Monday, August 27, 2018

Butts... in Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!



I contributed to the Kickstarter for Butts in Space and it happened to arrive in the mail on game night so we dove right in.

The rules are easy to understand and the art is hilarious. Basically, each player assumes the role of one of the Butt characters.  It's a race against time as sets are made and various pieces of the space ship are unveiled.



Building as many sets of matching cards as possible before all seven space ship pieces are revealed makes for some tense moments, especially when people start rotating the butts. I wouldn't quite put it on the same tier as Exploding Kittens or Guillotine but Butts in Space is a fun card game that will be in our regular game night rotation.

A Rootin' Tootin' Rough and Ready Shoot 'Em Up Western

Brimstone (Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch, #3)Brimstone by Robert B. Parker
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My god, the testosterone just oozes off the pages of these Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch books!

The plot of #3 gets a tad more philosophical as the story dabbles with religion more than the previous two, but that doesn't make this book anymore "deep". It's still about being macho and shooting the bejesus out of a lot of cowboys, ranch hands, and whoever else strays towards the gray side in the white vs black/good guy vs bad guy scheme of things. Get drunk and mouth off? That's a shootin'. Piss off Cole and Hitch? That's a shootin'. Shoot somebody? Oh that's definitely a shootin'!

While this one is perhaps more nuanced than others, I wasn't digging quite as much as the first two. I don't know why. Perhaps the subject matter. Parker had to paint some characters particularly annoying in order for the reader to be okay with them dying. Problem is, I already find that character trait annoying anyhow, so I got an AA dose of annoying. Having said that, Brimstone's perfectly fine and I'll move on to #4. That however will be the last of the Cole/Hitch books for me, because Parker died in media res and other author took over. I'm not interested in that nonsense, so it'll be time for me to mosey...

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A Fine Finish

Blue-Eyed Devil (Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch, #4)Blue-Eyed Devil by Robert B. Parker
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A perfectly fine finish to Parker's portion of his Cole & Hitch western series.

This one finds the pair back in Appaloosa working as hired hands for a saloon that doesn't get the protection it needs from the local sheriff. This sheriff has aspirations well beyond this podunk town and there'll be trouble for anyone that gets in his way. Cole and Hitch get in his way.

I really wish Parker hadn't knocked off in the middle of this series or at least was around longer in order to write more. I mean, these aren't the best books ever written, but they're quick, enjoyable reads. This one included.

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