Joel Jenkins

Double Doppelgängers

Revisado: 04-27-24

This is a great Tarzan novel, even if it does have an overreliance on doppelgängers

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Great Stuff

Revisado: 07-24-23

The characters engage in a series of verbal duels, with Shin attempting to get to the bottom of a conspiracy where the groom might not be who he purports to be. And there is also some swordplay.

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Good Stuff

Revisado: 06-07-23

Howard is most famous for his Conan the barbarian stories, but if he had never written them, perhaps he would’ve been famous for his horror stories instead. Perhaps he would have been mentioned in the same sentence as Lovecraft and Poe, when talking about the great horror writers of that era.

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Magic

Revisado: 03-02-23

Lovegrove captures the magic of the series and movie and tells a killer story while doing it.

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Suitably Epic

Revisado: 01-16-23

Suitably epic and disturbing Elric adventure that takes place prior to the destruction and remaking of the multiverse.

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Great Action & Adventure

Revisado: 07-13-18

Although I was aware of the Challenger Storm novels, I didn't resolve to check them out until I encountered Clifton Challenger as a guest star in a Dillon novel (by Derrick Ferguson).

Isle of Blood is a great example of New Pulp Fiction. It utilizes Pulp Fiction tropes such as a team led by an exceptional person (e.g. Doc Savage, the Avenger/Richard Benson), weird science, lost cities, and a touch of the supernatural.

If you're not aware of New Pulp or Old Pulp, for that matter, no worries. Most people aren't. And being aware of these genres is not in the least bit necessary to enjoy this novel.

The Isle of Blood is an exciting action/adventure tale that keeps right on moving until the end.

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Fun Despite Plot that Doesn't Quite Hang Together

Revisado: 12-17-17

I enjoy the Kemprekos written Kurt Austin novels quite a bit. This one has all the great characters and action scenes one might expect.

The plot hinges on missing documents written by Jefferson to explorer Meriweather Lewis, which somehow ties into the discovery of a Phoenician ship and King Solomon's mines of Ophir being in the Western Hemisphere and a holy relic that, if discovered, will throw the world politics into turmoil.

Kemprekos threw in the kitchen sink on this plot and though I'm not against this sort of plotting madness, Kemprekos wasn't quite able to convince me that discovery of this relic was all that dire. The twist (which is of a heretical nature to those of Christian persuasion) was that there are four versions of the ten commandments and the first version was actually handed down by some pagan god rather than the God of the Old and New Testaments and was quite different than the ten commandments we know. Therefore, King Solomon was trying to hide this relic because it might undermine the current version of the ten commandments.

Anyhow, NUMA fears discovery of this relic might throw the modern nations into war and bloodshed--as if they weren't already. Even if the Maguffin doesn't stand up to scrutiny, the story is still a lot of fun. By the time Austin jousts from a car, bowling over armored enemies, and rescues the beautiful heroine from being sacrificed into a pit of tar from the arms of the heathen god Baal you won't really care the plot doesn't quite stand up.

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Inside the Department

Revisado: 11-06-17

Where this book really shines is in the interrogation room and the reader gets a glimpse of the strategies and tactics used to elicit confessions from suspects.

Though Fey Croaker is the main character we get to meet a handful of other detectives who are just as interesting and could probably carry a book by themselves.

Warning: This book deals with investigations into sexual crimes and though Bishop exercises restraint, there is still some graphic material that certain readers may not be comfortable with.

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Compelling

Revisado: 08-15-17

Gardner has a dry and engaging humor. Most writers will find at least some of his opinions offensive even while wholeheartedly agreeing with others.

I'm not certain why I find Gardener's books on writing so compelling even while being somewhat ambivalent toward his actual novels.

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Oddball Translation

Revisado: 05-11-17

Is there anything you would change about this book?
This isn’t my first reading of Homer’s Iliad, which recounts the legendary assault of the Achaeans on the City of Troy. However, this time out I read a different translation and though it was still largely the awesome feat of literature that I recall, I realized that this particular translation, by WHD Rouse, had, in spots, sapped a portion of the lyrical quality out of the prose.

Perhaps, I’m being overly picky, but there were a number of spots that felt tone deaf or anachronistic to my ear:

A wounded warrior “Took a header off the wall”

Trojans “fleeing higglety pigglety”

“Heart goes pitterpat”

“The metal of their armour rang ding dong”

Zeus “knocked the gods all over the place”

Zeus says: “Hera, don’t get all spiky with the gods.”

If these sound okay to your ear then I think you'll like this version just fine. If they sound odd or just plain goofy to you, I suggest you pick up another translation. I would prefer to buy another translation than to listen to this one again. I feel it really doesn't do Homer justice.

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