December '12 Book List
And once again just beating out the end of the current month to write up the previous month. Started December with the newest "Iron Druid" from Kevin Hearne, Trapped and the final-for-now "Edger" book from Ilona Andrews, Steel's Edge. The former has Atticus attempting to finish up the investment of his Druid apprentice, while dealing with the vengeful and petty Greco-Roman pantheons as well as fufilling the weregild he owes to the Norse gods. The latter finishes up (at least for now) the Andrews' paranormal action/romance series...
Also early in the month was the latest "Stephanie Plum" book from Janet Evanovitch, Notorious Nineteen. This was probably the first time in awhile I didn't binge on a series reread before hand. I thought the previous book was showing a bit of a loss of energy for the series, but this one picked things back up a bit...
After that I started on the free e-version of Elizabeth Moon's Sheepfarmer's Daughter at work, only to find that Baen had trimmed down their free library by a bit when I went to add it to my Kindle the next day. Meaning I had to go with my very beat up paperback copy to finish...
After that was an older Cherie Priest story, Dreadful Skin involving river boats and gun toting nuns and werewolves...
Then I had a Bujold reread binge, brought on by a blog post over on Tor.com. Starting with Shards of Honor, Barrayar, Memory and a Civil Campaign. Then later in the month Cryoburn and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. And towards the end of the moth Diplomatic Immunity. The Ivan book is now tied with Cordelia's books on number of reads I think. Though a Civil Campaign is still slightly ahead...
And in between those two main blocks of Bujold were a few books. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling's After anthology. Which was a collection of dystopian and post-apocalyptic Young Adult stories. Then the newest "Harry Dresden" book by Jim Butcher, Cold Days. With the newly reborn Harry working as the Knight of Winter. Which ends with some major changes to the status quo. And finally started a "real" world people in a fantasy setting series by Mark Anthony of the roommates. Beyond the Pale introduces the pair of "normal" protagonists and the general set-up. This has been a set-up I thought I'd grown tired with, so I was pleasantly surprised to be drawn into this...
Next up after a Bujold block was Mathew Hughes' Costume Not Included, the second of his "To Hell and Back" books. Which adds several twists to its concept that the world is a Book being written (and occasionally rewritten) by God...
Then it was the e-book edition of Erik Russell's Wasp. A long out of print book I've been trying to track down for ages since seeing it recommended on Pratchett's Fantastic Fiction page. A bit dated, but still a very clever tale of espionage...
And speaking of Pratchett, we've got the annual holiday reading of Hogfather. And then a reread of Thief of Time 'cause I was wanting still more of Susan...
After that was another e-book, with the free edition of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. While there is more than a bit of dated attitudes going on, I was a bit pleasantly surprised to see it have a bi-racial romance and a lead who seemed to have Asperger's or the like...
Then I finally finished up Barry Hughart's The Chronicles of Master Li & Number 10 Ox omnibus. I'd been reading this collection of detective stories mashed-up with mystical ancient Chinese folk tales for quite some time. Excellent stuff, but thick and weighty...
Next was Glory Lane by Alan Dean Foster. It had been literally decades since I last read this one and I hadn't remembered how big a shallow twit both the main leads were. Still some funny bits and some good scifi high concepts...
And finally finished out the month with another dystopian YA anthology, Diverse Energies edited by Tobias S. Buckell and Joe Monti. The main hook here is in the diversity of the stories and writers; in regards to gender, race, sexuality and so forth...
Total Books: 23
Also early in the month was the latest "Stephanie Plum" book from Janet Evanovitch, Notorious Nineteen. This was probably the first time in awhile I didn't binge on a series reread before hand. I thought the previous book was showing a bit of a loss of energy for the series, but this one picked things back up a bit...
After that I started on the free e-version of Elizabeth Moon's Sheepfarmer's Daughter at work, only to find that Baen had trimmed down their free library by a bit when I went to add it to my Kindle the next day. Meaning I had to go with my very beat up paperback copy to finish...
After that was an older Cherie Priest story, Dreadful Skin involving river boats and gun toting nuns and werewolves...
Then I had a Bujold reread binge, brought on by a blog post over on Tor.com. Starting with Shards of Honor, Barrayar, Memory and a Civil Campaign. Then later in the month Cryoburn and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. And towards the end of the moth Diplomatic Immunity. The Ivan book is now tied with Cordelia's books on number of reads I think. Though a Civil Campaign is still slightly ahead...
And in between those two main blocks of Bujold were a few books. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling's After anthology. Which was a collection of dystopian and post-apocalyptic Young Adult stories. Then the newest "Harry Dresden" book by Jim Butcher, Cold Days. With the newly reborn Harry working as the Knight of Winter. Which ends with some major changes to the status quo. And finally started a "real" world people in a fantasy setting series by Mark Anthony of the roommates. Beyond the Pale introduces the pair of "normal" protagonists and the general set-up. This has been a set-up I thought I'd grown tired with, so I was pleasantly surprised to be drawn into this...
Next up after a Bujold block was Mathew Hughes' Costume Not Included, the second of his "To Hell and Back" books. Which adds several twists to its concept that the world is a Book being written (and occasionally rewritten) by God...
Then it was the e-book edition of Erik Russell's Wasp. A long out of print book I've been trying to track down for ages since seeing it recommended on Pratchett's Fantastic Fiction page. A bit dated, but still a very clever tale of espionage...
And speaking of Pratchett, we've got the annual holiday reading of Hogfather. And then a reread of Thief of Time 'cause I was wanting still more of Susan...
After that was another e-book, with the free edition of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. While there is more than a bit of dated attitudes going on, I was a bit pleasantly surprised to see it have a bi-racial romance and a lead who seemed to have Asperger's or the like...
Then I finally finished up Barry Hughart's The Chronicles of Master Li & Number 10 Ox omnibus. I'd been reading this collection of detective stories mashed-up with mystical ancient Chinese folk tales for quite some time. Excellent stuff, but thick and weighty...
Next was Glory Lane by Alan Dean Foster. It had been literally decades since I last read this one and I hadn't remembered how big a shallow twit both the main leads were. Still some funny bits and some good scifi high concepts...
And finally finished out the month with another dystopian YA anthology, Diverse Energies edited by Tobias S. Buckell and Joe Monti. The main hook here is in the diversity of the stories and writers; in regards to gender, race, sexuality and so forth...
Total Books: 23