Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Monday, May 06, 2024

Durkwood Boars - MTG 4E

Sunday, May 05, 2024

Conrad’s Fate (Chrestomanci #5) 5Stars

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: Conrad’s Fate
Series: Chrestomanci #5
Author: Diana Jones
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middlegrade Fantasy
Pages: 209
Words: 78K

Another fantastic entry in the Chrestomanci series. When she wants to, Jones can write these dynamic, wonderful, life filled characters that make you want to cheer them on. Conrad was such a character. He’s a plucky young lad who runs into Christopher Chant, the Chrestromanci we all know in this series. And Conrad holds his own against Christopher. Not in an antagonistic way, but in a friendly way, the way two young men should as they are growing up in a world where they don’t hold all the cards.

If all the Chrestomanci had been as good as this and “The Lives of Christopher Chant” then maybe this series would be known today. Sadly, Jones can’t seem to be consistently upbeat and happy in her stories and that inconsistency is what has kept me from whole heartedly recommending this middle grade series. When it is good, it is good but when it’s bad, it’s really unpleasant.

★★★★★

From Wikipedia:

Synopsis – click to open

Conrad Tesdinic lives in Stallchester, a small town in the English Alps, a mountain range present in Series Seven worlds where the British Isles are still connected to the European mainland. Conrad’s father is dead; his sister Anthea has left home to go to university; and his mother, Franconia, is an eccentric feminist author whose books are sold exclusively in her brother’s bookshop. She and Conrad live with her brother, Uncle Alfred, over the bookshop.

In the mountains high above Stallchester lies Stallery Mansion, home to the Count and his family. Uncle Alfred tells Conrad that someone up at Stallery Mansion is “pulling the possibilities” – that is, shifting the parameters of the world just a little, in order to benefit themselves to the detriment of the rest of the world. This is later referred to as a “probability shift.” From the affluence of Stallery, it is obvious that this person is making a great deal of money by doing so. In the town, only small details change – the colour of the postboxes, the titles of books – but Uncle Alfred is certain that someone at Stallery is reaping far greater benefits from the shifts. Uncle Alfred and his Magician’s Circle tell Conrad that he is going to die within the year unless he kills the person pulling the possibilities. This person (unnamed by any) is apparently someone Conrad should have eliminated in a past life. To kill this person and set things right, Conrad will need to infiltrate Stallery Mansion in the guise of a domestic servant, and then summon a Walker. The Walkers are magical beings who come on command and give the caller what they need for their particular situation. Conrad is told that the Walker will give him an item he needs to defeat the nameless foe.

Upon being hired, Conrad soon finds that he is not the only one snooping around the mansion. He befriends his fellow servant-in-training, Christopher “Smith” (really Christopher Chant), who is searching for his friend Millie. Together, they discover that Millie is trapped in a Stallery of an alternate universe, caused by the shifts in probability. Conrad and Christopher must discover who is causing the probability shifts, rescue Millie, and figure out what to do about Conrad’s so-called “black Fate,” all while dealing with the imperious Mr. Amos, the mansion’s butler, and his exacting tasks for trainees.

Millie is eventually freed and brought back to the real Stallery. She and Conrad try to work out what to do next. Gabriel De Witt, the current Chrestomanci and guardian of Millie and Christopher, arrives at the castle at the request of this England’s king, hoping to figure out what is causing all the probability shifts. He reveals that Mr. Amos is actually the Count of Stallery and the person responsible for pulling the possibilities. Mr. Amos is also Conrad’s uncle; he bought off his younger brother Hubert (Conrad and Anthea’s father) by buying the bookshop for him to run. It is also revealed that the count, countess and others are actually frauds, posing as the aristocracy so that Amos can run Stallery without interference. Uncle Alfred is also exposed as a greedy fraud who had manipulated Conrad merely to get his hands on Stallery’s millions. After this is all sorted out, Gabriel takes Millie and Christopher back to their world. Conrad joins them for seven years of magical training.

In the final part of the book, Conrad reveals that he became Christopher’s best man at his wedding to Millie and continued living at Chrestomanci Castle for several years. However, he could no longer stay away from his homeworld and returned to be the agent of the Chrestomanci.

– All of My “Diana Jones” Reviews

Saturday, May 04, 2024

[Art] Solar Guardians: Moon

Friday, May 03, 2024

My Ballerina, She Dances On…

“You’re the eye of the storm; a beautiful, maddening whirlwind that swept me off my feet. So unaware of just how powerful you are; if only you could see the impact you leave behind. Holding so much, and yet, your shoulders remain free of their weight. When I look at you, I see a beautiful enigma; universe must have really had the best in mind when you were created by it.”
~Original Post on “Master Procrastinator”

Master Procrastinator is about the only poetry blog I follow. Most of her stuff is free verse and I can usually take it or leave it. But every once in a while, she writes a piece that just stabs me in the guts by expressing something that I have felt, or feel, and can’t express. So I will continue to let MP be the Cyrano to my Christian.

Thursday, May 02, 2024

Three for the Chair (Nero Wolfe #28) 4Stars

Title: Three for the Chair
Series: Nero Wolfe #28
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 190
Words: 67K

Another collection of three novella’s (because they really aren’t short stories) and I enjoyed them all. I enjoyed each story more as I progressed through the book. “A Window for Death” was ok. “Immune to Murder” was pretty good. “Too Many Detectives” was the best as Nero Wolfe had to work with a bunch of other detectives who were all on the hook for a murder, as was Wolfe.

I think what I enjoyed the most about that story was that it tied back to a former case that I actually remembered. 😀 Plus seeing a bunch of other detectives giving things their own spin, Wolfe definitely didn’t have it all his own way. I like Wolfe because he’s so smart but at the same time, I feel very empathetic towards Archie when he lets things happen to Wolfe to try to teach him a lesson. Wolfe needs to be taken down a peg or two every once in a while and I enjoy watching that. I think the author realizes it too and that’s why he is constantly letting Archie try to whittle down Wolfe’s ego. It might work a little but every new book Wolfe’s ego is just as big as he is.

Each novella had it’s own Wiki page, so the synopses below is just over 1900 words long. Open it at your own risk. You have been warned.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia:

Synopses – Click to Open

A Window for Death:

David R. Fyfe, a high school English teacher, asks Wolfe for advice concerning the death of his brother Bert. Twenty years earlier, Bert had left his family to pursue uranium mining opportunities in Canada. He had returned to New York and reconciled with his siblings—brothers David and Paul, sister Louise, and her husband Vincent Tuttle—in order to tell them of his success in finding a profitable site. Johnny Arrow, his Canadian business partner, accompanied Bert to New York.

Bert had invited the family to dinner and the theater, but he developed pneumonia in the days leading up to it and was confined to his apartment. Dr. Frederick Buhl, the family physician, was called in from Mount Kisco to attend him and brought his nurse, Anne Goren. Anne gave Bert a dose of morphine to help him sleep, as instructed by Buhl; the next morning, though, Bert was dead. Arrow claims to have made an agreement with Bert that grants control of the mining business and any assets derived from it to either partner if the other dies, causing the family to suspect him. Altercations between Anne and Paul, and between Paul and Arrow, only cloud the matter further.

Wolfe accepts a $1,000 retainer from David to investigate the circumstances of Bert’s death and decide whether to involve the police. He focuses on the hot-water bags that had been placed in Bert’s bed to keep him warm; Paul claims that they were empty when he found the body, but Anne insists that he told Louise he had emptied them himself. The incident is similar to the death of the Fyfes’ father 20 years earlier, due to pneumonia worsened by a bedroom window left open during a blizzard. Bert was tried on a murder charge and acquitted, leading to his long estrangement from the family.

Archie investigates the idea that Bert may have been poisoned or given an overdose, but Buhl states that the morphine was not tampered with and Anne says that she followed his instructions exactly. Wolfe brings Saul Panzer in to help and takes interest in the matter of some ice cream that Paul had bought for a Sunday party at the family home in Mount Kisco. He had put it in the refrigerator at Bert’s apartment on the night of his death, but no one can remember seeing it since then. Archie fails to learn its whereabouts, but Wolfe surprises him by asking him to bring Buhl, Arrow, the Tuttles, and the Fyfes to the office.

Wolfe informs the group that he has decided to notify the police about Bert’s death and explains his theory of the crime. The ice cream Paul bought had been packed in dry ice to keep it cold; the murderer emptied the hot-water bags and placed the dry ice on top of them to lower Bert’s body temperature to dangerous levels without causing frostbite burns or leaving any traces once it evaporated. Wolfe has learned that Tuttle provided an alibi for Bert during the murder trial, and that Bert had returned to New York to check into it. He had visited the landlady from whom he and Tuttle had rented rooms 20 years earlier, and Saul confirms that Tuttle has recently visited her as well. Based on David’s statement that his father had refused Louise permission to marry Tuttle, Wolfe accuses Tuttle of opening the window to cause the elder Fyfe’s death in revenge, then of causing Bert’s death to prevent him from uncovering the truth.

Tuttle is convicted of the murder of the Fyfes’ father, and Arrow sends Wolfe and Archie a large payment in gratitude for clearing his name.

Immune to Murder:

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin travel to a hunting lodge in the Adirondacks owned by oil tycoon O.V. Bragan. They have been invited at the request of Theodore Kelefy, ambassador to the United States from a foreign country with large oil reserves, so that Wolfe can cook a dish of freshly-caught trout for a meeting of dignitaries at the lodge.[a] In addition to Wolfe, Archie, Bragan, and Kelefy, five others are present – Kelefy’s wife Adria; his advisor Spiros Papps; Assistant Secretary of State David M. Leeson and his wife Sally; and James Arthur Ferris, head of a rival oil company who is vying with Bragan for drilling rights in Kelefy’s country.

At the first night’s dinner, Bragan spites Ferris by arranging for him to sit uncomfortably close to the lodge’s blazing fireplace. The next morning, Bragan, Ferris, Kelefy, Papps, and Leeson set out to fish on different stretches of the river that runs through the property, in order to catch trout for lunch. After Wolfe starts to cook, Archie goes fishing on his own and finds Leeson’s body, showing signs of a fatal head injury. Once lunch is finished and Wolfe begins to pack for the return trip to New York, Archie tells him of the discovery.

The state and county police detain everyone at the lodge and soon establish that Leeson was murdered, most likely with a piece of firewood. District Attorney Jasper Colvin questions the group and begins to concentrate on Wolfe and Archie, hinting that someone may have hired them to kill Leeson. Colvin questions Wolfe about the fact that he cooked none of the trout Kelefy brought in, but Wolfe refuses to answer out of irritation over Colvin’s attitude.

In a private meeting, Wolfe turns down Bragan’s offer to hire him to catch the murderer. They are interrupted by Ferris, who threatens to tell the state attorney general of Bragan’s attempt to influence Kelefy and Papps so that the negotiations will turn in his favor. Later, Kelefy asks Wolfe what he plans to say to Colvin about the unused trout. Wolfe offers to state simply that he chose not to cook them out of caprice, and also promises to say nothing about the confrontation between Bragan and Ferris. Kelefy takes off an emerald ring and has Adria give it to Wolfe as a token of gratitude. After they leave, Wolfe and Archie examine the stone and find it to be flawed and of poor quality.

Wolfe then calls his lawyer, Nathaniel Parker, and the two converse in French to prevent anyone listening in from learning about their discussion. He then has everyone gather in the main hall and calls the Secretary of State to explain his theory of the crime. The real reason he did not cook any of Kelefy’s trout was that they were not fresh; they had been caught earlier and kept in a pool of water near the river. Surmising that Kelefy had simply had an unlucky day of fishing, Wolfe said nothing to avoid embarrassing him. However, when Kelefy had Adria give him the ring, Wolfe realized that it was meant as a bribe to conceal the truth, and an insultingly cheap one at that. Wolfe deduced that Kelefy had caught a creel of trout earlier in the day to allow him time to get the firewood piece and take Leeson by surprise. From Parker, he has learned that Kelefy is protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity, and that anyone who swears out or serves a warrant against him will be subject to a prison term.

When Wolfe starts to comment on Kelefy’s choice to have Adria give him the ring, she knocks the phone away and Sally angrily confronts her. Adria had seduced Leeson while he was stationed in Kelefy’s country, and Sally found out and had him recalled to the United States. When Adria encountered Leeson again at the lodge, she began to seduce him again, prompting Kelefy to kill him.

Kelefy, Adria, and Papps leave the lodge to return home, Wolfe gives the ring to Colvin, and he and Archie depart for New York. Kelefy is executed a month later – whether in response to the murder or the failed oil-rights negotiations, Archie never finds out.

Too Many Detectives:

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin have been summoned to appear for questioning in Albany by the New York Secretary of State, part of an effort to investigate wiretapping activities by the state’s private detectives. Dol Bonner, her assistant Sally Colt, and three other detectives from New York City have been brought in for the same day. Albert Hyatt, a deputy official, is in charge of the inquiry and calls Wolfe and Archie into his office to go over a statement Wolfe has provided. A man calling himself Otis Ross had asked Wolfe to tap his phone line and report all conversations, believing that his secretary might be leaking confidential business information. Wolfe took the job, but ended it after Archie discovered that the client was not the real Ross.

One of Hyatt’s staff members finds a man strangled to death in another meeting room; Wolfe and Archie identify him as their client. The city police detain everyone at the scene for questioning, under the direction of Chief of Detectives Leon Groom. Hyatt states that the client had come to see him shortly before the day’s meetings were to begin, introduced himself as William A. Donahue, and said that he wanted to give information on some illegal wiretaps he had arranged – including the one performed by Wolfe. Donahue had been sent to another room to wait until Hyatt had more time to speak with him.

Wolfe and Archie are arrested as material witnesses and held for most of the day until Wolfe arranges bail through his lawyer, Nathaniel Parker. They take a room at a nearby hotel, not being allowed to leave the city, and Archie calls the other detectives for a meeting so they can share information. Donahue had gone to all of them, giving a different name and address to each one and asking for a wiretap to be set up; from Lon Cohen, Archie learns that the targets were all members of a committee tasked with investigating the use of charity funds. Wolfe asks the detectives to mobilize as many operatives as they can and has Archie call Saul Panzer so that he can be ready to get instructions from Wolfe in the morning.

Wolfe gives Archie that morning off, but when Archie returns to the hotel after a walk, he is taken for questioning by the district attorney. After being released, he spends the afternoon at his leisure and has dinner with Sally, only to be interrupted by a call from Wolfe. They find all the other detectives gathered in the room upon their return, and Hyatt and Groom arrive soon afterward. Wolfe and Dol have been taking reports from operatives all day long and gaining information on Hyatt and Donahue. Hyatt had been hired by a profitable fundraising organization to provide legal counsel, but the formation of the committee threatened its activities. Unable to get any information from the members directly, he arranged for Donahue to set up the wiretaps. Donahue’s visit to his office was a surprise, and Hyatt killed him to prevent him from exposing the truth.

Hyatt is convicted of the murder, and the other detectives invite Wolfe to a celebratory dinner; Wolfe declines, but invites them to dine at the brownstone instead. Archie realizes that Wolfe left him out of the investigation because there was nothing he could do to assist, and also because he could serve as a distraction for the district attorney so that Wolfe and Dol could go through the operatives’ reports undisturbed.

All My “Nero Wolfe” Reviews

Wednesday, May 01, 2024

Book of Cthulhu (Cthulhu Anthology #17) 3.5Stars

Title: Book of Cthulhu
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #17
Editor: Ross Lockhart
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 564
Words: 225K

This was published in 2011. I can believe it was quite the collection then. I would have really enjoyed all the brand new stories. Sadly, because I read this as the 17^th installment in the Cthulhu Anthology series, I had already read several of these. Let me name them for your reading mispleasure.

A Colder War
Fat Face
Black Man with a Horn
The Shallows

Not a single one of those stories is a bad story. I dutifully read A Colder War in its entirety. Fat Face I began to skim. Black Man with a Horn I skipped whole sections. The Shallows I skipped right to the ending to make sure it was the story I thought it was (it was). It made me realize something, about myself but mostly about the Cthulhu Mythos. Its appeal is the newness of the stories, nothing more. The existential dread one might have felt upon reading A Colder War for the first time went up in a cloud of poofy smoke upon this re-read. It wasn’t grim, it wasn’t dreadful, it didn’t make me shiver or go “brrrrr”. It bored me.

Some books and stories have re-readability and some simply do not. Those that do not, they are the paper plates of the book world, use once and dispose of immediately. They have no lasting value, nothing to offer besides new’ness. Once that new’ness is gone, all you are left with is a pile of words that sit there like a lump of garbage. You might ask “Bookstooge, WHO ARE YOU to pass such judgment?” and here is my humble reply. I read over 150 books a year. Over 25% of that, on average, is re-reading. I fething know what I’m fething saying because I’m a fething Book-Authority and don’t you forget it! But seriously, I read and re-read enough to know what I am talking about. If someone eats soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner, even the most dimwitted clodhopper at some point begins to realize some of those soups are much better than others. I am no dimwitted clodhopper. Far from it. I am genius enough to know that the tall sunflower falls the farthest while the humble grass simply soaks up the sunshine. I’m down here on purpose folks.

In previous collections, I have complained about Jehovah and Jesus being trampled underfoot by the authors and Cthulhu’esqu gods simply obliterating them as powerless and empty human abstracts. That didn’t happen here. But what did happen was that a Muslim Jihadist was the goodguy and Allah gave him the power to overcome the Cosmic Forces arrayed against him because he, Allah, was such a kind and benevolent and POWERFUL being. Equal treatment folks, that’s all I ask for and I didn’t get it, not even close.

Ok, that was a powerful load of complaining. Even I acknowledge that. You might be wondering why in the world I gave this 3.5stars with those paragraphs and paragraphs of whiny complaints. The reason is simple. The rest of the stories were really good.

Calamari Curls was a story about a new restaurant opening up and taking business away from the old grumpy and cantankerous jackass who owned a soup shop. Only to have everyone go insane as the building was a weakspot and cosmic horror regularly broke through every couple of decades.

Bad Sushi dealt with a Japanese World War II vet trying to stop the takeover of a town that was being fed elder god in the new sushi menu. He’s like 80 years old and dies. But he stops it.

The Fairground Horror was all about two brothers that allowed greed and fanaticism to destroy them both when they confront Cthulhu and try to use him as a vending machine, metaphorically speaking.

The Doom That Came to Innsmouth was a wonderful tale of descendant of Innsmouth making his way back and escaping to the sea, as the Federal Government once again tried to wipe out Innsmouth. It was diabolical how twisted the main character was and how he used every means possible to present himself as “normal” even though he was a sick, twisted, perverted murderer, as was every other Innsmouth inhabitant.

The rest were just as disturbing and shiver inducing. That is the exact reason I read these.

★★★✬☆

Table of Contents – Click to Open

Introduction
Andromeda Among the Stones
The Tugging
A Colder War
The Unthinkable
Flash Frame
Some Buried Memory
The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins
Fat Face
Shoggoths in Bloom
Black Man with a Horn
Than Curse the Darkness
Jeroboam Henley’s Debt
Calamari Curls
Jihad over Innsmouth
Bad Sushi
The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife
The Doom that Came to Innsmouth
Lost Stars
The Oram County Whoosit
The Crawling Sky
The Fairground Horror
Cinderlands
Lord of the Land
To Live and Die in Arkham
The Shallows
The Men from Porlock

All of My “Cthulhu Anthology” Reviews

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

April '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 16 ↑

Short Stories – 0 –

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 –

Comics – 1 –

Average Rating – 3.35 ↓

Pages – 3479 ↑

Words – 1229 ↑

The Bad:

Drop Shot – 1star of all that fallen human nature is, and calling it good.

Lord Hornblower – 3stars, but man, Hornblower is a scumbag of a character.

The Good:

Persuasion – 5stars of Austen persuading me, yet again, of what a fantastic author she is.

The Diary of a Superfluous Man – 4stars of Russian melancholy, depression and death. Talk about wonderful!

Movie:

While I’ve only seen two versions of Persuasion on the screen, this 2008 BBC version did a very good job imo.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

More reading, more posts, more good ratings (second highest months rating this year, whoooo!). Bookwise, another splendiferous month. I’m getting spoiled folks. So don’t be surprised if in the next couple of months the other shoe drops and I have horrible book after horrible book and you see me whining and complaining about how terrible all the books are.

I was all over the place emotionally. For a wide of variety of reasons. Work would be great one day and then absolutely brutal the next and I just couldn’t spring back from the brutal ones quite as quick as I used to. Several of the new people at church didn’t keep coming like I was afraid and that really bummed me out. You can’t be a Christian in a community of Christians and not go to church. Your connection to Christ will wither and you’ll fall away. I got some new diabetes equipment that works really well, but the learning curve is pretty steep and so it was both good and bad all at the same time. Had a wonderful morning date with Mrs B at a local diner (Mrs B could breakfast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, 7 days a week) and I must admit, I stuffed myself to the gills.

I got sunburnt on my head, in April! We were working next to lake and the sun was shining but it wasn’t that warm, so I had my hoodie on. Put the hood up to protect my head but the wind kept blowing it off and it was off enough that I got a sun burn. First of the season, sigh. I also walked through a tick nest one day and ended up with 12 ticks on me. Thankfully, I got them off before they embedded, but it was just disgusting. Work is disgusting in fact!

Went to the gun range one Sabbath with my brother. Tried out my new drum magazine for my 9mm carbine. It has a 50 round capacity. I just tried it with 20 and it performed flawlessly. Next time I will use a whole box of 50 and load it up, but man, that’s a lot of money to literally shoot away, even with ammo prices not being astronomical like they used to be. I also shot my brother’s 1911 .45 caliber pistol. That’s what the Shadow uses 😉 I’ll tell you what, there is no way I would single handedly shoot that thing. While it’s not a monster, it’s too big for just one of my hands. So dual wielding like the Shadow does, that’s for the movies.

The month ended with me getting some sort of head cold and a cough. It was bad. I ended up having to call out of work one day and I lived off of cough drops and robitussin. I’m hoping that that is it for spring time sickness and that I can go forward into the summer’s sunshine and stay nice and healthy.

Cover Love:

Derai by Edward Tubb. I already talked about this in the review for Derai, but I think it bears repeating that that IS an awesome book cover!

Plans for Next Month:

I actually have two poems to go live. Not my own (duh!), but from a fellow blogger I follow. I don’t expect it to be a regular thing, but even something a little different is good. It’s spring time, so it’s time to shake winter’s slumber off and wake up. Even if only for May, hahahaha 😀

I hope to have another Marvel Champions post up. I’m having fun with the titles alone, so that has guaranteed I’ll keep them coming for a while.

Depending on when Dune 2 drops on bluray and I get a hold of a copy, I might end up reviewing that for my movie selection at the end of the month. I’m “almost” excited for that 🙂

Other than those things, it’ll be Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Book Reviews and Magic Cards.

Monday, April 29, 2024

Drudge Skeletons - MTG 4E

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Vanguard (Genesis Fleet #1) (Lost Fleet) 3Stars

Title: Vanguard
Series: Genesis Fleet #1 (Lost Fleet)
Author: Jack Campbell
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mil-SF
Pages: 264
Words: 103K

I originally read this back in ‘17 when Campbell was starting this trilogy. My reception of it was pretty lukewarm, as I was getting tired of Campbell’s schtick and this felt very lazy to me. So as he published the rest of the trilogy, I just let it slide.

Fast forward to now and the trilogy is finished but he has also continued to write more Black Jack Geary adventures. The Lost Fleet: Outlands trilogy is also complete, so it seemed like a good time to dive back into the universe that Campbell had created.

My reactions while reading this book were exactly the same as in ‘17. There were some good space action scenes, but the politics of the situation were just as important to the story and made it not so fun. The problem is, once I was done and thought about it, I realized that Campbell HAD to write it this way. This Genesis Fleet trilogy is about the creation of The Alliance, a political body. Therefore politics has to play a large part in what happens. It is ugly and unpleasant but shows the necessity of such things. While it is more “fun” to read about a Space General Emperor (as in the Empire Rising space opera) sweeping all before him with his mighty space fleet and routing the evil villainous politicians in a week, that’s not how it works because of human nature. When you have a group of humans working together, the best you can hope for is that nobody is pleased but nobody wants to kill the others. Which means making decisions that aren’t optimal. Campbell does just that. I didn’t like it, not at all. I want my heroes to swoop in, throw down the gauntlet, save the day and ride off into the sunset on their space horse. While whistling a jaunty tune.

I suspect the rest of the trilogy will follow similar lines. Politics are going to play a very large part and I’m mentally and emotionally preparing myself for that. The things I put up with. I should get an award, or at least be Sainted. Saint Bookstooge has a nice ring, don’t you think?

★★★☆☆

From Fandom.com

The Genesis Fleet chronicles events in the years leading up to the formation of the Alliance in the early years of the Faster-Than-Light Jump Drive. The books mainly focus on 4 characters on two of the newly established colonies of Glenlyon and Kosatka, after capturing a ship threating extortion on the new colony of Glenlyon, Former Fleet officer Robert Geary, ancestor of the legendary Admiral John ‘Black Jack’ Geary, is forced to defend his new home on a ship of volunteers, while on the surface former enlisted marine Mele Darcy leads a militia of volunteers with improvised equipment against the hostile forces of the colony of Scatha. Meanwhile in the nearby system of Kosatka relies upon the diplomatic skills of a failed polition and businessman, Lochan Nakamura, and assistance of a former red from Mars, Carman Ochoa, ancestor of Battlecruiser Captain Tanya Desjani. While the new colonies struggle to fight off aggression from other colonies Old Earth and the Old Colonies begin downsizing their militaries, selling off surplus military equipment and ships, both Glenlyon and Kosatka supplement their defence forces with recruits and officers from Old Earth and the Old Colonies. Three years later Glenlyon calls on Marine Captain Mele Darcy and Fleet Officer Commander Robert Geary to help defend them again after losing a warship to an enemy fleet, the only hope for lasting peace comes from people like Lochan Nakamura hoping to form an Alliance with other systems also facing attacks on their own borders.

Vanguard (2017 Review)

Saturday, April 27, 2024

Doctor Syn (Doctor Syn #1) 3.5Stars

Title: Doctor Syn
Series: Doctor Syn #1
Author: Arthur Russell Thorndike
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 209
Words: 69K

This was NOT at all what I was expecting, not one tiny bit. I remembered vague bits of an old Disney show called “The Scarecrow’, a Zorro’esque creature fighting evil and righting wrongs. And that is what I expected here, a man in disguise fighting corrupt authority figures while Robin Hood’ing it for the little guy.

Ha!

This is the final book, chronologically, in the Dr Syn series. It is however, the first published book. I suspect Thorndike wrote this as a standalone story and then just went back and wrote all the rest of the prequels when he needed money.

Dr Syn, a clergyman of all things, is also the Scarecrow, a leader of the smugglers in the Romney Marsh area. He’s smart, well organized and not above sending anyone who gets in his way to an early grave with a bullet in their heart. We also find out that he was an infamous pirate captain that roamed the seas pillaging and looting with the worst of them.

I kept waiting for the redemption arc, but it didn’t happen. Every revelation about Dr Syn just makes him out to be worse and worse and there is no repentance on his part at all. While he has embraced the lifestyle of a clergyman, he has in no way taken to heart anything he apparently preaches on. Complete and utter hypocrisy. I kept waiting for the curtain to come down and his good intentions to be revealed. And it just never happened. It actually shocked me at the end when he is captured and then killed by a harpoon, because he’s in full on pirate mode at that point.

I really wondered if I wanted to read more. I think I will though. I want to see how Syn got the point he’s shown at in this book. In many ways, Syn is a Vader without a Luke and I want to see if the downward trajectory was the same. Redemption, or the lack thereof, is something I’m always interested in when I’m reading a story.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia

Captain Collyer, a Royal Navy officer assigned to smash the local smuggling ring, uncovered the deception and Dr. Syn’s true identity, thanks in part to the tongueless mulatto (who had been rescued by Collyer years before and who had been serving Collyer as a “ferret” seeking out hidden contraband) who recognized Syn as Clegg. Syn evaded capture while at the same time making sure that Imogene and Squire Cobtree’s son Denis (who had fallen in love with Imogene) would have a happy life together (they were eventually married), but was murdered in revenge by the mulatto, who then mysteriously managed to escape, leaving Syn harpooned through the neck. As a last mark of respect, Collyer ordered that Syn be buried at sea, rather than have his body hung in chains.

Mipps escaped in the confusion of Syn’s death and disappeared from England, but it is said that a little man very much like him is living out his days in a Buddhist Monastery somewhere in the Malay Peninsula, delighting the monks with recounting the adventures of Doctor Syn and the eerie stories of the Romney Marsh and the mysterious Scarecrow and his Night Riders.