The Next Five(ish) Books, physical fiction edition
If Mary Robinette Kowal's first book was Austen pastiche and the second was Sharpe's Glamourist, Without a Summer was her Dickens-flavored book. I think she's written herself into a corner with the way she's feeling out the edges of her world-building, but I'm sticking with the series for at least another book or two.
I think I heard about Mike Mignola's Baltimore: Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire from Fitocracy of all places and then I started reading it and kinda hated it. I never liked "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" to begin with. Then I read the ending and became curious about how it connected to the beginning and whatever happened to that character and then, er, I finished it. I should find another graphic novel to read this year, possibly on my fiance's shelf.
I lugged multiple books all over the Mediterranean with me, but flying back from Milan, I stole Ross Macdonald's Trouble Follows Me from Julian and finished it. I've been reading more mysteries since I started dating him, and this one was impressively racist and misogynist, but a decent pulp story otherwise.
I think it was Audible that recommended Kresley Cole's Kiss of a Demon King to me, and I find that somewhat embarrassing. It's the sixth in a series of fantasy romances with unusual worldbuilding and hot sex. I'd look for the others if I was in the mood, but it seems more productive to have sex than read about it.
I can't remember how I came upon Jon Courtenay Grimwood's The Fallen Blade, but it was the perfect companion to City of Fortune. It's fantasy set in an alt-history where Marco Polo's descendents become hereditary rulers of Venice. It's long and decadent and fantastical, kinda like the city itself and has a lot of flavor. It'd be great to read before heading to Venice, if that's your sort of thing, kinda like the movie Dangerous Beauty.
I think I heard about Mike Mignola's Baltimore: Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire from Fitocracy of all places and then I started reading it and kinda hated it. I never liked "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" to begin with. Then I read the ending and became curious about how it connected to the beginning and whatever happened to that character and then, er, I finished it. I should find another graphic novel to read this year, possibly on my fiance's shelf.
I lugged multiple books all over the Mediterranean with me, but flying back from Milan, I stole Ross Macdonald's Trouble Follows Me from Julian and finished it. I've been reading more mysteries since I started dating him, and this one was impressively racist and misogynist, but a decent pulp story otherwise.
I think it was Audible that recommended Kresley Cole's Kiss of a Demon King to me, and I find that somewhat embarrassing. It's the sixth in a series of fantasy romances with unusual worldbuilding and hot sex. I'd look for the others if I was in the mood, but it seems more productive to have sex than read about it.
I can't remember how I came upon Jon Courtenay Grimwood's The Fallen Blade, but it was the perfect companion to City of Fortune. It's fantasy set in an alt-history where Marco Polo's descendents become hereditary rulers of Venice. It's long and decadent and fantastical, kinda like the city itself and has a lot of flavor. It'd be great to read before heading to Venice, if that's your sort of thing, kinda like the movie Dangerous Beauty.