Riding Shotgun by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Why on earth doesn’t the Johnstone Clan nab whoever wrote this and plug them into any of their older series???? Maybe it’s some contractual thing where the ghost writer gets to start their own series. Ot some other silly proprietary thing. Thing of it is, the older series are just not being well handled in the past decade plus. This coulda been a Smoke Jensen novel and injected some life in the stambling series.

Another year full of new series and here is one: Red Ryder. Ryder reminds me of, a now discarded character, Cotton Pickens. Why not just revive that series and toss Cotton on a stage?
OK. I’ll stop.

Beyond that pretty significant matter, this entry is pretty involved for a Johnstone book. Not unusual for a debut of a series by the Johnstone Clan. Also not unusual for the first book to be steps up from the rest of the crowd. This is both and worth reading.

There are plenty of variations of this tale in various Johnstone Clan books. All use only sections of the overall story. Each becoming it’s own book. There is a lot here. That is where this does stumble a bit.

There is a lot of territory and characters that pop up throughout the book. These more significant characters are around awhile and then are gone. That is fine and hints of what the actual Johnstone had in the books he crafted decades ago. This is more sloppy handling and loose ends are left at the end. A lot of them. I don’t believe most readers will notice. A lot of those loose ends seem to lead to a couple different endings. That is a plus, as the reader can’t be sure how the book will end.

However, overall, this is a very good tale with the Johnstone Touch of creating solid characters. I wouldn’t mind reading about many of the characters in separate series…oh, no…I’m providing ways of more series…. Ugh!

I really like how this is presented with more humor than usual and a great start to the involved story. The main characters (and really, this book should be a series of two, not one.) are established quickly and the book unfolds very quickly and so well, that a reader will be drawn in to learn what happens next. A ton happens, in many places with a lot of characters.

All of this complexity well handled and mostly well written. i did not like the appearance, more than once, of current pop phrases of our present time period. Also the dialogue is still mighty far from the communication of the late 1800s, but i get the book would be harder to sell and read, if more accurate.

I really like as characters interact and scheme and battle to the end. A surprise twist along the way. A sign of a very good novel draws you end and then flips you around as directions change and plots alters and, by the end, the read is satisfied that they have been through a story that was well worth the trip.

Bottom line: I recommend the book. 7 out of ten points.

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Intellectuals and Race by Thomas Sowell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Again, Thomas Sowell provides the reader with more than they paid for. Unlike most books about economics or political issues, Sowell thoroughly stuffs each page. Best to read this once or twice or thrice.

There is so much I want to write to entice you to read this book. There’s more than reading this book. For those lost in the Anointed Intelligentsia, this book will come across as entirely foreign territory. The Anointed Minions will scream this is all wrong and Sowell is making it all up and they know better! They need to calm down and really read his words. Check his footnotes. This is reality. Not the junk tossed out by the Anointed Intelligentsia.

If all read this book and learned what really has happened in the world, as I’ve read or experienced in bits and pieces before, the idea that racism is a problem would evaporate and we all can move forward to great success. THAT should be what we all do.

This book is somewhat a cut out of his ‘Intellects and Society’ and then expanded and enhanced.
In many ways this is a better book in it’s focus. ‘Society’ was too sprawling. That should have been 10 or more books, instead of so much in one place.

This is also stuffed, but is consistent in it’s title and the data is immense.
Could parts be better written. Could some loose ends be connected? yes. But the whole is so much greater than that.

Bottom line: i recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.

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Batman: Odyssey (2011-2012) #5 by Neal Adams
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The mess of a story finally comes to a bit better focus. The whys are explained by Adams. That’s when I knew how this story could have been written at all well and drawn, instead of this sprawling underground, confusing mess.

Unfortunately, that is not all in this entry. There is still another battle underground that has a wild range of characters all made up by Adams and make no sense. During the battle, characters yell position numbers to each other. Adams never shows there’s been anytime to know where or how the battle was staged. Worse, Adams alters locations from one locale to another and yet there is no defined reason as to why those locations are formed. Adams entire underground has been naturally created. He continuously presents an entire lack of knowledge of geology. His drawing of such I first saw nearly 50 years ago is what grabbed me so strongly into his work. It’s now I learn he’s just tracing photos.

During his video auction last week, he said he may have read one book this past week. This is what I thought as I’ve been painfully getting through this. Adams just doesn’t understand plotting a story. He just comes up with characters, chooses a cheesy, simplistic (dumb) story and throws it all together.

The artwork is still not up to par of the earlier entries, but still better than about 100% of all other comics out there.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this book. 1 out of ten points.

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My warm up drawing from Friday celebrating creme sickle day!

Drawn with no plan, pencils, live here on Facebook last Wednesday.