Not much to report on the work front. Working 11+hr days, while exhausting, isn’t exactly news. As of this post going live I’ve got 38hrs and there’s still today to get through. Also, there’s only so many ways to say “I cut some trees down and tramped all over creation” before it starts to sound repetitive. On the plus side, that means I did not encounter a bear, or a moose. Or even mutant acorn flying bears that drop out of trees and eviscerate you and eat your brains. Those are the worst. For which I am very grateful; that I didn’t encounter them, not that they eviscerate people, because that would actually be kind of cool.
He WILL eat your brains. Unless you’re armed with a machete of course.
You should be grateful too, otherwise there would be nothing here for you to read and then you would be sad. You would be a sad, lonely blogger. But I am here and I’m your friend, so now you are a happy, popular blogger! And as a bonus, you still have your brains and viscera.
Hurray!
And what really makes a blogger happy? This is a multiple choice test, so here are your choices:
Eating at “Rubbin Butts BBQ” (it’s a real place, I kid you not)
Getting 1 million followers who promptly do nothing and never interact with you
Running over a squirrel
Buying 8 journals
Writing the best post in your entire life in said journals and then bragging about it on your blog and telling everyone they simply aren’t worthy to read it.
Remember, there are no wrong answers here. But if you don’t pick the correct one, I’m totally scourging you with a flaming, fiery whip from hell.
Because I can.
I am currently writing in my last journal and should have it filled up by Thanksgiving or Christmas. With that impetus, I went and bought the eight current Paperblanks Embellished Manuscripts journals that I didn’t yet own.
This week you just get to see the packages they all came in. Over the coming weeks I’ll be showcasing each one individually for your viewing pleasure.
I’ve talked about the PEM journals before and how much I like them, but I think I’m going to talk about them some more. I’ve written about my journaling journey before (A History of…Journaling) and have gone through a wide variety of styles.
The reason I like the PEM’s the best is three fold.
First, they lay flat when opened without having any pressure put on them. I do a lot of my journaling while sitting, in a pew, in the work van, on the couch at home. I need the pages to lie flat so I can easily write on them. If I have to press on the journal to keep it open while writing, that doesn’t make for a good writing time.
Second, they have a flap closure. This means that when closed, the pages are not subject to rubbing up against whatever else I may have in my bag. It also means it can’t accidentally fall open and expose all my secrets to the world. Like the formula for becoming one of the world’s foremost bloggers.
Thirdly, it is the right shape and size for me. It’s not quite square but neither is it so narrow that I feel I can only write 5 words on one line. The line spacing is also good for my eyes so I can write as large as I need to without strain.
And I think that’s enough blabbing from me. Happy Sabbath when it arrives for you (sun down).
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: KTF Part I Series: Galaxy’s Edge #16 Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Military SF Pages: 267 Words: 87K
KTF stands for Kill Them First, which is one of the mottoes of the Legion.
It turns out that Ravi, the last Ancient in our universe, didn’t die in the previous book. He simply broke a covenant that freed Dark Forces to act as they were going to eventually anyway.
And all during this time, the original Savage has been biding his time, learning, becoming knowledgeable in the power that Goth Sullus called The Crux. The power that Prisma is trying to learn about. She is now with her mother, who is also a savage in thrall to this God of the Savages. He is the one who set the original Savage Wars in motion and now, he not only plans on starting the Second Savage War, but he also has plans to contain the Consumption, the Dark Force that has been trying to gain access to our universe. With that power under his control, he truly IS approaching godhood.
I enjoyed this much more than the previous book but not enough to redeem the path the authors are going overall.
The Consumption is the Dark Force that Tyrus Rechs was trying to warn everyone against. It is the force the Legion was created to eventually fight against and when the Legion went bad before Article 19, the force Dark Ops were created to fight against. And it turns out he was being used by the Savage King even way back then. So everything we thought we knew has been thrown into question.
This was a good, enjoyable military science fiction story and if this wasn’t book 16 in a series, I’d probably give it a much higher rating, maybe even a 4star. But the authors, Anspach and Cole, have spit on me and my Star Wars fandom and I can’t overlook that, nor will I. 3Stars is as high as my reading conscious will let me go.
★★★☆☆
From the Publisher
Synopsis – click to open
The Savage Wars never ended.
As Kill Team Victory and General Chhun take control of the cities on Kima, a war every bit as spiritual as it is physical rages in the deepest parts of galaxy’s edge. The Legion, and the Republic military at large, struggle to deal with a sudden multitude of planetary invasions and uprisings — with rumors of mysterious ships breaking the peace achieved by Article Nineteen. Meanwhile Captain Aeson Keel continues his search for Prisma, aided by friends from both his past and present. But only mankind’s oldest ally can hold back the tide of ultimate destruction. For an unknown darkness is closing in, and the Republic once again stands on the threshold of galactic war.
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: Mostly Harmless Series: THGttG #5 Author: Douglas Adams Rating: 1 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 148 Words: 64K
In the first book, I stated that the philosophy of Hedonistic Nihilism portrayed by Adams disturbed me. That got some good comments going.
Well, I feel flipping vindicated. The book ends with the Vogons destroying every version of Earth on every possible space/time continuum. And Arthur just sits back and enjoys the thought of the coming total nonexistence coming his way.
I cannot state strongly enough how abhorrent I find that attitude.
★☆☆☆☆
ps,
Two sub-2star books in a row is a REALLY BAD WAY TO START THE MONTH!!! Just saying…
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – click to open
Arthur Dent plans to sightsee across the Galaxy with his girlfriend Fenchurch, but she disappears during a hyperspace jump, a result of being from an unstable sector of the Galaxy. Depressed, Arthur continues to travel the galaxy using samples of his bodily tissues/fluids to fund his travels, assured of his safety until he visits Stavromula Beta, having killed an incarnation of Agrajag at some point in the future at said planet. During one trip, he ends up stranded on the homely planet Lamuella, and decides to stay to become a sandwich maker for the local population.
Meanwhile, Ford Prefect has returned to the offices of the Hitchhiker’s Guide, and is annoyed to find out the original publishing company, Megadodo Publications, has been taken over by InfiniDim Enterprises, which are run by the Vogons. Fearing for his life, he escapes the building, along the way stealing the yet-unpublished, seemingly sentient Hitchhiker’s Guide Mk. II. He goes into hiding after sending the Guide to himself, care of Arthur, for safekeeping.
On Lamuella, Arthur is surprised by the appearance of Trillian with a teenage daughter, Random Dent. Trillian explains that she wanted a child, and used the only human DNA she could find, thus claiming that Arthur is Random’s father. She leaves Random with Arthur to allow her to better pursue her career as an intergalactic reporter. Random is frustrated with Arthur and life on Lamuella; when Ford’s package to Arthur arrives, she takes it and discovers the Guide. The Guide helps her to escape the planet on Ford’s ship after Ford arrives on the planet looking for Arthur. Discovering Random, the Guide, and Ford’s ship missing, the two manage to find a way to leave Lamuella and head for Earth, where they suspect Random is also heading to find Trillian. Ford expresses concern at the Guide’s manipulation of events, noting its “Unfiltered Perception” and fearing its potence and ultimate objective.
Reporter Tricia McMillan is a version of Trillian living on an alternate Earth who never took Zaphod Beeblebrox’s offer to travel in space. She is approached by an extraterrestrial species, the Grebulons, who have created a base of operations on the planet Rupert, a recently discovered tenth planet in the Solar System. However, due to damage to their ship in arriving, they have lost most of their computer core and their memories, with the only salvageable instructions being to observe something interesting with Earth. They ask Tricia’s help to adapt astrology charts for Rupert in exchange for allowing her to interview them. She fulfills their request and conducts the interview, but the resulting footage looks so fake that she fears it will destroy her reputation if broadcast. She is called away from editing the footage to report on a spaceship landing in the middle of London.
As Tricia arrives at the scene, Random steps off the ship and begins to yell at her, mistaking Tricia for her mother. Arthur, Ford, and Trillian arrive and help Tricia to calm Random. They remove her from the chaos surrounding the spacecraft and take her to a bar. Trillian tries to warn the group that the Grebulons, having become bored with their mission, are about to destroy the Earth. Random disrupts the discussion by producing a laser gun she took from her ship. Arthur, still believing he cannot die, tries to calm Random, but a distraction causes her to fire the weapon, sending the bar into a panic. Arthur tends to a man hit by the blast, who drops a matchbook with the name of the bar – “Stavro Mueller – Beta” – and Arthur realizes that this is the scene of Agrajag’s final death. He sees Ford laughing wildly at this turn of events and experiences a “tremendous feeling of peace”.[1]
The Grebulons destroy the Earth, believing that their horoscopes will improve if it is removed from their astrological charts. It is revealed that the Vogons designed the Guide Mk. II to achieve their desired outcome by manipulating temporal events. As a result, every version of the Earth in all realities is obliterated, fulfilling the demolition order that was issued in the first novel. Its mission complete, the Guide collapses into nothingness.
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: False Flag Series: Jason Trapp #2 Author: Jack Slater Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Action/Adventure Pages: 362 Words: 114K
This was an absolute piece of garbage, trash, whatever word you’d like to refer to it as. I’ll be done with this writer after this.
To give any of those of you who have hung around for awhile a comparison, this reminded me exactly of the Agent Zero series and the Jet series, both of which were also about supposedly super duper secret agents written by authors who obviously don’t know a thing about that subject, and I do mean absolutely nothing about it.
I ended up emailing Fraggle to run some things across her radar to make sure I wasn’t completely out to lunch. I wasn’t. So I’m going to copy/paste the majority of that email to show just how stupid this author this and why a brick wall is smarter than he supposedly is.
I didn’t start taking notes until later. I wish I had started from the get-go. But I’ll try to list the chapter, the relevant sentence or sentences in italics and then my question or comment.
I also had a ton more notes after where I leave off, but most of it was around Trapp being wildly inconsistent in his methodology (who he kills, why, etc) that shows he’s not a professional at all. We’re just told that he is. I was getting steamed, again, so figured I’d leave off 😀
Plus a lot more pro-China stuff. The President of the United States would NEVER lower himself to talk to some random ambassador. He’d be on the Red Phone, or whatever color it is, with the General Secretary (ie, China’s president) himself. And this is an instance of the author just not getting the American mindset. Whether it is of Trapp or anyone else, they do not THINK like Americans who are in those positions. It is Hollywood’ized beyond even Hollywood.
Chapter 14: about Trapp
“Maybe he was being irrational, but he couldn’t help it.“
The “best in the business” agent, like Trapp supposedly is, has that kind of feelingzzz trained out of him. He CAN help it, or he would have been dead long before this.
Chapter 23: about Ikeda (female agent)
“Alstyne was her first kill. He deserved it, but the CIA operative was no psychopath. She should have been flown directly to an Agency shrink after completing the operation, for a debrief to check he mental state.”
Is equating killing of any kind with being a psychopath. I can’t even begin to describe how wrong that mindset is. Especially for those in a military/black ops situation.
Killing is part and parcel of an agents job. It is beyond unbelievable that she would have immediately flown back to have her little feelingz coddled. She’d get a 10min exam to make sure she didn’t enjoy it and that would be it. She’d spend more time on paperwork for the poison lipstick. And only a naive idiot in the business would think otherwise. Or an uninformed writer.
Chapter 28: about Trapp arriving in China
“he knew that if America picked a fight with this country, it would be like Germany invading the Soviet Union in 1941, or Napoleon doing the same a hundred and fifty years earlier.”
Choice of the word “picked a fight”. The whole book is pro-China, anti-America and no agent of the United States black ops would even THINK that way. And numbers aren’t everything. Sure, China has 4 times the US’s population, but 9/10ths of them are still uneducated peasants, because China’s communist party keeps them that way to control them. We’d kill the leadership and let the country wallow like a ship without a rudder. I’m a civilian and even I know that much military doctrine.
Chapter 39: about Trapp and his boss talking about Ikeda
““Ikeda isn’t the priority,” Mitchell said sharply. “She knew what she was signing up for. Those are the risks in this business.” Trapp’s fist clenched, and a pang of anger shot through his body. He knew that Mitchell wasn’t saying anything that he himself didn’t believe. Hell, he’d said exactly the same to others many times. But this, somehow, was different. It wasn’t academic, or cut and dry. He had sent Eliza into that room and hadn’t been able to protect her. She might have known what she was signing up for. But she couldn’t possibly have expected to have been failed in that way. This was Trapp’s mess. And he damn well intended to clean it up.“
He obviously doesn’t believe it, otherwise he wouldn’t be “reacting” this way. He’s no professional. It isn’t different. Every agent can expect to die on a mission, and to be tortured first. Trapp knows this, Ikeda knows this. And it isn’t Trapp’s job to “protect” Ikeda, she’s a full fledged agent after all. Nor is it his “mess”. His job was to kill the scumbag and recover the info/flash drive. He did both of those. Rescuing Ikeda is a good thing, but it’s not priority, just like his boss says at the beginning.
Chapter 42:
“”But in all those years, at least since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the real threat had come from terrorists, not nation states.“
And those terrorists were and continue to be, funded by Nation States. It’s a series of proxy wars. 9/11 was funded by the Saudis. Libya trained and funded terrorist cells all during the 70’s and up until Qaddafi died. And a “trained agent” would know this and not make asinine statements like the above.
★✬☆☆☆
From Devilreads.com
Synopsis – click to open
They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But Jason Trapp is losing his taste for it. For six months, his personal crusade has taken him around the world, mopping up the last of the Bloody Monday conspirators. There’s only one left, and after the crooked financier Emmanuel Alstyne meets his maker, Trapp’s debt will be paid in full. He vows he’s done with the business of death. Unfortunately, it isn’t done with him. After a simple kill mission goes sideways in Macau, leaving a CIA spy kidnapped, half a dozen Chinese agents dead, and America’s satellites burning in the skies, Trapp is propelled back into the game. Eliza Ikeda was taken on his watch, and he’s determined to get her back–no matter the cost. The problem is, he has no idea who took her, why, or what they plan to do next. Trapp knows he’s being played. And with the world’s only two superpowers hurtling toward the precipice of war, time is running out…
ps, Due to work, my online presence for the next couple of days will be very sporadic.
The trip to Georgia went really well. Meeting our niece for the first time in real life was good and I hope she can remember who we are, because it’ll be a couple more years before she sees us in real life again. Taking that time off from writing on the blog was good for me too. I needed it more than I realized.
Fall is here. Period. Leaves are falling off the trees. Acorns too, and let me tell you, those things HURT when they hit you on the top of the head. It does mean work is going to be an absolute delight for 4-5 weeks as the cool air is perfect working weather and the falling leaves means site distances almost double. That means 1/4 less work! This is the time of year I look forward to the most.
I read a good bit less this month and so my metrics are all down. I’m ok with that though, as it was mostly due to the Georgia trip. I didn’t read a single book during those 5-6days. I did read on the airplane, but I don’t count that. Taking a break from reading was good for me too.
Plans for Next Month:
Pumpkin Festival!!!!!! Yeah baby.
Because the Book Hauls of Misery are over, I will be returning to my regularly scheduled My Week posts a bit more.
Over the last year or so both Mrs B and I have been finding that we have been getting disconnected from keeping the Sabbath (Saturday, a day of rest and worship) in a meaningful way. We will be taking concrete steps to combat this and one of those steps will be that I won’t be posting on Saturdays. I still plan to read and comment on others’ blogs, but I don’t want my attention to be drawn to my own things. Having Fridays off in the previous months has been a good stress reliever but now I want to move that to where it belongs. It does mean that I am planning on doing double posts on Mondays, but you’ll survive, because I trust in the Power of Friendship! ~gag puke barf, etc….
It has been a year since I last reposted my About page. So for all the new people, enjoy. For all your old followers, Mr Zip says welcome back. He has such sights to show you!
Here are some things to know about me that might make your interactions a tiny bit easier. If you still have questions, you can always email me:
Bookstoog eat proto nmail do tcom
1) I am a pretty devout Christian. Weird personal mix of Baptist and 7th Day Adventist. To over-simplify it, that means I believe in the Bible literally and I go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday. It also means that it influences what I read, how I read and how I review.
2) I am a Man. I cannot state this boldly enough or enough times. Be prepared. Mancakes Ahead!
3) I like Science fiction, Fantasy, Classics [1900’s and earlier] and mysteries. I’ll read other stuff, but not regularly. As I’ve gotten older, my tastes have broadened though, so chances are pretty good you’ll see more than what I listed there..
4) I tend to read 100+ books a year.
5) Of the 5 Love Languages, [quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, or physical touch] my main one is Words of affirmation. Or just words 🙂 Which means that I tend to post and comment quite a bit. I am NOT a once a week poster.
6) To go along with #1, I graduated from a non-accredited Bible school, so I’ve got a working man’s knowledge of how to be a Pastor, just not the actual degree. Or the temperament.
7) I am NOT a people person. People wear me out, even online. Then I say things that later I sometimes regret. Then I need chicken fingers to recover!
Mr Zip loves you as much as he knows you love him.
8) I am happily married to Mrs Bookstooge. For some reason she really loves me. 16 years and it’s still a mystery to me.
9) If you disagree with something in my posts or reviews, feel free to say so; IF you want to actually have a conversation with someone who disagrees with you. Most times I will try to move such conversations to email.
10) I am a land surveyor. I work outdoors year round in New England. The picture below is of me. It typifies why I like being a surveyor.
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: Wyrd Sisters Series: Discworld #6 Author: Terry Pratchett Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 210 Words: 85K
I really enjoyed this. I do wonder though if in another decade the references that Pratchett makes to such people as the Marx Brothers, Laurel & Hardy and Charlie Chaplin will be as meaningless as references to Britney Spears. A grasp of Shakespeare, while not essential, will make the read much fuller.
The humor, while not laugh out loud, felt genuine and actually funny, unlike in Sourcery. The humor of the witches is earthy and natural and springs from human nature itself. Which is why I think it feels so genuine each time and not forced like with Rincewind. That’s important for a series of book built on humor, even if elements of the sardonic are involved.
The inclusion of Nanny Og and Magrat help offset Granny Weatherwax as an irascible old woman. Nanny Og is an old nympho and Magrat is the sad sack meant to generate sympathy. Each has her strengths and weaknesses and they fit very well together as a unit. It provides a much wider variety of situations for Pratchett to work with and I think his writing will be the better for that.
People always ask where to start with Discworld. I used to give my favorite books as a starting place but this deliberate series re-read has made me realize that people need to start at the beginning and just work their way through the series as Pratchett wrote them. Sure, you will get some books you don’t enjoy as much, but you’ll also get the full Discworld experience and THAT is more important than your enjoyment of an individual book. Think of Discworld like Communism and Pratchett as Chairman Mao and you’ll get the idea 😉
Hail Comrades, may the New Order Enlighten you!
★★★★☆
From Wikipedia.org
Synopsis – click to open
Wyrd Sisters features three witches: Granny Weatherwax; Nanny Ogg, matriarch of a large tribe of Oggs and owner of the most evil cat in the world; and Magrat Garlick, the junior witch, who firmly believes in occult jewelry, covens, and bubbling cauldrons, much to the annoyance of the other two.
King Verence I of Lancre is murdered by his cousin, Duke Felmet, after his ambitious wife persuades him to do so. The King’s crown and child are given by an escaping servant to the three witches. The witches hand the child to a troupe of travelling actors, and hide the crown in the props-box. They acknowledge that destiny will eventually take its course and that the child, Tomjon, will grow up to defeat Duke Felmet and take his rightful place as king.
However, the kingdom is angry about the way the new King is mistreating the land and his subjects. The witches realise that it will be at least 15 years until Tomjon is able to return and save the kingdom, but by then irreparable damage will have been done. Granny Weatherwax, with help from the other two witches, manages to cast a spell over the entire kingdom to send it forward in time by 15 years. Meanwhile, the duke has decided to have a play written and performed that portrays him in a favourable light and the witches in a negative light. He thinks this will cause the witches to lose their power, and the people will like him. He sends the court Fool to Ankh-Morpork to recruit the same acting company that Tomjon was given to, which now resides in the Dysk Theatre on the river Ankh.
The company make their way to Lancre, and perform the play for the King as asked. However, Hwel, the playwright, maintains that there is something wrong with the plot of the play, something that just doesn’t feel right. The witches cast a spell in the middle of the play that causes the actors to portray the killing of the king truthfully, and the audience sees that the Duke and Duchess are guilty of killing Verence I. Felmet finally succumbs to insanity and stabs several people with a retracting stage dagger, before tripping and falling to his death in the Lancre Gorge. The Duchess is imprisoned but manages to escape, only to be killed by a collection of various forest animals who want revenge for the poor treatment of the land.
Granny Weatherwax explains that Tomjon is the rightful king, and he is due to be crowned. However, Tomjon does not want to be king; he is an extremely talented actor and wishes to continue his career with his adopted father, Vitoller. Instead Granny Weatherwax tells the town that the Fool is in fact the king’s son from another mother, and Tomjon’s half-brother, and he is crowned King Verence II of Lancre. Later on, Granny and Nanny reveal to Magrat that the previous fool is actually Tomjon’s and Verence II’s father. The status of Magrat and Verence II, who have been awkwardly courting throughout the story, is not fully explained at the conclusion.
Now that the Chartreuse Emperor rules his world, albeit a blasted and wasted world, it is time to turn our eyes elsewhere…
A happy scene, one of frolicking dragons in a lovely blue sky. We see before us the King of the Dragons, a lordly yet kindly being, taking care of his subjects like they were his own children.
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 Bankers of Avara Series: Groo the Wanderer #32 Author: Sergio Aragones Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Comics Pages: 24 Words: 2K
I read this. I enjoyed this. The end.
★★★✬☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Now that Groo has a fortune from his previous misadventures, everybody is his friend. Thinking he is getting lots of jobs to earn money, Groo accidentally sets in motion a chain of events wherein he has become the prime lender in the town of Avara. At the same time, the robbers who tried to cheat him before are tracking him down to steal back the money. And Groo gives his money to a bunch of monks for safekeeping, who use it to gild their little temple. Everything goes wrong at the end and nobody is happy.
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 Kestrel Series: Westmark #2 Author: Lloyd Alexander Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: MG Fantasy Pages: 145 Words: 64K
While I vaguely remembered reading Westmark back in the 90’s, after reading this, I am pretty sure I never read this back then. I suspect I would have disliked this very much back then. Now, I can see it for the coming of age, things aren’t that simple, kind of story and I was impressed. Alexander deals with some heavy topics of civil authority, politics and the reality of international intrigue.
Theo, from the previous book, is the aforementioned Kestrel. He starts out as the naive young man who thinks everyone is basically good and descends into the blood thirsty revolutionary the Kestrel and ends up back as Theo, the Prince Consort, a much wiser, sadder and deeper man. As an adult, it hurt to watch Theo get the brutal education he did, but sadly, that’s what most of the world gets when they grow up. It made me realize just how blessed I am, with the upbringing I’ve had.
There is no magic here, no fantasy beyond taking place in another world. I suspect this would work better for a kid who is interested in history but maybe doesn’t know it yet? The style is the same as the Chronicles of Prydain but without having any fantastic elements makes it feel so different. It is a really weird feeling. I can see why this hasn’t been as popular over the years as the Prydain Chronicles.
I don’t ever see myself reading this again. Or recommending it either.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – click to open
Theo is traveling through Westmark, learning about the country of which he will soon be Prince Consort. He is not surprised to find great poverty: Mickle – now known as Princess Augusta – could have told him that from her years on the street. His friend Florian could have told him about the aristocracy’s graft and corruption. But neither could have foreseen a loaded pistol in the practiced hand of the assassin Skeit. The echoes of that shot ring from the muskets and cannons of a Westmark suddenly at war – a war that turns simple, honest men into cold-blooded killers, Mickle into a military commander, and Theo himself into a stranger.
As set up in Westmark, Theo and Mickle are in love. A corrupt general is in a cabal with a rival country, and plans to surrender after a token resistance, allowing a country with a more aristocratic government to replace the more populist Mickle who is seen as too close to revolutionaries like Florian. However, although the general surrenders, his soldiers refuse to, and the nominal resistance becomes a full-blown war as the people fight to determine their own destiny.
Similar to how the aristocratic powers of the time invaded France to restore the aristocracy, here a foreign country is meddling in the internal affairs of Westmark. And just as France repelled the great powers with an army led by the people and of the people, the Westmark forces run by Florian, and his lieutenants, Theo — now the eponymous Kestrel — and Justin, fight to preserve the country. But becoming a general, a tradesman in blood and death, costs the artistic and conscientious Theo a great deal. He has to cut off pieces of himself in the service of a more pressing need.
Meanwhile, Mickle must run her government in exile. Musket and his master, Count Las Bombas, are dragged in to serve as her advisors. She says she wants his advice, as he used to serve with the Salamanca lancers, one of his blustery claims from Westmark. The character Las Bombas is, like the bard Fflewddur Fflam in The Chronicles of Prydain, bombastic, yet of a true heart, and a solid friend.
There are sub-plots involving some gamine children, and difficulties in the cabal involving Cabbarus, the villain of the first book. In the end, good triumphs not by force, but by compromise. Constantine, the young king, was set up to be killed by his guardian, but ends up being captured. He and Mickle come to terms, and they draw up a peace treaty to benefit both countries. Mickle sets up a representative government to reign along with her, but that forces her and Theo to postpone their wedding.
