Tag: spoiler free reviews

BooksReviews

Enslaving Demons like Magical Batteries — The Midnight Front by David Mack

Posted on by J.W. Martin

The Midnight Front
by David Mack

Macmillan-Tor/Forge
Published: January 30, 2018

From Goodreads:

On the eve of World War Two, Nazi sorcerers come gunning for Cade but kill his family instead. His one path of vengeance is to become an apprentice of The Midnight Front—the Allies’ top-secret magickal warfare program—and become a sorcerer himself.

Unsure who will kill him first—his allies, his enemies, or the demons he has to use to wield magick—Cade fights his way through occupied Europe and enemy lines. But he learns too late the true price of revenge will be more terrible than just the loss of his soul—and there’s no task harder than doing good with a power born of ultimate evil.

NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge provided me with an eGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The plot, and story, of The Midnight Front is wonderful. It’s full of magic and intrigue, twists and turns, heartbreak and triumph. And though I’m not sure if it qualifies as historical fiction (I’m really bad at deciding genres) it’s generously peppered with historical events from the WW2 timeline. Those of you who are old enough to be taught WW2 in high school will go, “Oh, I remember learning about that!”

Do they still teach World War 2 in high school? No. No, distractions.

The magic system is another thing I really liked in this book. It took a little bit to grasp the ins and outs of it. All the terms and methods and equipment used were all new to me, so it was a little like learning a new language. Cumbersome at first, but comfortable and familiar soon enough.

Where this book fell short for me was the characters.

I had a hard time connecting with some of them. And I don’t just mean supporting characters, I’m talking main characters. There wasn’t enough substance to them. Not enough reasons to care about them and what they’re trying to accomplish. They didn’t feel human, to me. They were people that showed up, did some things, and then went away.

The most frustrating part of this was that there was this great history between the main villain and one of the main heroes. I know this because it’s referenced several times, but we never get a glimpse into this history. It was like someone telling you, “The most interesting thing happened to me today,” and then moving on to talk about the weather.

Actually, some of the supporting characters I found to be more interesting than the main, because I could connect with them more. I knew things about them. I saw their emotion, their wants, their needs. I knew what their motivations were and when they had they heart broken, I felt for them. When characters I wasn’t connected to had a heart-breaking moment, I felt nothing.

This book is definitely for fans of the arcane and supernatural, especially if you also dig a bit of world history in your fiction. David Mack managed to bring a healthy mixture of fantasy and somewhat modern day without it feeling too heavy handed in either.

Fun fact about this post: I love the Teen Titans TV shows.
BooksReviews

If J.K. Rowling was a man named Robert – The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

Posted on by J.W. Martin

The Cuckoo’s Calling
by Robert Galbraith

Mulholland Books / Little, Brown and Company
Published: April 30, 2013

From Goodreads:

A brilliant mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel’s suicide.

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you’ve never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you’ve never seen them under an investigation like this.

Despite very rarely reading mystery novels, I enjoyed The Cuckoo’s Calling, but maybe not for the reasons most people enjoy mysteries.

I’ve read my share of mysteries. They always sound really good when you read the synopsis, but eventually, they all blend together. I find I usually know the killer the moment I meet him or her. I probably wouldn’t even have this one except I needed a book written by a female author using a male pseudonym for the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge.

Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for the legendary J.K. Rowling!

Like most people in the world of books, I love the Harry Potter series. Magical, in so many ways. This book, however, left me with mixed feelings.

Like I said before, my desire for mysteries is already low, so it’s only fair to take that into consideration. This book seemed primarily to be a series of interviews with everyone remotely connected to a murder. That was the part I didn’t enjoy. Interview after interview. Each one lasting a long time. Each one only revealing that person’s opinions of all the other suspects/witness/friends/family/etc. Obviously, one of these interviews was with the killer.

By the way, I did predict the killer when I met him/her. To be fair, it wasn’t because of clues of any kind. I just thought, who would I make the killer if I was trying to trick everyone…

What I did really like about The Cuckoo’s Calling was Cormoran Strike, the private detective hired to investigate the murder, and our main character. He was a phenomenal character. So real he came off the page. Colorful, and completely capable at his profession, but wonderfully flawed at the same time. It was easy to shake your head at him one page, but realize two pages later that you’re still rooting for him despite the things he does.

My favorite bits of the books were usually when Cormoran was just going for a beer and calling an old colleague for a favor. Or talking with Robin, his temporary secretary, who was also a great character. The chemistry between these two was so fun to read.

In fact, I liked these characters so much that I may read the next book, despite my lukewarm feelings for mystery novels in general.

Even if you feel like I do about mysteries, everyone should check out this one just out of curiosity for how J.K. Rowling handles another genre. If you are a fan of mysteries, something tells me this book will be something special for you!

Fun fact about this post: This is the second book crossed off of my POPSUGAR Reading Challenge!
BooksReviews

The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith (Spoiler-Free Review)

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith

Crown Publishing
Available January 23rd, 2018

From Goodreads:

In the burned-out, futuristic city of Empire Island, three young people navigate a crumbling metropolis constantly under threat from a pair of dragons that circle the skies. When violence strikes, reality star Duncan Humphrey Ripple V, the spoiled scion of the metropolis’ last dynasty; Baroness Swan Lenore Dahlberg, his tempestuous, death-obsessed betrothed; and Abby, a feral beauty he discovered tossed out with the trash; are forced to flee everything they’ve ever known. As they wander toward the scalded heart of the city, they face fire, conspiracy, mayhem, unholy drugs, dragon-worshippers, and the monsters lurking inside themselves.

Thank you to Crown Publishing and Net Galley for providing me with a digital copy of The Sky is Yours in exchange for an honest review.

Sometime in the future, the world is destroyed by a pair of fire-breathing dragons. There was probably more, but that was all I needed to decide I wanted to read The Sky is Yours. I wish the ending had excited me as much as the premise.

The first thing I’ll say is that this book was too long for my liking. Nothing much happens in the first act. Maybe it’s because I entered into this book thinking it was about dragons. But truthfully, the dragons have as much impact on the story as sporadic rain showers.

This first act has a ton of character building. It’s done well, but I think it would have been better if we were dropped in at the end of the first act, and the same character development spread over the remainder of the book.

It’s at that point (the end of the first act) that the book gets going. And really, it becomes pretty interesting pretty quickly. Each of our main characters heads off in a different and exciting direction. These kids, who didn’t seem capable of much of anything, are suddenly showing that they can be survivors.

Unfortunately, as each of these threads reaches its height, they’re snipped off. The choices they’ve been making, the direction they’ve been going, is almost completely wiped away. If I’m honest with myself, it’s not a terrible ending. It just wasn’t the ending I was hoping for. I personally didn’t find satisfaction in any of the resolutions.

The characters are the saving grace of this book. Each character is as deep as an ocean. Independent, developed, and so ridiculously real that it’s easy to forget you’re reading fiction. You’ll feel like you know each character’s extensive history as well as friends you’ve had for decades.

If you’re the type of reader that loves nothing more than character development, this is definitely one to check out.

Fun fact NOT about this post: Watermelons are technically berries, and strawberries are not.
BooksReviews

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Posted on by J.W. Martin

From Goodreads:

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his will.

Nobody fights the Epics…nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart — the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David’s father. For years, like the Reckoners, David’s been studying, and planning — and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He’s seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

Even though I always read prologues—I’m paranoid I’m going to miss something—I do give a little groan when I see a book starting with one. So when I opened Steelheart, I sighed, but started reading anyway. It blew me away. It was packed with the unexpected. Surprise after surprise after surprise. The only downside to that was the level that the rest of the book had to live up to, but inevitably couldn’t. I don’t think any book could have.

Chapter 1 is pretty action-packed as well, which was great. Then it starts to fall off. It can’t be full speed for 400 pages. When would we ever catch our breath? And where would the story’s foundation be laid?

There’s a lot of preparation to be done by our heroes, and a lot of excellent character development by Mr. Sanderson. It does run dangerously close to being too slow. But the pacing was done well, bringing in just enough suspense to keep me turning pages.

It’s a slow build, but at the end of ‘part 3’ (there are four parts total) the book kicks itself into overdrive and continues at that break-neck speed until the end. In fact, the final scene in part three is probably my favorite scene in the whole book. It seems like it came straight out of a Marvel movie. It’s the kind of scene that makes you put the book down (just for a moment) to process and catch your breath.

The characters are fun, yet remain a little mysterious throughout. Some in serious ways, like hidden secrets from the past that might come back into play. While others are mysterious in ways not nearly as serious, like why does Cody use Scottish nomenclature with his southern accent?

My only picadillo had to do with the dialogue. Besides the Scottish-Southerner Cody, everyone was written the same way. Not only that, they all used fairly unnatural dialogue. To be honest, it really didn’t take away from the story.

Although this book has extra appeal to fans of comic books (and superheroes in general) I still think it has something for everyone. The main characters are in an extraordinary situation, but they themselves are very ordinary and relatable.

This was my first Brandon Sanderson novel, but I’ll be looking to read another very soon. Not sure whether that next one will be the sequel to Steelheart, or another book from one of his other series, but I’m not done with Mr. Sanderson by a long shot!

At the very least, give the prologue a read. If you feel like putting it down after that, it’s probably for the best. But I have a feeling you won’t.

Fun fact about this post: I lied. This technically wasn’t my very first Brandon Sanderson novel, but I don’t count the final books of The Wheel of Time (he stepped in to finish the series after the unfortunate passing of Robert Jordan.)
BooksReviews

Audiobook Review: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

I’m not a science guy.

It’s interesting stuff, but I was always terrible at maths and sciences. I liked art, drama, and english.

Despite all that, I really looked forward to listening to this one. I’ve never had much of a clue about the universe and its amazing secrets, but I want to. And what better place to start than a book written in “lamens terms.”

That being said, a lot of this was still over my head. Which made me feel real SMRT.

I started listening at work. I’m almost always listening to an audiobook at work. But with this book I found that anything could pull my attention away from it. 20 minutes would go by before I realized I didn’t retain a single word. Just like science class all over again.

I had to stop listening at work, and reserved it specifically for walking the dog. There was nothing else to do except walk the dog. Nothing to distract me. Just pure learning potential. It was perfect. I started thinking about the day I’ll build my own spaceship and fly to Uranus (sorry! Had to!)

Well, even a stray thought was enough to send me down a rabbit hole and, again, I would find that I hadn’t been listening to the book for some time. I did a lot of rewinding.

To be fair, I don’t blame the book for my inability to focus. The few things I did retain were fascinating.

For example, astrophysicists believe that there are more than 40,000 Earth-like planets in the Milky Way alone. That many planets that could potentially sustain life similar to us!

Also, our galaxy, as it was before the big bang, could have fit on the head of a pin. Actually, probably more like the point of a pin.

If I was trying to write some science-fiction with the craziest ideas I could possibly think of, they wouldn’t even come close to how crazy the truth is.

I’m going to leave this book without a rating. It wouldn’t be fair. What I can tell you is that I plan on listening to this audiobook again, at which time I hope to retain a lot more.

P.S. – In the audiobook version, Neil deGrasse Tyson himself reads the book, and he does a great job. He even manages to say ‘Uranus’ in a way that immature people like me can’t giggle.

Fun fact about this post: Neil deGrasse Tyson has also done some voice work for a little show called Gravity Falls. Look it up. Especially if you have kids. You’ll thank me.
BooksReviews

Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

Posted on by J.W. Martin
3.5 / 5

Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

I didn’t know what to expect from Lucifer’s Hammer. I can’t remember how this book even got on my radar, let alone in my audiobook collection, but there it was. It was probably recommended by Audible when I was trying to use up a credit. Sure, Audible, I trust your recommendations blindly. Also, I don’t want to somehow get screwed out of this credit. We’ve all heard stories.

No matter how it got there, I’m glad it did. Even though it was pretty far outside the norm of what I’ve been loving and craving lately, Lucifer’s Hammer had a lot to offer.

Goodreads Synopsis:

“The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival–a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known.”

We start off this little adventure at a party for the wealthy and/or important. (Notice the use of and/or. Not all important people are rich, and not all rich people are important.)

The party is attended by rich guy, rich guy, rich lady, a documentarian, rich lady, and a REALLY rich guy. They mostly talk about things not interesting enough for me to remember, but then one of the rich guys talks about discovering an asteroid. You know, up in space. Due to his money, he has nothing to do but stare up at the stars. Mr. Documentarian says something like, “How interesting. How about we make a TV show about your comet? We’ll call it Dancing with the Stars?” I’m paraphrasing a little.

The party ends and the rich people go back to whatever the hell they do (see above Leo gif) and the beginnings of a TV show are put in place. We meet more characters (a lot more characters) and things are moving forward at a snail’s pace.

This is where knowing nothing about this book really started to affect me. I wondered if anything was going to happen. Ever. If I wanted to read a book about rich people sitting around and drinking I’d re-read Gatsby!

Eventually, after what seemed like too long, things happen. The comet says, “hey, I want to come to the party. I want to sit around and scoff at the rest of society. I want to pretend to be fancy and drink brandy until everyone in the room pretends to be embarrassed for me.” So the comet comes to Earth, and the world loses its mind.

Oddly, at this point in the book, it becomes very similar to shows like the Walking Dead. No, there aren’t zombies running around trying to eat brains.

The interesting thing about stories like Lucifer’s Hammer and the Walking Dead is that though they might have a different catalyst (a comet vs. a crap load of zombies) the result is very similar. Once the initial threat of the catalyst is handled, the biggest threat people face is other people. That’s where we find some of the most interesting conflicts in the book.

What was probably LH’s biggest strength was its characters. As I said earlier, there were a lot of them. For quite a while, you feel like you’re meeting characters for no reason. Even as the true story started to develop, you’re left wondering why we’re following so many different characters, and why we continue to meet more and more with almost every chapter. But then the authors start bringing them together in unexpected ways. Characters that I thought had no chance of interacting in any way are suddenly joining forces, or planning to attack each other. And as I’m sure you can imagine, by the end nearly every character is connected in a big old spider-web. The metaphorical kind. Not the massive space spider kind that could have hatched from the a comet in a completely different kind of book.

Not only were the characters’ paths handled with meticulous skill, but each character was very deep and developed. When large casts aren’t given the attention needed, a lot of the characters tend to blend together into mediocrity. That didn’t happen here. Most stood very independent from each other.

To wrap up, the plot wasn’t a complicated series of twists and turns, but the real story was in the characters’ reactions to the events and other people all around them. I didn’t know what I was in for with this book, but I’m glad I stuck it out. It was a solid, enjoyable read.

Fun fact about this post: This is the first time I got to the end of a post without a fun fact jumping out at me…
BooksReviews

Audiobook Mini-Review – The Power of Six

Posted on by J.W. Martin

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore (10H 4M)

The book:

The performance:

 

 

E That being said, The Power of Six continues that same status quo. It didn’t ‘wow’ me, but I have moved on to The Rise of Nine.

The good side: where the first book seemed juvenile, this book took a step into maturity. It didn’t deal with hard-hitting adult issues, but a lot of the high-school mentality disappeared.

More good: We meet Seven, and she’s interesting. At first, I didn’t really like her, but her story quickly grew on me.

Even more good: my main issue with the first book was the performance. And even that was improved this time around. The addition of Marisol Ramirez to handle the chapters dealing with Seven was a welcome addition. The stories of Four and Seven were taking place with completely different people in different parts of the world. Having a different narrator for each really helped to keep the two separate.

The not-so-good: Not enough happened, in my opinion. It seemed like a very idle part of the story where the characters mainly ran in place while other elements of the overall story were pushed into place.

As I said earlier, I’ve already moved on to the next book. They’re nice and short, which makes them easy to digest. The overall story arc is really interesting and my intrigue for the final endgame has been building for years.

Stay tuned for additional Lorien Legacies reviews.

Books

Audiobook Mini-Review – I Am Number Four

Posted on by J.W. Martin

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (11H 25M)

The book:

The performance:

 

 

I’ve had this entire series on my TBR for a long, long time. I saw the movie when it first came out, and despite how most of the world felt about it, I  liked it. I was quite bummed when the studio decided not to do any of the sequels.

The book was a lot different. Better in some ways, not so great in others. Overall, I found it to be a little more juvenile than I was hoping for. A lot of the dialogue, and the way the relationship between Sarah and John played out, all seemed to be the way a pre-teen would imagine it all to go in his fantasies. I’ve never met a girl who giggled and hit playfully as much as Sarah did in this book.

None of the characters were very real to me. To be fair, a lot of the characters are aliens, but even the human characters were a little cardboard.

I found the performance to be a little lacking. Neil Kaplan has a decent voice, and he does male characters very, very well. Each character had a completely different voice. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought there was more than one voice actor working on this one. Though his voice for Sam was straight out of a box of cliches. “Now with 30% more cheese!”

Female characters, however, were not done so well. Each female line of dialogue sounded the same. Same voice (despite being different characters) and the same inflection. Whether it was Sarah professing her love or Six shouting for everyone to run, it came out bubbly and kind of vapid. And the voice Kaplan uses is the kind you’d expect a comedian to use when making fun of something his girlfriend said.

But, story is king, and this story is good. The action is great, the universe is expansive, the legends and myths hinted at are deep-seeded, and the potential for the rest of the series is too good to not continue. In fact, as I write this post, I’m about halfway through The Power of Six.

Books

The Skull Throne – A Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

The Skull Throne

The Skull Throne is the 4th book in Peter V. Brett’s series, The Demon Cycle. I’ve been a big fan of this series since the very first book. It’s one of those books that I discovered on my own instead of hearing about it from others. I’m not sure why that makes it a little more special. It just does, okay? Geez. Stop yelling at me.

 

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Skull Throne of Krasia stands empty.

Built from the skulls of fallen generals and demon princes, it is a seat of honor and ancient, powerful magic, keeping the demon corelings at bay. From atop the throne, Ahmann Jardir was meant to conquer the known world, forging its isolated peoples into a unified army to rise up and end the demon war once and for all.

But Arlen Bales, the Warded Man, stood against this course, challenging Jardir to a duel he could not in honor refuse. Rather than risk defeat, Arlen cast them both from a precipice, leaving the world without a savior, and opening a struggle for succession that threatens to tear the Free Cities of Thesa apart.

In the south, Inevera, Jardir’s first wife, must find a way to keep their sons from killing one another and plunging their people into civil war as they strive for glory enough to make a claim on the throne.

In the north, Leesha Paper and Rojer Inn struggle to forge an alliance between the duchies of Angiers and Miln against the Krasians before it is too late.

Caught in the crossfire is the duchy of Lakton—rich and unprotected, ripe for conquest.

All the while, the corelings have been growing stronger, and without Arlen and Jardir there may be none strong enough to stop them. Only Renna Bales may know more about the fate of the missing men, but she, too, has disappeared. . .

What I liked

People aren’t playing nice with each other anymore. Okay, so they never actually played patty cake and had tea parties, but there was always an air of civility in nearly every part of the story. People might have been biting their tongues, or walking away to keep from violence, but overall fighting was kept for the demons. That’s all gone now. There’s lots of human on human violence, in both small and large scale. Old scores settled, new ones created, shocking deaths. All kinds of good stuff.

Rojer got a lot more attention. Halfgrip has always been one of my favourite characters in the series, and we so rarely get enough of him. Marrying Krasian royalty has its benefits.

What I didn’t like

The series is starting to feel stretched out. I’ve seen it happen a lot with fantasy series. The books are doing well and suddenly we start seeing a lot of fluff between chapters. I don’t know whether this was the author’s plan all along and this is the calm before the storm or if stretching it into more books is a suggestion from the publisher. The next book was already announced by the time I started reading this one, but if there hadn’t been I would have been mad as hell. A brand new viewpoint character in the last 10% of the book, are you serious!? New subplots without tying up the others? Secondary characters practically getting their own books?! Which brings me to my next point.

Arlen is hardly in this one. That’s okay, though, right? He’s only the main character of the whole freaking series! I understand he can’t be everywhere all the time—actually, he pretty much could if he wanted to—and other things are happening that we need to know about, but I want to see him slaying a whole army of demons. That’s assuming there are still demons in this one…

There are hardly any demons in this one. What the bloody hell!? The series is called The Demon Cycle, not The Lack-of-Demon Cycle!

Despite my issues with this book, I still loved reading it. Brett writes his characters very well and he really has a solid universe established. Even if this installment had been a big steamy pile of dog shit I’d still be waiting for book 5 in October.

But for the love of the Deliverer (fans of the series will get that one) can this be the last one? Pretty please?

MoviesReviewsUncategorized

Kong: Skull Island Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Kong: Skull Island movie posterKong is a legend. One that promises spectacular doses of fantasy and excitement; and this latest incarnation does not disappoint. In fact, it’s the best one yet.

For those who haven’t seen it, not to worry. This will be a spoiler-free review of Kong: Skull Island.

With something that’s been around for so long, it’s gotta be tough to do something that stays within the near 100-year mythos and yet is still original enough to keep us all guessing. This movie did both.

It keeps the stuff we need to see without falling into cliches and scenes that we feel like we’ve seen many times before. We want to see Kong swat helicopters out of the air like toys. We want to see him pound his chest and give a guttural roar. But we can do without the scene where Kong creepily watches a human woman bathing or getting dressed.

John C. Reilly in Kong: Skull IslandThe cast was wonderful. And even though nerds like me felt like we were watching Loki work together with Nick Fury, those stigmas quickly fade into great performances given by all. Special shout out to John C. Reilly who always seems to surprise me. Not only did he own some of the funniest moments in the movie, but also some of the most dramatic, and he delivered on both.

Where this movie really shines is in its villains. The best villains in the cinematic history (as well as television, books, comics, etc, etc) are the heroes of their own story. Normally, we just don’t get to see the villain’s point of view because we’re too busy hanging out with the ‘hero.’

Kong: Skull Island will show you a villain, and then show you why that villain is actually a hero, over and over again. By the end of the movie you’ll realize the truth about the real villain of this story: from the right perspective, everyone is a villain.

Don’t take my word for it. Check out the trailer.

And if you haven’t seen this movie yet, make sure you sit through the credits. Just in case there’s something to see afterward. Trust me.