Cold Stone and Ivy: The Ghost Club

Note: The review refers to the edition included in Sword, Steam and Sky: Four Book Fantasy Bundle.

The final chapters of this book, starting from 42, and possibly also including 40 to some extent, are actually quite good. Better writing, closer to what I've come to expect from the author, better action, impact, characters a bit more fleshed out, even some emotion... What should have been the surprise revelation is no surprise, but otherwise, this could have been a pretty good book if all of it would have been like its final chapters. Yet the only thing I made a note of in a positive way before that point, other than the fact that for the most part it does at least read quickly and easily, was how Ivy's writing mirrored the action, and even that only as a little nice touch.
Until then, this book isn't just light reading, but light writing. It's all rather flat, without emotion or impact, evoking nothing where the reader definitely should feel something. Pretty much nothing between the characters either until those final chapters; a supposed love triangle missing any sort of love, or for that matter any sort of emotion. And the characters are blatantly one-dimensional, most being nothing more than parodies, some even too much, or at least for too long, even for that to still make their presence tolerable.
Yes, much of that is probably intentional, emulating one of those "penny dreadfuls" the book so blatantly refers to, and this is one reason, likely not even one of the main ones, why someone with a keen interest in the period may well have a much better opinion of it, but for me it offers little excuse. In fact, other elements meant to recreate the period, starting with the condition of women, Ivy included, but also the speech and slang used by some characters, only frustrate me further. And the same goes for the typos and untranslated speech in other languages, though I've come to expect these from the author.

Rating: 3/5

Note: This also marks finishing that bundle, though I had read Dragon of Ash and Stars before, so not the edition included in it, in case there are any differences.

The inclusion of To Walk in the Way of Lions makes it an unusual bundle in a positive way, including more than one series and not just the first book of each, so I rounded up the overall rating for that reason, to 4/5. Nothing else to say about the bundle itself other than the fact that it's plagued by what I gather is the way in which such Kindle bundles work, the whole thing being a single file and a single library entry.

Quick reviews of the other included books:
Dragon of Ash and Stars - 4/5 [Note: Review of the stand-alone edition, in case there are any differences.]
To Journey in the Year of the Tiger - 4/5
To Walk in the Way of Lions - 3/5

Interestingly, that means they're placed in order of quality, at least as far as I'm concerned. A great first book followed by a good second, then a third with a good first half and a poor second half, and finally a fourth which is mostly poor and only saved to some extent by the final chapters.

★★☆ The One Minute Manager / Kenneth H. Blanchard
★★★ The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey / Kenneth H. Blanchard, William Oncken Jr.
★☆☆ Największy bogacz wszech czasów / Greg Steinmetz
★★☆ War's Unwomanly Face / Svetlana Alexievich
★★☆ Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt / Michael Lewis
★☆☆ Wilcze leże / Andrzej Pilipiuk
★☆☆ Data Science from Scratch: First Principles with Python / Joel Grus

List of all books read in 2019.

The Black Company - Glen Cook

Set up in a heroic fantasy, but with very light fantasy, this is the first volume of the series of the same name. It is the chronicles of the Black Company, a company of mercenaries, written by their doctor, in which he relates the political and actual warfare in which the company is involved.

Very interesting is that it is written in a form of chronicles, so it is indeed very dynamic and you learn little by little about the world surrounding the company, the powers that be, etc... Glen Cook has an interesting writing style, it was my first book from this author and certainly not my last!

So far in 2019: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2019/post10

I've always liked this one. It's like Lord of the Rings from the perspective of a bunch of grunts working for Sauron.

Yeah, exactly, plus you're finally not sure that Sauron is Sauron ^_^

Werewolf by Night Omnibus. A complete collection of Marvel's Werewolf series from the 70s, which was pretty rocky overall. Certainly not as consistently good as Tomb of Dracula was. The early issues have great art by Mike Ploog, but mediocre writing by Gerry Conway. Conway leaves and Marv Wolfman ("At last, a wolf man written by a Wolfman!") takes over. He makes a few improvements but generally doesn't quite crack the book, which just doesn't have a very good setup. Jack Russell just doesn't seem very bright. If you're a nice guy that knows you're going to become a psycho monster whenever there's a full moon, wouldn't it make sense to take some precautions instead of just...letting it happen and moaning about how much it sucks? Many of the stories also have that stink of feeling like 1970s network TV shows ("Tonight's exciting episode: Werewolf vs. Big Game Hunter!"), and it's hilarious having to read the werewolf's thought balloons in the early stories. "Must find forest. The forest! THE FOREST!!"

Eventually Doug Moench and Don Perlin settle in as the regular creative team. Despite Moench's knack for doing good stuff with these misfit titles, even he doesn't really manage too well with the book, although Perlin's art is consistently solid. The book finally gets on its feet when they first do a two-part introduction of the Moon Knight character, and then they run a lengthy story that's basically an outright rip-off of The Legend of Hell House, but they go totally nuts with it, like they're channeling classic Italian horror movies and Perlin draws some awesome monsters. It's really fun. Unfortunately, this must not have been a sales success, because after doing a story set in Haiti involving "zuvembies" and weird interdimensional travel, they give Jack the ability to change at will. The book ends with Werewolf teaming up with Iron Man in a pretty lame superhero story with a subplot that had get tied off in other series.

Malevil - Robert Merle

Malevil is a french novel, written in 1972. It describes the aftermath of a nuclear war and the life of survivors, who survived because they were busy bottling wine in the cellar of a castle, thus protected by the walls from the intense heat and the radiations.

It is very interesting per se, because it is well written and the characters are very interestingly depicted, but it is also very interesting to see how the author saw the aftermath of that nuclear war in 1972, at a time before Internet, AIs and the likes of our modern world. So it's both a sci-fi novel and, for us, something from the past, a relic of how people then could imagine the future... or the lack of!

It is very well written and I can't recommend enough to read it!

So far in 2019: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2019/post10

The Belgariad cycle by Devid Eddings. Light fantasy, probably most suited to young readers (you are as young as you feel).
Pretty much classic good vs evil, but it's a good read. I enjoyed it.

I plowed through Uncanny Collateral in two nights as a break from reading Team Human. It was great if you like urban fantasy at all. I look forward to Brian McClellan writing these characters more.

(And, truly -- if you haven't read McClellan'd Powder Mage trilogy, you're doing yourself a disservice.)

The Killing Bone, by Peter Saxon. Saxon is a house name used by this book's British publisher. This is part of a series called The Guardians, about a group of five people who have come together to stand against supernatural threats. In this one, some Australian aborigines are putting curses on these guys who had some mysterious dealings with them in the past. Despite the seemingly clear-cut nature of the Guardians' mission, the issue turns out to be somewhat ambiguous and it's less a case of the aborigines being wrong than it is that their response might be a bit over the top.

I read this hoping for a quick, pulpy read (it's only about 160 pages long), but the book is mostly a slog. You know how sometimes authors will use experiences from real life as inspiration for their stories? This book has that but in the worst kind of way, like you're reading about someone's typical work week. "Monday - went out to the pub for drinks. Tuesday - went to a party. Wednesday - had some tea with a friend. Thursday - back to the pub for drinks", etc. The author tries to spin it by having the main characters have bad premonitions or introducing tension in conversations, but you're still fundamentally reading about mundane stuff in chapter after chapter. Stuff finally starts happening in the last 30 pages or so, but I wouldn't say it makes up for the dull buildup.

Copiii intunericului (The Children of Darkness)

At least it reads quickly, and managed not to piss me off for reasons other than the obvious, but that’s because I no longer gave a fuck about the characters. Otherwise, any other positive aspects I may mention are minor things and/or also go both ways. For example, except some “miles” instead of kilometers at one point, I recognize that it’s well anchored in Romanian realities, but perhaps too well, not only because I don’t want obvious “reality” in what I read, it’s why I read fantasy after all, but also because some things used as explanations would confuse those who haven’t lived here, or merely tore themselves away from those aspects. Or I’d say nice touch with Nicol’s Romglish, but if it’d be another language I’d complain about the lack of translation, and that also applies to that coworker’s bits of Italian.
Speaking of Nicol, I “disqualified” her completely from chapter two, for the obvious reason, and the rating is so poor in good part because that becomes the main motivation and even theme, so I have some choice words for the person who praised the books until I got it in my mind to buy them instead of warning me away from them. Otherwise, day to day things are presented in detail but the relevant action is on fast forward, including instant romance. Then, perhaps it seems to sound strange to me also because it’s extremely unusual for me to read a book by a Romanian author, in Romanian, and the verb tenses that keep seeming out of place to me may have to do with a regionalism, but at least the typos and grammar errors are obvious and some are really jarring, which is the least you’d expect to no longer find in something that’s not only not self-published, but a second edition as well. And it’s Lenore, not Leonore. And Nightwish didn’t break up at all in 2005; they just kicked one person out. And, regardless of the spell, how do you screw, roughly too, when you’re so burned, considering that this changed only after that?

Rating: 2/5

Some catch-up do to, unfortunately not as much as I would have liked to but, oh well...

A case of need - Michael Crichton

A very early Crichton, in fact written while he was still an intern in an hospital and thus published then under a pen name. Of course, it's a "hospital story", which is why Crichton didn't want to publish it under his real name, since he described some things very realistic although purely fictionnal that happened around him.

If the book in itself is not as gripping as his later works, it's still very interesting to see the genesis of his style. A good read, plus a window on east-coast american society in the lates 60s.

Le Cantique des cantines - Claude Mesplède

Another volume of the Le Poulpe series, of which I've already written about here. Here is your standard fare for a Le Poulpe story: murders, evil people (rich), good people (middle-class and poor), pretty women that will fall in love with Le Poulpe... Well, to be frank it was not bad, but it was bland. Easy to read, easy to forget.

So far in 2019: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2019/post10

Blestemul zorilor (The Curse of Dawn)

It still reads quickly, and maybe also because I got more used to it, but it seemed better written than the first, and the number of obvious mistakes has been noticeably reduced, though for me it remains unacceptable. Otherwise, I wasn’t necessarily bothered by many things, though this again has in good part to do with the fact that I don’t care about the characters. And I know flashy action isn’t spared early on, and the bus scene at the gas station in Hungary is actually funny, and at the same time again very “real”, reconfirming this anchoring in Romanian realities, with the same odd exception of some “miles” instead of kilometers.
Still, scenes like the one from that church, or the attack that caused the crash, plus all the dead, can’t not attract attention at a level impossible to control, regardless of all the spells used. I mean, they’re not allowed to have a Facebook account and the concern about any possible witness with a phone is mentioned, but they do things that would make all the news and attract the attention of entire cities and there’s no mention of consequences. But speaking of consequences, the rape is rather troubling due to this approach that seems very common and possibly even sought after, apparently actually by women, where “don’t” becomes “don’t stop” and rage quickly turns into desire.
As for Nicol, it’s I’d say downright sickening how dumb she becomes, even if the reason is obvious. And what happens to mothers of boys was clearly specified in the first book, so it’s pointless for it to be a “surprise” in this one. But I keep returning to wondering how come she has a child, and I’m not saying this just as a militant antinatalist furious over the fact that such a main character exists, but considering that at the beginning of the first book she mentions abortions, so even if she was quite obviously bewitched to keep him, anyone else, starting with Roxana, should have realized that something’s very wrong, and maybe even exactly what.

Rating: 3/5

It was great if you like urban fantasy at all. I look forward to Brian McClellan writing these characters more.