L.E. Bendon (Author of The Weapon and the Fruit)

L.E. Bendon liked Maruthi Rakacherry's review of The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards (The Weapon and the Fruit, #1): "Love how gently nuanced the characters are... Especially interactions between Lance and Murphy, and Lance with Inspector Owusu. I enjoyed the pace of this book as it felt seamless... And the setting, and instances all show the reality of our times. I" Read more of this review »
Jan 16, 2026 03:38PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Weapon and the Fruit by L.E. Bendon. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Weapon and the Fruit by L.E. Bendon <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
L.E. Bendon liked Shree's review of The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards (The Weapon and the Fruit, #1): "What was expected to be a classic whodunnit story turned out to be much more of a thriller. The idea of comfort is mixed with elements of surprise when it comes to locations mentioned in the book. The characters are well developed with their stories " Read more of this review »
Dec 25, 2025 10:11PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Weapon and the Fruit by L.E. Bendon. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Weapon and the Fruit by L.E. Bendon <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
L.E. Bendon liked Keith Maloy's review of The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards (The Weapon and the Fruit, #1): "Memorable characters, terrific story! This was a fun whodunit inhabited with many memorable characters. As I read, it was easy to picture the eventual movie of this book rolling through my head. Enough clues were given to be fair to the reader hoping " Read more of this review »
Oct 03, 2025 07:18AM · see review
L.E. Bendon liked Charlotte's review of The Weapon and the Fruit: Any Body Can Murder (The Weapon and the Fruit, #2): "📆 single timeline. 👀 3rd person 🐢 -🐇 fast-paced I didn't realise when I started reading this that it was the second book in a series, but I don't feel that it mattered at all and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. It feels wrong to say that a cri" Read more of this review »
Sep 22, 2025 10:59PM · see review
L.E. Bendon finished reading The Quest for Qieta by T. Wu (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 09, 2025 10:56PM · 1 like · like
L.E. Bendon rated a book it was ok Tower of the Lost Princess by A.R. Kaufer (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Standard romantasy but in the form of a mashup of two very well known European children's stories. It's Rapunzel, but the handsome love interest is also Robin Hood who is also a dragon, because romantasy. The plot is extremely simplistic, with all fe ...more
Sep 09, 2025 05:40AM · 1 like · like · see review
L.E. Bendon rated a book liked it Space Cheese by Jason Mizer (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I went into this with high hopes. A scifi spoof, that starts well and made me think of a US version of Red Dwarf that was actually good, or perhaps something on a par with Barry Hutchison's Space Team series. And it begins well enough. It establishes ...more
Sep 09, 2025 12:05AM · like · see review
L.E. Bendon rated a book it was amazing Beast Be Gone (Beast Be Gone, #1) by A.L. Billington (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The best book I've read this year (I read Yellowface this year) World of Warcraft meets The Dark Lord of Derkholm through a lens of Pratchettesque humour. Funny, and full of relatable nods to MMORPGs and comedic fantasy, with some distinctive and memo ...more
Sep 08, 2025 12:33AM · 1 like · like · see review
L.E. Bendon finished reading The Manic Mission: Children of the Mob, #1 by C.J. Simone (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 06, 2025 12:21AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Manic Mission by C.J. Simone. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Manic Mission by C.J. Simone <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
L.E. Bendon rated a book really liked it Austringer's Wrath (Gifts of the Auldtree #2) by E.L. Lyons (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I won't spend time describing the world, the premise or the writing style, because it is entirely consistent with that of this book's predecessor -The Starlight Jewel, and you absolutely will need to have read that in order to enjoy this one. Helpful ...more
Aug 29, 2025 02:39AM · 3 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Austringer's Wrath by E.L. Lyons. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Austringer's Wrath by E.L. Lyons <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

L.E. Bendon liked Maruthi Rakacherry's review of The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards (The Weapon and the Fruit, #1):

"Love how gently nuanced the characters are... Especially interactions between Lance and Murphy, and Lance with Inspector Owusu. I enjoyed the pace of this book as it felt seamless... And the setting, and instances all show the reality of our times. I" Read more of this review »

L.E. Bendon liked Shree's review of The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards (The Weapon and the Fruit, #1):

"What was expected to be a classic whodunnit story turned out to be much more of a thriller. The idea of comfort is mixed with elements of surprise when it comes to locations mentioned in the book. The characters are well developed with their stories " Read more of this review »

L.E. Bendon liked Keith Maloy's review of The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards (The Weapon and the Fruit, #1):

"Memorable characters, terrific story!

This was a fun whodunit inhabited with many memorable characters. As I read, it was easy to picture the eventual movie of this book rolling through my head. Enough clues were given to be fair to the reader hoping " Read more of this review »

L.E. Bendon liked Charlotte's review of The Weapon and the Fruit: Any Body Can Murder (The Weapon and the Fruit, #2):

"📆 single timeline.
👀 3rd person
🐢 -🐇 fast-paced

I didn't realise when I started reading this that it was the second book in a series, but I don't feel that it mattered at all and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

It feels wrong to say that a cri" Read more of this review »

L.E. Bendon finished reading

The Quest for Qieta
by T. Wu (Goodreads Author)

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L.E. Bendon rated a book it was ok

Tower of the Lost Princess
by A.R. Kaufer (Goodreads Author)

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Standard romantasy but in the form of a mashup of two very well known European children's stories. It's Rapunzel, but the handsome love interest is also Robin Hood who is also a dragon, because romantasy.

The plot is extremely simplistic, with all fe ...more

L.E. Bendon rated a book liked it

Space Cheese
by Jason Mizer (Goodreads Author)

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I went into this with high hopes. A scifi spoof, that starts well and made me think of a US version of Red Dwarf that was actually good, or perhaps something on a par with Barry Hutchison's Space Team series. And it begins well enough. It establishes I went into this with high hopes. A scifi spoof, that starts well and made me think of a US version of Red Dwarf that was actually good, or perhaps something on a par with Barry Hutchison's Space Team series. And it begins well enough. It establishes an immersive setting and one by one introduces the core cast of distinct and interesting characters. It loses its momentum around a third of the way in when the plot stagnates and the characters are basically waiting around for it to catch up with them and give them something to do.

The humour is not in the league of Douglas Adams, or even Doug Naylor but there is plenty of it so you will laugh a few times during the book. There were two main issues I had with it. One is the complete lack of restraint on the fourth wall breaking, which, unlike with Deadpool where it's part of his character, it comes across as the author undermining his own work making it impossible for me as a reader to truly engage with it and believe in it. And the other was the frequency of references to famous scifi, mostly film and television (which made me think this really should have been a screen play rather than a novel). These references were so superficial that anyone looking forward to them would have already told them and heard them a hundred times. And even then they're all delivered with the literary equivalent of canned laughter, which at best comes across as self-congratulatory and at worst an insult to the reader. "make sure you got that joke now! we're not moving on unless you definitely understood it!" it was really painful, and as previously mentioned, there's plenty of it. Again, this really feels like the author not trusting the reader, or at least not trusting his work to stand up on its own, and with the references so on the nose and forced, it's even more unnecessary. The rest of the jokes are laboured puns - mostly cheese terminology forced into places where they don't belong.

There are some interesting quirks too, particular a billy goat that somehow results in a large supply of cheese. Then again the cheese is referred to as "goat cheese", so it's not necessarily made from goat's milk per se. I also appreciated the quirks of language in the dialogue where vocabulary and grammatical constructions are slightly off, suggesting a future time period where words and phrases have naturally mutated over time. It's just unfortunate that this spills over into the narrative as well. It's also unfortunate that references are made within the universe rather than just the narrative to our contemporary media, which works against this future setting.

I'll admit that I found it a chore to get through the whole thing, but I made sure that I did to be able to give a fair and honest review. That said I'm still giving the book three stars because I am certain that a lot of people will enjoy it, especially those young enough to have only very recently discovered Star Wars, for example. Plus it does have a lot of the elements of a decent story- with some original characters and interesting settings. I just wish it believed in itself more, and didn't have to use the likes of Star Wars and Star Trek as a crutch while insisting on holding the reader's hand throughout. ...more

L.E. Bendon rated a book it was amazing

Beast Be Gone (Beast Be Gone, #1)
by A.L. Billington (Goodreads Author)

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The best book I've read this year (I read Yellowface this year)

World of Warcraft meets The Dark Lord of Derkholm through a lens of Pratchettesque humour. Funny, and full of relatable nods to MMORPGs and comedic fantasy, with some distinctive and memo ...more

L.E. Bendon finished reading

The Manic Mission: Children of the Mob, #1
by C.J. Simone (Goodreads Author)

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L.E. Bendon rated a book really liked it

Austringer's Wrath (Gifts of the Auldtree #2)
by E.L. Lyons (Goodreads Author)

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I won't spend time describing the world, the premise or the writing style, because it is entirely consistent with that of this book's predecessor -The Starlight Jewel, and you absolutely will need to have read that in order to enjoy this one. Helpful I won't spend time describing the world, the premise or the writing style, because it is entirely consistent with that of this book's predecessor -The Starlight Jewel, and you absolutely will need to have read that in order to enjoy this one. Helpfully though, the author has provided a neat prologue which summarises the first story in case it's been a while between reading that and beginning this sequel, but don't be fooled into thinking it will make up for not reading it at all.

Without spoiling anything from either book, I'll say that Austringer's Wrath picks up from where we left off. Axly has much to manage and to account for. You might be wondering what will take the place of the compelling questions that drove the narratives of the Starlight Jewel, now that the twists have untwisted themselves and we have a clearer idea in our minds of which characters are truly closest to being in the right and in the wrong.

E.L Lyons solves this problem by giving everyone much bigger things to worry about - higher stakes, a wider variety of powerful beings, all with their own agenda and particular abilities, and their own versions of history to have us wondering once again which characters should we really be wishing to succeed. For me the answer to that question is the humans, although they really don't stand a chance amid all of the glorious carnage, so I suppose I( and you) will have to pick someone else instead and read on to see whether or not you're surprised.

This is both fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating because we get a whole new load of lore and world building built upon an already richly-described and inventive place, which while geographically small, is packed full of history and politics and very curious biology, presented in a narrative of dreamlike causality chains. McBeth meets Narnia with a touch of Gladiator, carrying you along a rough rapid current of character growths in all directions. You have to make quick decisions as you go as to which character and place names are important to remember and which are just part of what makes the world feel that much more real, just as you will have done reading the Starlight Jewel, but that in itself brings additonal thrills.

It's a tad frustrating too, because the consequences of the events that came before are left behind, simply because they're not important enough to stand against the more pressing matters that arise in this story. There's always room for everything to be resolved and everyone to be brought to account for their actions, and I won't spoil the book by saying how satisfying the ending is in that regard, but I will say that these concerns still nagged at me throughout, and although the characters' change of priorities is perfectly justified given what takes place, I still took it all in while thinking, "yes, but what about all the suffering caused by X, Y and Z in book one?" because that never stopped mattering to me as I read on.

Whether you see this as a four or five star book depends on whether the fascination or the frustration wins out for you. In fact, I will make the bold call that the prose should guarantee that four is a minimum. Whatever you make of the story choices, the book is worth reading for that alone. ...more

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	The Weapon and the Fruit: Any Body Can Murder (The Weapon and the Fruit, #2) 4.50 avg rating — 22 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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