Fifteen Hours (Warhammer 40K: Astra Militarum) 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: Fifteen Hours
Series: Warhammer 40K: Astra Militarum
Author: Mitchel Scanlon
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 190
Words: 70K
Publish: 2005

Most Warhammer 40,000 books start with a couple of paragraphs about how terrible life is. I’ve included the relevant part for this review:

“To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.”

The first two sentences are most apropos. We follow Larn, a 17 year old who is forcibly recruited from his farmworld planet and is given just enough training to know which end of the laspistol to point at the enemy. He is never going to see his family again. He will never return to his world. Even if he survives the coming decades, he will only be allowed to retire on a new planet that the Empire of Man wants to colonize. Due to a clerical error, Larn and his entire detachments of farmboys crashland on the wrong planet in the middle of a warzone between Humanity and the Orks. Almost every new recruit is killed either in the crash or the resultant attack by the orks. Larn survives, only to find out that the expected life span of a new soldier on Broucheroc is 15 hours, hence the title of the book.

We follow Larn as he survives several ork attacks, shelling by his own side and then he is sent out on a recon mission that night with his little 5man company and some glory hound lieutenant. He is shot but survives to dawn, which means he lasted longer than 15hours. Then he dies.

Interspersed through this are little vignettes from other side characters, from a cook to the cleric who made the initial mistake to the General who is leading the defense of Broucheroc. It becomes obvious to us the reader that every character is in their own personal hell and only death will release them from it.

War is hell and the Imperium of Man is nothing but war, forever until it ceases to exist. This book shows us that in stark detail.

★★★☆☆

From https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/

After four months of basic training and seven weeks of Planetary transportation, seventeen year old Guardsman Arvin Larn of 6th Company, Jumael 14th Volunteers, embarks on his first campaign fighting against a rebel uprising. However, due to an error in communication, Trooper Larn finds himself fighting on the wrong planet in the wrong war zone at the city of Broucheroc; a city contested for over a decade by the small Imperial force of the 902nd Vardan Rifles Regiment against millions of Orks. Unfortunately, Larn is running out of time. The life expectancy of a replacement guardsman at the front lines is calculated at fifteen hours. Larn must rely upon all of his ability, his luck, and his faith in the Emperor to survive against the odds if he wishes to see the next day.

As the book begins, a mortally wounded guardsman in no-man's land questions his fate, wondering if it has been 15 hours and resolving to wait and find out. The scene shifts to Jumael, where a farmers son named Arvin Larn is caught in the imperial draft. During basic training, Larn meets the extremely tough sergeant Ferres. He convinces Larn that the imperial guard is a deadly environment, but he might just make a guardsmen out of him yet. During initial deployment, an administrative error causes Larn's company to land in no-man's land on the wrong planet where they are promptly attacked by Orks. Larn finds himself the only survivor of his company in the besieged city of Broucheroc, now attached to 902nd Vardan Rifles. He learns that the Vardan Rifles have fought on Broucheroc for a decade and that 3 Vardan Regiments were killed in this time. Over several hours of pitched battle, Larn learns several dangers of the front and that his life expectancy is a mere 15 hours. He overcomes several threats including gretchin snipers, artillery bombardment, and the largest massed attack on Broucheroc yet. As night falls Larn's squad is sent on a night recon mission in which they get caught in a firefight. As Larn runs for the trenches, he is hit by a bullet and it is revealed that he is the guardsman from the beginning. As the sun rises Larn dies happy to know he beat the 15 hours.

Hill Giant - MTG 4E

 

I think he's wearing trousers. I HOPE he's wearing trousers! We'll have NO kilt-clad Hill Giants on this blog...

Mr Zip Wants You!

 

Wondering what to do with your pointless, aimless existence? Wonder no more!

Sgt. Zip needs YOU in the Bookstooge Freedom Militia to fight the commy pinkos that are, at this exact second, invading your grocery stores and stealing all the eggs. That is why eggs are so expensive. The threat is real, will you step up and confront it?

You will? Fantastic! Sgt Zip approves of your healthy enthusiasm to keep our country safe from egg stealing commy pinkos. But first things first, time to get you your Official Bookstooge Freedom Militia haircut, provided at no extra charge. Sgt Zip is ready.

There, don't you feel more natural and patriotic? The correct answer is "Sir, yessir, Sgt Sir!!!"

Ok soldier, now you're a fully fledged member of the Bookstooge Freedom Militia. Now get out there and protect our vital assets, those cartons of eggs!

This post has been brought to you by the Bookstooge Loves Eggs Corporation.

The Creeping Death (The Shadow #22) 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 WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Creeping Death
Series: The Shadow #22
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 144
Words: 45K
Publish: 1933

After reading that abominable Murder Geniuses earlier this week, I needed a good dose of the REAL Shadow, and I got it with this book.

In this story The Shadow is up against a scientist who can make fake gold and he is planning on flooding the market with fake gold and owning genuine gold. Said scientist is also working on a poison that he can put on letters to kill from a distance. The scientist is working in conjunction with several crooks the world over and several of them get the big idea to take over and thus begins a fight amongst thieves and murderers. A Secret Service agent is involved and The Shadow has to protect him while setting the various criminal elements against each other.

This was good stuff. This was all about the bad guys offing each other and The Shadow just nudging things along, up until the end where there is a climactic gun battle between everybody and only the Secret Service agent and The Shadow walk away. That’s the way a good The Shadow novel ends.

This is the first cover to feature Skelly the Skeleton. Obviously that’s not his actual name and he’s not a character in the story, but he does feature on several of the covers and The Shadow seems to be rather pallsy-wallsy with him. Call me deadophobic, but you won’t catch me hanging while a skeleton drapes his arm over my shoulder and points out a word on the page of the book I’m reading. The hatchet from our survival gear would come into play wicked quick, let me tell you.

Jimbo’s got the right idea here!

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher

The lure of gold – that lust which has made men kill throughout the ages – had gripped the enemies of justice. The swindle of the century threatened to put the world at the mercy of either a power-hungry, underhanded financier and his cohorts, or an eccentric creator of synthetic gold. But the common purpose which brought Forster, Morales, and Armagnac to inventor Lucien Partridge did not stop them from cunningly plotting behind each others’ backs. Only The Shadow could halt the creation of a Gold Empire. Garbed in black, silently stalking the streets, he alone could triumph over evil. The insidious princes of the underworld would be crushed by this Master Crime-Fighter – The Shadow!

• All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Firefight (Victor the Assassin #12) 4Stars

 

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: Firefight
Series: Victor the Assassin #12
Author: Tom Wood
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 380
Words: 108K
Publish: 2024

Basically, Victor gets embroiled in more consequences from his past work and that causes problems. This story is about surviving those problems.

Victor kills boatloads of people, has tons of other people trying to kill him and pretty much pisses off everyone he comes into contact with. I do not see how Victor is going to survive much longer in this fictional world. He’s been working for the US Gov, the British Gov, the Russian Mob plus other large security entities that I’ve forgotten. In this one, he gets on the Israeli radar, so I’m sure they will be next.

The whole premise of Victor, at the beginning, was that he was a non-entity. That is how he survived. Well, that idea is shot to pieces by now, so there’s not much more room for Victor to wriggle around in. In fact, in an afterwards, the author admits that he’s running out of ideas for Victor. The two options are for Victor to die, for real, none of this fake bs, or for Victor to somehow retire and live on a beach with his chicky-boo until they die. Technically, he could take up the fight of his chickyboo and fight the faceless, nameless, formless Evil Thing that Chickyboo is fighting against, but he still would have to die doing that. I just can’t foresee a happy ending for Victor.

Which makes each book very bitter sweet for me. I have grown to quite enjoy Victor’s path of destruction and his avoidance of the ties that bind to the rest of humanity; a far cry from my review of the first book indeed. But Victor’s options are narrowing, faster and faster and thus at some point I know the Final Countdown will have to start and my time with Victor, no matter the outcome, will end. Personally, I hope the author can stretch things out for several more books, like maybe eight more? Make it a nice round Twenty book series ;-)

★★★★☆

From the Publisher

MERCY HAS A COST. TIME FOR VICTOR TO PAY.

Assassin-for-hire Victor is in Bucharest, Romania, to kill two targets meeting to exchange stolen intelligence his client wants back. It should be a simple task - until he realises the second of his targets is a former ally. Even for a man of Victor's twisted morality, he's not prepared to kill someone to whom he owes his life.

To atone for not completing the job, Victor agrees to take on the kind of dangerous assignment he would otherwise avoid. At a conference on international relations, he must identify and assassinate a killer just like him and remain unseen, despite a guest list of spies, dignitaries, and security experts. Even for an elite professional, the job is a tall order - which is why he looks for help from the person whose life he spared in Romania.

Yet unbeknownst to Victor, the Bucharest contract stepped on the toes of powerful enemies from his past; enemies who now know exactly where to find him . . .

The Murder Geniuses (Batman/The Shadow) 2Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Murder Geniuses
Series: Batman/The Shadow
Author: Steve Orlando, Scott Snyder
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Graphic Novel
Pages: 162
Words: 12K
Publish: 2019

This was brought to my attention back in 2019 when Lashaan reviewed it, HERE. He was very positive about it (he’s a HUGE Batman fan) and it caught my interest as I was becoming a fan of The Shadow. He also recommended it in my Recommend Me a Book series and I gave it an enthusiastic “Yes!” And this is the month in which I read it and am now reviewing it.

As you can tell from my rating, I did not enjoy this like Lashaan did. It all was due to how the writers treated The Shadow.

Now, I am reading the books roughly in publication order. I’m not 100% sure of that, but it is close, close enough anyway. I am aware that there were radio plays as well and that The Shadow changed over the years in both the books and the radio. But most of those changes were how he operated and used disguises, etc, they weren’t changes of defining character. I bring this up because I definitely don’t view myself as any kind of Authority on The Shadow.

This is important because the writers here absolutely BUTCHER the character of The Shadow. He is a psychopathic killer without remorse who will use and discard anyone at a whim. Harry Vincent, a man who The Shadow saves from suicide in the first book and becomes one of his top agents (albeit one that needs rescuing in every adventure he is in) hates The Shadow and claims he never wanted to be part of his operation. There is a lady, who I gather was from the radio plays, who might have been a possible romantic angle and man, does she lay into The Shadow. He used her as he saw fit and then just left her behind. None of that is The Shadow that I am reading about.

This is Deconstructionism at its worst and just like in Kingdom Come, (another deconstructionist graphic novel), anything good and decent is spat upon, mocked and maligned. The opposing philosophies of The Shadow and Batman are juxtaposed and while I found them both extremely shallow, I fully agree with The Shadow and don’t understand how anyone could claim that the twaddle Batman was spouting could in any way make sense. Here the writers move Batman WAY beyond “not killing” and into “any killing by anybody is evil and superduper bad and automatically makes you a villain”. It was eye rollingly shallow and I thought it did a great disservice to the Ideals that Batman actually holds to. As for the Ideals that The Shadow holds to, those were so twisted and misrepresented that to attempt to even touch upon them would give these writers a validity that they don’t deserve. The writers are utter dog shit in my eyes now and I hope a pack of rabid schnauzers attack them and destroy their ankles.

Now, with all of that ranting and swearing, you have to ask, was this even worth 2stars? It was. Mainly because the idea of the story was fantastic, even while being poorly executed and made into a mouthpiece of modern liberal cant. There were Cthulhu’ic ties and The Shadow is shown to be an eternal avenging angel, who is tired of the conflict. Batman was to be his replacement. Now, how cool is THAT?

While I was reading this graphic novel, I also read Jen Mugrage’s post on “Words that Mean Things” in which she talks about killing, murder and genocide. The first two points fit in very well as an anti-dote to the bs the writers of this comic were dishing out about “killing”. I’m going to stop now before I begin saying other things about the writers that aren’t appropriate for a blog post.

As for the cover, I briefly touched on that in my “Currently Reading” post two weeks ago. That has a large, high resolution version of the cover if you’re interested.

Overall, I was disappointed in this and felt the writers had no clue about The Shadow. Not “Riders Approved” at all.

★★☆☆☆

From the Publisher

While investigating the murde of a Gothamite, Batman identifies his prime suspect as Lamont Cranston... but there are two problems with that. One, Batman is not aware Lamont's alter ego is the master detective known as the Shadow. Two, and more importantly, Cranston seems to have died over half a century ago!

Son of the Black Sword (Saga of the Forgotten Warrior #1) 4Stars

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: Son of the Black Sword
Series: Saga of the Forgotten Warrior #1
Author: Larry Correia
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 396
Words: 140K
Publish: 2015

I bought this book in hardcover back in 2015 when it came out. Correia had come out to a book signing at a local bookstore (that sadly is no more) and I had pre-ordered a book for him to sign. I got sick that weekend so Mrs B went in my place and she ended up having a blast. She enjoyed the stories Correia told and thought he was quite the character. I read this book but never read any more of the series. I wanted Correia to finish the series and not crap out on me like other authors had done. I didn’t think Correia would do that, as his steady output of the Monster Hunter International books was a testament to his staying power and his Grimnoir trilogy showed he could wrap a storyline up well, but I wasn’t going take a chance. Now, I still bought the books as they came out, I just didn’t read them. I wanted to support Corriea and make sure he was financially incentivized to finish things up. Well, in February Correia released the final book in this Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series, which meant it was time for me to start the ball rolling. I did hesitate, as I am currently re-reading Correia’s Monster Hunter International series and I wondered if it would be better to not start Forgotten Warrior until that re-read was over. Correia as an author hits all my high points though, so I decided to get a double helping, help offset some of the bad books I’ve read this year.

And THAT is all the history of how I arrived at this point, with this review. Some books don’t have a story behind them, but some do. Truly, I must be the Chosen One ;-)

This is Correia’s first real foray into the Epic Fantasy world and I wondered how he’d handle things. I needn’t have feared. Everything I have loved about his writing in other books was here. But he made things interesting by giving the world a very Indian oriented culture. With a caste system that is as unyielding and terrible as India’s own, to the name of the main character, Ashok (if any of you are Dilbert fans, maybe you remember Ashok the Indian intern?), this was not steeped in Medieval European fantasy. I quite enjoyed the change.

I also enjoyed the whole “false identity” reveal about Ashok. That can always go either way for me, but it worked here. It helped show just how terrible the world was that we were reading about that something like this could happen. I know I’m not going into details, but just in case there is some schlub who cares about spoilers but hasn’t read the story yet, I’m being deliberately vague. Don’t worry, I won’t be this way for the rest of the books. Needless to say, what we learn about Ashok changes everything and is the fulcrum upon which this story hangs.

The reason this isn’t getting 5stars is two-fold. First, I almost never give out 5stars on an initial read anymore. I’m an experienced enough reader now to understand that the “new factor” plays a huge part and a 5star read should take that completely out of the equation. See my PS below in regards to Point One. Second, Ashok isn’t so much a “character” as he is a force of nature. Now, that is deliberate on Correia’s part, as it plays to the whole Identity reveal that I mentioned before, but I still didn’t care for it. I trust that Ashok will become his own persona over the next five books.

And that wraps things up. I had a lot of fun with this book and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series as the year progresses.

Ps,

I didn’t even remember reading this book initially. It wasn’t until I wrote this review and was about to put it into Calibre that I found I had read and reviewed it back in 2015. Thankfully, I only had to rewrite a few sentences and add a tag to bring this into line with reality.

★★★★☆

From the Publisher

After the War of the Gods, the demons were cast out and fell to the world. Mankind was nearly eradicated by the seemingly unstoppable beasts, until the gods sent the great hero, Ramrowan, to save them. He united the tribes, gave them magic, and drove the demons into the sea. Yet as centuries passed, Gods and demons became myth and legend, and the people no longer believed. The Age of Law began.

Ashok Vadal has been chosen by a powerful ancient weapon to be its bearer. He is a Protector, the elite militant order of roving law enforcers. No one is more merciless in rooting out those who secretly practice the old ways. Everything is black or white, good or evil, until he discovers his entire life is a fraud. Ashok isn’t who he thinks he is, and when he finds himself on the wrong side of the law, the consequences lead to rebellion, war—and destruction.

• Son of the Black Sword (2015 Review)

Helm of Chatzuk - MTG 4E

 

You think that mug is ugly looking? Wait until you read the rules for Banding!

Any creatures with banding, and up to one without, can attack in a band. Bands are blocked as a group. If any creatures with banding a player controls are blocking or being blocked by a creature, that player divides that creature’s combat damage, not its controller, among any of the creatures it’s being blocked by or is blocking.

Wow, that is some seriously ugly wording. And that is why Banding fell out of favor, and for good reason I might say.

The Voice of the Mountain (Silver John #5) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Voice of the Mountain
Series: Silver John #5
Author: Manly Wade Wellman
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Folk Fantasy
Pages: 182
Words: 56K
Publish: 1984

This was probably the most action’y of the Silver John books. John actually hits someone (he has in other books, but it is always very down played) and in the process tosses him over a cliff edge and kills him.

Up to that point, right at the end, this is a book of building the villain up to be a threat to the whole world and throwing folksy spells at each other. Oh, can’t forget the name dropping of the Mystical Books of Power *insert eye roll

The villain of the piece, Ruel Harpe, has built up his evil mystical credentials with the help of a talisman and several books of evil. All he needs to complete his collection and set his plans in motion is to find, read and use the Gospel of Judas. He finds it, uses John to steal it and is in the process of making full use of it when John does his thing and puts paid to Harpe.

There are several women involved, for their evil witchy powers and not for their sex appeal, and John redeems them all, even to the point of the witch with the black powers professing she’ll only use the power of white witches now. Syncretism at its most ridiculous.

But this followed the exact same pattern as all the previous Silver John novels so I knew I wasn’t getting a masterwork of literary import. These are what they are and Wellman makes no apology for that. This was also the final Silver John novel, as Wellman died within a couple of years of releasing this. All I have left are a collection of the Silver John short stories that I believe come chronologically before most of the novels. I have a feeling the short story format is going to work much better than any of the novels.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher & Bookstooge

Silver John - so named for the lithe and powerful strings of his ever-present guitar - is back. In this fifth and most exciting novel in the series, Manly Wade Wellman's popular hero is called by the voice of Cry Mountain... into a confrontation with his most threatening adversary.

There are a wealth of cryptic stories about Cry Mountain, and as John listens to the tales of eerie, hostile animals, of brave daredevils who fared up the slopes never to return, and hears the enigmatic, unnatural keening voice emanating from the mountain, his adventuresome spirit is aroused. Too curious and intrigued - some might say foolhardy - to be dissuaded, John begins his long, perilous trek up the steep mountainside. There he finds mystery and danger enough for any man, and eventually meets the courtly, assured Ruel Harpe, descendant of the infamous Micajah Harpe. John soon discovers the darker side of Ruel Harpe's hospitality and finds honesty and courage the only weapons against powerful sorcery and temptation.

Harpe has a mystic talisman that gives him his powers. John snatches it away and Harpe goes over the edge of a cliff and dies. All of his magically powered things stop working or disappear and John and Co leave the mountain, having made the world a safer place for everyone.

My Week XXVI

 

This post is going to encompass last week as well, as Life and Stuff has been on the spin cycle and I've still not found my footing.

As I noted in my Excerpt, work is just chaos. Between the workload not getting any lighter to people taking time off, every day is a new adventure. I never know who I am working with or what job I'm heading to. Even though work itself isn't getting harder, I'm coming away each week more tired because of the chaos and uncertainty. And this would appear to be our new normal. I am at the point of living week by week now. I can't take thinking about a month of this, or even two months of this, or more!

Church has added its own little melange to the mix. Our SDA church has held an End Times seminar the last two Sabbaths. We experienced one of those at our previous SDA church and this had all the same hallmarks so we decided to avoid it altogether. Which meant picking some random Sunday church to go to over the weekend (church attendance is one big checkmark for the health of a Christian as far as both Mrs B and I are concerned. We've seen too many people stop going to church for any and all reasons and before you know it, they're denying Christ altogether. We don't even want to step NEAR that precipice). One Sunday we went to a big baptist church that one of Mrs B's friends attends and then the next we chose some random one that she had had a Ladies Tea at and had been invited. Both times were nice and I was glad to hear the sermons, but the worship time for each was nothing but contemporary christian worship and just reaffirmed to me that I'll keep going to the SDA church for the hymns alone! Going to a different church might not sound like a big deal, but it really is. Church going is not some solitary activity that you do "to be good". It is commanded by Scripture and it brings us into fellowship with other Christians and brings us, together, closer to God. It is hard to have real fellowship with people who you don't know. That takes time and effort. It takes going to the same church week after week after week and BEING involved. So not to have that for two weeks was just unsettling, and coupled with work, was a bit too much.

Thankfully, home life has been the same. I've been extra vigilant about that! Church, work and home, they are my three spheres of activity and they affect each other. But just like any tripod, it doesn't take much to upset the stability. But with us returning to the SDA church tomorrow, and me being so vigilant about the homesphere, stability will reign in at least two of the three spheres. Not perfect by any means, but survivable anyway.

One of the ways Mrs B and I have "vigilantly" kept the homesphere intact is by playing Munchkin on the weekend. While it is intended for at least 3 players, we have found that as long as we don't use the "backstabbing/betrayal" cards, the game works relatively well with just the two of us. It is an RPG-lite dungeon crawler and gives both of us that fantasy fix we want from a game. And it's all cards that only needs one die to roll. We love it. The artwork is wacky and silly and makes Mrs B extremely happy. I just like that I get to stab and stomp and poke and kill things :-D

And today is now over with for me. It's 5pm, I am home from work, I have eaten something yummy, drank something cold and am now chilling on the couch until I'm ready to fall asleep at the extremely late hour of 9pm (if I'm lucky!). I am steadfastly looking forward to the blessing of the Sabbath as it fast approaches. Blessed Sabbath to you all!