Warrior Spirit (Rogue Angel #9)

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.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Warrior Spirit
Series: Rogue Angel
Author: Alex Archer
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 292


Synopsis:
Annja is recruited to find an old family relic with possible mystical powers, by the last in a clan of.....Ninjas!

And they are opposed by the Yakuza, another Ninja'y kind of guy and some monks.

My Thoughts:
My eyes were rolling so much while reading this that I had to change my glasses.
Ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but almost.

The Sword goes on the fritz whenever Anna isn't in real danger, which I find ridiculous. It completely took away the idea of Free Will and negated the idea that she could go all Darkside by killing innocents, which has been previously explored.

I don't expect much from my action books, but if you are going to try to be Philosophical, I expect something real, not some new age crap that has as much depth as a bikini.

And Mr Ninja? I have nothing to say *grin*

Azumanga Daioh Omnibus (Manga Monday)

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Title: Azumanga Daioh Omnibus
Series: Azumanga Daioh
Author & Artist: Kiyohiko Azuma
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 688


Synopsis:
Follows the highschool years of a group of young girls. Slice of Life type manga, with everything from humor to sadness to absolute saccharine sweetness.

The majority of the manga is the 4Koma style, ie, 4 single panel drawings one atop the other, which lends itself to very brief, intense one shots.
However, there are times where Azuma breaks away from this format to tell a slightly more connected story and then you get the typical manga layout.

My Thoughts:
Loved this, hence the favorite designation. It is light, comedic, fun, easy to digest and just generally a delight to read.

The omnibus collection collects all 4 volumes of the original manga and it is one monster book. I read a copy from the library and they used that special reinforcing clear tape on the spine and on the insides of the front and back cover, to keep it from cracking. It seemed to work and if I ever buy this volume, I'd definitely want something like that, as this is just too big for simple glue binding to handle.

I have to admit, if you had suggested that I would love a manga [and anime, which I do one, by the way] about highschool girls, I would have been very suspicious of you. But the comedy and lack of angsty pathos made this a series that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone looking to try out this new fangled fad thingy called manga.
The format also lends itself to easing a newb into the whole right to left reading of panels. Good practice for when you're trying to figure out some of those other more complicated series.

If you've read Yotsuba&! and liked it, you'll definitely enjoy this ancestor of it. And if you like this, you'll definitely want to read Yotsuba&! next.

Balance of Trade (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.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Balance of Trade
Series: Liaden Universe
Author: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 670


Synopsis:
Jethri, young spaceborn Terran, is hated by his mother and she wants him gone. In one of those upsets of circumstances, Jethri is taken as a new apprentice, on a Liaden ship.

Adopted as the new heir of the Captain, Jethri is plunged into the Liaden world, filled with Honor, Melanti, and pitfalls he has no idea even exist. Thankfully, he acquires allies who help him as he in turn helps them.

My Thoughts:
As with previous Liaden novels, I simply loved this. I cannot pin down exactly what Lee & Miller do to make me love their books, but it hasn't failed yet.
One thought that did strike me was how much this reminded of "Jane Austen.....In Space!"  The light romance touches, the family/clan drama, it just struck as Austen-lite and I really liked it.

This story follows a different Liaden clan from the former books and I am glad of that. It actually follows a Terran who is becoming Liaden. So everything is from Jethri's viewpoint. I am glad to have read the previous Liaden books, as it gave me a background that helped me know pieces that weren't obvious.

Everything that characterized the former books was here as well. It does end incomplete, but not a cliffhanger.  Looking forward to the next book immeasurably. I wonder how long I can drag it out before I HAVE to read it?
*grin*

The Man-Kzin Wars (Man-Kzin #1)

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Title: The Man-Kzin Wars
Series: The Man-Kzin Wars
Author: Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Dean Ing
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 389


Synopsis:
Mankind meets the warlike Kzin [cat empire that is conquering everything they can] and we kick their freaking butts.
These 3 stories show First Contact and then some activities AFTER the war.

My Thoughts:
In all honesty, I was expecting more of the War and less whatever these stories were. Social commentaries or longwinded SFF monologues about science'y things. Boring, pointless and non-war oriented science'y things no less.

I was expecting something more like Alan Fosters trilogy, The Damned, where the fighting was what it was all about. This was just some rather generic space adventures. Not really sure how these 3 stories spawned over 10 books worth of stories.

It wasn't bad, it simply wasn't engaging or interesting enough. I won't be reading any more in this series.

Shadowstorm (Twilight War #2) (Erevis Cale) (Forgotten Realms)

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Title: Shadowstorm
Series: Twilight War, Forgotten Realms
Author: Paul Kemp
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 352


Synopsis:
Erevis, Riven and Magadon make a deal with the Devil to escape hell and to prevent Magadon from being obliterated. This deal is what propels their actions for this book.

In Sembia, and specifically the city of Selgaunt, War happens. Shadow forces are at play and nothing is straight forward or as it seems. Shar, a goddess of dark, is ascendant and she uses, abuses and discards her servants as she sees fit.

Shadovar, long lost shadow sorcerers arise to combat the darkness, but they are servants as Shar as well.

My Thoughts:
Much like the first Twilight War book, Cale only plays a part, not the main part of the story and I find that rather unfortunate. The other characters, while driving the overall plot forward are not really people I am invested in. Cale, I am invested in. I've read the Sembia series [where he is a major character in the first 2 books and appears throughout the remaining 5] and the Cale trilogy. So 11 books I've invested in him.

Whenever I am reading a Forgotten Realms books, I have to remember to not get to excited about some big change that is coming because that is ALL the books are actually about, gods ascending/descending, the world changing, new conquerors/heroes/villains, etc.  Some of the smaller series/authors might be nice little side adventures [here's to hoping Castles or Rogues are more standalone] but most of the trilogies are always earth shattering events.

This one did get the Ultra-violent tag because what Magadon's father, the Devil, does to him. Graphic disemboweling while keeping him a live. And then eating half his soul.

The ending, where some sort of portal is opened between this world and a shadowrealm was pretty cool. Looking forward to how Cale & Co save the world and their friend Magadon, as with only half a soul he is sliding faster and faster toward his devil heritage.

Dixie Convoy (Executioner #27)

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Title: Dixie Convoy
Series: The Executioner
Author: Don Pendleton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 129


Synopsis:
Mack heads to Georgia following a cocaine trail and comes across a huge mafia front which deals in laundering everything from money to automobiles.
With the help of the trucker community Mack crushes them and allows the Feds to roll the Mafia up like a rug.

My Thoughts:
Can't say I liked this one as much as the others. There was so much trucker/CB talk that half the time I had no idea what was going on, even when one of the characters took the time to explain it.
Other than that, this was a good fun book with lots of guns blazing and rockets blowing things up.

Tarkin (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.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.





Title: Tarkin
Series: Star Wars
Author: James Luceno
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 289


Synopsis:
This book is the dual story about past and present of Tarkin. The past is about his beginning of life and rise to power and the forces that shaped him while the present story is a little adventure about the beginnings of the Rebellion and the Deathstar.
Which I believe completely throws the book Deathstar under the bus continuity-wise, but eh, what else is new in the Star Wars universe these days?

My Thoughts:
I enjoyed Kenobi but not this. It was bland, not that interesting and I found myself constantly checking my Kindle to see how much more I had before I would be at the end.
Which, to be honest, is how a lot of Star Wars book are but it used to be that I could ignore that and pick out whatever good I could because I really enjoyed the Extended Universe. But with Disney's eradication of the EU my fandom turned to distaste and hence my thoughts are no longer so charitable.

I've been reading a lot of Forgotten Realms recently and the Star Wars books reminds me of those but not as fun. I guess I was looking for this book to redeem the actions that Disney took and it failed beyond belief in that regards and as a story was just a typical Star Wars book.

With that being said, I think I'm pretty much done with the Star Wars book universe. Doesn't mean I won't read the occasional one, especially once the sequel movies come out, but I certainly won't be waiting for each book to come out so that I can devour it.

A big fat 'meh'.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Classic) (Short Story)

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.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer


Title: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Series: -----
Author: Washington Irving
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 36

Synopsis:
Ichabod Crane, local school teacher and collector of local supernatural lore, is in love with a rich farmer's daughter.So is a brawny tough.
One night Ichabod meets the local Haunt of Sleepy Hollow, the Headless Horseman and is never seen in the area again.

My Thoughts:
This was a lot shorter than I was expecting. I thought it would be novella size instead of a short story.
It also wasn't scary, but funny. It simply had a lot of paranormal going on in it. And in the end, you find out that it wasn't even that.

However, I still really enjoyed this. Ichabod was SO your geeky booksmart guy who simply couldn't compete. And the lass involved was your typical backwoods small towner who Ichabod would have been smarter to ignore. But as we all know, sometimes the head doesn't lead down the same path as the heart.

I just chuckled away several times. Definitely going to be a story I read each year for from now one. It was just delightful!

Fevre Dream

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.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Fevre Dream
Series: -----
Author: George Martin
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 440


Synopsis:
A riverboat Captain who is down on his luck, takes on a partner who builds him the finest riverboat on the Mississippi.
All this partner asks is to not be disturbed during the day and to be able to come and go, no matter the boat's schedule.

Of course, this turns out to be a battle between vampires and things never go well with that. This ends as you'd expect of a modern vampire novel ie, melancholic, sad and yet satisfying.

My Thoughts:
This was great writing. Some authors have it, that flair, some don't and Martin is one of those that do. You can't get around that.

This was moving slow up til about the 50% mark and I was enjoying it. It was just like riding on one of those riverboats. And then the badguy vampire leader shows up, cuts off a baby's hand and things went to hell.

I couldn't stand the idealist vampire, with his stupid naivety and I couldn't stand the vampire badguy, as he was beyond being a psychopathic monster. Thankfully the riverboat captain was a great narrator. But by the end of the book, he is a tired old man who is obsessed.

This started bright and vigorous and ended in the dark and tired. As good as this was, it just wasn't for me. I suspect that Martin as a whole just isn't for me. I did enjoy a different take on vampires however.

Witch's Canyon (Supernatural #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.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Witch's Canyon
Series: Supernatural
Author: Jeff Mariotte
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 274


Synopsis:
A 40 year Killing Cycle has begun and this time, the body count will be catastrophic. Only Dean and Sam have the knowledge and the ability to stop this cycle, for good.

My Thoughts:
Even though I gave this the same rating as the previous book, I enjoyed this a bit more and it definitely felt "more" like a Supernatural story.

First off, the body count/violence was WAY higher than the previous books. People are being offed left and right. No rhyme or reason at first and I loved being confused. The title obviously gives away who the main antagonist is, but even that is layered in mystery.

This really did remind me of an episode, it felt like it was scripted by Kripte. It gives me hope for the next couple of books. Whooha!