You think maybe his people live fulfilled lives, full of love, family and duty? This scout goes out into the wilderness every week, looking for what he may. Sneaky, stealthy, capable of invisibility, this scout is the linchpin upon which his peoples’ safety depends.
Did you notice his eye? Does it look familiar? Certain mages of shadow find them to be talismans of great power. While the Emperor of Shadow is bound to the Throne of Chainsin the Forest Refuge, his mind roams free with the powers granted by his talismanic chain of authority.
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: Troilus and Cressida Author: William Shakespeare Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Play Pages: 315 Words: 91K
Yawn.
It appears that 4 of Shakespeare’s play in a monthly row is about all I can handle. Troilus and Cressida was the 5th and it was pure drivel and misery for me. I simply could not get into the flow or anything. It might have been the play itself but whatever the reason, I was within an inch of just skipping it and reading the Wikipedia entry. That’s not a good place to be in.
So I’m taking off from Shakespeare, yet again. I have no clue if I’m going to come back this time. I’ll give it a couple months of thought and make a decision then. I’m in no frame of mind to think rationally about these plays right now.
★★✬☆☆
From Wikipedia:
Troilus and Cressida is set during the later years of the Trojan War, faithfully following the plotline of the Iliad from Achilles’ refusal to participate in battle to Hector’s death. Essentially, two plots are followed in the play. In one, Troilus, a Trojan prince (son of Priam), woos Cressida, another Trojan. They profess their undying love, before Cressida is exchanged for a Trojan prisoner of war. As he attempts to visit her in the Greek camp, Troilus glimpses Diomedes flirting with his beloved Cressida, and decides to avenge her perfidy.
While this plot gives the play its name, it accounts for only a small part of the play’s run time. The majority of the play revolves around the leaders of the Greek and Trojan forces, Agamemnon and Priam, respectively. Agamemnon and his cohorts attempt to get the proud Achilles to return to battle and face Hector, who sends the Greeks a letter telling them of his willingness to engage in one-on-one combat with a Greek soldier. Ajax is originally chosen as this combatant, but makes peace with Hector before they are able to fight. Achilles is prompted to return to battle only after his protege Patroclus is killed by Hector before the Trojan walls. A series of skirmishes conclude the play, during which Achilles catches Hector and has the Myrmidons kill him. The conquest of Troy is left unfinished, as the Trojans learn of the death of their hero.
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: Groo and the Siege Second Try Series: Groo the Wanderer #20 Author: Sergio Aragones Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Comics Pages: 24 Words: 2K
Hahahahahaa! Oh man, I totally did not see the final part coming. I knew the Sage was going to be able to help Groo, but I just didn’t see him misunderstanding the whole situation. Oh, it took Groo’s level of destruction to a whole new level. If I lived in a world with a Groo, I’d try to figure out a way to harness his contrary-luck (it’s not necessarily “bad”, it just doesn’t work for anyone but Groo).
Of course, the enemies of Grooella do just that. Well, maybe not quite “harnessing” it, but they figure out how to make it work for them. Which is more than Grooella has ever done, hahahahahaa.
I’ve included the final panel where the enemies make use of Groo’s particular disability 😉
★★★✬☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Groo tries to help Grooella again and just makes things even worse. As always. To the point where the enemy uses Groo. Finally Groo decides to get help from the Sage, who helps Groo destroy the castle, because Groo forgot to tell him that the castle belonged to Grooella. The comic ends with both the Sage and Grooella chasing Groo down so they can kill him.
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: Firestorm Series: Empire Rising #5 Author: David Holmes Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 324 Words: 124K
MUCH more enjoyable than the previous book. Over 20K of words less and it showed by being a tighter, leaner story and I think we all benefit from that. There were no letters, thank goodness.
There is still the “they fire X missiles” and the countdown to how they all get destroyed or not. But I was reading an older review of one of Doug Dandridge’s books and he did the exact same thing, so I guess that’s a “feature” of indie milsf writers.
We are also introduced to the next Somerville, Captain Happypant’s illegitimate niece. Since Happypants is pretty much now a commodore and the next step for him will be sitting behind a desk getting fat and reminiscing about “back in my day the Navy was blah, blah, blah”, and Mighty Niece is just entering navy school, I fully expect the next book to be a transition from Happypants as the main character to Mighty Niece.
Also, now that there is evidence of the Master Alien Race that really is setting lower races against each other, I expect them to take more of centerstage as the villainous, gloating, rubbing of hands (or whatever appendage that translates to for them) bad guy. There have been hints from the beginnings of each chapter (where it is the year 3000’ish and the Empire is at the height of its power) that is a War of Doom where humanity takes a tremendous beating and almost loses the survival war. I suspect the new MAR’s have a hand in that.
Unlike the last book, I didn’t notice any awkward dialogue. Nothing that threw me out of the book at all. Doesn’t mean it was Nero Wolfe / Archie Goodwin banter, but it was solid dialogue that didn’t make me wince. That’s a big step in the right direction and I’m happy about that.
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
Four peaceful years have passed since the liberation of Haven. Captain James Somerville has taken his command, the heavy cruiser Titan, to Earth for a much-needed refit. As he is there, shocking news arrives from the American colonies. Unknown ships have attacked a remote colony. Nuclear missiles have devastated the planet’s surface leaving almost no survivors. Suddenly, the human nations find themselves thrust into a war for the very survival of their species. Old rivalries must be set aside if this new threat is to be confronted. Once again James finds himself thrust into the midst of battle. This time, the stakes are as high as they can get.
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: Golden Spiders Series: Nero Wolfe #22 Author: Rex Stout Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Mystery Pages: 175 Words: 58K
This was a tough one because right near the beginning a boy gets killed after coming to Nero Wolfe and Archie lets him in the house as a way to get revenge on Wolfe for his bad attitude. It wasn’t their fault but it happened. Several other people are killed too but the death of the child is what makes Wolfe do his utmost this time around.
Whooooo, what a great cast of characters this time. Sometimes Archie and Wolfe dominate a book and the side characters are very small side characters. But sometimes, like here, the side characters really pop and stand out. There is a lawyer and a public relations guy and man, they are both as slimey as Cthulhu’s tentacles, and they’re probably just as evil, whether willfully or through deliberately ignoring what is going on. I loved to hate on them and every time Wolfe put either of them into their place I was super happy and felt good about myself. Childish and immature, yes, but also very, very, very true.
I always rave about how good Nero Wolfe stories are and what a wordsmith Rex Stout is and it remains true. That is part of why my reviews of these books are so short. When something is good, I simply read it and enjoy it and my review consists of a lack of problems. I don’t necessarily enumerate all the positives but the lack of negatives is how I roll.
I am about at the halfway mark through the series. I started with Fer-de-lance in March of 2021. Here I am, 2 ½ years later, still reading, still loving, still going strong. To me, the fact that I still look forward to reading a Nero Wolfe book every 4-6 weeks speaks absolute volumes about not only the entertainment value but also the quality. I’ve dropped indie SF authors before simply because the quality of writing was mediocre and I could only stand it for a couple of volumes. Stout puts out quality stuff each and every time and I am proud to say that I can appreciate that fact. I suspect Stout is pretty proud that such an esteemed personage as myself is not only reading his books, but reviewing them too. But don’t worry, there is plenty of room on this bandwagon, so jump on and have yourself the ride of a lifetime.
★★★★☆
From Wikipedia:
After Nero Wolfe reacts petulantly to a change in one of his favourite meals, Archie Goodwin plays a prank on him by allowing Pete Drossos, a neighbourhood child, to enter and ask for Wolfe’s help on a case. Pete claims that while he was washing the windows of car at a stop light the driver, a woman wearing distinctive golden earrings in the shape of spiders, silently asked him to summon a police officer, and Pete believes she was being threatened by her male passenger. To indulge Pete, Wolfe has Archie pass Pete’s information on to the police, but the next day they learn that the same car, now driven by a man in a brown suit and hat, has struck and killed Pete. Matthew Birch, an agent of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, was also struck and killed by the same car, apparently on the same day that Pete approached Wolfe. While this suggests Birch was the man Pete saw in the car evidence at the scene proves Birch was killed before Pete, ruling him out as Pete’s murderer.
Wolfe is visited by Pete’s mother, who gives them his savings of $4.30 and asks them to use it to find his killer. Archie, angered at Wolfe’s reluctance to get involved, puts an advertisement in the newspaper, asking the woman in the car to contact Wolfe. Laura Fromm, a wealthy widow, responds to the advertisement and arrives at Wolfe’s house wearing the golden spider earrings. Wolfe and Archie quickly determine that she is not the person they seek, but she is horrified on learning of Pete’s death and claims that she may know who was driving. Fromm refuses to reveal the information, but the next day Wolfe and Archie receive news that she too has been struck by a car and killed. Infuriated by the fact that two people who came to him for help are now dead, Wolfe decides to solve the murders.
Archie learns that the last people to see Fromm alive are all directly or indirectly connected to a charity for displaced persons that Fromm supported with sizeable donations. While Wolfe assigns his operatives Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin and Orrie Cather to pursue various leads, Archie approaches those present at a dinner attended by charity officials – including Fromm’s secretary Jean Estey, the charity’s attorney Dennis Horan and his wife, and the charity’s director Angela Wright – and offers to sell the details of the conversation between Wolfe and Fromm in an attempt to flush out the guilty party. Before he can approach Paul Kuffner, the charity’s public-relations director, Kuffner approaches Wolfe and offers to pay for the information. Realising he has been tipped off, Wolfe rejects the offer.
Saul, who has been posing as a displaced person seeking help from the charity, reveals that after he had approached Horan for help he was subsequently visited by a man who tried to blackmail him out of $10,000. Meanwhile, Fred has tracked down two hoodlums who claim to have been working with Birch. On discovering that Fred is a private investigator they attempt to torture him for information, but Archie, Saul and Orrie — who have been independently following either Fred or the hoodlums — manage to rescue him. Saul confirms that one of the hoodlums, “Lips” Egan, is the blackmailer, and a notebook in his pocket reveals the existence of a blackmail ring targeting poor, illegal immigrants.
Before the investigators can interrogate the hoodlums further, Horan arrives unexpectedly at Egan’s base of operations. Archie takes Horan and the hoodlums to Wolfe’s office, where they are held for questioning by Wolfe and Inspector Cramer. Horan tries to distance himself from the two hoodlums, but Egan confesses to the blackmail and implicates Horan as well. Egan reveals that Birch was one of the ringleaders of the operation, but that he in turn took orders from an unknown woman. This confirms to Wolfe a flawed assumption made by the police: that the driver of the car that killed Pete was a man, when in fact it was a woman disguised as a man.
With the principals and several police officers assembled in his office, Wolfe reveals the identity of the murderer: Fromm’s secretary Jean Estey. Estey was the true mastermind of the blackmail ring, but Fromm had begun to suspect her and, after overhearing the codeword she used – “said a spider to a fly” – had given the spider earrings to Estey as a subtle way of confronting her. Estey murdered Birch when he demanded a larger share of the blackmail proceeds, then killed Pete and Fromm to hide her connections to Birch and the illegal operation. When a clothing store owner brought in by Orrie identifies Estey as having purchased the suit and hat worn by the driver who killed Pete, she is arrested for the murders and Horan and Egan are arrested for the blackmail.
Wolfe burns Egan’s notebook to prevent the identities of the blackmail victims from being exposed, leading Archie to worry that he may be charged with destroying evidence, but all three defendants are convicted even without it.
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 World Awakening Series: Gateways to Alissia #3 Author: Dan Koboldt Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 286 Words: 89K
CASE Global, the big bad business, sends in hundreds of armed mercenaries to take over Alissia and use its resources for themselves. And said mercenies are armed with the latest technology and weapons. No more fake bows and arrow, we’re talking guns, grenades, etc. So I was wondering how Koboldt was going to wrap up what was the start of a World War and he does it by destroying the gateway so the mercs get zero reinforcements of both personnel and equipment. Kind of takes the teeth out of things that way.
Quinn wasn’t as selfishly juvenile this time around AND he starts to use real magic and not use any fake tricks. But he was very much just a cog in the machine instead of being the main character. There wasn’t one person I could point to in this and call them THE main character. It kind of was spread all over, which was ok but I was hoping for more from Quinn to show a Hero’s Journey. Oh well.
I do like that Koboldt pretty much states that this was the end of his journey into Alissia. I like it when an author makes a clear cut ending and doesn’t come crawling back. Of course, this was only published in 2018, so there’s still plenty of time for him to do some crawling, but I really hope not. This series ended well and I would like my memories of it to stay positive.
★★★☆☆
From the Author and Bookstooge.blog
Quinn Bradley has learned to use the magic of another world. And that world is in danger.
Having decided to betray CASE Global, he can finally reveal his origins to the Enclave and warn them about the company’s imminent invasion. Even if it means alienating Jillaine…and allying with someone he’s always considered his adversary.
But war makes for strange bedfellows, and uniting Alissians against such a powerful enemy will require ancient enmities—as well as more recent antagonisms—to be set aside. The future of their pristine world depends on it.
As Quinn searches for a way to turn the tide, his former CASE Global squad-mates face difficult decisions of their own. For some, it’s a matter of what they’re willing to do to get home. For others, it’s deciding whether they want to go home at all.
Holt dies, the woman who was in love with him takes over as the ruler, one of the mercs makes it back through the gates, the magician is able to destroy the gate, thus cutting the link between our world and Alissia. Overall, all the good guys get a semi-happy ending and Quinn ends up with the girl. The end.
