Thanquol's Doom (Warhammer: Thanquol & Boneripper #3) ★★★☆½

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Title: Thanquol's Doom
Series: Warhammer: Thanquol & Boneripper #3
Author: C.L.Werner
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 304
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Due to Skaven politics, Thanquol's success at staying alive and reporting the death of the conjurer from his previous expedition is now a mark against him. Everyone wishes he had died so as to not remind them of the expedition at all.

Now Thanquol must “lead” an expedition against a Dwarven stronghold. He is allied, this time around, with the skaven scientists/alchemists and they have supplied him with a mechanical Boneripper built from the remains of his original one. Unfortunately for Thanquol, he is saddled with another Grey Seer who has secret instructions of his own. And of course, the Alchemists have their own hidden, true agenda.

Turns out Thanquol is simply a diversion for the dwarves to focus on while the alchemists and the other grey seer do their own thing. The grey seer is going after a powerful magical item, the paw of something or other and the alchemists are building a Doomsphere, meant to destroy the dwarven stronghold totally and completely. The fact that it might destroy the skaven city as well is just incidental.

Thanquol schemes how to make use of both of these agendas. He ends up releasing a chaos demon of almost uncontrollable power, by accident, and the doomsphere destroys itself due to the dwarves machinations.

The book ends with Thanquol still alive and figuring out how to survive this latest debacle.

My Thoughts:

This was a decent end to this trilogy. Since this was a spinoff of the Gotrex & Felix series I wonder if Thanquol ends up being killed off in that series? As a skaven, he certainly deserves it!

I've been considering why I enjoyed this Warhammer trilogy as much as I did while I haven't really enjoyed the others I've read. Part of it is the humor. Werner does a fantastic job of showing how cowardly, two-faced and constantly backstabbing the Skaven are and it is just really hard to get depressed when reading about their antics. It's like watching a clown car at the circus. The humor was ironic in nature, with Werner showcasing the worst of the skaven nature through Thanquol but it was so ridiculous that I couldn't help but laugh. Much like the clown car I mentioned or seeing clowns beat the crap out of each other. Objectively, it is unpleasant, but in the right situation, it is great humor. It mitigated the depressing side of the Warhammer universe. In comparison, Werner wrote some of this book from the dwarves perspective and my goodness, now THAT was depressing. A Book of Grudges, Berserkers who live only to die in battle, a declining population due to birth rates and attrition? Ugh, ugh and ugh.

I was about to give up on the whole Warhammer universe after my run in with Tyrion & Teclis. Thankfully, this turned things around so at least I'll try another Warhammer trilogy. Bookwraiths has reviewed another Warhammer trilogy by Werner and if my next choice (the Legend of Sigmar trilogy) doesn't pan out, I might try that. But if I hit 2 stinkers of a series in a row, or they are just too depressing for me, I'll probably be done with Warhammer.

★★★☆½

• Grey Seer (Book 1)
• Temple of the Serpent (Book 2)
• All Warhammer Reviews

Orbus (Polity: Spatterjay #3) ★★★★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: Orbus
Series: Polity: Spatterjay #3
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 352
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Captain Orbus is now captain of a Space freighter instead of a sailing ship on Spatterjay. He's trying to reform himself from the masochistic brute he was before. Unfortunately, he's rather bored, as the ship AI Gurnard, pretty much does everything. Then they are hired by a reif to recover a prador exoskeleton from the Graveyard, an area in space that acts as a buffer between the Polity and the Kingdom of the Prador. Orbus uncovers a lot of dirty dealing and the fact that Oberon, King of the Prador, is actually infected with the Spatterjay virus and has been for centuries. The wardrone Sniper and submind Thirteen hook up with Orbus and Gurnard to get this info to the Polity so the AI's can use it.

At the same time, Vrell, a prador who survived on Spatterjay and worked his way offplanet, has taken over a Prador warvessel. He too realizes the King is mutated and that this knowledge will kill him. Vrell is faced with fighting and losing to the Prador, running to the Polity and possibly being killed out of hand for his actions in escaping Spatterjay or running away into unknown space. Vrell is also infected and his mutating brain suggests hiding out in the Graveyard. He takes his ship, and reprogrammed Kings Guards, who are also mutated Prador, into the graveyard. This leads him into conflict with the Golgoloth.

The Golgoloth is a Prador that is over 1000 years old and has kept itself alive by growing replacements for itself (as it is both male and female) with its children. It was the kingmaker for the 1^st and 2^nd Prador Kingdom and fled to the Graveyard when Oberon took power. Through the centuries Oberon has approached the Golgoloth to return to the Kingdom to work for him and the Golgoloth has always refused. Now, with his secret about to be revealed, Oberon forces the issue with the Golgoloth and tells it it is either it or Vrell.

The conflict between Vrell and the Golgoloth suck in the crew of the Gurnard. It also places incredible strain on Vrell's resources, which reveals a hidden genetic code in the Spatterjay virus. This genetic material turns out to be Jain in nature and is a squad of Jain Soldiers. The Jain are resurrected and it takes everyone, including Oberon and his dreadnaughts, to destroy them. In the end, Oberon sacrifices himself to gain crucial knowledge about the Jain and passes it on to his successor, Vrell.

The Jain are destroyed, the Golgoloth gets its punishment at the hand of King Vrell, Orbus realizes his desire for action isn't crazy, the Prador Kingdom is in upheaval and the Polity can breathe easier for a few decades.

My Thoughts:

In all honesty, my review from 2011 still sums up my thoughts. Awesome violence between super powered beings (whether of mind or body or both) and we get Jain soldiers. I had completely forgotten they were introduced here. It is good to be reminded of them, since Asher's latest series is called Rise of the Jain and the first book is titled The Soldier. After this book, I'm totally ready for that.

I do have to admit that I don't understand the reason for the title. Captain Orbus plays as big a part as Sniper but nothing compared to Vrell, the Golgoloth or even Oberon at the end. He's the human connector between us the readers and the various factions in the book (Polity AI's, alien Prador, even the world of Spatterjay) but I didn't find him integral to the story.

The reason for this not getting bumped up to a full five stars is the tech descriptions that is a regular weakness of Asher's. He just can't resist writing about gadget X, Y and Z doing A,B and C and then being totally obliterated by O,F and U. It's like gun porn, but on a larger level. Tech porn maybe? Whatever you want to call it, it bores me, even more than scenary descriptions would.

I think that Orbus is probably the most violent of the whole Spatterjay trilogy and the Spatterjay trilogy is the most violent, to date, of his Polity books. Be aware of that when diving into these books. Mutated Prador are even worse than a Hooder on a ship of reifications!

★★★★½

• Orbus (2011 Review)
• All Previous Spatterjay Reviews
• All Previous “Polity” Reviews

David Starr, Space Ranger (Lucky Starr #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: David Starr, Space Ranger
Series: Lucky Starr #1
Author: Isaac Asimov
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 144
Format: Digital Scan

Synopsis:

David Starr, youngest member of the Galactic Science Council, has been sent to Mars to find out why people on Earth are being poisoned with Martian food. Going undercover as a farmboy, Starr meets various characters and comes across the idea that Mars might have native Martians living in caves underground.

Starr investigates, meets the Martians, who have moved beyond the physical and into the purely mental plane of existence and gets a special mask from them that disguises him, gives him a personal force field and allows him to create the personna, The Space Ranger.

Starr solves the mystery and the legend of the Space Ranger is born. The book ends with him picking up a sidekick and waiting for another adventure.

My Thoughts:

Oh my goodness. This was so much fun. Short and zippy and chockful of that 1950's American Attitude. In Space!

These Lucky Starr books were originally written in the 50's or 60's and then re-released in the 70's. Asimov wrote a new intro for the re-release where he apologizes for scientific inaccuracies since a lot more knowledge had been discovered between releases. One, it was funny to read about the advances made in 20 years from almost 50 years later and two, it did credit to Asimov that he was willing to admit his stories weren't accurate. If more authors would be that humble, that would be good for all of us.

This was a mix of science fiction, mystery and western all rolled into one. It reminded me of the radio dramas that I've heard before. If this had been written today, I'd say this would fall into caricature or even satirization, but Asimov was fully serious. It works. It is written to entertain and it does that admirably.

I think the rest of the series I'll be better able to judge if this is decent quality or not. This one has that “new but nostalgia” factor for sure.

★★★☆½

Gods of the Mountain (Cycle of Blades #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: Gods of the Mountain
Series: Cycle of Blades #1
Author: Christopher Keene
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 307
Format: Digital Edition

Background Info:

The author of this indie book convinced me to review it with a rather humorous comment on my “Review Policy” page. Asking for a bad review, that I can handle. He seemed like a nice enough guy when we emailed, so I thought “Sure, why not take a chance.” And if you read the reviews over on GR, it DOES sound like a bunch of paid shills. And he has a BA in English Lit (I believe), so it couldn't be THAT bad, right?

First hiccup was him emailing me a second version. This was supposedly released in 2017, so I was expecting a finished product. When an author keeps tweaking a book, well, that doesn't bode well in my eyes.

Second hiccup was him letting me know, in Mid-April, that it was going into audio production and had I had a chance to “look it over” yet . I only got the book in the beginning of March and needed to work it into my rotation.

So, legal schmegal crap: The author gave me a copy of this book for an honest review and boy howdy, is that what he's going to get. Remember, he ASKED for this.

Synopsis:

The Kingdom of Tyrania was conquered by the Kingdom of Aavaria because the Aavarians wanted control of the only supply of a special kind of wood that could be turned into swords that would suck the life out of anyone receiving even a small wound.

Faulk watched as his Commander died in a duel to the Aavarian General and as his homeland fell. Now, 3 years later, he's a mercenary for hire, drowning his despair with drink. He meets up with a former fellow soldier who specialized in assassination. This Kessler shows Faulk some magic that only a specific tribe in the mountains are supposed to be able to use. This tribe, the Lunarians, are dedicated to pacifism. Kessler was taught by an exiled Lunarian and he begins passing on his knowledge.

3 Lunarians are sent to Tyrania to stop outsiders from using the symbol magic. This will involve taking one of the users before the Lunarian's gods and those gods severing all connections which will stop that user and all users associated with the initial user.

Faulk goes with them to ostensibly learn more magic, as he's unaware of the gods true purpose. He ends up being stripped by the gods and then someone reconnecting back to the magic using another form.

While this is happening to Faulk, the Lunarian Exile has set in motion a chain of events that leads to his ascension as Ruler of Tyrania. He makes one of the magic trees grow using all of the stolen life force from the magic blades.

The book ends with Faulk and his Lunarian girlfriend, along with her ex, heading out to explore Aavaria and the Lunarian Exile planning on worldwide conquest.

My Thoughts:

First off, the writing. In my recent “Quote” post, I posted just a tiny bit of the book. There were a handful of instances of like awkwardness that had me guessing just what the author meant. I'm not talking about story plots, but plain old grammar use. You can find Editors who will look for and show you how to fix those type of things. Sure, they cost money, but do you want your book to be good? I talked to someone I know, who also has a BA in English Lit, and she said the instances I showed her were what she experiences when reading chinese novels translated by highschool students.Dinged off a ½ star for those instances.

Second, the magic system. The way it was really introduced had me going “That's a Brandon Sanderson Mistborn knockoff!” Pushing and pulling against magic swords and daggers to move objects or yourself? Vin!

Thankfully, it does go on to be a “little” more original, but the way it was introduced really wasn't handled well. Problem is, later things get messy again when Faulk gets cut off from the magic but “magically” is able to reconnect using some other way. Terms are thrown around but it made no sense to me. This happened near the end of the book though so I was pretty much past caring if I had missed something. Ding. There goes another ½ star.

The characters. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be rooting for anyone, or just against the Aavarian overlords and then the Exiled Lunarian. Faulk was this uber-sceptic with the philosophy of a 2^nd grader. The love interest, Yuweh, was this magical powerhouse but then would turn around and be this incredibly naive and simple “girl”. Purposeful or not, I didn't like either of them. At the end, there is this semi-sex scene between them. Up to that point Keene had kept things clean. But they are at a pool bathing together and he describes their foreplay like an awkward 14 year old and then ends with something like “and they laid down and made love”. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't WANT to read erotica, or even semi-graphic sex scenes. But it offends my completist sensibilities that you'd clumsily yet graphically describe their foreplay but not the actual act? Considering that nothing like this is described earlier, its obviously put in to titillate the reader. But the only people going to be titillated by such amateur descriptions are 14 year old boys. The rest of us are just going to roll our eyes. Ding, another ½ star.

There is a bunch of other stuff too, but really, isn't that enough? I'm not getting paid as an Editor here.

So lets do the math, because nothing is sexier than a man in suspendors and flannel shirt doing “math”.

3 Stars is my starting point.

Add 1 for getting me to read the book in the first place.

Subtract ½ for mucking around it with it AFTER it is already published.

Subtract ½ for acting like an anxious man whose wife is pregnant with their first child.

Subtract ½ for Awkwardness.

Subtract ½ for the magic system and Sandersonitis.

Subtract ½ for the terrible and just plain embarrassing foreplay scene.

The grand total should be.....* calculator noises *

0.5!!!! Oh wait, no. Hold on. Carry the five, divide the 2, add the 1/2's. Dang this “new math”.

1.5 STARS FOR THE WIN!!! (Where is Vanna when you really need her?)

All kidding aside, this wasn't the worst book I've ever read, not even close. But it was barely adequate with enough issues that I certainly won't be reading any more by Keene. Between this and Algorithm of Power, I have also reaffirmed my decision about indies in general.

★☆☆☆½

The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3) DNF@18% ☆☆☆☆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 Last Town
Series: Wayward Pines #3
Author: Blake Crouch
Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF/Thriller
Pages: DNF
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

DNF @ 18%

My Thoughts:

“And what he saw, he didn't know how to process”

…....

“A string of indelible images.”

…..

“In the middle of Main Street, a large abby on top of Megan Fisher, violating her.”

Enough. I will not read stuff like that.

☆☆☆☆½

• Wayward (Book 2)
• Pines (Book 1)

The Summer of the Danes (Brother Cadfael #18) ★★☆☆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 Summer of the Danes
Series: Brother Cadfael #18
Author: Ellis Peters
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 288
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

A new Bishop/Prelate/Priest/Authority Figure has been invested in an area long neglected along the Welsh border. Brother Mark has been sent with gifts from his boss to let the new guys know he fully supports them. Since Mark doesn't speak Welsh, Cadfael goes along for the ride.

There are politics galore, as the New Boss isn't Welsh and there are Welsh issues. Two brothers are fighting and one comes back with a bunch of Danes to take what he wants. The Danes end up with Mark, Cadfael and a young woman named Hellend as hostages. Thngs happen, some people die, money, power, blah, blah, blah.

The hostages are released, the Danes go back to Ireland and Hellend, who was to marry one of the men of the Good Brother, skips out of town to hook up with a big brawny Dane. Cadfael returns to his Abbey and realizes that he hasn't really left the world behind. He still wants to travel.

My Thoughts:

It wasn't that this was any worse than any of the previous books, but my goodness, I am getting thoroughly tired of these non-Cadfael adventures. Thank goodness there are only 3 more to go.

This book did convince me to NOT start another medieval mystery series when I finish up this one. I was contemplating the Sister Frevisse series but after barely making it through this book, I've realized I've reached my limit.

This was not bad by any means. It was just more of the same. Cadfael is a witness to the events, not an active participant. I am wondering about trying a completely different genre to replace these when I'm done. I'm already reading “Western” with L'Amours Sackets and I've got the SFF side of things more than adequately covered. Crime/Noir is not a genre I enjoy and while I'd like to get into some long running Action/Adventure/Thriller series, I'm not sure where to go. Eh, whatever. I'll find something.

★★☆☆½

• Previous Brother Cadfael Reviews

Seal Team 13 ★★☆☆☆

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: Seal Team 13
Series: ----------
Author: Evan Currie
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 337
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

10 years ago a Seal Team witnessed the destruction of a destroyerboat by tentacles. The 2 surviving SEALS were drummed out of the service and burned for their report. Monsters like that don't exist.

Incidents like that have been increasing and Admiral Karson realizes that the United States Armed Forces aren't getting the job done of finding out what is going on. He re-calls Harold “Hawk” Masterson, one of the surviving SEALS and has him assemble a team that can handle such incidents. When a town in Alaska suddenly goes off the radar and the police and national guard sent in to investigate disappear, Karson realizes it is time for his team to annointed by fire.

Masterson and crew, all survivors of various unexplained events, head in. With Alexander Norton, known simply as The Black in the supernatural community, Masterson wants to prove that his team can handle such threats and begin fighting back against the supernatural.

Lots of hints are dropped about The Veil, something that keeps an ignorant humanity protected from the worst of the supernatural. Apparently, if someone witnesses something, they can cross the veil and see things. Unfortunately, it also means that those “things” can now see them.

The town of Barrow, Alaska, has been taken over by a vampire and its inhabitants turned. Masterson must destroy the alpha vampire while battling off thousands of shambling zombie/vampire things. The Team wins, deals with the instigators of the whole thing and come to the attention of masters of the Supernatural.

Now the Armed Forces can fight back, with Seal Team 13.

My Thoughts:

This was originally supposed to be the start of a series, but considering that we've never seen another one I'm guessing Currie lost interest, or something. That is why I put that this is just a standalone.

I was expecting something along the lines of the Monster Hunter International series but with SEAL's instead of a private organization. Things started out with a bang and I was rather excited. Sadly, it did not coalesce into the awesomeness I was hoping for.

Firstly, the whole Veil thing. It is sideways referenced so many times that I had the idea of what it was but no clear idea in actuality. It would appear to literally be a Veil of Ignorance. If you don't know about the supernatural, they can't affect you. But the attacks by supernatural beings seems to give lie to that. How does a Kraken take down a whole Destroyer if it supposedly can't interact with those who don't know or believe? Same with the whole town of Barrows who were all zombievampirized. The idea was cool but the execution was not thought out the best or at least, not explained very well.

Second, the sniping at Christianity and America. There is an instance where The Black holds up a cross and tells the main character that the cross is an ancient celtic symbol of the sun and the symbol of punishment for the worst scum by the romans and asks the main character which he thinks would be more effective against vampires. Then an instance of the a secondary character being from the Canadian Special Forces and Currie praises them and snipes at the SEALs. Neither of those instances are huge, but it was one more thing that rubbed me wrong.

Thirdly, plot related things. The Black knows about the vampire and knows that bullets can't kill her. But does he tell the rest of the SEAL team or at least let them know that only his special knife might have a chance of killing her? Nope, he waits until they're already attacking before he lets loose that info. There were several instances like this where a real SEAL team would have all the info possible before proceeding.

Finally, and least important but most noticable to me, was the continued references to Masterson as “Harold “Hawk” Masterson”. Ok, we get it. Use it at the beginning of the book, but in the last chapter? WE KNOW THAT ALREADY.

Overall, this came across as slapdash and mediocre at best. I like the idea, a lot, but the execution was poorly done and I doubt I'd try a book 2 even if Currie (who has improved tremendously through his career to date) wrote it now. I'd rather him focus on his Scourwind trilogy and finish that up.

★★☆☆☆

Miss Keiichi (Oh My Goddess! #10) ★★★☆☆ (Manga 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: Miss Keiichi
Series: Oh My Goddess! #10
Author: Kosuke Fujishima
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 117
Format: Paperback

Synopsis:

Urd and Skuld are called back to Heaven, giving Kei some alone time with Belldandy. She gets sick, he messes around with some of Urd's “medicine” and ends up turning himself into a girl. He manages to get ahold of Urd and she and Skuld come back to nurse Belldandy back to health.

Then a former lover of Urds shows up, a Plum Spirit, by the name of Troubador. He professes to want to get together with Urd but is really after her tears so he can complete his training as a bard. He is insanely jealous and so Urd won't turn Kei back into a guy while he's around.

Kei gets suckered into taking over the motor club since the two elder students are graduating that year. He wins a competition only to find out that the two Senpais are staying on for advanced mechanical courses and so will still be in charge.

A girl confesses to Kei in a love letter but her ulterior motive is to perform an exorcism on him as she claims she senses “unhuman” energy surrounding him. Due to her own ineptness, she calls forth some super demon dog and it is only thanks to Urd manipulating Belldandy's jealousy that allows them all to survive.

Megumi has left the motorclub to join the softball team, but with only 4 members, they are being pressured by the baseball club to fold up and become gofers for them. Megumi, Kei and everyone else gets together as a team and end up winning on a technicality. And Urd shows cleavage.

The final story is about Megumi finding a stray dog, it worming its way into everyone's heart, Megumi finding the owner and Kei admitting he really likes the dog.

My Thoughts:

The only amusing part of this manga was when Kei was a woman and preparing to take a bath. I'll let this picture speak for itself.

The rest of these chapters? Barely humorous, wallowing in vapid sentimentality (that puppy chapter just about made me barf) and generally feeling like the manga-ka was mailing it in. Nothing happens. There is no overall plot. A good manga doesn't always need some overarching story. Yotsuba is the perfect example of that and the manga-ka there carries it off really well. I can forgive random crap chapters when they at least entertain me or are funny or “something”. However, this book felt like a big bowl of diet vanilla pudding. I don't know if “diet” vanilla pudding even exists, but I imagine it tastes like chalk or something and that is what this book came across as. Dry and bleh.

Mediocre is a good word for this volume. “Miss Keiichi” keeps it from dropping to a 2 ½ rating since I found that panel very humorous.

★★★☆☆ 

• Previous Oh My Goddess! Reviews

An Ill Fate Marshalling (Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire #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: An Ill Fate Marshalling
Series: Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire #2
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 381
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Shadowing the events that take place in Reaping the East Wind, at least for the first half of the book, we see the events that Ethrian set in motion from the side of the likes of Bragi, Varthlokkur, etc. We also see the fallout from Bragi's decision to force Varthlokkur to deal with Ethrian. Varthlokkur and Nepanthe return to their fortress along with Mist's children and Varthlokkur swears to Bragi that he won't help him anymore.

Thus, Bragi must begin ruling Kavelin with brains and soldiers alone. Unfortunately, for him, his wife Inger is plotting against him and he can't face that. He heads out with an army to take down a rogue Dread Empire general, the one hold out who won't accept that Mist is now defacto Empress of the Dread Empire. Mist has her uses for this rogue general though and lets him run amok. Mist eventually takes out the general but that is not known to Bragi. He attacks the Imperial troops thinking they belong to the rogue general when in fact they belong to Mist. She was planning on this all along though and wipes out Bragi and his army. All so that the nation of Kavelin, and its neighbors will be fighting amongst themselves.

The book ends with various factions beginning to fight over Kavelin and it turns out that Bragi didn't die. Now he's a secret captive of the Dread Empire, a captive who can live in peace and luxury.

My Thoughts:

It was interesting to see the events that take place in Reap the East Wind from another viewpoint. That only took up the first half of the book though, so whenI came to the end of the events and the book kept on going, I was pleasantly surprised.

Of course, that is, until I realized that this was a story about the disintegration of the order that Bragi Ragnarson was slowly establishing in Kavelin. I kept hoping, right up until the end, that things would turn out ok. I should have known better.

Varthlokkur, in abandoning Bragi, showed that he was just as miserable a scumbag as that other magician, on the flying horse and the magic cornucopia thing that we read about in previous books. He watches through his magic mirror as Bragi is apparently overwhelmed and killed but because of his pride, does nothing active. It just goes to show that Cook has an excellent grasp on human nature and how someone who has been hurt by someone else will do, nor not do, all sorts of things because of that hurt.

The other storylines, about the succession, the various heirs (Bragi having had multiple children through his now dead wife and his current wife), the Dread Empire dealing with the Matrangan attack, it all was interesting. Then to find out that Bragi is alive, that made me wonder if Cook was saving him up for something or if it was so that at least one character can live out his days as sop to the readers?

This book was published in 1988. Apparently, the sequel, and the final Dread Empire novel, wasn't published until 2012. Ouch. Glad I already have it on hand. There is also another book, a collection of short stories, that was released in '08. I'm on the fence if I'll be reading that or not. Probably depends on how much I like, or dislike the final Dread Empire book.

★★★☆½

• Reap the East Wind (Book 1)
• Dread Empire: A Cruel Wind 1-3
• Dread Empire: A Fortress in Shadow 1 & 2

Thank You, Jeeves (The Jeeves Omnibus 1.1) ★★★★☆

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: Thank You, Jeeves
Series: The Jeeves Omnibus 1.1
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 241
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Bertie Wooster has taken up playing the banjolele. He does it so badly that Jeeves gives his notice and all of Bertie's neighbors complain to the landlord. Bertie decides to spend the summer in a bungalo playing the banjolele at his chum Chuffy's mansion out in the country.

Chaos ensues. Chuffy is trying to sell his mansion to a rich american. This rich american has a daughter, Pauline, that Bertie was engaged to for about 24hrs a while ago. Chuffy falls in love with her and she with him. But other family interests make a hash of things, plus the father is convinced that his daughter still loves Bertie and he hates Bertie. Hilarity ensues, escapades happen and through it all, Jeeves helms the boat through troubled waters and in the end, brings it in to safe harbor.

Chuffy and Pauline are engaged, Chuffield Mansion is sold, Bertie gives up the banjolele and Jeeves and Bertie return to London once again united as Lord and Servant. Everybody is happy.

My Thoughts:

I am reading the Jeeves Omnibuses. They each contain 3 stories. So instead of saying that I only read one book, I am counting each book as one book. It's all about those numbers, you know? But that is why I am doing the series as a decimal number and not a whole number. This was the first book in the first Jeeves omnibus.

Now, WHY this was the first book is beyond me. It is actually #5 in the Jeeves series. So there are many, many, many instances of Bertie referencing things that have happened previously that we the reader have no idea about. None of the things are big enough that you lose the essence of what is being referred to, as it is mostly silly or assinine things that Bertie has done, but the specifics aren't there and it makes the references less real. That is really my only complaint for this book.

My favorite part is Bertie's new man, Brinklie. He gets roaring drunk, burns down Bertie's cottage, assaults various people with knives, potatoes, etc and is generally a dangerous lunatic but through Bertie's eyes it is “Oh, that just goes with the territory”.

I am surprised that I haven't seen more of an uproar by social justice clowns because of the whole master servant thing with Bertie and Jeeves and the use of the word nigger in several instances when referring to black performers. Since this was published in 1934 it is no doubt to old for them to even know it exists, as nothing existed before them, except when they wish to trot out their straw donkey arguments.

The one positive thing about reading this first, instead of fifth, is that I found the humor original enough so I wasn't comparing it to previous books. That was my complaint from my original read and most likely the reason I only gave it 3stars back in '03.

★★★★☆ 

• Thank You, Jeeves (2003 Review)