Category: Aa

The Story of Sorrel — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

The Story of Sorrel -- Joseph R. LalloIsn’t that just the most awesome cover?

This book is supposed to be a side shoot from The Book of Deacon series, and while it is a fairly stand alone story, i do feel its quite an important part of the series and a definite must read if you want to fully enjoy the whole series.   It is best read right before The Crescents, as, although The Crescents is set many years in the future, The Story of Sorrel sets the stage for everything that happens in The Crescents.

So, what about the story?   Well, obviously from the cover art, we’re dealing with Sorrel, who is a malthrope, and a rather large dragon.   Yes, i admit it, i love dragons, and any good story about dragons always gets a big thumbs up from me, and this is a very good dragon story.   Malthropes are really interesting creatures that Joseph created for this series and mixing up a story with malthropes and dragons is, quite simply, wonderful.

I say malthropes, plural, because you will remember from reading The Rise of the Red Shadow that when Sorrel left she wasn’t alone, she had her two children with her.   So along with Sorrel’s story we also get to find out what happened to the children too.

So a completely new environment, a completely new dragon, fairies and malthropes, and maybe a few other things as well.   It’s Joseph at his best and absolutely essential reading for Deacon fans everywhere.

The 11th book in The Book of Deacon series.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

Arrrgh!!! — and a Coffee Recipe

By 5t4n5

Too many websites, not enough life.

Too much everything and not enough life.

Still, i discovered the most delicious coffee today…

Get a 400ml+ mug, we’re having coffee so no pissy little thimble things: this ain’t France!!!
17.5ml Lavazza Prontissimo Intenso
12.5ml Dr Oetker cocoa
10ml Demerara sugar
Pour on refrigerated and shaken 100g Alpro original cashew juice
Pour on 260g Boiling water
Stir really well and enjoy.

Hint…   Buy a proper set of stainless steel teaspoon measures.   1tsp = 5ml   &   1/2tsp = 2.5ml

Guestimating with various sized, common garden teaspoons will never lead to anything tasting consistent and if it isn’t consistent then it won’t taste as nice as it should, because all human brains are hardwired to like consistency: the more consistent something we normally consume is the more our brains register that it is safe to consume.   This is why people clamour for those corporate clone coffee shops so much, it’s not that their coffee is actually better than anyone else’s, it’s because it’s always made exactly the same in every shop, it’s the consistency of taste, temperature, and even how it’s served.

Remember, it’s consistency and how often you consume the consistent that makes things taste nice: mcfilth — and other crappy junk food pushers — have been exploiting this hardwiring towards consistency for decades.   You can use the same hard wiring to make good things taste better for yourself in your own home: weigh and measure things with accurate measuring utensils.

#5t4n5 #coffee #recipes

The Given — Colby R. Rice

By 5t4n5

The Given -- Colby R. RiceWow, that was intense.

The book begins with a car chase trying to retrieve the ‘Final Page’, which has been stolen, but then jumps 2 months forward into the story proper giving no explanation of what the ‘Final Page’ is, who the people were, or what events preceded it.   I believe this is called foreshadowing — someone please correct me if i’m mistaken.   But, whatever the literary device is called it’s certainly done with great effect.   It throws you, head first, straight into the non stop action of this relentless book, which isn’t going to let you off its hook until you get to the end, and even then, it’ll leave you hooked on the next book in the series.

As we leave the enigmatic first chapter and begin to move through the book, more and more is slowly revealed.   The various characters appear, which Colby does a wonderful job bringing to life, and it feels as much a character driven story as a plot driven one.   All the characters are really good and well written.

And as the characters are revealed so is each of the various groups that they belong to within the world of the story.   And then, within each group, sub-groups begin to appear, each with their own rivalries and agendas.

Thrown into the middle all of this is our protagonist, Ezekiel, who, along with her little sister, are simply trying to survive.   But you really get the feeling that the only way of surviving the future that is coming to them is to join one of the many groups.

Getting to the end of the book and looking back: the whole book is mostly setting the stage and introducing the various characters and groups that i presume will be the basis of the story going forward, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s more to be added.   It really is an incredibly complex and diverse dystopian future humanity has found itself in, but’s it’s never too complex to leave you confused — a very fine line that Colby walks incredibly well.

Final thoughts: i’m very much left looking forward to reading The Taken, but i just have a quick novella i pre-ordered and have been eagerly waiting to read to whizz through first.   So yeah, i’ll definitely be back very soon with more of Ezekiel’s world.

Awesome!

Also available in Uprising: 12 Dystopian Futures.

Colby’s Page

#fantasy #dystopian #colbyrrice

Of Mutability — Jo Shapcott

By 5t4n5

Of Mutability -- Jo ShapcottWhen i set up this website i added my whole Kindle collection from Amazon.   Amongst many books that i didn’t know i had was this one, and i’ve still no idea how it appeared on my account.

Although i don’t normally read poetry, i usually enjoy it when i do, and i was actually looking forward to reading through this collection.

But i have to say, i’m seriously disappointed.   I made it 10% in, which i admit is not very far, but i really couldn’t take any more.

I have no idea when random babble written as bad prose that then gets chopped up randomly into lines that have no cadence, meter, rhythm, rhyme, structure or style got defined as poetry, but it seems that some people now claim it is.

I suppose its the same type that class Sewing Machine in Hessian Sack as modern art — utter bollox!

Here’s some modern poetry (apparently):

It may please the Sunday Times
cryptic crossword
crowd while drinking
Costa
coffee from a disposable cup
(see front cover), but
i very much doubt it
will please anyone
else.

Deleted!

Jo’s Page

#poetry #joshapcott #whataloadofcrap

The D’Karon Apprentice — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

The D'Karon Apprentice -- Joseph R. LalloThe 10th book in The Book of Deacon series.

Wow, i really, really enjoyed this book.   The series just keeps getting better.

In this episode we finally find out how the D’Karon got into the world in the first place, and also why.   And so, once more, The Chosen have to get together and do their thing to try and stop it happening all over again, while all the time trying to prevent the war between the Alliance and Tressor from re-igniting.

And while all this is going on Myn’s found herself a boyfriend — awwww, sweeet.   This for me is the best bit about this book as, other than a brief time with Solomon who is only a handbag dragon, Myn has never met a real dragon before.   So Myn, not doing anything by halves, finds herself a big, manly, battle dragon to play with.   It’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s everything a first crush should be — just with two rather large and very dangerous dragons.

And Ether’s having her own crisis of existence at the same time.

Brilliant stuff.   And now onto The Crescents.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

The Redemption of Desmeres — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

The Redemption of Desmeres -- Joseph R. LalloThe 9th book in The Book of Deacon series.

I really liked this book.   Desmeres is one of those characters that one just loves to read about.   He’s the best at what he does, he knows it, and certainly isn’t shy about letting everyone else know it either.   Now some might say they can’t abide him and his full of himself attitude and overbearing confidence, but isn’t that why James Bond is such a popular character?   Isn’t that why so many of us root for our favourite sports stars?   There’s that bit in all of us would just love to pile on through life with that attitude that everything will just work out ok for us because we’re so damned good at what we do, and everytime something knocks us down we’ll just bounce straight back up again and give it an even better go next time, and that’s the bit that we love reading about in characters in books, the bits that we struggle to find within ourselves.

So onto the story.

In The Battle of Verrel Desmeres had previously found himself at the bottom of a shit pit of his own digging when he did the dirty on The Chosen and helped the D’Karon for a while.   And so he found himself having to lend a load of his best weapons to the Undermine in an attempt to climb out of said shit pit.   But, whereas he maybe should have let them keep the weapons, Desmeres made clear that he would have them back once the D’Karon were defeated.   And so we begin this book with Queen Caya and the Undermine having all their weapons stolen back by Desmeres and in doing so getting himself firmly back down in the aforementioned shit pit of everyone’s disapproval once more.

So Queen Caya is left with no choice but to assign the Elite to hunt him down and bring him to justice, if for no other reason but to save face.

And so begin the hunts and evasions around the Northern Alliance lands, while all the time Desmeres is attempting to fulfill a plan of his own for his own redemption that requires him to stay ahead of the Elite.

And i have to say, this is a great story.   One of the best of the series.

Once again, as usual, great characters by Joseph, and a great plot with a few interesting and fun twists and turns, some expected and some not so expected.   A really good read.

And now onto The D’Karon Apprentice.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

Organ Donor UK

By 5t4n5

From 2020 the UK government have made a law that you will automatically be a body part donor in the event of your death whether you have chose to be or not.

Personally i find this disgusting.   That a bunch of politico cunts will lay claim to any or all of your body parts after you died as their property to do what they like with without your prior, voluntary consent is a step too far, and is, most certainly, another step closer to ‘Soylent Green’.

And what happens when someone important to the government wants a specific body part from a specific blood group, etc..   All your genetic, blood, tissue, etc., details are being collected into an ever expanding government database and whenever they require an organ from any specific type of person then it’s not too far fetched to imagine what can happen when they have deliberately and legally turned you into an organ harvesting animal at their disposal whenever they want — which is what this law does.

It’s all well and good if you don’t mind your body being chopped up and used however politicans decide their agents can use it, but if that’s the case then you should opt in, which has historically always been the case.   But it’s not the case any longer.   From 2020 the UK government will claim ownership over your whole body once you are dead and butcher it up like an animal carcass to do whatever they like with unless you specifically opt out.

You can do so by going to the “Register a decision not to donate” webpage of the NHS.

If the government was truly concerned about you, the people, then they would have created a completely different method of farming human organs: that of offering services in return to the donor.

It’s not too far fetched an idea that if the NHS uses any part of your body after you die then the government should pay a decent sum of money to the next of kin towards funeral/cremation costs of what remains after they’ve finished harvesting.   There’s always people complaining about the cost of funerals, so why not offer free cremations for all body part donors?   This will also have the effect of making people look after themselves a lot better because if their organs aren’t healthy then they won’t get used.   But this isn’t even an option.   The politicos will take whatever bits they want and send the bill to dispose of the rest to your next of kin.

It’s very simple, if enough people opt out then the government will have to change the system and start offering a fair price towards funeral/cremation costs for all body parts donated.   It really is that simple.

#5t4n5 #organharvesting #refusetodonate #soylentgreen #thoughts

The Adventures of Rustle and Eddy — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

The Adventures of Rustle and Eddy -- Joseph R. LalloThe 8th book in The Book of Deacon series.   Although it isn’t actually part of the main series.

A genuine stand alone book that can be enjoyed either with or without the main series, and vice versa.   It just so happens that this story happens in the same world as The Book of Deacon series.

So what’s it about?   Well, to begin, it’s mostly a children’s story, and if you have any children who like things like fairies and mermaids then i’m sure they’ll love you to read them this story.

Essentially, a fairy ends up getting snatched from the shore by a merman and dragged off under the sea for a rather big and exciting adventure.   What more can a child ask from a story?

And even if you’re not a child and just including this book because you’re reading The Book of Deacon as a whole series, like i am, this is a nice fun book to read.   After all the heaviness of The Battle of Verrel and the end of the war, it’s nice to have a book like this to take a breather from the main series before diving back in for the second half.   It really is a great, half time, refreshment read.

So, to sum up, a nice easy read, which i think would be great for children either for reading themselves or being read to.   The characters are enjoyable, well written, fun, and keep you on their side all the way through.

And now i dive straight back into the main series with The Redemption of Desmeres.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #mermaids #josephrlallo