Book Review #4

Well I have taken some time while waiting for several books to hit the shelves to reach back into my large collection of books and pulled out a series that I found about 2 years ago. The series is the Star Risk Series by Chris Bunch. This is one of several series by Bunch, I have one other that I will talk about in a future review. But this book and series is very interesting because it is a science fiction story that is about half future military, half The A-Team

They're outnumbered, outgunned, and out of luck. But the mercenaries of Star Risk, Ltd. will take on any mission - no matter how dangerous - provided of course, the price is right. M'chel Riss spent eight years of her life in the Alliance Marines, earning the rank of major, only to be assigned to a desolate outpost in the middle of nowhere. Then a rescue mission brought some excitement to her otherwise quiet existence - and brought her to the attention of Star Risk, Ltd. A mercenary outfit struggling for recognition, Star Risk has the required ragtag bunch of misfits, including an alien willing to invest his life savings in the company. Now if only they can succeed with their first mission: to spring a dangerous super soldier trapped in a maximum-security prison. Why would Star Risk, Ltd., take on such an insane mission with so many odds stacked against them? Money, fame, glory ...but mostly the money.

The story pace is solid, there is some good character development, as well as a well defined universe from which the group operates. That being said there are times when Bunch seems to hurry things along instead of taking the time to develop the character or situation better. That being said as far as being a source of serious intellectual debate, the four and soon to be five books in this series are far from that. They are however the type of book that will pull you in and have you wondering what sort of crazy situation will this team of misfits get into next. The sad thing is book five will probably be the last since the author died in 2005. Our only hope is that the authors who finished book five want to continue to write stories for this series. I hope they do because there is so much that they could do, if they really wanted to persue the series.

I like the books and hope you find them enjoyable also.

Book Review #3 - Lord Foul's Bane

Well I went into the deep dark alcoves of my book library to pick up the first book in a series that I started reading almost 30 years ago. The series is by Stephen R. Donaldson, the book is Lord Foul's Bane, and it is the first book in the chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I picked this one up at the request of the librarian at my Junior High, I was a library student assistant and she asked me to read this new book that they had gotten and let her know about it. So I jumped in feet first and needless to say was both shocked and educated by the graphic nature of the book. It is not a blood and guts story but a story that exposes a raw nerve and rubs on it for the whole story.

The book is about Thomas Covenant, a one time successful writer, husband, and father. However fate is not kind to Covenant, while in the process of writing his second novel, he starts to have numbness in his fingers and toes. When he finally has it checked out, he is diagnosed with leprosy, and because of the advanced stages of the disease he loses 2 fingers on his left hand. To compound the agony his wife leaves him and takes his son with her, because of the fact that children are more vulnerable to catching leprosy.

Here is the text from the book flaps of the hard cover version of the book

Here we meet Thomas Covenant, a man burdened with a terrible stigma that has deprived him of wife, friends, almost all human contact, perhaps even his sanity. In this state of moral isolation, he is suddenly shunted to a mysterious world known simply as "the Land" - a place of magical potency, acutely beautiful wherever it has recovered from the ravages of age-old, recurring wars. For the Land has an immortal enemy - Lord Foul the Despiser - whose unceasing intent is to lay it waste. He has been defeated in the past by the Council of Lords, servants of the Land and protectors of its arcane lore; but now the power of the Council has been reduced, and Lord Foul has found his perfect, unwitting tool - Thomas Covenant, the man who thinks the Land is a dream; who cannot accept its life-restoring powers for fear of confronting the terrible dilemma of his own existence; Covenant, the Unbeliever.

So here is a man who is taken from a world where he is an outcast and pariah, and all of a sudden he is thrown into another world where he is the reincarnation of the greatest hero of the world. A world where his disease is healed, and he is expected to be the savior of a place he has never been before. Add on top of that the fact that is leprosy survival training is screaming at him that this is all a dream.

He called himself Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever because he dared not believe in this strange alternate world on which he suddenly found himself.
Yet the Land tempted him. He had been sick: now he seemed better than ever before. Through no fault of his own, he had been an outcast, unclean, a pariah. Now he was regarded as a reincarnation of the Land's greatest hero - Berek Halfhand - armed with the mystic power of White Gold. That power alone could protect the Lords of the Land from the ancient evil of the Despiser, Lord Foul. Only ... Covenant had no idea of how the power could be used.

The book is the first of what was originally six books in two trilogies, However Donaldson is in the process of writing another four book series to complete the story. He has completed the first book in that series Runes of Earth and the second in the series is due out in October Fatal Revenant. Donaldson also has what he calls the gradual interview where he answers questions that are submitted to him. There have been some very interesting discussions on that section of his site and allows the reader to get a better feel for what it takes at least for this author to write. All seven books are fantastic and the type that pull you in and make you think, however at the same time you are sitting there rooting for the good guys to win all the while the reluctant hero is dealing with his morality as well as beliefs. Good reading but not for someone to just skim and blow through...

Post # 200 Book review #2

Well I enjoyed sharing my last book/author review and got some good responses so I thought that post # 200 should be a good one, especially since I am suprised that I have posted this much. So I was sitting down trying to decide which series or single book I was going to review when I realized that I had the perfect candidate right on my desk.

David B. Coe is one of the authors that I found while trawling the book store shelves for something interesting, there I found his Winds of the Forelands series. Now usually when I see a series and each book is over 500 pages I am a bit of a cynic about the quality of the content, especially when there are 4 more books in the series. However once I got into the book I saw that the content was both well paced, and the characters are well developed. Granted the story does seem change speeds, simply because of the fact that there is a lot of extended ground travel, however the author does a good job of maintaining a consistant pace to the overall story despite this fact.

The first book Rules of Ascention does a fantastic job of setting the background for the whole storyline.

For centuries the Forelands were disputed by several tribes. Then came the magically gifted Qirsi--physically no match for their foes, but capable of mindsight, creating and controlling mists and fire, and bending solid matter to their purpose. After a Qirsi traitor betrayed his race to save himself, the Qirsi were defeated and dispersed among the seven realms of the Forelands. Those specially endowed Qirsi capable of multiple powers, the Weavers, were all put to death. For centuries the Forelands enjoyed relative peace. But when Tavis, the heir to the Kingdom of Curgh, is wrongfully blamed for the murder of a noble, the accusation sets in motion a series of events culminating in civil war. The ensuing chaos topples the throne in Eibithar and threatens to rain chaos on all the realms of the Forelands. Tavis, thrust into the center of deadly controversy and stripped of the protection of his family's nobility, turns to the Qirsi, his last remaining hope for redemption. But another Qirsi traitor, secretly fomenting fear and mistrust among the Dukedoms, seeks to destroy Tavis. Tavis must survive long enough to clear his name and save an entire kingdom. A powerful, compelling tale set in an unforgettable land, rules of Ascension will capture your heart and fire your imagination.

I have just completed the second book Seeds of Betrayal and am looking forward to continuing the series.

The Forelands have enjoyed relative peace in the nine hundred years since the Qirsi Wars, until the stability of the seven kingdoms is shaken by the brutal murder of Lady Brienne of Kentigern, newly betrothed to Lord Tavis of Curgh. Tavis, who is blamed for the crime, has escaped the dungeons of Kentigern and searches the Forelands for his love's killer. But already the Qirsi conspirators who murdered Brienne have taken their campaign of violence and deception to Aneira, Eibithar's hated neighbor, plunging that kingdom into turmoil. Now Tavis's search for redemption takes him into the stronghold of his realm's most bitter enemy. For the first time in nine centuries, war threatens to engulf all the Forelands. And there are whispers of a new Qirsi threat. A Weaver, they say, is behind the deaths, the betrayals. Nobles who have depended on Qirsi ministers suddenly fear those they have trusted. If the renegade Qirsi are indeed led by a Weaver, can this powerful sorcerer be found before he conquers the Forelands? And who wields magic potent enough to stop him?

That being said here are quick descriptions of books three Bonds of Vengance

For nine hundred years the Forelands knew peace, but unrest among the magical Qirsi people has blossomed into a conspiracy against the Eandi rulers. What started with an occasional "accidental" death of a lord has exploded into violence, rending the fabric of Forelands society. Led by a mysterious Qirsi "Weaver" with powers that can reach into the minds of others even in their sleep, the rebellion is now turning Qirsi against Qirsi, as it weakens alliances among the Eandi.Some Qirsi ministers are torn between plotting to overthrow the Eandi and staying loyal to their lords; others have been ready for a rebellion for a long time and are active in the burgeoning and increasingly violent rebellion. Even some Qirsi who oppose the rebellion are forced to take sides against their lords, while an Eandi lord in league with the conspiracy prepares for war against rival houses. Yet as the world tilts toward terrible upheaval, some stand firm against the chaos. Grinsa, a Qirsi gleaner, is trying to head off the war he knows would spell disaster for his own people as well as the Eandi. Traveling with Lord Tavis of Curgh as the young noble seeks revenge on the assassin who killed his betrothed and thus set the chaos in motion, Grinsa may be the only person who can stop the Weaver from shattering the long peace. But even Grinsa can't do it alone. His sister, Keziah, archminister to King Kearney, himself a staunch advocate of peace, works to prevent war, too. They may be too late, though, as realms plunge toward war, goaded by traitors within their gates.

Book four Shapers of Darkness

The Forelands are at war. The magic-wielding Qirsi and their Eandi masters have mobilized their forces. The Eandi have had to look beyond past differences to make alliances for the sake of the future, praying it isn't too late for them to change the outcome of the war. Tavis, an Eandi prince who was framed for murdering the princess to whom he was pledged, and endured torture before winning his freedom, has at last avenged her death. Still, the murder and its aftermath have brought war to the Forelands just as the Qirsi conspirators who bought his love's blood had intended. Now Tavis and Grinsa, a Qirsi shaper with more powers than he reveals, who saved Tavis when nobody else would believe his innocence, venture across the Forelands, risking death to help save the land they love . . . A powerful Qirsi weaver has brought this terrible war to the land, bending the minds of those he controls and of his enemies in an effort to forge alliances and mobilize forces to destroy the Eandi. His powerful magical ability estranges lovers, betrays leaders, and wreaks murder and death throughout the land. But even with his powerfully malign intelligence, he underestimates the mettle of his opponents. In a psychological duel with Grinsa, the Weaver's formidable powers are sorely tested. Grinsa withstands the Weaver's most powerful attacks at nearly the expense of his own life, and in the process discovers the Weaver's identity.Will Grinsa's challenge to the Weaver spell the end of the Weaver's reign of doom? Or has Grinsa's discovery come too late to help the Eandi cause? The answers lie in the growing war that may sunder the Forelands forever.

and Book five Weavers of War

In the four previous books of his epic fantasy series, David Coe has woven a complex tapestry of magic and politics, courage and betrayal, love and hate. Now, he brings the many strands of this enthralling series together in a climactic novel that will thrill readers of epic magical fantasy. For years the magical Qirsi people who live among the Eandi courts of the Forelands have conspired, weakening alliances among the realms. The renegades are led by a mysterious Weaver named Dusaan with powers that allow him to appear in the dreams of his followers and to bind the magic of many Qirsi into a single weapon more potent than any the Eandi have faced in a thousand years. Now, his planning begins to bear fruit. He reveals himself to friend and foe alike, knowing that none can stand against him. Dusaan takes control of the Empire and begins his march toward war, enlisting those who serve him in other realms to join the battle, as the ranks of his army swell.

I hope you pick these books up and find them as enjoyable as I have.

For Better or for Worse creator slowing down, not retiring | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

For Better or for Worse creator slowing down, not retiring

First, the bad news: Lynn Johnston needs a break.
The cartoonist has, after all, written and drawn the popular comic strip For Better or for Worse for 28 years, in sickness and in health, without complaint, while Aaron McGruder (Boondocks), Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) and others griped, took extended hiatuses and retired.
"What wusses!" she exclaims.
But Johnston turns 60 this year, and she wants to do things in life that are difficult to do while producing 365 comic strips a year.
"I want to travel and study and paint, and I want to spend some time with friends and family," Johnston says.
"We're starting to get to the stage when you go to funerals and that's where you reunite with friends," she continues. "I want to be able to spend time with friends while they're still alive."
The good news, however, is that Johnston isn't retiring. Instead, the strip — which appears in more than 2,000 newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle — will be transformed in September into what Johnston calls "a hybrid" of new and old material.
She will continue to write and draw, but the new material will serve to frame flashbacks consisting primarily of recycled material. These strolls down memory lane also sometimes will contain new material that amplifies, embellishes or completes story lines of old.
For instance, Johnston mentions a character, Deena, who was absent from the strip for a long time without explanation. In her head she knew why Deena disappeared, but she never got around to drawing it. Now she will.
For the most part, however, the continuing saga of the Patterson family will end. Characters will stop aging. Existing story lines will be wrapped up before the change. Think of the new format as a long goodbye.
This creative solution to the problem of cartoonist burnout will lessen Johnston's workload while still making the strip available to readers daily.
"I wanted to retire completely," says Johnston, who has never taken a break from the strip. Her thinking always was, "If Charles Schulz can do it, so can I," she said, referring to the creator of Peanuts, who drew his strip for just short of 50 years, giving it up only weeks before he died Feb. 12, 2000.
"I don't know whether it's my age or that I was raised on hard work," Johnston says, but while other cartoonists complained about oppressive deadlines her feeling was, "You've got a job — do it."
But now she says she'd love to be able, for the first time in almost three decades, to take a two-week vacation without first laboring nights and weekends to finish two weeks' worth of strips in advance.
Contributing to her decision is a neurological disorder — dystonia — that, though mostly in check, causes tremors.
It comes in handy when door-to-door salesmen visit. "I come to the door already shaking my head no," Johnston says with a laugh.
It's not nearly as bad as the tremors Schulz had in his later years that caused him to draw wiggly lines.
"I watched Sparky draw," Johnston says, using Schulz's nickname. "He had to hold his right hand with his left hand to keep it still."
Johnston's condition doesn't affect her drawing. She does, however, use assistants to do the lettering and to ink most of the drawings. Johnston draws everything in pencil and inks the characters but not the backgrounds.
When Johnston told Universal Press Syndicate, the company that distributes the strip to newspapers, that she planned to retire, executives suggested offering reprints to newspapers, similar to what United Feature Syndicate did with Peanuts after Schulz stopped drawing.
"That had never occurred to me," Johnston says. She came up with the idea of updating the material and framing the flashbacks with new work "to keep my hand in," she says.
Before the late 1980s, syndicates routinely hired new cartoonists to continue comic strips after their creators died or retired, but now top-selling creators get to retain ownership of their works. For Better or for Worse can pass to another cartoonist only if Johnston says so.
She tried it. She talked to another cartoonist about taking the reins. The other cartoonist, whom she did not name, demurred, saying that For Better or for Worse was Johnston's baby.
It really is. The Pattersons are based on Johnston's own family. She made the children — only two, Michael and Elizabeth, in the early years — three years younger than her own in hopes of sparing her kids from ridicule, though they still got ragged by their friends.
For Better or for Worse has blazed trails from the beginning. Not only was it the first family-centered strip created by a woman, but its characters also inhabited something like the real world instead of the usual timeless cartoon universe where nobody dies or moves away.
Michael and Elizabeth are adults now, and April, who was born (at home during an ice storm) in 1991, is a teenager.
The characters will stop aging in September because extending two story lines simultaneously would be too complicated. "Then you'd have a comic strip within a strip," Johnston says.
The flashbacks might be triggered by family members looking at photo albums or reminiscing about an incident, she says.
"We really don't know what it's going to look like until we start to do it," Johnston says. To her knowledge, no other cartoonist has done anything like this.
She started the strip 28 years ago with the same exploratory spirit.
Universal approached her about doing the strip after seeing three books of single-panel cartoons she'd done about childbirth. Back then, other comic strips about family life, such as Blondie and Hi and Lois, were done by men. In fact, Cathy, by Cathy Guisewite, was one of the few strips done by a woman. Seeing its success, Universal wanted to see a woman's take on home life.
Not sure how to go about it, Johnston relied on Guisewite for help.
Guisewite told her that she wrote her stories out "like little plays." Johnston took her advice and still follows it.
Initially, she'd intended to do a gag-a-day strip like most of the others on the comics pages. But whenever she'd write a gag, Johnston says, "I just kept saying to myself, 'But then what happened?' " Nor did she intend at first for the characters to age or for Farley, the family's first pet, to die or for Michael to have a friend who was gay. It just worked out that way.
Over the years, Johnston says she's been approached by television and movie producers, and an animated series was briefly based on the strip. But producers tend to want to relocate the family to the American Midwest or make other changes. Johnston, who lives in Toronto, likes what she calls the "uniquely Canadian" feel of the strip and doesn't want the characters changed in major ways.
There also was another problem: Because the characters age and evolve, by the time a movie could be written, shot and released, the script already would be outdated.
She acknowledges, though, that the coming format change, with its flashbacks, would work well on the screen.
She will use the time between now and September to finish existing story lines and provide an ending. "It will be a full family circle, one full generation," she says, noting that Michael, who was a child when the strip started, now has two children, just as his parents did in 1989 when For Better or for Worse began.

Jim Butcher and the Dresden Chronicles

I am an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy books, the problem I have these days is the fact that I am very particular about what authors I will read. I am always willing to give an author a chance, that is how I found Jim Butcher, and his Dresden Chronicles. I was at the book store desperate to find some new reading material, since I really did not want to read the Lord of the Rings for the 10th time, when I found the first of Jim's Dresden series Storm Front. The first thing that caught my eye was the cover art, but then after reading the back cover of the book, I was intrigued.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things -- and most of them don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a -- well, whatever.
There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get... interesting.
Magic. It can get a guy killed.

So here I am with a story about a wizard in modern day Chicago, dealing with black magic, murder, mobster, and a police force that thinks he is a nut job. Well who would not want to read this, so the book went into my stack of potential purchases. After about another thirty minutes of perusing the shelves I had about ten books sitting in a pile on the table in front of me. I narrowed it down to four and bought them, Storm Front was one of the four. Later that day when I got home I picked up Storm Front and started to read. Needless to say I was not disappointed, right from the start the book grabbed me and did not let me go. This book was different, not only in the story line but also in the fact that the hero of the story is not someone who you would expect to be a soft touch, Dresden is as much a hard case as he is a cynic, yet at the same time you can see the very dry sense of humor come through. For example this little bit at the end of chapter 1...

Besides which. If I was someone in this town using magic to kill people two at a time, and I didn't want to get caught, I'd make sure that I removed the only practicing wizard the police department kept on retainer. I liked my odds on the stairwell a lot better than I did in the cramped confines of the elevator.
Paranoid? Probably. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face

See what I mean, Harry Dresden is the type of character that you will either love or hate, plain and simple. But Butcher has not left Harry without suitable supporting characters, there is Bob, the spirit who is part frat rat, part encyclopedia for the arcane, Kerrin Murphy who is the Detective in charge of the Special Investigation unit of the Chicago PD, and there are many other people and creatures that cross Harry's path, both good and bad.

Butcher has nine books published in this series currently, and they have been so well received that he is now publishing in hardcover first. Another sign that the books have found an audience, is the fact that the Sci-Fi Channel now has a series based upon the books on Sunday nights at 8pm Central time. So if you are a fan of well written books and enjoy mysteries, and or science fiction, I would highly recommend this series.