Into the Black (Odyssey One #1)

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Synopsis:
Mankind has built their first faster than light starship. For its initial voyage, a select group of all the special force branches from various nations are on board, along with various groups of scientists. Almost a galactic joyride you might say.
Of course, they land in the middle of a new war between a civilization that has been at peace for 8 Millennia and some shadowy mystery badguys. The Terrans kick butt and gain some allies and they find that they are BEHIND enemy space lines.
To Be Continued.

My Thoughts:
I've read some of Currie's work before, the Hayden War Cycle, and while I enjoyed it, I wasn't really impressed. This book I was impressed.
There was a great mix of space fighting, ground troop fighting [which I love! Give me marines and guns any day!] and a lot of setup for the future.
In a lot of ways it reminded me of John Ringo's Through the Looking Glass and Alan Dean Foster's The Damned trilogy. Lots of military action, Terrans being totally bad ass as natural warriors and some really good/scary alien baddies.

There were definitely some very cliched and roll your eyes moments, mainly when Currie tried to give his guy characters some emotional depth. These guys are all either super fighter jocks or ultra-marines.  Currie should have left well enough alone.  But if he had then I'd be complaining about lack of character depth, so I guess he just can't win *grin*

Definitely going to be reading more in this series.

Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Author: Evan Currie

With the Lightnings (Lt. Leary #1)

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Synopsis:
Young arrogant, rich and snotty Lt. Leary gets all pissy with his dad, gets cutoff from the family fortune, joins the space navy to spite his father and ends up saving a whole world from the badguys. And he makes a good friend of a sexy librarian.

My Thoughts:
Pure escapism. I'm usually ok with that, especially since 90% of what I read is just that. But when reading about a spoiled, uppity, privileged beyond belief brat, my working man's blood just boils sometimes and it is hard to enjoy the read.

I enjoyed the overall story of a small group of plucky heroes retaking a world from the dastardly bad guys. Lots of fun fighting, explosions, thrills and brazen and ballsy decisions. And a Librarian, with a Capitol "L". Always good in my books [hahaha]

I just didn't like Leary. I got this for free and am glad I read it but it bears out what I think of Drake already: I enjoyed his Lord of the Isles fantasy series but very little else. I just don't quite click with his stories or writing. If I can get the second book for free I'll probably try it but unless it is super-de-duper better I won't continue after that.

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Author: David Drake

Moth (Moth #1) DNF at 30%

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.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer

I just couldn't take this puree any more. Maybe if I was a preteen this would have been ok, but its simplisticness [NOT simplicity mind you] just bored me.

David Eddings' Belgariad or Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy are good examples of simplicity. Yet at the same time they are engaging and well written.

This book was not engaging or well written. It was boring and pedestrian. The characters were inconsistent in how they reacted to varied situations and the whole world itself was just off.

Example. A village has some sort of royalty that everyone used to look up to. Only now, he's a doddering old man and a warmongering priest has moved in and taken over control. Ok, since this world has been this way for 1000's of years, I'm assuming that there is a regulated transfer of control of power from one generation to the next. SO WHY ISN'T THE HEIR RULING THE VILLAGE AND KEEPING THE PRIESTS OUT? It just reeked of 'make up a situation without thinking it through''ness.  And just little things like that where the implications weren't thought through. It was annoying.

There was nothing bad, it just was amateur'ish and not worth my time.

Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Author: Daniel Arenson

xxxHolic #7 & 8 (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.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis:
Watanuki gets in trouble, has Domeki help him out, complains out it and then turns around and helps Domeki and the circle of helping continues.
Watanuki's eye is the main issue and it turns out to be an object of power and he loses it. Only to have Domeki give up half his eye so they both can kind of see. Teaching Watanuki that he isn't a lone and his life impacts others, for good and for bad.

My Thoughts:
This was a light enjoyable read, as always. We have it confirmed that Watanuki is of great interest to the other world in so many different ways.
Domeki proves that he is a true friend indeed and Watanuki reacts like he always does, with bombast and insults. Himiwari is right, they are truly a comedy team.

Speaking of Himiwari. Watanuki's continued fascination with her, while being warned again and again by Yuko that she isn't for him and his completely ignoring the young beautiful spirit who loves him, is so typical of youth. Can't have what it wants and doesn't want what it can have.
The whole situation makes me grin and reminds me of my college days. So I have some sympathy for Watanuki, but not very much :-)

I enjoy the little chapter stories where Yuko grants a wish, usually to the detriment of the wisher.  They are deliciously macabre, sometimes humorous and always complete in and of themselves. You need that in a longer running series sometimes.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Artist & Author: CLAMP

Hidden Empire (Saga of the Seven Suns #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.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis:
Humanity, allied with an ancient alien race, is spreading out to the stars. Quickly and voraciously.
A much older alien race, which has disappeared, has left behind its civilization, offering tantalizing clues to instantaneous travel and the like.
Humanity uses one of these new tools to create a sun out of a gas giant and in the process discovers another alien race. These new aliens are immeasurably powerful, so much so that they are the ones that completely destroyed the disappeared aliens.

My Thoughts:
I've never been a big fan of Anderson, as I have found him to be a mediocre writer, especially in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.  But I wanted to give him a shot on his own writings, so I figured I'd try this series.

This was chunked up into about 15-20 viewpoints and at first I was worried I was going to have just little snippets from each. But characters die, side characters move up and it is a revolving wheel.

This is a sprawling Saga indeed. Human factions, alien factions [allies, dead and enemies] and robots from the disappeared aliens. It is going to be a fight for survival for humanity for sure.

Overall I enjoyed this book and beginning of the series. Anderson's writing, while not wonderful, was not the juvenile tripe I was mentally preparing myself for.  Hoping the rest of the series bears this beginning out.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Author: Kevin Anderson

Eagle-Sage (Lon Tobyn Chronicles #3) 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.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer

I got to about the 50 page mark and it just wasn't working for me. Nothing bad and I can't really point out anything that was different from the previous books.

It was rather slow though.

Coe has another series that I'll try but I have my doubts as whether it will be any different. Coe seems to be on the slow boat to China and while that sometimes works for me, a lot of times it doesn't.

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Author: David Coe

Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #1)

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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