Quantum Shift — Joseph R. Lallo

Quantum Shift -- Joseph R. LalloFairly good, but this series is getting rather repetitive.   I really think Joseph needs to go off on a different tangent with this story line.   Lex really doesn’t need to be saving every universe in existence in every story, surely there’s something else he’d rather be doing?

I like the crazy Karter stuff with lots of Ma, just not saving the universes every time Lex gets in a space ship.

Bye for now.

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Eddy’s Little Day — Joseph R. Lallo

Eddy’s Little Day -- Joseph R. LalloIf you enjoyed Joseph’s Book of Deacon side story The Adventures of Rustle and Eddy then you’ll love this little story.

Eddy borrows a few spells from his sister and goes off on an adventure to find Rustle, who hasn’t turned up for his latest visit.

Yes, those naughty fairy catchers are at it again, but they didn’t factor Eddy into their accounts.

I really enjoy the Rustle and Eddy stuff, so this was a very welcome sequel which i also really enjoyed.

Bye for now.

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An Ivy Tale — Joseph R. Lallo

An Ivy Tale -- Joseph R. LalloA nice little side story for all you fans of Joseph’s Book of Deacon series.

Ivy goes on a wander to cheer herself up when she gets a bored after saving the world and becoming an ambassador.   One day, during her wander, she walks into an inn where Malthropes aren’t exactly made welcome.

A sweet little story.

Bye for now.

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Contaminant Six — Joseph R. Lallo

Contaminant Six -- Joseph R. LalloAnd we’re back with the Wind Breaker crew for another episode of fuggy shenanigans.

Captain Mack is busy beginning his retirement plans when life decides to have other plans.   So it’s off back to the fug for yet another crazy adventure with another crazy nemesis to foil their plans.   Super good writing once again from Joseph.

If you liked the TV show Firefly and you haven’t given the Free-Wrench series a try, then please do.   It’s basically a steampunk version of the show.

Next up i’m off to read Upgrade by Blake Crouch, which i’m very much looking forward to.   Another fantastic writer that everyone should give a bit of their reading time to.

Bye for now.

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The Beast of the Cave — Joseph R. Lallo

The Beast of the Cave, written by Joseph R Lallo.Last time i counted this was the 11th book in The Book of Deacon series, cronologoically speaking; but, that’s at the time of writing this, Joseph may have thrown one or two more books into the mix since then.

Anyway, a really good novella telling us what Mott got up to after The D’Karon Apprentice, and best read as soon as you’ve finished that and before you read The Crescents.

One thing Joseph really excels at is writing cute, little creature characters into his stories, and even the most motley, messed up, creatures — like Mott — should be able to get a Lallo makeover once in a while.   Not that Mott will ever be as cute as Squee, but just don’t go judging a monster by its…

…well, whatever it is one judges monsters by these days:  every freaky, patchwork monster deserves a second chance.

Enjoy!

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Sidequests — Joseph R. Lallo

Sidequests, written by Joseph R Lallo.A delightful collection of short stories that Joseph was nice enough to give away to all those of us who receive his newsletter:   so sign up now!!!

Squee’s Day Out (Big Sigma)
Building the Perfect Pet (Big Sigma)
Meeting of the Mas (Big Sigma)
The New Inspector (Free-Wrench)
Lil and Coop (Free-Wrench)
The Beast of the Cave (Book of Deacon)

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Halfax — Joseph R. Lallo

Another addition to The Book of Deacon series.

This novella takes up the story after the events of Jade when Myn has gotten a little older, and i admit that i did have hopes that we may have found some of the answers to the questions that Jade had left festering in my mind: alas it was not to be.

Answers aside though, it’s a well written novella set in one of my favourite series, so i’m not complaining too much about being kept in the dark.   I’m sure Joseph will get around to filling in all the blanks for us in some future books.

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It Does Not Follow — Joseph R. Lallo

A short story that is a conversation between a scientist and an AI — with an interesting twist in the tail.

For those who have read Joseph’s Big Sigma series, you’ll know how good he is writing AI’s into his books.

Originally only available to Joseph’s Patreon subscribers but now also in the collection Paradoxes and Dragons.

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The Other Eight — Joseph R. Lallo

I admit to not being into all this super hero stuff — a bit of batman is as far as it goes with me.   So why was i reading this book?   Because it was written by Joseph — nuff said.

The reason i don’t like the normal super hero thing is that it’s all just plain stupid: get bit by a radio active spider and suddenly you can climb walls and beat the hell out of super villains.   Yeah, whatevah!   But The Other Eight takes that just plain stupid thing to the most silly it can get and just has some fun with it.   And, i have to say, it actually works.

At last a super hero story that actually sets out to be silly, rather than a silly super hero story trying it’s hardest to be serious.

So yeah, i like it.   Because every now and again one needs a bit of silly in ones life and this book fills that spot exceptionally well.   And just to make sure you actually get that message, Joseph throws in a relevant quote from the great Willy Wonker:

‘A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.’

Great writing, fun characters, fun story, just fun.

Enjoy.

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Bella’s Journey — Joseph R. Lallo

Sometimes a writer makes you feel that you should read everything they write, including the children’s stories — and hey, why not.

If you’ve got a young child, or an old one, especially one who likes unicorns, then this is a lovely little read.   Joseph does writes nice children’s stories.

Originally only available to Joseph’s Patreon subscribers but now also in the collection Paradoxes and Dragons.

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Jade — Joseph R. Lallo

The following review was written when this was the last book in the main story line of The Book of Deacon series, since then Halfax has been added.

I really don’t know what to make of this book.

Mostly it’s written in what feels like a children’s story style, but at the same time it is part of the main story line being set many years after the last events we read about in The Crescents.

In this book we are told that the Chosen have only left 3 surviving family lines, that of Trigorah, Celeste and Myn.   But the thing is, if you remember, Myn took Trigorah’s place as a Chosen, thus we should have had at least another 3 or 4 family lines, but there’s no mentioned as to what became of them: that of Ether, that of Ivy, that of Lain and possibly that of the original knight that Miranda found.

So we are left with the question, what happened to Ivy and Lain’s lines over in The Crescents?   Totally wiped out apparently.   Ether, totally wiped out???   The original knight’s family, totally wiped out.   But we are given no explanation of how, only that Epidime may have had something to do with it.

And that Halfax is the last surviving dragon — which he must be because he’s never had offspring of his own, which one would think he and the other dragons of Myn’s line would have if, as he claims, the dragons cared so much about protecting the Chosen family lines.   So what happened to all the dragons, why’s there only one left?

This book, which i thought would have been tying up the loose ends and living happily ever after, has taken us back to the very beginning of not having all the Chosen ready and the D’Karon beginning to gain a power base, but with no explanation of how we got back here.

So i’m a bit confused, to say the least.

But, i’ll be the eternal optimist and surmise that Joseph has a ton more books for this series planned to deal with everything that’s suddenly gone missing, answer all the questions now being asked, and then tie up the story nicely, destroy the D’Karon completely, and have everyone live happily ever after — just coz that’d be nice.

We shall see.

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

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The Crescents — Joseph R. Lallo

Ooooh, just look at that cover!!!   Along with beautiful women in steampunk outfits — our favourite — the Kindle Worm Quality Control team did a quick survey of all the staff at morning tea break and everyone at Kindle Worm HQ agrees that a good dragon picture on the cover is always a good indicator of a really good book — apart from one who doesn’t like dragons so she was promptly given her final written warning for contravening article 16:a:ii of her contract: “Though shalt not be a curmudgeon in the work place”.

But does the story come up to the standard set by the cover?   I certainly think so.   As fantasy goes, this one’s got most of it: Cheftains, Priestesses, Wizards, Kings, Elves, Fairies, Malthropes, Dwarves, Humans, Dragons, Golems and, in a class of her own, Ether.

The Chosen are asked by the Elven King of South Crescent to visit and sort out a few problems for him and in doing so get him some popularity back amongst his people.   In return he offers the Chosen a cure for the blight that the D’Karon spells left upon the land.   And so, offered the chance to heal the land, the Chosen jump aboard a ship, along with Garr and Gustrim, and sail off to The Crescents for a wonderful adventure.

It’s a great piece of story telling, and, i think, is definitely one of the better books in this series.

The Story of Sorrel is quite important to have read before starting this as it gives a ton of background to this story.

Anyway, a great read from a great series.

At the time of writing this, this is the 13th book in The Book of Deacon series.

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The Story of Sorrel — Joseph R. Lallo

Isn’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.

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The D’Karon Apprentice — Joseph R. Lallo

The 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.

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The Redemption of Desmeres — Joseph R. Lallo

The 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.

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