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Echoes of the Great Song
7.0
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The Great Bear will descend from the skies, and with his paw, lash at the ocean. He will devour all...
David McK (3791 KP) rated The Fourth Rule (Riley Wolfe #4) in Books
Sep 7, 2025
Airport fiction.
The type of - largely disposable - novels you pick up and read whilst in an airport, waiting on a flight, or actually on said flight itself.
Which is exactly when and where I read this, without knowing it is actually the 4th in a series!
Thankfully, however, it is written in such a way that you do not *need* to have read the previous, although - and I'm guessing here - I suspect it may help to provide some wider context if you do so.
Anyway, in this the master thief Riley Wolfe gets involved in a plot to steal the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum, with the help of a new partner, whilst a ruthless new criminal collector has a vendetta against him for stealing from their collection.
Plot twist, if you can call it that, you can see coming from a mile off.
May read more; wouldn't be in a hurry to do so.
The type of - largely disposable - novels you pick up and read whilst in an airport, waiting on a flight, or actually on said flight itself.
Which is exactly when and where I read this, without knowing it is actually the 4th in a series!
Thankfully, however, it is written in such a way that you do not *need* to have read the previous, although - and I'm guessing here - I suspect it may help to provide some wider context if you do so.
Anyway, in this the master thief Riley Wolfe gets involved in a plot to steal the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum, with the help of a new partner, whilst a ruthless new criminal collector has a vendetta against him for stealing from their collection.
Plot twist, if you can call it that, you can see coming from a mile off.
May read more; wouldn't be in a hurry to do so.
David McK (3791 KP) rated Three Cheers for Me (The Bandy Papers, #1) in Books
Jan 30, 2019 (Updated Aug 10, 2025)
First entry in Donald Jack's Bandy papers series, of which I first became aware circa the early 2000s when I actually read the third entry ("It's Me Again"] first, and then had to go back and hunt out the first two!
Mainly because I found myself stifling full-blown belly laughs sitting on a bus on the way home from work reading it.
Which happened again here.
For those not in the know, in these early novels the protagonist is a Canadian air war ace, one Bartholomew ('Bart') Bandy, who seems to constantly find himself getting into scrapes, especially where it concerns the top brass of the time, and then - somehow - coming out of them smelling of roses, as the saying goes.
I have since went on and read the entire series, but - I have to say - I found these earlier instalments, set amongst the horrors of the First World War - to be the better of the books.
Mainly because I found myself stifling full-blown belly laughs sitting on a bus on the way home from work reading it.
Which happened again here.
For those not in the know, in these early novels the protagonist is a Canadian air war ace, one Bartholomew ('Bart') Bandy, who seems to constantly find himself getting into scrapes, especially where it concerns the top brass of the time, and then - somehow - coming out of them smelling of roses, as the saying goes.
I have since went on and read the entire series, but - I have to say - I found these earlier instalments, set amongst the horrors of the First World War - to be the better of the books.
The Man in the Stone Cottage
Book
In 1846 Yorkshire, the Brontë sisters— Charlotte, Anne, and Emily— navigate precarious lives...
Historical Fiction English Literature
Changeling (Outcast Mates #2)
10.0
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Dominus—an incubus who runs a brothel called The Twig & Berries—is bored with his life and...
MM Historical Paranormal Romance
David McK (3791 KP) rated Sharpe's Honour in TV
Nov 14, 2021 (Updated Nov 14, 2021)
The fifth episode in the TV adaptations of the novels by Bernard Cornwell (which are well worth a read), based on the book of the same name.
I say 'based on' as, because while the main thrust of the storyline is the same, the TV movie of necessity abbreviates the novel somewhat: most noticeably (I felt) watering down quite substantially the role of El Matarife in the proceedings.
As this starts, Sharpe is still mourning the death of his wife Teresa, while Napoleon - in his first appearance in the series - is in retreat from Russia, and with Major Pierre Ducos hatching a plan to drive a wedge between the Spanish and British allies while also getting his revenge on Sharpe by provoking a duel between Sharpe and a Spanish nobleman who he (Ducos) later murders, with Sharpe then taking the rap for said murder (until he is later able to prove his innocence).
I say 'based on' as, because while the main thrust of the storyline is the same, the TV movie of necessity abbreviates the novel somewhat: most noticeably (I felt) watering down quite substantially the role of El Matarife in the proceedings.
As this starts, Sharpe is still mourning the death of his wife Teresa, while Napoleon - in his first appearance in the series - is in retreat from Russia, and with Major Pierre Ducos hatching a plan to drive a wedge between the Spanish and British allies while also getting his revenge on Sharpe by provoking a duel between Sharpe and a Spanish nobleman who he (Ducos) later murders, with Sharpe then taking the rap for said murder (until he is later able to prove his innocence).
Shifted Reality (Looking Glass Multiverse, #1)
4.0
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One moment in time was all it took… I shouldn’t be here. I’m not even sure how I got here. ...
Science Fiction Romance
Taryn K (444 KP) rated Casual Farming 5: A Slow Living LitRPG (Sowing Season) in Books
Jan 4, 2023
Another slice of life farming/dungeon book
I've read all 5 of the Casual Farming novels that are currently out, though this is the first one I've actually written a review on. We've followed Jason from his arrival in Summer Shandy to his marriage and first child. Old friends have new roles, new faces have joined the town so he's not the newest guy, and he has thoroughly settled in. I really enjoyed this.
I am still, after 5 books, unsure of what to make of the time system in this universe. I'm happy we don't have Jason's wife puking all day every day for 7 months, but getting through the pregnancy in one season is a little strange. It works though, kind of like the seasons changing at midnight exactly on the last day of the season.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to book 6, whenever they get it published. :)
I am still, after 5 books, unsure of what to make of the time system in this universe. I'm happy we don't have Jason's wife puking all day every day for 7 months, but getting through the pregnancy in one season is a little strange. It works though, kind of like the seasons changing at midnight exactly on the last day of the season.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to book 6, whenever they get it published. :)
David McK (3791 KP) rated The Hunt for Red October (1990) in Movies
Mar 22, 2022
This was one of those movies (which is now over 30 years old!) that I knew about, but had just never gotten around to watching before.
I have now and, honestly? It's not that great.
Based on a Tom Clancy novel of the same name (one of his Jack Ryan novels) and starring both Alec Baldwin (as Ryan) and Sean Connery (as the Soviet submarine commander Marko Ramius), this purports to be a thriller about, well, The Hunt for Red October (it's in the title, folks!), a new state of the art Soviet sub that is virtually undetectable and in which Ramius is in charge, with his motivations somewhat murky: is he defecting (it's set during the Cold War)? Is he preparing to launch a strike on the US mainland? Why is a Scot pretending to be Russian??
I have to say, I did find it somewhat slow and ponderous, lacking any real threat or even any means of engaging the viewers interest!
I have now and, honestly? It's not that great.
Based on a Tom Clancy novel of the same name (one of his Jack Ryan novels) and starring both Alec Baldwin (as Ryan) and Sean Connery (as the Soviet submarine commander Marko Ramius), this purports to be a thriller about, well, The Hunt for Red October (it's in the title, folks!), a new state of the art Soviet sub that is virtually undetectable and in which Ramius is in charge, with his motivations somewhat murky: is he defecting (it's set during the Cold War)? Is he preparing to launch a strike on the US mainland? Why is a Scot pretending to be Russian??
I have to say, I did find it somewhat slow and ponderous, lacking any real threat or even any means of engaging the viewers interest!
David McK (3791 KP) rated Only You Can Save Mankind (Johnny Maxwell #1) in Books
Feb 20, 2022
"After all, joysticks don't have 'Don't Fire' buttons on them ..."
Only You Can Save Mankind!
Why me?
If not you, who else?
I first read this not long after it was published, back in the early-to-mid 1990s, at which time I was exactly it's target audience being in my mid teens myself.
By that point, I had already discovered Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld novels, but hadn't read many - any? - of his non-Discworld books.
That changed when I read this, which would go on to become the first in his so-called Johnny Maxwell series (comprising this, Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb).
Reading this now (in the early 2020s), it still holds up remarkably well, even if it is noticeable how much society has changed: mobile phones weren't really a thing back in the 90s, personal computers were relatively new, the Gulf War was still ongoing ...
Why me?
If not you, who else?
I first read this not long after it was published, back in the early-to-mid 1990s, at which time I was exactly it's target audience being in my mid teens myself.
By that point, I had already discovered Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld novels, but hadn't read many - any? - of his non-Discworld books.
That changed when I read this, which would go on to become the first in his so-called Johnny Maxwell series (comprising this, Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb).
Reading this now (in the early 2020s), it still holds up remarkably well, even if it is noticeable how much society has changed: mobile phones weren't really a thing back in the 90s, personal computers were relatively new, the Gulf War was still ongoing ...