October '12 Book List
October is somewhat unusual in that I don't see a single reread on the relatively short list. Even Harry Harrison's The Works of Harry Harrison didn't include anything I'd already read. Not even the Stainless Steel Rat story which serves to introduce Jim deGriz' nemesis and future wife. Of the remainder, really only "Deathworld" truly stands out for me still...
Four new supers stories for October. Though Marion G. Harmon's Bite Me: Big Easy Nights is more an urban fantasy about a vampire character who previously appeared in a regular supers setting. Though I think any supers New Orleans ends up being the urban fantasy corner of that world. Also I'm not sure which I have more of, vampire-themed fiction titled "Bite Me" or "Life Sucks"...
Of the other three, Adam Christopher's 7 Wonders was a bit a dissapointing mess, though I did like some of the background character concepts that show up late in the book. Blake M. Petit's Other People's Heroes has the whole hero vs. villain thing having evolved into something faker than pro-wrestling, but it still manages to build a big heroic climax. And Mathew Hughes' the Damned Busters is worth a read if only for the lead. Who seems to be autisic, though somewhere on the high-function end. And it seems to help in his using an "accidental" demonic summoning to become a super-hero...
Two new "Honor-verse" books from Weber in October. First Shadow of Freedom was an eArc and part of the Talbott Cluster side-series. Enjoyable, but it feels like it cuts off nearer the middle of the story then the climax. Second, is the next YA "Stephanie Harrington" prequel Fire Season, co-written with Jane Lindskold. Manages to create a sense of danger using secondary characters, since fans of the setting already know its too soon for the leads to be under a real threat of dying...
With Downpour, I'm almost caught up with Kat Richardson's "Greywalker" series. I was happy that this one stepped away from the vampire related stuff to concentrate back on a more ghost/spirit-centric story...
Got to the newest of Jasper Fforde's "Thursday Next" books, the Woman Who Died a Lot. Very little BookWorld this go, with the story being centered around Thursday getting a new job, the consequences of time travel no longer being possible, an escaped memory-altering psycopath, illegal cloning and plotting by the Goliath Corp. Oh and the threat of God smiting the entire town...
I'd picked up the 2nd and 3rd "Nikki Heat" books, Naked Heat and Heat Rising on the cheap for my Kindle and finally got around to them. And then went and grabbed Frozen Heat. Enjoyable, if light-weight, mystery/police procedural stories. Much like the tv series they're sort of inspired by. I do still wonder who they tapped to ghost them...
Patrick Weekes' the Palace Job is a wonderfully fun "Ocean's 11" style caper story. With sword fighting and martial art masters and ancient artifacts and virgin-obsessed unicorns and more. All part of an attempt to break into an unbreakable vault on a floating island city...
I'm not even sure how I even found Rebecca Gable's Settlers of Catan novelization. But curiousty over the concept led to me getting a pretty darn good historical fiction story with a large group of Viking's working to colonize an out of the way and mostly undiscovered island...
And finished out October with a pair of David Drake's "Lt. Leary" books, Some Golden Harbor and When the Tide Rises. The first has newly made Commander Leary and Warrant Officer Adele Mundy tasked with stopping a planetary invasion with only the most limited of resources. The second has Leary, Mundy and their shipmates sent stiffen a rebellion of a group of worlds against their Alliance enemies. But the rebel leaders seem to be even more half-hearted in their drive to secede then was initially believed...
Total books: 16
Four new supers stories for October. Though Marion G. Harmon's Bite Me: Big Easy Nights is more an urban fantasy about a vampire character who previously appeared in a regular supers setting. Though I think any supers New Orleans ends up being the urban fantasy corner of that world. Also I'm not sure which I have more of, vampire-themed fiction titled "Bite Me" or "Life Sucks"...
Of the other three, Adam Christopher's 7 Wonders was a bit a dissapointing mess, though I did like some of the background character concepts that show up late in the book. Blake M. Petit's Other People's Heroes has the whole hero vs. villain thing having evolved into something faker than pro-wrestling, but it still manages to build a big heroic climax. And Mathew Hughes' the Damned Busters is worth a read if only for the lead. Who seems to be autisic, though somewhere on the high-function end. And it seems to help in his using an "accidental" demonic summoning to become a super-hero...
Two new "Honor-verse" books from Weber in October. First Shadow of Freedom was an eArc and part of the Talbott Cluster side-series. Enjoyable, but it feels like it cuts off nearer the middle of the story then the climax. Second, is the next YA "Stephanie Harrington" prequel Fire Season, co-written with Jane Lindskold. Manages to create a sense of danger using secondary characters, since fans of the setting already know its too soon for the leads to be under a real threat of dying...
With Downpour, I'm almost caught up with Kat Richardson's "Greywalker" series. I was happy that this one stepped away from the vampire related stuff to concentrate back on a more ghost/spirit-centric story...
Got to the newest of Jasper Fforde's "Thursday Next" books, the Woman Who Died a Lot. Very little BookWorld this go, with the story being centered around Thursday getting a new job, the consequences of time travel no longer being possible, an escaped memory-altering psycopath, illegal cloning and plotting by the Goliath Corp. Oh and the threat of God smiting the entire town...
I'd picked up the 2nd and 3rd "Nikki Heat" books, Naked Heat and Heat Rising on the cheap for my Kindle and finally got around to them. And then went and grabbed Frozen Heat. Enjoyable, if light-weight, mystery/police procedural stories. Much like the tv series they're sort of inspired by. I do still wonder who they tapped to ghost them...
Patrick Weekes' the Palace Job is a wonderfully fun "Ocean's 11" style caper story. With sword fighting and martial art masters and ancient artifacts and virgin-obsessed unicorns and more. All part of an attempt to break into an unbreakable vault on a floating island city...
I'm not even sure how I even found Rebecca Gable's Settlers of Catan novelization. But curiousty over the concept led to me getting a pretty darn good historical fiction story with a large group of Viking's working to colonize an out of the way and mostly undiscovered island...
And finished out October with a pair of David Drake's "Lt. Leary" books, Some Golden Harbor and When the Tide Rises. The first has newly made Commander Leary and Warrant Officer Adele Mundy tasked with stopping a planetary invasion with only the most limited of resources. The second has Leary, Mundy and their shipmates sent stiffen a rebellion of a group of worlds against their Alliance enemies. But the rebel leaders seem to be even more half-hearted in their drive to secede then was initially believed...
Total books: 16