George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #265: MAKING HISTORY By K. J. Parker

 George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #265: MAKING HISTORY By K. J. Parker

Scott's Take: The Malevolent Eight by Sebastien De Castell

 

The Malevolent Eight by Sebastien De Castell is second book in the Malevolent series that began with The Malevolent Seven. At this point there is supposed to be a third book in the series, The Malevolent Nine, but the publishing date is unknown. All we have, for now, is the reference to it in the author’s multi page acknowledgement section at the back of the book.

 

Spinning out of the events of the first book, The Lords Celestine (their version of angels) and the Lords Devilish (their version of demons) are recruiting humans to wage war against their counterparts on the Mortal Plane (quasi Earth). Cade and his friends (The Malevolent Seven) are attempting to stop the war before it truly gets going by murdering people both sides until they call it off. Of course, things only get worse from there. As happened with the first book, the plot synopsis does not really reflect what the book is actually about and I am not going to ruin with a more accurate description.

 

This book has humor, action, sex, extensive and graphic torture scenes, and much more. If you enjoyed the first read, you should enjoy this book as it is more of the same. As was true with the first one, this is very much an adult book. Like the previous read, this one also gets weird at times, but in a good way. For example, one of the new characters introduced to join the team includes a vampire Kangaroo from another dimension. About halfway through the read, the Kangaroo also learns and can speak Samuel L. Jackson’s favorite movie curse word.

 

I read the hardback book through my local library and enjoyed it a lot. I am eagerly awaiting the third book which is supposed to be the final book in the series.

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4aRlp9V

 

 

My hardback reading copy came from the Central, aka Downtown, Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2026

Short Story Wednesday Review: The Builders by Daniel Polansky

 

From the massive archive….

 

The Builders by Daniel Polansky is a novella about a group of mercenary animals on a mission of revenge. Led by a mouse, they are going after the ones who betrayed them years ago, which led them to lose the country they were fighting for and defending.

 

This rather dark and violent fantasy tale is very good. My biggest problem with it is that I wished there was more. One gets a good sense of the characters, but I wanted a longer read to really flesh out the characters. Each character is very diverse and reflective of the type of animal they are. Their fighting styles and personality are heavily based on what animal they are.

 

The Captain, depicted on the cover as a scarred mouse, uses his ability to predict behavior of others to keep the group alive. As he is naturally prey for some predators, he is very good at anticipating the actions of the predators in this novella. The rest of the group includes a stoat, a mole, an owl, a lizard, and more, are very different from each other and each has his or her own unique and helpful skill. This grim tale was very enjoyable for this reader despite the short length, but the ending is incredibly depressing.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/40LdUdA

 

My copy came from the Central or Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.  

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2021, 2025

Scott's Take: The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien De Castell

The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien De Castell is a complicated book just like all his works. The book jacket copy describes the read in one way and the actual book tells another. In the book description, Cade is a mercenary wizard who, after the end of his last job, pissed off a lot of people. He has now joined his friend Corrigan on a suicide mission to kill 7 deadly wizards who want to change the world for the better. Of course, things are a lot more complicated than that.

 

This book has action, horror, drama, humor, and lots of dark fantasy elements. This is a world where there are not really any just rock-solid good guys or good girls. Everybody in the read, just like real life, are characters that are shades of grey.

 

As one expects in a book by Sebastien De Castell, there are plenty of twists, turns and manipulations. My one complaint is that for a book that supposed to be from the bad guy perspective, the so called “bad guys” are not as bad as one would expect. They are pretty tame. I was expecting evil mercenaries, instead I read about people who are troubled and need a good therapist.

 

While the book is supposed to be about fighting the powerful wizards, a good portion of the book is spent on the journey to get to where the other wizards are gathering. There is also a good portion of the book spent detailing Cade’s last job before he went on this suicide mission. While a really good book, The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien De Castell is not the book I was expecting based on the book jacket copy.

 

The book offers a route for a possible sequel should the author choose to do it. I hope that happens.

Amazon Associate deal is not showing correctly so go here to pick it up.

My reading copy from the Downtown, or Central Branch, of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple © 2024

Scott's Take: Son of the Poison Rose by Jonathan Maberry

Son of the Poison Rose by Jonathan Maberry is the second book in the series that began with, Kagen The Damned. This novel is told from multiple perspectives and a lot of this book is mostly about the Witch-King and Kagen gathering allies and preparing for war against each other. The Witch-King also has a new weapon that he plans to use against his foes. Much later, more than 2/3rds of the book later, Kagen goes on the trip to the lost city full of monsters described in the plot synopsis.

This is a very good book, but if you did not like the first one you will not like this one. There is a lot of death, violence, rape, and other horrible things happening. More Lovecraft elements and horror elements are present here.

For people, who have read is other series, the new weapon is pretty disappointing since he is reusing ideas. His fascination with having characters piss themselves in fear all the time continues here.

I like his writing, but it’s always a shame when a talented author chooses to use what they done before instead of something new. I am looking forward to the third book, but I am hoping I won’t get burned out like I did in the Joe Ledger series.

 

My reading copy came from the Skillman Southwestern Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Scott A. Tipple ©2023

Scott's Take: Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald

Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald is very different from his previous series.  Raine can see the dead and is currently living in a cult led by a group of fake witches. The cult members are under siege by a large force of warriors who think they are real witches. Raine rescues a bleeding woman from dying in the snow and takes her home. Things escalate from there. A lot of things happen in this novel that is the first book in the The Redwinter Chronicles. Where the first book ends is a far different place than how things began thanks to a number of twists.

The main character is bisexual for people who care about that sort of thing. There is plenty of action, a lot of slice of life stuff, some humor, and some cussing. There is quite a lot of blood and death as one would expect from a dark fantasy read.  I am intrigued where it will go in book two.

One is warned that if the reader is expecting this read to be as grim like his previous series, a reader will be very surprised. It was so different that I was a little shocked that the same writer wrote both.

 

My reading copy came from the Central or Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2022

Scott's Take: Kagen The Damned by Jonathan Maberry

 
Kagen The Damned by Jonathan Maberry is the first book in a new dark fantasy series with strong Lovecraft elements. The main character is Kagen, a soldier, tasked with protecting the heirs of the crown. One night he is drugged and the Empire along with the heirs are destroyed by a magical army led by the Witchking. Kagen feels responsible and abandoned by his gods. He wanders the fallen empire in a drunken haze while plotting his revenge. At least, that is how it starts, but things get way more complicated and detailed as the read goes on.

The universe is a mish-mash of various fantasy and Lovecraft ideas merged into a world of its own. Kagan is a very violent, dark, cynical, and bitter character. He is a good guy who hates himself and routinely describes his own self-loathing. The world he inhabits is not a nice one. There is plenty of action, as well as suicides, rapes, murders, and adult humor in this rather dark book that should only be read by adults. This is not a read for children or teens as there is some very dark violence and ideas in this complicated fantasy read.

This is a really good book though, in my opinion, one of the plot lines should have been cut. The plot line did not matter much at all and, with so much going on, could have easily been eliminated.  and really did not matter that much at least in this book.

Though a very dark and violent read, I highly recommend Kagen The Damned by Jonathan Maberry for dark fantasy readers. This book is better, that the recent reads in the Ledger series that began with Patient Zero. It had seemed that Mr. Mayberry had become bored with his other series and wanted to do something new and different. He certainly has in Kagen The Damned by Jonathan Maberry.

Book two of the series titled, Son of the Poison Rose, is currently scheduled to be released in early January 2023. 

 

My reading copy came from the Lakewood Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2022

Dru's Book Musings New Releases: Week of May 22, 2022

 Dru's Book Musings New Releases: Week of May 22, 2022 

Scott's Take: The Builders by Daniel Polansky

The Builders by Daniel Polansky is a novella about a group of mercenary animals on a mission of revenge. Led by a mouse, they are going after the ones who betrayed them years ago, which led them to lose the country they were fighting for and defending.

 

This rather dark and violent fantasy tale is very good. My biggest problem with it is that I wished there was more. One gets a good sense of the characters, but I wanted a longer read to really flesh out the characters. Each character is very diverse and reflective of the type of animal they are. Their fighting styles and personality are heavily based on what animal they are.

 

The Captain, depicted on the cover as a scarred mouse, uses his ability to predict behavior of others to keep the group alive. As he is naturally prey for some predators, he is very good at anticipating the actions of the predators in this novella. The rest of the group includes a stoat, a mole, an owl, a lizard, and more, are very different from each other and each has his or her own unique and helpful skill. This grim tale was very enjoyable for this reader despite the short length, but the ending is incredibly depressing.

 

The Builders

Daniel Polansky

http://www.danielpolansky.com/

Tom Doherty Associates (Tor)

https://publishing.tor.com/thebuilders-danielpolansky/9780765384003/

November 2015

ISBN# 978-0-7653-8530-7

Paperback (also available in audio and eBook formats)

222 Pages

 

My copy came from the Central or Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2021

Scott's Take: The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher (Golgatha Series Book 3)

The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher is the third book in the Golgotha series and marks a change in how the series has been written to this point. Instead of the usual main characters, Maude Stapleton and her ancestor, Anne Bonny, are front and center. These two are very different from each other in many ways and are far different than the previous main characters.

 

The book alternates between Maude and Anne to tell their respective stories in different time periods while also explaining the history of the Daughters of Lilith. Anne Bonny is a pirate queen in 1721 who is looking for treasure that is supposed to be hidden in a lost city of Bones located in Africa. More than one hundred years later, her ancestor, Maude Stapleton, is in the year of 1870 and is trying to rescue her kidnapped daughter during a war between the Daughters of Lilith and the Sons of Typhoon.

 

The Queen of Swords leaves most of the main characters and side characters of the previous books out of things as it focuses Maude Stapleton and the actions of her ancestor which have had an impact on Maude’s time period and on Maude. While the book is a good read in the series, this reader had grown attached to numerous characters in the earlier books and missed their presence. This third book ties into key plot points of previous books and thus the series should be read in order to fully understand what is happening here in this read.

 

The hallmarks of the series in terms of action, mystery, some horror, and some humor are present in a large setting that travels countries and continents while introducing many new characters that could be possibly used in future books of the series. This is a book that is focused a lot on world building and lore to setup the next book in the series. This book further details and provides perspective about some previous events while also charting a course forward for Maude that is focused on her letting go of  the past and becoming somebody important in the fate of the world.

 

This book is weaker than the previous two in the series. Especially in the final eighty or so pages where it appears that characters are making questionable decisions and last second elements are magically added. One gets the feeling the author had one ending in mind and changed the ending at the last minute without going back through and setting anything up that would foreshadow the abrupt changes. It is clearer that decisions made in the last book and the previous book will have horrible consequences that should have been avoided, but the plot must be fulfilled.

 

The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher is a good read but I personally did not enjoy it as much as the first two. This is due to two main reasons. The first is the fact that I missed the previous characters and kept hoping they would show up. The second reason is that some plot based decisions were handled contrary to how the characters had been established and by the end of the book were doing things that made no sense. Despite all of that, overall, this is a good read in a long running series that tries to do things differently and, for the most part, succeeds.

 

My reviews of the previous books in the series are:

The Six Gun Tarot (July 2020)

The Shotgun Arcana (September 2020)

The Queen of Swords (You Are here)

The Ghost Dance Judgement (library request filed) 

  

The Queen of Swords  (Golgotha Book 3)

R. S. Belcher

https://www.tor.com/author/r-s-belcher/

Tom Doherty Associates (Tor)

https://www.tor.com/2017/05/24/excerpts-rs-becher-the-queen-of-swords/

May 2017

ISBN# 978-0-7653-9009-7

Hardback (also available in audio, digital, and paperback formats)A

366 Pages 

 

My reading copy came from the Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

Scott A. Tipple © 2020

Scott's Take: Shotgun Arcana by R. S. Belcher

 

Shotgun Arcana by R. S. Belcher is the sequel to the first book in the series, The Six-Gun Tarot. Mutt, Jim, Sheriff Highfather, and company are back in this wild west fantasy tale. In this read, the Deputies and the Sheriff face off against a rogue angel and his army of serial killing cannibal cultists who are searching for a magical skull. If they can get the skull it means the end of all life on Earth as well as every other word.  If the heroes of Golgotha-- the Deputies and the Sheriff along with a few others-- fail to stop the cult, no one will survive.

 

The tale is told slightly different as each chapter from the perspective of the hero is followed by a backstory chapter focused on one of the thirty-two cultists. Each of the flashback chapter is used to explain the backstory of the cultist and why this horrible person needs to be killed. This book also includes several flashbacks from Golgotha local angel who now goes by the name Bick. Each one of those flashbacks is its own chapter as well. Somewhere more than a third of the book is therefore a flashback of one type pr another.

 

 

Shotgun Arcana is set a year after the events in The Six-Gun Tarot. This means those events and what has happened these past twelve months have further changed these characters. For example, Jim has gained confidence and has fully embraced his inheritance of the magical eye and is seeking to become the master of it. Another example is the fact that Bick no longer has faith in the goodness of men and seeks to control the citizens of Golgotha. There are many other changes which should be saved for readers and not revealed here.

The banter is as great as ever as they discuss and reference events that happened outside of this book. One example is where folks had to be evacuated after giant spiders came up the drains into bathtubs in tremendous numbers. When an event happens in this book that results in many people being forced to leave a building, one of the people starts screaming about hoping it is not giant spiders again.  

 

Everything that I loved about the first book is included once again in this series that absolutely must be read in order.  Shotgun Arcana is good, but there are a lot of plot points that are obviously included only to create the next book in the series. They serve no purpose in this book. That was a bit annoying as much of this book is used to create that third book titled, The Queen of Swords. 

 

 

Shotgun Arcana

R. S. Belcher

https://www.tor.com/author/r-s-belcher/

Tom Doherty Associates (Tor)

https://www.tor.com/2014/09/03/the-shotgun-arcana-excerpt-r-s-belcher/

September 2014

ISBN# 978-0-7653-7458-5

Hardback (also available in digital and paperback formats)

400 Pages

 

 

 

My reading copy came from the Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple © 2020

Scott's Take: The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher

The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher is the debut novel for this author and the first book of a planned series. It is a book that is considered a “weird western.”  Those are books where dark fantasy, occult, and various other paranormal type elements are part of the tale. That is certainly the case here as the read has fantasy, occult, and horror elements in this tale set in the old west. Because it is set in that time, some of the language used in the story is reflective of that period and would not be acceptable in our current society.

Deep in the desert in 1869 Nevada, there sits the town of Golgatha. It is a place that attracts the weird, the lost the outcast, and those who like to forget their past. While there are many unique characters in this town, there are three characters, heroes if you will, that the story primarily revolves around as it unfolds.

The Sherriff is a man who has been hung until dead three times. The mark of the noose is still vivid around his neck. Some say he is dead now and others say he can never fully die. His Deputy is “Mutt” and so named in reference to the fact that he is a half breed son of Coyote, the Native American Trickster God. Mutt is half man and half coyote and has the ability to transform between the two forms. The third is a young boy who is on the run from his past. In the present, he guards a magical eye that used to belong to his father before he died.

These unique heroes must combine forces to battle a coming evil that threatens to end the world. If the city of Golgotha falls, the world will not be far behind it. 

The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher combines action, humor, mystery, and more into a really enjoyable read. One of my favorite aspects of the book is how it really pulled me into that world. There are a lot of throw away lines between characters that reference lots of different events that show these characters have been working together and dealing with weird things for some time now.  For example, there is a debate between characters if what is going on could be caused by Rat People and as things progress, they start arguing whether there really are rat people or if other folks are faking things. It is funny when you read it in the book though it may not appear that way here.

The next book in the series is The Shotgun Arcana and I am on hold through the library for that one and the following book, The Queen of Swords.

My reading copy came to me from the Audelia Road Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Scott A. Tipple © 2020

Up Around the Corner: Interview with author Joshua E. B. Smith

Up Around the Corner: Interview with author Joshua E. B. Smith

Sandra Ruttan Reviews: Maxine Unleashes Doomsday by Nick Kolakowski

This book also happens to be in my digital tbr pile though I have no idea when I will get to it. Please welcome back Sandra Ruttan who can tell you about the book now.

You're probably going to see a lot of Mad Max comparisons and references when people talk about Nick Kolakowski's Maxine Unleashes Doomsday, and there is definitely a Mad Max vibe. We're propelled into the future - a future where current borders don't all exist, where parts of the United States have broken off and become their own countries.

But, unlike the world of Mad Max, this isn't a parched earth starving for water. This is a world where the seas have risen and the skyscrapers of New York City are surrounded by water instead of roads.

Kolakowski uses a distinct storytelling approach by having the parts of Maxine's life segmented. We are aware from the inserts throughout (and the arguments between academic scholars and AI) that there are gaps missing. One of the benefits of this approach is that you don't project in the same way and expect people who are relevant in the second stage of Maxine's life to pop back up in the later segments. This keeps you on your toes as a reader, because you're never quite sure when a character is about to make their exit.

There's a lot to dissect in this book. It touches on climate change, attitudes towards poverty, political instability, technology and its potential ills, but it is never weighed down with these issues. Some books risk being soap boxes and feeling preachy as they delve into tough topics, but that's never the case here. This is a non-stop action thrill ride with substance and heart. Maxine is feisty and likable, a self-made heroine who isn't about to be stepped on and squished by the wealthy in society. 

There's solid crime components and this is a dystopian story that should appeal to fans of dark fantasy stories set in a future earth. There are also a lot of science fiction elements, although the story is never stalled by technological specifics. Whatever you call it, it's a great read worthy of your time. Sit down, buckle up, and brace yourself. Maxine is one of a kind.

I'd pay to see this on the big screen.

* Sandra interviews Nick about Maxine Unleashes Doomsday on November 13 www.bronzevillebee.com

Sandra Ruttan ©2019

Sandra Ruttan is the YA, sci fi, fantasy and horror acquisitions editor for Bronzeville Books http://www.bronzevillebooks.com/ and the managing editor for Bronzeville Bee http://www.bronzevillebee.com. Stay up to date via twitter @sandraruttan