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David McK (3632 KP) rated Blood of the Bear (Fire Born volume 5) in Books

Oct 18, 2024 (Updated Oct 18, 2024)  
Blood of the Bear (Fire Born volume 5)
Blood of the Bear (Fire Born volume 5)
Angus Donald | 2024
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is the final(?) entry in Angus Donald's 'Fire Born' series about the Viking berserker Bjarki Bloodhand in the time of Charlemagne, a series which - will enjoyable enough - has never *quite* managed to hit the heights of his Robin Hood 'Outlaw Chronicles' series of novels.

Here, we have Bjarki living a quiet life at the start of the novel, before events transpire to drag him - and his sister Tor - back into the conflict between the Christian Franks and the pagan Danes/Saxons, events that culminate in one of the few Frankish (temporary) defeats.

Worth a read? Yes.
As good as the Outlaw Chronicles series? No.
  
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David McK (3632 KP) rated Revenge of Rome (Eagles of the Empire #23) in Books

Apr 21, 2025  
Revenge of Rome (Eagles of the Empire #23)
Revenge of Rome (Eagles of the Empire #23)
Simon Scarrow | 2024
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Entry #23 in 'Simon Scarrow's long-running Macro and Cato series, this is a trilogy-capper (of sorts) to the story began in 'Death to the Emperor' about Queen Boudica's rebellion against Rome.

Whilst the previous novel - 'Rebellion' - dealt largely with the battles won by Boudica (including the sack of Londinium), this instead follows the 'mopping-up' (for want of a better word) operation against her: something that, truth be told, is often over-looked.

With Cato and Macro deciding to quit Brittania (again) at the end of the tale and with the former resigning his commision, I'll be interested is seeing where any further novels go ...
  
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graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson: Homecoming in Books

Feb 15, 2019  
PB
Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson: Homecoming
Patricia Briggs | 2009
6
6.0 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Hmm...how to start? The first graphic novel featuring Mercy Thompson is a mixed bag; the story as a whole is perfectly fine, it may not be great but it's serviceable. The illustrations are very good and attractive, however Mercy herself is not. Well, okay, the girl(s) is actually drawn well, but she's not Mercy. My first thought was, "When did Mercy go from being Native American/white to Hispanic?" Even though there are different artists and styles of Mercy used in this book, like many graphic novels employ, none of them come close to matching her description. Save the cover illustration which is done by the same artist who does the full-length novel covers, Dan Dos Santos. Since she is the main character, I really think that is vital and hope the artists work on that for the next book. As for the dialogue, it's rather mediocre, sometimes choppy, and a few times didn't follow a logical sequence. I'd be reading along, then a sentence or statement would pop up that made me think I missed something somehow, so I'd proceed to go back, then find out I didn't miss anything after-all, and it just didn't make sense with everything around it. My last complaint has to do with how the book reads and the panel progression. The way the panels and speech balloons were set led to much confusion, I'd read one panel, move on to the next just to find out I should have read that one first. I have read graphic novels before and never had as many problems with them as I did with this one. I felt that more panels would have helped tell the story and there wouldn't be so much confusion as to what had actually happened. Still, the book isn't totally bad, it's a good starting place, but hopefully everyone involved will learn from this first graphic novel so the next will be better executed. I'd say that if you're not into graphic novels, that you should give it a pass unless you absolutely must read everything Mercy Thompson related.
  
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Cynthia Armistead (17 KP) rated Mean Streets (Remy Chandler, #1.5; Greywalker, #3.5; Nightside, #9.5; The Dresden Files, #10.5) in Books

Mar 1, 2018  
MS
Mean Streets (Remy Chandler, #1.5; Greywalker, #3.5; Nightside, #9.5; The Dresden Files, #10.5)
Jim Butcher | 2009
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>Mean Streets</i> is one of the best anthologies I've read in a while. It only has four different pieces in it, but they're all novellas, and all by strong, experienced writers. I don't think any of them are here riding on someone else's name on the book cover.

Jim Butcher's "Warrior," the first piece, is very good. It follows Harry and the Carpenter family after they experienced some major changes in the last Dresden novel. I could have stood a little more Molly, but Harry and Michael were the focus characters and they worked out some things that really needed to be dealt with. I'm glad I read this before the next Dresden novel, because I feel there's important character development. I seriously recommend this book to all Dresden fans.

I haven't read any of Simon R. Green's novels, though I've heard of the Nightside series and thought about picking one up. If "The Difference a Day Makes" is typical, though, I may not bother. He is a good writer, so I'm not sure what it is that bothered me so much. I know that something framed as one of the nastiest things people could choose to do in this piece isn't even in my top 10, but I feel there's something else that I just can't quite articulate yet.

I've read all three of Kat Richardson's Greywalker novels and enjoyed them enough that I plan to keep reading. "The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog" is my favorite piece of her work, hands down. There's more light, somehow, and that's important to me.

"Noah's Orphans" is my first exposure to Thomas E. Sniegoski, as far as I can recall. It was an interesting piece. I found myself wondering about Remy Chandler's past, about how the character has developed. If there are novels featuring that character, I may give them a read. In any case, it brought up some interesting questions about faith and obedience. I think it would have been more personally relevant to me about 20 years ago, though.