Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

My new laptop came yesterday. I wasn’t supposed to get it until almost Christmas but there must have been something in a warehouse somewhere because it showed up about 3 weeks early. I am pretty happy to be on a laptop again and not on my blasted phone! Even two days was two days too many to endure.

I have also made the choice to go dotblog here at wordpress.com. Despite my many, many, many, MANY complaints about Automattic as a company, they are the only ones that give me the majority of what I want for a blog. Doesn’t mean I won’t keep on being vituperative towards WordPress but I have realized I don’t have any other place to go and with all the work of the Hotel Bookstooge already done and the ongoing Author Index, well, I think it is time to simply accept I’m stuck here at wordpress. So say hello to Bookstooge.blog If you notice any problems, please let me know and I’ll see what I can do to fix it.

Next on the agenda is to change my theme here. I currently use Penscratch 2 and it did what I wanted it to, but when I was looking at my site, I realized people have to do an awful lot of scrolling to get through my posts (sometimes). Then WordPress introduced the Masu theme and I really liked the look of it. The only problem is, it’s one of the FSE themes (full site editor) and I don’t know if I want to mess with all of that. But this month not only have I had changes forced on me but I am actively seeking them out. So I think later this afternoon I’ll be changing my theme as well. Be prepared for a lot of screaming and crying if things go bad.

For right now, that’s enough changes. I suspect there will be more changes by years end, even if I have no idea what they will be. Maybe I’ll buy a red sports car! 😉 hahahahahahaahaa.

Vang: The Military Form (Vang #1) ★★★✬☆

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: Vang: The Military Form
Series: Vang #1
Author: Christopher Rowley
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 229
Words: 99.5K

A good re-read. I am pretty happy with how this went, even though I took it down half a star from when I read it in 2010.

It starts out slow and I initially thought “Oh good, this is some good setup”. But then the setup kept going and going and it wasn’t until almost the 50% mark that the Vang even shows up. It is just ONE Military Form and it still manages to take over a planet in about 24-48hrs. It comes thiiiiiiis close to getting loose into the galaxy at large too * hold finger and thumb a hairs width apart *

While I was happy it was defeated, it wasn’t very satisfactory. It has genetic directives and they take over and so it has to make a politician Vang and that of course that just ruins everything. The world is cleansed with nuclear fire by the Human Space Armada and the Military Form pretty much just has to sit there and take it. Sucks to be him!

This used to be a favorite of mine but now I think this is the final fling I will be having with it. Farewell Vang, you’re just not what I’m looking for in a book anymore. But don’t worry, it’s all you, so that way you don’t have to feel guilty that I changed on you. You were just not quite good enough but I wasn’t mature enough to realize it.

Sucks to be the Vang, hahahahaha!

★★★✬☆

• Vang: The Military Form (2010 Review)
• All of My “The Vang” Reviews

Hit & Fade (Forgotten Ruin #2) ★★✬☆☆

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: Hit & Fade
Series: Forgotten Ruin #2
Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Military Fantasy
Pages: 274
Words: 97K

The only reason this was better than the first book was because it was over 100 pages shorter and the final battle was awesome without the narrator going “Ranger X is gonna out-Ranger every other Ranger who is Rangering like a REAL Ranger would Ranger, which you would know if you were rangering like a real ranger too, scrub”.

I’m going to give the next book a chance. But if I hit the 50% mark and rangers are still out-rangering all the other rangers, blah, blah, blah, then I’ll dnf the book and the series. Us regular Mil-SF readers don’t got no time for butt licking. We want a good story.

★★✬☆☆

• Forgotten Ruin (Book 1)

A Brief Interruption Part II

Last year (A Brief Interruption) I had to take a brief comment break because my laptop died. Well, this year my wifi on the laptop won’t connect for longer than 10minutes. The last 2 weeks have been incredibly frustrating. It doesn’t have an ethernet port so I can’t even hardwire it in.

I’ve ordered a new laptop and once that arrives and is setup, I’ll look into repair options for the problem child.

So I am back to my phone and the app for a couple of days anyway. Hopefully this will be fully resolved by Real Thanksgiving but wanted to give you all the update in case it goes sideways.

Asterix and the Roman Agent (Asterix #15) ★★★✬☆

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: Asterix and the Roman Agent
Series: Asterix #15
Authors: Goscinny & Uderzo
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 53
Words: 3K

Julius Caesar is sick of the Gaulish village that keeps defying but has no idea how to deal with it. One of his friends suggests that they try to split up the unity of the village by using an acquaintance. This roman agent divides and conquers wherever he goes and even the Gauls fall prey to his machinations. As do the Romans and even the Pirates! Thankfully Getafix, Asterix and Obelix figure out what is going on and put a stop to it. A huge battle ensues, thus making the Gauls happy and they live happily ever after!

Wasn’t sure how this was going to go. I was impressed with how the creators used green speech bubbles to show when people were talking under the influence of the roman agent. There was also a panel where they totally reference themselves (last panel on the bottom right) and it just made me grin.

Overall, another solid entry in the Asterix series.

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Asterix” Reviews

Hidden Voices (Arcane Casebook #9) ★★★★☆

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: Hidden Voices
Series: Arcane Casebook #9
Author: Dan Willis
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 275
Words: 91K

Willis is finally getting to the point where he can’t connect multiple mysteries and so he doesn’t even try now. But he still shoves in multiple mysteries just to keep the page count up there.

This time we’re dealing with Nazi’s in America chasing down an alchemist of some sort, There’s also a murder that involves a Stradivarious. There’s also more involvement with the Supernatural OSC and a vengeful FBI agent who is pissed at Alex Lockerby because he helped the Sorceress Sorsha instead of him.

Runes are tattooed on a german making him an ubermensch. It reminded me a LOT of the beginning of the Grimnoir Chronicles where the main character there talks about magic users in World War I. This sounded like a prequel to that kind of thing, but for World War II instead.

I started out really gung-ho for this series and while my overall enjoyment hasn’t waned, the never ending nature of it is starting to wear on me. The ending where it is revealed that Alex is fully addicted to Limelight and his mentor makes a mysterious call to some unknown person just increases the scope again. At the same time it is fully in line with how Willis writes. He’ll introduce an idea (the group of good guys who are supposedly opposing Legion) and use it for a book or two and then just abandons it and starts using some other idea.

I don’t want to rag on a series that I like, but the weaknesses of the author are fully on display by now. If those weaknesses don’t bother you then they won’t bother you for 1 book or for 10. But I am reaching my limit. It used to be that I would eagerly await and snap up any Arcane Casebook as soon as it came out. Now? I’m going to be waiting until a couple come out instead of reading them as they come out.

I’m including a large scale picture because once again I absolutely love the artwork!

★★★★☆

• All My “Arcane Casebook” Reviews

Bird Maiden - MTG 4th Edition