Mrs Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha (Mrs Pollifax #7) 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: Mrs Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha
Series: Mrs Pollifax #7
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 166
Words: 58K
Publish: 1985

A good story, but ugh, two issues.

First, Mrs Pollifax is kidnapped and tortured. I was not happy with having that in this series. I don’t like women being tortured and I really don’t like older women being tortured. It wasn’t graphic, but the very idea really blunted my enjoyment.

Second, once again, was Gilman’s deliberate blind eye to how evil the Chinese Communist Party was/is. This story revolves around the silent civil war that went on between Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek after their deaths. The Nationalists (led by Kai-shek) were not good people. They were corrupt and despotic, like any other tyranny. Gilman focuses on that, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. My problem is that she deliberately turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed by Zedong and the Communists. Much like in “Mrs Pollifax on the China Station”, Gilman sounds more like a propagandist for the Communists than anything else. I can’t turn a blind eye to that. I wondered about looking more into this, but so far, most of the time when I look into an author’s personal life, it doesn’t turn out well. I think I’ll save that for when I’ve finished the “Mrs P” series.

The story itself is filled with exciting twists and turns and Mrs P once again mostly figures things out using her outsiders perspective. Since she is now married, that adds a bit of tension as we get things from her husband’s perspective as well. Given that she was tortured and almost killed, and given how her superior (an agent named Carstairs) reacted to that, I don’t see how Mrs P won’t be forcibly retired. If I was her husband, torture is where I would draw the line. So I’m looking forward to how that conundrum is going to be solved, since we’re only at the halfway mark of the series :-D

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia.org

Mrs. Pollifax flies on a moment's notice to Hong Kong, to contact Sheng Ti, whom she met in an earlier book, and find out what is going on at Feng Imports where Sheng Ti is working for an agent named Detwiler. Detwiler's reports to the CIA have proved to be false, so he is suspected of being a counterspy and giving evidence to the enemy. Mrs. Pollifax meets some other interesting characters, including a psychic and another old friend, who is a reformed cat burglar, while in pursuit of the truth about Feng Imports. She is captured and tortured, but prevails as always.

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

As You Wish (Non-fiction) 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: As You Wish
Series: -----
Author: Cary Elwes & Joe Layden
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 244
Words: 79K
Publish: 2014

I chose this because Mrs B and I had recently rewatched the movie The Princess Bride and we enjoyed it so much (again!) that I decided to upgrade my dvd to a bluray. When you buy something on Amazon they immediately “suggest” other things you can also buy. This popped up and I was already looking for more non-fiction to add to my list, so voila! Here we are. The full title is “As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride”. I think you can understand why I didn’t include that subtitle :-)

If nonfiction books are coffee, that strong, bitter, scalding hot that perks you right up kind of reading, then this was a double latte mocha soy frappucino with whipped cream on top and caramel syrup with cinnamon sprinkles. It is “technically” still coffee, but the reality is something else. That perfectly describes this book. Frothy, sugary and light. It was yummy and delicious, but there wasn’t one dark bitter taste like coffee should have.

This was a fun read and considering everything, I can see why the authors went this route. They weren’t out to tell all or dish the dirt, but to enhance the positive about the movie. It does that job admirably. Elwes relates little anecdotes that will make rewatching the movie MORE fun as I’ll remember snippets here and there.

This was deliberately not a critical take on the movie production. I kind of wanted that because I always want the full picture of what went on in the past. But that’s not what this is, so I just had to shrug and accept it. I enjoyed it and had a good time, so it was in no way any kind of failure. It just wasn’t the kind of non-fiction I want to read very much of. I want something with a bit more weight.

★★★✬☆☆

From the Publisher

Standing on the stage for the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Princess Bride, I felt an almost overwhelming sense of gratitude and nostalgia. It was a remarkable night and it brought back vivid memories of being part of what appears to have become a cult classic film about pirates and princesses, giants and jesters, cliffs of insanity, and of course rodents of unusual size.

It truly was as fun to make the movie as it is to watch it, from getting to work on William Goldman's brilliant screenplay to being directed by the inimitable Rob Reiner. It is not an exaggeration to say that most days on set were exhilarating, from wrestling André the Giant, to the impossibility of playing mostly dead with Billy Crystal cracking jokes above me, to choreographing the Greatest Sword Fight in Modern Times with Mandy Patinkin, to being part of the Kiss That Left All the Others Behind with Robin Wright.

In this book I've gathered many more behind-the-scenes stories and hopefully answers to many of the questions we've all received over the years from fans. Additionally, Robin, Billy, Rob, and Mandy, as well as Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, Fred Savage, Chris Sarandon, Carol Kane, Norman Lear, and William Goldman graciously share their own memories and stories from making this treasured film.

If you'd like to know a little more about the making of The Princess Bride as seen through the eyes of a young actor who got much more than he bargained for, along with the rest of this brilliant cast, then all I can say is...as you wish.

Hurkyl's Recall - MTG 4E

 

Drafna, that dawg. Somebody should punch him in the head for stealing his own wife's work. And then give him another punch in the head for hitting on his own student. Shame on Drafna!

Behind the Death Ball 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: Behind the Death Ball
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 155
Words: 58K
Publish: 1974

Whenever I see August Derleth’s name in these collections, I grimace, because I know I am getting a “Solar Pons” story. Pons is a poorly executed Sherlock Holmes ripoff and Derleth’s story telling just isn’t up to the original. So I grit my teeth, read as fast as I can and try to get it done with, much like eating broccoli. Thankfully, other stories were much better.

Voodoo Doll had an ending I simply did not see coming. I WAS expecting the voodoo doll (it was going to be a toyline) to end up having real power, but when it was given to the little girl who always broke her toys, well, the story ends with one of the creators sitting in a chair while his head is on the other side of the room. It was absolutely ghoulish :-D

The Hitchhikers was also rather ghoulish. It had something like 4-5 double crosses within the story and it was like getting walloped with a couple of left-right-left-right-right in the boxing ring. I did see the final double cross coming, but it was so obvious that I didn’t feel “clever” knowing it was coming. It had that “inevitable” feel more than anything.

The Fat Jow stories, unlike the Solar Pons, are always a good read. I suspect Fat Jow is a ripoff of Charlie Chan, but I am not familiar enough with Chan to know for sure. Jow is a student of human nature and the stories just kind of flow, not a lot of drama. But they still have kick and I like that.

The final story, The Ghost & Mr. Grebner, was amusing, quiet and yet possibly horrific. It didn’t strike me as horrific when I read it, unlike The Hitchhikers. In fact, I thought it was a gentle, amusing end to the collection. A widower is contemplating marriage to a widow and his dead wife’s ghost appears to him and tells him “no”. He argues with the ghost in that distracted, old man way and the ghost goes away. Mr Grebner proposes and leaves the building. Once he gets to the street, he sees a crowd clustered around a body that obviously came from the apartment he was just in. And it ends. So we’re left with that ambiguity of did the ghost somehow force the widow out the window? Is Mr Grebner completely insane and he threw the widow out the window? Is he having hallucinations about everything? We simply don’t know. The entire story is written in that distracted old man way. He doesn’t question talking to his wife’s ghost, he’s more concerned about what is for dinner. It’s a very mellow story and I thought it was a great book end to this collection.

★★★✬☆

Publisher’s Blurb & Table of Contents
Any artist is only as good as his audience. That master orchestrator of terror, Alfred Hitchcock, is no exception. What good is his fearful brand of fiendish fun if he's no nerves to twist, no teeth to set chattering, no vocal chords to strum into high notes of terrified hysteria? That’s where you come in, dear reader. Just put yourself in his skillful hands. He’ll give you a screaming good time with personally selected stories & novelettes by masters of menace & the macabre

1. Perfect Shot-Lawrence Treat

2. The Amateur Philologist-August Derleth

3. The Glint-Arthur Porges

4. The Seventh Man-Helen Nielsen

5. Voodoo Doll-Henry Slesar

6. A Friendly Exorcise-Talmage Powell

7. Many Women Too Many-C.B. Gilford

8. Till Death-Fletcher Flora

9. The Hitchhikers-Bruce Hunsberger

10. Store Cop-Ed Lacy

11. Doom Signal-John Lutz

12. See What’s in the Bag-Hal Ellson

13. Fat Jow & the Walking Woman-Robert Alan Blair

14. The Ghost & Mr. Grebner-Syd Hoff

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

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.