xxxHolic #9 & 10 (Manga Monday)

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Title: xxxHolic #9 & 10
Series: xxxHolic
Author & Artist: CLAMP
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga

Synopsis:
Watanuki has several adventures, but is introduced to a young psychic girl whose mother is keeping her under lock and key to keep her 'pure' so her gift doesn't go away. Seems she can sense and instinctively know what to do about dead people who haven't passed on
At the same time, he is forced to accept that really bad things happen to him around Himiwari but Watanuki being Watanuki, he refuses to allow that to change how he thinks about her or acts towards her.

My Thoughts:
I found these 2 books to be very melancholic and yet at the very end, hopeful.

Meeting the little psychic girl was just sad. Her mother is using her for her own profit and not thinking about the girl at all. Watanuki just sees a little girl who is alone and has to deal with the spirit world on her own and he simply reaches out to her and is her friend. He gives her a dream balloon, goes on a picnic date with her and generally connects her to humanity. It was kind of heart breaking.

The second main thing was dealing with Himawari and Watanuki almost dies [falls out a second story window at school]. During his recovering we find out that it isn't just Watanuki who has bad luck around her, but everyone, except for her parents and Domeki, who seems to be immune to most things spiritual. Himawari attempts to give up her friendship with Watanuki to save him, but he rejects that and tells her she makes him happy, even when things go bad and that he won't give up their friendship.
Yuko makes a gift that he can give Himawari that won't be affected by her, so that she'll have some companionship and be reminded of Watanuki.

I am finding this series to be deep in developing characters, funny with humor and interesting, creepy, sad and lovely with all the little stories. Definitely glad I own this series.

Sentenced to Prism (HumanX Commonwealth)

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Title: Sentenced to Prism
Series: HumanX Commonwealth
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF

Synopsis:
Evan  Orgil, Fixer for a large Corporate Entity, is sent to a newly discovered world to see why their Exploration Team has suddenly stopped communicating. Everything is under the down low, as the world should be explored by the Commonwealth Authority before being exploited.
Orgil has lived his entire life in various powered suits and for his trip to Prism, he gets a prototype super suit to keep him safe. Of course, you all know what that means.

My Thoughts:
When I read this back in 2000 and in 2006, I gave it 5 Stars both times. It was a lot of fun, it was standalone and I found the world of Prism to be pretty unique.

This time around, I still found all those elements applicable. However, in the last couple of years I've read a tiny  bit about biology and you know what I've discovered, our bodies are truly fearfully and wonderfully made. So Foster's asides about how inefficient and simple our biology is and how the sentients on Prism just replaced things with silicon and made them better rang completely false. That is why I knocked a star off, because I know better now.

With all that being said, this was still just a great fun ride! I would consider this a classic SFF read. To bad this isn't more widely known.

Heirs of Prophecy (Sembia #5) (Forgotten Realms)

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Title: Heirs of Prophecy
Series: Sembia #5, Forgotten Realms
Author: Lisa Smedman
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars

Synopsis:
Larajin, illegitimate daughter of Thamalon Uskevren by an elf, tries to find out her past and connect to her elvish heritage. In that process she finds out she has a full on twin brother, is the priestess of 2 goddesses and is prophesied, along with her brother, to avert a war between the elves of the 'local' forest and Sembia and surrounding human cities.
And we get a little bit o' drow *grin*

My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed Smedman's Lady Penitent trilogy and so was looking forward to this. Sadly, I found it to be the weakest book of the Sembia series so far. Not because of the story or any egregious errors of the wordsmithing craft but because of the characters.

All of Thamalon's other children have been whiny brats in the books they've starred in and while I didn't care for them, I could kind of understand the whole rich spoiled brat thing. But Larajin has been hidden as a maid and didn't find out about her heritage until the last couple of years, so she isn't a rich spoiled brat.  Instead, she is a sentimental drip with barely an ounce of sense in her head. Her brother, who while half-elf appears fully elvish, is a human hating machine. We're talking "It is better to die while killing one human than to live on in dishonor of sharing the world with humans" type of hate. Eye rolling, cringe worthy kind of hatred.

Thankfully there is a good bit of action to the story and we get a tiny bit of Drow involvement [I've been a huge fan of the drow ever since the War of the Spiderqueen series, not that wretch Drizz't] which always perks the story up.

While most series have a weak book, this was definitely weaker than expected. I just hope the series can pick up again. Only 2 more books left!

On a completely different note, I am absolutely LOVING these covers. They are very busy and dark, but once you read the story you can look at the cover and pick out details that make complete sense. I love that kind of thing. Almost makes me want to buy these, even if they are only in paperback with no chance of ever seeing hardcover.

A Dance of Cloaks (Shadowdance #1)

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Synopsis:
A city torn by 3 factions: a self-proclaimed King of Thieves, the 3 Merchant Princes and the effete, corrupt and useless "real" King.
Thiefman wants the Merchant Princes gone, for some reason or other and is waging all out underworld war on them. To further his aim, he is training his son to be the ultimate emotionless killer and he's doing a great job of that.
The son decides that he doesn't want to follow his father's plans and tries to strike out on his own. But he's only 13.
The Merchant Princes want the Thiefman gone, as he is strangling their businesses. They too are waging war, but lesser merchants are nibbling at their borders, intriguing to bring them down and become the next set of Merchant Princes.
Finally, the King. Playing all sides against the other for fear of losing his throne, his crown and ultimately his head.

My Thoughts:
This reminded me a lot of Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy, with everything kind of happening in one city but spreading out a little.
Sadly, only Aaron, the son of the Thiefman, is halfway likeable. There were 1 or 2 minor characters who weren't bad either [and they both die], but other than that, everyone was a backstabbing, traitorous, greedy and vicious son of a gun.

It was all about grabbing power but with no one of good character to cheer for. I am opposed to this type of writing on so many levels that it is really hard to enjoy it. Dalglish has another series, the Half Orc series, that I'm going to try. If it is less gloomy I'll probably return to this series and continue on. But if it is in the same vein, then I'll be done.

Life is tough enough and heroes few and far between for me to immerse myself in the hopeless, abject despair of fallen humanity.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Author: David Dalglish

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%

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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)

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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