May '11 Book List
Followed up April's reading of all the "Ring of Fire" anthologies with rereading the shared world novels for the series in May. Starting with Eric Flint's 1632 and then Flint and David Weber's 1633 and 1634: The Baltic War...
Then a brief break to check out Ben Aaronovitch's Midnight Riot. Which is the start of an urban fantasy series set in London following a rookie half-North African rookie cop slash trainee wizard. The main villain in the debut is a rage-inducing mad ghost...
Then back to RoF with the Flint edited 1634: Ram Rebellion anthology and the Flint/Andrew Dennis Papal States books 1634: the Gallileo Affair and 1635: the Cannon Law...
And then back to Aaronovitch again. His second book Moon Over Soho with jazz-obsessed spirits, vindictive river godlings and a secret magical cabal from the 70s. I'm really digging this series. Very dry British wit combined with some truly horrible violence and horror...
But then more of the Grantville time travelers. Flint and Virginia DeMarce's 1634: the Bavarian Crisis and 1635: the Dreeson Incident, Demarce alone on Tangled Webs and finally Flint soloing 1635: the Eastern Front and 1636: the Saxon Uprising...
After that I got to some ongoing series. The latest from Charlaine Harris', Dead Reckoning. Where one of Sookie's various old foes (or maybe someone new) attempts to burn down Merlotte's. Plus fucked up vampire politics thanks to King of Nevada's take-over of the Louisana territory. Which does lead to a confrontation whose centerpiece is a return of Bubba. Not having brain-damaged Elvis in the tv series is the one change I'm most unhappy with about "True Blood"...
Then more time travel. This time with Connie Willis Blackout. A middle book to the academic time traveler series that started with To Say Nothing of the Dog. Excellent look at the London Blitz from the perspective of three different trapped undercover historians...
And then got to E.E. Knight's Winter Duty. I never understand why the roommate dislikes this series set in a post-apocalypse Earth. Or William Dietz' "Legion of the Dammned". Both have basically evolved into slightly modified milspec fiction. And he enjoys that genre with Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40k stuff or Bernard Cornwell. Oh well, Winter Duty has Valentine struggling to keep his unit of former Quisling troops active after a change in government leaves them out in the cold...
Next I tried out another book of the roommates, from the giant pile of stuff he bought practically blind. Gods of Manhattan by Al Ewing is a pulpish bit of alt history with expies of Doc Savage (Doc Thunder), the Shadow (Blood-Spider) and Zorro (El Sombra). Fairly enjoyable book full of secret Nazi/criminal groups, somewhat steampunk-ish modern trappings and over-the-top heroes and villains. Though I'll admit to be somewhat ashamed at how long it took me to figure out who deceased vigilante the Blue Ghost was an homage to. Especially with his former sidekick, Japanese street kid turned cop Weston East...
I am proud to say that I read Terry Pratchett and Bernard Parson's the Discworld Almanac - the Year of the Prawn as it (and all almanacs) was meant to be read. Over a month, when on the toilet...
Finished up the month with another pair of ongoing urban fantasy series entries. Kat Richardson's Vanished where her Greywalker lead ends up in London dealing with crazy vampire infighting. It is nice to see the occasional series in this genre where the vamps aren't misunderstood angsty dark angels. But just various styling of total fucking bastards...
The other and final book was Mark del Franco's Uncertain Allies. I like the sereis. But I occasionally wonder about the magical groups in the world who aren't based on Celtic or Teutonic folklore. Are they all just smart enough not to get exiled back to the human world or something? I mean given the arrogant idiocy of the leadership of the Celtic Faeries and German Elves I can see not being willing to have anything to do with anything they've touched...
Total books: 20
Then a brief break to check out Ben Aaronovitch's Midnight Riot. Which is the start of an urban fantasy series set in London following a rookie half-North African rookie cop slash trainee wizard. The main villain in the debut is a rage-inducing mad ghost...
Then back to RoF with the Flint edited 1634: Ram Rebellion anthology and the Flint/Andrew Dennis Papal States books 1634: the Gallileo Affair and 1635: the Cannon Law...
And then back to Aaronovitch again. His second book Moon Over Soho with jazz-obsessed spirits, vindictive river godlings and a secret magical cabal from the 70s. I'm really digging this series. Very dry British wit combined with some truly horrible violence and horror...
But then more of the Grantville time travelers. Flint and Virginia DeMarce's 1634: the Bavarian Crisis and 1635: the Dreeson Incident, Demarce alone on Tangled Webs and finally Flint soloing 1635: the Eastern Front and 1636: the Saxon Uprising...
After that I got to some ongoing series. The latest from Charlaine Harris', Dead Reckoning. Where one of Sookie's various old foes (or maybe someone new) attempts to burn down Merlotte's. Plus fucked up vampire politics thanks to King of Nevada's take-over of the Louisana territory. Which does lead to a confrontation whose centerpiece is a return of Bubba. Not having brain-damaged Elvis in the tv series is the one change I'm most unhappy with about "True Blood"...
Then more time travel. This time with Connie Willis Blackout. A middle book to the academic time traveler series that started with To Say Nothing of the Dog. Excellent look at the London Blitz from the perspective of three different trapped undercover historians...
And then got to E.E. Knight's Winter Duty. I never understand why the roommate dislikes this series set in a post-apocalypse Earth. Or William Dietz' "Legion of the Dammned". Both have basically evolved into slightly modified milspec fiction. And he enjoys that genre with Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40k stuff or Bernard Cornwell. Oh well, Winter Duty has Valentine struggling to keep his unit of former Quisling troops active after a change in government leaves them out in the cold...
Next I tried out another book of the roommates, from the giant pile of stuff he bought practically blind. Gods of Manhattan by Al Ewing is a pulpish bit of alt history with expies of Doc Savage (Doc Thunder), the Shadow (Blood-Spider) and Zorro (El Sombra). Fairly enjoyable book full of secret Nazi/criminal groups, somewhat steampunk-ish modern trappings and over-the-top heroes and villains. Though I'll admit to be somewhat ashamed at how long it took me to figure out who deceased vigilante the Blue Ghost was an homage to. Especially with his former sidekick, Japanese street kid turned cop Weston East...
I am proud to say that I read Terry Pratchett and Bernard Parson's the Discworld Almanac - the Year of the Prawn as it (and all almanacs) was meant to be read. Over a month, when on the toilet...
Finished up the month with another pair of ongoing urban fantasy series entries. Kat Richardson's Vanished where her Greywalker lead ends up in London dealing with crazy vampire infighting. It is nice to see the occasional series in this genre where the vamps aren't misunderstood angsty dark angels. But just various styling of total fucking bastards...
The other and final book was Mark del Franco's Uncertain Allies. I like the sereis. But I occasionally wonder about the magical groups in the world who aren't based on Celtic or Teutonic folklore. Are they all just smart enough not to get exiled back to the human world or something? I mean given the arrogant idiocy of the leadership of the Celtic Faeries and German Elves I can see not being willing to have anything to do with anything they've touched...
Total books: 20