Bookstooge MacLeod, also known as the Immortal Lowlander, once again assembled his Hero’s deck to face the villainous Rhino!
Knowing that being all schemey/weemey wasn’t his thing, The Lowlander chose She-Hulk to do some serious face bashing!
With the help of Aggression cards like Relentless Assault, which took out a minion AND damaged the Rhino enough to kill his first iteration, things were looking pretty good.
Finally, with the help of 2 Tac Teams, I simply sniped Rhino down to 3 health and beat him to death with one final attack by She-Hulk. It was a brutal slugfest with almost no worrying about scheming. She-Hulk pretty much stayed in hero form so the Rhino had no time to scheme.
The downside was that she was down to 1 health by the end and I gambled everything on the final draw of the villain deck being a flop. To be honest, I got lucky.
This took me a while but mainly because a lot of the cards were new to me and I had to read them and figure out how they worked together. I plan on using the same deck next month and hoping to have a slightly different game with less immediate face bashing. I’d like to experiment using some scheme thwarting. But until then, remember:
I just opened this last night. It has sat unopened on my bookshelf for the last 5 years. Misery.
Four score and ten months ago, I began a Journey of Misery the likes of which I hope never to repeat. Sit down, be welcomed Stranger, to my cozy camp fire and I will relate the first part (of three) of my Journey of Misery.
Eons ago, in the vast misty days of yore, Lord Larry did announce that Vault Books would be releasing his Grimnoir Trilogy in a special leatherbound edition. This was broadcast throughout the land in the middle of 2017, The initial announcement by Vault Books did proclaim that this trilogy would be released on a set schedule with the first book, Hard Magic, to be released in the summer of 2017. At some point that was retconned with no notice to read “Hard Magic will be released in 2018”.
For unknown reasons, and with no updates, the first book was not released until mid 2019, two YEARS after it was supposed to be. And even that was because I, along with others, went and bugged Correia on his website, on twitter and on facebook. All we all really wanted were some updates and reasons for the delay and we got bupkiss.
2 Years Late
With this being two years late, or even just one year if you’re going by the retcon data at Vault Books, I was expecting to get all three of my books (I had ordered the numbered bundle, and I was the Incredible #98) at once. Oh, I was so naive. I received Hard Magic, and Hard Magic alone.
By this point I didn’t know if I would ever get the next two books, so I did not open the package. Like the picture at the top states, I waited 5 years to open this. And last night was the night. I will be showcasing what I paid for all those years ago.
Dust cover. Very nice looking.The Actual Cover. The Inside Page.
Besides my eyes, this is one more reason why I buy ebooks now. They are either available or they are not. There is no delay and no stony silence about where your money went.
Thankyou Stranger, for sitting down with me and listening to my opening ramble, I sure do appreciate it. What’s that? You have to leave for work now? Sure, I understand. But I’ll be here next Friday too, with part two of this tale of woe and misery, if you think you can bear it.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot, by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Arms Deal Series: Groo the Wanderer #31 Author: Sergio Aragones Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Comics Pages: 23 Words: 2K
Ahhh, Groo. Sometimes when he tries to do the right thing he completely ruins everything, for everybody. Then you have comics like this where he pretty much lets well enough alone and Fate takes a hand and dishes out punishment to those who deserve it, through Groo 🙂
Groo’s lack of math skills are really shown here, whether’s counting thousands of kopins or fighting people, once he has to count above one, he’s lost. It still all works out for the best in the end though 😀
★★★✬☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Groo has plenty of money from the previous comic. Pal and Drumm cheat him out of it with bad weapons. Only for Groo to be so dumb as to make his money back but also to get another whole load of weapons. And he sells them all, makes tons of money AND gets to fight both armies at the end.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Infinite and the Divine Series: Warhammer 40K: Necrons Author: Robert Rath Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 339 Words: 112K
This book came across my radar back in January, when Mark Reviewed It. It deals with two Necrons, Trazyn the Infinite and Orikan the Divine, hence the title of the book.
Oh yes, I plan to interject various Magic the Gathering cards from the Warhammer Commander set from 2022. Prepare yourselves accordingly!
They have always been enemies, even when they were still flesh and the Bio-Transference Ceremony that turned the entire Necrontyr race into Immortal Metal Necrons hasn’t stopped that rivalry.
They have found a Magical Boojum that one wants to hoard and the other wants to investigate. So for the next 10,000 years they fight and backstab and occasionally work together to figure out just what this Magical Boojum is. Well, bad news guys. It was a trap all along! The Necrons were tricked by a race called the C’Tan, godlike beings, who ate their souls when they turned the Necrontyr into the Necrons. Pretty sneaky. Well, the Necrons weren’t too happy about that and did their best to wipe out the C’Tan. They did a pretty good job, except they didn’t quite destroy them all. Those they couldn’t destroy they put into Shards, basically permanent prison. One Shard didn’t take this sitting down and decided to do something and eventually break free. Which is what this Magical Boojum does. The C’Tan breaks free, Orikan and Trazyn are forced to work together to destroy it and the book ends with both Necrons having a piece of a sub-shard which they are convinced they can handle, secretly and on their own. Sigh.
While not as bad as Farsight, this book still does rely on the reader having some knowledge of the Warhammer 40K universe. Too much in my opinion. You have to know that the space elves destroyed their society by creating one of the Chaos Gods. You have to know that the C’Tan forced the Necrontyr into becoming the Necrons. You have to have heard of the Horus Heresy and understand that it was a civil war in the human empire. There is an instance of the Empire of Mankind performing an Exterminatus on the planet that the Magical Boojum is hidden on, but the author does a pretty good job of explaining that so you aren’t left flailing, trying to figure out what it is.
Rath also does an excellent job of showing how time is so different for a race that is functionally immortal. The middle section of the book encompasses just over 8,000 years and Rath has both characters look up and realize 2,000 years have passed while they’ve been doing whatever. The “time” aspect was handled very well.
The end of the book is one massive battle that starts as a betrayal between Orikan and Trazyn and then spirals out of control as they realize that a C’Tan has tricked them both. They throw everything they have against him and barely make it out. Rath throws in tons of Necron military types to the mix and eventually my eyes just glazed over and I read it all as “then another Necron did something something something”.
Overall, I enjoyed this and found out a lot about the Necrons, but that wouldn’t have happened without input from Mark. I was doing a buddy-read with Dave and he had just as many questions as I did. The blind leading the blind as it were.
One the plus side, I got to showcase a bunch of Magic Cards, so that’s a big plus, hahahahaa.
★★★✬☆
From TVTropes.com
Synopsis – click to open
the novel follows two Necron lords, Trazyn the Infinite, a collector of ancient artifacts, and Orikan the Diviner, a powerful chronomancer. Trazyn and Orikan have been enemies for millennia, but when Orikan steals the Astrarium Mysterios from Trazyn’s collection, believing it to be the key to unlocking an ancient power, the two are dragged into direct conflict. Over the course of ten thousand years, they go from competing over ownership of the Mysterios, to working together to unlock its secrets, to stabbing each other in the back over it. Their feud reshapes timelines, dooms planets, and threatens to either destroy or restore the entire Necron race.
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: Lady Susan Series: ———- Author: Jane Austen Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Classic novella Pages: 85 Words: 23K
When I originally read this back in ‘13, it was as part of Austen’s collected “Minor Works”. As such, in my mind it was incomplete, because I was mixing it up with Sanditon. I assumed it was unfinished because it was so short. The reality though, is that it is a novella and reading it on its own this time, I realized it has a beginning, a middle and an end. It is also in the epistolary style (the story is told through letters written to and from various characters) and I have a weakness for that particular literary device. It just works for me, so I had a great time this time around.
Lady Susan, the titular character, is, to put it bluntly, a home wrecker. She’s recently widowed and on the prowl for her next meal ticket. She gets involved with a married man, because “he’s interesting” and then when that causes a scandal, removes to the countryside to live with her brother-in-law and his wife. The wife’s brother comes to visit and Lady Susan decides to play with him. While keeping the married man on the leash AND keeping an eye on yet a third rich young man, who she thinks should marry her 16 year old daughter. Lots of drama ensues between family as the story progresses and we get to see the true Lady Susan through her letters to a friend in London. In the end, the daughter of Lady Susan is set to marry the good rich young man and Lady Susan ends up with the third young man, who is rich as Croesus, but extremely stupid. No come uppances are anywhere to be seen.
I was amazed at just how brazen Lady Susan was in her letters to her friend in London. She tells her real thoughts on everyone around her, outlines in detail her schemes for herself and her daughter and generally shows just how terrible a person she is. I would have been ashamed to even write in my own private journal some of the things she casually and glibly writes about. To be frankly so self-centered and selfish with no concerns for anyone besides herself, well, I’d be embarrassed to admit even to myself that I was that kind of person.
I did have a little trouble keeping track who was who. With several people referring to each other by their titles and last names instead of their family relation or full name, I had to concentrate on who Mrs Vincent Godfrey the 4th was, or how they were related to Miss Emma Murray. Thankfully, I WAS able to keep everyone straight, even if they did just refer to each other as Mrs Godfrey or Miss Murray. Naming conventions and their usage is another one of those little time capsules that I so enjoy about reading older books, even if it does take work on my part.
Reading this by itself emphasized the ending and I was glad to see this as a complete story instead of the “fragment” I thought it was in my head.
★★★★☆
From Wikipedia.org
Synopsis – click to open
Lady Susan Vernon, a beautiful and charming recent widow, visits her brother-in-law and his wife, Charles and Catherine Vernon, with little advance notice at Churchill, their country residence. Catherine is far from pleased, as Lady Susan had tried to prevent her marriage to Charles and her unwanted guest has been described to her as “the most accomplished coquette in England”. Among Lady Susan’s conquests is the married Mr. Manwaring.
Catherine’s brother Reginald arrives a week later, and despite Catherine’s strong warnings about Lady Susan’s character, soon falls under her spell. Lady Susan toys with the younger man’s affections for her own amusement and later because she perceives it makes her sister-in-law uneasy. Her confidante, Mrs. Johnson, to whom she writes frequently, recommends she marry the very eligible Reginald, but Lady Susan considers him to be greatly inferior to Manwaring.
Frederica, Lady Susan’s 16-year-old daughter, tries to run away from school when she learns of her mother’s plan to marry her off to a wealthy but insipid young man she loathes. She also becomes a guest at Churchill. Catherine comes to like her—her character is totally unlike her mother’s—and as time goes by, detects Frederica’s growing attachment to the oblivious Reginald.
Later, Sir James Martin, Frederica’s unwanted suitor, shows up uninvited, much to her distress and her mother’s vexation. When Frederica begs Reginald for support out of desperation (having been forbidden by Lady Susan to turn to Charles and Catherine), she causes a temporary breach between Reginald and Lady Susan, but the latter soon repairs the rupture.
Lady Susan decides to return to London and marry her daughter off to Sir James. Reginald follows, still bewitched by her charms and intent on marrying her, but he encounters Mrs. Manwaring at the home of Mr. Johnson and finally learns Lady Susan’s true character. Lady Susan ends up marrying Sir James herself, and allows Frederica to reside with Charles and Catherine at Churchill, where Reginald De Courcy “could be talked, flattered, and finessed into an affection for her.”
Dude is built like a brick! If he was shorter, I’d say “Hey look, it’s me!”. But he’s way too tall to be me. Plus, I’m rocking the goatee while he’s got the evil villain mustache thing going. And my abs don’t “quite” look like that. Maybe if you squint though.
Besides his Archmage, the Hidden King was also protected by his Soul Guardian. Knowing he was vulnerable to attacks powered by the Tree of Day and Night, the Hidden King had broken his soul up into five parts. Four of them he entrusted to his Soul Guardian, who had the power to hide from the Tree of Day and Night and whoever might use its power. The fifth part of his soul though, the Hidden King had decided to hide it away where only HE would know of it. Thus was born his name, the Hidden King.
Chartreuse EmperorForest Refuge
The Mad Chartreuse Emperor was driven to frothing fits of pique in his search to destroy the Hidden King’s soul. With his entire pool of power tainted by the Tree of Day and Night, even the power stolen from the Spirit of the World Guardian wasn’t enough to allow him to find the soul aspects. The Soul Guardian was doing his job of protecting the King’s four soul aspects perfectly. The Chartreuse Emperor sat in his Forest Refuge, brooding, planning, seeking a way to destroy his foes. He knew his destiny, that this world would belong to him and him alone, and nothing would prevent that.
Murder Your Thirst, with a Chainsaw made out of Mangos!
In recent months I’ve been trying to wean myself away from drinking diet soda, mainly because of all the chemicals in them that I KNOW aren’t good for me. As a diabetic, drinking regular soda with it’s 3 day supply of sugar in one can just isn’t an option, so I always went diet. But as I’m getting older and my midlife is staring me full in the face, I’ve realized I have to take better care of myself, even if in small ways. A friend of mine from my Bibleschool days always talked about how he just drank seltzer and so I began that. It has worked. I get my bubbly without the thick, cloying sensation of artificial sweetener and I don’t feel like I’m pouring something down my throat that can clean toilets. But I have to admit, the “flavor” of seltzers is so light that at times it is really nonexistent and I just crave some flavor.
Enter the Fortuitous Hand of DESTINY!
I was browsing Amazon one day while looking for deals on Rockstarenergy drinks and saw Liquid Death. I thought it was a new brand of energy drink to be honest and so I bought a case to check it out. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was only flavored sparkling water. More flavor than seltzer though! And it comes in 20oz cans, which is a big plus for me, as I like to have something to sip all evening long as I read on the couch or write up my latest masterpiece for the blog.
I later found out that Liquid Death is marketed towards Metal Heads, to try to get them to drink more water and stop being dumby heads. There’s a whole marketing scheme about selling your soul to the Company, etc, etc. That doesn’t bother me at all because I’m sure the Company believes in your soul about as much as I believe that you can sell it. So as I’m typing this, Thursday evening, I’m eating some french bread pizza and sipping on a Mango Chainsaw Liquid Death. Eat, Drink and Blog is a great way to spend your evening!
And on to this week’s part of the My Week post.
Bupkiss. Doody. Nothing. Voido. Entropy!
Oh wait. I ate some cold cereal for dinner one day. That counts as exciting and exhilarating blog material right? Sigh, yeah, I didn’t think so either. That’s the problem with being me. I crave the bland weeks, the weeks where nothing happens. I WANT my days to blend into each other, where I literally can’t tell one from the other. Because that means everything is going smoothly, that there are no hiccups. Hiccups in Life always means bad things in my experience.
Like thinking your eye doctor appointment is just a checkup and so you make plans with Mrs B to go to IHOP afterwards to have breakfast for dinner (because that IS exciting news and blows having cold cereal right out of the water) and then finding out that no, you’re scheduled to get injections in both eyes that day. Now THAT is a hiccup. Because all you can do afterwards is get driven home, take 2 extra strength Tylenol and collapse into bed and hope you feel better by the next morning. Things like THAT are not what I look forward to. If you do, you are a sick fether and I’ll gladly put you out of your misery.
See, weeks that have things like that are not cool. So I just pretend that that didn’t happen this week and thus nothing happened and I am entirely happy and you get a vanilla post about nothing. Which I’m ok with too, because really, just who do you think you are that I have to entertain you? YOU should be entertaining ME in the comments section. So get cracking.
Or you could always buy me some more Liquid Death. I wouldn’t say no to that…
ps, the featured image for this post is the side of the box of Liquid Death. Yep, that’s what the box looks like…
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: Counterstrike Series: Empire Rising #11 Author: David Holmes Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 458 Words: 180K
This is where Humanity tries to turn things around and go on the offensive against the Karacknids (giant xenophobic space spiders). So far, Humanity has been playing nothing but defense but here, Emperor Somerville and other top notch Space Commadores take various fast attack groups behind the front lines and attack the support structure enabling the Karacknid War Machine. It works well, very well. The only problem is, unknown to Humanity, the Karacknids are moving in a massive space fleet from another front and they plan to use all 10,000 ships to absolutely crush Humanity and the Alliance.
This was another chunkster of a book. Every time I pick up one of these Empire Rising novels, it always surprises me just how long they are. But then I start reading and I’m never bored, never.
It was quite the interesting dichotomy as a reader, knowing from the get-go that the Karacknids had a massive fleet on the way, while we are reading about the successes of Humanity in the war on their infrastructure. It was hard to be excited for the victories because we knew the giant hammer was looming, just out of sight.
The book ends with humanity once again on the back foot and all is in doubt. Now, we know that isn’t the truth because every chapter starts with a saying from the book Empire Rising, written in the year 3000, which chronicles the history of the rise of the Human Empire. So I know that Humanity is going to win, eventually, against the Karacknids. I think it is a testimony to Holmes’ skill as an author that I can still feel trepidation about the outcome even while knowing the eventual longterm outcome.
I can’t remember if I’ve stated it before or not, but Holmes has passed from the realm of mere writer/scribbler into the realm of Author in my opinion. He writes real, different, compelling characters (everyone is not the same character with just a different name), with exciting scenarios that do not feel repetitive. My only niggles are that he really needs to tighten up his prose (450+ pages is long, period) and he needs to make his characters actually grow. While distinct in voice, they remain the same. James is pretty much the same now as he was in the first book, The Void War. Like I said, minor quibbles.
Otherwise, I remain quite happy to keep reading this series a couple of books at a time. Holmes has been writing this series since 2015 and book 19 just came out this past March. I’m ok with that given the quality shown here.
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
Synopsis – Click to Open
The Karacknid invasion of Human space has been temporarily thwarted. A window of opportunity has opened up. Through it Emperor Somerville hopes to strike deep into Karacknid territory to buy Earth and the Varanni Alliance the breathing space they need to replace their losses. On the other side of the Karacknid Empire, Rear Admiral Becket and the Conclave species are planning a pre-emptive strike of their own. With relatively undefended borders, Becket has seen an opportunity to hit the Karacknids where they least expect it. Yet the Karacknid’s power is far from diminished. After the series of defeats the Karacknids have suffered, their Imperator has now focused his full attention on destroying Humanity and the Varanni Alliance. Nothing short of the total conquest of Humanity’s colonies has been ordered. The full might of the Karacknid Navy has been tasked to bring it about. For James, Christine, Lightfoot, Becket and all the others, their own lives and the future of the Empire is at stake.
