Shadowline (Starfishers #1) 3Stars

 

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: Shadowline
Series: Starfishers #1
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 311
Words: 94K

It’s been about four years since I last visited Cook (the last Garrett, PI book in fact) but considering how that series whimpered out, I’m not surprised I took so long to return. At some point in the near future (defined now as within two years) I plan on re-reading his Black Company, as that is probably my favorite of his stuff. Before I do that however, I want to broaden my view of his writings. I’ve read 33 books/stories by him so far, so I feel like I’ve got a decent grasp on him but am always looking to learn more.

One thing I learned with this is that I do not care for Cook’s science fiction. His only other SF book I’ve read (to date) is The Dragon Never Sleeps. I gave that 3.5stars but it didn’t make me want to read more if it had been part of a series. This book was exactly the same. I didn’t hate the time, but I wasn’t experiencing Book Nirvana of any sort. I already have the rest of the trilogy on my ereader though which is why I’ll finish it off. I can’t say exactly WHY I don’t care for his SF, whether it is the characters or the plot or what. I’d like to think it is his writing, but until I re-read Black Company and see how the writing is, I don’t feel comfortable stating it is that. But man, this doesn’t “feel” like the same guy who wrote BC.

Anyway. This story is about a mercenary company that is family run, near the end of the galactic era of mercenaries. Betrayal, revenge and old fashioned stupidity are the points of this story. The “Starfishers” that this series takes its name from are mentioned and they show up to act as go-betweens for about 2-3 paragraphs. Beyond the fact that they are humans living on giant fleets that scoop up material, I don’t know a thing about them. I sure hope the next two books deal more directly with them.

This is really close to a 2 ½ star rating in terms of enjoyment in reality, but it didn’t quite dip that low so I kept it at a 3. However, if the next two books are similar in terms of enjoyment, I’ll definitely take the rating down. Don’t say I’m not generous!

I’ll end things by showing the older cover and the newer one. While the newer one is slick and semi-eye catching, it has no soul, no emotion, nothing that grabs you and makes you want to read this book. The older cover at least has some character. It’s bit more honest about the contents. You know you’re getting some groundpounder reading instead of Starfisher Space Action. It might not be the best cover ever, but at least it’s got some soul and isn’t just some slop like the new cover.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

The vendetta in space had started centuries before "Mouse" Storm was born, with his grandfather's raid on the planet Prefactlas, the blood bath that freed the human slaves from their Sangaree masters. But one Sangaree survived - the young Norborn heir, the man who swore vengeance on the Storm family and their soldiers, in a carefully mapped plot that would take generations to fulfill. Now Mouse's father Gneaus must fight for an El Dorado of wealth on the burning half of the planet Blackworld. As the great private armies of all space clash on the narrow Shadowline that divides inferno from life-sheltering shade, Gneaus' half- brother Michael plays his traitorous games, and a man called Deeth pulls the deadly strings that threaten to entrap them all

The Further Adventures of Doctor Syn (Doctor Syn #4) 3Stars

 

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 Further Adventures of Doctor Syn
Series: Doctor Syn #4
Author: Arthur Russell Thorndike
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 109
Words: 51K

This felt like a proper “Scarecrow of Romney Marsh” story and not necessarily a Doctor Syn story. Even if they are the same person. While I rated this the same as previous Doctor Syn stories, I think I enjoyed it a bit more.

First, because it has been five months since my last read of the character. Giving me a break really helps my enjoyment of something that I’m on the fence about.

Second, this was as much about the Scarecrow and smuggling as it was about Doctor Syn. The Scarecrow begins creating his legend in these stories and I like that.

Third, because this was basically a collection of short adventure stories and not one novel with a main point. That helped break things up for me.

Fourth, and finally, Doctor Syn isn’t presented as much of a pastor as he has been in previous books. His hypocrisy is downplayed and that allowed me to enjoy the Scarecrow more.

One thing that stood out to me and took me a bit to wrap my head around, was that the characters use the word “tubs” when referring to smuggled liqueur. It wasn’t until I looked at the cover that I realized the author meant “kegs”. That completely changed things. A tub is a broad, shallow thing meant for washing clothes, vegetables or people in. It is open faced and very ungainly. A keg is a closed container that contains drink, or perhaps dwarves if you are reading the Hobbit instead of this story ;-)

This is a tub:

This is a keg:

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

The novel is a highly episodic series of adventures as Syn, in his guise as the Scarecrow outwits the king's agents and keeps his band of Dymchurch smugglers out of prison. Set in 1776.

Mephisto’s Game (Galaxy's Edge: Tyrus Rechs #4) 2Stars

 

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: Mephisto’s Game
Series: Galaxy's Edge: Tyrus Rechs #4
Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Military SF
Pages: 273
Words: 89K

After the end of the Galaxy’s Edge series where the authors unceremoniously just dumped the series to finish it up, I didn’t have high hopes for them at all. But I wanted to give them another chance, sigh.

Well, this was that chance. It wasn’t bad, but it was not good either.

Now, I am absolutely open to the possibility that my disillusionment with the authors has now colored every interaction I have with them (ie, every book I read), but this didn’t feel like what I wanted.

So I’m done with these guys and I am done with the Galaxy’s Edge in any form. I do have a couple more books on my ereader, but I’m simply going to delete them off, wipe this series and add a different one. I’m tired of them continually disappointing me and since I have the power to DO something about that, I will.

★★☆☆☆

From the Publisher

The Hunter Becomes the HuntedThe fearsome bounty hunter Tyrus Rechs has laid a careful trap to kill an elusive and powerful criminal known as Mister Zauro for crimes orchestrated on the planet Detron. But unbeknownst to the bounty hunter, another trap has been laid just as carefully… a trap for Tyrus Rechs himself.
For Zauro is a Lizzaar, and Lizzaar crime lords are not without their defenses.
Rechs is mere moments away from finishing his termination when the counter-trap is triggered. In an instant the tables are turned, the hunter becomes the hunted, and it is Rechs who is on the run as he is battered by an army of mercenaries, assassins, and war bots led by a mysterious and ruthless killer named Mephisto.
Now Tyrus Rechs, the perpetual loner, must rely on a growing group of unlikely allies if he hopes to survive to see the end of… Mephisto’s Game!

• All My "Galaxy's Edge" Reviews

• Galaxy’s Edge: Season Two

• Galaxy's Edge: Season One

• Galaxy's Edge: Tyrus Rechs

• Galaxy's Edge: The Savage Wars

• Galaxy's Edge: Order of the Centurion

• Galaxy's Edge: Dark Operator

Gaseous Form - MTG 4E

 

Phil Foglio was the artist for this card. Ol' Phil knew how to draw his women, that's for sure, even the ghostly, insubstantial ones. So to pair his art up with a Shakespeare quote is just eye rollingly bad taste. I'm sure 17 year old me laughed my head off at it.

[Food] Chicken Pot Pie

This is a cookbook that the church organization I grew up in put together in the 80’s or 90’s. My mom and aunt’s all contributed, as did one of my uncle’s (who is quite the chef!) so there was a lot of food that I was intimately familiar with. Our church also celebrated the Three Great Feasts described in Deuteronomy and those were times of a LOT of people coming together, and people need to eat. So I was familiar with more recipes just from going to Fairwood two to three times a year for a couple of days to a week. Most of these were from busy moms, with multiple children, on a budget. Not super hard or complicated, filling and easy on the grocery bill. Just what I as a lazy yankee want now ;-) This was a limited in-church printing, so there’s no chance of anyone getting one now, sadly. But soon after I graduated from Bibleschool in 2000 I requested a copy for my birthday and someone managed to scrounge one up for me. I really only wanted it for ONE recipe, and today is the day you all get to see it.

I’ve removed the cook’s name for privacy sake. Not theirs, as they probably wouldn’t care, but mine. I’m sure you already figured that out though, hahahaha. Because pictures aren’t always easy to read, I’m typing it out as well.

4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
2 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp thyme
1 cup onions
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup cream or milk
2 cups cubed chicken
2 cups partially cooked peas and carrots
9in pie pastry

Make pastry for a 9in pie. Make gravy with butter, flour salt, pepper and thyme. Remove from heat and stir in broth and milk. Heat to boil, stir constantly, boil 1 minute. Stir in chicken and vegetables and onions. Put in pie and cover with top crust. Bake at 425degrees for 35-40minutes.

It is about the easiest home made recipe for anything I’ve ever made. Now, I must admit, I don’t make the pie crusts from scratch. I buy those premade ones.

Because Mrs B is vegetarian, we use soy protein instead of chicken (I think they call it vegi-chikken or something like that) and it tastes just like chicken to me. No chance of getting salmonella poisoning from undercooking it either. They come in strips and once it’s cooked I just use a pair of scissors to cut it up into cubes. Easy peasy. We usually make two because Mrs B doesn’t like black pepper in hers, while I like double the amount AND I always double the amount of thyme in mine as well. I also add quite a bit more onion than Mrs B is comfortable with. To make it easy to tell which one is mine (with all its flavorful goodness), we have taken to using a regular pie plate and a square 8x8 pyrex container. It works great and there is zero guessing about whose pie is whose.

And there you go, an easy and delicious chunk of food that will last you the weekend. If you’re not a pig. Oink, oink.

January '25 Roundup & Ramblings

Novels/Novellas - 13 ↑

Short Stories - 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 ↓

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.27 ↑

Pages - 2648 ↓

Words - 896K ↓

The Bad:

That Is Not Dead - 1star of blasphemous cosmic horror

The Beggar Queen - 2stars of depressing non-fantasy fantasy

The Good:

Legion - 5stars of monster killing awesomeness

The Throme of the Erril of Sherill - 4stars of delightful whimsy and muse

Movie:

Friends and Family. Giving up on the Cardcaptor Sakura franchise for right now. Need to find a different way to engage with anime. 3-4 episodes a month just isn't working for me.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Bookstooge Reviews 2024
• A Decade in Review: 2015-2024
• [Food] Red Flannel Hash
• Fortified Area - MTG 4E
• [Journal] Yeats, Easter 1916
• Frozen Shade - MTG 4E
• My Week XVIII
• Fungusaur - MTG 4E
• My Week XIX
• Book Recommendation V
• Gaea's Liege - MTG 4E
• Marvel Champions: The Organizingening

Personal:

January did not start out very well. Meth-heads and car parts stolen, flat tires and tools that didn't fit, missing doctors, cold weather enough to kill you, it was just one big fat unhappy mash. I will say that venting through the My Week posts really helps though. I get all upset about something, am able to write it out and vent and then I'm past it. Whereas if I kept all inside until now, I'd be just like a stewed prune. Disgusting! (I was going to put in a picture of stewed prunes, but I ended up grossing myself out) Blogging is so therapeutic when I let it be.

Mrs B got her cast off and returned to work. For a half shift. Because she was "on leave", there were a ton of hoops the store had to jump through to get her "off leave" and back into the schedule. And they did that as well as could be expected, ie, not very. But starting next week, she's In The System! Oh, she's so excited /sarcasm

Cover Love:

After Dark by Manly Wade Wellman. It's the second Silver John novel. Creepy, in a delicious way.

Plans for Next Month:

Have another food post for this upcoming Sunday. I'll even include the cookbook and recipe! Yowzers ;-)

Speaking of Sundays, I'm going to reserve them for non-book review posts. Then Mondays will probably be double posting of a Magic card and a book review. Fridays will be either a Journal post or a My Week post. With Valentines falling on a Friday, I do plan on posting something oriented that way.

I've got my next anime picked out and will be reviewing an entire season instead of just one disc. 28 episodes of shonen goodness coming your way!

Then everything else will be book reviews, book reviews and book reviews! And not an oxford comma to be seen anywhere! ;-)

Rhyme Nor Reason (Groo the Wanderer #36) 5Stars

 

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: Rhyme Nor Reason
Series: Groo the Wanderer #36
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 25
Words: 2K

This was a direct sequel to the previous comic where Groo gets the All Powerful Amulet and makes very bad choices with it, despite the Sage desperately trying to help him NOT make bad wishes. I laughed so hard at this that Mrs B told me to just give this 5stars. She was right.

I’m including the three pages that I found the most amusing. Even thinking about them right now makes me grin and a chuckle begin to well up.

The rapid fire change just goes boom, boom, boom and for it to end with the wizard being turned into Groo is just priceless. I don’t know why, but man, it totally struck my funny bone.

It all works out in the end with the Amulet ceasing to exist. I think Aragones had stretched out the story for all it was worth and I applaud him for knowing when to end a joke.

★★★★★

From Bookstooge

Groo’s adventure with The Amulet continues. He continues to make ill-informed wishes and eventually Arba and Dakarba wish the Amulet to themselves. They in turn torment a wizard by turning him into various animals and then into Groo. Groo regrets some of his wishes and goes on a quest to recover the Amulet and make good. He does and in a fit of total stupidity, wishes that the Amulet didn’t exist. It ceases to exist much to everyone’s relief!

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

Marvel Champions: The Organizingening

 

Bookstooge McLeod, better known as the Immortal Lowlander, realized that he'd been sitting on his bonnie backside far too long and that it was time to Enter The Games once again. When he opened his shed to get his gear, he realized what a flipping mess it was and decided his time would be better spent organizing things. THEN he could go to The Games.

All of THAT was simply not going to fit into the standard plastic shell the game came with.

There were a plethora of options. Several companies made inserts specifically for Marvel Champions. Sadly, most of them were of the balsa wood or foam variety that needed to be glued together following a manual. Bookstooge MacLeod was a WARRIOR, not some lowly manual laborer. It was below his honor to do such work. Plus, he wasn't very good at it anyway. BUT HONOR! Remember, that's the important part. Thankfully, Feldherr & Associates didn't hold HONOR! as important as MacLeod did and thus they provided him with a nice premade plastic organizer. Well done, peasants.

With many life counters, little status cards and tokens galore, the Lowlander knew it was imperative to get the little things taken care of first.

 

Now that all the piddling stuff was out of the way, it was time to GET SERIOUS! Let the Sleevening Part II Begin!
*insert lightning strikes!!!!

Each Hero Pack came with a 40card premade deck built around the hero on the cover. There were also 10-20 additional cards that allowed you to grow your general collection or to modify the premade deck. That's over 300 cards just for the Hero Packs right there. There are 53 cards in the Green Goblin scenario pack and 60 in the Wrecking Crew scenario pack. Therefore, if you do the math correctly, I ended up sleeving between 400-500 cards. Thankfully, Mrs Lowlander was willing to help, even with her broken arm. What a trooper!

 

By the end, I was able to fit everything except the Wrecking Crew scenario pack into the box. That was easily remedied by taking out a hero deck and a villain deck. I put them into a deck box (pictured on the right) and everything now fits into the marvel champions coreset box. Everything is grouped by Hero, Villain, Aspect and Scenario, so creating a deck is simply a matter of taking out which hero I want, which aspect cards I want (along with any basics), which villain and which villain scenario. Very modular.  My only issue was that getting the sleeved cards into the trays was a tight fit. They still fit, but they would have fit easier unsleeved. If I hadn't trained myself over the years to sleeve every game card I use, I'd probably say "phooie" and let them be. They aren't valuable after all. 

There Can Be…..
…..Only None!

That Is Not Dead (Cthulhu Anthology #20) 1Star

 

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, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: That Is Not Dead
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #20
Editor: Darrell Schweitzer
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 212
Words: 82K

Last time I read something edited by Schweitzer, it was Cthulhu’s Reign. I enjoyed that. This time, there was a story, by Schweitzer himself, that was out and out blasphemous. While I usually will dnf a book with issues like that, in a collection of short stories I feel ok with not. But the rating tanked right down to 1star. I was surprised, because there was a story by S.T. Joshi and he’s a total twat, so I was expecting HIS story to be the one I hated on.

It also leads to another observation about the Cthulhu Mythos that continues to bug me. It is always Christianity and Jehovah and Jesus that get the shaft in these stories. Always. No Buddha getting his serenity all butt raped. No Allah eating shit and saying he likes it. Not even Joseph Smith for goodness sake! The least they could do is make his magic glasses eat his brains or something. But nope, none of that now. And I wonder why. I have some ideas but they are pure conjecture and baseless speculation.

So really, while I enjoyed some of these stories, the ones I didn’t dragged me down paths I didn’t really want to perambulate on and I feel like I was mugged. That is NOT the feeling I want when I read a book.

★☆☆☆☆

From Wikipedia

The book collects fourteen short stories by various authors, with an introduction by the editor. All share the Cthulhu Mythos setting originated by H. P. Lovecraft, but unlike his stories, which generally take place in modern times, they are set in previous historical eras. The effect is to take the Mythos from the realm of contemporary horror into that of historical fiction. The stories are presented in chronological order from the 2nd millennium BC to the late 19th century, with the last set in the present but looking back to medieval events

TOC

• "Introduction: Horror of the Carnivàle" (Darrell Schweitzer)

• "Egypt, 1200 BC: Herald of Chaos" (Keith Taylor)

• "Mesopotamia, second millennium BC: What a Girl Needs" (Esther Friesner)

• "Judaea, second century AD: The Horn of the World’s Ending" (John Langan)

• "Central Asia, second century AD: Monsters in the Mountains at the Edge of the World" (Jay Lake)

• "Palestine, Asia Minor, and Central Asia; late eleventh and mid twelfth centuries AD: Come, Follow Me" (Darrell Schweitzer)

• "England, 1605: Ophiuchus" (Don Webb)

• "Russia, late seventeenth century: Of Queens and Pawns" (Lois H. Gresh)

• "Mexico, 1753: Smoking Mirror" (Will Murray)

• "France, 1762: Incident at Ferney" (S. T. Joshi)

• "Arizona Territory, 1781: Anno Domini Azathoth" (John R. Fultz)

• "Massachusetts, USA, early twentieth century. Italy, early nineteenth century: Slowness" (Don Webb)

• "Massachusetts, USA, and Spain, late nineteenth century: The Salamanca Encounter" (Richard A. Lupoff)

• "Seattle, Washington, USA, 1889: Old Time Entombed" (W. H. Pugmire)

• "England, twenty-first century and the Middle Ages: Nine Drowned Churches" (Harry Turtledove)

• All of My “Cthulhu Anthology” Reviews

Resolute (Lost Fleet: Outlands #2) 3.5Stars

 

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: Resolute
Series: Lost Fleet: Outlands #2
Author: Jack Campbell
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mil-SF
Pages: 295
Words: 115K

Black Jack is hampered by traitors in his own ranks, men and women who are trying to sabotage the diplomatic mission to the Dancers. Then more aliens show up and bring their own set of problems to the table.

This is basically Geary handling one problem after another and doing his best to not turn into a Tyrant to sweep the Alliance away and start it over.

I enjoyed it. It’s very typical Jack Campbell writing and story telling and while it didn’t blow me out of the water, it more than did its job of entertaining me and helping me wile away a couple of hours. That is really all I expect from a Lost Fleet novel. It delivered and I am satisfied.

End of Review.

On a different subject.

With some of these “series” that are long going but have different sub-series (Lost Fleet, for example, has the original Lost Fleet books, then the Beyond the Frontiers and then Lost Stars, the Genesis Fleet and now this Outlands series but they are all one continuing story’ish), I include links at the bottom of a review so you can see all of the books in that series or sub-series. My recent review of Pyramids is a good example of that. At the very bottom I have a list of links to various categories of Discworld. I’ve done that with earlier Lost Fleet books, but I haven’t with the recent series (Outlands and Genesis Fleet) and I wonder, does anyone ever use those links? If I am interested in a series that another blogger is reviewing, I will frequently click something like that if they offer it. But I am not interested in them very often. Thanks for any input.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher

Geary knows that some political factions in the Alliance were just trying to get rid of him when he was assigned to escort a diplomatic and scientific mission to the far reaches of humanity's expansion into the galaxy . . . and beyond. But he views his mission as both a duty and an opportunity to make things better wherever he can. And when a crippled Rift Federation ship tumbles out of jump space, Geary leaps into action. But the survivors' story isn't completely adding up.

As Geary investigates, he soon finds himself fending off spies and assassins while leading the fleet as it fights its way across space controlled by the mysterious and hostile aliens whom humans call enigmas. Challenges arrive at every turn, including an unknown alien species that invites the fleet to visit one of their star systems. With little information to go on, Geary must weigh the benefits of potential new allies against the possibility of a trap. The fate of the fleet--and perhaps even the future of humanity--will depend on him making the right decision.

If he can stay alive long enough to do that.