Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Westmark (Westmark #1) 3Stars

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Title: Westmark
Series: Westmark #1
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: MG Fantasy
Pages: 102
Words: 44K

This is the first in the Westmark Trilogy by Lloyd Alexander, the author of the Prydain Chronicles. I classified it as Fantasy, not because there are magic spells, or talking animals, or even enchanted artifacts but because the world of Westmark is NOT our own. This goes back to the roots of Fantasy, which have been corrupted over the years to mean something quite different than how it started out. I’m quite ok with fantasy incorporating the magical, but the magical shouldn’t BE the defining aspect of Fantasy. So go into this with no expectations of prophecies and curses and you’ll be just fine.

I did not enjoy this as much as the Prydain Chronicles. While both are middle grade, this FELT more middle grade. Problems are solved with the greatest of ease (said the man on the flying trapeze!), which is fine in MG fiction, but sometimes things were just solved a little too easily. The Evil Prime Minister is overthrown with one word from the King, even though the PM has spent years consolidating his power, over the King, over the Nobles, over the entire land. Poof, he’s gone. That’s not a problem for a twelve year old reader and if this were my introduction to Lloyd Alexander, it probably wouldn’t be a problem for me either. But things weren’t quite this simple and simplistic in the Prydain Chronicles, so I as an adult reader KNOW that Alexander can write a more complex situation while still keeping it on the twelve year old’s level.

At its heart, this was a coming of age story mixed with love and adventure. I read it in my tweens and teens and I remember enjoying it quite a bit. Now that I’m re-reading this as an adult, I’m still enjoying it, but I don’t ever see myself reading it again in the future.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Synopsis – click to open

It is a complicated and politically dangerous period in Westmark. The country’s ruler, King Augustine IV, has slipped into dementia, depression and illness since the supposed death of his only child, Princess Augusta, over six years ago. Despite the efforts of the queen, Caroline, and the court physician, Dr. Torrens, the King is increasingly manipulated by his chief minister, Cabbarus, who has designs on the throne. While the ill king is kept distracted by a series of mystics and charlatans who claim to be able to speak to his dead child, Cabbarus increases his control over Westmark, restricting freedoms and abusing the king’s powers.

Young Theo, an orphan, has been raised in a small town, Dorning, by a printer named Anton. After the pair accepts a job from a travelling salesman they are investigated by Cabbarus’ men, who declare their job illegal and proceed to destroy their press. In the ensuing scuffle and chase, Theo attacks a soldier and Anton is shot and killed.

With no one else to turn to, Theo takes to the countryside, eventually meeting up with the men who hired him and Anton for the printing job: Count Las Bombas, a con artist, and his dwarf driver/partner Musket. Theo joins up with them, rather reluctantly, and ends up participating in their money-making schemes. They eventually discover a girl named Mickle, a poor street urchin, who has a talent for throwing her voice and mimicry. The count builds a charade around Mickle, dressing her up as the Oracle Priestess and putting her on display, claiming that she can speak to the spirits of the dead.

Theo, despite his growing affection for the bright but vulnerable Mickle, begins to find his new life too dishonest for his tastes and abandons the group, eventually falling in with Florian, an anti-monarchist and rebel who plans revolution with his band of loyal followers whom he calls his “children”. Meanwhile, Mickle, Las Bombas, and Musket have been arrested for fraud, Cabbarus has attempted to have Dr. Torrens assassinated and a politically minded journalist, Keller, goes into hiding to save himself from Cabbarus’ wrath.

Events come to a head when Theo plots to break his old companions out of prison, with help from Florian and his friends. Their reunion, however, does not last long; Cabbarus has tracked them down and has them all arrested. He brings the group to the Old Juliana, the palace of King Augustine IV and Queen Caroline, where reveals his plans to the group and of how the “Oracle Priestess” will be his pawn to his uprising to the throne. While in Old Juliana, Mickle comes across a trapdoor leading to a water canal, and her memories race in her mind as she remembers her childhood. This leads to her high fever and Theo’s worry of her having to act. Cabbarus presents the group to the King and Queen and the courtiers as the Oracle Priestess, and suddenly Mickle’s long-repressed childhood memories come to the surface, revealing treason, attempted murder and corruption in the heart of the Westmark government. It is later revealed that Mickle is the long-lost Princess Augusta and that chief minister Cabbarus was responsible for her disappearance.

Eventually, on the subject of Cabbarus’s punishment, Theo, on behalf of his conscience, sends him into exile, instead of killing him.

Saturday, July 27, 2024

The Elusive Mrs Pollifax (Mrs Pollifax #3) 3.5Stars

Title: The Elusive Mrs Pollifax
Series: Mrs Pollifax #3
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 166
Words: 55K

Great, Mrs Pollifax gets involved with hippies AND commies. Just when you think the problem lies outside the USA, you find out that stupid and dumb as dirt hippie teenagers MAKE the problems wherever they go. Ahhhhh, if it had been up to me, I would have let all of them die the most horrible death. That would teach them. Thankfully, Mrs Pollifax takes pity and so the story doesn’t end right at the beginning.

It is incredible how Gilman organically increases the danger level without it feeling like she is forcing things. I never once was thrown out of the story with that “Oh please, THAT couldn’t happen” feeling. While this isn’t quite a “cozy”, it is adjacent to that genre but manages to avoid the pitfalls. I continue to be impressed with Gilman’s skill here.

A simple premise that is well done without being overdone. I appreciate that simplicity.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

Mrs. Pollifax is sent, as a tourist, on a routine assignment, to deliver the eight forged passports she is carrying, concealed in her hat, to the Bulgarian Underground. Unbeknownst to her, her boss, Carstairs, has been strong-armed into having her take other items along, sewn into her coat. On the way, she meets a group of back-packing college students at an airport, and offers to help when one of them is arrested by the secret police, upon arriving in Sofia. Mrs. Pollifax then leads both friends and foes on a merry chase, as she travels around Bulgaria, on a series of absorbing, and interwoven, adventures, including helping to rescue the student and several political prisoners from the seemingly impregnable Panchevsky Institute

All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

Friday, July 26, 2024

[Reblog] Cosmic Desire or My Week VI

The entirety of the cosmos feels better with you present,

I travelled several parts of it,

Chasing your essence;

Which leaves me gasping every time for more,

Tomorrow is a vain concept without you.

~reblogged from The Master Procrastinator from “Pink and Blue”

Some weeks are busy and full and give me stories to tell. Even if I have to embellish “a little” bit. Those make for great blogging weeks. But boy, do they suck for actually living. Other weeks are a nice slow roll of hour after hour, day after day, night after night. Not much happens during those kind of weeks. I get up, I go to work, I come home, I eat, I read, I blog. I do unfun things like pay bills. I do fun things like watch “Keeping Up Appearances” (for those who don’t know, KUA was the absolute zenith of 90’s British sitcoms. It was the Queen of them all). I really prefer those kind of weeks.

And lo and behold, it was that kind of week. I got some new art for next month, I bought some plane tickets for a family visit later this year, I read the next Metaframe War book (spoiler, the review will NOT be pretty). I ate chili cheese hotdogs. Yes, you read that right. They have the technology, I have the money, and hoo yah, it’s a party in my mouth!

Oscar Mayer now makes Chili Cheese Hotdogs.

This is the kind of week I crave. Nothing putting pressure on me, no emergencies, no “oh no, I HAVE to do X”, nothing but get up and go to work. I might complain about my job at times, but I actually enjoy being a crew chief of a land survey crew. I am contributing something concrete and useful to society, I am not being a parasite or a scumbag. And I can go to bed at night feeling good about it.

One of the fun things I did was starting to investigate a higher capacity 9mm handgun. Right now I own a Sig P938, a subcompact that holds 7 bullets and is small enough for me to wear inside my waistband without printing (ie, having it outlined through my clothes). The only problem is that I’m only accurate with it to about 25ft (8meters) because of the short barrel. That is about 8-12 steps for most people. It means that to cover the doors into our church, I have to sit in the back row. That really has never been a problem because since our church has gone full hog into the streaming mania, the back row was the only place it was easy to avoid the cameras. In the last month we have gotten a 3rd camera that has removed that blind spot. Which means half my reason for sitting in the back is now gone. So it just feels like I am tethered to the back now because of my accuracy issues. The way to overcome that is to buy a full sized 9mm pistol, with a much higher magazine capacity and a longer barrel.

I’ve been looking at a CZ P-10 F, a Czech made pistol that holds up to 19 rounds with a standard magazine. The biggest issue is if the grip will be too fat for my hands or not. I have small hands and most full size pistols are just not comfortable for me to hold. If it fits my hands ok, I could easily sit 3 or 4 rows closer to the front if I wanted to. But right now, this is just all in my head. I don’t have $400 to throw down on a gun at the moment. But I enjoy doing my “homework” on the issue.

And that should be a wrap! From Poetry to Hotdogs to Guns. Just need an apple pie to make this 100% American 😉

Thursday, July 25, 2024

Rufferto II (Groo the Wanderer #30) 3.5Stars

Title: Rufferto II
Series: Groo the Wanderer #30
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 23
Words: 2K

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. No forgetting poor Groo this month!

Finally, Groo has found something even dumber than he is. Rufferto the dog. The opening page to the comic gives us the previous comic in one page with the people involved just shaking their heads and rolling their eyes at Groo’s stupidity. It was a good refresher for those of us who might have accidentally skipped reading Groo for a month.

Nothing but people trying to swindle Groo, each other and the Royal Couple. Groo ends up with money, Rufferto and gets to end the comic fighting everybody. Which is What Groo Does Best!

This wasn’t a deep read, nor can I spout some bull caca to make it seem like this was A Big Important comic with messages about the Human Condition and a funny message that will bring us all together. No, this was a comic book and it entertained me for about 15minutes and that’s all I needed from it. It delivered in spades, just like all the previous Groo comics and I am thankful for that. Sometimes a cheese pizza is all you really want. And sometimes a Groo comic is all I really want.

This is the last page in the comic and it manages to recap the whole comic for your viewing pleasure.

★★★✬☆

From Bookstooge.blog

Synopsis – click to open

The Adventures of Rufferto continue! The King and Queen continue to offer a reward for Rufferto and his 100,000 kopin collar. Soldiers try to find him. Swindlers find Groo and try to swindle him. Another King finds out about the collar and buys Rufferto off of Groo. The Swindler’s paint a dog to look like Rufferto and give it to the soldiers. And Groo is paid twice. And gets Rufferto back each time. And the comic ends with the soldiers, the swindlers and the other king all fighting over who cheated who the most. And Groo wins most of all with 2000 kopins and a fray!

All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Marvel Champions: The Deckening II

Today we will be talking about how to construct the Villain Deck. Last month I showed how to create your Hero Deck using the cards from the coreset box. While it was a simple process for someone used to constructing decks in various other card games, it might have been a little overwhelming for people who have never had to do that before. Thankfully, constructing the Villain Deck is MUCH easier. There are a lot less individual choices to make. While this might sound like a bad thing, it really makes everything much simpler, especially as the focus of the game is on the Hero.

Today, I will be walking you through constructing the Villain Deck using the villain Klaw.

As you can see highlighted in yellow with the big yellow arrow pointing to it, Klaw comes with a set of 21 cards that form the basis of the villain deck (called the Encounter Deck in the rule book).

Along with these cards, you will also add to the Villain deck the Hero “Nemesis” cards that come along with the hero. If you had chosen Spiderman, you would have a set of “Spiderman Nemesis” cards, once again highlighted in yellow. Each set of cards is named and numbered, making it very easy to keep them together.

Next, you would choose two Module sets to complete your Villain deck. Once again, each is numbered and labeled, making it very easy to assemble a Villain deck when you open the box. I chose the “Standard” and “Legions of Hydra” modules.

So to recap, you will add all the following together to create your Villain deck.

Villain card set
Hero Nemesis set
Module set x2

And that is that. Shuffle up, set your Villain aside, and set the Villain’s Main Scheme (included in the villain set of cards) aside and you’re ready to start playing. I hope that was easy to follow and made sense. If not, well, I guess there’s no hope for you, hehehehe 😉

Next month I am hoping to do another Playening post and to do a walk through of the high lights. But until then, remember:

There Can Be…..
…..Only None!

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

King’s Ransom (87th Precinct) 3.5Stars

Title: King’s Ransom
Series: 87^th Precinct
Author: Ed McBain
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 147
Words: 56K

A rich man, who has trampled everyone who ever got in his way, has his chauffeur’s boy kidnapped when the kidnappers confuse the two boys. The ransom is enough that the rich man won’t be able to push through his latest deal and so he doesn’t want to even try to cooperate. It’s not until his wife leaves him with their son that he finally begins cooperating with the police. With a police officer hiding in his car, the rich man drops off a suitcase of fake money and the couple who are holding the boy decide they want no more and release the boy and make their escape to Mexico.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to deal with this when I realized it was going to be about the kidnapping of a young boy. Especially when one of the kidnappers was a violent punk of a man who attacks the wife of his co-kidnapper and attempts to rape her. He doesn’t get that far, but that was his intent and I almost dnf’d the book at that point.

In many ways, this was more about the rich man and his journey of self-discovery that he was a complete bastard than about the kidnapping. The rich man was a real jerk but he was nothing worse than the businessmen of today who sacrifice whole companies and their entire workforce simply to increase a projected profit and feed the greed of the shareholders. It’s sad that the love of money destroys people like this, from the inside out.

On the plus side, we don’t get much about Cotton Hawes, the manwhore. I was quite ok with that. Steve Carella is once again front and center and I like him, as he’s a good cop.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher & Bookstooge.blog

Synopsis – click to open

The story centers on the moral dilemma faced by a wealthy man when he is forced to choose between using his wealth to fulfill a personal ambition or saving the life of a kidnapped child. Two of the three kidnappers repent and tell the police where the boy is and disappear. The boy is rescued.

All My “87^th Precinct” Reviews

Monday, July 22, 2024

Erg Raiders - MTG 4E

Sometimes having to explain what the card does takes up all the space and you don’t get any funny quotes like in Elvish Archers. That makes me sad.

Sunday, July 21, 2024

The Five Chameleons (The Shadow #17) 3.5Stars

Title: The Five Chameleons
Series: The Shadow #17
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 128
Words: 40K

This was probably the first book where the Shadow really takes a beating. He’s been shot before, but this time it’s to the point of incapacitation. Never seen him so weak, but he still kills the bad guys. That’s how it should be.

I was expecting more from the Chameleons. Turns out they are just crooks that can pretty much blend into any situation and become whatever the circumstances demand. In this case, it was a bank manager, some bank tellers and a mortician. Not quite what I had in mind from the title. But, the leader, the guy playing the bank manager, manages to out think the Shadow and shoots him. Of course, the author sets up “circumstances” so the gang can’t immediately shoot the Shadow dead, which gives him opportunity to revive and fight back. A knife to his throat would have been just as effective at that point and it would have been silent. Lesson Number 1 in Villainy is always make sure the Hero is dead, really, totally, utterly dead. Or else he’ll come back and get you. Just like the Shadow does 😀

Speed of communication is the lifeblood of a society. I wrote about it in Kalin (A Dumarest book) and it has shown itself throughout the Shadow books as well. The crooks plan depends on people and the Feds not finding out about the counterfeit money until they are long gone. They are planning on days and possibly weeks. The Shadow counters that with a highspeed plane that gets information to his confederates in a day and brings those same confederates back to help him out. It still amazes me how the speed of information changes a culture. How much faster can we get? I’m kind of afraid to find out…

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher & Bookstooge.blog

Synopsis – click to open

The Shadow seeks to unmask The Five Chameleons, master villains whose uncanny ability to blend with their surroundings rivals his own. Having hit upon a plan to funnel counterfeit money through a bank and steal genuine money, the scheme soon turns to murder and the Shadow becomes involved. He kills them all and saves the community.

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Saturday, July 20, 2024

[Art] Summer's Avatar

Oh, it seems just like yesterday that I was celebrating Spring’s Delight.

The above picture is everything I like about Summer. While green springs forth in Spring (oh man, am I clever or what?), it is fully mature in Summer.

When I saw this, it reminded in a roundabout way of the Forest Lord from the anime Princess Mononoke. I like this drawing better though. The Forest Lord did not strike me as an intelligent being, just a force of nature. Here, the Avatar of Summer has the power of an Avatar but also the intelligence to use it.

May the rest of your Summer be temperate and filled with good things!

Friday, July 19, 2024

10 Things Only TRUE Bookstooge Lovers Understand or My Week V

This post is inspired by one I saw entitled “X Things Only True Book Lovers Understand”. While I am a book lover, apparently I’m not a TRUE book lover. I felt so ashamed.

So what better way to hide that terrible shame than by making all of you ashamed for not being a True Bookstooge Lover? I will now list the 10 Ways to prove you are a True Bookstooge Lover.

Please leave a comment sharing with everyone how much you failed at this and how ashamed you are. That will make me laugh AND will be cathartic for everyone else. There’s no shame in being a loser and feeling ashamed about it.

Bookstooge is always right, even if I think he is wrong.
If Bookstooge told me to commit seppuku with a clod of dirt, I would do it, successfully!
Short, stocky bald men are the most attractive.
I hate doing yard work too.
Pizza is the greatest food that has ever existed or will ever exist.
Who needs a life when you can blog instead?
I enjoy telling all my friends about Bookstooge’s latest posts
When I get up in the morning, my first thought is “What would Bookstooge do today?”
When Bookstooge says “Jump”, I don’t need to ask “How high” because I already psychically know.
I like boots too.
Damn commies! (that’s a bonus for y’all)

What monks who eat nothing but rice look like.

After last week where I ended up in the ER for 9hrs to no avail, I was eating like a monk until about yesterday. Rice for breakfast, plain toast for lunch, rice chex (breakfast cereal) for dinner and applesauce for dessert. And wonder of wonders, my gut got better. No more pain or tenderness. So now I’m going to slowly ease myself back into a more regular dietary habit. If it wasn’t so hot out I’d go eat pizza. Cause that’s the epitome of “easing” back into things 😉

Tuesday we had some serious thunderstorms and rain move through in the evening. It poured so hard you could hardly see anything out the windows. Windy too. We ended up losing power for about an hour, but that wasn’t bad as some of our friends around town ended up losing power for 7-8hrs.

Thursday was one of those work days. We were working in Madison, which is about 2 1/2 hrs from the office. So half the day was spent in traveling; kind of cuts down on the work you can get done, you know? I did get a 10 1/2hr day out of it though, so that’s going to be good for the paycheck.
*insert happy trombone music

Other than the food thing, this was a pretty normal week. I really needed that. After how busy life has been for us the first half of July, I’m super duper ready to get back to my normal routine.

I hope you have a good Friday!