xxxHolic #13 & 14 (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

Title: xxxHolic #13 & 14
Series: xxxHolic
Author & Artist: CLAMP
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga

Synopsis:
Watanuki helps out Kohane-chan and gets her to a safeplace away from her mother.  In volume 14 the story takes on the over-arching idea of who and what Watanuki is, the price he has paid in the past without realizing it and how he, Li and Sakura are all tied together.

My Thoughts:
I almost cried at the Kohane-chan story. Seeing a young girl attacked by her own mother because the mother hates her ex-husband is just sad. Thankfully, with her wish to be happy and her giving up her powers, which turn out to be based on one of Sakura's feathers, Kohane can start to have a normal childhood. Surrounded by friends, she can learn what love really is.

Volume 14 was a little more esoteric and non-plot centric. Lots of little conversations between various people that advance what is happening to Watanuki and Sakura and Co over at Tsubasa.

And we are getting little hints that not everything will be ok with Yuko. She has not been so rambunctious and we keep seeing bits of melancholia in her expressions.

The Art of War, With Commentary

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Title: The Art of War
Series: None
Author: Sun Tzu
Translator: Lionel Giles & Bob Sutton
Rating: 1/2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 155

My Thoughts:
This version,the Kindle Free Edition  [ASIN #B0084B050M], is the Lionel Giles translation [which seems to be 'just' about all there is out there] with his commentary and commentary from random Chinese literary figures.

My 1/2 Star rating was because the text was almost a solid wall of text, not differentiating in any way Sun Tzu's writings and the commentaries. Nor were there paragraph breaks, nor real chapter breaks. These formatting factors made it almost impossible to read this.

The other main reason I gave this 1/2 Star was because of the commentaries themselves. Giles is an ass, period. I suspect he was an insufferable bore back whenever he was alive and that tone comes through in his commentary. Thank goodness he is dead and not ruining more historical texts today.

I am not in any way rating, reviewing or commenting on Sun Tzu's actual work, as it was impossible to do so with this edition. That being said, I did pick up another edition at Barnes and Noble's that has the non-commentary version included. Not quite the version I was looking for, but good enough for now. Hopefully with that edition I can actually talk about the text itself.

The Garden of Stones (Echoes of Empire #1) (ARC) DNF

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.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer


Title: The Garden of Stones
Series: Echoes of Empire
Author: Mark Barnes
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 506


My Thoughts:
Due to the inclusion of certain subjects, I will not be finishing this book for religious and moral reasons.

Past Imperative (The Great Game #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.

Title: Past Imperative
Series: The Great Game
Author: Dave Duncan
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 444


Synopsis:
One young man, by name of Edward, gets mixed up in a prophecy from another world, learns that his father and mother are from there, goes to the other world, meets with a young actress, who is also in prophecy and basically is the pawn of the gods of that world.

Thing is, Edward hates God, all gods and every form of institutionalized religion. And now,in this other world, he has the power to be a god. Will he survive, take his place in the pantheon or try to destroy the existing order?

My Thoughts:
Slow.
This starts out very slow, with a story in our world following Edward and another story in World2 about Eleal, the little cripple actress.
Each storyline takes its time to grow and mature, allowing us to see what makes the characters tick and just to see the worlds as they are.
They converge probably at the 75% mark and things actually start to happen then.

Sometimes a "slow" book doesn't work for me. I want to rush in, growl, shake the plot like a rat and then rush off again. However, just like in his King's Blades  books, Duncan is a consummate writer and I was glad to take it slow. It was nice to mosey along with the characters and not feel impatient to get to the end.

Edward is a stupid, honor ridden, young english chap, so that got annoying. But he was very well balanced out by Eleal, a curious 12 year old girl who gets into trouble and eavesdrops at the drop of a hat.

A very different book, in terms of plot, from his King's Blades books but enjoyable nonetheless. Looking forward to the rest of this trilogy.

xxxHolic #11 & 12 (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

Title: xxxHolic #11 & 12
Series: xxxHolic
Author & Artist: CLAMP
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga

Synopsis:
Watanuki has several dream times with various people, does alot for Kohane-chan, gets attacked by various things and people and in general is well on his way to replacing Yuko.

My Thoughts:
Where Tsubasa tended towards "lets couch everything in as mysterious terms as possible", xxxHolic seems to be a bit more straightforward.

I also find the pathos to be much more endearing, heart-wrenching and "real". I care what is going to happen to Watanuki, Yuko and the others in a way that I simply didn't about the Tsubasa group. I also have to admit that the stories dealing with Kohane-chan really get to me. A little girl should be protected by her mother, not exploited. I'm just glad Watanuki and Domeki are around.

A lot of what is talked about in Watanuki and Sakura's dream really helped me understand what was going on.

The artwork continues to amuse me. Yuko,for example, can be this totally voluptuous vixen in one panel and then you see in another and she is a stick. CLAMP certainly has fun just portraying people however they want.

Rules of Ascension (Winds of the Forelands #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.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Rules of Ascension
Series: The Winds of the Forelands
Author: David Coe
Rating: 1/2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy


My Thoughts:
Due to the inclusion of certain subjects, I will not be finishing this book for religious and moral reasons.

That subject being homosexuality portrayed as normal and good.

The Twelve (The Passage #2)

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.

Title: The Twelve
Series: The Passage
Author: Justin Cronin
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Synopsis:
The post-apocalyptic world continues, as well as stories about the fall.
All of the Twelve, along with Amy, meet up for the next step in their growth. Only this has been planned for and the rebellion takes advantage of it.
Which leaves only Amy and Zero as representatives of the Vampire race.

My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this a bit more than The Passage, as I didn't find the middle half boring, but I was very frustrated with Cronin's introducing large groups of characters only to throw them away a chapter later, or to write 5 chapters about them and only  make it tangentially related.
Lots and lots of little side rabbit trails.

The pseudo-religiosity also got on my nerves as well. It was forced and even more damning, it FELT forced.

And like I had written in my update, I kept getting this mixed up with del Toro and Hogan's The Strain trilogy. I mean, how different can "vampires because of some plague-type thing" be anyway? It is all the same in my mind.

I'll finish the next book, but if this goes on longer than a 3rd book, then I'll be done. This just confirms that while I loved Dracula, vampires do something to authors that make their books unpalatable to me.

Venom's Taste (House of Serpents #1) (Forgotten Realms)

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.

Title: Venom's Taste
Series: House of Serpents, Forgotten Realms
Author: Lisa Smedman
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis:
Arvin, human rogue working for the Thieves Guild, is caught up in a plot between a cult of Death and Poison, a resistance group that wants to re-assert human supremacy and a Yuan-ti [snake masters of the region] who wants to shake up the current crop of leaders and take their place.

My Thoughts:
I went in to this hoping for something a bit "more", as it was dealing with the Yuan-ti, a race of snake'y people. And while I got "different", it wasn't really "more".

Arvin was your typical cardboard cutout of a human character who had "past" issues that helped and hindered him. All the groups were pretty typical of what you'd expect from a Forgotten Realms novel and the plot was unexceptionally FR as well.

I did like having a completely new race to find out about, but they barely made it into the story. We find out the Yuan-ti rule, can be snakelike in various ways, can be "psionic" [ie, direct mind magic without rituals or scrolls, etc. To be honest, I'm not really sure how it is different from regular magic] and ruthlessly rule, just like every  other class that rules all across the world.

I did read a tiny bit about Skullport, which I am familiar with through the Erevis Cale books, but that was the only familiar thing. Everything else was completely new. Geography-wise I wonder if the Powers that Be from Wizards of the Coast have mapped out Faerun [the whole world, as I understand it] or if they just let things kind of exist willy nilly.

I'll definitely be reading the rest of the trilogy, but I won't be expecting anything great, just the typical FR adventure story.

Palace of Kings (Loremasters of Elundium #2) 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.

Title: Palace of Kings
Series: Loremasters of Elundium
Author: Mike Jefferies
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis:
Thane has risen to lead the alliance to destroy Krullshards. Only, he chooses the life of his grandfather Thoron over the death of Krullshards and that opens up a whole new can of worms.
Kyot, Thane's friend and archer, must find the Maker of the glass arrows of Clatterford. For only these arrows, with light imbedded in them, can truly harm Krullshards.

My Thoughts:
I DNF'd this, not because it was badly written, or horrible or the author was a troll or even a democrat, but because I realized I had outgrown it.
I have such fond memories of adventuring with Thane, rescuing Elionbel, finding Clatterford with Kyot and just being a Heroic Knight in a Grand Adventure that I decided to not finish this book. If I were to finish this my memories would be destroyed with my current thoughts about the book and I don't want that.

I would highly recommend this to young and older teens who love epic fantasy, like Tolkien but didn't necessarily like the slow pace of Tolkien.

Now I am just sad. I guess that is part of growing up and getting older. But I don't have to like it, nor do I have to mar the past. I'll remember these books very fondly for the future and just not re-read them is all.

Where Angels Fear to Tread (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.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Where Angels Fear to Tread
Series: N/A
Author: E. M. Forster
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic

Synopsis:
A stupid widow, neglected by her husband's family who at the same time try to rule her behavior, goes to Italy for some reason or other.
There she falls in love with a young peasant, marries him, has a kid, dies and then the family tries to take the child to have a "proper" upbringing. Nothing good comes of that line of action and in the end nothing good comes of anybody's actions.

My Thoughts
I enjoyed Room with a View. Unfortunately, I hated this book right from the beginning, through the middle and couldn't wait for the end to be over.

I need somebody to cheer for in a book. Just one person. In this book I found every person distasteful and it really seems like Forster did this on purpose to get his point across.

Messed up families, deliberate stupidity, pride, greed, sloth, uncontrolled lust and apathy were what I saw and read about. I am a firm believer in not just showing up bad behavior but also showing what COULD be, ie, good behavior.

So I'm 50/50 with Forster. Not good odds in my books.