Bookstooge Reviews 2025

 

THE STATS:

Annual Blog Stats

Posts - 333 ( ↓ 12 )

Words written - 193K ( ↑ 9K )

Views - 39.0K ( ↓ 0.3K )

Visitors - 12.3K ( ↑ 0.9K )

Followers - 576 ( ↑ 50 )

Comments - 10.7K ( ↑ 0.4K )

Book Stats

Books read - 191 ( ↑ 7 )

• Novels/Novellas - 165 ( ↑ 5 )
• short stories - 7 ( ↑ 5 )
• manga/graphic novels - 7 ( ↓ 4 )
• comics - 12 ( ↑ 1 )

Pages read - 42,856 ( ↑ 2.3K )
Words read - 14,603K ( ↑ 886K )
Average Rating - 3.11 ( ↓ 0.20 )

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

General Life Thoughts

Mrs B didn't break her arm this holiday season. Hallelujah! If you think I am kidding, well, the last two years before this she HAS fallen at work and broken either her arm or wrist. I think we're done with that nonsense. Thankful? Yes!

We bought a new to us car, which is the newest car we've ever owned, a 2016 Subaru Impreza. We paid for it in full in cash, so we own it outright and no monthly payments. Thankful? Yes!

I now have a coworker who is my size and thinks like I do, procedurally. I'll turn to him and tell him how I want something done and he's already doing it that way, because that makes sense to him. He's also toned down the talking a LOT, so he's also self-aware. Short-Round seems to be working out. Thankful? Yes!

Insurance and Endocrinologist. My endo quit her job at the end of last year and so far the hospital hasn't hired a new one OR transferred me to one of the other ones on staff. They have tried to shuffle most of "dr who quit's" patients back to their primary. Since I have an insulin pump, my primary said "no way!" and told the endo department to make things work. I'm still caught in limbo. Also, insurance is changing how they cover insulin and without an endo to help guide me, I'm left to call the endo office and complain until they get sick of me and do something. Thankful? NO!

In May Mrs B and I began attending the SDA church every Sabbath (Saturday). It is about an hour away and pretty much takes up the whole day. I also stopped going to our sunday church then because I couldn't handle a crowd of people each day on the weekend. Mrs continued going to the sunday church because of all the friendships she had. I began re-attending the sunday church in October as I needed expository preaching (preaching on and about the Bible itself) and the SDA church was much more topical and Bible adjacent. A concrete example is as follows. This fall the pastor at the sunday church started going through the Book of Daniel. He would preach on and explain a chapter or part of a chapter each sunday and the goal is to go through the entire Book of Daniel. The Adventist church has a pastor that we share with another church and so he is only there twice a month. The rest of the time various elders and other lay people (lay refers to them not being ordained) would have talks on subjects that were important to them. Those times would incorporate Bible verses and Biblical principles, but they weren't explicitly teaching the Bible itself. I need expository preaching, as only the Word of God can convict people of sin, righteousness and judgement. Good stories will never get anyone into Heaven. I also needed the manly friendships I had forged at the sunday church. It is only 10minutes away from our place as well. So now I am back to attending both full time and I'm exhausted. I suspect 2026 will see me attending the SDA church once a month and the sunday church every week. Mrs B loves attending both, all the time. More power to her I say! Thankful? It's Complicated ;-)

I had double vision for two solid months and was off work. Then from Thanksgiving to New Years both Mrs B and I had the flu several times. It wasn't the old fashioned "achy breaky heart" kind flu, but the whole can't keep food or water down and feel like a monster truck has stomped all over us. Not thankful it happened, but thankful it's over, for now.

General Bookish & Bloggish Thoughts

My reading was almost the same, overall, as last year. The numbers are all within acceptable parameters, except for my average rating. Which I blame squarely on all the bad dnf books I somehow got tricked into reading. If I have a book guardian angel, he was totally asleep at the wheel in the last part of the year. I had EIGHT dnf's this year. To put that in comparison, I had two in 2024 and four in 2023. Shame on you, Book Guardian Angel, shaaaaaame!

"I'm so ashamed! I totally let Saint Bookstooge down. Woe is me!"
~Bookstooge's Total Slacker of a Book Guardian Angel

Posting was pretty good, especially considering I took Saturdays off for most of the year. I was relatively happy with how the blog went this year. I was spared the chinese bot invasion, so I can actually trust the numbers that WP gave me. I know that was not the case for some of the people I hang out with here. Comments and Likes stayed steady throughout the year. I have to admit I was hoping for a bump in stats, but the fact that I stayed steady with several long time bloggers fading away (for various reasons) makes me realize that I need to be grateful for what I have.

I went from dotblog at the end of 2024 back to the free dotwordpressdotcom site and I must say, I felt it. I had built up a decent google presence and that dropped like a stone when I switched back. I also began working on fixing all those dotblog links in my posts but partway through the year I just ran out of steam and stopped caring. I still pick at it but very desultory and not in a determined and organized way. That "running out of steam" leads into the next section.

Wordpress.com continues its death spiral. Don't get me wrong, I don't think WP is going to go out of business in the next couple of years, but when it comes to the free bloggers, we have been shoved down into the manure and spat upon. Every problem in the support forums is met with "Upgrade to the Business Plan" and then the business plan people get the shaft as well with no 24hr / 7 days a week support. I have seen more business plan people begging for help in the free support forums. That is shameful on WP's part and it shows that their goal is short term profit over long term sustainability as a company. I have actually stopped visiting the support forums because it just depresses me to see so many pleas for help being ignored or how many things are being broken in the background as WP messes around with stuff that nobody wants or asked for.

I'm staying on WP ONLY because of the notification system. Given how much I comment, I can't manually keep track of them all and so the notification system on WP is a real blessing.

After I accidentally nuked my blogger site, I have just continued to use it as a current back up option. I currently copy/paste all my posts over there, but I have not started the monumental job of copying all my old posts (2000-2022) back. At this point, I doubt I will.

Calibre is the reason I have no desire to do all that hard work at Blogspot. I have all my book reviews in this free program and they are backed up on an external harddrive and a thumbdrive and on dropbox. While my non-review posts aren't here, I don't particularly care. I am a book blogger first and foremost and my book reviews are the basis of my blogging.

THE BOOKS:

Best Book of the Year

The Finality Problem, the last book in the Warlock Holmes fantasy parody. It ended with the apparent death of Warlock Holmes and to be honest, if that was the final book in the series, I'm ok with that. I loved the series overall and I think this book was a great wrap up.

Worst Book of the Year

Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko. The less I say, the better.

PLANS FOR 2026

Blog:

Same old, same old. I do need to change something up, because by the end of 2025 I was just about burned out in the writing department. My energy has tanked and so has any creativity. I've got no plans for any "series" of non-review posts because I just can't think of any.

Personal

Survive. Take things a week or a month at a time and just roll with whatever comes my way.

TOP 5:

Book Review Posts

A Close Fight, the 11th volume of the Demon Slayer manga was my top viewed book review this year. One of the reasons I'll never understand other people is because something like this gets the top spot. It wasn't bad, but it was only a 3star read.

Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel. I enjoyed it but it wasn't earth shattering.

Acia by Turgenev. This is why I am reading these Russian classics. I am being exposed to a mindset that I could never imagine on my own, not in a million years.

A Rainbow to Heaven. This was my most shameful book review of the year. I was hosting a Barbara Cartland readalong and ended up dnf'ing the book after the third chapter. I was so embarrassed! Still am in fact. But I am using this as a learning experience. Read the bleeding book BEFORE choosing it as a group read, sigh.

After Dark, a Silver John novel. The covers for the Silver John books were just fantastic. I read this series based on my memories of the covers as a teenager.

Non-Review Posts

Bookstooge's Criteria (for choosing who I follow)

Update. The start of two months of double vision due to an eye nerve palsy.

Sunshine Blogger Award 2025 Edition

12 Years and Counting. Been on Wordpress for 12 years now.

PSA: Blogging and Personality. Who we are affects our style of blogging.

Bonus+

Plagiarism, a guest post by Mrs Bookstooge.

Commentors + Runner Up

1. Fraggle - Yer Majesty!

2) Alex "Triple AAA" Good

3) Riders of Skaith - Is the Correct Answer!

4) Nancy McKeand - Pen & Paper is her new jam

5) Brian - Gurglings of a Putrid Stream, but he's really an ok guy, honest!

Bonus+

6) Bruce the Brucie Bonus!

Movies

The Fifth Element was the only actual movie I reviewed this year. I did watch and review a bunch of anime, but really, that is different. Plus, it was a whole bunch of one series, so who wants to see 4 covers of the same series right in a row?

Art

Hill Giant, a magic the gathering card.

Ironclaw Orcs. Yep, you guessed it, a magic card!

[Art] The Dark Side of Love

[Art] Maiden of the Fall

Grizzly Bear. Yet another magic card.

Hall of Shame (5 least viewed posts)

Gloom. A magic the gathering card post. These posts are always under-performers in terms of views but considering how many memories of my teen years are tied up into them, I'm doing these just for me.

Star's End, the final book in Starfisher trilogy by Glen Cook. I was not impressed with this series and I'm glad this wasn't my first exposure to Cook. Or it would have been my last.

B is for Burglar. One of those horrible Kinsey Milhone books by Sue Grafton. I truly regret dipping my toes into this series.

Ghost Ship. Another magic the gathering card.

Demon Slayer #13 manga. This is where my interest in this manga began to really wane. I only lasted two more volumes before giving up.

• Previous Year in Review Posts

December '25 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Raw Data:

Novels - 15 ↑

Short Stories - 1 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels - 0 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.11 ↑

Pages - 3453 ↑

Words - 1229 ↓

The Bad:

A Rainbow to Heaven - 1.5star DNF

Ethan of Athos - 1star DNF

The Good:

Witches Abroad - 4stars

Dune - 5stars

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Jandor's Saddlebags - MTG 4E
• When a Daddy Eggnog Loves a….
• Jayemdae Tome - MTG 4E
• Jump - MTG 4E
• [Art] Maiden of Christmas Solstice 2025
• Junún Efreet - MTG 4E
• Merry Christmas!!! (2025 Edition)
• Karma - MTG 4E

Personal:

December was quite the month. I was still fighting off the sickness from November and while I felt better in many regards, I could tell I was still on the edge. It didn't help that we had our first snow storm right at the beginning and got around 6-7inches, which is enough to stick around for the entire season. Getting into the routine of working in the snow is always a week long chore. And then Mrs B and I came down with the flu typeA this past weekend. We're out of work for the whole week and we're doing our best to stay hydrated and taking tylenol to reduce the fever. Mrs B started Friday night and I started Sunday night, so she is just rounding the corner on recovery while I'm still in the throes of it all. Life is just grand at the moment.

Things were just busy too. With work Christmas parties and extra stuff going on at our churches, even if WE wanted to slow down, there was so much going on that we were swept along. Since most of the things were people oriented, it just wore me out even faster. There was one Friday where I attended a Land Surveyors Association annual meeting and there were over 250 people there. Just sitting in a room with 60+ people for 2hour stretches wore me out.

Short Round (thanks Spalanz!), the new guy at work, has settled in very well. He still talks, but it's not non-stop, all the time, go-go-go. Now it's just whenever. His plan is to eventually get licensed. I sure hope it works out for him. I have my doubts however.

In regards to books, I reviewed a bunch more than in November but I think most of that was me trying to get stuff all caught up before New Years hit. Even though I like to schedule stuff out 3-4 weeks, I don't like saying I read a book in January if I actually read it in December. The DNF's hit again(!!!!) and man, I must say, that really screwed with my ratings and my feelings. Especially since one of them was supposed to be the Barbara Cartland buddyread that I had plans for all month long. It was cut down in one post, sigh. And besides dnf'ing the book, I had to deal with letting down the people who had agreed to do the read-a-long for the month. I hate being disappointed by other people and I really hate disappointing others and letting them down. At least it happened in the first week so I had a chance to get over it ;-) On the plus side, ending the month and the year with reading Dune was fantastic. That book has so many facets that every time I read it, I see something completely different.

Cover Love:

I read the Dune: Deluxe Edition and man, that cover is fantastic. It is clickable if you want to view it full size.

Plans for Next Month:

I have my annual Year in Review post coming up on Thursday the 1st and then on Friday the 2nd I have a post dedicated to my plans in January.

See you January 1st!

Karma - MTG 4E

 

This is what is called a "hate card" in Magic, because it is hating on a specific color. White was pretty good at that back in the day. It kind of had to though, because they didn't have a lot of powerful creatures or spells. Plus, since I didn't play black back then, I was especially self-righteous about punishing those who did. Ahhh, youth ;-)

Dune (Dune Chronicles #1) 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: Dune
Series: Dune Chronicles #1
Author: Frank Herbert
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 604
Words: 206K
Publish: 1965

Technically, this is the Deluxe Edition released in 2019. I did a “Book Catch” post when I received it for Christmas the year after it was released. The reasons it is “deluxe” is because it has new (delicious!) cover art, some maps and stuff and then some blatherings by Herbert’s son Brian. Brian has blathered on in other previous editions of Dune, mainly because he’s not man enough to write something successful like Dune so he’s getting by on daddy’s coat tails. In the older editions, Brian did an “Afterwards” where he self-promoted the new Dune stuff he and that no-good lousy pathetic Kevin J Anderson co-wrote along with teasing about Dune 7, the mythical book Frank was going to write to finish up the Dune Chronicles, but died before that happened. Baby Herbert and KJ(ack)A(ss) wrote Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune and both sucked donkieballz. I compared this “new” Forward to that older Afterwards and the only difference is that Baby Herbert adds a paragraph talking about the upcoming new Dune movies (Dune: Part I and Dune: Part II) as well as various games coming (Dune Imperium I believe, which Spalanz has talked about extensively) out soon. What a fething loser, can’t even write a new Foreward, how pathetic is that?

And enough of that! Onward to the good stuff.

This is my fourth “Official” read through of Dune. Down at the end of the review, under my avatar, you’ll see links to the previous three reviews. However, like many of my favorite books here on my blog, I read and re-read this book many times before I started recording my reviews. I think I was 14 or 15 when I first read Dune. I saw a paperback at the library and it had the atrocious movie cover of the 1984 movie, but to teenager me, it looked awesome (and while I abominate that movie as a “Dune” movie, I like it well enough on its own) and when I read it, the scope just blew me away. Then when I was a bit older I found out the library had the rest of the Dune Chronicles in hardcover and I devoured them, even while not necessarily understanding all that was going on. But based on my reading habits as a teen, I suspect I read Dune three times between 1993 and 2000, which is when I began recording when I read books. So this is probably my 7^th time reading it, possibly my 8^th and I still love it and think it is a complete and utter 5star book. It doesn’t get much better than this.

This is not an action book. There is the fight scene between Paul and Jamis when Paul and his mother are escaping to the desert and the dubious safety of the Fremen, but it is no more than a couple of paragraphs. There is also the fight scene near the end of the book between Paul and his cousin Feyd-Rautha Harkonnon but once again, only a couple of paragraphs long. Any of the battle scenes between the Fremen and smugglers or the Sardakaur are only given the broad brushstroke treatment. If you read much of Herbert, you will come to discover that he doesn’t like action scenes. He prefers things to happen off page and then just state that they happened. That proclivity isn’t as apparent here, but the roots of that mindset are shown for those who are looking. I’ve noted that before, but I think it bears proclaiming because of how the damnable new movies show the stories. There is lots of action shown in those that are simply glossed over in the book. Dune is not a simple adventure story.

I hesitate to say the following, and I’ll explain why after. Dune is a thinking man’s story. I don’t like saying that because it smacks of literary snobbery and the kind of people who think absolute garbage writing is the best. I despise literary types, who wouldn’t know a good story if it grabbed them by the throat and choked them to death. To them, the story is the least important part of a book. A “good” book is one that either preaches what they are preaching, or is one that they can shoehorn in their own despicable baby killing world view and try to destroy everything good and decent. They are the kind of people who read a book and then try to tell everyone “what it really means” no matter what is patently obvious or even stated by the author himself. They are the militant vegetarians of the book world. But vegetarians have some very good points to make when it comes to health and it would behoove most Americans to listen to them more. And thus it is with Frank Herbert and Dune. The story is a good story AND Herbert brings up many different aspects of humanity and sets forth his thoughts on the issues. It’s not that he’s baldly pontificating and denigrating everyone who disagrees with him, but he’s putting forth ideas and letting the reader decide how deep they want to follow that rabbit trail he has exposed to their view. Herbert won’t be put into just one box.

He doesn’t do this through just one avenue of thought, but through a multiplicity of story ideas. You have the government of the Landsraad and the Imperial House. You have the Bene Gesserit and their breeding program for the next step of human evolution. You have the Fremen and the Sardakaur as objects of war, both secular and religious. You have prophetic visions on one hand and manipulations of the space/time continuum on the other in the Spacing Guild. Paul himself brings most of these ideas into himself and we are given little hints that he is cogitating some very deep things, things which Herbert doesn’t write about in this book.

Each time I read Dune I have to decide if I’ll continue the Chronicles or treat it as a standalone. It really changes how you view this book depending on which option you go with. When I last read this in 2017, I stated that I wanted to read Dune as a standalone from then on. I can understand why I wrote that. It is very hard to start reading the Chronicles and not finish, as the story keeps pulling you deeper and deeper into the mythos. The problem is that it leads you into the horrendous finale by Frank’s son (the aforementioned Dune 7 duology linked in the first paragraph above) and nothing is worth that, absolutely nothing. Now, Frank did write a trilogy for Dune. Dune, Dune Messiah and then Children of Dune. God Emperor of Dune is a pivot point in the series and heads the reader off into a much broader scope of a story, for good or ill is up to you to decide. This time around I’m thinking I’ll read the trilogy, as I’ve never done that before.

This book is over 600 pages, but that is because there is a glossary and several appendixes. I HIGHLY recommend reading those and not skipping them. In fact, you might want to keep your finger in the glossary section so you can look up terms, names and places when you come across them in the story and don’t understand them. Do be aware, if you do that, there will be spoilers. Reading these is a good refresher course for any Dune lover and whether this is your first time or your eighth, you can’t go wrong with reading the them.

Finally, the cover to the Deluxe Edition. I love it, period. I can already tell this is going to be the cover love choice for December. It is as inevitable as Paul Muad’dib’s jihad ;-)

★★★★★

From Wikipedia

Duke Leto Atreides of House Atreides, ruler of the ocean world Caladan, is assigned by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to serve as fief ruler of the planet Arrakis. Although Arrakis is a harsh and inhospitable desert planet, it is of enormous importance because it is the only planetary source of melange, or the "spice", a unique and incredibly valuable substance that extends human youth, vitality and lifespan. It is also through the consumption of spice that Spacing Guild Navigators are able to effect safe interstellar travel through a limited ability to see into the future. The Emperor is jealous of the Duke's rising popularity in the Landsraad, the council of Great Houses, and sees House Atreides as a potential rival and threat. He conspires with House Harkonnen, the former stewards of Arrakis and the longstanding enemies of the Atreides, to destroy Leto and his family after their arrival. Leto is aware his assignment is a trap of some kind, but is compelled to obey the Emperor's orders anyway.

Leto's concubine Lady Jessica is an acolyte of the Bene Gesserit, an exclusively female group that pursues mysterious political aims and wields seemingly superhuman physical and mental abilities, such as the ability to control their bodies down to the cellular level, and also decide the sex of their children. Though Jessica was instructed by the Bene Gesserit to bear a daughter as part of their breeding program, out of love for Leto she bore him a son, Paul. From a young age, Paul is trained in warfare by Leto's aides, the elite soldiers Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck. Thufir Hawat, the Duke's Mentat (human computers, able to store vast amounts of data and perform advanced calculations on demand), has instructed Paul in the ways of political intrigue. Jessica has also trained her son in Bene Gesserit disciplines.

Paul's prophetic dreams interest Jessica's superior, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. She subjects Paul to a deadly test. She holds a poisoned needle, the gom jabbar, to his neck, ready to strike should he withdraw his hand from a box which creates extreme pain by nerve induction but causes no physical damage. This is to test Paul's ability to endure the pain and override his animal instincts, proving that he is, in Bene Gesserit eyes, human. Paul passes, enduring greater pain than any woman has ever been subjected to in the test.

Paul and his parents travel with their household to occupy Arrakeen, the capital on Arrakis. Leto learns of the dangers involved in harvesting the spice, which is protected by giant sandworms, and seeks to negotiate with the planet's indigenous Fremen people, seeing them as a valuable ally rather than foes. Soon after the Atreides' arrival, Harkonnen forces attack, joined by the Emperor's ferocious Sardaukar troops in disguise. Leto is betrayed by his personal physician, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, who delivers a drugged Leto to the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his twisted Mentat, Piter De Vries.

Yueh, who delivered Leto under duress, arranges for Jessica and Paul to escape into the desert. Duncan is killed helping them flee, and they are subsequently presumed dead in a sandstorm by the Harkonnens. Yueh replaces one of Leto's teeth with a poison gas capsule, hoping Leto can kill Baron Harkonnen during their encounter. Piter kills Yueh, and the Baron narrowly avoids the gas (due to his defensive shield), which kills Leto, Piter, and the others in the room. The Baron forces Thufir to take over Piter's position by dosing him with a long-lasting, fatal poison and threatening to withhold the regular antidote doses. While he follows the Baron's orders, Thufir works secretly to undermine the Harkonnens.

Having fled into the desert, Paul is exposed to high concentrations of spice and has visions through which he realizes he has significant powers (as a result of the Bene Gesserit breeding scheme). He foresees potential futures in which he lives among the Fremen before leading them on a holy war across the known universe. Paul reveals that Jessica's father is Baron Harkonnen, a secret kept from her by the Bene Gesserit.

Paul and Jessica traverse the desert in search of Fremen people. After being captured by a Fremen band, Paul and Jessica agree to teach the Fremen the Bene Gesserit fighting technique known to the Fremen as the "weirding way" and are accepted into the community of Sietch Tabr. Paul proves his manhood by killing a Fremen man named Jamis in a ritualistic crysknife fight and chooses the Fremen name Muad'Dib, while Jessica opts to undergo a ritual to become a Reverend Mother by drinking and neutralizing the poisonous Water of Life. Pregnant with Leto's daughter, she inadvertently causes her unborn daughter Alia to become infused with the same powers in the womb. Paul takes a Fremen lover, Chani, who bears him a son he names Leto.

Two years pass, and Paul's powerful prescience manifests, which confirms to the Fremen that he is their prophesied "Lisan al-Gaib" messiah, a legend planted by the Bene Gesserit's Missionaria Protectiva. Paul embraces his father's belief that the Fremen could be a powerful fighting force to take back Arrakis, but also sees that if he does not control them, their jihad could consume the entire universe. Word of the new Fremen leader reaches both the Baron and the Emperor as spice production falls due to their increasingly destructive raids. The Baron encourages his brutish nephew Glossu "Beast" Rabban to rule with an iron fist, hoping the contrast with his shrewder nephew Feyd-Rautha will make the latter popular among the people of Arrakis when he eventually replaces Rabban. The Emperor, suspecting the Baron of trying to create troops more powerful than the Sardaukar to seize power, sends spies to Arrakis. Thufir uses the opportunity to sow seeds of doubt in the Baron about the Emperor's true plans, putting further strain on their alliance.

Gurney, who survived the Harkonnen coup and became a smuggler, reunites with Paul and Jessica after a Fremen raid on his harvester. Believing Jessica to be a traitor, Gurney threatens to kill her but is stopped by Paul. Paul did not foresee Gurney's attack and concludes he must increase his prescience by drinking the Water of Life, which is fatal to males. Paul falls into unconsciousness for three weeks after drinking the poison, but when he wakes, he has clairvoyance across time and space: he is the Kwisatz Haderach, the ultimate goal of the Bene Gesserit breeding program.

Paul senses the Emperor and the Baron are amassing fleets around Arrakis to quell the Fremen rebellion, and prepares the Fremen for a major offensive. The Emperor arrives with the Baron on Arrakis. The Sardaukar seize a Fremen outpost, killing many, including young Leto, while Alia is captured and taken to the Emperor. Under cover of an electric storm, which shorts out the Sardaukar's defensive shields, Paul and the Fremen, riding giant sandworms, destroy the capital's natural rock fortifications with atomics and attack, while Alia assassinates the Baron and escapes. The Fremen quickly defeat both the Harkonnen and Sardaukar troops, killing Rabban in the process. Thufir is ordered to assassinate Paul, who gives him the opportunity to take anything that Thufir wishes of him. Thufir chooses to stab himself with the poisoned needle intended for Paul.

Paul faces the Emperor, threatening to destroy spice production forever unless Shaddam abdicates the throne. Feyd-Rautha challenges Paul to a knife fight, during which he cheats and tries to kill Paul with a poison spur in his belt. Paul gains the upper hand and kills him. The Emperor reluctantly cedes the throne to Paul and promises his daughter Princess Irulan's hand in marriage. Paul takes control of the Empire, but realizes that he cannot stop the Fremen jihad, as their belief in him is too powerful to restrain.

• Dune (2011 Review)

• Dune (2016 Review)

• Dune (2017 Review)

Coffin Corner 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: Coffin Corner
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 176
Words: 71K
Publish: 1968

As I anticipated, smaller doses worked so much better for me. Unlike the bloated corpse of The Best of Mystery, Coffin Corner was a sleek little svelte book that lured me into the back room, then knocked me over the head with a kosh and stole my wallet. That’s a how a good Alfred Hitchcock Presents book should be.

Doesn’t mean it was all koshes and handcuffs though. There was an August Derleth story, and what’s worse, it was a REPEAT! *gasp!!! The only thing worse than a Solar Pons story is a Solar Pons story that I’ve already read and suffered through. Thankfully, once I realized it was a repeat, I just skipped ahead to the next story in the collection. But imagine, the horror of having to experience more Solar Pons? The mind just boggles. At that point, I was almost ready to ask Little Miss Coffin Corner to forego the kosh and just shoot me dead. Nothing is worth a Solar Pons story. Death is preferrable.

Thankfully, other than that, there were no repeats.

The Last Gourmand by Donald Honig was one of those great stories where nobody gets what they wanted out of a crime. Some guy recovers $5,000 (about $55K now) from a stiff who did a robbery. Only his name gets in the news and the mob captures him and tortures him to get it back. He “makes up” some story about stashing it in an old abandoned house. They don’t find it and kill him. Years later two petty crooks figured he must have really hid it well and figure they’ll tear the house apart to find the money. Turns out all those years ago some retarded crook had followed the original guy and found the money. Only he got stuck in a room with the money and because he was retarded, couldn’t figure out how to get out of the room. So he dies. BUT, he eats the money as he’s dying because he’s hungry. So our two crooks get nothing. Everybody loses! When I’m in the right mood, that kind of story feels real good, like when you were a kid and got the chicken pox and you scratched even though you weren’t supposed to.

The ending story was perfect, as it was one of those “the bad guy gets his just desserts” kind of stories. Blood Kin by Richard Deming was about two brothers and how the one son kills his father for his money. Once he runs through that, he prepares to take out his uncle, who is a chemist. Needless to say, the uncle knows, but can’t prove, that the nephew killed his father and that he’s next. But instead of whining to the police and running away like a ballless coward, he devises a plan whereby the nephew “could” knock him off, but adds a little chemistry to the mix and lets the nephew kill himself. Oh, it was glorious. The best part was that if the nephew hadn’t tried to kill his uncle, he would have been perfectly safe. He reaped the consequences of his own evil and it destroyed him. I love stories like that.

There were 14 stories here and that seems to be just about the right amount. Some are good, some are bad (I’m looking at you August Derleth!) and some are just great.

★★★✬☆

Blurb & Table of Contents:

A is for the arsenic he’s fond of.

L is for his lethal taste in tales.

F is for the fiends who are his best friends.

I is for the icepicks that they use.

E is for the extra-special pleasure he takes in every slaying that’s well done.

Put them all together they spell

ALFIE,

The man who says that murder can be fun.

Here are Alfie’s latest and best, in a gathering guaranteed to make a death’s-head grin:

A WALK ON THE MOUNTAIN

     Richard Hardwick

A TIME FOR RIFLES

     H. A. De Rosso

THE LAST GOURMAND

     Donald Honig

SUDDEN, SUDDEN DEATH

     Talmage Powell

CIRCLE IN THE DUST

     Arthur Porges

JOSHUA

     William Brittain

THE AMATEUR PHILOLOGIST

     August Derleth

THIEVES’ HONOR

     John Lutz

THE FINAL CHAPTER

     Richard O. Lewis

THE HELPFUL HORTICULTURIST

     Mary Linn Roby

DEAD OAK IN A DARK WOODS

     Hal Ellson

A RECIPE FOR EGGS

     Frank Sisk

NOT THE KILLER TYPE

     John Arre

BLOOD KIN

     Richard Deming

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

Merry Christmas!!! (2025 Edition)

 

Luke, Chapter 2, Verses 1-20

The Birth of Jesus

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. ² (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. ⁴ And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. ⁵ He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child.

⁶ And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. ⁷ She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

The Shepherds and Angels

⁸ That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. ⁹ Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, ¹⁰ but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. ¹¹ The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! ¹² And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in highest heaven,
    and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

¹⁵ When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. ¹⁷ After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. ¹⁸ All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, ¹⁹ but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. ²⁰ The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

---

God is not some remote dictator who doesn't care about you. He sent His son Jesus to be one of us, God Incarnate in human flesh. He was born 2000 years ago and He wants you today. He is calling you, please listen.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Zenya (Dumarest #11) 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: Zenya
Series: Dumarest #11
Author: EC Tubb
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 182
Words: 53K
Publish: 1974

The adventures are wearing thin because Tubb can only come up with so many plausible ways for Earl to get screwed over time after time. Does Earl find a planet with a princess who loves him? Too bad. Does Earl make a killing in the market and become a space kajillionaire? Too bad!

It doesn’t matter. Tubb screws Earl Dumarest every chance he gets and I for one am getting bored. Plus, Earl can just have his memory looked at and get the coordinates of Earth, but he won’t because of the magic boojum scienze thingy “that is too dangerous for anyone to have”, except Earl of course.

I think this will be the last 3 star read and I strongly think my next Dumarest will be my last. The artificial way that the author keeps Earl from achieving his goal is becoming too great for me to overlook any more.

Also, I am getting SUPER sick and tired of the women in these stories either going insane, being insane or getting killed, to prevent them from staying with Earl. Once again, it is glaringly artificial and it really grates, like sandpaper on your forearm.

★★★☆☆

From Devilreads

Earl Dumarest is a man lost in space. Sort of. He stowed away on a ship leaving Earth when he was only ten. The old Captain, childless, had taken pity on him and let him work off his passage. Ever since he'd been moving outward into the galaxy, Though biologically only early middle age, owing to the vagaries of space ship travel, he's much older. Low passage is basically for animals, a suspended animation. People use it though because it's cheap and most use it even though dangerous: there's a fifteen percent death rate of users. Earl had used it often. High passage is for the rich, and Earl used it whenever he was flush, where metabolism is sped up and time passes much more slowly for the user.
Now he wants to go home.
Here's the problem: in this far flung future, humanity has spread throughout the Milky Way, literally millions of inhabited planets, and most have never heard of Earth. "A planet named Dirt! Ridiculous!" Those who have heard it believe it's a myth. "The idea that Humans came from one planet! Ridiculous!"
Earl knows Earth, Terra, is real. Old and war torn even when he was a child, Lord knows what it's like now. But it's home. He searches for clues in libraries on the various planets he visits, picking them up now and again, building an area of the Milky Way where it has to lie.
He's pursued every step of the way by the Cyclans, those cyborg/computer beings of Cylcon, who want the secret he didn't even know he possessed, a gift from a woman, for a long time. It was stolen from the Cyclans before they could use it, a method to control humanity, and they want it back.
Earl is just as determined that they won't get it.
Earl is on Paiyar visiting an old library when he's picked up by the beautiful Zenya who says her grandfather wants to see him. And when old Chan Parect, Aihult of the Serpent Clan, speaks, everyone jumps.
It doesn't take Earl long to get the measure of the old man. crazy as a loon, the clan is inbred and all of them are privileged and not used to the realities of life. He wants his son found, he's been off-planet since before Zenya was born. He's blackmailed into the hunt, pushed by grandson of the Aihult into a fight. As with the spoiled rich, the boy thinks he's better than Earl. But earl has fought to many battles in the arena and easily wins, sparing the boy's life. Not satisfied, the boy tries to murder him late that night, Earl supposedly drugged, and this time doesn't survive.
Earl, though, is knocked unconscious and when he comes around is given the news, Find the old man's son or a device implanted in his body will be turned on and the Cyclans given the frequency, making him a beacon easy to find anywhere in the galaxy.
Chard is the planet where the son was last seen. it's a woar-torn planet, a new war, and it's full of brightly uniformed rich boys playing at war more than anything. Earl poses as a war chieftain from a mercenary planet in order to get on planet and is soon embroiled in the battle, training the posers and trying to find out who the enemy really is. The primitives they are supposedly fighting can't really be the enemy. Earl can see that. No evidence of them is ever found in the destroyed villages. But they are blinded in their hate.
Earl must first solve that problem before he can get to his. Which he does and then the heir is murdered by his insane aunt. So much for Dumarest and Earth.

• All of My “Dumarest” Reviews