Soldiers of Fortune (Omega Force #2)

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.com by  Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Soldiers of Fortune
Series: Omega Force
Author: Joshua Dalzelle
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 350
Format: Kindle digital edition

Synopsis:

Cap'n Jason and his mighty crew of rogue Do Gooders have pretty much spent all their money from their first mission on stuff for the ship and other missions. So now they need a job and they get one, from Da' Man, the Gubbamint, Big Brother.

A system is standing separate from the ConFed space government and suddenly their shipping lanes are being attacked by pirates, good stolen, commerce being ground to a halt. But they can't find the pirates hidden base so they hire Omega Force to get dirty, be dirtbag, scum loving, mercs and find the pirate base. Along the way, Jason and the Crew find out that it is the ConFed's, working in conjunction with a small group of power hungry individuals, that is working to bring the system to it's knees so it will be forced to join the ConFed.

And a beautiful woman is brought into the picture. Da Da Dum!

My Thoughts:

Ok, first off, I thought this was a slightly better book than the first one but I rated it 1/2star less. That is because this was 50% longer, which showed some of the Dalzelle's weakness in writing, and I was expecting more. Funny how expectations can really change things.

This was an enjoyable story of the crew getting into fights, doing some sleuthing, have a space battle or two and hooking up with a source of income that will allow them to continue The Good Fight. I didn't bother trying to figure out who or what was manipulating who or what, I was just along for the ride. Everything gets explained nice and neat by the end and the story ends.

In the first book, Jason thinks about "her" several times, but with no name or anything specific. Which bugged me, because if "she" was the love of his life, he'd be thinking of her by name. It felt like Dalzelle was trying to establish a character without actually doing any of the work. And in this book, "she" is referred to again, pretty much like that. The introduction of the  beautiful space captain and how she and Jason pretty much don't hit it off telegraphs that she'll be the romance interest in the series. At least the space captain has a name, position and is a real character. I foresee a lot of drama being milked out of this potential relationship.

If you like SF that is about the action, this series will suit you. It certainly suits me just fine even while I wish that it was being handled with more skill. Hopefully that is something that time will solve.

The Store DNF@25% w/ Extreme Prejudice

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.com by  Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Store
Series: -----
Author: Bentley Little
Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Horror
Pages: 436
Format: Kindle digital edition

Synopsis:

The Store is coming to smallville, Arizona. Bad things have happened at other Store's across the country. Bad things have happened during the construction of the Store. Very Bad Things happen during the interview and initiation process to work at the Store.

And that is where I had to stop.

My Thoughts:

This book typifies Horror for me and why I don't read it as a genre. I don't have anything to say about the writing, or the story as a whole or anything else.

The 3 following happenings made me feel sick to my stomach and forced me to stop.

1) A sleazy young man is being interviewed to work at the Store. He's taken to the video surveillance room and is shown the women's dressing room, where he proceeds to watch the sister of the girl he's sleeping with, try on new jeans. The manager tells him that sometimes the women aren't wearing panties.

2) The aforementioned young woman applies to the Store. During her interview she is told that she'll have to take a polygraph test, with only the manager in the room. He tells her to take her blouse and bra off so he can affix the electrodes to her body. She does. And the manager leers at her the whole time. Then she has to give a urine sample. In the office, in front of the manager. She does.

3) The young woman is hired. She comes early on her first shift and is taken down to the basement. She is told to strip down to her bra and panties and forced to run a gauntlet between other employees [most of whom she knows] who inflict physical and verbal damage on her. At the end, they all say they love her and she responds in kind.


Now, I don't care if those instances are presented as wrong and bad, which they were. I don't want to read about the degradation, humiliation, torture and complete helplessness of a young woman. I don't want to invite the evil of that manager into my thoughts, and hence, into my house. That type of thing is sick and to use it for entertainment is sick as well.

Icerigger (Icerigger #1) (Project Reread #9)

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.com by  Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Icerigger
Series: Icerigger
Author: Alan Foster
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 313
Format: Kindle digital edition

Project Reread:

I am attempting to reread 10+ books in 2016 that I have rated highly in the past. I am not attempting to second guess or denigrate my younger self in any way but am wanting to compare how my tastes have changed and possibly matured. I am certainly much more widely read now [both in the good and bad quality sadly] than then.
I will hopefully be going into the reasons for any differences of opinions between then and now. If there is no difference of opinion, then it was a hellfire'd fine book!
Links may link to either Booklikes or Blogspot, depending on when the original review was.

Synopsis:

Ethan Fortune, traveling space salesman, interrupts a kidnapping and is taken along for the ride. The little kidnapping craft crashes and the kidnappee's suddenly out number, out bulk and out gun their lone kidnapper. Sadly, they've crashed on Tran-Ky-Ky, the Hoth of the HumanX commonwealth, where metal is rare, the natives furry and the group is 1000 of kilometers from the only humanx outpost on the world.

After being rescued by a group of friendly natives, you'd think the groups' problems were over. Nope. It appears that they have arrived just as the locals are rising up against the Horde, a nasty group that sails around taking tribute and causing mayhem.

Lots of adventures happen and the book ends with the Slanderskee, an ice rigger [hence the name of the book and trilogy], skating into Brass Monkey, the humanx outpost.

My Thoughts:

If was I reading this for the first time, I'd be hesitating between 3.5 and 4 Stars. There are several things that you could nitpick about. My main one was where was the security detail for the Du Kanes? Heads of businesses that are multi-bajillionaires don't wander around by themselves.

However, since this is my 5th or 6th time reading this, I've obviously gotten past that. This is another book that I read multiple times in highschool, at least once or twice in bibleschool and then again since 2000. And now.  When I read this back in '06, I started looking for a hardcover edition. I managed to buy one recently [ie, in the last couple of years] for under $100, but before that, the price had ranged from $150 to $450. OUCH.

This was fun. Ethan is a good face for the group. Being a salesman he's used to dealing with disparate groups of beings and is mentally flexible enough that a little thing like being stranded on an ice planet doesn't make him panic and freeze [ha, wordplay totally intended there]. Skua September is the mature, wise, warrior elder. Ok, maybe not quite so wise or mature but he definitely provides that "experience" vibe that Ethan certainly doesn't have. Then the "scientist'y" teacher who fills in all those science'y parts necessary in an SF book. Finally, there are the Du Kanes. The sometimes senile, sometimes not, father and then Collette, the smart as a whip, really running the business but a dutiful and loving daughter. Who can only be described as fat.

Foster pulls no punches whatsoever in regards to Collette. In some ways it is rather shocking to see how she is treated so bluntly, but I never felt like it was used as a comedic "hey lets make fun of the fat girl" kind of thing. She is not a princess but is expected to fill a princess's role and that conflict brings a bit of gravity to this otherwise pretty light novel.

The fighting was great. There were several battles and each one was great to read about. Made me want to go outside, skate around and cut people's heads off :-)

Once again, this was a smashing success for my Project Reread.

Thraxas at War (Thraxas #7)

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.com by  Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Thraxas at War
Series: Thraxas
Author: Martin Scott
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 272
Format: Kindle digital edition

Synopsis:

While the war council for Turai is in session, a Senator is murdered and Lodius is the main suspect. Lodius' wife hires Thraxas to prove his innocence. Thraxas reluctantly takes the case. The orcs pull a sneak attack on Turai with the help of a traitor and while the city survives, no allies are going to be able to help for months.
Thraxas solves the case but it is completely overshadowed by the traitor and the war. Ends with Turai under siege.

My Thoughts:

This really sucked me in. A lot of the time the "mystery" doesn't do much for me and I just swing along for the ride. But for whatever reason, this time around, it just sucked me in.

The war story is bigger than one book so while this is the start, it doesn't conclude anything or even really continue. I guess I'll have to read the next book or 3 to finish that.

Musashi (Eyeshield 21 #7) (Manga Monday)

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.com by  Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Musashi
Series: Eyeshield 21
Author: Riichiro Inagaki
Artist: Yusuke Murata
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 208
Format: Digital Scan

Synopsis:

The coach of the American Team reneges on his deal and doesn't come to Japan. Hiruma puts together a very insulting video and releases it on the internet, thus forcing the coach and his team to come to Japan or be labeled as cowards.
Various aspects of the Devil Bat's team members are shown to progress character growth. Sena and Monta find out who Musashi is and make a deal with him that if they can win against the Americans that he'll come back to the team as the kicker. The book ends right before the game against the Americans start.

My Thoughts:

I am reading a scanned copy, so the American coach is represented as a complete rascist against anyone not white and as a complete ass hole. I'm sure he's still presented as a jerk in the official release, but it makes me want to go hunt down a paper copy to see how it was changed. It is also shown that he's making his team's public face "mighty white" and keeping the one black guy on the team on the bench. Which just doesn't jive with real football.

That aside, not a lot really happens. It is amazing how I can read 200 pages of misc stuff, setup stuff and still enjoy it. A little bit of attention is given to various characters and it really works. They are starting to feel more like real people and not just cliches in a sports manga. This time around it was one of the 3 delinquents. He doesn't want to be useless but he doesn't want to leave his 2 friends. I'm hoping he can drag them upward with him.

The journey to find Musashi, the guy who started the club with Hiruma and Kurita but then dropped out of highschool, is part of the story but I wish they'd concentrated on finding another kicker. They showcase one guy who wants to go head to head with Musashi, so maybe later in the series he'll come on board, but for now he's disappeared.

Emissary (Legends of the Realm #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.com by  Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Emissary
Series: Legends of the Realm
Author: Thomas Locke
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 401
Format: Kindle digital edition

Synopsis:

Hyam, former mage apprentice and current farmer, is cast out of his village when it becomes obvious that he has a power that hasn't been seen in the land for years. Somehow he must get a group together to overthrow the bad wizard and the bad king and save the land. All while bitter about life. Boohoo...

My Thoughts:

Some story tellers can weave their tale in such a way that you become part of the story. They are skillful artists, able to use words like food ingredients in a complicated and tasty recipe. Other story tellers can tell a story in such a way that you can picture what they are telling you. Finally, you have those who just tell a story without much skill and you kind of drag along for the ride.

Sadly, this was an example of the latter. It was a decent story, it just wasn't that skillfully told.  In the right hands, it could have been a pretty good story. In many ways it reminded me of the Belgariad by Eddings.

I will not be reading the sequel. This just isn't good enough for me to spend more time on.

The Pilgrim of Hate (Brother Cadfael #10)

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.com by  Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Pilgrim of Hate
Series: Brother Cadfael
Author: Ellis Peters
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 270
Format: Kindle digital edition

Synopsis:

The bones of St. Winifred are being brought out to display and for a miracle to happen. Pilgrims flock to the Abbey. Some true pilgrims, some scofflaws and others with very mixed motives. Cadfael is still feeling guilty about burying Winifred back in Wales and wants a sign that he did right.
While this is all going on, the war for the Kingdom continues. London is far away but what happens there ripples out to the rest of the land. A murder there affects a whole group of Pilgrims at the abbey, whether they know it or not.

My Thoughts:

Been about 2 months since my last Cadfael read. That seems to be a good space. Any sooner and I'd start champing at the bit with these.

This story had as much historical action as the previous book. Empress Maude makes the classic blunder of not sucking up to those in power and they spurn her attempt at  becoming Queen. So the war between her and Stephen continues. Which is just the backdrop for everything happening at the abbey.

Cadfael is all doubt'y until his son shows up and then it is all rainbows and ponies and a sign that Winifred approves his decision. Cadfael, while having given up the life that he led before, certainly doesn't seem in the least repentant for ANY of it. I know that the religious and theological isn't the main purview of this series, but still, I'd like that aspect touched on a bit more, even if it "is" Catholicism ;-)

The one thing that really bugged me however was all the references to previous stories. I don't remember individuals from the other books and so to have them mentioned was just an annoyance. I don't keep that kind of detail in my head for more than about 2 days, then *delete*, it is gone to make room for the next book I'm reading. Which is why reviews of books that I have finished over a week ago tend to be quite a bit sparser than ones done immediately after reading.

Finally, I am really liking these MysteriousPress.com covers. While they don't have the Priest'y vibe of the earlier ones, I am very much drawn to the whole colored cover thing. It works for me.

Myth Alliances (Myth Adventures #14)

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.com by  Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Myth Alliances
Series: Myth Adventures
Author: Jody Nye & Robert Asprin
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 275
Format: Kindle digital scan

Synopsis:

Skeeve is feeling insecure, as usual, and so to prove that he can actually be on his own, takes a job to help some world that has been taken over by a bunch of Pervects.
Of course, Skeeve being the total idiot that he is, gets everything wrong, still solves the problem and makes his former mentor Ahz proud of him. Trophies of Participation for everyone! *gag*

My Thoughts:

I deliberately omitted the "humor" tag because this just wasn't funny. I think there were places where it was "supposed" to be, but it fell pretty flat. The story was mediocre as well and the characters were so manipulated that it wasn't well received by this reader at all.

Skeeve has had an on again, off again, potential with both Tananda and Bunny, but here the authors just have him come out and say he couldn't get involved with either of them because "they were like sisters to him". Oh for phracks sake. Just introduce another female character for him to fall in love in love with and let the other 2 fade out. Don't pull manipulative writing to introduce tension. This isn't the series for it.

Even though I've read this far along and there are only 19 books in this series, if the next one isn't a notch higher, I'll be done. I can't stand this much mediocrity packed into only 1 book. And especially after the introduction was practically a love fest for Jody Nye being a new collaborator. I expected more and was sadly disappointed.

October '16 Roundup & Ramblings

This past month was the the most up and down that I've had for some time. Quite a few DNF's and then on the other side of the spectrum I had several 4.5 or 5 stars read. So really, quality wise it all kind of evened out to my typical 3 star life :-)

Booklikes drove me as close as it ever has to making me leave. Weekends were consistently unusable and there was one whole week of the same. Things have smoothed out, but in that time I've begun preparations to be social over at Wordpress. I'm sticking around here until the New Years [hence the Don Quixote buddy read] but if at least one staff member doesn't return by then and start giving us signs of life, then I'll be leaving. I've let a lot go, worked around things, put up with a site that didn't work. I haven't really drawn any lines in the sand, but the time has come for me to decide what I can or can't deal with here at booklikes. So, a staff member needs to be appear, and stick around, by the end of the year. If that happens, I'll keep on sticking around even if the site issues continue. But no staff and I'm gone, even if the site dramatically improves. Just so you all know what my thoughts and plans are. I'm not just going to up and disappear one day without a word.

I'm also cross posting everything at Wordpress. So to you "new to me" WP peeps, thanks.  And sorry about dragging you through my Booklikes issues.

And since this has been more about Booklikes issues than about the books I've read, it is time to wrench this train back on the tracks. I'll wrap this post up with my 2 favorite covers.

First one is Caliban. It just screams Space Opera and I LIKE Space Opera.





This second one, Vets Might Fly, appeals to me because of it's simplicity. Very calming, just like the stories within.





I am looking forward to the Buddy Read of Don Quixote starting in 2 weeks. I plan on doing a Pre-Post about it tomorrow, so if it sounds like something you might like to be a part of, stay tuned.

Devil Bats Take Flight (Eyeshield 21 #6) (Manga Monday)

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.com by  Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Devil Bats Take Flight
Series: Eyeshield 21
Author: Riichiro Inagaki
Artist: Yusuke Murata
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 208
Format: Digital Scan

Synopsis:

After a brutal game, the Devil Bats manage to tie the score at the end of the game. The de facto leader of the Sphinx admits that since the Devil Bats tied on the Sphinx's home turf, that it is a win for the Bats. So the Devil Bats are the ones to play the American team.
Then everyone goes and watches a game between the White Knights and gods and undisputed champions of highschool football, "The Something Or Others" [I tend to lose track of the names as they don't mean anything to me]. In the previous season the White Knights almost unseated them but a pair of freshman turned the game around. Now those freshmen are experienced and trained. And they destroy the White Knights. The leader of the two looks like he'll be the Nemesis of Sena, as he is portrayed as a pretty bad guy.

My Thoughts:

Finally, we get someone who is just plain bad and not "striving to be better" and all that macho stuff. He's just at the end of the volume but it is apparent that he'll be around for some time, as his talent and his teams quality make them the top team.

The game between the Bats and the Sphinx's ended up satisfactorily without the "underdog team wins every game by hook or by crook" that is the hallmark of many Disney movies. I do like how the manga-ka's breakdown a particular part of the game [albeit in a simplistic way] and make it the focus of one whole game, hence allowing the new Devil Bats, as well as the readers unfamiliar with football, to become "experts". I'm a social sports fan, so I don't know how this would come across to a serious football fan. They'd probably laugh it off or point out all the wrong things :-) But it works for me and considering that this is a manga, I suspect the target audience are not hardcore Patriots fan [the Patriots are the Number One team here in the United States and have been since they came into existence in 1792!]
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