Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Forge of the High Mage (Malaz: Path to Ascendancy #4) ★★★★☆

Title: Forge of the High Mage
Series: Malaz: Path to Ascendancy #4
Author: Ian C. Esslemont
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 467
Words: 152K

From Malazan.fandom.com

After decades of warfare, Malazan forces are now close to consolidating the Quon Talian mainland. Yet it is at this moment that Emperor Kellanved orders a new campaign far to the north: the invasion of Falar.

Since the main Malazan armies are otherwise engaged in Quon Tali, a collection of orphaned units and broken squads has been brought together under Fist Dujek - himself recovering from the loss of an arm - to fight this new campaign. A somewhat rag-tag army, joined by a similarly motley fleet under the command of the Emperor himself.

There are however those who harbour doubts regarding the stewardship of Kellanved and his cohort Dancer, and as the Malazan force heads north, it encounters an unlooked-for and most unwelcome threat - unspeakable and born of legend, it has woken and will destroy all who stand in its way. Most appalled by this is Tayschrenn, the untested High Mage of the Empire. He is all-too aware of the true nature of this ancient horror - and his own inadequacy in having to confront it. Yet confront it he must, alongside the most unlikely of allies...

And then the theocracy of Falar is itself far from defenceless - its priests are in possession of a weapon so terrifying it has not been unleashed for centuries. Named the Jhistal, it was rumoured to be a gift from the sea-god Mael. But two can play at that game, for the Emperor sails towards Falar aboard his flagship Twisted - a vessel that is itself thought to be not entirely of this world...

Here, then, in the tracts of the Ice Wastes and among the islands of Falar, the Empire of Malaz faces two seemingly insurmountable tests - each one potentially the origin of its destruction...

These are bloody, turbulent and treacherous times for all caught up in the forging of the Malazan Empire.

Just like in previous Path to Ascendancy books, there is another huge time jump from the previous book to this one. It’s been four years since I read Kellanved’s Reach and so I’d kind of forgotten how Esslemont operates. So it was a bit jarring to suddenly be in the middle of the Malazan Army being fully realized and the Empire we all come to know and love in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.

There is a lot going on. The biggest problem I had, and I think ANY long time reader of the Malazan Universe will have, is that there is a flipping K’Chain Che’Malle floating fortress that not only Kelanved is aware of, but an entire Malazan fights against. That’s a big deal because in the main series, nobody is supposed to be aware that the Che’Malle are revived and roaming the world again, until Memories of Ice, the 3^rd book in the series. That would be like someone today telling a story about New York and claiming that the Two Towers were still in existence.

Other than that massive and gaping plot hole, this was another fantastic story by ICE. He has a much lighter touch in terms of navel gazing self-absorbed existentials angsty philosophizing, unlike his fellow writer Erikson. Which is why I enjoy his body of work much more. He also isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty with plain old fashioned action scenes. High Mage Tayschren going up against a floating fortress, the Jhistal being misused and used, Esslemont dives right into things.

Despite what the synopsis states, there is a LOT more going on. There are several more main “side characters” and their storylines. It fits how multi-layered any Malazan story is supposed to be At the same time, I found myself not caring enough to try to tie all the the threads into their appropriate place and just sailing on through the reading.

There were also a lot of name dropping Easter Eggs for long time fans. It actually got tiresome. Especially when when Esslemont played coy and just described a character by their mannerism or description. During those times I knew it was supposed to be “somebody” but since it didn’t really affect the current story, I just kept on reading without trying to comprehend everything.

The online chatter I’ve read says there will be one more of these Path to Ascendancy books and that book will bring us up to the Book of the Malazan timeline. I just hope Esslemont keeps on writing in this universe, I really like his style.

★★★★☆

All of My “Malaz: Path to Ascendancy” Reviews

Friday, June 16, 2023

Asterix and Caesar’s Gift (Asterix #21) ★★★✬☆

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: Asterix and Caesar’s Gift
Series: Asterix #21
Authors: Goscinny & Uderzo
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 53
Words: 3K

From Wikipedia:

Having completed twenty years of service in the Roman Army, veteran legionaries Tremensdelirius and Egganlettus await their honesta missio (Latin: honorary discharge) in the morning, but that night a drunk Tremensdelirius insults Julius Caesar and gets arrested. When Caesar is informed of Tremensdelirius's mishap, he decides to play a practical joke on him. Caesar awards a "special gift" to Tremensdelirius: Asterix's village in Armorica, the only territory of Gaul not yet conquered by the Roman legions. Tremensdelirius sees little merit in a gift he cannot drink and winds up exchanging the gift for wine and food at an inn in Arausio, owned by Orthopaedix.

Orthopaedix, his wife Angina and daughter Influenza arrive at the village only to be disappointed to find it already inhabited, and that Caesar does not own the village at all (making the gift worthless). With no place to go, Angina berates her husband for selling their inn to travel to Armorica. Vitalstatistix overhears the conversation and decides to offer Orthopaedix a building to open a new inn. Obelix soon has a crush on Influenza, while Geriatrix doesn't welcome Orthopaedix and his family, regarding them as outsiders. The villagers attend the new inn's opening night, but Vitalstatistix's wife Impedimenta and Angina start arguing about who owns the village. A fight ensues and the inn is trashed as a result.

The next morning, a bruised Orthopaedix is ready to leave and return to Lutetia, his hometown, but Angina wants to have revenge on Impedimenta and makes a claim to the leadership of the village on behalf of her husband. Vitalstatistix, shocked, has Cacofonix obtain an opinion poll of the villagers and learns that aside from Geriatrix, the villagers don't really care, until Vitalstatistix makes a few remarks that offends some of the villagers, making them go to the other side. A political race starts, and Geriatrix thinks Vitalstatistix is weak and tries to stand for Chief himself. Asterix becomes worried that internal conflict could benefit the Romans. Meanwhile, Tremensdelirius arrives at the village to visit Orthopaedix, explains that since their last meeting he unsuccessfully tried all kinds of trade and he wants his land back, since he is in fact not allowed to sell the land. When the family refuses, he draws his sword. Asterix arrives, and the two fight, with Asterix winning. Influenza is impressed, while Tremensdelirius, swearing revenge, goes to the Laudanum Roman camp and finds his old friend Egganlettus serving as an aide-de-camp under the local centurion (as he found retirement boring and signed up for another 20 years). With his support, Tremensdelirius makes an official request to the centurion to restore his land. The centurion is reluctant to face the Gauls, but the veterans threaten to report him to Caesar, and he agrees to prepare a military attack with the new weapons they have.

The following day, Influenza expresses her admiration to Asterix, making the jealous Obelix feel betrayed. Asterix attempts to warn everyone about Tremensdelirius, but his warning falls on deaf ears. Hence, Asterix decides to investigate and discovers that the Romans are preparing siege weapons. The Romans see him, but are afraid to attack, allowing him to retreat and escape (as he has no magic potion with him to fight against them). His escape gives the Romans the belief that the Gauls can no longer resist the Romans, and makes them more confident.

Asterix returns to the village and attempts to warn them, but everyone gathers to witness the public debate between Vitalstatistix and Orthopaedix, until it is interrupted by rocks launched from the Roman catapults. Vitalstatistix begs for Getafix to give them magic potion, but the druid refuses, too disgusted by the Gaulish in-fighting. When Vitalstatistix asks for the druid to give magic potion to his rival instead, Getafix finally agrees to help them. The villagers manage to defeat the Romans, with Orthopaedix himself confronting Tremensdelirius and smashing Caesar's gift on Tremensdelirius's head.

The Gauls are reconciled following their victory. A much more confident Orthopaedix befriends his former rival, and decides to withdraw his claim for leadership and return to Lutetia, despite Angina's objections. Impedimenta and Angina also become friends. Obelix is saddened that Influenza will be leaving with her parents but is reconciled with Asterix. The village then hosts a banquet.

This was quite amusing. The Gaulish village being sold to a roman and then traded to an innkeeper and the shenanigans as said innkeeper tries to become chief of the village. And the Romans think they have everything in the bag and attack the village with various new ranged weapons.

So of course that unites the Gauls, even the erstwhile Innkeeper and they trounce the romans with their magic potion and the innkeeper goes back to the city where he and his family were originally from. And everybody has a happy ending.

Man, the Romans, much like the pirates, just can’t catch a break. Of course, if they’d left well enough alone and not tried to get greedy by attacking the gaul’s village, the village might have split. But just like every other time, a roman incursion unites the fractious dolts and they just wallop the romans. It’s funny in small doses :-)

The stories are formulaic and as long as you can take that, it’s great. But after reading One Piece Vol 41 earlier this week, I needed something light and that didn’t meander. A formula story works very well in that regards and I suspect part of my I enjoyed this as much as I did was just because of that contrast. I don’t read in a vacuum and how I’m feeling at the time can affect things. Life can affect things, people can affect thing, other books can affect things. So I note what I think is affecting me and move on. And as Chief Vitalstatistix so expressively says in this edition “And anyone who doesn’t like it can shove off!”. That man has a great way with words ;-)

★★★✬☆

Reviews for Asterix 1-21
Reviews for Asterix 22+

Thursday, June 15, 2023

The Island Deception (Gateways to Alissia #2) ★★★☆☆

Title: The Island Deception
Series: Gateways to Alissia #2
Author: Dan Koboldt
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 310
Words: 97K

From the Publishers

What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas. But what happens after you step through a portal to another world, well...

For stage magician Quinn Bradley, he thought his time in Alissia was over. He'd done his job for the mysterious company CASE Global Enterprises, and now his name is finally on the marquee of one of the biggest Vegas casinos. And yet, for all the accolades, he definitely feels something is missing. He can create the most amazing illusions on Earth, but he's also tasted true power. Real magic.

He misses it.

Luckily—or not—CASE Global is not done with him, and they want him to go back. The first time, he was tasked with finding a missing researcher. Now, though, he has another task:

Help take Richard Holt down.

It's impossible to be in Vegas...

Sigh. Quinn Bradley goes through the portal to the fantasy world and is supposed to be spying for his corporate masters, again. His secret goal is to learn real magic. What frustrated me was that he was enrolled in classes to learn magic and instead of allowing the teachers to break his resistance, continually tries to use his sleight of hand/magician skills and the tech from our world to fake it. It was like he didn’t actually WANT to learn magic. By the end of the book thankfully it was forced upon him but his resistance to the training made him look stupid to the reader and like a stubborn jackass. It detracted from the enjoyment for me.

Then you have Richard Holt, the guy who defected in the first book who is THE expert on this fantasy world. He has plans and plans to defend it against the corporate raiders. And everyone who we read about (in fairness they are employed and by the end of the book coerced by CASE Global) is on board with hunting Richard down. It was like no one even thought to question why he was doing this or to even ask themselves if maybe he had some justification for it. Nope, it was the Company Line straight down the page.

While not bad, the issues of Quinn acting so immature and the supposedly special forces people just blindly accepting what their civilian overseers state were enough to knock off half a star. I’ll be going into the third and final book with some VERY adjusted expectations.

★★★☆☆

The Rogue Retrieval (Book 1)

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Declaration of War (One Piece #41) ★✬☆☆☆

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: Declaration of War
Series: One Piece #41
Arc: Water Seven #10
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 227
Words: 10K

From Wikipedia:

"Response"

"Accepting the Challenge"

"The Girl They Called a Demon"

"Dereshi"

"Olvia"

"The Demons of Ohara"

"Ohara vs. the World Government"

"Saul"

"In Hopes of Reaching the Future"

"Declaration of War"

"Jump Toward the Waterfall!!"

The Straw Hats and CP9, and their two captives, face each other down. Nico Robin tries turning the crew away again, but when Monkey D. Luffy tells her that she can die as part of the crew instead, Robin experiences a flashback to her childhood. Raised on an island of archaeologists, Robin and the rest of the islanders attempt to discover the secret of the void century, a period in time that the government forbids anyone to know. To prevent knowledge of the void century from spreading, the island and its inhabitants (except Robin) are destroyed. Aokiji allows Robin to escape, challenging her to find friends and to live. Realizing that she had almost given up on both, Robin decides she wants to live with the rest of the Straw Hats. Touched by their words, Franky reveals that the blueprints CP9 have been searching are hidden on his person, but they are not that of Pluton, but an "opposing weapon" and he promptly destroys them, giving CP9 no further reason to keep him in custody.

We are treated to another extended flashback, this time to Robin Nico’s childhood and all the wah wah wah baggage she’s carrying. Because her mother abandoned her to find out about the poneglif. What really chapped my backside is that the mother doesn’t want Robin to the be “the daughter of a criminal” so she tells Robin she’s not her mother. As the island is under attack from the World Government and Buster Call (the One Piece Equivalent of a nuclear strike). So nobody is going to survive and the mother still denies to Robin that she is her mother. It made me sick.That’s like worrying about causing your child pain because of pulling out a splinter while some chainsaw wielding psycho is chasing said child. And I hate this kind of flash back, as I’ve said before. It absolutely destroys the pacing of the story and while it may fill in some chunks, it doesn’t advance the Main Story about Luffy becoming King of the Pirates.

THAT, and THAT ALONE should be Oda-sensei’s focus. And it is very obvious that he’s doing all he can to stretch out the main story with all this crappy bull caca back story. I swear, he’s as bad as Brandon Sanderson and his disgusting love affair with world building at the expense of everything else. At the ¾ mark I was just about ready to quit I was so disgusted with this.

But I kept reading.

And wished I hadn’t. Because the scholars who are researching the Ponegliff, which is the cause of the island getting the Buster Call, are one and all complete fething idiots. They are researching forbidden material but have no plan to relocate or save their works. They squawk and squawk about “oh, they just CAN’T burn history, it wouldn’t be right”. Ivory headed idiots without one brain that works in the real world. I know Oda-sensei is writing them this way on purpose, but it’s like authors who make their characters really dumb just to make the plot happen. There was no need for these scholars to die, or for all their works to be destroyed. It was lazy writing and I couldn’t get past it.

The end of the volume is back in the present and Robin decides she wants to live after all, so the Straw Hats all jump off of a cliff to save her.

But it was too late for me. This was not fun to read and I hate being taken away from the main story and I am going to consider if I actually want to continue this series. I quit reading this series once before because of the manga-ka’s proclivity towards selling the manga instead of telling the story and I was hoping I could get past that. This volume has shown me that I can’t. And from what others have said, these flashbacks continue.

I am very grumpy right now.

★✬☆☆☆

One Piece #1-41 Reviews

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Atomic Age Cthulhu (Cthulhu Anthology #10) ★★★★☆

Title: Atomic Age Cthulhu
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #10
Editor: Glynn Barrass & Brian Sammons
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 287
Words: 106K

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Bad Reception by Jeffrey Thomas

Unamerican by Cody Goodfellow

Fallout by Sam Stone

Eldritch Lunch by Adam Bolivar

Little Curly by Neil Baker

The Day the Music Died by Charles Christian

The Terror That Came to Dounreay by William Meikle

The Romero Transference by Josh Reynolds

It Came to Modesto by Ed Erdelac

Within the Image of the Divine by Bear Weiter

Yellow is the Color of the Future by Jason Andrew

Fears Realized by Tom Lynch

Professor Patriot and the Doom that Came to Niceville by Christine Morgan

Rose-Colored Glasses by Michael Szymanski

The Preserved Ones by Christopher M. Geeson

Putnam’s Monster by Scott T. Goudsward

Operation Switch by Pete Rawlik

Names on the Black List by Robert M. Price

The End of the Golden Age by Brian M. Sammons & Glynn Owen Barrass

This was a great collection of Cthulhu mythos stories set during the 1950’s and ranged from the commies being Eldrich Horrors to the Eldrich Horrors taking over America so THEY could fight the commies. In most of the stories any commies got what was coming to them.

This was on track for being a 4.5star rating, but I ran into 2 stories that made that impossible.

The first one, Eldrich Lunch, almost made me quit the book. It was vile, and brought to mind my reaction to Lapvona last month. It really made me question if I was being hypocritical or not. I don’t think so for two reasons. First, the story was meant to be vile. Cosmic Horror is meant to have that edge. Second, it was just that one story and not the entire book. Quantity does matter. But it made me want to be much more careful about how I judge others for the books they read in the future. I’m still going to judge the heck out of the books and possibly the authors, but the people reading and praising them, I can at least keep my mouth shut.

The second story, Yellow is the Color of the Future, was obviously a King in Yellow story. My hopes skyrocketed. Sadly, they were dashed even before my real reasons for disliking the story came into play. Some sad sack of a movie producer finds the play The King in Yellow and a friend reads it and they decide to film it. The character playing the King gets possessed and is preparing to use the movie to enter our world and rule it. The sad sack producer figures out how to stop him and destroys the film. Happily Ever After. No. There are NO happily ever after’s in a good KiY story. Because even when you win against the King, you still end up losing. That’s what I appreciated so much about The Yellow Sign, that author understood that conundrum and wrote it well. And a movie producer? Come on, those guys don’t have a working brain cell, much less a whole brain, to be able to fight against the Horror of the King. That would be like Petunia Pig taking down a Gundam, bare handed. Inconceivable!

Fallout, on the other hand, was an excellent story. It follows a teen boy who’s about to turn 16 who is living in an American Dream. His family, no, the whole town is well off and doing well beyond imagination. Sure, his dad built a bunker in the backyard that gives the teen the heeby jeebies, but you gotta be prepared right? Turns out, the town has made a pact to offer their first borns on their 16^th birthday for wealth and prosperity. It ends well too, with the boy being sacrificed and one of the people who threw him into the fallout shelter saying something like “next month is my Suzie’s 16^th”. Cosmic Horror for the win!

To polish things off, I’d just like to take a second and talk about the editors, Glynn Barrass and Brian Sammons. So far, I have had very good luck for books edited by Barrass. Unlike Joshi, he doesn’t seem to have his head stuck up his fundament and instead focuses on telling stories that fans want to read. I like that attitude and I am beginning to recognize his name. If I see his name on a cover, chances are good I’m going to eventually pick up that book. More importantly, I’m probably going to enjoy it. Sammons, I don’t know. I’ll see if he shows up in other books that I end up enjoying.

★★★★☆

All of My “Cthulhu Anthology” Reviews

Monday, June 12, 2023

The Black Master (The Shadow #8) ★★★✬☆

Title: The Black Master
Series: The Shadow #8
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 174
Words: 82K

From the Publisher & Bookstooge.blog

Five die and many are injured when Wall Street is bombed, followed by Grand Central Station and the subway entrance at Columbus Circle. When a reporter for The Classic claims to have information on the bomber's identity, the office explodes. As the death toll rises, The Shadow races to uncover who is the bomber known as The Black Master.

Turns out the Blackmaster is a german scientist who had a sister back in the day. Said sister married an American and died from starvation. The american went on to become a multi-millionaire and the Black Master has decided that HE is the one to mete out justice for his sister’s death. If a multitude of New Yorker’s must die in the process, that is a price the Black Master is willing to pay.

The Shadow is not a big fan of this course of action and sets himself in opposition. Of course he wins and destroys the Black Master, who was also a crime fighter helping the police with his new fangled german “criminal psychology”.

First things first. This is not some filthy urban fantasy erotica porn. I mention this because I am reading the Shadow omnibuses and so have to search out the individual titles to find the covers, pages, etc. The crap I had to wade through was not right. I ended up searching for ISBN 9780450027420 to get the correct info. So use that, not the title if you’re ever searching this out.

Second thing. This gave me YUUUUGE 9/11 vibes. New York was getting bombed and there was panic in the newspaper and speculation was rife and nobody knew what was going on. It reminded me exactly of my experience on 9/11. I was working and the radio was going nuts. There were “reports” of bombs going off in cars, of bombs going off in garbage cans, of “sporadic gunfire”. The *&^%%% media didn’t know what was going on and they let their speculation run rampant and increased the panic. Until the plane hit the towers, nobody actually KNEW what was happening. That sense of bewilderment was spot on. Of course, in this novel everybody just goes back to normal the next day and life carries on.

Thirdly, the Crime Fighting Psychologist. Come on, I mean, really? As soon as it was revealed that he was german and profiled criminals, it was painfully obvious he was the Black Master. And if that comes as a spoiler to you, shame on you for being so gullible. It reminded me of the first episode in the Sherlock tv show with Benedict Cumberbatch and one of the police officers, who is not a fan of Sherlock, tells Watson that someday Sherlock will get bored of solving crimes and begin committing then. That is the exact vibe I got from Dr Proffessor Germano (yeah, yeah, whatever, who remembers his real name anyway?) and so as soon as he was introduced he had a big fat arrow pointing to him screaming “Dah Black Meister!”

Now, with all of that being said, I still enjoyed the daylights out of this story. The Black Master was a very worthy adversary for the Shadow and gave him a good run for his money. When a villain seeks to go head to head against the Shadow in a game of mental manipulation, you know he’s not just some thug with a .38 police special.

And Harry Vincent gets his brain blasted by the Black Master and his magic crystal ball. Sadly, we all know he’ll recover and show up in future books. I would have liked to see his drooling corpse slumped against a wall. Oh well, not every story can be a completely Happily Ever After.

★★★✬☆

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Order to Kill (Mitch Rapp #15) ★★★✬☆

Title: Order to Kill
Series: Mitch Rapp #15
Author: Kyle Mills
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 324
Words: 101K

From the Publisher and Bookstooge.blog

In the next thrilling novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Mitch Rapp series, the anti-terrorism operative heads to Pakistan to confront a mortal threat he may not be prepared for. In fact, this time he might have met his match.

Mitch Rapp is used to winning .But in this follow-up to #1 New York Times bestselling The Survivor, the CIA operative finds himself chasing false leads from continent to continent in an effort to keep Pakistani nukes from falling into the hands of terrorists. Together with friend and colleague Scott Coleman, Rapp struggles to prevent the loss of these lethal weapons, particularly because Russia is also interested in the nukes, though not for the same reason as Rapp and Coleman.

Soon, it becomes alarmingly clear that the forces in Moscow are bent on fomenting even more chaos and turmoil in the Middle East, and Rapp must go deep into Russian territory, posing as an American ISIS recruit. There, he uncovers a plan much more dangerous and insidious than he ever expected, one that could have far-reaching and catastrophic consequences.

At the same time, a younger assassin is hired to take out Rapp. The problem for Rapp is that this younger guy is even better than Rapp was at that age. So Rapp has to deal with a faster, more agile version of himself AND a bunch of ISIS jihadists who want to dirty nuke the oil fields of Saudi Arabia.

Being Mitch Rapp, he does it and he woos the widow of the man who tried to kill him in the previous books. Now there’s a lady who can handle Mitch Rapp.

Well, Kyle Mills has definitely made Mitch Rapp his own character and it’s slightly different from the version Vince Flynn created. And not for the better. This Rapp is angrier without cause and has a lot less control of his words and temper. I haven’t watched the movie “American Assassin” yet, but from the reviews of it, the version of Mitch Rapp in the movie is much more like the Kyle Mills version than the Vince Flynn version.

Confused yet? Yeah, it’s a mess and it is not making me enjoy this series more.

At the same time, this was a great story. I mean, dirty nukes and Russian hitmen and ISIS terrorists and a take no prisoners secret agent who is kicking all of their butts. How can you not enjoy that?

So I’m going to take a break from Kyle Mills and “his” Mitch Rapp for a couple of months and come back when I feel like I can treat it like a new character and series. I’ve also taken Vince Flynn’s name out of the info box and am not using his name as an author tag for this series either.

★★★✬☆

All My “Mitch Rapp” Reviews

Friday, June 09, 2023

Sister’s City (Groo the Wanderer #18) ★★★✬☆

Title: Sister’s City
Series: Groo the Wanderer #18
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K

From Bookstooge.blog

Groo has a sister who is Queen of a city. Said city is about to be attacked and so Grooella summons Groo to her aid. As Groo travels to the city he has many fond memories of his time growing up with Grooella. Of course, in the process of “helping” his sister, he allows the city to be taken over.

Man, Groo was just as much of a spaz, bad luck charm and general el stupido as a kid as he is now. Every time he tried to do something nice for his sister he ended up destroying something of hers. Obviously, his sister never learned HER lesson either, because why else would she try to get his help?

And as soon as I heard it, I knew Groo was going to mess things up. So the castle being taken over by the enemies was no surprise. What did surprise me is that apparently we are going to be treated to our first ever multi-issue Groo story! The next issue is going to deal with Grooella trying to take back her castle. I can’t even imagine how things are going to go wrong in that, hahahahaah!

The ending page was a perfect wrapup of the relationship between Groo and Grooella.

★★★✬☆

All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

Thursday, June 08, 2023

Widowmaker Unleashed (Widowmaker #3) ★★★★☆

Title: Widowmaker Unleashed
Series: Widowmaker #3
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 180
Words: 56K

From the Publisher & Bookstooge.blog

He was the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, the consummate killing machine, a man known only as the Widowmaker. Now, after a century of being cryogenically frozen, Jefferson Nighthawk has a new lease on life--and new enemies who want him dead.... Jefferson Nighthawk has been awakened from his frozen sleep, his deadly disease cured. But although he still has the experience and instincts of the legendary Widowmaker, Nighthawk is now biologically in his sixties. His reflexes slowed by age, looking only to live out his days in peace, he decides on a quiet retirement on a Frontier world. Easier said than done. For while Nighthawk lay in cryogenic sleep, his two clones were killing in his name, leaving a trail of vengeful enemies in their wake. Nighthawk has one advantage: no one knows who he is just yet. But once word gets out that he's back, every assassin on the Frontier will be out to make a rep by gunning him down. Suddenly the Widowmaker has only two choices: pick up his weapons...or face death again--and this time for keeps.

So instead of changing his name and looks, he creates a third clone and personally trains him. This still doesn’t take enough heat off of Nighthawk, so he and the young clone stage the elder Widowmaker’s death in an epic showdown, one where Nighthawk almost does die. Now the world thinks he is dead and the younger Widowmaker can make his own name while Jefferson Nighthawk can live out his days in peace on some dirtball of a world.

Reading my review from ‘14, I mentioned how short this felt compared to the previous stories about the Widowmaker. I realized this time around that is because this is novel is simply a collection of serialized stories instead of being one long drawn out story. Yes, it is all connected, but it is very much compartmentalized. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you are aware of it.

Man, the original Widowmaker is a jerk. At first it is understandable. He thought all his enemies were dead and now he finds out his clones have made him a bunch more, that HE has to deal with. But then his mule headed refusal to do anything but stand and duke it out just got my back up. Because he almost whines the entire time about it. If he had immediately gotten a new identity and a new face (which would have been wicked easy when they were rebuilding him from the ravages of the eplasia), none of it would have mattered.

Of course, we as readers get some cracking good action out of it, so don’t take my complaining that seriously, hahahaaa. So, he’s a jerk. But my goodness, he’s a wicked smart jerk. He’s learned over his lifetime and he puts that learning to good knowledge here.

Much like Santiago, this book was supposed to be the end of the Widowmaker series. Santiago was supposed to be a standalone and the Widowmaker was supposed to be a trilogy. So there is one more adventure for the Widowmaker. But which Widowmaker? I can’t remember, so it’ll be like a brand new book to me.

★★★★☆

Wednesday, June 07, 2023

Fullmetal Alchemist #9 ★★★☆☆

Title: Fullmetal Alchemist #9
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Author: Hiromu Arakawa
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 184
Words: 9K

From FMA.fandom.com

Chapter 34: The Footsteps of a War Comrade

Chapter 35: The Sacrificial Lamb

Chapter 36: Alchemist in Distress

Chapter 37: The Body of a Criminal

"Ed, Al, and Winry return to Central Command, but only bad news greets the Fullmetal Alchemist and his friends, Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes has been murdered-and Second Lieutenant Maria Ross is the prime suspect! While Maria awaits an uncertain fate in jail, the living suit of armor bearing the soul of serial killer "Barry the Chopper" breaks free of the military and goes on a rampage. Now, the mysterious Homunculi must come out of the shadows to deal with this mess before their monstrous conspiracy is exposed. But for Colonel Roy Mustang, Mae Hughes's former best friend, it's not about the truth; it's about revenge..."

You know, I’ve figured out just why I am having such a hard time with this manga. The manga-ka keeps sending us down little side trails, sometimes in great detail and with a sense of outrageous silliness, that don’t have anything to do with the main plot. It simply infuriates me. It’s not a constant thing, but it happens enough to interrupt my enjoyment of the main storyline.

I think the anime creators did a fantastic job of that and that is why I enjoyed the anime so much. Even though they didn’t have the ending at that time, they still told a fantastic story with very few offshoots. I just wish this particular manga would cut the fat.

I am seriously thinking of reading more volumes in a row so I don’t have to deal with interruptions as much. But just pack them all into one review, so kind of how I used to do manga reviews back in the day. Not sure that is actually a good solution, but it’s that or dnf the series and I really want to see how things turn out.

★★★☆☆

All My "Fullmetal Alchemist" Reviews