Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Monday, May 20, 2024

Earth Elemental - MTG 4E

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Conan the Hunter (Conan the Barbarian #18) 2.5Stars

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Title: Conan the Hunter
Series: Conan the Barbarian #18
Author: Sean Moore
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 197
Words: 81K

This was pathetic, just sad. It wasn’t a Conan story, it was a Forgotten Realms fantasy story with the warrior figure renamed to be Conan. Plus, the author was a young computer programmer. He’s dead now, so he’ll never get better.

This had gods and demons directly interacting with Conan. Not only that, but Conan being helpless in the face of it all. That’s the thing that Howard, the author of the original Conan stories, made sure to emphasize, Conan had an indomitable will that nothing could conquer or thwart. Plus, there is no good magic and there are no good gods. They are all evil, despicable shadow beings that are best left in the dust of ruins and history.

This really was just a generic fantasy story in a Conan wrapper. It was the Mona Lisa, only to find that she had 6 fingers because it was AI generated and not the real thing. It was a delicious pepperoni pizza, only to find out on the first bite it was just gravel glued to a paper plate. I could go on but I won’t.

The only good thing about this story is that it is the only Conan story by Moore that I have access too. Apparently he wrote two more, but thankfully the decision whether to read them or not has been taken out of my hand. Boo yah for the good guys!

(that makes zero sense you know. But I write a lot of things that don’t particularly make sense and nobody seems to mind. So really, it is your fault. I hope that makes you happy)

★★✬☆☆

From Wikipedia

After facing a sewer monster, Conan is enlisted against a demon sorceress’s conspiracy in restoring the wealth of her ancient race. In their struggle against Valtresca and Azora, the Cimmerian and his allies Salvorus, Kailash the hillman, and a young priest, Madesus, encounter numerous traps and divine intervention in an adventure culminating in a ruined temple with legions of gargoyles and the resurrection of the horrific villain Skauraul.

Saturday, May 18, 2024

[Art] Spring's Delight

" My eyes open with a burst of stars; 
magic drips from my fingertips. 
Flora spreads quick and far; 
the mighty waves slow down to gentle drips. 
Grass blooms with every sweep of my feet; 
my dance quells the raging heat . 
I rise at dawn, and the Earth smiles. 
Wherever I go, they call me 
Spring's Delight. "
~Shruti Pandey 2024

Last year, I had done some online work for Miss Ross. In exchange, she gave me access to a sketchbook and my choice of several drawings. You’ve seen these ones already:

I had seen this one and it really struck me as the Essence of Spring, but considering it was the dead of winter, it wasn’t the right time for it. But now it is May. The trees are leafing out. The sun is shining (when it’s not raining 🙂 ). The black flies are swarming, hahahaa. So I decided it was time. I wanted this to be a bit different, so I sent a sample to Shruti and asked her to compose a poem based on her impressions of the drawing. I was very pleased with the results. I like spring time a lot. I enjoy seeing the color coming back, the sun shining strongly, the warmth returning. While it is not my favorite season, I think it is the one I need the most.

Can you believe it, two poetry posts in a month? I feel very accomplished, like I’m a Real Blogger™️ now 😀 Next thing you know, I’ll be wearing a little black beret, sipping a teen weeny cup of over priced coffee at some cafe and writing in my journal about how terrible life is and the misery of existence itself. How wonderful. It must be spring time!

Friday, May 17, 2024

Toyman (Dumarest #3) 3.5Stars

Title: Toyman
Series: Dumarest #3
Author: EC Tubb
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 158
Words: 46K

I am thoroughly enjoying these adventures of Earl Dumarest. He’s a man’s man with just the right amount of bravado and nonchalance balanced with a caring side that comes out at the oddest times. In this adventure, he comes to the planet Toy, can’t immediately pay his way off the planet and thus is drafted into a game where the corporate owners of Toy bet stock options on the outcomes of battles. The Toyman, the leader with the most stock, is a megamaniacal murderer who wants to be the supreme leader. He’s being helped by the Cyclans and Earl gets caught up between the factions.

In one scene, he has to fight a cage full of spiders, each the size of a basketball or larger. With his bare hands. There was some major pulp action going on! It was great.

Also on the plus side, there was no woman for Dumarest to get involved in. There is the sister of the Toyman, and she controls the next largest chunk of stock, but she’s in love with one of the other leaders and her brother uses that against her.

The whole point of Dumarest coming to this world was to ask the Super Computer about Earth. But of course, the Cyclan’s plot destroys the ONE part of the machine that had that info. Dumarest does learn that Earth is also called Terra, so he got one crumb. One measly crumb. But as I pointed out in the previous review, Dumarest getting back to Earth doesn’t make sense, so it has really lost its meaning to me.

The covers. Man, there were some weeeeeeeird ones. I chose this one because it showed the least amount of nakedness. One has Dumarest in a plastic codpiece with giant plastic shoulder pads wielding a sword while another has a naked mutant lady with flippers and wings in a giant tank with Dumarest looking on. Neither were covers I wanted to showcase, so you ended up with this monstrosity. I have zero idea what it is supposed to represent, but I figure it some artists drugged out idea of Dumarest and the world of Toy.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher

Space-wanderer Earl Dumarest is on the planet Toy to consult the giant computer which may contain information on the whereabouts of Earth, his lost home-world.
But soon he realises Toy is a place that gives away nothing for free. Before Dumarest can gain the information he needs, he must take part in the Toy Games – must fight like a tin soldier in a vast nursery.
And there is nothing playful about the Games on Toy. The pain is real enough; the wounds, the blood – and death.

Thursday, May 16, 2024

The Restaurant at the End of the Galaxy (THGttG #2) 3Stars

Title: The Restaurant at the End of the Galaxy
Series: THGttG #2
Author: Douglas Adams
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 196
Words: 53K

This is why I don’t usually read “Introductions” to the books I read. Some jackass, who nobody has heard of before, has to write about his impressions of a book/series/author, much like a blogger in fact. And all they do is totally screw up your expectations of the story because of their determination to put their own spin on it

This series is a pointless, silly, humorous and totally empty little series. It means nothing and in another decade or so, will totally be forgotten. And I would read it that way and let it go it’s merry little way, tra-la-la’ing into oblivion without a care in the world.

EXCEPT

I read the introduction and the stupid dumbkopf talks about how meaningful this book is/was to him and a whole generation and how it changed the blah blah, blahhhhh, blah. You get the idea. So now when I am reading this, I have this idea kicking around in the back of my mind that this book changed peoples’ lives and I’m forced to take it seriously. Anyone who read this book and series, and it changed their lives, is so stupendously stupid and shallow that that change would be comparable to me dipping my pinky finger in the Atlantic Ocean and claiming that I had changed the ocean.

This is silly nonsense! Pure and simple. Hopefully after this book, I can treat it as such.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Synopsis – click to open

Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Trillian, and Zaphod Beeblebrox leave the planet Magrathea on the Heart of Gold. A Vogon ship bribed by Gag Halfrunt and a group of psychiatrists, fearful that the discovery of the Ultimate Question will end their profession, intercepts and fires at them. Meanwhile, Arthur gets frustrated that the ship is unable to produce any beverages beyond an undrinkable tea-like liquid that is “almost but not quite entirely unlike tea”. He gives a lengthy description of tea, causing Eddie the Shipboard Computer to become CPU-bound and unable to fight the Vogon ship off. Desperate, Zaphod decides to hold a séance to call up his great-grandfather Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth to rescue them. The elder Zaphod scolds his descendant and sends him on a quest to find The Ruler of the Universe in order to solve the political and economic instability plaguing the universe. He transports Zaphod and Marvin to Ursa Minor Beta, the tropical home planet of the offices of the Hitchhiker’s Guide’s publisher Megadodo Publications, and leaves the others on the depowered ship in a black void.

Acting on a thought from the portion of his brain unaffected by his lobotomy, Zaphod goes looking for Zarniwoop, the Guide’s lead editor, though his staff insist he has been out on an intergalactic cruise. A man named Roosta takes Zaphod to Zarniwoop’s offices. Frogstar fighters arrive and attack the building, towing it to one of their home planets, Frogstar World B, a planet whose society collapsed through an economic process called the “Shoe Event Horizon” which rendered its economy unable to support any enterprises besides shoe stores. The planet eventually became the site of the Total Perspective Vortex, a device that drives those who experience it mad due to showing them their insignificance compared to the infinite universe. Following Roosta’s instructions and escaping through Zarniwoop’s office’s windows, Zaphod is caught by Gargravarr, a disembodied mind undergoing a trial separation from his body, who takes Zaphod to be exposed to the Vortex. However, Zaphod is unfazed by the Vortex, suggesting to a perplexed Gargravarr that it showed Zaphod that he was the most important being in the universe.

Left on his own, Zaphod eventually finds a long-abandoned spaceliner whose passengers have been forcibly kept in 900 years of suspended animation by the autopilot after the collapse of their civilization until a new one could develop to load the ship with lemon-scented paper napkins. On the ship he discovers Zarniwoop, who reveals that Zaphod stepped into a computer simulation of the universe when he walked into his office, allowing Zaphod to survive the Vortex since the universe was designed for his benefit. Zarniwoop further reveals that the Heart of Gold had been microscopically shrunk and placed in Zaphod’s pocket so that they can use it to find the true ruler of the universe, whom Zarniwoop has located. However, Zaphod abandons Zarniwoop, reunites with Ford, Arthur, and Trillian, and escapes to the nearest restaurant. This turns out to be the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, built atop the ruins of Frogstar World B and existing in a time bubble near the end of the universe, which it offers its guests spectacular views of. At the restaurant they meet Ford’s old acquaintance Hotblack Desiato, a member of the rock band Disaster Area, which is known for making the loudest sound in the universe and only perform their concerts remotely from an orbiting spaceship. During their dinner, Zaphod receives a telephone call from Marvin, who has been stranded on the planet for billions of years and is now working as a valet in the restaurant’s parking lot.

Zaphod suggests they leave, trying to steal a sleek, all-black spacecraft next to Hotblack Desiato’s limoship. With their ship on complete autopilot and unable to wrest the controls away from it, an agitated Zaphod admits that he still wants to solve the Question to the Ultimate Answer. Marvin abruptly tells them that the question is imprinted in Arthur’s brainwaves, but they are distracted before they can ask further. They learn that the ship is actually an uncrewed stunt ship for Disaster Area, which is programmed to fall into a local sun to create solar flares in synchronization with the climax of the band’s concert. They discover a partially installed emergency teleporter without a guidance system and Zaphod volunteers Marvin to stay behind and operate it so the others can escape. Zaphod and Trillian find themselves back aboard the Heart of Gold under Zarniwoop’s control, where he is using the ship’s Improbability Drive to penetrate the Unprobability Field that is protecting the home planet of the Ruler of the Universe. On an unpopulated planet, they find the Ruler who has no idea he is the ruler, is not convinced of a broader universe outside of his home, and is even skeptical if anything around him exists. While an enraged Zarniwoop tries to reason with the Ruler, Zaphod and Trillian strand him and make their escape in the Heart of Gold.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Ford find themselves aboard Ark Fleet Ship B, which is loaded with 15 million passengers from the planet Golgafrincham and is commanded by an inept captain who is only concerned with taking baths. Although the Golgafrinchans were ostensibly evacuated to escape a planetary disaster, in actuality the disaster was made up by the Golgafrinchans to divest themselves of a useless third of their population, later going extinct from a pandemic caused by dirty telephone receivers after they expelled all telephone sanitizers. The Ark crash-lands into a swamp on an undeveloped planet. Arthur and Ford leave to search for a signal from any passing spaceship, traveling for hundreds of miles around the continent. Along the way the planet’s primitive yet friendly hominid-like inhabitants usher them away from their home settlements and leave them fruit. After finding a glacier with a Magrathean inscription honoring Slartibartfast, they realize they are on pre-historic Earth in 2,000,000 BC, that the hominids are Neanderthals, that they have traveled across Europe from the future site of Arthur’s home city of Islington in Great Britain to Norway, and that the Golgafrinchans are the ancestors of the modern human race.

They return to the Golgafrinchans, only to find that they have been too preoccupied with trying to form council meetings about documentary-making, fiscal policy, searching for hot springs for the captain’s baths, and declaring war on uninhabited continents to bother with trying to discover fire, invent the wheel, or solve pressing issues. Ford tries to warn them that they will be annihilated in 2 million years, but they ignore him. Desperate, Arthur tries to teach the Neanderthals, who have been mysteriously wasting away since the Ark’s arrival, through a makeshift Scrabble set. When one of the Neanderthals spells out the word “forty-two” with the letter tiles, Ford realizes that the Neanderthals were part of the matrix of Deep Thought’s computer to determine the Ultimate Question and that the Golgafrinchans are interfering with the machination by displacing them. However, they also remember Marvin’s claim that the Ultimate Question was embedded in Arthur’s mind. Hoping that remnants of the programming exist in Arthur’s subconscious, they have Arthur pull out tiles at random from the Scrabble set, only to discover that the Question is “What do you get if you multiply six by nine?” Ford thinks this explains why the universe is a giant “cock-up”, and the two resign to make the best of their life on prehistoric Earth. They go on a date with two Golgafrinchan women, and Arthur throws his copy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide in the river.

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

A Phule and His Money (Phule’s Company #3) 2.5Stars

Title: A Phule and His Money
Series: Phule’s Company #3
Author: Robert Asprin & Peter Heck
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 343
Words: 90K

This is where I don’t follow my own advice. This was a very mediocre book. Not bad, but 100% mediocre. If I saw someone else read this book and say the things I will say, I would recommend, very strongly to them, that they abandon the series and let it go. My problem, at least as I tell myself, is that I don’t actually have that many “new to me” series or authors to replace it. Most of what I am reading is stuff in a longer running series (Discworld, Nero Wolfe, 87^th Precinct, The Shadow, etc) and it takes more time and effort on my part to search out a new series or author than it does to simply slog through the oatmeal books.

Peter Heck joined the authorial crew here but to be honest, I never would have known it. I suspect Asprin gave him a rough outline and Heck did all the heavy writing in Asprin’s style and they called it a day. I was down for the count when I read this (really bad cold again, put me out of work for a day with all the coughing) but even still, there was no energy to the story or characters. It was boring.

If any of you can suggest some stuff to me that is pre-2000 and that I haven’t already read and sounds semi-interesting to me, I’ll gladly dump this and try that.

★★✬☆☆

From the Publisher

Captain Willard Phule has whipped his troops into shape, turning Phule’s Company from the laughingstock of the Legion into…a crack team of casino security guards.

Now his company is deployed to help an underdeveloped planet. And what better way to utilize their major area of expertise—goofing off—than to turn the planet into the biggest intergalactic playground ever?

All My “Robert Asprin” Reviews

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax (Mrs Pollifax #1) 3.5Stars

Title: The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax
Series: Mrs Pollifax #1
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 212
Words: 75K

First, I’d like to say that this particular post is being shared over at the Irresponsible Reader. He didn’t steal this, or clonk me over the head and hold it hostage. I willingly and of my own free will let it be cross posted. Just so we’re clear. None of you need to take vengeance on my behalf or boost his Lamborghini or steal all that money he’s got squirreled away. No, I can do all of that on my own, thank you very much. But I appreciate your willingness to do such nefarious things on my behalf, I really do. Ok, on to the actual book review.

I first read a Mrs Pollifax story back in 2000. I labeled it a “mystery” and accidentally thought it was written by Agatha Christie. I went close to two decades thinking Mrs Pollifax was just another version of Miss Marple and as such, I avoided the series. It wasn’t until I was getting the Hotel Bookstooge in final order that I realized that Dorothy Gilman was the author and that it wasn’t really a mystery series at all. I eventually tracked down the series and added it to my tbr pile.

Imagine my surprise when I found out this was a series about a little old lady named Emily Pollifax and that she works for the CIA. That immediately threw it out of the cozy mystery genre and straight into the cozy thriller genre. Only, as I read the book, it really wasn’t that cozy, so I decided Mrs Pollifax deserved to go straight to the big leagues and just get the “Thriller” label. I mean, she gets kidnapped by Chinese Commies, escapes their remote fortress and makes it out to sea to get rescue. AND she fulfills her original mission of picking up some super secret ultra superdooper important info. She does all of this without turning into the Black Widow and doing crazy acrobatic stunts that no real person could possibly do.

There are moments of genuine threat and while Emily doesn’t go all Black Widow on the situation, neither does she break down and fall part. She’s what I’d describe as a tough old bird. The world needs more people like her. I thoroughly enjoyed her as a character and am looking forward to see what else Gilman has in store for her creation.

This is also a good time capsule of the times and I enjoyed seeing what the 60’s were like from a non-commie-hippy viewpoint.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia.org

Mrs. Pollifax is an elderly widow who has come to find life dull and is almost ready to end it all out of sheer boredom. Inspired by a newspaper profile of an actress who began her career in later life, she decides to fulfill a childhood ambition and apply for a job as a spy at the CIA. Meanwhile, Carstairs at the CIA is looking for an agent who can pass as a tourist in order to pick up an important package in Mexico. Due to a slight confusion, he thinks Mrs. Pollifax is one of the candidates and decides that Mrs. Pollifax is ideal; Carstairs decided this assignment carries so little danger that even one who is relatively untrained may be sent. So with minimum explanation, Pollifax is ushered off to Mexico City to meet a bookstore owner/secret agent, exchange code phrases, and leave with the package. The courier mission does not go as planned, and Mrs. Pollifax finds herself imprisoned in the Socialist Republic of Albania, facing harsh questioning and possible torture. But she proves to be unusually resourceful, and with her companion’s assistance, manages to outwit the enemy and save the day.

All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

Monday, May 13, 2024

Dwarven Warriors - MTG 4E

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Northanger Abbey 4Stars

Title: Northanger Abbey
Series: ———-
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 175
Words: 81K

For this read through, I did my best to peer past the parody asides that Austen threw in and just see the romance story she had written. It was a pretty plain jane, vanilla flavored romance. It was also very much a coming of age story. Catherine is a sheltered young woman and this story was more about her seeing a wider world and the evil side of people, which she hadn’t been exposed to at home, than it was about her meeting and eventually marrying Henry Tilney.

It was also a good reminder of just how insecure and unsettled young people are. Catherine wasn’t confused, she just didn’t know enough to react properly to her so-called friend Isabella’s actions. She had to learn by experience. Overall, I’m a pretty confident guy and it can be hard for me to remember that not everyone else is the same. I have a feeling I’d fulfill the role of General Tilney (Henry’s father) and intimidate Catherine without even realizing it. I know I mock the idea of “special snowflakes” a lot, but I am aware that kids do need a little bit of care in handling, sometimes, but not often.

The other thing I noticed was just how much of a role letter writing played. It is in all of Austen’s stories, but here it just made me think. I am a texter and I write on my blog and I journal, so I’d like to think that I would have been a great letter writer back in the day. But there is a big difference between typing and writing. And there is a HUGE difference using a gel pen and a quill and ink stand. Upon reflection I suspect that I would not have been a huge letter writer unless I had an amanuensis to take dictation for me. If that was the case, I’d probably be sending letters every day 😀

You get a letter, you get a letter, everybody gets a letter! (well, except for you!)

Overall I enjoyed this more than my previous times and I suspect it had as much, if not more, to do with my appreciation of good writing than just having a good time with a story.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland is one of ten children of a country clergyman. Although a tomboy in her childhood, she is “in training for a heroine” and is fond of reading Gothic novels “provided they [are] all story and no reflection.”

The Allens (her wealthier neighbours in Fullerton) invite Catherine to accompany them in their visit to the city of Bath and partake in the winter season of balls, theatre and other social activities. Shortly after their arrival, she is introduced to a young gentleman, Henry Tilney, with whom she dances. Mrs. Allen meets an old school friend, Mrs. Thorpe, whose daughter, Isabella, quickly becomes friends with Catherine. Isabelle introduces Catherine to Ann Radcliffe’s 1794 Gothic novel Mysteries of Udolpho. Mrs. Thorpe’s son, John, is a friend of Catherine’s older brother, James, at Oxford University where they are both students. The two young men come to Bath, where John is then introduced to Catherine.

The Thorpes are not happy about Catherine’s friendship with the Tilneys. They correctly perceive Henry as a rival for Catherine’s affections even though Catherine is not at all interested in John Thorpe. Despite Thorpe continually attempting to sabotage her relationship with the Tilneys, Catherine tries to maintain her friendships with both the Thorpes and the Tilneys. This leads to several misunderstandings, which put Catherine in the awkward position of having to explain herself to the Tilneys.

Isabella and James become engaged. James’ father approves of the match and offers his son a country parson’s living of a modest sum, £400 annually, but they must wait until he can obtain the benefice in two and a half years. Isabella is dissatisfied, but to Catherine, she misrepresents her distress as being caused solely by the delay, and not by the value of the sum. Isabella immediately begins to flirt with Captain Frederick Tilney, Henry’s older brother. Innocent Catherine cannot understand her friend’s behaviour, but Henry understands all too well as he knows his brother’s character and habits.

The Tilneys invite Catherine to stay with them for a few weeks at their home, Northanger Abbey. Once at Northanger Abbey, Catherine and Eleanor Tilney, Henry’s and Frederick’s younger sister, get to know each other better on a personal level.[7] Catherine, in accordance with her novel reading, expects the house to be exotic and frightening. Henry teases her about this as it turns out that Northanger Abbey is pleasant and decidedly not Gothic. However, the house includes a mysterious suite of rooms that no one ever enters; Catherine learns that they were the apartments of Mrs. Tilney, who died nine years earlier due to a serious illness,[7] leaving Mr. Tilney with three children to raise by himself.[8] As General Tilney no longer appears to be affected by her death, Catherine decides that he may have imprisoned her in her chamber, or even murdered her.

Catherine discovers that her over-active imagination has led her astray as nothing is strange or distressing in the apartments. Henry finds and questions her; he surmises and informs her that his father loved his wife in his own way and was truly upset by her death.[9] She leaves the apartments, crying, fearing that she has lost Henry’s regard entirely. Realising how foolish she has been, Catherine comes to believe that, though novels may be delightful, their content does not relate to everyday life. Henry does not mention this incident to her again.

James writes to inform her that he has broken off his engagement to Isabella and implies that she has become engaged instead to Captain Tilney. Henry and Eleanor Tilney are sceptical that their brother has actually become engaged to Isabella Thorpe. Catherine is terribly disappointed, realising what a dishonest person Isabella is. A subsequent letter from Isabella herself confirms the Tilney siblings’ doubts and shows that Frederick Tilney was merely flirting with Isabella. The General goes off to London, and the atmosphere at Northanger Abbey immediately becomes lighter and more pleasant from his absence. Catherine passes several enjoyable days with Henry and Eleanor until the General returns abruptly in a temper in Henry’s absence. He forces Catherine to go home early the next morning in a shocking and unsafe mode that forces Catherine to undertake the 70 miles (110 km) journey alone.

At home, Catherine is listless and unhappy. Henry pays a sudden unexpected visit and explains what happened. General Tilney (on the misinformation of John Thorpe) had believed her to be exceedingly rich as the Allens’ prospective heiress, and therefore a proper match for Henry. In London, General Tilney ran into Thorpe again, who, angry at Catherine’s refusal of his earlier half-made proposal of marriage, said instead that she was nearly destitute. Enraged, General Tilney, (again on the misinformation of John Thorpe), returned home to evict Catherine. When Henry returned to Northanger, his father informed him of what had occurred and forbade him to think of Catherine again. When Henry learns how she had been treated, he breaks with his father and tells Catherine he still wants to marry her despite his father’s disapproval. Catherine is delighted, though when Henry seeks her parents’ approval, they tell the young couple that final approval will only happen when General Tilney consents.

Eventually, General Tilney acquiesces because Eleanor has become engaged to a wealthy and titled man; he discovers that the Morlands, while not extremely rich, are far from destitute.

Saturday, May 11, 2024

Green Eyes (The Shadow #15) 3.5Stars

Title: Green Eyes
Series: The Shadow #15
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 158
Words: 48K

For whatever reason, I really enjoy when the Shadow goes up against a Chinese villain. Part of it is that those villains tend to be extremely smart and clever and aren’t reliant on guns and muscle alone (like many of the mob bosses the Shadow regularly takes down). They have a brain and they use it. At the same time Grant (the author) isn’t promoting the “Oldskool Gangsta” lifestyle. The badguys get theirs every time. But it feels like a battle between almost equals instead of just the Shadow mopping everything up like a janitor.

In this story, the Shadow is on the West Coast of the United States, in that most evil and iniquitous state called California. The Feds are hot on the trail of a supposedly pacifist Chinese cultural movement that plans to start a new empire. Massive drug smuggling is involved and the Shadow is captured, good and proper. Sadly, the Mastermind falls into the typical villain hubris and doesn’t immediately kill the Shadow. Remember kids, if you’re going to be a villain, kill the good guy immediately! No gloating, no monologues, no torture. Just kill him. Or else he will escape and get you. It always happens that way, and it happened that way here too. Of course, I was rooting for the Shadow, so that was a good thing.

My one big disappointment was that Green Eyes did not end up referring to a Femme Fatale. I was picturing some sort of Shadow’ized Catwoman’ish lady who could take on the Shadow and then fall hopelessly in love with him. Nope. Green Eyes simply refers to a guy who can mesmerize people with his eyes. Poop to that!

But the cover. Ohhhhhh, that cover. Pure Awesomesauce! Twin automatic .45’s, the only thing better is an assault shotgun.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher

There is a criminal empire being run by a mad genius out of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Nobody knows who they are or when they will strike again. Only one man can bring down the vicious criminal operations. The Shadow!

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews