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
I skipped to the final volume to see how things ended and to see if it was really worth my time wading through an extra 16 volumes. My verdict is a resounding no.
While there was a lot of unexplained stuff, I was still able to grasp the broader details. There was a super-homonculi who was trying to become a god and Edward pretty much punches him to death. Yeah, the power of brotherly love, blah, blah, blah. Then everyone gets a relatively happy ending and Al gets his body back because Ed exchanges his ability to perform alchemy for it.
I didn’t care. I didn’t care how everything had gotten to the point where it was. I know the ending now. If I want to see all the inbetween parts, I might try the anime. But given how I am reacting to returning to manga (ie, realizing I am pretty much done with it, period), I don’t know if I want to try anime again either.
I read this the same day that I read the Groo comic. I thoroughly enjoyed Groo and did not enjoy this. Just like I didn’t enjoy the One Piece volume I read earlier this month. I just have to face the fact that my time with manga is done. I hate coming to realizations like that. It means I’ve changed and while change is a good thing, I still don’t like it.
★★✬☆☆
From FMA.fandom.com
From the back of the volume:
“The Final Chapter! With the help of Hohenheim and their allies, the Elric brothers launch a desperate final attack against the homunculus “father.” But to claim victory, some may have to make the ultimate sacrifice. And when the dust clears, will a happy ending await our favorite characters in the final volume of Fullmetal Alchemist?”
The last of the original X-Men trilogy. Sadly, Brian Singer did not direct this, as he had gone on to do that horrible Superman Returns movie. So it is hard to judge if this movie was really as bad as it was because of him leaving or if it was just a bad movie all on its own.
While I didn’t hate it, it was a chore to watch the whole thing. The biggest problem was that whoever the writers were, they simply tried to pack in way too much into the one movie. You have a very poorly done Dark Phoenix arc (Jean Grey is the most powerful mutant EVAH but kept it under control with Professor X’s help and she goes bad), you have a story about Magneto declaring war on humanity and assembling a massive army of mutants, you have a “cure” for mutantism that causes schisms amongst mutankind, you have some of the major mutants being killed off and you have a whole new crop of Team X-Men and evil Mutants being introduced.
It was just too many story threads and instead of being woven seamlessly together, they were all raggedly cut off to make room for the other threads.
Then you have the characters. They do not act like how they did in the previous 2 movies. Especially Professor X. Instead of taking time to explain anything, to anyone, he just starts roaring about how he knows best and everybody needs to listen to him. Perfect example of a megalomaniac in fact, and he’s supposed to be the good guy. Rogue decides to get the vaccine so she can have a relationship with Iceman, who is in the midst of his own little triangle with Shadowcat, ie, Kitty Pryde.
It was messy, uncoordinated and not a well executed film. Not one I’ll ever be rewatching. I’d say it’s only for those who want to watch the entire X-Franchise instead of good films.
After having spent a wonderful day and night experiencing how The Other Half Lives, Mrs B and I finished up celebrating our anniversary by heading over to Lincoln and participating in the 48th annual NH Highland Games and Festival.
It was sunny and warm and perfect weather. The upcoming weekend was supposed to be rainy and bleh, so of course everybody had the same idea as us and came on Friday. What a bunch of part timers! If they were really hardcore, they would have come on the weekend and been miserable. I dare say they should all have been ashamed to even SAY they were of scottish descent. Phhhhhffffffttttt!
We arrived around 10am and were immediately sent to the dreaded Lot D for parking. A dirt plowed area where about 100 cars could be squeezed in. Then we all shuttle bus’d to the Loon Mountain Resort where the Games were being held. Let me tell you, there is no better experience than standing in line with 200+ people waiting for four (yes, that’s right, FOUR) shuttle buses, while those other 200+ parasites whine and complain about everything. The line is too long. The bus is taking too long. Why is the bus picking up people in that other line? We should just walk (we were about 2-3 miles away). It wasn’t like this LAST year. There’s too many people, they shouldn’t have come. And on and on it went. It was by the grace of God alone that nobody was strangled, beaten or shot to death just to show them what real problems looked like.
And that was how our time started.
Thankfully, once we arrived and got off the bus, things started to get better. We bought our one day tickets with nary a speck of trouble and immediately headed over to the sheep dog competition. While we didn’t stay long, we saw some dogs herd sheep through an obstacle course and then pen them up with just whistle commands from the shepherd. It’s pretty amazing.
Next on our list, and the biggest draw for Mrs B, was the Cooking Demonstration by Gary MacLean, the National Chef of Scotland. He’s a very personable man, devilishly handsome and I could understand about 3/4 of what he said. It was amazing! 😉 He regaled us with funny anecdotes and little personal stories while he and a local chef helper made up short bread, meat pies (they had a fancy name, something something bridey something something) and some sort of clam with bacon and kale concoction. He was cutting and stirring and laughing and groaning and kept us all very entertained for that hour. Afterwards, everyone could go up and taste a sample of what he had made. Being the good new englander that I am, I stayed in my seat and glared at everyone. Sadly, Mrs B’s California roots were showing and she not only went up and tested the short bread, but she actually talked to some perfect strangers while in the line. Land o’ Goshen! What’s this world coming to?
After that, we went our separate ways to wander and wonder as our fancies took us. I headed over to the Scottish Vendor area and bought myself another nice walking stick. A 59in hickory stick with roughed in finish so my fingers had something to grip. I hope to have some pictures of that by this Sunday. Once I had that particular weapon (I did wear my sig, but it was concealed as always), I stalked the grounds, looking for the least peopled area I could find. It took awhile, but eventually, tucked away in a corner, I found an unoccupied row of bleachers where you couldn’t see the gigantic brute men lifting 450lb stones for fun. I sat there and wrote in my journal, expressing myself to myself as only I can. It was a good time. Mrs B merrily went her way looking at pretty much everything, but in search of the elusive oat cakes. Short bread was everywhere, but oat cakes were apparently not in style this year. Thankfully, with a second, much slower investigatory stroll while putting to The Question various merchants, she was able to procure for herself two boxes of the precious treasure.
Now that both of us had achieved our goals and reached our limits, we returned to the dreaded Lot D and began the long journey home. Thankfully, it was all highway driving so I just put on cruise control at the speed limit (so we’d be the slowest car and everyone would pass us so I wouldn’t have to tap the brakes) and 2 1/2 hrs later, we were home, safe and sound.
And thus ended our day and our celebration. Thankfully, we are currently enjoying Sabbath, so that’s all right then! 😀
This month Mrs B and I celebrate our 15th Wedding Anniversary. To celebrate we decided to go away for a couple of days and spend the night at the Adventure Suites hotel. It’s a fun little place. We got the Victorian Spa suite.
We took a very leisurely drive up North. Nothing like a couple of hours of being in the same car with no distractions to start the memories flowing. It’s been a great 15 years and we’ve accumulated some very strong memories. Some really bad, some really good. Thankfully, we’re both of similar temperament so we tend to view both in the same light.
Once we checked in, we went out for dinner at a nice local restaurant and ate and chatted some more. While we’re both introverts, we both like words. Getting outside of our normal environment helped us to talk about some of the stuff we don’t normally talk about. Like how much we love soccer, or why the lottery is actually a really good thing for society. You know, those deep things that bind all couples together 😉
We got to bed early because the next day, we were heading over to the Highland Games. More on that tomorrow!
I will leave you all with this wonderful video of King Charles III, back when he still Bonny Prince Charlie. I cringe every time I’ve seen it, but Mrs B just laughs her head off.
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: Groo and the Witches of Brujas Series: Groo the Wanderer #21 Author: Sergio Aragones Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Comics Pages: 24 Words: 2K
I not only like the humor of these comics, but I really appreciate Aragones ability to tell a silly story from start to finish in 24 pages. Not only does he do that, he keeps me entertained the whole time and never leaves me feeling like I wasted my time. I appreciate that he appreciates that my time is valuable.
★★★✬☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Groo is attacked by a wizard and then forced to help two witches against the wizard. They multiply Groo, he fights himself and then escapes with a scary boatman. The comic ends with Groo, the boat and the Boatman about to be sucked down into a whirlpool.
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 Oak and the Ram Series: Eternal Champion: Corum #5 Author: Michael Moorcock Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 118 Words: 42K
Corum ends up helping to kill another of the Cold Gods, those beings stranded on his world from the Void.
This was much less mopey than the previous volume. Corum needs stimulation in his life to keep from settling into despair and running around trying to save the humans does the trick. In many ways, it seems humanity has given up. They don’t even try to survive. If it weren’t for Corum and his drive to fight, to overcome, to conquer the adverse circumstances before him, I don’t see what chance the world itself had. Thankfully, Corum is there and he does fight and he gives humanity a little breathing room.
I enjoyed this but at the same time I could feel that this is probably the last time I will be re-reading this particular book by Moorcock and once I finish the next and final Corum book, I will be done with the Eternal Champion mythos altogether. I am at a point in my life where reading about other peoples’ misery does not engender a feeling of “thank goodness I don’t have to experience that!” but instead it is like an ache of commiseration. Pain and anguish are too real to be enjoyed vicariously. Especially by someone of my temperament.
★★★★☆
From the publisher
The seasons have turned from spring to summer across the quiet earth – yet the Fhoi Myore were hiding in mist, awaiting their chance to unleash their icy realm of death. To defeat the Cold Gods, Corum of the Silver Hand must restore the High King’s power with legendary treasures – the Golden Oak and the Silver Ram – lost talismans that wield miraculous forces unknown to Corum…
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: Dedication of the High Priestess Series: The King in Yellow Anthology #10 Author: Ephraim Unger Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: Cosmic Horror / Short Story Pages: 33 Words: 10K
This was a short story that the author was kind enough to give me a free copy of. It would have fit into a KIY anthology just fine but since that probably won’t be happening anytime soon, I figured I’d take a stab at a standalone short story. While I enjoyed this in expanding the King in Yellow lore, there were a couple of things that dragged this down to the two star level for me.
The biggest issue was that the main character was 12 years old and has visions of being embraced by the King in Yellow. While cosmic horror should be disturbing, I felt like this crossed into territory that I wasn’t comfortable with. At all.
The second issue was a more technical issue. The story was written in the first person perspective and there was a lot of “he did, she wore, they said”. While some of that is inherent to that perspective, there are ways to mitigate sounding like a sports announcer at a tennis match.
I really wanted to like this more and give it a higher rating. But it is what it is. I do give props for that cover though. Ohhhhh, that is some good art right there.
★★☆☆☆
From Bookstooge.blog
A 12 year old ballerina is drawn into the world of the King in Yellow and becomes his high priestess. She brings him into our world and ushers in a new age of cosmic horror.
Last year, the weight of 9/11 felt like it was going to break me. I thought this year was going to be worse. But thankfully, writing about 9/11 each year for the past several years has given me an outlet for the grief and pain. It has been cathartic for an event that, from a national viewpoint, has shaped my life more than anything else to date.
It is time to let the pain go and let this event slide into history.
I will still remember. But I will remember with the tint of time covering the glare of pain and horror and I will CHOOSE to do so.
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: Black Sun Rising Series: Coldfire #1 Author: Celia Friedman Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 524 Words: 200K
Have you read or heard about stories where the main character is a woman but all the reviewers describe her as a man with boobs and absolutely crucify the author? I’ve read a couple of those. This is kind of the opposite. There are supposed to be two men but they are really women with swords.
♪Feelings, it’s all about Feelings♪
Goodness, I could have floated a boat with all the feelings going on. Mr Evil Vampire is so evil that he tortured and killed his own wife and children to get the power to live forever. But he cares for the Pagan Sorceress and doesn’t want to hurt her. The Ultimate Bad Boy, yet one who is sensitive and loving on the inside and not really a bad guy at all. Mr Paladin is supposed to be in love with the Pagan Sorceress and travels into untold dangers to save her. He even, gasp, puts aside his vow of destruction for Mr Evil Vampire because she means so much to him. I’m guessing he had a chiseled chin and 3 days of stubble, all the time.
Yeah, this was not my thing. The men in the story have a goal but are always sidetracked by their feelings instead of doing what needs to be done. It was sickening, like eating a steak only to find out it is actually cotton candy in disguise. This book gave me the same exact vibes from when I read Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts. I will be avoiding anything else by Celia Friedman from here on out. AND. It took me two whole weeks to get through this. Not even the Russians take me that long.
For a much more positive take on things, check out Matt’s Review.
★★☆☆☆
From Bookstooge.blog
A Paladin, a Vampire and a Pagan Sorceress walk into a bar. The Bartender immediately kicks them out for being so cliched that it hurts.
