The Straw Men (Straw Men #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 & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Straw Men
Series: The Straw Men
Author: Michael Marshall
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Horror
Pages: 404
Format: Kindle digital edition







Synopsis:
A man's parents die and leave him a clue that will start him down a mysterious and dark path.
A young teen girl is kidnapped and a former cop, who's own daughter was abducted, is brought on board by an FBI agent to try to save the girl.
Both of these plots weave and twine together in a horrific clash of the worst of humanity.

My Thoughts:
I'd like to thank Runner for putting this book, and this trilogy, on my radar.

I was conflicted during the whole read. On one hand, it was gripping, well written and I DID NOT WANT TO STOP READING. On the other hand, dipping my mind, no matter how tangentially, into the cess pool of an insane killer who has formed a whole group of uber-rich killers of like mind, was disgusting and left me feeling filthy.

I also noticed just how bleak and hopeless everything was. I don't want that type of thinking to invade my mind. There is hope and there is meaning and there is purpose. As Browning wrote,

God’s in His heaven—All’s right with the world!

The above is why I gave this book 3 stars. On the writing side, it was a strong 4, maybe 4.5. I just couldn't put this down and wanted to read and read and read.  I'll be finishing the trilogy but after that I suspect I won't be reading any more by Marshall. Bleak and Hopeless aren't things I can deal real well with on a continual basis.

If you want a taut, horrific thriller, this is the book for you.

The City of Splendors (The Cities #4) (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 & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The City of Splendors
Series: The Cities
Author: Elaine Cunningham & Ed Greenwood
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 544
Format: Kindle digital edition







Synopsis:
Waterdeep, an important city, is struggling under the weight of shiftless younger nobles, a rising working class, an ailing leader, attacks by a priest and his ilk and the machinations of a crimelord/magician.

My Thoughts:
I don't like Ed Greenwood's books. The couple of Elminster books I read were pretty low on the "skillz" level even for  Forgotten Realms. So I went into this with wicked low expectations. On the other hand, I really enjoyed Cunningham's Dark Journey. So I didn't know WHAT I was going to encounter.

This was also a good bit longer than the usual FR book, so that was nice.

Surprisingly, this was good. There were a variety of plot lines, that while intertwining, weren't repetitive. The whole Religion of Amalgamation was pretty interesting and I wished that it had played a bigger part than it did. It had potential.

Definitely a good wrap up to the Cities Tetralogy.

The Curse of the Gloamglozer (Quint #1) (The Edge Chronicles #4)

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 & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Curse of the Gloamglozer
Series: The Edge Chronicles
Author: Chris Riddell & Paul Stewart
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Children's SFF
Pages: 386
Format: Kindle digital edition







Synopsis:
Taking a generational step back in time, we now follow Quint, Twig's father, as a young man.
The head of Sanctraphrax is obsessed, with something. No one knows with what,not even his own daughter. Quint is involved, but not even he knows what is going on.
Sanctraphrax is tearing itself apart with factions while something evil grows right in it's heart.

My Thoughts:
Since we already know what Quint's end is, and that the Gloamglozer goes after Twig, this was kind of anti-climactic. In fact, I am thinking of skipping the next 2 books just to bypass the Quint sub-trilogy. I am not interested enough to read about past history.

This series isn't that interesting. It is a filler and I'm going to treat these as such.

City of the Lost

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 & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: City of the Lost
Series: -----
Author: Stephen Blackmoore
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 225
Format: Kindle digital edition







Synopsis:
Joe Sunday, low life thug for hire, does a job and is killed because of it. He is resurrected by the man who killed him. What follows is a whole lot of pulp noir with magic.
A wizard who wants to live forever. His scorned girlfriend. Joe Sunday, zombie PI and some do gooder of a witch who just wants to help all the poor little vampires who have bad diseases from feeding on other lowlifes.

Everything revolves around a magic stone. Serious as serious can be.

My Thoughts:
The first 10% of this book was so filled with profanity that not only did I create a new shelf labeled "Profanity" but was about to dnf it. I don't need this kind of *&^%$#@! in my reading life! If you don't get that, please look up "irony" in the dictionary.  However, after that 10% mark, it just dropped off. I have no idea why or what caused the initial vomital sludge but it did stop being an issue.

It did set the tone for the book though.

I am not a fan of pulp noir. Detectives and thugs who are as bad as the ones they are crossing are not the kind of character I really like to read about. I am also not a fan of urban fantasy [with a few exceptions], so this mash up was pretty much the worst of both worlds for me.

It was engaging enough that I did want to know how it ended and I finished this. However, I'll probably be avoiding future works by Mr. Blackmoore on general principle.

The Iranian Hit (The Executioner #42)

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 & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Iranian Hit
Series: The Executioner
Author: Stephen Mertz & Don Pendleton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 182
Format: digital scan







Synopsis:
Mack must guard an Iranian scumbag, merely because he is bait so Bolan can wipe out a particular hit group of Iranians that dare operate in the United States.

My Thoughts:
Bolan starts to deal with politics in his war. It isn't pretty and it makes him just another cog in a machine. Instead of being a lone warrior vigilante with a cold eye and even colder steel, he just becomes a tool of the government.

He used to fight for the common man against an enemy who directly oppressed them. Now it is scaled up and it is for people in general. It is tough to articulate but it really comes across in this book.

One more book I've got on my kindle then I'm done with this. I'll probably track down an Executioner book released in '16 just to see how it compares, but it can't be impossible for me to be any more apathetic about it then I have been about these post-Mafia books.

Yukon Ho! (Calvin and Hobbes #3)

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 & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.











Title: Yukon Ho!
Series: Calvin and Hobbes
Author/Artist: Bill Watterson
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 126
Format: Digital scan



Synopsis:
The further adventures of Calvin and Hobbes. With appearances by Suzy the girl next door, Rosalyn the babysitter from hell and Calvin's Mom and Dad.

My Thoughts:
I am still enjoying these. I did notice that there was more conflict between Hobbes and Calvin, More like brothers than best friends.

I have to admit, I don't know how Watterson wrote strip after strip, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. It is an incredible show of stamina. I don't know how his brain came up with all the ideas.

Other than that, since these are standalone comics, it is kind of hard to write anything about them.

State of the Union (Scot Harvath #3)

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 & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: State of the Union
Series: Scot Harvath
Author: Brad Thor
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 560
Format: Kindle digital edition







Synopsis:
Those damn Ruskies have been playing us for decades. Suddenly, Communism is about to take over and Russia is going to suitcase nuke 20 of our cities. At the same time, they have developed a super secret air defense so that no missiles can get into their airspace. ONLY Scot Harvath, hunk o' burning love macho secret agent man, can save the United States. Nobody else.

My Thoughts:
This was a huge step up from the previous book, but I think that was because Harvath keeps his trap shut and just goes around shooting people and blowing things up and being all manly. This time around he's not a completely arrogant ass hat. But don't worry, he tries.

These books are totally unbelievable and this is coming from a guy who reads mainly science fiction and fantasy.  For example, nobody knows where the suitcase nukes are at the beginning of the book. By the end, they know where they are and they roll up the people and the nukes without one going off.

This was the kind of book, and probably will be that kind of series until I quit, that I just enjoy to pick apart and make fun of. I consider this to be the man's version of Harlequin romances for woman. Sickening fluff with no substance that you hate even while you're reading it and yet you keep coming back for more after an appropriate break.  I feel dirty now, like a garbage disposal.

But my goodness, the action, THE ACTION!!!!
I am not a big fan of pictures in reviews, but I feel the following is true to this series.

The Many Faces of Evil (Non-Fiction)

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 & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Many Faces of Evil
Series: -----
Author: John Feinberg
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Non-Fiction Theology
Pages: 544
Format: Paperback




 


Synopsis:
How to reconcile an Omnipotent, Benevolent God with all the various evils in the world is a question that has plagued Christianity since it's inception.
Various answers have been put forth and various counters to those answers have also been set out.
Feinberg sets out to examine various answers and counters based on various denominational outlooks. Basically, Feinberg sets out to show how there can be various answers that all work, no matter your underlying sectarian tenants.

My Thoughts:
I can not say that I loved this book. However, it fulfilled its purpose.

First, it made me realize that when I [and many other people] ask "How can God allow..." they are actually asking "WHY would God allow...".  The difference is immense. Feinberg is a totally logical person and shows the various ways that that "How" can work out. It was an enlightening but frustrating read.
I have to admit, I felt pretty stupid in reading a lot of the stuff. There is an underlying assumption that the reader knows "X" or is at least familiar with it. Maybe in a couple more re-reads I'll be familiar enough that I won't have to re-read pages at a time.

Thankfully Feinberg does address the "Why", which is the "Religious Problem of Evil" in the last chapter.  He opens up about the experience he and his wife dealt with in learning about a condition she had. It devastated him and no amount of head knowledge made things easier for him.

This book took me months to read. I'd read 5 or 10 pages, then have to digest and think about it for a day or two. It will be a book that I plan on re-reading just to refresh and encourage myself during the dark times.

Highly recommended if you've ever thought about God and evil.

Beneath the Dark Ice (Alex Hunter #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 & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Beneath the Dark Ice
Series: Alex Hunter
Author: Greig Beck
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 321
Format: Kindle Digital Editions




 


Synopsis:
A plane full of rich folk crash into Antarctica. Rescue teams of medical and military groups have all disappeared without a trace.
So the United States sends in a team of scientists guarded by an elite of the elite military team.
Potential oil reserves are involved so the Russians gets involved. Mainly with mercenaries who have a grudge against one of the Elite of the elite.

There is also a monster and a whole "pre-historic" world under the ice. Almost everybody dies and a lot get eaten. We also learn who Alex Hunter is and that maybe Amygdala [from the Batman comics] isn't so out of the realm of possibility.

My Thoughts:
Passionate about Books recommended this to me and I am glad she did. This was a lot of fun with a great amount of people getting eaten by a monster. I just love it when people get eaten in stories. Dinosaurs are my favorite way but monsters will do in a pinch.

The titular hero, Alex Hunter, while the main character, is not a dominating main character. The whole story was about him and the scientist chick. The side characters, while fodder, felt as much a part of the necessary story as those two. We get a brief shotgun blast of info about Hunter and why he is pretty much superhuman now.  Having read some Batman comics, I am aware of the amygdalia so Beck's discussion wasn't news to me.

I did roll my eyes however. Come on, getting shot in the head turns you into a superhuman? I think I'd take my chances with outerspace radiation [Fantastic 4], nuclear spiders [Spiderman] or even a gamma bomb [the Hulk]. My only other eye roll quibble was how fast the linguistics scientist decoded the picturegrams that were 10K years old.  So if you can deal with those two issues, everything else is just fine.

The writing was a little unpolished but not in a "I'm an indie and I don't give 2 ***** because I'm an AUTHOR" way. I think this might have been Beck's first book? If so, that would certainly explain it.

I'm definitely hooked and will be reading more of this series as I can.

The Sanctuary Sparrow (Brother Cadfael #7)

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 & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: The Sanctuary Sparrow
Series: Brother Cadfael
Author: Ellis Peters
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 289
Format: Kindle Digital Editions




 


Synopsis:
A young jongleur is accused of theft and murder. Taking sanctuary in the church grounds, he has 40 days for the law to determine his guilt or innocence.
Brother Cadfael is convinced of his innocence and sets out to help prove it.

My Thoughts:
Mysteries aren't my favorite things but I still like to occasionally read them just to keep up the slight variety in my SFF world.

What I don't like is that information is doled out, or not in many cases, to the reader and not much actually happens.The writing was excellent but this just wasn't my thing.

I also think that this was the last tv episode I watched back in '13, so I mostly knew what was going on right from the get go.