Casino Royale (James Bond #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: Casino Royale
Series: James Bond #1
Author: Ian Fleming
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 157
Words: 51K
Publish: 1953

I’ve seen various Bond films over the years, just at random and usually thought of them as empty action films (except for the ones where the directors tried to make Bond a comedian) but enjoyable, like popcorn. I’m pretty sure I read one or two of the novels in highschool too, but I couldn’t even tell you which ones. I’ve also heard what I consider “woke” talk about the books and I wanted to make up my own mind and see what the books actually said, as opposed to some kid spouting off about things he doesn’t know a thing about. This has led me to start reading the entire collection. Or at least, starting the journey and seeing how far I get!

This book was not what I was expecting. At times completely banal (the gambling scenes at the casino were mostly boring) and at others brutal (Bond getting his balls hit/whipped/whatever), I felt some whiplash reading this. Then you had Bond himself. He was definitely a jerk. There’s a scene where the girl, Lynd, is introduced to Bond and she ignores his come on. Bond thinks about how’d like to break her because of that. It was SO wrong. He wasn’t displaying masculinity, but selfish brutishness. There was another instance where Fleming shows us the inside of Bond’s mind and it isn’t a nice place, not a good place. Why Fleming chose to portray Bond this way baffles me.

The twist I never saw coming. I probably should have, given how double agents were such a big thing during the Cold War, but nope, it completely cut me off at the knees.

This was a very see-saw read. It’s why it is getting 3stars and not something higher. I think I’ll have to take each book one at a time too and not make any big decisions, yay or nay, about the series as a whole. I guess I’m hoping Fleming’s writing evolves.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

M, the Head of the British Secret Service, assigns James Bond, 007, to play against and bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster for a SMERSH-controlled trade union, in a high-stakes baccarat game at the Royale-les-Eaux casino in northern France. As part of Bond's cover as a rich Jamaican playboy, M also assigns as his companion Vesper Lynd, personal assistant to the Head of Section S (Soviet Union). The CIA and the French Deuxième Bureau also send agents as observers. The game soon turns into an intense confrontation between Le Chiffre and Bond; Le Chiffre wins the first round, cleaning Bond out of his funds. As Bond contemplates the prospect of reporting his failure to M, the CIA agent, Felix Leiter, gives him an envelope of money and a note: "Marshall Aid. Thirty-two million francs. With the compliments of the USA." The game continues, despite the attempts of one of Le Chiffre's minders to kill Bond. Bond eventually wins, taking from Le Chiffre eighty million francs belonging to SMERSH.

Desperate to recover the money, Le Chiffre kidnaps Lynd and tortures Bond, threatening to kill them both if he does not get the money back. During the torture, a SMERSH assassin enters and kills Le Chiffre as punishment for losing the money. The agent does not kill Bond, saying that he has no orders to do so, but cuts a Cyrillic 'Ш' for шпион (shpión, Russian for spy) into Bond's hand so that future SMERSH agents will be able to identify him as such.

Lynd visits Bond every day as he recuperates in hospital, and he gradually realises that he loves her; he even contemplates leaving the Secret Service to settle down with her. When he is released from hospital they spend time together at a quiet guest house and eventually become lovers. One day they see a mysterious man named Gettler tracking their movements, which greatly distresses Lynd. The following morning, Bond finds that she has committed suicide. She leaves behind a note explaining that she had been working as an unwilling double agent for the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. SMERSH had kidnapped her lover, a Polish Royal Air Force pilot, who had revealed information about her under torture; SMERSH then used that information to blackmail her into helping them undermine Bond's mission, including her own faked kidnapping. She had tried to start a new life with Bond, but upon seeing Gettler—a SMERSH agent—she realised that she would never be free of her tormentors, and that staying with Bond would only put him in danger. Bond informs his service of Lynd's duplicity, coldly telling his contact, "The bitch is dead now."

A Gathering Evil (Dark Conspiracy #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: A Gathering Evil
Series: Dark Conspiracy #1
Author: Michael Stackpole
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 276
Words: 98K
Publish: 1991

This is a trilogy by Michael Stackpole. He was a staple for me growing up. He wrote some kickass standalone fantasy novels, he wrote a bunch in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (back when Star Wars’ book were still good, even when they were bad) and he wrote a couple of original series. He also wrote in other universes, what I now call Franchise Fiction. He wrote in the BattleTech series, and really, his Star Wars stuff was franchise fiction too. But it was stuff I grew up on in the 90’s and early ‘00’s and formed what I wanted and looked for in stories. He pretty much stopped by the early ‘Teens and as such, I haven’t seen new stuff from him in years.

So I decided to go back and read some of his older stuff. Stuff I hadn’t read. I wasn’t interested in his Battletech stuff, as I tried to read a couple of books by other authors in that Franchise and didn’t care for it at all. I’d never played the game and had no connection, which meant I wasn’t going to try. That left me with this trilogy, originally called The Fiddleback trilogy and some standalones. I wanted to get a taste and a trilogy is the best way to do so in my opinion. Longer than a standalone book but not a bloated, unfinished monstrosity like Game of Thrones.

Only to find that this trilogy was based on an Role Playing Game (rpg) called Dark Conspiracy. And that this was now known as the Dark Conspiracy trilogy. I found all of this out AFTER reading the book. You might be wondering why I am going on and on and on about this.

That is simple. 

This is Proto-Litrpg and next to the Romance genre, Litrpg is the lowest rung on the ladder. I spit on Litrpg. If I was the hero, Litrpg would be a Nazi Zombie and I would be doing the world a favor by killing it. If Litrpg was a hero, it would be as a pathetic, spineless pos protagonist like Shinji Akari (from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion) and it would be my DUTY to kill him and get a real hero in his place. Needless to say, I don’t like Litrpg. Thus, finding out that this trilogy is proto-litrpg was like drinking a bottle of coke only to find out afterwards that someone had peed in it. GROSS!

And Yet.

Stackpole was still good enough of an author to make me enjoy the story. That’s why it got 3stars. Now that I know he has “pee’d in the Coke bottle” I’m not sure how I’ll feel about the next two books. But that’s another month’s problem, right? I know, I’ll just buy a new, sealed Coke bottle for the next book and call it good enough ;-)

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher & Bookstooge

Tycho Caine is a man with a mission. He's sure of that. But, waking up in a body bag with amnesia, he not sure of much else. Except that someone wants him dead. An exciting adventure novel of a near-future world where technology and occult mysticism merge. Dark forces and hidden masters conspire to control humanity, and Tycho Caine needs to figure out which side he's on.

An interdimensional being wants to invade Earth and Caine was his catspaw. But an opposing Earthly psychic has turned Caine to his side and now it is up to Caine and small group of misfits to stop this Entity from entering their world and devouring it.

The History of England 2.5Stars

 

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: The History of England
Series: ----------
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Juvenilia short story
Pages: 28
Words: 7K

This is just what you’d expect from a snarky teen writing about a subject they didn’t want to be writing about. I just rolled my eyes and plowed through.

★★✬☆☆

From Wikipedia.org

The work is a burlesque which pokes fun at widely used schoolroom history books such as Oliver Goldsmith's 1771 The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II. Austen mockingly imitates the style of textbook histories of English monarchs, while ridiculing historians' pretensions to objectivity. It was illustrated with coloured portraits by Austen's elder sister Cassandra, to whom the work is dedicated.

The second page of the History reads:

The History of England

from the reign of

Henry the 4th

to the death of

Charles the 1st

By a partial, prejudiced, & ignorant Historian

To Miss Austen, eldest daughter of the Revd

George Austen, this work is inscribed with

all due respect by

The Author

N.B. There will be very few Dates in

this History.

Her History cites as sources works of fiction such as the plays of Shakespeare and Sheridan, a novel by Charlotte Turner Smith and the opinions of Austen's family and friends. Along with accounts of English kings and queens which contain little factual information but a great deal of comically exaggerated opining about their characters and behaviour, the work includes material such as charades and puns on names.

While the work offers her family humorous vignettes on English rulers from Henry II to Charles I, many entries focus on royal women, such as Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary, Queen of Scots, who are denied entries but are significant figures in English history. Mary, Queen of Scots, in particular plays an important role in Austen's History, which also acts as a vindication of the executed cousin of Elizabeth I. Elizabeth I is treated as a tyrant, rather than a good leader, thus showing Austen's affinity for Mary and the Stuart monarchs.

• Jane Austen’s Minor Works (2013 Review)

• All My “Jane Austen” Reviews

• Reading Austen 2025 Master Post

To Become a Marked One (Demon Slayer #15) 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: To Become a Marked One
Series: Demon Slayer #15
Author: Koyoharu Gotouge
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 192
Words: 9K
Publish: 2019

I did enjoy this volume more than the previous one, but that was because the focus was on Tanjiro and him doing all the additional training that each of the demon slayers and Pillars had to go through. The parts where it was group oriented or about the Society of Pillars discussing things, I lost interest. I am not a group oriented guy and I like reading about the Lone Hero, not the Avengers. When I was perusing Wikipedia for the chapter titles and summary, I read through the summaries for the rest of the volumes. I think I’m going to stop reading with this volume. Too much group stuff going on.

If this manga had stayed focused on Tanjiro, I suspect I would have kept on to the end. The following page is WHY I like Tanjiro as a character so much. He’s still smiling and being friendly, but he tells the unvarnished truth to the Pillar. No hate, no fear, just wanting to move on with his training so he can reach his goal.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia

"Dawn Approaches"

"Daybreak and First Light"

"The Rumble of Victory"

"A Request for Instruction"

"To Become a Marked One"

"A Place to Be"

"Visitor"

"Full-Strength Training"

"Welcome..."

With his new sword Tanjiro destroys Hantengu, and after risking herself to protect the villagers, Nezuko is bathed in sunlight, but to everybody's surprise she is not harmed by it. Once learning of it, Muzan discovers that Nezuko attained the power he spent his entire life looking for. Knowing that Muzan is determined to confront them directly to capture her, the Demon Slayers make preparations for the final battle against him.

The Twice Dead King: Reign (Warhammer 40K: Necrons) 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 Twice Dead King: Reign
Series: Warhammer 40K: Necrons
Author: Nate Crowley
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 317
Words: 113K
Publish: 2022

This wasn’t as enjoyable as the previous book, Ruin. Most of that was due to Oltyx and his remaining Necrons doing nothing but running for 75% of the book. It was boring. A book about nigh-immortal killing machines should not be boring. The thing is, Crowley (the author) did a great job of showing how kickass the Necrons were in Ruin, so I don’t understand why he went the boring route here. It had to have been a deliberate choice on his part, but it made no sense to me. Now that I’ve this Twice Dead King duology, I’m just as likely to avoid Crowley as seek him out. That’s not good “branding”.

The ending was just plain weird. It wasn’t bad, but it left me going “huh?” Basically, Necrons can go crazy and try to eat flesh and pretend they are the biological Necrontyrs again. But it turns out the Flayers (the name given to Necrons who go crazy and try to eat flesh) have access to a special dimension in space and go almost anywhere in no time. Oltyx fully embraces this by book’s end, but it just ignores the fact that they are still crazy. They are insane. Insane beings usually don’t think they are insane, but that doesn’t change that they are. By the end you realize Oltyx is insane as any Flayer and that the Ithacan Empire is really no more.

The cover once again is pretty cool, with a gold plated Oltyx (the way the Necrons show someone is royalty) holding some sort of glow’y green spear/ax/staff thing. Whatever it is, it looks cool. Halberd, that’s what its Earth equivalent would be! A space-halberd powered by raw fusion. Yeah baby, that is just awesomesauce!

★★★☆☆

From WH40k.lexicanum.com/

After centuries of exile, the necron lord Oltyx has at last been granted the thing he has always craved: the throne of the Ithakas Dynasty. Kingship, however, is not quite what he had hoped for – Oltyx's reign currently exists aboard the dying battleship Akrops, as it lumbers away from the ruins of his crownworld. Behind it is a hostile armada of unfathomable size, launched by the barbaric alien war-cult known as the Imperium of Man. And within the Akrops' sepulchral hold, an even greater threat festers – the creeping horror of the flayer curse. Faced with such overwhelming odds, Oltyx leads a desperate voyage into a darkness so profound that salvation and doom look much the same. If he and his dynasty are to make it through that long night, Oltyx will have to become a very different sort of king

Greed - MTG 4E

 

Hurray, another funny Foglio piece of art! And this time I actually like it :-D

Bookstooge's Criteria

 

Yes, yes, I know, I know. You are probably asking yourself CRITERIA for WHAT?!? See, that's a tricky blogger thing where I hook you with a vague title to stir your interest, then you take the bait and before you know it, you've read the whole post and are just one more minion of mine, mwhahahaaha! The only trickier thing I could have done is start a land war in Asia! So choose your goblet, have a sip and see if you're a trickier blogger than Bookstooge while you peruse the rest of this fine post.

Guaranteed iocaine free

I am going to assume anyone reading this already knows what "criteria" means. I won't insult your intelligence nor think you are a stupid dumb dumb head. But just in case, I have consulted the Sacred Oracle and this is what they have replied:

1:  a standard on which a judgment or decision may be based
~ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criteria

This post is about My Criteria for who I choose to follow. I don't know how much thought you have ever given to that, but to be honest, as a blogger, it plays a huge part of our blogging experience. Bloggers are not islands unto themselves but a chain of connected and interconnected archipelagoes. The list below is what I consult when I consider whether to follow a new-to-me blogger or not. I also use it as a lodestone to measure the bloggers I am already following.

That is my list. That is a picture and I know that for people on phones, pictures don't always show up the best, therefore I will be typing these out and blabbing about them.

Posts At Least Once Every 30 Days

This is an absolutely non-negotiable item for me. I used to say "posts once a month" until someone posted on the 1st of one month and then again on the 30th of the second month. Technically, they were posting once a month. That's garbage and we all know it. Now, if a blogger needs to take a break, and writes a post informing their readers that they will be gone for several months, and they give an end date (even if "end of summer/spring/blah"), I am more than willing to forego this. I take my blogging seriously (even though I know it is a hobby) and I want to follow people who are committed as well.

Responds To Comments In A Timely Manner

I realize that not every blogger checks in every day, or even every week. But if a blogger doesn't respond to comments from 3 posts ago, then I am forced to conclude that commenting is extremely low on the priority list. Because it is so high on mine, I will avoid the aggravation and just not follow that person. Not everyone feels like I do about comments, but the people I follow need to.

Writes Posts That Allow For Interaction With Readers

If your blog is your doctoral thesis on the Koolaide Man and his impact on the culture of the world and you are writing for your professors and not the Everyman that most bloggers are, that really limits how others can interact with you. I don't just want to read posts by random strangers, I want to get to know them, through interacting in the comments section.

Majority Of Posts Are Of Interest To Me

Nobody writes interesting things ALL the time. Sometimes a blogger writes something that is of interest only to them. I get that, I respect that, I do that myself. But if the majority of your posts are on the rectal and anal functions of wart hogs and their kin, I'm not following you. I don't care about that subject and in fact, actively avoid trying to read stuff about it.

Shows At Least One Spark Of Individuality

I feel like I covered this with my latest PSA post, Blogging and Personality. But in short, I need the people I follow to be themselves and to show a willingness to be independent in what they read and how they review. I refuse to follow people who read nothing but the latest arc offerings from netgalley and who write nothing but the same regurgitated pap that every other empty headed fluff brain is writing.

Doesn't Read Modern Romance Or Smut

This is also a non-negotiable item for me. Smut is an immediate unfollow. Modern romance can't be more than 1 or 2 a year. If I see romance books on a monthly or weekly basis in a bloggers posts, I will not follow them.

Writes A Variety of Post Types

This one is a bit more nuanced and I feel like it's not as big an issue. Some people can write only book reviews, but what they include in the reviews keeps things fresh. But if someone only posts those damnable Wordpress Prompt posts, then you've shown your lack of individuality, thus violating the above item on Individuality. Now, if someone includes the WP Prompts, I have no problem with that. Basically, I need to follow bloggers who are putting some thought and effort into their blog and aren't half-assing it and mailing in a lazy excuse for a post every time.

I hope this has helped you understand my criteria for who I follow and who I don't. I think I will be updating my About page with that checklist. That might help people who follow me understand why I don't automatically follow them in return, or ever.

ps,

please comment away. Agree, disagree, vehemently hate on the list, love it to death? Let me know. 

More Tales of the Black Widowers (The Black Widowers #2) 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: More Tales of the Black Widowers
Series: The Black Widowers #2
Authors: Isaac Asimov
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 197
Words: 77K
Publish: 1976

This was exactly more of the same from Tales of the Black Widowers. I am ok with that. I love short story collections and Asimov was master of that craft. Having him switch from Science Fiction to Mystery hasn’t changed anything in his story telling ability. Thankfully.

I probably would have bumped this up half a star since I enjoyed the stories just as much as before, but once again, the interpersonal interactions between the members of the Black Widowers Club just grated on my nerves. They are jerks to each other, they are jerks to the invited guest and I can only imagine what they must be like out in the world at large. I find it very unpleasant. Reading these Tales is like having some of that sweet and sour sauce and I’m not a fan of the sour.

This cover is very well done, in that it contrasts with the first cover (which was solid white, with one black widow spider). I like little flourishes like that. It doesn’t actually make the stories themselves any better or worse, but it adds to the overall “insert pretentious french phrase about making things better in small ways”. There, now that you haven’t learned anything at Bookstoogiversity, class is dismissed!

ps,
Thanks to Scuffed Granny, I am experimenting with the "Excerpt" part of blogging. You shouldn't notice anything different unless you read my posts in the WP Reader OR get the email for each post. To you email people, let me know what you think. 

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia.org

This book is the second of six that describe mysteries solved by the Black Widowers, based on a literary dining club Asimov belonged to known as the Trap Door Spiders. It collects twelve stories by Asimov, nine reprinted from mystery or science fiction magazines and three previously unpublished, together with a general introduction, and an afterword following each story by the author. Each story involves the club members' knowledge of trivia.

Contents

• "Introduction"

• "When No Man Pursueth"

• "Quicker Than the Eye"

• "The Iron Gem"

• "The Three Numbers"

• "Nothing Like Murder"

• "No Smoking"

• "Season's Greetings!"

• "The One and Only East"

• "Earthset and Evening Star"

• "Friday the Thirteenth"

• "The Unabridged"

• "The Ultimate Crime"

• All of My Asimov Review

My Week XXIV or Bearly Surviving!

 

That is just a little statue of a bear, not a real one. But from this distance, it LOOKS real enough. See, I can have fun on the job too.

There was a decent amount of rain this week. Not enough to ever be called out, but we did have some short days. Thankfully, that was all balanced out with some wonderfully sunny days where working outside was what every right thinking person wanted.

I'd ordered a new tv stand, one of those "tool'less" ones that is simple enough for even me to put together without getting all frustrated. So of course, the feet that screw in to the bottom that keeps the whole thing together didn't ship with it. I sent off a request for replacement parts but still haven't heard anything back from the company I bought it through (via Amazon). Aye yi yi! If I haven't heard back from them by the time this goes live, I'll just pick something up locally and pull my trusty hammer and screwdriver, sigh. My goodness, the things I put up with!

Coke has come out with a Zero Sugar Orange Cream version. It is basically the old Vanilla Orange Coke Zero. I loved that stuff, a lot. Bought a 12 pack yesterday and yep, it's the same thing, just "re-branded". Whatever gets it on the shelves, that's all I care about. I suspect it will have a similar life span, so I'm going to enjoy this part of life while I can. Carpe diem!!!

For whatever reason, this week has gone on forever AND sped by super fast. Ever had one of those kind of weeks? It's very disconcerting. Every day felt like Tuesday and Thursday, no matter what day it actually was. That's just a weeeeeeeeird feeling.

I have been reading the first Dr Fu-Manchu book this week. Oh, that will be some review, let me tell you. It was published in 1913 and Dr Fu-Manchu is an eeeeeeeeeeevil genius. Definitely not one for you woke folk. But come on, is that cover AWESOME or what? Yeah, it's awesome. Guess you'll find out if the book was awesome or not on the 27th ;-)

Finally, the change in scheduling time. It's been working out ok and I think I'll be sticking to it. What made me change from 5am posting to 5pm posting was that I'd been letting my devotions go. I wasn't reading my Bible or spending time in prayer that I knew I needed to. Mornings were the time I had always used before. I tried the evenings, but with work being what it is, I'm so tired that I can't concentrate. So instead of continuing to let things slide, I realized I needed to change my blogging. Real life should ALWAYS come before blogging. So that's the reason for the change.

Well, Sabbath will be here in just a couple of hours, so adieu for now and get some rest. You need it!

Venom and Song (The Berinfell Prophecies #2) 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: Venom and Song
Series: The Berinfell Prophecies #2
Author: Wayne Batson & Christopher Hopper
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Pages: 437
Words: 141K

While I enjoyed this, it was simply too long. This second book in the Berinfell Prophecies was over 100 pages and 40,000 words longer than the first book. That is a significant increase for a middle grade book. I think part of the issue is that having seven main characters with multiple other side characters AND a villain just bloats things up no matter what. Trying to give each of the kids enough page time to make them stay relevant to the story while using adult elves to fill in historical and training gaps made it almost impossible to see any scene that could have been cut.

I enjoyed the various training scenes as the kids learned how to use their powers but also how to use them as part of the group. No one of them was obviously “better” and it was made clear that they were stronger as a whole than as disparate parts. While I “agree” with that, I have always preferred the lone wolf kind of hero and story.

During the climactic battle at the end where it appears that the Spider King dies, I was wondering what they (the authors) were going to do to for the third book. I had a momentary thought of “Well, maybe the Spider King isn’t really dead. Nahhhh, they wouldn’t do something so obvious.” Sure enough, the authors went that route. That is the problem with reading books meant for a less experienced set of readers.

I am glad I read this and I’m ok with having a new pair of authors run across my radar. I know both of them have written other things, so depending on what I think of the final book in the Berinfell Prophecies will determine if I seek out any more stuff by them or not. I’m totally on the line at the moment.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

Now in the strange realm of Allyra, the Seven young lordsconfront a traitor in their midst, a creature-infested forest, teenage fearsand doubts, inexplicable mysteries . . . and the Spider King himself. In a rigorous training program that makes boot camp looklike Disneyland, the Seven must quickly learnto harness their own powers, work as one, and elude the Spider King's spies.But as the ancient Berinfell Prophecies are revealed, the Seven soon discovertheir training might not be enough. To stop the Spider King they must also unravelthe secrets of the Rainsong, travel to a creepy, trap-infested fortressto find the legendary keystone, and lead the Berinfell Elves in an attack on the Spider King's own turf.