The Twelfth Imam ★★★☆½

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 Title: The Twelfth Imam

 Series: ------

 Author: Joel Rosenberg

 Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars

 Genre: Christian Thiller

 Pages: 501

 Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Iran gets the Nuke. And at the same time, the fabled Twelfth Imam appears and begins working miracles. His goal is an Islamic Caliphate. That is The End.

We work up to that by following a young man affected by September 11 who vows to become a CIA agent so he can catch and bring to justice Bin Laden. At the same time we follow another young man, an Iranian, who is a genius and meets incarnations of the Iman through his growing up years, all in preparation to control a military nuclear weapon and the facilities needed to create such a thing.

Lots of clandestine'y things, very spy novel. Then BAM, the 12^th Imam appears to the leader of Iran, takes over, takes over Saudi Arabia and threatens the world with 10 nuclear weapons if they don't let him do what he wants. But at the same time he's appearing all over the Middle East healing people and performing miracles.

Several of the characters meet Jesus and begin to realize that the 12^th Imam is an agent of the devil, hence his power AND his threats.

My Thoughts:

I don't read many spy thrillers, so when I do read one, it's all brand new territory for me and I don't have any experience to rely on. I enjoyed this book. There was a lot of character creation going on and this time around it worked for me. Sometimes that type of thing bores me, but not this time.

From a Christian perspective, and certainly from a 7^th Day Adventist perspective, this fits right in to End Times theology. Adventists believe [in very broad terms here] that in the Last Days, Catholics, Protestants and Muslims will all unite into one Feel Good, Love Everybody group that will deny, by their uniting, the Divinity & Authority of Jesus Christ and the Unalloyed Sovereignty of God [Jesus will be a Good Man and the Pope will be God's Voice, with all of His Authority, on Earth]. The particulars of this book are a bit out of date, as Bin Laden is wormfood. However, considering that I just read an article about the Lutherans and the Catholics trying to make nicey-nice and claiming Luther just “misunderstood” a few things 500 years ago and that there is a concerted effort to create harmony between the major Theistic religions [I've heard it called “ChrIslam”], I hesitate to call such views crackpot theories any more.

The ending was COMPLETELY open ended, but any other way would bog itself down in specific End Times theories. Those things can get messy and very ugly, very quickly. I'm just as happy he didn't try to write out his pet theory, as I probably would have disagreed and then ended the book on a sour note.

Rosenberg includes a lot of quotes from the Qu'ran but without a lot of context, I am hesitant to place very much weight on them. Kind of like those Hollywood movies where the Evil Cult Leader quotes 1 Bible verse and suddenly he's the Token Christian representing all of Christianity in the movie even while being the complete antithesis of an actual Christian. But enough was quoted to show that Rosenberg had done some homework and not just googled “Jihad, Qu'ran” and slap dashed in the first thing that came up. What he does quote is very rather damning though.

To end on a completely different note, I've read other books by a “Joel Rosenberg”, which were fantasy books and honestly, not that good. I'd always assumed that THIS Rosenberg was also THAT Rosenberg. However, upon investigation, THIS Rosenberg is Joel “C” Rosenberg and is an American. The OTHER Rosenberg is just plain Joel Rosenberg and he's Canadian.

Score One for America!

Score One for Nationalism!

Score One for Irony! [my dad's Canadian and I was born there]

★★★☆½

Pulse (Chess Team Adventure #1) ★★★★ 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: Pulse

 Series: Chess Team Adventure #1

 Author: Jeremy Robinson

 Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars

 Genre: Action/Adventure

 Pages: 335

 Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Ridley wants to live forever. All he needs to do is find the head of the mythical hydra and turn his science team onto it. When a U.N. Team finds it, Ridley steals it, kills the team and kidnaps one of the scientists. Unfortunately for Ridley, said scientist is the best friend of Jack Sigler

Jack, better known as King, is the head of a super-secret Special Forces group, led by the anonymous Deep Blue. Each member has a Chess piece designation and they are the top of the top and so dark that even a Black Hole looks white compared to them.

The Chess Team swings into action and carnage ensues. Volcanoes blowing up, humans going crazy with super regenerative powers, killer capybara's, a restored Hyda and Hercules. Yes, Hercules. He's real as the hydra. Ridley's Security Group is almost as good as the Chess Team so hopefully between them both, they can take down a creature that is immortal and can regenerate.

My Thoughts:

Why this book hit the spot, I don't know, but my goodness, it was pure action/adventure with a dose of mythicalness that caught my imagination with guns, guts and glory. The closest series that approximates this is Greig Beck's Alex Hunter series. But while that is mediocre and just ok, this was pure awesome.

I know I'm kind of babbling but I'm having a very hard time nailing down why I liked this so much. There were guns, big guns and lots of gun battles. There were human monsters. There were monster monsters. There were dastardly bad guys and super heroic good guys. There was a secret society. And Hercules.

All those things came together in the perfect way. I don't know if future books will affect me the same or if anyone would like this book as much as me, so take all this blathering enthusiasm with a big dose of reality.

Cheers!

★★★★ ½

Lord of the Darkwood (The Tale of Shikanoko #3) ★★☆☆☆

^{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: Lord of the Darkwood

 Series: The Tale of Shikanoko #3

 Author: Lian Hearn

 Rating: 2 of 5 Stars

 Genre: Fantasy

 Pages: 241

 Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

After the death of the Autumn Princess, Shikanoko retreats into himself and allows the mask and its magic to envelope him. He is retreating from his humanity and if something doesn't change, he'll become another forest spirit.

The other characters all grow up. Shikanoko's sons all go their separate ways, revelling in the powers that they innately have. Lots of people doing lots of things with the years compressed into paragraphs.

My Thoughts:

Hearn includes a scene, non-graphic, of underage boy on boy sex.

As such, I am done with this series and with Hearn as an author.

★★☆☆☆

1. Emperor of the Eight Islands
2. Autumn Princess, Dragon Child

Guns of the Dawn ★★★★☆

^{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: Guns of the Dawn

 Series: ------

 Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

 Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

 Genre: Fantasy

 Pages: 673

 Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Denland and Lascanne, two countries, allies. Until Denland overthrows its King and begins to make war on Lascanne. Inspired by their King, the people of Lascanne give their all. They sacrifice and sacrifice and things end up with a draft of the women from each household, as all the men have already been taken.

We follow Emily, the middle daughter of a noble family which is now impoverished. A brother-in-law has gone, the only son drafted, food slowly disappearing, bandits appearing, no news from the front. And to make things even better, the man who drove her father to suicide many years ago is in charge of the town. But Emily is a fighter and she does what she can to keep her family together and functioning.

When Emily gets drafted, she is sent to the Front in the swamps. She learns about war, about the leaders of her country and in the process learns a lot about the Denlanders. What she learns shakes the foundations of everything she thought she knew and that knowledge will lead to make a decision that will affect both countries.

My Thoughts:

First, only ONE bug reference. Considering how much time we spend in a swamp, I was expecting a lot more.

If I had any doubts about Tchaikovsky's writing ability [and after 12 books, you'd think I'd have made up my mind. Go figure], this put them to rest. This was really, really, really well written. There were a couple of instances near the beginning of the book where I just didn't like ANY of the characters and I was wondering if I'd have to DNF the book. But what it did was make the characters deeper and fully fleshed out.

Tchaikovsky continues his little fight against authority. If someone is in authority, they're lying bags of excrement and what is Right is actually Wrong. Having read Spiderlight, I saw the whole Denlander/Lascanne thing coming from a mile away. I really hope he doesn't keep this up in future books because it's getting a bit tiresome. Sometimes Right actually is Right. Just accept it.

Emily was a great character to follow. Her romance with Cristain was such a slow burn, it reminded me of an Austen romance. Then when she has feelings for a Warlock, instead of being a love triangle that I hated, I actually liked it. You could totally see this happening in a war. Nothing is clean cut or easy. It's as messy as the mud the soldier wade through day after day. It made sense, it fit with the characters and it never felt forced or drama for drama's sake.

The ending, with Emily having to make a decision about continuing the war against Denland or to put her heroic role away, was great. I didn't know which way she was going to do, whether she would pull the trigger or not, until I read the sentence. Isn't that exactly what we're looking for as readers?

Great book, well written, lots of fun.

★★★★☆ 

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  

1. Review of Vol. 20
2. Review of Vol. 21
3. Review of Vol. 22
4. Review of Vol. 23
5. Review of Vol. 24

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.

★★★★☆

1. Dealing with Dragons

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

1. Dune
2. Dune Messiah Review from 2012

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

1. Beneath the Black Ice
2. Dark Rising
3. This Green Hell
4. Black Mountain
5. Gorgon

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 

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.

★★★★☆

1. Review from 2007