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: To Become a Marked One Series:
Demon Slayer #15 Author:
Koyoharu Gotouge Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre:
Manga Pages: 192 Words:
9K Publish: 2019
I did enjoy this
volume more than the previous one, but that was because the focus was
on Tanjiro and him doing all the additional training that each of the
demon slayers and Pillars had to go through. The parts where it was
group oriented or about the Society of Pillars discussing things, I
lost interest. I am not a group oriented guy and I like reading about
the Lone Hero, not the Avengers. When I was perusing Wikipedia for
the chapter titles and summary, I read through the summaries for the
rest of the volumes. I think I’m going to stop reading with this
volume. Too much group stuff going on.
If this manga had
stayed focused on Tanjiro, I suspect I would have kept on to the end.
The following page is WHY I like Tanjiro as a character so much. He’s
still smiling and being friendly, but he tells the unvarnished truth
to the Pillar. No hate, no fear, just wanting to move on with his
training so he can reach his goal.
★★★✬☆
From Wikipedia
"Dawn Approaches"
"Daybreak and First Light"
"The Rumble of Victory"
"A Request for Instruction"
"To Become a Marked One"
"A Place to Be"
"Visitor"
"Full-Strength Training"
"Welcome..."
With his new sword Tanjiro destroys
Hantengu, and after risking herself to protect the villagers, Nezuko
is bathed in sunlight, but to everybody's surprise she is not harmed
by it. Once learning of it, Muzan discovers that Nezuko attained the
power he spent his entire life looking for. Knowing that Muzan is
determined to confront them directly to capture her, the Demon
Slayers make preparations for the final battle against 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:
The Twice Dead King: Reign Series: Warhammer
40K: Necrons Author: Nate Crowley Rating:
3 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages:
317 Words: 113K Publish: 2022
This
wasn’t as enjoyable as the previous book, Ruin.
Most of that was due to Oltyx
and his remaining Necrons doing nothing but running for 75% of the
book. It was boring. A book about nigh-immortal killing machines
should not be boring. The thing is, Crowley (the author) did a great
job of showing how kickass the Necrons were in Ruin, so
I don’t understand why he went the boring route here. It had to
have been a deliberate choice on his part, but it made no sense to
me. Now that I’ve this Twice Dead King duology, I’m just as
likely to avoid Crowley as seek him out. That’s not good
“branding”.
The
ending was just plain weird. It wasn’t bad, but it left me going
“huh?” Basically, Necrons can go crazy and try to eat flesh and
pretend they are the biological Necrontyrs again. But it turns out
the Flayers (the name given to Necrons who go crazy and try to eat
flesh) have access to a special dimension in space and go almost
anywhere in no time. Oltyx fully embraces this by book’s end, but
it just ignores the fact that they are still crazy. They are insane.
Insane beings usually don’t think they are insane, but that doesn’t
change that they are. By the end you realize Oltyx is insane as any
Flayer and that the Ithacan Empire is really no more.
The
cover once again is pretty cool, with a gold plated Oltyx (the way
the Necrons show someone is royalty) holding some sort of glow’y
green spear/ax/staff thing. Whatever it is, it looks cool. Halberd,
that’s what its Earth equivalent would be! A space-halberd powered
by raw fusion. Yeah baby, that is just awesomesauce!
★★★☆☆
From
WH40k.lexicanum.com/
After
centuries of exile, the necron lord Oltyx has at last
been granted the thing he has always craved: the throne of
the Ithakas Dynasty. Kingship, however, is not quite what he had
hoped for – Oltyx's reign currently exists aboard the dying
battleship Akrops, as it lumbers away from the ruins of
his crownworld. Behind it is a hostile armada of unfathomable
size, launched by the barbaric alien war-cult known as the Imperium
of Man. And within the Akrops' sepulchral hold, an even greater
threat festers – the creeping horror of the flayer curse.
Faced with such overwhelming odds, Oltyx leads a desperate voyage
into a darkness so profound that salvation and doom look much the
same. If he and his dynasty are to make it through that long night,
Oltyx will have to become a very different sort of king
Yes, yes, I know, I know. You are probably asking yourself CRITERIA for WHAT?!? See, that's a tricky blogger thing where I hook you with a vague title to stir your interest, then you take the bait and before you know it, you've read the whole post and are just one more minion of mine, mwhahahaaha! The only trickier thing I could have done is start a land war in Asia! So choose your goblet, have a sip and see if you're a trickier blogger than Bookstooge while you peruse the rest of this fine post.
Guaranteed iocaine free
I am going to assume anyone reading this already knows what "criteria" means. I won't insult your intelligence nor think you are a stupid dumb dumb head. But just in case, I have consulted the Sacred Oracle and this is what they have replied:
This post is about My Criteria for who I choose to follow. I don't know how much thought you have ever given to that, but to be honest, as a blogger, it plays a huge part of our blogging experience. Bloggers are not islands unto themselves but a chain of connected and interconnected archipelagoes. The list below is what I consult when I consider whether to follow a new-to-me blogger or not. I also use it as a lodestone to measure the bloggers I am already following.
That is my list. That is a picture and I know that for people on phones, pictures don't always show up the best, therefore I will be typing these out and blabbing about them.
Posts At Least Once Every 30 Days
This is an absolutely non-negotiable item for me. I used to say "posts once a month" until someone posted on the 1st of one month and then again on the 30th of the second month. Technically, they were posting once a month. That's garbage and we all know it. Now, if a blogger needs to take a break, and writes a post informing their readers that they will be gone for several months, and they give an end date (even if "end of summer/spring/blah"), I am more than willing to forego this. I take my blogging seriously (even though I know it is a hobby) and I want to follow people who are committed as well.
Responds To Comments In A Timely Manner
I realize that not every blogger checks in every day, or even every week. But if a blogger doesn't respond to comments from 3 posts ago, then I am forced to conclude that commenting is extremely low on the priority list. Because it is so high on mine, I will avoid the aggravation and just not follow that person. Not everyone feels like I do about comments, but the people I follow need to.
Writes Posts That Allow For Interaction With Readers
If your blog is your doctoral thesis on the Koolaide Man and his impact on the culture of the world and you are writing for your professors and not the Everyman that most bloggers are, that really limits how others can interact with you. I don't just want to read posts by random strangers, I want to get to know them, through interacting in the comments section.
Majority Of Posts Are Of Interest To Me
Nobody writes interesting things ALL the time. Sometimes a blogger writes something that is of interest only to them. I get that, I respect that, I do that myself. But if the majority of your posts are on the rectal and anal functions of wart hogs and their kin, I'm not following you. I don't care about that subject and in fact, actively avoid trying to read stuff about it.
Shows At Least One Spark Of Individuality
I feel like I covered this with my latest PSA post, Blogging and Personality. But in short, I need the people I follow to be themselves and to show a willingness to be independent in what they read and how they review. I refuse to follow people who read nothing but the latest arc offerings from netgalley and who write nothing but the same regurgitated pap that every other empty headed fluff brain is writing.
Doesn't Read Modern Romance Or Smut
This is also a non-negotiable item for me. Smut is an immediate unfollow. Modern romance can't be more than 1 or 2 a year. If I see romance books on a monthly or weekly basis in a bloggers posts, I will not follow them.
Writes A Variety of Post Types
This one is a bit more nuanced and I feel like it's not as big an issue. Some people can write only book reviews, but what they include in the reviews keeps things fresh. But if someone only posts those damnable Wordpress Prompt posts, then you've shown your lack of individuality, thus violating the above item on Individuality. Now, if someone includes the WP Prompts, I have no problem with that. Basically, I need to follow bloggers who are putting some thought and effort into their blog and aren't half-assing it and mailing in a lazy excuse for a post every time.
I hope this has helped you understand my criteria for who I follow and who I don't. I think I will be updating my About page with that checklist. That might help people who follow me understand why I don't automatically follow them in return, or ever.
ps,
please comment away. Agree, disagree, vehemently hate on the list, love it to death? Let me know.
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: More Tales of the Black
Widowers Series: The Black Widowers #2 Authors:
Isaac Asimov Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre:
Mystery Pages: 197 Words:
77K Publish: 1976
This was exactly more of the same from
Tales
of the Black Widowers. I am ok with that. I love short story
collections and Asimov was master of that craft. Having him switch
from Science Fiction to Mystery hasn’t changed anything in his
story telling ability. Thankfully.
I probably would have bumped this up
half a star since I enjoyed the stories just as much as before, but
once again, the interpersonal interactions between the members of the
Black Widowers Club just grated on my nerves. They are jerks to each
other, they are jerks to the invited guest and I can only imagine
what they must be like out in the world at large. I find it very
unpleasant. Reading these Tales is like having some of that sweet and
sour sauce and I’m not a fan of the sour.
This cover is very well done, in that
it contrasts with the first cover (which was solid white, with one
black widow spider). I like little flourishes like that. It doesn’t
actually make the stories themselves any better or worse, but it adds
to the overall “insert pretentious french phrase about making
things better in small ways”. There, now that you haven’t
learned anything at Bookstoogiversity, class is dismissed!
ps, Thanks to Scuffed Granny, I am experimenting with the "Excerpt" part of blogging. You shouldn't notice anything different unless you read my posts in the WP Reader OR get the email for each post. To you email people, let me know what you think.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia.org
This
book is the second 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 or science
fiction 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.
That is just a little statue of a bear, not a real one. But from this distance, it LOOKS real enough. See, I can have fun on the job too.
There was a decent amount of rain this week. Not enough to ever be called out, but we did have some short days. Thankfully, that was all balanced out with some wonderfully sunny days where working outside was what every right thinking person wanted.
I'd ordered a new tv stand, one of those "tool'less" ones that is simple enough for even me to put together without getting all frustrated. So of course, the feet that screw in to the bottom that keeps the whole thing together didn't ship with it. I sent off a request for replacement parts but still haven't heard anything back from the company I bought it through (via Amazon). Aye yi yi! If I haven't heard back from them by the time this goes live, I'll just pick something up locally and pull my trusty hammer and screwdriver, sigh. My goodness, the things I put up with!
Coke has come out with a Zero Sugar Orange Cream version. It is basically the old Vanilla Orange Coke Zero. I loved that stuff, a lot. Bought a 12 pack yesterday and yep, it's the same thing, just "re-branded". Whatever gets it on the shelves, that's all I care about. I suspect it will have a similar life span, so I'm going to enjoy this part of life while I can. Carpe diem!!!
For whatever reason, this week has gone on forever AND sped by super fast. Ever had one of those kind of weeks? It's very disconcerting. Every day felt like Tuesday and Thursday, no matter what day it actually was. That's just a weeeeeeeeird feeling.
I have been reading the first Dr Fu-Manchu book this week. Oh, that will be some review, let me tell you. It was published in 1913 and Dr Fu-Manchu is an eeeeeeeeeeevil genius. Definitely not one for you woke folk. But come on, is that cover AWESOME or what? Yeah, it's awesome. Guess you'll find out if the book was awesome or not on the 27th ;-)
Finally, the change in scheduling time. It's been working out ok and I think I'll be sticking to it. What made me change from 5am posting to 5pm posting was that I'd been letting my devotions go. I wasn't reading my Bible or spending time in prayer that I knew I needed to. Mornings were the time I had always used before. I tried the evenings, but with work being what it is, I'm so tired that I can't concentrate. So instead of continuing to let things slide, I realized I needed to change my blogging. Real life should ALWAYS come before blogging. So that's the reason for the change.
Well, Sabbath will be here in just a couple of hours, so adieu for now and get some rest. You need 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:
Venom and Song Series: The Berinfell
Prophecies #2 Author: Wayne Batson & Christopher
Hopper Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre:
Middle Grade Fantasy Pages: 437 Words:
141K
While
I enjoyed this, it was simply too long. This second book in the
Berinfell Prophecies was over 100 pages and 40,000 words longer than
the first book. That is a significant increase for a middle grade
book. I think part of the issue is that having seven main characters
with multiple other side characters AND a villain just bloats things
up no matter what. Trying to give each of the kids enough page time
to make them stay relevant to the story while using adult elves to
fill in historical and training gaps made it almost impossible to see
any scene that could have been cut.
I
enjoyed the various training scenes as the kids learned how to use
their powers but also how to use them as part of the group. No one of
them was obviously “better” and it was made clear that they were
stronger as a whole than as disparate parts. While I “agree” with
that, I have always preferred the lone wolf kind of hero and story.
During
the climactic battle at the end where it appears that the Spider King
dies, I was wondering what they (the authors) were going to do to for
the third book. I had a momentary thought of “Well, maybe the
Spider King isn’t really dead. Nahhhh, they wouldn’t do something
so obvious.” Sure enough, the authors went that route. That is the
problem with reading books meant for a less experienced set of
readers.
I
am glad I read this and I’m ok with having a new pair of authors
run across my radar. I know both of them have written other things,
so depending on what I think of the final book in the Berinfell
Prophecies will determine if I seek out any more stuff by them or
not. I’m totally on the line at the moment.
★★★☆☆
From
the Publisher
Now
in the strange realm of Allyra, the Seven young lordsconfront a
traitor in their midst, a creature-infested forest, teenage fearsand
doubts, inexplicable mysteries . . . and the Spider King himself. In
a rigorous training program that makes boot camp looklike Disneyland,
the Seven must quickly learnto harness their own powers, work as one,
and elude the Spider King's spies.But as the ancient Berinfell
Prophecies are revealed, the Seven soon discovertheir training might
not be enough. To stop the Spider King they must also unravelthe
secrets of the Rainsong, travel to a creepy, trap-infested fortressto
find the legendary keystone, and lead the Berinfell Elves in an
attack on the Spider King's own turf.
