Mel Odom (1)Recensioni

56186

DVD 320 Epi

56035

This was a wonderful adventure. Baylee, a ranger, whose companion is a female telepathic bat (Azmyth Bat) named Xuxa, is spurred onto an adventure to discover the Lost Library of Cormanthyr. This is 1 of 4 standalone books in a grouping called the Lost Empires. This journey has dark elves (drow), skeleton warriors, a lich and a festival of rangers! Priests, mages, rangers and magical items. The story flows well but my hero is Xuxa, who keeps eyes out for Baylee so he can take on his adventure!

La Atalaya es una tranquila villa en la que se yergue una nueva iglesia capaz de asustar a las religiones más establecidas de Westmarch. Pues, ¿quién puede refutar los milagros, los sueños cumplidos, cuado puedes verlos con tus propios ojos? Pero algo siniestro se esconde tras esa nueva deidad y su todopoderoso profeta.

Darrick Lang vuelve a su hogar. Hace años que dejo la ciudad de Bramwell para recorrer el mundo como soldado de fortuna y campeón del reino. Pero Bramwell ya no es como la dejo. Algo oscuro y terrible ha atrapado a los ciudadanos, algo muy antiguo y paciente, que enreda a los inocentes en una telaraña de maldad y profana la misma tierra. Ese mismo poder reclama a Darrick, y su unica esperanza consiste en caminar por la misma peligrosa senda de condenación.

Really enjoyed this series! Frankly, I wish there were more of them!

Above average entry in the series with Matt teaming up a logging family to fight a forest fire. The characters are well drawn, the action comes thick and fast and the plot develops nicely. Very enjoyable and the ending is excellent

"Ah, extortion," Cobner said. "Not a favorite of mine, but I do like the simple way it works. And the fact that it works nearly every time."

Aardig boek. Redelijk verhaal, maar helaas heeft de Nederlandse vertaling wat foutjes opgelopen, zo worden namen en data nogal eens verwisseld.

Net als bij Netforce, kwam het idee voor Netforce Explorers van Tom Clancy en Steve Pieczenik, maar de boeken zijn niet door Tom Clancy geschreven. Het idee werd door andere auteurs ter hand genomen en tot de boekenreeks Netforce verwerkt. Netforce Explorers is de jongerenversie van Netforce.

This is book two in this series, and although you could easily read it as a stand alone story, I highly suggest you read book one ("Deployed") first, as it is just as good and will give you more background on some of the Marines in this story. Another action-packed feel for what the Marines have to face in other parts of the world.

Private Pike Morgan has grown up in foster care and it has taught him to have a tough guy exterior and also caused him to have a problem with authority, which in turn keeps him from having few friends, even among his fellow Marines. Pike finds himself starting to care for people in the small town he is staying in, so he is eager to answer the military’s call for another deployment.

On a mission to Afghanistan, Pike and his team soon find themselves in a heated war zone. There will be Americans kidnapped by terrorist Zalmai Yaqub, so finding these folks will become a top priority for the American military. But finding the hostages and Yaqub will not be easy and Pike and his fellow marines will have to figure out who they can really trust.

This was a story, that once I started, I had a hard time putting it down until I finished. Seemed very real to life and I appreciated how the author didn't end it with all the loose ends tied up in a pretty bow, but left the ending up to you.

Bekah Shaw joined the United States Marine reserves to help support herself and her son when her ex-husband, Billy Roy, decided they were no longer his responsibility. In this story her team is activated and sent to Somalia. There, her and her team-mates must learn to stay alive and help those people who have so little, and try to capture and put an end to the bad guys. During all this Bekah struggles with being separated from her son and vows to return safely.

Another angle on this story is Rageh Daud, who lost everything when the terrorists killed his wife and son. He ends up he with a group of thieves, killers, and others displaced by war. Eventually Beckah and her Marines will need to join forces with Daud and his band of killers, to put away a group that is out just to kill and do evil.

This was a story that was fast action, lots of adventure and high stakes, and also lots of characters to keep track of in one story. A story of the bravery and dedication of the Marines, and a story of the sorrow and heartache in other places in the world. It made me want to get the next book, "Renegade", and see what happens next in the lives of some of these people.

Wonderfully pulpy, and thankfully doesn't stray too far into "too pulpy" territory. Goes to some pretty dark places for game-related fiction. Odom has a nice touch with fleshing out minor characters, and also keeps an appropriate amount of humor under the surface.

The Fight Card series offered under the house name Jack Tunney is legit. It is a series of Hardboiled boxing stories in the tradition of Robert E Howard's Boxing stories. Set in different cities and often linked to Father Tim's boxing school at St Vincent's Orphanage, these stories are a return to a simpler time. Boxing promoters are often bad dudes with mob connections and that's true here.

Easy-to-read, engrossing! The writing here just flows and the story is filled with boxing action right to the blow by blow depiction of a backroom match. Can't say enough good things about his terrific novel.

Night of the Living Dead meets Frank Herbert's Dune. After thiS story, you will never fish again. Hell, you'll never close your eyes again. Our tale takes place in Redneck Kentucky with a couple of boys catching worms, a dead body, and a horrendous smell. The worms crawl in. The
worms crawl out. Dead bodies, collapsed mines, and giant worms taking over the world. Not for the squeamish, this is an easy reading tale of the sad history of Harlan County. Unfortunately, it was all too
predictable, but worthwhile schlocky entertainment nonetheless.

Joseph Grant’s Last Round of Archie Mannis is a slight departure from other Fight Card books. This book is designed to emulate Jack Kofoed’s non-fiction biographical boxer essays that were often found in the old boxing pulps of the 1940’s along with the fictional tales by Howard, Gault, and others. Thus, this book has a different feel and a different rhythm that many of the pulpy fight card stories. To me, this book felt more like Max Allan Collins’ Nathan Heller stories, particularly The Million Dollar Wound , as it traces Mannis’ life through his battles in the South Pacific, his return from war, and the mentioning of Barney Ross. Although fictional, Last Round of Archie Mannis is set up to read like a biography and take the reader from the Mannis’ childhood days in Father Tim’s Chicago orphanage, to the war years fighting in the South Pacific and at Iwo Jima. It traces Mannis’ exhibition boxing matches and sojourn with the USO –you will never believe who is pitted against in an exhibition match. The story traces his connections to crooked managers and fixed fights to his rise to the professional class and the end of his career as he works to save the orphanage from bankruptcy. You get to know the entire life of Archie Mannis, not just a few fights as his career takes off. And, on the way, current events play out to fix the story in time.

Can't Miss Contender is a terrific story, following the adventures of yet another graduate from Father Tim's orphanage. Billy Flood is a young boxer who can't stay out of trouble and, despite his best intentions,

keeps doing time behind the walls. It's a classic story of a good guy who wants to settle down with a girl in a small town and pursue the welterweight title. But, his past keeps coming back to haunt him. Yes, plot wise, it's a Saturday afternoon tearjerker, but this book is filled with some of the best play by play fight action you'll find anywhere, beginning with a prison yard fight against Tommy Knuckles, a guy whose stare burned a hole in your chest even before he threw a punch and whose hands were the size of Buicks.
I liked everything about this book. It really captured the era and the 1940s boxing genre.

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Booklikes & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

Title: The Sea Devil's Eye
Series: Threat from the Sea #3
Author: Mel Odom
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 356
Format: Kindle Digital edition


Synopsis:

Abandoned, Did Not Finish.


My Thoughts: Maudlin Memories Abound

Part of why I abandoned this was because I had just finished Gardens of the Moon and I was still reveling in my first 5star read of 2017. ANY book was going to have a hard time following that. However, all the glaring faults of this Forgotten Realms trilogy were really brought into the light after staring into the previous book.

I was at a part where the main boy character [he's 20'ish, but 'boy' is the best description] is being talked to by the main love interest and she's pouring her heart out and simply asking him if he loves her. This boy has a very big "I'm not worthy" complex and he's an introspective melancholic. In fact, he acts EXACTLY like me when I was 18-22. So my problem isn't that he's unbelievable, it is that he's just plain selfish and WON'T look at anything other than how he wants to. My real life problem was solved when a professor at bibleschool answered one of my self-absorbed questions by laying into me and simply telling me the truth, in front of the whole class. I didn't change overnight but I did begin to think about other people. In this trilogy, the boy has his professor moments but he stays self-absorbed. Maybe later in the book that changes, but after 2+ books, I was done.

A young hero needs to mature. However, if you're only writing a trilogy, don't drag that "grow up" point to the last chapter. It's unpleasant for me as a reader because I have to put up with the character until then.

Nothing of the quality of this book was any less than the previous two. I'd simply had enough of the characters and the author's wanking around.

fodder, no originality, way too many loose ends

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: The Jewel of Turmish Series: The Cities Author: Mel Odom Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SFF Pages: 320 Format: Kindle Synopsis: A half elf teams up with a human mercenary to hunt down a wolf that has taken to killing humans. Said elf is part of an enclave of Sages dedicated to keeping the undead from their part of the Sea of Fallen Stars. At the same time, a long dead zombie lord arises and begins anew his assault on the area. The conclave must defeat the zombie lord, who is being backed by a group of mysterious black magic sorcerers. My Thoughts: The only other book I've read by Odom is The Rover and I remember not really liking it. This was just a mish mash of tropes all pushed together. The mysterious group of magicians for instance. They are mentioned and used as motivation and then just abandoned like they never existed. It was annoying. The half elf and the mercenary lady were as stiff as a whittled pine board and their supposed romantic feelings were as believable as me expressing my feelings for a mountain. Overall, this was just bleh. Odom did nothing to make me want to read more of his stuff. I've got one other Forgotten Realms trilogy by him that I'll eventually get to and then it'll be quits between us. "½

Bleah.  No librarianship, despite Wick being referred to, ad nauseum, as the little librarian."  Struggled to get to chapter two, which picked up a bit, but then petered out before chapter 3.  (Don't quote me on chapter breaks, maybe they're part breaks or sub-chapter breaks... the point is, I don't care enough to check.)"

Lots of action.½

Lots of action. Lots of aliens.½

Surprising good for a tie-in novel.

I enjoyed the pace and balance in this book. Characters were sufficiently developed though not always deeply. The plot was neither linear nor totally scattered. My only criticism would be the rather abrupt ending; With only 30 pages left you are just getting to the finale. This type of ending left me without a good closure. This would make for a great first books in a series but I'm not sure if the author has written any other books continuing the adventures of the protagonist.