Mastodawn

I finished book 37 which was “Did You Say Chicks?!”, a short story collection edited by Esther Friesner. This is the second short story collection following “Chicks in Chainmail”.

Details can be read at: https://substack.com/profile/22175895-jim-bodie/note/c-126976094

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I finished book 37 which was “Did You Say Chicks?!”, a short story collection edited by Esther Friesner. This is the second short story collection following “Chicks in Chainmail”. Sounds sexist, right? Nah. This series is about women who kick ass, mostly written by women authors and edited by a woman. Nothing sexist about any of that. The stories are all over the map. Some take place on Earth, some take place in Fantasy or even Science Fiction settings not of this world. The general idea of these stories are to feature women protagonists and also be funny and entertaining. They succeeded quite successfully! I’m a fan of short story collections, especially entertaining ones. They are a great pallet cleanser to be read when one needs a break from the longer book they are reading or as something to read between books.

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Jim Bodie Jun 18

I finished book 36 which was Andre Norton’s, “The Forerunner Factor”. This is omnibus book containing 2 of her books, “Forerunner” and “Forerunner: The Second Venture”.

Details may be read here: https://substack.com/@jimbodie/note/c-126968195

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Jim Bodie on Substack

I finished book 36 which was Andre Norton’s, “The Forerunner Factor”. This is omnibus book containing 2 of her books, “Forerunner” and “Forerunner: The Second Venture”. Any fan of Sci-Fi or Fantasy reading should be well aware of Andre Norton. She wrote a lot of award winning books. The Forerunner books are a blend of Fantasy and Sci-fi that Andre Norton was well known for. The Forerunners were an ancient, long dead space faring race. Well maybe not all dead, but definitely rare. On the planet Kuxortal, Simsa, as an infant, was found in some Forerunner ruins. She clearly was not quite human, but no one, least of all her knew of her origins. Simsa lived in the burrows, essentially that planet’s slums where she eked out a meager existence. When her mentor died, she was on her own with her pet zorsal, Zass, a bat like creature. The planet had lots of ancient treasures and tech. Spacers, would stop at the planet to trade for these ancient relics in their quest for knowledge of the past. It was one such spacer, Thorn, that Simsa partnered with. They traveled to an ancient Forerunner ruin where Simsa was invested with the spirit of an “Elder One”, a long dead Forerunner. That was the basics of the first book. The 2nd books starts with Simsa traveling on a spaceship with Thorn and his people. Simsa has some mind reading powers. She learns that some others in the crew want o either use her to gain power, or dissect her to learn more about the Forerunners. That was Simsa’s cue to get on a escape pod and go to the nearest inhabitable planet. Simsa lands on a long dead desert world. It’s not entirely dead as it turns out, but that life such as it is is not at all safe to Simsa. She and Zass must find a way to survive. There’s a lot left unsaid. You all know I try to avoid the spoilers. Like one would expect of an Andre Norton book, this one was good.

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Jim Bodie Jun 14

I finished book 35 which was Matt Dinniman’s, “The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook”. This is the 3rd book in the Dungeon Crawling Carl series. Carl and his now sentient cat Princess Donut explore the world wide dungeon built after Earth is destroyed by aliens.

Full details can be read here: https://substack.com/profile/22175895-jim-bodie/note/c-125735097

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I finished book 35 which was Matt Dinniman’s, “The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook”. This is the 3rd book in the Dungeon Crawling Carl series. Earth is destroyed by aliens in a single, swift attack. Every structure, bus stop, shelter, anything with a roof is instantly flattened killing everyone that happens to be inside. Ridiculous? Oh sure, but these are aliens with some pretty hefty technology so just go with it. Meet Carl. He’s a Coast Guard veteran who has learned that Bea, his now ex-girlfriend, was not only on vacation, she was on vacation with her ex-boyfriend who is not so much an ex based on her Instagram posts. Carl is living with Bea and her cat show award winning Persian cat, Princess Donut. When the Earth was destroyed, Carl was outside, in his boxers and crocs trying to get Donut out of a tree. She mat be Bea’s cat, but Carl seems to think of her as a family member more than Bea who sees the potential of selling Donut to a breeder. This is why Carl and Princess Donut survive. A world wide announcement is made. The dungeon is about to open with several hundred thousand stairways forming all over the world. The choice of the millions of survivors is to enter the dungeon, or try to survive with no resources on the surface. 12 million enter the dungeon which is made out of the wreckage from the destroyed Earth. Carl and Donut manage to survive the first few minutes and make their way to a safe spot. Donut is transformed from a pet to a player character who happens to have better stats than Carl. She assumes, as any cat would assume, that she is naturally in charge of the party with Carl being her bodyguard. This dungeon is dangerous. By the beginning of this 3rd book, there’s only a few hundred thousand crawlers left. Carl and Donut are 2 of those crawlers. Crawlers have access to a pretty much unlimited inventory. All you have to do is will something to go into or out of your inventory. Find some weapon, pile of treasure, furniture, pile of scrap iron, dead body, whatever you want, will it into your inventory and it disappears. Want to use that item later? Will it out of your inventory and it appears. Like a massive multiplayer game, crawlers can meet up and exchange chat information. They can then chat with each other no matter where in this worldwide dungeon they are. In the 3rd book, the entire level is a massive series of trains and subways, and stations. It is a massive complicated system and different stations have different things to offer, both good and bad. I’m sure it was a challenge for the author to be able to keep track of the complexity of this system and keep track of the many groups that Carl and Donut were communicating with. This book was an absolute gore fest, in the fun way. Sometimes blood and guts are very gratuitous and boring. In this book it was just fun and quite entertaining. There are a lot of things I could talk about, but they would all be spoilers. If you happen to still be reading at this point, I highly recommend this series. Carl is very innovative in the things he designs and the uses he puts those things to. Donut, has the personality of every female cat I have known combined. There is a very good reason she is everyone’s favorite. The book was action packed and fun to read.

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Jim Bodie Jun 3

I finished book 34 which was James R. Benn’s, “Proud Sorrows”. This is the 18th book in the Billy Boyle World War II Mystery series. Ike's special investigator is on leave at his girlfriend's manor, but finds himself investigating a 2 year old local murder.

The full details can be read at: https://substack.com/@jimbodie/note/c-122380418

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Jim Bodie on Substack

I finished book 34 which was James R. Benn’s ( @James R Benn ), “Proud Sorrows”. This is the 18th book in the Billy Boyle World War II Mystery series. I’ve described Billy Boyle to you before. In brief, Boston’s youngest detective, Billy Boyle and his family exploited a distant relationship to Dwight Eisenhower and at the outbreak of WWII, he became Ike’s special investigator to investigate those crimes that need to be solved, but conventional investigation would not suffice. Billy’s partner is Kaz, a Polish baron who lost nearly all of his family, is serving in the Polish army assigned to Ike’s staff. Kaz was in love with Daphne Seaton. Sadly she died. Billy’s girlfriend is Diana, Daphne’s sister. After several books worth of missions fraught with danger, Billy, Kaz and Diana find themselves on leave at Seaton Manor. This is November 1944. Seaton manor is near the Wash in England (52°55.N 00°15.E). This is a real area of turbulent water. Billy and Diana are out for a ride and they see, from their clifftop view, exposed in the wash, a German bomber. Diana knew what this was all about. In 1942, a German bomber crashed on the cliff and slid into the wash and was covered by water and silt. The bomber was hauled out of the water and 2 dead German crewman were removed. The pilot, however was mysterious. You see, the pilot was wearing a British military uniform. How the hell did a British military officer end up flying a German bomber. Even better the uniform matched that of Stephen Elliot, an extremely unliked owner of Marston Hall, a large manor currently being used to house German POWs being interrogated by the Ritchie Boys. It just so happens that Stephen disappeared the night the German bomber crashed. Billy, Ike’s special investigator who is on leave finds his leave interrupted by orders to investigate the crash, the mysterious pilot, with the orders to make sure that the top secret (best known secret in the area) operation at Marston Hall is not dragged into it. Slewford, England, the fictional village containing Seaton Manor is a very small village with all of the secrets that no one wants to talk about. Billy must work through the townsfolk’s reluctance to open up. He must also deal with some folk who are aligned with the Nazis. Billy might as well have stayed in German occupied France. It might have been safer. Like the rest of the Billy Boyle books, the author blends historical people, places and events with his fictional characters and stories. The Wash is a real geographic feature. The history of King John (the one from the 1300s) and this region is mostly true. The existence and mission of the Ritchie boys is quite real. Those real elements are blended into a great story. I’ve been reading the Billy Boyle books, for a few years. I’d read a few books a year. Now I have reached the end of my Billy Boyle pile. I need to wait until August when book 19 comes out on paperback. I mean it’s not like I don’t have a giant stack, and shelf, and the other shelf, and the other piles of books to read in the meantime so I’m sure I’ll survive until then.

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Jim Bodie May 28

I finished book 33 which was James R. Benn’s “From the Shadows”. This is the 17th in the Billy Boyle WWII series. Ike's special investigator Billy Boyle finds himself in Southern France rooting out a rogue French resistance fighter.

The full details can be read here: https://substack.com/profile/22175895-jim-bodie/note/c-120998813

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Jim Bodie on Substack

I finished book 33 which was James R. Benn’s, “From the Shadows”. This is the 17th book in the Billy Boyle World War II Mystery series. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Billy Boyle, is the youngest detective in the Boston police Department. His father and uncle fought in the trenches of WWI. There was another uncle that never came home from the trenches. They don’t relish another Irish Boyle dying for the English. A distant relationship to Colonel Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower’s wife was exploited to obtain a commission for Billy and an assignment to Ike’s staff in Washington D.C. That was a clever way to keep Billy out of the shooting war. That worked really wall until Ike was promoted to general and sent to England. Billy was assigned as Ike’s special investigator who would investigate all the crimes that need to be solved, but need to be solved on the down-low. Billy’s partner is Kaz a Polish baron who lost his entire family to the Nazis as well as Detroit cop, Big Mike who really earned the nickname of “Big”. I suppose it should go without saying that Billy’s adventures are in no way safe and in no way out of the shooting war. So much for a safe, cushy job in D.C. In this book, Billy is sent to Crete to retrieve a SOE agent. Safe enough, right? well except for the battle he fought with the partisans against a large German force, and all the other dangers, it was safe enough. Billy, and the SOE agent go to Algiers and pick up Kaz. Their mission is to go into recently liberated Southern France, interview French resistance fighters and get a list of collaborators to be investigated by the new French government. The time for mob justice is over and it is time for official government sanctioned justice. Of course it can’t be that simple and there is plenty of opportunity to get oneself killed. This mission takes Billy and friends from the safe rear areas all the way up to the shooting war and all points in between. Ok that was reasonably spoiler free, I hope. You can glean most of the above information by reading the back of the book. One thing I like about the Billy Boyle books is the author’s melding of real historical events, places and people with his fictional story. A number of the people in this book were real people. Some of the very real events that affected those real people were included in the story. Despite all the reading I have done about WWII, I certainly do not know everything. This book centered around the aftermath of the Battle of Vercors. I do not recall ever reading about or hearing about that battle. I learned more about that battle from reading this book, than I recall reading in any other military history book. The history of the battle in this book is the same as the actual battle. Some events after the battle were changed to fit the story, but the description of the battle and events around it were real. So yea, like the 16 Billy Boyle books before this, this one was a great read. I have one unread Billy Boyle book. Book 19 is not being released on paperback until August to I have until then to read book 18.

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Jim Bodie May 26

In honor of Memorial day, I am on the patio reading Stephen Fisher's "Sword Beach" and James R. Benn's "From the Shadows". Both books come highly recommended. I'm also reading a Dungeon Crawling Carl book, but that does not fit the theme so well.

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Jim Bodie May 26

I finished book 32 which was the omnibus comic collection, “Star Wars Legends: The New Republic: Volume 8.” These stories take place after “Return of the Jedi” and center around the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the galaxy. Sometimes a common enemy indeed makes for some very strange alliances.

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Jim Bodie May 21

I finished book 31 which was Lee Hollis’s “Murder at the Spelling Bee”. This book is the 4th book in the Maya and Sandra Mystery series. Ex-cop Maya and US Senator's ex-wife Sandra work as private investigators in Portland, Maine. They solve more murders in the fictional murder capital of the world, the US state of Maine.

Full details can be read here: https://substack.com/@jimbodie/note/c-119114625

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Jim Bodie on Substack

I finished book 31 which was Lee Hollis’s “Murder at the Spelling Bee”. This book is the 4th book in the Maya and Sandra Mystery series. We’re not collecting a lot of these cozy mystery series, but I like the work of Lee Hollis. Lee Hollis is the pen name of Rick Copp and his sister Holly Simason. I am not sure if Holly is involved with this series as her name is not listed in the about the author section. Maya is an ex-cop turned private investigator. Sandra is a US Senator’s wife, well soon to be ex-wife, lives a pampered, well to do life, but joins Maya in the PI business. The 2 very different women grew over the past 4 books to work very well together. In this book, there is a middle school spelling bee. One student received a threatening note in hos locker, “drop out or die”. Maya and Sandra are hired to find out who left the note. During one round of the spelling bee, Ellie Lambert the excessively strict, mean, nasty and vindictive high school geography teacher, who no one likes, no one, gets herself killed. This is gonna be one of those everyone is a suspect stories. Maya & Sandra work on solving the murder, much to the displeasure of the local police. That’s how it always is. I did figure out who killed the teacher pretty early in the book, but figuring it out does not take away from the book. I was going to compare the dead Ellie Lambert to my 3rd grade teacher Miss Edson. Miss Edson was strict, yelled a bunch, and had a bit of a reputation. However, any comparison would be very unfair to Miss Edson. She may have been strict and liked to yell but she was absolutely fair, cared about the students, and really was a fine teacher. She did not take any bullshit from the students and quite frankly, more teachers should be like that. So anyhow, who killed the teacher, and why do so many people in Maine end up getting murdered? Did I mention this series takes place in Maine, specifically Portland? Like so many other series, there’s at least one murder per book, sometimes more. Makes me think Maine is the murder capital of the world. At least these murders are entertaining to read about.

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Jim Bodie May 15

Full details can be read at: https://substack.com/profile/22175895-jim-bodie/note/c-117249566

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I finished book 30 which was Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain’s, “Murder, She Wrote: Blood on the Vine”. I bought Kat the entire paperback series of the MSW books and I enjoy them as well. They are a quick, refreshing read that I enjoy between longer books. You all ought to know of the “Murder, She Wrote” TV show with lead character Jessica Fletcher a retired English teacher turned murder mystery writer who just so happens to be near a murder where ever she goes. She claims to not want to get involved in a real murder, and instead ends up figuring out whodunit. Jessica and her Scotland Yard detective friend, George Sutherland meet up for a week in Napa Valley, California. Dear friends of Jessica moved to Napa Valley to open up a bed & breakfast. Jessica has lunch with local rich blowhard Bill Ladington. Bill doesn’t take no for an answer and gets Jessica to spend the afternoon with Bill at his winery. Bill wants Jessica to help write his autobiography. She refuses as she doesn’t write those sorts of books, not to mention she did not find the man pleasant enough to want to spend any more time with him. With all the people that do not like Bill, it is no spoiler to tell you he ends up dead and Bill’s sun asks, well begs Jessica to figure it out. What follows is a foray into the lives of some unpleasant people, any of which had a good motivation to kill Bill. (And to think, I thought it was Uma that killed Bill.) Will Jessica figure out who did it? It is also no spoiler to tell you she’ll figure it out, but it might not be who you are expecting, or maybe it will. Like I said before, I like the MSW books and this one is no exception.

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Jim Bodie May 12

I finished book 29 which was Matt Dinniman’s, “Carl's Doomsday Scenario” which is the second book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. After a world ending event, Carl and his ex-girlfriend's Persian cat Princess Donut continue to explore a world-wide dungeon that is televised to the Universe. If they can survive, the rewards will be substantial, if they can survive.

The full details can be read at: https://substack.com/profile/22175895-jim-bodie/note/c-116430757

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Jim Bodie on Substack

I finished book 29 which was Matt Dinniman’s, “Carl's Doomsday Scenario” which is the second book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Carl and his Persian cat, Princess Donut, now sentient and in some ways more powerful than Carl, survived the destruction of the world and are among the surviving humans that entered the world wide dungeon. The aliens that created the dungeon out of the wreckage of humanity are televising it across the universe. Book 1 in this series, “Dungeon Crawler Carl” gives a great description of the dungeon as well as the things encountered in the first 1 levels. This book delves, (get it, delves?) into level 3 where Carl and Donut get to choose a different race and class. It’s not just Carl and Donut, all surviving players get to chose a race and class in this level. Carl and Donut choose their new race and class, and by new, they are allowed to keep the same race (human, cat, etc.), solve a side quest or 2 and take on a few bosses. This is not your mind numbing repetitive hack and slash sort of operation. Oh sure there is a lot of hacking, and slashing, and exploding, and smashing, and a few other related verbs, but some of these quests go far deeper than just kill this, save that, and kill that other thing. Everyone seems to be a fan of Princess Donut. There’s a good reason for that. She’s a cat with all the strong personality cat traits, but she’s also got an evolved moral sense and a growing intelligence and power. She often expresses observations of Carl’s life that one does not realize the cat remembers. she fancies herself in charge of the party and everyone, even Carl sometimes, seems to think that is agreeable. I like this series. I have books 1 - 6 and I see book 7 just came out. Guess the Kindle version will be bought the next time Amazon does on of their triple point days. Either that or I finish book 6, whichever comes first.

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