Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Sunday, August 04, 2024

Sourcery (Discworld #5) 3Stars

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Title: Sourcery
Series: Discworld #5
Author: Terry Pratchett
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 197
Words: 79K

Unfortunately, this is what most people think of in terms of humor when they think of Rincewind the Wizzard. This was slightly amusing but not really funny and almost kind of sad. I didn’t dislike this story, but I really didn’t enjoy myself like I have with some of the previous Discworld books. It was like Pratchett had an off week and churned this clunker out during that time.

If I was just a teeny bit lazier, I’d end this review and not hide the synopis and call it a day. But I’m not quite that lazy, yet. I’m getting there though.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a food comparison for a book, but I think I have the perfect example for this book.

The Setting:

The Wilds of the Freest State in the United States of America

The Characters:

Two manly men who have worked hard all day doing Big Important Survey Things that you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it to you.

The Story:

After a hard day’s work where thousands of calories were burned doing Very Important Survey Things, McStudley and MacManly were driving back to the office. They were starving. In fact, if they had been soccer players, chances are one of them would have doused the other in bbq sauce and devoured him on the spot. Thankfully, for our story, they drove by a Wendy’s fast food restaurant. MacManly decided to get a Biggie Bag, because it had the word “Big” in it and his hunger sure was big that day. It was advertised as a double cheeseburger with bacon, fries, chicken nuggets and a drink. The chicken nuggets weren’t crispy at all. The fries were lukewarm at best. The icemachine wasn’t working so his diet vanilla coke was room temperature. The bacon was limp, the burgers overcooked, the lettuce was wilted and the bun looked like a sad clown. All in all it was a pathetic excuse for a “meal”. But MacManly still devoured it because he was starving.

The Lesson:

The ingredients can all be there but if they are not prepared right, it doesn’t matter because I was starving and I would have read a cereal box. Ok, so I mixed up my metaphors there, sue me. But you get the idea.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

Death comes to collect the soul of Ipslore the Red, a wizard who was banished from Unseen University for marrying and having children. Bitter over his exile and the death of his wife, Ipslore vows revenge upon the wizards through his eighth son, Coin. As the eighth son of a wizard who himself is an eighth son, Coin is born a sourcerer, a wizard who generates new magic rather than drawing it from the world, effectively making him the most powerful wizard on the Disc. At the moment of his death, Ipslore transfers his spirit into his wizard’s staff, which is passed to Coin, preventing Death from collecting Ipslore’s soul (since damaging the staff to do so would kill Coin) and allowing Ipslore to influence his son.

Eight years later, Virrid Wayzygoose, the Archchancellor-designate of Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork, is murdered before his induction by Coin, who then forces his way into the university’s Great Hall. After Coin bests one of the top wizards in the University, he is welcomed by the majority of the wizards. Rincewind, The Luggage and the Librarian miss Coin’s arrival, having fled the University shortly beforehand after the foreboding departure of all of its magically-influenced pest populations. While they are at the Mended Drum, Conina, a professional thief and a daughter of Discworld legend Cohen the Barbarian, arrives holding a box containing the Archchancellor’s hat, which she has procured from the room of Wayzygoose, and which possesses a kind of sentience as a result of being worn by hundreds of Archchancellors. Under the direction of the hat, which sees Coin as a threat to wizardry and the very world, Conina forces Rincewind to come with her and take a boat to the city of Al Khali, where the hat claims there is someone fit to wear it.

In Ankh-Morpork, the wizards are made more powerful due to Coin’s presence drawing more magic into the Discworld. Under Coin’s direction, the wizards take over Ankh-Morpork—transforming it into a pristine city and turning the Patrician, Lord Vetinari, into a newt—and make plans to take over the world. Elsewhere, Rincewind, Conina and the Luggage end up in the company of Creosote, the seriph of Al Khali, and Abrim, his treacherous vizier. The trio are eventually separated; Rincewind is thrown into the snake pit, where he meets Nijel the Destroyer, a barbarian hero in training. Conina is taken to Creosote’s harem, where the Seriph has his concubines tell him stories. The Luggage, having been scorned by Conina, runs away and gets drunk, before killing and eating several creatures in the desert.

Coin eventually declares Unseen University and the various wizarding orders obsolete and orders the Library to be burnt down, claiming that Wizardry no longer requires such things. A group of wizards then attack Al Khali, with the sheer amount of magic created by their arrival temporarily putting Rincewind into a trance and enabling him to use magic, allowing him and Nijel to escape the snake pit. They join up with Creosote and Conina, the latter immediately falling in love with Nijel, and they encounter Abrim, who had put on the Archchancellor’s hat hoping to gain power from it, only to be possessed instead. Having the experience of many previous Archchancellors, the hat proves an even match for Sourcery-empowered wizards, fighting off a group of them and enlisting others to its cause. As this takes place, Rincewind, Conina, Nijel and Creosote find a magical flying carpet in the palace’s treasury, and use it to escape the palace as it gets destroyed by the possessed Abrim building his own tower.

With the orders no longer around to keep the wizards in check, wizards across the Discworld go to war with one another, threatening to destroy the world completely. Upon hearing Creosote express anti-wizard sentiments, an angry and humiliated Rincewind abandons the group, taking the flying carpet and making his way to the University, where he learns that the Librarian has saved the library books by hiding them in the ancient Tower of Art. The Librarian convinces Rincewind to stop Coin, and he goes off to face the Sourcerer with a sock containing a half-brick. Back in Al Khali, the Luggage, blaming the Archchancellor’s hat for everything it has endured, forces its way into Abrim’s tower. Distracted by the Luggage, the possessed vizier is killed by the Ankh-Morpork wizards, with the tower and the Archchancellor’s hat getting destroyed in the process.

Despite his victory, Coin becomes concerned when he is told that wizards rule under the Discworld Gods. He traps the gods in an alternate reality, which shrinks to become a large pearl, unknowingly causing the Ice Giants, a race of beings who had been imprisoned by the gods, to escape their prison, whereupon they begin strolling across the Discworld, freezing everything in their path. Rincewind confronts Coin soon after this. The Sourcerer is amused, but unthreatened, by Rincewind attempting to fight him, prompting Ipslore to try to force Coin to kill him. Rincewind eventually convinces Coin to throw the staff away, but Ipslore’s power is channelled against that of his son. The other wizards leave the tower as Rincewind rushes forward, grabbing the child and sending both of them to the Dungeon Dimensions while Death strikes the staff and takes Ipslore’s soul. Rincewind orders Coin to return to the University and, using his other sock filled with sand, attacks the Creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions as a distraction to ensure Coin’s escape. The Gods are subsequently set free, stopping the march of the Ice Giants. As the Librarian helps Coin escape, the Luggage charges into the Dungeon Dimensions after Rincewind.

Coin returns the University and Ankh-Morpork to the way they were before he came. After Conina and Nijel travel to the University looking for Rincewind, Coin uses his magic to make them forget him and live happily ever after together. Recognising that he is too powerful to remain in the world, Coin steps into a dimension of his own making and is not seen on the Discworld again. The Librarian takes Rincewind’s battered hat, which was left behind when he went into the Dungeon Dimensions, and places it on a pedestal in the Library. The narrator states, “A wizard…will always come back for his hat”.

Saturday, August 03, 2024

[Art] The Hidden King

Long ago, a human lord went into voluntary exile. Many thought he had somehow displeased the current Elven Emperor but this was a long term plan between them because of the Ancient Prophecy that warned about the Chartreuse Madness. The first unmistakable warning was the blooming of the Tree of Day and Night. With this, the Hidden King knew that one day his power would be needed. He went into exile to keep an eye on the Forest Castle where the Tree was growing.

As the centuries rolled by, the Mad Chartreuse Emperor began his sweep of the land with his horde of Warriors. The Hidden King found a diamond in the rough with the last surviving member of the Steampunk tribe. She became his Archmage.

When the Spirit of the Garden’s power was co-opted, it was another sign of the Prophecy. The Hidden King was a gentle soul however and he was not sure if he could do what would need to be done. Could he commit that act that would stain his soul for all eternity if it meant stopping the Chartreuse Madness?

Friday, August 02, 2024

Family or My Week VII

♪Brothers and Sister and Cousins, Oh My!♪

I grew up with a large extended family. My mother and her sisters were all very close and as such there were times we all got together for several days to a week. Nothing is better than a Thanksgiving with close to 20 people in a big old house capable of holding twice that.

There was a pond with a homemade slip and slide that must have been close to one hundred feet long. In the summers it was the best thing ever. Running as fast as you could and throwing yourself headfirst while screaming as loudly as possible the whole time was the epitome of fun! And trying to break the speed record of the older cousins always gave it purpose!

My uncle and two of my cousins were hunters. The deer they shot put food on their table. I remember one Thanksgiving seeing three dead deer hanging in the yard from trees, by their hind feet. I asked my uncle why they were hanging there and he patiently explained the whole process of draining the blood and why it was so important. To a nine year old, that was big stuff!

Once I hit my teens, our families moved away from each other. But each summer I would go and spend a week with one of my cousins. We would wile away the days playing games, doing chores and reveling in the fact that we were old mature teenagers and everyone had to treat us seriously now. One game we played was Pass the Pigs.

We learned the game from one of our older cousin’s boyfriends. He had a pony tail and a British accent, so of course he was the coolest person in the whole world. Well, he liked Pass the Pigs, so we liked it too! We would use candy skittles to bet too, until “somebody” spilled the beans to her parents and we were forbidden to gamble any more. I still have my set 🙂

So family has been important to me my whole life. Which is why Mrs B and I bought plane tickets this week to go to Georgia in the fall to help celebrate my Mom’s birthday.

Who knew that buying plane tickets would unlock such a welter of good memories? I know not everyone has good family memories and I don’t take mine for granted. I have been blessed.

Thursday, August 01, 2024

Deep State (Jason Trapp #1) 3Stars

Title: Deep State
Series: Jason Trapp #1
Author: Jack Slater
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 391
Words: 124K

I started this book and something just seemed “off” to me. Nothing huge, nothing glaring, but something just wasn’t right. So I started highlighting and taking notes whenever something struck me. I finally twigged to what the root cause was when I saw the following sentence:
“As Perkins and Winks manhandled the prisoner inside, Trapp gently grabbed Dani’s arm. She was dressed in black jeans, a warm JUMPER and an FBI windbreaker.”
~Chapter 40

That explained everything, and I mean everything. For those who don’t understand, I shall explain. The English Language is not a monolithic entity. It is broken up into two main spheres of Influence, The King’s English (booo, hiss, fart noises) and American English (patriotic singing, manly muscles, rah rah rah). In American English, which this book should have been written in as it is dealing with the American Government and a member of a black ops CIA team, a jumper is someone who is about to or has already, committed suicide by jumping from a high place, usually a building. It would be quite UNUSUAL for someone to wear a dead body as part of their clothing outfit, even if they are an FBI agent. However, in the King’s English, a jumper is a warm, long sleeved garment that is between a shirt and a coat. In American English, we call that garment a “sweater”. So this author, which I shall get to next, is some bloody foreigner acting like he knows what the feth he’s talking about when it comes to action and adventure and American Patriotism.

And he gets it wrong. Completely wrong. Jason Trapp is supposed to be this super patriot, a Mitch Rapp as it were. He views himself as a sheepdog for the sheep of the American Public. The problem is, he despises the sheep for how they act, thinks he’s innately better than them and doesn’t come across as serving them at all. He comes across as a macho blowhard with an attitude. Big Government is here to help and damn any of you peons who thinks to get above himself by actually trying to better himself. Eat dirt slave. THAT is the vibe I get here.

After that blinding revelation that this wasn’t written by an American (rah, rah, rah!), I tried to find out some info about the author. I usually regret doing that, but there are times when my personal enjoyment doesn’t matter and I need to know the truth. There are several Jack Slater’s. One of them is this author. Another appears to be some Brit who writes police procedural novels. But the biggest hit on google is for this Jack Slater:

The main character’s name is Jack Slater

Maybe this author’s name really is Jack Slater and it is not a pseudonym. I can’t say. But his website has even less info about him than my About page has about me and the “photo” just screams anonymity. My skeptometer is running above the 100% mark concerning this guy.

There is also the very typical European outlook on individuals owning guns and using them as they should. The lady FBI character spouts off a thought about how “the good man with a gun” is just a myth and that situations are never solved by such a mythological being. The problem is, for the author, that’s a lie. Not misinformation, but a damned lie. The reason the public doesn’t hear about the many instance of “the good man with a gun” is because it doesn’t fit the mass media’s narrative here in the United States and thus they never run with the stories. But you can find those stories in the local papers, etc. Lest you think I am simply making up crap (like the author did), this is a documented phenomena that Larry Correia writes about in his book, In Defense of the Second Amendment. Full set of footnotes in the rear of the book.

I have now written over 600 words condemning this book. Most of my reviews are half that length, even including the synopsis (remember, short stocking bald men are the most attractive and the same goes for reviews), so I can understand if you are totally confused about why I still rated this 3stars. Two words

The Fething Action. (fething isn’t a real word so it doesn’t count, ha!)

Jason Trapp takes on terrorists with an aluminum baseball bat. He is attacked by a fighter jet with a big ol’ bunker buster missile and survives. He takes on a whole squad of Israeli mercenaries who are the best of the best (but not good enough). And he poisons the Vice-president of America with a Batman level poison pen. IT. WAS. AWESOME. In a previous review I joked about parachuting in and killing you with a nuclear bazooka. Well, Jason Trapp would have actually done it.

All of that being said, the next book will make or break Jason Trapp for me. If I get even a whiff of anti-gun propaganda, I will dnf the series like Mitch Rapp putting a bullet in a terrorist’s skull. No fear, no hesitation.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher:

Click to Open

If you come after the CIA’s most feared assassin, there’s one cardinal rule: Don’t miss.
America is under attack. Thousands lie dead after simultaneous strikes across the country. The day will come to be known as Bloody Monday.
Jason Trapp, codename ‘Hangman’, was a covert operative whose feats became the stuff of legend. He was the tip of the spear—the man his country unleashed when all hope was lost.
Six months ago, someone sold him out. The Agency listed him as killed in action. He lost everything—and everyone—he held dear.
But Trapp’s not that easy to kill. As his country reels from the deadliest terrorist attacks it has ever witnessed, Trapp’s personal vendetta leads him right back to where he started: duty to his country. The violence, the terror, the assassination of his partner… It’s all connected.
And now the Hangman is coming for the guilty.

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

July '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 13 ↓

Short Stories – 0 –

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 –

Comics – 1 ↑

Average Rating – 3.62 ↑↑

Pages – 3572 ↓

Words – 1331K ↑

The Bad:

Mansfield Park – 2Stars of Stone Cold Jane Austen really letting the team down

The Good:

A Study in Brimstone – 5Stars of Pure Literary Genius!

Monster Hunter International – 4.5Stars of the best monster killing you’ll ever read

Movie:

Didn’t review anything this month. Just wasn’t feeling it.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

The first half of this month was insanely busy (for us). Those first two weekends were just jam packed. I use my weekends to recover from the week, so when I have to expend valuable “social” energy on a weekend, I really notice it. Thankfully, things settled down and got back into a more normal groove.

After last months R&R where I went on and on and on, I decided that just wasn’t going to do, so I started/continued those “My Week” posts where I blab about all the super interesting things that happen to me, like being in the Emergency Room for 9hrs or getting paid for 5hrs of driving instead of doing actual work. All those gripping, exciting and enthralling stories (and no oxford comma! ha). It has worked well for me. I get to blab about something non-book oriented but that’s not “themed” so I don’t feel pressured to be creative. The bonus is that it’s been on my scheduled “don’t need to blog day” (Friday) so if I don’t feel like saying something, I don’t have to. It’s been great!

And can I talk about that average rating from the Numbers section? 3.62!!!! That is the highest monthly rating I’ve had this year. I am wicked happy about that. That is partly why I do those numbers each month. Sometimes my memory of how the overall reading time went gets fuzzy near the end of the month and it serves me well to do the hard facts.

Cover Love:

While the cover is a little dark (in terms of lighting, not content), MHI gets the nod this time. I was severely tempted to stick with Kalin, but I chose modesty and guns over swank and boobs.

Plans for Next Month:

Sometimes I wonder why I even do this portion of the R&R. Forgive me while I indulge in a moment of self-pity for a couple of sentences.

Wah wah wah

I do the same thing every stinking month. I review some books. I put up some pictures of magic and superhero cards. I put up a piece of artwork. I review a movie or tv show. I blabber nonsense. Every. Single. Month. I want to be one of those bloggers who are just bursting with creativity and doing something new every single month. Most of the time I readily accept that I am a steady, plodding blogger. But there are a few times a year where I just WISH I could be an “arteest” and wow everyone for a post or two. Or ten, twenty or even one hundred! (might as well dream big)

Ok, somebody call the wambulance, show’s over. Time to go cut down a tree, translate some chinese curses and shoot a groundhog, all with my bare hands, my eyes closed and while in a strait jacket. Tada!!!!

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Monster Hunter International (MHI #1) 4.5Stars

Title: Monster Hunter International
Series: MHI #1
Author: Larry Correia
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 477
Words: 194K

What a difference 12 years makes! When I read this back in ‘12, I gave a lengthy (for me, back then) review detailing all of my issues with the book. Not big issues, but things that stood out to me. I read that review AFTER re-reading this and had myself a good laugh.

So, characterization. Still pretty shallow. After some of the cardboard I’ve read since 2012 however, my sensitivity is greater and this book benefited from it. No one else really has a voice besides Z (Owen Z Pitt, the main character), but that’s ok. We’re getting introduced to everyone and so much happens so fast that I didn’t miss characterization this time around. Most of the time I don’t anyway. I’m not a namby pamby mama’s boy after all.

This was originally self-published on a forum for gun fans and thus the writing isn’t up to the level of Rex Stout or Patricia McKillip. But once again, I’ve read A LOT MORE drek in the last 12 years and so that bar has really sunk. Correia sailed right over it without breaking a sweat here. Honestly, if I hadn’t mentioned the writing in my original review, I’d not have mentioned here at all.

Gun porn. This is where I laughed my head off. Oh, how I have changed so much in this regards, so, so much. This time around, I wouldn’t have qualified this as gun porn at all. Mainly because I knew what he was actually talking about when he started talking gun and bullet specifications. I knew the brands, I knew calibres, I knew the difference between a single stack and a double stack magazine. This time around, this was just a gun guy talking guns and apparently, I am now a gun guy too. Not at his level mind you, but enough that I wasn’t bored. I suspect for most of you, you’d qualify this as gun porn, hahahahaa.

Bad guys, so many bad guys. It was awesome! And they weren’t pansey-ass bad guys who fell over when you made fun of their outfits and hurt their feelings. These were rip your face off, beat you until all your bones are broken and THEN kill you kind of bad guys. What makes it so much better though is that the good guys still kill them in droves. Yes, it was indeed awesome.

When this was originally, published, it was supposed to be a trilogy and that was it. I had no plans to ever re-read this “trilogy”. But here we are now. There are 8 or 9 books in the main MHI series, with several spin off series and a collection of short stories (I believe). We’re talking 12+ books, probably close to 15. AND I’m re-reading this. My poor mid-30’s self just had no idea what the future held, that’s for sure. Hopefully that will help me to not make Nostradamical Predictions and end up with egg all over my face.

The reason this didn’t get 5stars from me is because of the theological content. You just have to “believe” and “have faith” and that’s good enough. The Bible, the Koran and the Kama Sutra will all work if you just believe in them enough. I’d have been ok if Correia had just side stepped the issue altogether.

I loved this re-read though, thoroughly enjoyed it to the max. I am especially looking forward to the rest of the series now.

★★★★✬

From MHI.Fandom.com

Synopsis – Click to Open

After learning of a monster by the name of Lord Machado was planning on using an ancient artifact to open a portal to the Old Ones to summon the Dread Overlord, MHI launched a massive attack at Desoya Caverns to battle Lord Machado and his minions and to stop the portal from being opened. This event caused the death of the most MHI employees in one day, other than the Christmas Party. It also resulted in the collection of the largest PUFF bounty in company history after Owen Pitt successfully defeated Lord Machado and Koriniha, the true mastermind behind everything

Monday, July 29, 2024

Erosion - MTG 4E

I never saw this card played. Three blue pips is simply too expensive unless you have a convoluted plan that absolutely needs this. In which case, you probably have about seven other plans as well, all of which cost less and do more. But this is what the Color Pie USED to mean. Blue was not land destruction. So when a card was land destruction and it was blue, there was a drawback of it costing much more.

`rambles off into nostalgic rant about the good old days of Magic…

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Westmark (Westmark #1) 3Stars

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 😉