Review: Servants of War

Title: Servants of War

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09QTXRSGK/

Author: Larry Correia, Steve Diamond  

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments:  This is one of the rare trad-pub books I have read since starting CBR, and to be honest I don't think I've read any trad-pub books that Larry Corriea wasn't involved with in recent memory.  I find trad-pub tiresome these days because the rate of publication is just tragically and painfully slow.  I mean years between entries in a series?   I have to *really* like an author to keep up with his stuff when it's that slow.

So I like Larry's stuff.  That almost wasn't enough to get me through this book.  Story is great, but the narrative flow in the first quarter of the book is just non-existent.  We keep skipping between POV's for no apparent reason and without apparent connection.  I'm sure my regular reader will recognize that is a major point of annoyance for me when reading. At about 20% I popped on Larry's group on MeWe and asked "Does this crap improve because this is almost more than I'm willing to tolerate?"  Fortunately the answer was yes, and I pushed on.

I am glad I did but dang it was hard getting started.

So we have a very unique and unusual world with lots of depth.  There is lots of world building without info dumps (yay!)  There are also believable and relatable characters.

On the downside they have put in no less than 4 or 5 POV's and at least 2 of which I really don't want to read because they're awful characters.  Not poorly written, just objectively evil and I'm not a fan of evil characters.

Anyway in a few years I will probably read the sequel, if I remember reading the book.

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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Review: Accorded Nobility

Title: Accorded Nobility (Binding Words Book 8)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VMKXTZK/

Author: Daniel Schinhofen

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments: Ok, when I get more than 5 books into a series I feel like reviews are kind of superfluous.  I mean if you're 7 books into a series, you must like it, right?  But I guess it's actually likely that people lose interest as a series goes on and the readership attrits and dwindles.

So if you made it through book 7, there's no reason to put off book 8.  Sean and Co  move to a new city, and find new friends, and Sean shows enough self-awareness to avoid some of his previous missteps.

If I have any quibbles with this series, it's that Sean is too unfailingly attentive to his ladies, I mean everyone has an off day, except Sean.  

These books are slice of life, and the pace is deliberately and consciously ... measured.  Some people call them slow, but that's the nature of the beast when you get into slice of life, you go through all the stuff between the big events.  These books make a nice break from other more lean and mean narratives where every word, dot, and tittle move the action forward.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: Between Worlds 3

Title: Between Worlds Three (The Occupation Saga Book 3)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09W5ZNMDM/

Author: J.L. Williams 

Rating: 4.8/5

Comments:  Just about 9 months ago I reviewed book 2.  Unlike I stated in that review I did not wind up reading it as it was posted to Reddit because I have found that consuming a book at the rate of a chapter every couple weeks to be unsatisfying.  Like trying to eat a bowl of pasta one noodle at a time.

Anyway, I think this is a better book than book 2, and I certainly had fewer quibbles with it.  The ending was a big surprise so I'm not sure what he's going to do with book 4.

Worth a look even if you are ambivalent about cross-species relations.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: There's a hole in my bucket

Title: There's a Hole in my Bucket: A Journey of Two Brothers

https://www.amazon.com/Theres-Hole-Bucket-Journey-Brothers-ebook/dp/B08MZRKQPP

Author: Royd Tolkien

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments: This might be the first non-fiction book I've put up here, but hey I read it, it's going up here and if it's not to your taste, carry on.

Mike and Royd are the great-grandson's of JRR Tolkien, and Royd recounts what life was like for them when Mike developed ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's disease, aka Motor Neuron Disease.  It mainly deals with Mike's bucket list which he bequeaths to his brother to do after he passes. Some of the stories are touching, some are funny, a few are horrifying and they are all told out of order, but it all works.  It conveys in the events of the narrative just how much Royd loved his brother in a way that mere words would fail.  I'm not going to even slightly deny that I read this because I am a huge Middle-Earth nerd.  His great-grandsons are not paragons of virtue, but they are genuine, and relatable and I am glad I read/listened to it.

So if you have a wild hair to try something different give this a try.

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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Review: Trojan Nightmare

Title: Trojan Nightmare: A LitRPG Cultivation Series (Apocalypse Cultivation Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09MWN73TB/

Author: Blaise Corvin    

Rating: 3.5/5

Comments:  This is one of those books that I finished and thought to myself "What did I just read?"

Similar to Paragon of Blood it seems to consciously and deliberately straddle as many genres as possible.  Hell it even seems to straddle most of the same ones.  I don't want to get into spoilers, but the protagonist goes through a few different changes which heavily impact what he is and they mostly left me in a state of being unable to relate to him.  Again it straddled into the System Apocalypse genre which I may have mentioned I really hate, but it wasn't a huge factor with this book.

I might read the next one just out of morbid curiosity.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Cultivating Chaos 3

Title: Cultivating Chaos 3 (VeilVerse: Cultivating Chaos)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09TZT5T79/

Author: William D. Arand

Rating: 4.7/5

Comments:  Cultivating Chaos is one of my favorite series of Arand's.  It was the first cultivation/wuxia book that I had ever read, so I didn't understand a lot of the in-jokes and trope contraventions that I put in, but it was fun and fresh. Book 3 meanders a bit, and takes an unexpected turn (or 4) but pulls you right along with it.  The ending is a sucker punch that I still don't know how to process.

I docked it .3 points because there wasn't enough of my favorite alchemist.

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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Review: Paragon of Blood

Title: Paragon of Blood

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09T3S5MGS/

Author: Luke Chmilenko, Alex Knight  

Rating: 3.9/5

Comments:  This story was a little better than "It doesn't suck".   It seems to go out of its way to make sure it doesn't fit neatly into any of the genre's that it flirts with.  It has some litrpg elements, some system apocalypse elements, and a few more genres.  That being said the going out of its way bit seems just a little too deliberate, and rather than seeming innovative it just seems calculated to appear innovative.  Also, I'm seeing a lot of stories where blood is the special effect of the powers and that's just kind of gross IMO.  I think anyone who likes this idea needs to see what happens to a lot of blood in real life.

Anyway, I finished it, but I have no burning desire to see what happens next.  Honestly the core story of power and betrayal is pretty good, but all the other bits that are hung off of it drag it down.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Vapor Trails

Title: Vapor Trails (Terran Scout Fleet Book 3)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098RC4WYC/

Author: Joshua Dalzelle

Rating: 4.1/5

Comments:

This is book 3 of the Terran Scout Fleet, and it ties up the story started in book one very nicely.  I like to shift to some gritty sci-fi as a palate cleanser when I have had my limit of fantasy books and this fills the bill nicely.  It does shift POV which in this genre is almost expected, for whatever reason.  There's another series in this timeline which focuses on the events around this protagonist's father which I haven't read, but I might based on this series.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Law of Family and Battlemaster's skirmish

Title: Law of Family: A Litrpg Portal Adventure (Four Laws Book 2)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09MPSDDYB/
 Author: David Burke

Title:  Battlemaster's Skirmish: A LitRPG Monster Girl Harem Adventure (Tournion Book 2)

Rating: 3.6/5

Comments:  I am putting these two together because my reaction to them is essentially the same.  I liked previous books better than I liked their sequels.  The first books had more interest because we were establishing the world, and introducing the characters. The book 2's had a lot of stuff going on but not a lot of growth in the protagonist and the relationships with the characters introduced in book 1 didn't significantly develop. It was a lot of "Oh my god my sexy waifu I realized yet again for the fifth time this chapter how much I love you.  Let me worship your meaty dripping sex until you are ruined for any other man!"  And there's a lot of sex.  In some cases it seems to be sex for the sake of sex.  I skipped a lot of pages of thrusting, moaning, and pulsing.  In the case of Battlemaster, he seems to be picking up women like a lint roller.  Bordering on Chad in Vaginaland.

Anyway, I am ambivalent about book 3 on both of these.  I guess it will depend on my mood when they come across my feed.  I don't expect I'll be checking the series page regularly to see if they have a new installment.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: Superpowers Unlocked

Title: Superpowers Unlocked: A Superhero Harem Adventure 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09SZRLCXS/

Author: Justin Trublood

Rating: 3.5/5

Comments:

This is not a serious story, this is a very light superhero story, with a lot of sex and magically simple relationships.   I mean all the depth of a raindrop.  It was entertaining, so it didn't suck, but if you apply any critical thinking you will sprain your eyes rolling them so hard.  I thought his other book was a better story, although it had its own issues.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: Challenger's Call 5-7

Title: Challenger's Call 5-7

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086XH83JN/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08R5Y8XS2/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09BLFBVDV/

Author: Nathan Thompson

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments:

This series has continued to be a quality story.  I feel like when I get this deep into a series, the reviews become kind of repetitive.  I mean narratively we didn't break any new ground in these books, but the story has advanced and we have a slew of new and fun characters.  Breena continues to be an awesome character.  Honestly if you liked the rest of the series there's no reason you won't like these 3.  I saw on Facebook that he's actually about done with book 8, so that is looking good.

If there is one observation I have, it's that as we go through this story, the original primary villain is being reduced in importance and relative power without actually being defeated.  I would like some resolution with that asshole.

Bedroom Activities: None

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