Berserk (Volume 2) - Kentaro Miura

I finally got a copy of the second volume of this, but then I had to wait a while because it smelled funny. I'm sensitive to smells unfortunately, so the weird seaside smell that came out of the shrink wrap was upsetting and mysterious.

Continuing on with Guts' story, I was reminded of the anime series I watched from 1997. It was pretty faithful to the source material and went up to the time with the princess. Griffith is on the scene now, and the initial encounters with Casca are in there as well.

At times, I wasn't looking too hard at the pictures due to the smell, but I was trying to see if people were still getting chopped in half. I think I saw a few here and there. I liked seeing the way the band came together in more detail, but I'm not sure that I learned too much more than I had in the series.

I liked this one, and I'd like to keep going. If I am able to continue, I might have little reviews in here just to remind myself of what happens in each volume. Good Book!

The Legacy (Legacy of the Drow #1) - R. A. Salvatore

It's been a while since I've read one of the Salvatore books I purchased in a Humble Bundle. When I dive into them, I make sure I'm ready to get through a whole series, because I'm not piecemealing it. This series is a little different, though, since it has four books, while most of the time there's only three. I'll still be reading my nonfiction in between, but my fiction books are already settled for this next little bit.

Drizzt and his friends are hanging out in the Mithril Hall getting ready for the wedding between Catti-brie and Wulfgar. It seems like everything is fine. Even Regis shows up out of the blue, but then Wulfgar starts to act strangely. Regis even offers to head off into danger, which isn't like him at all.

Deeper in the Underdark, what remains of Drizzt's family hasn't forgotten him. His sister, Vierna, will do whatever it takes to get back some semblance of glory. It will take teaming up with a human assassin and drow mercenary to track down her wayward brother, but will they be able to bring him back to sacrifice him to the Spider Queen?

This was another good book. Salvatore does it again with his battle scenes. He's the only person I've ever read who can write a battle scene in such an interesting and visual way. I almost always know where everyone is and can see the entire battle in my mind. It's a real gift. 

This one was also sad. We lost one of our comrades along the way, and a side character that I had become attached to. I'm not sure if he was in any other books, but I really liked him for the short amount of time he was in this one. I think we lost a major threat in this one, but I never count anyone out until someone buries the body. No one buried this one's body, so I'm not convinced!

Next up is Starless Night. It'll be next after my nonfiction book. The Legacy earns a Good Book! review.

P.S. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I love Guenhwyvar. If they ever lose that figurine, I'm going to have a fit!

Indestructible - Jack Lucas

Jack really wanted to be a Marine. He left home at 14 and worked his way into combat. Most of the time, it wasn't through normal channels. He ended up on the volcanic island of Iwo Jima, where he jumped on two grenades, saving three of his fellow Marines. This earned him a Medal of Honor and fame. While that initially went to his head a little, he took the responsibility of representing his fallen brothers seriously.

Jack is very honest about his life. He isn't super proud of everything that happened, but he doesn't shy away from it either. I was surprised he received his Medal of Honor around halfway through the book. But this man's life was filled with soap opera levels of drama at times. 

The writing style is easy to read, and Jack's life was one I admire. He mentioned his cousin, Sam, a lot, but there wasn't really an update on him in the later parts of the book. I saw Sam in the photos, though. The other thing I felt was missing was some kind of reference to the men who were saved by Jack. They left him in the trench thinking he was dead. Did they ever check on him? Talk to him after the event?

The section of photos are after the index. I'm not sure why they were placed there, but make sure to check them out. There's a fair number of them, and they're pretty interesting. Good Book!

 

The Man of Bronze - Lester Dent

A while back, I was interested in watching the Doc Savage movie from 1975. It's not that easy to find, though, and when I found out I could read the book, I was in!

Doc Savage has come home, and his father has died mysteriously. He's then almost killed by a man with red-tipped fingers. After that, Doc and his group of men, each with their own specialties, are on the case to find out why these assassins are trying to keep Doc away from his inheritance.

A lost civilization, gold, corrupt officials, and lots of BRONZE (the word was used 71 times!) fill this story with twists and turns. Doc is something between a strongman with superhuman intellect and a superhero. I can't really tell if he's supposed to be a superhero, but sometimes it really seemed like he was doing things that simply weren't possible.

This story was really fun. I liked the characters, and Doc was probably not my favorite. There wasn't anything wrong with him. He was just one of those invincible people who train two hours a day no matter what and are untouchable by the love of a woman. "You're a brick," he tells the woman falling in love with him. That was pretty funny. 

In all, there were 213 (!) Doc Savage stories. In later years, he evolved into more of a scientist, because after WWII, people were more interested in comics and Doc's antics seemed a bit silly after the real life heroics that went on. 

I'd probably enjoy more of this type of Doc Savage, but I'm not sure I'll get the chance. The Kindle versions are a bit pricey for what they are, and the paperbacks are so out of print it's ridiculous. With a character that stuck around this long, I'm surprised he's fallen through the cracks this far. I enjoyed Doc Savage and friends. Good Book!

Side Note: I never figured out what the Green Wigglies were...(look up the movie trailer on YouTube) 

Georges Guynemer Knight of the Air - Henry Bordeaux

Guynemer was a pilot during WWI. He didn't make it through the war, so it was up to someone who knew him to tell his story. Georges fought hard to do his duty to his country. He was rejected multiple times for service for being too frail, but he persevered and became an icon to his fellow countrymen.

A lot of the content here is taken from Guynemer's journal. He describes his flights in very vague details, so it's not very detailed. He was an interesting individual for sure, but I felt like I learned more from his Wikipedia page than I did the book. And I got to see pictures. The postage stamp was especially intriguing.

Overall, this one wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped. Maybe if Guynemer had made it through the war and been able to tell the story his own way, I'd have a different opinion. The problem is, the man was too humble to seek out the attention. I doubt we would've seen it. 

Final Spin - Jocko Willink

Jocko is most well known as being a former Navy Seal and writing books on leadership. I'm not really interested in learning about leadership, so I decided to pick up his sole fiction title.

Johnny is working at a dead-end job. He loves his brother, Arty. Arty's entire world revolves around laundry. He's happy as long as he can do laundry. When Johnny finds out the owner of the laundromat is moving to Holland, he comes up with a plan to take care of his brother and get himself out of town.

The book is different. The formatting is unusual, and the choppy sentences didn't really enhance the flow of the story for me. When it was normal format/writing, I found it easier to read.

The story itself was okay. It was the story of a man who wants to make a quick buck and makes some bad decisions to do it. The consequences of those actions are not shocking, and I'm not sure rooting for Johnny is something I was doing as the story went on. The only real character I liked was Arty. He was wholesome and honest. I'm sure there was another way to keep him doing his laundry. I don't think Arty would've approved of Johnny's method to save his laundry. Honestly, neither did I...

 

Military Dogs of World War II - Susan Bulanda

This book collects stories and describes the important jobs dogs served during the second world war. Some were taken overseas and used as mine detectors. Others were on patrol, alerting the men when an enemy was nearby. Some dogs were taken in as strays and adopted as mascots. Family pets alerted rescue teams to buried humans. Larger dogs were used to pull sleds of munitions or injured men. This is only some of the jobs I read about. Dogs were used by many countries during the war. 

The book tells the story of the famous and the unknown in the genre. It doesn't do it in great depth, which is okay. There are tons of pictures. I couldn't get enough of those. On the flip side of that, this was a war. Some, I'm sure many, of the faithful friends would never make it home. There are stories of those heroes in this book as well.

I think the most heartbreaking part is the lack of regard for the dog's lives by some countries. I will give one of them credit for changing direction when they realized they were losing too many dogs. Even if it was a numbers thing, they changed the policy. On the other end of that was a different country that just made me angry.

Overall, though, the book is super uplifting and for a dog lover, I could've read these stories forever. On a price level, be aware it's only 126 pages, and there's tons of pictures, so make sure to keep that in mind if that's a consideration for you. I got it when it was on sale, so it gets a Good Book! review. I really loved it!