Showing posts with label Philistine by Steven Shrewsbury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philistine by Steven Shrewsbury. Show all posts

Friday, October 16, 2015

Review of Philistine by Steven Shrewsbury


Overview
The Philistines, a mysterious warrior people known now for mainly one man: Goliath. The giant. 

Goliath. A name grander than even the man himself. You've heard of his infamous end at the hands of a shepherd as written in a famous book, but what of the life of the man himself? What book tells his tale? 

A warrior among warriors, a son of a god, a living legend. Goliath, the warrior champion of the Philistines. On the battlefield, he runs like a horse, wields killing instruments no normal man may heft, and revels in the fear his presence evokes. Off the field, his will is immutable, his trust invaluable, and his appetites unbearable. Goliath. This man knows no challenge. 

But such a reputation will not discourage all men. Scheming rulers and generals, prophetic priests and powerful cults, dauntless warriors looking to make their own legend. Monsters. Gods. For one seemingly unkillable, at the very least, these things can ruin an otherwise pleasant day. 

Along with his shield bearer, Abimelech, and soldiers more in awe than they are useful, Goliath will set out on missions for kings, face foul magic users, and walk in the shadows of mysterious halls. History tells us Goliath died at the hands of an Israelite. Goliath may have something to say about that.
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Recommended: Yes.

                                About Philistine
Recommended Ages: 17 and Up
Paperback: 488 pgs.
Published: January 21st 2014 by Seventh Star Press
 For This Review:  *Paperback Book Copy Provided by Publisher for Review Purposes*


My Music Playlist while reading Philistine

ハカイヨノユメ by Ling Tosite Sigure
Tremolo + A by Ling Tosite Sigure
seacret cm by Ling Tosite Sigure
Dramatic Slow Motion by TK from Ling Tosite Sigure

Musician Biography
About Ling Tosite Sigure and TK: A rock band from Japan. The music style of the band is pretty hard to measure. Nonetheless, the rock, the band produces deserves acolytes in the Rock genre. TK of the band Ling Tosite Sigure, on the other hand, produces solo music without the band that has its own style. Still quite different than that of the band's. The only problem is, it is hard to pin down. Almost like a mashup of genres with Rock at its core, all with this unbelievable lovely delicate singing/restrained screamo. 

What to say, what to say about Philistine? Well. Let it be known that I really admire Steven Shrewsbury's writing style. A style I first came across in reading Thrall and later Overkill. One thing. Philistine is set up as something not like anything seen in those two books. It's a book that is more like an Epic. Epic Fantasy. Due to that, the very first thing you have to conquer is the amount of time it will take to complete a book such as this. Yet, eh, that for me is not the problem. To me big books or tomes do not prove daunting. The only thing is quickly enough I became aware this was not going to be like any other Steven Shrewsbury book I had ever read. 

The story pace to me proved rather slow and not in a good way. Primarily because the introduction of Goliath, our main character, was sort of like an introduction of meeting Gorias La Gaul from Thrall and Overkill. Needless to say, the characterization for Goliath was much too close to that of Gorias, for my liking. If that wasn't bad enough some of the universe's history and present cultures could be a bit confusing. Names thrown around like Ba'al Zebul, Sanrevelle, and Beth-horon proved vastly confusing to me. I'm sure this would not be an issue if I knew more of this type of mythology. 

Yet, for readers who might not be remotely interested in mythology I'm sure they would be even more lost than me.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Updates + What I'm Listening to, perhaps, the greatest Rock band Ever (Ling Tosite Sigure)


As I mentioned before I am, in fact, returning to book blogging but it's taking me a little longer than usual to complete Philistine by Steven Shrewsbury than I expected. Nevertheless, I should have a book review up for Philistine at the very least this coming October.

Now beyond that, I, want to introduce to those of you who may be reading quite an interesting, no, bewitching Rock band that I have come across called Ling Tosite Sigure (凛として時雨). As you can see from the Soundcloud playlist below, the playlist, offers some great Ling Tosite Sigure songs (though they have more discography to go through). Probably one of the things about them that most impresses me is that all of the musicians in the band from the guitarist/composer/lead singer, bassist, and drummer are actually exceptionally skilled at playing their instruments. Not to mention the intricacy of the music. If that wasn't great enough the lead singer, TK, has a rare singing voice. Not just a unique singing voice but a rare one.

So while I'm reading Philistine by Steven Shrewsbury this is the type of music I am listening to. Which is why, due to the utter craziness of the music I'm going to work on tweaking the future book review format of my book reviews on the blog, just so, I can share the type of music playlists I am listening to while reading certain books. I think that should be very fun and at the very least it should make things more interesting.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

A new book blogging phase

I'm back to book blogging! OK, this time for sure. I'm finally in the mood again and in a good place again to want to be taken in by books and more books. That wasn't the case for me in 2013 and throughout that time to 2014. Maybe even before then. That's what stress does to you. Stress makes you lose the passion you had for the things you used to love. 


Thankfully anime blogging helped to ease the pain. After all unlike, reading, watching anime and later blogging about it has always been much easier. Yeah. I think I have anime to thank for my ongoing continuation of book blogging. If it wasn't for my anime blog, keeping me in the loop of blogging I probably would have already abandoned this book blog like so many book bloggers do, sadly. Yet, I actually accomplished a whole lot with this blog and believe me there was never a moment that I wasn't happy and cherished the authors I happened to cross paths with thanks to this here blog, Book & Movie Dimension a Blog. During my heavy book blogging days I do know I met quite a few independent, self-published authors and their amazing books. I also met big-name agents for publishers from Gallery Books and even small press agents from Seventh Star Press or that other favorite small press of mine Hydra Publications. Unfortunately, due to high spam from my email account sometime in 2014 I lost all my contacts to those in the book blogging world. That's right! My old email thebookandmoviedimensionblogger@gmail.com is no longer active on my part.

While I could be tempted to moan and feel self-pity for myself, oh, and there is that. I think in the end this might have been a good thing. While I had quite the time working with so many people from big-name publishers to the small. This is for the best. That kind of life was stressful.

With what is left of 2015 I hope instead to blog about books that solely personally interest me as an individual. I might still take review requests, if I'm interested but I'm in no hurry. I can buy my own manga, comics, or books. Heck. I already have several books on my digital bookshelves I will soon be buying in print. While I am tempted to just up and read books that I kind of have been meaning to read for some time now like Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku and get on reading Queen of the Faire by Gillian Summers. I will stick to responsibility momentarily since I recall getting a print copy of Philistine by Steven Shrewsbury from Seventh Star Press, therefore I will finish reading Philistine and reviewing it. After that though, I will be leisurely reading and reviewing. No deadlines. No author reminders to get things done. Book reviews and eventual author interviews will be entirely based on personal interest and devotion. Why rush myself?

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