Hey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Frank HeHey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune. I have coffee in my system, and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!
I love Frank Herbert’s Dune and his Duneiverse. He has created a universe where politics are more deadly than action. One of my favorite quotes from his universe is, “I see plans within plans…”. This is not mere sentence. It is a vision of an out-and-out threat, and the target is not going to have a good day. This universe makes Westeros (from Game of Thrones) look like “Alice in Wonderland”.
This picks up after Dune: Messiah. Paul Atreides (a.k.a Muad’Dib) has disappeared into the desert, leaving behind his twin children, Ghanima and Leto. The twins possess the same abilities as their father, but their ambition knows no bounds. This makes the twins very valuable to their aunt Alia, who rules the empire in Paul’s stead in the name of House Atreides. The problem is Alia is facing problems on two fronts: one from House Corrino, who wants to regain the imperial throne, and the other from the Fremen, who are being whipped into fervor by someone called “The Preacher.”She wants to use the twins to keep control. Will the twins’ ambitions thwart Alia’s?
This is another book pieced together by short stories, and it shows. At times, it is disjointed, and in others, my imagination is being dragged over broken glass. The saving grace in this one is that it maintains the spirit and treachery of the original Dune. At times, the characters feel wooden and two-dimensional. Sometimes, I was confused by what is going on, and in others, I just did not care. It could have done with some better editing.
All in all, I give it 2.5-3 bookmarks out of 5....more
Hey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Iain RobHey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Iain Rob Wright’s Maniac Menagerie. I have coffee in my system, and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!
I will be the first to admit that I enjoy the books written by Iain Rob Wright. He pulls no punches, his writing is sharp, his subject matter gives me something to think about, and I know I am in for a good ride. His boos are something akin to getting on a rollercoaster, and you do not know if your car is going to jump the tracks and plummet down to the ground.
A few years ago, I started reading his “Cursed Manuscripts” series. The books are pretty much stand-alone, and there are usually references to characters from past books by the end, but it is not enough to take away from the particular book overall.
Simon “Sim” Barker and his girlfriend Chrissy run a true crime podcast. Their numbers on YouTube are wildly popular, and they keep climbing. The two are approached by a man who offers them seventy thousand dollars to come to his island to check out his attraction. (This sounds familiar.) They reluctantly agree to go. When the two get to the island, they also meet another couple, a possible investor and a therapist. (Come on now, I know I saw this movie.) Then the attraction starts. In cars fashioned like a prison cell, they ride through a park of the most notorious serial killers in history. As you can expect, things go wrong and there are deadly consequences. Very Deadly consequences.
I really wanted to like this book. I really, really did. The main problem I had was how much it was like JURASSIC PARK. When I read and review a book I do my very beat to avoid comparisons, but with this book, it was dang near impossible. I heard character voices from that famous dinosaur movie and it took away from the whole experience. The realist in me kept asking two questions. 1) Who in their right mind thought an island with serial killers on display was a good idea? 2) Which insurance company underwrote this venture?
The pace of the book is fast, and the writing is sharp. Some of the characters were engaging, some others I just wanted to drop in the middle of a cannibal pen and see what happens.
Hey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Dan SimmHey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Dan Simmons’ Hardcase I have coffee in my system, and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!
I love it when an author breaks free from being pigeonholed into a particular genre. They are known for one thing and then, in the blink of an eye, they are jumping into something else. When I first encountered Dan Simmons’ writing, it was in science fiction. Since then, he has moved on to speculative historical fiction, horror, and hard-boiled detective fiction. Such is the case with his book Hardcase. It is the first book of his Kurtz trilogy.
Once, Joe Kurtz wanted revenge, but he found out the price for it was eleven years in Attica State Prison. When he got out, he had no job, no future, and no luck. He set himself up as a private investigator, and his first job was a doozy. He is hired by the head of the Farino Family to find a missing accountant. The job pays fifty thousand upon completion, including expenses. The problem is someone does not want the accountant found, and Kurtz has a huge target on his back. Everyone and his brother is gunning for Kurtz, and in between dodging bullets and would-be-hit men, Kurtz will get the job done. The question is will he live long enough to collect the fifty thousand…
A lot is going on in this book, almost too much. At points, I found myself swimming in a lake of confusion. I found myself thinking, “Less is definitely more.” There are so many characters heaped into this one that I felt like I needed a scorecard just to keep up.
But the story is also built on a sense of dread and impending doom for the main character. Just when his luck takes one step forward, it is smacked three steps back. This is a hard-boiled detective story that is as hard as a Buffalo winter, and Kurtz is the perfect antihero for the book.
The writing is reminiscent of Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler. The book moves fast and by and large, is entertaining. The characters are well-rounded, and despite himself, I found myself cheering for Kurtz. I wanted to see him succeed in the end. Between crooked cops, a contract on his life, and not knowing who to trust, he has a lot heaped onto his shoulders. Given that, he is not Superman and that point is driven home time and again. There is an event that happens at the end of the book that was not really necessary, but it just drove home what a hard case Kurtz is.
Hey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Stephen Hey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Stephen King’s Later. I have coffee in my system, and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, I am a moody reader. This time, my mood went to mystery/noir. It is an intense mood, almost as if my grandfather’s spirit jumped into my body for a while, and I do not mind one bit. That is a neat way to lead into this book.
Jamie is a normal kid—at least that is what he wants to be—but he realizes that he is different when he and his mother go home and see their neighbor outside of his apartment. Mr. Burkett is down, and Jamie’s mother finds out that Mrs. Burkett has passed away. But Jamie is standing there talking to Mrs. Burkett. She informs him that his art project, a turkey done from a handprint, is the wrong color. Mr. Burkett realizes his wife did not have her wedding rings on, and Mrs. Burkett looks at Jamie and says she put them on the top shelf of the closet. Early onset Alzheimer’s disease made her take the rings off and hide them because she thought someone wanted to steal them. Jamie is only six when this happens, but it is not the first time he has seen a ghost, and it certainly will not be the last. As time goes on, he will see more, and when his mother becomes involved with a female cop, she will take him down a road of horror he never wants to be on.
This book was released by HARD CASE CRIME, a publisher that deals in mystery/noir/pulp books from the past and present. It is a great line of books that brings the reader to a time gone by, when the magic of a pulp novel grabbed you for a while and took you on a fast jaunt through a mystery. Tough guys, beautiful women, crime, passion, and a mystery to solve. When you look at the cover, you see a gorgeous police officer and a teenage boy. The thing about this book is it is more of a horror story than a crime story. The cop uses Jamie to help stop a bombing by talking to the dead bomber. While he is talking to the dead, he is trying his best not to puke again, because the bomber blew his brains out, and all Jamie can see is the grisly wound. So, I was a bit perplexed, waiting to see if a bigger mystery was going to come, and it didn’t. In fact, the only mystery in the book is who Jamie’s father is, and you get your answer at the end. But this mystery is mentioned in passing a few times in the book, but not so much as to become a driving force of the book.
As a horror novel, this is a great book and one you would expect from Stephen King. As a mystery novel, is is so-so, and I got the feeling that HARD CASE CRIMES wanted to get Stephen King’s name on a couple of books to drive their line into the mainstream.
The book moves fast, the writing is sharp, and the characters are engaging and well thought out. This is a book that could be read in at least two sittings depending on how much time you give yourself to read. Throughout the book, Jamie will allude to what is coming and that is the driving force of the book. I could not wait to see what happened next. Without that driving force, I probably would have given up on it.
Hey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of DC vs. VHey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of DC vs. Vampires Vol. 2 I have coffee in my system, and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!
Ever since I was a kid, I have loved DC comics. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, etc., have entertained me for years. When I was a kid, my dad took me to where he got my comics and gave me two dollars. I got Justice League of America, Justice Society of America, Brave and the Bold, and World’s Finest just because they were team-ups and had my favorite heroes. Dad was proud of me for economizing, and I had money left over. (Believe it or not kiddies, back then comic books were a quarter, twenty-five cents, four for a dollar….) Oh, I miss those days…… So, in order to economize now, I wait for the books to come out in “Graphic Novel” format. As an added bonus, I wait for those books to go on sale. My patience has paid off again!
Earth has fallen to the vampires. A few pockets of humanity resist, led by Green Arrow, Batgirl, and Supergirl. A “Hail Mary” plan is in place to take down the King of the Vampires, but questions abound about whether it will actually work. Can taking down the vampire king actually defeat the vampires once and for all, or would someone take his place?
The story on this one is tight. The tension was maintained all the way through. The color red is used effectively to keep the sense of dread going all throughout until the final page. Some of the art becomes a bit too cartoonish for such a serious book, especially when Frankenstein comes on the scene to help the heroes. He could have been drawn better to take him a bit more seriously, but that is my opinion (I am a huge Frankenstein fan!). This is also a book that will deserve a re-read because i am sure i missed something along the line with all that goes on within the pages.
Hey there, book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Iain RoHey there, book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Iain Rob Wright’s Bad Luck (The Cursed Manuscripts book 4). I have coffee in my system and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!
Emily is in a dead-end job and it just keeps getting worse. Her boss is a handy kind of guy and not in the best way. Her co-worker gets injured on a bottle and she is forced to work the next day. All she wants to do is go home and go to sleep so she is ready for the next day. Her friends coerce her to go to The Rock with them for a couple of drinks. While hanging out with her friends, they decide to walk up the beach towards the pier. They see a group of young men, one thing leads to another and terse words are exchanged, punches are thrown, and a curse is laid upon the six friends. One by one they start to die, each one dying worse than the last. Emily is desperate to find a way to break the curse. To do so may stain her soul for all eternity. Is she up to the task? Would dying be better?
Now, I will admit I just oversimplified what happens in the book. I do not want to give away all of its secrets. This book is reminiscent of the movie “Final Destination”, but that is not a negative. Just when you think you know where it is going, Mr. Wright throws another curve ball and he amps up the death process. Sure, it starts light, but there is one where the image will stick with me for a long time.
The book is fast-paced; I took it down in a couple of hours. The writing is sharp. The characters are wonderfully flawed and engaging. He does fall back on some racial bits dealing with immigrants, and there is a teaching lesson in here that will make you stop and think. There are stereotypes on both sides that are a bit worn out, but effective for what is being done with them.
Hey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of John ScaHey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of John Scalzi’s Starter Villain I have coffee in my system, and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!
I was in the mood for something different, and last week I saw that John Scalzi’s Starter Villain was on sale in ebook format. Being a Scalzi fan, I snatched it right up! I wanted something different, and that is exactly what I got!
Charlie Fitzer is a divorced down on his luck substitute teacher. His luck keeps going from bad to worse in an unending spiral. His one glimmer of hope is the possibility of getting a loan to keep a local pub open, but that is snuffed out faster than you can blink. When he gets home there is a woman on his porch who tells him his long-lost uncle has died, and if he stands for the uncle at the funeral, his money woes will be over. Charlie reluctantly agrees and comes to learn that his uncle is a villain. As luck would have it, Charlie inherited the family business. The upside is he becomes a trillionaire. The downside is everyone wants him dead.
If there is one regret I have for this book, it is that I cannot read it for the first time again. Oh my God, what a treat this book was! To become a James Bond-style villain, complete with a secret volcano lair. I was prepared for intelligent cats, the cover gives that away. I was NOT prepared for striking foul-mouthed dolphins. Seriously, these dolphins would have given any Bond movie an “R” rating in the first few words. This book is campy in the Roger Moore Bond ways and laugh-out-loud funny so you need to be warned about that or whatever is in your mouth will be rocket-propelled out like a laser shooting down a satellite to cheese off your competition.
This book is fast-paced, and the writing is fantastic. The characters are engaging and likable. Most of all, this book is full of heart in many villainous ways. This is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time.
Hey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Iain RobHey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of Iain Rob Wright’s Hell Train (Cursed Manuscripts Book 3) I have coffee in my system, and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!
I love trains (if you follow me on a certain unnamed social media platform you will know what I mean, I am always posting pictures of trains). Give me a story set on a train and I am one happy reader! When i saw that Iain Rob Wright turned his talented eye towards a train ride, I had to see what it was about.
Clip and Xavi are two students in love. They board the train to go to university to attend classes. They are just two of at least a dozen passengers from all walks of life who are heading toward various destinations. The age range is from the very young to the very old. You have students, former special forces, a wanna-be actor, thugs, just to name a few. When the ride starts, the thugs start eyeing up Clip, and Xavi takes offense. This starts a back-and-forth that goes through the book until the end, but this is the least of the worries. As the train enters a tunnel, it does not exit. It keeps moving into eternal darkness and picks up another passenger, a specter of a woman whose feet are bound in wood, and her head is bound in a cage. One by one, passengers die and disappear, feeding the woman with their guilt….and everyone on the train has something in their past that weighs heavily on their soul, and the woman is very hungry. The dinner bell has rung. “All will die, two will survive”.
One of the things that tripped me up a few times in this book was British turns of phrase and slang. Once I got used to that, I was fine. The two thugs on the train were…over thugged with the way they spoke, and it did get annoying but on the other hand, they never broke character, so while annoying it was refreshing. The story itself flowed and when you find out why the train is not getting out of the tunnel, it is a doozy. This story is also evocative of Stephen King’s The Langoliers in that the train starts dissolving into nothing, and that actually propels the sense of urgency and dread, and believe me when I tell you there is enough dread to go around.
The best part of this book is that I saw the movie unfold in my head. After a while, I was not so much reading as much as I was enjoying the picture show.
Hey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes. Coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of DC vs. VHey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes. Coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I have for you my review of DC vs. Vampires vol 1. I have coffee in my system, and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!
There are a lot of horror tropes that can be over done; werewolves, zombies, vampires…the market gets flooded in waves. Sometimes I want to scream. If you are going to do the trope, make it interesting, new, thought provoking.
I am glad to say James Tynion IV had given the vampire trope a shot in the arm.
Vampires have attacked the DC universe. The heroes are not immune. Hal Jordan is among the first to fall and be changed. He serves a vampire lord and goes about converting more heroes to the cause. Those who do not go willingly die. Barry Allen is one of the first to die. This brings on the mystery of who killed him, and all fingers point towards Batman. As the reader we know it is Green Lantern, but to see the story unfold enhances the mystery, and drives the story forward in delightful ways. Soon, the war was waged on two fronts by two super-powered groups: The Justice League and The Suicide Squad. Vampires are everywhere and soon the two groups are hip-deep in dead bodies and undead opponents.
The art in this book is two-fold and different; Justice League heroes have a certain hard-edged style, whereas the Suicide Squad’s style is softer. At first, I was not a fan, but as I read along the changing styles grew on me. The mystery of who the Vampire Lord is drives the story, and when you find out it is a doozy. It is also enjoyable to see how the common tropes of holy water, wooden stakes and Crosses fit the story and drive it in memorable ways. Oh, to see some of the heroes get Holy Water showers is enjoyable, and there is a bit of a work around on this as well that was surprising.
All in all I give this book 4 bookmarks out of 5!...more
Hey there book lovers! It is your Star Trek-loving pal, Ninetoes, coming at you with your book of the week and a review of Star Trek: Ships of the LinHey there book lovers! It is your Star Trek-loving pal, Ninetoes, coming at you with your book of the week and a review of Star Trek: Ships of the Line. I have coffee in my system, and my thinking cap on, so let’s do this!
So, to start, a big Ninetoes Loves Books shout out to my sister, Janice, for surprising me with this one! Yesterday, I was sitting in my living room and heard a thump on my porch. There was a box there and in it was this splendid book.
Well, since I called this book splendid, the cat is out of the bag. I LOVED it with a capital “L” and a hefty Live Long and Prosper! The art in this book is stunning. It is a collection of many illustrations of the Star Trek Ships of the Line Calendars. Text with each ship is provided by Star Trek historian Michael Okuda. Needless to say, I loved this book!
I give Star Trek Ships of the Line 5 very enthusiastic bookmarks out of 5!
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