Monster Hunter Guardian (MHI #8) 4Stars

 

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 Guardian
Series: MHI #8
Author: Larry Correia & Sarah Hoyt
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 313
Words: 119K
Publish: 2019

I re-read this and THEN read my review from 2020 (link at the end of the post).

The only thing I would really change this time around is that I didn’t notice the “emotional” side of things like I did then. No idea why, but I never even noticed it and hadn’t remembered that aspect at all until I re-read my old review.

A marathon of a story about a mother saving her kidnapped son first from a demon who wants to auction him off to other demons and then second, from her own mother who is a superpowerful vampire. The action is almost non-stop and I loved it.

When I read this in 2020 I gave serious though to searching out Sarah Hoyt’s other works and seeing how her stuff compared to this collaboration. Unfortunately, most of her stuff seemed to be ongoing, abandoned or, according to reviews, “have that romance vibe”. Yeah, no thanks to all three of those. So I never investigated any more of her works and I’m still ok with that decision five years later.

★★★★☆

From MHI.Fandom.com & Bookstooge

While Owen and the other Monster Hunters are off in Russia fighting the big baddies, Julie (Own’s wife and former Shackleford) is in charge of running the skeleton crew of MHI. She’s also taking care of her dying grandfather and her newborn son.

She has a recruitment possibility but it goes sideways and turns out to be just a lure so a malevolent being can kill her grandfather and kidnap her son. Brother Death then contacts Julie and says he’ll trade her son for a powerful artifact he knows Julie is guarding, even though she told MHI it was destroyed. She reluctantly agrees but creates a backup plan to recover the item and her son if Brother Death double crosses her. He does. Julie ends up in Germany alone and with almost no weapons. She tracks down the group of cultists who took possession of the artifact only to find out that the kidnapping of her son and artifact were unrelated. In the process of recovering the artifact, Julie breaks about a bajillion german laws and the german version of MCB makes MCB look like a kind and benevolent grandfather.

Julie goes on the run. With the help of Management (the last dragon in existence), she finds a man who is a European Monster Advocate. She needs his help to track down a monster known for kidnapping children, who will hopefully then lead her to Brother Death. Turns out the Monster Advocate was killed years ago and his body taken over by the child killer monster. Julie kills it and lets Management into its computer system. This gets her an invite to an auction that Mr Death is holding, with her son being the main item on the agenda.

Julie heads out with a lawyer from Management. At the auction she becomes aware that her mother is there and wants Julie’s son to raise as her own (Julie’s mom is a nutjob of a super vampire). The auction goes bad and Julie shoots her way out. She rescues her son only to see him taken from her by her mother. With the lawyer’s help she escapes Brother Death.

Julie tracks her mom down and calls all the dregs of MHI to assault the mansion, along with the local branch of government monster hunters. They succeed against all odds and Julie has her son back. She also finds out that MHI is back from the Island.

With help from Owen and some of the other MHI Crew Julie finds out Brother Death’s real name and uses that to kill him. During all of this her Guardian marks have grown and she finds out that as the marks grow, her humanity will shrink until she ceases to be human. At which point she will become a monster herself.

• Monster Hunter Guardian (2020 Review)

• All of My “MHI” Reviews

Currently Reading: The Younger Sister

 

"Now you see," burst out Elizabeth afresh, "you see, Emma, what Jane thinks of Tom Musgrove—you must change your mind."

"No, indeed; her liking him can make no difference to me," replied Emma, quietly.

"Oh, Emma! I did not think you so conceited, to think of your setting up your opinion against Jane's, a married woman, and so much older and more experienced; I could not have expected it."

"I do not set up my opinion against her, I only differ in taste,"

`Chapter 5

 

It's not just the current generation that has that "Agree with Me on Everything or You are My Enemy" mentality. It's endemic to human nature.

This is a full length novel written by Catherine Hubback, Jane Austen's niece. It is based on the five chapters of The Watsons that Austen wrote and never completed. I am enjoying it immensely so far.

Bleeding Hearts 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: Bleeding Hearts
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 171
Words: 67K
Publish: 1974

Man, engaging stories here.

We start off with a story, The Plays the Thing, about a thespian who finally has his big chance on Broadway to play Hamlet. But he’s gone off the deep end and kills his leading lady and uses her skull in the scene where Hamlet is talking about “Alas, poor Yorick!”. He left her body in a traveling trunk. What a nutjob eh?

The next story that stood out to me was The Sensitive Juror. By the end it strained credulity, as the entire story was based on the murderer being able to psychically manipulate a woman on each jury to be sympathetic to him. Even without that little reveal at the at, it was obvious where this story was going, as the current narrator (the sensitive juror) relates the murder trial, which we then re-tread by following her down the almost exact same path. It was just creepy.

Then we had another Fat Jow story, Fat Jow and Chance. This wasn’t so much a mystery as just a community coming together to right a wrong that the Law didn’t recognize as a wrong. It decided me on looking into the Fat Jow stories as an entity unto themselves. Which figures, because it turns out that they were only written for the Alfred Hitchcock collections and I couldn’t even find out any info on the author Robert Alan Blair. Makes me wonder if he was a “house author” and some poor schlub just wrote several Fat Jow stories to pad things out. Oh well.

I like when a story totally subverts your expectations, like how M. Night Shyamalan would put twists into his movies. Well, that happens with Motive: Another Woman in a big way. The story starts out describing a marriage that almost fell apart due to the husband’s philandering. He and his wife work things out and he gets back on the straight and narrow, for 5 years. Then he starts going out to the movies every Sunday evening and his wife doesn’t go with him because the crowded theatre gave her headaches. One day she overhears her husband talking about seeing a young Mrs Bennet the other night. The woman realizes her husband has gone back to his philandering ways, so she plans out a home invasion cover story where she “accidentally” kills her husband thinking he is a burglar. Only for the story to end with her seeing the title of the latest movie at the theatre “The Young Mrs Bennett”. And it just ends. We’re left to imagine what the woman is thinking and feeling, realizing her husband was still staying faithful to her and that she had just murdered him.

I think this is going to be my new “format” for these Hitchcock collections. Just talk about 3-4 stories and let that be the review. Unless I am feeling funny and write a post to amuse myself with my trademark wit and wonder ;-)

★★★✬☆

Table of Contents:

Introduction by Alfred Hitchcock

THE PLAY’S THE THING by Robert Bloch

THE EXECUTIONER by H. A. DeRosso

MAN ON A LEASH by Jack Ritchie

THE DEEP SIX (Novelette) by Richard Hardwick

HIDDEN TIGER by Michael Brett

THE SENSITIVE JUROR by Richard Deming

FAT JOW AND CHANCE by Robert Alan Blair

SLAY THE WICKED (Novelette) by Frank Sisk

INTO THE MORGUE by Hal Ellson

I’LL BE LOVING YOU by Fletcher Flora

MOTIVE: ANOTHER WOMAN by Donald Honig

THE BROTHERHOOD by Theodore Mathieson

THE FINAL REEL by John Lutz

CHIMPS AIN’T CHAMPS by Talmage Powell

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

Hypnotic Specter - MTG 4E

 

I hated playing against this card. A flyer that made you discard from your hand. And discard at random too. That could really hurt sometimes. You had the perfect card but weren't ready to use it and then BAM, you have to discard it. Flying creatures weren't as ubiquitous as they are now, so Hypnotic Specter was a serious threat.

August '25 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Raw Data:

Novels - 22 ↑

Short Stories - 1 -

Manga/Graphic Novels - 0 ↓

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.10 ↑

Pages - 6484 ↑↑

Words - 2071 ↑↑

The Bad:

A Kiss Before Dying - 1.5stars of horribleness

See Them Die - 2stars of me stopping the 87th Precinct books

The Good:

A Wizard of Earthsea - 5stars of still good as ever!

Lord of the Isles - 4stars of re-reading'ness

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Hurkyl's Recall - MTG 4E
• [Art] The Summer Maiden
• Hurloon Minotaur - MTG 4E
• Hurricane - MTG 4E
• Hurr Jackal - MTG 4E

Personal:

I was off of work due to my eye, again. Thankfully, I am now back to work and everything is working as it should. 2 months of not working has not treated us well and thus I am actually happy to be back at work and earning money again. Bills don't magically disappear. And that is all I am going to say on that subject.

Because of the enforced time off, I read a massive amount. 24 book reviews made themselves right at home on the blog. I read almost twice as many books and I did read twice as many pages and words. Near the beginning of the month I began posting reviews on Saturdays because I realized what a tsunami of reviews was coming down the pipeline. I didn't want to end up 6 weeks ahead as 4 weeks is my limit. After that, I begin forgetting what I wrote in the review and can't intelligently respond to comments (some might say I don't anyway, but phooey to them! hahahahaha).

This past week was my return to work. Oh man, had I gotten soft. I did more walking on Tuesday-Thursday than I did in the previous two months combined. I woke up Friday (the day I was getting my eye injection) and my legs and lower back hurt and were stiff enough that I had to take some acetaminophen (tylenol) to get going. Thankfully, Monday is Labor Day, so I have that off. That means I only have to work 4 days this week and I have a feeling I'm going to hurt as bad by the end of this week as I was by the end of last. Getting back into fighting shape is going to be hard and brutal. At least my books aren't beating up on my this bad!

Plans for Next Month:

Work more, read less and desperately try to get the creative juices flowing again. 24 book reviews in one month just killed my creative side. I'd kill to be creative again.

Ghosts (Hell Divers #2) 2Stars

 

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: Ghosts
Series: Hell Divers #2
Author: Nicholas Smith
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 247
Words: 82K
Publish: 2017

Yep, I’m done. There are times when mediocrity is even worse than badness. This is paint by numbers writing. No heart, no soul, no talent. I can’t think of a more damning review except to say that Smith needs to stop writing. And those fething jackasses who keep buying his books month after month need to learn what a good book actually is.

If readers won’t have standards, neither will writers. I condemn them both! I have nothing more to say.

★★☆☆☆

From the Publisher

Ten years ago, Hell Diver Xavier “X” Rodriguez fell to Earth. Those he left behind went on without him aboard the airship he once called home.
Michael Everheart -- the boy once known as Tin -- has grown into a man and the commander of Hell Diver Raptor Team. While Michael dives to help keep the Hive in the air, Captain Leon Jordan rules with an iron fist at the helm of the ship. But unrest stirs under his strict leadership as a prophecy of hope sweeps the lower decks.
When a mysterious distress signal calls the Hell Divers to the surface, Michael and his loyal team begin to uncover long-buried truths and the secrets Captain Jordan will do anything to keep. They dive so humanity survives… but will they survive the ultimate betrayal?

Shards of Honor (Vorkosigan Saga #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: Shards of Honor
Series: Vorkosigan Saga #1
Author: Lois Bujold
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 222
Words: 80K
Publish: 1986

My eyes, my eyes, my manly eyes! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh……

I didn’t realize this was going to be a romance. Of course, romance fans would cry out that their delicate feelings had been manhandled by all the science fiction, so both camps should be unhappy. I HATE when authors like Bujold pull crap like this. I almost rage quit the first time “his long eye lashes” were mentioned. Even as I’m writing this review I’m getting upset.

Bloody expectations. If I had known this had female wish fulfillment elements (like Mack Bolan the Executioner is male wish fulfillment) I would have been prepared, as much as I could be anyway. I do not want to read a book where I am in a woman’s head as she’s thinking about some guy and all her feelin’z. Spare me!

The story is still decent and I do plan on reading more. BUT! I will be putting on my man armor when I go to read future books so any “romanz thoughtz” bounce off and don’t stab me in the back. And I’m bringing a gun to that knife fight.

Bookstooge's Man Armor Mark I

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Cordelia Naismith, the captain of a Betan Astronomical Survey ship, is exploring a newly discovered planet when her base camp is attacked. While investigating, she is surprised by a soldier, hits her head on a rock, and awakens to find that, while most of her crew has escaped, she is marooned with an injured Betan ensign and Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar, notorious as the "Butcher of Komarr", who has been left for dead by a treacherous rival. During their five-day hike to a secret Barrayaran cache, she finds Vorkosigan not at all the monster his reputation suggests, and she is strongly attracted to him.

When the trio reaches the base camp, Vorkosigan regains command of his crew. He returns to his ship with Cordelia and her crewman as his nominal prisoners. She meets Sergeant Bothari, a career soldier with mental problems which he controls through adherence to rules and an attachment to a strong commander—in this case, Vorkosigan.

Vorkosigan informs Cordelia that upon their arrival on Barrayar, she will be free to return to Beta Colony; however, he asks her to marry him and remain on Barrayar as Lady Vorkosigan. Before she can consider his request, the crew of her ship, who have returned against her orders, join forces with Vorkosigan's rivals to "rescue" her. Cordelia helps defeat the resulting mutiny before returning with her crew to Beta Colony. During her captivity, she realizes that the Barrayarans seized the planet because the system it is in provides a way to reach Escobar. Escobar is a rich system with many "wormhole" access points and thus control over a lot of interstellar trade.

The invasion of Escobar is led by Crown Prince Serg Vorbarra, the vicious son and heir of Emperor Ezar. Now a captain in the Betan Expeditionary Force, Cordelia goes to Escobar in command of a decoy ship that distracts the Barrayaran ships on picket duty at the wormhole exit so that transport ships can deliver a devastating new Betan weapon to the defenders. She is captured by the sadistic Admiral Vorrutyer, who orders Sergeant Bothari to rape her. Bothari refuses, calling her "Admiral Vorkosigan's prisoner". Vorrutyer, Vorkosigan's embittered ex-lover, decides to do the job himself. As she fills a profound psychological need of his, Bothari kills Vorrutyer before he can do anything. Vorkosigan, having heard Vorrutyer is holding Cordelia captive, comes to kill him himself, only to find the deed already done. He hides Cordelia and Bothari in his cabin. In disgrace, he has been assigned a minor role in the invasion under the watchful eye of Imperial Security Lieutenant Simon Illyan, who has a brain implant that gives him total recall of all he sees and hears. However, he is required to report only to the Emperor, so he does nothing when Vorkosigan concocts a story that Cordelia killed Vorrutyer and escaped.

The new weapons enable the Escobarans to drive the Barrayarans back with heavy losses. Crown Prince Serg and his flagship are lost, as are all officers senior to Vorkosigan, leaving him in charge. He commands his fleet's retreat under fire. Cordelia overhears one critical fact and deduces that the entire invasion was orchestrated by the dying Emperor to remove his unstable son (via an honorable death in battle) and discredit the war party in order to avert a civil war after his death. When Vorkosigan no longer needs to hide her in his cabin, she is placed in the brig. When the ship is attacked, Cordelia is injured when the violent maneuvers toss her around her cell.

Cordelia recovers in a prison camp on the same planet where she first met Vorkosigan. The camp inmates, mostly women, have been mistreated and in some cases raped by their captors. When Vorkosigan finds out, he summarily executes the commanding officer. Cordelia assumes command of the POWs by virtue of her rank and spends much of her time dealing directly with Vorkosigan. She informs him she knows the real reason for the Escobar campaign. She again rejects his marriage proposal because she sees what Barrayaran society does to people.

When the war ends, prisoners are exchanged. Vorkosigan has to deal with some uterine replicators – artificial wombs, each containing a fetus from a prisoner raped by a Barrayaran soldier; one of the fetuses is Bothari's. The Escobarans refuse to take them, so Vorkosigan arranges for their care and later adoption on Barrayar.

On her way back to Beta Colony, Cordelia is unable to convince a psychiatrist that her injuries are not the result of being tortured by Vorkosigan, and her fervent denials only make it seem she has been psychologically tampered with; she is suspected of being an unwitting Barrayaran mole. She fears that she will be interrogated using drugs and reveal damaging information about Vorkosigan.

She escapes to Barrayar and marries Vorkosigan. She also encounters Bothari, now one of Vorkosigan's father's personal guards and somewhat saner, thanks to better medical care. Bothari's daughter Elena is cared for by a local woman.

The dying Emperor Ezar Vorbarra wants Aral to become the regent to his grandson and heir, the four-year-old Prince Gregor Vorbarra. Aral at first refuses, but Cordelia convinces him to take the job.