Richard S. Swol

Another exceptional book from Will Murray

Reviewed: 01-05-25

This is the second volume of the Wild Adventures of Sherlock Holmes stories. Again the author takes a classic character and supplies them with an appropriate story, keeping to canon personality traits while presenting new and bizarre mysteries to solve. I, personally found them all excellent and in keeping with the Holmes I am familiar with.

My only quibble was with the narration of Dr Watson. Several times his character voice was over done with a "mouth full of marbles" kind of result. In my opinion he tried to mimic Nigel Bruce a bit too closely.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed the book and would recommend it without hesitation to anyone interested in Sherlock Holmes or pulp adventures in general.

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A nice Scalzi novella

Reviewed: 12-23-24

Trademark Scalzi humor and satire course through this all too short story.

Ashley is a new hire in District 3s offices acting as a liaison between the city and District 3 which is, by a vast majority, inhabited by aliens. These are not violent invasion type aliens, these are aliens who have settled here and are living their lives and running their businesses. As with any city, the residents tend to want to complain about various things to the city. So they go see Ashley about whatever it is.

Scalzi uses his trademark humor and snarkiness to tell a genuinely fun story that shows that people are alike all over....even if they're not human.

Recommended.

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Back to the inner world

Reviewed: 12-21-24

The new super arc storyline begins here. This time the story circles the mystery of the dead world... the pendant moon within Pellucidar. After rushing to Pellucidar to locate his missing daughter, Korak is thrust into several nonstop adventures along with his mangani companion, Akut. It starts with an airship hijacking and gets wilder from there, with the end result of a Abner Perry built biplane flight to the mysterious internal moon. Meanwhile, Merriam, Koraks mate, is more than a bit annoyed that he left the surface world without waiting for her to join him. She proceeds to take a more direct, if unconventional route to the savage world. There she stuck on a desert island, befriended by giant turtles, and is menaced by multiple prehistoric sea monsters, and then flies to the dead world herself.

we're only about half way through the book here. It's quite good and quite entertaining.

We're also treated to a novella follow-up to Victory Harben: The Fires of Halos. In this case we follow Jansen Gridley on an adventure into the Land of Awful Shadow, where he gets mixed up with a strange tribe's religion and internal politics. It's a fast paced story with likable characters.

I strongly recommend this whole series.

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1 person found this helpful

Darker than I expected

Reviewed: 12-11-24

I had expected, based on the fact that there was a musical Broadway play and film based on this book, not so dark a storyline. Yes, I understand that this was based on a character that we all know ends up on the wrong side of a bucket of water, but this struck me as really dark. The book begins with our main character being born. Okay. We are then provided nearly a chapter or more of the adults present trying to decide if they should murder the newborn. Elphiba's childhood is equally grim and depressing. It's only when she goes away to school when you start to see her personality, prickly though it may be. Her life progresses in a more or less downward spiral as she tries to do the right thing time after time only to have circumstances foil her best intentions. The world of Oz, within this telling, is full of fanaticism, religious zealotry, murder, adultery, sex clubs, bigotry, and people acting in exceedingly meanspirited ways.

If you want a very adult oriented fantasy novel, very loosely based on a beloved children's book, this book is right up your alley. It was not what I expected and I therefore didn't appreciate the storyline and atmosphere. Was it well written? Absolutely. The author did quite a good job with that. It simply was not for me. Be aware of just how dark this is before proceeding.

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excellent writing as usual

Reviewed: 11-23-24

A novella of John Decker as he remains trapped in Edwardian London. It's Christmas and Decker is missing his fiance who he is separated from by more than a century of time. His current boss, noting his mood, invites him to join his family at a Christmas celebration at a friend's country estate. Reluctantly, Decker agrees. The first night finds the festivities including a full on spiritualist seance. What could go wrong? You do know this is a John Decker story right? Soon, a ghostly boy is seen and one of the living children disappears. Over the next 24 hours the search is on.

Regarding the technical aspects of this story, We have a new narrator. He will take a little getting used to but he does a serviceable job. I recommend this novella.

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I liked it better than the first book

Reviewed: 11-20-24

The Boggart is back for another adventure and the kids from the first book are back as well, only this time in Scotland. They have come to visit the castle and their friends, including the new castle owner and newest host to the Boggart of Castle Keep. This promises adventure aplenty already. But add in a scientist set on finally officially proving the existence of the Loch Ness Monster and things get a bit more interesting. Now add in the fact that the monster is another Boggart and things get more interesting. It seems that the Loch Ness Boggart is depressed about his castle being destroyed a few centuries back, so much so that he is stuck in his monster shape. Our Boggart won't let that stand, and is determined to rescue his "cuz" and get him back to being a fun loving Boggart again. Meanwhile, the scientific expedition closes in...

A fun story and recommended.

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A modern classic

Reviewed: 11-13-24

This story has all of the earmarks of a classic fairy tale, mixed with Scottish folklore, modern and believable protagonists, all mixed together in what could easily be one of the better Disney movies of our youth. While written, obviously, for younger readers, the story doesn't shy away from topics like adult biases, death, mourning, and loneliness. This last, in many ways, is the driving force behind this story. It also gives the youthful protagonists intelligence and empathy. The supporting cast is well drawn out, with the possible exception of one character, who is described throughout the story as 'a creep". He tends to be less well drawn. There is even a non-traditional couple hinted at, without any pointless embellishments that often follow such characters. Here they are simply shown as lovingly supportive of the kids in the story. I recommend this book.

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The Moon Maid (A trilogy)

Reviewed: 11-07-24

This book contains The Moon Maid, The Moon Men, and The Red Hawk. The first reads a bit like John Carter crossed with At The Earth's Core. The remaining two are continuations of the first, each several generations later as the Earth has been overrun by the Moon Men. As such, these two read as post apocalyptic distopias. In my personal opinion, not nearly as entertaining as the first. I would not review them as ERB's best. However, Burroughs fans will still enjoy his writing.

The audiobook itself is somewhat annoying to me. Rather than have breaks at chapter ends, it's broken into hour and a quarter segments which make trying to figure out where you are in the trilogy, difficult.

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Even more fun than the Thursday Murder Club books

Reviewed: 10-25-24

I assumed that this would be very similar in tone to the Thursday Murder Club books. I was happily surprised to find the writing to be at the same high level but with the humor turned up several notches. I found myself laughing aloud multiple times listening to the book. I am absolutely sold on this new quirky series and can't wait for the next installment. I have already started telling people that they NEED to get this book.... and now I'm telling you as well. You won't regret it. Highly recommended!

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The second of the "new" Doc Savage books

Reviewed: 10-16-24

We pick up the story of the great grandson of the original Doc Savage and the great granddaughter of John Sunlight moments after the conclusion of the previous book as they are being pursued by a group of highly trained assassins. From there the story never really slows down. Explosions, escapes, marooned on an island, murders, not one but two megalomaniacs set on world domination, child armies, mercenaries, and plenty of danger and daring do.

This honestly reads (listens) a lot like a modern writing of the original Doc Savage books. Yes, there is swearing and some sex, but neither in excess and well within realistic bounds of modern storytelling.

This book SEEMS to provide a reasonable end to the story of these characters, but the door is still ajar for more adventures. If you are a fan of high adventure and enjoy the style of the old pulp novels, you will enjoy this book. I do enjoy those things and I greatly enjoyed the book. I recommend it.

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