Tag: Book Club

Stephanie Plum – books 7 to 10

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

I achieved my goal of reading the first 10 books in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. The series is about a hot formerly unemployed bounty hunter who chases evil folks and loses them 10 times per book to only capture them on the 11th attempt. This is usually funny and low-risk, with no drama.

The story evolved over the last 4 books.

  • Criminals are no longer inviting themselves to Stephanie’s apartment at the same rate. The ability to break 3 of the top 10 locks out there is not that common and people breaking in at a whim started getting annoying. I’m glad this part is gone, hopefully, to never be seen again
  • Characters who were captured in previous books reappeared either as allies or as adversaries
  • Janet Evanovich started developing some wicked love for donuts and cakes. All female characters eat sugar like their life depend on it. Truckloads of donuts, chips, and cake. On one occasion, truckloads of bacon.
  • Stephanie’s sidekick Lula developed the sit-jitsu battle skill where she would sit on a criminal and squash them as a bug
  • Stephanie’s two love interests Joe Morelli and Ranger are no longer translucent. Morelli is the cop and Ranger is the mysterious millionaire in love with the clumsy nerd. Both didn’t add anything to the story over the last 4 books and I wish they get assignments in Venezuela. They were better when they were translucent.

All in all, books 7 to 10 are all in the 4/5 territory. They’re fine and I may read a few more because reading about Stephanie Plum is comforting. I just hope she stops eating donuts. It’s bad for her and unpleasant for me. We don’t want the main characters to die from sugar poisoning.

Thraxas and the Elvish Isles by Martin Scott

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This is the 4th book of the series for the round former battle mage Thraxas and his fierce friend Makri. I reviewed the first one here and then read and . Part 4 felt like the best and most balanced of all. It is the best mystery and the one with the least battles. Still zero drama.

Thraxas is invited to an Elven island to help with a murder case. Elves have no crime and no detectives. Murder on their island is a big thing. Asking questions, on the other hand, is not appreciated. On top of it, it looks like people are under some kind of spell, the murderess is inadequate, and the high elves do not drink beer.

From a character development point of view, have a chance to learn about Makri’s Orkish kendoka origins. She will wield some wooden swords this time.

5/5. The book on Goodreads.

Avenger! By Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson

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Back in 1992, I had the chance to read a series of 4 gamebooks called The Way of the Tiger. It was the second-best series after Blood Sword, captivating the young mind’s imagination with both its well-crafted fantasy world, and the feeling of challenge. Little did I know that the original series had 6 books. It required completing the first two for a successful read. The series has a secret kick called “Kwon’s Flail” that is only available in the first chapter. My friends and I didn’t know that, so we searched the 4 books from 1992-3 for any hint on how to find that. It remained a mystery for some years.

The local community figured out the Kwon Flail problem in the Internet age and published books 1 and 2 sometimes over the last decade. I managed to find a copy of book 1 last week and read it this weekend. It was a nice refresher. Got me back to my teenage years.

The book itself is in a magic world where Gods compete with each other and use humans as puppets. The main character is a ninja who follows the good god Kwon. There’s magic, taverns, warriors, monks, a Barbarian, arenas, and whatnot. The authors describe it as Middle Earth with Ninjas. What makes it good is that the choices actually make sense. You need to pay attention while reading it, and take notes, and there’s a strong chance you’ll succeed in the mission with 4-5 failures. It has some hidden gems, not all of which need to be uncovered. The book allows for collecting unnecessary items and fighting dormant enemies.

Overall, 5/5, first true 5/5 for a gamebook this year. I have book 2 on my shelves, waiting for me but do not have the final book 7. It might turn out to be a hard find.

The Hammer of God by Arthur Clarke

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I read this book with the intent to read a classic sci-fi from the times when the skies were still tempting and the Solar system felt within our reach. The book felt close to that but to my surprise, it turned out it was written in 1993. It’s still a 1960s book, just one that ignores large areas of the emerging tech and focuses on the dreams from the past. It has neuralink but the data transfer reminds me of floppies. The propulsion methodologies remained in the 60s as well, or at least sounded that way.

I found the prediction of societal changes more interesting than the tech area. The biggest one in the book is that Christianity and Islam merge and form a new hugely influential religion – Chrislam. Artur Clarke predicted that the massive mixture of people from these two faiths would lead to the birth of a prophet who will merge the faiths in one. Okay, this idea is cool, but how would that happen? There are so many problems that would need a resolution and remained unaddressed. Religion is not just about faith, it’s also about history and tradition and these have gained thousands of years of divergence. How do you undo something like that?

Perhaps some other book will imagine an answer while addressing at least some of mismatching historical claims, the spiritual differences, and the cultural problems. The common ancestry is not good enough. The whole asteroid approaching Earth problem didn’t help and was probably unnecessary.