November '10 Book List
I started the month rereading Jane Lindskold's Dragon of Despair, the third book in her "Through Wolf's Eyes" series, finishing it up on the 3rd. Then book 4 Wolf Captured on the 9th, book 5 Wolf Hunting on the 14th and finishing up the series with Wolf's Blood on the 21st. I have to say that I enjoy the final book more each time I reread it. For those who've forgotten, the series centers around Firekeeper, a human raised by wolves. Well Royal Wolves, who are fully sapient wolves that are part of a Royal Beast culture that lived hidden from the human kingdoms until Firekeeper is found...
Then on the 6th was both the most recent "Ring of Fire" e-book anthology, Grantville Gazette 32, edited by Paula Goodlett, and a new "Garrett Files" from Glen Cook, Gilden Latten Bones. The latter ends up going in an unexpected direction in regards to fantasy/pulp P.I. Garrett's personal life...
By the 10th, the once-and-current roommate had started bringing over his stuff to move in. Which meant pillaging each other's libraries for new books. Letting me finish Lois McMaster Bujold's Cryoburn and Steven Brust's Iorich. This "Vlad Taltos" book from Brust actually seems to follow chronologically right after the last. Which is kind of weird for that series. The book itself has Vlad working within the Imperial justice system to help clear one of his crazy House of the Dragon friends. Bujold's latest "Miles Vorkosigan" is an entertaining read but probably wouldn't have been more than middle of the pack for the series until the end. Where LMB just emotionally devastates me with a series of fucking drabbles...
On the 15th I finished Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowkski's The Last Wish the first in his "The Witcher" series. This first book is a series of stories about a monster hunter in a grimngritty fantasy world that also is full of re-imagined fairy tales. Some of which are fairly clever, like "the Beauty & the Beast" one. But honestly if I wanted to follow the adventures of a broody, total bad-ass, near-unstoppable killer I'd be reading Wolverine comics...
After that I decided to check out S. Andrew Swann aka Steven Krane aka S. A. Swiniarski. Starting with his furry cyberpunk series "Moreau". Where various world governments had created armies of bio-engineered animal hybrid soldiers in what is essentially WW3. Finished Forests of the Night on the 16th, Emperors of the Twilight and Specters of the Dawn on the 17th and finally Fearful Symmetries: the Return of Nohar Rajasthan on the 18th. The first and last are centered around 2nd-generation tiger Moreau Nohar (though he makes appearances in the other two) who works a P.I. The second follows an engineered human cyborg (or Frankenstein) and the third a former gangbanger Moreau bunny-girl. Good books, though the roommate was actually shocked when I referred to them as furry cyberpunk...
Also from Swann were a pair of World of Magic Merges With Real World books. In them a giant magic gate opens in Cleveland, allowing travel between the two worlds. The lead character in them is a political beat reporter, which is actual a nice change from the regular P.Is, cops and wizards for urban fantasy series. I finished the Dragons of the Cuyahoga on the 29th and the Dwarves of Whiskey Island on the 3oth...
On the 23rd I finished up Mark del Franco's Unperfect Souls, 4th in his "Connor Grey" books. This is like the previous series in being an urban fantasy setting where the world of Fairy has partially merged with the regular world. With the lead being a screwed up druid (aka wizard) who used to be a power and mover in the Fairy government but is now a scruffy investigator who helps the local cops. Enjoyable and del Franco is one of my favorites among the 2nd or 3rd tier writers in the urban fantasy sub-genre...
Next on the 24th was a new (or at least new to me) Pratchett non-fiction book. The Folklore of the Discword by Sir Pterry and Jacqueline Simpson explores the connection between the Discworld setting and actual folklore. Not as good as the Science of Discworld books, but still both enjoyable and informative...
On the 27th I finished Cherie Priest's Dreadnought a sequel to her excellent Boneshaker. This book has more of her "Clcokwork Century" steampunk setting, with nurse Mercy Lynch leaving a Confederate hospital after she learns of the death of her Union husband at the Andersonville military camp to journey across the country to meet with her long-absent father, now seriously ill up near Seattle. Both books would still make for great sources for Deadlands players and Marshals...
And I finish out the month with the 2nd to last "Spenser" series, Painted Ladies, by the late, great Robert Parker. Spenser is hired to help deliver a ransom for a stolen painting that ends with the professor making the exchange dead from a bomb. And when Spenser goes to work tracking down the thieves he unravels a knot of lies, murder and theft leading back to WW2 and the Nazi death camps...
Total books: 19
Then on the 6th was both the most recent "Ring of Fire" e-book anthology, Grantville Gazette 32, edited by Paula Goodlett, and a new "Garrett Files" from Glen Cook, Gilden Latten Bones. The latter ends up going in an unexpected direction in regards to fantasy/pulp P.I. Garrett's personal life...
By the 10th, the once-and-current roommate had started bringing over his stuff to move in. Which meant pillaging each other's libraries for new books. Letting me finish Lois McMaster Bujold's Cryoburn and Steven Brust's Iorich. This "Vlad Taltos" book from Brust actually seems to follow chronologically right after the last. Which is kind of weird for that series. The book itself has Vlad working within the Imperial justice system to help clear one of his crazy House of the Dragon friends. Bujold's latest "Miles Vorkosigan" is an entertaining read but probably wouldn't have been more than middle of the pack for the series until the end. Where LMB just emotionally devastates me with a series of fucking drabbles...
On the 15th I finished Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowkski's The Last Wish the first in his "The Witcher" series. This first book is a series of stories about a monster hunter in a grimngritty fantasy world that also is full of re-imagined fairy tales. Some of which are fairly clever, like "the Beauty & the Beast" one. But honestly if I wanted to follow the adventures of a broody, total bad-ass, near-unstoppable killer I'd be reading Wolverine comics...
After that I decided to check out S. Andrew Swann aka Steven Krane aka S. A. Swiniarski. Starting with his furry cyberpunk series "Moreau". Where various world governments had created armies of bio-engineered animal hybrid soldiers in what is essentially WW3. Finished Forests of the Night on the 16th, Emperors of the Twilight and Specters of the Dawn on the 17th and finally Fearful Symmetries: the Return of Nohar Rajasthan on the 18th. The first and last are centered around 2nd-generation tiger Moreau Nohar (though he makes appearances in the other two) who works a P.I. The second follows an engineered human cyborg (or Frankenstein) and the third a former gangbanger Moreau bunny-girl. Good books, though the roommate was actually shocked when I referred to them as furry cyberpunk...
Also from Swann were a pair of World of Magic Merges With Real World books. In them a giant magic gate opens in Cleveland, allowing travel between the two worlds. The lead character in them is a political beat reporter, which is actual a nice change from the regular P.Is, cops and wizards for urban fantasy series. I finished the Dragons of the Cuyahoga on the 29th and the Dwarves of Whiskey Island on the 3oth...
On the 23rd I finished up Mark del Franco's Unperfect Souls, 4th in his "Connor Grey" books. This is like the previous series in being an urban fantasy setting where the world of Fairy has partially merged with the regular world. With the lead being a screwed up druid (aka wizard) who used to be a power and mover in the Fairy government but is now a scruffy investigator who helps the local cops. Enjoyable and del Franco is one of my favorites among the 2nd or 3rd tier writers in the urban fantasy sub-genre...
Next on the 24th was a new (or at least new to me) Pratchett non-fiction book. The Folklore of the Discword by Sir Pterry and Jacqueline Simpson explores the connection between the Discworld setting and actual folklore. Not as good as the Science of Discworld books, but still both enjoyable and informative...
On the 27th I finished Cherie Priest's Dreadnought a sequel to her excellent Boneshaker. This book has more of her "Clcokwork Century" steampunk setting, with nurse Mercy Lynch leaving a Confederate hospital after she learns of the death of her Union husband at the Andersonville military camp to journey across the country to meet with her long-absent father, now seriously ill up near Seattle. Both books would still make for great sources for Deadlands players and Marshals...
And I finish out the month with the 2nd to last "Spenser" series, Painted Ladies, by the late, great Robert Parker. Spenser is hired to help deliver a ransom for a stolen painting that ends with the professor making the exchange dead from a bomb. And when Spenser goes to work tracking down the thieves he unravels a knot of lies, murder and theft leading back to WW2 and the Nazi death camps...
Total books: 19