July '14 Book List
Aug. 31st, 2014 06:01 pmLooking over the non-collected short fiction to start, beginning with N.K. Jemisin's Playing Nice With God's Bowling Ball which is about a police investigation of some super-science gone wrong involving young kids. Steve White's the Last Secret of Mary Bowser is a sort of side story to what I think is his normal time travel war series. I think. What I do know is it doesn't feature near enough Mary Bowser, an African-Amercian woman who served as Union spy in the home of Jefferson Davis during the Civil War. The Penitent Damned is a prequel to Django Wexler's "Shadow Campaigns" series. And the Face in the Window and Servant of the Crown are more prequel stories for Brian McCellan's "Powder Mage" trilogy. Max Gladstone's the Angelus Guns is a high concept story involving many worlds theory, an angelic civil war and a sister trying to save her brother. Ursula Vernon examines modern living as a supernatural woman with the Day My Grandmother Exploded. I'm not normally a fan of Adam Christopher, but I do enjoy noir stories involving robots like his Brisk Money. Jonathan L Howard's Goon Squad stories are a mostly monthly supers serial done all in prose. Enjoyable government cape squad stuff, and I finished the first three in July...
Sophie Goldstein & Jenn Jordan's webcomic Darwin Carmichael is Going to Hell was a wonderful sometimes dark comedy in a world where the mythological and fantastic mixes with the everyday. And where protagonist Darwin Carmichael has to work constantly to try and improve his karmic balance after accidently giving the reincarnated Dali Lama brain damage. Glad to have kickstarted and recieved the print collected omnibus...
Greg VanEekhaut's California Bones is a creepy urban fantasy where magicians can gain powers by ingesting the bones of extinct magical creatures. And others take that further by ingesting the flesh and bones of other magicians. The book is a heist story with a talented magician having to re-assemble his old crew to rob the vault of the ruthless and deadly ruler of California...
Adrian Tchaikovsky finishes up his "Shadows of the Apt" series with Warmaster's Gate where the Wasp Empire again goes after Collegium, while the Empress investigates an ancient power. And then it all comes to a giant climax with Seal of the Worm with everyone, Imperial, Collegiate, Apt, InApt falling under the returned threat of the Centipedes...
I'm glad Robots Vs. Slime Monsters popped up on my kindle recommended list. Because I'd manage to totally miss A. Lee Martinez doing a kickstarter to fund this collection of short fiction sequels to many of his books...
Shattered is the latest in Kevin Hearne's "Iron Druid" series. The main focus this time is split between Atticus helping his original teacher adapt to the modern age and his apprentice investigating the death of her archeologist father. Plus Loki. And a traitor among the Tuath(a) Dé Danann...
John Scalzi's latest is Lock In a near future murder mystery where the lead character telecommutes from their totally paralyzed body to a robot drone to work as an FBI agent...
Probably the best of the short stories in Tanya Huff's He Said, Sidhe Said anthology is the title one, a retelling of Tam Lin involving skate punks and the Fae...
After reading Jim Bernheimer's prequel Origins of a D-List Super Villain, I of course had to go back and re-read his Confessions of a D-List Super Villain...
Django Wexler's second "Shadow Campaigns" novel, the Shadow Throne has Crown Princess with a deadly secret, student revolutionaries, dockside gangs, an evil spymaster and a female soldier disguised as a male disguised as a woman...
Another prequel, this time Twenty Palaces by Harry Connolly, to his "Twenty Palaces" urban fantasy series. Got this one as a kickstarter reward for his Epic Fantasy With No Dull Bits project...
I liked that short story way up at the top by N.K. Jemisin that I picked up her the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Great book and great setting. Big, epic stuff...
Pair of finales. Ben Winter's finishes up his "Last Policeman" trilogy with World of Trouble. Which manages to be as uplifting and sad as a series where the Earth gets hit by a comet at the end can be. C.E. Murphy finishes up her "Urban Shaman" series with Shaman Rising, which has the final confrontation against the Dark God culminating back in Seattle and has call-backs and cameos by pretty much everyone from the whole series...
Weston Ochse's Velvet Dogma is an old school style cyberpunk novel. With the main twist being that people are essentially born owing their bodies after death for organ donation...
Darryl Gregory's We Are All Completely Fine centers around a support group for the survivors of what are essentially horror movies...
Cautionary Fables & Fairy Tales: Africa Edition, is a wonderful collection of comics telling fables and folk stories from various African traditions, edited by Kel McDonald and Taneka Stotts...
And finally I was surprised and how well Joe Abercrombie does YA-Fantasy with Half a King. It still has that distinctive Abercrombie mud & blood flavor but with a lighter touch for a younger target reader...
Total books: 20
Sophie Goldstein & Jenn Jordan's webcomic Darwin Carmichael is Going to Hell was a wonderful sometimes dark comedy in a world where the mythological and fantastic mixes with the everyday. And where protagonist Darwin Carmichael has to work constantly to try and improve his karmic balance after accidently giving the reincarnated Dali Lama brain damage. Glad to have kickstarted and recieved the print collected omnibus...
Greg VanEekhaut's California Bones is a creepy urban fantasy where magicians can gain powers by ingesting the bones of extinct magical creatures. And others take that further by ingesting the flesh and bones of other magicians. The book is a heist story with a talented magician having to re-assemble his old crew to rob the vault of the ruthless and deadly ruler of California...
Adrian Tchaikovsky finishes up his "Shadows of the Apt" series with Warmaster's Gate where the Wasp Empire again goes after Collegium, while the Empress investigates an ancient power. And then it all comes to a giant climax with Seal of the Worm with everyone, Imperial, Collegiate, Apt, InApt falling under the returned threat of the Centipedes...
I'm glad Robots Vs. Slime Monsters popped up on my kindle recommended list. Because I'd manage to totally miss A. Lee Martinez doing a kickstarter to fund this collection of short fiction sequels to many of his books...
Shattered is the latest in Kevin Hearne's "Iron Druid" series. The main focus this time is split between Atticus helping his original teacher adapt to the modern age and his apprentice investigating the death of her archeologist father. Plus Loki. And a traitor among the Tuath(a) Dé Danann...
John Scalzi's latest is Lock In a near future murder mystery where the lead character telecommutes from their totally paralyzed body to a robot drone to work as an FBI agent...
Probably the best of the short stories in Tanya Huff's He Said, Sidhe Said anthology is the title one, a retelling of Tam Lin involving skate punks and the Fae...
After reading Jim Bernheimer's prequel Origins of a D-List Super Villain, I of course had to go back and re-read his Confessions of a D-List Super Villain...
Django Wexler's second "Shadow Campaigns" novel, the Shadow Throne has Crown Princess with a deadly secret, student revolutionaries, dockside gangs, an evil spymaster and a female soldier disguised as a male disguised as a woman...
Another prequel, this time Twenty Palaces by Harry Connolly, to his "Twenty Palaces" urban fantasy series. Got this one as a kickstarter reward for his Epic Fantasy With No Dull Bits project...
I liked that short story way up at the top by N.K. Jemisin that I picked up her the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Great book and great setting. Big, epic stuff...
Pair of finales. Ben Winter's finishes up his "Last Policeman" trilogy with World of Trouble. Which manages to be as uplifting and sad as a series where the Earth gets hit by a comet at the end can be. C.E. Murphy finishes up her "Urban Shaman" series with Shaman Rising, which has the final confrontation against the Dark God culminating back in Seattle and has call-backs and cameos by pretty much everyone from the whole series...
Weston Ochse's Velvet Dogma is an old school style cyberpunk novel. With the main twist being that people are essentially born owing their bodies after death for organ donation...
Darryl Gregory's We Are All Completely Fine centers around a support group for the survivors of what are essentially horror movies...
Cautionary Fables & Fairy Tales: Africa Edition, is a wonderful collection of comics telling fables and folk stories from various African traditions, edited by Kel McDonald and Taneka Stotts...
And finally I was surprised and how well Joe Abercrombie does YA-Fantasy with Half a King. It still has that distinctive Abercrombie mud & blood flavor but with a lighter touch for a younger target reader...
Total books: 20