Behind Blue Eyes

A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee by Danny Fingeroth My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received an eARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This was fun. As with many people, I've always had a fascination with Marvel Comics, during spells where I was reading them one after another to drier periods where I'd only pick them up on occasion. But through it all, and through the explosion of Marvel products to the small and big screens, there was the lovable presence of Stan the Man. This book is more than a story of Stan Lee's life. It actually reads like a history of comics, taking us through the early days of Siegel and Shuster creating Superman right up to the current year, where there seems to be something Marvel releasing for our viewing pleasure every week. It was more than I really expected to learn about the comic book publishing industry, but was fascinating for all of that. Of course, no story of comic publishing...

Onslaught of Madness by Jesse Teller My rating: 4 of 5 stars Full review now up at Grimdark Magazine .. . Onslaught of Madness was my second foray into the world of Perilisc, as told by the gifted author Jesse Teller. I’ve also reviewed Song by the same author for Grimdark Magazine . While Song introduced us to a marvelous and mysterious world full of magic and intrigue, we only got a snapshot of the workings of the near-immortal beings that steer the course of humanity across the continent. With Onslaught of Madness , we get another angle on this, but from a much larger scope. Drine is invading the neighboring country of Tienne. Drine has a huge military and is bent on conquest, with its king sending one of our POV characters to lead his forces in this full invasion. Rextur is a follower of Dis, the God of Destruction, and he’s been planning this invasion for years. Even so, the king has ordered him to action much sooner than Rextur had hoped for...

The Millennial Manifesto by Michael R. Fletcher My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was provided a copy of the eARC for this book by the author. Wow! I just realized that by stopping there, I could get my point across on how I felt about this book, but it would also be the lamest review I'd ever written. Just that acknowledgement makes it a little better. But for real. A couple of years ago I was introduced to Michael R. Fletcher through his brilliant debut novel, Beyond Redemption , a grimdark fantasy of the highest order with a perfect blend of violence, grit, characterization, and humor. This is on my short list of books I push on the wary and unwary alike, quickly recommended without hesitation by anyone I come across that asks me for a good read. The other books in that series are nearly as good, and I've been devouring everything Fletcher ever since. But now he is moving out of his lane. This isn't fantasy. It's not even speculative ficti...

The God King's Legacy by Richard Nell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Review now posted on the Grimdark Magazine site... Not so much a novel as a collection of two novellas that are only distantly related, The God King’s Legacy serves as an excellent introduction into the as yet unreleased God-King’s Chronicles series. Rebellion of the Black Militia , the first novella, is about an apprentice Scribe that is being assigned to work with a legendary Knight to weed out a rebellion that seems to have a demon behind it. In this world, demons can be captured and held by magical markings on the body of the holder, with Scribes as the experts in such castings. The God-King himself has done this, and it appears that this is what keeps the demons at bay for the most part. If a Scribe or Knight holds the demon, it is neutralized and kept from hurting the population at large. A nice bonus is that the holder gains powers directly from the demon possessing him or her...

Smoke and Stone by Michael R. Fletcher My rating: 5 of 5 stars Holy Smoke! (and Stone) was that a wild ride… Michael R. Fletcher makes his return to grimdark fantasy in fine fashion, introducing us to a fascinating new world, different from that in his brilliant Manifest Delusions series. If you enjoyed the world-building and backstabbery of that series, you’ll love this one just as much. It’s the first book in the City of Sacrifice series, set entirely in the city of Bastion, which to its inhabitants comprises the entire known world. Bastion sets on a single stone, which covers a diameter of about 250 miles. A quarter of a million people live here, separated by several walls which ring around the core, where the priests live. It’s an elaborate caste system, where the farther out one lives from the center, the more poor and numerous. Smoke and Stone takes place mostly in the Grower’s Ring, where the food for the city is harvested by, you guessed it...

Limited Wish by Mark Lawrence My rating: 4 of 5 stars Review posted at Grimdark Magazine : https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/revi... I read One Word Kill a few weeks ago and was thrilled to get hold of an eARC of the sequel, Limited Wish . If you liked book one, prepare to be just as entertained an engrossed with book two. The good news is that this book doesn’t suffer at all from “middle book syndrome” where the bridge from beginning to end of a trilogy often becomes the weakest link. Indeed, this is just as good if not better than the first book. Limited Wish picks up a few months after the events of One Word Kill , as our party of adventurers settles back into their daily lives. Our narrator, Nick, has turned 16 and worked his way into admission at Trinity College in Cambridge, working as a protégé to a Professor in Mathematics. They’re working together on ideas with bending time, as Nick is convinced by his experiences in book one that he event...

Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music by John Corbett My rating: 3 of 5 stars I received an eARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Sometimes I like to just throw a music memoir into the mix as they give great perspective of the journey of life with great music as a backdrop. I did get that here, though to be honest I had to skip some sections. I was reading it all for the first quarter but found myself mired when the author was covering artists I wasn't familiar with. Ideally, the writing would make me want to go out and find the material and give it a listen. But that didn't always work here. Sometimes I think the author just got too heavy handed with the descriptive words and cultural references that I didn't often get. That said, there were some great moments here, especially in the areas where an artist I listen to was covered. These would take me back to a time when it was all new to me, much like it was ...