Bood Review: Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay I give this book three out of five stars. I will forever remember Tigana as the book full of men crying. The continuous sadness in the book became tiresome and made the never-ending exposition narrative even longer. I think I know who George R.R Martin was reading before he wrote his Game of Thrones series. I am glad I finished Tigana, but after 600 pages of sadness, I feel worn out and I can’t wait to read something quick, fluffy, and chock full of sunshine and rainbows. What I liked about the book: 1) I liked the depth of Kay’s world building. His twists on our reality made it relatable but foreign and new. How a Ygrath “fool” was not just a fool. The riselka’s and religions referenced lore and dead religions similar to this world, but beautifully painted for the people of the Palm. 2) I liked how the author had a stretched out timeline, but we the reader really only saw a year. The events on this timeline were complex and added layers to the main plot. A series of overlapping sub plots and stories which were all very interesting. 3) My favorite plot points included: Beard fighting with the Walkers. The reconciliation and heart wrenching scene between Tomasso and his father Sandre in prison. Alessan releasing Erlein, and the ring dive of Dianora. I also liked the final battle and resolution. What I did not like about this book: 1) It took me one hundred pages before I enjoyed these characters or got a firm handle on what the book was about. Kay takes almost to much liberty with the reader’s capacity to keep up with a vast cast of characters who we have little investment in. There were no baby steps, or small incremental dips into this new world. The reader is shoved into this place and forced to tread water and try to keep up with a plot Kay deliberately hides.  I’m all for suspense and not seeing plot twists and turns, but it’s not suspenseful if we don’t see the relevance in what is happening. I wanted to start jotting down notes of who was who, and what was from here, and why such and such meant something. I’m a detail loving kind of person, but the endless narrative with vague or non-existent dialogue, was over the top, and in my opinion unnecessary. The Epilogue felt odd and disjointed when I read it, not because of the change to an omniscient point of view, but because the characters were actually talking to each other. 2) The book felt like a run on narrative exposition, with a few stops to show actual action. The action, which is good when encountered, is interrupted time and time again with mental detours into each characters memory. The action of the book never seemed to unfold within a scene, instead it mostly took place off stage in a memory, or as a side thought of what took place. The scenes where there is action, are well paced and exciting, but end to quickly and shove you back into another depressing character memory. There is very little talking amongst any of the characters to add balance to the looks, hand gestures, and arm squeezes being exchanged. I kind of wish I had an electronic copy of this book so I could do a word find to see how many “sardonic looks” were passed. There are more words dedicated to the description of a character looking at another character who is in turn looking at another character, and what is viewed on their faces, than words illustrating how the characters talk to one another. The author built up several romance sub plots, but I did not see the romance of Prince Alessan form at all. It took me completely by surprise. When did that actually take place?  I saw no hints, body language, or flashbacks indicating his feelings for her.  This romance felt flat, and the only proof of their attachment was a shared history and because the author said it was so. I thought Alessan was entirely ambivalent or at best like a brother, to the woman he eventually declares himself to. 3) This is a sad book. Sadness is everywhere even when it does not really need to be there. The author makes you see sadness, hear sadness, or have a character remember saddness. I learned something new about myself while reading all of this sadness. I have a bias against men crying. What can I say, I like strong men, and apparently seeing men “weep” in certain situations in my mind paints them as weak. Get a grip gentlemen-there’s a war that needs to happen with not one but two wizards with armies. This is my issue, I’ll own that, but part of the reason this book wore me out was the number of sad and tragic situations or memories  brought up which caused all these men to break down and weep. The iterations of men weeping, wiping tears away, openly crying, etc just got old. Tigana even starts with a man crying in the prologue. Half way through the book I became conditioned. I fully expected to find a man weeping at least every 40 pages or so, and Kay delivered. I am not exaggerating and if anything the pace of men crying in scenes picks up. I was so worn out by it I became amused by it. I was laughing out loud when not one but two chapters ended with men weeping. I don’t think my laughter was the desired effect by Kay, but the “weeping” became rediculous. I appreciated the ending, the serendipity of who Rhun was, and the awesome speech Sandre gives. However, all the things Kay does right in Tigana, are overshadowed by the flow of sadness he keeps pace with through the entire book.

Book Review: Starship Grifters by: Robert Kroese

I rated this book four out of five stars.

What a fun read, I was laughing on out loud on page two. This book is full of humor, and the authors comedic range is impressive. What made it even more fun was a nice adventure story to go with it.
What I liked:
1) The comedy, hands down one of the best comedies I have had the pleasure of reading in recent years. Kroese does not hold back and uses everything from play on words, ridiculous situations, character banter, slapstick, and irony. The book is equated to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and I agree. Some of the situational humor was better, and so well constructed it reminded me of comedic playwright Neil Simon.
2) The characters were well defined, crazy but still relatable. I liked how we are given opinions about Rex, but allowed to draw our own ideas about him. I thought it was a great choice to not construct the narrative through his point of view.
3) I was so pleased to see the author treating me the reader as smart. We are given details about what is relevant and the narrator routinely breaks the fourth wall, which I enjoyed. The exposition narrative about creatures, places, and things were kept short with enough information to picture what is taking place. There were no dog trails or irrelevant information tempting me to skip down the page.

There was only one thing that bothered me, the authors injections of religious, or I should say anti-religious philosophies. I wont even say I didn’t like it, it was just distracting. While I was reading these things took me out of the story. While I tolerated this, it really felt like the author was exerting his own opinions since they were put forth in such a way they did not flow with the comedic theme in the book. Some were postured as jokes, but others were clearly not.

Book Review: The King (Book 13 in the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series) By: J.R. Ward

I give this book three out of five stars.  Since this book released at the start of April 2014 I have been anxious to read it. It’s like an addiction to a bad television show, I just “had to know” what other stupid plot decisions Ward was going to make in her latest volume.

This is the thirteenth book in her Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Funny but true story, I read the twelfth book first. I’m not offended if you are a fan and you’re laughing at my admission. I know-it’s funny! The Quay book was my first Black Dagger Brotherhood book. I was able to navigate the Quay book just fine, but Wards “vampire world” makes more sense when read from book 1 forward. The twelfth book was much smaller in scope. It talked about Layla, Xcor, Blay and Quinn, and the lesser conflict was very easy to follow. This book has several plots running at once: Layla and Xcor; iAm, Trez, and Selena; Beth & Wrath; Ahna & Wrath; Assail and Marisol. I don’t recommend reading this before enjoying Wards earlier books in the series.

It was an okay read. It was not one of her best books, but it was much better than some of her others. To read most of this entire series you have to unplug your brain and set common sense aside. Normally I have to just roll with the gratuitous, never going to happen like that in a million years, sex, but shockingly there was not a lot of that in this book. Wait, I take that back.  There was that one scene where Mairsol had a gunshot wound to the leg and was getting it on.

What I liked:

1) The full circle Wrath took about being King, his fathers legacy verses his own, and how this whole drama ended. It was good that this was the main plot. I thought it was the most relevant, since we have seen Wrath grappling with being King since the first book.

2) There was a whole 2 chapters of vampires killing lesser. Awesome, I am so sick of the lesser plots. Apparently Ward has run out of steam on them, it’s about time. Much less non-plot moving nonsense for me to skip over.

3) I like how Assail and Marisol was not a happy-sunshine, rainbows, and unicorn ending. I will not be shocked to see these two in a future volume. There were at least two time Marisol “thought to herself” about not using protection with Assail. Let me guess, more baby drama? I know I am not the only one reading about the drug trade and seeing this as a future replacement for Lesser conflict? Who’s got money Marisol’s going to get in hot water again? I loved laughing when his cousins were fighting over the food Marisol’s grandma left them. That part, and iAm falling for Boo the cat, were my favorite moments in the book.

What made me a little nuts:

1) Xcor and Layla, he’s giving up his run at the throne for a woman who admits she would not be with him if it were not for the situation with Wrath. I think Ward forgot how she had Layla fall in love with Xcor in the last book. Why wasn’t Layla saying all that stuff about Wrath being a good King to Xcor in the last book? Who knew crazy, raised by the sword Xcor could be castrated so summarily. Talk about anticlimactic. The whole chapter of him clothes shopping, what was that?

2) I hated all the flashbacks to Wraths parents. The Prologue was just ridiculous and honestly I don’t see why any of it was in the book? I fail to see any deep connections or revelations these scenes provide. Give me a break, in the prologue she’s a virgin thinking about her new husband taking her to their marriage bed and hoping he will “pound her”? Again, I remind you-unplug your brain before you read these books.

3) Trez and Selena, what was all of that about? Selena gets over the “tens of thousands of women” Trez has slept with, but she gets hung up on his pimp occupation? Whatever, what does she think the freaking Primale role is huh?  Ward likes to make a play out of character names, but the Shadow executioner with the name s’Ex? That’s right, not kidding here it’s in her book, a character named sex.

Oh wait, I didn’t talk about the baby conflict between Wrath and Beth. No, that’s right I didn’t. It should not be necessary to talk about something you can see coming a mile away. Did I really pick this book up thinking Beth was not going to get pregnant? Big shock-none of it was. The whole “human tradition” thing I found kitschy and wrong. Was that scene really supposed to be funny and endearing? My mantra reading these books, “just read for the ride” had to be used a numerous times in this book. I used it on all of the speed bumps pertaining to how Wrath is King, then not King, wait no he’s the King, now he’s not, but hold onto your hats-“gasp”-he really is the King, or I don’t know. All of that business bugged me, because in a previous Black Dagger Brotherhood book, there was this big to-do with the Scribe Virgin and Wrath deciding to take up the reigns as the King of “Her Children”. If the Scribe Virgin blessed him as the vampire King, does anyone else really get to say otherwise unless the guy is dead? Wait, sorry that’s me thinking again about why Ward does not adhere to her own cultural rules. There’s plenty of figurative sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns dancing around at the end to keep the Wrath and Beth fans happy.