and Anderle doesn't really accomplish it in this 260page book. I just don't care enough about “Avengers, Assemble!!” for that kind of detail to keep my interest. It was half the book and while necessary for the overall series plot, felt very much like getting dumped on so Anderle could continue on in later books. Not cool.

The couple of battle scenes were enjoyable. I was hoping for a bit more in the fight scene between BA and the Forsaken she had to take down, but BA is just so overpowered that there wasn't much of a fight. Maybe once she moves on to Michael's First Children things will be a bit more even? Or even if BA's fighting teams take them on, that might make for more interesting reading.

Overall, I did enjoy this but there was just too much setup that felt like setup. Hoping the rest of the books don't follow this pattern.

★★★☆☆

Friday, August 17, 2018

Queen Bitch (Kurtherian Gambit #2) ★★★★☆

Title: Queen Bitch
Series: Kurtherian Gambit #2
Author: Michael Anderle
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 258
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Bethany Anne must begin cleaning up the mess left behind by Michael. She has to start cleaning up the Forsaken who are starting to make inroads in North America due to Michael's absence. She has to start putting Michael's “good” children back on the straight and narrow and have them go back to their duties of keeping the supernatural outside of the purview of the normal world. She also has to put the Council of the Were in their place, as several members are thinking that without Michael around they can begin shoving the humans around, perhaps even ruling them.

While ALL this is going on, Bethany Anne also has to keep in mind that the overall threat is so much greater and her final goal must be to get humanity into space and ready to fight off potential hordes of ravening aliens.

Sometimes, being Queen Bitch just isn't worth the hassle.

My Thoughts:

This was F-U-N!! Nothing deep, nothing worth a re-read but my goodness, Bethany Anne kicks some serious butt. She is pretty much a Mary Sue, but only if Mary Sue was a psycho violent vampire who was trying to protect the planet. I can handle that.

Even through all of this, Bethany Anne is still planning on just how she is going to save the planet. She might be violent but she's not at all stupid. She's beginning to make more and more use of TOM and she's already thinking about how she can use its knowledge to grow humanity's knowledge AND give her the funds necessary to build the space stuff that will be needed.

Thinking about this book, I would compare it to the earlier MHI books in terms of action and violence. I'd compare it quality-wise to the first MHI book as well. The thing that gives me pause is that Anderle has a bajillion books while Correia has a steady output of steadily increasing quality. I'm kind of afraid to find out where Anderle plateaus or even nosedives. That's the only problem and that is all in my head.

I almost started in on the next book right away but thank goodness my inner core of self control kept me safe. Nothing is worse than having too much of a good time all at once.

★★★★☆

Death Becomes Her (Book 1)

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Death Becomes Her (Kurtherian Gambit #1) ★★★☆½

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 & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Death Becomes Her
Series: Kurtherian Gambit #1
Author: Michael Anderle
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 271
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Michael, the Father of All Vampires, is awoken after one of his children is killed. He sets out to find a replacement but there is only 1 candidate that fits Michaels very exacting standards. He contacts General Reynolds to setup the interview.

Bethany Anne Reynolds, a black ops of black ops agent, has been diagnosed with an incurable blood disease that will kill her in less than 6months. She has only told 2 people, neither of them being her father. So when she is summoned to her father's base, she assumes one of the two spilled the beans.

Bethany Anne is recruited by Michael. She is now officially dead and her record of existence has been closed. However, Bethany Anne was not recruited to simply be a new child of Michael's, but Michael's own replacement as he realized that events in the world were moving faster than his 1000 year old brain could handle. New blood was needed (I think I made that pun all by myself!).

It turns out that what turned Michael into a sunwalking alpha vampire a millenia ago was an alien scout sent to change any sentient races it found into beings capable of fighting an enemy that the aliens, the Kurtherians, were no longer able to fight. Now with an alien computer in her head, Michael disappeared and the kickass attitude that has gotten her through life so far, Bethany Anne must face down all of Michael's children plus all the residents of the Unknown World (what the supernaturals refer to themselves as collectively).

The book ends with Bethany Anne forming a new proto-team of her own and taking down of Michael's grandchildren who had gotten out of line. But with the Forsaken, children of Michael who have rejected all his strictures, life, or death, isn't going to be easy for Bethany Anne.

My Thoughts:

My first impression of Bethany Anne (you have NO idea how sick to death I became of that two name nomeclature by the time this book was done) was that I hated her guts. She was piss and vinegar with a bad attitude. Thankfully, once she is made over by the alien machine, and starts acting like an alpha vampire, it's more palatable. I still don't particularly care for her, but I stopped actively disliking her by the end.

There was a lot of setup in this book, what with introducing vampires, the shape changers and then the whole “alien” thing. That took this from a “so stereotypical urban fantasy that I want to gag” to a much wider scope of story that could be, and will be, told. Also, Bethany Anne didn't have any love interest in this book at all, so that was nice.

The action scene where she destroys the werewolves and then goes after the vampire that set them on her was nice and I wish there had been more of that. But at under 300 pages, Anderle had to really choose what to include in this and honestly, I think he did a good job of balancing everything.

This was another book that came across my radar because of PG's Ramblings. He was dead on about the profanity too, so be aware of that. It only took me a year to get around to reading this. So take that into consideration if I ever tell you that your review has inspired me to read Book X. It'll be a while

* grin *

★★★☆½

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Seal Team 13 ★★☆☆☆

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 & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Seal Team 13
Series: ----------
Author: Evan Currie
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 337
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

10 years ago a Seal Team witnessed the destruction of a destroyerboat by tentacles. The 2 surviving SEALS were drummed out of the service and burned for their report. Monsters like that don't exist.

Incidents like that have been increasing and Admiral Karson realizes that the United States Armed Forces aren't getting the job done of finding out what is going on. He re-calls Harold “Hawk” Masterson, one of the surviving SEALS and has him assemble a team that can handle such incidents. When a town in Alaska suddenly goes off the radar and the police and national guard sent in to investigate disappear, Karson realizes it is time for his team to annointed by fire.

Masterson and crew, all survivors of various unexplained events, head in. With Alexander Norton, known simply as The Black in the supernatural community, Masterson wants to prove that his team can handle such threats and begin fighting back against the supernatural.

Lots of hints are dropped about The Veil, something that keeps an ignorant humanity protected from the worst of the supernatural. Apparently, if someone witnesses something, they can cross the veil and see things. Unfortunately, it also means that those “things” can now see them.

The town of Barrow, Alaska, has been taken over by a vampire and its inhabitants turned. Masterson must destroy the alpha vampire while battling off thousands of shambling zombie/vampire things. The Team wins, deals with the instigators of the whole thing and come to the attention of masters of the Supernatural.

Now the Armed Forces can fight back, with Seal Team 13.

My Thoughts:

This was originally supposed to be the start of a series, but considering that we've never seen another one I'm guessing Currie lost interest, or something. That is why I put that this is just a standalone.

I was expecting something along the lines of the Monster Hunter International series but with SEAL's instead of a private organization. Things started out with a bang and I was rather excited. Sadly, it did not coalesce into the awesomeness I was hoping for.

Firstly, the whole Veil thing. It is sideways referenced so many times that I had the idea of what it was but no clear idea in actuality. It would appear to literally be a Veil of Ignorance. If you don't know about the supernatural, they can't affect you. But the attacks by supernatural beings seems to give lie to that. How does a Kraken take down a whole Destroyer if it supposedly can't interact with those who don't know or believe? Same with the whole town of Barrows who were all zombievampirized. The idea was cool but the execution was not thought out the best or at least, not explained very well.

Second, the sniping at Christianity and America. There is an instance where The Black holds up a cross and tells the main character that the cross is an ancient celtic symbol of the sun and the symbol of punishment for the worst scum by the romans and asks the main character which he thinks would be more effective against vampires. Then an instance of the a secondary character being from the Canadian Special Forces and Currie praises them and snipes at the SEALs. Neither of those instances are huge, but it was one more thing that rubbed me wrong.

Thirdly, plot related things. The Black knows about the vampire and knows that bullets can't kill her. But does he tell the rest of the SEAL team or at least let them know that only his special knife might have a chance of killing her? Nope, he waits until they're already attacking before he lets loose that info. There were several instances like this where a real SEAL team would have all the info possible before proceeding.

Finally, and least important but most noticable to me, was the continued references to Masterson as “Harold “Hawk” Masterson”. Ok, we get it. Use it at the beginning of the book, but in the last chapter? WE KNOW THAT ALREADY.

Overall, this came across as slapdash and mediocre at best. I like the idea, a lot, but the execution was poorly done and I doubt I'd try a book 2 even if Currie (who has improved tremendously through his career to date) wrote it now. I'd rather him focus on his Scourwind trilogy and finish that up.

★★☆☆☆

Thursday, August 18, 2016

This Green Hell (Alex Hunter #3)

Synopsis: Spoilers

An inimical alien lifeform has come to Earth, 400 years ago. Now it waits to be set free and to take over.
Aimee is still on the search for the perfect fuel. She thinks she might have found it in a new natural gas reserve that has old microbrial thingamajigs that do "Science". So of course it is the inimical Life Form and Green Berets are wiped out so Alex Hunter and Crew are sent in. The Life Form has grown, using a human host, into what is pretty much a vampire and more than a match for Alex.
A CDC scientist tags along because everyone thinks the Lifeform is just a new disease. And she has a nuke, just in case.

My Thoughts:

I had to downgrade this half a star from the previous book because there were several instances of things not being logical and simply not making sense. I can't remember what those instances were, but they made an impression.

Aimee's inclusion into the story wasn't something that I particularly enjoyed either. And then at the end to have her think that Hunter was killed by the virus was just wrong. The Israeli Special Forces lady who ends up taking charge of Hunter's frozen body is not nice and I'm not sure what her future in these stories are. I hope it is a small role.

Ton of fighting and stuff, which redeems most of the issues I had.
`

Monday, July 11, 2016

Unholy (The Haunted Lands #3) (Forgotten Realms)

Synopsis:

100 years have passed since the last book. Szass Tam has completed his domination of Thay with the building of multiple fortresses, which turn out to be the keystone for a massive magical spell. A spell that will unmake the Universe and potentially remake it, with Tsazz Tam as the new head honcho god. Theoretically.
So the gryphon rider and undead bard from the previous books set out to stop him, with the help of the former Zulkirs of Thay.
Throw in Tam's insane but powerful top lieutenant who wants only the first part of the spell to succeed and you wind up with a pretty fantastic story.

My Thoughts:

Sometimes Forgotten Realms books really stink. The plot is as pulpy and the characters as wooden as the paper they are printed on. But sometimes you run across some that are really a good story that keep you coming back for more. This book, and trilogy, have been one of the good ones.

The plan behind the plan, that was hinted at in the previous book, comes to full light here. Tam's deal with Bane makes sense. Why worry about your soul in 1000 years if you're going to remake the universe with you at the head? You can just unmake the god that you made the deal with and negate it's consequences.

Just like in the previous 2 books, the "heroes" are the underdogs and Tam is a pretty sympathetic antagonist. The bard and mercenary [and for the life of me, I can't remember WHY the mercenary is so long-lived] and their little ghost friend all finish their fight, but it ends up being against their former ally turned Szass Tam lieutenant instead of Tam himself. All part of making Tam the "not really the bad guy" bad guy.

Because I've enjoyed the majority of Byer's work in the Forgotten Realms universe, I'm thinking I'll go track down the rest of his stuff and put it into my tbr pile instead of just some random FF trilogy/series like I have been doing. We'll see if he can continue to entertain.

Monday, June 06, 2016

Armageddon Bound (Demon Squad #1)

Synopsis:

Frank Trigg, nephew of the devil, once candidate for the Anti-Christ, is now living in a post-God/Devil world. Only the demons and angels are left. Some of them want the status quo, some want to become Top Dog and some want the Cessation of All, ie, Armageddon.

My Thoughts:

Trig was born 500 years ago. No details are given, which is pretty par for this book. Things are just "told". He has a cousin, who is an angel. Who he has redneck desires for. An ex-wife who is a succubus, who betrays him at every turn.

Then you have his inner thoughts. Which mostly consist of Trig commenting on how hot some woman is, or how horny he is. It is the thoughts of a 23 year old, not a supercentenarian.

Add in the ridiculous ideas about God and the devil, which mostly consisted of the fact that both God and the devil got sick of humanity, so they walked off into the void, or non-existence and you have the depths of this book.

The action was like the old video game Doom. Trig runs around like a chicken with his head cut off and shoots things and gets shot and pretty much chewed up. Then he gets a "power up" and gets healed, just in time for it all to happen again. A fun ride if you don't mind be immersed in a 23 year old males mind.

From a purely technical standpoint, this was indie all the way. It was the story Marquitz wanted to tell but it lacked depth, skilled writing, polish and that indefinable something that all good books have. I'm planning on reading the next one just to see if his writing improves; if not, then this is one to avoid.

Monday, May 16, 2016

Last Watch (Night Watch #4)

Synopsis:

Someone is trying to recover an artifact of power that Merlin himself created. In doing so, they are murdering both Light, Dark and Inquisition. They are using humans and modern weapons enspelled.
Anton is tasked by both Gesar and Zabulon to find out what is going on and secretly, to find this monumental artifact. Can Anton please all 3 branches of Others while fighting off a new group calling themselves the Last Watch and protect his daughter?
Former friends and foes come together in a new Watch story.

My Thoughts:

Good stuff! This tied in quite heavily to the previous book with the Vampire who wanted to turn everyone into an Other. This time around you have various members from each of the Branches trying to bring back dead Others, who live on the 6th level of the Twilight.

The 3 story setup works quite well once again. Anton isn't angsty and his melancholy is almost non-existent, which is ok.

Sunday, May 01, 2016

City of the Lost

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: City of the Lost
Series: -----
Author: Stephen Blackmoore
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 225
Format: Kindle digital edition

Synopsis:
Joe Sunday, low life thug for hire, does a job and is killed because of it. He is resurrected by the man who killed him. What follows is a whole lot of pulp noir with magic.
A wizard who wants to live forever. His scorned girlfriend. Joe Sunday, zombie PI and some do gooder of a witch who just wants to help all the poor little vampires who have bad diseases from feeding on other lowlifes.

Everything revolves around a magic stone. Serious as serious can be.

My Thoughts:
The first 10% of this book was so filled with profanity that not only did I create a new shelf labeled "Profanity" but was about to dnf it. I don't need this kind of *&^%$#@! in my reading life! If you don't get that, please look up "irony" in the dictionary. However, after that 10% mark, it just dropped off. I have no idea why or what caused the initial vomital sludge but it did stop being an issue.

It did set the tone for the book though.

I am not a fan of pulp noir. Detectives and thugs who are as bad as the ones they are crossing are not the kind of character I really like to read about. I am also not a fan of urban fantasy [with a few exceptions], so this mash up was pretty much the worst of both worlds for me.

It was engaging enough that I did want to know how it ended and I finished this. However, I'll probably be avoiding future works by Mr. Blackmoore on general principle.

Thursday, March 03, 2016

Twilight Watch (Night Watch #3)

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Title: Twilight Watch
Series: Night Watch
Author: Sergei Lukyanenko
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 432
Format: Kindle

Synopsis:
Anton is now a mature family man with a little 3 year old daughter. His wife has left the Night Watch and while he is still in it, his heart isn't.
Throughout the 3 stories presented, Anton must wrestle what it means to be an "Other". He must decide if the Light and Dark ones are different after all and if the Inquisition is what he wants, or if it too is an empty body politic.

My Thoughts:
The idea of a book or spell that can turn people into Others was interesting. The complications, the effects and the ripples from even the Idea of such a thing are shown in each of these stories.

The writing was much more polished, less chaotic and random, than the first book. The downside was that the morose and melancholy nature that I so enjoyed from the previous books was also tamped down. Kind of like a campfire after the first 30min. It is now warmer and much more able to fulfill your needs [ie, roasting those horrible 'smores] but it doesn't LOOK like a wild raging fire any more.
Tamed.

Lukyanenko's philosophical musings, given voice by Anton's thoughts, while running in the same vein as before, are much more "Others" versus "People" instead of "Light" versus "Dark". Anton ends up thinking that ALL "Others" are like magical vampires, as they live off of the magic of people and the world. Which of course, is utter and complete bollocks. That is on the same level as saying that I am a grass vampire because I breathe in the oxygen it produces. In all honesty, Anton has matured and now has a family to be worried about, he doesn't need to sit around and mentally masturbate to such puerile philosophy.

I also liked how the Inquisition was shown to be the place for those who had given up hope instead of the last Bastion of Hope for Others.

Originally, I believe this was the last book. At least, I know I've seen "The Night Watch Trilogy" on a bunch of older editions of this and earlier books. I do know that there is a fourth book, called The Final Watch, and I'm wondering what Lukyanenko will write about to wrap things up. Aaaaand I just looked and there is a fifth book entitled New Watch, so it looks like I've got a bit more reading a head of me than I thought. I'm ok with that.