![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This was a very good movie with a lot of relevance for current events and politics. And of all the excellent supporting work, I enjoyed seeing Mr. Show working in the same newsroom. And yes Streep is great. On the other hand though, the only way the movie could have been less subtle in pushing Streep/Kay Graham as the Saint of Journalism & Feminism is if they'd had her lit with some kind of halo effect the whole time.
Streaming Watch 12/25 - 1/1/18
Jan. 3rd, 2018 06:38 amthe Crown s.2: Although the final episode of the season is a bit muddled and weaker-overall, still a lot of greatness covering mostly the 60s era of Queen Elizabeth. Claire Foy still manages to convey an amazing range in simple silent sequences or with an arched eyebrow. She will be especially missed as they change casts for the next season.
Black Mirror s.4: Very strong overall. Stand-outs for me are gamer entitlement culture call-out "U.S.S. Callister" & the survival horror "Metalhead". Others love "Hang the DJ", which while I liked the finish seemed to drag a bit in the middle. I also had to skip the gorier bits in the first part of the anthology within the anthology finisher "Black Museum".
Black Mirror s.4: Very strong overall. Stand-outs for me are gamer entitlement culture call-out "U.S.S. Callister" & the survival horror "Metalhead". Others love "Hang the DJ", which while I liked the finish seemed to drag a bit in the middle. I also had to skip the gorier bits in the first part of the anthology within the anthology finisher "Black Museum".
Jan/Feb/March '16 Book List
Apr. 28th, 2016 05:26 pmJanuary:
Short Fiction: Seanan McGuire's Snake in the Glass, Ursula Vernon's Razorback and Jim C. Hines' Chupacabra's Song
New Reads:
Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs
Josh Fruhlinger's The Enthusiast
(editors) John Joseph Adams & Hugh Howey's the End Has Come: Third in a triptych of apocalypse-themed short fiction anthologies. The last focused on post-apoc survival and rebuilding.
Ilona Andrews' Magic Stars: A "Kate Daniels" series novella focused on Derek and Julie.
Tanya Huff's Third Time Lucky: Collection of short comic works about an immortal wizard.
Lexie Dunne's Superheroes Anonymous & Supervillains Anonymous: Gail is nicknamed "Hostage Girl" because villains think she's super-hero Blaze's girlfriend. And then we he leaves town she ends up getting super-powers herself.
Michelle West's The Broken Crown
Andre Norton's Tales From the High Hallack vol.1: Collection of "Witch World" short stories.
Delilah Dawson/Kevin Hearne/Chuck Wendig's Three Slices: A short story from each writer's setting. All with a cheese divination theme.
Kevin Hearne's Staked: Latest "Iron Druid" book with, shockingly, many vampire opponents.
Rereads: None
Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Garth Ennis/Jonh Mcrea's The Demon: Hell's Hitman
Total: 13
Febuary:
Short Fiction: Django Wexler's the Shadow of Elysium, Delia Sherman's the Great Detective, Joe Abercrombie's Two's Company, Seanan McGuire's Velveteen Presents: Action Dude Vs. Doing the Right Thing and Brian McCellan's Ghosts of the Tristan Basin
New Reads:
C.E. Murphy's Baba Yaga's Daughter the Tales of the Old Races: World building short fiction for Murphy's "Old Races/Negotiatior" series.
N.K. Jemison's the Fifth Season: Excellent read, even if the flash-back part of the story somewhat overwhelms the "now" bits.
Daniel Polansky's the Builders: Like if Sam Peckinpah directed a "Redwall" movie.
Peter Clines' Ex-Isle: Supers vs. zombies AT SEA.
Nicola Griffith's Hild: Iron age Britain historical fiction yumminess.
Greg Van Eekhout's Dragon Coast: One more crazy heist, one more group of nasty cannibal wizards.
Michael McCloskey's Trilisk Supersedure
T. Kingfisher's the Raven & the Reindeer: Ursula Vernon's Snow Queen adaptation.
Daniel O'Malley's the Rook: What if you woke up with no memories of your life but were told you were one of the leaders of England's super-powered, super-secret spy orginization. Oh and some of your co-workers wanted to kill you for what you used to know.
(editor) Eric Flint's Ring of Fire IV: Most recent pro-anthology for the "Ring of Fire" series.
Georgette Heyer's the Quiet Gentleman: I've liked other Regency Romance style books, but this one didn't really work for me.
Sherwood Smith's Whispered Magics: Collection of Smith's short fiction.
Joe Haldeman's All My Sins Remembered: Such a depressing ending. Soooo bleak.
Rereads: None
Graphic Novels/TPBs:
G. Willow Wilson/Adrian Alphona/Dan Slott/Christos Gage/Guiseppe Camuncoli's Ms. Marvel: Last Days vol. 4: Short arc leading into whatever last year's summer crossover event was, with some Spider-Man team-up filler.
Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez' Locke & Key: Alpha & Omega: Used part of the tax refund to finally finish up the series.
Stjepan Šejić's Sunstone vol.4: Argh! Open lines of communication people!
Joe Casey/Nick Dragotta/Brad Simpson's Vengeance: Better than average Marvel mini-series that got lost in the Big Events.
Total: 19
March:
Short Fiction: Seanan McGuire's Swamp Bromeliad & Velveteen Vs. the Consequences of Her Actions, Alyssa Wong's a Fist of Permutations in Lightning & Wildflowers, Melissa Marr's the Maiden Thief, Carrie Vaughn's That Game We Played in War Time, Caighlan Smith's the Weather, Dave Freer's the Changeling & the Phooka and David D. Levine's Discards.
New Reads:
Stephen Leather's Once Bitten: Meh vampire fic.
Seanan McGuire's Chaos Choreography: Latest "InCryptid" novel, going back to Verity Price and a reality dance show reuinion.
R.J. Ross' Shadow Boy: Most recent "Cape High" book that wraps up the Evil Presidential Canidate arc.
(editors) Walt Boyes/Bjorn Hasseler's Grantville Gazette vol.62-64
Ken Liu's Grace of Kings. The rise from peasant gangster to Emperor.
Orest Stelmuch's the Boy From Reactor 4: Ukrainian and Russian gangsters, Chernobyl and hockey.
George R.R. Martin's A Knight the 7 Kingdoms: Collection of the Duncan & Egg/Hedge Knight stories.
Tamora Pierce's Magic Steps, Street Magic, Cold Fire, Shatterglass, the Will of the Empress & Melting Stones. Bingeing on nearly all the remaining "Circle of Magic"
(editors) Will Shetterly/Emma Bull's Liakek 1: First in a shared-world anthology series.
Joe K. Lansdale's Savage Season. Stupid Sundance preview week making me think I could record all of Hap & Leonard so I had to read the book instead. Good book though.
Jeff Vandameer's Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance: I heard there was a television adaptation for this trilogy in the works. If they get it right it will be super-creepy and amazing.
K.J. Parker's Downfall of the Gods. One goddess' long scam against her pantheon, though I'm unclear as to her motivation.
Rereads: None
Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Shannon, Dean & Nathan Hale's Calamity Jack: Steampunk/fairy tale mash-up sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge
Ananth Hirsh/Yuko Ota's Lucky Penny
Total: 22
Short Fiction: Seanan McGuire's Snake in the Glass, Ursula Vernon's Razorback and Jim C. Hines' Chupacabra's Song
New Reads:
Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs
Josh Fruhlinger's The Enthusiast
(editors) John Joseph Adams & Hugh Howey's the End Has Come: Third in a triptych of apocalypse-themed short fiction anthologies. The last focused on post-apoc survival and rebuilding.
Ilona Andrews' Magic Stars: A "Kate Daniels" series novella focused on Derek and Julie.
Tanya Huff's Third Time Lucky: Collection of short comic works about an immortal wizard.
Lexie Dunne's Superheroes Anonymous & Supervillains Anonymous: Gail is nicknamed "Hostage Girl" because villains think she's super-hero Blaze's girlfriend. And then we he leaves town she ends up getting super-powers herself.
Michelle West's The Broken Crown
Andre Norton's Tales From the High Hallack vol.1: Collection of "Witch World" short stories.
Delilah Dawson/Kevin Hearne/Chuck Wendig's Three Slices: A short story from each writer's setting. All with a cheese divination theme.
Kevin Hearne's Staked: Latest "Iron Druid" book with, shockingly, many vampire opponents.
Rereads: None
Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Garth Ennis/Jonh Mcrea's The Demon: Hell's Hitman
Total: 13
Febuary:
Short Fiction: Django Wexler's the Shadow of Elysium, Delia Sherman's the Great Detective, Joe Abercrombie's Two's Company, Seanan McGuire's Velveteen Presents: Action Dude Vs. Doing the Right Thing and Brian McCellan's Ghosts of the Tristan Basin
New Reads:
C.E. Murphy's Baba Yaga's Daughter the Tales of the Old Races: World building short fiction for Murphy's "Old Races/Negotiatior" series.
N.K. Jemison's the Fifth Season: Excellent read, even if the flash-back part of the story somewhat overwhelms the "now" bits.
Daniel Polansky's the Builders: Like if Sam Peckinpah directed a "Redwall" movie.
Peter Clines' Ex-Isle: Supers vs. zombies AT SEA.
Nicola Griffith's Hild: Iron age Britain historical fiction yumminess.
Greg Van Eekhout's Dragon Coast: One more crazy heist, one more group of nasty cannibal wizards.
Michael McCloskey's Trilisk Supersedure
T. Kingfisher's the Raven & the Reindeer: Ursula Vernon's Snow Queen adaptation.
Daniel O'Malley's the Rook: What if you woke up with no memories of your life but were told you were one of the leaders of England's super-powered, super-secret spy orginization. Oh and some of your co-workers wanted to kill you for what you used to know.
(editor) Eric Flint's Ring of Fire IV: Most recent pro-anthology for the "Ring of Fire" series.
Georgette Heyer's the Quiet Gentleman: I've liked other Regency Romance style books, but this one didn't really work for me.
Sherwood Smith's Whispered Magics: Collection of Smith's short fiction.
Joe Haldeman's All My Sins Remembered: Such a depressing ending. Soooo bleak.
Rereads: None
Graphic Novels/TPBs:
G. Willow Wilson/Adrian Alphona/Dan Slott/Christos Gage/Guiseppe Camuncoli's Ms. Marvel: Last Days vol. 4: Short arc leading into whatever last year's summer crossover event was, with some Spider-Man team-up filler.
Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez' Locke & Key: Alpha & Omega: Used part of the tax refund to finally finish up the series.
Stjepan Šejić's Sunstone vol.4: Argh! Open lines of communication people!
Joe Casey/Nick Dragotta/Brad Simpson's Vengeance: Better than average Marvel mini-series that got lost in the Big Events.
Total: 19
March:
Short Fiction: Seanan McGuire's Swamp Bromeliad & Velveteen Vs. the Consequences of Her Actions, Alyssa Wong's a Fist of Permutations in Lightning & Wildflowers, Melissa Marr's the Maiden Thief, Carrie Vaughn's That Game We Played in War Time, Caighlan Smith's the Weather, Dave Freer's the Changeling & the Phooka and David D. Levine's Discards.
New Reads:
Stephen Leather's Once Bitten: Meh vampire fic.
Seanan McGuire's Chaos Choreography: Latest "InCryptid" novel, going back to Verity Price and a reality dance show reuinion.
R.J. Ross' Shadow Boy: Most recent "Cape High" book that wraps up the Evil Presidential Canidate arc.
(editors) Walt Boyes/Bjorn Hasseler's Grantville Gazette vol.62-64
Ken Liu's Grace of Kings. The rise from peasant gangster to Emperor.
Orest Stelmuch's the Boy From Reactor 4: Ukrainian and Russian gangsters, Chernobyl and hockey.
George R.R. Martin's A Knight the 7 Kingdoms: Collection of the Duncan & Egg/Hedge Knight stories.
Tamora Pierce's Magic Steps, Street Magic, Cold Fire, Shatterglass, the Will of the Empress & Melting Stones. Bingeing on nearly all the remaining "Circle of Magic"
(editors) Will Shetterly/Emma Bull's Liakek 1: First in a shared-world anthology series.
Joe K. Lansdale's Savage Season. Stupid Sundance preview week making me think I could record all of Hap & Leonard so I had to read the book instead. Good book though.
Jeff Vandameer's Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance: I heard there was a television adaptation for this trilogy in the works. If they get it right it will be super-creepy and amazing.
K.J. Parker's Downfall of the Gods. One goddess' long scam against her pantheon, though I'm unclear as to her motivation.
Rereads: None
Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Shannon, Dean & Nathan Hale's Calamity Jack: Steampunk/fairy tale mash-up sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge
Ananth Hirsh/Yuko Ota's Lucky Penny
Total: 22
Tags:
June '13 Book List
Jul. 31st, 2013 11:42 pmJust getting this under the wire. Starting off June with Mur Lafferty's the Shambling Guide to New York City. Which is about writing tour books for the supernatural community. Some nice twists on the usual modern paranormal tropes...
From one of my various Kickstarter rewards I got Harry Connelly's King Khan. Which is a pulp adventure story with a talking gorilla who teaches at Oxford going to Los Angeles to fight zombies and mummies and stuff. At one point he's joined in his quest by a young Luchador. Its pretty fucking great...
For some reason I got to describing Poul Anerson's the High Crusade to the roommate. I forget why. But that led to me realizing I know longer had a physical copy and so grabbing it for my Kindle. And of course rereading the tale of how some English crusaders steal a spaceship from some space pirates and then go forth (with their entire fucking Duchy) and conquer space. With swords and bows and shit...
Dead Ever After is the finale for Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire" books. A decent ending that wraps up the majority of the various primary and secondary character arcs. And leaves Sookie with the expected love interest...
I picked up James S.A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes as Kindle Daily Deal, even though the roommate has the whole series. And then after I finished it I found that it included ALL of Daniel Abraham's (who is the same guy) the Dragon's Path. Which is the start to his epic fantasy series with religious wars and old soldiers and one of the leads being a bad-ass teen lady banker. So basically two bucks got me the first book in a hard core no-FTL hard scifi series AND a great new first book for a cool epic, little bit grimdark but not to grimdark, fantasy. Definitely five-starred THAT purchase...
I also quickly bought the King's Blood and Tyrant's Law the next two books for the series and am very impatiently awaiting the release of the 4th...
Fearsome Journeys, edited by Jonathan Strahan, is a tight little anthology. Its got some Elizabeth Bear and Daniel Abraham and Scott Lynch and a new Glen Cook "Black Company" story...
Esther Freisner's Nobody's Princess and Nobody's Prize are kind of ancient Greek historical fiction, non-magical myth re-imagining, Torjan War prequels about teen Helen...
Limits of Power is the latest in Elizabeth Moon's "Paksworld" novels. With several nations, who had outlawed magery (which is different from wizardry and not-druidery and clerical magics) for pretty solid historical reason, dealing with a resurgance of people showing up with magery powers. Plus Alured the Black from waaaaay back in the first trilogy really steps up as a bad guy...
The roommate picked up the 5th and 6th of Craig Johnson's "Longmire Mysteries", the Dark Horse and Junkyard Dogs. So after blowing thru those, I of course had to immediately grab Hell is Empty and As the Crow Flies, the 7th and 8th books in the series...
G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen is a pretty great modern fantasy set in the Middle East, with an Arab/Indian hacker getting involved with genies and targeted by state security because of the upper class girl he's gotten involved with...
Beginnings (edited by David Weber) is the most recent of his "Honorverse" tie-in anthologies. Though the first story, dealing with early colonization star ships and the crashing Earth governments could be part of more than a few limited resource in-Sol system scifi settings...
Also the latest Grantville Gazette (still edited by Paula Goodlett) with this 48th volume filling in still more of the fringes for the "Ring of Fire" setting...
And then we've got the latest "Iron Druid" book from Kevin Hearne, Hunted. Which has the death of a goddess and a chase across Europe and the Greco-Roman pantheons being assholes...
Then another anthology with Machine of Death (edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo and David Maiki). Which is a collection of short stories all based around the concept that society is introduced to a machine that perfectly and accurately and unerringly predicts how you will die...
And finally from the free-range short story round up. Leigh Bardugo's the Too-Clever Fox is a bit of a fable about a fox and supernaturally skilled hunter. Jedediah Berry's a Window or a Small Box is a very off kilter bit with a couple on the run in a strange and illogical world. Porn & Revolution in the Peaceable Kingdom is another oddball story where every other species on the planet has become sentient. I mean all of them. The lead is a slime mold. Except they basically live kind of like humans do now and keep humans as pets. I mean we're still sentient, just not very bright. Anna Banks' the Stranger is kind of a "Little Mermaid" homage, though it has a pretty soft and inconclusive ending...
Total books: 23
From one of my various Kickstarter rewards I got Harry Connelly's King Khan. Which is a pulp adventure story with a talking gorilla who teaches at Oxford going to Los Angeles to fight zombies and mummies and stuff. At one point he's joined in his quest by a young Luchador. Its pretty fucking great...
For some reason I got to describing Poul Anerson's the High Crusade to the roommate. I forget why. But that led to me realizing I know longer had a physical copy and so grabbing it for my Kindle. And of course rereading the tale of how some English crusaders steal a spaceship from some space pirates and then go forth (with their entire fucking Duchy) and conquer space. With swords and bows and shit...
Dead Ever After is the finale for Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire" books. A decent ending that wraps up the majority of the various primary and secondary character arcs. And leaves Sookie with the expected love interest...
I picked up James S.A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes as Kindle Daily Deal, even though the roommate has the whole series. And then after I finished it I found that it included ALL of Daniel Abraham's (who is the same guy) the Dragon's Path. Which is the start to his epic fantasy series with religious wars and old soldiers and one of the leads being a bad-ass teen lady banker. So basically two bucks got me the first book in a hard core no-FTL hard scifi series AND a great new first book for a cool epic, little bit grimdark but not to grimdark, fantasy. Definitely five-starred THAT purchase...
I also quickly bought the King's Blood and Tyrant's Law the next two books for the series and am very impatiently awaiting the release of the 4th...
Fearsome Journeys, edited by Jonathan Strahan, is a tight little anthology. Its got some Elizabeth Bear and Daniel Abraham and Scott Lynch and a new Glen Cook "Black Company" story...
Esther Freisner's Nobody's Princess and Nobody's Prize are kind of ancient Greek historical fiction, non-magical myth re-imagining, Torjan War prequels about teen Helen...
Limits of Power is the latest in Elizabeth Moon's "Paksworld" novels. With several nations, who had outlawed magery (which is different from wizardry and not-druidery and clerical magics) for pretty solid historical reason, dealing with a resurgance of people showing up with magery powers. Plus Alured the Black from waaaaay back in the first trilogy really steps up as a bad guy...
The roommate picked up the 5th and 6th of Craig Johnson's "Longmire Mysteries", the Dark Horse and Junkyard Dogs. So after blowing thru those, I of course had to immediately grab Hell is Empty and As the Crow Flies, the 7th and 8th books in the series...
G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen is a pretty great modern fantasy set in the Middle East, with an Arab/Indian hacker getting involved with genies and targeted by state security because of the upper class girl he's gotten involved with...
Beginnings (edited by David Weber) is the most recent of his "Honorverse" tie-in anthologies. Though the first story, dealing with early colonization star ships and the crashing Earth governments could be part of more than a few limited resource in-Sol system scifi settings...
Also the latest Grantville Gazette (still edited by Paula Goodlett) with this 48th volume filling in still more of the fringes for the "Ring of Fire" setting...
And then we've got the latest "Iron Druid" book from Kevin Hearne, Hunted. Which has the death of a goddess and a chase across Europe and the Greco-Roman pantheons being assholes...
Then another anthology with Machine of Death (edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo and David Maiki). Which is a collection of short stories all based around the concept that society is introduced to a machine that perfectly and accurately and unerringly predicts how you will die...
And finally from the free-range short story round up. Leigh Bardugo's the Too-Clever Fox is a bit of a fable about a fox and supernaturally skilled hunter. Jedediah Berry's a Window or a Small Box is a very off kilter bit with a couple on the run in a strange and illogical world. Porn & Revolution in the Peaceable Kingdom is another oddball story where every other species on the planet has become sentient. I mean all of them. The lead is a slime mold. Except they basically live kind of like humans do now and keep humans as pets. I mean we're still sentient, just not very bright. Anna Banks' the Stranger is kind of a "Little Mermaid" homage, though it has a pretty soft and inconclusive ending...
Total books: 23
February '12 Book List
Mar. 13th, 2012 08:08 pmStarted off the month with In Fire Forged the newest Honor-verse anthology edited by David Weber. Only three stories in this one, by Jane Lindskold, Timothy Zahn and Weber. Both Zahn and Lindskold mesh their styles well to compliment Weber's setting...
Later in the month, after finding out I couldn't get one of the work's wireless networks to connect with my Fire, I ended up rereading more Honorverse since I had it downloaded. Ashes of Victory, War of Honor, Shadow of Saganami, At All Costs, Storm From Shadows and Mission of Honor. Which basically covered from the midpoint of the series to right before the most recent book...
Only two books for Feb. from the "cheap Kindle deal" pile. The first is a historical fiction bit by John J. Miller, the First Assassin about a plot to kill Lincoln early at the start of the Civil War. The bits with the killer feel a bit overdone, but otherwise a decent enough read. The second book is a collection of essays Hatemail from Cheerleaders by sports essayist Rick Reilly. Can't say I cared for that one. A bit too heavy on the slice-of-life feel-good fluff and light on the humor really...
Finished the newest "Instrumentalities of the Night" book from Glen Cook, Surrender to the Will of the Night. This one really pushes forward the potential game changing nature of cannon usage. Both against the supernatural godlings and spirits, as well as on more traditional battlefields. This series could still use a damn included world map though...
Then I checked out a sort of prequel to Harry Turtledove's "Lost Legion" series, Krispos Rising. Which is basically showing how the lead character goes from being a simple peasant to eventually seizing control of an Empire...
The roommate got me the latest steampunk althistory series featuring Richard Burton as a birthday gift. Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon involves both Richard Burton attempting a new expedition to the Mountains of the Moon and also getting sort of lost in time...
Borrowed from the roommate was the Dragon's Nine Sons by Chris Roberson. Which is set in a world where China was expansionist instead isolationist and now controls nearly all of the world. Here a group of "volunteer" Chinese soldiers has to bring down a Mexican space station that threatens the Imperial Martian colonies. Kind of like "The Dirty Dozen". In space. With everyone having Chinese names without all actually being Chinese of course. Because of the whole One World Chinese Nation thing...
Next was the newest "Paksworld" novel Echoes of Betrayal. I liked the book, even though like 4/5ths of it felt like set-up rather than forward movement...
Then a new urban fantasy anthology, Home Improvement: Undead Edition edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner. Which basically passes my two main metrics for an anthology. Did I enjoy at least 50% of the book? And do any of the short stories leave me interested in the rest of the author's series?
Finished the month with a three book omnibus from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, "Partners in Necessity". I'd read one of their "Liaden Universe" short stories online last year and I'd been meaning to check them out more fully for a while. The three books Conflict of Honors, Agent of Change and Carpe Diem made from pretty good space opera with intergalatic merchant houses, spies, mercs, psychic powers, romance, cool aliens and lots of interesting background details...
Total books: 18
Later in the month, after finding out I couldn't get one of the work's wireless networks to connect with my Fire, I ended up rereading more Honorverse since I had it downloaded. Ashes of Victory, War of Honor, Shadow of Saganami, At All Costs, Storm From Shadows and Mission of Honor. Which basically covered from the midpoint of the series to right before the most recent book...
Only two books for Feb. from the "cheap Kindle deal" pile. The first is a historical fiction bit by John J. Miller, the First Assassin about a plot to kill Lincoln early at the start of the Civil War. The bits with the killer feel a bit overdone, but otherwise a decent enough read. The second book is a collection of essays Hatemail from Cheerleaders by sports essayist Rick Reilly. Can't say I cared for that one. A bit too heavy on the slice-of-life feel-good fluff and light on the humor really...
Finished the newest "Instrumentalities of the Night" book from Glen Cook, Surrender to the Will of the Night. This one really pushes forward the potential game changing nature of cannon usage. Both against the supernatural godlings and spirits, as well as on more traditional battlefields. This series could still use a damn included world map though...
Then I checked out a sort of prequel to Harry Turtledove's "Lost Legion" series, Krispos Rising. Which is basically showing how the lead character goes from being a simple peasant to eventually seizing control of an Empire...
The roommate got me the latest steampunk althistory series featuring Richard Burton as a birthday gift. Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon involves both Richard Burton attempting a new expedition to the Mountains of the Moon and also getting sort of lost in time...
Borrowed from the roommate was the Dragon's Nine Sons by Chris Roberson. Which is set in a world where China was expansionist instead isolationist and now controls nearly all of the world. Here a group of "volunteer" Chinese soldiers has to bring down a Mexican space station that threatens the Imperial Martian colonies. Kind of like "The Dirty Dozen". In space. With everyone having Chinese names without all actually being Chinese of course. Because of the whole One World Chinese Nation thing...
Next was the newest "Paksworld" novel Echoes of Betrayal. I liked the book, even though like 4/5ths of it felt like set-up rather than forward movement...
Then a new urban fantasy anthology, Home Improvement: Undead Edition edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner. Which basically passes my two main metrics for an anthology. Did I enjoy at least 50% of the book? And do any of the short stories leave me interested in the rest of the author's series?
Finished the month with a three book omnibus from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, "Partners in Necessity". I'd read one of their "Liaden Universe" short stories online last year and I'd been meaning to check them out more fully for a while. The three books Conflict of Honors, Agent of Change and Carpe Diem made from pretty good space opera with intergalatic merchant houses, spies, mercs, psychic powers, romance, cool aliens and lots of interesting background details...
Total books: 18
January '12 Book List
Feb. 7th, 2012 08:53 pmOpened up the month with still more David Weber. This time the 2nd through 5th books of his "Safehold" series, By Schism Rent Asunder, By Heresies Distressed, a Mighty Fortress and How Firm a Foundation. Thats the one where the remnants of humanity escape a genocidal alien race to a secret colony. And then the people running the colony warp the minds of the colonists so that they'll be trapped in a Dark Ages, theocratic controlled group of nation states indefinitely. For our own protection. And then after a few hundred years the cracks in this concept start to show, even before the arrival of "Merlin", an android with the downloaded personality of one the officers who sacrificed themselves so that the last group of colonists could escape. Its a toss-up for me which I enjoy more from Weber, this or his "Honor Harrington" books. But I still wonder if the whole thing isn't some kind of bet he had with friend and fellow writers Eric Flint and S.M.Stirling to top their best known book lines...
Also from Weber are the far future milspec In Fury Born which has a really accurate title which serves as a clue to the major plot twist. And Out of the Dark, which is an expanded version of one of his short stories. One where space Wolf-Men attack the Earth and wipe out huge numbers of humanity before they push things far enough for someone else to come out of retirement to fight them...
After the "Safehold" books I had both a new print Grantville Gazette and a new e-book one. Volume six for the former and thirty-nine for the latter. Mostly they both made me impatient for the next "Ring of Fire" novel due out this summer...
Then I tried out the roommates copies of a newish urban fantasy series by Seanan McGuire. Secret fairy society with a noir-ish female detective half-fairy lead. First Rosemary & Rue and then A Local Habitation. I didn't realize until most of the way thru this series that McGuire also wrote the "Newsflesh" zombie series as Mira Grant...
Then I took a brief break from McGuire to read the second of Eric Flint's "Arkansas War" alternate histories, 1824: the Arkansas War. This one has the young Free Black/Native American nation under threat from pro-Slavery Union forces...
I also read the first of Patrick O'Brian's Master & Commander books. Which isn't the one they made a movie out of. Still I couldn't help seeing Russel Crowe when reading it...
Then I finished up McGuire's "October Daye" series with An Artificial Night (which has one of the creepier and nastier bad guys from an urban fantasy series I've come across), Late Eclipse and One Salt Sea...
At that point I was in the mood for some Pratchett (probably from a work shift spent reading tv trops) and so went with a reread of Snuff...
I followed that with a new to me John Scalzi book, Agent to the Stars. About a talent agent who is brought on by an alien species that is essentially a kind of really disgusting and smelly mold with mind control powers to engineer a positive first contact situation...
Then I decided to follow up on one of the roommates suggestions and try out Vernor Vinge. And after a Darkness in the Sky its going to be a while before I try them again. Not because of poor writing. But because the main bad guy for it is such a horrific fucking bastard from a society of horrible fucking bastards. Just the mind-slaver of the Focus alone. *shudder*
I decided to finish off the month with a big fat book, Neal Stephenson's Reamde. But first some brain and palate cleansing rereading with Jim Butcher's Ghost Story and Flint's 1635: the Eastern Front, 1636: the Saxon Uprising and the Ring of Fire III anthology...
But back to Reamde, which is probably the most easily accessible thing I've read by Stephenson since Snow Crash or Zodiac. But at times while reading the globetrotting plot with its large cast that pin-balled off each other I had to wonder. Why did Stephenson glue together two or three Bruce Sterling novels?
Total Books: 23
Also from Weber are the far future milspec In Fury Born which has a really accurate title which serves as a clue to the major plot twist. And Out of the Dark, which is an expanded version of one of his short stories. One where space Wolf-Men attack the Earth and wipe out huge numbers of humanity before they push things far enough for someone else to come out of retirement to fight them...
After the "Safehold" books I had both a new print Grantville Gazette and a new e-book one. Volume six for the former and thirty-nine for the latter. Mostly they both made me impatient for the next "Ring of Fire" novel due out this summer...
Then I tried out the roommates copies of a newish urban fantasy series by Seanan McGuire. Secret fairy society with a noir-ish female detective half-fairy lead. First Rosemary & Rue and then A Local Habitation. I didn't realize until most of the way thru this series that McGuire also wrote the "Newsflesh" zombie series as Mira Grant...
Then I took a brief break from McGuire to read the second of Eric Flint's "Arkansas War" alternate histories, 1824: the Arkansas War. This one has the young Free Black/Native American nation under threat from pro-Slavery Union forces...
I also read the first of Patrick O'Brian's Master & Commander books. Which isn't the one they made a movie out of. Still I couldn't help seeing Russel Crowe when reading it...
Then I finished up McGuire's "October Daye" series with An Artificial Night (which has one of the creepier and nastier bad guys from an urban fantasy series I've come across), Late Eclipse and One Salt Sea...
At that point I was in the mood for some Pratchett (probably from a work shift spent reading tv trops) and so went with a reread of Snuff...
I followed that with a new to me John Scalzi book, Agent to the Stars. About a talent agent who is brought on by an alien species that is essentially a kind of really disgusting and smelly mold with mind control powers to engineer a positive first contact situation...
Then I decided to follow up on one of the roommates suggestions and try out Vernor Vinge. And after a Darkness in the Sky its going to be a while before I try them again. Not because of poor writing. But because the main bad guy for it is such a horrific fucking bastard from a society of horrible fucking bastards. Just the mind-slaver of the Focus alone. *shudder*
I decided to finish off the month with a big fat book, Neal Stephenson's Reamde. But first some brain and palate cleansing rereading with Jim Butcher's Ghost Story and Flint's 1635: the Eastern Front, 1636: the Saxon Uprising and the Ring of Fire III anthology...
But back to Reamde, which is probably the most easily accessible thing I've read by Stephenson since Snow Crash or Zodiac. But at times while reading the globetrotting plot with its large cast that pin-balled off each other I had to wonder. Why did Stephenson glue together two or three Bruce Sterling novels?
Total Books: 23
December '11 Book List
Jan. 10th, 2012 10:07 pmOK, lets finally get to the December list. Which is nearly entirely David Weber through the majority of the month. But before that we've got a few other books, including some more cheap random deals for the ol' Kindle. Starting with Jennifer Gardiner's Slim to None about a New York film critic and her relationship with food, family and abandonment. Pretty good book actually, if a few sub-plots do strain my credibility a bit...
Then Shannon Hale's Austenland. Where one woman's obsession with Jane Austen causes problems with her ability to find romance. And so a wealthy relative leaves her a vacation at a Austen fantasy camp as an inheritance. Another fun if silly book...
After that I tried out newcomer Bobby Cole's rookie noir/pulp the Dummy Line. Some clunkiness to it. And Cole could definitely learn to pare down his cast (especially when the viewpoint moves between characters). But an excellent starting work...
Also got the new Stephenie Plum, Explosive Eighteen, book from Evanovich at the start of the month. Sadly I think the romantic triangle aspect of the series is starting to strain a little at the seams. Series is still enjoyable junk food lit despite that...
Then borrowed the Road to Bedlam by Mike Shevdon from the roommate. Sequel to 61 Nails a British modern fae story. Here the lead has to deal with both the mysterious disappearance of his part-Fae daughter as well as a group of missing girls from a coastal town...
Then its mostly Weber, which we'll get back to. Broken up by trying out an early Steven Brust book, To Rule in Hell. Which is a reinterpretation of the War in Heaven and the Fall. Interesting but didn't really click with me...
And around Christmas was the annual reading of Pratchett's Hogfather. Except for that year I watched the movie. The bit with the Matchstick Girl is still one of the best Death moments...
Ok, now Weber. Nearly all Honor-verse books. Except for Off Armageddon Reef. Which is about humanity's Last Colony. In that at some point in the future humans run into the alien Gbaba who systematically wipe us out on world after world in a decades long war. So we set up a colony in great secrecy. One where the adminstrator's in charge of it rewrite all the colonist's brains and create a totalitarian theocracy to keep humanity at a pre-industrial level. And thus safe from the awareness of the Gbaba. Excellent series, though at times I wonder if the whole concept is just Weber trying to one-up his friends Eric Flint and S.M. Stirling...
And then I burned through eleven of the Honor-verse books. The shared world anthologies, the Service of the Sword, Changer of Worlds, Worlds of Honor and More than Honor. The sidestory books Shadow of Saganami, Storm From the Shadows, Crown of Slaves and Torch of Freedom. The last two co-written with Eric Flint. And the core series books At All Costs and Mission of Honor. What can I say, me and Weber really hit it off...
I also tried out another alt history series by Eric Flint. 1812: the Rivers of War has one minor starting change, Sam Housten isn't laid up by a wound in an early battle leading to escalating changes during the War of 1812 and in the actions of several prominent Cherokee and Creek leaders at the time...
After that was a predominately good urban fantasy anthology Down These Strange Streets edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozios. Which, if nothing else, has Glen Cook "Garrett Files" short story...
Then we've got William Dietz finishing up his "Legion of the Damned" series with a Fighting Chance. Which does feel a bit rushed right towards the end but otherwise is a fine finale for this future military fiction series...
Skipped the last book for Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn" trilogy to go straight to Alloy of Law. Which is set several generations past those books and is a bit of fantasy/Western mash-up. I actually think I liked it more than the original trilogy...
And finished up the month with another "Vampire Earth" book by E.E. Knight, March in Country. This time around Valentine is attempting to repopulate plague ravaged Kentucky with friendly non-humans. While dealing with his increasingly isolationist and defensive home government...
Total books: 23
And I'll try to get to a end of the year wrap-up tomorrow...
Then Shannon Hale's Austenland. Where one woman's obsession with Jane Austen causes problems with her ability to find romance. And so a wealthy relative leaves her a vacation at a Austen fantasy camp as an inheritance. Another fun if silly book...
After that I tried out newcomer Bobby Cole's rookie noir/pulp the Dummy Line. Some clunkiness to it. And Cole could definitely learn to pare down his cast (especially when the viewpoint moves between characters). But an excellent starting work...
Also got the new Stephenie Plum, Explosive Eighteen, book from Evanovich at the start of the month. Sadly I think the romantic triangle aspect of the series is starting to strain a little at the seams. Series is still enjoyable junk food lit despite that...
Then borrowed the Road to Bedlam by Mike Shevdon from the roommate. Sequel to 61 Nails a British modern fae story. Here the lead has to deal with both the mysterious disappearance of his part-Fae daughter as well as a group of missing girls from a coastal town...
Then its mostly Weber, which we'll get back to. Broken up by trying out an early Steven Brust book, To Rule in Hell. Which is a reinterpretation of the War in Heaven and the Fall. Interesting but didn't really click with me...
And around Christmas was the annual reading of Pratchett's Hogfather. Except for that year I watched the movie. The bit with the Matchstick Girl is still one of the best Death moments...
Ok, now Weber. Nearly all Honor-verse books. Except for Off Armageddon Reef. Which is about humanity's Last Colony. In that at some point in the future humans run into the alien Gbaba who systematically wipe us out on world after world in a decades long war. So we set up a colony in great secrecy. One where the adminstrator's in charge of it rewrite all the colonist's brains and create a totalitarian theocracy to keep humanity at a pre-industrial level. And thus safe from the awareness of the Gbaba. Excellent series, though at times I wonder if the whole concept is just Weber trying to one-up his friends Eric Flint and S.M. Stirling...
And then I burned through eleven of the Honor-verse books. The shared world anthologies, the Service of the Sword, Changer of Worlds, Worlds of Honor and More than Honor. The sidestory books Shadow of Saganami, Storm From the Shadows, Crown of Slaves and Torch of Freedom. The last two co-written with Eric Flint. And the core series books At All Costs and Mission of Honor. What can I say, me and Weber really hit it off...
I also tried out another alt history series by Eric Flint. 1812: the Rivers of War has one minor starting change, Sam Housten isn't laid up by a wound in an early battle leading to escalating changes during the War of 1812 and in the actions of several prominent Cherokee and Creek leaders at the time...
After that was a predominately good urban fantasy anthology Down These Strange Streets edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozios. Which, if nothing else, has Glen Cook "Garrett Files" short story...
Then we've got William Dietz finishing up his "Legion of the Damned" series with a Fighting Chance. Which does feel a bit rushed right towards the end but otherwise is a fine finale for this future military fiction series...
Skipped the last book for Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn" trilogy to go straight to Alloy of Law. Which is set several generations past those books and is a bit of fantasy/Western mash-up. I actually think I liked it more than the original trilogy...
And finished up the month with another "Vampire Earth" book by E.E. Knight, March in Country. This time around Valentine is attempting to repopulate plague ravaged Kentucky with friendly non-humans. While dealing with his increasingly isolationist and defensive home government...
Total books: 23
And I'll try to get to a end of the year wrap-up tomorrow...
July '11 Book List
Aug. 10th, 2011 06:25 amOk, so lets do this again...
Started off July with the most recent (#36) "Ring of Fire" Grantville Gazette e-book anthology. Which like the Ring of Fire 3 "pro" anthology features more than a bit on airships in the altered past. I'm still hoping for some more Russia updates. I know people are working on them from the occasional foray into the Baen's Bar forum, but none seem to be ready. Pity, Russia and the Barbie Consortium are probably the two side groups I'm most interested in. Oh and the various musicians...
Then I gave Timothy Zahn's far-future espisonage series another chance, trying out the Domino Pattern. They're just not clicking with me. But happily I see he's done another "Star Wars" EU book, so I've got that at least...
After that I went to the roommate's collection and Bernard Cornwell's "Grail Quest" series. Harlequin, Vagabond and Heretic follow an archer in the army of prince Edward III during the Hundred Years War. So in addition to that hunt for the Grail going on in the background, you get the Crecy battle, among others...
Got the new Stephanie Plum, Smokin' Seventeen, that month from Janet Evanovich. Which meant first rereading the previous sixteen over seven days. It looks like I burned through four of them all on the 12th even. Enjoyable series, but it really is like snack food...
Read a couple more anthologies last month as well. First Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow. Urban fantasy with many of the usual suspects. Fun Harry Dresden and the Cub's Curse one by Butcher and a nice vampire one from Patricia Briggs...
Steampunk edited by Ann & Jeff Vandemeer was another of the roommate's. Decent enough in places, though many of the short stories really feel kind of incomplete. And the editorial intro's really kind of grated on me. But it does include a short piece from Michael Moorcock and a follow-up to the Diamond Age from Neal Stephenson...
Got the finale to Jim Hines' "Princess" series, the Snow Queen's Shadow. A bittersweet ending for Cinderella, Snow and Sleeping Beauty, but a good read. Though I do keep dwelling on the probable fate of the poor ship's cat. And just getting so damn angry. I should go over to Hine's journal and yell at him. Poor kitty...
Of course July also saw the long awaited release for George R.R. Martin's Dance of Dragons. Which has more Jon Snow and Tyrion and Daenyrs and even a couple people I thought were dead. And who don't even come back as vengeance zombies. So yay for that...
Though it didn't have the wait time, I was looking forward to Jim Butcher's new "Dresden Files" Ghost Story. Which is full of the usual perfect storm of Heartwarming, Heartbreaking and Awesome. Plus we find out who shot Harry at the end of Changes. And a nice twist at the end...
And I finished the month with the very last "Spenser" book from the late Robert Parker. Sixkill was good and all, and I've still got a pile of unread stuff from his backlist, but dammit I'm gonna miss Parker...
Total books: 28
Started off July with the most recent (#36) "Ring of Fire" Grantville Gazette e-book anthology. Which like the Ring of Fire 3 "pro" anthology features more than a bit on airships in the altered past. I'm still hoping for some more Russia updates. I know people are working on them from the occasional foray into the Baen's Bar forum, but none seem to be ready. Pity, Russia and the Barbie Consortium are probably the two side groups I'm most interested in. Oh and the various musicians...
Then I gave Timothy Zahn's far-future espisonage series another chance, trying out the Domino Pattern. They're just not clicking with me. But happily I see he's done another "Star Wars" EU book, so I've got that at least...
After that I went to the roommate's collection and Bernard Cornwell's "Grail Quest" series. Harlequin, Vagabond and Heretic follow an archer in the army of prince Edward III during the Hundred Years War. So in addition to that hunt for the Grail going on in the background, you get the Crecy battle, among others...
Got the new Stephanie Plum, Smokin' Seventeen, that month from Janet Evanovich. Which meant first rereading the previous sixteen over seven days. It looks like I burned through four of them all on the 12th even. Enjoyable series, but it really is like snack food...
Read a couple more anthologies last month as well. First Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow. Urban fantasy with many of the usual suspects. Fun Harry Dresden and the Cub's Curse one by Butcher and a nice vampire one from Patricia Briggs...
Steampunk edited by Ann & Jeff Vandemeer was another of the roommate's. Decent enough in places, though many of the short stories really feel kind of incomplete. And the editorial intro's really kind of grated on me. But it does include a short piece from Michael Moorcock and a follow-up to the Diamond Age from Neal Stephenson...
Got the finale to Jim Hines' "Princess" series, the Snow Queen's Shadow. A bittersweet ending for Cinderella, Snow and Sleeping Beauty, but a good read. Though I do keep dwelling on the probable fate of the poor ship's cat. And just getting so damn angry. I should go over to Hine's journal and yell at him. Poor kitty...
Of course July also saw the long awaited release for George R.R. Martin's Dance of Dragons. Which has more Jon Snow and Tyrion and Daenyrs and even a couple people I thought were dead. And who don't even come back as vengeance zombies. So yay for that...
Though it didn't have the wait time, I was looking forward to Jim Butcher's new "Dresden Files" Ghost Story. Which is full of the usual perfect storm of Heartwarming, Heartbreaking and Awesome. Plus we find out who shot Harry at the end of Changes. And a nice twist at the end...
And I finished the month with the very last "Spenser" book from the late Robert Parker. Sixkill was good and all, and I've still got a pile of unread stuff from his backlist, but dammit I'm gonna miss Parker...
Total books: 28
