April '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 16 ↑

Short Stories – 0 –

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 –

Comics – 1 –

Average Rating – 3.35 ↓

Pages – 3479 ↑

Words – 1229 ↑

The Bad:

Drop Shot – 1star of all that fallen human nature is, and calling it good.

Lord Hornblower – 3stars, but man, Hornblower is a scumbag of a character.

The Good:

Persuasion – 5stars of Austen persuading me, yet again, of what a fantastic author she is.

The Diary of a Superfluous Man – 4stars of Russian melancholy, depression and death. Talk about wonderful!

Movie:

While I’ve only seen two versions of Persuasion on the screen, this 2008 BBC version did a very good job imo.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Currently Reading: Doctor Syn
• [Art] Solar Guardians: Sun
• Dragon Whelp – MTG 4E
• A Milestone 2.0
• Drain Life – MTG 4E
• MC: The Playening I
• PSA: Turn OFF the Block Editor Comments
• Drain Power – MTG 4E
• It’s Over 5000!
• Drudge Skeletons – MTG 4E

Personal:

More reading, more posts, more good ratings (second highest months rating this year, whoooo!). Bookwise, another splendiferous month. I’m getting spoiled folks. So don’t be surprised if in the next couple of months the other shoe drops and I have horrible book after horrible book and you see me whining and complaining about how terrible all the books are.

I was all over the place emotionally. For a wide of variety of reasons. Work would be great one day and then absolutely brutal the next and I just couldn’t spring back from the brutal ones quite as quick as I used to. Several of the new people at church didn’t keep coming like I was afraid and that really bummed me out. You can’t be a Christian in a community of Christians and not go to church. Your connection to Christ will wither and you’ll fall away. I got some new diabetes equipment that works really well, but the learning curve is pretty steep and so it was both good and bad all at the same time. Had a wonderful morning date with Mrs B at a local diner (Mrs B could breakfast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, 7 days a week) and I must admit, I stuffed myself to the gills.

I got sunburnt on my head, in April! We were working next to lake and the sun was shining but it wasn’t that warm, so I had my hoodie on. Put the hood up to protect my head but the wind kept blowing it off and it was off enough that I got a sun burn. First of the season, sigh. I also walked through a tick nest one day and ended up with 12 ticks on me. Thankfully, I got them off before they embedded, but it was just disgusting. Work is disgusting in fact!

Went to the gun range one Sabbath with my brother. Tried out my new drum magazine for my 9mm carbine. It has a 50 round capacity. I just tried it with 20 and it performed flawlessly. Next time I will use a whole box of 50 and load it up, but man, that’s a lot of money to literally shoot away, even with ammo prices not being astronomical like they used to be. I also shot my brother’s 1911 .45 caliber pistol. That’s what the Shadow uses 😉 I’ll tell you what, there is no way I would single handedly shoot that thing. While it’s not a monster, it’s too big for just one of my hands. So dual wielding like the Shadow does, that’s for the movies.

The month ended with me getting some sort of head cold and a cough. It was bad. I ended up having to call out of work one day and I lived off of cough drops and robitussin. I’m hoping that that is it for spring time sickness and that I can go forward into the summer’s sunshine and stay nice and healthy.

Cover Love:

Derai by Edward Tubb. I already talked about this in the review for Derai, but I think it bears repeating that that IS an awesome book cover!

Plans for Next Month:

I actually have two poems to go live. Not my own (duh!), but from a fellow blogger I follow. I don’t expect it to be a regular thing, but even something a little different is good. It’s spring time, so it’s time to shake winter’s slumber off and wake up. Even if only for May, hahahaha 😀

I hope to have another Marvel Champions post up. I’m having fun with the titles alone, so that has guaranteed I’ll keep them coming for a while.

Depending on when Dune 2 drops on bluray and I get a hold of a copy, I might end up reviewing that for my movie selection at the end of the month. I’m “almost” excited for that 🙂

Other than those things, it’ll be Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Book Reviews and Magic Cards.

Drudge Skeletons - MTG 4E

Vanguard (Genesis Fleet #1) (Lost Fleet) 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: Vanguard
Series: Genesis Fleet #1 (Lost Fleet)
Author: Jack Campbell
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mil-SF
Pages: 264
Words: 103K

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I originally read this back in ‘17 when Campbell was starting this trilogy. My reception of it was pretty lukewarm, as I was getting tired of Campbell’s schtick and this felt very lazy to me. So as he published the rest of the trilogy, I just let it slide.

Fast forward to now and the trilogy is finished but he has also continued to write more Black Jack Geary adventures. The Lost Fleet: Outlands trilogy is also complete, so it seemed like a good time to dive back into the universe that Campbell had created.

My reactions while reading this book were exactly the same as in ‘17. There were some good space action scenes, but the politics of the situation were just as important to the story and made it not so fun. The problem is, once I was done and thought about it, I realized that Campbell HAD to write it this way. This Genesis Fleet trilogy is about the creation of The Alliance, a political body. Therefore politics has to play a large part in what happens. It is ugly and unpleasant but shows the necessity of such things. While it is more “fun” to read about a Space General Emperor (as in the Empire Rising space opera) sweeping all before him with his mighty space fleet and routing the evil villainous politicians in a week, that’s not how it works because of human nature. When you have a group of humans working together, the best you can hope for is that nobody is pleased but nobody wants to kill the others. Which means making decisions that aren’t optimal. Campbell does just that. I didn’t like it, not at all. I want my heroes to swoop in, throw down the gauntlet, save the day and ride off into the sunset on their space horse. While whistling a jaunty tune.

I suspect the rest of the trilogy will follow similar lines. Politics are going to play a very large part and I’m mentally and emotionally preparing myself for that. The things I put up with. I should get an award, or at least be Sainted. Saint Bookstooge has a nice ring, don’t you think?

★★★☆☆

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From Fandom.com

The Genesis Fleet chronicles events in the years leading up to the formation of the Alliance in the early years of the Faster-Than-Light Jump Drive. The books mainly focus on 4 characters on two of the newly established colonies of Glenlyon and Kosatka, after capturing a ship threating extortion on the new colony of Glenlyon, Former Fleet officer Robert Geary, ancestor of the legendary Admiral John ‘Black Jack’ Geary, is forced to defend his new home on a ship of volunteers, while on the surface former enlisted marine Mele Darcy leads a militia of volunteers with improvised equipment against the hostile forces of the colony of Scatha. Meanwhile in the nearby system of Kosatka relies upon the diplomatic skills of a failed polition and businessman, Lochan Nakamura, and assistance of a former red from Mars, Carman Ochoa, ancestor of Battlecruiser Captain Tanya Desjani. While the new colonies struggle to fight off aggression from other colonies Old Earth and the Old Colonies begin downsizing their militaries, selling off surplus military equipment and ships, both Glenlyon and Kosatka supplement their defence forces with recruits and officers from Old Earth and the Old Colonies. Three years later Glenlyon calls on Marine Captain Mele Darcy and Fleet Officer Commander Robert Geary to help defend them again after losing a warship to an enemy fleet, the only hope for lasting peace comes from people like Lochan Nakamura hoping to form an Alliance with other systems also facing attacks on their own borders.

• Vanguard (2017 Review)

Doctor Syn (Doctor Syn #1) 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: Doctor Syn
Series: Doctor Syn #1
Author: Arthur Russell Thorndike
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 209
Words: 69K

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This was NOT at all what I was expecting, not one tiny bit. I remembered vague bits of an old Disney show called “The Scarecrow’, a Zorro’esque creature fighting evil and righting wrongs. And that is what I expected here, a man in disguise fighting corrupt authority figures while Robin Hood’ing it for the little guy.

Ha!

This is the final book, chronologically, in the Dr Syn series. It is however, the first published book. I suspect Thorndike wrote this as a standalone story and then just went back and wrote all the rest of the prequels when he needed money.

Dr Syn, a clergyman of all things, is also the Scarecrow, a leader of the smugglers in the Romney Marsh area. He’s smart, well organized and not above sending anyone who gets in his way to an early grave with a bullet in their heart. We also find out that he was an infamous pirate captain that roamed the seas pillaging and looting with the worst of them.

I kept waiting for the redemption arc, but it didn’t happen. Every revelation about Dr Syn just makes him out to be worse and worse and there is no repentance on his part at all. While he has embraced the lifestyle of a clergyman, he has in no way taken to heart anything he apparently preaches on. Complete and utter hypocrisy. I kept waiting for the curtain to come down and his good intentions to be revealed. And it just never happened. It actually shocked me at the end when he is captured and then killed by a harpoon, because he’s in full on pirate mode at that point.

I really wondered if I wanted to read more. I think I will though. I want to see how Syn got the point he’s shown at in this book. In many ways, Syn is a Vader without a Luke and I want to see if the downward trajectory was the same. Redemption, or the lack thereof, is something I’m always interested in when I’m reading a story.

★★★✬☆

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From Wikipedia

Captain Collyer, a Royal Navy officer assigned to smash the local smuggling ring, uncovered the deception and Dr. Syn’s true identity, thanks in part to the tongueless mulatto (who had been rescued by Collyer years before and who had been serving Collyer as a “ferret” seeking out hidden contraband) who recognized Syn as Clegg. Syn evaded capture while at the same time making sure that Imogene and Squire Cobtree’s son Denis (who had fallen in love with Imogene) would have a happy life together (they were eventually married), but was murdered in revenge by the mulatto, who then mysteriously managed to escape, leaving Syn harpooned through the neck. As a last mark of respect, Collyer ordered that Syn be buried at sea, rather than have his body hung in chains.

Mipps escaped in the confusion of Syn’s death and disappeared from England, but it is said that a little man very much like him is living out his days in a Buddhist Monastery somewhere in the Malay Peninsula, delighting the monks with recounting the adventures of Doctor Syn and the eerie stories of the Romney Marsh and the mysterious Scarecrow and his Night Riders.

It's Over 5000!

Yes, yes, it’s supposed to be “9000”, but you get the idea

Wow, 2024 is the year of the Milestones for Sir Bookstooge. I had 60,000 Comments, I amassed A Huge Following, at the end of the year I will have done 10 years worth of “Bookstooge Reviews Year X” and will do my first “Decade in Review” and yesterday, with that lowly post about Groo, the silliest comic the world has ever seen, I passed the 5000 post mark.

I celebrated by buying this tshirt on Etsy:

When people ask me what I do for hobbies, I tell them that I read books and then blog about it. When they ask me what else, I tell them that’s it. They are usually skeptical at first. Then I tell them how many books I read a year on average and how much I write online and they begrudgingly admit that maybe I am correct 😉

So rejoice with me! This is another instance of finding the joy in blogging and I for one am taking it for the ride of a lifetime. Until I run out of gas or hit a brick wall, hahahahaha 😀

VRROOOOOOOOM!

The Gourmet Kings (Groo the Wanderer #28) 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: The Gourmet Kings
Series: Groo the Wanderer #28
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 22
Words: 2K

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I am getting a serious case of the “don’t want to writes”. It is kind of like writer’s block, except it’s not that I can’t write, it’s that I simply don’t want to! Big difference.

click for the embiggenable version

★★★✬☆

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From Bookstooge.blog

Groo is hungry. He smells something tasty and tries to be a cook’s assistant. He quits when he finds out he won’t be eating the tasty food but only slop. He comes into contact with a King who is on the lookout for a new Head Chef. After several failures (cannibals, bat eating cave dwellers, etc) Groo remembers the Chef from the town where he quit. He kidnaps the Chef and the King prepares a vast feast for Another King, in advance of working on a peace treaty. Only, the Other King is the one who the Chef originally worked for and this display of kidnapping his own chef sets the two kingdoms warring, again. But at least Groo got fed this time.

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

War Bodies (Polity #24) 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: War Bodies
Series: Polity #24
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 454
Words: 174K

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Most of Asher’s books never grab me by the throat and choke me into enjoyment. It’s always on the re-read that I end up enjoying the story so much more. I still enjoy the initial read, but I’m not excited. War Bodies follows this pattern.

Lots of ultra violence and killing Prador (the giant xenophobic alien crabs that want to kill all humans) and techno-babble about the techno-scyenze inside Piper’s bones (Piper is the main character). We’re talking massive amounts of technobabble. Planck level of technobabble in fact.

This wasn’t as enjoyable as Weaponized because Piper had so much internal angst/emotions/thoughts all on display all of the time. There is a reason for it and it plays directly into the story but I didn’t want to read it. In some ways, it felt like reading someone else’s journal or private correspondence. You ever done that? If you have, you know the feeling I’m talking about. If you have done that and you don’t know that feeling, you’re probably a psychopath with no feelings or sense of shame and guilt.

I know I’m waffling a lot here. I can’t help it. I love the Polity books in their entirety but sometimes the specific books leave me less than 1000% enthused.

Changing subjects here. Reading order. Some people have asked what is the best place to start with the Polity, now that it is over 20 books long and broken up into sub-series and standalone novels. I always recommend Publication Order, just because. Read as Asher wrote them. But I stumbled across an internal chronological list and so wanted to give that out because I know that sometimes people like to read things in that order.

1. Weaponized (2300 AD)
2. Prador Moon (2310 AD)
3. Shadow of the Scorpion (2339 AD)
4. Gridlinked (2434 AD)
5. The Line of Polity (2437 AD)
6. Brass Man (2441 AD)
7. Polity Agent (2443 AD)
8. Line War (2444 AD)
9. The Technician (2457 AD)
10. Dark Intelligence (Circa. 2500 AD)[9]
11. War Factory (Circa. 2500 AD)
12. Infinity Engine (Circa. 2500 AD)
13. The Soldier (Circa. 2750 AD)[10]
14. The Warship (Circa. 2750 AD)
15. The Human (Circa. 2750 AD)
16. The Skinner (3056 AD)
17. The Voyage of the Sable Keech (3078 AD)
18. Orbus (3079 AD)
19. Jack Four
20. Hilldiggers (3230 AD)

You might notice there are only 20 books and that this reviewer calls this book the 24^th Polity book. That is because Asher didn’t include the various short story collections that I do include. Because I’m just that awesome. And I didn’t even charge you anything for it either. You are welcome.

★★★✬☆

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From the Publisher & Bookstooge.blog

Long ago, the Cyberat left Earth to co-evolve with machines. Now, led by the powerful dictator Castron, their Old Guard believe that machines should replace the physical body. But these beliefs are upended with the arrival of the human Polity – and their presence ignites rebellion.

Piper was raised as a weapon against the Cyberat, implanted with secretive hardware. When his parents are captured by the Old Guard, the Polity offer him unexpected aid. Piper knows the Polity want more from him, but at what cost? The rebellion also attracts the deadly prador, placing an entire world in peril.

As war rages across the planet, Piper must battle with the unknown technology implanted in his bones. It may be the Polity’s answer to their relentless fight against the prador. It could also be civilization-ending Jain tech – or something far more extraordinaryl.

After the surrender of the Prador, Piper returns home, a war seasoned general with millions of loyal troops at his command. Castron has fully taken over the planet and subjected the cyberat to prador thralling techniques. With the help of an Agent and a sparkind unit, it will be up to Piper to set himself free from the entity inhabiting his bones and in the process destroy Castron and set the Cyberat free.

• All of My “Polity” Reviews
• All of My “Neal Asher” Reviews