Category: Book review

Dante’s Inferno

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Dante’s Inferno, the first of his epic poem Divine Comedy (no not the way we know it like haha funny). The other 2 are called Purgatorio and Paradiso which as you can imagine if the Inferno is Dante traveling thru hell those are Purgatory and Heaven.. But those aren’t important right now.

Inferno is believe it or not a poem of Dante traveling the 9 circles of Hell, being guided by The Roman Poet Virgil. Each circle is dedicated to a different type of sinner. I don’t normally like to quote Wikipedia but if you are interested in the deeper things on how the poem is structured Divine Comedy  isn’t a bad for a general idea.

The actual read while can be interesting is honestly a bit boring at times. This isn’t the kind of book you are likely to sit down and just read in one night for fun. Its good, but it is a dry read so to speak. You read it a bit at a time probably while drinking some coffee or like I did while I was at work. Its worth reading by the way, it just wasn’t a quick read. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Flowers in the Attic

flowers in the attic

I’m starting this off by dedicating this to my lil sis who told me about this book and gave me the most depressing book I’ve read.

The book follows the Dollanganger family, the seemingly perfect family…until the father dies and everything unravels. They’d been living on a mix of luck and credit and are about to lose everything. Mother, Corrine, tells her four children they have to go to her estranged, ultra-rich parents; the kids are shocked to find they have grandparents, there last name is really Foxworth, and these grandparents aren’t great people. Corrine’s father is dying, so her plan is to become daddy’s girl again to get money so they can scram. Corrine’s mother hates her with a fiery rage and instantly despises the children; her stipulation is they have to live in the attic, having to pretend they don’t exist. Oldest of the four kids, Christopher and Cathy (the narrator) have to care for there younger brother and sister while dealing with there cruel, hateful grandmother, there mother who has forgotten them, a host of ugly family secrets, and forbidden feelings for each other as they stay in the attic…

I won’t lie, I love this book but holy crap is it heart  wrenching. V.C Andrews ingeniously dangles hope in front of them only to crush it by reality without making the book seeming to feel completely hopeless. I’ve frequently seen this book labeled “horror” and to an extent, I agree. Some of the images and scenes are pretty damn disturbing and there is as much tension if not more than I experienced in many other horror books. I absolutely recommend this book to aspiring writers like myself and people who need a good tear or two. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sun Tzu: The Art of War

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One of my favorite books of all time even when I was younger is The Art of War, by Sun Tzu. The book is famous for being a military strategy guide discussing topics that range from how to use a spy properly to why capturing enemy supplies are worth far more than your own. However the book is also used by many other people in life. For a time many business people all over the world have read it for guidance.

Looking into the history of the book tho it becomes even more interesting.  Sun Tzu wrote what even today is considered by many the greatest military book ever written. Its thirteen chapters weirdly don’t focus much on actual combat but how to make plans. Born around 545 BCE Sun Tzu was a Taoist that believed combat was at times unavoidable, but was the most dangerous thing the state could undertake and as such should be done only as a last resort and only when plans were meticulously planned.

What is also surprising to many, he may not have existed at all. More on that here. Some believe Sun Tzu was actually a title of a man in the Sun family ( I once read maybe Sun Wu but admittedly can’t remember where or how reliable it even was) and many people over the years have added to the book and left it under the name Sun Tzu.

Regardless of who wrote the book, over 2,500 years later lawyers, military generals, sports coaches and people in business still use it today. It is very much worth reading. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies

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Another great WTF story from Seth Grahame Smith, we get a new way to reintroduce the Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice, to young folks of this generation. Add ninjas, guns, and a zombie apocalypse and whamo, we have Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. The five Bennett sisters are divided women, raised to be sophisticated ladies of old time British society by there mother, but there father wants them to be strong to survive the mysterious zombie virus. Because of him, they’ve been trained as warriors. Elizabeth sticks to the warrior life close, not wanting to be a frail lady, but will she be doomed to be alone and unmarried? She finds herself connected to fellow warrior Darcy, but he is most disagreeable; but Elizabeth may be able to meet her hero as her sisters fall off of the path of the warrior…

This is a weird one to review. For much of the book, it is very much Austen’s classic. More experienced, clever  readers will notice the transitions between Austen and Smith (I don’t Jane Austen wrote about zombies and ninjas back then.) I will warn people though: it is in old English for most of the book so that turn off quite a few readers. All this being said, it is a cool, if not batshit crazy at times and the illustrations add a nice touch. I can’t say I liked it as much as Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but it’s a fun book. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

abe lincoln vampire hunter

Seth Grahame-Smith: a man who has made so many eye catching WTF titles, I damn near found it impossible not to pick up just on premise alone. I mean let’s be serious for a second, Abraham Lincoln- one of the most fascinating presidents of U.S history and arguably one of the greatest…and we’re supposed to imagine him slaying through the fiends of the dead. I admit, I thought it was going to be a ridiculous comedy but I was pleasantly surprised.

The story flips back and forth between Lincoln’s personal diaries and third person narrative discussing his life, his personal demons and his years hunting down vampires while trying to keep a family and keep to the path we know of in history.

I was impressed how grounded the book was and even creepy at times. There is a great sense of tension when Abe is around vampires, and he does get his ass kicked. He’s not a damn superhero as he is portrayed in the film. The book is well paced and as a general reader, the historical context isn’t unreasonable. There really wasn’t anything that made me call Bullshit or anything. I think it’s worth a read and may the gaming gods bring you glory and safe from vampires.

Project Nemesis

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First of all, a shout out to my friend Autobot who loaned me the book to begin with. Also, I want to showcase some lesser known or some upcoming authors if I can because I am one myself.

Project Nemesis is the story of an experiment gone horrifically wrong. To save a ruthless General, he commissions a murdered girl to be cloned for her heart. When it seems impossible, he presents the lead scientist with a DNA sample that not only makes it possible but has her rapidly grow. The DNA was not human. In early development, she appears almost perfect. But then reptilian features develop. Surgery time comes and the girl awakens, strong and murderous, mutating and growing. What began human sized grew to the size capable of leveling cities, each time it changes losing it’s human shape but resurfacing it’s human memories. To try stopping the beast are paranormal agent Jon Hudson and his team, Sheriff Ashley Collins, and pilot Woodstock. But can they stop the incarnation of justice and vengeance…

Nemesis is a cool book that channels a old Godzilla- Kaiju spirit I admit I haven’t seen in much literature. While Kaiju aren’t really my thing, I found the story fun with simple but likable characters and a badass monster. It’s not a long read and the sections of the book are illustrated with some really epic drawings of Nemesis’s transformations. I was a bit jarred at first by the use of first and third person perspective but it’s done well enough. In the end, Project Nemesis by Jeremy Robinson is a fun thrill ride I recommend picking up and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Sandman: volume 1

sandman vol 1

Since I first came into the expansive world of comics, The Sandman’s reputation lingered as one of the best ever written. It took me a while, entrenched in the caverns of DC’s and Marvel’s heroes to expand my mind. Years later and I’m thrilled to say the praise is well deserved.

Sandman is a epic following Morpheus, the god of dreams, as he is  mistakenly captured and imprisoned by a madman for decades who originally wanted his sister, Death. After decades and lives of innocents ruined by his entrapment, he finds freedom and takes revenge on the sole surviving son of his captor, leaving Dream with a task: obtain what was pilfered from him. His pouch of sand, his helm, and his ruby derived from his essence. To retrieve these things he will walk amongst other worlds, coming across John Constantine and the psycho formerly known as Dr Destiny, challenge a denizen from hell, and travel through the world of reality, hell, and dreams as he must inevitably search for purpose after his revenge is done and his power restored…

This is one of those rare stories you can’t put down because you feel something original within it’s pages. Between Neil Gaimen’s fantastic writing and the talented artists, all of which put there hearts into this, are addictive to the eyes and heart. It is very abstract and the beginning is a bit vague so I can’t recommend this to people who want something action heavy or simple. I’d call this a thinking man’s kind of story. In the end, I will call Sandman one of the best pieces I’ve ever read and recommend giving it a shot. May the gaming gods bring you glory and sweet dreams.

World War Z

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There are some ideas that are brilliant, some that are maddeningly dumb, and some that can only be done once. This is one of my favorite books and least favorite movies.

World War Z, as the rest of the title suggests, is a oral history of the zombie war. Basically the book is written interview style with multiple survivors of different cultures, creeds, ages, and social standings We get traumatic accounts of epic battles, tearful goodbyes, and get a cool view of how others outside ourselves would deal with such a catastrophic event. The book never feels repetitive in tone or character arcs and that is what makes it so damn enthralling: genuine feeling characters around the world dealing with classic, simple zombies- a threat most wouldn’t take at face value but Max Brooks demonstrates how endearing and dangerous they are.

The movie ditches almost everything but the zombie apocalypse. We get an obscene amount of fast, kinda green looking, Pg-13 28 knockoff zombies overruning the globe as Brad Pitt goes through action set piece after action set piece trying to find a cure and get back to his family. Watching this hurt. Bad. The stories and characters I loved in the book were striped and replaced with a Emmerich wannabe action movie. I admit, I may be hard on the movie; many folks I know that really enjoyed it never read it at all.

I’m going to say pick one, and whatever you pick, don’t go to the other because chances are you will get royally bent out of shape. I favor the book’s variety and emphasis on strong characters, setting, and simple zombies. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Zombie Survival Guide

zombie survival guide

Hello everyone. I have been really sick for a week, hence why I haven’t posted and well, tis the season for runny noses, hoarse coughs, and ZOMBIES! Ok, not really zombies. Zombies don’t do well in the frigid cold, although beware because those cadaverous bastards could be buried beneath the snow. This is something I learned from Max Brooks’s Zombie Survival Guide.

Now there is no narrative but the book is rather an actual survival guide heavily based in actual fact. Wilderness survival, weapons, and home defense tactics are some things that can learned from the book. As for the zombies, Brooks goes out of his way to add a layer of depth to the creatures both physically and contextually you rarely see in fiction. Seriously, they feel pretty damn real when you start getting into there inner workings, origins, and capabilities. If you love zombies and want something different that will make you feel safer come the inevitable zombie apocalypse, definitely pick it up. Best wishes and may the gaming gods save you from zombies…which I’m not..it was a stomach flu…I promise.

5 books that scared the s$it out of me

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People underestimate the raw power of books sometimes. I once did until I found one that scared the shit out of me. It was a different feeling than getting scared by a movie, more intimate somehow. here’s a list of books that genuinely creeped the shit out of me and made me want to bring the joy to others, in no particular order, lets dive in with…

cujo book 1. Cujo by Stephen King- ok, this was a tough call because many of King’s stories freaked the hell out of me but Cujo left a weird impact on me. I’m nervous around dogs as it is, so the idea of being at the mercy of a massive, rabid, death tank of a dog just…no, hell no. Cujo

let me in bk Let the Right One In (aka Let Me in) by John Ajvide Lindqvist- besides being a freaky ass vampire story with interesting lore and characters behind it, it’s a deep tale of friendship and vulnerability that I will cover after I watch the film, but I can tell you it won’t let you down if you’re scared of vampires.

good happy child 3. A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans- I’ve never been religious or brought up with strong religious beliefs but this possession story caught me off guard.  Rather than heavy theatrics we get a much more quiet and more unsettling series of mind games through the 1st person perspective of someone possessed by the devil. If you like smart, thoughtful horror, this is for you.

Hbh1  4. The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker- if you loved the movie Hellraiser, this is the book that Barker directly turned into the film but his master of giving the diabolical Cenobites a presence the movie can’t match, this novella is worth a hit for the true fans of the movie. The Hellbound Heart  Hellraiser Movie review

1984 5. 1984 by George Orwell- this book is debatable as horror but once you read it and take a look at the world around us in 2017 where we always have eyes on us and Big Brother is everywhere, you may feel differently. Before reading 1984 however, I recommend reading Animal Farm first, to which here’s yet another link to check out my review. Animal Farm

This has just been a small list of books that scared the shit out of me, but there are more but those are for another time. May the gaming gods bring you glory.