Relatively Recent Reading: Jan-Feb 2011

[extrajoker]

I had a slow start to my reading this year, but here's the first two months' worth.

JANUARY

• The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson (231 pp.)
  first line: "If you went into a school nowadays and asked children: 'What is a gump?' you would probably get some very silly answers.
  
  This was a fun little book that would probably be good for reading aloud to children. If you like your heroes hapless, all the better.
  
  
• The Revenge of the Shadow King: Grey Griffins Book 1 by Derek Benz & J.S. Lewis (373 pp.)
  first line (of the prologue): "Max Sumner peeked over his blanket, paralyzed by fear.
  first line (of the first chapter): "Avalon, Minnesota, was a perfectly boring town."
  
  Well, I liked the cover, anyway.

FEBRUARY

• Bizarre Books by Russell Ash and Brian Lake (214 pp.)
  first line (of the introduction): "Let's get one thing straight to begin with: all the titles in Bizarre Books are genuine."
  
  An enjoyable enough collection of odd topics and titles, unfortunate author names, etc., but not all the entries were as interesting or outlandish.
  
  
• Unclean Spirits (The Black Sun's Daughter, Book 1) by M.L.N. Hanover (357 pp.)
  first line (of the introduction): "It was raining in Denver the night Eric Heller died."
  first line (of the first chapter): "I flew into Denver on the second of August, three days before my twenty-third birthday."
  
  
• Darker Angels by M.L.N. Hanover (360 pp.)
  first line (of the introduction): "'How long has this been going on?'"
  first line (of the first chapter): "'Hey,' my dead uncle said, 'you've got a call.'"
  
  
• Vicious Grace by M.L.N. Hanover (367 pp.)
  first line (of the introduction): "Kim arrived at the fMRI suite twenty minutes later than she'd attended."
  first line (of the first chapter): "I lay as flat as I could on the carpet of old pine needles, my rifle hugged close against my cheek."
  
  I'm quite enjoying this series, but now I have to wait for the fourth book to come out. M.L.N. Hanover is a pseudonym for author Daniel Abraham (who apparently has another series under his own name). I'm guessing he went with the pseudonym because this is "girls' urban fantasy" with a female protagonist, and maybe a male author's name would be off-putting to his potential female readership...? I don't know. It could be just because this series is in a different sub-genre from his other. In any case, these books have likable characters and interesting plots, so I'll stick with them.
  
  
• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (476 pp.)
  first line (of the prologue): "London, April 1878. / The demon exploded in a shower of ichor and guts."
  first line (of the first chapter): "'The Sisters would like to see you in their chambers, Miss Gray.'"
  
  Meh. It's funny. This is the first Cassandra Clare book I bought (and having read the first line, how could I not buy it?), but decided to read the original Mortal Instruments trilogy first (given that Clockwork Angel is the first novel of a prequel trilogy). I ended up enjoying the Mortal Instruments books, and not thinking much of Clockwork Angel. Like The Mortal Instruments, this book had cookie-cutter characters, but they were, overall, less endearing. (I mean, sure, Jace a brooding bad boy, but Will is just a wanker. I really wish authors would stop modeling their male leads after Heathcliff.)
  
  Typically, when I have these types of issues with a book, I'll search online for affirmation that "it's not just me." And while some people liked the book, I noticed that many others also felt that it was sort of Mortal Instruments Lite. And in doing the search, I discovered the whole Cassandra Claire fanfic/plagiarism controversy, and now I'm not even sure I want to read her work anymore. C'est la vie du livres...?
  
  
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer VI: Retreat by Jane Espenson et al., with art by Georges Jeanty, et al. (graphic novel)

[Edited to remove Buffy review, which was actually intended for BtVS VII: Twilight. Oops. -- April 30, 2011 10:18 A.M.]