Review: Death or Glory - Sandy Mitchell

Title - Death or Glory

Author - Sandy Mitchell

Year - 2006

Stand Alone or Series - IV of ongoing series

Pages - 416 (Mass-market paperback)

Reading Time - 5 days, March 2008

The first book For the Emperor, then Caves of Ice, The Traitor's Hand then Death or Glory, the fifth Duty Calls, the sixth Cain's Last Stand and the latest The Emperor's Finest. There are also three short stories. First The Beguiling (What Price Victory anthology), Fight or Flight (Crucible of War),last Echoes of the Tomb and Sector Thirteen (Bringers of the Death). There is also a chapbook called Traitor's Gambit.

This character is one of my favourite in the Warhammer 40k universe and of course I read a way back but never find out time to review it. Since I am trying to get into 40k again I will review this book that I still remember. This book we get him back to his past when he was assigned to 12th Valhallan Field Artillery and as they travel to Perlia. A planet on a war with the orks. Cain and his army are part of reinforcing but because of a trap they are laid thousands of miles behind enemy lines with thousands upon thousands of Orks between them and safety. He must cope with rebels, planetary defence (for what they are worth of it) and escort train of civilian refugees through some rough battles.

In this novel we are back to his first years (with only Jurgen from other books)  where he wasn't so famous. This book follows the same writing as the previous with all black humour that Sandy Mitchell as accoustement us. This book we learn more about Cain and by far the best character driven of all series. How can a coward can inspire demoralised defenders.

Strangely enough we learn that he is reported KIA due to bureaucratic controversy and then there is a order that Cain is never to be reported KIA and so after he is long dead by old age he is still on active duty roster.

We also learn a lot about Orks. One thing is that they have a belief that any vehicle painted red or given red strips will go faster than normal.

In the end it was another good story about Cain as the previous books but it lack something that the other books had. I can't say what...

Rating: 6/10



Thoughts XII - The Road Goes Ever On

Kiss my trembling lips

Support my chest as my attacks go on..

I need you here

You must be strong for us...

Small Review: Gates of Madness - James Wyatt

This is a novella spilt in five parts with only 73 pages.

Part 1: Forgotten Realms, The Ghost King by R.A. Salvatore

Part 2: Dungeons & Dragons, The Mark of Nerath by Bill Slavicsek

Part 3: Dark Sun, City Under the Sand by Jeff Marriotte

Part 4: Forgotten Realms, Whisper of Venom by Richard Lee Byers

Part 5: Eberron, Lady Ruin by Tim Waggoner

So what is this?

I am not very versed in the Wizards of the Coast realm. I understand a little of Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms but everythng else is new to me. But this novella is quite good even if I thought strange (because of my lack of knowledge)

Party of Characters
Brenclis - Paladin (Pelor)
Nowhere - Tiefling
Sherimma - Eladrin Wizard
Miri - Axe (Half-Elf)
Demascus- Sword of the Gods (Ioun)

Each part begins with the Chained God (Tharizdun) talking to his servants and for what I learn he was trapped by the combine force of other gods and he is trying to get free. I read it like a adventure from D&D game and It felt like it one. I don't understand what all the fuzz about this thing but okay. I try reading a little on the internet but is all to vague. Strangely enough there are some interesting characters like Brenclis a Paladin, Nowhere a Theifling and Sherimma a Eladrin Wizard. They are helpe by Demascus a strange character which is getting a book by himself "Sword of Gods" by Bruce Cordell.

For what I learn there was a war called the Dawn of War where the Primordial versus the Gods (like the greek mythos of Titan vs Gods) and this Chained god got a beautiful cage in a strange realm/dimension (I think is Pandemonium) for that and now he want's to be free. Opposing there are several characters that worship (or work to) to the deities that imprision him. They leap from one realm to another as they search one way to oposse His minions as they ssearch for a Staff of Opening in the City of the Doors (a place where you can travel to any place you like)

"Tharizdun, the Chanied God, has released the Voidharrow—a liquid crystal imbued with his will and all the chaos of the Abyss—into the universe, and with it comes an engine of destruction and pestilence that twists and deforms beings into chaotic demonlike creatures."

It was good but unfortunally too much information for a guy like me who isn't into Forgotten Realms things.

Review: Pawns of Chaos - Brian Craig

Title - Pawns of Chaos

Author - Brian Craig

Year - 2001

Stand Alone or Series - Stand Alone (Warhammer 40K)

Pages - 311 (Mass-market paperback)

Reading Time - 12 days, April 2011

Review and General Opinion

This was a strange book in the 40k range. Usually the Chaos bit are from space marines pov and usually Chaos is what the word means: Chaos. Chaos is evil and such things. But on this book Chaos is something else. Tzeentch the god of the Gulzacandra people is represented in one way that nobody done it before (or that I read it).

In these book we several characters. Dathan from a Village in the middle of nowhere and  Hycilla, the wise dreamer girl (psyker). We also find Gavalon, the most powerful sorcerer on Sigmatus and leader of the forces against the Imperium and Nimian a boy who is a vessel to a daemon called Sathorael. On the other side of the conflict we have the Governador Orloc and the Inquisitor Balberith. We also have a several more characters but unimportant.

This tale follows the destruction of Dathan village by Orloc general Fulbra as they fled and meet Gavalon army who is trying to battle Fulbra. So far so good. But there are differences between them. The chaos army (Gavalon) are armed with spears and swords and such and in the other end Orloc is armed with the Imperium arsenal ranging from firearms and trucks and cannons. This book also tells something the "Imperium" on this novel. They are the descendents of the original Imperium faith. Some of the Imperium guys want the True Imperium to come back and others do not, afraid of what they would do. Very interesting point of view. It's like Christianity. It was created something then changed to something else.

New cover from the book. BL webiste

The prologue felt like I was reading a Aztec chronicle about the invasion of the spaniards. Few spaniards kill thousands indians. Or like Colonial England versus Indians (from America). But what is tale about? And Why so good?

There is a moral dilemma, which turns the plot: not between good and evil - the book is ambivalent about them - but between order and chaos. As I read more about the characters and their views I came to understand that Chaos isn't just "Kill Murder and Destroy." It's more than that. There are people like me and "normal" people that worship or follow a doctrine that is considered evil. Like the Aztects that sacfifice animals and even people are they a bad religion to follow? To our western standarts they are but...

Other thing that made me love the book is the way the "Chaos" saw Imperium. To them the Imperium destroy their homes and their way of life. Are they the Good guys? I now understand that the Imperium isn't the Good part of the races in the 40k universe. Of course neither is Chaos, Eldar or Tau. The rest (Dark Eldars, Orks, Necrons, Tyrannids) are too wild/animal or mechanical to be considered ever good guys).

This book change my view of Order and of the Chaos.

(Dathan) ... But we are heroes, he reminded himself, and we have magic,. The Imperium has guns, and trucks but I have face them twice aqnd - admittedly with magical aid - have beaten twice. We are heroes fighting for our homeland, and Gavalon the Great is a powerful sorcere. How can the enemy possibly win?

(Gavalon) 'The secret of wether the enemy can possible win may be the darkest secret of all,' Gavalon said, his sonorous voice becoming even more distant and ruminative. 'Darker that the secret hidden by the Golden Throne itself. Everything we know and bleieve, of course, tells us that the Imperium cannot possibly win in the end. In the fullness of time, the only possible victrory is that of Chaos. In the fullness of time, the only possible fate for humankind is extinction. And yet the Imperium fights on - and who knows what petty victories they might win the meantime, or what the true value of those petty victories might be? We who are proud to be dwellers in Gulzacandra and followers of the Changer of the Ways might say, and might even believe, that we are the heroes of the eternal struggle - but we know in our hearts that it is not true, and that the Imperium has the monopoly ao heroism. We fight out of choice, driven by pride and lust and fury, and everything we do hastens  our own end and the end of our species. They fight for duty, driven only by faith. They know that they cannot win, but they fight on, determined to survive for another hour, another year, another century... even though they know that they cannot survive forever. It is they, not us , who maintain the game and make it worth the playing, it is they not us , who are the game. The ultimate triumph of Chaos, which lies so far in the future as to be of little concern to short-lived creatures such as you an dI, is absolutely certain. The ruination and destruction of all mankind is but a tiny part of that culmination. The Imperial forces have nothing to fight for but a trivial postponement, and yet they fight. They have made their emperor a god, and are surely right to do so, for if anyone less that a god could ever deserve to become one, what other kind of man could it be than an emperor? The imperial forces are the heroes, because they gave nothing to win but a momentary eyeblink in the hour of eternity, for the sake of which they have sacrificed every freedom, every thought, every hope and every pleasure. They will never know how grateful my Divine Master and those like him must be for all their sacrificies, or what the true value of their petty victories must be.'

In the end of the book after the climax the God Tzeentch talks to Dathan and thanks him for betraying him.

"Who else could give thanks for a betrayal? Who else could entertain such a paradoxical need?" ...  (Dathan) I'll never serve your cause' Dathan said. 'Never. I'll always betray you, because I'm a man. Mankind is all that stands between things like you and the ultimate annihiliation of everything'. ... (Tzeentch) How could one delight in taking the side of Chaos, in being Chaos, if there were no Order to make a game of it? Where is the spice in easy victory? Where is the pride, the joy, the sense of achievement, the triumph? I need enemies, Dathan, even more that I need allies. There is nothing quite so precious to me as a Traitor. But it doesn't work the other way around. Remember that Dathan, when you begin to feel again. Order cannot tolerate traitors, or weaklings, or maladjustment, or creativity. Order needs nothing but order, and calm of mind." ... (Dathan) .. then at least I'm free from all temptation. I am no longer corruptible.' 'That's good, very good. The only thing more valuable to the Ruinous Powers than a corruptible soul is an incorruptible one."

Conclusion

I think this says everything. This book is excelent and maybe the only fault would be the pace of the book. Brian Craig dwells much in every character psyche and the action scenes are rushed. But I must say If you want a book where Chaos is different from the usual books then this book is for you.

Rating: 9.5/10

Interesting Facts

Last year I read 127 books.
Finished 108
Stopped Reading 14
Still trying to finish 5

Fantasy 30
Sci-Fi 25
Horror 25
Mystery 9
Steampunk 1
Others 13
Comic 19

Of course here I could have gone far to say "Post Apocalyptic Fiction" or "Urban Fiction" or something like that. Black Library books were a fourth of the total with 34 books read.

Black Library
2006 - 23 books
2007 - 23 books
2008 - 10 books
2009 - 8 books
2010 - 34 books
2011 - 4 books so far

This year is beginning badly. With only 5956 pages read against 7455 of last year. I have to try harder...

Review: Zombie Britannica by Thomas Emson

Title - Zombie Britannica

Author - Thomas Emson

Year - 2010

Stand Alone or Series - Anthology of interlinked stories

Pages - 440 (B Format Paperback)

Reading Time - March & April 2011

Rating: 5.5/10

Review and General Opinion

As you know I love zombie books so When I find a new one I want to read it. This one has been sitting on my desk for almost a year. Unfortunaly the book wasn't that great. Why? Well there are several flaws that I will come back later.

Spoilers inside

In this tale we follow three main characters. Vincent in Wales, Carrie in England and Craig in Scotland. Each one is related in some way (check the name list). Carrie battles through the street of london to save his daughter. Vicent is trapped in a castle in wales with the girl he loves and must coop with zombies outside and crazy people inside and finally Craig a problematic kid who are stuck in a traffic jam and when his baby sister is kidnap by a crazy human he must battle himself, humans and the undead. This sound good but the concretization of the novel was not that good. So what fail?

When the zombies enter the fray right from the first chapter they hit so hard that humans start dwinling rapidly. Each chapter (all 80 of them) change from one character to another. They each try to coup with the adversities thrown to them be that zombies or other humans. Vincent tries to save himself and his girlfriend and after several incidents featuring zombies and some crazy fanatics he leads them to the sea to a boat. But unfortunally his sweetheart is transformed into a zombie and the book ends in a clinfhanger as she is currently transforming into a zombie inside a ship. Carrie with the help of a noawadays knight that could have been taken out from a XIII world tries to help her rescue her child. They battle zombies, a group of kids who are playing "Sacrifice-a-person-to-a-zombie-and-laugh-out-loud", and even a bunch of religious fanatics who imprisions them. After many battles mainly won they arrive at the house where she kills her dead-husband and saves his young girl. Meanwhile she is saving her child she have sex with her knight (who does it when all hell is breaking loose?) They hide inside a house as the army battles the zombies. They fvck as the battle is going on... (Talk about disturbed minds). After leaving the city the knights reveals that he is changing to a zombie and mother and child are trapped inside a church with zombies outside. Another clifhanger. The third character is a problematic kid with no regard to humankind or property. To me that's not problematic because this character should be the more fun to read but the author doesn't do a good work. This boy and his family are trapped in a motorway and after the rescue by a truck driver they escape the zombies. when he and his sister climb to the truck to ride there (Which father and mother would let that) they are kidnapped. He beats him and take the girl. After some adversities the boy arrives where the truckdriver his and after releases some zombies and his sister. The zombies take care of the humans and they escape to find their mother with a group of survivors. Between these story we get a view into the mother and father of Craig. 

In the end we left with two cliffhangers and one half close story.

Criticism

- All of this happened in one day (remmember this)

- Within several minutes the zombies start sweeping across Britain. Interesting was that no warning was given and they seem to arrive everywhere, all at once 

- After a couple of hours there was talk of forced breeding, acts of brutality, religiou fervour and cannibalism. It's a propestorous the situation. I Know they are some crazed people but it's too much.

- One character is so desperate to cross London to get to her child, she gets into a car with people who are clearly violent cannibal rapists. And every scenario she makes the a lethal choice, only to be rescued by a criminal guy with a Knight Syndrome. 

- The stupidity of all characters. No redeemable characters.

- Psycological was very, very bad. The author clearly think so low of humans that he gave that way. People not believing what is happening, yes that can be. Religious fervour, yes. Cannibalistic person after two hours.. nope. Talks of cross-breeding after two hours.. no. Sex as battle rages on and as they are in a quest to find the daughter.. No. (I believe that people whould act very differently from what they are normally but there is a limit of course. Maybe after days of more time there could be some thoughts that I said before but not after one hour or two).

- Link to the above. Apart from the main characters (and Gavin the gay guy from wales) nobody seems to be thinking straight and only thinking about their escape? 

- Every kind of stereotypes from other zombie novels are presented here. This was like a russian salad (that's the name?)

- Huge plot holes. If the main characters know that a zombie bite turns into a zombie why leaving them with them? Why does Vincent leave Holly in the back with only a half-turn zombie behind her? WHAT? Who does that? The justification is "He doesn't want to other group members to find that he is favour her..." What a heck man?

- People in an impregnable castle open the doors... WHAT? WHY? Not once but several times... They deserved to die!

Good Things

- The zombie idea that the sun gives them strenght and the night makes them letarghic. But a not so good thing is the skeleton guys... they are not zombies after centuries and centuries.

- Nobody can say that the book wasn't fast paced. Because it was.

- The first line as it says that this was based on a scientific warning. Very nice. 

- Lord of the flies meet Mad Max meets Zombie movie

- The last chapter from the point of view of holly as she turns into a zombie.

- Some Lines like "Bert: This happen very often in england? - Vincent: We're not in England - Bert: PAh like it's important... (This happens a lot in portugal as they confuse with Spain).

- The mother of craig as all mayhem unfolds around her she tells to the husband " Stop swearing in front of the children". Who says that in that situation? - Another line "They must be kids on drungs" (As she tells the zombies attack the cars and people)

Cast

Scotland

Carrie Asher 

Boyd - Husband of Carrie & Brother of Vincent - Zombie - Killed by Carrie.

Mya - Daugter of Boyd and Carrie

Sawyer - Knight & Robber - Turn to Zombie

Daddy - Robber - Turn to Zombie

Sonny - Robber - Turn to Zombie

Kaylee - Gang Victim (dead by policeman)

Wales

Vincent (brother of Boyd)

Holly - girlfriend of Vincent - Turn to zombie by Roger

Oswyn - castle supervisor - Escaped Castle (Presumly dead)

Bert - Typical american - Turn to Zombie

Patty ( Typical Devout American Christian ) wife of bert - Turn to zombie

Gavin (gay) lost it's partner - Turn to zombie

Andrew - killed - Dead

Penny - Turn to zombie,

Roger - Turn to zombie in the sewers  - Dead

Simon -bodybuilder bit by Andrew - Dead

Scotland

Craig Murray - Troublemaker

Samantha - Sister of Craig

Art - Driver, Cannibal (?) kidnapped Samantha

Terry - Father of Craig - Drunk, sacrificied himself to kill zombies 

Mother - Mother of Carrie (long time ago), Craig and Samantha) - Typical Denial of Truth...

Conclusion

Would I recommend this book? Only to the die-hard fans of zombie fiction and even them dont' expect nothing new or original or good. Read to your own peril. You will want the zombies to eat the humans. That's what I wanted. 

Unfinished - The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases

In a time when my time (sorry the pun) is so small I must make choices of what to read or not. Having hundreads of books lining to read I decided that this one was not to my liking for now. Don't get me wrong. This short story anthology is quite funny and I bet in another time I would have finished it but it's taking too long so I stop reading it. In a future... who knows?

Would I advice to you?
If you want funny stories with several acclaimed authors with a thing of ridicoulous fiction. Post Modernist as Publishers Weekly refer to it. Great designs of the strange and fictious diseases. Demented I must say.  As I said I will return to it when my mind is set on this kind of tales.