With his plans frustrated by his inability to find the Hidden King due to the Soul Guardian’s protection, the Chartreuse Emperor began constructing his most powerful, yet most dangerous, weapon, an Entropymancer.
Taking the last of the mythical Lord of the Poppies, and subjecting him to untold Suffering, the Mad Emperor brought forth an Entropymancer. Unstoppable. Unkillable. Consumed by a lust to destroy. An Entropymancer was released like an arrow, speeding towards his target, and only death could be the final result.
This was the blasphemous act that the Hidden King could not bring himself to commit. If he had sacrificed his beloved Elf Mage and subjected her to the Ultimate Pain, he could have created an Entropymancer of his own, to aim at the heart of the Chartreuse Emperor. But better the world to burn than for him to taint his soul with such a rite or sacrifice the one he held most dear.
And now, dear reader, what shall be the fate of this world? Roll your Dice. Play your Magic Cards. Consult the Codex. Is the destiny of this world written stone? Or, as John Connor once said “The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.” Let me know your thoughts.
Well, good morning Pilgrim. I figure you’re not really a Stranger any more if you’ve come back for the final edition of my Most Miserable Book Haul of All Time Ever, all thanks to Vault Books. (do I know how to give credit where credit is due or what?)
In February of 2023, I received the second special edition book of the Grimnoir Chronicles. It had been 5 years since I had received the first special edition book. Everything was clicking, right? We expected to have the third and final book in our hands within 6 months, because now that all the obstacles were overcome, we were sure the guy at Vault Books (Steve Diamond. Again, nothing positive is being said here) wanted this project over with just as much as we did. 4 months later Lord Larry claimed book 3 was almost ready to go. We were hopeful and thought Christmas of 2023 at the latest. Then crickets. Again. In October there was a random comment from the Vault Guy on Lord Larry’s site saying the book was going to the printer. Then crickets. Again. January of 2024 passed and still nothing. Not until April of 2024 did we get another snippet of info, from Lord Larry (who we were sick of hounding for *(&^%$ updates) and that was to say there were “issues” with the cover. Another 4 fething months of waiting.
And then, I finally got the final book, Warbound. Here are the beautiful pictures.
Opened September 5, 20247 1/2 years later, I FINALLY get the third book. Never again.Beautiful CoverGold Stamping really stands outLucky Number 98!
I will not say this has been worth the wait. This has been the MOST MISERABLE EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD FOR BUYING OR BACKING A BOOK PROJECT. While I will continue to buy Larry’s book (I just love his stories) I will never again back a project he suggests. I will certainly never buy a book by Steve Diamond (who is an author).
That being said, these are beautiful books and I will enjoy looking at them. They also have new introductions so when I go to re-read these, I plan on reading these editions and not my old ebook versions.
So Pilgrim, do you feel ready to move on now? That’s really good to hear. Mainly because you’re a ghost and I’m sick and tired of getting the chills every time you come to haunt me thinking you’re a real live blogger. Shoo, ghost, shoo!
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: Conan and the Emerald Lotus Series: Conan the Barbarian #20 Author: John Hocking Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 209 Words: 70K
This was BARELY 3stars. I really thought about knocking it down to 2.5, but it did have some pretty good action scenes, so that saved it.
Once I was done reading this, I went to find a synopsis online to use for this review and somebody seriously screwed up. The blurb from the publisher is completely wrong and/or misrepresents what actually happens in the story and if I had read it first, I’d be seriously annoyed. I’m still annoyed, but not enough to do more than write this one little paragraph about it. And it’s not even the author’s fault; it’s all on the publisher. Sometimes I despise publishers as much as I do writers.
I guess my biggest issue with this story was that the wizard, one who dealt specifically with plant based magics, somehow thinks he can use the Emerald Lotus and not get addicted to it? He experimented on two other wizards, one of who died from withdrawal symptoms for goodness sake. It was exactly like watching a heroine junkie. My issue is that he should have known better and we’re given no reason why he suddenly went “stupid” and used it with no safeguards in place. That’s just plain bad story telling right there.
There was also the distinct lack of full, heaving bosoms, luscious thighs and shapely buttocks. At this point I feel that words like those are part of the Conan lore as much as the descriptions of Conan’s mighty thews, piercing blue eyes and rough cut black hair. Conan is just as randy in this story as in any of the others, but Hocking seems to feel the need to pull a feather down blanket on his descriptions instead of the gauzy silk we’re used to. It’s not necessarily good or bad, but it is different and finding differences in style for the authors who write these Conan fan-ficts is part of why I read them 🙂
This was Hocking’s only Conan story and I’m glad of that. Means I don’t have to spend any time hunting down any more by him and since I wasn’t impressed by this, I certainly won’t be searching out any other books by him.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia & Bookstooge.blog
Synopsis & Real Synopsis – click to open
Having refused to enter the service of a Stygian wizard, Ethram-Fal, Conan suffers a curse which is gradually robbing him of his life. The beautiful sorceress, Lady Zelandra, offers to lift his curse if Conan retrieves for her a deadly emerald lotus which she is addicted to—currently in the possession of Ethram-Fal. To save his own life from the evil wizard, Conan must challenge Ethram-Fal again by stealing Zelandra’s prize from his desert fortress. During his adventure, Conan faces off against bandits, a demon disguised as an oasis, and zombie bodyguards. He’s aided in his quest by the dagger-throwing Neesa and a mute thief named Heng Shih.
-That is from Wikipedia and bears absolutely no relation to the actual book beyond the characters’ names.
Ethram-Fal, rejected from the Black Circle, vows to find the legendary Emerald Lotus, an unearthly plant that increases a wizards power one hundred fold. He finds it and uses two wizards to experiment with it. One of them dies from withdrawal, but not before he kills his own servant and zombifies him to chase down and kill Conan, who refused a job from him. Conan ends up with the other wizard, who is going after Ethram-Fal to kill him and gain enough of the Emerald Lotus dust to wean herself off of it.
So they go into the deepest desert to track down Ethram-Fal, who has taken over the palace of a mythological Stygian sorcerer from millennia ago. Bad things happen, Ethram-Fal is killed by the living plant of the Emerald Lotus and Conan goes on his merry way.
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 Man Lay Dead Series: Roderick Alleyn #1 Author: Ngaio Marsh Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Mystery Pages: 153 Words: 49K
This had the misfortune to be read immediately after a Nero Wolfe book. But it had the good fortune of me having issues with said Nero Wolfe book, so in the end, it all evens out.
Nancy, who blogs on Random Thoughts, brought this series to my attention back in ‘22 (Nancy’s Review of A Man Lay Dead). She has continued to read the series and each one that she has reviewed has kept my interest level simmering. Therefore, only two years later, I have taken the plunge myself. Pretty good, eh?
There are 33’ish Roderick Alleyn novels and as such, I will be reading a couple then taking a break and then coming back. Much like I am doing with the Discworld books. Very few series are written well enough to be consumed continuously every 6-9 weeks. Nero Wolfe is such a series but from my reading of this, I’ll need the break.
The influence of Agatha Christie is quite evident and this almost bordered on the “cozy”. If it weren’t for the inclusion of some Communist plots, and a few well placed needles under our heroes fingernails, I’d be adding a cozy tag for sure. When someone gets murdered in a house and it has to be one of the guests, and they all go on with each other like it’s no big deal, that’s quintessential “cozy” to me.
This was written in the 1930’s and shows the culture and mores of the times quite well. The man who is killed was a womanizing jackass and I wasn’t sad at all that he was killed. He was carrying on with a married woman, who was unrepentant about the affair after it’s revelation. Very seamy and unpleasant. I have a feeling Marsh will dive into that tainted pool throughout the series, so I’m trying to prepare myself.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – click to open
Journalist Nigel Bathgate somewhat begrudgingly attends a weekend house party at the estate of Sir Hubert Handesley. Sir Hubert is known for his elaborate murder games. Amongst the other guests are Nigel’s womanizing cousin Charles Rankin, Sir Hubert’s niece Angela North, Arthur and Marjorie Wilde, Rosamund Grant and Dr. Tokareff, a Russian doctor. Charles shows off a Russian dagger he recently acquired which causes Tokareff to rebuke him. That dagger belongs to a secret Russian brotherhood and is said to bring tragedy to anyone who possess it and is not a member of the brotherhood.
The weekend party is off to a tense start. Rankin makes unwanted passes at the women in attendance. The Wildes argue over their debt, largely collected by Marjorie. Arthur Wilde becomes the brunt of several jokes that culminate with Rankin pantsing him in front of several guests. Nigel overhears Mrs. Wilde having an affair with Charles.
Vassily, the Russian butler, begins the murder game by covertly selecting the killer. The killer has roughly a day and a half to tap another guest on the shoulder to “kill” them then ring a gong to signal that the murder has occurred. The other guests must remain still for two minutes to allow the killer to establish an alibi. In the evening, the gong sounds out but when the guests investigate, they find Charles Rankin genuinely murdered with his Russian dagger in his back.
Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called in to investigate. Everyone has some kind of alibi. Charles was murdered on the ground floor while everyone else was upstairs. Arthur Wilde admits to being the killer in the murder game but Nigel, who strikes up a friendship with Alleyn, provides him with an alibi. Wilde then confesses to killing Charles but is unable to provide accurate information as to how he pulled it off. Alleyn speculates Wilde is covering for his wife.
There are few clues to aid Alleyn. The dagger lacks fingermarks and the staff saw no one come downstairs. Alleyn discovers a partially charred glove in the fireplace that belongs to Mrs. Wilde who claims the glove went missing earlier. No one seems to have a satisfying motive. Nigel inherits Rankin’s estate while Sir Hubert inherits the dagger. Wilde also receives a small inheritance. Alleyn begins to consider the possibility Rankin’s murder may be connected to a murder in London associated with Russian Communists. However, this turns out to be a dead end.
In the denouement, Alleyn reveals all. Arthur Wilde murdered Charles Rankin. His confession was simply a misdirect to clear his name. The Wildes were heavily in debt and needed the small but sufficient inheritance Charles left. Wilde created an alibi for himself by talking to Nigel through their shared bathroom door. Wilde turned on the bathtub then ran into the hallway through the door in his bedroom. To save time, he slid down the banister and stabbed Charles on the way down. In under a minute, Wilde was back in the bathtub, talking to Nigel through the latter’s connecting door. Although Nigel provided Wilde with an alibi, only Nigel was doing the talking.
The novel ends with Nigel, now a rich man, free to pursue the heart of Angela North.
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: Champagne for One Series: Nero Wolfe #31 Author: Rex Stout Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Mystery Pages: 155 Words: 59K
I enjoyed reading this, but at the same time, it felt really, really, REALLY sameold/sameold.
I also had a serious problem with who was murdered and why, once it was all revealed. I could understand the Murderess and why she wanted to kill, but why did she go after her late husband’s illegitimate daughter instead of against the woman who he allegedly knocked up? It’s like blaming the cake for being burned instead of blaming the chef who forgot to set the timer.
And for the first time, Archie annoyed me. I get that he and Wolfe have a complicated relationship where they trust each other yet get on each other’s nerves, but that’s no reason for Archie to act like a total child because Wolfe won’t let him take part in another part of the case. He really gets petulant this time around. I don’t know why it bothered me so much this time around, but it did.
All the elements of a good Wolfe mystery were here and like I said at the beginning, I enjoyed this. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have.
★★★✬☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – click to open
Archie Goodwin receives a phone call from an acquaintance, Austin “Dinky” Byne, asking for a favour. Byne routinely acts as a chaperone for an annual dinner hosted by his aunt, Louise Grantham Robilotti, which is given in honour of four young unwed mothers living at Grantham House, a charity supported by her late husband. Byne claims to have a cold and is unable to attend; although skeptical, Archie agrees to stand in for him, despite Mrs. Robilotti’s being a former client of Nero Wolfe’s who bears him a personal dislike. During the dinner, Archie learns from one of the unwed mothers that another, Faith Usher, has a bottle of cyanide in her purse; Faith has been suffering from depression, and her friend fears that she might attempt suicide. Archie promises to watch over her, but towards the end of the evening Faith collapses and dies from cyanide poisoning after drinking a glass of champagne.
Alone of the guests, Archie maintains that Faith Usher did not commit suicide, claiming that he observed her constantly throughout the evening and that she never had an opportunity to pour the cyanide from her bottle into her glass. Although the authorities and the other guests pressure Archie into changing his story, Nero Wolfe believes him and decides to settle the matter by solving the case himself. He is given further incentive to do so when Edwin Laidlaw, another of the chaperones, approaches him to hire his services; Laidlaw is the father of Faith Usher’s child after a brief affair they had the previous year and, ashamed of his conduct, is desperate that his secret is not revealed.
Although Wolfe’s investigation begins unpromisingly, he becomes convinced that his suspicions are correct when the police receive an anonymous tip revealing Laidlaw’s secret. Although the police are skeptical due to the tip’s anonymous nature, it suggests to Wolfe that someone else knows Laidlaw’s secret and has become agitated by the ongoing investigation. His investigations begin to focus on both Faith Usher’s estranged mother Elaine, herself an unwed mother, and Dinky Byne, whose false reasons for canceling on the party look increasingly suspect given the events. He assigns Saul Panzer and Archie to investigate the two respectively, leading to a break in the case when both Archie and Saul tail their respective targets to the same location: a nightclub where Elaine Usher and Dinky Byne are meeting with each other.
When confronted by Wolfe, both Byne and Elaine Usher attempt to lie their way out of the situation, but their stories are inconsistent. Byne admits that he knew that Laidlaw was the father of Faith Usher’s child, and claims that he had them both invited to the dinner without their knowledge as a spiteful prank. During their conversation, however, Orrie Cather infiltrates Byne’s apartment and discovers a letter revealing that Mrs. Robilotti’s deceased first husband, Albert Grantham, was the father of Faith Usher. This, coupled with some unwittingly suggestive comments from Byne, leads Wolfe to identify the murderer.
Summoning the guests to his office, he has them reenact the circumstances under which Faith Usher received the poisoned champagne multiple times. This demonstrates that Mrs. Robilotti’s son Cecil, who gave Faith the poisoned champagne, had a routine way of handing over a glass that someone who knew his habits would be able to predict. He accuses Mrs. Robilotti of poisoning Faith Usher; Byne was blackmailing her with the knowledge that her former husband was Faith’s father and invited Faith to the dinner as a threat. Mrs. Robilotti murdered Faith to conceal the secret and out of resentment over her husband’s affair and, learning that she was in the habit of carrying cyanide, acquired some from another source to make it look like a suicide. Archie is vindicated, and Mrs. Robilotti is taken into custody.
I think every SFF fan of the time knew what magical feedback was. It was a staple in our stories after all. Might even be a staple today, but I rather doubt it. Feedback relies on rationally thinking out your magic system instead of just throwing stuff on the wall and saying “magic!”
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Cthulhu Resurgent Series: Cthulhu: Harrison Peel #2 Editor: David Conyers Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Short Story Collection Pages: 262 Words: 108K
This is where I get off the Harrison Peel train. Once again, he goes through some mind breaking experiences (his fiance is killed in front of his eyes by a shoggoth masquerading as a human) and while not shrugging it off, pretty much does shrug it off. He should have been left a mindless, gibbering wreck. Instead, he just soldiers on. Usually, that’s what I want. But as I discussed in the review for the first book (Cthulhu Reloaded), that is NOT what I want, or any true fan wants, when it comes to Cosmic Horror. Conyers continues to snub his nose at convention, so I say “phooiey” to him!
Not a very good start to my reading month, now is it?
★★✬☆☆
Table of Contents & From the Publisher:
Click to Open
“The Spiraling Worm” (2007) (by David Conyers and John Sunseri)
“The Road to Afghanistan” (2013)
“The Eye of Infinity” (2014)
“The Temporal Deception” (2015) (by David Conyers and C. J. Henderson)
“The Gravity Museum” (2021)
Humans are a mistake. The laws of physics prove it.
Army intelligence officer Major Harrison Peel has spent a lifetime fighting eldritch horrors, constantly clawing through the veil of reality ready to annihilate our world. But how do you win the war when these alien gods — and not terrestrial life — are the true nature of reality? In Antarctica, a new threat emerges. Shape-shifting aliens called Shoggoths that can mimic people and integrate into human society, who are manipulating us from within. Then Peel discovers their true intensions… If Peel can’t defeat these Shoggoths abominations, they won’t just destroy us, but enslave humanity into a billion years of servitude…
Ahhh, you know, I really like doing those My Week posts. Cuts down on trying to remember everything and regurgitate it in one paragraph!
Our washer has started leaking. Going to be finding out if it is a fixable leak or if it means we’ll need to buy a whole new one. That’s going to be expensive. I guess that red Porsche I was eyeing is going to have to wait another year.
From a reading perspective things started out bad. Three sub 3star books in a row made me feel like it was the worst reading month ever. I felt that way the whole month even though I had a whole bunch of decent books. It wasn’t until the end when I read Warlock Holmes that I felt like things had turned around. This is exactly why I don’t trust my feelings and put out the hard numbers each month. Keeps me grounded in reality.
Cover Love:
The Infinite and the Divine, a Warhammer 40K: Necrons novel. I had several choices this month, but this just appeals to me.
Plans for Next Month:
Guess what? I actually DO have something different for September that I can tell you about. Whooowhee!
Mrs B and I will be visiting family from the 11th to the 16th. I’ll be posting my Annual 9/11 Post but will have comments turned off and then there won’t be any more posts until we come back. I’m sure I’ll still be around to visit you all, but the blog will not be active for those 5 days. I’ll get a post up on the following Friday about the whole time.
On a scheduling note. I usually schedule my posts for 5am, Eastern Standard Time, which is -5 GMT. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be changing that to 6am. Not a big change, but I am experimenting with some small things to see if it can help with some larger issues.
(Please read Book Haul of Misery I if you haven’t already, to get the background on my journey to hell and back.)
Well Stranger, you decided to come back, did you? I’m not sure if that qualifies you as very brave, or very foolish. Maybe you’re a mix of both and Fate brought you to my camp fire so as I could beat the foolish right out of you with this here bag of fritos chips. But either way, let me continue my tale fraught with woe and misery.
Opened August 29th, 2024
After having received the first book, Hard Magic in 2019, hopes were running high that the following two books would quickly arrive too. Unfortunately, as we all know, covid hit in 2020. Coupled with a paper shortage, things were delayed. If you read the comments section at Vault Books, you can chart our dissatisfaction as the months and then years rolled by.
FOUR YEARS LATER…..
Children were born and grew up into toddlers. Old people died. Matrix Resurrections was released and promptly forgotten. Dune, Part I was released and gave hope to millions of Dune fans around the world. I discovered the talented Angelina Ross. I was no longer a callow youth in my 30’s. The world as we knew it in 2019 no longer existed.
Now remember Stranger, during these four long, arduous years, there were no updates of any kind from Vault Books. Every tiny bit of info that was gleaned was pulled, like a rotten tooth, from the unwilling mouth of Lord Larry himself. I now know what a nagging wife feels like. It is a horrible feeling and it was a horrible experience.
And then, a miracle occurred.
Hallelujah and Amen! Spellbound was in the house in February 2023!
Spellbound dustcoverSpellbound actual cover#98 – Because I’m just that special
Covid was over. Alternate printers, the original printers had gone out of business (supposedly), were found. Trees were chopped down like grass and paper was no longer in short supply. We all expected that in 6 more months, we would have the final book in our hands. The End was in sight.
Or. So. We. Thought.
Wut?! That pesky work calling you again Stranger? You should quit that boring job and become a land surveyor like me. Fresh air. Sharp machetes. No busybody managers micromanaging your every move. You don’t like the cold and the heat you say? You pansy. Get out of here. But be sure to come back next week when I’ll make you cry buckets with the final tale of woe of this most Miserable Journey Ever. I do suggest you bring your own fire though, I don’t share with pansies…
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: Yakov Pasinkov Series: (The Russians) Author: Ivan Turgenev Translator: Garnett Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Classic Pages: 64 Words: 17K
There was a quote that sums up Russian Literature exquisitely:
“I felt very miserable, wretched and miserable beyond description. In twenty-four hours two such cruel blows! I had learned that Sophia loved another man, and I had for ever forfeited her respect. I felt myself so utterly annihilated and disgraced that I could not even feel indignant with myself. Lying on the sofa with my face turned to the wall, I was revelling in the first rush of despairing misery” ~bolding is mine
Reveling (I believe the double “L” in the quote is the old timey way of spelling it) in despairing misery. Do you understand that? If you don’t, or can’t, then Russian works are probably not for you. However, I CAN UNDERSTAND IT PERFECTLY! Which is why I enjoy Russian novels and novella’s so much. Even ones that have no real plot and are just ramblings about various character studies.
I was pretty pissed off that I couldn’t find a bleeping summary of this novella online. Not even that ***** liberal activist hotbed of partisanship and censorship, Wikipedia, had a separate article on this. It was just lumped in under “Works of Turgenev”. Now how lazy is that? Aren’t there any REAL Turgenev fans out there? Don’t they CARE that this novella doesn’t have its own article, that it doesn’t have an indepth summary or a bunch of blather by some idiot cramming in “meaning” from his mouth and *ss? I felt truly ashamed for anybody who claimed to be a Fan of Turgenev because they were THAT lazy. Shame on all five of them! If I ever come across them, I shall not even look at them or meet their eye.
Thankfully, I’m not a totally lazy git. Just a mostly lazy git. So I wrote a flaming synopsis, all on my own. Like a GOOD reviewer would do. In fact, I will lay claim to being one of the world’s best book reviewers, EVER, because of this masterful accomplishment. And it’s all thanks to my love of reveling in despair and misery. So there.
The End.
★★★✬☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Synopsis – You Know You Want to Read It!
An unnamed narrator relates his various interactions with the titular Yakov Pasinkov and various figures related to the narrator and to Pasinkov. Our narrator met Pasinkov at school, and become his mentee. They separated after school, met again years later in St Petersburg where Pasinkov smoothed over an issue for our Narrator with a young woman who the narrator was in love, as was Pasinkov. Then they separate for years again and our Narrator meets Pasinkov on his death bed, where he learns of Pasinkov’s love of the aforementioned young woman, who has since married and had a daughter. Our Narrator meets her, relates Pasinkov’s death and the woman reveals how her sister had been in love with Pasinkov. And some letters of Pasinkov reveal how he was loved by yet another peasant woman. So everybody loved somebody who didn’t love them and everybody was miserable or died, or both. The End.
