Timeless

Timeless by R.A. Salvatore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A great returns. R A Salvatore returned to the character he made great 30 years ago, who in turn also made Salvatore great. This story has many mysteries some are solved here, but this is really a set up book with huge ramifications to come.

After centuries the legendary Drow Zaknafein has returned to life. How? Why? Who did it? All questions asked. Is this a gift or a part of a longer game? In the last couple of centuries much has changed but to Zaknafein it was just yesterday since he took a deadly acid bath to save his son. How will he reach to the changes in the world, and will he even be accepted into the new world and lives of the people he knew?

The story is a setting the stage type of a fair, but the action is amazing. The are a couple of fight between Drizzt and Zaknafein that are worth the price of the book on their own, then the final act is just incredible.

The book also shines light on the past between Zaknafein and Jarlaxle. I am glad Jarlaxle also has a good share of the spotlight he has more then earned it. I also like the evolution of Drizzt's warrior prowess and his attitude. This is a great new start for Drizzt and much more to come.

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No Is a Four-Letter Word: How I Failed Spelling But Succeeded in Life

No Is a Four-Letter Word: How I Failed Spelling But Succeeded in Life by Chris Jericho
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good part motivational part memoirs style of the book. The two strongest things I found of this book were:

Chris using his own life achievements to give his real world examples of many motivational quotes or sayings, we older people, have heard many times over, and youngsters will hear, and showing how he used that to achieve one of his goals. To me it did not seem like he was bragging but felt more like he was saying "I acchived my dreams you can too". This is great especially in a motivational book and him memoir to illustrate the point works perfectly.

The second is Chris has a really talent of mixing pop culture references, and telling stories/memoirs with them. This definitely makes old quotes and sayings seem more cullent and relivent. Sort of how he keeps updating his on screen character to be the same way.

There are many positives I took away from this book. I actually found it eerie while reading this book how many similar situations pop up in my own life. No I do not run into or hang around with Chris' celebrity friends, but things like how to deal with your boss, taking a risk, or even doing something that might pay dividends in the future. Things like this do come up daily.

Something else that is fine very well is Chris knows his audience. He knows the majority of his fan base is from wrestling, so he gives plenty of his insider stories from the wrestling business, mainly WWE but do mention wrestling around the world and info as well. Also for the heavy metal fans there are plenty of stories from or of some of the biggest rock icons of all time.

The only reason this book was very good but not absolutely great for me was because, it lacked a sort of inspirational spark all movatiinal books need. An example is Chris would give advice, show how this helped do something in the WWE then the rest of the chapter would continue the story. So sometimes for me the inspirational side would get list in me reading the story. I could be said the it is a testament to his story telling that I as a "constant reader",(read the book to see what they means), got so list in his storytelling.

A very good book, and a great mix of story and movatiinal styles. A lot of great stories and I really like the I achieved my dreams so you can too message. Just missing a little something to make it amazing.

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The Myth of Hastinapur

The Myth of Hastinapur by Rahul Rai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have never been a fan of Mahabharat, and that is probably the only real reason I took a star off. I am sure to fans of it this would be a 5 star book. I will say reading this book has made me want to take a look at the show.

From what I know about the series if is 1000 episodes or something. That is a little too long for me. Rahul managed to get to the important parts and even highlight things and characters that might have been missed out. As there a huge cast of legendary characters in the series.

The book is great for people who want a summarised version of the series or fans of the show that want to see more or new sides to their favourite characters. Another thing done well is the way each chapter is written like a short story, but tgey are all interconnected.

A very good book slightly more for the fans but there is nothing wrong with that. I look forward to see more of Rahul's work.

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Star Wars: Lando's Luck

Star Wars: Lando's Luck by Justina Ireland
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Very disappointed in this book. I am not even a big Lando fan, but even he deserves better than to be portrayed as a two bit con man at best, a grinning idiot with luck on his side at worst.

I have no problem introducing new characters into the Star Wars universe, but I hate having established legends completely up staged but these characters.

Lando comes across as a cape wearing pansy all style and no substance at all. He needs to be saved from every situation he gets himself into. In fact apart from his name on the cover to sell the book I really do not see the point of Lando even being in the book.

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Batman: White Knight

Batman: White Knight by Sean Gordon Murphy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an awesome story. This is the best comic mini series I have read in a long time. The blurb at the back said that this was

"Unlike anything we've seen before".

For once this is not just hype. This is truly unlike any Batman story I have ever read. Every Batman fan has heard of the Joker and everyone has an option on him. Now I met Jack Napier, and he could be even more dangerous then the Joker.

Removing the Joker' s insanity was one thing the made this comic great, the second ingredient was removing Batman's conscience and support system. This makes for a much darker, dangerous and reckless Batman. The artwork is great an suits the story perfectly. It is a great mix of old gothic art work and new technology at the same time. The surprises are actually surprising. They were definitely not things I saw coming. Everything was great from beginning to end. Even though this was a elseworld like miniseries but I would love to see where this story goes from here.

Every chapter starts with the issue cover, then the cover gallery at the end has the varient covers of issues 1 to 8.

I loved this series, if I had one complaint about this book it would be that I would have liked more of Batman in the story, but the way the story is set out I know why it was done this way. Super awesome story and I can think of someone who should be the next White Knight. Read this book then join me in begging for a sequel please!!

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Wonder Woman: Earth One, Vol. 2

Wonder Woman: Earth One, Vol. 2 by Grant Morrison
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What a disappointment. I did not like the first volume of Wonder Woman Earth One so I can't really blame anyone for me not enjoying this one. I figured it could not be as bad as the first one and in fairness it is not but it is close. The story or lack of story is boring, the whole thing is disjointed, and jumps from place to place. I actually 're-read pages not because I enjoyed them but because I did not think that I could have missed so much between pages.

To be honest I really do not understand what the point of this story was. I have to say it is probably the most boring Wonder Woman books I have read. The main bad guy seems to set out to prove that for all of her strength and power Wonder Woman is still "just a woman", and the worst part is he manages to break her.

Then just as the story starts to show some promise it ends. I hate leaving stories unfinished but I definitely have to consider if I want send any money on the next book. In both volumes this incarnation of Wonder Woman acts mire like a free love hippy guru then a champion of justice. I definitely would not recommend this book.

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Dragon Ball (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 14: Includes vols. 40, 41 42

Dragon Ball (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 14: Includes vols. 40, 41 42 by Akira Toriyama
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good collect, I enjoyed and liked how much the characters have developed since the beginning, but I did feel adding extra reversals was just prolonging the story rather then adding to it.

Goku makes his Super Sayian inaugural appearance. One thing that was explained better in the book then the cartoon was the reason why Goku did not use thus in his earlier fight. Also I noticed Goku's motives are not always as pure as I was lead to believe. A good collection and a decent ending, but because of what the book was written it was set to lead into GT rather than Super.

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