Napoleon- a review of Ridley Scott's Epic

     I guess my first introduction to the character of Napoleon came in the form of cartoons.  The figure of Napoleon came to represent a person who thought themselves crazy.  The hat and the hidden hand inside the vest came to represent someone who was not in control of all their mental capacity. Junior High and High School was heavy on the French Revolution and the Terror with scant lessons on Post Revolution France.  In college I got more French Revolution and even a bit of Pre-Revolution France. What I am telling you is that my Napolean Era knowledge is severely lacking. So, is Napolean historically accurate?  Who cares?  Not me. Is it a good film, that is more important. 

     The film looks fantastic.  From the get-go, the death of Marie Antionette scene, you felt like this is how it looked.  See the movie if only for the gorgeous cinematography! The two leads, Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby, carry the film. Most of the of film is about the dynamic between the two. I saw the IMAX version of the film for the battle scenes, so I was a bit surprised by the amount of the film that featured just those two actors. Did not need IMAX for that Lovey Dovey stuff,  

      In conclusion, this will get a Best Picture nomination along with Best Cinematography nomination.  Both leads will get nominations.  It is Epic film making at its finest.    

Sistah Samurai- Tatiana Obey

The Cover Art on this novella caught my eye. So, another shout out to Felix Ortiz who should get a Hugo nomination for this cover. 

      This novella took me back to the 1970s, a time when there was an era of Blaxploitation films that starred the great Pam Grier, among others.  The last samurai is fighting demons that kill and steal the souls of the dead.  Ink has become the currency of this world. Sistah fights both the demons and those who seek to corner the Ink market. Tatiana has written a "samurai anime" inspired tale, drawing on her years spent in South Korea. 

  It also has the proper price point for a novella at $2.99.  
 

Lost War- Justin Lee Anderson.

    

I read this book in 2020 when it was in the SPFBO contest.  It won the contest and was my personal favorite as well in SPFBO 6.  Barely beating out Black Stone Heart in my personal ratings. If either had won, I would have been fine with that result.  If you are wondering what SPFBO is, I will give you a brief history of the Self Publish Fantasy Blog Off contest.  Mark Lawrence started the contest way back in 2014 as a way to get more eyes on self-published books.  Mr. Lawrence convinced 10 bloggers to join him in this venture. Each contest has 300 books that in turn are slit up amongst the 10 bloggers. The next phase, each blogger will pick one out of their 30 to be one of the finalists in the contest. In the final phase has all 10 bloggers review the 10 finalists. I have mostly agreed with the eventually winner. A few times I had ties. For SPFBO 5 I had a 6-way tie. For the current SPFBO 9 it took all of 40 minutes for 300 books to be summited. It is a contest that get more popular every year.  

     Orbit Books picked up The Lost War and signed Justin Lee Anderson to a book deal. Funny thing, I remembered the very beginning of the book and the very end.  But everything in between was lost to memory, so it was like reading it new again. Orbit's editors had Justin add and delete some things from the original text, not that I could tell. Just a great read with a major plot twist of epic proportions at the end. Book 2 The Bitter Crown come out in December of 2023, so I am either going to end the year with a great book or begin the year with a great book, I hope.

Essex Dogs by Dan Jones - A Review

 

   

  Dan Jones is one of my favorite British Historian I don't know if I have read all of his non-fiction books dealing with various eras of British history, but it has been a few.  Jones puts the story back into History with his very readable, dare I say breezy, takes on various historical periods. So, when I heard that Mr. Jones was trying his hand at fiction, color me there. 

     Jones has taken the HBO's Band of Brothers and applied the concept to the July 1346 British invasion of France. It is a winning combo, as Jones takes you from a beach landing to a march inland.  It is a nice mixture of historical figures interacting with fictional characters to move the story along. Jones mostly employs First Person Narrative to spin the tale, a war weary veteran who starting to feel the pressure of being a leader of a band who are picked for all the dangerous missions. 

      Dan Jones has stepped up and enter the genre of Historical Fiction that includes some of the greatest series ever written. Dorothy Dunnett, George MacDonald Fraser, Patrick O'Brian and Richard Cornwell to name a few. A special shout out to Christian Cameron's Chivalry Series which starts with The Ill-Made Knight (Not to be confused the T,H. White's book of the same name.) 

The Will of The Many by James Islington - A Review

      Sometimes I will wait a bit before I start with a new series for fear I will be so in love with the previous series, I will not give the new series a clean slate to start. I start comparing the characters and the worldbuilding one to the other, which is not fair to the author.  I really liked James Islington's first series The Icanius Trilogy and approached this new series with a bit of trepidation.  I should not have worried. After a bit of a slow start, this tale begins to move at a pleasant pace. 

 I thought that I was done with the "Kids in School" trope, but I guess not. This book really picks up when the teenage main character goes to the "Academy."  There is a bit of a Dickensian start to the book. And a smattering of Romanesque imagery, and tech that jars you out of your first impressions. So, there is a bit of worldbuilding to this first book. I did not feel overwhelmed by the worldbuilding and there were no long paragraphs of info dumps, a big plus. The info was feed in small bites at which it seems to me, the perfect timing of info and pace. 

       The book has a First-Person narrative style, which is always my favorite style to listen to as an audiobook. The book is performed by Euan Morton, a brilliant voice actor whose work I have come across a few times. I am a big fan of audiobooks. I have been listening to audiobooks when they were suitcase like with 40 cassettes, then CDs that were a little more manageable. Love the audiobook experience while working out or cleaning.  

Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

 

     The main characters of this fabulous book are the extremely rare happily married couple with no children. There are plenty of Fantasy books that start out with a happy married couple, but that scenario normally does not last long.

There are two POV that narrate this tale Isolde and Warren. Or,  Iz and War, as they loving call each other, run a small business of Hexes for sale to get rid of curses. Isolde is added by small fabric bag left to her by her mysterious and absent father. Iz and War's world is turned upside-down when the King's secretary shows up at their door with the news that the King is suffering from a curse. 

     Bancroft uses a Jane Austin era world.  A very familiar setting, with a simple magic system that in on the wane. It is a setting that I am very familiar with, so the learning curve of understanding the magic system is very simple. At its heart, it is a mystery tale. That part of the story has the nice twist and turns you want in a mystery plot. 

This was a book I really, really looked forward to.  Bancroft's Books of Babel Series is one of my all-time favorites.  I am super happy that the originality and prose that made the Books of Babel so readable has returned in this first book of a new series.

Words of Kings and Prophets by Shauna Lawless

       Nice to be retired but sometimes, when at the tail end of my monthly budget, one can be forced into austerity measures in an attempt to make one's money last until the next infusion of funds. A good book can help these few days be more bearable. I can fall into a nice routine of sleep, read, eat, nap, read, swim, read, eat, read, sleep, over the course of 4 days and nights, and stay entertained and busy.  

      I am lucky because fabulous follow up to The Children of Gods and Fighting Men came in at the right moment.  The setting is Ireland in the year 1000 AD.  In a mixture of Historical Fiction laced with Fantasy elements, Shauna Lawless| continues the story of Gromflaith and Fodla, who are the main POVs who narrate the tale. Both hide their magical abilities, while trying to fit in a world where magic is fading and seen as a danger. While Fodla wants to heal people and Gromflaith only wants to rule people. 

     The book has a great pace to it, and the story flows in an easy manner. Most of the characters from The Children of Gods and Fighting Men return, so the learning curve for keeping the characters straight in your mind is easier. I did a short Wiki of Ancient Ireland 1000 AD to get a feel of the era. The Fantasy elements are straight out of Irish Mythologies, as the long arc plot is the Fomorians versus the Tuatha De Danann, both considered supernatural beings in the mythological writings.   

     Time flew by while I was reading this lovely book. Always a good sign how much I was engaged with the characters, the worldbuilding, and plot. Did not want to stop reading and was one of the first things each day i got back to.  One of the best books I have read in 2023.