Free ebook: The Watson Letters Volume 3

Free this weekend! ( http://amzn.to/2vQVKZ3 )

The Watson Letters Volume 3: Curse of the Baskervilles
by Colin Garrow

Intrepid investigators Holmes and Watson continue their fight against crime in a not quite Post-Victorian, steampunk parallel universe.
In three more adventures, the intrepid duo tackle a ghostly locomotive, journey to Dartmoor in search of a gigantic hound, and team up with bloodthirsty psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter in the hunt for a murderer. Adult humour throughout.

Curse of the Baskervilles is book #3 in this Victorian comedy adventure series.
If you love historical mysteries, buy something else instead, but if you’re into fart-gags and innuendo this’ll be right up your Victorian street. Download your copy or buy the paperback version of The Watson Letters Volume 3: Curse of the Baskervilles now

 

Review: Fairies, Pookas, and Changelings

Fairies, Pookas, and Changelings: A Complete Guide to the Wild and Wicked Enchanted Realm
by Varla Ventura
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Weiser Books
ISBN-10: 1578636116
ISBN-13: 978-1578636112

Product description:

While it’s true that fairy folk love a good garden and take great pleasure in a tulip, there are dozens of beasties who fall under the fairy domain that are not quite as delightful as the quintessential flower fairy. This book is an exploration of the many things that go bump in the night near the fairy mound. Along with an exploration of folklore and historical literature, readers will delight in fairy tales that demonstrate everything from striking a bargain with a fairy to staving off changelings to laughing with the dwarves.

Included are fairy tales and myths from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia plus classic stories by Thomas Crofton Croker, Joseph Jacobs, Clara Stroebe, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Yei Theodora Ozaki, and others on goblins, trolls, gnomes, pookas, changelings, banshees, and more!

Chapters include:

• A Fear of Little Men: Elves, Trolls, Leprechauns, Tree Spirits, Brownies, Coblyns, Dwarves, Goblins, Bonga, Trolls and Other Fairy Folk of Glen, Forests and Hearth
• The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: Changelings and Other Greedy Kidnappers of the Fairy Kingdom
• I’m Not Drunk, It’s Just My Pooka: Tales of the Trickster Fairy and Its Wild Counterpart
• Is That All There Is? Faries Who Give, or The Barter System
• Whoops, There It Is: How to Enter the Fairy Kingdom (or How Not To)

If you think fairies are merely delicate beings who follow you about on gossamer wings, you are in for quite a shock: the kingdom of the fairy is one of vengeance, thievery, trickery, and wild creatures. Consider yourself warned!

My Thoughts:

I loved it. Fairies, Pookas, and Changelings is packed with folklore of the Fairyfolk. You might be reading about a pooka one minute or a troll statue under a bridge the next. Everything Varla covered was interesting and my only complaint was that I wanted more.

I won this book in a contest that Varla held and she has added a fan for life to her list. Along with Among the Mermaids and Banshees, Werewolves, Vampires and Other Creatures of the Night, Varla has added another must-have title for your esoteric home library.

5 out of 5 stars!

 

George RR Martin

George RR Martin in a sombrero … because there are some things that the world needs now.

 

Review: The Castle in Cassiopeia

The Castle in Cassiopeia
by Mike Resnick
http://amzn.to/2uZF9R4
Series: DEAD ENDERS
Paperback: 285 pages
Publisher: Pyr (August 22, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1633882314
ISBN-13: 978-1633882317

My thoughts:
Space opera at it’s best. I enjoyed the previous books in the series The Fortress in Orion, and The Prison in Antares. I gave them 4 stars out of 5 and I’d give this book the same score.

As with the other books in the series, The Castle in Cassiopeia gets a little dialogue heavy and I hated the cover art but the book is excellent. It has an awesome pace and an entertaining story. If you can say anything about Resnick, you have to admit that he’s a great storyteller.

If you are new to the series, I think that you can jump straight into this book. Resnick sets up the story nicely. That being said, I think you’d get more out of it by starting with The Fortress in Orion.

It’s a fun summertime read. 4 stars out of 5.

Product description:
A crisis has arisen. On their first mission as a team, Pretorius and his Dead Enders kidnapped the real General Michkag and substituted a clone who had been raised and trained in the Democracy. But now they find that the clone likes being the most powerful man in the hundred-world Traanskei Coalititon—and having been raised on Earth, he knows how humans think and react.

This becomes a many-layered problem for Pretorius and what is left of his Dead Enders. As the only humans on a totally militarized alien world, they must first find where the best-guarded member of the enemy’s military – Michkag – is hiding and how many aliens, or regiments, or divisions, are guarding him, and then they must find a way past all his lines of defense to kill or capture him.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Pyr. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

Tiws Day August 15th

When high the sun in noonday glory rides,
Where willows keep the lake’s green margin cool,
The speckled trout amid their shadow hides,
And dragonflies haunt every shaded pool.
–Thomas S. Collier (1842–93)

 

A little humor for Saturday

 

Un-bookshelf

A friend has been sending me pictures of bookshelves. I like to see how people are storing and displaying their books. When I received this picture, I had to comment that this was NOT a bookshelf. In order to be a bookshelf, it needed to store —- ummmmm books.

 

Thor’s day

Ah in the thunder air
how still the trees are!
And the lime-tree, lovely and tall, every leaf silent
hardly looses even a last breath of perfume.
–D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930)

 

My new book! A guidebook to un-f*cking yourself – Recovery!

Sometimes I like Russell Brand and sometimes he pisses me off. He tends to lose me when he talks politics. At any rate, he has a new book on Recovery.

 

Some wicked books this way comes

Sorry Ray, I couldn’t resist.  Looks like some interesting books are on the way. I have been asked to review Witches and Wizards: The Real-Life Stories Behind the Occult’s Greatest Legends and Paperbacks From Hell: The Twisted History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction. Expect to see them listed in my mailbox — soon.

I hope that I have enough earl grey tea for all of these books!