Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

The Old Curiosity Shop ★★★★☆

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Title: The Old Curiosity Shop
Series: ----------
Author: Charles Dickens
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 632
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Little Nell's Grandfather runs a Curiosity Shop and everyone, including her older brother and a money lending dwarf, think he is rich as Croessus. Unfortunately, he's also a secret gambler and ends up spending every penny they have on gaming, trying to win big so Nell can live in luxury for the rest of her life.

The help, a young man by the name of Kit, is dismissed, the brother plots to marry Nell to his friend because he is still convinced the Grandfather is rich (just miserly) and the dwarf causes trouble because of his evil nature.

Nell and Grandfather take to the road and meet various characters, some good, some bad and are saved from privation and death by working at a little church in some tiny town. The Grandfather's younger brother returns from faraway parts, very well off and begins searching for his brother and Grand-niece.

The dwarf plots rot and ruin for everyone and Kit finds a kindly couple to work for and settles down pretty well. Everyone caroums off of each other and does the thing called life and at the end Nell dies, Kit marries happily, Nell's brother is killed in France by bad company and the dwarf drowns and his poor wife finally marries happily.

My Thoughts:

This felt like Dickens used Nell as the white ball in a game of billiards. It is the focus of each player but what it does is defined by how it interacts with all the other billiards. Nobody cares about the white ball very much. In the same way Nell 's importance to this story was more how she drove interactions with the other characters.

I liked all the various stories. They were great Dickens' stories but the ties that bound everything together felt a bit weak. I almost wished that there had been more of the Marchioness (another young girl who ends up marrying and helping reform another side character) and not so much Nell. Nell was not a strong person and as such didn't have the personality to drive this story forward.

Don't get me wrong, this was still a good, fun, interesting story. But it didn't have quite that “pop” that I found in some of my other reads by Dickens. Could also be that coming after the Pickwick Papers didn't do this any favors for me either.

Overall, I enjoyed this but didn't find much to say about it and nothing made me sit up and go “Awesomesauce”. Definitely on the lower end of the Dickens Ladder.

★★★★☆

Sentenced to Prism (2000 Review)

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Clash at Mata Cemetery (Shaman King #7) ★★★☆½

Title: Clash at Mata Cemetery
Series: Shaman King #7
Author: Hiroyuki Takei
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 192
Format: Digital Copy

Synopsis:

Yoh and Ren begin their fight and Ren comes out very strong. Yoh evades but eventually Ren gets serious and pulls out a second ghost that integrates with Bason. Yoh learns a couple of things as Ren rants and rants and the book ends with Ren about to unleash everything he has onto Yoh.

A couple of side vignettes break up the fight,thankfully. Ren's older sister Jun is talking to their father and begs him to release Ren from the course of becoming Shaman King. The Tao's have a history of violent bloodshed and it is killing Ren inside to particpate in such a family tradition. He is coming to hate all Life and should he become Shaman King, he plans on wiping out humanity in a global apocalypse.

My Thoughts:

We now fully move on to the Super Special Named Power Moves!!!! Oh my goodness. Eye rolling. Its fun as long as you read through it fast enough. One page spreads of physical manifestations of powering up don't quite have the same affect on me as they might on a teenage boy.

The one thing I really did enjoy about this volume was the almost continual references to Ren's pointy hair. During one of the powerup times I think Manta makes a comment like “Look! He's gotten even pointy'er!” It was a good light moment. I missed having Ryu involved, as he really brings the comedy.

Since this fight ends right in the middle, I'm diving into volume 8 right away. Hopefully that review will go up this week too.

★★★☆½

Monday, November 12, 2018

The Technician (Polity #12) ★★★★☆

Title: The Technician
Series: Polity #12
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 512
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

We the readers are returned to the world of Masada, introduced in the Agent Cormac books. Now that the Polity has “been invited in”, things are changing. One of the few surviving Proctors from the old regime was attacked by a hooder but not killed. This Hooder, known as the Technician, left something in the proctors head and the Polity wants to know what. The proctor goes on a crazy trip for about 20 years where he just sits as an invalid on a prison island until an AI decides that it has had enough. Things are orchestrated to start a chain of events to give the proctor back his memories and for the Polity to find out what was in his head.

The gabbleducks, the native life of Masada, are shown to be the devolved descendants of the space faring race the Atheter that went extinct millions of years ago. They commited race extinction after being exposed to Jain tech and left behind a machine whose sole job was to prevent them from ever regaining sapience again.

Now that the Polity has an Atheter AI, the gabbleducks and some unknown something inside the proctors head, all on the same planet, this machine awakens. There is a climactic showdown between it and the Technician and some top of the line Polity vessels. The proctor transfers his memories (or, the last living Atheter's) memories to a gabbleduck and the AI wakes up. The Atheter appear to be on the rise.

We are also introduced to Penny Royal, a black AI. It was split into 8 parts and the 8^th was excised, as it contained the psychotic bits. However, the AI Amistad kept that 8^th part for study and during all of this Penny Royal gets its hands on the 8^th part. It apparently destroys it.

My Thoughts:

I somehow messed up and read this before reading The Gabble and Other Stories, which introduces how the Polity found the Atheter AI and does a bit of setup for this book. However, Asher does enough fill in for the reader that it isn't strictly necessary to have read that book first. It just would have been nicer.

Ok, first. Asher is in fine form with his bashing of religion and returning to the world of Masada allows him free reign to setup strawmen that he not only knocks down, but pretty much uses a flamethrower on. I've stated it before, but Asher's god is Scyenze and he's as vitriolic and mocking as any old high priest you could think of. That was pretty much why this stayed at a 4star rating like the last time I read it. If it wasn't for that, this would have been approaching 5star easily.

This was AWESOME. Splatterpunk space opera at its finest. The proctor gets his face eaten off by the Technician and then gets a prosthetic from the Polity medical team later. On his journey he CUTS HIS OWN FACE OFF AGAIN because he hates the Polity so much. I'm sorry, but how can you not love that?!?

The introduction of Penny Royal was good on this re-read. It is a side character and so when I read this the first time it didn't even register when Asher ended up writing a whole trilogy about it. Now that I've read that trilogy, seeing its introduction is pretty cool.

The human side was done just as well. The proctor, with his mix of literary attendants both for and against, makes for a great survival story. Between the planet and the wildlife and the Tidy Squad (a group that hunts down the former regime) and then the Polity forces, you get a full range of interaction.

Asher does good work on single novels. I won't call this a standalone because knowledge of the Polity and Masada is pretty vital to really understand it but I think someone “could” read this and figure out what they needed. I'm pretty pleased with this read through.

★★★★☆

Friday, November 09, 2018

A Rare Benedictine (Brother Cadfael #21) ★★★☆☆

Title: A Rare Benedictine
Series: Brother Cadfael #21
Author: Ellis Peters
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Medieval Mystery
Pages: 130
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

3 short stories. One about how Cadfael chose to become a monk and then 2 that were referenced in other books but never fleshed out.

My Thoughts:

Apparently, the previous book, Brother Cadfael's Penance, was the “real” final book in the series. I kind of wish I had known that going in to this book so I wasn't constantly looking for a series wrapup.

This was just a series of short stories about Cadfael. Beyond the first one where we find out just how Cadfael becomes a monk, the other stories felt extremely familiar, almost like re-treads. Nothing bad but nothing really good either. Decent reads is what I'd qualify it as.

I felt very “whatever” at the end of the book and am glad I'm done with Cadfael. Between this and the bomb that P.D. James turned out to be, I think I'm done with any sort of “mystery” genre or sub-genre for quite some time.

★★★☆☆

Previous Brother Cadfael Reviews

Wednesday, November 07, 2018

Chasm City (Revelation Space #2) ★★★★½

Title: Chasm City
Series: Revelation Space #2
Author: Alastair Reynolds
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 708
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis: Spoilers

Tanner Mirabel wakes up with his memories scrambled. All he really knows is that he has to track down and kill one Argent Reivich, the man who killed his boss and boss's wife. Tanner is now on Chasm City, light years from Sky's Edge and he is without allies, without money and without much information. Thankfully, his memory is slowly coming back.

Tanner gets involved in problems on Chasm City when he's kidnapped and used for a Hunt. The rich immortals living on Chasm City are bored and the Hunt is one way they alleviate such boredom. Between some unexpected allies and his own military background, Tanner turns the tables and suddenly has some allies, some money and some serious firepower. Unfortunately, while his memory is returning, other memories are also returning, the memories of Sky Haussman, the founder of Sky's Edge. Which is impossible as Sky was crucified and killed a LONG time ago. Maybe Tanner is just going insane.

Tanner tracks Reivich down to an asteroid where Reivich is undergoing a Deep Scan, one where he will destroy his body but upload his mind. During all of this more and more memories are returning and Tanner finds out that the real Tanner is hunting HIM. Tanner is Kahuella, a war criminal from Sky's Edge. There is a showdown between the two Tanners and “our” Tanner wins when he releases an unknown ability, the ability to bite with envenomed fangs and kills the original Tanner. ALL of “our” Tanner's memories come crashing back and he realizes he is Sky Haussman and that the dreams of Haussman he's been having aren't from a bio-plague but true memories.

Tanner chooses to remain as Tanner and start a security company on Chasm City and give the Hunt the set of rules we are familiar with from the previous book.

My Thoughts:

In-freaking-credible! I enjoyed this read so much that I'm not really sure what to focus on. The only downside I guess.

I didn't give this 5stars because I'm not sure how this will hold up to a re-read. 75% of the tension was not knowing what was going on with Tanner and his memories and now that I know, I don't know how that will affect future re-reads. And that is it.

This had everything I wanted in a good Science Fiction story. Aliens, sentient and otherwise, weapons of mass destruction and little weapons, a grand amount of fighting and death and carnage that really racks up the body count. It was very similar to a Polity novel but Alastair's style is so different from Neal Asher that there is NO mistaking the difference or feeling that you're retreading territory.

The Sky Haussman episodes felt very much like history lessons but there was enough intrigue going on that it didn't come across as boring info dumps. I have to admit though, most of the time info dumps don't bother me, except when they do. I still haven't figured out what the difference is though.

Alastair handles the time differentials skillfully. This book pretty much takes place at the same time as Revelation Space and so we get ties to make that book slightly fuller and here we find out information to make a re-read of RS richer.

Tanner makes for a great character. He's driven, has a great skill set, has a conscience and still isn't above killing people who are gunning for him. Following him as he remembers things was great fun. The whole memory thing was wicked weird, as the very idea was unsettling. If the mind can be so easily mucked around with, nothing is then sacred. But then, most materialists believe that the mind is just a series of synapses and electrical responses that can be transposed onto another medium “once we know enough”.

Apparently this was a novella first before it was expanded to this full length novel. So check the length of the one you're reading if you're not sure. I read the full novel and am not sure I'd want to try this as a novella.

★★★★½

Revelation Space (Book 1)

Tuesday, November 06, 2018

Right Ho, Jeeves (The Jeeves Omnibus #2.1) ★★★☆½

Title: Right Ho, Jeeves
Series: The Jeeves Omnibus #2.1
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 212
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Bertie comes back from the Continent with his Aunt and Cousin and things fall apart. Bertie tries to wear a white suit coat and clashes with Jeeves. Jeeves lets him have his way and solve everything on his own. So, Bertie's cousin is engaged but the couple fights and calls off the engagement. A friend of Bertie's is in love with a girl but can't work up the nerve to even talk to her. This girl is a friend of Bertie's cousin and is staying with them. Bertie is called down to the countryside to assist in giving a speech at a local boys school and hand out prizes. He avoids this by sending the love struck friend down with the promise that it will help him court the girl he loves. Bertie goes down to help restore bliss between his cousin and her fiance. He also finds out that his Aunt needs a lot of money from his Uncle to fund her vanity magazine, money which he already gave her but she lost in gambling on the Continent. Throw in Anatole the French chef who is threatening to leave and you have a problem only Jeeves can fix.

But Jeeves isn't fixing anything since Bertie WILL insist on wearing the white suit coat. Thus it falls to Bertie to solve everything. Of course, he just makes it 100 times worse. Thankfully, Jeeves relents and solves everything BUT at the cost of making everyone hate Bertie and “accidentally” leaving the iron on the white suit coat.

Hijinks, wrong engagements, one spectacular instance of public drunkenness and sundry other mishaps occur, affording the reader an escape from the humdrum of life for a couple of hours.

My Thoughts:

You know, I have mentioned this before, but it really stuck out, AGAIN. Whoever put these omnibus editions together is a complete jackass. I hate them in fact. It is almost like someone who never read the books and is not a reader at all in fact, looked at the books and just randomly pointed them out and decided which volume each book would go in. It is just frustrating as it is obvious it is lazy no good incompetence that made such decisions.

Overall, I still enjoyed this. This was another novel instead of a short story collection but so much is going on that it almost might as well be a short story collection. There were times I felt like I had already read this but given that Bertie references these escapades in other books, turns out I was just remembering the references. Another reason to kick the jackass who put these together.

I have to say, it is incredible how much Bertie can wreck things. What's even more astounding is just how dense he is when Jeeves fixes everything at his expense. Bertie pretty thinks “Oh well, at least I'm not getting married now” and is happy enough. Egads.

I think one of these books every 6 to 8 weeks is working out well. Enough time for me to forget any lingering animosity and to simply remember the stupidly funny stuff. That's good enough for me!

★★★☆½

Previous Jeeves Reviews

Friday, November 02, 2018

Saints (Monster Hunter Memoirs #3) ★★★★☆

Title: Saints
Series: Monster Hunter Memoirs #3
Author: John Ringo, Larry Correia
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 288
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Chad blows up at MCB after the experience in New Orleans. This puts him on their Super Shit List and one of the agents starts making things personal. A bad scrying shows Chad is involved with a black magic group kidnapping virgins to raise an Old One. Turns out it is Chad's brother but that makes Chad involved anyway. Chad takes down his brother and stops the ring. That's enough proof for the agent AND Agent Franks. Franks beats Chad almost to death and hospitalizes him. Chad then sues MCB and while things are in full swing heads over to England to do some reasearch at the Van Helsing Institute.

There he investigates why some of the occurrences are happening in New Orleans. Turns out, his brother has slightly awakened an Old One's cocoon. The Agent in charge of MCB in New Orleans has taken MCB being sued by Chad extremely personal so he does nothing when even Earl Harbinger tells him there is a baby Old One about to wake up and eat the world. That means its up to MHI to toe the line again and stand between the Earth and total destruction. MHI wins. Was there any ever doubt? Of course, they get a little help from the Fey and a High Hunt.

The books ends with Earl taking over and describing the events at the Christmas Party where Ray Shackleford IV almost destroys MHI. Turns out it is Earl and Chad who close the Portal to the Old One and Chad gives his life to allow Earl to do so.

My Thoughts:

This was a great wrapup to the trilogy. A nascent Old One growing under New Orleans? Man, how much more of a threat can you get than that? Everything leads up to that though, so the story goes from threat to threat to threat.

Everything isn't directly connected, so things feel a little discombobulated sometimes. The whole thing with his brother ends so quickly that there was no tension and besides it leading into Chad getting the snot beat out of him, was rather anti-climactic.

Chad's time in England was boring. It didn't help that the story about the ghost and the super special metal was included in the Monster Hunter Files anthology so I kind of felt cheated. Him teaching was just as boring.

The final battle was EVERYTHING I want out of a Monster Hunter International fight. Guns, bombs, flamethrowers, Holy Water, and so many monsters. So many, many monsters. Ringo and Correia did a fantastic job of making this a pulse pounding fight!

The ending, with Chad's sacrifice, was how this trilogy needed to end. Chad's story had a beginning and this was his end. For all his philandering, dickheaded braggodocio and general arrogance, Chad goes out like a hero.

Overall, this was a worthwhile read in the MHI universe, even if a little bit off from Correia's style.

★★★★☆

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

77 Shadow Street ★★★☆½

Title: 77 Shadow Street
Series: ----------
Author: Dean Koontz
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Pages: 722
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis: Spoilers

The Pendleton. Built back in the late 1800's, it was the biggest mansion of its kind to date. Throughout the years, strange things have happened to those who lived there. Murders, kidnappings, disappearances, suicides, mental breakdowns. Now the Pendleton has been turned into a bunch of luxury condos. Now the residents are starting to see some really weird things. Now one old man who has done his research knows he must get everybody out of the building if any of them want to survive the next 24hrs.

A disparate group are brought together and through the mystery of Scyenze, are swept into the future to a world that is post-human. Post-anything in fact, except for The One. The One rules All, The One Knows All, The One IS All. Among the group is revealed the creator of The One and The One sows the seeds for its own birth, thus making sure of its own survival and the destruction of humanity.

The One hower, is NO match for 2 kids, an ex-Marine, a Honky-tonk song writer, a brilliant novelist, a blind man, 2 old ladies and their cats, a Scyenzist who swears he WON'T create The One and some others. Oh yeah, and one insane murdering hitman. The group survives and puts paid to the Scyenzist and some shadowy figure kills the other Scyenzist who could do the same.

The World is Safe. For Now.

My Thoughts:

Despite the tone of my Synopsis, I rather enjoyed this. I called this a Horror/Thriller because while it had elements of Horror, they weren't supernatural. However, when creatures shove black goop down your throat and turn you into more of them, what else do you call that? It sure isn't slapstick comedy.

Having read the Frankenstein novels and the Odd Thomas series, I can see so many ideas that Koontz uses over and over. I think that would/will be a problem if I read a bunch of Koontz back to back or even with just a month of each other. I think with the spacing I have though it should be ok.

The Good Guys Win. That knocked my rating up a half star easily. It is refreshing. Obviously not everybody makes it and there is a big enough group that no particular outcome is telegraphed in terms of survival so I never felt like any particular character was safe (except for the 2 kids, especially the autistic girl). That bit of tension is nice and made the story have a bit of “snap” to it.

I have no desire to ever re-read this book but that is pretty much how I've felt about all of Koontz's books. With the amount he's turned out though, that really isn't a problem. A solid fun read that was just scary enough for me but not really scary (which is how I like my scary books).

★★★☆½

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Measure for Measure ★★★☆☆

Title: Measure for Measure
Series: ----------
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Play, Comedy
Pages: 96
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Duke Somebody leaves his city-state in the hands of a man the Duke trusts, or so he says. His real plan is for the stand-in, Angelo, to enforce the moral laws of the land that the Duke has been ignoring. Thus the Duke will get a more moral populace without having the outrage directed against him.

Unfortunately for him, Angelo turns into a tyrant and condemns a man to death for fornication. When the doomed man's sister pleads for mercy, Angelo says he'll forego the death sentence if she'll have sex with him. The Duke, disguised as a monk, over hears everything that is going on and sets things up so that a woman Angelo spurned years ago takes the sister place. Angelo is fooled but reneges on his word. The Duke reveals himself to the jailor and comes up with a plan to save the doomed man.

The Duke sets everything in motion, then “returns” publicly. The sister and spurned woman cry for justice, Angelo says everything is all lies and then the doomed man comes forth, not dead after all. Angelo is forced to marry the spurned woman, so she has all the legal rights of a wife. The Duke then sentences Angelo to die just like Angelo sentenced the doomed brother to die.

The sister marries the Duke and everything turns out alright for everyone who is good.

My Thoughts:

There was a lot of wordplay humor here that amused me. Almost no physical comedy so that also helped. The story of a hypocrite getting his just desserts is always a good one.

That being said, I think the Duke is an ass. He supposedly knows Angelo from all the way back “when” and even knows he spurned the poor girl when her dowry fell through and yet he seems so surprised at how Angelo acts once he's in control.

The way Angelo is presented at first came across as a hard nosed, take no nonsense kind of guy. I was rooting for him in fact. Time somebody cleaned up the filth. But of course, nobody can actually be good if they want to enforce the laws, oh no! They're heartless brutes who secretly break the law themselves at every turn. Now, doesn't THAT narrative sound terribly familiar? Wouldn't surprise me if Democrats read Shakespeare as a How To instead of as a warning.

The whole thing with the Duke and the sister getting married just made me laugh. She is going to be a nun but puts her final vows on hold so she can save her brother. A couple of days later the Duke pretty much says 'Woman, marry me!” and she's all “You got it, you sexy beast”. Somehow I wonder if she would have turned into a “Naughty” nun, hahahahaa.

Overall, this was MUCH more enjoyable than the previous plays. I needed that, as reading unlikeable plays time after time was getting a bit wearisome.

★★★☆☆

Previous Shakespeare Reviews

Monday, October 29, 2018

Road Trip to Izumo (Shaman King #6) ★★★☆½ (Manga Monday)

Title: Road Trip to Izumo
Series: Shaman King #6
Author: Hiroyuki Takei
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 192
Format: Digital Copy

Synopsis:

Yoh and Faust conclude their match. Yoh tricks Faust into overextending his mana and manages to destroy Eliza's corporeal form. This sends Faust into a rage and a monologue where we find out Faust's history and that Eliza is actually his dead wife. Faust wants to become Shaman King to bring her back to life. Yoh uses up his mana to destroy Eliza and thus loses the match. Faust tries to kill Yoh even though the match is over. Yoh is saved by Ren Tao because Ren's next fight is with Yoh.

Yoh realizes he simply isn't powerful enough and so makes a trip to his hometown Izumo. There his grandfather sends him through a cave for a 7day journey in full sensory deprivation.

At the same time it is revealed that Monta is the heir to Japan's largest Electronics company and his getting almost killed doesn't sit real well with his family. His dad tries to bundle him to America but Monta decides last minute to not get on the plane and to go to Izumo He has the company of Wooden Sword Ryu who has decided that he wants Yoh's grandfather to train him as a Shaman. They run into a young girl who is in training who can read the future through her spirit guides Conchi and Ponchi. C&P are dirty minded little tricksters who simply are bored. Anna shows up and takes control and straightens everything out.

Yoh comes forth from the cave much stronger but now has to finish his training with his Grandfather.

The book ends with Ren Tao talking about his family and how he wishes they all were dead.

My Thoughts:

I have a presentiment that most of the future “reviews” of Shaman King will consist more of the synopsis than anything else. That's one of the pitfalls of a fighting shonen manga. The battles themselves become more important than the storyline. This hasn't reached that level yet but the training, powering up, etc has begun in earnest and new tricks will be revealed in each book. It is expected now and thus plot will be taking a second seat.

The background of Monta was really odd, as him being a Magnates heir just doesn't seem to fit him. Of course, him being just 12 somewhat mitigates that. Considering the Oyamada's feelings about Yoh I suspect some drama will ensue in later books. OR they'll just disappear and we'll never see them again. There is certainly enough “family” drama going on what with the Asakuras and the Tao's. Speaking of Ren Tao, his desire to be the Shaman King to end his family's cycle of death and revenge seems a bit off too, as it did with Monta. Doing what they want doesn't seem the way to oppose them. Definitely shows that he's not invested emotionally in his family's vendetta against “whomever”.

The little cartoon spirits of Conchi and Ponchi definitely reminded me of Ren & Stimpy. While I never watched that particular cartoon, my friends all did and I heard more than enough and saw more than enough. Their pairing with the shy and reserved Tamao, the future reader, is genius on the manga-ka's part, as they don't actually have to be that bad to look bad since they're being compared to Tamao. She can barely talk she's so shy. The manga-ka definitely is jumping around with his characters to find the right “comedic” character so we'll see if these 2 make a splash or not.

I think next month I won't be doing a volume every week. It was ok this month but honestly, it's a bit much to keep it up. Well, I say that as I'm recovering from being sick so maybe when I'm healthy I'll feel full of vim and vigor and say “Piss & Vinegar! Give me that manga!” I doubt it though.

★★★☆½