A Descent into Dullness

Short story wise for back in May we had the Litany of the Earth by Ruthanna Emyrs a CoC mythos story on faith from the perspective of the near human.  The Steel Soldiers' Gambit by Ian Thomas Haley, part of reading the remainder of his "Just Cause" supers series, where a robot bluffs a mentalist at a poker game.  And then a tale of artistry, obsession and justice with Walking Stick Forest by Anna Tambour...

Decided to start adding in a few of the trade/graphic novels for the month.  At least the ones that feel note-worthy.  Starting with Andre the Giant: Life & Legend by Box Brown.  Excellent biography, well worth getting.  Then we've got The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by Gerard Way & Shaun Simon (words) and Becky Cloonan (draws).  Which is a story of rebellion and sex robots and humanity vs. safety.  And finally Mike Maihack gets a collection of his webcomic Cleopatra in Space.  Well, more an expansion then a collection.  This (hopefully) first volume covers the origin of the time-plucked space heroine...

John Allyn's 47 Ronin is far from the first adaptation of the Japanese historical folk-tale.  But at least his doesn't have Keanu Reeves as a half-breed wizard.  Or whatever the movie was about.  Ok book though...

I may start putting off getting the Goodlett edited Grantville Gazette's until I can buy them in big blocks once or twice a year.  Because once again I can't remember much of anything from this volume without pulling up my copy...

Sparrow Hill Road by Sean McGuire is a ghost story and a collection of road stories and a love story.  Also sort-of an "InCryptid" novel, but only a bit...

After reading Neil Gaiman's M is for Magic collection I swear I'd already read it.  I've probably just run across several of the stories in other collections.  The one about the cat and the devil I've definitely read somewhere else...

Blake Crouch's Grab (though my copy says Snatch) is the third "Letty Dobesh" story.  This time recovering addict Letty ends up in Vegas recruited as part of a multi-million job targeting a legendary thief...

I ended up giving up on Chad Leito's the Academy, some kind of dystopian future, super-soldier training, deadly cabal yadda yadda thing.  Nothing in the first third managed to really hold my interest...

So after reading the prequel to Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel, Stranger to Command, I reread the former.  Again.  Because I'm always curious to see if more information on the antagonist of the first half of the book makes me want to smack them in the gob less.  And because this reread involved the expanded e-edition, which adds several viewpoint changes of pivotal scenes, this actually happened.  Mostly because you can know see the character thinking about how he is completely fucking up every encounter he has with book's female lead...

As mentioned earlier, I grabbed up the remainder of Ian Thomas Healy's "Just Cause" supers series.  Day of the Destroyer, the Archmage, Just Cause Omnibus and Jackrabbit.  I think I liked the last one the most, where a teen has to fight an alien invasion after getting divinely empowered by the god Rabbit.  Giving him super-rabbit powers...

Chuck Wendig's psychic heroine "Mirriam Black" takes a visit to the Florida Keys to face another crazy with their own twisted psychic gift in Commorant...

Bonnie Shimko's You Know What You Have to Do left me feeling sad and unsatisfied.  Mostly because the ending didn't feel..finished really...

Elizabeth Bear's Shattered Pillars very much scales up the tension and conflict of her "Eternal Sky" series.  As a middle book should...

Jim Butcher's latest "Dresden Files" book Skin Game brings back the Denarians, with Harry forced by his service to Winter to work with them on a heist of the vault of Hades...

I sort of feel that Elizabeth Moon's Crown of Renewal shouldn't have quite so many unfinished plot hooks lieing around in it, if its actually meant a finale for her "Paksworld" series...

I'm not sure what lead me to backing Kelly Thompson's Kickstarter for her Storykiller book.  Its a good book, one of those All Stories are Real kind of things.  Mashed up with some Chosen Girl butt-kickery.  Sort of a Fables meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I just wasn't familiar with any of her previous work.  Probably did it from a rec from someone whose work I follow more closely...

And finally finished the month with another rereading of Lois McMaster Bujold's Captain Vorpatrill's Alliance.  Of the various "Vor" books I'd say I still like A Civil Campaign best, but CVA is the one I've been going back to the most frequently.  Flustered Ivan is even better than flustered Miles I guess...

Total Books: 22

Started off the month with the most recent Grantville Gazette (Paula Goodlette editor) e-book. This one includes a murder mystery that lacks a body, a new Dr. Phil - Modern Alchemist story (a favorite of mine that hasn't been used much of late) and also another chapter in the Saving the Dodo serial, among other stories set in the Ring of Fire shared setting. I also finished Mike Shevdon's 61 Nails that same day. A pretty good modern faerie story. A bit like Gaiman's Neverwhere in feel...

Then I finally got around to the second and third books in Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy, Shadow's Edge and Beyond the Shadows. Dark fantasy, with lots of thieves and assassins and whores and corrupt leaders and evil barbarians and callous wizards and so forth. I liked the final book more than the middle, mostly because the middle has a lot from the evil God-King's perspective. And he's a Total Monster type of bad guy. Which are sooooooooo boring. Murder, rape, plot, murder, plot, plot, murder, mind games, blah blah blah. The only interesting thing about Total Monster's are their feelings of shock when someone finally puts them down. But a pretty good mud and blood fantasy in spite of that...

Roommate got me to try out Richard Kadrey's fantasy noir "Sandman Slim" books. Only two, Sandman Slim and Kill the Dead, so far of this series about a magician condemned by his "friends" sent to Hell who escapes and returns to enact vengeance. My only real quibble with the series so far is that the lead engages in a lot of car theft using a magic knife/bone he got while fighting demons. And even if it magically pops locks, dude also hits the highest end of cars and all I can think is "don't any of these people have LoJack for their hundred thousand dollar cars"?

Then I went back for more Carrie Vaughn, getting her short story collection Kitty's Greatest Hits. A bit of a misnomer, since not all of the collection is about Vaughn's Kitty the werewolf radio talk-show host. In fact, if I'm rembering right, a few aren't even for that setting. More than a few enjoyable stories though...

Than another from the roommate's collection. This one a harder SF one, David S. Goyer & Michael Cassutt's Heaven's Shadow. Where two rival science space missions to study a comet lead to a First Contact situation. Interesting enough that I'll likely try out the sequel when it eventually comes out...

I ending up going on a bit of a Tamora Pierce tear for a while. Rereading all four of her "Immortals" books (Wildmagic, Wolf-Speaker, Emperor Mage and the Realms of the Gods), the Protector of the Small omnibus and then Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen. Really all of her Tortall books except the "Lioness" quartet ('cause I just don't care for the Lioness for some reason) and the Beka Cooper ones. And those I'm saving for later in this month when the third and final book for that sub-series comes out. Oh, and I even reread the Tortall related short stories in my e-book copy of Tortall and Other Lands. Much harder to pick and choose from an anthology on the Kindle by the way...

In the midst of all that Pierce rereading I tried some more from the roommate's books. He's been trying out a lot of new paperbacks of late, so that means more new stuff for me. First with Harry Connolly's "Twenty Palaces", which is more fantasy noir, but more Chaosium's Call of Cthulu than White Wolf's World of Darkness. Child of Fire has the protaginst ray Lilly and his near sociopath boss investigating a suspiscious toy company in the Pacific Northwest. Game of Cages has Ray mostly on his own and looking into the auction of a powerful supernatural creature. And in Circle of Enemies Ray's back in his home town of L.A. because of something going on with old circle of car thief friends...

After that was Larry Correia's "Monster Hunter" books, Monster Hunter International, Monster Hunter Vendetta and Monster Hunter Alpha. Which are about a corporation that hunts monster bountys as part of the world's governments' efforts to keep the supernatural and paranatural a secret from the general public. The series has a lot of heavy gun porn and is definitely higher on the action than the angst. More like, I don't know, Mack Bolan books or something. Except with werewolves and zombies and vampires and shit...

After that I got the Warriors anthology (George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois editing). Which was pretty good, only had a couple clunkers in it. I especially liked the David Weber one, enough that I'm thinking of getting both the expanded novel length version of the short story and also checking out some of his other military scifi stuff...

More rereading next, this time of Sherwood Smith and Dave Trowbridge's "Exordium" series, the Phoenix in Flight, Ruler of Naught, a Prison Unsought, Rifter's Convenant and the Throne of Kronos. I'm actually starting to wear out my copies of these. Maybe there are Kindle versions? The books are far future space opera, full of weird aliens, noble court drama, space naval battles (that aren't written like dog-fights), romance, villains both despisable and admirable. Really great series and one of my favorites...

After that a pair of new steampunk novels. First, Scott Westerfeld's Goliath, the finale to his alternate World War I trilogy. Which has the two leads forced to balance their feelings for each other with their personal feelings of duty. Plus Nicolai Tesla, who believes he's discovered a weapon that can end war forever. Second is the latest "Clockwork Century" book from Cherie Priest, Ganymede. In this one an airship captain has a chance for one final big score that will let him retire from the pirate/smuggler's life. He just has to get to New Orleans and pilot an experimental submarine out from occupied Louisiana and to the Union forces...

Total books: 28

Oh sartorias, you are indeed an evil, manipulative woman. When I reached the end of Inda I wasn't too surprised that it was just a first book. It had the feel of a start of something bigger. But I thought it would just be the first half. And then The Fox, despite SEVERAL dramatic climaxes, ended on the cliff-hanger of Inda's return to his home nation. But I got past that. Fine then, that was the middle book of a trilogy. I can deal with that. And it wasn't THAT long a wait for the King's Shield. Which I just finished. Reading it in near thirteen hours straight, in between actual work. And it ends with "But you'll have to decide, because I've found your mother."

What?

But! War! Over! Argh!

EVIL!