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
Accompanied by their bodyguard, Alex Louis Armstrong, our heroes seek out their closest friend, mechanic Winry Rockbell, to fix their battered “auto-mail” bodyparts. Soon their quest for the Philosopher’s Stone takes them to the great central library, where the Stone’s formula may be hidden…if the mysterious figure named Lust doesn’t get there first! But the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone may be even more frightening than the beings who guard it.…
So Ed and Al continue their quest to track down the Philospher’s Stone only to realize that it takes human life to create one. With that, they now face a philosophical quandary. Can they in good conscience try to use one knowing the cost of it’s creation? They also have to deal with the fact that the military higher ups are involved in creating them. This leads them to an abandoned factory where they end up fighting some soul embedded beings like Al. And the volume ends with Lust confronting Edward
Truth be told, I wasn’t really feeling it while reading this. Not a bad volume per se but I wasn’t spellbound, nor was I glued to the pages. I actually watched Shrek in the background while perusing this and ended up enjoying that more. I don’t know what it is, but this just doesn’t keep my interest that much. I hope future volumes work better for me.
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: Pebble in the Sky Series: Galactic Empire #3 Authors: Isaac Asimov Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 174 Words: 70K
From Wikipedia:
While walking down the street in Chicago, Joseph Schwartz, a retired tailor, is the unwitting victim of a nearby nuclear laboratory accident, by means of which he is instantaneously transported tens of thousands of years into the future (50,000 years, by one character’s estimate, a figure later retconned by future Asimov works as a “mistake”). He finds himself in a place he does not recognize, and due to apparent changes in the spoken language that far into the future, he is unable to communicate with anyone. He wanders into a farm, and is taken in by the couple that lives there. They mistake him for a mentally deficient person, and they secretly offer him as a subject for an experimental procedure to increase his mental abilities. The procedure, which has killed several subjects, works in his case, and he finds that he can quickly learn to speak the current lingua franca. He also slowly realizes that the procedure has given him strong telepathic abilities, including the ability to project his thoughts to the point of killing or injuring a person.
The Earth, at this time, is seen by the rest of the Galactic Empire as a rebellious planet — it has rebelled three times in the past — and the inhabitants are widely frowned upon and discriminated against. Earth also has several large radioactive areas, although the cause is never really described. With large uninhabitable areas, it is a very poor planet, and anyone who is unable to work is legally required to be euthanized. The people of the Earth must also be executed when they reach the age of sixty, a procedure known as “The Sixty”, with very few exceptions; mainly for people who have made significant contributions to society. That is a problem for Schwartz, who is now sixty-two years old.
The Earth is part of the Trantorian Galactic Empire, with a resident Procurator, who lives in a domed town in the high Himalayas and a Galactic military garrison, but in practice it is ruled by a group of Earth-centered “religious fanatics” who believe in the ultimate superiority of Earthlings. They have created a new, deadly supervirus that they plan to use to kill or subjugate the rest of the Empire, and to avenge themselves for the way their planet has been treated by the galaxy at large. Citizens of the Empire are unaware of Earth’s lethal viruses, and mistakenly believe it is Earth’s environment that causes them “Radiation Fever,” and that Earthlings pose the Empire no threat.
Joseph Schwartz, along with Affret Shekt, the scientist who developed the new device that boosted Schwartz’s mental powers, his daughter Pola Shekt, and a visiting archaeologist Bel Arvardan, are captured by the rebels, but they escape with the help of Schwartz’s new mental abilities, and they are narrowly able to stop the plan to release the virus. Schwartz uses his mental abilities to provoke a pilot from the Imperial garrison into bombing the site where the arsenal of the super-virus exists.
The book ends on a hopeful note — perhaps the Empire can be persuaded to restore the Earth and reintroduce uncontaminated soil.
This was a much better book than the previous two Empire novels and thus I enjoyed it a bit more. Sadly, that still doesn’t mean it was a really good book. While it wasn’t frozen yoghurt, it was more akin to a McDonald’s softserve icecream, when what I was hoping for was some Haagen Daz.
I’ve got Asimov’s Fantastic Voyage duology available to me and I am still really waffling about if I want to read them or not. Based on these books, I really don’t expect much.
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 Darkest Day Series: Victor the Assassin #5 Authors: Tom Wood Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Action/Adventure Pages: 293 Words: 90K
Ol’ Victorewsky is hired to whack an arms dealer. Only it turns into an ambush and Victor is almost killed by another assassin. The CIA operative who set up the original hit lets Victor know the other assassin is a rogue agent and one of the best. Victor sets out on her trail and in the process sets himself up as a dupe in a potential terrorist attack by the aforementioned CIA operative. Victor and Miss Assassin ally and take down a group of special forces who are going to use a dirty nuke in New York City. They give the evidence to Victor’s handler so everything is ship shape. Then Miss Assassin tries to hook up with Victor, because being an assassin is lonely business. And Victor kills her because she knows too much about him. Ohhhhhhh, snap!
I was enjoying the first part of this book immensely. Victor almost getting offed and realizing there is somebody else as good as him was great. But once he hits NYC and hooks up with Miss Assassin, it all went to the crapper. Most of that is because Victor gets chased through the city and the cops keep finding him. Now, that doesn’t sound so bad does it? BUT! There is a blackout. There is a massive rainstorm. Everybody is stuck on the road because of the blackout. And the flipping cops keep finding Victor like he’s the prize in a box of cracker jax. It was just too much for me. NYC, even just the part that is Manhattan Island, is too big and busy for cops to find one guy in those circumstances. It was like Woods was treating NYC like some little sleepy one street European town. While I avoid big cities, I’ve been in a couple (and never want to do it again if I can help it) and the thought of the cops being able to find me at the drop of a hat is just ludicrous.
So that really took down my enjoyment. A lot. To the point where I was thinking about giving this 2 stars. But then the ending redeemed it when Victor shows what an absolute psychopath loner he is. It made me say outloud, “Oh, that is BRUTAL!” But it was consistent with how he had lived his entire life and it wouldn’t have made sense at all for Victor to get romantically involved with another assassin who could identify him. This series has been consistently good and I am glad Wood (the author) didn’t skimp here and try to make Victor some sort of “relatable” guy. He’s a successful assassin, period.
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: Curtains for Three Series: Nero Wolfe #18 Author: Rex Stout Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Appended to 4 Genre: Mystery Pages: 149 Words: 70K
This is another collection of 3 novellas and consists of: The Gun with Wings Bullet for One Disguise for Murder
While I enjoyed this collection, part of that was because I was determined to overlook the novella aspect and simply enjoy the stories for what they were instead of what I wanted them to be, ie full novels. So I dinged a half-star right out of the gate. Then the final story, Disguise for Murder, had appeared in a previous collection and while it was still a good story, I dinged a good star and a half off for wasting my precious time on old material when I wanted new stuff.
So still happy with this read but not as happy as I could have been if it was all new stuff. Of course, now I’ll actually pay attention to the names of the novellas as I suspect this will happen again. Can’t trust publishers not to make an easy buck by gypping their customers. Bunch of lowlifes. If I was Archie Goodwin I would bust their chops for doing such a thing to me.
Ahhh, the life of a book reader/reviewer isn’t for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. Thankfully, since I’m doing all the drama, you don’t have to. But feel free to chime in. So, if any of your “father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommates” had any drama too, let me know. I’m all about those family drama stories after all.
Appended: It turns out that I had read the story “Disguise for Murder” as “The Affair of the Twisted Scarf” in the Alfred Hitchcock Collection “I Want My Mummy” back in June of 22. Because I didn’t pay enough attention to figure out what I had read when, I am un-penalizing this collection because it’s my own fault. Thanks to Fraggle for setting me straight on this.
And thus ends that particular aspect of our story. Before we were lovers, we were friends. Before we were friends, we were Christians. Our foundation was Jesus Christ and that allowed us to put everything that has come into our lives since this time into its proper perspective. No matter the pain, no matter the circumstances, whatever life throws at us, we both know that Jesus has saved us from our sins and that we will see Him after death. That is why we know we will have a truly Happily Ever After.
I don’t mean to preach here, but how can I not when the center of both of our lives is Jesus Christ? Mrs B and I are side by side, marching towards the same goal.
Wishing you all a blessed Sabbath day as I wrap up this particular series. It has been fun to share it with you all and I hope you enjoyed getting to know some of our past history.
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: Blitz Series: Checquy Files #3 Author: Daniel O’Malley Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 622 Words: 250K
Long, bloated, two storylines that didn’t actually have any impact on each other and worst of all, boring. I was bored. The first storyline is dealing with London and World War II and the bombs being dropped on London. The second story involves a woman (who is married to a cop and has a daughter who is a toddler) who joins the Checquy because she can discharge electricity and it is in the present day.
I enjoyed the present day storyline. She was an engaging character with just the right amount of feistiness to keep me from rolling my eyes and she was SMART. She used her brains. Then I would just groan in spirit at the next chapter when we would go back to the stupid idiots who I was forced to read about during WWII. It was nothing more than a boring history info dump about the Checquy and I didn’t care two squats for it. Unfortunately, it seemed to play the bigger part and sucked the life from the entire book.
I actually feel rather generous giving this 2 stars. But it wasn’t bad, so I don’t feel like I can really go any lower. But I certainly won’t be reading any more in the Checquy Files if O’Malley writes any more. I hope he doesn’t because this was bad and I’m going to pretend The Rook and Stiletto are just a duology. Blitz has no business sullying the good literary name of the Checquy Files.
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 Casebook of Sherlock Holmes Series: Sherlock Holmes #9 Author: Arthur Doyle Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Mystery Pages: 309 Words: 84K
A bunch of short stories to round out and end the career of Sherlock Holmes. While nothing was really good, nothing was bad and I feel like this book sums up my overall experience with Holmes.
I’ve always thought I was strictly an idea guy when it came to stories and that the characters were simply meant as bones to hang the “idea” on. Well, reading Holmes has made me realize that I’ve changed and I like a good, fleshed out and relatable character. Holmes and Watson are none of those and so it makes it hard for me to enjoy these. Of course, it might just be the era that Doyle wrote in. Then I realize that Dickens didn’t write like this, at all, so I think it was all on Doyle. When I’m reading a collection of short stories like this, I don’t expect great characterization, but none of the previous novels have ever given that to me either, so I can’t even rely on that.
While I am glad to have finally read the entire Holmes canon, I don’t foresee myself ever wanting to re-read these. I want something more than they offer and I don’t think the future me is suddenly going to want that “lack” and thus desire to try these again 😀
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: Dreams Series: Bone #18 Author: Jeff Smith Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Comics Pages: 22 Words: 1K
From Bookstooge.blog
Thorn realizes that all of her dreams have been memories and gets all butt hurt at Gran’ma Ben for not telling her all these years. Gran’ma goes stubborn and won’t talk, Thorn goes all stubborn and won’t talk and Fone is stuck in the middle. Meanwhile, at the bar Lucius reveals the bet between him and Phoney and when things start going bad for Phoney, he wishes that Fone’s Dragon was there. This leads everyone to start questioning him, rather threateningly.
Finally, the various Bone characters start getting on track into one plot. With Phoney’s reveal to the town folk that he knows about a dragon, and Gran’ma Ben revealing Thorn’s history, everybody is about to be on the same page.
But you know what? Not. Quite. Yet. Because Smith is a bonehead and spends 3 pages showing us what should take a mere panel. There are several pages where he re-uses the same art but changes how an arm is resting or where a character is looking and we get about 10 words of text. It is beyond blatantly obvious that he is either puffing things up or is floundering and trying to give himself some operating space.
It is amazing to me seeing how a story, spaced out in monthly installments, shows such a markedly different set of weaknesses from the collected story. This is why I am not a fan of serial fiction either. Even if the author knows exactly where they are going, it is still a big pain in the butt to read on THEIR schedule and not mine. Maybe that had as much to do with me not reading a lot of comics as much any economic reasons.
Like I have stated before, I’m going to read this comic, issue by issue, even if it kills me. It just might too, hahahahahaa 😀
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
In so many ways this reminded me of the Mapp & Lucia series by EF Benson if there was only Lucia with a daughter. In this story, Mama is trying to get a rich match for her daughter and a rich, but old, sick and partly crazy, Prince is the target. The Mama has the entire village under her thumb and they chafe and so do what they can to upset the plans. And the daughter is horrified but goes along and the other, younger suitor, acts like an idiot and hurts the feelings of the daughter and thus extinguishes his own chances. Eventually, the Prince, thinking it is all a dream, escapes from the village and the Mama is a laughing stock and the daughter eventually marries some high ranking politician.
I guess this was a commentary on the people of the times. Of course, that’s not much different than the people of today. Selfish, back stabbing, irresponsible, greedy, etc, etc. Thankfully, Dostoyevsky uses humor so it’s not grim and horrible but by the time the story was done I was ready to leave that little Russian village.
