(no subject)
I'm trying to get back in the writing groove, so I picked up this piece from where it was half-finished and polished it off. Brief discussions of all sixty-three books I read in 2008 under the cut.
01. Flashman at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser
This is a fun book about the title character (Flashman) and his being involved in both the Thin Red Line and the Charge of the Light Brigade, as well as his subsequent adventures in the Crimean War. The character's just great: this bragging, womanizing, rough sort of coward who values his own hide but will also do very brave things when it's required to keep his hide and reputation intact. Riding with him through the Crimean War was quite fun.
02. The Orc King by R.A. Salvatore
The latest Drizzt book at that point in time. Drizzt's one of my favorite comfort reads, especially now that Salvatore has gotten out of the angsty, depressing depths that he'd descended to earlier in the series. (Tip: skip Drizzt's journals. They're not important to the narrative.)
This one has more Obould Many-Arrows, who I love like burning. This time, he's not an active antagonist either! In fact, he and Bruenor even work out a treaty between the Kingdom of Many-Arrows and Mithril Hall! *squee-flail*
03. Uglies by Scott Westerfield
The first in a young-adult science fiction series. Quite a lot of fun, and I love the heroine. The world involves everyone who reaches a certain age getting made into pretties, where they're all super-beautiful but of mostly similar design. This is supposed to rid people of appearance-based insecurities, jealousies, etc., so they can fit nicely into their adult lives. There are also a whole lot less people - there seems to have been some sort of apocalyptic cataclysm in the past, and now everyone is very environmentally-conscious and 'feh' at the old way of doing things.
However, there are some people who object to this world-style and have gone out to live in the wild. They are uglies - people who've never been prettified. The people in charge, quite naturally, don't approve of This Sort of Thing, so the uglies have to hide themselves very carefully.
Tally Youngblood, our heroine, makes friends with another young girl just prior to their pretty-making surgery. The other girl winds up running away to join the uglies, and Tally gets recruited by the Specials (you could totally put Agent Smith in as a Special) to track her down... or Tally will never be made pretty.
04. Servant of the Shard by R.A. Salvatore
Jarlaxle has the Crystal Shard! Artemis Entreri is stuck with all the damn drow in Calimshan! Together, they make sexy.
"I am in complete control of the Shard!"
"Then why did you make a second crystal tower instead of tearing down the first one like you said you would?"
05. Promise of the Witch-King by R.A. Salvatore
This was more Jarlaxle'n'Entreri, but God if I can remember what the plot was. I do remember wondering what I'd missed between the end of Servant of the Shard and the beginning of this one, because they were halfway across the continent and doing treasure-hunting for some odd reason.
Also, Jarlaxle pretending to be Drizzt is hilarious.
06. The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success by Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell
A very interesting, helpful book on freelance writing. Writing nonfiction articles is actually something I'd like to learn more about, and if my current class-schedule isn't as onerous as I think it's going to be, I'm going to try to get into one of the writing classes my university offers. Yeah, no luck there.
Otherwise, I will probably be looking for more books on the subject as non-fiction in general is a field I feel uncomfortable with writing. Maintaining a blog has given me some practice, but I still think I'm missing a lot more than I feel comfortable with for turning into something potentially worth paying for.
07. The War God's Own by David Weber
This was comfort rereading, this was. I love Weber's fantasy series, I love Bahzell, I love Brandark, I love the new characters introduced in this novel, I love how Bahzell and Brandark get the shit kicked out of them every book.
Whatever else you can say about David Weber, he doesn't go easy on his characters.
08. Wind Rider's Oath by David Weber
The sequel to The War God's Own, where Bahzell and Brandark have to go deal with the problem that was left hanging at the end of the last book. More politics, more dark gods unleashing horror on the world, more of Bahzell getting the shit kicked out of him. ^__^
09. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
The plot is really slow to get moving, but when it does get moving, it hurtles along at a breakneck speed that almost gives you whiplash. I don't overly mind the slowness of the plot developing, as I quite enjoyed China's depictions of the city Perdido Street Station exists in.
However, I found the ending massively unsatisfying as it seems absolutely no one came out happy there, and given the hell everyone involved went through, someone should have gotten a happy ending.
10. Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest
Southern gothic mystery with a young black woman who can see ghosts. This comes in quite handy for her as her aunt/foster-mother sickens due to a lich-ancestor trying to reclaim his magic that's been spread through his descendants. Of course, this problem is made worse by her crazy cousin deciding she needs to die for being a witch.
It's all kinds of awesome. I need to get the rest of the series.
11. Pretties by Scott Westerfield
The continuing adventures of Tally Youngblood. Despite having read the back-cover copy of this when I bought it with Uglies and thus knowing what the ultimate answer to the problem in Uglies was, Uglies nicely surprised me by giving it to me both ways.
In this book, Tally discovers more ways in which her society sucks and demonstrates that she is a very special girl.
Yeah, there's a reason book three is named Specials.
Also, more adventures with the uglies, a new love interest, and a whole lot of fun new things to do with their technology.
12. Black Lotus by Laura Joh Rowland
A feudal Japanese mystery. This is book three in the series, but I unfortunately couldn't find books one and two. It seems to stand alone quite well with the references to events in the previous two books being explained nicely when they came up at all. Nice use of a cult-leader as the bad guy - I especially like that we never get inside that guy's head and we only ever see him from the outside. We never find out if he actually has the powers he claims to have or if he's learning things some other way and just putting on a sham.
A bit sexarriffic, in my opinion, which is saying something.
13. The Wicked West: Boozers, Cruisers, Gamblers, and More by Sherry Monahan
I love this book. Does everything it says on the tin. Delicious, delicious nonfiction.
14. Small Favors by Jim Butcher
The latest Dresden Files book. As per usual, Harry Dresden gets the crap kicked out of him. Also, like most of the later books in the series, you really need to have read the previous books in the series to get everything that's going on. A lot of plot-threads from previous books get picked up again in this.
The book opens with the Queen of the Winter Court of the Fae contacting Harry so he can repay one of the two remaining favors he owes her.
Actually, I correct myself. The book opens with Harry teaching his apprentice self-defense and getting the snot kicked out of him by goat-fairies.
I love the Dresden Files. ^__^
15. The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton by Larry Niven
This is actually three novellas gathered into a collection. A telekinetic detective deals with organ-legging crimes. Classic science fiction.
It also creeped me the fuck out with the projected future because I can see that happening. *shudders*
16. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
The art in this annoys me, because I spent most of the story thinking one person was actually two different people. Good story, of course, though I think I honestly prefer the movie.
17. The Killing Joke by Alan Moore
Also a good story, and the art was much better in this one. I like the ambiguous ending, as well as the Joker's overall goal to prove that everyone is one bad day away from being him. Of course, as his possible-origin reveals, he was not one bad day away from becoming the Joker; he was already in a bad state when all that happened to him. But, you know, the Joker.
18. 52 from DC Comics
I bought the first part of this one night on a whim. I then went back and bought the other three parts as soon as I finished this.
What this is is the story of what other DC heroes were doing during the year Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman took a year off due to various problems they had. Booster Gold is incredibly awesome, Black Adam is incredibly awesome, and the sheer twistiness and awesomeness of the overall plot is incredibly awesome. So well done.
19. Nurk by Ursula Vernon
Do you love ursulav's art and blogging? Then you'll love this. Adorable children's book about a shrew going out and finding adventure. With dry pairs of socks, because adventuring without socks is uncomfortable. Healthy dose of Ursula's usual weirdness and some truly fascinating world-building, plus Nurk himself is adorkable.
20. Eberron: The Campaign Setting from Wizards of the Coast
So my friend gave me The Secrets of Xen'drik so I could have the skorrow's stats for gaming purposes. Me being me, I started reading the rest of it. Eberron being Eberron, I didn't understand hardly any of it.
So I bought the campaign setting, read that, and fell in love with the world. Magic where it's actually used as technology rather than something rare and arcane except for the way the PCs always trip over the stuff! Orcs doing things besides 'being evil'! Elves doing things besides 'being good and tree-huggy'! So neat!
21. The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman
One of Hillerman's Navajo Tribal Police murder mysteries. I adore Jim Chee as a detective, because he's very methodical and thoughtful about how he handles mysteries. It's a nice contrast to the usual genius-types. (Also, he doesn't get beat up as much as people like Harry Dresden.) There were also a lot of very interesting details about the Navajo, the Hopi, and life in that area that really made this book gripping for me. Well done mystery too, with all the pieces made available to the reader at the same time the protagonist learned of them so the reader had an equal chance with the protagonist to figure out what was going on. And, of course, what was going on turned out to make sense given all the information we had.
22. The Secrets of Xen'drik from Wizards of the Coast
Having read the Eberron Campaign Setting, I could read this and understand what they were babbling about when they talked about the dragonmark houses and so on. Very much worth it, and yes, the skorrow is awesome.
23. The Last Heiress by Bertrice Small
Moderately entertaining historical romance. I did find the pacing rather odd, as the last quarter to a fifth of the book, the hero and heroine were happily married and settled together- And then the heroine got called to the court to spend time with Marie Antoinette while Marie was pregnant, and then the very last part of the book was about the heroine receiving the tale of Marie's execution.
It just all seemed rather odd, as the story was never really about Marie Antoinette before, to suddenly place the last part of the book all around her.
24. Ancient Chinese Dynasties by Eleanor J. Hall
Useful children's book that gave me a basic overview of the early Chinese dynasties and a little of the cultural evolution between them. I suspect I need to pick it up again and refresh myself on the information in it, though. It did, however, combined with the other two books I went over, tell me that ancient China was not the right time-period for what I was thinking of writing. I still need to look for something on medieval China.
25. Sex for One by Betty Dodson
Part autobiography, part meditation on masturbation. Absolutely fascinating to see how feminism and ideas about sex intersect and affect each other, how attitudes about what is and what isn't sex affect everyone, and on why masturbation is just as important as partner-sex.
26. The Ancient Chinese World by Terry Kleeman and Tracy Barrett
Another useful children's book. While there was some overlap with Ancient Chinese Dynasties, there wasn't as much as I thought there would be. This one focused more on the culture and tech-level than on the history, though it also had a healthy dose of history. It's sort of a middle-ground between Life in Ancient China and Ancient Chinese Dynasties, really.
27. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
This book depresses me with its ending. This boggles my dad. I'm sorry, I think a book that ends with the human race extinct and the planet destroyed is *depressing*, okay?
28. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
This was a gripping and emotionally exhausting book to read. Very well done, but the ending was just brutal. I highly recommend reading it. Here, at an all-boys high school, we see a young man forced to fight the different power-structures in the school. The older students put him in a position where he has to publicly refuse to participate in the annual school chocolate sale for a week, or get the tar beaten out of him. This drives the over-controlling principal into a deep anger. By the end of the week, though, our hero has learned how to defy authority, and he defies the older students and the teachers by continuing to refuse to participate. Then the big guns are brought out.
The ending of this book just left me worn. It was satisfying, yes, but it was the wrong satisfying. It was what would have happened, rather than what should have happened, if I'm making sense there.
29. Shoot First by Ed Gorman
Not a very well done mystery at all. Western. Mildly entertaining, but I wound up throwing the book out rather than donating it when I decided I didn't want it around the house and neither did my parents.
30. Life in Ancient China by Amy Allison
Another useful children's book. Focuses more on the actual day-to-day stuff than on the over-arching history.
31. Personal Demons by Stacia Kane
Aside from a couple of throwaway lines that made me rant, this was a pretty good paranormal romance. Deliciously steamy, though me being me, I latched onto some of the minor characters more than the hero. (The heroine's demon bodyguards are adorable.)
Quite an interesting premise of everyone having personal demons that only the heroine can see, and I like the ultimate solution to why everyone in the world had personal demons but the heroine doesn't. Hint: It's not because she's a good person.
32. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
This is a powerful book about depression and the aftermath of rape. It really hit a lot of key points I can see in myself with the depression bits - I have done some of those things, felt some of those things. Yet I didn't find reading it to be difficult on me emotionally. Well done, it doesn't pull punches, but the ending was sufficiently uplifting to make me glad I read it, rather than worn out like I was at the end of The Chocolate War.
33. Starswarm by Jerry Pournelle
Comfort rereading. This is a science-fiction novel that I pull out once or twice a year to curl up with and read over. Young man coming of age and coming into his own, but he's doing that on an alien world with an AI linked to his brain, and there's both corporate espionage and the local aliens to deal with. It's awesome.
34. The Ancient South Asian World by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer and Kimberley Heuston
Another educational children's book, this one about the Indian subcontinent. I was a bit confused by what they meant at South Asia when I picked it out, thinking they meant Southeast Asia. However, learning more about India was fascinating, so I enjoyed it greatly.
35. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
I actually worked on this book over the course of months to get through it. Sometimes I just wanted to strangle the author, sometimes I found she had something useful to say about writing. I think the single most useful suggestion she had related to dealing with the type of writer's block where you're flailing around and going "I can't, I can't, I can't!". That was to sit down and write enough to fill a postage stamp. Your character needs to travel to a faraway volcano? Write him getting out his front door. Think in baby steps, and the sense of "I can't!" dulls down.
36. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
This was a very interesting graphic novel, interweaving three stories that all ultimately come together. I have to admit, it took the lecture in class the next day for me to figure out wtf happened at the end. Also, I want to read The Journey to the West now.
37. Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
This is the sappiest piece of young adult romance I have ever read. Very nice lesbian romance, but oh, the sap, it flows strong in this.
38. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Cute vampire romance! Actually well-written and engaging, and very Southern. The mystery running through the story isn't so much a mystery in that it's 'solved' by the heroine getting attacked by the killer, but it's a good driving force for the action. In comparision with the television series 'True Blood', while they are similar stories with the same characters, the stories are sufficiently different that one cannot replace the other.
39. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
I have no idea what the point of this was. None whatsoever. Can someone please enlighten me?
40. The Plutonium Blonde by John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem
Zachary Nixon Johnson is the world's last private detective. His secretary is a psi. His personal AI is both the world's smartest and directly tapped into Zach's brain. His girlfriend is a martial artist and children's surgeon. His current case involves tracking down a rogue android that wants the destroy the world.
I read this book in two days, because I also had to read Solaris and Imani All Mine for class. I spent most of it excitedly telling Luna how awesome it was and that I wished Zach and Nightbeat to meet and team up.
41. Imani All Mine by Connie Porter
This was very well-written, though the use of phonetic dialect was sometimes hard on my ability to understand what the characters were saying. It's an interesting story of teenage pregnancy, and I just fell in love with all the characters and their problems.
Which, in turn, just led to some deep disappointment and boggling at the end of the story.
42. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Comfort rereading. I haven't read this in years, so rereading it this time was like reading it for the first time - except I kept getting flashes of "I remember this!". Excellent story a fantasy British Empire and a fantasy colonized India, and Harimad-sol is still one of my favorite fantasy heroines of all time. The author managed to keep all of the magic involved very mysterious and very powerful while still giving it rules, which seriously impressed me on the reread.
43. A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
I loved this story. It's a love-story between two ghosts, and it explores the nature of people and the way people cling to lies because they're afraid of the truth too much to risk accepting it.
44. Star Wars: Republic Commando: Hard Contact by Karen Traviss
dunmurderin reccommended this series to me. I am not sure what made me take her up on the reccommendation, but when I went to buy this book at the bookstore, the cashier also heartily reccommended it to me. So I knew I was in for a good read, and, boy, did this ever deliver. KT does a rather more realistic look at the Clone Wars and the people fighting in it than I've seen done anywhere else. (Of course, she is both ex-military and ex-war correspondant, so I can't say I'm surprised.)
This story introduces Omega Squad and Jedi Etain on a commando mission on an isolated world where a group of Separatist scientists are developing a biological weapon to use against the clone army. Very well-written, sometimes brutal, definitely gripping piece. (There is a scene towards the end where the bad guy is going after a deeply wounded Niner, and he is both creeped out and understanding that Niner is yelling for his sarge rather than for his mother. 'Cause, you know, clone.)
45. Star Wars: Republic Commando: Triple Zero by Karen Traviss
Omega Squad and Etain meet Delta Squad, Walon Vau, Kal Skirata, Bardan Jusik, and some of the Nulls. Also Corr. Corr is love. Also, also, Maze. Captain Maze is more love.
There is a much bigger cast this book, but KT does a good job of keeping everyone distinct. We get a continuation of the Etain/Darman subplot from the first book, as well as some whole new wrenches with that. We also get two commando squads, two hard-ass Mandalorians, and two Null-boys vs. a Separatist terrorist cell on Coruscant.
This book also has a short story in the back of it that, chronologically, comes before the novel itself. So read "Targets" before you read Triple Zero.
46. Star Wars: Republic Commando: True Colors by Karen Traviss
Everything begins the slow descent into Hell in a handbasket. On the plus side, we get to meet more of the Null ARCs and another Alpha ARC.
This also has a short story in the back that comes before the novel itself, chronologically.
47. Star Wars: Republic Commando: Order 66 by Karen Traviss
You know, I really, really hoped that a novel entitled Order 66, fourth in a series that has made me care deeply about some of the Jedi and all of the clones, wouldn't make me cry.
I hoped in vain.
48. In the Courts of the Crimson Kings by S.M. Stirling
I love an inhabited Mars. It's one of my silly science fiction tropes of happy-making. So this book makes me very happy, indeed. Not only do we get an action-adventure story taking us across a very alien Mars, the author created a believable inhabited Mars with near-human but also very alien Martians. They may physically resemble humans in unusual outfits, but the way they think, their society, their language is vastly different from that of Earth.
I love it. I have also gleefully stolen 'practicioner of coercive violence' for my own use.
49. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal by Aaron Allston
50. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines by Karen Traviss
51. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Tempest by Troy Denning
52. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Exile by Aaron Allston
53. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice by Karen Traviss
54. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Inferno by Troy Denning
55. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Fury by Aaron Allston
56. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Revelation by Karen Traviss
I have to talk about these as a lump, because I basically read them all in a lump and the plot-lines have blended together in my head.
This the majority of the series, but I didn't read the last book until February '09. As it is, I have to say this a good series. Both Aaron Allston and Karen Traviss are good writers who put in serious consequences for their characters and handle Jacen's fall to the Dark Side with subtlety and class. Troy Denning is not quite in their league, and his books are a little jarring compared to their's, but they're necessary for the overall story.
The depiction of Jacen's fall as one brought about by his own ideals is lovely. He wants to protect people, he wants to make the galaxy safe again, and he slowly tips into not caring about the means of how he'll go about doing that. He's constantly compared to his grandfather, which I don't think is unfair, but I think it also misses the Palpatine-like plotting he does in later books to make sure he doesn't lose the power he feels he needs to bring peace to the galaxy.
It's a very believable fall to me, and Jacen gradually becomes more and more scary.
Ben Skywalker is adorable, and I like his own gradual fall to the Dark Side as well as his extrication from it. Like Jacen's, it's a slow fall of good intentions leading to ends justify the means.
All three of the authors have their own pet characters that only show up significantly in their books: Aaron has Wedge and other Corellians, Karen has Boba Fett and other Mandalorians, and Troy has Alema Rar. (For what it's worth, I love the sideplot with Boba that shows up in Karen's books, and I love Goran Beviin. It's kind of adorable that Boba has a best friend and both of them are puzzled by how that happened. Also, the friendship is well-handled and takes into account the way Boba is portrayed as being extremely emotionally damaged.)
I'm also very attached to Mirta Gev and her relationship to Boba Fett. Of course, as Puck knows, I love watching strange people getting into reluctant paternal relationships with daughter-type figures. Boba Fett handles it about as well as he handles most emotional relationships (there is a scene where she is having her after-wedding party, and he's sitting out in Slave-One working out what he's going to leave for Beviin to give to her instead of, oh, going into the party and at least giving her the stuff himself).
Me, being me, I kind of hope that Boba picks up Jaina as an extra daughter-figure. I've been assured this doesn't happen. :-(
The various character deaths were all handled quite well. They were all appropriate for the story, which is much better than I had hoped for. Killing Grand Admiral Pellaeon still made me unreasonably upset, but I have consoled myself with the idea that he and Thrawn are off having grand afterlife adventures now.
57. Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss
The novelization of the recent animated movie. It's by KT, and it's much better than the movie itself. She does a much more limited character-set, but the ones she uses are all judiciously chosen and increase the whole narrative. Really great job on depicting Anakin's balancing act between light and darkness. Love Captain Rex, as always, and I think this book is what first made me fall in love with Ahsoka. Getting inside both Count Dooku's and Jabba the Hutt's head was quite interesting.
58. How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbaleister
Fun little young adult novel. I like the idea that most people have 'fairies' who give them minor magical knacks. The protagonist hates her parking fairy, though, because it leads to people imposing on her to go riding places so they can get good parking places. (I don't know, personally, I'd love a parking fairy.)
So she spends the entire book figuring out how to get rid of fairy while making friends and dealing with a hefty amount of schoolwork in a highly competitive sports environment.
59. Breaking and Entering by Connie Fletcher
Connie Fletcher interviews and organizes stories by women cops about their experiences as police officers. Fascinating, fascinating stuff.
60. Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog
An autobiography of an American Indian woman growing up and living through the American Indian Civil Rights Movement. It's very shocking, both in what happened and how little any of this was taught in my schools. Fascinating book.
61. Roman Life by John R. Clarke
This book uses the art produced by the Romans to give a very in-depth look at what their daily lives were probably like. Much of the book focuses on Ostia rather than Rome herself, which I felt added to what I gained from it.
62. Signal Red by Rimi B. Chatterjee
I actually read this much earlier in the order of books, but didn't feel like going back and putting it in the right place. Indian science-fiction, very near-future. So near-future it could be the present. Creepy piece about religious fanaticism and the kind of control a government can exert on its people if it so desires.
63. Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese by Maragaret Hathaway
An autobiographical piece about a woman and her husband's quest to understand goat farming and their travels across America to myriad goat farms to learn more about it. Fascinating book with a discussion of goats, the culture and organizations of various goat-keepers, and some beautiful, touching moments in their explorations.
01. Flashman at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser
This is a fun book about the title character (Flashman) and his being involved in both the Thin Red Line and the Charge of the Light Brigade, as well as his subsequent adventures in the Crimean War. The character's just great: this bragging, womanizing, rough sort of coward who values his own hide but will also do very brave things when it's required to keep his hide and reputation intact. Riding with him through the Crimean War was quite fun.
02. The Orc King by R.A. Salvatore
The latest Drizzt book at that point in time. Drizzt's one of my favorite comfort reads, especially now that Salvatore has gotten out of the angsty, depressing depths that he'd descended to earlier in the series. (Tip: skip Drizzt's journals. They're not important to the narrative.)
This one has more Obould Many-Arrows, who I love like burning. This time, he's not an active antagonist either! In fact, he and Bruenor even work out a treaty between the Kingdom of Many-Arrows and Mithril Hall! *squee-flail*
03. Uglies by Scott Westerfield
The first in a young-adult science fiction series. Quite a lot of fun, and I love the heroine. The world involves everyone who reaches a certain age getting made into pretties, where they're all super-beautiful but of mostly similar design. This is supposed to rid people of appearance-based insecurities, jealousies, etc., so they can fit nicely into their adult lives. There are also a whole lot less people - there seems to have been some sort of apocalyptic cataclysm in the past, and now everyone is very environmentally-conscious and 'feh' at the old way of doing things.
However, there are some people who object to this world-style and have gone out to live in the wild. They are uglies - people who've never been prettified. The people in charge, quite naturally, don't approve of This Sort of Thing, so the uglies have to hide themselves very carefully.
Tally Youngblood, our heroine, makes friends with another young girl just prior to their pretty-making surgery. The other girl winds up running away to join the uglies, and Tally gets recruited by the Specials (you could totally put Agent Smith in as a Special) to track her down... or Tally will never be made pretty.
04. Servant of the Shard by R.A. Salvatore
Jarlaxle has the Crystal Shard! Artemis Entreri is stuck with all the damn drow in Calimshan! Together, they make sexy.
"I am in complete control of the Shard!"
"Then why did you make a second crystal tower instead of tearing down the first one like you said you would?"
05. Promise of the Witch-King by R.A. Salvatore
This was more Jarlaxle'n'Entreri, but God if I can remember what the plot was. I do remember wondering what I'd missed between the end of Servant of the Shard and the beginning of this one, because they were halfway across the continent and doing treasure-hunting for some odd reason.
Also, Jarlaxle pretending to be Drizzt is hilarious.
06. The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success by Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell
A very interesting, helpful book on freelance writing. Writing nonfiction articles is actually something I'd like to learn more about, and if my current class-schedule isn't as onerous as I think it's going to be, I'm going to try to get into one of the writing classes my university offers. Yeah, no luck there.
Otherwise, I will probably be looking for more books on the subject as non-fiction in general is a field I feel uncomfortable with writing. Maintaining a blog has given me some practice, but I still think I'm missing a lot more than I feel comfortable with for turning into something potentially worth paying for.
07. The War God's Own by David Weber
This was comfort rereading, this was. I love Weber's fantasy series, I love Bahzell, I love Brandark, I love the new characters introduced in this novel, I love how Bahzell and Brandark get the shit kicked out of them every book.
Whatever else you can say about David Weber, he doesn't go easy on his characters.
08. Wind Rider's Oath by David Weber
The sequel to The War God's Own, where Bahzell and Brandark have to go deal with the problem that was left hanging at the end of the last book. More politics, more dark gods unleashing horror on the world, more of Bahzell getting the shit kicked out of him. ^__^
09. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
The plot is really slow to get moving, but when it does get moving, it hurtles along at a breakneck speed that almost gives you whiplash. I don't overly mind the slowness of the plot developing, as I quite enjoyed China's depictions of the city Perdido Street Station exists in.
However, I found the ending massively unsatisfying as it seems absolutely no one came out happy there, and given the hell everyone involved went through, someone should have gotten a happy ending.
10. Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest
Southern gothic mystery with a young black woman who can see ghosts. This comes in quite handy for her as her aunt/foster-mother sickens due to a lich-ancestor trying to reclaim his magic that's been spread through his descendants. Of course, this problem is made worse by her crazy cousin deciding she needs to die for being a witch.
It's all kinds of awesome. I need to get the rest of the series.
11. Pretties by Scott Westerfield
The continuing adventures of Tally Youngblood. Despite having read the back-cover copy of this when I bought it with Uglies and thus knowing what the ultimate answer to the problem in Uglies was, Uglies nicely surprised me by giving it to me both ways.
In this book, Tally discovers more ways in which her society sucks and demonstrates that she is a very special girl.
Yeah, there's a reason book three is named Specials.
Also, more adventures with the uglies, a new love interest, and a whole lot of fun new things to do with their technology.
12. Black Lotus by Laura Joh Rowland
A feudal Japanese mystery. This is book three in the series, but I unfortunately couldn't find books one and two. It seems to stand alone quite well with the references to events in the previous two books being explained nicely when they came up at all. Nice use of a cult-leader as the bad guy - I especially like that we never get inside that guy's head and we only ever see him from the outside. We never find out if he actually has the powers he claims to have or if he's learning things some other way and just putting on a sham.
A bit sexarriffic, in my opinion, which is saying something.
13. The Wicked West: Boozers, Cruisers, Gamblers, and More by Sherry Monahan
I love this book. Does everything it says on the tin. Delicious, delicious nonfiction.
14. Small Favors by Jim Butcher
The latest Dresden Files book. As per usual, Harry Dresden gets the crap kicked out of him. Also, like most of the later books in the series, you really need to have read the previous books in the series to get everything that's going on. A lot of plot-threads from previous books get picked up again in this.
The book opens with the Queen of the Winter Court of the Fae contacting Harry so he can repay one of the two remaining favors he owes her.
Actually, I correct myself. The book opens with Harry teaching his apprentice self-defense and getting the snot kicked out of him by goat-fairies.
I love the Dresden Files. ^__^
15. The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton by Larry Niven
This is actually three novellas gathered into a collection. A telekinetic detective deals with organ-legging crimes. Classic science fiction.
It also creeped me the fuck out with the projected future because I can see that happening. *shudders*
16. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
The art in this annoys me, because I spent most of the story thinking one person was actually two different people. Good story, of course, though I think I honestly prefer the movie.
17. The Killing Joke by Alan Moore
Also a good story, and the art was much better in this one. I like the ambiguous ending, as well as the Joker's overall goal to prove that everyone is one bad day away from being him. Of course, as his possible-origin reveals, he was not one bad day away from becoming the Joker; he was already in a bad state when all that happened to him. But, you know, the Joker.
18. 52 from DC Comics
I bought the first part of this one night on a whim. I then went back and bought the other three parts as soon as I finished this.
What this is is the story of what other DC heroes were doing during the year Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman took a year off due to various problems they had. Booster Gold is incredibly awesome, Black Adam is incredibly awesome, and the sheer twistiness and awesomeness of the overall plot is incredibly awesome. So well done.
19. Nurk by Ursula Vernon
Do you love ursulav's art and blogging? Then you'll love this. Adorable children's book about a shrew going out and finding adventure. With dry pairs of socks, because adventuring without socks is uncomfortable. Healthy dose of Ursula's usual weirdness and some truly fascinating world-building, plus Nurk himself is adorkable.
20. Eberron: The Campaign Setting from Wizards of the Coast
So my friend gave me The Secrets of Xen'drik so I could have the skorrow's stats for gaming purposes. Me being me, I started reading the rest of it. Eberron being Eberron, I didn't understand hardly any of it.
So I bought the campaign setting, read that, and fell in love with the world. Magic where it's actually used as technology rather than something rare and arcane except for the way the PCs always trip over the stuff! Orcs doing things besides 'being evil'! Elves doing things besides 'being good and tree-huggy'! So neat!
21. The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman
One of Hillerman's Navajo Tribal Police murder mysteries. I adore Jim Chee as a detective, because he's very methodical and thoughtful about how he handles mysteries. It's a nice contrast to the usual genius-types. (Also, he doesn't get beat up as much as people like Harry Dresden.) There were also a lot of very interesting details about the Navajo, the Hopi, and life in that area that really made this book gripping for me. Well done mystery too, with all the pieces made available to the reader at the same time the protagonist learned of them so the reader had an equal chance with the protagonist to figure out what was going on. And, of course, what was going on turned out to make sense given all the information we had.
22. The Secrets of Xen'drik from Wizards of the Coast
Having read the Eberron Campaign Setting, I could read this and understand what they were babbling about when they talked about the dragonmark houses and so on. Very much worth it, and yes, the skorrow is awesome.
23. The Last Heiress by Bertrice Small
Moderately entertaining historical romance. I did find the pacing rather odd, as the last quarter to a fifth of the book, the hero and heroine were happily married and settled together- And then the heroine got called to the court to spend time with Marie Antoinette while Marie was pregnant, and then the very last part of the book was about the heroine receiving the tale of Marie's execution.
It just all seemed rather odd, as the story was never really about Marie Antoinette before, to suddenly place the last part of the book all around her.
24. Ancient Chinese Dynasties by Eleanor J. Hall
Useful children's book that gave me a basic overview of the early Chinese dynasties and a little of the cultural evolution between them. I suspect I need to pick it up again and refresh myself on the information in it, though. It did, however, combined with the other two books I went over, tell me that ancient China was not the right time-period for what I was thinking of writing. I still need to look for something on medieval China.
25. Sex for One by Betty Dodson
Part autobiography, part meditation on masturbation. Absolutely fascinating to see how feminism and ideas about sex intersect and affect each other, how attitudes about what is and what isn't sex affect everyone, and on why masturbation is just as important as partner-sex.
26. The Ancient Chinese World by Terry Kleeman and Tracy Barrett
Another useful children's book. While there was some overlap with Ancient Chinese Dynasties, there wasn't as much as I thought there would be. This one focused more on the culture and tech-level than on the history, though it also had a healthy dose of history. It's sort of a middle-ground between Life in Ancient China and Ancient Chinese Dynasties, really.
27. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
This book depresses me with its ending. This boggles my dad. I'm sorry, I think a book that ends with the human race extinct and the planet destroyed is *depressing*, okay?
28. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
This was a gripping and emotionally exhausting book to read. Very well done, but the ending was just brutal. I highly recommend reading it. Here, at an all-boys high school, we see a young man forced to fight the different power-structures in the school. The older students put him in a position where he has to publicly refuse to participate in the annual school chocolate sale for a week, or get the tar beaten out of him. This drives the over-controlling principal into a deep anger. By the end of the week, though, our hero has learned how to defy authority, and he defies the older students and the teachers by continuing to refuse to participate. Then the big guns are brought out.
The ending of this book just left me worn. It was satisfying, yes, but it was the wrong satisfying. It was what would have happened, rather than what should have happened, if I'm making sense there.
29. Shoot First by Ed Gorman
Not a very well done mystery at all. Western. Mildly entertaining, but I wound up throwing the book out rather than donating it when I decided I didn't want it around the house and neither did my parents.
30. Life in Ancient China by Amy Allison
Another useful children's book. Focuses more on the actual day-to-day stuff than on the over-arching history.
31. Personal Demons by Stacia Kane
Aside from a couple of throwaway lines that made me rant, this was a pretty good paranormal romance. Deliciously steamy, though me being me, I latched onto some of the minor characters more than the hero. (The heroine's demon bodyguards are adorable.)
Quite an interesting premise of everyone having personal demons that only the heroine can see, and I like the ultimate solution to why everyone in the world had personal demons but the heroine doesn't. Hint: It's not because she's a good person.
32. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
This is a powerful book about depression and the aftermath of rape. It really hit a lot of key points I can see in myself with the depression bits - I have done some of those things, felt some of those things. Yet I didn't find reading it to be difficult on me emotionally. Well done, it doesn't pull punches, but the ending was sufficiently uplifting to make me glad I read it, rather than worn out like I was at the end of The Chocolate War.
33. Starswarm by Jerry Pournelle
Comfort rereading. This is a science-fiction novel that I pull out once or twice a year to curl up with and read over. Young man coming of age and coming into his own, but he's doing that on an alien world with an AI linked to his brain, and there's both corporate espionage and the local aliens to deal with. It's awesome.
34. The Ancient South Asian World by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer and Kimberley Heuston
Another educational children's book, this one about the Indian subcontinent. I was a bit confused by what they meant at South Asia when I picked it out, thinking they meant Southeast Asia. However, learning more about India was fascinating, so I enjoyed it greatly.
35. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
I actually worked on this book over the course of months to get through it. Sometimes I just wanted to strangle the author, sometimes I found she had something useful to say about writing. I think the single most useful suggestion she had related to dealing with the type of writer's block where you're flailing around and going "I can't, I can't, I can't!". That was to sit down and write enough to fill a postage stamp. Your character needs to travel to a faraway volcano? Write him getting out his front door. Think in baby steps, and the sense of "I can't!" dulls down.
36. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
This was a very interesting graphic novel, interweaving three stories that all ultimately come together. I have to admit, it took the lecture in class the next day for me to figure out wtf happened at the end. Also, I want to read The Journey to the West now.
37. Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
This is the sappiest piece of young adult romance I have ever read. Very nice lesbian romance, but oh, the sap, it flows strong in this.
38. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Cute vampire romance! Actually well-written and engaging, and very Southern. The mystery running through the story isn't so much a mystery in that it's 'solved' by the heroine getting attacked by the killer, but it's a good driving force for the action. In comparision with the television series 'True Blood', while they are similar stories with the same characters, the stories are sufficiently different that one cannot replace the other.
39. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
I have no idea what the point of this was. None whatsoever. Can someone please enlighten me?
40. The Plutonium Blonde by John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem
Zachary Nixon Johnson is the world's last private detective. His secretary is a psi. His personal AI is both the world's smartest and directly tapped into Zach's brain. His girlfriend is a martial artist and children's surgeon. His current case involves tracking down a rogue android that wants the destroy the world.
I read this book in two days, because I also had to read Solaris and Imani All Mine for class. I spent most of it excitedly telling Luna how awesome it was and that I wished Zach and Nightbeat to meet and team up.
41. Imani All Mine by Connie Porter
This was very well-written, though the use of phonetic dialect was sometimes hard on my ability to understand what the characters were saying. It's an interesting story of teenage pregnancy, and I just fell in love with all the characters and their problems.
Which, in turn, just led to some deep disappointment and boggling at the end of the story.
42. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Comfort rereading. I haven't read this in years, so rereading it this time was like reading it for the first time - except I kept getting flashes of "I remember this!". Excellent story a fantasy British Empire and a fantasy colonized India, and Harimad-sol is still one of my favorite fantasy heroines of all time. The author managed to keep all of the magic involved very mysterious and very powerful while still giving it rules, which seriously impressed me on the reread.
43. A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
I loved this story. It's a love-story between two ghosts, and it explores the nature of people and the way people cling to lies because they're afraid of the truth too much to risk accepting it.
44. Star Wars: Republic Commando: Hard Contact by Karen Traviss
dunmurderin reccommended this series to me. I am not sure what made me take her up on the reccommendation, but when I went to buy this book at the bookstore, the cashier also heartily reccommended it to me. So I knew I was in for a good read, and, boy, did this ever deliver. KT does a rather more realistic look at the Clone Wars and the people fighting in it than I've seen done anywhere else. (Of course, she is both ex-military and ex-war correspondant, so I can't say I'm surprised.)
This story introduces Omega Squad and Jedi Etain on a commando mission on an isolated world where a group of Separatist scientists are developing a biological weapon to use against the clone army. Very well-written, sometimes brutal, definitely gripping piece. (There is a scene towards the end where the bad guy is going after a deeply wounded Niner, and he is both creeped out and understanding that Niner is yelling for his sarge rather than for his mother. 'Cause, you know, clone.)
45. Star Wars: Republic Commando: Triple Zero by Karen Traviss
Omega Squad and Etain meet Delta Squad, Walon Vau, Kal Skirata, Bardan Jusik, and some of the Nulls. Also Corr. Corr is love. Also, also, Maze. Captain Maze is more love.
There is a much bigger cast this book, but KT does a good job of keeping everyone distinct. We get a continuation of the Etain/Darman subplot from the first book, as well as some whole new wrenches with that. We also get two commando squads, two hard-ass Mandalorians, and two Null-boys vs. a Separatist terrorist cell on Coruscant.
This book also has a short story in the back of it that, chronologically, comes before the novel itself. So read "Targets" before you read Triple Zero.
46. Star Wars: Republic Commando: True Colors by Karen Traviss
Everything begins the slow descent into Hell in a handbasket. On the plus side, we get to meet more of the Null ARCs and another Alpha ARC.
This also has a short story in the back that comes before the novel itself, chronologically.
47. Star Wars: Republic Commando: Order 66 by Karen Traviss
You know, I really, really hoped that a novel entitled Order 66, fourth in a series that has made me care deeply about some of the Jedi and all of the clones, wouldn't make me cry.
I hoped in vain.
48. In the Courts of the Crimson Kings by S.M. Stirling
I love an inhabited Mars. It's one of my silly science fiction tropes of happy-making. So this book makes me very happy, indeed. Not only do we get an action-adventure story taking us across a very alien Mars, the author created a believable inhabited Mars with near-human but also very alien Martians. They may physically resemble humans in unusual outfits, but the way they think, their society, their language is vastly different from that of Earth.
I love it. I have also gleefully stolen 'practicioner of coercive violence' for my own use.
49. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal by Aaron Allston
50. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines by Karen Traviss
51. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Tempest by Troy Denning
52. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Exile by Aaron Allston
53. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice by Karen Traviss
54. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Inferno by Troy Denning
55. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Fury by Aaron Allston
56. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Revelation by Karen Traviss
I have to talk about these as a lump, because I basically read them all in a lump and the plot-lines have blended together in my head.
This the majority of the series, but I didn't read the last book until February '09. As it is, I have to say this a good series. Both Aaron Allston and Karen Traviss are good writers who put in serious consequences for their characters and handle Jacen's fall to the Dark Side with subtlety and class. Troy Denning is not quite in their league, and his books are a little jarring compared to their's, but they're necessary for the overall story.
The depiction of Jacen's fall as one brought about by his own ideals is lovely. He wants to protect people, he wants to make the galaxy safe again, and he slowly tips into not caring about the means of how he'll go about doing that. He's constantly compared to his grandfather, which I don't think is unfair, but I think it also misses the Palpatine-like plotting he does in later books to make sure he doesn't lose the power he feels he needs to bring peace to the galaxy.
It's a very believable fall to me, and Jacen gradually becomes more and more scary.
Ben Skywalker is adorable, and I like his own gradual fall to the Dark Side as well as his extrication from it. Like Jacen's, it's a slow fall of good intentions leading to ends justify the means.
All three of the authors have their own pet characters that only show up significantly in their books: Aaron has Wedge and other Corellians, Karen has Boba Fett and other Mandalorians, and Troy has Alema Rar. (For what it's worth, I love the sideplot with Boba that shows up in Karen's books, and I love Goran Beviin. It's kind of adorable that Boba has a best friend and both of them are puzzled by how that happened. Also, the friendship is well-handled and takes into account the way Boba is portrayed as being extremely emotionally damaged.)
I'm also very attached to Mirta Gev and her relationship to Boba Fett. Of course, as Puck knows, I love watching strange people getting into reluctant paternal relationships with daughter-type figures. Boba Fett handles it about as well as he handles most emotional relationships (there is a scene where she is having her after-wedding party, and he's sitting out in Slave-One working out what he's going to leave for Beviin to give to her instead of, oh, going into the party and at least giving her the stuff himself).
Me, being me, I kind of hope that Boba picks up Jaina as an extra daughter-figure. I've been assured this doesn't happen. :-(
The various character deaths were all handled quite well. They were all appropriate for the story, which is much better than I had hoped for. Killing Grand Admiral Pellaeon still made me unreasonably upset, but I have consoled myself with the idea that he and Thrawn are off having grand afterlife adventures now.
57. Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss
The novelization of the recent animated movie. It's by KT, and it's much better than the movie itself. She does a much more limited character-set, but the ones she uses are all judiciously chosen and increase the whole narrative. Really great job on depicting Anakin's balancing act between light and darkness. Love Captain Rex, as always, and I think this book is what first made me fall in love with Ahsoka. Getting inside both Count Dooku's and Jabba the Hutt's head was quite interesting.
58. How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbaleister
Fun little young adult novel. I like the idea that most people have 'fairies' who give them minor magical knacks. The protagonist hates her parking fairy, though, because it leads to people imposing on her to go riding places so they can get good parking places. (I don't know, personally, I'd love a parking fairy.)
So she spends the entire book figuring out how to get rid of fairy while making friends and dealing with a hefty amount of schoolwork in a highly competitive sports environment.
59. Breaking and Entering by Connie Fletcher
Connie Fletcher interviews and organizes stories by women cops about their experiences as police officers. Fascinating, fascinating stuff.
60. Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog
An autobiography of an American Indian woman growing up and living through the American Indian Civil Rights Movement. It's very shocking, both in what happened and how little any of this was taught in my schools. Fascinating book.
61. Roman Life by John R. Clarke
This book uses the art produced by the Romans to give a very in-depth look at what their daily lives were probably like. Much of the book focuses on Ostia rather than Rome herself, which I felt added to what I gained from it.
62. Signal Red by Rimi B. Chatterjee
I actually read this much earlier in the order of books, but didn't feel like going back and putting it in the right place. Indian science-fiction, very near-future. So near-future it could be the present. Creepy piece about religious fanaticism and the kind of control a government can exert on its people if it so desires.
63. Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese by Maragaret Hathaway
An autobiographical piece about a woman and her husband's quest to understand goat farming and their travels across America to myriad goat farms to learn more about it. Fascinating book with a discussion of goats, the culture and organizations of various goat-keepers, and some beautiful, touching moments in their explorations.