Bond, James Bond.

 Part 2 of Sean Connery's movies. 

For some reason Blogger has gone buggy with my fonts. Sorry for the sloppy sizes.

Ian Flemming's 007 movies introduced the world to a formidable actor. James Bond movies have been a part of my whole life.

I never went to the theaters to watch the Connery Bonds. My parents weren't interested and didn't deem them appropriate for pre-teen sons. I watched them when they came on TV. For the time period they stretched the censorship boundaries, but are so tame by today's standards.

We now have every Bond DVD and always add the latest. Every year between Christmas and New Year we marathon Bond. One year we'll go from Dr. No to the end, or start with the latest and go backwards. It's like an archeological dig through technological time.

There's been a number of debates and polls on who was the best Bond. By and large Sir Sean wins. He's my wife's favorite. He's not mine. For me he ranks 3rd. 

NOW HERE ME OUT! 

Connery set the tone and style of Bond. He looked fabulous and his facial expressions captured his feelings. His acting was superb and he delivered great quips. But those quips were always under his breath. 

Here's my take on the movies:

Dr. No: The prototype. No distinctive opening song, no naked women in dark shadow. It does give us the famous line of, "Bond, James Bond." And of course him busting into his hotel room with gun drawn with camera angle under the long gorgeous legs of Miss Trench while putting. Later there's the rising of Ursula Andres in a modest bikini. By the time I saw this on TV it was after seeing Annette Funicello in a bikini, and Ursula wasn't that big a deal for me. We're introduced to Moneypenny and M. Then a change of gun making him use a Walther PPK.

When he gets to Jamaica he meets Felix Lighter of the FBI, and the bad guys try to kill him. They use a tarantula while he's sleeping and it's clear it's on a pane of glass and not on him. Special effects are very rudimentary. Dr. No tells him about SPECTER as the international criminal organization. The usual bad guy telling all, thinking Bond will die.

There is an interracial pairing with an Asian woman, but that's not considered to happen until Live and Let Die for some reason. They have the decontamination process down well, as well as a quick nude flash of Andres, now Mr. Skin has captured it.

There's the first nuclear accident caused by Bond and being stranded on a boat for the final reward.

From Russia With Love: Of all the movies this follows the book the closest. Why does the posters of Bond's gun always have the long barrel when it's never that way in the movie?

It has an opening title song, but flashes from the first movie for the opening credits. The usual banter with Moneypenny, the first gadget being a booby trapped brief case, and the introduction of training in weaponry, though this was with the bad guys. An old pro in the spy game as head of Turkey's secret service shows him the ropes then a gypsy girl fight and the love scene that's being filmed to blackmail MI6 and Bond.

There's the grabbing a the decoder from the Russian embassy and leaving on the Orient Express, and the flight back to Venice. Again rushed and jerky. The shooting down of a helicopter by a .22 pop gun is ridiculous. The fight with Kleb and the poison tipped shoes was interesting at the time. The quip was under his breath, about her getting her kicks.

Goldfinger: The best of Connery's Bonds. The formula is coming together. Great song by Angela Bassett, what a car! They're still using it. The gadgets. A great one liner about the Beatles and earmuffs. Of course the best line ever delivered by a bond villain. 

Bond: Do you expect me to talk?

Goldfinger, "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die."

A formidable henchman named Odd Job, and his flying hat that kills little girls. Pussy Galore, one of the great names for a Bond Girl, and her flying circus that 007 can convert with a single kiss. She joins him in foiling Goldfinger's plans to explode a nuke in Fort Knox, and the showdown with Odd Job and saving the day with 0.07 left on the timer.

Thunderball: His most popular movie and the formula is complete. The nude dancers in shadow for the opening credits. Tom Jones singing the theme song. The toy breathing apparatus and locator beacon for his shoe. Finding missing nukes. There's was a fixation on nukes in Bond films. A sexy damsel in distress wearing bikinis, a femme fatale to sleep with, and an underwater battle finally stopped by sharks. 

The culminating fight with Largo on a runaway yacht is a fight scene on crack. Screech screech screech. 

This is the only one where Bond doesn't have a last roll in the sack. Instead they're rescued by a skyhook.

I won't review Never Say Never Again, as it's the same story, but Kim Basinger was a much sexier Domino in this one.

You Only Live Twice: The one that made Connery walk away. It's just awful. The formula is there, the opening credits, song, flirting with Moneypenny. Blofeld is introduced. SPECTER is grabbing space ships from the U.S. and Russia to start a world war. The special effects are atrocious by even that days standards. Making Bond Japanese and giving him a wife to find the hidden space base is bad enough, but it is the the stupid count down. "Ten minutes and counting, nine minutes and counting..." Stick a fork in my ear why don't ya.

Diamonds are Forever: George Lazenby bombing as 007 in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, brought a reluctant Connery back. 

It starts with Bond hunting down Blofeld and finding the man duplicating himself in mud baths. That's just weird!

You've got gay henchmen going around killing everyone and they have the funny quips. Jill Saint John running around in bra and panties changing wigs, then in bikini showing a little too much hip for Blofeld.  There's a great car chase scene with cops going in circles around Las Vegas, riding out with a Moon Rover with cops in three wheel ATV's falling over in the dunes. Jimmy Dean as a fake Howard Hughes. Lastly a really awful countdown, ten times worse than the previous one. I want to strangle the monotone droning voice every time I see the movie.

So who do I think is the best Bond? Roger Moore. He's much funnier with a dry wit and doesn't say them under his breath. The fight scenes are better staged. His first Bonds were good to great. The Spy Who Loved Me  and Octopussy, are my favorites.  Moonraker and View to a Kill are the worst movies in the series, horrible direction, weak plots and bad acting by others. Roger did his best with what was given him.

Second Place is Pierce Brosnan. He has the wit, athletic ability and the stories are much better.

My favorite Sean Connery Films

 A truly great actor has passed away. My entire life he's been larger than life. My thoughts on Sean Connery.

To everyone dropping by for a look, leave a comment to let me know if you agree or disagree.

Not everything an actor does is great, there are always duds, but not in the man's acting. Connery was professional and worked his ass off no matter the role.

There is no way to cover sixty+ years of acting in one go. This is just favorite Connery films. I'll explore his Bond films later. I'll explain then.

In my opinion these are Connery's best:

This is by far his best. He and Michael Cain are superb. Connery has put on weight, is balding with salt and pepper mutton chops and was much different from his Bond days in a toupee. 

His voice, his impeccable timing, his presence and his low key wit are perfected. He was constrained as OO7. He let loose here and was allowed to really act and tell a great story.

He was commanding and larger than life as Captain Ramius. Baldwin and Connery were great in both parts. Except the part about the exec wanting to raise rabbits it stayed fairly close to the book. 

Entrapment, a truly fun movie, hard to imagine this was twenty-one years ago, but he gave a masterful performance and even pulled off a romantic relationship with a woman forty years younger.

 

A great story with a great cast and the master was in control with his voice and presence.

Hated to see his character die in this one, but he turned in masterful performance as an Irish cop tutoring Ness in taking down bootleggers.

WC Favorite Songs or Musicians

 Today is favorite songs or musicians. These are my favorites from the 70's

Linda Ronstadt: From Distant Drums through to her big band era songs I've got just about all of her albums. She came to Albuquerque for Halloween in 1979 and came out in a skeleton outfit. Looked absolutely gorgeous. I was newly married and didn't have a penny to my name. Really miss not seeing her in person.

Bob Segar and the Silver Bullet Band: Old Time Rock n Roll, Night Moves, crank the sound to the max and jump to the music. Gets the heart pumping.

George Strait: I have everything he's put out in albums or box sets. I could listen to Amarillo By Morning, The Chair, Adilaida, and all the rest all day long. His farewell concert, I did get a little tired of The Cowboy Rides Away. He started in in 1978.

Moody Blues: Knights in White Satin was the theme song of my high school prom senior year (Yeah Del Norte Knights). Listened to them many an all night study session in college. 

Lobo: Me and You and a Dog Named Boo, Midnight Ghost, A Simple Man. What a voice and great music. All he needed was his guitar on a lot of songs.

Bread: Just a great band with a good mix of rock and soft rock. David Gates had one of the greatest voices of the 70's. Lost Without Your Love is the most soulful song of all time. If and Diary are true classics.

Olivia Newton-John: What a voice and what a face. When her first album came out all the guys in my dorm drooled over her. Me included. Her song Have You Ever Been Mellow, had every red blooded American man saying "Yes."

Honorable mention:

Chicago: I'm a Man Yes I Am, Do You Know What Time it is? 

Neil Diamond: Song Sung Blue, Cracklin Rose, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and of course Sweet Caroline. 

 Partridge Family: Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque, I think I Love You. 

Barbara Streisand: The Way We Were, Evergreen, Memory (from Cats).

 Diana Ross: Touch Me in the Morning, Sound Tract to Lady Sings the Blues.

Jim Croce: Time in a Bottle, Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Workin at the Carwash Blues.

The Carpenters: We've Only Just Begun, I'm on the Top of the World.

Iron Butterfly: One hit wonder was Inagoddadavida. Love that drum solo.

TTT Non Bookish Hobbies.

 Today's topic: What are my non-bookish hobbies?

1. Plastic Canvas: It's getting harder and harder to do this as Hobby Lobby is the only place that still sells sheets of plastic canvas, and I hate having to patronize those bastards. We, also wife and daughter, make tissue box covers, book covers, notebook covers, desk calendar borders, coasters, placemats, with the scraps book marks, picture frames. It gives us something to do with our hands while watching TV, and keeps me awake in the third quarter of football games. You have no idea how many skeins of yarn we have in plastic tubs and plastic file cabinets and anywhere else my wife can squirrel them away.

I used to have my desk in my classroom with my file folder basket, desktop calendar edges, sticky note holder, pen and pencil holders, letter sized note pad folder, paperclip box all in plastic canvas in school colors. Every time I switched schools I started over.

What we  make is great as Secret Santa gifts, though once the person gets it the Santa isn't much of a secret. When I was doing book signings I had small note pads in covers that I gave for free if someone bought my book. A few women bought my book just for the note pad as it fit in their purse. I refused to sell the notebook if they didn't buy my book. 

We've gone to arts and crafts fairs over the years and there were booths selling plastic canvas creations. Mobiles, castles, cars and trucks, all kinds of creative stuff. We've never been that involved with it, They want a fortune for it and the stuff never sells. This isn't a hobby for making money.

2. Politics. I was a Fedrep for the teacher's union. I lobbied in Santa Fe on behalf of education in the Round House. What we call the state capital building. I was also a ward chair for my district for the Democratic Party. 

I chaired the state Democratic platform committee in 1996 and wrote the state article adding sexual orientation to the Civil Rights act, which passed for the state. That year under Bill Clinton the national convention adopted this provision.

When I retired I joined the AFT-NM Retirees union and was president for four years. My parents were charter members of the retirees and I replaced my mother as president. There was no greater lion in the Round House than my Mom when it came to stopping the Republicans from trying to raid our retirement fund, like they did in Texas.

For ten years I sponsored YMCA's Youth and Government at two high schools. This was an introduction to students in the political process. Y&G had a house of representatives, senate, governor, Lt. governor and secretary of state. One of my students is currently the secretary of state for New Mexico. Not bad for an inner city high school known mostly for its gang problem. 

Each representative or senator was required to submit at least one piece of legislation. To liven things up after submitting a serious bill they could add a joke bill. After each session the YMCA sponsor would give the bill books to real legislators. 

One of the joke bills was requiring seat belts for dogs and a carrier for cats in cars. This one actually became law in New Mexico. One year when the schools were all getting sexual harassment training, one of my boys wrote a bill entitled: If they're going to wear it, we have the right to look. He won first prize for presentation, and it passed with 70% of the students being female.

I held weekly meetings with the students to work on their bills or position paper. Those who chose to do newspaper were given writing assignments sent to me by the newspaper sponsor. The first year I had a number of students do newspaper. The word got out that it was all work and no fun and none signed up for it again. 

There was a moot state supreme court that heard cases, and a council. The council required the students to write position papers. Those position papers were then used the following year for the legislation.

While the regular session was going each year we had Pre-leg. We bussed up from the entire state around two hundred kids. For the morning session the students sat in on committee meetings and the opening sessions of the house and senate. They would stop by the offices of their representatives and sometimes get to meet them or leave their name and school with the secretaries. 

I got to do some good lobbying at pre-leg, even offered my two cents to help kill a voucher bill that looked like it would pass. New Mexico still does not have a school voucher bill.

In the afternoon we would all meet in a large meeting hall and work out the nuts and bolts of the model legislature. The students would be led by the executive branch, and the sponsors got to watch them make magic. All bills and position papers had to be turned in at this time for the bill books and council book to be ready for the model legislature. This was always student led.

A couple of weeks after the legislative session ended we would have our model legislature. We would have from a hundred and fifty to two hundred students and it was a dream for the sponsors. This was student led, we just watched and made gestures to the student leaders to keep the process going if it got too rowdy. 

Saturday morning was travel and get into the motel. A newspaper reporting which schools were there, who the leaders were and what committees each student was assigned to. It started with the first joint session in the afternoon with the opening ceremonies and breaking up into committees. Then there was a pizza dinner and an evening session. The kids did love to swivel around in the plush chairs on the senate and house floors. They got two hours of free time in the motel, they especially liked the pool, before roll call.

Sunday morning a newspaper was available at breakfast and then on to committees and afternoon was for floor sessions. There was a continental breakfast at the motel and for lunch students were on their own to eat at the food places close to the Round House. That evening was the Governor's ball with DJ and the kids could could enjoy themselves.

As a sponsor I had to watch an exit and make sure no one left the building. Not an easy task. Then I had to check on my students with a room call at 11:00pm. Security guards kept watch after that.

Monday morning there was another newspaper, the final floor session and the governor either signed or vetoed the passed legislation. The position papers were presented and the verdicts form the Supreme Court reported. Then the tearful goodbyes.

In the summer of 2000 I sponsored four students to YMCA's Council on National Affairs. This was the position paper portion of Youth and Government. It is held yearly at a YMCA camp in Ashville, NC. We flew from Albuquerque to Dallas and met up with the students and their sponsors from Oklahoma and Texas. We then got on a bus and drove from Dallas to Ashville. We had a stop in Meridian, MS to change bus drivers. 

At midnight we stopped at Vicksburg, VA and ate at a Taco Bell. Blew my mind that I'd travel all that way for Mexican food. We passed through Atlanta just as the sun was rising and missed the morning rush hour. It was crazy driving all that way with fifty kids and ten sponsors. 

From Tyler, TX all the way to Ashville the scenery never changed. It was like being in a tunnel with nothing but trees on both sides of the highway. I was writing Optimus: Praetorian Guard and it gave me the time to write the entire siege of Jerusalem, civil war and Vespasian becoming emperor.

The four students had a great time, none of their papers were adopted, but it was a great learning experience for them. It was a long drive back and flight home, and I was exhausted for having only sat around and watched them doing all the work.

 Today it's how I decide what to read next.

1. There are certain authors where I've read everything they've written and I'm waiting for the next book in their series or they're starting a new series. Once Amazon alerts me that the book is available I'll gobble it up and devour it. There are only a few authors that I will buy the book, even if it's available on unlimited. These authors and their works I want to re-read. Tony Roberts, Mark Dawson, Berthold Gambrel, J. B. Turner, Joseph Badal, Hank Bruce, Leigh Bardugo come to mind right now.

2, Amazon's monthly pick two. They send an e-mail and there's a selection of books that I can choose two that are hot off the press or due to come out shortly. I don't have to return these. Some months I don't choose as the subject matter doesn't interest me. In historical fiction if its set in WW2, I pass. I'm not into young adult, mystery if its about a woman being stalked, I pass. Most of these books are written with female protagonists and it really has to catch my eye by cover or story line or I pass. If I do choose a book and I don't like it, I'm stuck with it in my kindle library as its a pain to delete it. I've found a few gems over the years.

3. When I'm trolling for a new book to read a catchy cover and I'll give it a try. 

4. Books that are mentioned often by different bloggers will catch my interest. I've enjoyed Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows and her other books this way.

5. Facebook has an algorithm that knows my likes and while scrolling they put in ads for books that fit my tastes. I've chosen a number that perk my interest and discovered a few of the afore  mentioned authors that I gobble up all they put out. Some I get rid of after a few chapters.

6. Sometimes Amazon has a set of books, 5, 6 or up to ten books with unlimited or only 99cents. It only counts as one rental so I'll go for it. Like with Insects if the first book turns me off I send it back with my next pick. If I like the first one I'll usually read them all, but I'll read something else in-between so I don't get in a rut. 

7. Authors on WC and TTT. I'll buy a book or two and write a review on this blog and post it on Amazon. If they're like Berthold who writes a review of my books I'm more than willing to keep reading their work even if I have to pay.

8. Facebook friends. There are a few local authors like Paula Paul, Sarah H. Baker, Irene Blea, Jonathan Miller and David Corwell that I know from Writers2writers and Southwest Writers Workshop that I'll either buy their books or we'll trade.

TTT 102720

 Today's topic is top ten things that scare me.

I've read all of Poe, and only The Fall of the House of Usher gave me a scare.

I never found Anne Rice's vampires and witches and mummy entertaining, but not scary.

I'm not into ghosts and vampires or zombies. These are some things that scare me.

Chainsaws: In college I worked at a meat packing plant in Plainview, Tx. working the graveyard shift. I made a round through the plant once an hour, it took about ten minutes, the rest of the time I spent in a guard shack and could study. I was the only one there.

Wife and I went to see Disney's Bambi at the only theater in town. It was packed with kids. The previews came on and they ran the teaser for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. That night I had to walk past meat hooks and large grinding machines. There were all kinds of machines that made crashing noises and of course the hogs that would be butchered in the morning and all their noises. What scared me the most, was the fact that I was living in Texas. I've had to use chainsaws, even own one, but every time I look at it it reminds me of a movie I've never even seen.

Insects.  I came across this series of books by John Koloen and read the first one. Large cockroaches that crawl down your throat and up your anus to eat you from the inside. Did not read the sequels.

Monster fish: Watched an episode of River Monsters. Jeremy Wade was trying to find the largest catfish in the Amazon. He heard about a man brought in half in and half out of one of the monsters. The local doctor told him there was another fish much worse. It was a fish with a round mouth about an inch to two inches long. He autopsied a man who looked like he had a gunshot wound in his chest, but when he opened him up he found the inside of his body empty. One of this fish bit through his chest and then many of his friends joined in through the opening and cleaned him out. I've thought about what would happen in the Southern United States if that fish was set loose.

Mountain Lions: I was working construction on the East side of Sandia Mountain way back in the day. We were installing a septic tank. My buddy with the backhoe had dug the leach field and dropped in the gravel. He went to get more gravel and I was raking what he'd dropped in the trench. I looked up and spotted a large dog walking about four hundred yards from me. I thought it was a Great Dane, but it was walking way too smooth for a dog. It dawned on me it was a mountain lion. It kept going on and I stayed still and hunkered down in the trench until he was out of sight. I never want to be that close to one again unless its at the zoo.

Eighteen Wheelers. Nearly had a head on collision with a semi doing 80 mph once. Topped a hill on a two lane road, and there the monster was trying to pass a slower car. I went into the ditch and got stuck in the mud. Shook for ten minutes before trying to figure out how to get back on the road. For some reason if I'm on the freeway and there's one on the right and another on the left, I always have to pass them at the same time. When it's windy that can be scary as they are swaying back and forth.

Donald Trump: The ultimate nightmare is he gets re-elected. If he loses, the real horror will be the time after the election and he leaves office. A madman with nothing to lose with the nuclear codes. 

WC 102120

Today's challenge is my earliest memory.

Picture taken the day I came home from the hospital, Mom and my brother.

This is coming at a touchy time. My mother recently passed away. I've spent the last few days going through 88 years of pictures. They've stirred up memories long dormant.

I've come across pictures of my family at the beach in California. I was about three years old. I vaguely remember seeing the water and being overwhelmed by how big it was. Mom and Dad teased me growing up that I cried and cried when leaving because I wanted to take one of the doggies home. For some reason they didn't want to have a seal for a pet. Dad would always laugh and say when we went over the rise from the parking lot that I said, "Look at all that sand."

I remember going to my Dad's parents house and my grandmother would hug us and give us candy. She wore a blue polka dot dress. Every time I see a dress like that I think of her. She passed away the next year and now I'm coming across pictures and it's like I'm reconnecting with her.

Dad mustered out of the Marines and we moved to Colorado. Where Mom and Dad grew up. 

I found pictures of the house in Pueblo, I was four and my brother would leave for Kindergarten and I was lonely without him. I'd sit on the porch and wait for him to come home so I'd have someone to play with. That spring I was in the front yard watering the grass. The mail man walked up to the box and said "Don't spray me."

What a stupid thing to say. 

He knocked on the door and cussed my mother out. She called his supervisor and he was forced to come back and apologize. You didn't mess with Mom.

My other grandparents owned a business. The Record Music Company. It sold stereos, records: 331/3 and 45's. Band instruments and there was a repair room in back with guys soldering electronic parts to stereos, radios and such. We would come in the back way through the repair room and there was always a table with donuts. Mom would never let us have one.

The picture is of my brother and me in front of the store. Nipper was the RCA dog that looks down the speaker of an old gramophone, which is their logo. If you bought a TV you got a stuffed Nipper. 

When Grandpa first got color TV's we'd go to the store and watch Bonanza on Sunday night in color. 

Grandpa gave us one, when he had enough in stock, and we'd invite all the kids in the neighborhood to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings. We were popular in school, until they talked their parents into buying one.

I also remember bundling up in parka, mittens and overshoes to walk to school. It gets cold in Colorado. I remember that every time I see A Christmas Story.

A discount store opened up in Pueblo. They could sell TVs retail cheaper than the store could buy them wholesale. My aunt and family kept it going for another twenty years off band instruments and selling Elvis, Beatles, Beach Boys and other pop 45's and LP's, but two families couldn't make a go of it.

In the summer of 1962, President Kennedy came to Pueblo to sign the Frying Pan/Arkansas bill. Dad was big in the democratic party and he took my brother and me out on the football field and had us sit down right in front of the roped area before the podium where Kennedy would speak. He went to do political stuff. We had Secret Service agents to baby sit us. When Kennedy spoke we couldn't see him because we weren't tall enough. Couldn't hear him either, the speakers were farther back.

The next year we moved to Albuquerque.

Those are memories until I was ten.

 

TTT 102020

 

Today is books I've read that have been recommended to me.

There was a lady who owned a children's bookstore named Trespasser's William. She passed away a few years ago and the store is no more, but she had a huge impact on the children of Albuquerque. She took books to all the elementary schools and read to the students, giving many away. Here are a few books she recommended to me while I was going through a painful divorce and having to dream a new dream.

Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler.

Gwen told me to read it in the bathroom. It was too detailed to read in big doses. I found it fascinating and it made the madness of the 60's, 70's and even up to today make a lot of sense. 

His next book, The Third Wave, I incorporated into my Fan Plan Trilogy.

The next book Gwen recommended change my life in many ways. It was Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison. This book of the gloomiest and most depressing stories imaginable lifted me out of the deepest depression of my life. I became an Ellison junky and have a book case full of his work. His writing style and his imagery I have mimicked in a number of my stories.

Another book she recommended I enjoyed and having read it makes me a part of a counter culture from the time period. I know how to Grok.

Berthold Gambrel writes a lot of reviews of indie books on his blog. Even some of my books.

Audrey Driscol has a Herbert West series. I read few, but they didn't interest me as I'm not a Lovecraftian. I did enjoy She Who Comes Forth. A stand alone book of hers very much.

I took a seminar with National Geographic to become a Geographer. That's a high school teacher who's taken the seminar and can incorporate geography into the curriculum. They recommended this book. Longitude. I've read it a number of times and it still fascinates me.

Here are some books I've read because they've been recommended by posts on TTT.

This was a great book and I read the sequel.

The others were entertaining.

The only book here I didn't enjoy was Red, White and Royal Blue, sorry wasn't my cuppa tea.

The Chronicles of Kastania

 

If you're looking for a series of books similar to Game of Thrones. The Kastania Chronicles is for you. There are no dragons in this one, but plenty of vampire witches and other nasty creatures.

Tony Roberts has the most intriguing historical fiction set in a different world, but the characters and setting are a mirror of our world in history and present day. He's taken the Byzantine Empire and making it interesting.

I've just finished the seventh book in the Chronicles of Kastania: Sins of Sloth.

Starting with the first book, Astiros Koros is a lesser noble in charge of the army of Kastania. He's putting down a rebellion in Bragal, a province of the empire. The emperor, from the Focis family being ever greedy has denied the army any funds for a year and then decides to disband the army completely as it can't win battles.

Astiros has had enough and marches the army to Kastan City and by bribing the commander of the palace guard enters and kills the emperor. The army proclaims him emperor. He's not only facing the other noble houses that have for centuries plundered the treasury when their family had an emperor on the throne, but the high priest of the temple who condemns him usurping the throne.

What they're really upset about is that he is going to tax them. They've been tax exempt for centuries while grabbing every last copper coin in the treasury. 

When the high priest starts threatening Astiros with damnation he gets a lesson in manners while speaking to an emperor. He's banished from Kastan City upon pain of death and sent to another city across the sea. Throughout the entire series religion is very integral to the motives and plots against the Koros. The Venn and Tybar, hostile neighbors, are monotheistic, but with a different god. The temple is polytheistic. The temple insists the treasury build them temples, but they don't pay taxes and collect tithes from the people. Astiros is tired of them sucking money out of the treasury and citizenry and makes them pay taxes and build their own temples. 

The Venn and Tybar send missionaries into the empire to stir up trouble before attacking. I've never encountered a fantasy world where all of this is in play at the same time.  

The Koros family is Isbel, Asitos's second wife, eldest son Jorquel age 19, daughter Amne age 16 and two sons by Isbel: Argan age 5 and Istan age 1. They are the new imperial ruling family. 

Astiros sends Jorquel with a small army to supress a revolt in the north by the Druras famils and he returns to Bragal to suppress the revolt he was trying to put down when he was forced to kill the other emperor.

The Koros family is strong, intelligent, ruthless, and very very lusty. Especially the women. 

Isbel is given the job of weeding out treachery in the palace, finding a decent commander for the guard and creating a palace guard actually capable of guarding it. She then has to implement the new taxing laws and begin collecting them before she can supply the two armies in the field and start cleaning up Kastan City which has become crime ridden.

She also has to fend off assassination attempts, and the Duras and Focis families raise armies and their revolts have to be suppressed. 

Amne is given the task of being an ambassador to the country south of Bragal. She has a perilous journey, but secures an alliance so Mazag won't invade Bragal while it's weak and Astiros is able to suppress the revolt without having to worry about invasion.

As if that wasn't enough to worry about to the east are the Venn wanting to carve a chunk of the dying empire for themselves and to the west are the Tybar trying to do the same. 

Each book has the family facing new dangers from without and within. Astiros pacifies Bragal, Jorquel puts down numerous revolts by the Duras and Focis. Amne returns from her misson to Mazag and is forced to marry a man she despises, but it's a union of two noble families to help against the others, Argan is growing into a fine young man and is bright and charismatic, Istan is a spoiled monster.

By Sins of Sloth the seventh book just released. Astiros has died, Jorquel is emperor and retaking parts of the empire lost to the Tybar. Argan is governor of a province supporting Jorquel's base. Isbel with her lover is running Kastan City and overseeing the empire. Amne has divorced Elas her hated husband and with her lover is ruling a province. Istan is Prince of the East and has taken land back from the Venn, but he's pouting about not being able to advance further while Jorquel is fighting in the west.

The son of Astiros and a Bragalese vampire witch is leading a revolt in Bragal. The Bragalese vampire witch lover of Argan, also carrying his child. is sent as governor of Bragal to put it down. It gets complicated.

 The politics, graft, corruption, religious fanaticism, intrigue, assassination and the fight to revive a dying empire by a heroic noble family facing insurmountable odds, makes this an epic tale that I have devoured with every book and wait anxiously for the next one to come out.

WC 101420

 

Re-reading books: why or why not?

Yes I re-read books. Not all books. Most are one and done, but some are special. 

If a book takes me to a world or place I never want to leave, I'll revisit it a time or three or four depending on how much I love it. What I always learn is that no matter how many times I might read the book I find something I missed the first time and the book comes more alive.

Here are some books I've enjoyed on numerous occasions.

The Source by James A. Michener

I used it as a textbook in my World History classes.

The first 22 books of the Casca: The Eternal Mercenary series.

I have the first 22 books on audio books. When I'm having trouble getting to sleep I listen to one of them and I know them so well if I fall asleep and wake up a few chapters later its not a problem. The other books up to #52 I read on unlimited and had to give them back. I found these books to be well received by 7th and 8th grade boys when I was teaching middle school.

The Far Pavilions: I've read this four or five times, and fell in love with it. An English child growing up in a royal palace in India, who when forced to flee finds out his real identity and becomes an officer in the British Army and returns to India capable if blending in with the natives. The last time I read it I found there were too many pages describing the flora and fauna. Guess I've gotten fussy about that in my old age.

Kastania Chronicles: Just downloaded the 7th book in the series. I read them off unlimited and was so reluctant to send them back I bought them all, they're only $3.99. Every time a new is scheduled to come out I reread the ones before it so I'm up to speed. 

Tony Roberts also has a Dark Blade fantasy series and a Siren series about a modern day heavy metal band. I've re-read the Dark Blade series a few times too. The Siren series I haven't.

Asimov's Foundation trilogy is also a favorite. Amazing how it's held up so well considering it was written for a pulp magazine in the 1930's.

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Need I say more.