Review: Deus Irae - Philip K Dick & Roger Zelazny

Title - Deus Irae

Author - Philip K Dick & Roger Zelazny

Year - 1976

Stand Alone or Series - Stand Alone

Pages - 220

Reading Time - 9 days (September 2010)

Rating - 7/10

Review

This book was a changelled to me and my girlfriend. She wanted to read the book and since she is away I complied. It was an intriguing reading but not all that good. What did I like? The general rambling about Christianity and the new church dedicated of the God of Wrath. It was interesting to see the character development but the plot itself was not that good. The chapters in the middle were boring and in my opinion didn't brought anything new besides the physical and psycological trials.

And the story? The story begins some time after the fallout of a nuclear war. There were outspreaded mutations both to animals and humans. This incident led to new messianic religion (Servants of Wrath) who worship the creator of the war's ultimate weapon. This man was called Carleton Lufteufel. In a town, charlotteville, the servants enlisted Tibor McMasters to paint a mural of the god of wrath. (this town is the example of others towns where the God of Wrath is surpassing the Christians survivors. (In my opinion this reference to the God of Wrath makes me thing of the early mentions of God, where he would punish the unbelivers. An anger-driven religion. As Tibor is going to search for Carleton he has some doubts and recured to the christians but after some arguing he makes himself do what he has being paint to do. Did I mention tibor war an armless, legless cyborg phocomelus artist? Then he went about and meet some meaningless beings like lizards, birds, insencts (all sentient beings) and even some artificial inteligence. Meanwhile we get in two or three chapters another point of view of Alice, the intellectually challenged adopted daughter. Alice as she is trying to help Lufteufel to remove a shrapnel (akin to the crown of spines of christ) she gets blood on her shirt. Alice keeps the shirt as it is because it is the only likeness of her father face (akin to Shroud of Turin and Saint Veronica). Alice in the end is visited by Lufteufel spirit after his death but she things he is at peace. In return he removes her disability. Before helping her the "God of Wrath" also helps two persons. First Tibor giving him arms and legs and after removing them and another survivor the palm tree garden (akin to the Garden of Eden). In this we learn that he was an evil earthbound deity. Meanwhile McMasters is not aware of "His" death and is tricked by Pete Sands (a christian) to take a picture of a dying alcholic homeless person. He then draws the picture and it's in many murals on the Wrath of God churches. The end was quite fine with a christian priest thinking of that major event and with a critic image about the religious belief is ofted based on mythological accretions, which may not be valid interpretations of decisive events in the history of faith.

There are some interesting moments with characters thinking what this pilg means to each one. First to the servants of Wrath, then to the catholic priest, to the painter and the one who tricked the painter. This was pretty good. There are some good sentences in the book. I transcribed some of the later ones. A good novel and to anyone who loves a religion/character centerbased novel it should look this way and pick this book. Excelent.

"I wanted to depict that which may not be shown, that which cannot be understood. It is an impossible job. Pride. There is nothing else to me other than my skill. I know that I am good. It is all that I have, though, and I have made too much of it. I had felt, somehow, that it was more that sufficient, not just to make me the equal of a whole man, but to surpass other men, to surpass even the human. I wanted all the future generations of worshippers to look at that work and to see this. It was not the God of Wrath I wanted to look upon with awe, but the skil of Tibor McMasters. I wanted that awe, their wonder, their admiration - their worship. I wanted deification through my art, I see that now." (Tibor McMasters)

"As Milton wrote once, "out of evil comes good". Notice, he said to himself, the relative disparity of the two terms; evil is the most powerful term for what is bad, and good - it barely surpasses the opposite. The Fall of Satan, The fall of Man, the cruxifixion of Christ... out of those dreadful, evil acts came good; out of the Fall of Man and the expulsion from the Garden; man learned love. From a trinity of Evil emerged at last Trinity of Good! It is a balanced thing. (The Catholic Priest)

Thoughts (IV)

I've some thoughts/opinion/wishes that I wanted to say...

• Why had Stargate Atlantis ended a couple of years ago? It was probably better than the main series ( I am considered an heretic of course). Mckay, Teyla, Ronon or Sheppard: they were best characters than the main series or stargate universe that in my opinion leaves much to be desired. If I was a billionaire I would buy stargate franchise and ask for more series. I've got a feel of nostalagic everytime I see a re-run of the series. And I've never get sick of seeing the series. Or reading the books. If there were was a series I would like to been in it was that
• 
  
• I will end my amazon agreement. It makes me feel itchy to seel myself. I've never received a book and probably never will. Why should I make advertisement?

Review: The Island of Blood - Darius Hinks

Title - The Island of Blood

Author - Darius Hinks

Year - 2010

Stand Alone or Series - Stand Alone

Pages - 124

Reading Time - 5 days (September 2010)

Rating - 8.5/10

Summary

For countless millennia the High Elves of Ulthuan have kept watch over the Island of Blood. Shrouded in elven magic and impenetrable mists, its cruel, Chaos-warped peaks hide a wealth of dark secrets – including a powerful relic from the dawn of the Old World, known as the Phoenix Stone. Now, after centuries of vigilance, the elves’ worst nightmares have come true. Their defences have been breached and Warlord Skreet Verminkin, who leads a vast invasion force of skaven, has come to seize the Phoenix Stone for himself. 

The elves call on their kin for aid, but even with legendary heroes fighting by their sides, they struggle to hold back such a monstrous horde. As tides of skaven smash through their defences, the elves realise they have only one hope – they must tap into the dark magic at the island’s core and unleash the very power they have sworn to suppress.

Review

This book was published to coincide with the releasing of the 8th edition of warhammer fantasy battlegame. It was a nice and easing reading. The plot was simple enough. Ratchitt is an engineer for Clan Skyre and it's discovering of a weapon that could disable some ancient defences in the Island of Blood. After discovering he sets to make an rather unfriendly agreement with one part of the Clan Klaw led by Warlord Verminkin. The clanlord would have a advantage against the other part led by chieftain Spinetail. After making these agreement he made another unfriendlier agreement with three grey seers. Things were not going his way.

In the island we are presented with the defences Kortharion, an elf mage; Kalaer an old defender and leader of Sword Masters of Hoeth; and the reserves the Lothern Sea Guard; another mage called Caladris and a prince on griffon.

The chapters follow either the elves or the skaven with a couple of them another ancient race. I learn a lot about the elves ancestors and the twisted, backstabbing, unforgiving and other not so "honourable" adjectives of the skaven society.

The ending was a pyrrhic victory for the elves but predictable.It had some quite fighting images. Most of the second half of the book was a big fight sequence. It was quite good to read this. Quite different from other types of fantasy out there; this warhammer book is like a fantasy-battle centered book. Quite good. A good staring point to anyone trying to read some more novels in the warhammer world.



Review: Flames of Damnation & Imperial Gothic (Graphic Novels)

These novels were printed long ago by Black Library as Warhammer Monthly. The first one Flames of Damnation is a compiliation of several stories made by dozen artists and writers. Some of them are quite good and we good feedback about what is Warhammer 40k. Some are depressing and tells us the tales of some fighting man. Others are in the point of view of other characters/races. Unfortunally not all the stories are that good and most important is the artist phase. Some stories loose their importance because of the artist designs; either because it's too confusing or the letters are in some spots that are incredibly hard to read unless I break the spine of the book. 7/10

The second graphic novel is named Imperial Gothic and both stories within were made by Dan Abnett. In my opinion one of the best stories if not the best is printed there. Lone Wolves it's is name. The story involves a squad of imperial guard troops as they try to survive the hostil cold temperatures of the planet, as being surrounded by tyranids and without mantiments. In their darkest moments the space wolves appear and save them. In this book we learn more of the space wolves as we would learn in a novel or fluff out there. I must say I was thrilled to read the story and I've read it several times. The other story inside is about an inquisitor apprenditce as he struggles between heretic and the imperium. His master is also his mentor and the choices he chooses also effects him. And as the end of the book says nobody is above the corruption of chaos. It can apply to the Warhammer 40k universe as it applies to own world. I will give 8.5/10 becaus of Lone Wolves that in my opinion deserves 10/10.

This two books follows the others I've read previously (with no connection whatsoever). First Bloodquest, then Daemonifuge - Heretic Saint and the fantasy counterpart Hellbrandt Grimm. In my opinion Bloodquest was probably the best book but the best story was undoubtly Lone Wolves. I think 50% of the rating is due to the graphic part and 50% is from the writing part. If a book is well designed but poor story no-one will be appeal by it. The same applies in writing part. I think The inquisitor story within Imperial Gothic is one exemple of this. It has good writing/story but the images were sometimes far off.

Review: Starship Troopers - Robert A Heinlein

Title - Starship Troopers

Author - Robert A Heinlein

Year - 1959

Stand Alone or Series - Stand Alone

Pages - 264

Reading Time - 5 days (January 2008)

Rating - 8/10

Summary

Juan Rico signed up with the Federal Service on a lark, but despite the hardships and rigorous training, he finds himself determined to make it as a cap trooper. In boot camp he will learn how to become a soldier, but when he graduates and war comes (as it always does for soldiers), he will learn why he is a soldier. Many consider this Hugo Award winner to be Robert Heinlein's finest work, and with good reason. Forget the battle scenes and high-tech weapons (though this novel has them)--this is Heinlein at the top of his game talking people and politics.

Review

This was an interesting reading. I've being wondering when I would do it and after seeing another time the movie I decide myself to do it. Both the movie and the book are quite good. Believe me. I've read the critics of both the movies and books. They both are stupid. They are so stupid as the ones that consider Tolkien racist. Why people are so single-minded? What a frak guys? You write a book as you want. Stop criticising and putting words and meanings in other peoples work. If Heilein wanted to write a fascism futurism book so be it. It's his right as you have your right to not-enjoying the book.

Now for the book itself... Starship Troopers takes places in the future where a war between the Terran Federation is at war at the Arachnids ("Bugs"). The book starts as Rico (our main protagonist and part of the Mobile Infantry) is travelling in a corvette to battle the bugs in one of their planets. Then the story flashes back into the past where we get to see Rico Gradutation and decision to sign up for Federal Service without the support of his father. We get to know is Fleet Sergent Ho a recruiter and retired Lt. Colonel Dubois, Rico's school instructor. Next we get to see Rico in boot camp and his experiences while in it. Meanwhile we get to see how the war began and how the Arachnids destroyed Buenos Aires. After several incidents and flashbacks and flashforwards he is enlisted in Rasczak's Roughnecks named after his lieutenant. Eventually rico becomes a career soldier and attends an Officer School that happens to be like boot camp. He graduates and becomes a second lieutenant. The end we get to see Rico owning his own battalion and his father (that has enlisted after the dead of Rico's Mother) and serving under him.

The main character is also the character that Heinlein uses to show us the moral and philosophical aspects os suffrage, civic virtue, the necessities of war and capital punishment. With Dubois serves as a pro-war and opinions on several subjects and Ho the inverse. The main character is well developed and not in any way two dimensional or a character without any kind of depth.

The movie is also on it's own rights a good adition to the military sci-fi out there. In my opinion gave us some perspective not so developed as the book about a future (probably not our future but a possibility). The action scenes are well made and even if the book develops more discussion about some ideas the book gives us some hints. In the book Rico was philipine but on the movie he was not. Probaby argentinian since his hometown was Buenos Aires.

Would I advice this book/movie? Certainly. It was a mark to military sci-fi and it gave us some new perspective. Even if these book defends a militarism society with fascism ideals why is is so shunned noawadays? In the 1960 he receive the Hugo Award but nowadays people are against the book. Why? Why the frak are the communism books or anarchist or democrats any better? It's point of views. If you are a one of those three aligned person who follow either political ideals you should read this book. After all is another view of a world. You are so for "liberty of speech" and such idioties so why can't you leave a guy alone because he has different political views?

Review: Night of Living Trekkies - Kevin David Anderson & SamStall

Title - Night of Living Trekkies
Author - Kevin David Anderson & SamStall
Year - 2010
Stand Alone or series - Stand Alone
Pages - 253
Reading Time - 3 days (September 2010)
Rating - 8/10

Summary

Journey to the Final Frontier of Sci-Fi Zombie Horror!

Jim Pike was the world's biggest Star Trek fan—until two tours of duty in Afghanistan destroyed his faith in the human race. Now he sleepwalks through life as the assistant manager of a small hotel in downtown Houston. But when hundreds of Trekkies arrive in his lobby for a science-fiction convention, Jim finds himself surrounded by costumed Klingons, Vulcans, and Ferengi—plus a strange virus that transforms its carriers into savage, flesh-eating zombies! As bloody corpses stumble to life and the planet teeters on the brink of total apocalypse, Jim must deliver a ragtag crew of fanboys and fangirls to safety. Dressed in homemade uniforms and armed with prop phasers, their prime directive is to survive. But how long can they last in the ultimate no-win scenario?

Review
Now this was a strange yet very pleasant read. I always have enjoy the Star trek universe; both the movies and the series (with the exception of the last series). And as you know enjoy reading books about zombies and so we have a mix of both of them. It was a good combination. It's not the best zombie story out there but it's quite appealling because we have the interaction of the two worlds.

We begin our journey is a hotel that is overrun with zombies and several characters are bound together to leave the city as they find out that the army is trying to containt the plague via destruction of the city. The book itself ends nicely and without any loose ends. Of course if you want you can make a sequel but I think it's not intended.

The characters are quite good. The main character has some war problems and this story makes him confront them. He has some large knowledge of the Star Trek world and over the pages him and other characters give us some information about the series. The other characters are quite good and Leia (a woman he saves dressed as the star wars's princess Leia from the the Return of Jedi movie)  is another quite good character giving all those hints and cataphrases from the Star Wars movies. There is also a interesting character that is dressed in red and as he point out whenever a red dress character would go to a planet with Kirk or other members (from the original series) he would die. It's was very entertaining to see the situations he was in and when this character would die.

 

The zombies are just like ordinary zombies with a particular difference that is the interlinked community that they share like a internet thingy. But in my opinion they aren't that good adversaries. The arch enemy of this book is an upgraded zombie 2.0 that is almost undestructable (yet it died).

 

Quirk was the company that launch this innovating book. They have being releasing some interesting classic novels with supernatural and zombies elements. This was my first book from them yet I have them all. Let me read another and see how it works out.

I recently read another zombie called Death Troopers that's a crossover from Star Wars universe with Zombies. Both books work out pretty good. The Living Trekkies was not set in the Star Trek universe so it work out pretty nicely;a parody if you will. The other brought elements of zombies into the Star Wars universe. In my opinion it was a very bad idea. You've got the universe all work out and now you add zombies ... It was not a good idea and I thing some fans got upset (the same won't happen in the living trekkies...) Overall it was a good but and anyone interesting in zombies or star trek should read the novel.

Review: Devil's Plague - Mark Beynon

Title -The Devil's Plague

Author - Mark Beynon

Year - 2007

Stand Alone or series - Third book of Tomes of the Dead Series but Stand Alone

Pages - 256

Reading Time - 6 days (June 2008)

Rating - 7/10

This was the third book on this series. The first was Death Hulk and the second  The Words of Their Roaring. The first two books were quite good and so I adventure into the third one straight away.

Summary

It is England, in 1651 - The Battle of Worcester. To help him attain a victory over the Royalists, Oliver Cromwell has made a pact with the Devil. In return for his soul, he has been given a fearsome army of the dead - a blood-thirsty platoon of ancient evil...the Kryfangan! With Charles Stuart, the rightful heir to the English throne seemingly killed in battle and his Scottish army slaughtered by the Kryfangan, Cromwell now has control of Parliament. However, by the time the Kryfangan's real identity is revealed to Cromwell, it is too late to stop their relentless killing spree. And when the true nature of the great plague is exposed, London soon becomes a city overrun by zombie hordes. The English must put aside their religious, social and political differences as they find themselves caught between two armies of the dead waging war with one another.

Review

This third book we adventure into a England Civil War in XVII. A turmoil with political and religion ramifications. It is an epoch that I like to dwell upon in my investigations in the internet and books. Cromwell the leader of the parlimentarians makes the same mistake as other ancient leaders and sells his soul (and country) to the Devil and in return the monstrous Kryfanganan army of demonic horsemen tries to the destroy the Royalists led by Charles Stuart. But Kryfangan's victims aren't staying dead. The characters are interesting (in a way). Davenant, Cromwell (the villain) and Mary (not that interesting) and there are others characters but they are quite awful. The demons and zombies well are  also interesting. This is the first of the three novels that zombies look like zombies of the old days. Quite good are the battles between demons, zombies and humankind, specially the capital batlte in london. It's interesting the zombies hating the demons and mankind alike. It's a third way war. It's a nice adition to the series.

Review: The Words of their Roaring - Matthew Smith

Title - The Words of their Roaring
Author - Matthew Smith
Year - 2007
Stand Alone or series - Second of Tomes of the Dead Series but Stand Alone
Pages - 338
Reading Time - 6 days (June 2008)
Rating - 7/10

After reading the first book in these new series called Tomes of the Dead published by Abaddon I knew I would enjoy each title (well the premises were good... the transformation of that premises into novels is another matter). The first book was Death Hulk by Matthew Sprange that dealt with the Age of Sail and the battles between the french and brittons. It was somewhat innovanting and it was a good addition to the zombie fiction.

Summary

London's Falling!

London - a city overrun by the zombie hordes. Most of the human survivors live from day to day, scraping together an existence amongst the ruins, avoiding the shambling, flesh-hungry undead that stalk the streets. But for others the situation is an opportunity, a chance to establish a powerbase within the capital now that all authority has virtually collapsed. For gang lord Harry Flowers, the plague is his chance to finally rule the city unopposed.

Operating out of his well-protected mansion on London's outskirts, Flowers sees a chance to use the zombies and the havoc they wreak for his own ends. The way he sees it, the ghouls aren't going to be around forever, and when he re-establishes a functioning society, it's going to be on his own terms. All he needs is a way to control the dead. But Flowers is not the only one with designs on the city...

Review

First thing I've got to say is that as all other covers by the same artist are truly great. I think Abaddon Books have one of the most brillaint fiction painters on role. Then the font and font size inside are good as well. Not to small for my poor eyes but not to large just to fill a book with pages. Another good thing is the inside always one blurb (is that the way the english say?) or preview of a another novel. In several novels are also short stories from the same author or another. I think that's great. The first thought that I had when I read this novel was the english film called 28 days later (highly reccommend) and the sequel 28 weeks. I don't know why but one reminds me of the other.

One thing that got me hooked was the new way of seeing zombies. The book is divided in three parts and besides the protagonists changing we also see the zombie changing... changing too much in my humble opinion. This tale is not for all zombies fans. Some of the "old school" if you can say that will not like these zombies.

The main protagonist is Gabe who works for Flowers, a crimelord in control of some parts of London. This tale begins some years after the zombies have overrun the nation and that's another different thing from other novels who like to write about the beginning of this infestation. The Reapers are the Angels was the last book I read that the author began the narrative several years after the plague outbreak. Well returning to our tale Flowers have some scientists working for him to help him control the undead and serve his own needs.

The tale then steps back into the past when Gabe was not working for Flowers, just before the undead rose. Here we get to see a lot more of the story of both characters and even of a woman who is not a major important character in these tale but is an important to understand the story behind Gabe and Flowers and also of the creation of the zombies. Then the story steps into the future and we see the change that has occurred in the zombies from mindless ones to something more advanced beings. The weaker part of the novel was the epilogue. It was desnecessary. I like the book as I said before but I don't like the idea of zombies that are able to ride cars or shoot people or things like that. A different kind of zombies are nice but going so far that they are humans but undead it's not that great. Nevertheless I would advice reading this book to anyone who likes zombie fiction.

 

Review: Murder in Cormyr - Chet Williamson

Title - Murder in Cormyr
Author - Chet Williamson
Year - 1998
Stand Alone or Series - Stand Alone
Pages - 248
Rating - 7/10
Reading Time - 3 days (August & September 2010)

Review

This is the first book in a stand alone series called "Mysteries". Two are set in Forgotten Realms and another is a crossover from Dragonlance.

First of all I must say this book reads as an Agatha Christie's pastiche of the famous Herculae Poirot. This was my thought of it. But the ending gave something away that in no way Poirot would behave like. Nevertheless it was a good book.

This book was written in the first person perspective and I must say I loved they way he talked (I read) because it was a funny and light read. As a young quarter-halfling (Jasper) tries to steal something from a War Wizard (Benelaius) to impress his friends. It goes wrong and instead of it he becomes his servant. Then at the end of one year service they become the lead investigator and assistant of a foul crime. This crimes involves a ghost (well two), merchants, innkeepers at so on. The story unfolds nicely and you get some clues to try to find who the killer is. In the end the killer was somebody I thought it was but the last three chapters we learn the reasoing behind the wizard and how he came to that conclusion. It was quite good. 

Being this a mystery novel in a fantasy world it got something that make me thing... The time-travel spells, the clone spell, the mirror-image spell, there are dozens spells that could aid the investigator and a dozen more to help the killer. It's odd that nothing of that entered this story. Odd and dissapointing. But neverthless a good companion book to the Realm of Mysteries that I review here. 

Thoughts (III)

I rarely if ever choose a book because of it's cover. But one thing that I choose one in deterriment of another is the font size were printed on. There are some publishers than now are printing smaller and smaller letters for what? They have the same amout of information (I counted the lines) with the same amount of pages. Wizards of the Coast is one of this fellas. Why do it? To print one or two more sentence per page? They are too small and my fragile eyes aren't that good. I must say I have some books I wanted to read from them but I am lacking the initiative because of the size... Oh well... Just a thought...

Review: The Descent - Jeff Long

Title - The Descent

Author - Jeff Long

Year - 1999
Stand Alone or Series - Stand Alone (There is a sequel but this one can be read indepentently)
Pages - 572

Rating - 7.5/10

Reading Time - 5 days (January 2007)

Review

I love being sucked into new worlds created by great authors, and this is one of them. This is the first Jeff Long book I have read, and I have also the sequel Deeper: A novel and Year Zero in the near future.

The writer knows what he is writing about. Those carverns look scary and very well described. The world underground and the underground society are very well described. The subterranean journey far beneath even the ocean floors is fantastic, scary, and interesting. The psychological changes the parties go through is true to form. He even had me looking over my shoulder for the Hadals.

The novel follows the events surrounding the discovery and exploration of a vast labyrinth of tunnels and passages stretching throughout the sub-surface of the entire world, inhabited by several species of alternately-evolved troglobitic hominids. While presently degenerate and brutal, the "hadals" had once possessed a high level of civilization, having reached the Iron Age as far back as 20,000 years ago; the novel posits that they had (rather viciously) mentored subsequent human civilizations, and that interactions with them form the basis of the historic belief in demons. The "Descent" of the title refers not only to the literal act of descending, but is also the term the narrative applies to the large-scale military-led colonization of the planet's interior that takes place in the novel.

This novel had some interesting characters. With some pages to dwell the writer created a few characters that were believeble and at same time interesting. Usually you have one or two good characters and the rest are unidemensional (that's the term?) but on this book you don't have that. The writer also dwelt on the creaton of the ecosystem and also on the Handals. Even the evil characters are believe. The part of the roman catholic and the beowulf circle gave another view to all the exploration of a sub-spieces and ecosystem. The ending was quite good and it was good on his own. It didn't need a sequel but probably I'm glad that there is (probably because sometimes the sequel only spoils the first book)

I am a person who like to read but when I am confronted with large books I get scare. Just to get a picture I only read 13 books larger than 500 pages in the 360 books I read from 2005. This last three and half years I read 274 books. Only 6 were bigger than 500 pages. So as you can see If I read this book with more than 500 pages and in only 5 days you can see how I like it. There is also a movie with the same name but I strongly advice you not to see it. It's got nothing to do with this with the sole exception that it's underground and there are some savages beings there. There are far better movies out there with these theme. Books as well.

Review: Tarnsman of Gor - John Norman

Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman. These tale of almost thirty books are quite a find. In the seventies they were releasing all kinds of fantasy novels. This one depicts a world where woman are no better than sex slaves or worse. I read some bad reviews from people who thought these bad. OH MY FVCKING GOD. Are you kidding me? These is a fvcking fantasy tale. Don't want, don't read it.

My god are people stupid? So I right about a sadistic assassin... am I a sadistic assassin or maybe in my head I would like to be a sadistic assassin?

There are nude woman doing dirty (and yumming things) mixed with fantasy. What do you expect? These is a tale for all those horny fantasy readers who can't get a woman. Get used to it.

These tale is from Tarl Cabot. He always believe to be a citizien of earth. But one day he is transported to the planet of Gor and thus begins his tales. The writer wrote 26 books and probably he won't stop here. The covers are also great. I would advice you to see them for yourself. There are always woman in undergarmants or naked. Quite good! These is one of those times that the covers do mean something eheh. What??? I am a guy and I like fantasy even if I have a girlfriend. And by all that is sacred... Say that you never thought of being a king or someone important who had several dozen girls at your feet? Yeah. Don't you lie on me...

These book is a must read if you like light fantasy with a bit of nudity and you are open minded. If not... don't bother. You will only write a bad review. 8/10