Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #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:
Jack Reacher, ex-army, is now an avowed drifter. Boating down the river of life with no destination in mind, simply seeing what comes his way.
He stops at a small Georgia town to escape a heavy rain and becomes embroiled in a small town's politics, several murders, a larger overall mystery and tangles with a real bad outfit.

My Thoughts:
First off, this is brutal. It got my Ultra-violence tag, but it was not ultra-violence that I like. I like Violence in space, or with elves, or in a time before I was born, not in the here and now. In other words, I don't like real life violence. If you can't wrap your head around the differences, that is ok. It took me years to figure why I liked some kinds of violence and not others. Very much a psychological/mental difference.
Prison rape that didn't happen, but was described what "could have" happened. A 4 man butcher squad that tortured and killed the families of anyone who found out about their activities, in pretty graphic detail.

At the same time, I really enjoyed the overall story/mystery/thriller. Jack is a smart man who simply doesn't want to be tied down to our current society's way of life. So he drifts and this time he simply drifted into the wrong place at the wrong time. It turns out that only he can take care of things once it is discovered his brother is involved. It is a very engaging story about a man doing what a man's gotta do.

There is a love interest, that is pretty strong, but you know how it is going to turn out right from the get go. Jack is no settlin' down man.  In the end, Justice AND Revenge are served, the badguys die and Jack drifts off to another town and another story.

Just like with Necroscope, I plan on reading more in this series, but provisionally on a book by book basis. One book I can't take, for whatever reason and I'm done.

Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Author: Lee Child

Necroscope (Necroscope #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:
2 Paranormal Agencies, one in Britain and one in the USSR, are fighting it out.

One of the agents from Britain is a young man who is just coming into his powers. He can talk to and incorporate knowledge from the dead. He is the Necroscope.

The other main character is from the USSR and he is a necromancer, one who gets answers from the dead by touching, tasting, smelling, etc the bodies. It is disgusting. And he is the one who is trying to make a deal with a dying vampire.

My Thoughts: Spoilers Ahead
I was recommended this and even though it has a vampire in it, I decided to give it a go. I am glad I did.

This book is written from 2 basic view points, British and USSR but they are not concurrent timelines until near the end. Really, it was reading 2 different stories that only come together in the last quarter or so of the book.

One complaint I had was about the 2 sex scenes. Completely gratuitous. I hate things like that.

The vampire aspect of things was pretty cool. They are a parasite that inhabits your body and you and it meld until you both are one. Lumley does a great job of making this one so deceptive that the reader doesn't know what is true or not, right up til the end. The USSR agent dealing with it is completely out of his class and gets his in a very nasty way at the end.

The necroscope guy was more about him finding out about his powers than in joining the agency. He doesn't actually join until the very end and then he masters time/space, dies/doesn't die, and ends up going to reincarnate in his unborn son. Yeah, it is weird and disturbing.

Gruesome'ness wise, this was better than I was expecting, but there are a couple of scenes where the necromancer goes to work and Lumley describes it in more detail than I wanted. Sucking out the brains of a corpse? I gagged. But it isn't a big part of the book and probably doesn't take up any more time than the sex scenes.

I do plan on reading more in the series, but on a provisional basis. I'll keep reading until I hit a book that I don't like and then I'm done.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Author: Brian Lumley

Detroit Deathwatch (The Executioner #19)

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:
Bolan heads to Detroit to shake things up in the city that the Mob considers safe. He runs across a undercover cop that he ran across in Vegas and ends up helping her find a lost partner instead of blowing the mob out of the water.

My Thoughts:
Bolan rolls into Detroit to make a big splash since Detroit was pretty entrenched with the Mob and safe, in their eyes.

However, before he can really get rolling, he runs across an undercover hottie who's looking for her missing chica and Mack, manly man that he is, decides that a damsel in distress is more important than his killing spree.

Thankfully, he still gets to do a lot of killing, probably so we the readers don't get bored :-)
And that sums up everything about this book, the previous books and the future books.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Author: Don Pendleton

Treasure Island (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:
Jim Hawkins, young boy at a boarding house, ends up with a treasure map. A good friend, a doctor, believes it is real and thus an adventure to recover pirate treasure is started. And pirates come back into the picture before all is said and done!

My Thoughts:
After reading Stevenson's Black Arrow last year and being sorely disappointed, I was hoping this would redeem him. It certainly did.

It started out very fast paced and suspenseful. Jim at the inn with an old drunk who turns out to be a pirate, who other pirates are after, makes for a good time. An attack on the inn, Jim fleeing, taking refuge with the doctor, it was a good beginning.

Then you have the sailing to the island and all the whoop de whoo with just about all the crew being former pirates. The adventure ON the island after the mutiny and whole working out of justice as the pirates fall prey to their own piratical nature.

And through it all, Jim the scamp, the wonder hero, the all round British boyo, is central to everything.

This is very much a boys adventure fantasy. I enjoyed it quite a bit and can see why so many spinoffs [Disney's Treasure Planet and the Muppet Treasure Island being the most recent in my mind] exist. It is simply a great story.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Author: Robert Stevenson

Maul: Lockdown (Star Wars)

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:
Maul is sent undercover to a prison to ferret out the identity of an Arm's Dealer and to buy a proscribed weapon from him to further one of Palpatine's devious schemes.

My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this book more than I did the previous 2 by Schreiber. Mainly because it wasn't lame-o horror but a typical action/thriller.

Think Cage Match on a self-contained prison satellite. And Maul gets to do most of the fighting. The whole reason he is there is razor thin plotwise, but let us be honest with ourselves, I don't read Star Wars for it's Dickens' like plots, characters and settings.

I can see people enjoying or not enjoying this book, depending on their mood at time of reading. If I'd been grumpy, I'd probably have torn this book apart for the shallow piece of tripe that it is; but I wasn't grumpy, so I enjoyed the rollercoaster action and the all most non-stop fighting.

I also went into this with ZERO expectations. After the news about the gutting of the Extended Universe a little bit ago, my fandomometer went right down to empty. So since I enjoyed the action, I ended up enjoying the whole book.

Also, I really liked the fact that Schreiber makes a no holds barred confession that he's a Christian in his intro/ending/thanks/whatever. That encourages me.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Author: Joe Schreiber

A Gathering of Widowmakers (Widowmaker #4)

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 Jeff, the Widowmaker cloned to take the Original's place, so he can live in peace, ends up fighting with the second clone, who has taken on the identity of Jason Newman.
The Widowmaker realizes he hasn't taught young Jeff all he really needs to know to BE the Widowmaker and sets about to do just that.

But of course, there is a new outlaw that forces all 3 of the Widowmakers to team up and in the process young Jeff grows up and takes his rightful place as the True Widowmaker.

My Thoughts:
This was a good ending to the Widowmaker series. It was classic Resnick with some good banter between the Widowmakers as well as Kinoshita (?).

In many ways this whole series could be thought of as shallow and trite and just some throw away space opera. And really, you wouldn't be wrong. But Resnick's stories always revolve around ideas that are bigger than life and instead of trying to make those ideas fit into our world, he simply turns those ideas into people and situations that are bigger than life. I find this approach VERY appealing as well as good story telling.

The Widowmaker is Justice personified. He is quick, deadly, emotionless and never lets his quarry get away. And through this tetralogy we get to see all sorts of sides to that. Old, bitter experienced Jefferson Nighthawk. Young, inexperienced but super deadly [and ironically, dead] Jefferson. Middle aged, experienced Jason Newman who is sick of it all. Young, experienced and yet teachable Jeff.
So many aspects of Justice. Cold and Calculating. Righteous Indignation. Devil may care.

It is just a lot of fun to read and it resonates with me. These Widowmaker books, along with his Santiago duology, are the best of Resnick in my opinion. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Author: Mike Resnick

Monster Hunter Nemesis (MHI #5) (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:
Agent Franks is center stage in a Special Task Force Unicorn vendetta. Franks is on the run while he must clear his name, destroy a whole set of bodies based upon him AND prevent an invasion of the original fallen angels.

My Thoughts:
Just like in Alpha, this book follows a particular person in the MHI universe. Agent Franks, the mysterious, deadly bulldog of the Monster Control Bureau.

First off, the violence level is just as high as in Alpha. In fact,  the book starts off with Franks using guns, crowbars and fists to destroy a cult that is trying to raise an Elder god.

Then things really get started. Apparently, Franks has a deal with the United States, but it works both ways. One of those conditions is that no recreating of Franks is allowed. But the STFU [yeah, I love how Correia worked that] is being as evil'y as ever and the leader, Stricken, has broken that agreement and made multiple flesh golems with all the modern tech at his disposal.

So Stricken must get rid of Franks and Franks must get rid of Stricken and the copies.

However, unbeknownst to humanity, but very well known to Franks, is the fact that the bodies are taken by fallen angels, not new human souls. And here Correia gives his readers a crash course in semi-mormon theology and mixes it with Cthulthuic lore.
Pretty interesting and it makes internal sense for the overall series.

Franks must stop the invasion of a literal Hell on Earth. It is great. Huge battles involving everything from 50cal guns to fisti-cuffs. It is a pulse pounding, hard core, thrill-a-minute, roller coaster adventure.

I just tore through this book and loved every second of it. It was good enough to make me seriously consider buying the whole series in hardcover. I did drop a half star because of the profanity. It wasn't completely gratuitous, but it was way more than necessary.

Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Author: Larry Correia

xxxHolic #5 & 6 (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:
Watanuki has several adventures, most with Domeki saving his butt, some by himself and all with Yuko making fun of him the entire time.

My Thoughts:
The whole tone of xxxHolic is so different from Tsubasa that it is hard to compare them. xxxHolic is darker while at the same time being funnier. Watanuki and Domeki have the perfect comedy vibe between. So much so that even when they are both in terrible danger they are constantly bickering and making the audience laugh.

Watanuki does seem to have an unhealthy fascination for Himiwara, even though it is obvious she doesn't like him. Tie that in with the fact that the Rain spirit is nuts about him and you have to wonder what is going wrong inside his head.

The overall plot. Having read Tsubasa to the end I am now aware of what is going on, so little things are jumping out. But they are so little that if you didn't know the end of the story they wouldn't mean anything.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Artist & Author: CLAMP

2014 manga own

Firebase Seattle (The Executioner #21)

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:
Mack sniffs out a new super base of Operations in Seattle. With help from the double agent Leo Turin and Agent Hal Brognola, Bolan puts the kabosh on yet another Mafia operation.

My Thoughts:
I accidentally skipped books 19 and 20, but it didn't make a difference and I'll be going back and reading them anyway.

Basically, there is an effort by the Mafia to do some sort of global economic messing about. They plan to fill their base in Seattle with gold and weapons and prepare to take what they can in the coming chaos.

Bolan puts an end to that by blowing up the base, thoroughly. And destroying yet another batch of Elder Mafia. So world domination by the Mafia has been set back yet again.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Author: Don Pendleton

Forbidden City (Rogue Angel #5)

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:
Annja, in the process of helping out a Chinese man find his long dead relative, stumbles onto a secret that both Garin and Leroux want. And there is a whole gang of Chinese triads under the direction of a ruthless business man involved as well.
A lost city in the desert, traps and lots of action.

My Thoughts:
This was a lot of fun.  Annja gets almost killed in California while looking for a corpse and that ends up with her teaming backup with her ersatz mentor Leroux and going against Garin, Leroux's former pupil.

And there is a sub-plot about some girl assassin, but besides literally providing a piece of a puzzle, she wasn't an integral part of the story.

But we get a booby-trapped city under the desert! That is what made me bump this up half a star. Swords, darts, spears, falling floors, a locked room with a descending ceiling, it was ALL good.

The magical item this time was some doodad that Leroux thought was terrible, so he and Garin join up to destroy it.

Overall, a good fun read. No complaints from me this time :-)

Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Author: Alex Archer