Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Wednesday, December 06, 2023

Dark Humor

Hahahahahaa! When my brother sent me this, I just about died laughing. Ahhh, I love good humor 😉

Tuesday, December 05, 2023

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: Basil
Series: ———-
Author: Wilkie Collins
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 473
Words: 128K

This was head and shoulders far above Antonina. I was never bored reading this. And yet. Yes, that doomful “And yet”….

Basil is a spineless, cowardly, weak willed, weak minded nincompoop. He’s not a villain by any means. I’ve often wondered how stupid people go through life, what lens are they viewing it through? I feel like this novel answers that. He is constantly “struck dumb” by people asking him questions. Questions he should already have the answers to since he’s taking certain lines of action. It would be like me asking you why you just drank a gallon of gasoline when you know you are not an automobile and that gasoline is poison to humans. If you just looked at me with a cowlike expression on your face and stuttered, you’d be a stand-in for Basil, hands down. This particularly galling to me as he is a very articulate writer and never even THINKS to write down answers ahead of time to some questions he knows will be coming his way. He is also extremely passive. His older brother swoops in near the end of the novel to help him out and Basil mentions nothing to him about a madman who is out to kill him. He keeps absolutely silent on the issue. His reasoning for doing so are as fatuous as anything he had done previously. I wanted to wring his neck and kept hoping that the madman WOULD kill him, just to rid the world of one more stupid idiot. Sadly, that’s not how things turned out.

Collins is at his wordiest here. There was one time that a paragraph went on for a page and a half and part way through I realized it was all one sentence. No semi-colons, just lots of commas and parenthetical thoughts tossed in to stretch things out. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

I’m going to read The Woman in White next and if that doesn’t really impress me, I’ll have to think long and hard about reading any more Collins. As a reader, I feel that I can do better.

★★✬☆☆

From Wilkie-Collins.info

Basil is the younger son of a proud, stern father and comes of an ancient, noble family. He has a devoted younger sister, Clara, and a wild but good-natured older brother, Ralph. Travelling home, on impulse by omnibus, Basil falls in love at first sight with Margaret Sherwin, a linen-draper’s daughter. He follows her home to the newly-built suburbs north of Regent’s Park and, after contriving a meeting, asks her father for permission to marry; but because of his own father’s certain opposition, the marriage should be kept secret. Mr Sherwin agrees on condition that the marriage takes place within the week but is not consummated for one year, since Margaret is only just seventeen. The delay will give Basil time to persuade his father to accept the marriage, and he cannot be forced to withdraw from it. The marriage duly takes place and Basil spends the next few months visiting Margaret every evening under the supervision of the mildly deranged Mrs Sherwin. He tries unsuccessfully to improve Margaret’s mind and after overhearing two of her tantrums begins to doubt her character.

Sherwin’s confidential clerk, Robert Mannion, returns from a business trip to France. Mannion’s previous background is cloaked in secrecy and he has a strange power over the family. Nevertheless, he professes friendship and uses his influence for Basil’s benefit. After a strained visit to his father’s country house, Basil returns to find both Margaret and Mannion changed. On the evening before his year’s ‘probation’ is completed, Basil is disconcerted that Margaret has gone to a party and will be escorted home by Mannion. He decides to collect her himself but sees her leave early with his rival. Basil follows them to an hotel and through a thin partition wall hears Mannion seduce Margaret. Basil waits and attacks Mannion, hurling him to the ground with such force that he is permanently disfigured and loses the sight of one eye. Basil collapses into delirium.

On recovering, he realises that Margaret is as much to blame as Mannion, despite threatening letters from Sherwin defending her. Basil confesses the ignoble marriage to his father who disowns him, tearing his name from the record in the family Bible. Mannion writes from hospital, revealing his secret past. His father was a gentleman who lived beyond his means. His patron was Basil’s father, who refused to intervene to prevent his being hanged for forgery. Mannion had lived a miserable existence under assumed names until a friend arranged employment with Sherwin where he made himself indispensable. He had watched Margaret develop and despite her deceitful nature regarded her as his prize. Basil’s marriage had compounded the family offence and Mannion resolved to take revenge by ruining his happiness and reputation.

Ralph returns from the Continent and visits Sherwin to buy his silence. He fortuitously obtains a letter written by Mannion which confirms Margaret’s guilt. Margaret, visiting Mannion in hospital, contracts typhus from which she dies. Basil sees her when she is at the point of death, forgives her and leaves London for Cornwall. Mannion forces him to leave the fishing village where he is staying and confronts him on the cliff tops. While gloating over his revenge, Mannion falls to his death on the rocks below. The shock causes Basil to collapse. He is brought back to London by Ralph and Clara and reconciled with his father. After writing his history, Basil retires to the country to live quietly with Clara.

All of My “Wilkie Collins” Reviews

Monday, December 04, 2023

Cyclopean Mummy - MTG 4E

Sunday, December 03, 2023

A Christmas Carol 5Stars

Title: A Christmas Carol
Series:
Author: Charles Dickens
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 89
Words: 29K

Yep, good stuff. Having listened to this in various audio editions for the last 2 years, I decided that it was time to actually re-read it. Last time I read it was back in ‘13. A decade. One of the boys at church was just being born then and several of the girls weren’t even a gleam in their daddy’s eye yet. Measuring my book reading by peoples’ lives is kind of scary. Because it makes me feel powerful and wise and like I can do anything, such as read a book. Again 😉

Because this is my umpteenth time, I specifically looked for little details that I hadn’t noticed on earlier reads. I found them. It helped that I sat down one evening and just read this from beginning to end. At 89 pages that’s not a big chore. I didn’t take note of the little things, but as I read them, I mentally said to myself “Bookstooge old fellow, we don’t remember THAT detail do we?” and I nodded sagely to myself for my perspicuity.

I suspect that after this year I’ll let this story rest for a couple of years before I try again. Hopefully not another full decade, but a couple at least, maybe even a couple of couples. I don’t want the enjoyment and fun and goodness of a story to be squeezed out because I was so greedy and grasping in my literary hunger. Just as eggnog is meant to be consumed in a small portion of the year, so too must certain stories be consumed in a measured pace.

This was a good start to my Christmas Carol on Sunday’s for December. Please look forward to next Sunday when I review the movie version of A Christmas Carol starring Patrick Stewart.

★★★★★

From Wikipedia (click on Details to expand)

The book is divided into five chapters, which Dickens titled “staves”.

Stave one

A Christmas Carol opens on a bleak, cold Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge’s business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an ageing miser, dislikes Christmas and refuses a dinner invitation from his nephew Fred. He turns away two men who seek a donation from him to provide food and heating for the poor and only grudgingly allows his overworked, underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off with pay to conform to the social custom.

That night Scrooge is visited at home by Marley’s ghost, who wanders the Earth entwined by heavy chains and money boxes forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Marley tells Scrooge that he has a single chance to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits and must listen or be cursed to carry much heavier chains of his own.

Stave two

The first spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of Scrooge’s boyhood, reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The scenes reveal Scrooge’s lonely childhood at boarding school, his relationship with his beloved sister Fan, who died young while giving birth to Fred, and a Christmas party hosted by his first employer, Mr Fezziwig, who treated him like a son. Scrooge’s neglected fiancée Belle is shown ending their relationship, as she realises that he will never love her as much as he loves money. Finally, they visit a now-married Belle with her large, happy family on the Christmas Eve that Marley died. Scrooge, upset by hearing Belle’s description of the man that he has become, demands that the ghost remove him from the house.

Stave three

The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to a joyous market with people buying the makings of Christmas dinner and to celebrations of Christmas in a miner’s cottage and in a lighthouse. Scrooge and the ghost also visit Fred’s Christmas party. A major part of this stave is taken up with Bob Cratchit’s family feast and introduces his youngest son, Tiny Tim, a happy boy who is seriously ill. The spirit informs Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die unless the course of events changes. Before disappearing, the spirit shows Scrooge two hideous, emaciated children named Ignorance and Want. He tells Scrooge to beware the former above all and mocks Scrooge’s concern for their welfare.

Stave four
The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge a Christmas Day in the future. The silent ghost reveals scenes involving the death of a disliked man whose funeral is attended by local businessmen only on condition that lunch is provided. His charwoman, laundress and the local undertaker steal his possessions to sell to a fence. When he asks the spirit to show a single person who feels emotion over his death, he is only given the pleasure of a poor couple who rejoice that his death gives them more time to put their finances in order. When Scrooge asks to see tenderness connected with any death, the ghost shows him Bob Cratchit and his family mourning the death of Tiny Tim. The ghost then allows Scrooge to see a neglected grave, with a tombstone bearing Scrooge’s name. Sobbing, Scrooge pledges to change his ways.

Stave five

Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning a changed man. He makes a large donation to the charity he rejected the previous day, anonymously sends a large turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner and spends the afternoon at Fred’s Christmas party. The following day he gives Cratchit an increase in pay, and begins to become a father figure to Tiny Tim. From then on Scrooge treats everyone with kindness, generosity and compassion, embodying the spirit of Christmas.

Saturday, December 02, 2023

Imperator (Galaxy's Edge #4.5) 4Stars

Title: Imperator
Series: Galaxy’s Edge #4.5
Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF/Space Opera
Pages: 323
Words: 104K

Ahhh, this was fantastic to return to the Galaxy’s Edge universe again. The Star Wars That Could Have Been. I read the final book of Galaxy’s Edge: Season One (Retribution) back in February of ‘21. I then read many of the spin off series and the final Galaxy’s Edge book I read was Angles of Attack in August of ‘22. Since then I have been patiently waiting for Anspach and Cole to finish up Season Two of the main Galaxy’s Edge series and then had to wait for an opportune time to slide it into my reading rotation.

So imagine my surprise when I came across a Galaxy’s Edge book I hadn’t read it. It was labeled #4.5 and fit between books 4 and 5 (duh, but you can’t be too careful). So I decided to kick off my reading of Season Two with this prequel. It was a good refresher course all about Goth Sullus and his history and what he was afraid of the entire time. I also felt that it introduced The Big Bogeyman so that I remember who/what that is, which is what I’m assuming S2 will be all about. If I had read this when I supposed to, I suspect I would have forgotten most of this by now.

This is the story of Goth Sullus, aka Caspar Sullivan, the Man who would be Emperor with a power no one can resist. He has sought this power for the good of the galaxy though, as it just won’t act like it should, ala how Caspar thinks it should. We go from the time his parents were killed to the attack on him as Emperor by his own Elite. His search for the power leads him to a planet where a twisted Yoda-like character named Urmo trains him in the ways of the Crux.

This was not a linear story at all but at the same time it was. We follow three different time lines of Caspar’s life and each time line is linear, but how and when we jump from one to the other is apparently random. But the authors handled it in such a way that I never felt confused about which timeline I was in nor did I get story whiplash jumping from one to the other. They handled it admirably well.

Caspar’s life is ruled by fear, even once he becomes Goth Sullus, and that fear is what drives him, motivates him, spurs him on. It’s not a good fear either and it makes him become the man that is capable of being Goth Sullus. All in all, this was a great character study of a weak man who was given much power.

On a side note, I’ll be using the Details code for the synopsis so there will be no repeats of Season One where some of those books had six page long synopses. You will not have to scroll through that this time around. On my honor!

Finally, that cover. Oh, is that total Star Wars vibes or what?!?!? Ahhhh, it is a soothing balm to my soul. Here’s the big version:

★★★★☆

From Galaxysedge.fandom.com

Warrior. Slave. Survivor. Emperor.

As a crumbling Galactic Republic falls to the relentless assault of a merciless foe, so begins the rise of an enigmatic emperor intent on saving a corrupt galaxy-spanning civilization from itself… and from something much darker that lies beyond the reaches of the known.

Just as the reins of power fall into his iron-fisted grasp, an assassination attempt by a hidden cabal within his own inner circle jeopardizes every plan he has set in motion for his Dark Legion, his Imperial Navy, and his ultimate conquest of the stars. But the assassins have no idea who they are actually dealing with… or what he has become.

Imperator is a darkly heroic epic that spans the boundaries of time, space, friendship, and one man’s quest for a power that never should have been found.

Thursday, November 30, 2023

November '23 Roundup & Rambling

Raw Data:

Novels – 14 ↑

Short Stories – 0 ⭤

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 ⭤

Comics – 1 ⭤

Average Rating – 3.20 ↓

Pages – 3592 ↑

Words – 1297K ↑

The Bad:

The Chromatic Court – 1star of very disappointing King in Yellow stories.

The Good:

Sense and Sensibility – 5stars of Classic Goodness

Hedges – 4stars of good advice

Movie:

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

What a flipping month!

We got a new Meatbag at work. He’s not an engineering student slumming, so he’s not MY meatbag intern, but he’s a good enough kid and has a positive attitude. Which really goes a long way when you’re working 9hrs in the rain on a job site 90minutes from the office while sundown is at 4:15pm. I shall now refer to him, if I do, as Meatbag II. That being said, are all 18 year olds such wusses now? He was complaining about how the instrument bag was hurting his back from carrying it. Sure, the bag needs to be replaced, but its functional. I can’t remember if I whined about stuff like that when I was 18 or not. Toughen up kid, life is hard.

Speaking of work. I’ve been doing land survey work for 23 years (given, it was spotty from ’08-’14 when I had to work private security because of the Great Recession) and never had an accident with a cutting utensil. Until this month, when I was sharpening a machete, with a blinking safety sharpener. One slip and sliiiiiiiice, got a nice one inch long cut on my right hand. At first I wasn’t even sure I had cut myself, because the blade was so sharp, but then the blood started pouring out and I was like “yep, cut myself”. So bandaged it up for the day. This was also my introduction to liquid bandages. So remember kids, machetes aren’t toys! Well, except when you’re playing the Machete Game. Then they are the ultimate toy.

Thanksgiving was a nice time spent with a family from church that we’re friends with. Lots of good food and fellowship made for a very mellow day.

I ran to the brink of burnout with my caffeine intake and had to stop for a week. Resetting my biology back to normal is always a miserable experience and makes life seem much much worse while it’s happening. Coupled with all the work and all the stuff going on at church for the holidays, it’s why I had my little angel in the rain post. But I saw the warning signs and stopped before stepping off that brink. Next time, I need to do better at not getting close to the edge at all.

Sadly, Mrs B broke her wrist at work near the end of the month, so that put the kabosh on her working for a couple of weeks at the least. It happened at work, so I’m hoping she can get workmans comp without a huge fight from her employer. But I’m not counting on it. It does mean she’s going to go stir crazy at home, so who know what that means around the house for December. Not like she can actually DO very much, hahahahaa. Thankfully, we’re both in good spirits about it and it wasn’t very painful. Didn’t even know it was broken at first. Wasn’t until she went to the doctors that he said it was broken and not sprained. But feel free to start a Go-Fund-Me campaign so we can live high on the hog for a couple of months off the backs of others 😉

Cover Love:

Even though I showcased this at the beginning of the month, nothing else was able to beat it out for the Cover Love category. While Double Z is a lame title, that cover is pure awesomesauce and I eat it up with a spoon.

Plans for Next Month:

I managed to get my read vs review time down to 2 weeks in November, so I suspect I’ll have no problem getting that down to 1 week in December.

Sense and Sensibility Sundays were a lot of fun (for EVERYONE, bunty, or else!) and so I’m going to semi-repeat the process for “A Christmas Carol” in December. I’ll read the short story and then listen and watch various incarnations of it. Just a heads up though, each successive week will be a sillier version than the previous, so don’t expect much after week two 😉

Other than that, it should be same old, same old. I’m going to take Friday’s off from posting and am giving it serious thought to extending that to Wednesday’s as well. Planning my down time seems to work for keeping me from blogging burn out.

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

The Chromatic Court (The King in Yellow Anthology #11) 1Star

Title: The Chromatic Court
Series: The King in Yellow Anthology #11
Author: Peter Rawlik (ed)
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror Anthology
Pages: 284
Words: 107K

This collection of short stories starts off with some modern sexual perversions and insanities masquerading as personal choices, so while that type of thing usually ends in an immediate DNF, I decided to finish the collection.

Sadly, this was as much a Cthulhu collection as it was a King in Yellow collection. I even hesitated to put this into the King in Yellow side of things, but I did and decided to just call this book a complete loss.

What a way to end the month, sigh.

★☆☆☆☆

From the Publisher and Table of Contents:

The Color of Things © Peter Rawlik

When Lavender is in Bloom © Christine Morgan

Love and Treachery © Joseph S. Pulver Sr.

Have you ever been haunted by a work of art?

You may not be merely captured by the craft, but by something that lies in the work’s depths. Something admiring you as you admire it.

Do you know the King in Yellow? The Sepia Prince? The Duke of Rust? Have you heard their whispers coming to you from dried up parchment and faded photographs? Maybe another member of the King’s court has lit upon your life, casting shadows and doubts. Do you worship them, fear them, revere them, or simply seek to understand them? These hallowed nobles who hold court around the King.

Each noble holds an artform in their wavelength. For their color to shine, that art must practiced. There are no older or younger members of the court. Each has existed since before time was a concept they entertained. All of culture has evolved to suit their needs.

Art is in the eye of the beholder, and color is only an abstract concept. The Chromatic Court is very real, you reading this has assured that…

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Heroes Die (Overworld #1) 2.5Stars

Title: Heroes Die
Series: Overworld #1
Author: Matthew Stover
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 541
Words: 213K

So much profanity. So much violence. This was not a nice book. It was grim, gritty and 10 years ago I probably would have either dnf’d the book or at least the trilogy. As it is, I’m giving it lower rating and will be thinking about if I want to continue this.

Stover knows how to write well and tell a captivating story, but he has set out deliberately to tarnish the idea of “Hero” and “Adventure” with a soiled rag soaked in the excrement of lepers. A “hero” can’t be good and virtuous, but must be utilitarian and vicious to gain the end goal. An “adventure” isn’t a wonderful thing but something that exploits everyone involved and debases them at every possible turn. Now whether Stover is actually writing that or some “Message” about it, doesn’t matter. Caine is not a hero. He is an anti-hero and his every action reminds of us that.

I enjoyed the book while I was reading it, but once I finished and started thinking about what I had actually read and the implications behind it (whether in earnest or satirized), my ratings kept plummeting. I was originally thinking it was 4stars because I did enjoy it quite a bit. Then I dropped it half a star for all the gratuitous profanity that would make even a sailor blush. Then I started thinking about Caine and his actions and dropped it another half star. Finally, I realized that Stover wasn’t writing to just tell a good story but to prove or make a point and so I dropped it to it’s current.

And I’m going to end my review before I end up talking my rating even more into the ground.

★★✬☆☆

From Wikipedia

(click on “Details” to expand the synopsis)

The novels are set in a future dystopia Earth where a parallel world called Overworld reminiscent of the worlds featured in post-Tolkien secondary world fantasy has been discovered. The corporations that run Earth send actors into Overworld in order to provide the masses of an overcrowded world with virtual-reality entertainment.

Hari Michaelson is a famous Actor and son of a now-mentally ill libertarian professor. On Overworld, he is the assassin Caine, while his estranged wife Shanna is another Actor, playing the mage Pallas Ril. Actors who travel to Overworld through advanced technology and assume an alternate persona which they then use to carry out ‘adventures’. Pallas is captured by Ma’elKoth, the Emperor of Overworld’s human kingdom of Ankhana, on one of her adventures. Ma’elKoth’s plan to rule Ankhana by wiping out a final resistance group is blocked by a spell that causes others to forget the existence of the resistance group’s members. The remainder of the book plays out the conflict between Ma’elKoth, Caine and the resistance. Hari finds himself manipulated by both the powers on Overworld and the Studio on Earth, and must defeat them both in order to save himself and Pallas Ril from death. In the end, Hari brings both MaelKoth and Pallas Ril back to Earth and begins the process of showing the world how they’ve been manipulated.

Monday, November 27, 2023

Cursed Rack - MTG 4E

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Sense and Sensibility (1971 TV Miniseries)

Another BBC tv miniseries. One thing I’ll note right off is that except for the 2008 version, the BBC has kept child actors out of the picture. While that means excising the third sister, Margaret, from the picture, she plays such a small part that it’s not that big a sacrifice. And not having child actors fully accords with my views on them. More harm is done to children than any possible good by either forcing them or even “allowing” them to be in movies and tv. So bravo to the Beeb for keeping them out. Hollywood should have taken note with their 1995 Version. Oh, won’t SOMEONE think of the children?
~wrings hands piteously~

This was a 4part series with each episode running around 45’ish minutes. Once again the entire run is just under the 3hr mark. That seems to be the regular time frame that the BBC considers optimum. Overall, I tend to agree. It works out very well.

After the 1981 Version, I was dreading taking yet another decade long step backwards. If the 1980’s was a stage play acting, what would this be like? I had horrible images of 70’s hairstyles prancing around in tight dance club suits and randomly breaking out into disco dance moves, ala John Travolta. Now I’m going to have nightmares again 🙁 Thankfully, this was nothing like that at all. This reminded me very much of the 2008 Version in terms of acting and how they presented the material. It felt like a movie. I enjoyed watching this. The relief at finding out there was no disco shouldn’t be discounted though, so maybe I didn’t quite enjoy this as much as I thought I did 😉

Another thing that struck me immediately, was the inclusion of Patricia Routledge as Mrs Jennings. Patricia is better known to me as Hyacinth Bucket, from the british sitcom “Keeping Up Appearances“. That show always leaves me rolling. Mrs Jennings was the perfect role, a good hearted, busybody with no malice whatsoever. Routledge totally owned the role and it was a joy to behold her.

While empire waisted dresses dominated the style scene, there was enough curled hair, jewels and variety of dress to keep every period fanatic in raptures. I also would like to re-emphasize, there was not ONE disco suit on display 😉

I do admit to feeling some story fatigue at this point. But as this is the last screen version, it didn’t hinder me, just kind of added a couple of pounds to my shoulders that I had to drag along. I didn’t force myself to watch this and there was no resignation when it was time to watch the next episode. I was thinking of trying to do this same thing for Pride & Prejudice when I do a buddyread with Lashaan next year. I am questioning the wisdom of that decision, as this experience has quite wiped me out. Not a bad experience, but a very tiring one. But that’s months away, so I refuse to make a choice now about something that far in the future.

As this is the last viewing, I’ve given a few thoughts about how I’d rank them in regards to each other.

1995 Movie
2008 TV Miniseries
1971 TV Miniseries
1981 TV Miniseries

And that’s a wrap!

Sense and Sensibility 5Stars