The Mysterious Affair At Styles

By Agatha Christie

    This book is truly a classic. Agatha Christie's first novel and, what's more, Hercule Poirot's first novelized case as well. This is a definite must-read. The characters, the plot, the mystery, and especially the impossibly small clues--that when put together, form a bigger picture obvious to all--However--take one single clue out, and the chain collapses. And everything MAKES SENSE. It is a wonderful book and I--what am I doing writing this? Get out! Go read this book!

Oh, and one warning--there are a few references that at that time were not, but are now, racist and/or sexist. Still a good book though.

96/100

(I honestly don't know why I keep on using decimal points when it's so much easier to just change to 1-100. Guess I'll use that now.)


-Le Facteur

PENDRAGON: THE LOST CITY OF FAAR

BY D.J. MacHALE

   Sequels, sequels, so many sequels! When I bought this book, I also saw lots more Pendragon books -- up to ten! So there're going to be a bunch of Pendragon-labeled book revues (reviews)!

   But anyway, this time Bobby is fluming to a territory called Cloral -- which is entirely underwater. On Cloral, everyone lives in giant barges with cities on them, called habitats. He meets the soon-to-be Traveler from there -- Vo Spader, an aquaneer. And then the food supply gets poisoned by -- guess who? -- yup, Saint Dane. So Bobby needs to find the legendary underwater city of Faar, which used to be the only dry land on Cloral. So they take Spaders' dad's half of the map and stick it together with his mom's half. Oh yeah, and Saint Dane saw the map too, so now they have to race him to Faar. Once Saint Dane gets there, he starts to blow up the protective underwater covering that keeps the city dry. Aaaannd he does it. I'll hope that that's enough of a cliff-hanger to keep you occupied, because I really don't want to spoil the story.
I'd give it a 9.3/10.

--Le Facteur

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS

By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

   So…Another Marvel Comics work of art! But this time a war story.

   Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos is indeed a work of art. The squad of seven are all soldiers who would fight to the finish (and sadly, a few do). Izzy Cohen, Dino Manelli, Gabe Jones, Corporal Dum-dum Dugan, Rebel Ralston, Junior Juniper, and, of course, the one…the only… Sergeant Nick Fury! Fighting Baron Strucker, "Lord Ha-ha", Dr. Zemo, and even attempting to capture Hitler himself, they're fighting Nazis all right. However, Nazis aren't the only thing they fight; Nick Fury also gets court-martialed and there was confusion with deserting! Not only is it just them, they fight alongside the underground and even Captain America and Bucky! 

   Corporal Dum-dum sometimes reminds me of the Thing…Big, strong, and he calls himself ever-lovin'. Izzy's a great mechanic. Gabe also plays trompette (trumpet). Rebel's the best mitrailleuse (burp-gun, or machine gun) man they ever had. Dino's a retired acteur (actor). Junior's a hard-working, good soldier. And do I really need to explain Nick Fury?

   I'm giving this a 9/10 because it slightly glorifies the war (not that I was in it), but it's a great read. I'm sure I'll be seeing you rather soon for a Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. review!
--Le Facteur

DAREDEVIL:THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR

By Stan Lee and Wallace Wood (for the majority)

VOL. 1

   Wow. Another great book. However, this one's a comic.
   Daredevil has a relatively decent backstory, good villains, and plot twists. Whether he fights The Owl, the Purple Man, or the Fellowship of Fear, Daredevil is certain to be two things; One, a great superhero. Two -- blind. Yes, Daredevil is none other than blind attorney Matthew Murdock. But that doesn't stop him from being one of Marvel's greatest superheroes.
   As a kid, he wasn't blind, and was pleaded to work in his books by his father, a prizefighter. 
   "You'll be someone someday. .someone famous! A lawyer, or doctor, not an uneducated pug like me." So he followed his father's advice, and ended up as a very good lawyer. 
   But the other children taunted him and called him "Daredevil" because he stayed inside and studied while they played. He got mad and lashed out at his father's punching bag. . .and broke it off! Apparently he inherited his father's strength. He decided to work out daily while his dad was away, and he got quite strong. 
   One day he was walking and saw a blind man about to be hit by a truck. He saved the blind man, but was hit by the truck himself. Know what the truck was full of? Yup, that's right. Radioactive materials! He was injured in the eyes and went blind, but his other senses increased much more than was normal. So now he's Daredevil!!! YAY!!!

You get the idea. I'm giving this a 9/10 for ridiculousness and, well, nice job Stan!
--Le Facteur
   

PENDRAGON:THE MERCHANT OF DEATH

    I won't spoil anything, but this book is just great. It's got a good story, characters, even the way it was told was amazing. Essentially, it's about a boy, Bobby Pendragon, who's about 14-16 years old, and lives a pretty normal life with his parents, his sister, Shannon, and his dog. He also has an awesome Uncle Press, who takes him skydiving, scuba diving, rock climbing, and basically is the best uncle ever. He plays basketball and has his good friend, Mark Dimond, to talk to. Oh yeah, and he has a huge crush on Courtney Chetwynde, an athletic girl who is great at sports.

    That's just the start. First, just before his big basketball game of the season, Courtney Chetwynde (yes, the girl he has a crush on) shows up at his door and tells him that she has a crush on him, too. Then she kisses him. 

   And right in the middle, Uncle Press comes in and says to Bobby; "I need your help, Bobby." or something like that, and they go down to the darkest part of NY (did I mention that's where they live?) into a disused subway station, where they find a crazy-evil guy called Saint Dane, who hypnotizes a random homeless guy into jumping in front of a train. Then they go through a magic portal called a "flume" and they have to save the medieval world of Denduron from complete destruction. From Saint Dane.

   Uncle Press calls the worlds "territories" and all of them as a whole is Halla. Saint Dane wants to end Halla. That's where I'm going to stop talking to you about it and tell you to get off the computer and go buy the book. All in all, 9/10 points for having the story switch between Mark and Courtney reading the journals Bobby writes and Bobby's journals themselves. I love this book.
--Le Facteur