The Book of Three (The Prydain Chronicles #1) ★★★★★

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 Book of Three
Series: The Prydain Chronicles #1
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 110
Words: 47K

From Wikipedia.com

The youth Taran lives at Caer Dallben with his guardians, the ancient enchanter Dallben and the farmer and retired soldier Coll. Taran is dissatisfied with his life, and longs to become a great hero like the High Prince Gwydion. Due to the threat posed by a warlord known as the Horned King, servant of the evil Arawn Death-Lord of Annuvin, Taran is forbidden from leaving the farm and charged with the care of Hen Wen, the oracular white pig. When Hen Wen inexplicably panics and escapes, Taran follows her into the Forbidden Forest. After a long, fruitless chase, he is attacked by a host of horsemen galloping toward Caer Dallben, led by the Horned King himself. Taran manages to escape, but drops to the ground, wounded. He awakes to find his wound treated by Gwydion, the crown prince in Prydain’s ruling House of Don, who has been travelling to Caer Dallben to consult Hen Wen. Gwydion, determined to find the pig, takes Taran along with him. Guided by Gurgi, a hairy humanoid living in the forest, they reach the Horned King’s camp, and learn that his target will be Caer Dathyl, the home castle of the House of Don. Gwydion determines to warn the royal court, but the group is attacked by Arawn’s undead Cauldron-Born soldiers, who capture Gwydion and Taran, and take them to Queen Achren in Spiral Castle.

The sorceress asks Gwydion to help her to overthrow Arawn—her former apprentice and consort who usurped her throne and claimed the Iron Crown of Annuvin for his own—and to join her in ruling Prydain together. When Gwydion refuses, he is imprisoned, but not in the same place as Taran. Princess Eilonwy, who was sent by her kinsmen as a young girl to learn enchantment from Achren, visits Taran’s dungeon cell, and agrees to free first his companion, and then him. While travelling through a labyrinth of tunnels to join Gwydion and his horse Melyngar outside the castle, Taran and Eilonwy steal weapons from a tomb. As they emerge into the woods, Spiral Castle collapses; they later learn that this is because the weapon Eilonwy has taken is the legendary sword Dyrnwyn. Eilonwy has misunderstood Taran’s request to free his companion, for the man waiting outside is not Gwydion, but another former prisoner of the castle: Fflewddur Fflam, a king by birth but a wandering bard by choice. The three search the ruins, then mourn Gwydion’s presumed death, and decide to take up his task to warn Caer Dathyl.

Rejoined by Gurgi, but pursued by the Cauldron-Born, the group is driven far east of their northward course, and ends up in the underground realm of the Fair Folk, who have rescued Hen Wen. The Fair Folk’s King Eiddileg grudgingly agrees to let Taran have her back, re-equip their party, and provide a guide, a dwarf called Doli. On their journey to Caer Dathyl, against Fflewddur and Doli’s advice, Taran rescues an injured fledgling gwythaint, one of the great birds of prey that Arawn has enslaved. The gwythaint recovers quickly and escapes overnight, shortly followed by Hen Wen, who flees just before the Horned King’s army spots them all. Fflewddur, Doli, and Gurgi stand to fight, while Taran and Eilonwy go ahead on Melyngar, with the Horned King in pursuit. On the top of a hill, the Horned King attacks them, and breaks Taran’s sword on the first blow. Taran seizes Dyrnwyn from Eilonwy, but lacks the “noble birth” needed to draw it. White flame burns his arm, and throws him to the ground. Just before losing consciousness, Taran sees another man in the trees and hears an unintelligible word. The Horned King’s mask melts and he bursts into flame.

When Taran awakens, he learns that the man who destroyed the Horned King was Gwydion, who had been with Achren at another stronghold when Spiral Castle fell. After withstanding Achren’s torture, he learned to understand the hearts of all creatures, and was able to communicate first with the gwythaint, and then with Hen Wen after finding them in the forest. From the oracular pig he learned how to destroy the Horned King, by saying his secret name. Recognizing his nobility, Eilonwy gives Dyrnwyn to him, while Taran and his companions are to receive treasures from Caer Dathyl in recognition of service to the House of Don. Eilonwy receives a ring made by the Fair Folk, Gurgi a wallet of food that cannot be depleted, Fflewddur a golden harp string that can never break, Doli the ability to turn invisible (which he unusually lacks). Taran—who in the course of his adventures has realized that Caer Dallben is where he most wants to be—asks only to return home. Gwydion accompanies him back to Caer Dallben, along with Eilonwy, Hen Wen, and Gurgi, who take up residence there as well.

---

I read this multiple times in middle and highschool (grades 6-12 for you non-Americans) and then once again in 2006. But as was my wont back in those days, I don’t really give a synopsis and I didn’t review each book individually. So I wanted to go into this and read all 5 books on their own and see what I thought of them now.

I am still very pleased with how much I enjoyed this. What struck me the most though on this read was just how derivative of Tolkien this was. Part of that may be because Alexander was using a lot of the same base material as Tolkien, but I really think he modeled a lot of his writing on Tolkien. And for this series, I am perfectly ok with that. I’ll explain why in the next paragraph (just in case you decided to stop reading and go off in a huff, which is something I’ve been known to do once in a while, hahahahaha).

This is a strictly middle grade series. It is meant for tweens and middle teens. By the time someone hits their late teens, I think it might be too late to “introduce” this to them. It was also written for that age group. While it doesn’t pander and is still well written, it takes into account the mental and physiological differences between a child and an adult. Kids need books written FOR them and Taran and Eilonwy represent children in the purest sense. I would give this to a tween long before I’d give them the Lord of the Rings. LotR is meant for adults and while children can read it, they simply aren’t quite ready for it. So give them Prydain and let them become familiar with the old legends and mythologies.

The cover I have used here is not the cover I grew up with. That’s fine but I like the original better. I think I will showcase all the older covers on the final book review, so I can talk about it as a whole separate issue instead of cluttering up each review with essentially the same paragraph of blather 😀

★★★★★

• The Complete Prydain Chronicles (2006 Review)

Fathers and Sons (The Russians) ★★★★★

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: Fathers and Sons
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Ivan Turgenev
Translator: Unknown
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 295
Words: 80K

From Wikipedia:

Arkady Kirsanov has just graduated from the University of Petersburg. He returns with a friend, Bazarov, to his father’s modest estate in an outlying province of Russia. His father, Nikolay, gladly receives the two young men at his estate, called Marino, but Nikolay’s brother, Pavel, soon becomes upset by the strange new philosophy called “nihilism” which the young men, especially Bazarov, advocate.

Nikolay, initially delighted to have his son return home, slowly begins to feel uneasy. A certain awkwardness develops in his regard toward his son, as Arkady’s radical views, much influenced by Bazarov, make Nikolay’s own beliefs feel dated. Nikolay has always tried to stay as current as possible, by doing things such as visiting his son at school so the two can stay as close as they can, but this in Nikolay’s eyes has failed. To complicate this, the father has taken a servant, Fenechka, into his house to live with him and has already had a son by her, named Mitya. Arkady, however, is not troubled by the relationship; on the contrary, he is delighted by the addition of a younger brother.

The two young men stay over at Marino for some weeks, then decide to visit a relative of Arkady’s in a neighboring province. There, they observe the local gentry and meet Madame Anna Sergevna Odintsova, an elegant woman of independent means, who cuts a seductively different figure from the pretentious and conventional types of the local provincial society. Both are attracted to her, and she, intrigued by Bazarov’s singular manner, invites them to spend a few days at her estate, Nikolskoye. While Bazarov at first feels nothing for Anna, Arkady falls head over heels in love with her.

At Nikolskoye, they also meet Katya, Anna Sergevna’s sister. Although they stay for just a short time, Arkady begins to find himself and become more independent of Bazarov’s influence. Bazarov, in particular, finds falling in love distressing because it runs counter to his nihilist beliefs. Eventually, prompted by Odintsova’s own cautious expressions of attraction to him, he announces that he loves her. She does not respond overtly to his declaration, though she is drawn to Bazarov; she finds his devaluation of feelings and of the aesthetic side of existence unattractive. Anna cannot open herself to him because she does not see the possibility of a good future with him. After his avowal of love, and her failure to make a similar declaration, Bazarov proceeds to his parents’ home, and Arkady decides to accompany him.

At Bazarov’s home, they are received enthusiastically by his parents, and the traditional mores of both father and mother, who adulate their son, are portrayed with a nostalgic, idealistic description of humble people and their fast disappearing world of simple values and virtues. Bazarov’s social cynicism, invariably on display with outsiders, is still on display as he settles back into his own family’s ambience. He interrupts his father as the latter speaks to Arkady, still claiming the center of attention. Arkady, who has delighted Bazarov’s father by assuring him that his son has a brilliant future in store, reproves his friend for his brusqueness. Later, Bazarov almost comes to blows with Arkady after the latter makes a joke about fighting over Bazarov’s cynicism. Arkady becomes more openly skeptical of Bazarov’s ideals. After a brief stay, much to the parents’ disappointment, they decide to return to Marino, stopping on the way to see Madame Odintsova, who receives them coolly. They leave almost immediately and return to Arkady’s home.

Arkady remains for only a few days and makes an excuse to leave in order to go to Nikolskoye again. Once there, he realizes he is not in love with Odintsova, but instead with her sister Katya. Bazarov stays at Marino to do some scientific research, and tension between him and Pavel increases. Bazarov enjoys talking with Fenechka and playing with her child, and one day he kisses her, against her will. Pavel observes this kiss and, secretly in love with Fenechka himself and in protection of both Fenechka and Nikolay’s feelings for her, challenges Bazarov to a duel. Pavel is wounded in the leg, and Bazarov must leave Marino. He stops for an hour or so at Madame Odintsova’s, then continues on to his parents’ home. Meanwhile, Arkady and Katya have fallen in love and have become engaged. Anna Sergevna Odinstova is hesitant to accept Arkady’s request to marry her sister, but Bazarov convinces her to allow the marriage.

While back at home, Bazarov ceases to pursue his experiments, turning to help his father’s work as a country doctor. He cannot keep his mind on his work, though, and while performing an autopsy fails to take proper precautions. He cuts himself and contracts blood poisoning. On his deathbed, he sends for Madame Odintsova, who arrives just in time to hear Bazarov tell her how beautiful she is. She kisses him on the forehead and leaves; Bazarov dies from his illness the following day.

Arkady marries Katya and assumes the management of his father’s estate. His father marries Fenechka and is delighted to have Arkady home with him. Pavel leaves the country and lives the rest of his life as a “noble” in Dresden, Germany.

---

When I originally read this back in ‘15 (link below), I was quite favorably impressed. So much so that I seriously considered skipping re-reading this and just kind of letting it have a free pass. Plus, you never know with a re-read how things will go. But I fixed my gaze on the goal and read this and was very glad I did.

I was just as favorably impressed this time around, but for very different reasons. I noticed a lot of the cultural shift going on between the generations this time around that I hadn’t before because I didn’t have the same weight of Russian Literature under my belt like I do now. I’m no expert, but simply immersing myself since the end of ‘21 into all of this really has helped.

Nikolay not marrying the young woman who has his second son, because of class issues, not moral issues, and Arkady’s complete dismissal of such a reason, really stood out to me. It just goes to show that a Class Structure was prevalent world wide at this time and not restricted to one set of countries.

This time around, I was able to savor Bazarov’s destruction a bit more too. He wanted complete control over everything (hence his love of the Nihilist movement and its belief that power over something is ultimately the ability to destroy it) and when he falls in love and it is outside of his control, it ruins him.

The Fathers, just like last time, bothered me with their non-assertiveness. I could understand them not wanting to be in conflict with their sons, but their whole attitude was one of “because we’re older, we’re useless and our ideas are useless”. It comes from a worldview that is progressive (ie, we are constantly getting better through knowledge and self-knowledge) instead of one that prizes Wisdom above Knowledge. I definitely had more sympathy for them though. The older I get the less conflict I want with others too.

I just enjoyed this story. As awkward as some parts were and as much as I just didn’t understand certain things (why do russian serfs refuse progress and destroy themselves with drink?), something about it all resonates with me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been the young man part of the story and am now starting to transition to the next generation and thus can appreciate both sides of the story? Of the stories I’ve read so far, of any of the Russian authors, this is the one I’d choose above the others so far.

★★★★★

• Fathers and Sons (2015 Review)
• The Russians
• Leo Tolstoy
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Ivan Turgenev
• Nikolai Gogol

The Ninth Justice (One Piece #36) ★★★★★

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 Ninth Justice
Series: One Piece #36
Arc: Water Seven #5
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 209
Words: 10K

From Wikipedia:

“Protectors of the City of Water”

“Coup de Vent”

“Rumors”

“The Woman Who Brings Darkness”

“Demon”

“The Messengers of Darkness”

“Cipher Pol No. 9”

“Opposing Force”

“Sleepers”

“The Ninth Justice”

The Straw Hats are on the run and Robin is nowhere to be found. In order to determine where her allegiances lie, the Straw Hats decide to break into Galley-La’s headquarters to find her. To their surprise, they are not the only ones laying siege to Galley-La; a masked group has already infiltrated the headquarters looking for the blueprints to the ancient weapon Pluton. After finding the blueprints and discovering that they are fake, the masked individuals approach the recovering Iceburg. They remove their disguises, revealing themselves as Robin and some of the workers of Galley-La. Members of the secret government organization, Cipher Pol #9, they joined Galley-La to gain Pluton for the government’s use. After speaking with Iceberg, they learn that the real blueprints are with Franky, a shipwright and friend of Iceberg.

---

HOLY TOLEDO AND HOLD THE BBQ SAUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Oh my goodness. I am astounded and amazed. After what I experienced in the previous volume, I didn’t know what to expect. Misaki was talking to me in the comments and assured me that most of the points I brought up were answered at some point and it made me laugh because this volume answered a lot of them.

This had all the twists. This had all the turns. And I didn’t see a single one coming. Now, to be fair, most of the time I’m so straight forward that even a simple misdirection is enough, like fake throwing a tennis ball for a dog to go chasing. But this was Pure Awesomesauce. One a scale of 1-25 on Awesomesauce’ness, I’m giving this a 23.

I was REALLY annoyed that all the shipwrights started hammering on the Straw Hat pirates without giving them a chance to state their case, but once the big reveal happened, it totally made sense. Of course, finding out that some of who I thought were fine, upstanding and powerful citizens turned out to be stooges of the world government was like a kick in the nuts. Governments are inherently corrupt and attempt to draw power to themselves and those who buy wholeheartedly into them become corrupt as well. Doesn’t mean there aren’t good people, but if they stay there they will be corrupted, much like the One Ring corrupted Gollum, Bilbo, Frodo and even Samwise.

Luffy gets beat all over the place here. He gets beaten by the Shipwrights. He gets beaten by Frankie. He gets beaten by the CP9 (the super secret world government black beyond black covert ops team). And he’s still kicking and hollering to beat the band at the end. I love this guy!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/fwfquheuandc4iq/onepiece-36-1.jpg

Remember, read it Right to Left

★★★★★

• All My “One Piece” Reviews

Book of Joe (Forgotten Ruin #5) ★✬☆☆☆

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: Book of Joe
Series: Forgotten Ruin #5
Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Military Fantasy
Pages: 211
Words: 75K

This is a book ALL about Talker and how he survived and helped Joe.

What. The. Feth.

I am now done with this series. Don’t care how cool the story is, because it is always in the background and I hate Talker. I hate him for hogging the book. I hate him for whining about how he’s not good enough to be a “real” Rangeroo. I hate him for writing about coffee instead of what’s going on. I hate him for describing a ruin for 2 pages while a massive battle gets 3 paragraphs.

So I am done.

Nick Cole has a duology that I’m going to try out next. I need a cool down from Team Anspach/Cole.

★✬☆☆☆

• All My “Forgotten Ruin” Reviews

The Pusher (87th Precinct) ★★★✬☆

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 Pusher
Series: 87^th Precinct
Author: Ed McBain
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 111
Words: 50K

From Bookstooge.blog

A pusher is killed and it is made to look like a suicide. But it is all a setup to frame the son of the Lt. Of the 87^th Precinct. The son is a junkie and the Lt locks him in his room while he goes through withdrawals. Meanwhile, the detectives track down the guy who is trying to blackmail the Lt, and who has also killed several other people.

---

Oooph, another gritty entry. I’m beginning to think that Darren, in leaving his comment on The Mugger, might have been correct. There is nothing suave here. This is heroin overdoses and whores being beaten to death and families being torn apart by drugs and cops almost dying from being shot at point blank range.

But at the same time, I was hooked. I think I read this in one sitting. It helps that it is so short. I guess people in the 60’s actually worked and got things done, so any entertainment had to slot in wherever it could. Of course, all those hippies went and ruined everything and that is why I am cursed today to be sitting on my couch, eating pizza while enjoying doing nothing. My goodness, my life is so brutal!

While not being disturbingly graphic, McBain doesn’t sugarcoat a thing. It makes me wonder about the people for whom stories like this aren’t fictional at all, but every day life. It also makes me wonder (again) if this is a series I want to continue. I think I’m going to have to take this a book at a time and maybe space them out a bit more. I think I have a total of 5 of these on my kindle right now. Once I’m done with them, I’ll read some other series for a bit and decide if I want to come back.

But the attraction of a short, tight story is undeniable.

★★★✬☆

• All My “87^th Precinct” Reviews

Brothers of Fire - MTG 4th Edition

Romeo and Juliet ★★✬☆☆

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: Romeo and Juliet
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Play
Pages: 238
Words: 69K

From Wikipedia:

The play, set in Verona, Italy, begins with a street brawl between Montague and Capulet servants who, like the masters they serve, are sworn enemies. Prince Escalus of Verona intervenes and declares that further breach of the peace will be punishable by death. Later, Count Paris talks to Capulet about marrying his daughter Juliet, but Capulet asks Paris to wait another two years and invites him to attend a planned Capulet ball. Lady Capulet and Juliet’s Nurse try to persuade Juliet to accept Paris’s courtship.

Meanwhile, Benvolio talks with his cousin Romeo, Montague’s son, about Romeo’s recent depression. Benvolio discovers that it stems from unrequited infatuation for a girl named Rosaline, one of Capulet’s nieces. Persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio, Romeo attends the ball at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosaline. However, Romeo instead meets and falls in love with Juliet. Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, is enraged at Romeo for sneaking into the ball but is only stopped from killing Romeo by Juliet’s father, who does not wish to shed blood in his house. After the ball, in what is now famously known as the “balcony scene”, Romeo sneaks into the Capulet orchard and overhears Juliet at her window vowing her love to him in spite of her family’s hatred of the Montagues. Romeo makes himself known to her, and they agree to be married. With the help of Friar Laurence, who hopes to reconcile the two families through their children’s union, they are secretly married the next day.

Tybalt, meanwhile, still incensed that Romeo had sneaked into the Capulet ball, challenges him to a duel. Romeo, now considering Tybalt his kinsman, refuses to fight. Mercutio is offended by Tybalt’s insolence, as well as Romeo’s “vile submission”, and accepts the duel on Romeo’s behalf. Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo attempts to break up the fight, and declares a curse upon both households before he dies. (“A plague o’ both your houses!”) Grief-stricken and racked with guilt, Romeo confronts and slays Tybalt.

Benvolio argues that Romeo has justly executed Tybalt for the murder of Mercutio. The Prince, now having lost a kinsman in the warring families’ feud, exiles Romeo from Verona, under penalty of death if he ever returns. Romeo secretly spends the night in Juliet’s chamber, where they consummate their marriage. Capulet, misinterpreting Juliet’s grief, agrees to marry her to Count Paris and threatens to disown her when she refuses to become Paris’s “joyful bride”. When she then pleads for the marriage to be delayed, her mother rejects her.

Juliet visits Friar Laurence for help, and he offers her a potion that will put her into a deathlike coma or catalepsy for “two and forty hours”. The Friar promises to send a messenger to inform Romeo of the plan so that he can rejoin her when she awakens. On the night before the wedding, she takes the drug and, when discovered apparently dead, she is laid in the family crypt.

The messenger, however, does not reach Romeo and, instead, Romeo learns of Juliet’s apparent death from his servant, Balthasar. Heartbroken, Romeo buys poison from an apothecary and goes to the Capulet crypt. He encounters Paris who has come to mourn Juliet privately. Believing Romeo to be a vandal, Paris confronts him and, in the ensuing battle, Romeo kills Paris. Still believing Juliet to be dead, he drinks the poison. Juliet then awakens and, discovering that Romeo is dead, stabs herself with his dagger and joins him in death. The feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb to find all three dead. Friar Laurence recounts the story of the two “star-cross’d lovers”, fulfilling the curse that Mercutio swore. The families are reconciled by their children’s deaths and agree to end their violent feud. The play ends with the Prince’s elegy for the lovers: “For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

---

Epic Eye Roll for all the yatzees.

Tybalt deserved to die. The Prince of the City was an idiot for exiling Romeo. So everything that went wrong I place squarely on Tybalt and the Prince. Tybalt stirred up the pot and the Prince didn’t actually do anything wise to settle the dispute between the families. So his last bit of finger wagging at the two patriarchs rang extremely hypocritical to me.

And for goodness sake, why didn’t Juliet and Romeo announce that they were married to all and sundry as soon as it happened? That would have taken the wind out of Tybalt or maybe he would have killed Romeo, but since Romeo ended up dead anyway, that isn’t gambling much.

I am afraid I am going to have a very bad attitude towards Shakespeare’s stuff for the rest of the time that I spend reading this Complete Collection. I feel it is a bit unfair, especially since no one is making me do this, but my goodness man, figure out a way to get the tragedy you want without people being 100% stupid.

★★✬☆☆

• All My Shakespeare Reviews

For Where Your Treasure Is....

….there will your heart be also.
~Matthew 6:21

Reading my various old journals, I have realized they’re getting fragile and that keeping them loose on a bookshelf isn’t helping them at all. So I decided to do something about it. One Hobby Lobby stop later, I ended up with these beauties.

25 years in one box, with another just waiting to be filled up. I can tell you already, it’s not going to take 25 more years to fill that sucker up! 😀

A King’s Ship (Empire Rising #2) ★★★✬☆

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: A King’s Ship
Series: Empire Rising #2
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 314
Words: 122K

From the Publisher and Bookstooge.blog

The war with China is over. But for Captain James Somerville there is a task still unfinished.

Former Politburo Intelligence Minister Chang has evaded capture and escaped from Chinese space. Declared a war criminal by the UN and British law courts, James is given the Royal Space Navy’s newest exploration cruiser and sent after Chang.

His chase will threaten to stir up old rivalries and take him to the edge of explored space. What he will discover there will radically reshape humanity’s position in the galaxy and throw him into a series of desperate battles. Alone and outnumbered he will come to realize what it really takes to command a King’s Ship.

And that means finding a Lost Colony with a secret (they have skillz! And have pirated Space Briton’s ships), finding aliens, finding MORE aliens and then killing lots of aliens. And finding out that there are even more aliens (even though the humans don’t realize the discovery for what it is at the time).

---

I was pretty happy with this. While there are some impressive space battles (where we once again count every missile down until it explodes or something), we also get some British Space Marine action. Boo yah! These guys are almost as tough as regular American Space Soldiers, so you know in the big scheme of things they’re pretty badass. And they’re even all squishy on the inside and have a bonding moment, awwwww. Thankfully, that doesn’t last too long before they get back to killing aliens.

The Big Bad Communist from the first book has escaped and Captain Happy Pants is tasked with secretly hunting him down. And boy does he kick some applecarts over in that process. India is caught with its hands fully in the Space Communist cookie jar and whines about it. Captain Happy doesn’t care, nor should he, he’s got a Space United Nations mandate! And Ensign Chicky Boo is now Admiral/Captain/Commander/Whatever Chicky Boo and is helping out. But a sexy Lost Human Politician gets in the way until Captain Happy Pants puts her aside because he still loves the British Space Princess. It’s a real Space Soap Opera! Find out next episode who has the alien baby!!! (not really, but come on, you had to see that coming).

Once again, I really enjoyed this. It hits the Space Opera itch that I have (that I’m not getting scratched by Anspach & Cole with their Galaxy’s Edge series, boo, hiss) and while it has more spaceship battles than I really care for, it does have more than enough ground pounder action to keep me happy. Space Marines for da win baby!

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Empire Rising” Reviews

The Black Wings of Cthulhu Vol 1 (Cthulhu Anthology #7) ★★★☆☆

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: The Black Wings of Cthulhu Vol 1
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #7
Editor: S.T. Joshi
Rating: 3.0 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 385
Words: 141K

TOC

Introduction

S. T. Joshi

Pickman’s Other Model (1929)

Caitlín R. Kiernan

Desert Dreams

Donald R. Burleson

Engravings

Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.

Copping Squid

Michael Shea

Passing Spirits

Sam Gafford

The Broadsword

Laird Barron

Usurped

William Browning Spencer

Denker’s Book

David J. Schow

Inhabitants of Wraithwood

W. H. Pugmire

The Dome

Mollie L. Burleson

Rotterdam

Nicholas Royle

Tempting Providence
Jonathan Thomas

Howling in the Dark

Darrell Schweitzer

The Truth about Pickman

Brian Stableford

Tunnels

Philip Haldeman

The Correspondence of Cameron Thaddeus Nash

Annotated by Ramsey Campbell

Violence, Child of Trust

Michael Cisco

Lesser Demons

Norman Partridge

An Eldritch Matter

Adam Niswander

Substitution

Michael Marshall Smith

Susie

Jason Van Hollander

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There was a distinct lack of Cthulhu in this collection. A VERY distinct lack. It would have been better to call this a collection of stories about authors navel gazing as cockroaches ate their belly buttons. At least I would have been prepared for the completely self-absorbed narcissists who wrote these stories. They weren’t all necessarily bad, but without a direct tie to Cthulhu or some of his equally evil and cosmic brethren, they just came across as authors spouting nonsense about nonsense. I confirmed that Joseph Pulver Sr is a blithering idiot and has the skill of an epileptic caught in the throws of a fentanyl withdrawal while falling off of Nakatomi Towers.

I still gave this 3stars because of the ones that did tie directly into the Mythos. And I really enjoyed them. But 3 or 4 stories out of a collection of 21 is not a very good track record. Joshi (the editor of this collection) and I have a very mixed track record. Sometimes I really enjoy what he’s put together and other times I think he’s on drugs and his selections are crap. He is definitely one of those people who think Lovecraft’s mythology deserves “special attention” instead of just playing in the sandbox.

I just looked on Devilreads and there are FIVE more collections of this series. That’s rubbish. I am “almost” tempted to sample them to see if they too are Cthulhu’less, but I’ve got 6 other anthologies to investigate first. Maybe when I run out and am desperate for a Cthulhu fix (as I take a swan dive off of Nakatomi Tower, hehehehe).

★★★☆☆

• All of My “Cthulhu Anthologies” Review