Behind Blue Eyes

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe by Cullen Bunn My rating: 3 of 5 stars That was fun, but it actually got rather disturbing too. This reminded me a bit of Marvel Zombies, where the writers take the familiar (and beloved) Marvel characters and throw them to the wind. It's an alternate universe, so anything can happen. The shit can really hit the fan because in the main Marvel universe, nothing has changed. This time around we get to see what might happen if Deadpool were to really back up the junk that's always coming out of his mouth. I mean, really. What would happen if the dude seriously snapped? He'd fucking kill everyone. View all my reviews

Beyond This Dark House by Guy Gavriel Kay My rating: 3 of 5 stars I really don't like poetry. But this is pretty readable, and I wasn't surprised since I like Kay's poetry that filters into his novels. Favorites are the title poem, and "Guinevere at Almesbury". View all my reviews

Game: A Thriller by Anders de la Motte My rating: 2 of 5 stars I received a free ebook ARC copy of this book from NetGalley. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Okay, here's the deal. It took me almost two weeks to read this. I'm not planning a long review, because I'm honestly tired of thinking about this thing and want to wash my hands of it. I feel that I owe NetGalley a review for providing the free copy, so here goes. There were some good things about this book. The premise: conspiracy theory and a secret Game which can be accessed by specially chosen players on a special cell phone. Cool idea. The book starts out with a bang, jumping right into the action with our protagonist, HP. HP is what he goes by, after his initials. Fine. The game seems exciting at first and soon becomes more dangerous and criminal. The book had good pacing. The action doesn't let up for long and jumps right back in. Lots of tw...

The Storm is Over By J.R. King , @OfficialJRKing dedicated to Claire Davis....

I know a lot of people have become desensitized to the bad shit that happens in our world, and in our country every day. I have, I admit it. "Oh crap, another school shooting. That sucks." *clicks -back- to return to Justin Bieber gossip* Yeah, I get it. No one likes to think about this shit. It's far away, happening to people I'll never know. It's sad, but wtf can I do about it? Maybe not a damn thing. But then, if one special person can be touched by a little effort, a few clicks of a mouse, why not go for it? I don't even know who I hope to touch with this, or what. Maybe I'll get nothing out of it but a place to express it all. And maybe that's enough. Last Friday, a young lady was critically wounded at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. Some of the students live in Littleton as well. That's a place y'all might have heard of. It was another school shooting. Hell, it was another school shooting in Colorado. Desensitization...

Triumph Over Tragedy: an Anthology for the Victims of Hurricane Sandy by R.T. Kaelin My rating: 4 of 5 stars Tl;dr version: A solid collection of new SF/F stories, all for a good cause. This was put together in a hurry, to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy. For that, I’ll forgive a number of typos I saw; they were pretty minor anyway. The stories are very good for the most part, and some are excellent. There really isn’t a bad egg in the whole carton. See below for comments on each story, if you don’t find that idea too painful: “Old Leatherwings” by Elizabeth Bear. This was a decent story, though the ending left me a bit unsure. Had an American folklore feel to it. 3 stars. “Quick” by Mark Lawrence. A story set in his “Prince of Thorns” world, this was an enjoyable tale of a young man’s encounter with a witch. And the results. 4 stars. “When You’re Dead…” by Michael Stackpole. This was fun. A little humor thrown in with this account of a man trying to...

Being Kalli by Rebecca Berto My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received a free eARC copy of this book in exchange for a review. So what the hell. This is not my normal reading fare. But... I met the author some time back on GoodReads and saw a blog post where she was looking for some feedback on a project she wasn't sure about. The early chapters of "Being Kalli" were posted on her website. Curious as the premise seemed...interesting...I checked it out. I only read a little, but found the story and character interesting. I didn't finish it as I really don't read long works on the computer, and by the time I checked back, I couldn't find it. So here we are. Rebecca Berto asked if anyone was interested in checking out an advanced reading copy for the book, Being Kalli . Oh yes, I remembered that project and was still curious, so I offered to read it. Hey, seemed like she might could use a male perspective. One that usually reads fantasy, ...

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King My rating: 5 of 5 stars What can I say? Stephen King has blown me away again. I've been reading him for 30 years or more and I'm rarely disappointed. There were a couple of flaws in this towards the end, but I won't go into that in the interest of saving spoilers. They were fairly minor points though, and didn't take away from my overall enjoyment. Great concept, great characters, great sequel. It's awesome to see Danny Torrance all grown up, and I really felt for his character and all he'd had to endure, just in the process of living. The normal stuff he had to go through as well as the gift/burden of having the shining. Then there's Abra Stone. I loved her - a great second protagonist to go along with Dan. Like a next generation Shining, of sorts. The True Knot was a pretty cool concept too, though I won't go into the whys of that here. Other secondary characters were great, mainly Dan's f...

Unteachable by Leah Raeder My rating: 4 of 5 stars Would you believe it? I raced through this book like I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I was hooked on the first page, and surprised on the last page that it was over already. Was this romance ?? Erotic romance to boot? Yes, and no. I mean, it was both. But again, it was more than either. More importantly, it was a story , and an intriguing one at that. I kept thinking of the Stanley Kubrick directed Lolita . The original, not the shitty remake. Add some sex scenes and bring it to the modern age, and you've got it. Sorta. It's probably not surprising to think of that movie, as Raeder refers back to both Kubrick the director and the original book by Nabakov (which I've never gotten around to reading). But if you liked the movie, this book might do it for you. While the plot and scenery are much different, it has a dark brush with taboo feel to it that's similar. Well, maybe more than brush. More like ...

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry My rating: 3 of 5 stars It's finally over. That felt like the longest audiobook I've ever listened to. It was actually a decent, if slowly paced story. It was like the zombie book with the second most zzzzzzz's that I've read. (See Boneshaker). I did enjoy the post apocalyptic world Maberry set up and the characters. It just seemed to take a long time to get anywhere. That's the book. Now for the audio. The reader wasn't bad or difficult to listen to, but he talked so slowly I thought I would be a shambling corpse before he finished. And then... There was a chapter where a few of the teenage boys got together and we're talking about their friend that was a girl. We'll, as teen boys will do, the convo soon drifted to her boobs. This reader. Through that part, he sounded just like Butt-Head. From that point on, I could not get that out of my head. Huh huh huh uh huh huh. He said "boobs...

The Secret Lives of Married Women by Elissa Wald My rating: 4 of 5 stars Disclaimer: I won a free copy of this book on GoodReads as a part of the First Reads giveaway program. I’d like to extend my thanks to GoodReads, the author, and the publisher. That was different. That is, while I didn't know whether to expect a "hard case crime" noir type story or a story about repressed sexuality, I didn't get either. Or I got both. Sorta. Anyway, it wasn't what I would have expected had I any expectations. It was good, however. I did find there was more "hard" than "crime", but then again....well. I don't want to spoil anything. What I can say is that it was intriguing, and that the prose was excellent. Wald's flow and style bumped this thing a whole star by itself. It was very comfortable to read, even during uncomfortable moments. Yes, I'm being vague. There is so much to explore here that it just needs to be...

Go the F--k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach My rating: 5 of 5 stars I actually read along with a pdf copy of the book while I listened to Samuel L. Jackson's brilliant reading. Did I say it was brilliant? That doesn't do it justice. It was motherfuckin' brilliant. Everything that Jackson touches turns to motherfuckin' gold. Not just Pulp Fiction, but lightsabers and S.H.I.E.L.D. too. What's in your wallet? That said, the book itself is hilarious. For anyone that's had small children that you've read to before bed, you'll love this. What starts out as a shared love of reading often turns into a war of endurance, frequently won by the smallest combatant. It's instinctual how these kids can wear you down. Great that I read it on Veteran's Day, eh? Still, humor aside, I wouldn't trade those memories of reading to my kids for anything. Just writing this review made me tired. I think it won't be long now before I go the...

What Doesn't Kill Her: A Thriller by Max Allan Collins My rating: 4 of 5 stars Disclaimer: I won a free copy of this book on GoodReads as a part of the First Reads giveaway program. I’d like to extend my thanks to GoodReads, the author, and the publisher. Wow. That was a thrill-ride. It is so great to pick up a book that does that, jumps right into it and hooks you from the first words. Then carries a story across the years and pages, building a great story surrounding the action. Then it throws you back into the action and doesn't let up. There were probably a few minor issues with the structure of the plot and some of the character relationships, but I say that vaguely because it was easily overlooked as I rode along with the progress of the story. So yeah, it was a lot of fun and kept my interest start to finish. What more could I ask for? View all my reviews

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2013 Edition by Paula Guran My rating: 3 of 5 stars The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2013 Edition Disclaimer: I won a free copy of this book on GoodReads as a part of the First Reads giveaway program. I’d like to extend my thanks to GoodReads, the editor, and the publisher. “No Ghosts in London” by Helen Marshall. Eh. While it had some cool concepts of ghost traditions, I wasn’t wowed. The sometimes shift to second person was strange here. It was short though, so I didn’t feel bogged down. 2 stars. “Fake Plastic Trees” by Caitlin R. Kiernan. A post apocalyptic diary-type short where a girl remembers a particular incident. The ideas behind the “EVENT” and the moved-on world 12 years later were very cool. I’d be interested in a novel set in this world. 4 stars. “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury” by Neil Gaiman. Intriguing little story. I jumped ahead to read this one because it was Gaiman, and beca...

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received a free ebook ARC copy of this book from NetGalley. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. 4.5 stars. Wow. We've had a long wait for this book, and for the introduction of the character of Sabetha. Both were satisfying. Lynch's books are always like a big fun chess match. Full of intrigue and funny as hell banter, you never know what to expect. He really knows how to get into a character's head, and then get that character into the reader's head. In the first two books, Lynch made us love the Gentlemen Bastards. In this one, he reaffirms that affection, and brings it around to Sabetha as well. And some of the side characters have their own charm as well. And those damn bondsmagi! Seriously, read it. If you haven't read the first two, do that first. Then read this. View all my reviews

Under the Black Ensign by L. Ron Hubbard My rating: 3 of 5 stars I won a free copy of this book on GoodReads, so thanks to them and to the publisher (Galaxy Press). That was fun. I've read L. Ron Hubbard before, but mainly the Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth books. While those were epic and sprawling, this book is an example of Hubbard's early work, his many pulp adventures. This one is a pirate tale. It was quickly paced and enjoyable, with lots of action and even a bit of intrigue. A damsel (not always in distress) is also included. View all my reviews

Precise by Rebecca Berto My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars, but rounding up. This isn't normally the type of book I'd pick up and read. It's what I'd call "chick-lit", for lack of a better term (but not what I'd classify as "romance"). That is, it's fiction that women read. No bullets. No zombies. No swords spilling entrails. No, definitely not a "guy book". That said, I was drawn to try it out. 1. It was a free d/l on B&N. 2. I have the author as a GR friend. 3. She's never spammed me. 4. She promotes her work in a way that makes it seem interesting, even to a guy (me) that doesn't usually read that type of book. 5. She seems to truly appreciate when people read her stuff. 6. She just seems so nice all the time. That said, the book itself was pretty good. It was too short to be a novel, but too long to be a short story (hence defining 'novella'). But in this in-between amount of space I found myself caring ab...

The Great Goodreads Censorship Debacle by G.R. McGoodreader My rating: 5 of 5 stars I want to read this, but I have such a backlog of stuff I want to read right now, I'm sure it will have been deleted and censored out of existence by the time I get around to it. That said, I'm giving it 5-stars. It's the best book ever! OMG, I love this book!!! Or would, I'm sure, had I actually read it. But I like the idea of the book. So yeah. OMG. YES! 5-fucking-stars. For sure. View all my reviews

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman My rating: 4 of 5 stars If one didn't know that Gaiman was influenced by Douglas Adams before reading this, they do now. This is obviously a kids' book, as one will be able to see immediately by style and the illustrations. But that is in no way saying that adults can't enjoy it. I really enjoyed the twists and turns, and laughed out loud several times. As always, Gaiman is a joy to read at any age level. View all my reviews

The Shining by Stephen King My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a great re-read, in anticipation of Doctor Sleep . It was also enjoyable this time around as an audio. I wasn't sure I liked Campbell Scott's reading at first, but he grew on me. I especially loved his creepy voices, for the characters that get creepy. View all my reviews

Double Feature by Owen King My rating: 4 of 5 stars So I read this in May, but didn't write a review. I meant to. And today I picked up the copy of a chapbook given out at a book signing. This is a series of deleted scenes and scrapbook entries. We'll, I enjoyed it and it brought back some of what I felt when reading Double Feature. First off, Owen King has a brilliant imagination. I am fascinated with the fictional movie career of Booth Dolan, and the film industry glimpses we get of Sam Dolan as he works on his own production. For much of this book, I was going "huh?" as I wasn't exactly sure where it was going. It seemed to shift around at will, like a Coen Brothers or Tarantino film. But that's a good thing! As I read these little extras, I really had that impression reinforced. Four months later, and the positive feel I got when finishing this book remained, much as it does years after watching a film by one of those directo...

Read in April, 2012 Here's another bonus review. This one stands out as a rare "bad" review of a King book. Note that it sits at 3 stars. For my King ratings, that's pretty low. For my Dark Tower ratings, that's abysmal. The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King My rating: 3 of 5 stars .... Uummmmm. What do I say? For as long as I've been on GR, I've seen the debate on the Dark Tower. Which story era is more enjoyable? The "present day (sorta)" ka-tet of Roland, Susannah, Eddie, Jake, and Oy. Or the "Young Roland" era when he ran with Alain, Cuthbert, and Jamie? So as I'm about to start this book, I find out that many of the "present day" crews are disappointed because we get a little time with the ka-tet, only to have the story shift back in time with Roland telling another story of his youth, much like Wizard & Glass. That book seems to be either a least favorite or a most favorite with everyone. With me, it wa...

Read in April, 2009 This is one of my earliest reviews from Goodreads, and is to this date it is far and away my most popular. I'm not sure why, really. It's not my best, I don't think. But I'll post it here. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 5 of 5 stars It reminds me of Ocean's Eleven meets The Italian Job, but set in Mordor after Sauron has ruled for 1000 years or so. In many fantasy stories, a dark lord is rising and it is up to our heroes to defeat him before that happens. In this, the Dark Lord is already set in place as the status quo and the heroes have to motivate others to want a change.....Yet there is a noble class of The Lord Ruler's flunkies who will need to be scammed and robbed along the way, to finance this big revolt.....I love it... The pace, style, and grand-heist-scheme-in-a-fantasy-setting plot remind me of Michael J. Sullivan 's The Crown Conspiracy while the characters and rags-to-revolutionary story mak...

The Rose and the Thorn by Michael J. Sullivan My rating: 5 of 5 stars I received a free ebook ARC copy of this book from NetGalley. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Each one of these books that I read brings it all home. They remind me why I read in the first place. Looking back, I've sometimes wondered if I'd given too high praise of these because I knew and got along well with the author. But no, that's not it. While that's true enough, the books are really that good. Any built in bias on my part is very small, if present at all. The Riyria books keep me engaged from the first page to the last. They show me characters that I care about to the point where I cringe if something bad happens to them. And there are often moments of "no, he didn't just go there" or outright laughter at an unexpected quip or bit of banter between the characters. I've enjoyed Sullivan's books from the ...

The Bank of Fear by David Ignatius My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was a First Reads win on Goodreads, so thanks go out to Goodreads and to the publisher (Norton). I had some serious mixed feelings here, and had to remember that 3-stars = "liked it". And I'd say that I liked it more than, I didn't like it. There were some issues that I didn't care for along the way, but for the most part I enjoyed the experience. It was a bit slow going early on. As I was introduced to the characters, I wasn't impressed. Book smart they might be, but they couldn't distribute an ounce of common sense to the lot of them. They were so stupid, it was unrealistic. Unrealistic that they could BE that dumb, and unrealistic that they didn't die from their stupidity. Especially the main character, Sam Hoffman. How a financial investigator could move along at his steady pace of gaffes and blunders made it difficult for me to suspend belief. And I read...

Razor's Edge by Martha Wells My rating: 3 of 5 stars I received a free ebook ARC copy of this book from NetGalley. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. 3 stars, but was almost 2. I had some really mixed feelings about this book. At times, I enjoyed it. At other times, I just wanted it to be over. I'll start with the cons: 1. Describe describe describe. This was heavy-handed. When every nut and bolt and widget is described down to the corners, the story loses momentum. Or never gains any. And while good description can help give a clear picture, this did the opposite. The more I read, the more I couldn't visualize anything. 2. The tone was dry. It didn't seem to have highs and lows. Even when the story should have, the tone remained the same throughout. 3. The pacing. It never seems to let up. While this was probably meant to give the narrative suspense, it just served to drag i...

V Wars by Jonathan Maberry My rating: 2 of 5 stars 2.5 stars. This looked like it might resemble World War Z with multiple authors and vampires. It was more like World War Zzzzzzzzzz. The "war" was a cold one and the overarching story seemed to deal more with social consciousness than with staking bloodsuckers. Oh wait. Just saying that makes me racist against vampires. Should I not use the "V" word? I'd hate to be banned from a cable tv network 30 years from now because they found out I said "vampire". That said, I did enjoy some of the stories. Mostly I was intrigued with the Maberry sections and those by Nancy Holder. The rest pretty much reminded me that I hate vampires. Well, at least none of them sparkled. It wasn't a horrible read, and the audio format really worked well for this work. Still, I would have liked to have seen more bullets fly and less political agenda. View all my reviews

Paladins of Shannara: The Black Irix by Terry Brooks My rating: 4 of 5 stars That was a cool little story. A direct sequel to The Sword of Shannara , this gives us a further adventure with Shea, Flick, and Panamon Creel. View all my reviews

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers My rating: 3 of 5 stars That was impressive, I'll admit. A historical fiction with a secondary plot of romance and a dash of the fantastic. What is impressive to me most is that the story remained engaging, even when the romantic aspects kicked in. They weren't heavy or distracting, and actually fit the story really well. View all my reviews

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a ride. When this book picks up, it doesn't let go until all the bullets fly. Well, even after that, truth be known. The action sequences here are so nicely described, I can almost hear the shell casings hitting the floor. I thought I was getting a police procedural with zombies thrown in. What I read was so much more than that. All of that became obvious when our policeman narrator was recruited by Mr. Church, and his ultra-secret black ops counter-terrorist group. The stuff they do is almost as scary as the things they fight. And fight, oh yes. There are more bullets in this than the average shooter game. Sweet. It would make a killer movie. (I read that it was being prepped for a TV show, but that ABC passed on it to show the Charlie's Angels remake. Epic fail.) I see lots of potential for this series, and will be checking it out. Hooah... View all my reviews

Bearers of the Black Staff by Terry Brooks My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was an interesting and entertaining story from the Shannara world history. This one tells us of events that occur a few centuries after the time frame of The Gypsy Morph . It gets us closer to the period of Brooks's classic work, The Sword of Shannra , but we're not there yet. This book does end with a lot unresolved, so I'll need to push on to The Measure of the Magic to get those answers. But that said, this one is enjoyable. There are a few characters that stand out as particularly interesting (Prue, Inch, and Mistral), while others are likeable but fairly typical Brooks heroes. The story is solid, and though predictable in places for Brooks veterans, there are a few surprises here and there. I wouldn't recommend this to a newcomer to the Shannara books (too much would be missed that happened before), but it is a good way to spend a few hours for a fan of Terry Brooks and his series. View al...

Kenobi by John Jackson Miller My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received a free ebook ARC copy of this book from NetGalley. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. That was a satisfying read. Two things I've always loved are Star Wars and westerns. Here, we have a blending of sorts. Have you ever wondered how Obi-Wan ended up living as a hermit in the desert of Tatooine? The "why" of this decision is known to fans of the Star Wars series, but here is a chance to see how things went for him as he moved in and got settled. Lots of references to the movie series are here, as expected. But with that, it's a pretty self-contained story. Assuming the reader has seen the movies. And honestly, who would read this book having not seen the films? There were even a few minor questions answered. One that always bugged me was about his name. He changed it from "Obi-Wan" to "Ben", i...

The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan My rating: 5 of 5 stars I received a free ebook ARC copy of this book from NetGalley. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. 4.5 stars. Very nice, satisfyingly fun read. I really enjoy these books. Sullivan does have some great world-building going on, but it comes up in snippets, not bogging down the story. Otherwise he keeps it at a brisk pace and character driven. The characters are enjoyable and I really get invested. Royce and Hadrian are great together, complimenting each other with skills and constant banter. And this is their origin story. Or, at least, the origin of their partnership. They're brought together and we get to see how this mismatched pair ends up working together. As prequels go, this is fantastic. The supplemental characters are good too, notably Gwen and Arcadius. We see how they come into the story as well, as they're also familiar faces from the Riyri...

Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton My rating: 5 of 5 stars That. Was brilliant. It took me three weeks to read this nearly 1000 page monster of a book. Normally that would seem like a long time on one book, but not here. A busy schedule kept me from devoting large chunks of time to it, but that was okay. I was able to savor it. I'd never read Hamilton before, and now I'm a fan. It's rare for a book this size to churn along without boring parts, but this had very few of those. Part mystery, action-adventure, police procedural, epic scale space opera, and human psychological drama, this made for a fantastic experience. It's a stand-alone novel, so there is no "next book" to pick up. I will be reading more Hamilton though, that is certain. View all my reviews

Sons of Zeus by Noble Smith My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received a free copy of this audiobook through the First Reads program here on Goodreads. Thanks to the author, publisher, and Goodreads for the opportunity to read and review this book. Now that was a pleasant surprise. Well, I did expect to like this book as the idea seemed really interesting, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. An interesting premise became an engaging story. I listened to the audiobook of this, which I received as a GoodReads First Reads Giveaway. I was pleased with that, as a lot of the audios I listen to are historical fiction, and this seemed to fit the niche just right. And while it had lots of what I enjoy about historical fiction from the time period (ancient Greece), it also improved on some. The battles. Sometimes I find that battles are too drawn out in historical fiction. Too detailed, they often drag on and lose my interest in the telling. But what I liked abo...

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer My rating: 3 of 5 stars Now that was strange. I fully expected to hate this book. It's gimmicky and thrown together randomly, or so it seemed. But I found myself strangely compelled to keep reading. It grabbed my interest without warning. I wouldn't say I loved it, certainly, but it kept me engaged well enough to give it an even 3 stars. Maybe my expectations were low enough to make this possible. View all my reviews

1356 by Bernard Cornwell My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was a decent read, but a bit disappointing to one who has read a lot of Cornwell. It really seemed too light hearted, almost slapstick at times. It was more like a caper than a historical fiction novel, but had a drawn out battle thrown in at the end. I did like the book, but never felt engaged like I have in other Cornwells. It just didn't match up with the previous books in the Thomas of Hookton series. View all my reviews

The One-Armed Warrior: A Short Story by Noble Smith My rating: 4 of 5 stars Very nice. I enjoyed this short story which I received from the author today. It was a bonus teaser in addition to the novel Sons of Zeus , which I won as a First Reads giveaway on GoodReads. Well, I will say that if this short work is any indication of what I can expect to see in the novel, I'm looking forward to that one. View all my reviews

Guns by Stephen King My rating: 4 of 5 stars Well done, Uncle Stevie. I hesitated to read this for a long time because I don't own a Kindle I don't agree with liberal politics and I'm frankly annoyed at the number of celebrities that blindly follow such. It's tough to follow people like that who I like for their art or craft, but I keep getting political rhetoric that I disagree with. However, that's not what this is. While there is a liberal agenda being illustrated, it's done in such a way that it appeals to the conscience, rather than the left or right of the issue. It's shown here to make us think, and that can't be a bad thing. His solutions are much more middle of the road than I would have expected, and it gives me hope that a compromise might be possible. Another reason for me to admire Stephen King, even if I don't always agree with him. View all my reviews

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill My rating: 5 of 5 stars Review? Wow.. Of course this book deserves a review. It deserves one of the highest order. But what can I write that will do Joe Hill and his wonderful book any justice? I mean, really. My ability to rave on this awesome book is dwarfed by the sheer wordpower of Joe Hill. So, here we go. This was cool. Uhhhh...yeah. Cool. I liked it. A lot. See what I mean? I'm humbled. Truth is, I'm stuck on knowing what to say that doesn't 1) suck, or 2) spoil. The first is a waste of everyone's time, and the second is a betrayal. So...read the book. It's F'in brilliant. Even though (or rather especially because) it does not have any (view spoiler) [vampires (hide spoiler) ] . You might expect that it would....but it's better for it all the same. Okay, Joe. When is your next book coming out? View all my reviews

Angel Fire East by Terry Brooks My rating: 4 of 5 stars Nice ending to the trilogy. What this book had that was better than the first two: Villains. Sinister, creepy villains. Not the cookie-cutter bad demons from the first two. Findo Gask and Penny Dreadful were wickedly delicious. Had to love Twitch too, and the whatever-it-was shadow thing (ur'droch). John Ross was a bit of a dud in this book though; Nest carried the show. I mean, when she was meeting with Gask and Penny, John is just standing around, leaning on his staff. What the hell, man? Are you a Knight of the Word, or what? I got a little fed up with all the "I shouldn't have come here and put you in danger" junk. No, I thought. You shouldn't have come here and stood around like a lump while Nest did all the work. Where I used to work, we had a name for someone like that: a Blister. Because they'd always show up when all the hard work was done. Anyway, the ending had me...

The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus by Bev Vincent My rating: 4 of 5 stars Looking for a way to revisit Roland and his ka-tet without reading the entire 4000 pages of The Dark Tower series? Read The Wind Through the Keyhole . Then here is the place to go. It's a great overview to the characters and story of King's masterpiece. Do not read this book unless you have finished all 8 7 Dark Tower books. It will spoil it, otherwise. View all my reviews

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars, really. But I'll give it a bump up just for being the place where Cenobites originated. A gift, for me? No, thank you. I had a Rubik's Cube in high school. That was bad enough. View all my reviews

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: 8 Secondary Characters from The Dark Tower Series by Bev Vincent My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a decent little companion book to The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus by Bev Vincent. Here's where Vincent explores a few characters that didn't fit into the main book. Useful to Dark Tower junkies, but that's about it. View all my reviews

A Knight of the Word by Terry Brooks My rating: 4 of 5 stars Number two in the Terry Brooks urban fantasy series doesn't disappoint. I didn't like it quite as much as the first, but it was pretty close. This has more "urban" as it goes from small town Illinois in the fist book to Seattle in this one. And once there, one must wonder just how many times the characters will stop for Starbucks. Nobody listened to Nirvana in this though (that happened in the first book), so it wasn't too bad for Seattle stereotypes. It did mention the Kingdome a couple of times. That's a bit dated, but as a longtime Broncos fan, I remember that as a scary place. But back to the story. This happens 5 years after the first book, and we have an all grown up Nest Freemark going to Seattle to knock some sense into John Ross, the Knight of the Word who has lost his way. And where do we go from here, but to Angel Fire East . Looking forward to that. View all my reviews

The Walking Dead: Just Another Day at the Office by Jay Bonansinga My rating: 3 of 5 stars Decent little "short" story, and I do mean short. This was one of those ebooks priced at $.99, and for the first time I felt a little cheated by that price. Not that it was a bad read, but that it was so brief. Still, rating the content (what there was of it), I enjoyed the 20 minutes or so that it took me to go through this story at a leisurely pace. I do have one gripe, though. It bugged me when I read Rise of the Governor and this story starts out with it. Whenever the time is noted in these books, it specifially gives that time in Central Standard Time. It makes repeated notes of the time being Central Standard. Well, the thing is, these stories take place entirely in the state of Georgia. Which is on Eastern Standard time. No character is going to fall back an hour to convert to Central time during the zombie apocalypse. It's just not going to happen. Not when said characte...

The Gunslinger by Stephen King My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was my fifth or sixth time reading The Gunslinger, but my first to do so with audio. I've read the original version and the revised edition a couple of times each. When I did my series re-read a couple of years ago I read the revised. Some friends and I got to talking about the audios, comparing the readings of Frank Muller to that of George Guidall, who did the last three books in the series. As it happens, Guidall did the revised reading of The Gunslinger. Though Guidall is one of my favorite audiobook narrators, I did prefer the readings of Muller in the early books. This discussion got me thinking and I was in need of a new audiobook. So here we are. I'd read the revised edition the last couple of times I'd read The Gunslinger, so this seemed like a good idea. And it was. I really like the way Muller handled this series. View all my reviews

The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman My rating: 3 of 5 stars Well now. That was interesting. I actually had a bit of a time getting into this one. It didn't have the pace of the comic series (that this is based on), and was written in the present tense. That's a bit jarring for me, though I did get used to it. Note that this is the backstory of the Governor from the Walking Dead comic book/graphic novel series. It is NOT the backstory of the character by the same name/title in the AMC television series. As far as a backstory goes, this one is pretty damn good. It's shocking at times, and heartfelt at others. And whether you want to or not, you might just feel some degree of sympathy for what will become one of zombie literature's most notorious villains. View all my reviews

Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks My rating: 5 of 5 stars Now that was just what I needed. After reading a pretentious spewing of literary "greatness", I needed something that I could actually enjoy. And enjoy it I did, more than I expected to. I've been reading Brooks for years. When I was ten years old, I read his only book at the time, The Sword of Shannara . I remember liking it a lot and being really annoyed that he didn't have anymore books out. When Elfstones of Shannara came out a few years later, I was enthralled; it was even better. I got side-tracked awhile later and fell behind, but in recent years my stepdaughter has helped me get back on track. She's a huge Brooks fan, devouring each new book as it comes out. So I've borrowed some of her books and worked on getting caught up. This was incredible. I was actually surprised at how much I liked it. I was wanting to find my comfort zone, and knew that Brooks was safe. That is, I'd enjoy ...

Paladins of Shannara: The Weapons Master's Choice by Terry Brooks My rating: 3 of 5 stars Here's a short story featuring one of the most popular characters from The Wishsong of Shannara , Garet Jax. As short as it is, Brooks manages to pack a cool fight scene and a beautiful woman into the story. Not bad. View all my reviews