Monthly Archives: March 2016

Book Review: I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

i am legendAbout the book:
Robert Neville may well be the only survivor of an incurable plague that has mutated every other man, woman, and child into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures who are determined to destroy him.

By day, he scavenges for food and supplies, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But all the while the infected lurk in the shadows, watching his every move, waiting for him to make a mistake….

Review:
The primary story, I Am Legend, was pretty good. The rest…some better than others, but none that really blew me away.

Book Review: Omega to the Ranchers, by Stephen Hoppa

omega to the ranchers coverAbout the book:

After being beaten and left in the woods, Ryan wakes up in the bed of two powerful ranchers who are much more than they appear to be. Eric and Tyler say they don’t want anything from him, that they just want to help him recover from the horrible incident that nearly left him dead, but Ryan soon discovers that they need him much more than they’re letting on. As he learns to accept their supernatural nature and the role he has to play in saving their pack, Ryan also has to grapple with the question; can he learn to fall in love with the two men after everything he’s been through?

Review:

This is Porn With Plot…no, that’s an exaggeration. This is just porn. The plot is so thin as to be invisible. There’s a twist at the end that attempts to bring the whole thing full circle, but it’s a joke, really. It fails in the plot department.

This is basically just 115 pages of sex. And despite the fact that we’re told these individuals are supposed to be falling in love or forming a bond or whatever, this is basically just 115 pages of frenzied, no foreplay, no build-up, no communicating fucking. So, I can’t even stretch it to erotic romance. It’s porn.

Some of it was hot, but, for me, it failed even as fapping material, as the things these men said in flagrante were so freakin’ cheesy they ruined it for me. As did the repetition of “dominated,” “owned,” “used,” etc. It’s not that the character enjoying these feelings was problematic, even though they often seemed to counter his thoughts during the few non-sex scenes, and when the baddie told him that was what would happen, it was definitely off-putting; it’s the fact that the SAME exact words and phrases were used in just about every sex scene, of which, as I mention, there were a lot.

I guess this is a matter of taste. Maybe some people like this sort of thing. For those, just know the editing could use a little work, but beyond that, to each their own.

Book Review: The Green Brain, by Frank Herbert

green brain coverAbout the book:

In an overpopulated world seeking living room in the jungles, the International Ecological Organization was systematically exterminating the voracious insects which made these areas uninhabitable. Using deadly foamal bombs and newly developed vibration weapons, men like Joao Martinho and his co-workers fought to clear the green hell of the Mato Grosso.But somehow those areas which had been completely cleared were becoming reinfested, despite the impenetrable vibration barriers. And tales came out of the jungles . . . of insects mutated to incredible sizes . . . of creatures who seemed to be men, but whose eyes gleamed with the chitinous sheen of insects. . . .A fascinating examination of the fragile balance between consciousness, man and insect from one of the best-loved science fiction creators of all time.

Review:

Merely ok.
Written in the mid-sixties, it’s full of the sort of casual sexism that give me hives. But the idea was interesting enough and the writing kept me engaged, even if the character were flat and the editing a bit slap-dash.