Lockdown Tales #2 (Polity #23) 4Stars

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: Lockdown Tales #2
Series: Polity #23
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 337
Words: 150K

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I read the first set of Lockdown Tales in ‘21. It was a strictly Polity universe set of stories and I enjoyed them. This time around, not every story was in the Polity universe. I’m still including this in my Polity numbering for the series, but there are one or two that aren’t Polity.

In his intro, Asher really lets loose against Civil Authorities overstepping the boundaries setup for them and how people just let them. He sounded very much like me in fact, or I sound like him (he’s older, so age before me). It made me laugh and cry because I completely agreed and yet a majority of the world didn’t, as they let fear, lies and manipulation determine their fate instead of taking it into their own hands.

I went into this collection thinking I would try to take notes on each story and write up my review that way, the way Marzaat (and others) do. However, that resolution didn’t last very long. With nine stories, each is a bit longer than just a “short story”, so I had to pay attention. I can’t read, pay attention, take notes AND enjoy the story all at the same time. So something had to give. Obviously, I just decided to not enjoy the stories and sacrifice my enjoyment for your edification. Because nobody is as important as you.

And if you believe that, you need some serious help. No, seriously, get some professional help. You rank about the same as monkey poop to me. Honest.

Therefore the notes went right out the window.

Xenovore was VERY similar to the previous book Weaponized and Asher even mentions that in his introduction. I was glad he did or else I would have felt very gypped. It wasn’t the same story but had enough of the same elements that I wished it had been shorter.

An Alien on Crete was a non-Polity story about an alien coming to Earth to awaken Earth’s guardian, blah, blah, blah. It didn’t engage me at all.

Skin was a story about a Polity citizen getting a new skin from a doctor who had run up against Polity rules. Of course, things go horrifically wrong and the skin ends up slithering away to the ocean. It was awesome.

Antique Battlefields was a tale of the Quiet War, when the AI’s took control. For me, this has always been the achille’s heel of the Polity Universe. I regularly overlook it every time I read a Polity book. The idea is that the AI’s are better than us without our corruption. We created them and thus they are inherently broken. That doesn’t fit Asher’s world view and so he just ignores it. It was interesting to see a quick snapshot of the war, but it really brought the aforementioned issue to my mind and so I just couldn’t ignore it.

Ha, would you look at that? I did ALL that without a single flipping note. My brain is awesome, that’s all I have to say. Suck it AI, you’ll never be anywhere near as talented in so many fields as I am.

There was one story where Asher lets loose his hatred of religion, but it was all of one sentence and in many ways felt more of an obligatory thing than because he actually feels that way. I think he does, but the fire is going out.

And that’s enough out of me. This is over 700 words now. Nobody needs to write or read something that long!

★★★★☆

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Table of Contents:

LOCKDOWN TALES II An Introduction

XENOVORE

AN ALIEN ON CRETE

THE TRANSLATOR

SKIN

EELS

THE HOST

ANTIQUE BATTLEFIELDS

MORAL BIOLOGY

LONGEVITY AVERAGING

• All of My “Polity” Reviews
• All of My “Neal Asher” Reviews

Currently Reading: Systematic Theology

Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem.

At over 1200 pages, and being my lunch break book, I have a feeling this is going to take me a year or so. Therefore, don’t expect a review any time soon, hahahahahaaa.

Jet (Jet #1) 3Stars

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: Jet
Series: Jet #1
Author: Russell Blake
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 260
Words: 86K

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I gave a LOT of leeway to this book. If I was even a smidge less generous at the moment, I’d knock this down to 2.5stars. But I am feeling generous and have a stomach full of warm, yummy lasagna, so the book gets pass. This time.

The basic story is your typical Special Forces agent tries to get out and then is dragged back into the life, kicking and screaming. I was kind of hoping for a female version of Victor the Assassin. What I got was a very messy amateur rendition of Victor.

Jet is supposed to be the TOP operator that Mossad ever had. We’re talking so good that her instructors even told her to her face just how good she was. But between Blake’s amateur writing (he constantly switches between “clip” and “magazine”, sometimes in the same paragraph for goodness sake) and Jet acting like an idiot (in one instance she shoots someone and assumes they are dead. When she walks up to them, surprise, they aren’t dead and almost kill her) really made me question those qualifications. She was lucky at least 50% of the time. That’s not skill, not even close. Victor would have eaten this supposed agent at snacktime, forget even being a meal. So that aspect was very disappointing.

Now, as a brainless action/adventure book, this did have it. In spades. Jet fights in some sort of Mardi Gras party, She gets ambushed in Israel. And the grand finale is a massive fight on a super luxury cruise yacht of a billionaire Russian. Lots of people die and gun battles galore. It’s what I wanted.

Characterization was pretty nil. The side characters were completely two dimensional and Jet herself wasn’t much more than one of those franchise fiction heroines like Annja from the Rogue Angel series. Speaking of franchise fiction, there are 10 books in this series. I plan on taking these books one at a time though. If the next one doesn’t improve however, that’ll be it.

★★★☆☆

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From the Publisher

Summary – Click to Open

She faked her death……to save her life.
The plan almost worked.
Her code name: Jet. A lethal operative for the Mossad.
Many wanted her eliminated. Spoofing her own death was the only way to survive, but it didn’t work out like she planned.
The past doesn’t give up its secrets easily.
The tranquil island’s beauty was shattered in an instant. The attack forced her hand, and now she must make a decision. Will she stay dead, or return to a world that wants to kill her?

Disrupting Scepter - MTG 4E

Gone for the Week

Decided to take a week off from being online starting today. After last Sunday’s “Melancholia” post, it became obvious that I needed a rest. Add in that I was dealing with a stomach bug most of this past week AND that WordPress.com sold its users into digital slavery and completely changed the WPreader and well, it all came together to really mess with me. I take blogging very seriously and sometimes too seriously, so things like this do a real number on me.

I’ve got all the regular posts scheduled and they’re open for likes and comments, but I’m going to absent myself for a bit to recharge. Which means I won’t be visiting your posts either this week. So don’t take it personally 😉

Enjoy the week and I’ll probably be back Friday night or Saturday morning.

[Art] The Librarian

When I was a teenager, I volunteered at the local library several days a week during the summer. It wasn’t paid, but it allowed me to be around all the books, it helped me learn new things (how to check books out, check them in, catalog them, learn the filing and computer system, etc, etc). Fortunately, there were no librarians like this one working there. I’d have probably died from my hormones exploding 🙂

I chose this picture because of the boots. I like boots. From the little ankle boots with tiny heels to the more traditional under the knee ones to the right up over the knees, I like them all. I’ve never seen thigh high boots in real life though. Not even at the pumpkin festival where lots of people dress up.

Depending on how the WP reader displays the featured image, I may be forced to change it. But I won’t know that until this goes live. So my apologies ahead of time if the picture in the wp reader focuses on certain areas, that’s certainly not my intention.

The Winds of Gath (Dumarest #1) 4Stars

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 Winds of Gath
Series: Dumarest #1
Author: EC Tubb
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 168
Words: 45K

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Another short novel. I zipped right through it, enjoyed it immensely and then had to sit back and try to figure out why I enjoyed it so much. The story was ok. A young boy, Earl, stows away on a spaceship and becomes a Traveler and ends up on a world with some mystical singing stones. There’s a plot to replace an heiress and murder ensues and some good old fashioned mayhem. All in all there was nothing here that should have attracted me the way it did.

But upon some intense navel gazing and narcissistic mental contortions, I realized that I actually appreciated the writing itself here. Not because anything stood out, but because it was a totally smooth read without a single interruption of an awkward word or a wrongly turned phrase or a scene segue that was too abrupt. None of that happened. It was like Tubb was, gasp, an ACTUAL EXPERIENCED AUTHOR!!!! Oh Myrtle, say it ain’t so! I can be a picky reader. A word choice, while acceptable, will give me that bump in the road feeling if it’s not the exact correctly used word. It might not be the meaning but how it flows with the words around it. Words are like Lego pieces. One might do adequately, but another will fit better with its neighbors and a good author knows how to work them together. Tubb has that skill and that artistry.

That kind of thing can be subjective, so I know it’s not a big selling point, but it gives me hope for the rest of the series (however long it is. I believe it’s 30+ books?). Even if the stories themselves aren’t the greatest, I’m hoping the writing itself will carry me on through. If the stories are good, then that will be bonus! I feel like I’m in a Win Win scenario here.

Score for the Good Guys!

★★★★☆

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From Wikipedia.org

Summary – Click to Open

Gath is a world with a unique tourist attraction: a mountain-sized white noise amplifier. With no indigenous economy other than the tourist slave labor trade, Dumarest struggles to break free from this dead-end world. Dumarest becomes attached to the retinue of the Matriarch of Kund and unwittingly finds himself embroiled in the vicious and complex political intrigues of the Matriarch’s court. After some keen detective work from Dumarest and the ensuing deadly battle with the Cyclan, Dumarest prevails and escapes from the backwater planet.

Marvel Champions: The Sleevening

The day had come. It was time to stop looking at that box of Marvel Champions and take the next step. No, not playing it. What is wrong with you? WHY would you even think that? No, the next step was to sleeve the cards up. Duh.

There was also a bit of assembly but even such an anti-handyman as myself was able to overcome it and get things together.

So that’s that. NOW the next step is actually play it, hahahaha 😀

Commodore Hornblower (Horatio Hornblower #4) 3Stars

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: Commodore Hornblower
Series: Horatio Hornblower #4
Author: Cecil Scott Forester
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 251
Words: 97K

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Hornblower is now married to Lady Barbara, is the lord of some estate and is on land with enough wealth to never need to work again. And he’s miserable as sin. So when the Admiralty gives him orders to go to sea again and wreak havoc on the French and try to cozy up to the Russians, Hornblower’s protestations ring particularly hollow. He also has a one time fling with some Russian duchess/countess/whatever. But it is so downplayed and not blatantly referred to that I wondered if it had actually happened. Quite the change from the previous books and how Forester handled Hornblower’s infidelities.

Now that Hornblower is in charge of a fleet (a small one, but a fleet nonetheless), the naval action is quite different. The focus isn’t on one ship and its particular actions, but on the various ships and this time we are treated to some bombers, which are light ships with big mortars. Very different than a cannonade between sailing ships. I appreciated the change in tactics that involved and even the type of naval action was a welcome change. I don’t want each book to be a naval clone of the previous one.

We also get a much more confidant Hornblower. He still has his doubts about himself, especially when one of his decisions leads to the death of a Lieutenant that was a favorite and was a stand-in pseudo-son but those doubts weren’t at his core anymore like they had been in previous books. I was glad to see that change. It felt like Hornblower was finally growing up, now that he was in his 40’s, sigh.

Even though I enjoyed this more than the previous book and Hornblower’s infidelities were down played, I’m forced to give this the same rating. Forced you say? That’s right, forced. The High Admiralty wrote me a letter and stated that if I rated this higher they would put me on half-pay for the rest of my life. Which with inflation and Bidenomics means I could buy one can of baked beans each week. So yes, I think the threat of being forced to live on one can of Bush’s Baked Beans each week qualifies as being forced. And if you disagree, well, that’s mutiny and I’ll hang your scurvy necks from the mast head as an example to the rest of you mutinous readers! Arrrgh, grrrr, belay the wind in the foremast, avast! And other such nautical’y sounding terms 😉

★★★☆☆

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From Wikipedia.org

Summary – Click to Open

Having achieved fame and financial security, Captain Sir Horatio Hornblower has married Lady Barbara Leighton (née Wellesley) and is preparing to settle down to unaccustomed life as the squire of Smallbridge in Kent. He still yearns to serve at sea and accepts with alacrity when the Admiralty appoints him a commodore, puts him in command of a squadron and sends him on a diplomatic and military mission to the Baltic. His primary aim is to bring Russia into the war against Napoleon.

Hornblower is shown dealing with the problems of squadron command, and using naval mortars (carried on special ships known as bomb vessels) to destroy a French privateer. This leads to the French invasion of Swedish Pomerania. Later his squadron calls at Kronstadt, where he meets with Russian officials, including Tsar Alexander I, who is favourably impressed by Hornblower and his squadron. Hornblower narrowly averts a major diplomatic incident when his secretary and interpreter (a Finnish refugee assigned to him by the Admiralty) attempts to assassinate the Tsar at a court function.

After Russia enters the war, Hornblower’s squadron takes an important role in the defence of Riga, which is besieged by French forces. The bomb vessels again take an important role, and so do amphibious operations under the protection of the squadron.

At the end of the novel, the French and Prussian troops abandon the siege and retreat. Hornblower accompanies the pursuing Russian forces until they meet the Prussian army, which has halted to form a rearguard. Hornblower meets with the Prussian general – Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg and persuades him to change sides.

At this point it becomes clear to the accompanying Brown that Hornblower is gravely ill, apparently with typhus. In some editions of the novel the story ends here with the hallucinating Hornblower imagining himself being greeted in Hampton Court by Lady Barbara and his infant son. C.S. Forester however provided an additional chapter in which the convalescent Hornblower returns safely to Smallbridge in time for Christmas.

• All of My “Horatio Hornblower” Reviews

Disintegrate - MTG 4E