Saturday, May 13, 2017

The Perfect Player (Eyeshield 21 #25) ★★★★ ½


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
 Title: The Perfect Player
 Series: Eyeshield 21 #25
 Author: Riichiro Inagaki 
 Artist: Yusuke Murata
 Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
 Genre: Sports Manga
 Pages: 208
 Format: Digital Scan





Synopsis:

The Epic Game we've been waiting for, the Devil Bats versus the Oujou White Knights. Things start at 100% and go up from there. This deals with the first half of the game and Shin just dominates. He blocks, he runs, he moves Kurita, he keeps pace with Sena. He IS the perfect player.

The Devil Bats have 20minutes during half time to figure out a way to stop Shin. With the White Knights leading 13-6, a solution must be come to or the game is already over. Everything now rests on Sena's legs. Will he be strong enough to face Shin down and overcome his rival?



My Thoughts:

Much more enjoyable than the previous book. It is almost sad to see how Shin just crushes everything in his path but watching a player become almost perfect is a joy in itself. It was very revealing when he matched speeds with Sena and Sena's world comes crashing down. He is no longer the fastest player and he's built his identity around that idea.

This volume did not feel drawn out at all and when it ended, with the faceoff between Sena and Shin just beginning in the Second Half, I almost wanted to immediately start Vol. 26 as well. Thankfully, I was able to throttle that desire, as it will lead to manga burnout. But now I will be looking forward to the next volume :-)

★★★★ ½  




Friday, May 12, 2017

Searching for Dragons (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles #2) ★★★★☆


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
 Title: Searching for Dragons
 Series: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles #2
 Author: Patricia Wrede
 Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
 Genre: Fantasy, Middle-grade
 Pages: 276
 Format: Digital Edition





Synopsis:

Mendanbar, King of the Enchanted Forest, runs across some wizards who seem to not be quite on the up and up. In his investigation, he comes into contact with Cimorene. Kazul is missing and they both end up going to look for her. Kazul is being held captive by the wizards and it is up to Mendanbar, Cimorene, Morwen the witch, Gipsy Jack and the magician Telemain to free her, vanquish the wizards, restore the deadzones in the Magic Forest, and plan a wedding.

Because when a King meets a Princess and both are rather unconventional, of course they get married! Duh...




My Thoughts:

This story was from Mendenbar's view, as opposed to Cimorenes. It wasn't quite as quirky and the tone was the same, so it didn't have that “newness” factor. I enjoyed my time but whereas Cimorene took charge and kicked butt in the first book, Mendanbar is much more of a passive character, at least in his attitude. Don't get me wrong, he'll kill rock snakes and fight wizards with the best of them, but he just seems to exude “That's nice. Next?” The adventure happened TO him. He didn't take it by the throat and throttle it into submission.

When I originally read this back in '06, I read the whole tetralogy at once and I think that gives a very different flavor than reading these individually a month or 2 apart.

Book 1, Dealing with Dragons, charmed me completely. This just kept me entertained.

★★★★☆




Thursday, May 11, 2017

Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles #2) ★★★★ ½


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
 Title: Dune Messiah
 Series: Dune Chronicles #2
 Author: Frank Herbert
 Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
 Genre: SF
 Pages: 340
 Format: Digital Edition





Synopsis:

Paul Atreides is Emperor of the Galaxy. His Fremen have swept planets under his rule and nobody can stop him. For Paul can see the future and how do you fight a man who can see THAT? The answer appears to be, very carefully and with layers upon layers of plots.

The Bene Gesserit, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Tleilax and Princess Irulan are all in to bring the downfall of Paul Atreides, who seems to be on the cusp of attaining godhood. They attack his family through Chani. They subvert his Quizarate. They foment rebellion amongst the Naibs who cannot deal with the rapid change of climate on Dune. They tempt Paul himself with the gola of Duncan Idaho, the man who gave his life to save Paul.

And Paul sees this all and knows this all and he doesn't know how to stop seeing the future. He is walking a path of least resistance, the smallest amount of chaos but as the Navigators found out in Dune, that eventually leads to Stagnation. So Paul lets the future happen and hopes that his children can somehow change things.

And as a blind Fremen, he walks out into the desert to die.



My Thoughts:

Some seriously wicked crazy plotting going on here. Not everyone is happy with Emperor Paul. In fact, most of the power groups aren't. We get introduced to the Bene Tleilax, a group/race of people that are, in essence, shapechangers. They can also mimic those they change into. The Bene Gesserit are upset because their little breeding program is off the rails; what's the point of creating a superman if you can't control him? The Spacing Guild, CHOAM and the Landsraad are all pretty put out as Paul exercises supreme authority and they have to do what they're told.

I really liked how Herbert figures out a way to make it possible to blind someone who can see the future. If nothing else in this book impresses you, the fact that Herbert doesn't make Paul unassailable should make you re-read Dune with new eyes.

There was a lot of philosophy talk being thrown around. There was a lot of political machinations going on. This had nuances and creases and folds that were not only not apparent in Dune, but were pretty much unthinkable. Herbert completely throws Paul under the bus because that is the only place he can go.

Alia plays the second biggest role here, in my opinion. She's not quite as powerful as Paul and is constantly trying to catch up to her big brother. That isn't very ominous until you're doing a Re-Read. Then it becomes the scary music in the background. In many ways it seems that Paul does nothing to try to stop her. But that is a “thing” for him. He is hemmed in by prophecy of future sight and so he is so afraid of meddling with others and somehow damaging their free will.

Free will is about having the choice. Not all the choices, not clearly spelled out, not with all the knowledge of the consequences. Free Will means being able to say “yes” or “no” to something. Even while bemoaning the future sight, Paul still had Free Will. He just didn't want to face the consequences of taking a different path and so he didn't.

And so like in our world, one generation of heroes must make way for another.

★★★★ ½






Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Arcadian Genesis (Alex Hunter #0) ★★★☆ ½


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
 Title: Arcadian Genesis
 Series: Alex Hunter #0
 Author: Greig Beck
 Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
 Genre: SF
 Pages: 79
 Format: Digital Edition





Synopsis:

An item is uncovered in Russia. It appears to be a source of unlimited power. The Russians are working on it and discover it is an incubator, not a power source. In the process, they bring on board a scientist, who used to be a Chechnian whose family was killed by the Russians. Said scientist steals the power source and contacts the United States, all to spit in the eye of the country that killed his family. What he doesn't know is that by removing the power source, the creatures inside begin to awake and grow.

Alex Hunter is sent on a mission with a team of HAWC's to recover the scientist. The HAWC's run into a Russian team who are also intent on recovering the scientist. Hunter gets shot in the head, but the bullet first passes through the alien device. In a comatose state, Hunter is prepped for a super soldier project, codenamed Arcadian, that “might” save his life.

Thus begins the legend of Alex Hunter, the Arcadian.




My Thoughts:

I waited to read this prequel for a some time, just because I wasn't sure when it was published, and was too lazy to look it up, and didn't want anything revealed that might impact future books. In all honesty, this would be a good place to start with Alex Hunter, even before Beneath the Dark Ice. Nothing is spoiled and it does a good job of showing exactly how things worked out to make Alex a working Arcadian.

As a short story/novella, this has just the right amount of action, tension and drama. It is on par with the other Alex Hunter books. Not much else to say really.

★★★☆ ½





Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Porcelain: A Memoir (Non-Fiction) ★★★☆ ½


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Porcelain: A Memoir
 Series: ------
 Author: Moby
 Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
 Genre: Autobiography
 Pages: 408
 Format: Digital Edition





Synopsis:

Moby, the music artist, looks back on his life from his late teens until the release of his album, Play, in 1999.




My Thoughts:

I've enjoyed various songs by Moby, as I like the kind of music he puts out. I'm not his greatest fan, nor do I know all his albums or all his songs or anything like that. I'm a casual fan. At best. I knew that one of his songs was the end song for the movie Bourne Identity. I knew that he was a vegetarian [turns out he's vegan] and I knew that he had, at some point, claimed to be a Christian.

Non-fiction is not the genre [notice how I lump it ALL together? That should tell you something] that I like to take long swims in. I prefer to let others have that privilege. But my recent read of Deadhouse Gates really left me needing something very different to get me back in the reading groove. This popped up at the library, I believe, so that is how I ended up reading it.

How do I review a book that is pretty much a journal? There is no plot. Moby goes all over the place even while keeping things very chronological. We might get introduced to Karen in one chapter and then he's with Josephine in the next with no rhyme or reason. This was not an indepth, exhaustive look at Moby's life. It touched on highlights that have apparently stood out to him up until 1999, when things started going his way?

3 things stood out to me. He had a very hard life growing up and overcame being the token poor boy where he lived. Relationally, he needs to grow up and make a commitment to one of the ladies and stop searching for “The One”. Love isn't just a feeling and he chases the feelings, time after time after time. Finally, while he might call himself a Christian, I'd be forced to say he's “spiritual”. He's interested in “God” but it is apparent that while he's read and even studied the Bible, he doesn't think that the God of the Bible is the God he's after. It is sad to see and he even acknowledges his gradual loss of Faith, but he never claims to have had Faith in Jesus Christ. So from my perspective, what has he really lost? A feeling.

This is definitely geared more towards those who are musicians themselves. When he starts talking about “the beatback interwoven with the attack high on his RGB-304” I have no phracking clue what he's talking about, specifically. I can glean that he's doing something musical with one of his instruments. In all honesty, that is enough, but it would have been nice to understand a little more sometimes. I felt like the dumb kid peeking through the window occasionally.

With all of that being said, I still enjoyed this read. I learned more about a guy whose music I like. I jumped the rut of SFF for a day and I learned that I am pretty damned satisfied with my life even if I'm not famous, making 100K a year or sleeping with pornstars. If Moby, whose real name is Richard Melville Hall, writes another memoir about later in his life, I'll be reading it for sure.

★★★☆ ½ 


Monday, May 08, 2017

Ombria in Shadow ★★★★☆


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Ombria in Shadow
 Series: ------
 Author: Patricia McKillip
 Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
 Genre: Fantasy
 Pages: 316
 Format: Digital Edition





Synopsis:

Ombria, Greatest City in the World. Ombria, a City said to Co-Exist with it's own Shadow, a city in its own right.

The King has died, his mistress thrown out of the palace, the prince a drugged lackey to the Regent and a bastard cousin trying to stay alive amongst the factions. Throw in a sorceress and her helper and you have the ingredients for intrigue, love and just maybe how Fairytales come to be.




My Thoughts:

Another fantastic book by McKillip. Ombria is a city that appears to trade places with it's own shadow every couple of generations but no one can ever remember the actual change. Stories come about that hint at it, but nothing concrete.

That is just the backdrop of this book and isn't the central point, but the idea of The Past, A Shadow, The Undercity, all flow through the narrative like a deeper current in a wide river.

The actual story about the little prince, his father's mistress, the bastard who wants to protect them both and the sorceress's apprentice was really good. The tension was there for the whole story and you just didn't know what was going to happen.

The ending was appropriately Fairytale'ish and I liked it. McKillip is a talented author and I just like her stuff.

★★★★☆






Saturday, May 06, 2017

Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen #2) ★★★★☆


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission   
 Title: Deadhouse Gates
 Series: Malazan Book of the Fallen #2
 Author: Steven Erikson
 Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
 Genre: Fantasy
 Pages: 868
 Format: Digital Edition





Synopsis:

I am trying to do this from memory, without looking at all my update posts. Ha.

A rebellion is brewing on a continent and is led by Sha'ik. It is foretold she will be reborn and lead the rebellion against the Malazans and blood will flow like an ocean. She dies.

A bunch of Malazans are running for their lives to make it to the city of Aren, a port city that is still under Malazan control. This group is led by Coltaine, a Fist and former rebel himself. He must lead 40,000 civilians and thousands of soldiers across a continent where everybody wants to kill them all. And the High Fist in Aren? Does nothing. A renegade Fist is chasing them with multiple armies. Coltaine gets the civvies to Aren, then dies with his whole army due to treachery by the High Fist. Who in turn is betrayed and destroyed, along with HIS army of Malazans. Not a good time to be a Malazan soldier.

A noble Malazan girl is imprisoned in a pogrom and sent to the mines along with some others. They escape, make their way through the desert, and the noble, Felisin, becomes Sha'ik Reborn. She also happens to be the sister of the Empresses' right hand woman, Adjunct Tavore.

A group of characters from the first book come across 2 powerful beings, one of who is almost 100,000 years old but has memory problems. They follow a path to a Gate in an Azath House [hence the name of the book] which promises a path to ascendancy [godhood] for shapechangers. Turns out it is a trap for all the shapechangers to imprison them in the Azath House. The group gets lots of clues about lots of things and then goes their separate ways at the end.

An assassin is out to kill the Empress for outlawing his friends and their army from the first book. His adventures as he travels and then the stunning revelation that it is all a hoax and a plan to unite everybody against an even greater threat. He chooses to not kill her and goes his merry way.

Various characters are introduced and either die, have their storyline cut or just fade away. Or, they might be a major character in future books. You can't tell.

That is it. All from memory. I'd like to see you do so well. If you want to check, feel free to click on these old Readalong Posts from Bookstooge and Dragons&Zombies.



My Thoughts:

This was a readalong with Dragons&Zombies. I enjoyed the process and having someone else reading the same stuff helped motivate me to pay attention and ask questions. That being said, I took more notes reading this than I have for any other book in years. Normally, I read a book and then write stuff up after. If I had tried to do that with Deadhouse Gates, I would have missed out on so much that I would have wondered what I had actually read. The problem is, once I started taking notes, it became obvious just how dense this book is. My usual review style can be likened to looking at some architectural plans for a skyscraper. This time, I wandered the building with DeeZee from basement to attic and explored all the nooks and crannies. I came away with 2 thoughts which left me with opposing feelings.

First, this was some spectacular writing. It is a tapestry of such fine story threads that it can be hard to keep them separate. In many cases, they aren't separate, but interweaving in and out and around and Erikson keeps it all in the air and going well. You can almost feel the care and effort expended in the story.

Second, Erikson is a dickhead. There is no other explanation for it. In Gardens of the Moon we get dropped into a story without a lot of info, but that can be sussed out. Here in Deadhouse Gates, Erikson deliberately writes to confuse. What else can it be when you have anywhere from 2-6 points of view in EACH CHAPTER and almost no clue that you are switching pov's except for a double paragraph break? It didn't feel like he was out to tell a story and didn't care if his readers didn't quite get it all. It felt like he was gleefully obfuscating and confusing information just because he could. That doesn't mean it is impossible or that you can't figure stuff out, but taking a page of notes for each chapter is not what I want when reading Escapist Literature. So that pissed me off.

This book tired me out and took every word I had. In the next book, Memories of Ice, I am going to have to find a way to deal with it differently, as I can't write this much again for one book.

To end, I recommend this book if you want some complexity beyond imagining and don't mind heavy doses of Existentialism. But for goodness sake, have some lighter reads lined up either during it or right after, you're going to need them.

PS,
This was my 3rd time reading this and it still felt like my first. I am also adding the “Best Book of the Year” tag. It really is that excellent even with my complaining and bellyaching.



★★★★☆






Tuesday, May 02, 2017

Infinity Engine (Transformation #3) (Polity) ★★★★☆


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Infinity Engine
 Series: Polity: Transformation #3
 Author: Neal Asher
 Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
 Genre: SF
 Pages: 575
 Format: Digital Edition





Synopsis:

The End Game is in sight. Penny Royal, that black AI that nobody can seem to predict, control or even understand, continues to move the players like chess pieces.

Prador and Humanity move together as the Atheter makes it clear that it won't be kept on Masada. The Brockle is convinced that it is destined to take Penny Royal's place. There are a lot of players, a lot of threads and Penny Royal weaves them altogether with a Black Hole.

And pretty much becomes a god and watches the end of the universe and it's beginning and it tries to figure out how to stop the loop.



My Thoughts:

I thought this was the best of the trilogy. With various threads coming together, it is easier to understand what is actually going on. And the ending is the wry humor I expect from Asher.

The one thing I didn't care for was Asher's continued needling of religion. In several cases anyone who is religious is compared to a mentally ill person who obviously can't think straight. I've also realized that Asher always makes any Separatists idiotic douchebags just to show how awesome it is to always bow to a greater central authority. I spit on that. He continually makes his point [with battle axe bluntness sometimes] about how powerful the Polity AI's are and how much the humans really NEED them to run things. But this whole trilogy was about how poorly the AI's DO handle things. They are not omniscient, all powerful beings. They're just as flawed as their creators and even “self” improvement leads to problems half the time. So Asher pretty much argues against the case he makes in the first place. So phrack Central Authority. It's called Responsibility.

The character that I liked the most this time around was Sverl, the prador turned AI with a golem body. How weird is that? But Sverl does a fantastic job of showing multiple points of view from one character, as he has aspects of Prador, AI and humanity, all rolled into one. I don't know what it is, but something about him just appealed to me.

I think that for whatever Asher writes next, I am going to wait to read the whole thing instead of reading them as they come out. There was too much going on for me to remember everything from book to book and I know that lessened my overall enjoyment.

★★★★☆







Saturday, April 29, 2017

The Indomitable Fortress (Eyeshield 21 #24) (Manga (non) Monday) ★★★★☆


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title:        The Indomitable Fortress
Series:     Eyeshield 21 #24
Author:    Riichiro Inagaki
Artist:      Yusuke Murata
Rating:    4 of 5 Stars
Genre:     Sports Manga
Pages:     200
Format:   Digital Scan




Synopsis:

The Oujou Highschool is hosting a festival and the Devil Bats attend. Some to have fun, some to spy. With all that they see, the Devil Bats go for a quick 3 day counter-training program to hopefully deal with what they learned.

Then the fateful game between the Devil Bats and the Oujou White Knights begins. It will be an epic battle between individuals and between 2 teams that have simply dominated to this point. There are no more tricks, no more time to do special training, no more people to pull in at the last moment. It is now Mano E Mano and one team is going to go on to the Christmas Bowl and one team will have its dreams crushed forever.



My Thoughts:

It's been quite some time since I read Then Came the Showdown! [Vol 23] and I was just in a manga slump. So today I decided that after church, I was going to sit down and read this volume,no matter what. It also helped that I needed something much lighter than the Deadhouse Gates Readalong that I've been participating in with Dragons&Zombies. I also wanted to sneak in one more book before April ended so I could at least list a double digit number instead of a single number :-(
[Yes, as much as I may naysay and decry, I am VERY aware of my numbers]

The Festival was fun. The kind of humor that Eyeshield 21 excels at. The stupidest guy from the White Knights and the stupidest guy from the Devilbats end up in a quiz show against each other and it was just so perfect that I laughed my head off.

Which was good. Because the game is going to be intense and drawn out. This is one of the battles that we've been waiting for since the earliest books. It is raining and the atmosphere is appropriately gritty. Things start off explosively, with both sides immediately giving it 100% from the get go and leaving no reserve for later. This will be a game of stamina and whoever folds first will be crushed.

I am preparing myself for this game taking at least 3 books. The other time a long drawn out game was shown, I did find myself getting bored so we'll see if that happens again.

★★★★☆








Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The Architect of Aeons (Count to the Eschaton Sequence #4) ★★★☆ ½


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 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 WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Architect of Aeons
 Series: Count to the Eschaton Sequence #4
 Author: John Wright
 Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
 Genre: SF
 Pages: 397
 Format: Digital Edition





Synopsis:

The Hyades emmissary makes it to earth. Since Montrose and Azarchel were both exiled to the outer limits of the Solar System, they couldn't participate. They do come back, learn that the Hyades simply vacuumed up all the humanity they wanted and sent them to colonize uninhabitable planets.

Earth, the moon and Jupiter are all now planet brains. Montrose and Azarchel go their separate ways, do their separate thing, plot and counterplot until it is time for Rania to return. Passing thousands of years in sleep or otherwise, we see humanity change, morph, mature and just begin to take their place in the larger cosmos.

The book ends right before Rania is supposed to return. So there is at least one more book. Bugger that!



My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this much more than the previous book. The time skips become huge, sometimes 10's of thousands of years. So I just wasn't as invested in the story, hence it made it easier to just coast along.

Honestly, the whole “will Humanity be free or be slaves” thing going on between Montrose and Azarchel is getting a bit boring. You can only upgrade humanity so many times before it loses its “oomph”. And how come Montrose and Azarchel keep being smarter than even living planets? It doesn't make sense, no matter how much Wright starts bringing in “alternate Monument data” and other such rubbish.

This is Empty Calorie Science Fiction. There is nothing wrong with it, as long as you know you are getting that. I was under the impression that this was the final book so I was a bit pissed off when I reached the end and bam, Rania hasn't returned and there was still no resolution. But unlike the previous book, I wasn't bored. So take from that what you will.

★★★☆ ½