A Descent into Dullness

I'm still not certain if its as amazing as all the online praise/hype its gotten.  But it definitely is a great movie and not just a Marvel movie.  In fact, outside a few minor call-outs (and the 2nd post credit scene) it could exsist without being tied into the greater MCU while still fitting perfectly within it.  Also I can't say Killmonger is the best Marvel Movie Villain as others are praising.  But Michael B. Jordan does give him an intensity and focus that very much makes him a contender for the top spot.  And that casino fight, followed by the car chase.  Awesome.

Fun movie, especially all the "I may be the hero, but I'm kind of a doofus" moments (especially the Dr. Strange ones).  Hemsworth & Waititi make for a good combination.  Also very much enjoyed the various call-outs, especially the Warbound and Skurge's Final Stand.  Hela/Blanchett maybe my favorite of the MCU I AM EVIL villains.  Goldblum was golden as the Grandmaster, Ruffalo/Hemsworth was also great - in both forms and Tessa Thompson's Valkryie/Scrapper-142 was a delight. (even if I had to look her up to remind myself I'd seen her in Dear White People & Creed).

Arrow s.2: Brother Blood, the return of Count Vertigo, Clock King, Slade Wilson & flashback Professor Ivo & Slade Wilson.  Oh and the League of Assassins & some Suicide Squad Deadshot.

the Defenders:  I like Danny the Well-Intentioned Dumbass here better than Smug Ass or Self-Righteous Ass in his own series.  Several good fight sequences and some fight sequences that might have been good if they were in better lighting so I could follow them.  And the group interactions between both the leads and the their supporting characters was good.  Plus Sigourney Weaver and Scott Glen are always great.

Comrade Detective:  I found out this was a recently made satire and NOT a recovered bit of 80s era Romanian state media television.  Which moved it from a bonkers yet unintentionally brilliant piece of period propaganda to a pretty good satire of the buddy cop genre with amusing political comedy.  Basically when I thought it was "real" I would have ranked it an unintentional 5/5, but finding out it was "fake" moves it to an intentional 3.5/5.

January:
Short Fiction: Seanan McGuire's Snake in the Glass, Ursula Vernon's Razorback and Jim C. Hines' Chupacabra's Song

New Reads:
Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs
Josh Fruhlinger's The Enthusiast
(editors) John Joseph Adams & Hugh Howey's the End Has Come:  Third in a triptych of apocalypse-themed short fiction anthologies.  The last focused on post-apoc survival and rebuilding.
Ilona Andrews' Magic Stars: A "Kate Daniels" series novella focused on Derek and Julie.
Tanya Huff's Third Time Lucky: Collection of short comic works about an immortal wizard.
Lexie Dunne's Superheroes Anonymous & Supervillains Anonymous: Gail is nicknamed "Hostage Girl" because villains think she's super-hero Blaze's girlfriend.  And then we he leaves town she ends up getting super-powers herself.
Michelle West's The Broken Crown
Andre Norton's Tales From the High Hallack vol.1: Collection of "Witch World" short stories.
Delilah Dawson/Kevin Hearne/Chuck Wendig's Three Slices:  A short story from each writer's setting.  All with a cheese divination theme.
Kevin Hearne's Staked: Latest "Iron Druid" book with, shockingly, many vampire opponents.

Rereads: None

Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Garth Ennis/Jonh Mcrea's The Demon: Hell's Hitman

Total: 13

Febuary:
Short Fiction:  Django Wexler's the Shadow of Elysium, Delia Sherman's the Great Detective, Joe Abercrombie's Two's Company, Seanan McGuire's Velveteen Presents: Action Dude Vs. Doing the Right Thing and Brian McCellan's Ghosts of the Tristan Basin

New Reads:
C.E. Murphy's Baba Yaga's Daughter the Tales of the Old Races:  World building short fiction for Murphy's "Old Races/Negotiatior" series.
N.K. Jemison's the Fifth Season:  Excellent read, even if the flash-back part of the story somewhat overwhelms the "now" bits.
Daniel Polansky's the Builders:  Like if Sam Peckinpah directed a "Redwall" movie.
Peter Clines' Ex-Isle:  Supers vs. zombies AT SEA.
Nicola Griffith's Hild:  Iron age Britain historical fiction yumminess.
Greg Van Eekhout's Dragon Coast:  One more crazy heist, one more group of nasty cannibal wizards.
Michael McCloskey's Trilisk Supersedure
T. Kingfisher's the Raven & the Reindeer: Ursula Vernon's Snow Queen adaptation.
Daniel O'Malley's the Rook:  What if you woke up with no memories of your life but were told you were one of the leaders of England's super-powered, super-secret spy orginization.  Oh and some of your co-workers wanted to kill you for what you used to know.
(editor) Eric Flint's Ring of Fire IV:  Most recent pro-anthology for the "Ring of Fire" series.
Georgette Heyer's the Quiet Gentleman:  I've liked other Regency Romance style books, but this one didn't really work for me.
Sherwood Smith's Whispered Magics:  Collection of Smith's short fiction.
Joe Haldeman's All My Sins Remembered:  Such a depressing ending.  Soooo bleak.

Rereads: None

Graphic Novels/TPBs:
G. Willow Wilson/Adrian Alphona/Dan Slott/Christos Gage/Guiseppe Camuncoli's Ms. Marvel: Last Days vol. 4:  Short arc leading into whatever last year's summer crossover event was, with some Spider-Man team-up filler.
Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez' Locke & Key: Alpha & Omega:  Used part of the tax refund to finally finish up the series.
Stjepan Šejić's Sunstone vol.4:  Argh!  Open lines of communication people!
Joe Casey/Nick Dragotta/Brad Simpson's Vengeance:  Better than average Marvel mini-series that got lost in the Big Events.

Total: 19

March:
Short Fiction:  Seanan McGuire's Swamp Bromeliad & Velveteen Vs. the Consequences of Her Actions, Alyssa Wong's a Fist of Permutations in Lightning & Wildflowers, Melissa Marr's the Maiden Thief, Carrie Vaughn's That Game We Played in War Time, Caighlan Smith's the Weather, Dave Freer's the Changeling & the Phooka and David D. Levine's Discards.

New Reads:
Stephen Leather's Once Bitten:  Meh vampire fic.
Seanan McGuire's Chaos Choreography:  Latest "InCryptid" novel, going back to Verity Price and a reality dance show reuinion.
R.J. Ross' Shadow Boy:  Most recent "Cape High" book that wraps up the Evil Presidential Canidate arc.
(editors) Walt Boyes/Bjorn Hasseler's Grantville Gazette vol.62-64
Ken Liu's Grace of Kings.  The rise from peasant gangster to Emperor.
Orest Stelmuch's the Boy From Reactor 4:  Ukrainian and Russian gangsters, Chernobyl and hockey.
George R.R. Martin's A Knight the 7 Kingdoms:  Collection of the Duncan & Egg/Hedge Knight stories.
Tamora Pierce's Magic Steps, Street Magic, Cold Fire, Shatterglass, the Will of the Empress & Melting Stones.  Bingeing on nearly all the remaining "Circle of Magic"
(editors) Will Shetterly/Emma Bull's Liakek 1:  First in a shared-world anthology series.
Joe K. Lansdale's Savage Season.  Stupid Sundance preview week making me think I could record all of Hap & Leonard so I had to read the book instead.  Good book though.
Jeff Vandameer's Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance:  I heard there was a television adaptation for this trilogy in the works.  If they get it right it will be super-creepy and amazing.
K.J. Parker's Downfall of the Gods.  One goddess' long scam against her pantheon, though I'm unclear as to her motivation.

Rereads: None

Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Shannon, Dean & Nathan Hale's Calamity Jack:  Steampunk/fairy tale mash-up sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge
Ananth Hirsh/Yuko Ota's Lucky Penny

Total: 22

Started off July with Faerie After, the finale to Janni Lee Simner's post-WW3 vs. the elves trilogy. Much of the book deals with learning to move past grief and loss...

After that was Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night, probably my favorite of his adapted movies, even if this was my first time reading the actual story. One of his best I think...

Got the e-arc of the next "Ring of Fire" book, 1636: the Devil's Opera by Eric Flint and David Carrico. It meshes together several of the ongoing series from the anthologies, the Madeburg Musicians and Madeburg PD. Plus its set during the end part of "Saxon Uprising", which all together gives it a bit of a smooshed together feeling, like the individual pieces weren't enough to hold together a story on their own. Plus I like the original "Symphony For the Devil" title better...

Then the newest Garrett book from Glen Cook, Wicked Bronze Ambition. Which has Garrett dealing with his future in-laws and all their friends. Who are all basically upper class, crazy wizards. I enjoyed seeing that Cook was continuing the Morley Dotes/Belinda Contague relationship as well, though not making it easy for the pair...

I actually thought Sherwood Smith's Banner of the Damned was going to be a prequel to her "Inda" series. Instead its set several centuries after those books...

Ex-Communication is the 3rd in Peter Clines' supers vs. zombies series. This time around the Hollywood survivor community is introduced to an additional supernatural threat. And a new kind of zombie in the form of a strange teenage girl...

Also finally got around to reading the first of Lois McMaster Bujold's "Chalion" books, Curse of Chalion. Which meant, of course, then rereading Paladin of Souls and the Hallowed Hunt...

Constellations is the first collection of "Liaden" short fiction by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I'd read a few of their short pieces but they're scattered all over and there are like a bazillion of them. So this reprint series definitely makes me happy...

Steven Gould's Impulse is the third book in his "Jumper" series. It follows the daughter of the lead characters from the previous two books as she both develops her own teleportation abilities and enters public school for the first time. While I didn't like it as much as Jumper it was a definite improvement over the 2nd book, Reflex...

I picked up the Monster's Corner an anthology of semi-horror edited by Christopher Golden on the cheap somewhere. It only had a few clunkers in it, but also not many memorable or outstanding pieces...

Neal Asher's the Deperature is a near future dystopia/space exploitation book. Parts of it made me wonder if it is meant as a prequel to his "Polity" series. Which I'll probably get a better idea of once I pick up the next two books in the trilogy...

Finished out July rereading David Weber's "Safehold" series, getting to Off Armageddon Reef, By Schism Rent Asunder, By Heresies Distressed and a Mighty Fortress. All of which leaves me impatiently waiting until next February for the next book...

On the free range short fiction, only three for July. Susan Palwick's "Homecoming" is a girl goes to sea disguised as a boy story. Nathan Ballingrud's "the Monsters of Heaven" is a sad story of loss and angels. Well, sort of angels. And Jeffrey Ford's "Rocket Ship to Hell" a bar story about a private enterprise attempt at a spacecraft crewed by artists...
Total Books: 17

Lets squeeze the August list in just under the wire. Again. Starting with Ben Aaronovitch's newest "Rivers of London" book Whispers Underground. I do so enjoy this sereies with its mix of humour, police procedural and urban fantasy. This time around the copper/wizards are investigating the murder of a U.S. Senator's son in the London Underground...

The second scifi book by Michael McCloskey, Trilisk AI, is still pretty good. Though not without some annoying flaws. He uses the "characters training for a mission in VR" a bit too much. And what should be a major part of the end climax happens basically off-screen...

Three Jim Hines books in August. First a collection of his short stories, Kitemaster & Other Stories. The titular story, with pseudo-Chinese air elemental wizards with kite familiars was especially good. Then one of his earliest books, Goldfish Dreams which draws from Hines work with teens, is a non-fantasy story about a college freshman dealing with the sexual abuse she suffered from her older brother as a child. Along with the regular life-changes of living away from home for the first time. And finally Libriomancer, Hines' new urban fantasy about wizards who withdraw pretty much anything from books...

After the roommate introduced me to Ilona Andrews and their "Kate Daniels" books I then ended up grabbing the three books from their "Edge" series; On the Edge, Bayou Moon and Fate's Edge. Where the setting has the mundane world, the magic world and a mixed-world between the two. After the first book, each books seems to have a secondary male character from the previous book acting as joint protagonist and romantic interest for a new female protagonist. A little bit formulaic, but still fun and I'm interested to see if the basic trend continues with the next book drops in November. Also from the Andrews' in August was the most recent "Kate Daniels" Gunmetal Magic. Though its actually about Kate's best friend and partner Andrea Nash, werehyena gun-bunny. She and her ex-boyfriend have to work together investigating multiple murders at a reclamation site that leads to a war between ancient gods...

Courier Ryb by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, is a pair of short stories for their Liaden scifi setting. Though the second short adds more to the setting, I'd say I liked the titular first story a bit more...

I forget whose short story was the reason I picked up Westward Weird, edited by Martin Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, but its a good collection. With various Western steampunk/fantasy/zombie mash-ups...

Noah Chinn is a long-time internet friend, from way back in time to my Kenzerco Forum days. So I was more than willing to grab his two e-books just for that. And happily both are pretty darn good. Trooper #4 is what seems to be an actual original twist on the zombie apocalypse sub-genre. And Bleedig Heart Yard manages that perfect balancing act for an urban fantasy between horror and humour...

Col Buchanan's Farlander is a more than competently written and put together series. And its story about a prince of an evil empire marked for death by religious assassins after killing a woman under their protection is interesting enough. But the theocratic evil empire is a bit too Chaotic Evil super-crazy and super-evil for me to buy that they would become a world conquering threat...

Another anthology, this time Tanya Huff's February Thaw. Several good stories here, including a "Victoria Nelson"/"Smoke and" tie-in tale...

Got around to the Mira Grant prequel novella Countdown. Which follows the start of her zombie "Newsflesh" series. And for the simple phrase "goggie" Sean McGuire will pay. And not because it made me cry. Which it didn't. At all. And no one can prove otherwise...

And in between all this new book reading, took a pause to reread Martin Millar's Curse of the Wolf Girl. Because I can always use some werewolf and fire elemental family drama. Plus I always want to give super-emo, super-deadly Kalix MacRinnalch a hug. A very careful hug...

the Way to Glory is David Drake's 4th "Lt. Leary" book. Good stuff for those looking for "Master & Commander" in space...

With Labyrinth, I finally get back to Kat Richardson, with 5th book in her "Greywalker" books. Lead Harper Blaine is back from London and has to scramble to protect her friends from being caught between warring vampires. With both sides looking to make use of her ghost-world influencing powers...

Mur Lafferty's Playing for Keeps isn't the best supers book. Its probably not even in my top twenty. To be fair I've been reading a LOT of prose supers lately. But her story about 2nd-rate supers banding together against crazy super-villains and corrupt "heroes" is still pretty enjoyable and her good guys are more than likeable...

Paolo Bacigalupi's fantasy novella the Alchmemist is a nice break from his usual dystopian future. Not that there isn't plenty of dystopia in his setting where using magic now accelerates the growth of a kind of poisonous, thorny kudzu plant...

I don't know what it was about Claire DeWitt & the City of the Dead by Sara Gran that made me put it down after only a half-dozen chapters. Maybe it was the overly detached and generally unpleasant lead...

On the other hand Kate Elliot's latest fantasy false-history "Spiritwalker" series is easily my new favorite thing from her. I just devoured the first two books, Cold Magic and Cold Fire and am eagerly awaiting the third sometime next year...

From that lots of supers pile, next up is James Maxey's Nobody Gets the Girl. The lead, Richard Rogers, is someone who has become nearly totally unnoticeable, after a time travel incident mostly writes him out of existence. Which makes him an ideal agent for heroic super-scientist Dr. Know...

Lee Goldberg is a television and print mystery writer with a large back list. His King City was an impulse buy from a Daily Deal offer. And its a pretty good book, about a too ethical for his own good cop who gets assigned to the city's worst section with little to no back-up after taking down his own squad for being corrupt. Though I think the end is a bit rushed as Goldberg hurries to tie up several different plot threads...

Hugh Howey's Wool is a very interesting take on a post-apocalyptic setting. With several mysteries, power-mad bad guys and even some romance...

Barbara Hambly's the Time of the Dark is a nice variant on the "real" Earth people drawn into magical world trope. While I do wonder if maybe her two "regular" heroes adapt a little fast to their new setting I did like it enough that at some point I'll grab the next book in the series...

Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon is a finely-crafted, stand-alone fantasy. But one that could easily be the set-up for a larger series. Plus its always good to get a fantasy series that doesn't draw at all from a Euro-centric background...

And finally for the month Maps & Legends a collection of essays by Michael Chabon on storytelling, history and religion...

Total books: 30

Since there are only a couple hours left for April, I should probably get around to doing my March book list.

Starting with Ian Fleming's Live & Let Die. Which was really surprisingly racist. I mean enough that I had to give up on it about a quarter way in. I guess I'll never know if the scene where James Bond runs across the backs of a pond full of alligators was just added for the movie...

Read the latest Grantville Gazette, the 40th and still edited by Paula Goodlet. Also picked up the eArc for the next "Ring of Fire" book, 1636: Kremlin Games by Eric Flint, Goodlet and Gorg Huff. Its set in Russia over several years and is an expansion from one of my favorite sets of stories from the Gazettes...

Borrowed a new urban fantasy from the roommate. Well magical milspec maybe. Myke Cole's Shadow Ops: Control Point is a decent first book, with basically a super-hero forced enlistment thing going on, except with magic instead of other types of super-power origins...

Then more of Sharon Lee & Steve Miller's "Liaden" space opera series. Plan B and I Dare follow various members of the series protagonist noble family as they basically go to war against the shadow espionage organization at the heart of their own government. Still lots of psychics and space stuff and swashbucklery. And Lee & Miller's Turtle aliens quickly made their way onto the top of my favorite alien races list...

Also got some new David Weber books, the newest "Honor Harrington" book Rising Thunder and the prequel young adult A Beautiful Friendship for the same setting. RT does have a lot less in the ship battles and more in the political maneuvering and group meetings. The other follows the teen-age Stephanie Harrington, one of the first humans to bond with one of the settings psychic Sphinxian Tree-cats...

After that was three eBooks I'd had on pre-order for a while. Starting with Seanan McGuire's series starter Discount Armageddon. A fun book where the lead attempts to balance her desire to be a pro-ballroom dancer with her family tradition as cryptozoologists. Then the latest from Patricia Brigg's "Alpha/Omega" werewolf series, Fair Game. With the fallout from the end of a hunt for a serial killer that preys on supernatural people looking to have a huge impact on both of Briggs' series in that universe. And lastly a new "Temeraire" series. Crucible of Gold has Temeraire and Cpt. Laurence called back into service and ending up enmeshed with the powerful Incan Empire...

A few books then from the Kindle cheap deals section. Karen McInerney's Dead & Berried was a pretty good murder mystery, part of her "Gray Whale Inn Mysteries" series. Though the tiny bit of supernatural element added into the very end felt tacked on and out of place. Kate DiCamillo's the Magician's Elephant was a truly delightful and enchanting children's book. Wonderfully evocative and charming. Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles was an ok if predictable bit of teen melodrama with a disappointing ending. And finally Jim Lynch's the Highest Tide was a nice enough coming-of-age story, mostly noteworthy for some interesting ocean biology stuff...

Also decided to check out a pair of choose-your-own-adventure series that have been partially converted over to the Kindle. Amazon has the first two of Joe Dover's "Lone Wolf" books and the first four of the "Fighting Fantasy" series. Flight From the Dark, the first "Lone Wolf" book worked very well and even had a lot of expanded content added. Deathtrap Dungeon had a much more frustrating save point system. Which given how easy it was to die in it caused me to give up after a half-dozen attempts...

Started on a new scifi series from the roommate's collection with Tobias Buckell's Crystal Rain. Enjoyable, once I got used to nearly everyone speaking all Jamaican style...

A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith was a fun little young adult piece. With princes in disguise, kidnappings and noble balls and games and such...

The relatively short Clementine by Cherie Priest is a fun sidestory in her "Clockwork Century" series. Less of the zombies and more of the air pirates and spy-adventureress joint action...

I picked up Brian Clevenger's Nuklear Age on the cheap because I love both his webcomics and Atomic Robo. And that was in spite of Clevenger's own warnings that his rookie work was terrible. And man was he not kidding. The thing is just DIRE. Hilariously so at times. Still not amusing enough that I didn't tap out barely a quarter way in...

After that I needed a palate cleanser, so I went with a reread of Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South. Where time traveling South African white supremacists arm the Confederacy was AK-47s so that they'll win the Civil War. Good stuff...

Then another piece of alt history. Or at least alternate universe history with Matt Ruff's the Mirage. The big concept here is that the role of the Middle East and the United States are reversed at 9/11. With Christian fundamentalist terrorists based out of the U.S. hijacking several airliners and crashing them into skyscrapers in Baghdad in the United Arab States. Good story, creative twists and interesting lead characters. Though I'm still a bit unsure on how I feel about the ending...

And finishing out the month with a pair of Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" books, the Mugger and the Con Artist. Prose in these was a bit overdone at times, but I still might pick up some more of the series to give it more of a taste...

Total books: 25

You know when you remove Superman's humility and self-sacrifice, its really easy to understand Lex Luthor's desire to snuff him. Anyway, funny movie. Also, more super-villains should have musical accompaniment...