July ’09

THE LAST RUNE: THE FIRST STONE
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-513- the end of the series. The rifts of Nothingness are diverted, all magic is canceled out and people decide to live on Eld or Earth, never to meet again. Travis and Grace both grew out of the whiny, self-doubters that they were in Beyond the Pale and that was nice. Sadly, Anthony chose to make deviant lifestyles a major part of this series. And because of that, I cannot give this series any credible review. Nor will I be reading any more by him.

STAR WARS: THE BOUNTY HUNTER WARS: HARD MERCHANDISE
-K.W. Jeter-fantasy
-338-the end to this series. It was a mediocre ending to a very mediocre trilogy. Boba Fett was not the main character and he was 2 dimensional. The writing was insipid and didn’t make you feel anything, even disgust. This series was warm, bland mushy oatmeal. At least Karen Traviss gives some depth and personality to Fett.

SUMMER OF THE MONKEYS
-W. Rawls-fiction
-283-a young teen boy in the Ozarks in the late 1800’s spends his summer trying to capture trained zoo monkeys that escaped from a train wreck. Many misadventures and hilarious happenings are chronicled. There is a big reward for the monkeys and Jay wants a pony and a .22 rifle. He catches the monkeys after a big storm and ends up using the reward money to let his sister have an operation to fix her useless leg. And he gets a pony and rifle in the end anyway. This was a good feel good YA novel about a simple boy living during a hard time.

PERN: THE MASTERHARPER OF PERN
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-366-the story of Master Robinton from his being born til the events of the first Dragonrider trilogy. An extremely talented boy is ignored by his perfectionist father even while being better than him. Amazing that Robinton turned out as well as he did. A very enjoyable tale, even though McCaffrey shows her true colors in regards to her views on marriage and sexuality.

 

WOLF: THROUGH WOLF’S EYES
https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/through-wolfs-eyes/

 

PERN: THE RENEGADES OF PERN
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-305-deals with those who were holdless, for a variety of reasons, during the beginning years of Threadfall. Almost the same period as DragonDrums but from different viewpoints. Sets up just right for the following book, All the Weyrs of Pern. Looking forward to it.

VAMPIRE HUNTER D: RAISER OF GALES
-H. Kikuchi-fantasy
-215- D must fight with the leftover experiments of some great Noble dr. Vampires who can live in the daylight. Bloody, sexual and just pulp fiction. This stuff is about on the same level, literary wise, as the Mars series. Shallow and action instead of plot.

PIP AND FLINX: PATRIMONY
-A.D. Foster-fantasy
-228-Flinx is hunting down his father. Finds out that he doesn’t have “a” father, or even a mother. The sperm and egg were manmade. Whoop de do. Pathetic.

STAR WARS: JEDI TRIAL
-D. Sherman & D. Cragg-fantasy
-345- Anakin earns his Jedi Knight spurs leading the recapture of a planet that has some communications essential to the Republic. And a side story about some people meeting through the battle and falling in love and getting married by Anakin at the end. This was really dumb. Asajj Ventress is displayed prominently on the cover, but she appears twice or thrice, through a holo-projector, that is it. The side story about the couple is forced and adds nothing to this novel. This wasn’t even blase.

 

VAMPIRE HUNTER D: DEMON DEATCHASE
https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/demon-deathchase/

 

MAGICIANS OF QUALITY: THE MISLAID MAGICIAN or TEN YEARS AFTER
-P. Wrede & C. Stevermer-fantasy
-328- the third in the series. Once again in letter form between Cecily and Kate. This time there are also letters between their husbands. About the railroads in England and how they are affecting the ley lines of magic. Turns out there is a big huge magic spell surrounding England that makes invaders settle in and become part of the culture. This one just didn’t get my attention like the first 2 did. Glad I read it, but satisfied with just owning the first 2.

VAMPIRE HUNTER D: TALE OF THE DEAD TOWN
-H. Kikuchi-fantasy
-167-The cleanest, morally, so far. Also the dumbest. D goes to a floating town where experiments have gone on to spread vampirism like a plague instead of through bites. I’m not going to be reading any more of this trash.

PERN: ALL THE WEYRS OF PERN
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-404-picks up with the people we know communicating with Aivas to carry out plans to get rid of Thread permanently. It was ok but I could see that this book should have been one to wrap up the Pern series. Sadly, it is still going.

REBORN! #9
-A. Amano-manga

INUYASHA #30 & 31
-R. Takahashi-manga

IMAGER PORTFOLIO: IMAGER
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-432- another series by Modesitt. I manfully made my way through this, but I don’t plan on reading any more. A world where Imagers exist. People who can “imagine” things into reality, or out of, depending. Follows a young man who is a painter who turns out to be an Imager and his trials and tribulations as he moves up the ranks. 2 things:
1-STOP the confounded preaching! This seemed to be a book on Modesitt’s philosophy and world view. I don’t care! Considering that this has been in other books of his, I decided that I didn’t have to put up with it. It ruins the story and really bogs the plot down with dry boring info that I, the reader, DON’T need to know.
2-I am sick of self-effacing, stoic, perfect people whose only problem seem to be that everybody else is keeping them back. The hero is smarter than everybody, more intelligent, harder working, more ethical, etc, etc and then he goes and says inane things like “well, I’m only trying my best” or such crap. The hero seems like a machine that would do better without people in their world.
So, to end this. Another Modesitt regurgitation that has no really original ideas and is blase and mediocre without the charm that makes Recluce semi-palatable.

REBORN! #10
-A. Amano-manga

CODGERSPACE
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-309- 5 retirees find an old alien spaceship buried on earth. The AI is confused, after 1million years, and turns to them for commands. Also has a story about the AI’s of earth leaving their duties and searching for non-human intelligent life. Funny and light and serving absolutely no purpose beyond a little humor. Good read.

COREAN CHRONICLES: SOARER’S CHOICE
-L.E. Modesitt-fantasy
-540- the end of this trilogy. The alector and the cadmian become the forbearers of the Talented. Acorus is severed from Efrit and all those linked to it either adapt to Acorus’s lifeforce or die. I didn’t really enjoy this. For the end of the world as they know it, the characters sure don’t show much panic or haste or any emotion of any kind. I’ve got 1 more Modesitt book on tap and if it doesn’t change drastically, I think I’ll give him up except for Recluce.

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE
-S. Crane-historical fiction
-142-a young man goes to the Civil War full of vim and vigor, all set to conquer everything. He runs away the first time and subsequently fights like a demon in later battles. This was a coming of age story full of the inner thoughts of a boy. It was pathetic and “very modern”, ie casting doubt and despair on everything. Probably never read it again.

BLEACH #26
-T. Kubo-manga

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION #1-5
-Y. Sadamoto-manga

WOLF: WOLF’S HEAD, WOLF’S HEART
-J. Lindskold-fantasy
-602-Melina Shield maneuvers things so that the artifacts Vallora took are sent for study to New Kelvin, with Melina as the understudy. The group must stop her. Lots of politic’ing and kind of sad. Firekeeper finds out a bit of history from the Royals about Royal/Human interaction. In the end Firekeeper has to give up what she wants and tries to please both humans and Royals. She’s the one stuck in the middle.

THE BLACK STALLION
-W. Farley-YA fiction/classic
-187-a teen boy returning from India is shipwrecked along with a wild stallion. Is eventually rescued along with the horse. Turns out the horse could be a racer, so a friend helps him train it. Ends up racing the 2 fastest horses and winning. Simple and yet very well written and engaging.

JAG IN SPACE: A JUST DETERMINATION
-J.G. Hemry-scifi
-259- a young man, Paul Sinclair, is fresh out of Space Academy and on a ship for the first time. One of his side duties is to be the ships legal advisor. The captain fires upon a civilian ship outside of US territory and is court-martialed. Sinclair testifies on the captain’s behalf, even though he doesn’t like him at all, because he believes that the charges brought against the captain do not reflect accurately. Ends up with Sinclair getting involved with an officer on another ship and the captain being reassigned to some backwater office, instead of getting hung.

JAG IN SPACE: BURDEN OF PROOF
-J.G. Hemry-scifi
-293- an accident on board kills an officer. Evidence points to the officer working outside of given parameters and all blame is hung on him. Sinclair finds evidence of a coverup by another officer, an admiral’s son, and sets out to prove the first officer innocent, post-humously.

JAG IN SPACE: RULE OF EVIDENCE
-J.G. Hemry-scifi
-276- on a joint mission, the sister ship of Sinclair’s ship blows up. On board is Sinclairs girlfriend, Jen Shen. She is implicated and court-martialed. Everything is circumstantial and unprovable, but Shen is the scapegoat. Sinclair uses his parents former military pull to find some problems about a new engineering piece of equipment. Turns out the equipment wasn’t ready and Shen is exonerated. They become engaged. Now, what I thought of these three books. It pretty much is the same for all 3. Very slow, and not until at least halfway through does the main plot start to form. Until then you just have a description of life shipboard and everything. The legal stuff is very legal, and hence dry. Interesting, but definitely not something you’d get excited about. I think these could be a precursor series to the Lost Fleet series, before Space had been divvied up. Definitely in no rush to get the final book now. I can wait.

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