AudioBook Review: Embedded by Dan Abnett

Now I need to start off my saying that I've  been wanting to read this book for a while, but never got around to it. I have a ton of books lined up to read for this blog and wanted to get some trilogies reviewed in a timely manner as well. But I was able to stumble along on this audiobook format and thought that it would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone. I will read my other books at home and listen to this one at work.

I was really excited to get into this story so I took it to work with my portable CD player and I had just about everyone freaking out that I was using such ancient technology. So I popped in some fresh Duracells and started listening to the 8 CDs over a two day stretch. As soon as it started I was impressed with Eric G. Dove, he really knocked it out of the park reading this story.

And that was where my excitement started to take a dive. The first four chapters seemed to just be filler, and I thought I was reading Abnett's Teen Titan comics. Two things kept me listening, Dove's reading and the fact that I was already invested (and I didn't bring any other CDs to swap out).

The first thing that popped in my head was that Abnett must be trying to write a book with more F-Bombs than the South Park movie. I get it that military movies and books have foul language, but it just seemed to be overkill. I thought about listening to it again and count all of them, but I can't bring myself to it.

Now by the time I got to the sixth disc the story was actually pretty good. I was interested in what was going on and then it was dragging again. I just don't get it because the amazon reviews were so positive. I was just praying that it would pick back up again and on the last disc the book actually wrapped up pretty well.

I think this would have been an amazing short story or a screenplay for a movie or TV show, but as a full length novel I feel it just fell flat. I don't want to include spoilers for those of you that were looking forward to reading this story, and I do not mean to sound so negative to keep anyone from wanting to, but it just seemed to drag like most of his comic book work.

I consider myself a fan of Abnett and I think his Warhammer books are amazing. That might actually be the reason why I am rather tough on this book. I may actually give it another shot after I finish a few more sci-fi and fantasy books. So how would I rate this on the ol' beard scale?

3.5/5 Beards

I was going to give it a 2 or 2.5, but I felt that if it wasn't for Eric G Dove that I would not have cared as much about the few parts that actually kept me interested. So for that factor alone I bumped it up to a 3.5. 

As far as the product itself, it is done really well. The box art is fantastic and the sleeves held in the case are a plus as well. You won't have to worry about losing the sleeves or misplacing the discs. Is it worth $19.99?  If you are interested I would recommend hitting up eBay, Amazon, or your local Half Price Books.  

Why no recent posts?!

I had to take a week off from posting due to car troubles doubled with being a bit under the weather. I am hoping to get an episode of MIST cranked out along with my first audiobook review for Dan Abnett's Embedded. I am also thinking about doing some toy reviews here and there as well.

Well off to type up the audiobook review, so until next time...
...Datbeardedbastard is out!

Retribution Calls by Justin Sloan: Book Review **Spoilers**

  This review contains spoilers so be warned! 

We pick right were the last book left off, with Narcel and Kaire heading north. As stated in the last review, that girl has issues. Right off the bat she is driving me crazy with her wishy washy attitude and her mood swings. It's only chapter one and I want Narcel to send her back to her destroyed city she keeps bitching about leaving. What an ungrateful little jerk, He saved her from death and took her away from a psychotic bastard.

Anyways, the two are off and she starts telling him that she doesn't know how she feels about him anymore and that he is not the same person that she fell in love with. Wait a minute! This reminds me of something!

The only difference is that Linda is just not sure about getting married. She isn't playing with Robbie's heart dangling another man in front of him. Way to go Kaire, you make Linda seem not so bad after all.

On their journey they encounter some Mawtu warriors who claim they are not there to kill Narcel, but he ain't buying that crap for one minute and he and Kaire actually kick their butts. Well actually they killed them, so at least she loves him enough not to let him die.

They later encounter a stranger who was distracting them as his cronies attacked from behind. They knock out Narcel and abduct Kaire (I give them till the end of the day to bring her back because she drives them all nuts). We then cut to that creepy bastard Lokum (Man, I wanted this guy to die in the last book) getting helped by his cronies. He is yelling that Narcel took Kaire and that they must travel north to get her back. We also learn that all the survivors of the battle are traveling to Nethia for assistance. Once they arrive, they learn that Gaila was asked to be in their council and they appointed that turd Lokum to a spot with the generals as well (They must be desperate).  

Narcel awakens and wants to find they cook Kaire. He finds tracks that appear to be made from her dress and he follows them into a building where the tracks led to and busted in the door to save his crazy lady. She was tied up and gagged in the back of the room and as he went to help her he was attacked. It turns out it is Semreh his best friend among the Mawtu recruits. I really like the way this fight was written, it delivers on intense action and let's you see both perspectives as Narcel and Semreh explain their actions. They come to an understanding and we learn that Semreh did not kidnap Kaire, he actually saved her from the abductors that attacked Narcel.

The three of them decide to travel north together and wouldn't you know it, that psycho Kaire tried to seduce Semreh while he was bathing in the river and Narcel saw it! Seriously this chick has some issues! So needless to say that this changed things between Narcel and Semreh, but it actually helped Narcel realize that Kaire is not the same girl that he fell in love with and that he may actually not love her after all.


We go back to Nethia where Lokum sleeps with servant girls even though he "loves" Kaire, we see Gaila on the council, learn that Charos is there to assist as well, and Lokum gathers his troops in order to go search for Kaire.

Narcel asks Semreh to head off on his own so he can sort things out with Kaire and he agrees and heads off. At the same time Lokum meets up with a group of Mawtu who make an alliance. Semreh and Lokum get into a fight and Lokum gets his butt whooped pretty bad too. At this point we are reintroduced to Adonis as he removes his helmet to show Lokum that he is Sinoda.

All of this is just up to chapter 7! There is a lot to take in in the beginning of this book, and I don't want this review being the length of a novel so I will condense the rest of the story.

Narcel falls in a rapid river heading down a waterfall and Kaire hesitates to grab his hand causing him to be taken away with the current! I told you this woman is a psychopath! Narcel is rescued by a group of northerners on their way back home. He feels at home with them and their way of life and he wants to be part of their community. He even changed his name to Equitas and fell in love with a woman name Amaris. We learn that she is promised to be married to the king (poor Narcel can never find a woman with no mental problems or attachments).  Kaire returned to her city and saw all the ruins, Gaila wants Lokum captured and brought up on treason charges, and Lokum set up an alliance with a band of Mawtu.

Okay so there was a lot more going on in there, but I do not want to spoil everything. The rest of the book builds up to a great climax. The battles are well writen just like the first book and the character development is still strong. I thought that I would be a bit bored when we were not dealing with Narce...I mean Equitas, but that was not the case at all. This book reads as if it was one big book with Land of Gods. In listening to an interview with Justin he even mentions that it is intended to be that way. This kept you interested right from the beginin  and requires no recap at all. You can just jump right in and follow along with Nar...Equitas!

So without spoiling the end I will say that it was great. I was imagining it playing out as a TV show building up to the season finale, and that is exactly how it felt as it came to an end. I can't wait to jump into book three to see were it ends up. I also saw that Justin wrote a prequel to this book and I am sure that I will read that as well. (So many books so little time)!

What will I rate this book you ask? Will it be as good as book one? Well since the last book was a Golden Beard Award winner it has some pressure on it for sure. After reading the book I was grading it based on the story, characters, setting, and overall tone. The book delivers on all of them just as the previous volume. I still think the first book was my favorite based on the development of Narcel and was worried that it would not hold up.

I was wrong. We got more development on Narcel and how he became Equitas. We get more on the transformation of Sinoda to Adonis as well, something that was lacking in the first book. I also like the development of Amaris as well. It was nice to see a strong woman for Equitas to be attracted to that is not a psycho hose beast for sure.

In all, I would have to say that this is an excellent book that I could find no faults with (To be fair for the review I did look for them too).   If you haven't read this series yet WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! Go read them now. You won't be disappointed.  We got another perfect 5 on the beard scale and the pressure is now on to see if Justin can pull off the Hat Trick! We shall see.

  

Be sure to check out book 1 and 3 as well!

Be sure to check out Justin's Amazon page here. 

Also be sure to visit his Twitter account here. 

And I forgot to mention a podcast that is is a co-host on. Check it out here.  You won't be disappointed. 

M.I.S.T. : Masonic Illuminati Shriner Templars; Season 1 Episode 8

Land of Gods by Justin Sloan: Book Review **Possible Spoilers**

I need to start off by saying that I am addicted to fantasy books. I had EVERY Conan book that came out up to 1984. That was the year that my father took me to see The Neverending Story, a movie that people either seem to really love or really hate. From then on I would say about 80% of the books I read are in the fantasy genre.

After reading Half Bloods Rising, I hit up Amazon looking for similar books. Interesting enough, I found that book after looking for more books like Forgotten Realms. Needless to say this book was recommended and it had really good reviews. I was adding more books to my list when I came in contact with Justin Himself. Again the timing was strange because I listen to a Podcast called the "Story Grid Podcast", mostly because I want to write a book of my own. The host mentioned a podcast called "Creative Writing Career", and too my surprise Justin is one of the hosts. I felt this was a sign that I was meant to read his books so here we are. So enough about the backstory on how I came upon this book and met another author that really interacts with their readers.

This book starts off with a battle and right off the bat you feel like you are in the middle of it! For an intro that is chaotic and fast paced it is easy to follow along and you know exactly what is going on. Justin does a good job of describing all of the details in the scene without bogging us down as readers to the point that we lose interest. I will mention Game of Thrones, as I did in previous blogs because those books bore me over 50% of the time. I know the masses love them and they are critically acclaimed, but those books have a ton of filler.

I love that this book just gives you what you need to set up a picture in your mind as you read along. At no point while reading this book was I looking at my watch or thinking about putting it down. In fact I was just focused on completing the story and while actually getting sad as I saw the 90% complete indicator on my reader. I had to keep telling myself that this is a trilogy and I still have two more books to read to complete the whole story.

As far as character development, Justin does a good job throwing some twists and turns that changed the way that you already feel about these characters.

  This is where some spoilers are hard to avoid so be warned! 

 Okay, let's start with Narcel. I hated this little twerp when the book started. I thought he was a spoiled little mamma's boy. We even see a younger kid with more courage than him running off into battle against grown men. I even sent Justin a tweet mentioning this!

Then we get Kaire. I am still on the fence with this broad. She seems to want to have her cake and eat it too. And not only that, she wants TWO SLICES OF CAKE! There were times when reading the book that I was actually yelling at obscenities at her. As the book progresses, we get a little more of her perspective, but she still annoyed the hell out of me. 

Which leads me to Lokum. When we first are introduced to him, he comes off as a little jerk, then we see him help Kaire in some bad situations we think he may not be that bad after all. Well he is! Justin does a great job of making me hate this douche bag. I kept wishing death on this bastard the whole time, but then we wouldn't have much of a climax now would we? 

All of the other supporting characters are done really well. We even get an unexpected twist involving Lokum's creepy daddy that earns the WTF moment of the whole book. I read that part twice just to make sure I read it right. And it was even creepier! 

The only thing that seemed to bother me with the characters was WHERE THE HELL IS SINODA?! We are introduced to him in the beginning and then we never hear from him throughout the rest of the book. I think this will definitely play out in the upcoming books since this is a trilogy after all. 

Without giving too much away, this book does a great job of bringing Narcel from that mamma's boy to a bad ass warrior that can more than handle his own. I really enjoyed the whole segment dealing with his training. Justin did a great job setting all of this up without being cliche. I was having preconceived notions of Gladiator or  Planet Hulk, but instead it avoided the typical "Warrior must face of in a pit or area and fight to the death" that is in a lot of fantasy books and movies. This was refreshing and honestly I would have taken away points on my score if it actually went that way! 

We have a love triangle that plays out throughout the book, but it does it in a slightly different way. Kaire seems to be conflicted with her true love of Narcel and her love for Lokum who helped her out of so many dangerous situations. We get the notion that she wants Narcel as a lover and Lokum as a protector.  The book has a climatic ending with the cliffhanger of course since it is the first in the series, but it should definitely be apparent to Kaire who to be with and stop playing with both of their hearts. 

It is hard to go into to much more detail without spoiling more of the story, and I don't want to do that since it will ruin the book for everyone. I highly recommend this book, and I can't wait to start book two! If you are a fantasy book nerd like myself, you will not be disappointment. And if you never read a fantasy book, this is a great start into the genre. It hits on all the key elements without bogging the reader down with needles information. That is something that I believe drives away potential new readers to the genre as a whole. Pick up book one, and if you dig it dive in to the other books, and if you don't, well at least you read a good book that is not a chore to get through. 

On to the rating! This was the toughest book for me to give a score too. I was conflicted since I really enjoyed the book all around, but I felt that the first half of the book I really didn't like most of the characters. As the book progressed I started liking them more, and at the end I was really behind them. 

At first I though there was an issue with the character development or maybe I was too harsh on them in general. Then I went back over the book as a whole and realized that Justin actually accomplished what I think he set out to do. Start us off with the characters at their weakest and grow with them as they change throughout the book. I realized that I felt different about each of them as the book progressed, and was caught up in the ending to see what would happen. 

So with that all said how does this book score on the beard scale? Well Land of Gods delivered the goods and is the third perfect 5 book in my short blogging career, and Justin Sloan gets the Golden Beard Award! it looks like the pressure is on now Justin, we need to see if the second book can win the award, or see if it falls short. Stay tuned nest time folks for the review for "Retribution Calls"!

                        

                                                     

 

Next book review!

Please be sure to hit up Justin's Amazon page to see all of his work! 

Also feel free to check him out on Twitter as well. 

Until next time, DatBeardedBastard is out...

M.I.S.T. : Masonic Illuminati Shriner Templars; Season 1 Episode 7