Chuckles Mini Reviews Catch Up

I review everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! So lets catch up with reviews from earlier this year.

Boyd Craven-Agony of the World (The World Burns #9)
John and Caitlin seek to take down the enemy in fast moving ambushes while the new government threaten Blake to stop him leaving his FEMA job, showing that lessons haven't been learned. He makes it clear that he will quit before Sandra gives birth. Michael and King are going after the bad guys and discover that DHS are working with the IS troops. With reports of cannibalism in the area, things are getting dangerous for the good guys.

I loved this series over the first seven books but after the Boss Hogg story, the series has turned in a new direction that I don't feel is as compelling and had the books not been short, I would have quit by now. I'm just not enjoying the storyline or finding it as tense and enjoyable as I did in the beginning.
Read January 2017.
2.5 star.

Matthew Gilman-After the Day
Following a steep economic downturn Washington DC is bombed, a few days later the power goes out leaving the nation with no communication and limited resources. This is the story of the individuals who are left with only their wits and skills to help them survive.

In the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Washington DC, ordinary people try to deal with the new situation. Chuck wishes he had taken time to prepare more and Tom decides to stay at the hospital with other staff and patients and is ready to defend the building from looters.

I didn't greatly enjoy the format of the book. We follow Chuck and Tom in the immediate aftermath, which I did enjoy reading about but then we skip ahead to catch up with them surviving months later. Then we jump forward in time to meet new people three years on who were not in the aftermath stories. Next we catch up with the woman Tom tried to help in his first moments after the disaster but it is three full years since we last heard her mentioned. For me this style is too choppy and we fail to capture the real day to day tension of the apocalypse by only getting snapshots of each character's journey. It is harder to care for the characters when you only see them briefly before jumping on months or years.

The book itself is well written so I think the author does have talent. I just think the story lacks tension and development throughout due to the chosen format and as I reader I don't feel involved or invested in the story. 
Read January 2017.   

Devon Vondarin-The Crash 
A diplomatic standoff with China over workers rights has triggered financial meltdown. Mike the alcoholic violent homeless ex Vet is drunk enough to miss the entire start of the apocalypse. Derik

is a drug dealing, drug addicted violent thug and all around asshat, who is a career criminal who squandered every chance given to him in life, and  sees the chance to get payback on everyone who has wronged him over the years with society starting to break down. I didn't greatly like either of our 'heroes'. 

We get the details of Mike's drunken stupors and the fact that he has no clue what is happening and we get every detail of every crime Derik has ever done and every jail sentence he has ever received, which I found really dull. Following these two guys in the SHTF scenario was not keeping me interested. There was no emotion in the collapse because Mike slept through it all and the reader doesn't get to see society breaking down which is one of the things I love best about this genre. It just lacked interest for me. I also wasn't convinced by the main plot-would the US really risk a financial meltdown by trying to fight for workers rights in China? I would seriously doubt it. It just didn't feel realistic to me. And the book really needs an editor because the mistakes in it were everywhere.
Read January 2017.

 

Stephen Birch-New World

This was one of those books where I pretty much hated every character within seconds of seeing them on the page which dooms any book for me. Beth is ok but her daughters are 14 and 16 and all they do is whine, complain and fight with each other. They are more like childish six year olds and drove me nuts. Nick is the loner who is determined to be alone and avoid people, giving him no personality at all. Dan is a moronic boy with no common sense. The two thug brothers were like pantomime bad guys that you cannot take seriously and toddlers could outwit them.

Nick has a policy of avoiding trouble. So he for some insane reason intervenes when Dan is being attacked then has no interest in helping him further, and just heads back to his camp in the woods. For a survivor, he is dumb and does not check to see Dan following him and is unhappy about Dan wanting to stay with him. Well if you don't want company, you should have walked on by instead of half helping him and leading him to your camp! Dan has the common sense of a wet sponge and on seeing Beth, jumps up yelling 'GIRLS!' and alerts the whole world to their location. Idiot.

I wanted a book about the aftermath of the flu pandemic in the UK but instead with these character's got Idiot Hour which I wasn't impressed with. It was definitely not for me.
Read January 2017.

Owen Baillie-Aftermath 
Australia has fallen to a zombie apocalypse and a group of friends camping together are just coming back to discover that the world has changed forever. It is books like this that remind me why I try to avoid YA dystopia as much as possible because of the dumb tropes getting in the way of the story, and boy did this have tropes. Teen angst, non stop fighting, love triangles and a determination not to believe what has happened.

Sherry the complete bitch has cheated on Callan, our druggie hero, with his friend Johnny who pulls out of the trip so of course Callan's old enemy Dylan is invited to replace him by Callan's sister Kristy who fancies him. Callan's best friend, alcoholic Greg fancies Kristy and Callan wants them to get together. Is everyone still following me? It takes ages for us to get to the zombies because of the angst, fighting and tropes which bored me senseless. We then get the zombie denial which frustrates me while they continue their petty fighting. I hate it when the characters can't work out that it's a zombie or insist on shooting them somewhere other than in the head as in the modern world zombie culture is popular and mainstream...if it is trying to eat you and looks like that IT'S A ZOMBIE!!! And I could have walked home quicker than they seemed to be doing on this endless journey to nowhere. I really ate books with dumb characters who think their petty crap is more important than a zombie apocalypse.
Read January 2017.
 

Andrew J Morgan-Noah's Ark 
When Alex Latham and Michael Beecham are brought together by a series of explosions around the world, little do they know that things are about to go from bad to worse. Tasked with saving mankind from extinction, they battle a powerful evil, but soon they discover that what they're fighting is far beyond anything they ever thought it could be...

I found this book so confusing that I couldn't follow the plot. Alex escapes the city somehow and is rescued by a stranger. Michael is quizzed by a psychiatrist over killing a work colleague but Michael is sure he was being attacked by a creature, not a co-worker that day but nobody else saw what he saw. Alex has a dream. Alex is kidnapped by aliens for three days. Michael is in a prison complex. Alex is left by his wife months later because he is acting weird.

Um, what is going on? Did the apocalypse happen or not? Was Alex kidnapped by aliens or is he having a breakdown? What is real and what is delusion? It jumps so suddenly between different people, places and timelines without anything being explained that it was like brain overload. It is so fragmented and confusing that I don't even know what it was about. I'm not the kind of reader who is going to wait half the book to find out what the hell is actually happening. I've seen reviews of the book saying it is like the Matrix...well for me that says it all. 
Read January 2017.
 

Belinda Frisch-Cure
A hospital is doing illegal medical experiments on the dead and dying and kidnapping women from the town to use in these tests. Using sperm from a zombie and a new cancer drug, women are being impregnated to deliver a baby immune to zombie virus and capable of providing cancer cure cells. But people connected to the missing are starting to ask questions about the hospital.

This is not a traditional zombie novel in spite of the series name, which is what I hoped for when I got it. The only zombies we see are captive ones used for the experiments. This is a thriller about an evil doctor willing to do anything to get his cancer cure and the families of the missing trying to track down the missing women. Not a great deal happens and I just found it too slow and lacking in zombies for me.
Read January 2017.
 

Game of Thrones Gossip #8: Tyrion Lannister

Welcome to my Game of Thrones Gossip, where all of us fanatics get the chance to discuss everything we love about this amazing TV series. I did a few spoiler free posts about the series last year but I found that there were other bloggers out there who were also itching to talk more freely about favourite characters and events without spoiling things for those visiting the blog. So I decided to do a whole series of these discussion posts that let us say everything we want and enjoy every second of it! The topics may talk about a death, an event, a character or be season reviews and so on. Please feel free to comment fully and without restriction!

I have to warn you that it is important that you have seen all six seasons before reading any of these posts because these posts and blogger comments will be oozing and exploding spoilers all over the place. If you haven't watched the series and plan to, be warned that it's a bad idea to be here right now! I take no responsibility if you read on and things are spoiled for you nor do I take responsibility for any mistakes on the pages I link you to.

This week I'm continuing with my season one theme by looking at Tyrion Lannister. He is without doubt my favourite character and I loved his journey. But lets look back at Tyrion in season one.

Tyrion grew up in a household where his father and sister blamed him for his mother's death in childbirth, and in a later emotional episode, Tywin admits to almost murdering his son as a baby. Only his brother Jaime ever seemed to care about him. The family neglect leads to us meeting Tyrion as a drunken lech who spends his money on whores and trying to live up to his father's image of him as useless. He is rude and snide to pretty much everyone which leads to some very funny moments but he is also very intelligent and knows exactly how to play the game at Court. He could have been a real asset to his family had his father showed any real interest in him but instead, he is mocked for being an imp.

"All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes."

The first person we see Tyrion connect with is Jon Snow, after insulting him of course. Here is someone else who is looked after financially by his family but remains on the outside looking in, just like Tyrion. They bond on their trip to Castle Black where Tyrion is eager to piss from the top of The Wall, which amused me but probably horrified Tywin! It is also the advice he gives Jon that helps him to find friends at Castle Black. On his way back to King's Landing, Tyrion stops in at Winterfell to visit Bran and helps the boy find some meaning in his life. Again Tyrion recognises that Bran is going to be viewed with pity or have people ignoring him, and want to try to help him. 

"A Lannister always pays his debts."

While at Castle Black, Tyrion meets with Maester Aemon and Joer Mormont who ask for more help at Castle Black, which would indicate that Tywin isn't listening. It seems to me that most Houses are happy to send their criminals to The Wall but aren't interested when calls for help go out. In fact when Castle Black is attacked later, letters begging for help are sent out and Stannis Baratheon is the only one who drops everything to go to their aid. Tyrion meets a problem on the road home when he is arrested by a furious Catelyn Stark, accused of trying to kill Bran. He is taken for trial at the Eyrie where he is also accused of killing Jon Arryn.

"When I was ten, I stuffed my uncle's boots with goat shit. When confronted with my crime, I blamed a squire. Poor boy was flogged..."

The highlight of season one for me is definitely Tyrion's trial. I was laughing my ass off at his confessions, which horrified all the watching ladies. It reminded me of Chunk confessing his sins in The Goonies which I found equally funny. Tyrion also uses his wit to demand trial by combat, knowing it is the only way to get a fair trial and Bronn comes to his aid to win his freedom. The relationship between Bronn and Tyrion is a lot of fun. I enjoy the banter between them and when they team up with Shagga, it just gets funnier. The look on Tywin's face when he sees Tyrion and his misfits arriving to get paid for helping him is priceless! As was the  moment Tyrion is knocked out leading the way to battle...Lots of funny moments with the character. I also enjoy when he slaps Joffrey...

We also get that poignant moment when Tyrion is talking to Bronn and Shae in the tent and starts to describes his first love, who he quickly married and was happy with. But it turned out to be a prostitute that Jaime provided to make his brother happy and losing her broke his heart. It certainly explains why Tyrion behaves the way he does, preferring brief nights with prostitutes to having a relationship. He sees something different in Shae and she seems to like him too and he decides to take a chance on her. 

We end the season with Tyrion finally getting some kind of approval from his father when he is told that he is to go to King's Landing to sort out Joffrey and be the acting Hand of the King. This as we know turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing...as is the fateful decision to take Shae against his father's orders.

What is your favourite Tyrion moment in season one? What are your thoughts on the character and his relationships in season one? I will do further posts on Tyrion and other main characters as their stories progress through the seasons.  

Chuckles Retro Reads: Three Maids for a Crown by Ella March Chase

In the second novel from Ella March Chase, we meet sixteen-year-old Jane Grey, a quiet and obedient young lady destined to become the shortest reigning English monarch. Her beautiful middle sister Katherine Grey charms all the right people--until loyalties shift. And finally Lady Mary Grey, a dwarf with a twisted spine whose goal is simply to protect people she loves--but at a terrible cost.

In an age in which begetting sons was all that mattered and queens rose and fell on the sex of their child, these three girls with royal Tudor blood lived under the dangerous whims of parents with a passion for gambling. The stakes they would wager: their daughters' lives against rampant ambition.

My Review: 
This was an excellent Tudor novel, telling the story of the three Grey sisters-Jane, Kat and Mary, covering the reign of Edward, Mary and Elizabeth Tudor. The book has also been published unter the title 'The Nine Day Queen' by the same author. I know that because I bought BOTH thinking they were different novels(totally different covers and blurbs!) and wasn't very happy when I found out.

This book was fascinating and intriguing. The book is written from the changing POVs of the three sisters. I don't usually like this as a plot device but because the sisters are so different in personality, the switching POV works perfectly to tell their stories.

The story starts with the double wedding. Jane is the quiet, studious girl who wants to be left to her studies and her fanatical protestant views. She despises the man that has been chosen for her husband, son of the scheming Duke who plots them to become King and Queen after Edward's death. Kat is the flighty, vain girl who is in love with her rich and handsome young husband-to-be and is worried that Jane's tantrums will ruin the joint wedding. Mary struggles to be accepted by a family and society who are uncomfortable with her deformity, and she forms a friendship with Mary Tudor who knows exactly what it means to be an outsider. Mary is also very good at hiding and spying to find out what her father and the Duke are plotting.

The book tells the story of the power struggle between The Duke's forces proclaiming Jane to be the Queen chosen by Edward on his deathbed, and the rightful heir Mary Tudor as stated in the will of Henry VIII, supported by the common people. Having the views of the three sisters as Jane was overthrown and imprisoned by Queen Mary was quite exciting to read. There was a lot about the plotting of the Duke, and a very interesting sub-plot where Mary discovers the plot to have Mary Tudor arrested and sends her a warning to flee to safety, unaware that this will lead to Jane being deposed and arrested. The guilt that both Mary's carry forward from what happens to Jane puts Queen Mary in a whole new light. I felt sorry for her character in this book-forced to kill Jane or lose her final chance to be happy with her Spanish husband, forced to break her promise to the Grey sisters that Jane would be spared. It was quite sad in places.

Naturally, the plot focuses on Kat and Mary after their sister is executed. Both are given places at Court by Queen Mary, but all three fear the plots surrounding Elizabeth Tudor which could put them all in grave danger. We see the decline of Mary's health and her husband's infidelity against the backdrop of Wyatt's rebellion and up heaval in the Grey family. Queen Mary wants to name Kat as her heir which fills Mary with fear for her sister if Elizabeth has to fight for her rightful throne.

On the death of Queen Mary, Elizabeth takes the throne and wastes no time in gaining her revenge on the Grey family for the plots against the Tudor sisters. Kat and Mary both find love at Court but as Elizabeth cannot marry her love Robert Dudley, she refuses to let other women in her service find a man and children to make them happy. Queen Elizabeth is a scary and nasty woman in this book, and the atmosphere at Court must have been horrible as everyone tried to stay on the right side of the vain woman with the bad temper! Kat and Mary choose to defy their Queen and marry in secret but there are terrible consequences for them.

The book is exciting with lots of Tudor intrigue, tension, scary and sad parts. I liked this different version of the reign of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth doing a role reversal to show Mary as the misunderstood woman and Elizabeth as the tyrant. She darn well scared me and I was safe in my room!!! My favourite of the sisters was Mary-she was smart, witty and resourceful and had a lot to put up with in her life, most of which was unhappy. I really wept for her as she finally finds a good man only for the evil Queen to spoil it for her.

I recommend this book to Tudor fans as it has everything you could want-drama, plotting, death, forbidden romance and great characters.  

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!  http://www.brokeandbookish.com/

This week it is Top Ten Authors I'm dying to meet. To be honest I couldn't care less about meeting authors, and overseas authors rarely venture north of London, never mind up to my part of Scotland! I'll be doing a follow up to last week where I did ten short stories I recommended. This week is Top Ten Short Stories & Novellas!

1) Sarah Dalton-My Daylight Monsters (Mary Hades #0.5) 124 pages
Mary sees things...ghosts and scary things but nobody believes her and she is now in a secure unit with troubled kids. But the kids on the ward know that the high death toll in the ward next door is not normal and that something bad is killing patients but who would believe them even if they found out who was doing it?  Excellent thriller, great characters, series prequel.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18626145-my-daylight-monsters 

2) Joseph D'Lacey-The Kill Crew 80 pages
Sheri is part of The Kill Crew, survivors chosen by lottery each night to go beyond their fortified walls to kill the zombie like creatures that threaten their survival. But when the latest mission goes badly wrong, Sheri is starting to wonder if life outside might be worth taking a chance on. Great stand alone short novella. I'd like to see more of this world.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6961338-the-kill-crew 

3) Keith C Blackmore-The Hospital (Mountain Man #0.5) 25 pages
Gus survived the zombie outbreak by retreating to a house in the mountains. Today he is seeking supplies and toilet paper in the local hospital. But there are strange noises and a new horror lurking in the dark. Excellent prequel to a four book zombie series and the perfect introduction to the anti-hero that is Gus!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16123747-the-hospital  

4) TW Piperbrook-Outage (Outage #1) 158 pages 
Abby and Rob face their first winter in their new home but a massive blizzard and their own poor planning leave them stranded as neighbours flee. They might need to risk leaving in a car not built for snow travel but lurking amongst the houses is a beast who is hungry and snow will be the least of their worries. First in a novella series.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22543366-outage 

5) RJ Spears-Forget the Alamo (Forget the Alamo #1) 84 pages 
Grant is stuck in San Antonio when the zombie outbreak begins and along with a group of tourists, seeks refuge at The Alamo. But refuge soon becomes a prison when the zombies surround them and the city is about to be bombed so they need a way to escape. First in a novella series.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17855774-forget-the-alamo 

6) JK Walker-Frat House of the Dead (Salt Lake after Dark) 68 pages 
Rachel is a witch with paranormal and human friends and they will need all those skills when a frat house party leads to the guests turning into zombies. For those looking for diversity urban fantasy, this could be for you. I think it is meant to be a prequel to the series but it isn't numbered.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17855774-forget-the-alamo 

7) Linda Zimmermann-HVZA Apocalypse Sale (HVZA #0.5)  
Retailers are worried that the recent plague is affecting sales so to tempt shoppers they produce a Black Death Sale at the local shopping mall. Greedy shoppers looking for bargains are about to discover that zombies love sales too... Leads on to a two book series.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24379449-hvza

8) Boyd Craven-The World Burns (The World Burns) 98 pages
Blake is a hermit and prepper living on a homestead when the apocalypse comes. With his only friends beside him, they prepare to repel anyone who means them harm and they are about to see the worst of human nature. Start of an 11 book novella series/serial novel. Liked the first 7 books but felt the series lost direction in the new storyline after that.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25762811-the-world-burns 

9) Kevin Hearne-The Grimoire of the Lamb (Iron Druid #0.4) 64 pages
Atticus and faithful hound Oberon head to Egypt looking for someone who stole a book. However the goddess Bast hasn't forviven Atticus for stealing her books and sets her tribe of cats onto them. All this and a booby trapped home of a crocodile priest to break into...this was a great prequel for the Iron Druid series. 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16280685-the-grimoire-of-the-lamb 

10) Mark Matthews-Zombie Dash 23 pages 
A charity fundraising zombie dash starts with the fun of fake screams and laughing runners evading the zombie volunteers. Nobody thinks anything of it when the zombie clown drags a screaming girl into the woods for real. Fun zombie short story.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16124392-zombie-dash 

Authors Behaving Badly

I just love reading about Authors Behaving Badly! I spent all day today just looking at authors becoming unhinged over a one star review online and doing themselves no favours at all. This is Indie author Devon Saccoccio and his fight with a reviewer. This could keep you entertained for a while. And this is why only friends get to comment on my Goodreads reviews...

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

At the core of this tale is a love story that spans a lifetime, wrapped in a gritty, epic, real man's fantasy that anyone can sink his or her teeth into. It is a beacon of truth in an enslaved world suffering from moral relativism and willful ignorance in the presence of Knowledge.

For the mature fans of Harry Potter, A Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Elder Scrolls, Legend of Zelda, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, Fable, and Dragon Age, The Tale of Onora follows the journey of a young orphan after his village is destroyed and he is forced to grow up in a dangerous world. As he navigates through different walks of life, he begins to uncover a conspiracy as to why his village was destroyed. Before he can put the pieces together, his fate is sealed by a terrible war. In the storm of chaos that follows, his actions turn him into a legendary hero. The more renowned he gets, the closer the source of evil is drawn to him. The more he fights for the truth, the more of an outlaw he becomes. In Book One, a boy at the brink of adulthood travels beyond the ruins of an ancient elven city, to The Crown of The World in the far north. It is there where he meets his father for the first time, in search of the answers and reasons his mother refuses to discuss. At the risk of his life, he learns that finding the truth requires knowing The Tale of Onora.

I found this at http://tymberdalton.com/writer-beware-sigh-badly-behaving-authors-wtf-edition/ where you can read the whole message exchange, his fights on other reviews and his offer of signed books in exchange for five star reviews. I loved reading this whole story and hope you do too!