Re: Books Read 2018
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 5:12 am
Finished the entire Kutherian Gambit series of 21 books. I was buying the books one at a time for like $5, then I said f*** that and paid for Kindle Unlimited.
The first 7 (first arc) was excellent. The second arc (8-14) was pretty good. Third arc is getting a bit weird, good but weird.
I know I've reviewed the book before, but here's a recap. Everything you know about vamps and weres were... wrong. Aliens known as Kutherians find races to manipulate to play some sort of galactic chess against each other for amusement. The twelve split into two factions... Evil Seven, and Benevolent Five. One of the Five crashed on Earth thousand years ago. When an injured human stumbled upon him up in the Carpathian mountains of Romania, the first vampire, Michael, was born. But due to misunderstanding of human physiology, and Michael's escape, the "enhancements" are incomplete, resulting in defects such as the need to drink blood and so on. What really happened is alien nanocytes are working within the body. In the present day, Michael had tried to keep the Unknown World hidden, but even he admits he needed help, and a young woman dying of inoperable cancer called Bethany Ann, is his choice... And Michael, Patriarch of vampires, has gone missing...
Let's just say the first 7 books is Bethany Ann learning her powers, and started to build the global organization, clean up the were and vamp communities around the world, while setting the stage for second arc. Second arc is building TQB Enterprises, the company that will eventually take everyone out of the atmosphere, but also fighting various hostile agents and governments, while taking down hostile secret organizations like Majestic-12. Third arc is they finally leave earth and fight aliens, "conquering" alien kingdom (who's actually a Kutherian puppet), fight space battles, and eventually return to earth.
First arc, with ass-kicking on Earth, is excellent. Second arc seems to be more about geopolitics, and while there are some ass-kicking, it feels more "reactive". Third one, where they have to push Bethany Ann's powers to practically god-like powers (ability to throw energy balls, punch people into alternate dimensions, walk through alien dimensions, etc.) giving her a challenge is a bit of meh, enough so that she had to invent an Avatar "Babba Yagga" to go scare bad guys with when she doesn't want to be Empress. Still, it's good reading.
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Finished the entire Terry Henry Walton Chronicles 11 book series
This is an offshoot/collab in the Kutherian Gambit universe. After Bethany Ann and her fleet left Earth (at the end of 2nd arc) a few years went by, then some fighting triggered third world war, and EMP fried everything, and world entered 2nd dark age, known as "World's Worst Day Ever" (WWDE) with collapse of civilization and most of technology. Terry Henry Walton was one of the enhanced humans that survived (but his wife and daughter did not) and after living in the wild for years, he rejoined civilization by helping out a small Colorado town, helped their trek northeast to resettle around Chicago, and setup a paramilitary force with garrison around the world to help fight forsaken (evil vamps) and were's, as well as bad humans. The 11 book arc covers over 100 years (with nanocytes, they live couple hundred years easy). Post-apoc stories are interesting. Post-apoc storeis with weres and vamps? Fantastic. Again though, the first couple books are pretty good, but later books start to wander a bit, as we got more and more characters to cover (children, grand-children, some enhanced, others not, extra characters, their mates, etc.)
Book 11 seems to be a collection of deleted scenes from other books.
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Finished Second Dark Ages which is yet another Kutherian Gambit offshoot. 150 years after Bethany Ann left Earth, Michael, who managed to shift into the Etheric dimension just before a backpack nuke exploded, was able to return. But the civlization had collapsed after "World's Worst Day Ever" (WWDE), and now humans exist in isolated pockets, and honor is nearly nonexistent... And Michael is determined to bring justice and honor back to Earth... and he's now the Dark Massiah.
Basically, he became a knight errant, killing bad guys, cleaning up towns, and so on and so forth. He even started wearing a trench coat and a cowboy hat. After helping Valerie (see below) in New York, he heads to Europe to deal with a problem he left undone centuries ago... that came back to haunt him. But he has help, two "wards" (proteges) he picked up, and Akio, one of Queen Bitch's elite guards, and other help.
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Currently reading another Kutherian Gambit offshoot: Reclaiming Honor series.
Valerie, "vamp daughter" of "The Duke", was left for dead by her "vamp brother Donovan", after showing honor and mercy toward humans. Her maid/companion saved her, and they chose to cross the Atlantic and head for the US, hoping to stop the pending invasion of the US by the Duke, lead by none other than her brother Donovan. They encountered Diego, a were-cat shifter and chose to journey together to New York. But the US they encountered is just as broken... Human CEOs use weres to hunt down vamps and drain their blood (as bloodbags) for aphrodisiacs and more...
Valerie managed to clean up enough of New York... just when Donovan and invasion fleet arrived with vamps and nosferatu (basically fast zombies) and Valerie have to duel Donovan, just when Michael, the first vamp, arrived, and forced them to have a "fair" duel, which Valerie won, and Michael "fixed" her to be a daywalker with extra power, and appointed her to fix up the US while he deal with the problem in Europe (i.e. the Duke). The rest of the series (just finished book 5) is her dealing with internal and external threats, have to leave a love interest behind, fake her own death, destroy the blood trade, and take out pirate hangouts.
The first 7 (first arc) was excellent. The second arc (8-14) was pretty good. Third arc is getting a bit weird, good but weird.
I know I've reviewed the book before, but here's a recap. Everything you know about vamps and weres were... wrong. Aliens known as Kutherians find races to manipulate to play some sort of galactic chess against each other for amusement. The twelve split into two factions... Evil Seven, and Benevolent Five. One of the Five crashed on Earth thousand years ago. When an injured human stumbled upon him up in the Carpathian mountains of Romania, the first vampire, Michael, was born. But due to misunderstanding of human physiology, and Michael's escape, the "enhancements" are incomplete, resulting in defects such as the need to drink blood and so on. What really happened is alien nanocytes are working within the body. In the present day, Michael had tried to keep the Unknown World hidden, but even he admits he needed help, and a young woman dying of inoperable cancer called Bethany Ann, is his choice... And Michael, Patriarch of vampires, has gone missing...
Let's just say the first 7 books is Bethany Ann learning her powers, and started to build the global organization, clean up the were and vamp communities around the world, while setting the stage for second arc. Second arc is building TQB Enterprises, the company that will eventually take everyone out of the atmosphere, but also fighting various hostile agents and governments, while taking down hostile secret organizations like Majestic-12. Third arc is they finally leave earth and fight aliens, "conquering" alien kingdom (who's actually a Kutherian puppet), fight space battles, and eventually return to earth.
First arc, with ass-kicking on Earth, is excellent. Second arc seems to be more about geopolitics, and while there are some ass-kicking, it feels more "reactive". Third one, where they have to push Bethany Ann's powers to practically god-like powers (ability to throw energy balls, punch people into alternate dimensions, walk through alien dimensions, etc.) giving her a challenge is a bit of meh, enough so that she had to invent an Avatar "Babba Yagga" to go scare bad guys with when she doesn't want to be Empress. Still, it's good reading.
-----
Finished the entire Terry Henry Walton Chronicles 11 book series
This is an offshoot/collab in the Kutherian Gambit universe. After Bethany Ann and her fleet left Earth (at the end of 2nd arc) a few years went by, then some fighting triggered third world war, and EMP fried everything, and world entered 2nd dark age, known as "World's Worst Day Ever" (WWDE) with collapse of civilization and most of technology. Terry Henry Walton was one of the enhanced humans that survived (but his wife and daughter did not) and after living in the wild for years, he rejoined civilization by helping out a small Colorado town, helped their trek northeast to resettle around Chicago, and setup a paramilitary force with garrison around the world to help fight forsaken (evil vamps) and were's, as well as bad humans. The 11 book arc covers over 100 years (with nanocytes, they live couple hundred years easy). Post-apoc stories are interesting. Post-apoc storeis with weres and vamps? Fantastic. Again though, the first couple books are pretty good, but later books start to wander a bit, as we got more and more characters to cover (children, grand-children, some enhanced, others not, extra characters, their mates, etc.)
Book 11 seems to be a collection of deleted scenes from other books.
-----
Finished Second Dark Ages which is yet another Kutherian Gambit offshoot. 150 years after Bethany Ann left Earth, Michael, who managed to shift into the Etheric dimension just before a backpack nuke exploded, was able to return. But the civlization had collapsed after "World's Worst Day Ever" (WWDE), and now humans exist in isolated pockets, and honor is nearly nonexistent... And Michael is determined to bring justice and honor back to Earth... and he's now the Dark Massiah.
Basically, he became a knight errant, killing bad guys, cleaning up towns, and so on and so forth. He even started wearing a trench coat and a cowboy hat. After helping Valerie (see below) in New York, he heads to Europe to deal with a problem he left undone centuries ago... that came back to haunt him. But he has help, two "wards" (proteges) he picked up, and Akio, one of Queen Bitch's elite guards, and other help.
------
Currently reading another Kutherian Gambit offshoot: Reclaiming Honor series.
Valerie, "vamp daughter" of "The Duke", was left for dead by her "vamp brother Donovan", after showing honor and mercy toward humans. Her maid/companion saved her, and they chose to cross the Atlantic and head for the US, hoping to stop the pending invasion of the US by the Duke, lead by none other than her brother Donovan. They encountered Diego, a were-cat shifter and chose to journey together to New York. But the US they encountered is just as broken... Human CEOs use weres to hunt down vamps and drain their blood (as bloodbags) for aphrodisiacs and more...
Valerie managed to clean up enough of New York... just when Donovan and invasion fleet arrived with vamps and nosferatu (basically fast zombies) and Valerie have to duel Donovan, just when Michael, the first vamp, arrived, and forced them to have a "fair" duel, which Valerie won, and Michael "fixed" her to be a daywalker with extra power, and appointed her to fix up the US while he deal with the problem in Europe (i.e. the Duke). The rest of the series (just finished book 5) is her dealing with internal and external threats, have to leave a love interest behind, fake her own death, destroy the blood trade, and take out pirate hangouts.