Now that the Chartreuse Emperor rules his world, albeit a blasted and wasted world, it is time to turn our eyes elsewhere…
A happy scene, one of frolicking dragons in a lovely blue sky. We see before us the King of the Dragons, a lordly yet kindly being, taking care of his subjects like they were his own children.
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 Bankers of Avara
Series: Groo the Wanderer #32
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K
I read this. I enjoyed this. The end.
★★★✬☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Now that Groo has a fortune from his previous misadventures, everybody is his friend. Thinking he is getting lots of jobs to earn money, Groo accidentally sets in motion a chain of events wherein he has become the prime lender in the town of Avara. At the same time, the robbers who tried to cheat him before are tracking him down to steal back the money. And Groo gives his money to a bunch of monks for safekeeping, who use it to gild their little temple. Everything goes wrong at the end and nobody is happy.
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 Kestrel
Series: Westmark #2
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: MG Fantasy
Pages: 145
Words: 64K
While I vaguely remembered reading Westmark back in the 90’s, after reading this, I am pretty sure I never read this back then. I suspect I would have disliked this very much back then. Now, I can see it for the coming of age, things aren’t that simple, kind of story and I was impressed. Alexander deals with some heavy topics of civil authority, politics and the reality of international intrigue.
Theo, from the previous book, is the aforementioned Kestrel. He starts out as the naive young man who thinks everyone is basically good and descends into the blood thirsty revolutionary the Kestrel and ends up back as Theo, the Prince Consort, a much wiser, sadder and deeper man. As an adult, it hurt to watch Theo get the brutal education he did, but sadly, that’s what most of the world gets when they grow up. It made me realize just how blessed I am, with the upbringing I’ve had.
There is no magic here, no fantasy beyond taking place in another world. I suspect this would work better for a kid who is interested in history but maybe doesn’t know it yet? The style is the same as the Chronicles of Prydain but without having any fantastic elements makes it feel so different. It is a really weird feeling. I can see why this hasn’t been as popular over the years as the Prydain Chronicles.
I don’t ever see myself reading this again. Or recommending it either.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
Theo is traveling through Westmark, learning about the country of which he will soon be Prince Consort. He is not surprised to find great poverty: Mickle – now known as Princess Augusta – could have told him that from her years on the street. His friend Florian could have told him about the aristocracy’s graft and corruption. But neither could have foreseen a loaded pistol in the practiced hand of the assassin Skeit. The echoes of that shot ring from the muskets and cannons of a Westmark suddenly at war – a war that turns simple, honest men into cold-blooded killers, Mickle into a military commander, and Theo himself into a stranger.
As set up in Westmark, Theo and Mickle are in love. A corrupt general is in a cabal with a rival country, and plans to surrender after a token resistance, allowing a country with a more aristocratic government to replace the more populist Mickle who is seen as too close to revolutionaries like Florian. However, although the general surrenders, his soldiers refuse to, and the nominal resistance becomes a full-blown war as the people fight to determine their own destiny.
Similar to how the aristocratic powers of the time invaded France to restore the aristocracy, here a foreign country is meddling in the internal affairs of Westmark. And just as France repelled the great powers with an army led by the people and of the people, the Westmark forces run by Florian, and his lieutenants, Theo — now the eponymous Kestrel — and Justin, fight to preserve the country. But becoming a general, a tradesman in blood and death, costs the artistic and conscientious Theo a great deal. He has to cut off pieces of himself in the service of a more pressing need.
Meanwhile, Mickle must run her government in exile. Musket and his master, Count Las Bombas, are dragged in to serve as her advisors. She says she wants his advice, as he used to serve with the Salamanca lancers, one of his blustery claims from Westmark. The character Las Bombas is, like the bard Fflewddur Fflam in The Chronicles of Prydain, bombastic, yet of a true heart, and a solid friend.
There are sub-plots involving some gamine children, and difficulties in the cabal involving Cabbarus, the villain of the first book. In the end, good triumphs not by force, but by compromise. Constantine, the young king, was set up to be killed by his guardian, but ends up being captured. He and Mickle come to terms, and they draw up a peace treaty to benefit both countries. Mickle sets up a representative government to reign along with her, but that forces her and Theo to postpone their wedding.
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: Monster Hunter Vendetta
Series: MHI #2
Author: Larry Correia
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 412
Words: 169K
I read my review from 2012 before starting to write this one. Honestly, I felt almost exactly the same as 12 years ago. Ballz to the Wallz action that never let up and shooting and blowing stuff up that just didn’t quit. It was exactly what I wanted this time around from this read. I did laugh at my old review saying how I was looking forward to the wrap up of this “trilogy”. Ahhh, to still think that authors have moral rectitude.
This had a TON of cosmic horror elements in it. I didn’t pick up on them last time because I was of the uninitiated, but now that I have taken the first steps towards becoming the Chartreuse Emperor, I understand. But unlike the Harrison Peel books, which tried to BE cosmic horror and still have a surviving hero, MHI (Monster Hunter International) simply takes the pieces that it wants and does its own Urban Fantasy thing. I think it works out great because I get a Hero and some terrible things but they are able to co-exist without me spluttering and ranting like I did with that goober Harrison Peel. For goodness, I get a story where some gun junkie accountant goes to the Other Side, along with Frankenstein (Agent Franks) and they kill an equal of Cthulhu with a magic stone. It. Was. Awesome! So while it had the elements of Cosmic Horror (Shoggoths anyone?) Correia was able to stay this side of that line quite admirably.
On the negative side, and I suspect I’ll be dealing with this in each book, and it will be why these won’t go above 4.5stars, I also saw a lot more Mormon philosophy behind the story. I didn’t know about that stuff when I originally read this book and not knowing didn’t detract from the story. But now that I do know, and since I disagree with it just like I would with a story based on Islamic or Hindu theology, I can’t unsee it, as it were. False religions aren’t something to treat lightly.
Overall, I am once again quite pleased with how this re-read went. It has all the action and guns and horrible bad guys that my little heart could ask for and that just makes me happy.
★★★★✬
From MHI.Fandom.com
Accountant turned professional monster hunter, Owen Zastava Pitt, managed to stop the nefarious Old One’s invasion plans last year, but as a result made an enemy out of one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Now an evil death cult known as the Church of the Temporary Mortal Condition wants to capture Owen in order to gain the favor of the great Old Ones.
The Condition is led by a fanatical necromancer known as the Shadow Man. The government wants to capture the Shadow Man and has assigned the enigmatic Agent Franks to be Owen’s full time bodyguard, which is a polite way of saying that Owen is monster bait.
With supernatural assassins targeting his family, a spy in their midst, and horrific beasties lurking around every corner, Owen and the staff of Monster Hunter International don’t need to go hunting, because this time the monsters are hunting them. Fortunately, this bait is armed and very dangerous…
Cards like this really showed the Dungeons and Dragons roots of the game of Magic. Which wasn’t cool if you’d grown up thinking D&D was the root of all evil.
Please read the Intro Post if you haven’t already. It explains pretty much everything (except how to use your microwave. Nobody can explain that!) Given how many responses I got from the Get-Go, my plans to collect responses over several months fell by the wayside. I’m able to start right away! That makes me pretty happy.
Recommendations & Responses
MarzAat recommended The Joy Makers by James Gunn. Just to be clear, this is NOT the same James Gunn who directed some of the MCU movies. I have not read anything by this Gunn and so it was Checkaroo on this. Have added it to my “new books” folder which eventually will make it into Calibre and be categorized within my TBR list. So I’ll get to this in the next year or two.
Firewater had several recommendations, but I’m going to choose just one for this post. He recommended Legend by David Gemmell. Lo and behold, I have already read it! Gave it 3.5stars back in ’19 too. Sadly, I was only able to stomach up to the third book in the series, where the faux-philosophy became too shallow for me to continue. I think I would have loved Gemmell a lot more if I’d read his stuff about 20+ years earlier.
Joelendil recommended Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini, a Scarlet Pimpernel knockoff as far as I could tell. It is going to get a “Not interested” as I’m not a big fan of reading about the French Revolution, period.
Chartreuse Flag Hall of Shame
Unfortunately, you all have let everyone down. No one was brave enough to face the shame of getting a Chartreuse Flag and everyone played it safe. In one sense that is ok but really folks, people come to see Bread and Circuses and it’s hard to do so without some outrageous suggestions by you. So I need you to step up for next time and make some suggestions that you KNOW I’m going to excoriate you for. Don’t think of yourself and your sense of shame, throw all that out the window. Think of your fellow bloggers for goodness sake!
~ wrings hands~
Won’t somebody think of the children?!?
The Most Important Part
Recommend me some more books!!!! Leave a comment with your recommendation of books you think I should respond to. I have the list of all the recommendations so far, so don’t you worry, I’ll be getting to them all eventually. And I had a lot of fun doing this 🙂
ORIGINAL LYRICS
How does it feel to treat me like you do?
When you’ve laid your hands upon me
And told me who you are
Thought I was mistaken
I thought I heard your words
Tell me, how do I feel?
Tell me now, how do I feel?
Those who came before me
Lived through their vocations
From the past until completion
They’ll turn away no more
And still, I find it so hard
To say what I need to say
But I’m quite sure that you’ll tell me
Just how I should feel today
I see a ship in the harbor
I can and shall obey
But if it wasn’t for your misfortune
I’d be a heavenly person today
And I thought I was mistaken
And I thought I heard you speak
Tell me, how do I feel?
Tell me now, how should I feel?
Now I stand here waiting
I thought I told you to leave me
While I walk down to the beach
Tell me, how does it feel
When your heart grows cold? (Grows cold, grows cold-)
The lyrics have no concrete meaning as far as I can tell, just a collection of feelingz oriented phrases.
I like this Variant edition by Orkestra Obsolete because it’s much more mellow than the original. And it’s just weird with how they use the old timey instruments and whatnot. And those masks! I, and Zorro, approve.
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...
