Book Recommendations VII (The Final Edition)

 

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 was able to start right away. That brings us to this point, the end.

This has been a VERY fun series for me to do. Serious to silly, I've enjoyed the interactions with you all. The biggest problem is that it was TOO successful. My Calibre TBR now stands at over 270 and I've got over 100 on my ereader, which if you do the math, adds up to almost 400 books. That's almost 3 years worth of books. So I am going to stop these posts before I get up to 500. There's no need for that.

Without further ado, here are the final recommendations and my reactions to them!

Recommendations & Responses

Firewater suggested A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. After glancing at the last sentence of the wiki entry, which was depressing as all get out, I'm going with a "No" on this one.

Joelendil recommended Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. One of those 1920's hardboiled detective novels. You can tell it is grim and gritty by the guy's mouth on the cover. Going to go with a big fat "No" on this one too.

Brian recommended Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Sadly, Brian faded from view before I got this post up, so I'm going to go with another "no" here.

Swords&Spectres recommended The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. He had reviewed one or two of them and they sounded very interesting. I'm going with "yes" on this.

Fraggle suggested High Vaultage by Chris and Jen Sugden. I read the synopsis and a review by another blogger and decided to go for "yes" on this as well. You can see why my tbr is growing with these posts!

My cousin Darren suggested The Deeds of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. I've read one other book by Moon and it was the typical woman writer blathering on about feelings and ignoring a good story that was passing the reader by. So I'm not going to tempt fate and subject myself to that again. No.

Nic suggested Wives and Daughters, an unfinished novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. I'd actually read it back in '13, based on the idea that Gaskell was similar to Austen. Not. Even. Close. I'll never try another Gaskell book again.

Chartreuse Flag Hall of Shame

Lashaan suggested Count Zero by William Gibson, a sequel to The Book That Shall Not Be Named. This gets him a Chartreuse Flag without even trying. That book was the worst book ever and left me in a reading funk for over a month, a MONTH! So I'd rather cut off my head then read a sequel to it.

Wrap Up

This series of 7 posts have been a lot of fun, I must admit. Thank you all who have participated. I'd like to also give a big shout-out to Nic for getting the ball rolling last year. I never would have thought of doing something like this on my own and I'm glad she pointed out the idea.

The only downside is now I have to be "creative" again and think of a new series of posts to write about once a month. Anyone have any ideas?

• Book Recommendations I
• Book Recommendations II
• Book Recommendations III
• Book Recommendations IV
• Book Recommendations V
• Book Recommendations VI

[Art] Maiden of Spring

 

Yesterday was the Spring Equinox. I didn't believe it. But that's why I asked Miss Ross to do a Spring drawing. I needed to see to believe. So here we go. Thank goodness for the sunshine rays in the background.

Conan, Lord of the Black River (Conan the Barbarian #23) 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: Conan, Lord of the Black River
Series: Conan the Barbarian #23
Author: Leonard Carpenter
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 230
Words: 79K

This was slightly better than the previous Conan book by Leonard Carpenter, but it really feels like Carpenter is missing some essential ingredient to really make this feel like a Conan novel. Whatever.

I hadn’t realized that Carpenter has written eleven of these pastiches and did so from 1986 to 1996. As such, it does matter which order you read them. This one, Lord of the Black River, was the last to be written. It makes reference to previous characters (of whom I had no idea who they were) and situations, but it was all surface level stuff so it didn’t REALLY matter.

Unfortunately, this was exactly the same in tone as Conan the Hero. Why TOR allowed Carpenter to write so many Conan novels is beyond me. Maybe because he could churn out one a year for eleven years in a row? I have nine of the eleven on my tbr (including this and the previous one) and I have a feeling that I’m going to end up sounding like a recording for each one. These are adequate hyborean age sword fantasy stories, but they are not Conan stories.

Excitement, that is what is missing! In one scene, Conan and the crews of the ships he is commanding are sailing down a big river. They encounter a gigantic electric eel (this scene is the basis for the cover) and eventually kill it. But the entire scene lacked excitement. It should have been scary, tense, thrilling. Instead, it was very lackadaisical and pedestrian. It was like reading about a group of tourists crossing the street in New York City. And even I can imagine ways to make that exciting. A boring Conan story is anathema to me, so we’ll see how many more I get through before trying another author. (already being in the mindset of quitting is not a good place to be)

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

After successfully fulfilling his commission to overthrow a tyrannical baron in Koth, Conan travels into Baalur, a city-state in Shem. The queen of Baalur, Rufia, needs his aid. Baalur is suffering from a plague cast upon it by Zeriti, an old enemy of his previously believed dead. Zeriti seeks to settle a score dating from Conan's previous encounter with the two women, told in the story "Hawks Over Shem", and her curse is transforming Rufia's subjects into hideous zombies.

With an army of Baalurian soldiers, Conan begins his journey to retrieve a white lotus, the primary antidote for removing Zeriti's cruse, said to only bloom near the source of the Styx, the infamous black river. His army marches across the city-state of Nedrezzar before reaching the port city of Asgalun, where they set sail for the Styx, which serves as a boundary between Shem and the ancient kingdom of Stygia. The crew follow the river down a vast tributary to the east and travel south as it flows into the Black Kingdoms. The expedition encounter many dangers along the way, including pirates, hostile local rulers, religious cults, and cannibals before reaching the Styx's headwaters.

At the source of the Styx, they face their worst and final challenge, Zeriti's bloodthirsty undead lover. However, the white lotus is finally secured and Conan's crewmembers return down the river. After a final encounter with Zeriti in Asgalun, they return to Baalur and cure the city's inhabitants.

• The “Essential Conan” Trilogy

• All of My “Conan” Reviews

Tales of the Black Widowers (The Black Widowers #1) 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: Tales of the Black Widowers
Series: The Black Widowers #1
Authors: Isaac Asimov
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 179
Words: 69K

This was a collection of short stories (as are all the books in this series) and so I knew that I would enjoy them. Asimov was an absolute master of the short story, and whether it was in SF or Mystery (as in here), he knew how to convey the most info in the shortest amount of words and STILL knock your lights out with a hidden right hook to the jaw.

So you would think this would have had a higher rating. I did too. And it would have, except for one thing, that was consistent across all the stories. The members of the club are petty and argue about the stupidest little thing, and generally made me wonder WHY they were all in the same club. They did not seem to hate each other, but they also didn’t seem to click with each other like friends do. If this was my introduction to friendship, I would want no part of it.

Without that aspect, the stories and mini-mysteries would have gotten an easy 4stars from me. Quick and punchy and never overstaying it’s welcome. Asimov also talks about each story, where it was published and something interesting about it. But! And this is most important, he does it AFTER the story is done. I get to read the story, make up my own mind about it and then he throws his own light on it. I’ve read too many anthologies where the editor thought their words and ideas were the most important and put them before the story, thus ruining the whole thing for me. Asimov was smart enough to know that The Stories the Thing. Because of that, I was able to enjoy what he wrote about them. Most of the stuff he talked about was title changes. The mystery magazine would change the title and he’d talk about why he agreed or didn’t with that decision. It also led to talking about whether he kept the title change for the story in his own book or used the original. It was all done with a very light hand and there wasn’t a note of bitterness or acrimony in it all.

I am looking forward to the rest of the series but am hoping the members become less pigheaded to each other.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia.org

This book is the first of six that describe mysteries solved by the Black Widowers, based on a literary dining club Asimov belonged to known as the Trap Door Spiders. It collects twelve stories by Asimov, nine reprinted from mystery magazines and three previously unpublished, together with a general introduction, and an afterword following each story by the author. Each story involves the club members' knowledge of trivia.

• "The Acquisitive Chuckle"

• "Ph as in Phony"

• "Truth to Tell"

• "Go, Little Book!"

• "Early Sunday Morning"

• "The Obvious Factor"

• "The Pointing Finger"

• "Miss What?"

• "The Lullaby of Broadway"

• "Yankee Doodle Went to Town"

• "The Curious Omission"

• "Out of Sight"

• All of My Asimov Reviews

Lesley Castle 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: Lesley Castle
Series: ----------
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Juvenilia unfinished story
Pages: 35
Words: 10K

I am glad to be reading these juvenilia stories by Austen, but between them being unfinished and them being written in her teens, it leaves a lot to be desired.

That being said, she shows more talent as a raw teenager than about 9/10ths of the adult hacks today who think that writing a book is just putting words down on paper. If you want to write a book, then I highly encourage you to read this. If what you are writing isn’t even this good, you should give up. Because nobody wants to read your crap and you should stop clogging up the book pipeline. Let the good books get written. And if that hurts your feelings or makes you feel “bad”, then you should also give up, because nobody has time for pansy writers with paper thin skin.

This post has been brought to you by the Bookstooge Wants To Hurt Your Feelings Co., LLC, Inc.

★★★☆☆

From Bookstooge

A series of letters between multiple overlapping female acquaintances. No overarching plot and simply ends randomly after the tenth letter.

• Jane Austen’s Minor Works (2013 Review)

• All My “Jane Austen” Reviews

• Reading Austen 2025 Master Post

Glasses of Urza - MTG 4E

 

I was never the type of player who could strategize well enough to take advantage of a card like this. Knowing what my opponent had never gave me enough to turn the game to my favor. Black had a lot of cards that would allow you to force your opponent to discard, which this card would synergize with quite well, but I never played black back in the day either, so I was STILL out of luck :-D

Starfishers (Starfishers #2) 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: Starfishers
Series: Starfishers #2
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 211
Words: 72K

The boy narrator from the previous book is now just one of two undercover agents for Luna Command, the military machine of humanity. They have infiltrated a Starfisher world ship to discover its secrets for all of humanity. The Sangaree, the humanoid aliens also from the previous book, have also sent their own undercover agent. She ends up outing BenRabi and Mouse but they for some inexplicable reason don’t out her. This allows her to get a Sangaree Clan fleet to attack the world ship and then there’s some space sharks (I’m not kidding) and there’s big battles, blah, blah, blah.

The whole time BenRabi has been having an existential crisis and he’s as whiny as a 15 year old. It gets real old real fast. I wanted to slap him across the face so many times and tell him to grow up and stop being such a baby. Why Cook chose to write him this way is beyond me.

In the end BenRabi chooses to abandon Luna Command and join in with the Starfishers. Which is what they also wanted. However, Mouse is Luna Commands long term bullyboy BenRabi going over was all part of his plan. Aye yi yi.

This wasn’t a waste of my time and I actually enjoyed this a tiny bit more than the first book, but my goodness, BenRabi made it very hard to enjoy the story. It almost seems like Cook is deliberately writing his SF to be as unpalatable as possible. Why, I have zero idea. Maybe Cook has a split personality and the side that wrote SF hated everybody, but especially the people who read his SF? OR! Cook didn’t actually write his SF. He subcontracted it out to guy named Vladimir Gonzalez from China who only wrote in Bavarian and then used a corgi to re-translate it into english. Hey, that works for me! It neatly explains everything.

The REAL Glen Cook

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

Starfish: Treasure troves of power. They were creatures of fusion energy, ancient, huge, intelligent, drifting in herds on the edge of the galaxy, producing their ambergris, the substance precious to man and the man-like Sangaree alike. In deep, starless space the herds were protected by the great harvestships of the Seiners, or Starfishers - the independent, non-Confederation people who dared to skirt the deadly boundaries of Stars' End and battle the Sangaree. It is with them on the harvestship Danion that Confederation agents Mouse Storm and Moyshe BenRabi have to fly and fight, probing mystery and myth. And where BenRabi, man of many names, must surrender his dreams and his mind itself to the golden dragons of space and their shepherds, the gathering... Starfishers.