PissWeakly Reviews: November 2022

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Empire of the Vampire

Empire of the Vampire (#1)

horror

not read in November 2022

rated 2/10: unreadably bad

... though I really do need a rating for, "Not going to waste my time"

The book begins with a character, presumably the hero, in a cell, due to be killed by vampires.

instead of immediate death he begins to tell his life story.

I skip to the end of the book.

Sure enough, the same character is about to continue, telling his life story.

in between are 700 pages of, I guess, nastiness which goes nowhere.

Detailing the inevitable destruction of a person who is of no interest.

Not interested.

I don't bother.

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Age of Ash, Daniel Abraham

Age of Ash,

(Kithamar #1)

by Daniel Abraham (aka James SA Corey)

fantasy

read in November 2022

rated 4/10: bad but could be read

Solid world-building and not much else.

An immense number of words spent describing a city-state, its citizens and their day-by-day lives.

Hordes of characters. None of them worth knowing.

Okay, one sympathetic character. Surrounded by creeps, nasties and low-lifes. Yes, an overall hint of community support but it doesn't help, everyone is so grindingly poor that good will is pointless.

Finally, the evil centre of the city is explained -- I almost missed it, I was so sick and tired of the tedious prose that I was skimming. Clearly, the author was paid by the word.

Then... finally... the book ends. The story, unfortunately, does not end. Some characters have moved on, others just disappeared. Overall, the city is unchanged.

And the evil villain is waiting round the corner, waiting for the author to bore us with two more volumes. Supposedly a trilogy but I doubt it. I suspect that the author will not be content with a mere three books of incredible tedium. I won't hold my breath. But I will remember the author's name -- and his pseudonym -- and hope to avoid his future boring nonsense.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

... Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

===

"Yesterday I knew nothing. Today I know that." ... per Ginger Meggs

Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com/ :-)

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

The Desert Prince / Peter V Brett

fantasy

read in October 2022

rated 7/10: well worth reading

Plenty of fantasy (and science fiction) books follow social trends and provide a strong heroine. Sometimes more than strong, heroines may be as violent and as bloodthirsty as Conan. Equal opportunity regardless of gender.

This book goes a step further.

Princess Olive is a pampered flower, dressed in frills, powdered perfumed and painted. Oh, and learning to fight.

Then she becomes Prince Olive and learns even more about fighting -- and killing. Yet the killing is, mostly, of demons, so not as nasty.

One character. Hero and heroine... extreme equal opportunity.

And it works. Olive -- in both aspects -- is a likeable and sympathetic character.

The action takes place in two main arenas: a benevolent democracy and a macho city of strong men and veiled subservient women. With Olive introducing a small amount of benevolence. Of course :-)

At the start of the book I thought, the world and characters are well introduced. With a few words, new setting and characters are quickly familiar.

As I read on I began to think... Have I missed a book one? There is a lot of back-story. A host of historic characters. Well introduced but... did they have a book of their own?

And then the book ended... with characters lost, needing to be rescued. Villains defeated but ready to return. There is a lot of to be continued... But it doesn't matter. The ending is satisfactory. The main characters are mostly safe (or dead).

An enjoyable book. With a unique main character.