isanythingopen

The storyline seemed good, I think.  If I could figure out what the hell was going on.

 Something about magic seals, two (or more?) ways to interface with them, and a govt overthrow involving Real (humans), unReal (fairies and the like) and the Undead.  

Fairly interesting on the surface, but it feels like at any given time half the story is missing.  

And holy cow, the lack of emotion in everything is almost funny in itself.

A fight scene that could have been exciting was like reading the instructions for the next move in a game of chess.  He popped the eyeballs of another sorcerer and the info was relayed like he  was being informed that the paint was dry.

The MC sleeps with a woman warrior the first night they meet (of course). Thank god the author didn't try to describe the sex scenes, although the way he got past them was some of the weirdest fades to black I've ever encountered.  

The next day his crotch is itchy. He finds out the next night that he has caught a VD from her so he confronts her, wants to know why she didn't tell him and how to get rid if it.

She says she's got 'a bit of the plague' and didn't tell him the night before (yes, a 24 hr incubation to manifestation) because he should have looked himself, then she says 'a pox on both of us',  I'm guessing as an attempt at humor.  

Then they have sex again.  Seriously?  Although I suppose if he's got he can't get it worse, so why not.

All done with the emotion of a couple of cardboard boxes.

This attempt at clearing the TBR backlog may die an early death this time.  

My last book of the year.

Needs some editing, but a good story with a bit of Mayan/Toltec history.  I have no idea how accurate it is though.  I'm fairly certain the modern speech is not. LOL

This is book 2 in the series.  

Which explains why I wasn't making any sense out of references to Krons past and the Asylum.

It took off into an entirely different direction than I was expecting.  It seemed to be trying to morph into a romance.  Or maybe  the author was trying to show how the MC had grown.  

And another one bites the dust.  I am finding some good ones, but the bad ones are really bad.

A little patchy on the background information in places, and you can tell it's a first book, but enjoyable.

I do want to know more of the Pale Sisters and where the Rouken came from.
I'm not sure if I want to badly enough to read book 2 though.

The last half got a bit redundant, though there's a bit through most of the book.

His internal bouncing from  'I'm a great wizard' to 'I'm pond scum'  was annoying.

My plans were to do a Mt. TBR read again next year, but I decided to get an early start, starting with the oldest fantasys.  Because alphabetical and because at the moment even if I cleared out half I could still scale Mount Olympus multiple times. I can't count them, but I can get through some at least.

Most of them, however, are from the initial freebie flood on Amazon.  My criteria this time around will be harsher and more stringent than last time.  You've got a chapter or two to catch me.  Otherwise, you're out.  I started with 51, I've already chucked 3.

This little gem was next on the list and the reason I don't just go through my Amazon library and delete all the freebies from back then. 2% in and we're off to an amusing start.  

He graduated (barely) from magic university and got lucky and landed his first job as a court wizard. You just know this guy is going to be more trouble than he's worth though he's going to try to convince you otherwise.

Either the second half got tedious or I had lost the flow.  Way too much inner reflection of the detective.  And the very end got a little sappy.

Many thanks to Moonlight Murder and Obsidian Blue for another fun Halloween Bingo!
And for once again expanding my TBR pile. 

Dark and Stormy Night:  The Night Mayor  by Kim Newman

Deadlands:  The Wailing by M.R. Graham

Paint it Black:  Black Eyed Children  by Sara Clancy

Creepy Crawlies:  Invasive Species  by Joseph Wallace

Creepy Carnivals:  Dark Ride  by  Iain Rob Wright

Gothic:  In the Night Wood  by  Dale Bailey

Relics and Curiosities: The Harvest  by Sara Clancy

American Horror Story:  Sacrificial Grounds  by Sara Clancy

Demons:  Exorcist Falls  by Jonathan Janz

Stranger Things: Darkly the Thunder  by William W. Johnstone

Southern Gothic:  Wickers Bog  by Mike Duran

Stone Cold Horror:  Terror on the Tundra  by J. Esker Miller

A Grimm Tale:  Cinder  by Marissa Meyer

Modern Masters of Horror:  Sacrifice  by Russell James published 2017

Slasher Stories:  Dark Places  by Gillian Flynn

Terror in a Small town:  Them  by William W. Johnstone

 King of Fear:  The Troop  by Nick Cutter

Genre: Horror:  Mother  by Patrick Logan

Diverse Voices:  The Changeling  by Victor LaValle

Free Space:  Devil's Night  by Richard Chizmar

Spellbound:  The Paper Magician  by  Charlie N. Holmberg

Grave or Graveyard:  The Graveyard of Space  by Milton Lesser (Stephen Marlowe)

Shifters:  The Were-Wolf  by  Clemence Housman

Classic Horror:  The Sandman  by E.T.A. Hoffmann

13: The 13th Witch  by Mark Hayden

I don't know if I would have stuck it out like Conrad did.  

Take a job where nobody tells you nothing but they get all pissy when you ask questions, then complain about how you do the job.

Like when he gave technology to a giant mole so it wouldn't eat him.

Other than that, this was fun, though slightly off kilter because of 'how did he know that' sort of moments.

The Dwarves (Dwarf?) were creepy.  I couldn't tell if there was one with many bodies or if they were so hive minded it didn't matter.

That was not what I was expecting.  I was expecting a boogeyman story and we get a weird little psycho story instead. 

Although, I do wonder about Coppelius showing up at the end. 
And why was he allowed to be so mean to the kids?

And why did the the little spy glass set Nathanael off at the end once he knew Olimpia was an automaton?
And was Coppola working with Coppelius?

I have an awful lot of unanswered questions for 44 pages that was taken up mostly with romantic relationship anxiety.  LOL

Blackout is going to be a squeaker this year if I manage it.

Markers:

Called       Read           Called&Read

Dark and Stormy Night:  The Night Mayor  by Kim Newman

Deadlands:  The Wailing by M.R. Graham

Paint it Black:  Black Eyed Children  by Sara Clancy

Creepy Crawlies:  Invasive Species  by Joseph Wallace

Creepy Carnivals:  Dark Ride  by  Iain Rob Wright

Gothic:  In the Night Wood  by  Dale Bailey

Relics and Curiosities: The Harvest  by Sara Clancy

American Horror Story:  Sacrificial Grounds  by Sara Clancy

Demons:  Exorcist Falls  by Jonathan Janz

Stranger Things: Darkly the Thunder  by William W. Johnstone

Southern Gothic:  Wickers Bog  by Mike Duran

Stone Cold Horror:  Terror on the Tundra  by J. Esker Miller

A Grimm Tale:  Cinder  by Marissa Meyer

Modern Masters of Horror:  Sacrifice  by Russell James published 2017

Slasher Stories:  Dark Places  by Gillian Flynn

Terror in a Small town:  Them  by William W. Johnstone

 King of Fear:  The Troop  by Nick Cutter

Genre: Horror:  Mother  by Patrick Logan

Diverse Voices:  The Changeling  by Victor LaValle

Free Space:  Devil's Night  by Richard Chizmar

Spellbound:  The Paper Magician  by  Charlie N. Holmberg

Grave or Graveyard:  The Graveyard of Space  by Milton Lesser (Stephen Marlowe)

Shifters:  The Were-Wolf  by  Clemence Housman

Sometimes even short stories can drag on and on and on in spots.

This story seemed to apply a couple of what I always thought of as vampire traits and habits to werewolves as well.  Holy water and needing to be invited in.  How she lured them was interesting.  She didn't just hope they wandered into the woods.  She singled them out.

Good little story, though it waxed a bit heavily into the religious at the very end.

And I have no idea who thought this was a good choice for the cover for this edition of the book,  But it doesn't fit at all.  LOL  There was no ocean or ships.  Everything was frozen, apparently in the dead of winter.  I got my copy from Gutenberg.

That was  a creepy little story.  

Two miners, a husband and wife team, get stranded in a floating graveyard of dead spaceships.  How the grouping was created wasn't clearly explained, but they created their own asteroid field type grouping in a 'dead' spot with a central pull.

While trying to repair their ship so they can try and get out, they run across some weird stuff in the other ships.