Currently Reading: Warhammer 40K: Adeptus Mechanicus

 

I am currently Buddy Reading Adeptus Mechanicus by Rob Sanders with Mark and Dave. It is a Warhammer: 40K omnibus consisting of Skitarius and Tech-Priest. The Adeptus Mechanicus is a sub-faction of the Empire of Man. I've included a link so if you click the above picture it should take you to a full size one. You'll be able to see there, if you can't already, that the beings on the covers aren't fully human. They used to be, but they gave up bits and bobs of themselves to become more machine-like.

Now hold on to your hats, because it is about to get REALLY weird.

They do this because they worship a machine god, the Omnissiah. He is supposed to be the mechanical version of the Emperor on the Throne that mankind worships. The Emperor was killed during the Horus Heresy back in the 31st Millennium (30K era instead of 40K era) but due to magic hokum and tech thingjiggery, he is still kinda sorta alive but not really. A thousand people have to be sacrificed to keep the Emperor on the Throne from dying, every day.

Now, I have NO IDEA how the theology works here. How the Empire reconciles the Emperor with the Omnissiah is beyond me. That is a reason I am diving into this Adeptus Mechanicus faction, to try to help my understanding. But no matter what, this is some seriously fethed up stuff.

Now because this is an omnibus, I am planning on reading and then reviewing each individual book on its own. But we are reading Adeptus Mechanicus because that is how it has been released. Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it!

September '25 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Raw Data:

Novels - 11 ↓

Short Stories - 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels - 0 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.25 ↑

Pages - 4048 ↓

Words - 1457K ↓

The Bad:

Then It Fell Apart - 2stars of sketchy memoir

Lair of Bones - 2star ending to the Runelord series

Father Sergius - 2stars of mystical hokum masquerading as Christianity

The Good:

The Dragonbone Chair - 5stars of fantastic re-reading

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Hypnotic Specter - MTG 4E
• CR: The Younger Sister
• My Week XXVIII
• Reading Rotation 9/25
• Immolation - MTG 4E
• 9/11 - I Still Remember
• A Sabbath Letter #4
• Inferno - MTG 4E
• Gone for the Day
• My Week XXIX or Wadical Wheels
• Instill Energy - MTG 4E
• [Art] Maiden of Fall
• [Poem] "I Loved You" by Alexander Pushkin
• Ironclaw Orcs - MTG 4E

Personal:

September was the month my eye was completely better and I went back to work. It was brutal. The first 2 full weeks in September was all about pure misery and suffering as I kicked my body back into gear and showed it who was boss. But in the end, I won.

Partway through the month one of our cars went into the garage and we found out the engine was on its last legs. The mechanic told us not to take any long trips and he wasn't kidding. So we scrambled around. We considered a new car, but while we could have afforded it, it would have left us with no safety net. So we settled on a used car. Last time we bought one was back in '20, so some sticker shock was involved, sigh. But we're safely and fully mobile again, so that is a blessing.

Celebrated 17 years of wedded bliss this month. And while folks can joke about this and that in married life, I never joke complain, because I don't have anything to complain about. I don't take that for granted and have been spending the last couple of months really appreciating just what God has given each of us in the other. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and ate about 2 days worth of calories in 1 meal. That is a great thing to do, once a year :-D

On the book front, I read a lot less in terms of pure book numbers, but I read some real chunksters, so my page and word count weren't as low as might be expected. It is amazing how working 9hrs a day cuts into the reading time, hahahahaa. However, reading less also meant I didn't read as many middle of the road or crap books either, so my average rating went up. That is always a pleasant experience. Coupled with the several 2stars I read that weren't really "bad", they just weren't good, I felt like my reading for the month was a success. That's a good feeling to have, especially since I'm supposed to be a book blogger ;-) Reading less also led to more non-review posts. Look at that list above, 14 non-review posts. That's a good ratio of review and non-review posts and I'm happy with that balance.

Plans for Next Month:

Oh, do I have plans! I have a Warhammer 40K buddy read, which I'll post about tomorrow. I have a nasty rant coming (I tried to make it not nasty, but I just couldn't do it), on what subject, you'll have to wait and see. Our town's Pumpkin Festival is coming and I plan on doing a post about that, and the lovely food associated with it :-D I plan on reviewing a movie this month. After a long stretch of not, it feels like it is time to get back into the cesspit of Hollywood and give those *profanities whatfor. Finally, I have a post with the schedule for the Barbara Cartland romance read coming up in December. I am just bursting with non-book review ideas. Long may it last!

Ironclaw Orcs - MTG 4E

 

He's big, ugly and scary on the outside. But inside, inside is the soul of a poet. A poet that wants to eat your guts. Bring your own bbq-sauce...

"I Loved You" by Alexander Pushkin

 

I loved you:  yet the love, maybe,
Has not extinguished in my heart;
But hence may not it trouble thee;
I do not want to make you sad.
I loved you hopelessly and mutely,
Now with shyness, now with jealousy being vexed;
I loved you so sincerely, so fondly,
Likewise may someone love you next.
~Alexander Pushkin

Pushkin was the writer that heavily influenced Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky. I vaguely realized he was a poet but for some reason I was thinking he mainly wrote novels. I decided to check him out and this was the first poem that popped up. I read it and laughed, because it is SO Russian. While I might enjoy the melancholia of the Russian writers, boy am I glad I don't have to live like that.

You know, I'm never going to have to write a poem like this and I am incredibly thankful for that. Mrs B was not shy about her feelings for me when we met and now seventeen years later, she loves me just as much. My own feelings have grown in depth too. Seeing what Pushkin wrote just makes me that much  more appreciative of what I have been blessed with.

[Art] Maiden of Fall

 

It is that time of the year again. The leaves are changing, sunset is getting earlier, the apples are beginning to drop from the trees and pumpkins are growing like crazy. Yep, it's Fall!

Rufferto Reverie (Groo the Wanderer #44) 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: Rufferto Reverie
Series: Groo the Wanderer #44
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K
Publish: 1988

Rufferto the Swordsdog makes his heroic debut and defeats enemy after enemy and saves the french poodle! Then reality sets in and he ends up biting some peasant and saving a mutt, hahahahaaha. Meanwhile Groo is doing Groo’ish things, ie, messing up everything.

What I enjoyed was how Aragones manages to tell two complete stories that are complementary but don’t impinge on the other. That man has an imagination like nobody’s business and the skill to carry it through! I continue to be astounded and amazed ;-)

As per usual, I am including a page that particularly amused me.

★★★✬☆

From Bookstooge

Rufferto daydreams about becoming a great swordsdog and saving the poodle Fifi from the clutches of an evil king. Meanwhile, Groo “saves” a caravan from being robbed, only to find out he was helping the robbers. And in making it up, robs the original owner. Groo just can’t win! Thankfully, Rufferto gets to make out with Fifi, so it’s not a total loss for them :-D

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

The Younger Sister (Standalone) 2.5Stars

 

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 Younger Sister
Series: ----------
Author: Catherine Hubback
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Romance
Pages: 518
Words: 200K
Publish: 1850

Jane Austen started a novel called “The Watsons” and only wrote five chapters before abandoning it. Many years later, a niece, one Catherine Hubback, took those five chapters and turned them into a sprawling mid 1800’s romance novel.

This novel is divided into three sections and I found the first to be the strongest. It was the closest to Austen’s original five chapters and I felt like Hubback was constrained by them and that kept the train on the tracks. It wasn’t Austen writing, but it was pretty close and “felt” like what she might have written. I thoroughly enjoyed that part and had high hopes for the rest of the book. That was the part I was in the early stages of when I posted my “Currently Reading” post about this book earlier this month.

Sadly, parts two and three were completely Hubback’s and she was no Austen, not by a long shot. There was more blushing, face coloring and ten-thousand other euphemisms for blushing as could be stuffed in as possible. Emma Watson faints on several occasions, hides necessary information “because it wouldn’t be proper” (mainly about her feelings) and generally buys into the “upper class people are inherently better” idea that seemed more of Hubback than anything. The characters, after part one, did not feel like Austen characters at all and how they acted and reacted were not Austen’esque at all.

Emma Watson herself is a Mary Sue of Morality and she waxes on and on about it, until I rolled my eyes. Emma gets the guy (a Mr Howard who is a “tutor” who is also somehow a preacher?) even though every other guy she runs across in the story ALSO wants her. Some are stupid, some are honorable and some are even, gasp, dishonorable. Oh the humanity of it!!!

To end, I don’t regret reading this, but I can’t recommend it unless you are a diehard (Bruce Willis doesn’t recommend this, ha!) Austen fan. It did convince me not to seek out any more novels by Hubback, which I don’t think will be a problem. It has also given me pause about the idea of seeking out some of the “completed” adaptations of Austen’s unfinished “Sanditon”.

★★✬☆☆

From The Internet:

Emma Watson, the youngest child of six from a poor family, was sent away as a child to be raised by her wealthy aunt and uncle. When her uncle dies and her aunt remarries, Emma (now a pretty, well-educated, and opinionated young woman) returns home to help care for her ailing father and reconnect with her estranged siblings. She quickly must learn how to behave among the less affluent and navigate her way through the affections of many young men vying for her attention.

• All My “Jane Austen” Reviews

• Reading Austen 2025 Master Post