Old Man Parker

Innsmouth without being scary

Revisado: 01-21-25

Unfortunately, the majorly factor of this silly plot is that several survivors of a supernatural sea storm on a small sea side town can’t figure out how to climb down off a 2nd story roof for days on end.

Yet, they have time to slowly work through pages of overly emotional melodrama to discuss their feelings about how to save everyone from the most insipid lovecraftian sea monster attack ever written .

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A complex mythology told as a tale of Enchantment and history

Revisado: 01-15-25

A complex mythology told as an entertaining tale - on University I had one prof who could lecture this way - standing room only in every class!

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A QUESTION...

Revisado: 12-22-24

There is a phrase used in bigfoot stories, it goes like this ...

"It had rippling muscles beneath its long hair and a thick fur."

How can RIPPLING MUSCLES be seen under thick FUR?
Also, in these adventures 99.9% of the girls react only one way to an approaching monster: CRYING.

This book has both of these. The latter was so overwhelming it made the female characters seem stupid, foolish and unlikable. I had to stop reading after the 3rd or 4th enactment of falling down and crying as a response to a life threatening experience.
Really Victor?
Do you know any women you don't hate?
Maybe this should have been titled "Misogynistic Writer of Misogyny Creek".

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Vin’s best movie yet!

Revisado: 10-07-24

I was thrilled and scared in chapter 1. Oh that sweet sweet terrifying & exciting Greig Beck !

I was holding back tears in chapter 14…. When our hero requested his & his son’s super mutant dog personality placed into the new cyber dog that he taking to psycho-monstrous prehistoric world.

“Ok. He’ll have his personality, his memories, but… you know… he won’t really be…”

“Ok. I get it.”

That’s were the water works started. I’ve had a huge German Shepard when I was a kid . She was so much more then just a dog….. an she was taken away by a bad driver. She was oh so so young to leave this world too soon.

Since the beginning of the whole series I’ve pictured the Arcadian played by Vin Desil.

I always see a young insanely handsome and athletic Vin when enjoying these books. That super deep voice. That nearly a body builder but not quite.
Perfect.

I’m shocked this series hasn’t seen the silver screen yet. Vin is a bit long in the tooth to play the ultimate warrior hero.
Hmmmmm……
But, with all this AI and scanned in actor’s physical appearance - adjustments could be made to Him.

Vin, if you see this… sorry my brother. You are still in da’ top 10 of all action heroes.
Please lay in the marvel films

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Hi-voltage Victorian!

Revisado: 09-21-24

I love a good ghost story.

The best are the ones the newspapers claim are true.

Turn the wheel in the sky back to the 1800’s, and you get tales dripping mood, chilling your breath, and shrouded in midnight fog … before there were street lights.

This is a collection from before IPhones, television or radio. When truing a ghost story by the

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Monster vs Drama

Revisado: 09-12-24

Perhaps I had expectations that were too high.

I loved the premise.
However, I was disappointed with the fairly unoriginal characters & the heavy amounts of human drama.
This had me skipping ahead to get around long sections of “talking’” and I think I missed some of the set up.

When the story stuck to the dire situation, suspense had a chance to grow and I got captured by the frightening parts.

This might have been a real “edge of your seat” yarn in the hands of a slightly more skilled writer.

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A melding of Mystic-Legend & Science Fiction

Revisado: 07-08-24

Street Cultivation by Sarah Lin (book 1 / book 2)

A clever, perhaps brilliant, melding of mystic-legend & science-fiction creates a new concept of “chi” that drives all things in a “martial-arts-engulfed-dystopian-future-world” in Sarah Lin’s "Street Cultivation ~ books 1 & 2”.

It took me till the second book to notice this fact because I’m slow and Sarah Lin’s writing is elegant.

Her characters don’t over explain their world to “readers” but simply ARE IN IT cultivating “chi” in a myriad of ways. Like fish who swim through different types of flowing water they exist in a world saturated with this mystic power from space - but it's all tightly controlled by multi-national-even-dimensional-corporations.

I’ve NOT absorbed the “stats”... and I could care less about their details. I’m here for a fresh tale about unique warriors in mystic-martial-art-action - and I’m not disappointed yet.

No male perspective?
I admit the mistake of thinking that a book about a ‘hero’ in a martial-art-world shouldn’t be written by a woman. However, my shallow view was proved completely wrong.

You see… the ( real ) martial arts world is sadly filled with macho pigs. So much so, that it’s tricky finding a good school who has a decent sifu ( or sensei ) who’s not a arrogant bully, but more of a wise “Master Po”.
Thus, it’s just as hard finding a good martial art BOOK written by a “mister Miyagi” instead of by a macho “Cobra-Kai” jerk.

Happily, this book seems to be written by a “wise old master ( or mistress )” with some unique tales to tell.

I’ve read too many of the ass-hole perspective martial-art-books full of unnecessary (and thus unbelievable) sex & violence, cliche’ tough-guy humor, ridicules fights, disgusting treatment of women & the torture of helpless victims. These books are psychotic trash giving the martial arts a bad reputation.

“Street Cultivation” treated me to smart female & moralistic male characters, living unusual lives, in a believable, yet fantastic, futuristic-martial-art-world where fighting is everywhere like simple street-brawling by ( yeah ) macho idiots, but, it's also the most powerful mystical-kung-fu-warrior-5H!T on the whole planet reaching up to mythological god-like powerful RAWK & ROLL, BABY!
…plus everything in-between.

Yes, it’s refreshing to read a book about ‘a martial-art-world” not filled with repulsive toxic-male bull-S. However, when our young athletic Rick Hunter sits on the couch, touching sock-feet with his sister, drinking juice, and discussing their hopes & dreams ...and dating… well, you wonder.
Perhaps Sarah Lin might contemplate a bit more about the degree that young men are slaves to the testosterone filling their bloodstreams.

It's like this...
While there are sublime passages of awe-inspiring martial art action against human & non-human foes, there are segments between those that read like a (high-quality) romance novel. Surprisingly it is this bizarre literary structure that rounds out the characters into 3-D humans. People with awesome fighting abilities & glowing emotional relationships - i.e. someone you’d dream of being or of being with.

…and all that makes for a damn fine read.

One last thing…
Travis Balder.
Wow! One of the best narrators I’ve had the pleasure to listen to. Hard to believe he’s only one guy - Travis is a vocal impersonator of some impressive skill. It’s amazing to hear a single man doing that many believable female & male characters without dipping into a “Muppet Show” of extremely cartoonish voices & accents to fill out a sizable cast of distinct characters... it's pretty impressive.

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Robustly odd martial arts tale

Revisado: 07-07-24

Being a life long martial arts practitioner I love a good martial art tale. I adore the mythology of styles, weapons, masters, villains, heroes, heroines, demons and other supernatural strangeness that comes with such stories - this book had little of the classical traditions and a whole pantheon of unexpected weirdness and wacked-out stuff…
However, I was held fast to the very end by the hero’s bravery and warmth,,, and I really wanted to see him over come it all and kick some righteous butt.
( not sure I ever understood the power structure/portfolio things, but I didn’t have to, I still enjoyed it.

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Robustly Weird Western Mythology

Revisado: 07-07-24

The best westerns are those that paint the "old west" as a mythic place of good vs evil that's peopled with a pantheon of heroes, heroines, devils, witches, demons, monsters, strange creatures, vile villains, cursed lands, haunted countryside, and the ordinary folks who brave all to do what they believe is the right thing - and maybe discover they just might be extraordinary.

This is such a western. ( ...an' it's a good'un, to boot!)

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The Rats! The rats in the walls!

Revisado: 07-04-24

The first “tail” is a gross & wiggly rat-haired rodent-fear provoking shock & creep-out story that’d shine like a dark star amid any classic issue of “Creepy” or “Eerie” magazine.

The next two loose all their enjoyable characters and any interesting loss of disbelief.

One hit, two misses.

A creepy and smart wave of rats 🐀 can make me shudder- and mutter”Hurry up!” at the people in the book.

The next two stories had me not caring about any of the characters, and I never got the essential “EESSH!” reaction to the critters I was supposed to fear.

Good first tale.
Anger that, I urge you to put down the book and look for something good to read.

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