Brian M. ThomsenRecensioni

I had read a couple of the Ravenloft series books, so this seemed like a good one to pick up. The fact that it was short stories was appealing, as it makes it an easy book to pick and put down as need be. I got it used at Half Price books. We'll see how it turns out.

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After a few months, I finally got it done. The nice thing about short fiction for me is that I can pick it up and drop it, then come back to it. That is what I did with this one. I had a couple of library books I needed to read sooner, so I put this to the side for a while. Overall, I will say this was a pretty good collection. The stories later in the book get better. There is one where Strahd Von Zarovich, the lord of Ravenloft appears, and another featuring the Knight of the Black Rose. These are regular characters of the series. While it is not necessary to have read other novels in the Ravenloft series, readers who have will probably appreciate the stories a bit more. I particularly liked the twist at the end on the Black Knight's tale. Actually, twists were a common feature in this anthology. If I recall, only one or two stories towards the beginning were a bit slow, but past that, the selections were good, some a bit scarier than others. Overall, if you are looking for some light entertainment with a horror element, this may be the book for you.

The Further Adventures of Beowulf does what it says on the cover. The book starts off with an interesting introduction discussing the legacy of the Beowulf text and Middle-Earth. This is followed by 'The Deeds of Beowulf' translated into prose by John Earle in 1892. This prose version is rather old fashioned and has a few issues with sentence structure, which could have used cleaning up and clarification by an editor, or better yet, the inclusion of a better prose version or even just a summary of the Beowulf story. The book then provides 4 fantasy-tales, by 4 different authors, involving the adventures of Beowulf after his run-in with Grendel. These 4 fantasy adventures are written in a style that reminds me of a typical Sword & Sorcery/ Forgotten Realms Novel, but each short story is rather interesting, or at least entertaining. Each chapter/story is followed by a short (rather pointless) interlude which doesn't fit and could have been left out. The book also includes a rather useful (especially for scholars of Beowulf) partial, annotated bibliography of the Beowulf cannon through to current times.

In short, this is an entertaining, but not spectacular, fantasy anthology featuring the further adventures of Beowulf that could have used improvements with some of the other material.

TSR FLUFF

Vampire stories: "The quick way down" / P.N. Elrod (p. 150-164).

An anthology of stories dealing with people in times of war, either as citizen soldiers and those caught up in the effects of war or professional soldiers who lived and war. We travel from Keith Laumer's earthbound Bolo to alien colonies fallen to the unexpected effects of local wildlife in Murray Leinster's Exploration Team (on of my earliest introductions to science fiction) to Heinlein's The Long Watch where one man's loyalty to a core belief put him at fatal odds with the conspirators on Moon Base with its nuclear tipped missiles.

While some of the technology around which some of these stories has dated, the basic sociology driving them, rather regrettably hasn't...½

Ok stories, just not my cup of tea

Saw this and said, "oh, horror anthology, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, I'll check it out."
The theme of the book is that the "monsters" are actually the good guys, or at least sympathetic to some degree, so it's not really a very 'horrific' book.
Some of the stories are OK, some really not so good; none of them really made a lasting impression. If Goodreads had half stars, this would be a 2.5.

Contents:
Lycanthrope summer / Jeff Grubb
The Salem trial / Jody Lynn Nye
The den mother / Edo van Belkom
Brothers in the flesh / Fiona Patton
Heat / Jean Rabe
She dwelleth in the cold of the moon / James Lowder
Sceleratus / Tanya Huff
Slaughter / P.N. Elrod
A Hollywood tradition / Brian M. Thomsen
Intercession / Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
The devil you know / Nina Kiriki Hoffman
The recall of Cthulhu / Tom Dupree
Redeemed / Allen C. Kupfer.

I realize there are space limitations, but... an anthology with this title containing nothing by Peter Beagle, Sprague de Camp, James Branch Cabell, Fletcher Pratt, Fritz Leiber??

A collection of military sci-fi from some of the genre's greats. My favorites are probably Keith Laumer's BOLO entry and Heinlein's The Long Watch, but Eric Freer's contribution is a welcome tone lightener, and John Ringo's offering is a reminder of why I like his stuff. Otherwise, it's typical anthology fare - either short enough to plow through, or just long enough to wet the literary taste buds and leave you wanting more.

A great way to view history...looking at how it MIGHT have been. I must say that I felt some of the stories were inappropriate. I'd rather it had stuck to how things could have been different, but all-in-all an interesting way to look at history that should be done more often.

This was an odd little book. The story isn't terrible and the characters themselves are fun, but this is for die-hard Forgotten Realms fans. One would need to have memorized the Dungeons and Dragons guidebooks and maps to even have a grasp at what's happening and where. Famous faces of the realms are quickly met and dismissed. Lands are given very little in the way of description. And, oh the jokes. If you find yourself groaning out loud to the reference to the tv show Cheers in the second chapter, you're in for a long haul. All in all, there were parts I enjoyed but for the most part this book was a trip best left behind.½

This book is a collection of 15 military sci-fi short stories. I like some sci-fi and I like military history, so I thought the combination could be interesting. Each of the contributors is a military veteran, several are well known sci-fi authors. The stories include military engagements, genetic mutations, alien invasions, and self-sacrifice for the highest cause. There was a good balance between serious, sad, and humorous stories. I think my favorite had to be "The Question" by Patrick A Vanner. Basically inter-galactic relations with a new species were ruined due to human allergies. The whole story ends up being an answer to 'the question,' and it's just amusing. There were a couple of stories I didn't enjoy as much, simply due to the level of violence for no apparent reason. They just seemed under-developed. But overall an enjoyable book.

A collection of short stories that I assumed from the title would be about alternate Battles of Gettysburg. I was only partly correct, some of the stories were actually about alternate actions during the battle, however a bunch just assumed an alternate outcome and dealt with some future time where the CSA had won the war. A number of stories dealt with the assassination of Lincoln in one way or another.

While the first story by Harold Coyle and the last essay by ACW historian and SF writer William Forshen were good, I don't recommend the rest, they were mostly throw away stories from authors I've never heard of with varying degrees of historical inaccuracy. The were also two additional non-fiction essays one of which read like an elementary school text book. And one of which started out poorly, so I skipped it.½

I got this book as an Early Reviewer and was looking forward to reading it. I like to read occult and haunting books. While it wasn't the best book on the subject I have read it wasn't the worst either. It holds your interest, especially if you are a history buff too.

Received this through Early Reviewers, a couple months ago, due to other reading commitments, I haven't had time to read and review it yet, this serves as a placeholder for the review.

This is a quick read, a lot of fun. Most of it is coincidental, but some stuff really does make you think. Some of the chapter titles are misleading; it seems like they will talk about more than one president, for example, but then end up only relating stories from Lincoln's time in the White House. There are also quite a few long passages from sources, which can get tedious in their old-fashioned, overly descriptive language, contrasted by some very short chapters that last only three or so pages. This book won't change anyone's mind about the existence of UFOs or spirits, but it does make for a fluffy, amusing read.½

I thought this book was a fun, lighthearted look at the 'weird and wacky' of the White House. However, it was a more serious, in-depth look at the role the Occult has played in the White House. It doesn't mean that there has been sacrifices, devil worship or anything...think Nancy Regan and her Psychic.

The book was okay and some of the facts were interesting. Since it wasn't exactly what I expected I only thumbed through some stories I thought would be interesting.

I collect books on the occult, and so tend to have an informal criteria when I read them for how "good" they are.

First, how easily does the story read? I'd say this book reads rather well, with a light but matter-of-fact style that flows well and doesn't bog down with either over-abundance of story or leave one wanting from a lack of story. More reporting than folksy storytelling.

Second, what's the angle? First-hand accounts, researched tidbits, legend? This is focused reporting of weirdness around the Nation's presidents and first ladies.

Third, if first-hand accounts or researched tidbits (well, even if recounting legends), how credible are the stories? These stories, while not told in extreme depth, appear credible, and reasonably researched, citing source documents and a selected bibliography of reasonable credibility. Facts are presented as such, and connections/analyses of connections left up to the reader. My only complaint is, perhaps, that much of the information presented in here is "common" knowledge. But altogether collected and presented in an entertaining way I enjoyed. A quick read, and a good addition to any collection of ghost stories and other such materials!

I shouldn't have opted for this one because, although I find the occult quite interesting, the Presidential focus was less than captivating me. So it's no wonder that I grew bored with this book. Like other reviewers, I found the writing dry, the content uninspired... in short, there was nothing to keep me reading after the first handful of pages.½

A small collection of stories taking place in the White House. It's light reading, a quick read, and there's no in-depth seriousness to it. Most of the stories related in the book are either conjecture or curses, not what the average lay person would consider to be 'occult' (no mention is made of Nancy's interest in astrology, for instance). Light read. Meh.

Yeesh. I got his book a while ago as an Early Reviewer and, after reading the first couple chapters, had the hardest time forcing myself to finish it. This book was lazily done. Huge amounts of material are directly quoted - which might be worth it if the quotes were relevant or interesting, but they're not. He presents lots of evidence of abosolutely nothing, one way or the other. Clumsy, boring book.½

I just had to stop for a few moments while cataloging my Forgotten Realms books and say a few words about this book. It is so bad I don't really know where to begin. I guess with relating how cheesy it is. I have enjoyed FR and Dragonlance for almost twenty years now and some of their books are obviously better than others, but the sheer level of absurdity in this one in particular was way too much to take. How about a little merchant gnome named 'Gnorm', and every body knows his name, or the airship Minnow that obviously crashes in some odd corner of the realms. Now, in its favor is the fact that there are descriptions of rarely travelled corners of a vastly chronicled shared fantasy world for gamers like myself, but my god! There are limits of goofiness beyond which the human mind can never recover. Seriously, Forgotten Realms novels are on the whole pretty good fantasy stories, but this one is for veterans only. Newer readers should stick to the Salvatore Drizzt series, Douglas Niles' Moonshae, Ed Greenwood (the Realms creator) or really about any of them but Once Around the Realms.½

OVAL OFFICE OCCULT is a collection of stories about the paranormal, alien, and just plain odd happenings that have been connected to the White House and its occupants. The somewhat lurid cover of the trade paperback certainly fits the subject matter. However, the stories themselves came across as somewhat dry and ponderous. I often found my attention wandering and had to take this book in small sips rather than devouring it whole. The accounts have some interesting tidbits, but overall feel both glossed and superficial and overkill. Many of them are supported with sources from the time of the odd goings-on, and those who find reading older writing ponderous and difficult will be turned off by the presentation of many of the tales.

This is the sort of book that would appeal most to someone who is interested in history first and the bizarre second.

I had requested this book as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program, and was deeply disappointed that I didn't receive a copy. However, I was more disappointed that I went out on my own and actually spent my hard-earned money for this book.

That's a little unfair, I guess. It's not that it was a BAD book...but it was a boring book. It was written in stand-alone chapters, and while I thought from the descriptions that it would be a tome full of interesting and little known paranormal facts and haunts of the White House, it focused more on the well known tales of Lincoln's spiritualist leanings, and actual White House events outside of that were sparse.

The tone throughout was pretty dry, and I wouldn't recommend this for a fun, entertaining read. However, to those with an interest in history, it is a nice little reference book. The author quotes historical documentation for many of these chapters, and it is nice to see those original sources as they were first printed.

There's a little something in this book for people of all interests in the paranormal field...from UFO's, psychic visions, Conspiracy Theory, and even vampires. If you don't mind a compilation of older articles, then this book is an informative read if not entirely entertaining, read.

This was incredibly dull and slow. I couldn't get into it. When I found myself skimming, trying to find something interesting, I finally gave up. Very disappointing, as the premise sounded promising.