Perspicacious

Alexa, Define perspicacious:  "The term 'perspicacious' has a couple of meanings: as an adjective, 1. acutely insightful and wise; 2. mentally acute or penetratingly discerning." Thank you Alexa: "No Problem, I'm happy to help."  (Damn gadget knows more than I do...)

[aegiswiz]

efbook is blocking this link so I’m trying it from a different angle.

FB Purity browser extension also provides ways to filter out the hate liberals want hanging out of their diapers. Check out the link to see if they are a fit for you.

[aegiswiz]

Doubt by C.E. Tobisman, Review

Doubt by C.E. Tobisman  My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Listened on 8/10/16 to 77%, and again on 8/18/16 to the end. I really liked it. 4 of 5 stars. I recommend this book whole-heartedly, first to the lovers of the genre, and second to anyone who enjoys any genre.

Immediately I said to myself this is by Marcia Clark. I tried to pin it down exactly. It was an *audiobook*, so it may have been the same reader. I just thought the vocabulary, voice, tempo, and cadence sounded like “Blood Defense” by Marcia Clark. My bad.

I soon forgot the similarity as I was consumed by a murder within the first few pages. Once hooked around 7pm, it was still refusing to let go at midnight. I didn’t make into bed until well past 3 AM. The last 3 hours of debate in my head at each new chapter was regarding my ability to remain awake. At chapter 15 the sandman was winning the battle and I was forced to stop.

This isn’t my normal genre. It was aa Amazon Prime Member Kindle First book, chosen a month before it was published for free. I thought I selected it because I saw it would only have an audio CD, so I bought that too. Turns out, I didn’t choose the book, or just as likely Amazon failed me once again, then when it did come out it had my cherished whispersync audio. Lose-lose seems my normal relationship with Amazon this year. Where I did not lose was taking a chance on C.E. Tobisman.

Caroline Auden is our unlikely heroine. She isn’t immediately introduced. We get a nice murder to start us out running. Then we meet Caroline, but she’s no gumshoe detective, she’s a tech geek who took a change in occupation and was nervously going to her first day of work as a lawyer. No... stop with the lawyer jokes. Caroline is good people and I tell you that as the biggest spoiler I usually offer. If you like the protagonist who will certainly face nightmare after nightmare, always in doubt as the she is given too much responsibility on her first day. Her first case is a bazillion dollar class action suit to work on.... just to go over the research since she has some tech background.

I was feeling the vague mixture of a John Grisham’s “Pelican Brief” and “The Firm” . C.E. Tobisman’s ”Doubt” isn’t either of those books, maybe some of the best of both.

I was taken step by step deeper and deeper into the danger Caroline found herself in. Often uncertain of herself, her mentor, the firm's top partner, gave her the encouragement to dig deeper.

Most all good books are good characters overcoming all odds to master their real world tragedy and their own inner demons. I long ago lost touch with John Grisham and don’t revisit the genre often but I may notice if a Caroline Auden book crosses my path in my future. I’ll be making a budget decision between the quality of my diet verses several days of wonderful entertainment.

View all my Goodread reviews

Links Don’t Work Disclaimer

: Goodreads automatically alter some web links for their own policy reasons. This is fine by me. The links are still there, they have just inserted a snipped of code that prevents clicks from following the links. Shortly after the Goodreads review is posted a similar review is posted on  http://sagelyfox.wordpress.com

,Damn!! With Tumblr the harder you work the worse it gets.  Get it perfect, then the images disappear.  Images disappear, the text goes where ever it wishes.  I fear this is the end of my Perspicacious experiment.  Check out ... The Sagely Fox

[aegiswiz]

My Chains are Gone. 

[aegiswiz]

Call of the Wild by Jack London, A Book Review

The Call of the Wild by Jack London My rating: 4 of 5 stars I picked up the Amazon.com “Free Edition”, and purchased the Audible Whispersync for Voice or Immersion Reading for $2.99 which Audible did not screwed up for once! So this review covers both the ebook and the Audible audiobook. I read it on August 12, 2016. I really liked it and recommend this book to all readers. It is a classic for good reason. My 4 of 5 star rating is probably an insult, but I was comparing the book to White Fang which I really loved. The hard thing with giving any rating is that it is subjective. Whether the reviewer realizes it or not, their rating is almost certainly relative to something else. Call of the Wild is very similar to White Fang. Rather than the coming of age story of a young wolf, it is instead about “Buck”, a large and powerful St. Bernard-Scotch Shepherd. Unlike White Fang Buck starts in a happy home in Santa Clara Valley, not born into the wild. Buck is dog-napped by one of his owner’s servants in order to cover the shortcoming of his gambling vice. So begins Buck’s life moving ever northward and driving him to his inner Call of the Wild. What I did not know while I was reading this novel is that during that period of the Yukon gold rush there was a heavy demand for strong sled dogs. That created an underground black market to meet that demand, which is one reason the scoundrel at the beginning of the book would even think of stealing his employer’s dog in order to sell it. On a personal level I connected with several of the characters. First with Judge Miller. While we aren’t shown much about him, I know the ache of losing a beloved pet. Most importantly I identified with Buck. Life is hard. I’ve never complained much about my life but Ive certainly felt kidnapped and indentured into service like Buck. I’ve certainly felt stresses of society pressing in upon me and having to change from who I am at heart to something more suitable for survival as happens with Buck. When Buck was being horribly abused, I felt that desire for justice that I often felt when I was younger. Frankly I don’t see how any reader could avoid connecting to Buck. I even connected with even the mail delivery workers on several levels. You know it is great fiction when you connect with the minor characters in a book who are barely there, then they are gone. I’ll not personally spoil it further but if you must spoil your reading here’s the Cliff Notes Summary. It has been a while since I finished the book and needed to refresh my feeble memory of the story. I also found Jack London’s biography there, which was as interesting to me as this book. I've made a slide show of Call of the Wild illustrations by Philip R. Goodwin. Here's the [SLIDESHOW] or you can see the [STORYBOARD]. While I purchased the audiobook from Amazon.com, there is no reason for you to pay for it. You can get many of Jack London's audiobooks free at Librovox.org, and in a number of various audiofile formats at Project Gutenberg. I also ran across the 2000 movie of Call of the Wild on YouTube. Today is 9/29/16. I mention that as I'm unaware of poster's rights and DCMA folks might ask it be removed. So move now if you want a look at it. View all my Goodread reviews The Sagely Fox on Wordpress

[aegiswiz]

Lord John and the Haunted Soldier by Diana Galbadon, A Book Review

[aegiswiz]

The Last Gatekeeper by Katy Haye, Book Review

The Last Gatekeeper by Katy Haye My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Read on 8/16 to page 37, on 8/19 to page 68, on 8/21 to page 80, on 8/25 to page 104, on 8/26 to page 114, on 8/30 to The End

"I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review."

Today I reviewed the Reading Deals Review Club “rules” once again because I was distraught

. The rule is actually “Only provide honest, constructive reviews”. Some folks may not notice the difference. But I do.

My 2 star rating is based on Amazon’s 2 star rating (I didn’t like it), but I won’t argue with Goodread’s 2 star rating (It was ok.) which makes it sound better. I would not recommend this book. There are some interesting concepts with interconnecting fantasy worlds.

I look at the massive number of 4 and 5 star reviews (at several locations) and think to myself. “I wish I read that book.” There’s no need to detail anything at all about the book. Between the blurbs and the reviews it is pretty much covered top to bottom. There’s no question what is going on, or what happens, or by who. I doubt I could write a spoiler not already written. A person may be able to read the blurb and several reviews and never need read the book. I felt similar about White Fang by Jack London, so it may just be one of my personal quirks.

I did not connect with this book on any level. Not with one character, hard as tried, as dearly as I wanted to. I thought the relationships were contrived and melodramatic. The dialog, when written so I could understand it was beyond my ability to suspend disbelief.

I’m sad as I wanted to like this book. I’ve been writing reviews for ages, writing critiques on unpublished manuscripts for decades, and thought this Reading Deals Review Club might afford me some opportunities to be helpful to beginning writers. So I’m going to try despite my rather harsh feelings about this book.

There are formulas for success with fiction that are well known. There are a hundred books on such things. Ms. Haye asserts she’s studied the science of story and this is the only thing I can imagine she means. And like a mechanic putting the right pieces in the right places she did do a rather remarkable job. In fact, my notes to myself remarks, “she hits her plot points like a metronome.”. That is no small compliment. In that sense, this book should have been as wonderful as all the praise it has received. I felt however the writing skill, the craft of writing, some elements of the fundamentals were all lacking.

I committed to finish reading this book and even 3 paragraphs into the book I knew I didn’t want to. I literally have 4000 words of criticism in my notes. Realizing I may never finish this book I dug in and plowed through the last third, ignoring every time some thing or another completely knocked me out of the book, and just kept at it. Doing that I was able to find some enjoyment in the book. By the end I was actually curious about one or two decisions Ms. Haye had her heroine Zan waffle towards.

I’d like to point out I have rated this book higher than “Catcher in the Rye”. While Mr. Salinger writes better, he could have learned a great deal about story from Ms. Haye.

I hope Ms. Haye continues to have wonderful success with these stories of hers and that her ardent fans continue to support her efforts.

View all my Goodreads reviews

My Perspicacious Blog has Book Reviews and other odds and ends.

And The Sagely Fox  (Watching, Learning, Thinking) ... a place for Book Reviews and other observations.

View all my reviews

[aegiswiz]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p2Aw220Y3w)

The black power fist of Black Panthers is not courage. Fighting for your nation is.- Liz Wheeler

This has to be one of the brightest moments in many many a day for me.  And to think I had never heard of OAN!!!  I hope I have much more of Ms. Wheeler and OAN Network in my future, Specially since it appears the only national news network that had a spine had it surgically removed many months ago, leaving ZERO reliable main stream media outlets in the country.   

[aegiswiz]

To Build a Fire by Jack London, Short Story Review

To Build a Fire by Jack London is a short story. Read to completion on Friday 8/5/16 finishing at 01:11AM. Repeated Librovox audiobook listening(s) between 8/5 and 9/13 by Bob Neufeld(taking 46:38 minutes) and Betsie Bush (40:03 minutes).

I really liked it (4 stars) and recommend it to all readers.

The story is told from an omnipresence 3rd person point of view so in addition to knowing the protagonist’s sights, sounds, feelings, you also know what he is thinking and not thinking as he takes or does not take actions throughout the story.

A man in the Klondike, Yukon has taken a side trip to check on some money making opportunities for the coming spring and is now heading to meet his boys. He has apparently been told that when the weather gets below minus 50 degrees he ought to have a traveling companion. While the man is not intimately familiar with the specific area he’s a man’s manly man and believes he knows how to make a short trip through some cold weather.

At this point I’d like to interject some personal experience. I’ve never been in extreme cold weather like -50 degrees Fahrenheit, but I recall being in the US Army and having to take a short trip to a helicopter to check its condition in some “below zero” weather. I was well prepared by the military to perform mymission…. Meaning the Army generally dresses its soldiers appropriately. I stepped out of the flight room into the windy, below zero weather… It was as painful as a serious slap and it literally made my nose run immediately. That fluid also immediately froze in my mustache. I had maybe 150 yards until I could get myself inside the helicopter, but with the cold, I was not going to be able to perform any tasks. I stayed long enough inside the helicopter to partially defrost, which included wiping my forearm across my face and breaking my mustache off where the snot had frozen.

I tell this story as I have this reference in my mind as I’m reading about this man’s trip of several miles in minus 50 degree weather. At one point our protagonist notices his spit freezes and cracks before hitting the ground which meant to him it was minus 60 or even minus 70 degrees.

People accustomed to extreme cold know the precautions to take and preparations necessary to make such a trip only dangerous, not deadly. In this story there are hints our hero may not be as familiar with extreme cold as he lets on. Still, as you read, you connect with our heroic character and soon start feeling the minor frustrations he keeps encountering, each becoming more severe in consequences. But our hero remains confident and optimistic! This is well and good but what gave me, the reader, hope for our hero is that he has remained calm when things have gone wrong.

Again, drawing on personal experience, the very real danger Earth offers 24/7/365 requires a person to stay calm. When the Earth starts shaking or suddenly sounds like a freight train just ran over your neighbor’s house. Panic and fear are often as dangerous as what is happening, or at minimum will only make what is unbearable become impossible or deadly.

So we have hope for our hero because he remains calm in a crisis. Instead of panic, he thinks. “Ok, this is bad, how do get that fixed.”

The story reaches it’s readers on multiple levels. Of course we want to know what is going to happen in the story but as we move through the story we are being informed or educated about such things as, without the story, we may have no experience to draw upon should we suddenly find ourselves in extreme weather.

I think that’s sufficient information to encourage you to read this short story and I have a bag of tricks to help you on your way. First, if you’ll look at the beginning paragraphs there are a lot of links. The first link is to the “To Build a Fire” online followed by Jack London’s bio at Wikipedia. Then there is the “short story” link to the free ebook with several short stories, one of them being “To Build a Fire”. The “Bob Neufeld” and “Betsie Bush” links go to the Librovox bios of the readers of the audiobook short stories and the linked minutes and seconds go to the respective audio-files read by each of these volunteer readers so you can listen yourself. Bob & Betsieversions.

Finally, I found a Comic representation of Jack London’s book done by Allie Doersh. Just go to the site and scroll down to seen the 8 pages of cartoon panels. Now how many reviewers are going to scour the Internet for you so you can easily get a cartoon idea of what the story is about? It’s my pleasure! View all my Goodreads reviews Perspicacious, A blog. The Sagely Fox, Another blog in development

[aegiswiz]

The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett, Book Review

The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett

Read on 5/21 to page 45, on 5/31 to page 107, on 6/19 to page 181, on 7/6 to page 297, on 7/15 to page 391, on 7/25 to page 459, on 8/4 to The End. Loved it. Recommend it. My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think Mr. Brett intentionally considered... what will my readers expect, then set about not to do that.

In the series through “Desert Spear” there are a number of prominent “top characters”. The Warded Man, from the first book, naturally, but into this book there have been his internal struggles regarding the passing by of lives filled with the love of beautiful, smart, and charming women that could have been. So there are at least two of these characters who are significant in “Desert Spear”.

By the end of “The Warded Man” there is a very likely candidate for the antagonist in Desert Spear. So that’s where Mr. Brett starts this book, but not with Ahmann Jardir at the conclusion of the Warded Man!!! Rather with Ahmann Jardir the young child who is massively influenced by the culture of the Fort Krasia and the Krasian Desert, the last place on the planet that is not afraid of the night, where honor and a chance at paradise is possible if you can fight demons.

So, all that pent up anxiety teetering on what is about to happen at the conclusion of “The Warded Man”, is left like steam in a pressure cooker, as the expected confrontations are decades away. And Mr. Brett, keeping the tradition of changing points of view, does so here, to the likes of Inevera. Again, not where we left off in ‘The Warded Man”. Rather at the beginning of her life in her village helping with the family business. Again, decades before the end of “The Warded Man”.

This is all quite unexpected as Mr. Brett could have easily jumped into some massive action immediately in “Desert Spear”. Brilliant author he is, he decided to let his readers simmer in the pressure cooker, lid firmly attached, and heat still applied.

There are a couple writer’s tricks going on here but since Mr. Brett is wonderful at character development we are soon students of this history of Krasia and cannot get enough as there is just so much we did not know!

I studied writing for decades, yet forget the terminology, but Mr. Brett has brought us to a point where you are without doubt that some massive actions of good verses bad are inevitable. Then suspends the fulfillment of that dopamine rushing through your body by going in that other directions, but you are hooked in the most desperate of ways.

Mr. Brett doesn’t actually throw his readers into an icy shower and withhold hope of the inevitable, he starts shifting back and forth in time, so you actually get the full flavor of the folks most perceived as mean and evil, minus the demons, of course.

I’ve said so little while implying so much. I will offer a quasi spoiler of sorts… By the conclusion of Desert Spear, you are where you expected to be on page 3, after finishing “The Warded Man”, and things have gone so sideways so many times, the big deal you’ve been expecting, may still not come at the beginning of “The Daylight War.”!!!!

Anyone who has read “The Desert Spear” likely has some certainty what is about to happen, probably at the beginning of “The Daylight War.”

While I’m not finished with “The Daylight War”, I can spoil it…. It is like Desert War. It opens having gone sideways. But don’t believe for an instant Mr. Brett is not in full control, plucking your heartstrings, lighting your desires, tensing your muscles, and giving you pause as his whims are inclined.

You’ll want to pick up Daylight War right away. You’re not going to want to be high on reader’s dopamine euphoria then reach the end of this book and find it may be hours before you can get your next Demon Cycle euphoria injection.

Do I recommend this book? How dare I say no if there’s a chance it may frustrate Mr. Brett and he respond by cutting off the supply of Demon Cycle euphoria.

Look for the video here. Read any of my Goodreads Reviews View all my reviews

[aegiswiz]

White Fang by Jack London, Book Review

White Fang by Jack London, Read on 7/25 to page 44 and on 8/3 to The End.

General Spoiler Warning, applies to nearly all books. If you’ve hear of a book and think you may want to read it based on what you’ve heard,DO NOT READ THE BLURB as the book’s introduction, regardless of where it is at.  This book, at Goodreads supplied 3 paragraphs of spoilers and one great intro paragraph. IF I had I read the Goodread’s Book intro it would have spoiled 2 parts of the book or at least several paragraphs.  

The one good paragraph was this one:

A classic adventure novel detailing the savagery of life in the northern wilds. Its central character is a ferocious and magnificent creature, through whose experiences we feel the harsh rhythms and patterns of wilderness life among animals and men.

I can not write a better non-spoiler intro to the book.  Sadly it was preceded by those other 3 paragraphs.  I try not to write spoilers, or if I do I at least make you decide to look at it. Rant Complete

I’m giving 5 of 5 stars.  It was NOT amazing, but I did love it.  With Goodreads I always get stuck with “It was Amazing”  Why do they do that?  Look at Amazon’s low to high star rating.  Look at Goodreads low to high star rating.  If I were giving a Goodread’s rating it would necessarily be 4 then I’d have to comment that it was 4.5. Not doing that anymore.  I’m using the Amazon rating.  It is consistent and makes sense.  At the top of Amazon’s chart they don’t  throw you a curve ball.

I really did love this book.  It felt like I was taken way back to my literary pre-puberty where I had long finished my book of Bible Stories and now my trips to the library were serving me baseball biographies like Ted Williams and Lou Gerhig, quickly followed by obsession on a long list of baseball hero biographies.  With baseball finished I was in the pre-puberty literary doldrums... until I discovered MYSTERY!  Hardy boys, Nancy Drew... being only allowed two books a week, 5 days a week I was waiting for the next trip the the library. Then an older brother allowed me to sneak his latest edition of Doc Savage.  130+ Doc Savage adventures later I was in the doldrums again.

Why all this about my ancient history?  Rin-Tin-Tin was on TV!  Sinking into White Fang was like stepping back into the adventures of my youth.  Only a few short pages into the book I was scared for the Henry and Bill characters.  My god, I could not have slept a second if I were them.  They were brave strong men through. The kind of men I was going to grow up to be.  

I was also confused.  I knew the novel was about White Fang.  Fortunately I didn’t really know what that means.  I’m Indian. Would an Indian Chief named White Fang com to the aid of  Henry and Bill who were becoming terribly afraid of a wolf pack that had been following them.  I could tell they were going to eventually have to face those wolves. Would one of the wolves be be called White Fang?

I was excited reading this book, just like with Ted Williams, the Hardy boys, and the invincible Doc Savage and his crew of loyal friends.  <spoiler>It was still a very long time until I knew with certainty who or what White Fang was. I wasn’t sure who White Fang would be until I knew.</spoiler>

Yes... White Fang would have been quite special had the librarian or my mother pointed me towards the row of Jack London books when I was young.  There would have been nights under the blankets with a flashlight so I wouldn’t be caught not sleeping after lights out.  My older brother, rest his soul, loved torturing me though and would always rat me out if he caught me. We had the same room.

Well, it is 4 or 5 decades later.  After this book I’ve already discovered that most of Jack London’s work are on Librovox.org. White Fang is here. I love listening and reading... Here’s a sample of the Librovox Audiobook (may also click the image below).  It’s ok, you can take a little 8 minute taste by Mark F. Smith, one of the best Librovox volunteer readers, from South Carolina.

The free ebook is here. Or if you prefer you can hit Amazon (who is growing ever more disappointing) and get the book FREE there too, and pay a few dollars for their whyspersync audio reading.

I’ll tell you this, if you don’t love Jack London already, and you do fall in love with his writing, you struck gold.  He was prolific and it appears most all his work is in the public domain.  So you’ll be able to get free ebooks and audiobooks, whatever suits your reading desires. Click the image below to check out the YouTube 1991 Movie of White Fang

My Goodreads Review of White Fang

[aegiswiz]

Allegiant by Veronica Roth: Book Review

Allegiant by Veronica Roth:  Read on 7/24 to p.123 on 7/31 to p.284 on 8/2/16 to Completion.  I also listened to the Audiobook while simultaneously reading.  Click Audiobook above or here for sample.

I am generous when I say it was “ok”.  I am not going to award Goodread’s 2 stars for this, rather Amazon’s 3 stars as that seems to reflect “OK” to me more accurately.  If you’ve read Divergent and Insurgent, and were still interested, go ahead and read Allegiant.  

I’ve not seen the movie, but this one time I hope they’ve taken great literary liberty with the movie. If they did, I think they had an opportunity to make the movie better than the book. Yes, a strange bird if ever seen...

My notes to myself on 7/24 suggested the story was exceedingly tedious and that Tobias was now the wimp and Tris the more powerful of the two.  They had joined the Allegiant <spoiler>--Can be uncovered at Goodreads--- </spoiler>1

I looking back over the series I was surprised to realize the plot.  I didn’t stop mid-sentence.  Details different, plot, same, although one of the three take the more interesting and more courageous climax, then puts you back to sleep with the conclusion.  By courageous, I’m talking about the author.

if this next little bit is a spoiler, I apologize, but you’ve just not been paying attention if it is a spoiler.  The roller coaster ride that books take you on, the ups, downs, and spins around... in this series consists much of “He loves me? He loves me not? Repeat.”   In Allegiant Ms. Roth does something that actually shocked me.  She alternated between Tris and Tobias point of view.  Previously, except in her short stories, the viewpoint was almost exclusively that of Tris.

Now for the giant Allegiant spoiler...  Wait for it.... Tobias is all... “She loves me? She loves me not? Repeat.” I’ve been told hindsight is always 20-20 vision.  Looking back I see why Ms. Roth selected to offer the story from multiple points of view.  I was critical in my early notes to myself: “What kind of garbage is this now?”  I had no clue that could be so necessary.  It isn’t that I dislike multiple points of view in a book.  I’ve just come to expect this series to be exclusively from Tris’s viewpoint.  I suppose Ms. Roth said, “To hell with my expectations, I am woman, let me soar...” and so forth. While I don’t think this was a great book Ms. Roth is indeed an A-list writer.

Read any of my Goodreads Reviews

See THIS Goodreads Review (Nearly the same)

1 Tumblr doesn’t allow for coding to hide some words, be able to click on the ‘reveal’ button and see the hidden words.  On Goodreads it is done like this:

<a class="jsShowSpoiler spoilerAction">(view spoiler)</a><span class="spoilerContainer" style="display: none">[SPOILER STUFF <a class="jsHideSpoiler spoilerAction">(hide spoiler)</a>]</span>

Sadly... Tumblr isn’t so advanced, and even refuses to allow smaller fonts, and having images serve as links... so my only solution to reveal tiny spoilers is to link to the Goodreads review at some point in the post. If you don’t see it above it is because I’ve not written the Goodreads review so I have a link to add on. Update on hiding spoilers: Tumblr claims to allow Markup, and this can be done in markup...

[aegiswiz]

Suck My Cosmos, Hard Luck Hank #4 Book Review

5 stars.  Recommend to Sci Fi Humor fans.  I believe everyone would enjoy Steven Campbell’s wonderful creation “Hank” and the wonderful sense of humor that comes from Hank’s point of view.  5 stars is “Amazing” on Goodreads, and this is not “Amazing”, but I love it and am not going to give 4 stars when other-where(s) it would easily rate “I love it” 5 star status. 

Folks who make honest attempts to review a “later” book in a series of books and does not want to include spoilers is stuck with saying little more than, “Wow, this is another good Hank book.”   There’s little to say that won’t spoil it for other Hank fans.  It’s pretty much “more of the same” but different, like Steven Campbell has proven he can do expertly.

Besides Hank, another constant is Belvaille, the space station where Hank lives.  After book one, “Screw the Galaxy”, super fans like myself devour everything available in Hank’s world, which at that time, for me, led to some short stores on Delovoa and “Early Hank”.    For the most part, in the primary novels of Hard Luck Hank, Delovoa seems a boarish and sometimes uninteresting character.  Reading the short stories on Delovoa fill in the blanks so that any later mention of Delovoa is going to have you suddenly grabbing your seat anxious with whatever unexpected thing is about to happen.

In this outing Bellvaille is once again unbelievably changed.  Many of Steven’s most wonderful characters return.  Garm, and Delovoa are still hanging on... Even Wallow the Therezian makes an appearance.  After that a reviewer has to think.... this is book 4, and you know there’s a book 5 and almost certainly more in the future.  What can you say that is not a spoiler?   

I’ll try...

Hank has a new “assistant”, Cliston?  At one point in the book I was mentally threatening Mr. Campbell if a sudden absence of “Cliston” remained permanent.  To me, Cliston almost instantly reached the same level of “precious character” as Garm, Wallow, Delovoa, and even “Hank”.

Mr. Campbell does have the creative prowess to throw in some real jaw dropping “What?’s” in each new book.  Also each book I’ve read after “Screw the Galaxy” I’ve been, “What?” at the beginning, as Belvaille is not the Belvaille of old.

It is somewhat like Star Trek’s Enterprise in that each outing you’re beamed down to somewhere new.   It’s still Belvaille, but since the last novel there has been some changes.  At first, having loved the earlier Belvaille, one is a bit disappointed.  But before long, you’re back in love with (the new) Belvaille.

The perfect audience are Sci Fi Humor Fans.  I think anyone who likes humor with a slapstick tint will love it.

Audio Sample

Goodreads Review

[aegiswiz]

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Galbadon

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon: Read on 5/7>p74, on 5/13>p91, on 5/24>p178, on 6/18>p241, on 7/2>p301, on 7/14>p334 on 7/23>Completed

I like it. I recommend it only to die hard Diana Galbadon fans and gay men in the military. It’s another outing with Lord John Grey. Of the 4 John Grey stories I’ve read, This has been the most interesting.

I’ve tried to imagine Diana’s fascination with this John Grey character of hers. I have a few ideas that make sense to me, but only if she had made him much more interesting.

The eight-hundred pound gorilla in the John Grey stories, it seems to me, is that he is a gay officer in the British military when it was dangerous to be discovered to be gay… period, Lord, Army Major, or wandering street beggar. At that time period, like throughout history, there have been gay people and societies have either hated them or mostly ignored them. To me, “homosexual” is as boring a topic as everyone else’s sexual problems, desires, and insecurities, including my own. I’m an equal opportunity snob about relationship insecurities, as you can read in my review of Insurgent about Tris’s never ending, “he loves me, he loves me not” ruination of 1/3rd of the book here.

Ok, rant over. It’s a good book. Like most John Grey books, it is also somewhat of a mystery.

John has always known (view spoiler)[here(hide spoiler)], a family secret, but has been ever silent about it. It has always been disgraceful to the family(view spoiler)[ here (hide spoiler)]. Because there were rumors relating to(view spoiler)[here (hide spoiler)] Jacobite sympathies, this leaves some considerable stain upon John’s family name. His brother Hal, so embarrassed by this family disgrace he refuses all family titles he rightly deserves, by birth. Alternately, John, Hal’s younger brother, retains his title of “Lord”.

It all eventually becomes clear in this mystery story.

John being gay does add some suspense when his desires so frequently place him in a position to be discovered. A discovery would make his current family’s rumor tainted disgrace a full fledged disaster.

Diana is an A Class writer, the thread in this story that carried my interest was in John’s search to discover a way to removed the stain of his family’s suspected Jacobite sympathies. Unfortunately, it seems that this primary plot thread is largely a mystery as well, hidden among the other events of the story.

View all my reviews

[aegiswiz]

Behemoth, by Scott Westerfeld

Read 7/13>p104, Completed 7/22/16.

I like it.  It’s a young adult fantasy of an alternate world war one history.  It is evident Mr. Westerfeld did a great deal of research into the “story” or “trilogy” if you like.  I would be critical of “historical” parallels in this story but it would be like debating if Superman is from Krypton.  It’s an imaginary alternate history.  Mr. Westerfeld has based some of his story on some of the popular beliefs about world war one.  In that way I recommend this to young people more than I might otherwise.   Perhaps it may spur some youngster to investigate the real facts of history.  I dread the fact our current “history” is too often transformed into stories as factual as the histories of Dune, The World of Tiers, or Ringworld.   So it is at this point I pray all young people ache to attend Hillsdale College.  One of the last lights upon a hill.  I digress...  I liked Mr. Westerfeld’s story.

Part 2 of Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan story is called Behemoth.  It’s listed as “Book 2” and the relationship to “book” is only in the number of pages.

In Leviathan Part 2, Behemoth, the story has landed in part one’s goal of  Istanbul.  Up to this point a VIP guest scientist, the granddaughter of “The Great Darwin” himself (in this alternate steam punk history) is forcing the Leviathan to Istanbul where she declares her purpose is to keep the Ottoman Empire out of the war with a mysterious gift that we learn are eggs containing some “genetically designed” creature of the VIP’s own making., Complicating things in this alternate history is Churchill having confiscated a great warship built for, and already paid, for by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.  Mr. Churchill’s hoping his actions will keep the Turks out of the war, and additionally give Britain a military advantage with the Sultan’s warship.

Sounds complicated but this is still fundamentally the double story of the young royal child mentioned in the Leviathan review, on one hand, and the ever more capable “Mr. Sharp” on the other.  By Behemoth, several characters are well developed.  The VIP geneticist, the young royal teen and his several attendees, and the ever precocious and young “Mr. Sharp” (airman extraordinaire).  “Mr. Sharp” believes “he’ is barely competent, yet seems at the center of all disastrous situations, and manages to trip, stumble, or (against “his” better judgment), take action that  “he’ll”  probably be hung for, that usually results in a miraculous salvage from certain disaster for tens, hundreds, and even thousands of people, depending on the imminent disaster that is looming. .

While we are being walked through the strategies, diplomacies, and maneuvering of an alternate steam punk version of World War One, it is still being seen through the eyes of primarily these two young people who seemed plucked from their lives and into the thick of all things, dangerous, frightful, and fattening.

I’m in the process of putting the audio and ebook of Goliath on one of my tablets. I don’t want to miss Leviathan part 3.

Click Banner to take free Hillsdale Online Constitution 101 Course

[aegiswiz]

Swirl of Books

This image is "Swirl of Books" by Judit Klein. I use it in the header above the title of this blog.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License.

It appealed to me in two ways.  One, "Down the Rabbit Hole".  Books arranged in this fashion reminds me of Alice going down the rabbit hole.  And books, less anything by J. D. Salinger, who is just pitiful, and John Updike, who is a pretentious ass, and is simply unreadable, lead us on adventures that are nearly always "down the rabbit hole" of someone else’s creative work.

The other way is the books forming the appearance of the iris of an eye suggests that books will allow the light in. The cliché "I'll have to see it to believe it", and it is through knowledge that we form our beliefs. It is our beliefs that filter how we interpret the knowledge we encounter and determine that information's worthiness of "your" approval or disapproval.... of if perspicacious, your consideration.

I was looking for an image that might suggest "Perspicacious". I'm grateful Judit's image has a Creative Commons License, so I might share it and its multiple symbolic meanings on my Tumblr blog. I pray I do it justice, yet I wouldn't bet on it.

​