I’m combining both of my reviews for the series on this page for any folks that don’t happen to have (or maybe don’t want) access to Goodreads. I have been using that site to track my books for quite some time now, but sharing here also means I get to keep some small part of what I write down here.
I read this today ~ all of it. I’m delighted that I picked it up. I am planning to write out a longer, more detailed review when I finish reading the second book.
FUN!
Barf quest. Right in a kids wheelhouse (and mine)!
The second book in the series Fart Quest was just as amusing as the first one. I had fun reading this one. Yes, it’s aimed at kids. Yes, it’s still essentially an extended fart joke HOWEVER – there’s a good story in there too.
The companions that are travelling and having adventures together learn valuable lessons along the way. While these things are being done, the book itself is actually introducing kids to some of the concepts of role playing games – including experience points and levelling up.
I don’t have an elementary schooler anymore, but these are exactly the sort of books I’d be reading with a kid in that age group. I’m really glad I picked this series up.
I’m so happy to have gotten this book as a gift. While the text is not lengthy, it does give an excellent primer on the life of the photographer. I suspect many people see the name and think something like, “Oh, yes. Tree pictures…” and then move on. Well, the essay in here gave me a lot more things to dig up and sink my teeth into.
If you’re looking for a quick hit of biography, just enough to get you interested, and you can get a copy of this book, I recommend that you do.
I have said for a long time that I don’t like the ‘wrap up’ posts or lists or resolutions whenever the calendar flips at the end of the year… and I have posted a similar sentiment for a number of years in a row. I guess this passes as my end of year wrap up that I hate to see everyone else do. Can’t escape it, might as well run with it.
Once again, I missed the date. This past Sunday was the 14th anniversary of my blog. It hasn’t always been hosted here, but it’s been going on all those years. It’s a challenge to think of it in those terms. I’ve been operating the Pretend Blog (and pretending I have followers / readers) for almost as long as I’ve had a daughter. I would like to think that my writing, style and commentary have advanced and gotten better over that time, but I’m not a great judge of that. I tend to believe most of the words I toss into salad are a struggle. Writing is work. Finding, selecting and using the exact right word(s) is a constant challenge to me. There are a lot of days when I really wish I were super prolific, I just can’t seem to figure that out. A few hundred words at a time seem to be my best level of output ~ just need to string some of those together and keep putting stories out into the world.
Also, artwork. I still do that too. I’ve put a couple of pieces out there this past year, including a contest entry or two. It was good to have some projects that pushed me to get better at particular parts of art that I enjoy. The contests pushed me to be willing to show off my art as well. I know that I was somewhere around 8th place in the one competition I entered. Maybe some day I’ll place higher. I’m going to keep doing various artistic projects. It’s part of who I am. Art is a thing I do.
Bob The Skull
Being a fan. Yes, I’m a fan. I have gotten back into watching various forms of science fiction and fantasy. My reading has picked back up too. I had been in a terrible slump for a long time. This year my Goodreads account popped up a little message that told me how many books I’d managed to finish during this calendar year. I was surprised at the number. It’s not 300+ (yes, I know people that read that much) but 39 is respectable. That’s just over three books a month on average. Hopefully I’ll keep finding good stuff to read over the next year and that number will stay up around there.
The totals
I expect that 2021 will bring big changes in the world. I stay away from the political and world news type things on here as much as I can. I tend to agree with the general opinion that 2020 has been a colossal dumpster fire, but that’s an opinion based on the difficulties of others. I have, very thankfully, avoided a lot of the effects that have made 2020 such a difficult year for so many. My day job field was deemed important enough to allow me to keep my job and keep getting paid this year. That wasn’t the case for everyone. My health (and the health of my family) has been shaky, but that’s nothing new. I admit it’s been a while since we’ve been impacted the way we were here at the end of this year, but we’re working on it. Not our first rodeo as the saying goes.
Will I make predictions about what’s going to happen in the coming year? No. If nothing else this year has taught everyone the folly of that. Will I make resolutions? Nope. Still keeping the resolution to never make a resolution again. Totally winning at that one. What I will say is this:
I hope you have a happy and healthy year (and more) to come. The changing of the calendar is a convenient marker for such things, but it shouldn’t be a limit. Start something on the 30th. Keep something rolling until February. Create. Do things. Be awesome, and help others to be awesome too.
I actually finished reading this a couple of weeks ago but haven’t gotten to the review part until just now. I’m glad I picked this book up and read it. Adding stories to the world built by the author in the Iron Druid series could have been really good or really bad.
This story, describing the world of magic as inhabited by those who can use alchemical ink combinations to create magic follows one of the members of this secret society. Al is a gifted worker of inks but struggles to pass on his lore as his apprentices keep dying in odd ways. Al sets out to discover what happened to his most recent apprentice and uncovers an entirely different mystery to solve along the way.
There were some nit-picks that some people might not have trouble with. I really didn’t want or need the primer on Scottish slang. The explanation of it felt like it got in the way. There’s a little bit of a feeling like you’re missing out if you haven’t read the Iron Druid stories. Al even has a section of the story that describes meeting the character from the other series. I suppose it’s difficult to get away from such a dominant character in the world building, but this was just a blip in the story to me. It may have had deeper meaning to those who have read more, but it was lost on me. I really liked the magical ink mixes, the curse(s) and the modern lives of fairies in our world. It was fun.
All in all, I really enjoyed the story. I’m glad I picked it up. I’ll be interested to see if there are more on the way.
I was quite taken with the first book. I wanted to jump right into the continuation of the story. The first book wrapped up enough that I didn’t feel like I was forced to go and get the next book. That is refreshing and I appreciated it.
This story follows Jane and Kate on their continuing journey.
There was a lot to enjoy about their travels and the things that happen to them along the way. The path of the characters is easily believable and they are real, whole people. I often have a hard time when the protagonist is a young woman/girl. There are a lot of things that just don’t relate for me. This story had none of that. Very well written.
It was also nice to see the variety of life that is not often shown in American westerns. The world building was consistent and didn’t break its own rules.
I picked this one up early on, but for some reason I didn’t dig into it right away. I can’t place a finger on the reason for that, but I will say I’m glad I picked it up. This book is a great ride. Spoilers ahead~
I’m not normally a big fan of zombie horror. It doesn’t bother me the way it does some, but I also have never found zombies to be particularly scary as a monster type. As with any zombie story I’ve seen, the real monsters and the true horrors are the humans.
As I started reading Jane’s story I thought this could be a fine action story set around the time of the Civil War. As it turns out there is a lot of action, but not in the sense I was thinking. This was certainly NOT the Harry Potter-esque life at a boarding school adventure type. The model of the school Jane attended was the Carlisle school, albeit slightly time shifted. This was racism and the blatant attempts of one group of people trying to keep another group of people down. The school, the treatment of the people and way they were expected to behave was just the starting point for the monsters.
The teachers at the school practiced the sort of abuse that wasn’t just physical. True to abusers everywhere there was psychological abuse riding hand in hand. Early in the story I wanted to see Jane make some move to solve the mystery of the missing family and give the school some sort of “comeuppance” that would allow for some kind of happy ending. I failed to see the problem with that line of thinking right away, but the author deftly moved to remedy the situation by wiping out not just the school, but the entire state of Maryland.
Taking Jane and her friends west into the plains removed any sense of East Coast familiarity from me and placed them all squarely in the path of the most monstrous people in the whole book – the self righteous. Using religion as a bludgeon to maintain the oppression of a people stoked the ugly feelings toward those opposed to Jane. I was sincerely glad when that town was wiped out and Jane’s little band made their escape. The writing here was really wonderful. It’s good writing when you loathe a fictional man that much.
I’m glad the main aspects of the story wrapped up in the first book. The history of each character and development of the world was excellent. The “cliffhanger” for the continuation of the story is there as Jane is in the middle of the prairie, but I do consider the story of the first book wrapped up. I could leave it at that if I wanted, but I suspect I’ll be going out and grabbing up the next book.
I hadn’t realized that I had subconsciously bought into the “that’s how things are” feeling of the way the schools were set up at first. I had to step back at the end and realize just how messed up that was. I’m glad the author put the reading recommendations at the end of the novel and I’d like to add one of my own (since I’m being so bold). For anyone sports minded it’s worth picking up Carlisle Vs. Army, a story about some of the athletes from the school in question and how they helped to shape the modern sports world.
I grabbed this from Tor’s free download book club and I’m glad that I did.
This was a quick hit of alternate history. The story is set in the early 1900s where an opening to a realm of magic has allowed the Djinn to become part of everyday society in Egypt. The arrival of these powerful magical beings has changed and shaped the way society flows and moves. In this story Hamed is an experience ministry investigator dealing with supernatural and magic related cases. He is called in with his new partner to deal with a haunted tram car. Simple, right?
I loved the setting and the world building on this. It’s a good story that balances the action, the character and the explanation of things well. There were one or two little things I didn’t expect along the way. It was a fun, quick read. If you can get your hands on a copy I would recommend it. Marketing success – I’ll be looking for more from this author!
I grabbed this one off the shelf as part of my YouTube chat about fantasy works that inspire folks playing Dungeons & Dragons. I had every intention of just glancing through the pages to get a quick refresh on things.
I ended up rereading the entire thing. There are a few things in this series that have become “tropy” at this point, but the book itself came out back in 1979 or 80. Given the way things have changed in our current political environment I’m certain there are a number of my female friends that would not enjoy many aspects of these stories… but that’s one of the very best things about this book. There are multiple stories. The thieves’ world series is shared world. It’s the same setting with shared characters over a series of short stories. Don’t like the one your on? Skip to the next one, just don’t be shocked if you’re missing something that happened in another story.
This book also brings up the question of taking art as something separate from the artist. One of the first people on board and one of the stories in this book is by somebody lately accused of abuse. I don’t know all the details, but there is enough out there to make even the most staunch fans cast aside all this author’s works. It’s a tough question that has no clear answer.
IF you’re a fan of old school fantasy you should grab this book and take a look at what a city of villains, killers and schemers can be.
This part did not go up into the Goodreads review, but for those who question the abuser I reference was the author Marion Zimmer Bradley. I will reiterate that I don’t know all the details. Her time in the science fiction convention scene was well before my time. Her husband died in prison where he was after being convicted of molesting a child. I struggle to feel good about recommending something that includes the work of an accused child rapist and enabler of a pedophile. I don’t think we’ll ever know all the details since the author died back in 1999, but I felt it was important to point out.
Take it for what you will – I still recommend the work as a whole. It’s worth doing some reading to get deeper into the subject if you’re a fan of the work that Bradley did over the years to push women’s rights and the feminist movement. It’s simply more important to go into things knowing and understanding rather than blindly.
I brought this review over here because I like to do that when I’m down on a work that I’ve read. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s hard to get into the published world. It takes a lot of work. Then, after all that work, it is out there in the world where people will judge it.
Three stars is the best I can do for this… and that’s strength of writing over time.
I always try to be positive about whatever review I’m writing. I try, but I am also honest about how I feel when I read these books. I am a fan too. I had some feelings about this one… and as you may have guessed they were not all positive.
Massive spoilers ahead. Do not read more if you don’t want to know.
I picked up this book on the Tuesday when it was released. I had read the first three chapters when they were released on line, so working and all the day to day things that got in the way of my reading only slowed me down a little. I finished the book by Thursday night, just after dinner. It was a typical reading speed for me when I read a Dresden Files book.
Positive stuff: if you want a master class on how to ramp the power and stakes of your story up over time, this series is it. The growth of both of those things has been steady, clear and understandable over all the novels. This is apocalyptic stuff (small ‘a’) and it hasn’t happened until book seventeen. It’s fantastic. The steady change over time is a great way to keep things fresh and the feel of the characters genuine for the long haul. The comparison that jumped to my mind immediately was the Monster Hunter series from Larry Correia. It’s a ton of fun and there are clear cut good guys and bad guys. The hero of the story saves the entire world in book one. Where do you go from there? What can you do in book two to make the stakes feel real? Dresden stops a drug dealer in book one and solves a murder case, but somehow it still feels like saving the world. I can only hope to emulate this in my own work.
The rest: Some of the speed of my finish was because I skimmed a few of the battle scenes. This book is a war novel. There is a war and there are eight times I can think of that the author used the same description. I get it. These are beyond human size / comprehension monsters and you pop and squish and go all Jackson Pollack when they catch you. There was a lot of that and I think there could have been less of it. I say that as somebody who writes military science fiction stories too – it’s not that I dislike the battle scenes, I don’t. They’re the core of this book. There’s a huge amount of fighting. The last book was the set up punches, this book was the right cross to the jaw. Sometimes the imagination is better than a description. Consider that a quibble.
Most of the time when I finish one of these novels I’m hungry for more. This time, not so much. I’m disappointed and angry. My excitement for the rest of the story is diminished.
Getting booted from the White Council. Not something I saw coming. Long ago (and may books earlier in the series) I predicted that Harry would become the Merlin. Shows you how well predictions tend to work out. The problem with getting booted is that is breaks the rules that have been set up in the series. IF they really thought that Harry broke rule #1 and used magic specifically against humans the penalty was always immediate execution, right? I mean Morgan and the sword thing just doesn’t matter anymore? Harry is not only guilty of this, but he’s got a track record of doing this in the past… and the council just says, “careful or next time we’ll get really angry…”. They’re a toothless bureaucracy at best if this is how it stands. Worst case is that the author has let the rules of his own world bend / break. I doubt this, but it’s something I noticed. I expect that this is a set up for something that happens in the next set of books, but it was a jarring bit of world building that seemed out of place. Sure I can justify it, but I shouldn’t be thinking about it.
I’ve been a fan of the author for a long time. He’s gone and landed himself in the same category as Joss Whedon now. Some will consider that high praise, but I don’t. Wash died, but it was the end of the series and the Dresden files is not over. And what did Butcher do?
He fucking shot Murph.
NO NO NO NO. NO.
From an intellectual point of view I understand. It’s war. War IS death, destruction and chaos. It is not pretty or organized nor does it make any sense at all. People die all the time in just as sad a manner. Not from some heroic action, but from the panic and terror of others.
I get it.
I hate it.
I know enough about myself at this point to understand that I tend to prefer classic heroics and happy endings. IF I want gritty, senseless death I’ll watch the fucking news. This is NOT why I come to these books. I don’t want gritty reality, I want escapism. This book took that away. Yes, it’s a world where there are supernatural forces at work. Murph will likely come back in much the same way that Valeria did in the 1982 Conan movie. She will be a glittering warrior that will save Harry from beyond at some point – but it’s not the same. There’s just too much of this kind of crap in the world and I don’t want it in my fiction too.
Disappointed and not enthusiastic for more just now.
I would not have picked this book up if it were not a book club pick. I am glad that I read it. It was an interesting mix of urban fantasy and mystery novel, with a bent toward noir. A non-magic private investigator is called in to figure out the murder of a staff member at a prestigious school for wizards.
It’s a good idea. The characters are a mix of adults and students. It is unlike another, well known wizarding school in that the students aren’t the ones solving the mystery. The students don’t outwit the adults. They don’t “luck” into clues and dash about like a Scooby-Doo cartoon (in one door and out another). There is a real feel of grit in here ~ thus the “noir” part. Kids use their gifts to do the sort of things that kids do – love notes, graffiti, pranks… and it adds to the mix.
Ivy is the main character / non-magical investigator. She makes a lot of bad choices. I would have been on board with her… until. I’m not going to spoil any parts of the plot here in the review, but there’s a singular time in the story that I can point to when I was “bumped away” from this character. Up to that point I was fine, after that I was just disappointed. What it does is show a very real and believable character, so I understand that it’s my own desire to read characters that are somehow slightly more heroic than ordinary folks that caused me to dislike her.
This is also a murder mystery. I don’t read enough of the mystery genre to have figured this one out early on in the book, but there were many clues. There were also a fair number of red herrings along the way – some of which I totally went for, so that part was well done.
In all, I’m glad I read it but I don’t suspect I’d be rushing back for more.
Something I didn’t add to my review over on Goodreads is any commentary about the cover art. Since this was a book club choice I was also aware of imagery in the text. I frequently look for scenes that inspire a look or a view that would make great art. I usually attempt to use that inspiration to create a piece of art that relates to the book that we can use for the cover of our fanzine. This book had very, very little in the way of imagery. There was maybe one scene that could have been used and it was a little bit of a spoiler for the story. I stayed away. I think that lack of image, the dull visual if you will that was a part of making the story less appealing to me than it could have been. I like watching the “movie” of the story in my head while I read and this book just didn’t have as much to offer there as a number of other things we’ve read did.
