Category Archives: Reviews

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

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They were already going to war but everyone wanted their own king. I don’t know a better way to sum up A Clash of Kings.  The Seven Kingdoms already have war on their hands against the Lannisters but they splinter inside themselves creating a bigger problem.

We have a few new POVs in this book, but otherwise if the character lived through the last book we still hear from them. I continue to like Tyrion, and Arya. I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the characters next as far as this book goes (pretend this is not a re-read). I thought that reading this book again may change my mind about Catelyn, however she is to blame for most of what happens and continues to be someone I have no sympathy for.

It is a good middle book.  Though I wish it was the only middle book. On to A Storm of Swords.

A Dark History: The Roman Emperors From Julius Ceasar to the Fall of Rome by Michael Kerrigan

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Another of the series of Dark History from Barnes & Noble. Interesting but fails at the same sensationalism that the other books do. The author repeats over and over about the horrid things that were done but refrains from details. Pullouts are out of context and boxes tend to change the subject. The text itself is stilted and tends to jump around five or six reigns without an effort to keep them straight.

The art is phenomenal. The photographs of statues, so life-like you expect them to move, are impressive. And the captions contain more info than the text, like the other books.

I’m kind of regretting buying this series but they are alright.

The Nighttime Novelist by Joseph Bates

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I picked up this book hoping for some inspirational stories about writing a novel when you have time. I didn’t get that. This is a book teaching plot, character and writing structure. That’s fine but I have a million of these. Only the last chapter deals with writing when you have time and is mostly a list of cliches you can find in a Google search.

The book is really for a beginning writer. If you don’t know story structure this may be a good resource for you.

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

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Since A Dance with Dragons came out, I decided to re-read the Song of Ice and Fire series before reading that and A Feast for Crows. I left the fourth book until the fifth book came out but since there is now going to be a sixth book, I figure what they hey.

Let me say first that I love this book and this world. Richly detailed, and great plotting make for an engaging story. I’d love to watch the HBO adaptation but I don’t have HBO.

So to the book! The old/new king is fool, his Queen an incestuous harlot, and the realm is soft after ten years of peace and ten years of summer. The old Hand of the King has died and King Robert wants his old friend Ned for the job. This starts a series of events that may lead to war. At the center of the story is Ned’s family the Starks of Winterfell. The story is told from the families point of view and a selection of various opposition view points. This includes Tyrion the Lannister dwarf and Daenaerys the daughter of the previous king that Robert overthrew.

Did I say I love this book? I do. There are characters to love and characters to hate. Story is very detail oriented and much of the story is description. Martin handles the details well so they do not detract from the story. The world is beautiful and tragic. I highly recommend this book.

A Dark History: The Popes Vice, Murder, and Corruption in the Vatican by Brenda Ralph Lewis

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Another installment of the history books from Barnes and Noble this book is a bit less sensationalist. It plods through the history of the popes, detailing the crusades, redeemable qualities and sins of various papal rulers.

Again the art is the most stunning part of the book with the captions giving more details than the text does. The pull outs are placed out of context  and add little to the effect.

Most of the history is readily available online. The book offers no surprises. It centers mainly with papal dynasties that were controlled by women, those during the world wars and those during the Cathar crusades in France. The cadaver synod was the most interesting part of the book, going over Formosus reign how he was dug up, put on trial, thrown in the Tiber (a roman staple for people you hate) and dredged up to be buried over and over again.

An interesting read at least.

Polaris by Sheldon Perkins

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I was looking for Space Opera and got Star Trek fanfic with name changes.

Though written in the 70′s, Polaris emulates what Star Trek would become and adds a dose of sexism, union bullying and stereotyping.

Captain Alexander Traynor takes command of the Polaris, a StarfleetUnited Space Republic ship with a fractured crew.

The Polaris is in need of an overhaul to get battle ready. The United Space Alliance is at war with an Alien race and with itself. The USA (get it?) is made up of Earth, it’s sister planets and a few planets around Barnard’s Star. Each planet was colonized with a specific racial or ethnic group. The Irish planet all speak like bad leprechauns, for example.

The main conflict has to do with the politics of the USA. A new planet wants to join, but Earthers of the Earth First party believe that Earth should control all the governments and not allow other planets in. The party members on the Polaris are shocked and dismayed that the new captain is an Earther but likes and hangs out with non-Earthers. All the Earthers harass, sabotage and even try to court martial anyone who doesn’t put Earth First or is not an Earther.

Combine that with stilted dialog, and  lots of procedure. You get a lot of politics and a very dry story. The worst of it though is how the woman are treated in the book. They cannot accomplish anything with a man to support them. Every time a woman enters the scene she is degraded and basically patted on the head. Every time they leave a scene the men spend a few minutes talking about why they’d like to “hit that”. When the men of the Earth First team are take down, the women turn into wilting lilies and resign willingly to take care of the injured men.

Some of the characters were likable. However the plot drags, the characters are flat and I found the captain and his doctor friend very unlikable.

 

The Kings & Queens of Europe: From Medieval Tyrants to Mad Monarchs by Brenda Ralph Lewis

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I picked up a series of books from Barnes & Noble because they looked interesting. Mostly they contain writing of a tabloid nature.

Kings & Queens is almost nauseating. Not because of the scandalous nature of the book but because the author choose to write this as if they were shocked by all the behavior then cry foul about how sad it is that monarchs fell out of fashion.

The book does have redeeming qualities…it focuses on lesser-known monarchs by which I mean the lesser-known ones here in the west. The art and photographs the most enjoyable part of the book, printed in full color. The write seems to gloss over parts of the reigns it covers and give very lurid details all of a sudden. Therefore, you may not know why they got divorced but you’ll know how many boys someone slept with, for instance. This is indicative of the whole series of books. In addition, you may miss important details if you don’t read the captions for the images. The pull quotes are set out of context and distract from the actual text.

Interesting but ultimately fluff, but fluff is okay from time to time.

Runes for Transformation: Using Ancient Symbols to Change Your Life by Kaedrich Olsen

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I picked up Olsen’s book because I went to take a class from him up at It Must Be Karma. The book lays out basic Norse beliefs and each rune is listed with its corresponding rune poem(s) and his interpretation of those.
The book goes further than a book of meanings. Olsen discusses how to use the runes in divination, mediation, assigning futhark to items and concepts, intonation of the runes and other techniques. With this book, you could easily setup a daily practice with the runes that goes beyond divination. Having the rune poems laid out for all of the Elder Futhark is worth the price of this book alone.

Arch Enemy by Frank Beddor

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Arch Enemy continues where Seeing Redd left off. Redd is in retreat after losing her imagination, Wondertropolis is dealing with unimaginative factions taking revenge on those that used to have imagination and Arch is finding out that he has more power now that Redd and Alyss are helpless.

What follows is the bittersweet climb from the ashes. Just like previous books in the series, Beddor delivers such poignant prose even while using nonsense words of Wonderland. I have been so happy with this trilogy that I would be happy to read Beddor’s future works as well. He manages to weave a tale of past mistakes catching up to his characters amid a world of whimsy. I cannot tell you how much I loved this book but it is on par with the last two.

We learn more of Redd’s past and her decent into black imagination. We get to go back to the real world and see the effects of lost imagination. Alyss has to contend with the other royal clans for power when she has none. And, as always, there is Dodge by her side his own turmoil forcing him into action.

The twists and turns in this book are not easy to guess but fit with overall story. I read it over the course of a day and was enthralled until the very end.

Persuasion by Jane Austin

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It’s hard to state why Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austin novel. Then novel is procession of rationalizations behind motives. Each one a march towards a relationship between Anne and Fredrick. It is a slow torturous novel which forces the reader to see the pain caused by one person to persuade another to give up the man she loves and how they persuade themselves and each other to get back together.

Reasons unfold like flowers. Conclusions are thrown about like seeds. The climactic moment comes when Anne reads Fredrick’s letter, which he almost didn’t leave for her, and finds out that he would have her back if only she said so and he was a fool to think he would be with anyone but her.

There is something about he pace of the story, the denial of happiness for properness and the final conclusion in which they come to the understand of wanting to be together that has the essence of romance without the tropes we normally see.

I downloaded this book for the Kindle app on my MyTouch 4G. I like having my favorite books available where ever. Now if I could only trade in my physical books for digital ones I’d buy an ereader in a second.