rhetorical excursions

I mistakenly read the Spaceman books out of order, starting with Near Enemy first, for some ridiculous reason. But as soon as I cracked this opened I realized that although the series shares common themes and characters they're in fact suitable as stand-alone stories. In the 1st Spademan book we learn who David Spademan is, or rather used to be and who he has now become. Reduced to taking on the ever popular but slightly challenging role as hit-man. A used-to-be bed hopper, since recovered, he spent all of his time and money tapping into the limnosphere. The next big thing. Where most people live out twisted fantasies, Spademan chose to just float in a vast, black void. Emptying his mind and life all all the noise and strife. Oh, how envious I am of that. The story felted very balanced, and evenly paced. I especially enjoyed how Sternbergh chose to type his lines and dialogue. Very quick. Very short. Packing a huge punch to the face. Shovel Ready gives us a detailed acc...

This is a stark view our humankind's not so distant future. The world has been broken apart and separated into albeit smaller, more powerful forces. The United States of America's government has been reduce to several small fenced-in miles, hosting boring gray-stone official looking buildings that do an incredible amount of nothing to help govern their remaining citizen. Yet those still employed by the USA are subjected to the most rigorous, stress filled exams almost weekly, to obviously ensure that they are not giving away secrets. The only way to unwind and not succumb to complete and total insanity is to spend your every waking moment in a virtual reality known as, "The Meta Verse." With the downfall of any real organized government, naturally the Mafia is at an all time high in ownership, however crime is no longer their number 1 import/export, ironically enough, delivering pizza in less than 30 is Uncle Enzo's top priority, and at a 99.99% customer sat...

This book is yet again another testament of the brilliant artistry of Johnathan Maas. His ability to weave several story lines into 1 book amazes me. Spanners: Fountain of Youth, is a book about a group of individuals who have been granted specific abilities outside of the average human being; some live briefly, 30 days or less, but within that time can learn and achieve more than an entire nation combined. Some Spanners are built with the strengths of 10 men, some control fire and others can take your life with a single touch. Some Spanners have been granted immortality and with that burden a clear and concise memory of every wrong done and evil action to ever exist alongside them. This is the story of one such immortal and his plight to not only save the collective human race, but the Spanners race as well. An evil has been awoken by the name of Juan Ponce de Leon and his aim is to destroy all life with the exception of a handful of his fateful follows and reduce the earth’s po...

This is an incredibly long series that has been a guilty pleasure of mine for the last 2 months, in this volume, Dray finds himself once again stranded on the beach of a land with which he knows nothing about, where only moments ago he was sailing swiftly through the night sky's with his friends and his sweat Delia, Delia of the Blue Mountains! Immediately, per usual, Dray is shackled and sold into slavery to do another Apim's bidding until he either kills everyone, or grows bored and does something about it. For the next 11 years Dray grows and Army, is a Slave, becomes a King and takes part in the murder of a Kovneva. An interesting and key factor to this volume is how Dray is forced to be a miner in the Heavenly Mines. To dig and produce a relatively bland and boring looking material, yet very important to the Hamalese and their flying machine. In this book we are introduced to the propulsion science behind the flyers, well sort of, and it appears that all the myst...