Overdue reviews

Men of Bronze by Scott Oden

Great historical epic, rich in details from daily life to battlefield carnage. Setups and payoffs work well from the opening skirmish, through the political intrigue through to the crescendo of the final battle.  When Greek mercenaries swap their allegiance from Pharaoh to the Persians, the Phoenician Hasdrabal Barca leads his own mercenary company - the Medjay - to stamp out the traitors before it is too late.  Oden was directly inspired by Robert E. Howard - in fact, his first novel attempt was a Conan novel, but he came to understand his niche might be found in historical fiction.  And we readers are all the richer for his decision.  If you want a historical that is action-oriented and set in a period you don't usually read about, this would be a great change of pace for your reading list.

Plague of Shadows (Pathfinder Tales) by Howard Andrew Jones

Good adventuring with a nice angle, as someone else noted, "what happens when elves get too old for this s*&^?" A blend of D&D adventuring with tones of Jirel of Jory and the western, Unforgiven. The payoffs here are setup through characters, hard truths and exposed lies. I look forward to Jones' next entry in the Pathfinder universe, and I need to check out some of the other authors and novels of this world.

Sharpe's Havoc by Bernard Cornwell

Fun Sharpe romp, as usual. This time around Sharpe and his riflemen are trapped behind enemy lines in Portugal while under orders from a duplicitous colonel. Fine blend of historic details, fun characters and action.

Assimilation² (graphic novel)

Star Trek: the Next Generation Meets Doctor Who!  The Borg meet the Cybermen!  Could a Whovian who generally enjoyed Star Trek: the Next Generation resist?  No, because resistance is futile!

Yes, it's a geek fest.  But, it's not a bad crossover.  Featuring the current Doctor, the 11th, played by Matt Smith, and his companions Amy & Rory.  Some details are lost in the rush to have all the characters meet from across the two universes.  The Borg merging with Cybermen makes sense.  The Borg showed they weren't afraid to penetrate dimensions in Star Trek: Voyager, and the current restart of Doctor Who's Cybermen started in an alternate universe.  It is never satifactorily explained why the TARDIS and the Doctor and his companions universe hopped, though.  But, we're here more for the ride than the how & why.

There's even a Captain Kirk / 4th Doctor (Tom Baker) flashback as the universes start to produce new memories when their timelines collide.

I read this as individual issues over last year, I did not get the current collected trade paperbacks.  The painted art-style took some getting used to.  When I heard they were doing this crossover, honestly, even I wasn't too interested until I learned it would be the Cybermen and Borg.  I always said the Cybermen were the original Borg.

If you're a fan, it works.  Check it out.

The Orc Trifecta

Apologies on being late with this post.  Busy month, lazy month, etc.
Most of you know about these stories, and with the slim number of followers I have, I suppose this is late and preaching to the choir.
But, I need to keep this blog afloat so, here goes.

Recently, three writers have self-published e-tales involving Orcs.  The only common thread, aside from the Orcs, is that the stories were salvaged from a canceled anthology.  Each runs for $.99, or sometimes free if you catch them at the right time.  For $.99, they are cheaper than a cup of gourmet coffee, and each is satisfying in its own way.

Amarante: A Tale of Old Tharduin by Scott Oden.
Of the three tales, this felt the most "epic" fantasy, though Oden delivers hard-hitting scenes that put this tale more into the "sword-&-sorcery" sub-genre.  Two Orcs, barely escaping some powerful (and well described) sorcery, seek vengeance against the humans who refuse to bow to their Orc overlords.  Oden creates a well-crafted viewpoint between the Orcs, with good interplay between the reluctant allies.  The Orcs are right bastards, and the "bad guys" - you don't exactly want them to win,  but there is enough tension that you want to follow them through to the end.

Harvest of War by Charles Gramlich.
Gramlich flips our expected sympathies by showing the dark side of humanity, as a lone Orc is captured, tortured, and treated worse than a zoo exhibit.  Not that Khales the Orc, doesn't have blood on his hands, either.  The nice turn in this story is not only the examination of human brutality, but human shortsightedness.  The humans zealous extermination of the Orc race puts them at a disadvantage they are not even aware of.  A really well-executed tale.

Blackskull's Captive by Tom Doolan.
Doolan takes us into space opera territory, which might seem odd to some readers, but Black Library, for instance, have Orks in their futuristic universe of Warhammer 40,000.  Doolan's setting is also heavily influenced by the animated movie, Treasure Planet, (in turn based on Treasure Island,) so we also get an Age-of-Sail vibe.  A captive human, Jack Munro, becomes an unwitting aide to an Orc pirate captain.  Staying alive could be at the price of his soul, as the Orcs ply him to help plan attacks on more human ships.  Doolan could easily have skirted the issue with a tale just long enough to get Jack off the ship before the next raid, but instead he makes Jack deal with the issue, and this gives the story an extra emotional edge.

All these tales are worth your time, and worth your three dollars!

(p.s. - for now, I will ignore that Tom Doolan published another Orc tale this week, thus breaking the trifecta theme ;P  But, you can check that out, too.  More at his blog.)