Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Monday, August 29, 2022

Armageddon Clock - MTG 4th Edition

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Richard III ★★★✬☆

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Title: Richard III
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Play
Pages: 312
Words: 90K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia

The play begins with Richard of Gloucester describing the re-accession to the throne of his brother, King Edward IV of England, eldest son of the late Richard, Duke of York (implying the year is 1471):

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York;

And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Richard is an ugly hunchback, “rudely stamp’d”, “deformed, unfinish’d”, cannot “strut before a wanton ambling nymph”, and says he is “determined to prove a villain / And hate the idle pleasures of these days.” Through a prophecy, that “G of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be”, he has contrived to have his brother Clarence conducted to the Tower of London (the king interpreted the prophecy as George of Clarence, but the prophecy could just as easily refer to Richard of Gloucester). Speaking to Clarence en route, Richard blames the queen and says that he will himself try to help Clarence. Richard continues plotting:

I’ll marry Warwick’s youngest daughter.

What, though I kill’d her husband and her father?

Lady Anne attends the corpse of Henry VI with Trestle and Berkeley going from St Paul’s Cathedral. She bids them set down the “honourable load” then laments. Richard appears, and Lady Anne says that “Henry’s wounds […] bleed afresh”. He confesses the murder, and she spits at him. He offers himself to her sword, but she drops it. He offers to kill himself at her order, but she accepts his ring. Richard exults at having won her over so and tells the audience that he will discard her once she has served his purpose.

The atmosphere at court is poisonous. The established nobles are at odds with the upwardly mobile relatives of Queen Elizabeth, a hostility fueled by Richard’s machinations. Queen Margaret, Henry VI’s widow, returns, though banished, and she warns the squabbling nobles about Richard, cursing extensively. The nobles, all Yorkists, unite against this last Lancastrian and ignore the warnings.

Richard orders two murderers to kill Clarence in the tower. Clarence relates a distressing dream to his keeper before going to sleep. The murderers arrive with a warrant, and the keeper relinquishes his office. While the murderers are pondering what to do, Clarence wakes. He recognises their purpose and pleads with them. Presuming that Edward has offered them payment, he tells them to go to Gloucester, who will reward them better for having kept him alive. One of the murderers explains that Gloucester hates him and sent them. Pleading again, he is eventually interrupted by “Look behind you, my lord” and stabbing (1478).

The compacted nobles pledge absent enmities before Edward, and Elizabeth asks Edward to receive Clarence into favour. Richard rebukes her, saying: “Who knows not that the gentle duke is dead?”. Edward, who has confessed himself near death, is much upset by this news and led off. Richard blames those attending Edward. Edward IV soon dies (1483), leaving Richard as Protector. Lord Rivers, Lord Grey, and Sir Thomas Vaughan, have been imprisoned. The uncrowned Edward V and his brother are coaxed (by Richard) into an extended stay at the Tower of London.

Assisted by his cousin Buckingham, Richard mounts a campaign to present himself as the true heir to the throne, pretending to be a modest and devout man with no pretensions to greatness. Lord Hastings, who objects to Richard’s accession, is arrested and executed on a trumped-up charge of treason. Richard and Buckingham spread the rumour that Edward’s two sons are illegitimate and therefore have no rightful claim to the throne, and they are assisted by Catesby, Ratcliffe, and Lovell. The other lords are cajoled into accepting Richard as king despite the continued survival of his nephews (the Princes in the Tower).

Richard asks Buckingham to secure the death of the princes, but Buckingham hesitates. Richard then recruits Sir James Tyrrell who kills both children. When Richard denies Buckingham a promised land grant, Buckingham turns against Richard and defects to the side of Henry, Earl of Richmond, who is currently in exile. Richard has his eye on Elizabeth of York, Edward IV’s next remaining heir, and poisons Lady Anne so he can be free to woo the princess. The Duchess of York and Queen Elizabeth mourn the princes’ deaths. Queen Margaret meets them. As predicted, Queen Elizabeth asks Queen Margaret for help in cursing. Later, the Duchess applies this lesson and curses her only surviving son before leaving. Richard asks Queen Elizabeth to help him win her daughter’s hand in marriage. She is not taken in by his eloquence, and stalls him by saying that she will let him know her daughter’s answer in due course.

The increasingly paranoid Richard loses what popularity he had. He faces rebellions, led first by Buckingham and subsequently by the invading Richmond. Buckingham is captured and executed. Both sides arrive for a final battle at Bosworth Field. Prior to the battle, Richard is sleeping and visited by the ghosts of his victims, each telling him to “Despair and die”. They likewise attend and wish victory on Richmond. Richard wakes, screaming “Jesus”, then realises that he is all alone and cannot even pity himself.

At the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485), Lord Stanley (who is also Richmond’s stepfather) and his followers desert Richard, whereupon Richard calls for the execution of George Stanley, hostage and Lord Stanley’s son. But this does not happen, as the battle is in full swing, and Richard is at a disadvantage. Richard is unhorsed on the field, and cries out, “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse”. Richmond kills Richard and claims the throne as Henry VII.

My Thoughts:

I ended up enjoying this more than I thought I would. Richard is a despicable character and I enjoyed seeing his rise to power because I knew his fall was sudden and immediate (at least in the play. In real life, no idea). At the same time, he is a mesmerizing character and it was baffling to see others fall into his clutches because of his honeyed tongue while his actions were in direct contradiction. He was a great example of unchecked power

However, this was very long. A play at over 300 pages seems excessive to me and trying to cram Richard’s entire rise and fall into one play, well, Shakespeare gave Henry VI 3 plays for goodness sake!Of course, if somethings had been cut altogether, it probably would have been better.

This play, while I enjoyed it, made me realize that my capacity for Shakespeare has definite limits. As such, I’m going to give him another break until next year. Then I’ll have to decide whether to do a 6month stint or to space them further apart (or is that “farther”? That’s one of those things I simply cannot get my head about. I’m good with “to”, “two” and “too” but further/farther, I’m lost). Any thoughts?

All My Shakespeare Reviews

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Angles of Attack (Galaxy's Edge: Dark Operator #5) ★★★☆☆

Title: Angles of Attack
Series: Galaxy’s Edge: Dark Operator #5
Author: Doc Spears
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mil-SF
Pages: 330
Words: 113K

Synopsis:

From Galaxysedge.fandom.com & Me

The galaxy follows a logical structure.

Legion Dark Operator Kel Turner believed that.

To know the order of battle and how an enemy unit was organized was to know its purpose and how to destroy it. That logic existed down to the smallest scale, down to what made up life itself. To know a molecule’s structure was to know its function—they were one and the same. It was no different for Kel. He was Dark Ops and Dark Ops was him. Down to his last cell and very soul.

But the covert action arm of the Legion is changing. And so is he. And if Dark Ops is no longer the same, how could Kel be Kel?

From fighting a gray war against a cunning adversary bent on genocide, to slogging through a jungle hell full of rabid dog-men, Kel won’t stop until the mission is complete. He was his mission. But if the day comes when there would no longer be a Dark Ops for Kel, what would his mission be then?

Who would he become?

Once Dark Ops becomes public knowledge amongst the Legion, Kel realizes his time is done. He leaves the Legion and goes back to his girlfriend and her family.

My Thoughts:

This is the final Dark Operator book. It was chockfull of military adventure stuff and things were speeding along at about a million miles an hour. Then it just ends. The reader doesn’t even get the ending from Kel’s perspective, like the whole series has been. He leaves, leaves a letter and we get told all of it from Kel’s superiors.

I seriously thought about giving this one star for that kind of ending. It was like a right hook out of no where and it was not a pleasant experience. It showed me that “Doc Spears” doesn’t know how to write an ending to save his life. As such I’ll probably avoid any more GE books by him (I don’t think he’s written anymore thankfully) and I definitely won’t be checking out any non-GE books by him.

With all of that bellyaching out of the way, I can say that up until the ending, I was enjoying the ever living daylights out of this. There was boatloads of military action and Kel was kicking butt and slitting throats left and right. It was one of the best Dark Operator stories so far. And I think that is why the ending hit me so hard. It was like running at full speed and hitting a brick wall. That hurts a lot. Now if you were just walking, it would still hurt, but not nearly as bad.

This brings me face to face with the decision of where to go next with Anspach and Cole. Galaxy’s Edge season two has 2 more books before it finishes up. The penultimate book doesn’t come out until sometimes in September, so who knows when the final book will be published. That leaves me with A&C’s other series, Forgotten Ruins. There are currently 6 books in that series and book 7 will be published in December. See, talk about being caught on the horns of a dilemma. I trust you will all commiserate with me in this most difficult of times.

* cue dramatic yet totally manly pose *

Friday, August 26, 2022

Netochka Nezvanova (The Russians) ★★★✬☆

Title: Netochka Nezvanova
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Fyodor Dostoyevksy
Translator: Jane Kentish
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 248
Words: 67K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia

The plot unfolds in three distinct sections, corresponding to upheavals in the heroine’s life.

Chapters 1–3 are predominantly concerned with Netochka’s recollections of her childhood with her mother and stepfather in St. Petersburg, up until the time of their deaths. She begins with the background story of her stepfather, Efimov, a talented but self-obsessed violinist, whom she describes as “the strangest and most extraordinary person I have ever known” and a man whose powerful influence over her affected the rest of her life.[2] Efimov’s madness brings terrible poverty and discord to the family, and leaves the child with a premature and painful insight into the dark side of human emotions. This part of her life comes to an end when Efimov kills her mother, after which he himself becomes completely insane and dies.

Netochka is adopted by Prince X., an acquaintance of her stepfather, and chapters 4 and 5 are concerned with the orphaned girl’s immersion in this unfamiliar aristocratic world, focusing particularly on her relationship with the Prince’s daughter Katya. Netochka immediately falls in love with the beautiful Katya, but Katya is initially repelled by the strange newcomer, and is cruel and dismissive toward her. Over time, however, this apparent dislike transforms into an equally passionate reciprocation of Netochka’s feelings. Their young, unashamed love leads to an intimacy that alarms Katya’s mother, who eventually takes steps to ensure their separation. Katya’s family move to Moscow, and Netochka is placed in the care of Katya’s elder half-sister, Alexandra Mikhailovna. According to the narrator, Netochka and Katya will not see each other for another eight years, but as the novel remained unfinished, their reuniting is never described.

The final chapters describe Netochka’s teenage years growing up in the household of the gentle and maternal Alexandra Mikhailovna and her cold and distant husband Pyotr Alexandrovitch. She forms a deeply empathetic relationship with Alexandra Mikhailovna, but is troubled by her friend’s painfully solicitous attitude toward her husband, and by what appears to be calculated indifference and dissimulation on his part. Netochka suspects some mystery from their past, and eventually a clue presents itself in the form of a letter that she accidentally discovers pressed between the pages of an old book in the library. It is a letter to Alexandra Mikhaylovna from a distraught lover, lamenting the necessity of their final separation, and grieving for the irreparable harm he has caused her reputation and her marriage. Netochka’s discovery of the letter sets off a chain of events that bring Alexandra Mikhaylovna to the point of emotional breakdown, and Netochka to the point of womanhood as she confronts Pyotr Alexandrovitch with the truth of what he has done to his wife.

Several narrative threads, as with the relationship between Netochka and Katya, are left unresolved but with clear indications that they would be resumed in future installments of the novel. It is noticed, at first by Alexandra Mikhailovna, that Netochka has a beautiful singing voice, and arrangements are made for her to receive training. Her love of singing and its connection to her emotional life are examined in a number of scenes, but her artistic development is clearly only in its beginning stages. The novel finishes with an enigmatic exchange between Netochka and Ovrov, Pyotr Alexandrovitch’s secretary, that is suggestive of further development of the story relating to the love letter.

My Thoughts:

This was an unfinished work by Dostoyevsky and you know what? I’m ok with it not being finished. This was super duper ultra totally mega farfanoogan depressing. And if you don’t know what all of that means, well, think Hemingway and a Remington Tactical Magpull, heheheheehe. (I don’t like Hemingway, that’s why it’s funny)

What stood out to me was Netochka’s complete humanity. She loves her dad who uses her to steal money from her mother. She’s classic self-destructionist. It hurt to watch it unfold. But like many other Russian novels, that pain and suffering is cathartic instead of being the dark end of a Remington 😉

Why it affects me that way I don’t know, but I am thankful it does. Because otherwise I wouldn’t be reading this stuff and I LIKE broadening my horizons (well, a little anyway).

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 ★★★☆☆

Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8
Authors: Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 51
Words: 3K

Synopsis:

A girl from the future steals a magic sceptre and goes racing through time to escape her master. She stumbles across the turtles in 1986 but upon her master discovering her uses the sceptre to transport them all to another time and place. A castle which Cerebus the aardvark is attacking to recover some magic scrolls from the demon controlling the castle.

The demon takes the sceptre and begins using its powers for himself. The Master appears and the demon begins attacking him with the sceptre. When nothing happens, the Master reveals that the sceptre is old technology and that magical digital quartz crystals, in wrist watches are the “in thing”. He banishes the demon, returns the turtles to New York, gets Cerebus the scrolls and punishes the girl by making her dust his library. What a tyrant!

My Thoughts:

So this was a standalone story that also was a crossover with Cerebus the aardvark. Why Cerebus was so popular back in the 80’s is outside my knowledge and considering all, don’t care enough to find out. This really wasn’t a TMNT story, more of a story that they were tangentially involved with.

I read the letters and “news” section and once again, it was like a time capsule. Seeing how a comic operated, with crossovers to other independent comics, name dropping and “back issues” from 1 year ago, it brought home (like hammer blows) just how limited information was then. As someone who grew up as computers were becoming mainstream, it is easy to forget that it wasn’t always that way.

From the ‘news’ section I’m expecting the next several issues to be all standalones much like this one.

All My “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” Reviews

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

A Season in Carcosa (The King in Yellow Anthology #4) ★★★★✬

Title: A Season in Carcosa
Series: The King in Yellow Anthology #4
Editor: Joseph Pulver
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 268
Words: 100K

Synopsis:

Table of Contents

This Yellow Madness (introduction) by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.

My Voice is Dead by Joel Lane

Beyond The Banks of the River Seine by Simon Strantzas

Movie Night at Phil’s by Don Webb

MS Found in a Chicago Hotel Room by Daniel Mills

it sees me when I’m not looking by Gary McMahon

Finale, Act Two by Ann K. Schwader

Yellow Bird Strings by Cate Gardner

The Theatre & Its Double by Edward Morris

The Hymn of the Hyades by Richard Gavin

Slick Black Bones and Soft Black Stars by Gemma Files

Not Enough Hope by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr

Whose Hearts are Pure Gold by Kristin Prevallet

April Dawn by Richard A. Lupoff

King Wolf by Anna Tambour

The White-Face At Dawn by Michael Kelly

Wishing Well by Cody Goodfellow

Sweetums by John Langan

The King Is Yellow by Pearce Hansen

D T by Laird Barron

Salvation In Yellow by Robin Spriggs

The Beat Hotel by Allyson Bird

My Thoughts:

My goodness, these anthologies are going up and down for me like a teetertotter! When they are good, they are REALLY GOOD and when it’s bad, it’s so bad I can’t finish them. Thankfully, this was on the upper part of the seesaw.

I went into this a bit worried since Pulver was the editor and I absolutely hated the previous book which was edited and written by him. Thankfully, he only contributed a small part of this. I did realize that I don’t like his writing, period though. There were 1 or 2 poems, which did nothing for me. But Pulver’s story was the only real let down. Not surprising but it’s what kept this from a full 5star.

But most of the other stories were flipping fantastic if you dig cosmic horror. From slides into madness and horror to the unveiling of horrific powers, these ran the gamut from shiver your backbone to a chill of deliciousness running down your spine to the completely inexplicably weird.

I really can’t say that any of these were “better” than the others, but the 2 I do remember are Yellow Bird Strings and Wishing Well. YBS was about a former puppeteer who by the end of the story has become the puppet himself. It was hard to tell if he was going mad or if it was all real. Exactly the right tone for a King in Yellow Story. WW on the other hand, had real IT (by Stephen King) vibes with 2 storylines about kids and them now as adults. A twisted tv show created by a cult of the KIY was the focus and the ending where the main character who appears to be a loser the whole time is revealed to be the son of the King in Yellow, or something like that. It was deliciously spine tingling.

Another absolute winner of a read and I’m pretty happy. These books are definitely not for everyone, in fact I’d say that the majority of readers wouldn’t go for The King in Yellow, but they fit me like a glove, so I’m going to revel in them while I can.

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes #4) ★★★✬☆

Title: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Series: Sherlock Holmes #4
Author: Arthur Doyle
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 322
Words: 87K

Synopsis:

Table of Contents

Silver Blaze

The Yellow Face

The Stock-broker’s Clerk

The “Gloria Scott”

The Musgrave Ritual

The Reigate Puzzle

The Crooked Man

The Resident Patient

The Greek Interpreter

The Naval Treaty

The Final Problem

My Thoughts:

This is the book where Sherlock Holmes so infamously dies. I say infamously because apparently Doyle had the spine of a jellyfish and when the bills came knocking he immediately caved, resurrected Holmes and lived off of his creation. He SHOULD have created another character, called Berlahp Sax and used him instead. Whatever. Doyle is dead so he won’t be listening to any advice I might have had for him.

I enjoyed this more than the previous “Adventures of…” and I think that is because I am not sure if I’ve ever actually read this book or not. I’m pretty sure I read all of Sherlock in highschool but I really can’t remember. So this was all brand new stories to me. That makes a huge difference.

Moriarty is introduced in the final story and everything concerning him takes place in that one short story. None of this silly Long Story Arc building up the dramatic tension. He’s a bad guy, Sherlock clobbers him, metaphorically speaking, and eventually they go mano-a-mano and fall over a cliff. It was a great ending to the story of Sherlock. Personally, if there had been no more Sherlock stories I would have been perfectly happy with how things turned out.

Since that is not how things will be however, I am just as pleased to go on reading more stories about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.

A Study in Scarlet (Book 1)
The Sign of Four (Book 2)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Book 3)

Monday, August 22, 2022

Armageddon - MTG 4th Edition

Sunday, August 21, 2022

Night Train to Rigel (Quadrail #1) ★★★✬☆

Title: Night Train to Rigel
Series: Quadrail #1
Authors: Timothy Zahn
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 279
Words: 105.5K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.org

The story starts with former government agent, Frank Compton, meeting a young man who drops dead at his feet. Compton finds a ticket to a strange, interstellar train called the Quadrail. During Compton’s ride on the Quadrail he falls asleep, and wakes up in the custody of the spiders, the operators of the Quadrail. The Spiders explain to Compton their worries of a weapon of mass destruction, which may be able to bypass their Quadrail security. Compton agrees to help, and is given a pass for the Quadrails and they assign him a traveling companion named Bayta, who has a strange talent for being telepathic in her communication to the Spiders.

Frank Compton discovers the power behind the Quadrail system: an ancient civilization called the Chahwyn. On the course of his travels on the Quadrail, he learns of the existence of the Modhri: the equally ancient enemy of the Chahwyn. The Modhri has its mind bent on controlling the galaxy.

My Thoughts:

When I read this originally back in 2006 I was still under the impression of my youthful foray into Zahn and thought he was an exciting and blockbuster of an author. As such, I didn’t enjoy this back then as I was still expecting something from Zahn that he had never given. That something is excitement. I have come to realize that Zahn is a dull writer. He has fantastic ideas, writes correctly and is an absolute work horse, but you’ll never come out of one of his books pumping your fist and screaming “Oh yeah, that was AWESOME!” If you do, well, I’m guessing either you are 12 years old or your life is even more boring than mine.

So with all of that whininess, it was just to explain that I went into this re-read with a much more accurate set of expectations. I wasn’t disappointed. I read a good Future Detective story with lots of talking points and just enough barely there action to keep me awake. Having read much of the “mystery” genre, and specifically the “detective mystery” genre, this made a lot more sense. Didn’t make it any more exciting, but it did make sense.

Having bumped this up 1/2star, I think I’m going to go through the entire series. I wasn’t sure when I started, but I did enjoy this enough to warrant looking at the other books.

I’m using the original cover for this review. In ’06 I remarked how ugly it was. It still is, isn’t it? I know it’s hard to see in that little pix, but sandy colored nobodies without an ounce of attraction to them isn’t going to draw the readers in. HOWEVER, I was looking for a different cover and the new one is even worse, if you can believe it:

How boring and unattractive is THAT?!? Publishers certainly do move in Mysterious Ways….

Night Train to Rigel (2006 Review)

Saturday, August 20, 2022

Queen Lucia (Mapp & Lucia #1) ★★★✬☆

Title: Queen Lucia
Series: Mapp & Lucia #1
Authors: E.F. Benson
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humorous Fiction
Pages: 317
Words: 86K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.org

Emmeline Lucas is the social queen of Riseholme, presiding over her community and directing their interests in art and culture. A pretentious show-off, La Lucia drops random Italian phrases into her speech, gives concerts to her friends of the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, dabbles in art, and plants Shakespeare-themed flower arrangements in her garden. Her neighbor, devoted faddist Daisy Quantock, has given up her uric-acid-free diet and Christian Science to focus on Indian mysticism, thanks to a mysterious guru who shows up at her door and offers to show her the Way. Lucia must decide how to annex the guru, and turn this into a social success for herself. Daisy then brings in a Russian medium, Princess Popoffski. Lucia has a harder time when opera diva Olga Bracely arrives in Riseholme for a visit, luring away Lucia’s devoted friend Georgie Pillson.

My Thoughts:

There was a distinct lack of Mapp in this book. I’m not really worried about that, as I’m sure whoever Mapp is will show up in later books. But it is annoying to me so I figured I’d vent my spleen before writing anything else.

So Lucia is a prima donna in a small town and rules the roost. She’s the social queen and is used to getting her own way in practically everything. That could be annoying, but Benson provides plenty of foils in the comedic vein so it is amusing rather than annoying.

This story was ALL about the characters. Lucia was just the fulcrum but all of the other main side characters were just as important. From the sham guru to the fake psychic to the very real opera singer to the best friend Georgie Pillson caught in the middle of it all. This is a set of character sketches in various social settings, all of them awkward yet amusing.

I did have to read this in smaller doses instead of all at once, but each story was pretty self-contained so it was easy to read about one instance and then take a break. I am really hoping that whoever Mapp is that I’ll meet her in the next book, because otherwise I’ll be changing the name of this series to “Lucia” and going off on a rant and do a lot of ree’ing like a little baby.