Memeswipe: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fatcook
Feb. 2nd, 2012 07:55 amI'm running a test to see who's reading my posts. So, if you read this, leave me a one-word comment about your day that starts with the second letter of your LJ USERNAME. Only one word please.
Memeswipe:
Feb. 2nd, 2012 07:55 am
For Even More Justice!
Nov. 22nd, 2010 05:20 pm
I am Hardback Book-Man! With the power of multitudes of pages!
And my weakness is mirrored doors! Wait...
Ok, I guess my weakness is my evil mirror-verse me. Who DOESN'T have a goatee. And who is Mass Market Paperback-Man?
5 Questions Meme
Dec. 16th, 2009 05:05 amLeave me a comment saying
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• If you want nclude this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions
[frustratedpilot asks]:
1) Mike Judge is rumored to be putting together a new TV series based on a long-running newspaper comic or webcomic. What one do you hope he's adapting?
Mike Judge's Cathy
2) You're going to a class reunion. What kind of suit are you going to wear?--an upscale, but conventional design that hints at career success; a flashy, avant-garde style suit that shows you're hip; or a snarky, dressed-down outfit that shows that you don't take life too seriously?
I'm going to a class reunion? I just can't see that happening. I can barely remember the names of half the people I actually hung out with...
3) You have a work-sponsored week's retreat at Gatlinburg, and we're going to get together for an afternoon. What leisure activity would you want to do?--horseback riding, ziplines, shop-till-ya-drop, chintzy pop-culture museums, or a pig-out at the best restaurant?
I haven't been horseback riding since Summer camp. So that I suppose. The poor, poor horses...
4) If somebody gave you a tiger-striped Snuggie this Christmas, would you love it or hate it?
Tiger stripes would make me the most stylin' druid-looking dude around...
5) The Winter Olympics are on TV and the hockey match being shown is Latvia versus Ireland. Whose side are you cheering on?
Assuming that Latvia is a real country and not someplace Dr. Doom's little brother is in charge of, I'll go for them. Because Ireland? Hockey? Seriously?
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• If you want nclude this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions
[
frustratedpilot asks]:1) Mike Judge is rumored to be putting together a new TV series based on a long-running newspaper comic or webcomic. What one do you hope he's adapting?
Mike Judge's Cathy
2) You're going to a class reunion. What kind of suit are you going to wear?--an upscale, but conventional design that hints at career success; a flashy, avant-garde style suit that shows you're hip; or a snarky, dressed-down outfit that shows that you don't take life too seriously?
I'm going to a class reunion? I just can't see that happening. I can barely remember the names of half the people I actually hung out with...
3) You have a work-sponsored week's retreat at Gatlinburg, and we're going to get together for an afternoon. What leisure activity would you want to do?--horseback riding, ziplines, shop-till-ya-drop, chintzy pop-culture museums, or a pig-out at the best restaurant?
I haven't been horseback riding since Summer camp. So that I suppose. The poor, poor horses...
4) If somebody gave you a tiger-striped Snuggie this Christmas, would you love it or hate it?
Tiger stripes would make me the most stylin' druid-looking dude around...
5) The Winter Olympics are on TV and the hockey match being shown is Latvia versus Ireland. Whose side are you cheering on?
Assuming that Latvia is a real country and not someplace Dr. Doom's little brother is in charge of, I'll go for them. Because Ireland? Hockey? Seriously?
Movie Quotes 9, Quotes Harder
Nov. 14th, 2009 06:16 pmRemember no cheating!
1. "Miss Belair, if you feel compelled to grab part of my body and shake it before you can even be friendly, you've got far worse problems than you think I have."
2."Put up a note? "Highly classified shit found: Raw intelligence shit, CIA shit?" Hello, anybody lose their secret CIA shit? I don't think so!" is Burn After Reading found out by creativedv8tion
3."Ah, the new boy. Ears are too long and I miss the cape. But not too shabby. Not too shabby at all." is Batman: Return of the Joker darkknighted by yendi
4."You know, we are sitting here, you and I, like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do. And now that we've been face to face, if I'm there and I gotta put you away, I won't like it. But I tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down." is Heat grand thefted by thebitterguy
5."I'm 'bout to go like Jesse on you're ass. I'm goin' to find me some other black ghosts and then organize a march. The African American Apparition Coalition. The A-double AC." is The Frighteners scared up by coyo_kokopelli
6."I may play ball next fall, but I will never sign that. Now me and my loser friends are gonna head out to buy Aerosmith tickets. Top priority of the summer." is Dazed & Confused smoked up by mishamish
7."When someone says that they have people everywhere, you expect it to be hyperbole. Lots of people say that. Florists use that expression. It doesn't mean that they have people in the bloody room." is Quantum of Solace killed under liscense by thebitterguy
8."This movie is for me. There we are, you and me. Why did you do that? Or why did I do that? You made my dream come true. I asked for it. I promised you something in return and I haven't delivered yet. You win, I lose. Unless... the path you've set for me is full of hurdles where the answer comes before the question. Yeah I do that. Now I know why. It's the cure, from what I've seen here. It all makes sense. It makes sense to those who understand. So... America, poverty, stealing to eat... stalking producers, actors, 'movie stars', going to clubs hoping to see a star, with my pictures, karate magazines. It's all I had. I didn't speak English. But I did 20 years of karate. 'Cause before I wasn't like that." is JCVD high-kicked by creativedv8tion
9. "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone."
10."Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend." is Kung Fu Panda kung fued by thebitterguy
11."Computer, define 'dancing.'" is Wall-E brought home by yendi
12."A plague o' both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me." is Romeo & Juliet tragically brought down by mishamish. And its the DeCaprio/Danes one...
13."Good afternoon. Are you in need of any assistance today, sir?" is UP carried away by creativedv8tion
14."He's right on top of us. I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using." is The Princess Bride inconcievabley gotten by mishamish
15."I'm sorry, Wazowski, but Randall said I'm not allowed to fraternize with victims of his evil plot." is Monsters, Inc spooked by furikku
16."Staple gun... Not so bad on the way in, except it's a little scary, you know - you got this metal thing pressed up against you. Gonna leave some marks, have to deal with a little blood loss." is The Wrestler pinned by theweaselking
17."Those things are always waiting for something to die so they can eat it. What a weird job." is A Simple Plan found in the woods by creativedv8tion
18."That weapon will replace your tongue. You will learn to speak through it. And your poetry will now be written with blood." is Dead Man hunted to the ends of the Earth by jack_darke
19. "Who wants ice cream on their pie? Who wants pie?"
20. "Well, that's 'cause he's the television version. America isn't ready for the real me."
1. "Miss Belair, if you feel compelled to grab part of my body and shake it before you can even be friendly, you've got far worse problems than you think I have."
2.
creativedv8tion3.
yendi4.
thebitterguy5.
coyo_kokopelli6.
mishamish7.
thebitterguy8.
creativedv8tion9. "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone."
10.
thebitterguy11.
yendi12.
mishamish. And its the DeCaprio/Danes one...13.
creativedv8tion14.
mishamish 15.
furikku16.
theweaselking17.
creativedv8tion18.
jack_darke19. "Who wants ice cream on their pie? Who wants pie?"
20. "Well, that's 'cause he's the television version. America isn't ready for the real me."
September Book List
Oct. 4th, 2009 04:53 pmSept 1st - Kevin Anderson (ed) - Blood Lite: One of these days I'm going to pick up a multiple author urban fantasy anthology and like more than 1/2 of them at best. One day. Well, Mean Streets I guess. But that was 4 novellas more than short stories...
Sept 2nd - Robert Parker - Brimstone: A contiuation to Parker's western series started in Appaloosa, which I saw the movie version of. Not a bad western, but it kind of felt like a Spenser novel. Its the only one in the series I've read so far, so I don't know if the others also lack a distinctive voice...
Sept 3rd - Andrew Vachss - Blue Belle: 3rd book in Vachss' Burke series. With Burke being hired by a group of pimps to put an end to a Ghost Van thats preying on street girls...
Sept 4th - Vachss - Down in the Zero: 7th Burke book. Burke takes a trip out to a high-income community to pay back a favor from his mercenary days. Something may be causing the local teens to commit suicide and Burke's been asked to look into it while watching out for the teen-age son of a former lover...
C.J. Burke - Below Zero: Something about the basic set-up here, which involves a dying mobster trying to make things up to his estranged environmentalist son by murdering people with a high carbon footprint, just annoyed me. I ended up tossing the book into the trade box after only a half-dozen chapters...
Sept 5th - Ysabeau Wilce - Flora Segunda: After all that murder and violence this YA book was a welcome change. A fantasy series featuring a teen girl in a Gothic/Victorian kind of setting. Flora made for a very likeable character. Prone to mistakes, but constantly striving to solve her problems anyway...
Sept 6th - Wilce - Flora's Dare: The second book in the series, with Flora attempting to free an ancient spirit imprisoned beneath her city before it tears everything apart. Plus someone gets possessed by wicked boots. And Family Secrets!
Patricia Briggs - Bone Crossed: I'm glad to see Briggs devotes more to Mercy's recovery from her assault. While she struggles to survive the anger of the local vampire Queen...
Sept 8th - Joe Abercrombie - Best Served Cold: For Abercrombie this was a surprisingly upbeat book. I mean sure its about a mercenary captain who recruits a band of bastards to help her gain a murderous revenge on the people who betrayed and attempted to kill her. But unlike theLast Argument of Kings I didn't want to eat a bullet at the end. Or feed someone else a bullet. So, yeah. Close to a happy ending...
Sept 9th - Vachss - Footsteps of the Hawk: 8th Burke novel, with our "hero" caught between the plans of a pair of rogue cops...
Sept 11th - Harry Harrison - Make Room! Make Room!: The novel Soylent Green was based on. Though instead of cannibalism, its more a cop procedural in a cyberpunk setting. Just without the advanced technology...
Sept 12th - Richard Morgan - The Steel Remains: Reread the first book in Morgan's dark fantasy series. Three former comrades get drawn back together by a race of..well lets call them Elves..looking to lead the major human kingdoms into war again...
Sept 15th - Terry Pratchett - Nation: Does. Not. Happen.
Sept 17th - Kat Richardson - Underground: P.I. and medium Harper Blaine ends one relationship and starts another, all while dealing with the local vampire boss who wants to recruit her and a mythical Native American monster preying on the homeless...
Sept 20th - Pratchett - Monstrous Regiment: I know I'm not alone in totally shipping Polly and Maladictia. Am I right? I'm totally right...
Sept 21st - Neal Asher - The Voyage of the Sable Keech: Adventures on the high seas of an alien world. With crazed cyborg/revenants, vengeful sea monsters and warring splintered personalities of an ancient hornet Hive mind...
Sept 23rd - Pratchett - Night Watch: Its good to return to old friends...
Sept 25th - Sherwood Smith - Treason's Shore: The conclusion to Smith's Inda series. Even as it builds to its final confrontation this is a slow building book. And the big final confrontation between the main hero and villain feels like a bit of an anti-climax. Nothing that makes the book less than enjoyable, but it seems to lack the energy of the previous books...
Sept 27th - Raymond Feist - Rides a Dread Legion: The start of the next chapter in Feist's Midkemia series. Pug and the Conclave of Shadows face a new threat from both a lost group of violent, expansionist elves and the threat of an invasion by a demonic horde...
Sept 28th - Steve Hamilton - A Cold Day in Paradise: First book in Hamilton's Alex McKnight/Upper Pennisula series. A dead bookie shakes up McKnight's mostly comfortable world and drags up old memories and mistakes from when he was on the Detroit P.D...
Hamilton - Winter of the Wolf Moon: 2nd McKnight book. Alex lets his friend Vinnie convince him to play goalie in an over-40 hockey game. Which somehow ends up with McKnight trying to find an Ojibwa woman seemingly snatched from one of his rental cabins...
Sept 29th - Erik Flint (ed) - Grantville Gazette & Grantville Gazette II: Just wanted to reread the Ring of Fire anthologies again...
Sept 30th - Flint (ed) - Ring of Fire
Hamilton - Hunting Wind: In the 3rd book in the series, Alex McKnight lets himself be dragged along by his pitcher from his long-ago days as a minor league catcher. His old friend needs help tracking down the girl he knew briefly close to thirty years earlier...
Total Books: 25
Sept 2nd - Robert Parker - Brimstone: A contiuation to Parker's western series started in Appaloosa, which I saw the movie version of. Not a bad western, but it kind of felt like a Spenser novel. Its the only one in the series I've read so far, so I don't know if the others also lack a distinctive voice...
Sept 3rd - Andrew Vachss - Blue Belle: 3rd book in Vachss' Burke series. With Burke being hired by a group of pimps to put an end to a Ghost Van thats preying on street girls...
Sept 4th - Vachss - Down in the Zero: 7th Burke book. Burke takes a trip out to a high-income community to pay back a favor from his mercenary days. Something may be causing the local teens to commit suicide and Burke's been asked to look into it while watching out for the teen-age son of a former lover...
C.J. Burke - Below Zero: Something about the basic set-up here, which involves a dying mobster trying to make things up to his estranged environmentalist son by murdering people with a high carbon footprint, just annoyed me. I ended up tossing the book into the trade box after only a half-dozen chapters...
Sept 5th - Ysabeau Wilce - Flora Segunda: After all that murder and violence this YA book was a welcome change. A fantasy series featuring a teen girl in a Gothic/Victorian kind of setting. Flora made for a very likeable character. Prone to mistakes, but constantly striving to solve her problems anyway...
Sept 6th - Wilce - Flora's Dare: The second book in the series, with Flora attempting to free an ancient spirit imprisoned beneath her city before it tears everything apart. Plus someone gets possessed by wicked boots. And Family Secrets!
Patricia Briggs - Bone Crossed: I'm glad to see Briggs devotes more to Mercy's recovery from her assault. While she struggles to survive the anger of the local vampire Queen...
Sept 8th - Joe Abercrombie - Best Served Cold: For Abercrombie this was a surprisingly upbeat book. I mean sure its about a mercenary captain who recruits a band of bastards to help her gain a murderous revenge on the people who betrayed and attempted to kill her. But unlike theLast Argument of Kings I didn't want to eat a bullet at the end. Or feed someone else a bullet. So, yeah. Close to a happy ending...
Sept 9th - Vachss - Footsteps of the Hawk: 8th Burke novel, with our "hero" caught between the plans of a pair of rogue cops...
Sept 11th - Harry Harrison - Make Room! Make Room!: The novel Soylent Green was based on. Though instead of cannibalism, its more a cop procedural in a cyberpunk setting. Just without the advanced technology...
Sept 12th - Richard Morgan - The Steel Remains: Reread the first book in Morgan's dark fantasy series. Three former comrades get drawn back together by a race of..well lets call them Elves..looking to lead the major human kingdoms into war again...
Sept 15th - Terry Pratchett - Nation: Does. Not. Happen.
Sept 17th - Kat Richardson - Underground: P.I. and medium Harper Blaine ends one relationship and starts another, all while dealing with the local vampire boss who wants to recruit her and a mythical Native American monster preying on the homeless...
Sept 20th - Pratchett - Monstrous Regiment: I know I'm not alone in totally shipping Polly and Maladictia. Am I right? I'm totally right...
Sept 21st - Neal Asher - The Voyage of the Sable Keech: Adventures on the high seas of an alien world. With crazed cyborg/revenants, vengeful sea monsters and warring splintered personalities of an ancient hornet Hive mind...
Sept 23rd - Pratchett - Night Watch: Its good to return to old friends...
Sept 25th - Sherwood Smith - Treason's Shore: The conclusion to Smith's Inda series. Even as it builds to its final confrontation this is a slow building book. And the big final confrontation between the main hero and villain feels like a bit of an anti-climax. Nothing that makes the book less than enjoyable, but it seems to lack the energy of the previous books...
Sept 27th - Raymond Feist - Rides a Dread Legion: The start of the next chapter in Feist's Midkemia series. Pug and the Conclave of Shadows face a new threat from both a lost group of violent, expansionist elves and the threat of an invasion by a demonic horde...
Sept 28th - Steve Hamilton - A Cold Day in Paradise: First book in Hamilton's Alex McKnight/Upper Pennisula series. A dead bookie shakes up McKnight's mostly comfortable world and drags up old memories and mistakes from when he was on the Detroit P.D...
Hamilton - Winter of the Wolf Moon: 2nd McKnight book. Alex lets his friend Vinnie convince him to play goalie in an over-40 hockey game. Which somehow ends up with McKnight trying to find an Ojibwa woman seemingly snatched from one of his rental cabins...
Sept 29th - Erik Flint (ed) - Grantville Gazette & Grantville Gazette II: Just wanted to reread the Ring of Fire anthologies again...
Sept 30th - Flint (ed) - Ring of Fire
Hamilton - Hunting Wind: In the 3rd book in the series, Alex McKnight lets himself be dragged along by his pitcher from his long-ago days as a minor league catcher. His old friend needs help tracking down the girl he knew briefly close to thirty years earlier...
Total Books: 25
Alphabet Meme
Jul. 21st, 2009 12:56 amLeave me a comment and I will give you a letter.
Then, write 10 things that you love starting with that letter. Post the list in your journal. Give out letters to those who comment in return.
scarybaldguy tagged me with "W".
1. Webcomics
2. Wesley Wyndam Pryce
3. Warren Ellis
4. Warren Zevon
5. Where the Wild Things Are
6. Winter
7. Wee Free Men
8. Whedon, Joss
9. Watch, Ankh-Morpokh
10. Witches, Lancre
Then, write 10 things that you love starting with that letter. Post the list in your journal. Give out letters to those who comment in return.
scarybaldguy tagged me with "W".1. Webcomics
2. Wesley Wyndam Pryce
3. Warren Ellis
4. Warren Zevon
5. Where the Wild Things Are
6. Winter
7. Wee Free Men
8. Whedon, Joss
9. Watch, Ankh-Morpokh
10. Witches, Lancre
Creative Interest Inspiration Meme
Jun. 26th, 2009 05:08 pmI've been in a bit of a depressive funk the last couple days. Not working full time is getting to me a bit along with the social anxiety I get when applying, much less interviewing, for jobs. So to try and break myself out I'm going to bring back the Creative Interest Inspiration Meme again. Respond to this post and I'll pick one of your interests and do something creative with it. In my case, that will most likely be writing something. But it can be anything creative. Writing, drawing, music, whatever...
If there is one person, or more, on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.
April Book List
May. 2nd, 2009 04:14 amApr 4th: L. Sprague deCamp - The Best of L. Sprague deCamp: A collection of deCamp's short fiction. Includes "Gun for Dinosaur", one of the better time travel stories around...
Apr 6th: Eve Forward - Animist: One of only two books by Forward, which is a pity. In this one, Alex a rookie animist sets forth to prove himself and buy his freedom from the Animist's College. But first he must locate and bond with an animal companion. After a bought with a fever, he ends up bonded to a young ship rat, what would normally be considered a useless match. But when he gets drawn into the war between a greedy king and a mad one he soon learns to value his companion...
Apr 8th: Forward - Villains By Necessity: After the Great War, the forces of evil were defeated thanks to the Heroes. And now, years later, evil is on the wane everywhere. But it seems that a world given over entirely to Light is just as doomed as one consumed by Darkness. So the last few remaining villains must find a way to work together without killing each other, escape the agents of the Last Hero and find a way to bring the Forces of Darkness back into the world. I really wish Foward would write some more books...
Apr 10th: Jim Butcher - Turn Coat: Butcher's latest Harry Dresden novel. The Warden Morgan has turned to Harry for help. Morgan, who once dedicated himself to proving Harry a dark magus and then executing him, has been framed for treason and murder by the White Council. And he's turned to Harry for help. Another excellent book in the series, even if the actual traitor was a bit too easy to guess. And where this book leaves Harry's half-brother Thomas at really sucks...
Apr 11th: Robert Parker - Now and Then: The 35th Spenser novel. Spenser is hired by an FBI agent to find out if his wife is cheating. But after Spenser turns over the results three people end up dead and now he can't let the case go. He has to get the man responsible caught and punished...
Apr 13th - 14th: Stan Nicholls - Bodyguard of Lighting, Legion of Thunder and Tempest of Warriors: Nicholls promises to "change how you look at orcs forever". Except not really. One his orcs are fairly generic militaristic humanoids bearing only superficial resemblance to any other fantasy series' orcs. Two the book lacks any kind of tension. No matter what the situation is you never worry that the small company of orcs are ever going to fail. Invade a town of trolls? No problem. Steal on of the pieces of the magic McGuffin from a town of human zealots? Let me take a nap first. Sneak into the half-submerged fortress of a monsterous and sociopathic sorceress so you can harvest her tears? Give me a challenge. And lastly the leader of the orc band doesn't have anything going for him that explains their success. He turns down new recruits, refuses to lead a revolution against their former leader (who by the way, seems to have read the Evil Overlord List and then decided to do the exact OPPOSITE of everything on it. I was shocked she didn't turn into a snake), hunts for the magic McGuffin mostly because he has no other plan and his tactics for the most part consist of "run at them and hit them really, really hard". Such a waste of $10...
Apr 17th: Tamora Pierce - Bloodhound: Happily I had the second Beka Cooper book to wash the taste of the last three out. Beka, no longer a trainee, balances trying to find a workable partner, a new relationship and investigating a counterfitting ring. The Dogs of Tortall sub-series is very much my favorites from Pierce right now...
Apr 19th: Rob Thurman - Deathwish: So I find out at the end of this one that Rob is short for Robyn. Which drops me back down to like three male Urban Fantasy writers I enjoy. Butcher, DeLint and delFranco. I guess Martin Millar and A. Lee Martinez might count for the sub-genre. Still, mostly women, not even counting the Gothic Romance ones. Anyway, in this book Cal and Niko Leandros have to deal with Cal's Auphe (think elves meet sharks and really evil) cousins as well as some jealous and amoral vamps. This book also splits the story between Cal and Niko...
Apr 21st: Douglas Coupland - jPod: Honestly? Just reread Microserfs and All Families Are Psychotic. This book just seems like a bunch of Coupland's tropes and character concepts mashed up together and then poorly developed...
Apr 22nd: A. Lee Martinez - Gil's All-Fright Diner: A scrawny vampire and his redneck werewolf pal have to stop a teen-age witch from summoning a nasty Elder God Thing in a nowheresville small town...
Apr 26th: Melissa Scott - Trouble and Her Friends: After the new anti-cracker (a V.R. internet hacker) law went into effect, Trouble retired from the shadows and left her partner and lover behind. But when a new player starts using her old handle and stirring up trouble, she's forced to take measures to bring them down...
Apr 28th: Harry Harrison - The Hammer & the Cross: Alternate history where the priests of the Norse pantheon become a serious rival to Christianity thanks to a lowly peasant who may be touched by the gods...
Apr 29th: Harrison - One King's Way: Shef, now co-king over England goes into battle with his enemies, the deadly viking chieftan's; the Ragnar'ssons. A battle that puts him on a journey across all of northern Europe...
Total books: 15
Apr 6th: Eve Forward - Animist: One of only two books by Forward, which is a pity. In this one, Alex a rookie animist sets forth to prove himself and buy his freedom from the Animist's College. But first he must locate and bond with an animal companion. After a bought with a fever, he ends up bonded to a young ship rat, what would normally be considered a useless match. But when he gets drawn into the war between a greedy king and a mad one he soon learns to value his companion...
Apr 8th: Forward - Villains By Necessity: After the Great War, the forces of evil were defeated thanks to the Heroes. And now, years later, evil is on the wane everywhere. But it seems that a world given over entirely to Light is just as doomed as one consumed by Darkness. So the last few remaining villains must find a way to work together without killing each other, escape the agents of the Last Hero and find a way to bring the Forces of Darkness back into the world. I really wish Foward would write some more books...
Apr 10th: Jim Butcher - Turn Coat: Butcher's latest Harry Dresden novel. The Warden Morgan has turned to Harry for help. Morgan, who once dedicated himself to proving Harry a dark magus and then executing him, has been framed for treason and murder by the White Council. And he's turned to Harry for help. Another excellent book in the series, even if the actual traitor was a bit too easy to guess. And where this book leaves Harry's half-brother Thomas at really sucks...
Apr 11th: Robert Parker - Now and Then: The 35th Spenser novel. Spenser is hired by an FBI agent to find out if his wife is cheating. But after Spenser turns over the results three people end up dead and now he can't let the case go. He has to get the man responsible caught and punished...
Apr 13th - 14th: Stan Nicholls - Bodyguard of Lighting, Legion of Thunder and Tempest of Warriors: Nicholls promises to "change how you look at orcs forever". Except not really. One his orcs are fairly generic militaristic humanoids bearing only superficial resemblance to any other fantasy series' orcs. Two the book lacks any kind of tension. No matter what the situation is you never worry that the small company of orcs are ever going to fail. Invade a town of trolls? No problem. Steal on of the pieces of the magic McGuffin from a town of human zealots? Let me take a nap first. Sneak into the half-submerged fortress of a monsterous and sociopathic sorceress so you can harvest her tears? Give me a challenge. And lastly the leader of the orc band doesn't have anything going for him that explains their success. He turns down new recruits, refuses to lead a revolution against their former leader (who by the way, seems to have read the Evil Overlord List and then decided to do the exact OPPOSITE of everything on it. I was shocked she didn't turn into a snake), hunts for the magic McGuffin mostly because he has no other plan and his tactics for the most part consist of "run at them and hit them really, really hard". Such a waste of $10...
Apr 17th: Tamora Pierce - Bloodhound: Happily I had the second Beka Cooper book to wash the taste of the last three out. Beka, no longer a trainee, balances trying to find a workable partner, a new relationship and investigating a counterfitting ring. The Dogs of Tortall sub-series is very much my favorites from Pierce right now...
Apr 19th: Rob Thurman - Deathwish: So I find out at the end of this one that Rob is short for Robyn. Which drops me back down to like three male Urban Fantasy writers I enjoy. Butcher, DeLint and delFranco. I guess Martin Millar and A. Lee Martinez might count for the sub-genre. Still, mostly women, not even counting the Gothic Romance ones. Anyway, in this book Cal and Niko Leandros have to deal with Cal's Auphe (think elves meet sharks and really evil) cousins as well as some jealous and amoral vamps. This book also splits the story between Cal and Niko...
Apr 21st: Douglas Coupland - jPod: Honestly? Just reread Microserfs and All Families Are Psychotic. This book just seems like a bunch of Coupland's tropes and character concepts mashed up together and then poorly developed...
Apr 22nd: A. Lee Martinez - Gil's All-Fright Diner: A scrawny vampire and his redneck werewolf pal have to stop a teen-age witch from summoning a nasty Elder God Thing in a nowheresville small town...
Apr 26th: Melissa Scott - Trouble and Her Friends: After the new anti-cracker (a V.R. internet hacker) law went into effect, Trouble retired from the shadows and left her partner and lover behind. But when a new player starts using her old handle and stirring up trouble, she's forced to take measures to bring them down...
Apr 28th: Harry Harrison - The Hammer & the Cross: Alternate history where the priests of the Norse pantheon become a serious rival to Christianity thanks to a lowly peasant who may be touched by the gods...
Apr 29th: Harrison - One King's Way: Shef, now co-king over England goes into battle with his enemies, the deadly viking chieftan's; the Ragnar'ssons. A battle that puts him on a journey across all of northern Europe...
Total books: 15
March Book List
Apr. 4th, 2009 02:15 amMarch 2nd: Christopher Moore - The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove: I think this is now my favorite Moore book. Possibly because it has someone having sex with a sea monster/dragon...
March 3rd: Glen Cook - A Shadow of All Night Falling: I just could not get into this one. Cook's high fantasy stuff just doesn't work for me. I ended up giving this to the roommate, just like I did with my Black Company books...
March 4th: Sherwood Smith/Dave Trowbridge - Phoenix in Flight: Reread Exordium again. I just really love this series...
March 7th: Smith/Trowbridge - Ruler of Naught: Just my favorite far future/space opera type books. Everyone should read them...
March 8th: Smith/Trowbridge - A Prison Unsought: No, seriously. You should all go and pick them up now. I'll wait...
March 10th: Smith/Trowbridge - The Rifter's Covenant: Its a pity Trowbridge has passed on, since it makes a sequel highly unlikely...
March 11th: Smith/Trowbridge - The Thrones of Kronos: Still you can go and bugsartorias about it. Or at least try and convince her to liscense a GURPS book...
March 15th: Catherynee M. Valente - Palimpsest: Huh, Gore Vidal has a book with the same name. Weird. Anyway this is a hard book to adequetely describe. Valente has a lush and imagery heavy style of prose. And the book itself is basically about a city of dreams that is explored by having sex with other people who have visited it. But its very hard to do it justice with just that. Its imaginative and different from the general crowd and well worth taking a look at...
March 16th: Anton Strout - Deader Still: I made it thru the first book in this series ok, but couldn't for the second. Just too bland. Gave up after only a few chapters. Seriously, how does someone make a boat load of people slaughtered by vampires BORING? Maybe it got better later, but the sub-genre of modern fantasy/paranormal mystery is too crowded right now to need to put up with a dull series...
March 17th: Mark del Franco - Unfallen Dead: Like here, del Franco probably won't be toppling Jim Butcher or other front-runners anytime soon, but his book at the very least wasn't DULL. Street level characters who play for world shaking stakes. A nice afternoon or evening's read...
March 18th: Robert Parker - High Profile: A Jesse Stone book. A famous political radio show host is found dead in Paradise and Stone has to unravel the man's life to find out who caused his death...
March 22nd: Martin Millar - Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me: Like I said last time I read this, the highest praise I can give it is that Millar makes me want to go out and buy all of Zeppelin's albums. And I don't really like the band all that much...
March 23: Jasper Fforde - The Big Over Easy: I really wish Fforde would put out a new Nursery Crime or Thursday Next book. I'm suffering from a lack of new United Kingdom humor. Or humour I guess...
Fforde - The Fourth Bear: Though I'd even settle for Shades of Grey to finally come out. But mostly I want to see what kind of noir/fairy tale/police procedural mash-up Fforde manages with the Tortoise & Hare race...
March 24th: A. Lee Martinez - Too Many Curses: So I pick up my own copy of this book about a kobold servant who sort-of inherits her wizard master's magical keep while house-sitting last month. I'd bought it the last day I was watching my mom's place. And then I get home and find that the roommate had given me his copy after he started culling his stuff in anticipation of moving next month. So annoying. Excellent book though, like all of Martinez' stuff...
Parker - Blue Screen: The one Sunny Randall book I was missing. Sunny is hired to bodyguard a b-list actress. But after the actress' sister is found dead Sunny is hired to investigate the murder. Which brings her into contact with local chief of police, Jesse Stone...
March 25th: Lois McMaster Bujold - Horizon: Fourth and looks to be final book in her Sharing Knife series. Dag and his wife Fawn manage to find another Lakewalker group willing to take them in temporarily and even a teacher for Dag's growing Maker and healing abilities. But after he heals a Farmer child of lock-jaw they are forced onto the road again. But this time, while working with a group of would-be settlers, they may have a way to bring the Lakewalkers and Farmers closer together. If they can survive a new type of Malice...
March 29: Stephen King - Duma Key: Really slow build on this one. Which leaves teh final and climatic act feeling a bit rushed compared to the rest of the book. And its a couple hundred pages so its really not. But in comparison is all. The book itself deals with a man who develops a previously unhinted at artistic talent after he moves to the Florida Keys following a work-place accident that costs him his arm and his marriage. And there he finds he has a more dangerous gift linked to his rapidly evolving skill as an artist...
Total Books: 18
March 3rd: Glen Cook - A Shadow of All Night Falling: I just could not get into this one. Cook's high fantasy stuff just doesn't work for me. I ended up giving this to the roommate, just like I did with my Black Company books...
March 4th: Sherwood Smith/Dave Trowbridge - Phoenix in Flight: Reread Exordium again. I just really love this series...
March 7th: Smith/Trowbridge - Ruler of Naught: Just my favorite far future/space opera type books. Everyone should read them...
March 8th: Smith/Trowbridge - A Prison Unsought: No, seriously. You should all go and pick them up now. I'll wait...
March 10th: Smith/Trowbridge - The Rifter's Covenant: Its a pity Trowbridge has passed on, since it makes a sequel highly unlikely...
March 11th: Smith/Trowbridge - The Thrones of Kronos: Still you can go and bug
sartorias about it. Or at least try and convince her to liscense a GURPS book...March 15th: Catherynee M. Valente - Palimpsest: Huh, Gore Vidal has a book with the same name. Weird. Anyway this is a hard book to adequetely describe. Valente has a lush and imagery heavy style of prose. And the book itself is basically about a city of dreams that is explored by having sex with other people who have visited it. But its very hard to do it justice with just that. Its imaginative and different from the general crowd and well worth taking a look at...
March 16th: Anton Strout - Deader Still: I made it thru the first book in this series ok, but couldn't for the second. Just too bland. Gave up after only a few chapters. Seriously, how does someone make a boat load of people slaughtered by vampires BORING? Maybe it got better later, but the sub-genre of modern fantasy/paranormal mystery is too crowded right now to need to put up with a dull series...
March 17th: Mark del Franco - Unfallen Dead: Like here, del Franco probably won't be toppling Jim Butcher or other front-runners anytime soon, but his book at the very least wasn't DULL. Street level characters who play for world shaking stakes. A nice afternoon or evening's read...
March 18th: Robert Parker - High Profile: A Jesse Stone book. A famous political radio show host is found dead in Paradise and Stone has to unravel the man's life to find out who caused his death...
March 22nd: Martin Millar - Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me: Like I said last time I read this, the highest praise I can give it is that Millar makes me want to go out and buy all of Zeppelin's albums. And I don't really like the band all that much...
March 23: Jasper Fforde - The Big Over Easy: I really wish Fforde would put out a new Nursery Crime or Thursday Next book. I'm suffering from a lack of new United Kingdom humor. Or humour I guess...
Fforde - The Fourth Bear: Though I'd even settle for Shades of Grey to finally come out. But mostly I want to see what kind of noir/fairy tale/police procedural mash-up Fforde manages with the Tortoise & Hare race...
March 24th: A. Lee Martinez - Too Many Curses: So I pick up my own copy of this book about a kobold servant who sort-of inherits her wizard master's magical keep while house-sitting last month. I'd bought it the last day I was watching my mom's place. And then I get home and find that the roommate had given me his copy after he started culling his stuff in anticipation of moving next month. So annoying. Excellent book though, like all of Martinez' stuff...
Parker - Blue Screen: The one Sunny Randall book I was missing. Sunny is hired to bodyguard a b-list actress. But after the actress' sister is found dead Sunny is hired to investigate the murder. Which brings her into contact with local chief of police, Jesse Stone...
March 25th: Lois McMaster Bujold - Horizon: Fourth and looks to be final book in her Sharing Knife series. Dag and his wife Fawn manage to find another Lakewalker group willing to take them in temporarily and even a teacher for Dag's growing Maker and healing abilities. But after he heals a Farmer child of lock-jaw they are forced onto the road again. But this time, while working with a group of would-be settlers, they may have a way to bring the Lakewalkers and Farmers closer together. If they can survive a new type of Malice...
March 29: Stephen King - Duma Key: Really slow build on this one. Which leaves teh final and climatic act feeling a bit rushed compared to the rest of the book. And its a couple hundred pages so its really not. But in comparison is all. The book itself deals with a man who develops a previously unhinted at artistic talent after he moves to the Florida Keys following a work-place accident that costs him his arm and his marriage. And there he finds he has a more dangerous gift linked to his rapidly evolving skill as an artist...
Total Books: 18
Happy Fun Time Meme Hour Show!
Mar. 31st, 2009 12:47 pm1. Post and I'll pick one thing off your interests list and ask you five questions about it.
2. Post this on your journal so you may do the same to your friends.
3. Hopefully we will learn more about each other and new fandoms!
Sofurikku asks about Terry Pratchett:
1) Which series (different Discworld areas count as individual serieses) is your favorite?
Right now I'd say its the Vimes and the Ankh-Morpokh Watch books. But the Weatherwax/Aching Witch books are a close second and if/when the last of those comes out it might pull ahead...
2) If you could pick one Pratchett character to be your roomie, who would you pick and why?
I'd say Maurice because I'd like a kitty and Greebo would attack everything in the neighborhood and You is Granny's cat...
3) If you could live anywhere on the Discworld (assuming you'd have an equivalent housing and job situation to what you've got now), where would you and why?
I could see myself opening a small hotel in Lancre that catered to the burgeoning Ramtops Tourist industry. See the Lancre Gorge! See the other gorge! Enjoy the Dwarf Bread Experience!
4) What do you feel Pratchett's greatest strength and weakness as a writer are?
His greatest strength is his characters. They have a depth and realism to them no matter how fantastic. I'd say his biggest weakness of late has been a tendency to drop in some new concept (the Devices, the Expanding Box, etc) as something that has been around forever but no one has paid any attention to or knew about until recently...
5) When did you first read a Pratchett book?
Oddly it a non-Discworld series and I didn't know it was his until YEARS after I'd become a fan thru that series. Pratchett has a kids series called "The Bromeliad" that I read way back in grade school. Its urban gnomes/wee folk who live in a super-market or something and its being demolished, so they have to migrate somewhere else. Very Borrowers/Littles/etc type thing, which I was on a kick for at one point. Much later I looked over a synopsis of the series while looking at books done by Pratchett and had a "Holy shit, I've read those" moment...
2. Post this on your journal so you may do the same to your friends.
3. Hopefully we will learn more about each other and new fandoms!
So
furikku asks about Terry Pratchett:1) Which series (different Discworld areas count as individual serieses) is your favorite?
Right now I'd say its the Vimes and the Ankh-Morpokh Watch books. But the Weatherwax/Aching Witch books are a close second and if/when the last of those comes out it might pull ahead...
2) If you could pick one Pratchett character to be your roomie, who would you pick and why?
I'd say Maurice because I'd like a kitty and Greebo would attack everything in the neighborhood and You is Granny's cat...
3) If you could live anywhere on the Discworld (assuming you'd have an equivalent housing and job situation to what you've got now), where would you and why?
I could see myself opening a small hotel in Lancre that catered to the burgeoning Ramtops Tourist industry. See the Lancre Gorge! See the other gorge! Enjoy the Dwarf Bread Experience!
4) What do you feel Pratchett's greatest strength and weakness as a writer are?
His greatest strength is his characters. They have a depth and realism to them no matter how fantastic. I'd say his biggest weakness of late has been a tendency to drop in some new concept (the Devices, the Expanding Box, etc) as something that has been around forever but no one has paid any attention to or knew about until recently...
5) When did you first read a Pratchett book?
Oddly it a non-Discworld series and I didn't know it was his until YEARS after I'd become a fan thru that series. Pratchett has a kids series called "The Bromeliad" that I read way back in grade school. Its urban gnomes/wee folk who live in a super-market or something and its being demolished, so they have to migrate somewhere else. Very Borrowers/Littles/etc type thing, which I was on a kick for at one point. Much later I looked over a synopsis of the series while looking at books done by Pratchett and had a "Holy shit, I've read those" moment...
Not Me Meme
Mar. 16th, 2009 08:06 amSo what you do is put your name in Google Image and then post the first three that aren't you. The first two of these are to some music student with my name. Apparently his friends. He thinks he can have a social life? And the ability to carry a tune most likely?
*makes note to destroy him*
The other is some dude doing stuff outdoors. So very much not me...
*makes note to destroy him*
The other is some dude doing stuff outdoors. So very much not me...
Writer's Block: AKA
Feb. 27th, 2009 04:35 am[Error: unknown template qotd]
Its a tale of murder and betrayal and greed and love and destiny. Of beautiful dames and deadly killers and gloomy thugs. A story as old as man. Featuring a cast of thousands and an elephant! A city in flames! Lovers torn asunder! A mysterious object! The horrors of war! The grandeur of kings! The simple kindness of a mother's touch...
All that!
Maybe!
Its a tale of murder and betrayal and greed and love and destiny. Of beautiful dames and deadly killers and gloomy thugs. A story as old as man. Featuring a cast of thousands and an elephant! A city in flames! Lovers torn asunder! A mysterious object! The horrors of war! The grandeur of kings! The simple kindness of a mother's touch...
All that!
Maybe!
Musical Memeage
Feb. 23rd, 2009 06:31 pm1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List (and upload, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions
I was tagged by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
furikku who assigned me 'J'. Which has fewer songs than you'd think. She used something called sendspace to host her music, but I don't want to sign up for something new...
Anyway. 'J'
"Joe Strummer" by Cowboy Mouth
"Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya" by Dropkick Murphys
"Jackson" by Johnny Cash/June Carter-Cash
"James Bond Lives Down Our Street" by the Toy Dolls
"James K. Polk" by They Might Be Giants
2. List (and upload, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions
I was tagged by
furikku who assigned me 'J'. Which has fewer songs than you'd think. She used something called sendspace to host her music, but I don't want to sign up for something new...Anyway. 'J'
"Joe Strummer" by Cowboy Mouth
"Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya" by Dropkick Murphys
"Jackson" by Johnny Cash/June Carter-Cash
"James Bond Lives Down Our Street" by the Toy Dolls
"James K. Polk" by They Might Be Giants
Movie Quotes Meme A New Beginning: part 8
Jan. 13th, 2009 04:13 pmOk, for those who've forgotten:
A) Post a quote from a favorite movies (originally 15 or 16, but I do 20)
B) People respond in the comments with the movie the quote is from
C) No cheating with the internets, because we'll all know and you don't want to be shunned as a dirty, dirty cheater right?
1) "Howdy. I'm gonna separate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don't mind none."
2)"One night I'm gonna come to you, inside of your house, wherever you're sleeping, and I'm gonna cut your throat." is There Will Be Blood drunk down by creativedv8tion
3) "Fucking cops. This is just unbelievable. The whole force standing outside the house, guarding the sidewalk with their arms crossed. I mean, are the kidnappers coming back?"
4) "We're not in therapy now- we're in real life."
5) "The Han River is very broad, Mr. Kim. Let's try to be broad-minded about this. Anyway, that's an order. So, start pouring."
6) "We don't want Tiffany's. We want a Mom and Pop operation, in a busy place, on a Saturday when the week's takes go in the safe. We both worked there. We know the safe combinations. We know the burglar alarm signals. We know where everything is. I figure, between the week's take, the jewelry and the cases, the vault, there's a $500,000 haul. I figure probably six. The old dumb old lady that works there, she's alone till noon. She's not going to be a problem."
7)"Oh, *wicked* pic in the PennySaver, by the way. Super classy - not like those people with the fake woods in the background. Honestly who do they think they're fooling?" is Juno knocked up by bcccreations
8)"It's a fairytale town, isn't it? How's a fairytale town not somebody's fucking thing? " is In Bruges sent out of town by brewmoo
9) "This is our city! Whoever they send here, we're gonna catch them, we're gonna cook them, and we're gonna eat them!"
10) "I saw that look on a woman's face before. Her name was Annette. I made sweet sweet love to her all through the summer of 1948, and she had that look on her face all through the fall."
11)"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?" is Kelly's Heroes stolen away by writefool
12) "So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it. Okay, I'm signing out. "
13)"I may have found a way out of here." is Escape From Alcatraz busted out by ellakite
14)"Doesn't give me anything. But along with these other results, it gives YOU just about the most twisted, anti-social bunch of psychopathic deformities I have ever run into! And the worst, the most dangerous of the bunch, is Maggott. You've got one religious maniac, one malignant dwarf, two near-idiots... and the rest I don't even wanna think about!" is The Dirty Dozen made expendable by writefool
15) "You know you've reached rock bottom when you're told you have character flaws by a man who hanged his predecessor in a military coup. "
16)"You think I want to fuck with your happiness, Bernie? That hurts me." is The Cooler bet on by creativedv8tion
17)"It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes. " is Repo Man repossessed by brewmoo
18) Cop 1 "You think this boy Moss has got any notion of the sorts of sons of bitches that're huntin' him?"
Cop 2 "I don't know, he ought to. He's seen the same things I've seen, and it's certainly made an impression on me."
19)"That's right, I did. I killed him. He fucked up one too many times, so I put a bullet in his eye. Then, I put two more into him just to make sure. Now, that was somebody I loved; I loved him! But I got the call, I put him down like a sick animal. So, if you got doubts about what's gonna happen if you don't deliver, let me tell you something. I'll make gravy out of your little girl just to season that Black Irish cocksucker's meat. You do what you're supposed to do, young man. You do it now. " is Nick of Time assassinated by bcccreations
20)"I feed like an old man pees - sometimes all at once, sometimes drop by drop. " is Shadow of the Vampire drained by bcccreations and jack_darke
A) Post a quote from a favorite movies (originally 15 or 16, but I do 20)
B) People respond in the comments with the movie the quote is from
C) No cheating with the internets, because we'll all know and you don't want to be shunned as a dirty, dirty cheater right?
1) "Howdy. I'm gonna separate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don't mind none."
2)
creativedv8tion3) "Fucking cops. This is just unbelievable. The whole force standing outside the house, guarding the sidewalk with their arms crossed. I mean, are the kidnappers coming back?"
4) "We're not in therapy now- we're in real life."
5) "The Han River is very broad, Mr. Kim. Let's try to be broad-minded about this. Anyway, that's an order. So, start pouring."
6) "We don't want Tiffany's. We want a Mom and Pop operation, in a busy place, on a Saturday when the week's takes go in the safe. We both worked there. We know the safe combinations. We know the burglar alarm signals. We know where everything is. I figure, between the week's take, the jewelry and the cases, the vault, there's a $500,000 haul. I figure probably six. The old dumb old lady that works there, she's alone till noon. She's not going to be a problem."
7)
bcccreations 8)
brewmoo9) "This is our city! Whoever they send here, we're gonna catch them, we're gonna cook them, and we're gonna eat them!"
10) "I saw that look on a woman's face before. Her name was Annette. I made sweet sweet love to her all through the summer of 1948, and she had that look on her face all through the fall."
11)
writefool12) "So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it. Okay, I'm signing out. "
13)
ellakite14)
writefool15) "You know you've reached rock bottom when you're told you have character flaws by a man who hanged his predecessor in a military coup. "
16)
creativedv8tion17)
brewmoo18) Cop 1 "You think this boy Moss has got any notion of the sorts of sons of bitches that're huntin' him?"
Cop 2 "I don't know, he ought to. He's seen the same things I've seen, and it's certainly made an impression on me."
19)
bcccreations20)
bcccreations and jack_darkeDecember Book List
Jan. 1st, 2009 09:40 amThe final list for 2008. More new reads than usual as well.
Dec 1st: Glen Cook - Starfishers: The second in Cook's far future scifi series. With the home system government sending agents to try and infiltrate the Starfishers, who have a symbiotic relationship with a species of 4th or 5th dimensional "space whales"...
Dec 2nd: Charlaine Harris - From Dead to Worse: Latest in Harris' Southern Vampire series (more familiar to people thanks to HBO's True Blood). In it the two largest groups of Louisiana supernaturals (Weres and vampires) both have to deal with intrusions from outsiders looking to take control. The upheavals from which have a drastic effect on Sookie's most recent beau, the weretiger Quinn...
Cook - Star's End: Third book in the series, with the agents of the second book, who have gone native as it were, recruited along with the Starfishers and their alien allies recruited into a grand alliance. One that needs to solve the mystery of the planetary super-fortress Star's End to stop an extra-galactic threat...
Dec 4th: Mercedes Lackey - Diana Tregarde Investigates: Bookclub omnibus collection of Lackey's urban fantasy Diana Tregarde series. Which ties in with her Modern Bard and Elves books. Collects Children of the Night, Burning Water and Jinx High...
Dec 6th: Greg Keyes - The Born Queen: Finale to Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series. Avatars and armies gather to determine the beginning or end of the world...
Dec 7th: Eric Flint - 1632: First in Flint's pseudo-alternate history. The set-up is simple. For unknowable reasons a small West Virginia mining town is moved form 21st Century to 1632 "Germany". For those who aren't European history buffs, thats right in the middle of the Thirty Years War, one of the nastier periods of European conflict. This first book unfortunately showcases Flint's weaknesses as a writer. A tendancy towards pompous and florid descriptive writing. Including one of the most laughably overwritten sex scenes I've read. And I used to be a Laurel K. Hamilton fan. But the core of the story is good and later books (as people who skim ahead on the list might guess) show a great deal of improvement. For which I have to say is probably because this is the only novel in the series Flint writes alone. And even his shorter fiction shows that as co-writes books he LEARNS from his partners...
Dec 8th: Eric Flint/David Weber - 1633: The town of Grantville, under the leadership of the local president for the United Mine Workers Mike Stearns, is determined to both survive and infect 17th century Europe with the ideals of 21st century America. Which, thanks to their alliance with King Gustave of Sweden may be possible. Provided they can break the alliance of France, Spain and Denmark...
Dec 9th: Flint/Weber - 1634: The Baltic War: The new ironcald-led navy of theConfederated Principalities of EuropeUnited States of Europe travels out to sea under the command of Admiral Simpson. But can the superior technology of the USE surpass the massed naval might of the League of Ostend. At the same time USE commando team prepares to assault the Tower of London to free the USE's diplomatic mission, led by PresidentPrime Minister Stearn's sister, as well as the imprisoned Oliver Cromwell. Who sits in a cell thanks to the the English royals learning of his rebellion a decade and a half before he would lead it...
Dec 11th: Eric Flint/Virginia DeMarce - 1634: The Ram Rebellion: What starts as a series of amusing short stories about cross-breeding uptime and downtime sheep from the Baen's Bar 1632 community (and more on the 1632 EU online stuff later) turns into a story about Thomas Paine inspired peasant revolution in Franconia...
Dec 12th: Eric Flint/Andrew Dennis - 1635: The Cannon Law: Pope Urban VIII attempts to balance the knowledge of future Catholic dogma against the politics of Rome and the rest of Catholic Europe. But Cardinal Borja of Spain and the Inquisition has his deadly plans for the future of the church...
Dec 13th: Mark del Franco - Unshapely Things: An urban fantasy series, where after being expelled from their homeworld, the courts of British Faerie, German Elf, Gaelic Druid and other supernaturals have mostly integrated with the rest of the world. Connor Grey was once a rising star in the the Guild, but an encounter with an Elf ecoterrorist wrecked most of the druid's abilities. Now he freelances, helping Boston PD with crimes in the fairy neighborhood known as the Weird. But a series of prostitute murders may end up shaking the foundations of the Guild and it looks like Grey may be the only one who can stop the madman behind it...
Dec 14th: del Franco - Unquiet Dreams: Connor Grey and his friends again have what looks to be a simple gang homicide that could reach to the highest levels of power...
Dec 15th: Flint (ed) - Grantville Gazette: The first of the semi-pro anthologies for the 1632 Expanded Universe. What makes this most interesting to me is its origins. Flint and the late Jim Baen created an area of the Baen's Bar forums where fan fiction for the series was ORGANIZED. And then they took the best stories and non-fiction and published it in an e-zine (called the Grantville Gazette). And then after that showed the ability to make a profit, they published print versions. Which also showed a profit. So you have an author harnessing their fandom (and fandom's tendency to write fan fiction), organizing it and making it canon to his universe and then publishing it. Which is honestly just cool...
Dec 16th: John Levitt - Dog Days: Another urban fantasy. This one's protagonist is a musician who once worked as an enforcer protecting and laying down the rules for San Francisco's magical community. The writer's unwillingness to use terms like Wizard (Practitioner), Magic or even Magik (Talent) or Familiar (Ifrit) bugged me at times. For the rest its an ok series, good for killing time and scratching your modern fantasy itch while waiting for your preferred urban fantasy writer to come out with their next book...
Dec 17th: Levitt - New Tricks: Next book in the series. Mysterious deaths, unknown threat, strange happenings, etc etc etc...
Dec 18th: Sherwood Smith - King's Shield: The third insartorias' Inda series. Big battles, heroic last stands, deadly betrayals and other good things. sartorias strength for me is her ability to mesh grand themes with strong and attractive characters...
Dec 19th: Terry Pratchett (actually SIR Pratchett now) - Reaper Man: Death of the Discworld finds himself fired. Which is an annoyance for recently deceased wizard Windle Poons. As Death attempts to find a place to settle in for his new "life", Poons ventures out and explores parts of the world he missed out on when he was alive...
Dec 21st: Richard Morgan - Th1rte3n: Carl Marsalis is a genetically altered Thirteen. One of many super-alpha males created by various governments to be super-soldiers. But the war he was built to fight is long over and now he earns a living and keeps his freedom by hunting other rogue Thirteens. Like the seemingly insane one leaving a trail of corpses across the fractured former United States...
Dec 23rd: Harry Turtledove - In at the Death: Turtledove's finale to his American Front series. As the United States advances steadily across the Confederacy both sides race to be the first to develop the atomic "super-bomb". But even when the war ends, what next for the victor?
Rob Rogers - Devil's Cape: Rogers' debut novel is easily one of the best print versions of super-hero fiction. Devil's Cape is one of the most corrupt cities in America. One that has killed every hero that has attempted to clean it up or bring down its criminal leader, the Robber Baron. But a trio of new heroes; Bedlam, Argonaut and Dr. Camelot IV, won't let that deter them from trying...
Dec 24th: Flint (ed) - Ring of Fire: The pro-anthology of short fiction for the 1632 EU. The sheer organization shown in keeping the pro and semi-pro short fiction under control really does amaze me. Some it is very much thanks to Flint's decision to base his fictional Grantville on a real West Virginia town. This allowed him and other researchers to determine EXACTLY what uptime resources and people should be reasonably available...
Dec 25th: Flint/Dennis - 1634: The Galileo Affair: I should have read this one before The Cannon Law as it takes place first and sets up that book. In it you have the American Embassy to Venice, led by the local uptimer Catholic priest, pot grower turned chemist and dye magnate Thomas Stone and his family and the recently widowed nurse turned 17th century doctor Sharon Nichols. Also a almost farcical plot to "free" Galileo and a more dangerous one by agents of Richelieu and France...
Dec 26th: Pratchett - Hogfather: What would the holidays be without a rereading of this seasonal classic?
Dec 28th: Flint (ed) - Grantville Gazette II: 2nd semi-pro 1632 EU anthology...
Dec 29th: Flint (ed) - Grantville Gazette III: 3rd semi-pro 1632 EU anthology...
Will Shetterly - Dogland: Probably what makes this book work as it does is Shetterly's decision to tell everything from the perspective of the Nix family's oldest, age 4-7. But beyond that is a fine tale of subtle magics, old divinities, racism and dogs in 1960s Florida...
Dec 30th: Stephen King - : Just After Sunset: Some excellent pieces of short fiction, but King still hasn't surpassed the Nightmares & Dreamscapes anthology...
Dec 31st: George R.R. Martin (ed) - Inside Straight: Rereading the franchise relaunch in preparation to read the latest and newest book...
Lois McMaster Bujold - Beguilement: It has been a very long time since I've read any of Bujold's noteworthy scifi series (though the roommate does have them) so I'm not sure how much the style differs between this fantasy series and that. In fact if it weren't for some well-crafted but highly graphic sex scenes I'd quantify it as a YA book series. Not that there is anything in the slightest wrong with YA, but it tends to have a certain feel to it...
Bujold - Legacy: The sequel to the previous book. Which continues the story of the opposing cultures romance of Dag (Lakewalker psychics) and Fawn (farmer) as well as increasing the threat of the Malice/Blight Boggles. I actually found the sequences where Dag and Fawn attempt to get the rest of his Lakewalker tribe to accept Fawn to be stronger than the more horrifying Malice parts...
Total books: 30
Dec 1st: Glen Cook - Starfishers: The second in Cook's far future scifi series. With the home system government sending agents to try and infiltrate the Starfishers, who have a symbiotic relationship with a species of 4th or 5th dimensional "space whales"...
Dec 2nd: Charlaine Harris - From Dead to Worse: Latest in Harris' Southern Vampire series (more familiar to people thanks to HBO's True Blood). In it the two largest groups of Louisiana supernaturals (Weres and vampires) both have to deal with intrusions from outsiders looking to take control. The upheavals from which have a drastic effect on Sookie's most recent beau, the weretiger Quinn...
Cook - Star's End: Third book in the series, with the agents of the second book, who have gone native as it were, recruited along with the Starfishers and their alien allies recruited into a grand alliance. One that needs to solve the mystery of the planetary super-fortress Star's End to stop an extra-galactic threat...
Dec 4th: Mercedes Lackey - Diana Tregarde Investigates: Bookclub omnibus collection of Lackey's urban fantasy Diana Tregarde series. Which ties in with her Modern Bard and Elves books. Collects Children of the Night, Burning Water and Jinx High...
Dec 6th: Greg Keyes - The Born Queen: Finale to Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series. Avatars and armies gather to determine the beginning or end of the world...
Dec 7th: Eric Flint - 1632: First in Flint's pseudo-alternate history. The set-up is simple. For unknowable reasons a small West Virginia mining town is moved form 21st Century to 1632 "Germany". For those who aren't European history buffs, thats right in the middle of the Thirty Years War, one of the nastier periods of European conflict. This first book unfortunately showcases Flint's weaknesses as a writer. A tendancy towards pompous and florid descriptive writing. Including one of the most laughably overwritten sex scenes I've read. And I used to be a Laurel K. Hamilton fan. But the core of the story is good and later books (as people who skim ahead on the list might guess) show a great deal of improvement. For which I have to say is probably because this is the only novel in the series Flint writes alone. And even his shorter fiction shows that as co-writes books he LEARNS from his partners...
Dec 8th: Eric Flint/David Weber - 1633: The town of Grantville, under the leadership of the local president for the United Mine Workers Mike Stearns, is determined to both survive and infect 17th century Europe with the ideals of 21st century America. Which, thanks to their alliance with King Gustave of Sweden may be possible. Provided they can break the alliance of France, Spain and Denmark...
Dec 9th: Flint/Weber - 1634: The Baltic War: The new ironcald-led navy of the
Dec 11th: Eric Flint/Virginia DeMarce - 1634: The Ram Rebellion: What starts as a series of amusing short stories about cross-breeding uptime and downtime sheep from the Baen's Bar 1632 community (and more on the 1632 EU online stuff later) turns into a story about Thomas Paine inspired peasant revolution in Franconia...
Dec 12th: Eric Flint/Andrew Dennis - 1635: The Cannon Law: Pope Urban VIII attempts to balance the knowledge of future Catholic dogma against the politics of Rome and the rest of Catholic Europe. But Cardinal Borja of Spain and the Inquisition has his deadly plans for the future of the church...
Dec 13th: Mark del Franco - Unshapely Things: An urban fantasy series, where after being expelled from their homeworld, the courts of British Faerie, German Elf, Gaelic Druid and other supernaturals have mostly integrated with the rest of the world. Connor Grey was once a rising star in the the Guild, but an encounter with an Elf ecoterrorist wrecked most of the druid's abilities. Now he freelances, helping Boston PD with crimes in the fairy neighborhood known as the Weird. But a series of prostitute murders may end up shaking the foundations of the Guild and it looks like Grey may be the only one who can stop the madman behind it...
Dec 14th: del Franco - Unquiet Dreams: Connor Grey and his friends again have what looks to be a simple gang homicide that could reach to the highest levels of power...
Dec 15th: Flint (ed) - Grantville Gazette: The first of the semi-pro anthologies for the 1632 Expanded Universe. What makes this most interesting to me is its origins. Flint and the late Jim Baen created an area of the Baen's Bar forums where fan fiction for the series was ORGANIZED. And then they took the best stories and non-fiction and published it in an e-zine (called the Grantville Gazette). And then after that showed the ability to make a profit, they published print versions. Which also showed a profit. So you have an author harnessing their fandom (and fandom's tendency to write fan fiction), organizing it and making it canon to his universe and then publishing it. Which is honestly just cool...
Dec 16th: John Levitt - Dog Days: Another urban fantasy. This one's protagonist is a musician who once worked as an enforcer protecting and laying down the rules for San Francisco's magical community. The writer's unwillingness to use terms like Wizard (Practitioner), Magic or even Magik (Talent) or Familiar (Ifrit) bugged me at times. For the rest its an ok series, good for killing time and scratching your modern fantasy itch while waiting for your preferred urban fantasy writer to come out with their next book...
Dec 17th: Levitt - New Tricks: Next book in the series. Mysterious deaths, unknown threat, strange happenings, etc etc etc...
Dec 18th: Sherwood Smith - King's Shield: The third in
sartorias' Inda series. Big battles, heroic last stands, deadly betrayals and other good things. sartorias strength for me is her ability to mesh grand themes with strong and attractive characters...Dec 19th: Terry Pratchett (actually SIR Pratchett now) - Reaper Man: Death of the Discworld finds himself fired. Which is an annoyance for recently deceased wizard Windle Poons. As Death attempts to find a place to settle in for his new "life", Poons ventures out and explores parts of the world he missed out on when he was alive...
Dec 21st: Richard Morgan - Th1rte3n: Carl Marsalis is a genetically altered Thirteen. One of many super-alpha males created by various governments to be super-soldiers. But the war he was built to fight is long over and now he earns a living and keeps his freedom by hunting other rogue Thirteens. Like the seemingly insane one leaving a trail of corpses across the fractured former United States...
Dec 23rd: Harry Turtledove - In at the Death: Turtledove's finale to his American Front series. As the United States advances steadily across the Confederacy both sides race to be the first to develop the atomic "super-bomb". But even when the war ends, what next for the victor?
Rob Rogers - Devil's Cape: Rogers' debut novel is easily one of the best print versions of super-hero fiction. Devil's Cape is one of the most corrupt cities in America. One that has killed every hero that has attempted to clean it up or bring down its criminal leader, the Robber Baron. But a trio of new heroes; Bedlam, Argonaut and Dr. Camelot IV, won't let that deter them from trying...
Dec 24th: Flint (ed) - Ring of Fire: The pro-anthology of short fiction for the 1632 EU. The sheer organization shown in keeping the pro and semi-pro short fiction under control really does amaze me. Some it is very much thanks to Flint's decision to base his fictional Grantville on a real West Virginia town. This allowed him and other researchers to determine EXACTLY what uptime resources and people should be reasonably available...
Dec 25th: Flint/Dennis - 1634: The Galileo Affair: I should have read this one before The Cannon Law as it takes place first and sets up that book. In it you have the American Embassy to Venice, led by the local uptimer Catholic priest, pot grower turned chemist and dye magnate Thomas Stone and his family and the recently widowed nurse turned 17th century doctor Sharon Nichols. Also a almost farcical plot to "free" Galileo and a more dangerous one by agents of Richelieu and France...
Dec 26th: Pratchett - Hogfather: What would the holidays be without a rereading of this seasonal classic?
Dec 28th: Flint (ed) - Grantville Gazette II: 2nd semi-pro 1632 EU anthology...
Dec 29th: Flint (ed) - Grantville Gazette III: 3rd semi-pro 1632 EU anthology...
Will Shetterly - Dogland: Probably what makes this book work as it does is Shetterly's decision to tell everything from the perspective of the Nix family's oldest, age 4-7. But beyond that is a fine tale of subtle magics, old divinities, racism and dogs in 1960s Florida...
Dec 30th: Stephen King - : Just After Sunset: Some excellent pieces of short fiction, but King still hasn't surpassed the Nightmares & Dreamscapes anthology...
Dec 31st: George R.R. Martin (ed) - Inside Straight: Rereading the franchise relaunch in preparation to read the latest and newest book...
Lois McMaster Bujold - Beguilement: It has been a very long time since I've read any of Bujold's noteworthy scifi series (though the roommate does have them) so I'm not sure how much the style differs between this fantasy series and that. In fact if it weren't for some well-crafted but highly graphic sex scenes I'd quantify it as a YA book series. Not that there is anything in the slightest wrong with YA, but it tends to have a certain feel to it...
Bujold - Legacy: The sequel to the previous book. Which continues the story of the opposing cultures romance of Dag (Lakewalker psychics) and Fawn (farmer) as well as increasing the threat of the Malice/Blight Boggles. I actually found the sequences where Dag and Fawn attempt to get the rest of his Lakewalker tribe to accept Fawn to be stronger than the more horrifying Malice parts...
Total books: 30
Rerun meme: Interest Explanation
Nov. 3rd, 2008 07:02 amComment with five interests of mine and I'll explain their meaning. And give five of yours to explain in your own journal...
Tagged bypoetheather who asked about:
Collen Coover: Akacolleencoover, writer/artist of the world's cutest pornography (Small Favors as well as numerous back-up stories for Marvel. Her art is both awesome and adorable and various comics companies should be giving her more money to draw stuff. For example, I want everyone to imagine a SHAZAM all-ages book drawn by Coover...
evil kittens: Specifically refers to The Evil, a story-arc in the web-comic Sluggy Freelance about demonic killer kittens. But really any kitten that is both cute and evil qualifies...
sitting in the rain: Back when I used to smoke, my favorite moments would involve sitting outside just under cover while it was raining. Having a quiet cigarette, with the sound and smell of nearby rain, reading a book. Its one of the few things I miss about the habit...
Stephanie Plum: Is the lead character in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. She's a mostly single Jersey girl who becomes a bounty hunter after getting laid off. A often humorously incompetent bounty hunter, who gets involved in complicated life and death situations that she juggles with a overly complex love life. Fun, light-weight book series...
Fred Van Lente: Writer of many awesome comics. Giant Size Action Philosophers, Comic Book Comic, The Silencers and numerous titles for Marvel currently (Power Pack, Incredible Hercules, Marvel Zombies, etc). My current free pass, I'll read whatever he writes, guy...
Tagged by
poetheather who asked about:Collen Coover: Aka
colleencoover, writer/artist of the world's cutest pornography (Small Favors as well as numerous back-up stories for Marvel. Her art is both awesome and adorable and various comics companies should be giving her more money to draw stuff. For example, I want everyone to imagine a SHAZAM all-ages book drawn by Coover...evil kittens: Specifically refers to The Evil, a story-arc in the web-comic Sluggy Freelance about demonic killer kittens. But really any kitten that is both cute and evil qualifies...
sitting in the rain: Back when I used to smoke, my favorite moments would involve sitting outside just under cover while it was raining. Having a quiet cigarette, with the sound and smell of nearby rain, reading a book. Its one of the few things I miss about the habit...
Stephanie Plum: Is the lead character in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. She's a mostly single Jersey girl who becomes a bounty hunter after getting laid off. A often humorously incompetent bounty hunter, who gets involved in complicated life and death situations that she juggles with a overly complex love life. Fun, light-weight book series...
Fred Van Lente: Writer of many awesome comics. Giant Size Action Philosophers, Comic Book Comic, The Silencers and numerous titles for Marvel currently (Power Pack, Incredible Hercules, Marvel Zombies, etc). My current free pass, I'll read whatever he writes, guy...
October Book List
Nov. 1st, 2008 05:15 pmOctober 1st: Douglas Adams - So Long and Thanks For All the Fish: The 4th and final (there was NO fifth book) part of the classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy...
October 3rd: Douglas Coupland - All Families Are Psychotic: The extended family of an astronaut attempt to put their own issues and problems in the background while waiting for a space launch...
October 9th: Gardner Dozois (ed) - The Year's Best Science Fiction, volume 25: The 2007 collection of the best genre short fiction. Lots of good hard and soft scifi...
October 11th: Greg Keyes - The Blood Knight: 3rd book in Keyes' tale of royal succession wars and apocalyptic magic...
October 12th: Robert Parker - Potshot: After being hired to investigate a murder in the small town of Potshot, Spenser is then asked to deal with the gang believed responsible thats also extorting the town. So he gathers up a force of his favorite bad-asses to solve the problem...
October 13th: Simon Green - The Unnatural Inquirer: Latest Nightside book from Green. John Taylor is hired by the Nightside's premier tabloid to retrieve a recording of a transmission from what is thought to be either Heaven or Hell. Teamed with a half-succubus reporter he'll hit every collector, big or small, and religious expert to fulfill his job...
October 16th: Terry Pratchett - Nation: Pratchett's first non-Discworld fiction work in a while. Examining faith, duty and tribalism. And probably one of his best books...
October 20th: Neal Stephenson - Anathem: For one of Stephenson's later squirrel crusher books, this one reads surprisingly fast. A story of an alternate Earth dealing with an alien "invasion". That also serves as a platform for a discussion on some heavy philosophy on the basics of reason...
October 21st: Robert Asprin/Jody Lynn Nye - Myth-Gotten Gains: 5th or 17th Myth Adventures book. With Aahz agreeing to help a legendary magic sword recover the rest of its' compatriots, the Golden Hoard...
October 22nd: Craig Ferguson - Between the Bridge and the River: Scottish comic and tv host Ferguson writes a touching look at faith and death. A surprisingly good find, that reminds me of fellow Scotts writer Martin Millar...
October 23rd: Asprin/Nye - Myth-Told Tales: A small collection of Myth Adventures short stories to relaunch the series after Asprin's long hiatus...
October 25th: Gary Phillips/Christopher Chambers (ed) - The Darker Mask: Heroes From the Shadows: Reviewed here...
October 26th: Greg Rucka - A Fistful of Rain: Rising rock super-star Mim Bracca is having a terrible week. Her band has forced her to take a drying out vacation in the midst of their first world tour. And someone just kidnapped her at gun point from the door of her new home that she hasn't even visited in nearly a year. And things probably won't be looking up soon...
October 28th: Steve Hamilton - Night Work: Hamilton leaves Alex McKnight and Paradise behind to go to upstate New York and probation officer Joe Trumble. Who has decided to go on his first date since the murder of his fiancee, two years earlier. Happily, his date with Marlene goes very well and he's looking forward to possibly starting a new relationship. Unhappily tragedy is stalking Trumble for a past mistake...
October 29th: Scott Lynch - Red Seas Under Red Skies: 2nd book of the Gentleman Bastards. With pirates. Stupid third book being pushed back to '09...
October 31st: Pratchett - Night Watch: And finishing the month with can be argued as his best Discworld book. "How do they rise up, rise up, rise up, how do they rise up, rise up high?"
Monthly Total: 16
October 3rd: Douglas Coupland - All Families Are Psychotic: The extended family of an astronaut attempt to put their own issues and problems in the background while waiting for a space launch...
October 9th: Gardner Dozois (ed) - The Year's Best Science Fiction, volume 25: The 2007 collection of the best genre short fiction. Lots of good hard and soft scifi...
October 11th: Greg Keyes - The Blood Knight: 3rd book in Keyes' tale of royal succession wars and apocalyptic magic...
October 12th: Robert Parker - Potshot: After being hired to investigate a murder in the small town of Potshot, Spenser is then asked to deal with the gang believed responsible thats also extorting the town. So he gathers up a force of his favorite bad-asses to solve the problem...
October 13th: Simon Green - The Unnatural Inquirer: Latest Nightside book from Green. John Taylor is hired by the Nightside's premier tabloid to retrieve a recording of a transmission from what is thought to be either Heaven or Hell. Teamed with a half-succubus reporter he'll hit every collector, big or small, and religious expert to fulfill his job...
October 16th: Terry Pratchett - Nation: Pratchett's first non-Discworld fiction work in a while. Examining faith, duty and tribalism. And probably one of his best books...
October 20th: Neal Stephenson - Anathem: For one of Stephenson's later squirrel crusher books, this one reads surprisingly fast. A story of an alternate Earth dealing with an alien "invasion". That also serves as a platform for a discussion on some heavy philosophy on the basics of reason...
October 21st: Robert Asprin/Jody Lynn Nye - Myth-Gotten Gains: 5th or 17th Myth Adventures book. With Aahz agreeing to help a legendary magic sword recover the rest of its' compatriots, the Golden Hoard...
October 22nd: Craig Ferguson - Between the Bridge and the River: Scottish comic and tv host Ferguson writes a touching look at faith and death. A surprisingly good find, that reminds me of fellow Scotts writer Martin Millar...
October 23rd: Asprin/Nye - Myth-Told Tales: A small collection of Myth Adventures short stories to relaunch the series after Asprin's long hiatus...
October 25th: Gary Phillips/Christopher Chambers (ed) - The Darker Mask: Heroes From the Shadows: Reviewed here...
October 26th: Greg Rucka - A Fistful of Rain: Rising rock super-star Mim Bracca is having a terrible week. Her band has forced her to take a drying out vacation in the midst of their first world tour. And someone just kidnapped her at gun point from the door of her new home that she hasn't even visited in nearly a year. And things probably won't be looking up soon...
October 28th: Steve Hamilton - Night Work: Hamilton leaves Alex McKnight and Paradise behind to go to upstate New York and probation officer Joe Trumble. Who has decided to go on his first date since the murder of his fiancee, two years earlier. Happily, his date with Marlene goes very well and he's looking forward to possibly starting a new relationship. Unhappily tragedy is stalking Trumble for a past mistake...
October 29th: Scott Lynch - Red Seas Under Red Skies: 2nd book of the Gentleman Bastards. With pirates. Stupid third book being pushed back to '09...
October 31st: Pratchett - Night Watch: And finishing the month with can be argued as his best Discworld book. "How do they rise up, rise up, rise up, how do they rise up, rise up high?"
Monthly Total: 16
