June '25 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Raw Data:

Novels - 11 ↓

Short Stories - 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.35 ↑

Pages - 3217 ↓

Words - 1094K ↓

The Bad:

Bone Swans - 2stars of rotting granite in a swamp

Murder Geniuses - 2stars of Not The Shadow

The Good:

China Station - 4.5stars of Mrs Pollifax karate chopping a commie pinko to death!

Son of the Black Sword - 4stars of Larry Correia writing yet another kickbutt series

Movie:

Finished up the Yu Yu Hakusho anime with the Saga of the Three Kings. A good enough ending to the series as a whole and I think I'll be hanging onto my dvd's just in case I ever want to rewatch this again.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Grizzly Bear - MTG 4E
• Currently Reading: Batman/Shadow: The Murder Geniuses
• [Journal] Pear Garden
• Calendars & Scheduling the Bookstooge Way
• Healing Salve - MTG 4E
• My Week XXVI
• Helm of Chatzuk - MTG 4E
• Sergeant Zip Wants You!
• Hill Giant - MTG 4E
• Shelf Control: Night Angel Nemesis
• My Week XXVII

Personal:

I was not particularly happy with June on a personal level.

Work was utter chaos for almost the whole time. I never knew who I was working with or what I was doing until that morning. I worked with Truckboy enough that I was beyond frustrated. He's not stupid, not at all. He can go on about vehicles and what to do in situation A-Z, but put him on the job and suddenly he doesn't listen, he doesn't pay attention, he turns his brain off and just looks at the screen in front of him without thinking about what it MEANS. By the time I was done with him I was ready to put my machete through his guts. It was that bad. I feel really bad for the other crew chief who has had him for the last 18 months.

Church on Sabbath has been good. It is my new routine and I thoroughly enjoy being able to sit in the sanctuary for the entire time without having an overwhelming desire to storm out during "certain times" (coughmusiccough). I really hadn't realized how much it bothered me until I didn't have to leave. I grew up keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest and going to church on Sunday. It wasn't until I married Mrs B that I began going to church on Saturday. That was a huge adjustment for me. So when we started going to a Sunday church in '17 I thought I would slide right back in. It's been good and I have enjoyed it but I have found that going back to church on Sabbath just feels "right" to me. I am thankful for that because I was very concerned it was going to be a big issue for me like it was initially. I am grabbing every tiny thing I can be thankful for this month.

Life is busy. I was surviving on a week to week basis and I really don't like doing that. I hope July can be different but I have a sinking feeling it won't be. Life just sucked in various ways in June and I'm not over that yet.

On the book front however, June was the highest rated book month I've had all year. That is something to rejoice about and so I do. And nothing says "Be happy" like a twinkie :-D

Plans for Next Month:

Same old boring stuff as the same old boring months that I've posted in the same old boring way for the same old boring years. I'm in a rut and for once in my life, I'm not real happy about it. 

Sage of the Three Kings (Yu Yu Hakusho)(1992 Anime)

 

Hiei, Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Keiko and Botan (the Grim Reaper)

Title: Saga of the Three Kings

Series: Yu Yu Hakusho Season 4

Episodes: 95-112

My Thoughts:

In this final story arc of Yu Yu Hakusho, the three kings of Demon world are at war for supreme dominance. At this moment in time, they are all balanced against each other, but one of them is on the brink of death and his death will trigger an all out war, which could spill over into the Human world. Yusuke is chosen by the dying demon king to be his Second, while the other two Kings each pick Kurama (the red pretty boy on the left in the picture above) and Hiei (the short, black haired guy on the left) to be their seconds. War is immanent and the three friends are now on opposing sides. Until Yusuke proposes a tournament where ANY demon can enter and the winner is the king of demon world for 3-4 years and then they repeat. This appeals to practically every demon and thus the demon tournament takes place. Yusuke and Friends know they each aren't strong enough to win, but they strategically play the tournament to tire out the top contenders and in the end, some randomly strong demon wins who doesn't want to invade Human world. Everybody wins. Yusuke returns to Human world to be with Keiko and is fully retired from being a spirit detective. The end.

This went rather fast. There was a lot of setup near the beginning, so the demon tournament ended up being short changed in my opinion. They "overcame" this by having several fights per episode and too contributed to the feeling of just rushing through this. I enjoyed this, but that feeling of being rushed just wouldn't go away. At the same time, I was ready for this to be over.

One of the detractors for these episodes was that Kuwabara (the tall guy with the red haired pompador in the picture above) isn't involved at all. He was the funny straight man in previous story arcs and brought a sense of fun to things, as Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei all are the super serious kind of personality. I missed having him around.

Overall, for the entire anime series, I am still VERY pleased with this. I don't know if I'll ever watch it again, but I'll be hanging onto my discs just in case.

My Week XXVII or The Cheeseburger Edition

 

My goodness, these "My Week" post titles are starting to look like Superbowl titles. The main difference is that I'm not raking in 100's of millions of dollars with this blog. What a shame. But if anyone has a couple of spare million, I'd be happy to take them off your hands. I wouldn't want you to suffer with all that responsibility and I'll gladly help bear it.

I debated about whether to even write this post at all. We had our first heatwave of the season from Sunday-Wednesday (a heatwave here is defined as going over 90F for 3 days in a row) and that always wipes me out, big time. By Wednesday I was toast. Any thoughts I might have had were concentrated on getting through each day, that was it. I didn't write or schedule any posts, I didn't have any ideas for future posts, I just came home, ate dinner, read a little in bed and then fell asleep, usually by 8pm. Thursday was a recovery day and today, well, today was Friday. Not much else to say about that.

My work car is going in for inspection next week and I'm not very optimistic about its chances of passing without sinking some serious money into it. And if it ends up requiring too much money, it'll be better to just buy another one. Rust is what gets cars here. The winters with all the salt on the roads just chews up the undercarriage of the car and in 10 years, your feet are going through the floor boards! But why borrow next week's worries right now, right?

To wrap this post up on a positive note, I'm going to leave you with a picture of my dinner. BEFORE I eat it. (I know some of you would go there, so I headed you off at the proverbial pass)

This is a turkey burger made with swiss cheese, onion and peppers IN the burger itself. I add ketchup and mustard to one half of the bun and sprinkled diced onions into that. I then add dill pickles on top of that. I place the burger on top of that bun. I stick a slice of sharp cheddar on top of the burger. To top it off, I add the other half of the bun that I have put 1000 Island dressing on. That's some serious flavor! Well, I'm off to enjoy my dinner, yum! Hopefully you have had a good dinner too. Or breakfast if it's Saturday morning by the time you read this :-)

Granny Groo (Groo the Wanderer #41) 3.5Stars

 

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

Title: Granny Groo
Series: Groo the Wanderer #41
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 25
Words: 2K
Publish: 1988

Netnanny has blocked this review due to wanton and gratuitous violence and nudity.

★★★✬☆

From Bookstooge

Groo remembers his Nanny, who was always spanking him for being a bad boy. He meets her in a gypsy band and she uses him to extort money from the surrounding towns. Until Groo tries to prove that he is not a bad boy and ends up destroying her schemes, as usual.

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

Shelf Control: Night Angel Nemesis

Shelf Control is a weekly feature created by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. Since early January 2023, Shelf Control has moved base to Literary Potpourri. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile and write a post about it–what it’s about, when/where you got it, why you want to read it and such.

I have read and re-read the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks as well as his Lighbringer series. I've been a big fan. In his Lightbringer series he did introduce a rather awkward female medical issue that didn't add to the story and even he acknowledged it was a pet thing of his. I think I'm being rather nice by saying it was simply "awkward". I considered dnf'ing the series right then and there. All of that is just to say that Weeks has been known to put stuff into his books that are of interest to him and nobody else.

He began a new Night Angel trilogy about two years ago. This was a sequel series and many fans were looking forward to it, me included. Weeks had a weekly or monthly youtube channel, was very active on social media and kept his website up to date. Soon after the release of Nemesis, he went silent.

Fast-forward two years to now and I began wondering when the next book would come out. He was still dark, so I began looking into other websites to see what might have happened. I stumbled across a Reddit thread that described the book and it appears that Weeks decided to overwrite about Depression and make his main character become truly depressed. It was offputting to all of the commentors and I got the sense that it was as bad as the sex thing in the Lightbringer series.

It has made me wonder if Weeks himself was suffering from depression and couldn't handle the fact that not everybody was enthralled with the subject as himself. It would explain his extended absence as well.

As such, I think I'm going to be passing on Nemesis. I haven't got time for authors who die on me, authors who are too lazy to finish their series OR authors who are human and fail like every other human.

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 . . .