Hello

Hello & Welcome
ugh face

I’m currently rebuilding the website as the old one got totally messed up when i was playing around with things (no idea what happened).

So i thought that while it was a total clusterfuck mess of SQL, i would take the opportunity to give it a whole new life and everything.

So if you go clicking on things you might find that very strange things happen. Don’t moan, i know a lot of things are broken, i’m working on it, it takes time.

I’ve got tons of old posts and pages from three websites that i’m working through and will be gradually posting all the stuff i want to keep on here while fixing all the broken things as i go through, one post, one page, at a time.

On top of doing all that, i will, of course, be continuing to add more new content and my latest posts will always appear directly below.

Or, if you prefer, you can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest where i put a link to all new posts.

Enjoy


The Book of Deacon — Joseph R. Lallo

The Book of Deacon -- Joseph R. LalloAlthough this is the fifth book in The Book of Deacon series, this is where the story truly begins.

In this book we follow the journey of a young woman, Myranda, as she gets all mixed up in the game between The Chosen and the D’Karon: it’s quite a journey.

It’s also a bit of an info dump, in that this is where we learn, through Myranda’s journey, how magic works in this world.   But it’s not a tedious info dump, the info is blended seamlessly into the story and everything just flows along at a really good pace and you never get any down time.

And we also end up back at Entwell during this story and discover what became of our sweet little fairy Ayna, and also get to know a few more of the characters there: which is always good.   There’s even a cute little baby dragon, and we all like dragons, especially cute little baby ones.   Joseph always throws a cute little beasty thing into his stories and they do make for a lot of fun.

This was my second reading of The Book of Deacon Anthology and it’s actually better than i remember it.   It really is one of the best fantasy series out there IMHO.   If you like fantasy, or are fantasy curious, then this series is a great one to read.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

The Rules of the Game — Joseph Lallo

The Rules of the Game -- Joseph LalloCurrently the fourth story in The Book of Deacon series.

When i first read The Book of Deacon several years ago, this short story wasn’t available and the difference is very noticeable when you go straight into The Book of Deacon from this short: it’s a much better beginning.   So, IMHO, a must read for anyone before starting The Book of Deacon.

As with The Rise of the Red Shadow this story also tells us of one of the Chosen prior to the events in the main story.   It also does dragons really well, and any book that does dragons really well is a great book.   We liked this one very much.

There are two ways i know to get a copy, one is to sign up to Joseph’s newsletter and you’ll get it for free, the other is by buying the Lone Wolf Anthology.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

Entwell Origins: Ayna — Joseph R. Lallo

Entwell Origins: Ayna -- Joseph R. LalloThe 3rd book in The Book of Deacon series is a little novella about a fairy named Ayna.

It covers a few aspects of Entwell that aren’t dealt with in the main story: like how fairies are captured and used as compasses to guide people through The Cave of the Beast.   Mostly, it does this through a young fairy named Ayna who has different ideas on what a fairy should aspire to once they reach Entwell.

I read the copy in The Book of Deacon Anthology and while it’s a nice little story i felt this had a few too many typos which become detracting at times.   Maybe someone needs to go back and correct all these little annoying errors and put out an update.   But, for now, it’s still worth a read to add a bit more to ones knowledge of Entwell and its inhabitants.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

The Rise of the Red Shadow — Joseph R. Lallo

The Rise of the Red Shadow -- Joseph R. LalloAt the time of writing this is the very first book in The Book of Deacon series, and what a book.

Essentially, it’s just an introduction to one of the series’ main characters, Lain, aka, The Red Shadow.

Lain is a kind of human/fox hybrid creature known as a Malthrope: which is where all his problems begin.   Malthropes are feared, hated, despised, distrusted and hunted to near extinction by almost everyone, and it’s only by pure chance that Lain is not killed when he is captured as a kit after his mother is killed.   But it’s a chance with a rather serious problem: he’s only being kept alive as a slave until he’s big enough for his tail to reach to the required length for his owner to claim the bounty on it.   And if that’s not enough, as a slave he is forced to work with the other slaves who all hate, distrust and despise him and are more than eager to let him know — apart from one old blind slave who seems to have different ideas about him.

Although this is only an introduction to Lain, it’s over 400 pages long and is a complete story in its own right; so if all you want is a taster for the rest of the series, it’s a great book to taste.

Action packed, lots of other great characters coming in and out of the story, twists and turns, engrossing, enjoyable.   Lain is a character you really want to root for.

This book can also be found in The Book of Deacon Anthology.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

Complete Works of Mark Twain — Mark Twain

Complete Works of Mark Twain -- Mark TwainNow i have the ‘Infinite Improbability Drive’ picking out my next book i might actually get around to reading some of this.

The Novels

The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Prince and the Pauper
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
The American Claimant
Tom Sawyer Abroud
Pudd’nhead Wilson
Tom Sawyer, Detective
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
A Horse’s Tale
The Mysterious Stranger

The Short Stories

Chronological List of Short Stories
Alphabetical List of Short Stories
Mark Twain’s Library of Humor

The Essays and Satires

List of Twain’s Essays and Satires

The Travel Writing

The Innocents Abroud
Roughing It
A Tramp Abroad
Following the Equator
Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion

The Non-Fiction

Old Times on the Mississippi
Life on the Mississippi
Christian Science
Queen Victoria’s Jubilee
My Platonic Sweetheart
Editorial Wild Oats

The Letters

The Complete Letters of Mark Twain

The Speeches

The Complete Speeches

The Criticism

Mark Twain by Archibald Henderson
Mark Twain by Brander Matthews
The Americans by David Christie Murray
Mark Twain by Frederick Waddy
New York Times Articles

The Biographies

Chapters from my Autobiography by Mark Twain
My Mark Twain by William Dean Howells
Mark Twain a Biography by Albert Bigelow Paine
The Boy’s Life of Mark Twain by Albert Bigelow Paine

Mark’s Page

#delphicompleteworks #marktwain

She Wore Only White — Dörthe Binkert

She Wore Only White -- Dörthe BinkertI have no idea why i bought this book, as at a glance it appears completely outside of my normal reading spectrum.

Based around a true story, which is always a good grounder for any story.   I may have to give it another read sometime and do a real review of it.   In the meanwhile though, don’t let my lack of review put you off, it’s well worth a read.   In fact, i enjoyed it so much that i bought Dörthe’s second book ‘Portrait of a Girl’: and i really enjoyed that as well.

Dörthe’s Page

#dorthebinkert



Currently

Fiction

Foundation and Empire -- Isaac Asimov With the rise of the machines on the horizon . . .
 
. . .me thinks it’s a good time to re-read Asimov.

Fiction

Four Seasons in Japan -- Nick Bradley The Cat and The City was excellent, let’s hope this is too.

Nonfiction

Why Work? -- Collection Yeah, why?

Nonfiction

More Zen.