Wraith Squadron (X-Wing #5) (Star Wars)

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Title: Wraith Squadron
Series: X-Wing, Star Wars
Author: Aaron Allston
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 416


Synopsis:
Wedge puts together a new X-Wing group, one that is multi-talented in more than just flying and fighting with X-wings.
However, they are all the dregs, the washouts, the problem children, of other units. Can Wedge forge them into a new squadron, one that is equal to Rogue Squadron?
Or course he can; this is the Star Wars Expanded Universe after all!

My Thoughts:
Stackpole's writing was much more intense, almost darker. Allston on the other hand, injects a much needed dose of humor throughout the whole book and makes it work. I like Allston's writing and am sad that we'll never be reading any more new stuff from, as he died earlier this year.

With a different author, we veer away from Rogue Squadron and into the Adventures of Wraith Squadron. A more disparate crew you won't be able to find, except maybe on the Millennium Falcon. A whole group of sentients with some serious issues, in one form or another. It is a lot of fun to see them coming together as a group and fixing their issues.

Wraith Squadron's mission, overall, is to find and destroy Warlord Zsinj. And these books focus on the little missions leading up to that denouement.

Old Man's War (Old Man's War #1)

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Title: Old Man's War
Series: Old Man's War
Author: John Scalzi
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 287


Synopsis:
A "Space Army" exists, but you can only join once you turn 75. They have amazing tech, which they dribble to Earth. They also protect Earth and her Colonies from everything else Out There.
Follows one man whose wife has died and he joins up on his birthday.
A military story ensues with just the right amount of Future Tech and a slight mystery to keep things interesting.

My Thoughts:
Sadly, Scalzi crossed one of my Lines in the Sand, so I won't be reading any more by him.

That being said, if it wasn't for that, this would be a 5 star book. This is what Science Fiction should be like.

Cyador's Heirs (Saga of Recluce #17)

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: Cyador's Heirs
Series: The Saga of Recluce
Author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 629


Synopsis:
Cyador is gone and its survivors are in Hamor, trying to carve out a kingdom amongst hostile dukes of surrounding kingdoms.
The younger son is sent off to be trained and ends up fighting a war in defense of a new ally.

My Thoughts:
The fact that I am still reading this series should say something. However, I am not sure what, as I do nothing but complain about each book as I read them.

Modesitt has a certain voice when writing the Recluce books and it is one that can stupify, grate and generally annoy. Even while telling a rather fantastic story. And that is what keeps me coming back. The stories.

The stories are formulaic to the extreme,  nothing is original and you'll be sick and tired of people eating by the time the novel is done. But you'll read it to the end and read 17 books worth and read the next book when it comes out.

What can I say? I still enjoy these but it is with the knowledge of the flaws, deliberate I believe sometimes, of these books.

The Alabaster Staff (The Rogues #1) (Forgotten Realms)

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Title: The Alabaster Staff
Series: The Rogues, Forgotten Realms
Author: Edward Bolme
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 320


Synopsis:
A young girl is entangled in a plot between factions of the gods Tiamat and the fallen god of Unther [where this story takes place]. Also in play are the political powers of Unther and another nation that is trying to take them over.
Kersin [or whatever "exotic" spelling the author makes it to be], the young woman, is forced to steal the Staff of Necromancy, give it away, watch her erstwhile allies get slaughtered, taken into protection by a powerful lord, shadowed by said lord's bodyguard and in the end, try to prevent the raising of a dead mad god.

My Thoughts:
The first chapter is very misleading, as it follows a young boy who steals into the city and steals some fruit to survive. He then gives some fruit to Kersin and we never see him again. I felt very bait-n-switch'ed.

But after that, I enjoyed this. The purple prose was really kept to a minimum and that in and of itself made this worthy of enjoyment. Kersin was a likeable main character and there was no love story, or even worse, a love triangle. Thank goodness for that!
The inclusion of the Harpers was a nice touch too, especially since I like the idea of an underground group of Good Guys doing good things to make the world a gooder place :-)

The ending fight was nice and climactic, with a zombie god and all. Looking forward to the next book in the Rogue series.

Seal of the Worm (Shadows of the Apt #10) (Final)

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Title: Seal of the Worm
Series: Shadows of the Apt
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 624


Synopsis:
The Wasp Empire is collapsing beneath Seda's actions. The Worm's Empire is breaking free.
And the world as the Kinden all know it is changing.


My Thoughts:
This was more enjoyable and a good bit deeper than I was expecting.  I suspect it had as much to do with my frame of mind [ie, Thanksgiving] than with the actual book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It wraps things up while giving us a rousing good adventure story.

The series overall made me feel like I was on a roller coaster. Not because Tchaikovsky's style significantly changed, but because it seemed the focus, the sub-genre almost, changed at the midpoint.

From starting out as a Heroic Quest to save Collegium from the Wasp Empire it changed to a much more relational, "think out the consequences" type of story.
I have to admit, I did NOT like the change after book 5. But the stories were still good, just different than what I had started out with.

With this ending book and seeing how everything works together, I do heartily recommend this series to any Fantasy fan who wants something that is just a tiny "bit" different. I did find the whole Kinden aspect to be wicked cool.

Masters of Doom

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: Masters of Doom
Series: -----
Author: David Kushner
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Biography
Pages: 301


Synopsis:
A Quick and Dirty Biography of John Romero and John Carmack, the Co-Creators of ID Software, which gave us Doom and Quake.

My Thoughts:
Overall, I'd say this was a pretty lackluster book. Serious issues were quickly gone over, motivations and thoughts barely sketched out, no footnotes, quotes or anything of substance.

However, it brought such a dose of Nostalgia that I practically felt like a kid again! I remember my first computer, a dx2-66, on which I ran DOS 6.22 [not that nasty ol' 6.20 mind you!] and was the envy of my friends because I'd saved up and bought a cd-rom 4x. Oh man, I was blazing.

I didn't really play Doom, but was introduced to Doom II: Hell on Earth. It was fantastic. It was everything my young self craved. Guns. Violence against a legitimate target. Being a bad ass hero. Double barreled shotgun. Puzzle solving along aside adrenalin inducing action.

Then Heretic and Hexxen came out, based on Doom's graphic engine. Medieval Doom with bows and arrows, magic arcane items, more intricate puzzles. And Hexxen with its multi-hub puzzles. It was all awesome.

Then Quake. I remember Quake so well because it required a Pentium 75 and my neighbor had just gotten one and there was no way I was going to be able to afford one for quite some time.

And this book brought back all those memories and feelings. And that is why this was rated so high.

The book itself was about two raging egomaniacs with different strengths who wouldn't and couldn't work together or with others. Because of that, they made and lost great people, companies and games.
Kushner tries to end on a happy note, but you know it won't last because nothing has changed in the John's lives except their current circumstances.

Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Longstocking #1)

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Title: Pippi Longstocking
Series: Pippi Longstocking
Author: Astrid Lindgren
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Children
Pages: 80


Synopsis:
Pippi Longstocking, the strongest girl in the world, moves into Villa Villecula, all by herself.
Her neighbors have adventures with her and romps ensue.

My Thoughts:
I remember reading this back in gradeschool and thinking it was the most humorous book ever. It was the Gold Standard of Funny.

Reading this now, I can understand why my young self was so enamored. It is immature, all about the kids and them having Adventures that every kid can only dream about.
The adults are adults from a kids perspective, existing but usually getting in the way.

I'm rating this 3 because I'm an adult. But for kids, and my Inner Kid, I'm giving it a 5.

The Ivanhoe Gambit (Time Wars #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.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: The Ivanhoe Gambit
Series: Time Wars
Author: Simon Hawke
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 228


Synopsis:
In the "Future", war is waged by keeping points of soldiers who fight in past battles. Those keep track of the points are the Elite, who also double as Time Agents who prevent paradoxes from occurring.
Well, one of these Refs goes rogue and tries to derail the timeline by taking Richard the Lionhearted's place in History and changing everything.
A group of soldiers are sent in to stop a Paradox from happening and they happen to land in the story of Ivanhoe. And thus the story proceeds.

My Thoughts:
I would have eaten this stuff up like pudding back in the early 90's, but since I've read a good bit of Time Travel, Time Paradox AND the original Ivanhoe, well, this was only so-so.

First off, Hawke takes the Ivanhoe story as his outline and then interweaves his own, so to be honest, I felt like he was cheating. Yeah, you heard me, cheating. If someone reads this and it gets them to read the actual Ivanhoe, then I'm ok with that, but to be honest, I don't see that happening.

If I compared this to food [ I'm hungry right now :-D ] I'd have to go with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, made with skippy peanut "spread", on super de duper processed sliced white bread. It does its job, but you don't want more than 1 in a great while.

There are 12 in the series. I wonder if I can read them all? At least unlike that terrible Endworld series, this is internally consistent with how the characters act.

Bone Key (Supernatural #3) DNF @30%

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Title: Bone Key
Series: Supernatural
Author: Keith DeCandido
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: DNF


My Thoughts:
Due to personal and religious reasons, I will not be finishing this book.

Savage Fire (Executioner #28)

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: Savage Fire
Series: The Executioner
Author: Don Pendleton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 138


Synopsis:
Leo Turin is apparently under a kill order from the Mafia and someone knows he's a fed. And someone in the feds is a dirty fink linked to the mafia.
If he stays, he dies, if he leaves, he dies.
Mack doesn't turn his back on his friends. And if it means killing even more outrageous amounts of mafioso, then so much the better.

My Thoughts:
Really enjoyed this one. The head of the Mafia, whom Mack spared [even while blowing his legs off] a couple of books back, is fighting for what's left of his life and his position. Leo is caught in the crossfire and nobody knows who is fighting for who because of the veil of secrecy the mafia uses.

But Bolan won't be stopped. He kills, he destroys and in the process he sets up Leo to a new mafia lord who can feed the Feds even more info. Everyone but the Mafia wins!

Man, I love it when the badguys get moyduhed!