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, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Shotguns V Cthulhu Series: Cthulhu Anthology #15 Editor: Robin Laws Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Cosmic Horror Pages: 242 Words: 94K
This was how my final King in Yellow book should have gone! This had shivers running up my spine. This had my mind revolting. This had me questioning why I enjoyed the twisted stories so much. It was everything I expect in a Cosmic Horror story.
Now, I had read a King in Yellow anthology edited by Robin Laws and it wasn’t very good. So I went into this with lowered expectations. Thankfully, I was disappointed in my expectations.
And that’s all I write because I’m tired of writing right now.
★★★★☆
Table of Contents:
Robin D Laws Preface: Save a Barrel for Yourself
Kyla Ward Who Looks Back?
Rob Heinsoo Old Wave
Dennis Detwiller Lithic
Chris Lackey Snack Time
Dan Harms The Host from the Hill
Steve Dempsey Breaking Through
A. Scott Glancy (based on an idea by Bret Kramer) Last Things Last
After last’s month’s Pain and Suffering, and in the light of February being Valentines, this particular drawing seemed very appropriate to start the month off.
Happy and in love, that’s what I see here. The excitement of the First Date is wonderful and it only gets better as time goes on. Recently I have come to realize that Love grows into that quiet contentment of being with that special someone. Glorying in their presence, just happy to be around them. Not necessarily Doing Things together, but simply Being Together.
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: Witch Week Series: Chrestomanci #3 Author: Diana Jones Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Middlegrade Fantasy Pages: 185 Words: 73K
I have heard the question “Why isn’t DWJ as famous as JK Rowlings” punted about over the years. It might seem like a legitimate question, but I think this book answers it quite aptly.
Namely, this was a scary book for kids about bullies, meanness and very unlikeable people. None of the beautiful people are nice, none of the adults (except Chrestomanci, when he shows up for the last 10%) are decent and even the main characters are some really nasty pieces of work. Some of this might be VERY true to life and some kids might be able to identify with it all, but that’s not the goal. It’s not enough to just identify with a character, but to have characters that your readers want to emulate to be better people. This is DWJ’s failure in this book.
Until Chrestomanci shows up and begins setting things aright, I was questioning why DWJ even bothered to write this and why I was continuing to read this. While I know intellectually this so called “Chrestomanci Series” really isn’t, I do wish that that DWJ had made more of an effort to weave him into the overall story instead of making him such a small part. It’s as lame as calling Jubilee from the X-Men a real superhero (she can throw sparkles or something from her hands, whooooo).
I guess I will have to change my expectations for the rest of the series but if I come across any more that are as unlikeable as this, I’ll just stop this series and start in on my next middle grade read, the Westmark trilogy by Lloyd Alexander.
★★✬☆☆
From Wikipedia:
Click to View Synopsis
Witch Week is set in an alternative modern-day Great Britain, identical to our world except for the presence of witchcraft. Despite witches being common, witchcraft is illegal and punishable by death by burning, policed by a modern-day Inquisition.
At Larwood House, a boarding school where many of the children of executed witches are sent, a note claiming “Someone in this class is a witch” is found by a teacher. This launches an internal investigation of the more unpopular students at the school (Nan Pilgrim and Charles Morgan), who are gradually coming to terms with the fact that they are witches. Mayhem gradually ensues as magic is used to make birds appear in the classroom, to rain shoes, to curse a classmate into having his words always be true, and other pranks. When the magic gets totally out of control, one of the students runs away, leaving notes that blame the witch for controlling him. The headmistress of the school calls in an Inquisitor to find the missing student and locate the source of the trouble.
Four more of the students flee the school and two seek help from an “underground railroad” system that is known to save witches by sending them to a world where they are not persecuted. Instead they are given a spell to summon unknown help and all five students converge where they are able to use it, summoning the enchanter Chrestomanci. He and the children conclude that their world diverged from 12B (ours) by a particular historical accident. They work to outwit the local inquisition and to merge their history, thus their world, with ours. It turns out that most of the schoolchildren are witches and all must lose any such powers by revising history in that way.
What a busy month. Looking at our wall calendar, we had multiple things going on every single week. I am not a fan of having commitments to others that often. A body needs down time, alone time, so it can recharge.
Had a couple of snowstorms, both of which were decent sized. Of course, a week later it either rained and washed it all away, or it was up to 50degrees and melting like crazy.
Taking Friday’s off from writing on the blog has helped tremendously. Just seeing that “Free Day” on my google calendar is a weekly reminder and it’s been good for me emotionally. While Wednesday’s haven’t worked out quite the way I was hoping, knowing that they are only open for Review posts does help me. I read enough that writing reviews, while monotonous at times, doesn’t have the same creative pressure that a non-review post does. Mainly because the reviews are for myself and I just don’t care. Non-review posts are usually written with some random idea whereby I hope to engage your interest and elicit comments from you all 😉
Our church finalized the hiring of a new assistant pastor (not sure what his official title is, as he’s still studying at seminary and so doesn’t have his doctorate yet). He’s in his mid-20’s, married to his highschool sweetheart, with one little kiddo. He’s some sort of engineer at one of the big car companies and he likes people. In short, he’s everything I wanted to be 20 years ago. But I’m me and no amount of moaning or whining is going to change that 😉 I am really hoping for his success out here (they are moving from Michigan) and that he gets along with the majority of the congregation. He made a great impression on us when they came out to visit at the end of ’23. I do admit, I am looking forward to seeing how a young man proceeds in this day and age, as the challenges he will face will be totally different from what I might have back in my 20’s. Being witness to the rising of the next generation of Christians is sad, scary, exhilarating and oh so encouraging, all at once.
Our cable bill went significantly up this month. I am looking at other options but I am afraid it will impact us, I just don’t know how yet. Not looking forward to yet another change. Using our phones as hotspots and tethering is one option. That would mean I can’t stream stuff on our bluray player anymore but I don’t know how much of an impact that would actually have. But a 50% jump in the rate is not something we can sustain.
Cover Love:
Shadow of Anubis wins this quite handily. The Arcane books are just gorgeous and I’m ok with that. And Dr Bell is looking shaaaarp in that vest!
Plans for Next Month:
Going to be doing a buddy read with Lashaan for Pride and Prejudice. Looking forward to that.
Other than that, it should be business as usual. I do promise that this month’s Art will be happier than the Pain & Suffering of January 😉
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: Equal Rites Series: Discworld #3 Author: Terry Pratchett Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 162 Words: 67K
When I first read this in 2007, I was fresh off the Rincewind books and was expecting more of the same. Equal Ritesis the first of the Witches sub-series and as such, while humorous, IS different and I wasn’t ready for that difference back then. Instead of the insane, zany and just plain ridiculous humor that typifies Rincewind, The Witches series is much more sardonic and relies on the humor inherent in opposites. All of that was just to say that I enjoyed my read this time much more than I did 16 years ago.
I also did this as a buddy-read with Dave. I’ll be linking to his review after the star rating and before the synopsis.
I enjoyed this on a completely different level from the previous two books. Granny Weatherwax (the main character despite this being about the little girl Esk) isn’t silly and stupid but she’s also not some omniscient Paragon of Everything. Pratchett is definitely poking fun at the genders (male and female) and Granny isn’t a bra burning feminazi. She’s crotchety, gets things mixed up, makes bad decisions but ultimately has the good of Esk in mind. She’s a wonderful character in fact. I loved reading about her. It is almost scary to me how 16 years of life experience can make that kind of change in me. I still like Rincewind and the complete chaos that he is, but I now appreciate Granny much more than I could have back then. That’s good. We should change as we mature and get older.
I have talked about this before (Why I Re-Read from ‘18) but that change in perspective is the EXACT reason why I am such a re-reader. What I experienced reading Equal Rites this time around I simply could not have back in ‘07. And if I had never re-read it now, I would be stuck with that ‘07 memory of it. Which isn’t bad, but it’s not as full and rich as my memories of the book now. As a serious reader, growing is important. A reader should be a tree, ever growing, not a karesansui garden (one of those japanese gravel gardens) which stays static unless an outside force acts upon it. A reader’s growth should be from within, affecting the outside, not the outside affecting the growth within. It is the difference between an oak tree and a bonsai tree. One acts upon the landscape while the other is acted upon.
So to end. I am VERY happy I re-read this. I enjoyed it more than I originally did and I am thankful I have a better memory of the book now.
The wizard Drum Billet knows that he will soon die and travels to a place where an eighth son of an eighth son is about to be born. This signifies that the child is destined to become a wizard; on the Discworld, the number eight has many of the magical properties that are sometimes ascribed to seven in other mythologies. Billet wants to pass his wizard’s staff on to his successor.
However, the newborn child is actually a girl, Esk (full name Eskarina Smith). Since Billet notices his mistake too late, the staff passes on to her. As Esk grows up, it becomes apparent that she has uncontrollable powers, and the local witch Granny Weatherwax decides to travel with her to Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork to help her gain the knowledge required to properly manage her powers.
But a female wizard is something completely unheard of on the Discworld. Esk is unsuccessful in her first, direct, attempt to gain entry to the University, but Granny Weatherwax finds another way in; as a servant. While there, Esk witnesses the progress of an apprentice wizard named Simon, whom she had met earlier, on her way to Ankh-Morpork. Simon is a natural talent who invents a whole new way of looking at the universe that reduces it to component numbers.
Simon’s magic causes a hole to be opened into the Dungeon Dimensions while he is in Esk’s presence. The staff, acting to protect Esk, strikes Simon on the head, closing the hole but trapping his mind in the Dungeon Dimensions. Esk throws the staff away, believing that it attacked Simon. While attempting to rescue him, Esk ends up in the Dungeon Dimensions. The extreme cold there causes the staff, now washed out to sea, to create a huge ice sheet, causing a storm that floods the university as well as the surrounding city.
Esk and Simon discover the weakness of the creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions—if you can use magic, but don’t, they become scared and weakened. With the help of Granny Weatherwax and Archchancellor Cutangle, who have retrieved the staff, they both manage to transport themselves back into the Discworld. Esk and Simon go on to develop a new kind of magic, based on the notion that the greatest power is the ability not to use all the others.
Excess. Nihilistic Excess. This was not actually a movie. This was a video game with a body count so high that I’m never going to view the original John Wick film in the same light. JW should have been the lowest bar that has ever been set in terms of sheer violence. Sadly, it ended up being the top level of an underground bunker.
I have enjoyed each successive John Wick movie less and less. To the point where I actually questioned whether I would watch this or not. I enjoyed the pure brutality of the first movie. This, this made me sick and question myself as I kept on watching instead of turning it off.
