DB Books and Reviews

An entire English class in a book... I'd been curious about Tolkien's rendition of the classic tale of Beowulf for quite some time now. The combination of an opportunity to buddy read it with someone and the timing of a readathon made this March the perfect time for me to finally check it out.   HOW I RATED IT  4/5  Make no mistake, this one is for the English nerds and die hard Tolkien fans only, but if you fall into one or both of those categories, then this might just be a real treasure to add to your collection.  CONTENT First and foremost, this is quite different from any version of Beowulf that you may have had to read in school. The most popular rendition is much more of an approximation or retelling of the story whereas Tolkien's version is closer to a word for word translation. The end result is a story/poem that is rather difficult to follow, at least initially. I think it's probably helpful to already be familiar with the tale in some form before divi...

Empires, immortals, and God... After the author kindly offered me an Audible code for this new release, I was excited to immediately work it into my listening schedule. Even though I really appreciate receiving a free copy of this book, my gratitude does not impact the honesty of my review. HOW I RATED IT  4/5  Though this sequel to VERMILLION FLAMES initially seems like it will be a fairly predictable yet chaotic, space adventure, it ultimately culminates into something far more layered and engaging with elements of military space fantasy, holy wars, space opera, and rebellion. NOTE : While I will aim to avoid spoilers for ASHEN DAWN , I will be mentioning characters and events from the prior book that could be considered spoilers for that story.  CHARACTERS The prior book ended with Kaya and Silas's stories converging and many of the major side characters from each perspective coming together to form one big party of rebels. Things pick up pretty much where they left o...

Forgive me if you can... After enjoying THE CRIMES OF ROOKER FLYNN , I've been looking forward to the release of it's sequel. This month felt like the month to treat myself to it, so I did.  HOW I RATED IT  5/5  Even though this book ends on another vicious cliffhanger, I felt as though it was everything the second book in a trilogy should be in that it was a satisfying entry in the series while still leaving me desperate for the true conclusion to this turbulent tale. Please Note: While I will be aiming to avoid spoilers for THE TRIAL OF ROOKER FLYNN , I will likely mention characters and events which could be considered spoilers for both the first book in this trilogy as well as the original THE LEGEND OF BLACK JACK .  CHARACTERS We once again find ourselves with the notorious Rooker Flynn as the book kicks off with another flashback of him from when he still went by his birth name of "Pip." We also meet the original "Rooker" in this prologue, but his ult...

Who you were before does not matter... Tori Tecken's new book has been on my radar for a little while now, especially because Andrew D. Meredith serves as the narrator for the audio edition. Once my listening schedule opened up, I knew I wanted to jump right into this, so I did. HOW I RATED IT  3/5  This slow burn start to a new epic fantasy series was an intriguing introduction to the characters and world even if none of it engaged me to the extent I hoped it would.  CHARACTERS As with most epic fantasies, there are an assortment of characters who we follow in each chapter. Even though there are a handful in total, Gehrin and Syndri are who I would argue are the main characters, mostly just due to their having the lion's share of the page time. Of the two, I definitely liked Gehrin a lot more. He's taken from his family as a young boy and slowly molded over time into sort of like a brainwashed elite guard. It's hard not to sympathize with him due to all the horrible tr...

Shadows, spells, and subterfuge... I'd backed this book during its Kickstarter as it was fairly reasonable to back and had a very interesting premise. I received it quite some time ago and am just now getting around to checking it out.  HOW I RATED IT  4/5  As with any anthology, some stories within this collection are absolute fire and some proved to be extremely lackluster. Overall though, I think there were far more engaging tales spun here than there were forgettable flops.  CONTENT This collection features fourteen short stories written by fourteen different authors ranging from around twenty-ish pages to fifty or so, though most do not exceed thirty. As you might expect, the unifying theme tying these different tales together is that each of them has something to do with assassins. In some cases this means that the main character is an assassin, but in others they are actually trying to stop an assassin from doing their deadly deed. There are a number of storie...

Class Zero... This was a selectable reward from the Square Enix website at one point which I'd used accumulated points to redeem. I've never really read a Manga before, but since I only had to pay the cost of shipping for this, I figured this would be a good way to give it a try. Many years later, I've finally given it a shot. HOW I RATED IT  4/5  While I don't think this is going to knock anyone's socks off, nor does tell the most satisfying and complete story, I still had a good time with the storytelling, art, and overall reading experience.   CONTENT I believe that this Manga functions as a sort of prequel to the videogame it's tied into. I did give that a try years ago on my Xbox but it was just a rather rough experience both graphically and in terms of gameplay since it was so painfully obvious that it was a portable game given a fresh coat of paint. Needless to say, I didn't get very far in it, but I thought the overall vibe of the characters and worl...