Review - Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand

Jeff Strand's Wolf Hunt is an entertaining ride with two thugs who make their living breaking people's thumbs. Their latest mission, however, turns out to be the transportation of a man believed to be a werewolf to a crime boss. Not believing in such monster tales, the duo quickly find themselves in trouble.

Review - The Wolfman by Nicholas Pekearo

The Wolfman by Nicholas Pekearo offers an interesting protagonist: a Vietnam veteran who returns to his homeland as a drifter, is generally not liked by anyone he meets and curses a lot. He is also a werewolf who cannot control himself very much during that special time of month. Delightfully written, the language makes you laugh on several occasions.

Review - The Wolfen by Whitley Strieber

The Wolfen is one of the classics of werewolf literature and was turned into a movie sometime in the 1980's, if I recall correctly. I saw the movie, thought it pretty mediocre and was not interested in reading the book for a long time.

Review - The Wolf's Hour by Robert R. McCammon

While looking for the ever elusive "good" werewolf novel, I heard about McCammon's The Wolf's Hour. And, what I read of people's opinions of it, I was immediately intrigued. A sample soon led to a purchase and I was devouring the novel at a speed I rarely achieve these days.

Review - The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

I have a weakness for werewolf stories, especially the ones where werewolves are not depicted as all-out evil monsters/killers. Therefore, I picked up Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift with somewhat elevated expectations, even though I had been warned that it was not that great a story.

Pérez-Reverte's Pirates of the Levant

The sixth book in Arturo Pérez-Reverte's Alatriste series continues the adventures of the "Spanish musketeers". After having found themselves in a position at the end of the previous installment of the series where they deem it best to stay away from Spain for a while, Alatriste and his companions travel to Naples and take part in some very exciting sea adventures.

Alexandre Dumas' The Vicomte de Bragelonne

Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers is one of those novels that everyone sees as a must-read – or if they are not readers, then they have seen at least one film version of this classic tale. But when it comes to the two sequels in the d’Artagnan Romances, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, even most readers are relatively unaware of them. I’ve previously written about the two first novels, and they are the ones I was familiar with from the past as well. The third novel in the series is a new experience for me, although I’ve seen parts of it turned into movies before – The Man in the Iron Mask, that is.

J.D. Davies' Gentleman Captain

There are many authors writing about the Age of Sail, but most of them concentrate their attention to the 18th century. The master of the Age of Sail genre is naturally Patrick O'Brian who brings alive the friendship between Captain Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in a way that has been never-before-seen in Literature. The only failing of the novels from my perspective is that they are set in the wrong century.

Alexandre Dumas' Twenty Years After

Whereas Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers has been turned into a plethora of movies and is read far and wide, its sequel, Twenty Years After, seems to be far less known. This really is a pity, for the novel is actually far superior to The Three Musketeers for several small reasons. In the modern day, when darker, grittier stories are preferred, Twenty Years After should really be increasing in popularity.

Attending the Hakkapeliitta Fair

The first weekend of August was once again the time to visit the Hakkapeliitta Fair - an event commemorating the Finnish light cavalry that served in the Swedish army under King Gustavus Adolphus during the 30 Years War in the early 17th century. It is practically the only occasion when we can put on our cavalier costumes and not get strange looks when we walk outside our apartment.