Monthly Book List - August

[lurkerwithout]

Aug 2nd: James Alan Gardner - Ascending: A follow up to Gardner's first book in the series Expendable. The nigh indestructable Oar returns from the "dead" seeking to put off the coma like hibernation her species are all doomed to..

Aug 4th: Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Enemy: The 5th (or 13th) Sharpe's book. Sharpe is sent to ransom an officer's wife from an army of deserters, one partially led by the vile Obadiah Hakeswell. The former sergeant who once had Sharpe flogged without cause...

Aug 5th: Steven Brust - Jhegaala: Latest Vlad Taltos book (though not the most recent in the series' chronology). Vlad journeys to the Eastern lands to try and find his roots and his mother's family. Instead he finds murder, conspiracy and magic...

Aug 7th: Peter Archer (ed) - 30 Years of Adventures - A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons: A history of Dungeons & Dragons, from its war game roots to the planning for 3rd edition...

Aug 10th: S.M. Stirling - Dies the Fire: The start of Stirling's post apocalyptic series. For unknown reasons all electronics, gunpowder and combustive engines stop working. This first book follows several groups of survivors as they attempt to build new settlements. The premise seems to be a way for Stirling to show off his love for the SCA and similar groups and Wiccans...

Aug 12th: Stirling - The Protector's War: The second book in the series. While Stirling is a better than average writer, and I really do enjoy this series, MAN do I end up wanting to punch a Wiccan in the face a time or two. Or five. And these aren't even the fluffy, believe in the Burning Times types...
A Meeting at Corvallis: Ending for the trilogy in the series, with a war between the Portland Protecterate (run by Evil ex-SCAers) and the coallition of forces from the good "countries" of Oregon. And I'm STILL finding the Wiccan's more smug and annoying than even the Tolkein enthusiasts who think they're Dunedanen (Rangers) "reborn"...

Aug 13th: Douglas Coupland - Eleanor Rigby: A short, melancholy book about family and second chances. And making the most of even the shortest of opportunities...

Aug 14th: Robert Parker - Shrink Rap: PI Sunny Randal has been hired to protect a writer from her stalker ex-husband, a psychiatrist. And she decides to go undercover as a patient, which ends up revealing more about herself and her own issues than she'd thought about before...

Aug 18th: Micheal Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay: Chabon's brilliant look at two cousins and comic book creators during the "Golden Age" of comics. The two create the Escapist out of their own frustrations. Though the book shares the same abrubt ending style as Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union...

Aug 19th: Stirling - The Sunrise Lands: The destined Wiccan prince Artos (child of the Wiccan McKenzies and the dead hero Lord Bear) begins a journey across the country and maybe the origins of the Change. If a crazed army of cultists doesn't end him and his companions first...

Aug 20th: Cornwell - Sharpe's Escape: The 20th book in the Sharpe's series. Sharpe and Wellington's forces seem to be retreating from Portugal, leaving barren ground behind them. But a pair of traitorous Portugese brothers looking to save their fortune are willing to sell food to the advancing French army. And of course they develop a deadly grudge with Sharpe...

Aug 22nd: Stirling - Ice, Iron & Gold: A collection of Stirling's short fiction. All fitting a general theme of expansionist militaries, alternate histories or the near-future collapse of current civilization...

Aug 24th: Charles deLint - Dreams Underfoot: Anthology of deLint's Newford modern fantasy short stories...

Aug 25th: John Scalzi - The Ghost Brigades: 2nd book in Scalzi's future military series. This one follows a soldier in the Ghost Brigades, soldiers cloned from the dead and genetically altered to better serve humanity. Of course this soldier is cloned from a traitor who is thought to be still alive and helping an alliance of aliens looking to destroy human controlled space...

Aug 26th: Charlie Huston - Caught Stealing: Failed ballplayer turned bartender Henry "Hank" Thompson agrees to watch a neighbors cat. And that leads to him getting beat up by Russian gangsters, chased by crooked cops and puts him and his friends in danger for their lives from hyper violent bank robbers...

Aug 27th: Steven Gould - Helm: Probably my favorite future human colony book. Martial arts, traitors, savage armies and believable reasons why a much lower technology base after hundreds of years...

Aug 28th: Scalzi - The Last Colony: Ex-soldiers and married couple John Perry and Jane Sagan are happy living as small colony farmers with their adopted daughter. But they let themselves get drawn into being drafted to being the leaders for the first colony of a colony. Of course the Colonial government has hidden motives for the whole thing, having to do with the alien Conclave. A group thats forbidden any non-member from creating new colonies...
Elizabeth Moon - Command Decision: 2nd to last book in the Vatta's War series. Ky Vatta continues to gather allies while creating an inter-system force to fight the pirate threat. At the same time friend Rafe investigates the problems at the heart of the interstellar communications company his family runs...

Aug 29th: Moon - Victory Conditions: Finale of the Vatta'sWar series. Ky Vatta leads the SDF fleet and its allies against the pirate fleet in a penultimate battle...

Aug 31st: Owen King/John McNally (eds) - Who Can Save Us Now?: Since I just reviewed this one, I'll say buy or read Superheroes instead, better story selection...

Totla books: 21

Comments

[the-paco.livejournal.com]

Paco vs Dies the Fire

"Sudden ceasing of the laws of physics when it comes to energetic reactions"? Uh... okay, sudden transmogrification of a basic shared chemical to a neutral.. "That stops new chemicals just mixed from reacting!" Uh.. maybe there's a dampening field- "Also stops steam power!" uh... eh? "And the people who immediately start capitalizing on it are medieval buffs!" ... There were CENTURIES of history and more successful systems and even modern fighting styles before- "AND WICCANS!" Okay, no, the wannabe pagans? What will they do, combine with the Scientologists to explain that our fall was because of evil Thetan influences and evil magic? No. Too much, Stirling, too many straws, too narrow a back. No. I'd sooner believe that all the kids who took three years of Taekwondo before dropping out would suddenly rise up and try to claim the way of the ninja than SCA coming out on top, even with the deck stacked so heavily in their favor.

[bccreations.livejournal.com]

How are the Sharpe's books? I've seen all 15 Sean Bean episodes. Will I benefit from reading the books or is the mini-series good enough?

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

Well its hard to seperate the voice/images of the Bean movies from the books after watching them. Hakeswell will always be Pete Postlewaite in my mind and Bean as Sharpe. But the book series is now longer than the movie one, covering India and filling in several gaps in the Napoleonic wars (Sharpe's Escape for example). I've read a majority of the series and think its worth checking out. Though Cornwell also writes other historical fiction books. His most current series, IIRC, has to do with Vikings. But the only one of his series I've read and own is his Arthurian one which I love...

[brewmoo.livejournal.com]

Have you ever heard of Goodreads? You should join up, it keeps track of your books and shit.