August '12 Book List
Lets squeeze the August list in just under the wire. Again. Starting with Ben Aaronovitch's newest "Rivers of London" book Whispers Underground. I do so enjoy this sereies with its mix of humour, police procedural and urban fantasy. This time around the copper/wizards are investigating the murder of a U.S. Senator's son in the London Underground...
The second scifi book by Michael McCloskey, Trilisk AI, is still pretty good. Though not without some annoying flaws. He uses the "characters training for a mission in VR" a bit too much. And what should be a major part of the end climax happens basically off-screen...
Three Jim Hines books in August. First a collection of his short stories, Kitemaster & Other Stories. The titular story, with pseudo-Chinese air elemental wizards with kite familiars was especially good. Then one of his earliest books, Goldfish Dreams which draws from Hines work with teens, is a non-fantasy story about a college freshman dealing with the sexual abuse she suffered from her older brother as a child. Along with the regular life-changes of living away from home for the first time. And finally Libriomancer, Hines' new urban fantasy about wizards who withdraw pretty much anything from books...
After the roommate introduced me to Ilona Andrews and their "Kate Daniels" books I then ended up grabbing the three books from their "Edge" series; On the Edge, Bayou Moon and Fate's Edge. Where the setting has the mundane world, the magic world and a mixed-world between the two. After the first book, each books seems to have a secondary male character from the previous book acting as joint protagonist and romantic interest for a new female protagonist. A little bit formulaic, but still fun and I'm interested to see if the basic trend continues with the next book drops in November. Also from the Andrews' in August was the most recent "Kate Daniels" Gunmetal Magic. Though its actually about Kate's best friend and partner Andrea Nash, werehyena gun-bunny. She and her ex-boyfriend have to work together investigating multiple murders at a reclamation site that leads to a war between ancient gods...
Courier Ryb by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, is a pair of short stories for their Liaden scifi setting. Though the second short adds more to the setting, I'd say I liked the titular first story a bit more...
I forget whose short story was the reason I picked up Westward Weird, edited by Martin Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, but its a good collection. With various Western steampunk/fantasy/zombie mash-ups...
Noah Chinn is a long-time internet friend, from way back in time to my Kenzerco Forum days. So I was more than willing to grab his two e-books just for that. And happily both are pretty darn good. Trooper #4 is what seems to be an actual original twist on the zombie apocalypse sub-genre. And Bleedig Heart Yard manages that perfect balancing act for an urban fantasy between horror and humour...
Col Buchanan's Farlander is a more than competently written and put together series. And its story about a prince of an evil empire marked for death by religious assassins after killing a woman under their protection is interesting enough. But the theocratic evil empire is a bit too Chaotic Evil super-crazy and super-evil for me to buy that they would become a world conquering threat...
Another anthology, this time Tanya Huff's February Thaw. Several good stories here, including a "Victoria Nelson"/"Smoke and" tie-in tale...
Got around to the Mira Grant prequel novella Countdown. Which follows the start of her zombie "Newsflesh" series. And for the simple phrase "goggie" Sean McGuire will pay. And not because it made me cry. Which it didn't. At all. And no one can prove otherwise...
And in between all this new book reading, took a pause to reread Martin Millar's Curse of the Wolf Girl. Because I can always use some werewolf and fire elemental family drama. Plus I always want to give super-emo, super-deadly Kalix MacRinnalch a hug. A very careful hug...
the Way to Glory is David Drake's 4th "Lt. Leary" book. Good stuff for those looking for "Master & Commander" in space...
With Labyrinth, I finally get back to Kat Richardson, with 5th book in her "Greywalker" books. Lead Harper Blaine is back from London and has to scramble to protect her friends from being caught between warring vampires. With both sides looking to make use of her ghost-world influencing powers...
Mur Lafferty's Playing for Keeps isn't the best supers book. Its probably not even in my top twenty. To be fair I've been reading a LOT of prose supers lately. But her story about 2nd-rate supers banding together against crazy super-villains and corrupt "heroes" is still pretty enjoyable and her good guys are more than likeable...
Paolo Bacigalupi's fantasy novella the Alchmemist is a nice break from his usual dystopian future. Not that there isn't plenty of dystopia in his setting where using magic now accelerates the growth of a kind of poisonous, thorny kudzu plant...
I don't know what it was about Claire DeWitt & the City of the Dead by Sara Gran that made me put it down after only a half-dozen chapters. Maybe it was the overly detached and generally unpleasant lead...
On the other hand Kate Elliot's latest fantasy false-history "Spiritwalker" series is easily my new favorite thing from her. I just devoured the first two books, Cold Magic and Cold Fire and am eagerly awaiting the third sometime next year...
From that lots of supers pile, next up is James Maxey's Nobody Gets the Girl. The lead, Richard Rogers, is someone who has become nearly totally unnoticeable, after a time travel incident mostly writes him out of existence. Which makes him an ideal agent for heroic super-scientist Dr. Know...
Lee Goldberg is a television and print mystery writer with a large back list. His King City was an impulse buy from a Daily Deal offer. And its a pretty good book, about a too ethical for his own good cop who gets assigned to the city's worst section with little to no back-up after taking down his own squad for being corrupt. Though I think the end is a bit rushed as Goldberg hurries to tie up several different plot threads...
Hugh Howey's Wool is a very interesting take on a post-apocalyptic setting. With several mysteries, power-mad bad guys and even some romance...
Barbara Hambly's the Time of the Dark is a nice variant on the "real" Earth people drawn into magical world trope. While I do wonder if maybe her two "regular" heroes adapt a little fast to their new setting I did like it enough that at some point I'll grab the next book in the series...
Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon is a finely-crafted, stand-alone fantasy. But one that could easily be the set-up for a larger series. Plus its always good to get a fantasy series that doesn't draw at all from a Euro-centric background...
And finally for the month Maps & Legends a collection of essays by Michael Chabon on storytelling, history and religion...
Total books: 30
The second scifi book by Michael McCloskey, Trilisk AI, is still pretty good. Though not without some annoying flaws. He uses the "characters training for a mission in VR" a bit too much. And what should be a major part of the end climax happens basically off-screen...
Three Jim Hines books in August. First a collection of his short stories, Kitemaster & Other Stories. The titular story, with pseudo-Chinese air elemental wizards with kite familiars was especially good. Then one of his earliest books, Goldfish Dreams which draws from Hines work with teens, is a non-fantasy story about a college freshman dealing with the sexual abuse she suffered from her older brother as a child. Along with the regular life-changes of living away from home for the first time. And finally Libriomancer, Hines' new urban fantasy about wizards who withdraw pretty much anything from books...
After the roommate introduced me to Ilona Andrews and their "Kate Daniels" books I then ended up grabbing the three books from their "Edge" series; On the Edge, Bayou Moon and Fate's Edge. Where the setting has the mundane world, the magic world and a mixed-world between the two. After the first book, each books seems to have a secondary male character from the previous book acting as joint protagonist and romantic interest for a new female protagonist. A little bit formulaic, but still fun and I'm interested to see if the basic trend continues with the next book drops in November. Also from the Andrews' in August was the most recent "Kate Daniels" Gunmetal Magic. Though its actually about Kate's best friend and partner Andrea Nash, werehyena gun-bunny. She and her ex-boyfriend have to work together investigating multiple murders at a reclamation site that leads to a war between ancient gods...
Courier Ryb by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, is a pair of short stories for their Liaden scifi setting. Though the second short adds more to the setting, I'd say I liked the titular first story a bit more...
I forget whose short story was the reason I picked up Westward Weird, edited by Martin Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, but its a good collection. With various Western steampunk/fantasy/zombie mash-ups...
Noah Chinn is a long-time internet friend, from way back in time to my Kenzerco Forum days. So I was more than willing to grab his two e-books just for that. And happily both are pretty darn good. Trooper #4 is what seems to be an actual original twist on the zombie apocalypse sub-genre. And Bleedig Heart Yard manages that perfect balancing act for an urban fantasy between horror and humour...
Col Buchanan's Farlander is a more than competently written and put together series. And its story about a prince of an evil empire marked for death by religious assassins after killing a woman under their protection is interesting enough. But the theocratic evil empire is a bit too Chaotic Evil super-crazy and super-evil for me to buy that they would become a world conquering threat...
Another anthology, this time Tanya Huff's February Thaw. Several good stories here, including a "Victoria Nelson"/"Smoke and" tie-in tale...
Got around to the Mira Grant prequel novella Countdown. Which follows the start of her zombie "Newsflesh" series. And for the simple phrase "goggie" Sean McGuire will pay. And not because it made me cry. Which it didn't. At all. And no one can prove otherwise...
And in between all this new book reading, took a pause to reread Martin Millar's Curse of the Wolf Girl. Because I can always use some werewolf and fire elemental family drama. Plus I always want to give super-emo, super-deadly Kalix MacRinnalch a hug. A very careful hug...
the Way to Glory is David Drake's 4th "Lt. Leary" book. Good stuff for those looking for "Master & Commander" in space...
With Labyrinth, I finally get back to Kat Richardson, with 5th book in her "Greywalker" books. Lead Harper Blaine is back from London and has to scramble to protect her friends from being caught between warring vampires. With both sides looking to make use of her ghost-world influencing powers...
Mur Lafferty's Playing for Keeps isn't the best supers book. Its probably not even in my top twenty. To be fair I've been reading a LOT of prose supers lately. But her story about 2nd-rate supers banding together against crazy super-villains and corrupt "heroes" is still pretty enjoyable and her good guys are more than likeable...
Paolo Bacigalupi's fantasy novella the Alchmemist is a nice break from his usual dystopian future. Not that there isn't plenty of dystopia in his setting where using magic now accelerates the growth of a kind of poisonous, thorny kudzu plant...
I don't know what it was about Claire DeWitt & the City of the Dead by Sara Gran that made me put it down after only a half-dozen chapters. Maybe it was the overly detached and generally unpleasant lead...
On the other hand Kate Elliot's latest fantasy false-history "Spiritwalker" series is easily my new favorite thing from her. I just devoured the first two books, Cold Magic and Cold Fire and am eagerly awaiting the third sometime next year...
From that lots of supers pile, next up is James Maxey's Nobody Gets the Girl. The lead, Richard Rogers, is someone who has become nearly totally unnoticeable, after a time travel incident mostly writes him out of existence. Which makes him an ideal agent for heroic super-scientist Dr. Know...
Lee Goldberg is a television and print mystery writer with a large back list. His King City was an impulse buy from a Daily Deal offer. And its a pretty good book, about a too ethical for his own good cop who gets assigned to the city's worst section with little to no back-up after taking down his own squad for being corrupt. Though I think the end is a bit rushed as Goldberg hurries to tie up several different plot threads...
Hugh Howey's Wool is a very interesting take on a post-apocalyptic setting. With several mysteries, power-mad bad guys and even some romance...
Barbara Hambly's the Time of the Dark is a nice variant on the "real" Earth people drawn into magical world trope. While I do wonder if maybe her two "regular" heroes adapt a little fast to their new setting I did like it enough that at some point I'll grab the next book in the series...
Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon is a finely-crafted, stand-alone fantasy. But one that could easily be the set-up for a larger series. Plus its always good to get a fantasy series that doesn't draw at all from a Euro-centric background...
And finally for the month Maps & Legends a collection of essays by Michael Chabon on storytelling, history and religion...
Total books: 30