Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Monster Hunter Alpha (MHI #3) 5Stars

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Title: Monster Hunter Alpha
Series: MHI #3
Author: Larry Correia
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 402
Words: 148K

When I originally read this back in 2012, I remember loving it. Nothing changed in the intervening 12 years :-D

This was non-stop werewolf action. The main badguy werewolf ends up with a magic doohickey that allows him to become a 20foot tall werewolf. How awesome is that? It’s pretty awesome, that’s how awesome it is. Throw in the snow shredder scene (where Earl and one of the Good Town Folk literally harvest a crop of werewolves with it) and man, this was just awesome. Are you getting the idea that maybe I really liked this book? Good. Because I did!

For those of you who might not know what a snow shredder is, I’m including a picture so you can visualize it chewing through a whole pack of evil, insane and psychopathic werewolves.

I had forgotten this is where we are introduced to the werewolf who is supposedly now the love of Earl’s life. I can’t remember if she makes any more appearances after she’s whisked away by Special Task Force Unicorn at the end of this book. Another reason to do re-reads.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun reading this and it was even better than my previous read and everything here only firmed up my resolve to keep up this re-read. The series is fun monster killing and I thoroughly enjoy it from beginning to end.

★★★★★

From MHI.Fandom.com

Earl Harbinger may be the leader of Monster Hunter International, but he's also got a secret. Nearly a century ago, Earl was cursed to be a werewolf. When Earl receives word that one of his oldest foes, a legendarily vicious werewolf that worked for the KGB, has mysteriously appeared in the remote woods of Michigan, he decides to take care of some unfinished business. But another force is working to bring about the creation of a whole new species of werewolf. When darkness falls, the final hunt begins, and the only thing standing in their way is a handful of locals, a lot of firepower, and Earl Harbinger's stubborn refusal to roll over and play dead.

Plot

Earl Harbinger lost some of his memories during his encounter with the demon he nicknamed "Rocky" at the end of Monster Hunter Vendetta so he started writing them down in the form of journals in order to learn the extent of his loss. This book contains the third of the journals which focuses on his experiences as a werewolf. We also learn more about how the Alpha is designated and what it means to be the Alpha werewolf. Monster Hunter Alpha opens with Earl going off on his own to take care of personal business with Earl's backstory interspersed.

Earl meets with an old handler from his time in Vietnam and learns of the presence of an old enemy, Nikolai Petrov, in Northern Michigan. It turns out that Nikolai is not the only issue in Copper Lake, MI however. There is another person who is angling to be the Alpha and he has some extra help in the form of a magic amulet and then some.

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Mrs Pollifax on Safari (Mrs Pollifax #5) 4Stars

Title: Mrs Pollifax on Safari
Series: Mrs Pollifax #5
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 161
Words: 57K

Much like the Nero Wolfe books, I have come to realize, albeit much sooner than with Wolfe, than I am thoroughly enjoying these books enough to bump them up to a standard 4star level. They meet all of my criteria for 4stars and I realized I needed to stop being so stingy with my ratings. I’m not going to go broke if I rate a series higher for goodness sake. While I am not going to go all Fraggle and read these back to back to back, I can totally see myself re-reading these in several years. And that “re-readability” is usually the tipping point from 3.5 to 4 stars. Not always, but usually.

Mrs Pollifax is roped into another assignment for the CIA and once again is promised it will be a cakewalk. All she has to do is go on a Safari in Africa and while taking pictures on the safari, take pictures of everyone on the safari. Because one of them is a ruthless, unstoppable assassin. So of course everything goes straight to pot and derails like a freight train plunging off a cliff and Mrs Pollifax does a LOT more than just taking pictures.

I know I say this for every book, but Gilman is an absolute master at upping the ante very organically for Mrs Pollifax. Nothing that happens is so outlandish that it makes me suspend my belief in the story or feel like it is Authorial Fiat/Machina Ex Deus. It takes a really good author to write that way and to go from Point A to Point Z, hitting the rest of the alphabet on the journey without making one feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I continue to thoroughly enjoy the series. I don’t know how much more of a recommendation I could give. Thankfully, I’m not trying to sell this to you. I’m simply chronicling my enjoyment. If you don’t read this series, that’s fine. It’s your loss alone :-)

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia.org

Mrs. Pollifax is called upon by the CIA to undertake another mission, this time to photograph members of a safari in Zambia, one of whom is an international assassin nicknamed Aristotle. She innocently posts an ad in the local newspaper trying to contact her old friend Farrell from the first book. This leads to major complications, as Farrell is involved with the freedom fighters across the border and has made some enemies. Another entertaining outing and with a bit of romance as a fellow traveler takes a fancy to Mrs. Pollifax.

All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

Sunday, October 27, 2024

The Romanoff Jewels (The Shadow #19) 3.5Stars

Title: The Romanoff Jewels
Series: The Shadow #19
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 142
Words: 43K

Commies, Czar’ists and The Shadow all collide! Man, this was a weird read. Russian Royalty simply hasn’t been a part of our world close to 100 years now and so to read a story about it just after its heyday, still a force to be reckoned with, really threw me. It was kind of hard to take seriously too.

The Shadow really plays up the human factor in this story. He’s fully Lamont Cranston as much as he is the Shadow and he gets shot and beaten up and generally manhandled as any one person would in these circumstances. I’m used to The Shadow utterly triumphing, not surviving by the skin of his teeth.

I’ve never heard of the Romanoff Jewels, so everything about them, (a fabled stash of jewels representing the sum wealth of the Czars that was hidden away for their eventual return) was brand new and any info in the book I just took at face value. I did have some problem with the revelation that they were all fakes at the end. I had to roll my eyes at the naivete and stupidity of both commies and czarists thinking they were real. One jeweler is all it would have taken to prove things. It was shown that The Shadow’s ghirasol ring WAS one of the originals, and while it seems to have no purpose or function, it has a mystical mystique about it that in turn conferred such a feeling on the rest of the horde (that turned out not to exist). It would be like finding out that my food pantry was made up of a piece of wood from the Ark of the Covenant and that Putin and Kamala Harris were both after it.

Another good read and I enjoyed it. Overall, I don’t ever see myself re-reading these Shadow books, but that’s ok. Not every book is written to be re-read. Once and done is sometimes ok...

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher

The lofty towers of the Kremlin loomed like spectral spires against a darkened sky. Senov – master spider in a web of espionage – was about to ensnare America in the most nefarious deal of all time: behind the guise of a trade detente, he and his treacherous American trusties will swap the Romanoff jewels for help in restoring the ancient Russian monarchy! Only a certain black-clad form, swept like the shroud of night itself across the oceans and mountains of a desperate world, could hope to challenge such global enemies... and from the mysteries of New York's Cobalt Club to the thrills of a breathtaking submarine voyage the Shadow carves a dark and hidden path for the forces of justice: beware The Shadow as you beware the darkest unknown!

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Thursday, October 24, 2024

The Pirates of Salgari (Groo the Wanderer #33) 3.5Stars

Title: The Pirates of Salgari
Series: Groo the Wanderer #33
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 27
Words: 2K

Well, it turns out that Rufferto the dog is some sort of anti-kryptonite for Groo. If Rufferto is on a ship, it can’t sink, even if Groo is on board. But as soon as Rufferto leaves, if Groo is still on board, sploosh, that’s it for that poor ship!

This was a great misadventure of Groo ending up fighting for both sides and not having a clue, as usual. And the ending was just SO GROO. People are fighting, so he just jumps in, hahahaha.

I included this picture because of the first two panels specifically. It was SO expressive of just what was going on. It is simplistic but it conveys everything needful of that situation. From Groo (who isn’t even pictured but is kicking butt!) to the Leader of the Pirates to the onlookers. You read those two panels and you know exactly everything everyone is doing and feeling. How incredible is that? And I think that is why I keep reading this comic. Aragones is good at telling a short story and making his art support it every step of the way.

★★★✬☆

From Bookstooge.blog

A town is plundered by pirates and offers a reward for the return of all their goods. Groo hears about it and with his dog Rufferto’s help, sails to the pirate island, where he inevitably becomes the leader of the pirates. And leads a raid on the town who is offering the reward. Groo doesn’t get his reward and goes off to sulk. Soldiers from the king attack the pirates cum villagers and Groo ends up attacking everybody. The End.

All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Doctor Syn Returns (Doctor Syn #3) 3Stars

Title: Doctor Syn Returns
Series: Doctor Syn #3
Author: Arthur Russell Thorndike
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 154
Words: 74K

Syn is not so bloody thirsty and hypocritical in this one, but I still had serious issues with the liqueur smuggling going on. While I’m not a fan of the government taxing the soul out of us (one of the reasons America kicked the Brits ass back in ‘76 after all), I don’t feel that the smuggling of alcohol is in any way justified. Alcohol is almost as evil as drugs and I’ll go so far as to say that it IS a drug, as bad as meth, crack or marijuana. While we have the God given right to defend ourselves (why I AM in favor of gun running, ghost guns and other such libertarian ideals that are opposed to a tyrannical dictatorship run by a woman who was not actually elected), He did NOT give us the right to get shit faced drunk. So do yourself a favor and get rid of it.

This was the story where The Scarecrow is given life and while we only see him in action once or twice, he’s as great a character as Captain Clegg was. Considering they are both Syn, it’s no wonder.

I’m still on the fence about this series. I can see myself waffling about it right up until I finish it and I can see myself just throwing it away in disgust and dnf’ing at a moment’s notice. Taking this one book at at time.

Even if I do finish the series, it’s not one I’ll ever recommend.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia & Bookstooge.blog

It tells the story of Syn, who has tired of piracy, tries to settle down as the vicar of the little town of Dymchurch in Kent, England.

Syn's attempt to live an obscure life fails when he is drawn into the local smuggling trade. To protect his parishioners from the agents of the King's Revenue, Syn becomes the masked Scarecrow of Romney Marsh and becomes leader of the smugglers.

During this time, he falls in love with the oldest daughter of his best friend only for her to die. He also finds his wife, who is on death’s door. She has a daughter by her lover. Said lover pretends to be the Pirate Captain Clegg and dies so that Syn will take care of his baby daughter.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (June 2012) 3Stars

Title: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
Series: June 2012
Editor: Linda Landrigan
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 123
Words: 47K

Slightly better than the previous magazine, but not by much. Weighing in at only 120+ pages, this doesn’t feel like a collection; which to be fair, it isn’t, it is a magazine. But that has made me realize that I’m not a fan of magazine length collections of stories.

Also, these really feel like reject stories that weren’t good enough for anywhere else. My bias is definitely playing a big part of that, but these stories just don’t have the verve, the snap, the creepiness that the stories in the old “Alfred Hitchcock Presents…” books had. Part of that is because the stories are trying to ape those by using the 1920’s through the 1980’s as their setting but with 2010’s sensibilities. You can’t do that successfully and none of these authors did.

I’ll read the rest of what I’ve got available for this magazine, but after that I’ll go deep diving on the dark net and dig up whatever old collection of Alfred Hitchcock’s collections from back in the day that I can find.

I guess this magazine just leaves a faint aftertaste of disappointment in my literary mouth.

★★★☆☆

Table of Contents:

Department: EDITOR'S NOTE: CRIME TIME by Linda Landrigan

Department: THE LINEUP

Fiction: THE SELLOUT by Mike Cooper

Fiction: THEA'S FIRST HUSBAND by B.K. Stevens

Fiction: CUPS AND VARLETS by Kenneth Wishnia

Fiction: LAST SUPPER by Jane K. Cleland

Department: MYSTERIOUS PHOTOGRAPH

Fiction: THE POT HUNTERS by David Hagerty

Department: BOOKED & PRINTED by Robert C. Hahn

Mystery Classic: AFTERNOON OF A PHONY by Cornell Woolrich, Selected and Introduced by Francis M. Nevins

Department: THE STORY THAT WON

Department: COMING IN JULY 2012

All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

Monday, October 21, 2024

Enter a Murderer (Roderick Alleyn #2) 3Stars

Title: Enter a Murderer
Series: Roderick Alleyn #2
Author: Ngaio Marsh
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 163
Words: 57K

The next in the “Inspector” Roderick Alleyn books. I enjoyed this more than the first book, but it still had that “edge” that unsettled me in the first book so I’m not raising my rating, not yet anyway.

This time around we’re dealing with a group of actors (stage actors, not movie actors, because of the times this is taking place in), but they are just as insufferable, arrogant and in general as much jackasses as any actor today. They are almost without fail horrible people and I didn’t feel sorry a single one of them at the inconviences, etc they had to endure while the investigation went on. It also didn’t help that Nigel, one of the characters from the first book, was here and basically being a complete idiot at every turn. Alleyn had to handle him without appearing to handle him. It was like watching a master craftsman turn a lump of turd into a turd statue. Not exactly pleasing, but still, shows skill.

I enjoyed the writing itself this time. There is something that pleases me down deep when an author shows their complete grasp of the English language and it’s multitudinal rules. It is an art and it is an art that I can actually intrinsically appreciate. Probably because “words” is my primary love language, so seeing them used absolutely correctly just pleases me.

Murder mysteries are a window into the heart of darkness and it never ceases to amaze me what people will murder for. Yes, this is fiction, but anything that some author can “think up’, well, the reality is that that has actually happened in some form or another. I don’t want to become jaded but at the same time I know I can have a rose tinted view of just what people can actually do, so it is good for me to be reminded of the reality of fallen human nature. Because if you think people are basically good, then they don’t need to be saved. And if they don’t need to be saved, then they don’t need a Savior. And if someone doesn’t think they need a savior, they will never consider turning their life over to Jesus. And that decision has eternal consequences I’m afraid.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Journalist Nigel Bathgate accompanies his friend Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn to a production of "The Rat and the Beaver" at the Unicorn Theatre. The star of the show is Felix Gardener, a friend of Nigel's, who plays the titular Rat. The production is fantastic, and Alleyn and Bathgate's eyes are glued to the stage. In the climactic scene, the Rat makes a dramatic entrance and shoots the Beaver, played by Arthur Surbonadier. The Beaver stares angrily at the Rat and drops dead. Only, this is not part of the show. Surbonadier really is dead, having been killed because the prop bullets in the Rat's gun were secretly replaced by real ones.

Alleyn takes control of the investigation and learns nearly everyone in the cast hated Surbonadier. He fought with Gardener about several things, most importantly actress Stephanie Vaughn. The prop bullets were stored in a desk and must have been switched when the lights went out before the play began. Everybody seems to have an alibi. A pair of grey woolen gloves are found, smeared with stage makeup. The prop bullets have a similar substance on them. Alleyn learns very little from his interviews but suspects that Props, the prop manager, knows more than he lets on.

Alleyn, aided by Bathgate and Inspector Fox, begins to look into Surbonadier's personal life. The actor's uncle, Jacob Saint, owns the Unicorn and was once the target of a libelous accusation of being involved in a drug smuggling ring. The letter was allegedly written by a journalist named Edward Wakeford, but many people believe Arthur wrote it himself as an attempt to blackmail his wealthy uncle. When Alleyn searches the actor's flat, he finds a what looks like a sheet of paper used to practice forging Wakeford's signature. Alleyn arrests Saint, but is coy publicly about what the exact charges are.

Alleyn asks for a recreation of everyone's movements backstage before the play began. The night before the recreation is to take place, a police deputy tracks a suspect back to the Unicorn, where he is soon found dead. Although it looks like suicide, Alleyn knows it is murder and uses the reaction from his prime suspect to the discovery of the body to prove that it was murder.

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Plot It Yourself (Nero Wolfe #31) 4stars

Title: Plot It Yourself
Series: Nero Wolfe #31
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 152
Words: 56K

I’ve been giving these Nero Wolfe books 3 ½ stars for just about the entire series so far. But I’ve realized that every story is solid (even if I don’t care for it) and that I KNOW I’ll be re-reading these (but not like Fraggle, who read them back to back to back. You go girlfriend!) and thus I’ve realized something. These totally deserve 4stars as the base rating and thus from here on out, that’s what I’m planning on doing.

I especially enjoyed this story because it was about authors and plagiarists and murder. If you don’t know, I have a “complicated” relationship with authors. As long as they write their books and entertain me, me and authors get along famously. But as soon as they try to become “people” and use their books for whatever cause they happen to believe in at that moment, well, then I despise, detest and generally am ready to throw them off a cliff. Throw in an entitled attitude or two and usually I just do my best to avoid authors as people. So in this story several authors get murdered and that made me very happy. All of the people involved, authors to publishers, in the plagiarist side of things lie to Wolfe and each other and thus I was perfectly ok with them being killed. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch.

That really added some relish to my reading. Sometimes an idea or plot point just clicks and makes the whole book that much better. This was one of those times.

I have also come to realize that I am not a Do It Yourself Detective either. I don’t WANT to solve the mystery myself or before the main character. I want the author to do all the work and I just sit back and enjoy the ride. It’s tough to do that with Agatha Christie novels or Ellery Queen mysteries, which is why I’ve given up on both those authors. They think (technically, thought, since they are dead and not thinking at all right now) they were clever, but the reality is that they were just doofuses who enjoyed confusing people. Rex Stout enjoys telling a good story first and foremost. Which is why I’m still reading Nero Wolfe stories 31 books later :-)

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia

Someone has been getting away with a different spin on plagiarism. It's the old scam – an unsuccessful author stealing ideas from an established source – but it's being worked differently. Now, the plagiarists are claiming that the well-known authors are stealing from them (as Wolfe puts it, "plagiarism upside down."[2]). And they are making their claims stick: three successful claims in four years, one awaiting trial, and one that's just been made.

These claims have damaged both the publishers and the authors. The Book Publishers of America (BPA) and the National Association of Authors and Dramatists (NAAD) form a joint committee to explore ways to stop the fraud, and the committee comes to Wolfe for help. The first four claims have shared certain characteristics: in the first, for example, the best selling author Ellen Sturdevant is accused by the virtually unknown Alice Porter of stealing a recent book's plot from a story that Porter sent her, asking her suggestions for improvement. Sturdevant ignores the accusation until Porter's manuscript is found in Sturdevant's house. The writing and publishing industry is convinced that the manuscript was planted, but the case was settled out of court.

That scenario, with minor variations, is repeated four times, with other authors and by other plagiarists. The latest complaint has been made only recently, and the target of the complaint wonders when a manuscript will show up somewhere that it wasn't the day before.

Wolfe's first step is to acquire and read the manuscripts that form the basis for the complaints. Wolfe's love of literature turns out to be useful in his investigation: from the internal evidence in the manuscripts, Wolfe concludes that they were all written by the same person. Aspects such as diction, punctuation and syntax – and, most convincingly, paragraphing – point Wolfe directly to the conclusion that one person wrote all the manuscripts.

At first, this seems like progress, but then it becomes clear that it's the opposite. The task initially seemed to be to show that the first fraud inspired a sequence of copycats, and the universe of suspects was limited to the complainants. But now that Wolfe has determined that one person wrote all the fraudulent manuscripts, that one person could be anyone. Wolfe meets with the joint committee to discuss the situation.

A committee member suggests that one of the plagiarists be offered money, along with a guarantee of immunity, to identify the manuscripts' actual author. The committee concurs, and asks Wolfe to arrange for the offer to be made to Simon Jacobs. The next day, Archie goes to make the offer to Jacobs, but finds Sergeant Purley Stebbins at the Jacobs apartment: Mr. Jacobs has been murdered, stabbed to death the night before.

In short order, Archie discovers two more dead plagiarists. Wolfe blames himself for not taking steps to protect Jacobs and the others, who had been made targets by the plan to pay for information. The only one left is Alice Porter, who first worked the fraud successfully, and who is now repeating it with Amy Wynn and her publisher. Wolfe, concentrating on Porter, catches her in a contradiction that identifies the murderer for him.

All My “Nero Wolfe” Reviews

Thursday, October 17, 2024

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (The Russians) 3Stars

Title: The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Translator:
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 82
Words: 22K

While I found this engaging and well written (ie, translated), I also had issues with it on multiple levels.

On a literary level, Ilyich is an unpleasant man who becomes even more unpleasant as he sees his death approaching. I did not enjoy reading about him. And as he got sicker and became more and more unpleasant and unbearable, it was not cathartic knowing he was going to die. The story starts AFTER his death and even that was unpleasant as the people he associated with were just as unpleasant as him.

On a spiritual level, I also found this unpleasant. Ivan Ilyich is dying and somehow magically sees God’s Plan and loses all fear of death, or something like that. There wasn’t one mention of Jesus Christ or His death, resurrection and redemption of humanity. This is one ongoing issue I have with old time’y Russians who claim to be Christians. Most of their spiritually is as mystical and unknowable as any pagan religion. This was one of the more egregious examples and it totally rubbed me the wrong way.

Thankfully, at just over 80 pages it didn’t last long. I’m glad I read this but like a lot of these Russian novellas, have no plans to ever re-read it.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia.org

Ivan Ilyich lives a carefree life that is "most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible." Like everyone he knows, he spends his life climbing the social ladder. Enduring marriage to a woman whom he often finds too demanding, he works his way up to be a magistrate, thanks to the influence he has over a friend who has just been promoted, focusing more on his work as his family life becomes less tolerable.

While hanging curtains for his new home one day, he falls awkwardly and hurts his side. Though he does not think much of it at first, he begins to suffer from a pain in his side. As his discomfort grows, his behavior towards his family becomes more irritable. His wife finally insists that he visit a physician. The physician cannot pinpoint the source of his malady, but soon it becomes clear that his condition is terminal (although no diagnosis is ever stated by the physician.) Confronted with his terminal condition, Ivan attempts every remedy he can to obtain a cure for his worsening situation, until the pain grows so intense that he is forced to cease working and spend the remainder of his days in bed. Here, he is brought face to face with his mortality and realizes that, although he knows of it, he does not truly grasp it.

During the long and painful process of dying, Ivan dwells on the idea that he does not deserve his suffering because he has lived rightly. If he had not lived a good life, there could be a reason for his pain; but he has, so pain and death must be arbitrary and senseless. As he begins to hate his family for avoiding the subject of his death, for pretending he is only sick and not dying, he finds his only comfort in his peasant boy servant, Gerasim, the only person in Ivan's life who does not fear death, and also the only one who, apart from his own son, shows compassion for him. Ivan begins to question whether he has, in fact, lived a good life.

In the final days of his life, Ivan makes a clear split between an artificial life, such as his own, which masks the true meaning of life and makes one fear death, and an authentic life, the life of Gerasim. Authentic life is marked by compassion and sympathy, the artificial life by self-interest. Then "some force" strikes Ivan in the chest and side, and he is brought into the presence of a bright light. His hand falls onto his nearby son's head, and Ivan pities his son. He no longer hates his daughter or wife, but rather feels pity for them, and hopes his death will release them. In so doing, his terror of death leaves him, and as Tolstoy suggests, death itself disappears.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Lallia (Dumarest #6) 3.5Stars

Title: Lallia
Series: Dumarest #6
Author: EC Tubb
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 154
Words: 44K

Dumarest meets another chickie-boo, has some adventures in space, finds an ancient artifact that performs miracles of healing and gets a better idea of where Earth is located. Of course, Chickie-boo dies. I suspect every girl Dumarest meets is going to fall in love with him and then die. Talk about a Black Widower!

These adventures of Earl’s are like mini-adventures. Just enough to keep life interesting but not long enough to call it an adventure steak. It’s like getting one big steak tip, knowing there’s a whole bowlful of them.

So while I’d like gorge myself, Tubb is forcing self-control on me by doling these out one at a time. It’s good for me, so I can only complain so much about it before being forced to admit the justice of it all.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia.org
Dumarest is searching for old charts, and takes passage as a cargo handler on a run-down old trading ship. The dynamics of the flawed men forming the crew are well-described. An agent of the Cyclan confronts Dumarest, and indirectly this reveals a secret property of Dumarest's ring. Dumarest is healed by an alien ship or device, which gives him a vision showing where Earth is located.

All of My “Dumarest” Reviews