Death Note #12 The End (Manga Monday)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Near and Light finish up their end games and it all comes down to one meeting with all the members of both the Japanese and American Kira hunters for the showdown. And Ryuk shows his true Shinigami colors.

My Thoughts
This was awesome. At the end of Book 11 Mello took action on his own, only it was calculated by Near and miscalculated by Light.

And that is what this final battle of wits comes down too. Who was one step ahead? Near proves that HE is the true successor to L and Light/Kira's superior. But Kira almost makes it. He asks Ryuk, the shinigami, to help him out right at the end. But Ryuk refuses and thus Light/Kira perishes.

And the manga ends with showing the world almost back to how it is today. Which was the point the manga-ka was trying to make. Kira changed the world for the better, but that didn't make it right. And Kira being brought to justice didn't necessarily make the world a better place.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Author: Tsugumi Ohba
Artist:Takeshi Obata

Lord of the Firelands (A Tale of the King's Blades)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
2 young men graduate from a school where they are trained to be the King's bodyguards, magically bound and in the binding given great powers.
Only these 2 youngsters don't take the oath of fealty and a whole story of the past rolls forth from that. It also propels them both towards a future they can only guess at.

My Thoughts
This story starts out with the above as the beginning: 2 youngsters graduating. Which leads to a confrontation with the king and a history is revealed.
That history starts with a sacking of a town and the kidnapping of a young lord. Said young lord helps out the raiders leader with another sacking, which gets the raider the kingship of his land. He marries a royal he kidnapped in the second raid and has a son.
We follow the son growing up until he is forced from the land in a coup.

Then we switch to after the confrontation with the king and the young man, Raider and his Blade, Wasp, go back to Baelland to see if Raider can take back the kingship. Ends up becoming the next king and making war on the land that he graduated from.

If you think my synopsis and first couple of paragraphs are confusing, I agree. This book was not strictly linear and great parts were not about the main character, but setup and explanation.

It made for a great read, but not easily explained. The political intrigue, the action, the characterization, it all was top notch. Very little swordplay but I barely missed it.

There are 3 books in the King's Blades series, but from the little forward that Duncan included, it sounds like they are overlapping somewhat and telling things from different viewpoints, once again not linear story telling.

I am looking forward to the next 2 books.

Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Author: Dave Duncan

Honor Among Thieves (Star Wars) (ARC)

I received this copy from the publisher through Netgalley.com and that in no way has influenced my opinion in regards to this review.

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Taking place between A New Hope & The Empire Strikes Back, Honor mainly follows Han as he tries to work for the Rebellion while keeping his independence. His part of the story revolves around picking up a deep undercover Rebel agent who has news of a big Empire plan. At the same time Leia is involved in negotiations with various and sundry to raise funds for the Rebellion and Luke is heading out on one of his early missions.

And surprise, all 3 stories tie together.

My Thoughts
I enjoyed reading this. I enjoyed the Big 3, alone, young, fighting for Right. Unlike the later series where authors have interjected their own Doubting Thomas worldview into the books and ruined the characters, this was "back to the basics" Star Wars.

Han is a good character to follow around. He's a rogue, an adventurer, a funny arrogant pompous windbag AND he's got Chewie. Man, I love Chewie. I also found it enlightening about how Han is fighting his feelings for Leia and his involvement in the Rebellion. There is a minor character who "could have been" Han in 10-20 years and Han realizes this.

I don't want to get all anime'y and "power of friendship and rainbows", but this shows how Friendship is what saved Han from becoming just another scraggly smuggler and turned him into the great man we all love and like.

The main thing I didn't like was the main female lead, the undercover agent. She just reminded me of Mara Jade in so many ways that if I'd been Zahn I'd be screaming about rip-offs, etc. She was Mara without the lightsaber and force.

And you know what? I'm still not over what happened to Mara in Sacrifice and I'm happy that Karen Traviss, the horrible, horrible woman who wrote it, has pretty much ended her Star Wars career.

(hide spoiler) And this just brought back all those memories of reading Sacrifice back in '07.

I did like how they showed the precursor of Centerpoint Station however. I really like tie-ins like that.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Author: James Corey

Agnes Grey (Classic)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Young Agnes must venture forth into the big bad world to earn her living since her father ignored her mother's advice and lost all their money.

My Thoughts
Agnes is a sheltered young woman who goes out to earn money to help relieve the family problems due to her father's speculation.
But since she's not of the laboring class, she can only do certain kinds of work because heaven forbid she do something below her station. So she goes through several families as a governess.

And this is where my snark and meany side kicked in. Agnes expects that she can reason with the children to make them act in the way she wants, as she doesn't have the authority or backing from the parents to make the children do things. The first family has a young boy as the oldest. Have you ever tried to reason with a young boy? Yeah, it doesn't work so much. Even if he's a good boy. And such like.

And remember that "class/station" thing? Well, Agnes gets all riled up when the people she is working for treat her like a servant and ignore her and don't ask her to in their social circles.

WELL, BIG FREAKING DUH!

I take that back. She doesn't get riled up. She sermonizes and moralizes to her journal. Which brings up the other thing I didn't like about Agnes. She was a naive, self-righteous milk-sop. Argh.

With all that, you might wonder why I gave it 3 stars. It was well written. It was engaging. It showed me how a closeted young girl would react to the more decadent side of England. I don't know if I want to read Anne's one other book now though. Pure vanilla pudding is ok, but nothing you want to eat a lot of.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Author: Anne Bronte

Morningside Fall (Legends of the Duskwalker #2) (ARC)

I received this copy from the publisher through Netgalley.com and that in no way has influenced my opinion in regards to this review.

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Wren is now titular governor of Morningside. But there are undercurrents and political intrigue. Eventually Wren, his mother, his military group of bodyguards and a friend or two are forced out of the city, have lots of Weir battles and return to Morningside where a horrifying discovery is made.

My Thoughts
Wren was the main character for this book. It made for a completely different kind of book even though it was exactly the same type as Three. Does that make sense?
Instead of a kick ass alpha male who was actually a hero, we get a young kid who is desperately trying to fill shoes that he knows are too big for him.

The action is just as intense as the first book, with a mysterious old blind man who can use a sword like a japanese legend, a hardcore military group who just kill everything and Weir acting extremely un-Weir like.

Wren was the hero here. He's 8 years old and I alternately felt joy, happiness, sadness and at a couple of times I just thought "thank goodness I've never known THAT kind of responsibility and despair!"  While the focus was different because it was about Wren and not Three, this was just as well written, engaging, full of character and pure awesomeness.

And then the ending. Asher is a fantastic villain. He's horrible, evil and smart. He's not cartoony, he's not laughable and what he has accomplished, in becoming digital and somehow controlling the Weir, is just awesome.


I've used the word awesome a lot in this review but you know what? It totally deserves it. After this book, Posey has moved from my short list to my Authors I Will Be Reading Sight Unseen list.

Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Author: Jay Posey

Promise of Blood (Powder Mage #1)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
General Tamas overthrows the king of his land because said king was going to pretty much sell the country out to pay off his debts.
Only problem is, there's a god's curse. So Tamas not only has to deal with making his country work again, but plan against an invasion and investigate what this god's curse is and what it means.

My Thoughts
This was flintlock fantasy. So while I liked it, it was grim, gritty, dirty, bloody, smoky and violent. I also liked the idea of there not only being magicians, but also people who could use black powder to power themselves up.

As for characters, it was a real mixed bag. General Tamas is a control freak who wants things done his way the first time and if it doesn't work, then somebody didn't follow orders. His son, Taniel is considered to be one of the most skilled of the Powdermages, but he's addicted to powder and is snorting the stuff the whole book through.
And those are the good guys.
Turns out that the god, Kresimir, was real and because Tamas has killed a king, he's coming back to destroy the land and start things over. And we find out Kresimir isn't the only god kicking around. Then you've got the magicians, who all hate powdermages and a foreign power getting ready to invade.

This was not a light read. At over 600 pages, I felt like I'd been dragged through the blood and muck right along with everybody else. Betrayal, distrust, weakness, disbelief, helplessness, all were there in spades. The bright hopeful spots were few and far between. Definitely not something to read if you're feeling low or depressed.

I found the writing itself to be topnotch. I don't normally like or continue reading very dark and gritty books but I do plan on reading the short stories and the rest of this series when it comes out.

Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Author: Brian McClellan

Inkheart (Ink #1) DNF

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Meggie and her dad Mo have an adventure when it comes to pass that Mo can read characters into and out of story books, but not entirely at will.

My Thoughts
The idea of a booklover who can read things and have them appear out of or into stories should be awesome. And if that booklover is surrounded by people who also love books, then it should be even better.

However, this was an epic Fail for me. Mo and Meggie were "true" book lovers. They loved the book as much as the story it contained. In their minds, the 2 were connected. I'm a big ereader fan, so that started things off a little awkward.

Then Mo. I disliked almost everything about him. I couldn't find something to respect in him. Meggie came across as a know-it-all, impetuous pre-teen that she was.

It was slow going and I stalled, but I figured I'd read a little bit here and there and get through it. However, I had to give up, because of the following.

Mo and Meggie had been betrayed by Fireguy to the badguy because Fireguy wanted to get back into his storybook. The badguy didn't keep his promise for betraying Mo and Meggie, so Fireguy escapes with them when they bust out.
Now, there is ONE book left of this story and Mo knows who has it. So what does he do? He FREAKING TELLS FIREGUY THERE IS ANOTHER COPY AND THAT HE KNOWS WHERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just gave up right then. I can only take so much stupidity and I get more than my daily ration in real life without adding to it in my reading.

Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Author: Cornelia Funke [and yes, I  ♪ sang that funky music white boy! ♪♪]

Orion (Orion #1)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Orion is the chosen tool of a god, to fight another being of great power throughout the ages. Orion starts at the end of time and works back to the beginning and at each nexus in time, strives to keep the established continuum on track.

My Thoughts
I know I haven't read this book, but the premise, of a time agent working against someone else while one descends time and the other ascends time, is wicked familiar. But I can't remember what book it was, so I can't be sure which came first.

This was lightly engaging, but in all honesty, it was so preachy about free will and choice and stuff, and it was from a perspective that I completely disagree with, that it was hard to really engage in the story without going "No, that is WRONG!"  I read to escape, not debate in my mind with the author.

Then there was the little part about the flood. Or, as I would call it, Noah's Flood. and its humanistic, evolutionistic mocking of Christianity really turned me off. Snide. Very little is worse than snide condescension when you're reading something.

Apart from that, this was a slightly dry set of short adventure stories. This is a series, so I'll be trying the next book, but if it isn't any better I'll let the series go.

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Author: Ben Bova

Death Note #10 & 11 (Manga Monday)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
After Mello's spectacular failure in books 8 and 9, the story shifts over to Near as he tries to catch Light/Kira in a cerebral mastermind game of wits.

My Thoughts
After Mello's failed attempt at getting a hold of Kira, and the death of Light's father, things go from the action/gungho/blitz-a-rama to a much more "I know that you know that I know that you know that I know that you know" type of back and forth between Light/Kira and Near.

Sadly, Near isn't as likeable as L was and a lot of his motivation is proving that he is as good as L was. L had a hate/love camaradie with Light that was fun to read about. Near and Light just talk over the phone and we get to hear their thoughts about how they're going to outwit the other.

However, the end game is in sight. Both Near and Light/Kira are finalizing their plans to outwit the other. And just as Near and Light begin their plan, Mello shows up at the end of book 11 to throw a monkey wrench into both their plans.

In summary, I was going to throw in book 12, the final book as part of this review. But I thought it was worth it's own review next week. So next week will be the review for book 12, the final book in the Death Note series.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Author: Tsugumi Ohba
Artist:Takeshi Obata

Local Custom (Liaden)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis
Er Thom is being forced into a contract marriage to produce an heir for his Clan. But before he can do that, he goes to see the Terran woman, Anne Davies, one last time to confess his love and then to leave it all behind him and proceed with duty. However, things don't go quite as planned, as he finds out that Anne has had his child from their last encounter.

My Thoughts
The Liaden books have been as full of romance and clan politics as they have been of action. And it works out great, it really does.

This book is based on the cross cultural miscommunication about what is right and proper for Er Thom and Anne's child, Shan. Er Thom assumes Liaden things about the outcome and makes several blunders in his interpretation of Anne's words and actions. While Anne is forced to make assumptions about Liad without nearly enough knowledge.

What drove me batty, while being awesome, was that the main characters DID communicate with each other. So many stories I've read have been driven by the characters refusing to talk to each other and things going bad because of it. So the MC's talked to each other, but it wasn't enough because their cultures were so different. And they didn't realize those differences until the very end.

Then you've got some political stuff with Anne's work about linguistics and how the Terrans, Liadens and Extrangans? might all have a common ancestor.

Overall, this was just a great addition to my reading of the Liaden Universe. Just enough action, intrigue, romance and politics [family and otherwise] to keep me reading.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Author: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller