Customer Comments

nrlymrtl has commented on (117) products.

Iscariot by Tosca Moon Lee

nrlymrtl, May 17, 2013

I am not a Christian, and therefore, not well versed in the this time period. Tosca Lee told this story simply: of a traumatized boy who became a successful young man who became a pivotal character in a major world religion. I have always enjoyed reading a well known tale from the viewpoint of the ‘bad guy’. Learning the characters life history and their motivations makes the over all tale that much more real for me. Tosca Lee does not disappoint. This book has a historical fiction feel to it and I did not feel that it was preachy at all.

There were other famous, learned men of the time named Judas. As there were other men named Jesus. The use of the secret society idea added weight to Judas’s decisions and his fears. I especially enjoyed the various culture clashes as seen through Judas’s eyes: Jesus the Messiah taught, fed, and healed not just the learned or rich, but the lowliest of classes and women and those not of the Jewish faith. One by one these things shocked Judas, who eventually saw the right of it. Some few references I did not fully understand, like when a few ill men move their mat on the Sabbath. But these few instances did not detract from the over all enjoyability of the book.

My one negative point is that the book became narrowly focused towards the end, whereas the beginning brought me knowledge of the cultures and political climate of the time. Indeed, my mind started to drift on the last CD, the CD where we have the ending of Jesus’s life, his confirmation of Messiah-hood, and Judas’s death. This should have, at the least, been as interesting as the beginning of the book. Instead, it was not. In retrospect, perhaps the author wanted Judas’s life to end on an anticlimactic note? Could be an interesting question for an interview; not so interesting for a book ending.

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Legend of Eli Monpress #01: The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron

nrlymrtl, May 15, 2013

This book was full of quick banter, ridiculous situations, and memorable characters that give just enough seriousness to balance, but not detract, from the silliness. I liked the idea of everything, from stone to stream to dust devils, having spirits and that those spirits have needs, rights, and are capable of loosing their sanity and personal identity. There’s sword fights, compelling love and sacrifice, betrayal, conflict among the good guys, and a very persuasive spirit talker. While the characters didn’t particularly grow once they were established, they were immensely entertaining and I loved spending time with them. The plot was a little predictable, big picture-wise, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching Rachel Aaron fill in the details.

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Strange Chemistry #10: Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon

nrlymrtl, May 13, 2013

Zenn herself is often thoughtful, driven, and focused on the animals (though many wonder why she isn’t more interested in the local available boys). She often feels a stronger connection to the animals she tends than to any human outside the Cloister. The story is full of intriguing alien species, and their ailments. Add to that, some cool vet tech, and you have a bio nerd fest in the making. I also enjoyed the mystery of the various ‘accidents’ involving the beasties. townies push hard from every direction to shut down the Cloister, not renew their lease, and use the land for agricultural purposes. Indeed, Christian Schoon is an author to keep an eye on as I expect his writerly talent will increase with each book.

While there are many things about this book I enjoyed, the underlying plot could have used a little more polish. The driver for much of the book was that the bulk of the farming populace of Mars had an underlying fear and detestment for all things ‘alien’, which meant the Cloister was shunned by the bulk of the community. Truthfully, I had trouble buying into this premise as they are humans living on an alien world and many of them use or have alien items and/or animals on their farm. But once I turned off the part of my brain that kept saying the basic plot didn’t carry the weight of the entertainment value for me, I was able to focus on the cool tech, the aliens, and the sometimes vomitous situations Zenn found herself in.

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Ghoulish Song by William Alexander

nrlymrtl, May 11, 2013

I absolutely loved Book 1 in this series. I know, I can be a little kid sometimes. Book 2 was nearly as good and I quite enjoyed myself. Ghoulish Song gives us more of the steampunk flair, going into how the Inspector weighs and measures the quality of the bread loaves with his mechanic arms and eyes. the loss of a shadow, something we never think of, and how it throws Kaile’s life into a spin was inventive and entertaining. The enchanted flute and the monsters and wonders Kaile faces with it kept me thoroughly engaged during a long car ride. While we didn’t learn anything further about the goblins, it was nice to see them here and there throughout the story.

I enjoyed the first book slightly more for 2 reasons: the world was new and fresh to me, full of wonder; and the ending was more satisfying because not everything turned out 100% OK. With that said, this book is still worth your time. It had me laughing out loud and nudging my man, who was also stuck in the car with me, whenever a plot point was revealed. My man found this unnecessary as he was fully paying attention too. Yes, he can be lured into listening to a little kid book if it is William Alexander.

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Heroes Proved by Oliver North

nrlymrtl, May 11, 2013

Let me start with the fact that this book had lots of near-future or cutting edge tech sprinkled through out it. I really liked those parts of the book.

OK, now I can tell you the biggies about the book that turned me off. There is only one woman in a position of authority (the US President) and she is a bad guy; a stupid bad guy at that. No, that is not spoiler as you learn this early on. All the rest of the women are meek, mild mannered, most of them are wives and mothers. Sigh…… Often the author was patronizing in his admiration of the quiet strength and fortitude of the female side of the species.

I disagreed with nearly all the politics. If you happen to agree with them, then this book probably won’t be such a drag for you. Basically, the gist of the book was that Christian, heterosexual, white males rule. *quirked eyebrow*. Can you hear me sighing again? I am not male or Christian, so perhaps that limits my sympathizing with the main characters. Also, there were some lines about gay marriage contributing to the decline of the US (I’m for marriage equality). Then there was that part about Islam being inherently evil (raises both eyebrows). I think organized religion, any religion, in general can be unhealthy for a person. But singling out a major world religion as inherently evil seems simplistic to say the least.

So, there you have the biggies. There were some other bits �" like so much of the book seems to be a regurgitation of some military procedure or another, making what would otherwise be an exciting rescue scene something you may doze through. This book probably could have used just one more round of editing to trim these parts down. There was a plethora of acronyms in this book and some were not explained, and some were (usually a knowledgeable male was explaining them to some helpless female). The ending of the book was a bit sudden, left some side plots unfinished, and wasn’t fully satisfying; it left me with a sense that the author started to suffer from Lazy Author Syndrome, relying too heavily on deus ex machina.

But, hey, there was cool tech.

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