A Kiss Before Dying (Standalone) 1.5Stars

 

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: A Kiss Before Dying
Series: ----------
Author: Ira Levin
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 268
Words: 79K
Publish: 1953

I hated almost every second of this book. It was Levin’s debut novel and while his talent was top notch, his choice of material made me sick. We follow the trail of a psychopath as he murders his way through a family because he’s trying to marry into said family for their money. What really set me off was the first murder, where the main character pushes his pregnant girlfriend off of a tall building. That’s when I knew I was in for a bad time.

I think I reacted so strongly against this book because more attention is given to Bud Corliss, the murderer than anything. While some may claim that Levin isn’t glorifying such behavior because Corliss dies at the end, I find that fatuous given that Levin decided to make Bud the main character. It made me sick when we got into Bud’s head.

I regret reading this and I will be assiduously avoiding Levin’s works from here on out.

★✬☆☆☆

From Wikipedia

Burton “Bud” Corliss is a young man with a ruthless drive to rise above his working-class origins to a life of wealth and importance. He serves in the Pacific in World War II, and upon his honorable discharge in 1947 he learns that his father was killed in an automobile accident while he was overseas.

The most pivotal moment in his life occurs during the war, when he first wounds, then kills, a Japanese sniper, who is so terrified that he wets his pants and begs for mercy. Corliss is elated by the total power he holds over the soldier; at the same time, he is disgusted by the man's display of abject terror.

Upon returning to the U.S., he enrolls in college and meets Dorothy Kingship, the daughter of a wealthy copper tycoon. Seeing an opportunity to attain the riches he has always craved, he becomes Dorothy's lover. When she tells him she is pregnant, however, he panics; he is sure that her stern, conservative father will disinherit her. Resolving to get rid of Dorothy, he tricks her into writing a letter that, to an unknowing observer, would look like a suicide note, and then throws her from the roof of a tall building. He runs no risk of getting caught, having urged Dorothy to keep their relationship a secret from her family and friends. He continues to live with his mother, who dotes on him and has no clue as to what he has done.

Corliss lies low for a few months until the press coverage of Dorothy's death has subsided. Then he pursues Dorothy's sister, Ellen, who does not know he was Dorothy's boyfriend. The romance is going according to plan until Ellen begins to probe into Dorothy's death, convinced her sister did not kill herself. Eventually, Ellen uncovers the truth about Corliss and confronts him. Corliss nonchalantly confesses to the crime and kills Ellen as well.

Unfazed by this setback, Corliss courts the last remaining Kingship daughter, Marion. This affair is the most successful; Corliss sweeps her off her feet and charms her father, and soon he and Marion are engaged.

Local college DJ Gordon Gant, who met Ellen during her investigation of Dorothy's death, begins investigating the case, and is immediately suspicious of Corliss. He breaks into Corliss' childhood home and steals a written plan for meeting and seducing Marion to get her family's money. Days before the wedding, he shows up at the Kingship family home and presents Marion and her father with the evidence of Corliss' deception.

Marion, her father, and Gant all corner Corliss during a visit to one of the Kingship family's copper manufacturing plants, threatening to push him into a vat of molten copper unless he confesses his crimes. When they refuse to believe his protestations of innocence, Corliss panics and wets his pants – just as the Japanese soldier, his symbol of pathetic cowardice, had done. He begins to confess, then, delirious with fear and shame, falls to his death in the vat below. The accusers, whose threat was only a bluff, return home in shock. They face the prospect of explaining the incident to Corliss' mother.

July '25 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Raw Data:

Novels - 14 ↑

Short Stories - 1 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.06 ↓

Pages - 3044 ↓

Words - 1059K ↓

The Bad:

Usagi Yojimbo: Samurai - 2stars of realizing I'm done with comics and graphic novels in general

Tide of Unmaking - 1.5stars of young adultness

The Good:

Homicide Trinity - 4stars of Nero Wolf novellas

The Monster Hunter Files - 4stars of monster hunting short stories

Miscellaneous Posts:

• American Independence Day, July 4 (2025 Edition)
• Update
• Holy Armor - MTG 4E
• [Journal] Jane Austen: Persuasion
• Announcement: Barbara Cartland Buddy Read
• Holy Strength - MTG 4E
• [Guest Post] Plagiarism
• Howl from Beyond - MTG 4E
• Spaceballs 2 Trailer
• Howling Mine - MTG 4E

Personal:

Batten down the hatches, Hurricane Blabbericus has arrived!

This month was completely taken over by me having a "6th Optic Nerve Palsy" in my left eye. Basically, one of the muscles froze up (it happens to type 1 diabetics) and my left eye couldn't track with my right, which gave me double vision. Thankfully, all of the tests came back clean, so it wasn't because of a mini-stroke or anything. It just happened. But I spent a day and a half in the ER and then 2 weeks of trying to get some doctor to give me a plain diagnosis. Thankfully, the eye specialist I see did an admirable job of explaining it all to me.

I have to wear an eyepatch on my left eye, because the double vision makes me nauseous, like perpetual motion sickness. Thankfully, the eyepatch takes care of that. It does mean I can't drive, I can't use sharp instruments and I can't do anything to jar my head (like walk through the woods and fall down), so I have been out of work all month. Originally, the eye doctor said I could probably go back to work mid-August, but after a follow up visit, she said the recovery was slower than initially expected so I will now be out of work until the end of August.

I do have short term disability through work, but that has been a nightmare. First they sent me the wrong paperwork and the insurance company rejected my claim out of hand, but didn't tell me or the HR person. It wasn't until I started calling (almost 2 weeks later) that I found this out and got the correct paperwork. The problem is, there are 3 different sections, one for me, one for my employer and one for the doctor. The first two are easy to get filled out, but getting the eye doctor to refill the paperwork is going to be something else, just because of how busy and swamped they are. But I'm hoping to get that taken care of next week.

Not being able to drive and be independent is a real killer. Thankfully, because I use an ereader, my reading hasn't suffered. My blogging didn't (on my own site) because of how far ahead I schedule. I was emotionally raw all month and it didn't take much to set me off online. I tried to minimize such times though by not going online as much, which did help. But there were a few times where I just blew up in a comments section, not a time I'm proud of :-( I burned a bridge or two, and I know I'll regret in the next couple of months, but right now, I don't have the emotional skin left to think anything more than this about it.

Speaking of bloggy things Wordpress.com also switched Ad partners. That led to a lot of problems, mainly that the partner they were using used scam ads and redirects and other scum moves. Here are the various posts on the Official Wordpress.com Support Forum talking about it. The "staff" (who I am not convinced are human any more) assured everyone it was all taken care of, but it obviously wasn't. It mainly hit the free blogs and many wondered if it was a pressure tactic by Wordpress.com to get the free people to upgrade to a paid plan. Several days later the complaints stopped coming in, so I assume the issue was fixed. But it never should have happened in the first place.

On the positive side of things, we took our car to a different mechanic and he passed it for inspection without any of the issues the first mechanic said the car had. Obviously, somebody was lying. But that means the car is set for another year, so one less stresser on my shoulders at the moment.

Plans for Next Month:

Read. I expect my reviews will be either a bit harsher than normal or shorter, given how I was feeling when writing them.

Atomic Conquerors 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: Atomic Conquerors
Series: -----
Author: Edmond Hamilton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 38
Words: 12K
Publish: 1927

You know, it is really nice to just dive into a little novella. Hamilton gives us the very spare basics and then it’s over. I’m good with that. Lean, sparse, just the way I like it. I don’t want everything I read to be like that, but I would appreciate if more authors would get off of themselves and start cutting their bloated corpse of a book down to size to just tell the story.

Of course, I don’t think stories like this would fly any more. These were written for magazines and people just aren’t reading magazines any more. So I will gladly read these, enjoy them but I won’t be wishing to go back in time or that all authors would be like this nowadays.
★★★☆☆

From Bookstooge

A mad scientist discovers a sub-atomic civilization, unleashes it upon the world, whereupon said invaders invade Super-Space and they get their butts kicked and flee back to sub-atomic world. Super-Space aliens then seal them away and humanity goes on its way, barely knowing what it avoided.

• All of My “Edmund Hamilton” Reviews

Into the Breach (Empire Rising #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: Into the Breach
Series: Empire Rising #15
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 396
Words: 151K
Publish: 2022

The adventures continue. I am at book 15 in the series and the characterization remains exactly the same as the first book. But unlike that Helldiver’s “Lost Years”, it doesn’t bother me. I don’t know why and I’m not going to dig too deep lest I disturb something that is better left buried, like the Balrog in the Mines of Moria.

Humanity has its back to the wall, again (for about the 6^th or 7^th time) and yet no one is giving up or despairing. They are determined to fight to the bitter end and no one is off in the corner whining or feeling angsty about it. They don’t have time. I LIKE that kind of attitude in the characters I am reading about.

I think that might be the secret ingredient. Hope. Not necessarily grit and determination on its own, but the Hope that drives it. I’m a sucker for Hope, even in stories about humans fight giant alien wolf spiders ;-)

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher
Once again, the Flex-aor have rained down nuclear holocaust on Humanity. Led by their escaped High Queen Ala’ron, their fleet poses a deadly threat to every Human colony. Lacking the ships to defend all their borders, the Imperial Fleet has no choice but to hunt down Ala’ron as quickly as possible. Tasked with this mission, Emilie and Georgia will find Ala’ron to be far more cunning than they realise.

Yet the High Queen is but the beginning of the problems coming Humanity’s way. Sent on what is supposed to be a safe exploration mission, Jonathan and Achilles will soon discover there are greater forces than even the Flex-aor arrayed against Humanity. Mysterious new adversaries with a wealth of intelligence on the Imperial Navy threaten the Empire right at the moment the Karacknid Civil War appears to be coming to an end.

Surrounded by enemies on three fronts, the Imperial Fleet and its commanders will be stretched to their breaking point and beyond. Only by charging into the breach and facing their enemy’s most powerful forces can there be any hope of winning out. Yet attempting such a decisive move will incur a cost in ships and blood the Empire cannot afford.

• All of My “Empire Rising” Reviews

Howling Mine - MTG 4E

 

In Magic, drawing extra cards is one of the top things you want to do. Card Draw is King, you might say. So a card like this is fantastic.

EXCEPT

It also gives your opponent card draw. Which is bad, very bad. As I found out every time I tried to play this card. I always got the short end of the Card Draw stick when I played this, so I ended up giving up on it. Even when I coupled it with Black Vise and jammed in 4 Howling Mines and 4 Black Vises, I lost every time. Looking back, I think it was because I wasn't a very good player ;-)

Spaceballs 2 Trailer

 

I have never done a trailer post for a movie before. I think they are a waste of time, are about a subject (movies) that deserve zero attention and are for people who aren't disciplined enough to read a book, ie, the troglodytes amongst us.

But when a GREAT movie gets a sequel after 40 years, I think that is cause to do a post about. So without further ado, here is the trailer for Spaceballs 2, the greatest sequel nobody wanted!

ps,

I found this because Mrs B and I were wondering if Mel Brooks was even still alive and I went and googled it. And lo and behold, this was the top hit. 

The Lost Years (Hell Divers #1.5) 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 Lost Years
Series: Hell Divers #1.5
Author: Nicholas Smith
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 79
Words: 25K
Publish: 2024

Hell Divers was written in 2016 and then Smith wrote a bunch more novels in the series. Then apparently in 2024 he wrote a novella chronicling what happened to X after the events from the first book and before the second one. I did not pay attention until AFTER the fact and so have read this out of publication order. I am a big fan of publication order, because it means you are reading the series as the author “intended” it to be.

This felt exactly the same as Hell Divers in terms of Smith’s writing ability. Even though 8 years had passed in the real world and Smith had written many more books, I never would have known by the writing that this wasn’t written two days after the first book. Smith can’t write characterization to save his life. X is the same hunk of plastic that he was in the first book. Now, sometimes that doesn’t matter and to some people, it doesn’t matter at all. I have found, and am finding, that it “can” matter to me. Most of the time I don’t care for a plastic piece being ham handedly moved from Point A to Point Q. In this series, I am finding that it does matter to me. I don’t like X, at all. I don’t care if he saves a puppy at the end, he’s still just a piece of plastic, nothing more and that bothers me.

Now, I like all the action and that is what is keeping this from getting 2.5stars, but I must say, I’m going to need Smith to up his writing game in Book 2 to continue the series.

The problem is, since Book 2 was written before this novella, and I noticed zero improvement, I have a VERY bad feeling the next Hell Diver book will be my last. I’m withholding judgement just to be on the safe side. Writers have surprised me in the past, so it could happen again.

*fingers crossed

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

 he was Commander Xavier “X” Rodriguez—with ninety-six dives under his belt, the most experienced Hell Diver on the airship known as the Hive. Time after time, he dived through the electrical storms, returning with parts to keep his home in the sky. Then, on a jump into Hades, the most hostile environment in North America, he sacrificed everything for mission and team. They returned to the airship with the fuel cells needed to keep the Hive running, but X was left behind.

This is the story of how he becomes the last man on Earth. His will drives him to keep fighting, to survive the monsters and the radiation in the wastes, to find a way back home. But as the days pass, he feels the things that make him human slipping away. He has become a waif, a phantom, with little to live for. Then he stumbles upon something that makes him feel again.

This is the chronicle of those lost years, told for the first time ever.

The Wedding of Groo (Groo the Wanderer #42) 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: The Wedding of Groo
Series: Groo the Wanderer #42
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K
Publish: 1988

Hahahahahaahahaa, another fine kettle of fish Stanley! (that’s a Laurel and Hardy reference there by the way).

Granny Groo is at her worst, scheming away and just like in the previous issue, seems to succeed at the beginning. Of course, as was shown in that issue, Groo always messes up her scams in the end. And he does so spectacularly here :-D It all centers around marriage scams and man, when Aragones wants to draw an ugly woman, he can draw an UGLY woman. I was shuddering.

I included this picture because of the last panel. I know I always go on about how skilled Aragones is with his drawings, but man, LOOK at the last panel. With only two speech bubbles and his art, he totally conveys how much Groo and Brunda do NOT want to be there. Look at the rug, look at their posture, their faces. It ALL says “no, we don’t want to do this”. And that is one of the reasons I keep on reading Groo. Aragones is a skilled tradesman in the comic craft and it shows. Plus, his style of humor just clicks with me :-)

★★★✬☆

From Bookstooge

Granny Groo and the Gypsies use Groo to run more scams. First they have him “marry” an ugly woman with a large dowery using one of the gypsies as a priest, thus invalidating the wedding legally. They then use that dowery to buy themselves enough props to look like royalty and Groo is turned into the Prince of Chichester. Granny then schemes to have Groo marry a princess, thus setting the Gypsies up for life. Of course, Groo ruins everything at the end and is chased off scene by the Princess, her father the King AND Granny Groo.

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

An Old Friend of the Family (The Dracula Files #3) 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: An Old Friend of the Family
Series: The Dracula Files #3
Author: Fred Saberhagen
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 142
Words: 66K
Publish: 1979

Morgan Le Fay was vampirized by Dracula all those years ago and resents that fact. She has planned her revenge against Dracula by going after the descendants of Mina Harker, who secretly had twins by Dracula.

So basically a family is terrorized and Dracula comes to the rescue. Also, Saberhagen just throws continuity out the window, as Mina was supposedly arisen and living with Dracula now. So why does Dracula act like a lovesick puppy when he sees the 16 year old great-great(?) granddaughter of Mina? Because he’s a sick perv and is an evil vampire. Stake that sucker!

Remember kids, there are no good vampires. Ever. Not even Angel or Spike. Stake those suckers too!

★★★☆☆

From Fandom.com

The Southerland family left the old world to start anew in America, but little did they know that a blood-feud, older than history itself, would follow them through the generations to come. Kate Southerland, the first born of the latest generation of Southerlands, has been murdered, but she is not dead.

Her little brother, Johnny, has also vanished, a severed, bloody finger the only clue. But the Southerlands have no clue what they've fallen into. Their enemy is no mortal madman, but the undying mistress of evil enchantment, Morgan Le Fay, and the Southerlands are not her true target. She seeks to do battle with their protector, their defender, the only man who is capable of saving this mortal family from a war they've never realized was waged.

Live and Let Die (James Bond #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: Live and Let Die
Series: James Bond #2
Author: Ian Fleming
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 199
Words: 69K
Publish: 1954

Much more enjoyable than Casino Royale. Not a hint of misogny even while being just as action packed, even more so in fact.

Mr Big is a great villain. He’s smart and covers all the angles but he’s still a brutal thug at heart and that comes through in every interaction Bond has with him. Him being devoured by the very creatures he was using to protect himself was fantastic.

It’s amazing how much goes on and yet Bond still seems to mostly just travel around. This is very much a Cold War thriller and not anything like the Jason Bourne movies. A gentleman’s game. I have a feeling that is the path these stories will follow.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

The British Secret Service agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M, to New York City to investigate "Mr Big", real name Buonaparte Ignace Gallia. Bond's target is an agent of the Soviet counterintelligence organisation SMERSH, and an underworld voodoo leader who is suspected of selling 17th-century gold coins to finance Soviet spy operations in America. These gold coins have been turning up in the Harlem section of New York City and in Florida and are suspected of being part of a treasure that was buried in Jamaica by the pirate Henry Morgan.

In New York, Bond meets up with his counterpart in the CIA, Felix Leiter. The two visit some of Mr Big's nightclubs in Harlem, but are captured. Bond is interrogated by Mr Big, who uses his fortune-telling employee, Solitaire (so named because she excludes men from her life), to determine if Bond is telling the truth. Solitaire lies to Mr Big, supporting Bond's cover story. Mr Big decides to release Bond and Leiter, and has one of Bond's fingers broken. On leaving, Bond kills several of Mr Big's men; Leiter is released with minimal physical harm by a gang member, sympathetic because of a shared appreciation of jazz.

Solitaire later leaves Mr Big and contacts Bond; the couple travel by train to St. Petersburg, Florida, where they meet Leiter. While Bond and Leiter are scouting one of Mr Big's warehouses used for storing exotic fish, Solitaire is kidnapped by Mr Big's minions. Leiter later returns to the warehouse by himself, but is either captured and fed to a shark or tricked into standing on a trap door over the shark tank through which he falls; he survives, but loses an arm and a leg. Bond finds him in their safe house with a note pinned to his chest "He disagreed with something that ate him".[1] Bond then investigates the warehouse himself and discovers that Mr Big is smuggling gold coins by hiding them in the bottom of fish tanks holding poisonous tropical fish, which he is bringing into the US. He is attacked in the warehouse by "the Robber", Mr Big's gunman, and in the resultant gunfight Bond outwits the Robber and causes him to fall into the shark tank.

Bond continues his mission in Jamaica, where he meets a local fisherman, Quarrel, and John Strangways, the head of the local MI6 station. Quarrel gives Bond training in scuba diving in the local waters. Bond swims through shark- and barracuda-infested waters to Mr Big's island and manages to plant a limpet mine on the hull of his yacht before being captured once again by Mr Big. Bond is reunited with Solitaire; the following morning Mr Big ties the couple to a line behind his yacht and plans to drag them over the shallow coral reef and into deeper water so that the sharks and barracuda that he attracts in to the area with regular feedings will eat them.

Bond and Solitaire are saved when the limpet mine explodes seconds before they are dragged over the reef. Though temporarily stunned by the explosion and injured on the coral, they are protected from the explosion by the reef and Bond watches as Mr Big, who survived the explosion, is killed by the sharks and barracuda.