I don't read comics or graphic novels so I'm not overly familiar with the happenings in the original formats and cannot judge this novel in relation to them. However, as a stand alone novel this was a very well thought out and executed story.
The story revolves around the introduction of a government act that requires all those with super powers to register with the government and to reveal their real identities. Iron Man is all for this and Captain America is completely against it. Various superheros pick their allegiance, with some changing sides as the story progresses, with the main crux of the story revolving around Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four...although The Thing is really only a peripheral figure.
I have to say that I couldn't put this novel down once I had picked it up...that's the last time I use crazy glue before reading a book! In all seriousness this is a page turner and once I got into the storyline I was engrossed enough to finish the whole novel in one day.
I'm hoping there's a sequel in the works as there are a few loose ends that could easily make another novel such as the X-Men's role in this whole deal (they are only mentioned a couple of times in passing and play no part in the novel other than brief appearances by Wolverine at the beginning and Storm at the end) and what becomes of the characters whose stories hinted at further things to come.
All in all this is a great read for anyone who is a fan of Marvel prose novels.

I'm a sucker for all things spooky and weird unless that something is Pee-wee Herman who is just too darn spooky and weird for my liking. So when I came across this creepy cover while perusing through books online my curiosity was whetted enough to open the wallet and splash the cash.
A lot of effort went into the design of Hell House. Those eyes on the cover are actually two red rubies plastic orbs sunken into the book cover itself. The cover is made to resemble wood (although it's very thick cardboard) and the center part with the skull is all glossy and smooth to the touch. The effort didn't stop there though as the pages of the book are of excellent quality made of paper, each page sepia colored to give an old style look, that's obviously a cut above the average; only my lack of knowledge on different types of paper stops me doing it justice by labeling it with its correct term.
It's all well and good for a book to have great presentation but unless you just want it as some book candy for your shelf it needs to have some substance inside also. Thankfully, Hell House wasn't all looks and no substance otherwise it may well have called itself Kim Kardashian. Where it is found lacking though is in the originality of the content. As someone with an interest in the supernatural who has read numerous books of this type I found not a single haunting to be original to me. They're all famous cases that can be found in multiple other books of this ilk such as Flight 401, the show more Moving Coffins of Barbados, the Amityville House etc. To its credit the authors did try taking on a different approach, to give the subjects an air of freshness, by categorizing the hauntings by country and basing each chapter upon that country.
No factual book about hauntings would be complete without accompanying pictures of those hauntings for if a place is haunted surely there will be photographic evidence of such, right? Well, one would think so but there's only one ghost photo and that's of the infamous 'Brown Lady of Raynham Hall' which is considered to be a fake done by double exposure of the film (to me the lady on the stairs looks like a statue of the Virgin Mary so that would be my guess as to what was used for the double exposure). And the really odd part...the Brown Lady isn't one of the cases explored in the book! Instead of genuine pictures of strange phenomena there are pictures of the places involved in the cases instead. So, for instance, the odd happenings on Flight 401 are accompanied by a picture of an airplane.
Even with its faults this is still a good book to pick up and pass a spare hour or two with although I am probably swayed slightly by its appearance as if it was just a regular paperback I wouldn't have been as impressed. It would work well for someone who has a fleeting, or is just starting to gain, interest in ghosts and hauntings but you won't find much new material if you're seasoned in this genre.
I liked it though. show less

'Light of Eidon' is a fantasy novel filled with magic, mystery and suspense. It also happens to be a Christian novel which I didn't know when I started reading it and I'll get more into that in a few.
The story centers around Abramm Kalladorne who is banished from his country by his brother, the king, and ends up sold into slavery. From there he becomes a gladiator known as the White Pretender and ultimately ends up battling the ultimate evil. As his life unfolds his faith, and what he believes in, is turned upside down and he finds himself evolving as a man and spiritually.
Although Eidon can be read as a straight up fantasy novel there are a few major points in the story where the characters engage in philosophical debate about Eidon (who, I do believe, represents Jesus) and as a non believer it did pull me out of the book. I actually went to Catholic schools from the ages of 4 through 18 and then spent another three years as a born again Christian so I know all about Christianity and nowadays actually detest it (BA Christians usually end up leaving me alone as I can argue scripture with the best of them and I love quoting verses that I know are just out and out fantasy - there's one where Jesus says that any two or more people gathered who pray to him and ask anything in his name will receive it and so if ever stopped by more than one Christian I challenge them to pray for 100 Bibles to appear letting them know I will happily hand them out to non believers with show more them...thus glorifying their God they want me to believe in. They either ignore my request completely or try and talk their way around that particular verse altogether because they know it isn't happening even though their scripture says it will.).
Sorry, this is supposed to be a book review and not a debate on Christianity but the book pulls you into those type of debates in how it incorporates the author's beliefs into the storyline. Anyhow, setting Christianity aside it is actually a well written story with strong characters. Due to the type of novel it is it does pull its punches at times and doesn't get too graphic in its descriptions of sex and violence (which is ironic considering the Bible is full of occurrences where God himself orders mass slaughters, slavery and rape) although the violence at times does push the envelope a little albeit in a fantasy way.
I found the style of Hancock's writing to slow the story down. Usually I can pick up the pace of a book and start devouring it. I found I couldn't do that with Eidon and it took me nearly four weeks to read. Now, not all that length of time can be blamed on the writing but it certainly didn't help and even during the exciting moments I still found the pace to be slow. I never found it boring though, Christian elements aside, and so please don't take the slow pace as meaning it was dull.
The ending of the story did let it down from a neutral perspective as it becomes all about the main character's faith, allegorical to faith in Jesus, and it made me feel like I was cheated out of a proper ending. It's due to that ending I find myself not recommending this to those of a non Christian persuasion. However, if you're all for the Jesus juice and have a love of fantasy novels then I'm sure this one will be a winner for you.
As for me I liked and disliked it equally as much and so I'm going to have to endure splinters in my arse on this novel as I'm sitting on the fence in terms of a rating. show less

With the new Green Lantern movie hitting theaters I figured it would be topical to review one of the few prose novels available for the character.
'Hero's Quest' was actually my introduction to the Green Lantern. Throughout my superhero loving childhood he just happened to be one of those few characters that I never crossed paths with.
Before I get into the review I should inform you that there have been several Green Lanterns and this novel focuses on Kyle Rayner who is not the same guy portrayed in the current movie by Ryan Reynolds. The first Green Lantern was named Alan Scott and he was followed by Hal Jordan (the Ryan Reynolds character), Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner and Jade.
Kyle Rayner's chance encounter with an extraterrestrial leaves him in possession of a ring that can be used as a powerful weapon. This weapon takes the form of green energy and can form anything his imagination can conjure with the only drawback being that it needs to be charged by insertion into a special lantern. That's a lantern as in an object and not as in another Lantern. That would make for a very weird charging system would it not? So, the novel begins and it's not long before Kyle is experiencing his first action by willing the energy into a giant boxing glove to punch a would be thief. The whole episode is played for comedy but it is a tad bit silly and that kind of sums up this novel in relation to the ring. Not that this was actually bad just a tad bit left of the middle as show more the problem with the ring being the focal point is that all situations are solved through a manifestation of energy. As that energy has to take a form we're disposed to an array of objects up to and including a giant umbrella which at times just becomes a tad too absurd and childish. Yeah, I know it's odd to mention it's childish when I read superhero novels but even I have my limits to what I can take and what crosses the line.
As the story progresses, and it's written in the first person all the way through as if we're being told the story over a cup of tea by Kyle himself, the Justice League of America disappear and Kyle has to investigate why which leads him to a bigger problem in that the universe itself faces annihilation.
The story itself is actually a good one and I did enjoy it. I also liked the voice of Kyle as his character is very quick witted and a bit of a smart ass. He also has a more human element that a lot of superheroes. For instance, there's a part in the book where he's relating an incident with Wonder Woman,

"The Amazon Princess...smiled in a fashion that combined maternity with a hint of flirtatiousness.
I guess I should apologize for that last line, but I won't because when I'm around Wonder Woman I half want to ask for home-baked pie and half want to ask what she's doing Friday night (and Saturday, and Sunday...)."

I like Kyle. I can relate to him.
Near the beginning of this post I mentioned that this was my first encounter with the Green Lantern and I think that's important because I had no preconceived notion of who he was and how he should act in certain situations. As such, being introduced to him from scratch and learning who he is through this novel was entertaining. However, if you are already a Green Lantern fan then this novel probably won't cut it for you as it has been changed from the original comic book scenario of how Kyle Rayner came to be the Green Lantern.
Overall I enjoyed this book. It's not amazing by any stretch of the imagination but I found it to be one of those reads that passed the time nicely and left me in a good mood. show less

I used to enjoy Hellboy prose novels more when they were published by Pocket Star Books. I don't know how much say a publisher has in choosing who will author their novels but overall the quality was far better with PSB than when the franchise moved over to Dark Horse Books. A good example of the better quality can be found in 'Hellboy: The Lost Army'.
We start off the book with a foreword by Hellboy's creator Mike Mignola. Not being much of a fanboy when it comes to authors, artists, actors or anyone else for that matter I'm not beyond criticizing even the guy who created one of my favorite characters. The issue I have is in the drawing he does. Now this story is a prose novel but Mignola did contribute some drawings that appear throughout this mass market paperback. That's unusual in itself and, quite frankly, so is Mignola's style of drawing. I'm not quite sure how to describe his style but, to me at least, it seems amateur and yet professional all at the same time. Hellboy looks good on the cover, and I would expect no less from a drawing by his creator, but the skeletons appear too cartoonish in a way. Yeah, "cartoonish" isn't a word so my writing is amateur and nowhere near professional but this blog is for my opinions you know and if I wish to make up words like "cartoonish" then so be it. If it's quality you're after go read one of my followers blogs.
So the story begins with Hellboy having to beat the crap out of a "thing" with tentacles. He hates things with show more tentacles. So do most of my ex girlfriends but I swear I really do only have two hands...they just move around the female form like there's eight of them. Speaking of such things Hellboy has a love interest in this book. And she's a human female. Thankfully the author spares us any intimate details as even I had absolutely no desire to know how a cloven hoofed, red demon with a stone hand gets his freak on with a human English female. Having a love interest for Hellboy is certainly odd but it does allow for the storyline to play on the age old damsel in distress being saved by her hero subplot.
The main plot revolves around the disappearance of a group of British archeologists along the edge of the Great Sand Sea. It wouldn't be much of a job for Red if it was a straight forward disappearance and it isn't as back in 525BC a fifty-thousand strong Persian army vanished in the same place...hence 'The Lost Army'.
Golden is a huge fan of Hellboy and it certainly shows through in his writing. He knows Hellboy inside and out...actually I'm not sure if he really does know about Red's insides but it sounded like the correct thing to proclaim. What's for sure is that he knows the character well enough to bring him to life perfectly in the novel and add that to his as-per-usual excellent storytelling ability and what you have is an awesome Hellboy novel. The author even done a great job in making the love story between Hellboy and Anastasia believable and that took some doing as you just don't think about a red demon and sex in the same sentence. I don't anyway although it's obvious from looking at Hellboy's head that he's always horny.
With an immortal sorcerer and The Lost Army to contend with this novel is certainly action packed and exciting. Our hero is portrayed wonderfully, particularly his sense of humour, and I couldn't put this book down once I had picked it up. Really, that's the last time I use crazy glue before reading a novel. Even though the "romantic" element was done well I could have done without it but that's being picky on what is an overall excellent novel. Highly recommended. show less

It was a combination of the book cover and the book title which drew me towards this novel both of which I thought were excellent. As you may have guessed it's about a reaper, although not the usual one associated with death, who forces its victims to live out their darkest fantasies. Should they resist those fantasies then, as associated with the usual reaper, they die. The main character in the story, Jon, does his best to avoid living out those fantasies and thus flees the Red Reaper and therein we have the premise for the story.

"It awakens… Summoned by the will of a powerful psychic, The Red Reaper forces its victims to live their darkest fantasies. If they resist, they die.
In a college town during a record cold winter break, Jon, a lonely professor, wonders the empty campus barely holding on to his sanity. Unable to stay awake during the daytime he sees a red hooded creature in the shadows at night; immediately after, his twisted desires come to life.
Searching for answers he finds Clay, a local psychic who is more than he seems, and Sarah, a gorgeous expert on the underworld who has depraved secrets of her own.
Chased by demons and with the Red Reaper at every turn, the three must face their fears, survive its relentless attacks, and find a way to escape from the Reaper."

I found the scenario put forth interesting but had some slight trepidation that it was going to turn out to be a 'Final Destination' clone with a slight twist. Perhaps the author was inspired by show more such movies but this book turned out to be a good read that stood on its own two feet regardless of where the inspiration for it came from.
So far I've avoided using the word "novel" as one of my biggest dislikes of 'Run From The Reaper' was its lack of length. Smashwords.com has the word count at a little over 36000 words although with the final 16% of the ebook being excerpts from some of the author's other works it surely works out a lot less than that. If the story had been fleshed out more I think the author may have been onto a real winner here as his characters are strong and the storytelling engrossing. The pacing of the story is excellent and as it progresses so does the action, suspense and horror and I found myself racing through page after page really wanting to know what would happen next. It didn't start out that way though...
I have to admit to finding the first chapter somewhat confusing. It made sense in hindsight, once the story got into its flow, but it didn't really grab me as I was left unsure as to what was going on. In that respect I think the first chapter was the one part of the book that needed condensing, editing and perhaps being used as a prologue rather than as a first chapter.
Even though there were no major grammar issues in this book there were some spelling mistakes and use of the wrong words here and there. For instance one part read "...it appeared to be a bit of brilliants..." when it should, of course, have been "brilliance". No big deal in the grand scheme of things but little errors like that do pull me out of a story and take away from the overall "polish" of a book.
As the story raced towards its conclusion I did have a few gripes as to how it played out. For one, Jon is accused of a very serious crime against a female student, Sarah, which she herself reported to the police. Yet within no time at all they are helping each other out and the issue is brushed aside. Perhaps with the Red Reaper pursuing you all logic goes out of the window but I would rather the story had been taken in a different direction altogether as to avoid that conflict of interest within the storyline. Also, at around the same point in the ebook Sarah was pinned to her bed by bats but there was never an explanation as to why? Sure, it made for an exciting point in the story but unless being attacked by bats was her darkest desire then it didn't really make sense for such a thing to be occurring. The same can be said for the fly incident that followed and while these incidents actually added to the story and made it more unique and horrific, when looking back upon what happened, they did appear to be lacking any logical basis in relation to the story. It could have been attributed to the Red Reaper's powers I suppose but then we're left with the problem of where do its powers begin and end? If it had already forced someone into their darkest desire shouldn't its job be done? So how can the Red Reaper continue victimizing that person? And why?
'Run From The Reaper' is definitely the kind of book that would make a fun horror movie but as a novel it needed more fleshing out. However, taken "as is" it was an enjoyable ebook and the build to the ending when we find out what Jon's ultimate desire was, and why he had been running from that desire, was well done. Certainly worth a read if you're looking for an entertaining story but not for those who require deeper reading with more explanation as to the hows and whys. show less

I love the cover of this book with a passion. Wolverine in all his violent fury caught up in a battle with Sauron is a great piece of artwork that catches the eyes immediately. Unfortunately, the one page pictures that appear at the beginning of every chapter aren't particular good at all and left me wishing they had just hired the guy who inked the cover to do the one page illustrations also.
The prose novel 'Law of the Jungle' predominantly takes place in the Savage Land, which is a prehistoric jungle hidden in the Antarctic, and while I'm not a fan of such a nonsensical idea the author brings the place to life and makes you believe it's a realm that exists. The X-Men have been summoned there by Ka-Zar, who is the protector of the Savage Lands, to help him in his fight against the tyrannical Sauron (the flying lizard on the cover) who is terrorizing his lands and killing his people. With the other X-Men engaged elsewhere it's left to the team of Wolverine, Beast, Storm, Iceman, Psylocke, Cannonball and Archangel to enter the Savage Lands and do whatever they can to stop Sauron's reign of terror.
I liked that a few different characters were added to the X-Men team in this novel with a few of the mainstays taken out...namely Cyclops and Jean Grey. Most of the X-Men novels feature the aforementioned couple and rightly so as Cyclops is the leader of the X-Men and Jean Grey is his wife and an original member of the team. However, that means there's usually very little variant show more in the prose novels on who compromises the X-Men even though it's a team of super-powered mutants whose membership changes quite often.
The story itself is one of the better ones in relation to the series of X-Men prose novels...no evil sweaters in this one!*
If you're not familiar with Psylocke she posses both telepathy and telekinesis and looks a lot like Elektra only adorned in blue/purple rather than red. She has a psychic knife and is a martial arts expert. As for the other not used so often character, namely Cannonball, he can fly at jet speeds shooting himself from the ground through the air like a cannonball, while encased in an invulnerable force field.
In between the attempts to stop Sauron there is some focus on the blossoming relationship between Psylocke and Archangel and in that sense they take the place of Cyclops and Jean Grey. Thankfully it's not overdone because X-Men fans aren't generally looking for romantic off shoots in their novels. It does serve as a well written detraction from the action taking place and is used to slow the story down and add more depth to the two characters with more of an emphasis being placed on Psylocke.
I always feel that any well established characters have to be part of a greater story in order to keep the reader interested. What do I mean by that? Well, take any major novel and its characters that are part of a series - say Bones and Cat from the Night Huntress series for instance - and you know that they aren't going to be killed as they're very much part of a franchise. As such, when they battle an evil adversary you know that they will overcome them or, at the very least, live to renew the fight another day. The same thing applies to the X-Men and so the ending is very much a forgone conclusion before you even start the book...good will triumph over evil. Due to this the story has to be compelling otherwise there's no point in continuing reading to see how it all turns out as the heroes will always win. 'Law of the Jungle' succeeds in being compelling and is very much up there with the best of the X-Men prose novels and if the new X-Men movie has whetted your appetite for this genre of book then I would recommend this particular novel as being a great place to start.

*It's embarrassing, as an fan of X-Men prose novels, to have to inform you of the situation of Rogue being bested by a bunch of flying sweaters that attack and ultimately smother her in the first novel of the X-Men/Avengers 'Gamma Quest Trilogy'. Some ideas should never see the light of day and that was certainly one of them. Shameful. show less

Where I come from, not back in the USSR but Liverpool, 'The Beatles' are part of the culture. It's very rare to find a Scouser (the nickname for someone from Liverpool) who doesn't love them as they're all viewed as "one of us" so to speak. So when I seen this offering by Larry Kirwan, who I knew as the lead singer of Irish rock band 'Black 47' and not as a paperback writer, I was quite surprised. It's the tale of what might have happened if 'The Beatles' had split up in 1962 only to come together and be reunited in 1987. Sounded good to me but did it have me screaming "Help!" or did it make me want to twist and shout in my living room? Well here's my review from me to you.
The novel starts off very strong with John Lennon's character standing out above the other members of the band. Even though the story centers around the Fab Four it's fair to say that Lennon is the main character in the novel. So the band has a disagreement with their management - I guess no-one had told them that all you need is love - and John, George and Ringo leave the studio never to come back. Paul McCartney stays and pursues a solo career becoming a mainstay in Las Vegas as showman Paul Montana. Meanwhile Lennon becomes a bitter recluse who's somewhat of a nowhere man and who can't find work, George Harrison becomes a priest, probably worshiping Lady Madonna although we're never told such, while Ringo lives off his wife who doesn't seem to care about that...must have been real love.
While the show more characters of The Beatles are essential to the novel it's the backdrop of the society they live in that drags this novel down. The National Front (white supremacists) are a major force in this version of England and while some stand aside and let it be others, like Lennon, want to oppose the fascism but are too afraid. When he does speak out he gets his ass kicked and so no-one in this very bleak society is portrayed as being as free as a bird. Bleak. That one word sums up this book and even at 310 pages it's far too long with the story drawn out way beyond what is needed. It was like travelling down the long and winding road for eight days a week and never really getting anywhere in the process. At times I wanted to be doing something else, to be anywhere else rather than reading this book...residing across the universe, relaxing in an octopus's garden in the shade, lounging in strawberry fields forever or shopping in Penny Lane (my dad lives there!) would have been preferable to sitting on my sofa reading a book that was boring me to sleep. Hell, I would rather have been with Lucy in the sky with diamonds!
I should have known better than to get my hopes up on a book I had never heard of until I accidentally stumbled across it online but the premise seemed good and I bought a ticket to ride so to speak and hoped that it would please, please me. When the book arrived it turned out to be a case of "here comes the sun" only, upon reading, to realize I had misinterpreted the weather, that the clouds were coming back, and all I got was rain. Oh well, I can't go back to yesterday so what's done is done and I'm actually glad to be done with this novel. I would be asking for a refund but I don't care too much for money as money can't buy me love.
The idea of the novel is worth a couple of points out of ten, and the characterization worth another, but it's not written particularly well and it reads like it's 1000 pages instead of just over 300. Even if you're a huge fan of 'The Beatles, like I am, I wouldn't recommend this book.

As a fun aside there are 27 Beatles song titles mentioned in this review. Can you name them all? If not, the answers are below.

Back in the USSR
Paperback Writer
Come Together
Help!
Twist and Shout
From Me to You
All You Need is Love
Nowhere Man
Lady Madonna
Real Love
Let it Be
Free as a Bird
The Long and Winding Road
Eight Days a Week
Something
Across the Universe
Octopus's Garden
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Ticket to Ride
Please, Please Me
Here Comes the Sun
Rain
Yesterday
Can't buy Me Love
Day Tripper show less

'The Meowmorphosis' was up for grabs over at Librarything.com and I found myself intrigued as to whether it would be the cat's meow or a slimy hairball of a book. My luck was in and I accosted a copy and, ladies and gentleman of the public, the verdict is in.
The story is a mash-up of Kafka's classic novella 'Metamorphosis' where Gregor wakes up to find himself a cockroach. Instead of a cockroach though he wakes up as a kitten in this version of the story. Being more lovable than a cockroach one might expect the author to deviate slightly from the original story but he sticks to the tried and trusted formula laid out by Kafka with one exception being a brief hiatus from the house, by the kitten, into the outside world. While this makes the story true to the original it really does only replace a cockroach with a kitten and having read the original there wasn't anything in this book, other than the novelty of replacing the cockroach with the kitten, to maintain my interest.
'The Meowmorphosis' is best described as a dark comedy although the humorous elements are far more plentiful in the first couple of chapters than throughout the rest of the book. The middle of this novel, which at around a couple of hundred pages still seemed too long, follows Gregor into the the outside world and his meeting with other cats. Here he is put on trial, although I can't tell you what for as that would spoil the mystery which is a major element of this part of the story, and it's during this show more trial that the book is at it's most dull. Needless to say Gregor returns home and the original plot, as written by Kafka, is resumed.
I don't think this was a good choice of novella for a mash-up. For one, it is based on a novella and so had to be fleshed out more than necessary to make it a stand alone novel. Also, not much actually happens in the story and the original is more of a literary text one would study as opposed to one that would be read for enjoyment. Throughout the novel are amateurish pictures, akin to the one on the book cover, of various situations that are taking place in the story. These pics are purposely amateurish and actually work quite well as harbingers of smirks.
Even though I wasn't sold on 'The Meowmorphosis' there is a similar book that I would very much recommend called 'Kockroach'. It's written by an author named Tyler Knox and although not an out and out mash-up it plays on the theme of 'The Metamorphosis' by having a cockroach waking up as a human. From there it leaves its Kafka elements behind and becomes a stand alone novel that is quite the read.
Overall, I think Coleridge Cook (which is a pen name for a famous fantasy author apparently...any ideas anyone?) did what he could with the material at hand. However, it's not a great novel and not one I would recommend unless you are big on mash-ups or really have a thing for Kafka. show less

I've never read the original 'Emma' but I should hope it's not as weak as this offering. I trudged through this book for almost a month and should have given up on it long before then. Unfortunately, I'm a tad too stubborn and was "rewarded" with nonsensical vegan vampires, with no explanation on how they came to be, and a story with more holes than a donut convention. I didn't like the book cover either. Why the frick does the vampire have a smirk on his face? Having just had his head cut off shouldn't he have had a look of anguish or horror? And as the head is the heaviest part of the body how is Emma holding it when her hand appears to be relaxed and she's barely grabbing the hair?
The synopsis describes 'Emma and the Vampires' as being "hilarious" and yet I never even broke into a smile. At times it read like the plot to a cheesy slasher horror movie, where the college students always end up going out in the dark alone even though they know there's a killer about, as there were many instances where the characters would leave a gathering at night only to be confronted with the evil vampires attacking them. Why did they not just hold their get together during the day and save themselves the trouble? Besides, the evil vampires sucked (yeah, pun intended) anyway and always got their butts kicked so what use is the evil in the book when it never prevails over good in any way? There's no suspense involved when, for the upteenth time, the nocturnal vampires get beaten yet show more again and so they're more of a hindrance than any real threat in this novel. Heck, they need not have been in this novel at all for all the use they were.
Albeit a tad bit late I should mention that all men are vampires in this novel, good and evil, and Emma is trying to match up her friends with the good ones because that's obviously funny, right? About as funny as being staked in the groin over and over. I'm not wasting anymore words on this drivel and would have entered it into my 'Hall of Shame' except I felt sorry for Austen having her name associated with this heinous book...and I don't even like Austen! Horrible, horrible read. show less

There's a television programme here in America called '60 Minutes' which, as you might have guessed, is sixty minutes long. Except it isn't. For if one removes the time spent on commercials then it's probably between 45-50 minutes in length but I'm assuming a tv show with the title '45-50mins Once the Commercials Are Taken Out' is just a little too out there. About once a month, nowadays at least, the last couple of minutes are taken up by an old time radio and television writer named Andy Rooney who is as famous for his eyebrows as he is for his journalism. In those two minutes Andy will rant about any given topic of his choosing and the book 'Years of Minutes' is a collection of his rants from 1982-2003 inclusive.
Mr Rooney seems to polarize people in their opinions as it appears a lot of people can't stand him and others think he's great. I happen to fall into the latter category and so it will come as no surprise to you that I loved this book. The only problem I had with it was that it only went up to 2003. Of course, it was published in 2003 so it's not as if they could have added the more recent years but I was just saying is all!
There aren't really any chapters in this book but each section of rants is broken down into the year they took place and the year takes the place of the chapter. Maybe that means there are chapters after all just in the guise of years but bear with me as I'm doing my best here. Each chapter year contains several subtitles describing the show more rants that appeared during that particular tv season. For instance during the 2002 season he grumbled about libraries and here's a few snippets of what he had to say:

"...silence in a library ought to be abandoned...silence can be more obtrusive than noise because you strain to hear the words of every whisper but you're oblivious to a yell or a shout."

"There are too many blank pages at the beginning and end of most books [with] authors taking up a whole page to say something like TO MY WIFE GRETCHEN WITHOUT WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT THIS BOOK COULD NOT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN. Why should we waste our time while the author tries to get in good with his wife? If you took all the useless pages out of all the books in a library, they'd save miles of shelf space."

"Dust jackets are a pain in the neck and do not prevent books getting dusty."

Those type of comments are exactly the type of reading you get in this book on subjects from catalogues to cold remedies, from ghostwriters ("General Colin Powell...signed a book contract for $6million...[he] is going to have a ghostwriter...for $6million don't you think he ought to write the book himself?") to football uniforms.
For book lovers there are plenty of book related topics such as those already mentioned as well as many others including cookbooks, school books, magazine page numbers and also dictionaries. He even has a diatribe about his eyebrows!
All in all I found this to be a very entertaining read and with over 500 pages worth of Andy's various rants, none of which take up more than a couple of pages, it's a good book for the quick bus journey or to relax with for a few minutes while drinking your favorite beverage. show less

'The Blood That Bonds' is a vampire novel with more than an element of romance to it that reads as a little bit more old school than say, the Night Huntress series.
Like the Night Huntress series, and most vampire novels these days, it has a major love interest between the story's two most prominent characters. The female of the couple, Two, starts out the story as a drug addicted prostitute before being converted by the ancient vampire Theroen. I can't say I cared too much for the names of the two main characters. Sure, they're different from the normal names you see in vampire novels but I never really took to them, particularly Two. Another aspect I couldn't take to was the cover of the book. It looked too much like the cover of a 70s horror B-movie and didn't do the novel any favors at all as it's much more refined and intellectual than what the cover suggests.
If you were to judge this book from the first chapter then you wouldn't think it was a vampire novel at all (unless you seen the cover of course) as it very much concentrates on introducing Two and the horrible life she leads. At the mercy of heroin, and reliant upon her pimp to supply it, Two's life is one of dejection and despair. The despair is portrayed very well and when Theroen enters the story and shows Two a wealthier and more opulent standard of living it's easy to see why she quickly falls for his charm and falls in love. Likewise, Theroen falls in love with Two although there was an aspect of Theroen show more also being that father figure that Two never had and thus she falls for a more emotionally mature male. I loved the relationship between Two and Theroen and much preferred their dynamic to that of the very popular Kat and Bones.
With Two's character being fleshed out from the beginning we're left with a series of story telling flashbacks to set the foundation for who Theroen is and how he came to be. While living as a priest Theroen is transformed into a vampire by Abraham which is an action that calls him to question everything he has believed. There's a very strong distinction in the name of Abraham to the Biblical figure of the same name and thus it was a very well chosen name for the character. Of course, with Theroen being a priest there are some good lines in this novel in relation to his faith. One such line spoken by Abraham being, "If ever your God was listening, little sheep, he has long since gone deaf."
As well as Abraham there are a couple of strong side characters who play a major part in this novel. Melissa/Missy who is a vampire with a split personality. Sometimes the evil Missy is in control and at other times it's Melissa. This was a very good way of creating suspense in the novel for her character could appear as either person and it kept her very interesting. The other main vampire character is Tori who is as much, if not more, animal than human. In that respect she is a vampire but one who has the raw brutality and demeanor of a werewolf that remains in its non-human form.
There are strong sexual elements throughout this novel, as arousal is often brought about from the desire that the vampires have to feed, but equally strong is the notion of love. At times the two are brought up in conversation and we are left in no doubt that Two and Theroen truly love each other even though their relationship is highly sexual such as when Theroen says, "Sex is sex. Love is love...love makes sex something more...sex without love is merely gratification. I love you Two."
I was actually loving this novel until 75% of the way through (yes, I read it on my Kindle so I know the exact percentage) and then there's a story changing moment that totally changes the whole direction of the book. I'm not sure as to why the author chose the direction he did but I really do believe 100% that it was the wrong way to go. I think I could have lived with that moment being the end of the book but the fact it happens with a quarter of the novel still remaining just had me baffled. Even more so when taking into account that the final quarter of the novel is actually its weakest part.
The final quarter of the novel loses its way a bit and is a tad inconsistent. For instance there's a part where Tori gets out of a shower and is seen naked by a character named Sam. Sam complains about seeing more than she needed to. In itself that's fine except Sam has just witnessed the slaughter of two people with blood and guts everywhere. Why on earth would she be concerned about seeing another female get out of the shower with the carnage she just witnessed? Didn't really make sense to me and pulled me out of the novel. Another example of the novel losing its way in the final quarter when Two states it would take a nuclear bomb to kill Abraham. Earlier in the novel she mentioned the same thing to Theroen and he told her that wouldn't work without getting into details as to why. So as she knew that already why even say it again even if it was meant in jest?
The ending of the story wraps everything up into a neat little package and gives the reader a positive, if somewhat timid, finish to the novel. It's difficult to go into the faults of what transpires at the end without giving the ending away but I will say I found it too unrealistic and the reasoning used, in relation to what happens, was about as strong as wet paper.
It's a shame I felt the way I did about the final quarter of the novel as up until then this novel was a definite winner and I would have rated it higher. Given the way it panned out in the last quarter I feel I have to drop the rating down a little. show less

Let me start with some positivity; I liked the cover. Okay, positivity over.
Now, I'm a huge fan of prose novels that revolve around superheroes and I don't really care who that superhero is as long as it's a good book. Having said that I do have a soft spot for Spider-Man. I even had a soft spot for him back when I was convinced that he was really Lionel Richie due to his song and lyrics, and I quote, "Oh, what a feeling. When we're dancing on the ceiling". I mean, how could Lionel not be Spidey with that dancing on the ceiling stuff? Soon after this revelation I then discovered Lionel asking the dumbest of questions to a blind woman, "Hello, is it me you're looking for?" Yeah, way to go with the insensitive lyrics Lionel. I'm sure the "looking" reference went down a treat with a blind woman and at that point I kind of realized that Spider-Man and Lionel Richie were definitely not one in the same.
Even given my soft spot for Spider-Man I didn't enjoy this novel. However, I must let you know that if you have absolutely no idea who Spider-Man is then this a decent novel to lose your Spider-Man virginity to! You see, the authors have this horrible habit of recounting what seems like every major incident of Peter Parker's life (he's Spider-Man by the way if you are one of those virgins) within the storyline and so a lot of the book is wasted on stuff like how he got bitten by a spider, how his uncle was killed by the guy he failed to stop, Gwen Stacey being killed etc. Great show more for the novice with no knowledge but incredibly tedious for anyone who even knows the basics.
The beginning of each chapter has a one page picture which acts as a kind of teaser for what will happen in that chapter. The pictures are well drawn but do tend to give away what is going to happen as witnessed at the beginning of chapter six which shows Spidey beating up the Scorpion. Then, of course, he beats up the Scorpion in chapter six. By telling you that I've just given away what happens in chapter six too which makes me a spoiling son of a bitch also I suppose but, in this instance, it goes with the reviewing territory.
Speaking of the Scorpion (and you know this part is going to have a sting in tail) Spider-Man has a few random fights in the novel that just seemed to be written into the story in order to break the monotony of nothing much happening. Yes, they're loosely linked into the storyline but loose isn't good enough when the rest of the novel is found wanting.
The dialog in Goblin Moon is at times terrible...particularly between Peter and Mary Jane. I lost count of the number of times Mary Jane refers to Peter as 'Tiger' which is the pet name she has for him but, my goodness, it is used to death in this novel. "Tiger", "Tiger", "Tiger" all the way through every conversation that takes place between them. There were times I just had to skip those conversations as the "Tiger" count was bordering on the ridiculous...heck, make that the sublime.
One thing that Tiger the old webhead is renowned for is his sense of humor but it was very much lacking in Goblin Moon. Even when present I found it to be lacking, it was flatter than a witch's tit if you will, and that's really one aspect that needs to be correct when penning the character of Spider-Man. I mean, go ahead and add up every time you've smiled reading this review. Okay? Now even if your number is zero then that's still one more smile than you will experience when reading Spidey's quips in this book.
The story itself is a good one and pits Spider-Man against his old adversary the Green Goblin...well, who else were you expecting when taking into account the cover and book title?!? Unfortunately, the poor characterization and poor story telling take away from what could have been a decent enough novel in the right hands. As such, I really can't recommend this one at all. show less

This book took me back to my youth and the days I was fascinated (still am although to a lesser extent) with all things weird. What counts as weird? Well, even though I don't blame you for thinking I might make an appearance in this book it actually chronicles such topics as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, UFO's, The Shroud of Turin, prophecy etc.
There might only be 100 unexplained subjects but the book itself is over 400 pages in length and each subject is explored as well as it can be in such a limited volume.
To get the reader in the correct state of mind the author starts each of his 100 topics with a Haiku which is a Japanese poetic form consisting of three lines of five syllables , seven syllables and another five syllables. I can't say these worked for me although I was impressed with the effort and talent it took to create one for every topic.
Each of the 100 chapters, following the Haiku, has a quote from an expert or knowledgeable text regarding what the reader is about to discover. I found these more helpful and apt than the Haiku and overall the structure of 'The Weird 100' was excellent with each chapter being given the same treatment. After the quote comes five pieces of information kept in a summarized form. They are...

Definition - a definition of the phenomena at hand.
What the Believers Say - A synopsis of the arguments in favor of the phenomena.
What the Skeptics Say - A synopsis of the arguments against the phenomena being real.
Quality of Supporting show more Evidence - The evidence that's available to analyse rated from "negligible" through "excellent".
Likelihood Phenomena are Paranormal - The authors opinion on whether it's real or not.
I loved the 100 topics chosen for this book as they are fairly diverse and cover a whole spectrum of phenomena. Some of my personal long time favorites are in there too such as 'The Lost Colony of Roanoke' (a whole colony of people who just vanished in 1590 leaving behind nothing but the word "croatoan" on a post), Men in Black, Ouija Boards and reincarnation (that last one is a favorite of mine as when I was a child I used to claim I lived in a big house on a certain hill with lots of other children, near where my grandmother lived, every time we walked past it. I was only three or four at the time and there was no house there. I was adamant I lived there before I was born, when I was a girl no less, and so my mum and grandmother done some research. Turns out that many years before an orphanage used to exist on top of that hill).
I didn't always agree with the author's conclusion about certain phenomena, for instance he believes the men in black phenomena has a low likelihood of being real whereas I'm a true believer, but each chapter is set out so well that you can make your own conclusion and not be forced into a channel set by the author. In that respect it's quite refreshing as books studying paranormal phenomena are usually written by a firm believer or a total skeptic.
I actually got this book, signed by the author no less although that was just luck, from Betterworldbooks.com bargain bin for $3 including shipping and so in that respect it was damn bargain! I wouldn't have bought it at full price, $16.95, as there's nothing really new in terms of information within the book. However, it does cover 100 weird phenomena very well and is an excellent starting point for those wanting to explore strange and unusual happenings and even if you're a seasoned paranormal reader this makes an excellent digest. show less

I lived in Toronto for a while and certainly have an affinity for the city. That affinity is captured in all its beautiful glory in the photography of Tim Peters. With stunning pictures of everyday scenes and wonderful angled shots of many of Toronto's favorite landmarks this book is a must for those who love architectural photography or the city of Toronto itself. If, like me, you love both then you will find 'Toronto' to be more of a gorgeous work of art than an actual book.

Culture is a strange thing. Depending on where you live in the world prostitution is either accepted or illegal and here in the United States it's even more strange as it's accepted nowhere other than in Nevada. Even then it's only legal in licensed brothels such as The Mustang Ranch. While it's legal and provides a high percentage of income for local government it's still not the type of business that is embraced or advertised publicly and is associated with a "look the other way" mentality.
Due to the attitude towards brothels, and prostitution in general, Alexa Albert took it upon herself to investigate the day to day practices of the brothels, its workers and its customers. Integrating herself into the Mustang Ranch by living there she became close with many of the workers and documented her findings and attitudes in 'Brothel: Mustang Ranch and its Women'.
'Brothel' is a very informative book that humanizes the sex industry in relation to the Mustang Ranch. It's also a very complicated industry which the author does her best to understand even going to the lengths of watching the actual act of prostitution taking place. Albert's greatest strength is also her greatest weakness in that she becomes emotionally close to some of the workers. As such she is allowed greater access into how they feel, what they think, how they cope etc but at the same time that causes her to lose her objectivity as she has an emotional connection to her subjects. Calling the workers her show more subjects is almost dehumanizing them on my part as they become friends of hers and Albert becomes someone who they can confide in.
One aspect that I took away from reading this book is that there is no set personality when it comes to who ends up in prostitution. Women from all walks of life turn to one of the world's oldest industry. However, none of them are ever there due to it being a career choice brought about by their love of the industry. Many were prostituting due to financial hardship while others were drawn towards the high earning potential even if they weren't experiencing hardship of there own. In many ways I ended up admiring the choice that these women had made, particularly those who were selling their bodies, so their children could have a better life. Sadly though as working at the Mustang Ranch meant being confined to the brothel for three weeks at a time, and sometimes more, their children missed out on time spent with their mothers.
I was surprised to learn that a fair percentage of the women enjoyed the sex they provided and often experienced orgasms. Unfortunately, even within such a stigmatized industry, those women were further stigmatized by some of their fellow workers who considered enjoying the prostitution a disgusting practice.
As much as the author analyzes and interprets the situations, conditions and experiences of the working girls the true beauty of this book lays in the human aspect. Regardless of whether they are working in a stigmatized industry, ultimately, the females who prostitute themselves are just like you and I and that shines through in the narrative.
The one problem I had with this book, and it's not something that can be avoided, is that it's dated. It was published back in 2001 when Mustang Ranch had been shut down by government agencies and so it ends with the future of the ranch still in limbo (I do believe it was rebuilt at another site and is now running under new ownership). Also, some of the laws that applied back then that are issues in the book have now changed such as brothels, and the sex workers themselves, not being able to advertise themselves. With the onset of the internet clients can book a time, their woman of choice and agree a price long before they even visit a brothel.
If you have an interest in human sexuality then I would certainly recommend this book as it covers a lot of different aspects such sexual health, prostitution, attitudes towards brothels and the sex itself. What it isn't is a book full of licentiousness, seediness and cheap thrills as the subject matter is handled in a mature and professional way. show less

Slaphappy is Thomas Hackett's look into the world of professional wrestling as he searches for the answer as to why it's so popular amongst its fans. Along the way he interviews wrestlers and fans alike in hope he can unravel what those reasons are. Occasionally he will procure a theory and then back it up with some "facts" with one of his major outlets being that professional wrestling has its roots in homosexuality. Some of the reasoning behind this theory is ludicrous such as 'The Macho Man' Randy Savage presumably, according to the author, chose the name as a homage to the Village People and that Big Sexy, aka Kevin Nash, named himself such for the male audience. Hmmm.
The gay wedding of ex WWE wrestlers (sorry, I know I'm not supposed to call them wrestlers anymore due to WWE's desire to been seen as having entertainers) Billy & Chuck also gets a mention but the facts surrounding it are wrong in that the 'Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation' were furious over the wedding not taking place, when Billy and Chuck announced they weren't really gay, as they were led to believe by the WWE that it was going to happen thus breaking new boundaries. Also, anyone watching at the time would have easily noticed Billy and Chuck did not meet with fan approval even though Hackett claims they did. With basic facts being wrong several times throughout the book it was difficult to accept 'Slaphappy' as a professional piece of journalism. For instance, the shaving of armpit hair show more among wrestlers is portrayed as preening and somewhat homoerotic whereas, in reality, wrestlers do it so that when they have a guy in a headlock he's not getting a face full of their armpit hair.
There were many blanket statements that didn't do the author's arguments any good such as all wrestlers being oiled up and wearing "bikinis". Anyone who has watched any form of wrestling can clearly see that different wrestlers wear different attire and while some do sport the traditional look, and do use oil, there are as many wrestlers nowadays who don't. Even the guys on the cover of the book itself are not wearing the attire Hackett claims they all wear!
While this was a well written book (in terms of grammar sentence structure etc) it had too many flaws and for every chapter I found interesting there always seemed to be one that fell flat. However it does contain an extensive bibliography for anyone requiring further reading material but for some reason only contains information on some of the photographs used. As such one photograph will be labeled whereas the next one will leave the reader bemused as to who in the hell they're looking at.
With a bit more professionalism and more water tight theories this book could have been very good. As it is I wouldn't rate it beyond average. show less

I've never really embraced the YA book market as I usually find myself hoping for something a tad more gritty than what I end up reading. Such was the case with 'Beyonders: A World Without Heroes'.
In all fairness it started off with an excellent prologue that gripped me and made me want to dive head first into the novel. This I done and ended up with paper cuts on my forehead. Anyhow, once the prologue was out the way the story became less aimed at readers toward the older end of the spectrum and more toward the younger contingent. That's when I started having problems with the novel.
In the first chapter the main character Jason, who is a typical boy with an "underdog" personality, falls into the hippo enclosure at the zoo in which he works. He is swallowed by the hippo and thus goes through its mouth, travels down a tunnel and emerges out of a tree. Yes, you read that correctly and while it's certainly a unique way of passing into another realm it just had me thinking "ridiculous".
Once in the world of Lyrian our hero Jason, with help from another human named Rachel, must solve the puzzle of the mysterious word that when spoken in the presence of the evil emperor Maldor will kill him. Of course, they're also searching for a way back home. My initial idea for Jason was to find a hippo in Lyrian and enter through it's ass in the hope it would have the reverse effect and he would pop out of a tree on earth. Alas, that was not case.
The inside cover of the book has the age show more range at 8-12 years old. The novel is 454 pages long so while their may well be some eight year olds who could read this I would guess the majority would not have the patience for such a long novel. Also, even though the story does lighten up after the prologue there are still some dark sequences that might not be apt for those children who are of a more timid disposition.
The major problem I had with 'Beyonders: A World Without Heroes' is that it's the first book of a trilogy and the ending of the novel reflected that. As such it's not the type of book you would read as a stand alone novel and in a market flooded with series of books I wouldn't recommend this unless you're looking to invest in a trilogy.
Overall, the writing is good and the story is paced well. I found it to be a tad over the top at times and on various occasions throughout the novel I felt 'Beyonders' suffered from wanting to be all things at once...dark, ominous and more adult oriented while at the same time trying to remain with the core audience by being light, chirpy and aimed at children. show less

Tired of zombies? Tired of valiant heroes? Tired of the fantasy genre in general? If you answered "yes" to any of those three questions then 'Tired of Death' could be the cure for your lethargy.
In a way it's kind of difficult to label 'Tired of Death'. Sure, it's a fantasy novel but it's not like any other fantasy novel I have ever read. If pushed I think I would compare it to being the fantasy equivalent of what the movie 'Spaceballs' is to 'Star Wars'!
At the beginning of this novel the story appears serious and almost a horror novel but then it lightens up a lot and becomes a comedic fantasy without ever really leaving it's horror elements behind. Put like that it sounds like a recipe for disaster but it turned out to be the exact opposite and all the way through I was smiling from ear to ear.
A lot of the comedy is played out through two zombies, Percy and Cuthbert, who very much have their roots planted in dumb, classic comedic characters such as those used by Shakespeare and who often appear in movies. Once or twice the comedic element got a bit too silly for my liking such as when Percy, who used to work in a beauty salon before he became a zombie, gave Medusa a makeover as she had terribly dry skin. However, parts such as the one just mentioned were few and far between. The writing itself was also very clever and I enjoyed the zombie related lines such as, "Percy blushed, or would have done if he had any blood circulation."
The main character is an undead by the name show more of Dreth. He overseas part of a dungeon (more of an enormous labyrinth than a dungeon) and is responsible for stopping treasure hunters and adventurers from leaving once they have entered his realm. However, having been there hundreds of years Dreth himself wishes to leave the dungeons and the story follows him on his quest to escape from them. Along the way Dreth, with his bloodthirsty sword 'Darkblood', encounters all manner of classic characters such as Golems, orcs, mad wizards, angry dragons and wild elves. Along with Percy, Cuthbert, Sprat (a child zombie) and Redthorne (a mage) they fight, negotiate and con their way through obstacles, trials and the traps that lay before them. As they struggle with what lays before them they must also keep one step ahead of a giant Golem sent by the Dungeon Management to kill Dreth for abandoning his set role in the dungeon.
The pacing of the story never lets up and it was one of those novels that had me reading "just one more page" time and time again when I should have been attending to more pressing matters.
As you can tell I very much enjoyed this novel and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy or zombie novels. It's a winner! show less

The cover of this novel does it no favors whatsoever as it's insipid and firmly rooted in the sc-fi genre. It's a shame because the story told is very much a psychological masterpiece. However, if you're not a science fiction fan this cover isn't very likely to draw you in as it only screams "SCI-FI!!!!" in your face...then by the wayside it no doubt falls. So let me make this perfectly clear; even though it has it's roots in sci-fi 'Ender's Game' is far more than a novel based in that particular genre.
Andrew 'Ender' Wiggins is a child genius who is recruited, at a very young age, by the military to be trained in the art of war for an ongoing battle with an alien race known as the 'Buggers'. Due to Ender being a genius at such a young age he is shunned by the majority of other kids. Even at the military academy which is full of slightly older children, who are also being trained due to their own high IQs, he is often an object of scorn and jealousy which makes him focus even more on his education. The education often takes the form of various games. These games range from out and out military combat exercises to computer simulations and games that vigorously test his mental skills and reasoning. It's in this psychological aspect that the story excels as we're dragged into Ender's world, Ender's mind, and get to know everything that he is thinking and the logic behind his reasoning. As Ender is very much a sympathetic figure, and constantly bullied, we feel his pain and show more revel in his triumphs when he outsmarts those who torment him.
Even though Andrew Wiggins is taken away from his family at a young age we never lose touch with his siblings as his older, psychotic brother, and his polar opposite sister who are both geniuses in their own right, form the basis of a back story which intertwines with Ender's story at various points throughout the book. Neither his brother or sister made it to the military academy due to psychological faults. His brother, Peter, is borderline psychotic and prone to constant violent acts. His sister, Valentine, is very passive and both of their personality traits play a major part in the novel.
It's only towards the end that the novel truly becomes sci-fi with space battles and colonizing of new worlds but even if you are not a science fiction fan you will have been hooked long before then and will be turning the pages with such gusto they will leave friction marks on your fingers.
This truly is a great work of literature that deserved the Hugo and Nebula awards which were bestowed upon it. As for Ender you would be hard pressed to find a more wonderfully orchestrated character in any genre of literature; Card, through his words, waves the baton and we eagerly listen attentive and on the edge of our seats to Ender's symphony that the author expertly conducts. show less

This novel certainly isn't for the faint of heart. It's very graphic in its violence and is stomach churning in its sexual depravity. In many ways it is the most disturbing novel I have ever read and it was actually banned in Kosinski's native homeland of Poland for twenty three years.
The book consists of twenty chapters each detailing the journey of a boy whose name we never learn. It takes place during World War II at a time when the, possibly Gypsy/possibly Jewish, boy is sent away by his parents to live in a village in order to escape the Nazi's. It soon becomes apparent that his life will be filled with hatred, violence and sexual depravity. As his story unfolds, each chapter taking the boy to a different setting and new masters he must serve, we observe all that happens through his eyes. Due to each chapter bringing a new setting and new people the characters in this novel, apart from the boy, come and go very quickly and no emotional attachment is made to them. To compensate for this it appears that Kosinski exposed characters to the most extreme situations he could imagine to pull the reader into the story and garner a response. A few examples of this are a daughter forced to have sex with a goat and her brother, a mentally disturbed woman having a bottle shoved into her vagina, where it's purposely smashed before she's beaten to death, and a plowboy whose eyes are gouged out with a spoon. These are by no means the three most shocking incidents chosen to make an show more impact in this review as each chapter brings along equal amounts of evilness and perversion. Unfortunately, that evilness and perversion are the only things that make the book stand out. The writing itself is okay but the story is far fetched to the extreme (it was initially passed off by the author as his real life experiences as a child although he later admitted it was a complete work of fiction) and the amount of brutality imposed upon the boy would no doubt have left him dead long before the end of the story.
There are, however, some redeeming qualities although they themselves are steeped in the aforementioned violence and sexuality. For instance, the book's title stems from the time the boy is living with a professional bird catcher. The catcher will paint a bird different colors and then free it so it can go back to its flock. Due to the unnatural colors the bird is now shunned by the flock it was once a part of, turned upon and killed by its own kind. What the author is doing is using birds as an allegorical form in order to mirror the horrors of the day with Jews and Gypsies being massacred by fellow "humans".
The ending of the book didn't seem like an ending at all, a follow up was never penned, and it really didn't make much sense to me. It was almost as if the author couldn't be bothered writing anymore of the story and so decided to end it quickly and abruptly.
I've found that opinion is divided on this book as to whether it's a masterpiece or a load of rubbish. In my opinion I wouldn't recommend it and if you read the plot of the book on its Wikipedia page then you've practically read the story with all the graphic violence and graphic sexuality taken out. show less

UFO's usually generate a definitive response in a person with a "no way that's crazy" attitude on one side of the coin and a "yes I believe/yes, why not" attitude on the other. As you may have guessed I'm definitely a believer in UFOs even though I have never seen one myself. Part of the reason is that, in general terms, there's far more evidence for them than any of the gods worshiped by major, and not so major, religions around the world. There's photos, movies and eyewitness accounts from people of all stratas in life including a famous report filed by former American President Jimmy Carter. Military jets have chased and fired at them, commercial airline pilots have had near collisions with them, radars across the world have recorded them and yet some people still don't believe in UFOs. Whether you believe or not I would recommend 'Unsolved UFO Mysteries' as it's not to deep or complicated and sets out the facts of ten major UFO cases/subjects, each with its own chapter, with information on the investigations and what facts and evidence were uncovered. The narrative is strong and well formatted, and I would expect nothing less of veteran UFO researcher William J Birnes (better known as Bill Birnes from the History Channel show UFO Hunters) as he really knows the subject inside and out.
Even though each chapter deals with a certain UFO case/subject, such as the infamous Phoenix Lights for instance, the ones chosen are varied enough not to become repetitive and I'm very show more thankful that the most famous UFO case of all, the UFO crash at Roswell in 1947, isn't included in this book as even ten years removed from being submerged in this culture I'm still all "Roswelled out"! What is included are a few cases that could very well be hoaxes...'The Screaming Alien' whose sole witness was featured on SyFy's 'Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files' in the first series where he failed a voice stress analysis test and was presumed to be lying about his encounter and also 'The Gulf Breeze Mystery' which, even to a seasoned UFO reader such as myself, seems very far fetched. However, both these cases make fascinating reading and will no doubt give you chills and the evidence for these cases are presented "as is" with no definitive side chosen (fact or fiction) by the authors.
What we have then is a book about several different UFO cases written from the perspective of two obvious UFO believers but they do take into account any major counter arguments put forward by investigators who didn't reach the same conclusions as they did. It's a very eye opening read and I read all 290 pages in one sitting such was my fascination with the subject matter. The only negative aspect of the book is that the authors often speak of photos taken of the UFOs, evidence left behind, alien implants etc but no photos are included in the book. Had they included the photos, many of which are easily found online for the major cases investigated, I would have given this a slightly higher rating. As it is I still thoroughly enjoyed submerging myself back into the UFO realm for a few hours and I look forward to expanding into more deeper UFO reading in the near future. If you're already a reader of UFO literature then this book would serve more as a digest than anything substantial. For the rest of us, believers or not, it makes for some entertaining, and sometimes disturbing, reading. show less

I think I would rather scoop out my eyes with a blunt spoon than ever read this piece of rubbish ever again. Why? Read on...

This is a children's story but I doubt very many children actually understand what the heck it's all about. Not even adults agree on its meaning. Personally I think it's a story about S&M and I find that shameful in itself when the book is aimed at a young audience. You see, the tree acts like a submissive in that it does as it's asked and at the end we find out it is happy to be used. The boy in the story is like the master as he just takes what he wants without any sense of moral justice. We also have the classic symbolism of the boy taking an apple and eating it which mirrors the Bible fable of Adam and Eve discovering sex. Then in the middle of the story (there are no page numbers so I can't be exact here) the young man is laying with a woman under the tree just like many masters introduce another submissive into the fold. We're also told he loves the tree and then at the end we have the symbolism of the old man sitting on the stump which I interpret as the tree being beneath him. It all makes sense. Then again many other interpretations also make sense which just adds to the whole confusion as to what the f*ck Silverstein was trying to tell us.

I'm not sure why the tree can speak? And why is its trunk a uniform green? And why, when the boy becomes a man, is he asking it for money and a home and a boat? That's just weird. Is one meant to believe show more that his actions are premeditated as he knows what the tree is going to offer? He doesn't seem that bright to me. Why did he build his house out of branches? Had he never heard the story about the three little pigs? And what is the man doing with his life when he's not with the tree?
Stupid story.

The drawings in the book leave a lot to be desired and they're not even in color. There are also way too many pages for such a short story which is ironic as trees the world over have had to keep giving paper for the multiple reprints of this garbage. show less

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Predictable opening I guess but I just had to go there.
Even though I love the Star Wars movies I had never crossed paths with a Star Wars novel before. I had been meaning to for a long, long time but there was always something else that took preference. Well, I finally shoved all other books aside and made time for Death Troopers.
Do you like zombies? Do you like Star Wars? Then, in theory at least, you would love Death Troopers as it's essentially a Star Wars zombie novel.
I liked the cover of the book as it was selling me on a more adult orientated novel. I didn't like that the cover of the book, when taken off and opened up showing the inside, doubled as a poster. I find it almost sacrilegious that someone even came up with the idea of making a poster out of a book cover. Book covers are meant to cover books and not be pinned to a wall.
So what about the story? Well, it's pretty much standard fare with a starship full of convicts contracting a virus, dying then coming back to life craving human flesh. I've never really understood why those who come back from the dead as zombies always crave human flesh? Why not carrots? Why not peanut butter? Always human flesh.
Anyhow, a few people happen to be immune one of which just happens to be a doctor who then goes on to make an anti-virus. That anti-virus is given to Han Solo and Chewbacca who don't actually appear in this novel until ninety-seven pages in. The novel itself is only 234 show more pages in length. The plot then revolves around Han, Chewie and a few other characters trying to make their escape and not being eaten by the zombies.
I'm sure my Star Wars novel virginity could have been given away to a more deserving read; one that would not leave me feeling unsatisfied and craving another novel to take to bed with me in order to satiate my literary desires. It's not that this book is terrible, it's just all very cliche and run of the mill. It started off well and the characters of Trig and Kale were promising. Unfortunately that promise was never fulfilled and I found myself not caring whether they lived or died. Of course, being a Star Wars novel there was never any doubt Han Solo and Chewbacca would survive so the supporting cast needed to be stronger.
If you're a big Star Wars fan then there's probably enough in this novel to keep you happy. If you're a zombie fan you will have read books like this countless times before. If you're a neutral then I wouldn't really recommend this novel at all. show less

'Hellboy: The Fire Wolves' is Tim Lebbon's second Hellboy novel in the series of unrelated prose novels that are available from all good booksellers now! It's not related in any way to his first Hellboy novel 'Unnatural Selection' and neither is it related to the other novel in the series 'Hellboy: The Ice Wolves'.
What is it with Hellboy and wolves? Fire Wolves, Ice Wolves and there's plenty of werewolves in his past too (there's one on the loose in Lebbon's other Hellboy novel). Just the sight of a wolf nowadays must make Hellboy howling mad!
Before I get into details of the story and my opinions on that I would like to express a few thoughts concerning the cover of the book. I love the overall color scheme and layout as it's very stylish and easy on the eyes. I hate that wolf. It just doesn't look scary enough to me. Although you might need a closer, enlarged look at it the wolf is actually a mosaic come to life but it still could of looked more horrifying.
Pompeii, AD 79, is where the story begins and sets the foundations for the rest of the novel. Mount Vesuvius is erupting and a fire wolf, a demonic presence that lives within the volcano, is on the rampage. An old woman, a demon hunter, casts a spell to trap the wolf as she dies and leaves a mosaic telling the story of what occurred. The wolf is trapped, the volcano rests and all is fine until...
Modern day and the spell has been broken and that, of course, means Hellboy is on the case. Rather than being a show more straightforward story of Hellboy taking on the Fire Wolves what we begin with is a seemingly separate story about a family curse. As such Hellboy is placed in the role of detective and he has to figure out what the hell is going on. Of course, this goes against his nature as he would rather just beat the crap out of something and Big Red's frustrations, and considerable efforts to be tactful, are played out well throughout the novel. As the mystery unravels and the link to the fire wolves and their overall plan becomes clear the story picks up pace and becomes more action packed. I actually loved the pacing of the story and having read other works by Tim Lebbon I can tell you it's one of his strong points as a writer; he can have you carefully reading every word in a calm manner or have you hurtling through each page in relation to the action taking place.
The story itself is a good one and Lebbon certainly has a grasp of who Hellboy is which is refreshing as other authors have severely lacked in this are in relation to the Hellboy prose novels. Throughout the novel there are various references to previous Hellboy cases/situations/characters that would go over the head of any first time Hellboy reader. Not that I think the story would be diminished in any way for those not in the know as it's akin to those superhero movies whereby, for instance, they'll mention the non-hero name of a character that isn't in the movie...to the person in the know it brings an appreciative nod of the head and a wry smile but those not in the know don't feel like they're missing out on anything.
I should point out that Hellboy works alone in this novel as he did against the Ice Wolves. In both these cases Liz Sherman would have been a great help as she has the ability of pyrokinesis. In many ways I guess having her a focal character in either novel would have watered down the plot due to her unique ability. I do prefer it when either Liz, Abe Sapien, or both, are involved as the characters play off each other well and add that little extra bit of dimension to the proceedings.
'Hellboy: The Fire Wolves' was a very good novel. It never quite achieved greatness but it is certainly a must for Hellboy fans and those who wish to branch out into a Hellboy prose novel could do far worse than to start with this offering. show less

The bargain bin at betterworldbooks.com can be both a pain in the neck and a wonderful place to visit all at the same time. You see, it's great for finding hidden treasures but then there's so much to choose from that I can spend hours browsing through them. In turn, that leads to fatigue and fatigued I was when I choose 'Insatiable' as one of my '5 for $15'. I was so fatigued that I didn't realize this was a novel and I thought I was buying a biography. In a way I was getting a biography though as this novel is a mixture of life experiences mixed with fiction; the type of book where the names have been changed to protect the guilty.
The story follows the rise to fame in the adult industry of Simone Young (the fictional Heather Hunter if you will) and the path she took to get there. Simone starts out as a naive young woman with strong sexual desires and through the lure of money begins to act upon those sexual desires. At first the sex for money is in the form of prostitution, albeit more high class prostitution, and she progresses from there into exploring her own sexuality, becoming a stripper and on into adult movies. Even though she starts her journey by prostituting it was very much glamorized and that glamorization is evident throughout the book to the point that the story lacks realism. Even if the events portrayed actually occurred I doubt they were all the wonderful experiences that they're depicted to be.
One of the aspects of the writing which I disliked was the show more constant descriptions of the female vagina being narrated as anything other than a vagina. They were numerous from beginning to end. I mean, really, when in the real world do women refer to their vagina as their "treasure chest", "forbidden fruit" or "kitty-kat"? And the descriptive masterpieces kept on coming. Yeah, intended joke. How about this description of a guy's penis, "It was thick and long and perfectly tanned, as if it had been strategically placed on an Italian beach at high noon." Or how about his "licorice candy", "meaty pistol" or "hard torpdeo"? It was all too much for me and instead of the sexual scenes being arousing, as I'm sure they were intended to be, I was taken out the book by the descriptions.
The sexual scenes in the book are often very graphic which is in contrast to the pictures that grace each chapter of the book. Bar one picture, each chapter begins with a full paged photograph of Heather Hunter. Oddly, they're all very much PG rated which seemed strange considering it's very graphic in the literary content and Ms Hunter has made her fame as a porn star. My only interpretation of this would be that the publishers decided that a nude, or in action, Heather Hunter might turn off a female audience and so decided to keep things tasteful. It's in this assumption, as well as the glamorization of the writing, that I'm left somewhat confused as to who the projected audience is for this book. Being a female porn star you would think men would have primary interest in Heather Hunter but the writing is definitely written from, and aimed at, a female perspective. It appears then that both male and female audiences were being targeted but with more of an emphasis on making the story appealing to the women and the lure of Heather Hunter being used as the bait to reel in the men. Guess I solved my own confusion.
Overall, this isn't a bad novel. It was a novel that just wasn't really for me. Michelle Valentine is a good writer whose style romanticizes the rise of Simone to that of a porn star. I would have preferred the novel to have been more gritty and realistic but ultimately I guess I was just one of those fish caught in Heather Hunter's fish net lured there by an eye catching book cover. show less

Now that, my friends, is a book cover. I love great art on the cover of a novel and, in my mind, Winter Warriors certainly falls into that category. If being picky I would have the bird removed but as it has a significance in the story it's fine where it is.
Winter Warriors is the tale of three ageing warriors who are thrust to the forefront of a fight against demonic forces. Those forces, to be unleashed upon the world in all their evil fury, need the sacrificial blood of three kings. The first two come easily but the third is who the story revolves around.
The third king is actually heir to the throne as he is yet to be born when the novel begins. The three warriors Nogusta who is a great swordsman, Kebra the Bowman and Bison the giant vow to protect the unborn child and his mother, the queen, with their lives. Do they succeed?
As any regular visitors to my blog know I love David Gemmell's work. This novel was no exception and it is of course filled with all of Gemmell's hallmarks such as main characters who are easy to relate to, great dialogue, heroic deeds, joy and despair. Yes, despair. He always gets me with the despair and it's very rare I read a Gemmell novel without tears welling up in my eyes at one point or another. It takes a great talent to get me emotionally invested in a novel and great talent is something the author certainly had. I say "had" in the past tense as David Gemmell passed away back in 2006.
If you like a supernatural element in your novels then show more you will find magic, sorcery, demons and spiritual possession within these pages. The story itself would not have worked anywhere near as well without those supernatural elements and so it forms the backbone of the story itself.
As much as I loved Winter Warriors I wasn't reading it with blinkers on and there were a few things I didn't like. Firstly, it took a while for the story to drag me in as it focused too much on building up the characters at the beginning - around the first quarter of the book was used to lay the foundation of the story. That paid off in the end when the story reached a climax and I didn't know who was going to die or who was going to survive but the beginning didn't need to be as fleshed out as much as it was. Also, the main city is called Usa, as in oo-sar, but due to conditioning I read it as the name of the country. Perhaps that can be seen as the fault of the reader but I think most people seeing Usa would read it as the abbreviation for United States of America and, for me at least, that kept pulling me out of the story whenever I read it.
Overall though this was a magical tale of great quality and wonderful story telling. It was the type of book that left me sad once it had ended and made it difficult to start reading something new. show less

There's that old adage that one should never judge a book by its cover and I tried very hard not too concerning this book. After all, what could be more hilarious than a front cover consisting of a grumpy looking Big Show on the back of a bike with Rey Mysterio driving it in a posed picture?!? Yep, almost everything up to and including Larry the Cable Guy and he makes me wish television had never been invented. Being a WWE fan however I felt the need to persevere into the unknown and actually give this book a try...for how bad could it actually be?
First off, I should mention this was first printed back in 2005 so a lot of the superstars whose stories appear in the book have either moved on to other wrestling organizations or have left wrestling altogether. For a lifelong fan like me that's no problem but if you're fairly new to wrestling, and think the PG era is how the WWE has always been, then you may not know many of the wrestlers who appear in this anthology of true tales of life on the road...Jazz, Chris Nowinski, Rico, Ivory??? They were all on the WWE roster back in 2005 but only the die hard fans like myself would probably be familiar with them nowadays.
The content of the book is broken down into ten individual chapters each of which showcases a certain aspect of life on the road which is something the WWE wrestlers are very familiar with. According to this book they spend over 240 days a year on the road travelling from one place to the next just to entertain us show more fans so you just know there's lots of stories to tell. These stories range from very funny (Rico comes to mind as does the story told by Coach), to amusing (three divas in a bed anyone?!?), to "why the hell was that included" (A-Train had me falling asleep) but I was pleased that last category was in the minority. I would have preferred the stories being told been to have been limited to a couple per superstar but, unfortunately, it's very top heavy in certain contributers which means a plethora of memories from Dr Tom Prichard (who I don't believe was actually on the active roster at the time but was working behind the scenes...in my mind that doesn't really qualify him as a superstar) and Al Snow but very few, sometimes none at all, from the real superstars of 2005 such as Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, HHH, Batista etc.
Scattered throughout the pages are candid photographs, taken on the road, of WWE superstars of the day. It was a cool concept and I only wish there had been more of them...particularly the divas but that's just a personal preference of mine.
Let me mention, if I may, the final chapter of this book. It deals exclusively with...erm, how do I put this? Let me just lay it out there! The whole of the final chapter is about Big Show's escapades taking a shit. Yes, an individual chapter devoted solely to a 7ft tall 485lb guy and his experiences of pinching a load in various places where the bathroom/toilet was too small to accommodate him. I will say no more.
I was fully expecting to grapple with this book but it surprised me and it turned out to be an enjoyable read and an interesting look behind the scenes of the the lives of WWE wrestlers. I learned a little more about the wrestlers real life personalities - for instance Randy Orton visits out of the way strip clubs just to have a laugh at how ugly the strippers are - and what it must be like constantly travelling from one city to the next on an almost daily basis. It seems far less glamorous than I would expect it to be. show less

Welcome to hell. No, not the hell of reading another one of my book reviews, or the hell of hearing Jennifer Lopez's latest song, but the hell that is Satan's fiery domain. For here a demon named Dren is looking for salvation and redemption and must escape the underworld and save a single soul to pass on to the heavens above.
I'm a huge fan of 'The Crow' whether it be the original movie, the graphic novel, memorabilia, or whatever...it doesn't really matter as I'm intrigued and drawn to it all. Admittedly, a few of the movies were terrible, I never cared for the tv show and some of the literature has been somewhat lacking. However, one of the better literary offerings, if not the best, is 'The Crow: Hellbound' by A A Attanasio.
I had never read any of Alfred Angelo's work before this novel and since then have only tasted his wares a couple of other times, in the Crow anthology 'Shattered Lives & Broken Dreams', but I hold firm in my belief that he is one of the most talented writers whose work I have ever read. Of course, that opinion is very much backed up in this book where the characters, the pace of the story, the overall bleak and suffocating atmosphere and the story itself are absolutely spot on in relation to what he is trying to accomplish in the novel. At times the atmosphere generated in this novel was so evil that I had to put the book down and gather myself for a few moments. I only ever recall doing that once before, reading about the Holocaust, but never have show more I had to pull away from a work of fiction before. Such is the depth of the writing, in the choice of words, that it's as if the writer is a perfectionist who wrote and rewrote every page until he reached the point of having the perfect choice of words...nothing less sufficing.
At first this doesn't seem like a Crow novel but more like a demon possessed book, forged of evil and filled with blasphemies and eternal darkness. As the story progresses and Dren leaves hell the story arcs into the human world and the world of The Crow, without ever leaving it's sulphuric soaked roots, where good and evil meet for the battle over a human soul. That battle is a fascinating one and even if you don't believe in heaven and hell Attanasio will drag you kicking and screaming into a world where, for a while at least, you surely will believe. show less

James Howlett, aka Logan, also know as Wolverine is the focus in this spin-off novel of the X-Men series of books that began life in the mid 90s. Up until then the previous books in this series had all been focused on the X-Men as a team but being one of Marvel's best loved characters Wolverine was given his own novel.
I found myself caught in two minds as to whether I liked the cover or not. Wolverine himself is drawn very well and I like the added background. I don't like the length of the womens legs though as it makes them look disproportionate. Their definition and big boobs are par for the course I suppose and they're represented that way in the comics but the legs did look too long for me. And how on earth do they run in those boots? If you're not familiar with the characters on the cover I would forgive you for thinking the woman in black is Jean Grey of the X-Men but she is actually the Black Widow who was portrayed by Scarlett Johansson in last year's movie Iron Man 2. Also on the cover are Mystique, Banshee and Sabretooth.
The plot. Well, it's a plot full of twists and turns with it's background rooted in previous liaisons and conflicts between the characters the story revolves around. From goodreads...

"Wolverine. Sabretooth. Silver Fox. Wraith. Maverick. Together they were Team X, the best covert ops team NATO had to offer. But that was before a mission gone awry tore them all apart.
Now, former team members are being kidnapped, one by one. And Wolverine must show more find out the terrible secret from that old mission--a secret that has remained hidden for years, and could spell death for all of them..."

As with any Christopher Golden novel you care to read from Buffy the Vampire Slayer through to the X-Men the characterization and narrative is excellent. Golden weaves the story and integrates the different characters very well without ever giving too much of the mystery behind the abductions away. As such I was captivated by the story right through to the end. Unfortunately, it's the ending that lets this book down as I found it to be weak compared to the anticipation that the rest of the book had built up and the pay off to the mystery and storyline was disappointing. However, ending aside, the rest of the novel was an excellent read with a perfect mix of action, mystery and some good ol' fashioned Wolverine trash talking! show less