not-so-weekly Wednesday Reading Meme
What are you currently reading
Murder in the Paperback Parlor by Ellery Adams. The second book in a mystery series about a woman who own a resort/retreat for booklovers, and whose family is secretly the caretakers of rare, secret and banned books. This one has a romance novel convention (it's not called that, really, but that's what it is) in which the most popular author is murdered. I MOSTLY really like it. I say mostly because one of the suspects is a feminist (who has a hitory of being abused) who has many many thoughts and feelings about romance novels and feminism, and that's mostly used to portray her as OTT and irrational. It's offset by having the main character point out defenses for the stance, but it still rubs me the wrong way. Also, the book is not editted that well and has a LOT of typos. My favorite is when some is said to have "died of a heroine overdose."
What did you recently finish reading?
Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Shattered Empire 1-4 by Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto. A mini-series set at the very end of and in the months after Return of the Jedi.
I guess even the main character's identity could be considered a spoiler for The Force Awakens?
Bless whoever decided that the best way to introduce Poe Dameron and establish a backstory for him was to make a comic book series about his rebel pilot mother and her adventures with the OT heroes.
Shara Bey is introduced almost shooting Luke down as everyone is fleeing the second Death Star, what with his being on an Imperial ship and all (I always wondered how he didn't get shot down, TBH...). I figure that, somewhere out there, BoycottStarWarsVII people are sobbing over a brown women being retconned into The Battle of Endor as an X-Wing pilot. Her husband, Kes Dameron, is part of Han's commando unit, and spends most of the series off on missions with Han. But he appears to be almost as great as his wife and I'm very sad that they're probably both dead in Episode VII.
The first issue takes place immediately after the battle and establishes the current situation of both the Empire and the rebellion. The second and third issues are about Shara and Leia on a mission to Naboo, where Leia has a force vision and they and the current Queen of Naboo fight an imperial starship. The last issue is Shara and Luke going off on a secret mission to recover branches of the tree that grew in the Jedi temple. (Why does Palpatine still have these? WHO KNOWS? Probably so Kylo Ren can dramatically kill one of them with a lightsaber, based on the trailers.)
Poe has already been born and is mentioned several times, but is never actually seen. Shara mentions that she's barely seen him since he was born, and that he lives with her father.
Seanan McGuire: A Red-Rose Chain. The latest October Daye book, which was truly impressive in its ability to have each chapter make the protagonist's 10 times as screwed as they were in the last chapter. For people who haven't read this but intend to, I should warn that this one dives into some horror and torture territory, and briefly teeters on the edge of becoming a slasher. (Err..."slasher" as in "subcategory of horror genre," not shipping. Though there is some of that too.)
-A lot of important things happened here, but I have to confess that every book that doesn't have more about Amandine just makes me a little bit bitter. Finding out anything about September except that she exists and is missing is right up there.
-In a certain, way, having May get elfshot kind of confirmed that they'd find a cure by the end of the book. It upped the stakes a lot (not that they weren't already high) but as willing as McGuire is to have horrible things happen to Toby, keeping May in a 10 year coma is a little past the limits of what I think she'll but Toby through. (Though all bets are off once McGuire decides to end the series.)
-Quentin/Dean has the potential to be very cute, but also the potential to have a lot of political ramifications.
-Anyone else think Arden completely set Toby up? I mean, Toby figures out that Arden had put morethought than it seemed in sending Toby to Silences, but I think it's more than that. I think she ran because she knew that Toby would be the one to chase her down, and would be angry enough to to do something deserve punishment, which would take away Toby's chances to object.
-I missed Raj, Chelsea, The Luidaeg and Etienne in this book. Not that I would want Raj or especially Chelsea anywhere near that mess. (The other two would have been...quite useful, at least once Etienne has his powers back.)
Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry: : Star Wars: Moving Target: A novella about Leia, set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It's bookended with scenes of Leia sometime not long before before The Force Awakens. Pretty much, after EOTS, Leia goes "Ok, collection of strapping sidekicks, go find my boyfriend! I have to help run this rebellion. Luke, please don't lose any more bodyparts. Lando, don't forget that Chewie has my permission to rip off your arm and beat you to death with it if you betray us again. Chewie, don't rip off anyone's arms unless it's necessary. I'm not too worried about you, you're the most responsible one of the bunch."
Most of the plot involves Leia being sent out as a decoy to distract the empire while the Rebel Armada gathers for the assault on the second Death Star, but there's also a lot of emphasis on Leia as both a symbol of hope and a politician, and how much both can weigh on a person. It pretty much assumes that (A) anyone reading already thinks Leia is great and (B) everyonereading assumes most people in the canon think the same.
The epilogue does imply one interesting (and possibly sad) thing about The Force Awakens.
Poe Dameron is mentioned but not seen (Apparently a common thing in the leadin Star Wars stuff!) and his brief mention would seem to imply that Shara Bey and Kez Dameron's peaceful retirement didn't last long. The way Leia mentions him is the way you talk about your own kid, or a younger relative/ward who's wellbeing you're in charge of, not the kid of an old friend you're keeping a casual eye on now that he works for you.
My current theory is that Rey is Leia's daughter (or Luke's I guess) who was hidden with the Damerons. Something happened and the Damerons moved her to Jakka (Jaffa? Too lazy to check) but died before they could tell anyone where to find her, and Leia took in the then-probably-teenaged Poe.
I'm probably wrong, but theorizing is a great hobby.
Norihiro Yagi: Claymore Vol 22-27. This marks the 3rd shounen series I've stuck with from beginning to end (the other two being Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai Deeper Kyo). I remember when Viz released the first volume and I was figuratively shoving it in everyone's faces.
So, that's where things ended? I was hoping they'd take the war to the mainland and deal with the powers behind the organization tp make sure they don't try this again? But I guess "get off our island nd don't come back" works.
So, uhm, are the Calymores pretty much immortal now? Pretty much all that can kill them is the youma, and other Claymores, who only kill them if they're about to awaken, and they don't seem to age much once they reach adulthood. There won't be any youma or Awakened Ones around for long, and so no reason for anyone to Awaken.
Claire's Awakened form is Teresa and Teresa's Awakwned form is pretty much a goddess. APPROVED.
All the new generation Claymores showing up gave me such strong vibes fo the big battle at the end of the first arc that I was expecting everyone to die again. So happy for a relatively low bodycount.
As much as I approve of Claire going to Irene, I kind of expected her epilogue with Raki to be their going back to all the little girls Raki pretty much promised to adopt.
Where will I ever again find a shounen action series with low levels of fanservice and a near endless supply of female warriors with names and signature moves and powerups?
Sarah Prineas: Ash and Bramble. Sold as a twisted version of fairytales in which the amnesiac main character is one of many slaves of the Fairy godmother from fairy tales, forced to create all the clothes and slippers and items that populate fairy tales. This is a good description of the frist arc, but what the book ACTUALLY is is deconstructive meta about fairytales, perception of roles (and rejection of assigned roles) and stories and a pretty dark and messed up take on the idea of Story As Character. It's kind of Ever After High's concept taken to its worst extremes, in terms of how it affects characters. Becasuse of how its set up, characterization can be a bit inconsistent or absent at times, but it's a conscious narrative choice, as opposed to bad writing. I don't think it hit every note it thought it did. But it was a lot more than I was expecting, and a good read.
I read a bit of the Lando comic, but apparently Lando is like Han Solo where, while I quite like him with the rest of the cast, I'm not really interested in him when he's away from them and in full pre-reformed smarmy conartist mode. His Rebels appearances are as close to that as I'm interested in.
What do you think you'll read next?
More Star Wars stuff, probably, and I have a bunch of mysteries and YA/MG books checked out, so those. Not sure beyond that.
Murder in the Paperback Parlor by Ellery Adams. The second book in a mystery series about a woman who own a resort/retreat for booklovers, and whose family is secretly the caretakers of rare, secret and banned books. This one has a romance novel convention (it's not called that, really, but that's what it is) in which the most popular author is murdered. I MOSTLY really like it. I say mostly because one of the suspects is a feminist (who has a hitory of being abused) who has many many thoughts and feelings about romance novels and feminism, and that's mostly used to portray her as OTT and irrational. It's offset by having the main character point out defenses for the stance, but it still rubs me the wrong way. Also, the book is not editted that well and has a LOT of typos. My favorite is when some is said to have "died of a heroine overdose."
What did you recently finish reading?
Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Shattered Empire 1-4 by Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto. A mini-series set at the very end of and in the months after Return of the Jedi.
I guess even the main character's identity could be considered a spoiler for The Force Awakens?
Bless whoever decided that the best way to introduce Poe Dameron and establish a backstory for him was to make a comic book series about his rebel pilot mother and her adventures with the OT heroes.
Shara Bey is introduced almost shooting Luke down as everyone is fleeing the second Death Star, what with his being on an Imperial ship and all (I always wondered how he didn't get shot down, TBH...). I figure that, somewhere out there, BoycottStarWarsVII people are sobbing over a brown women being retconned into The Battle of Endor as an X-Wing pilot. Her husband, Kes Dameron, is part of Han's commando unit, and spends most of the series off on missions with Han. But he appears to be almost as great as his wife and I'm very sad that they're probably both dead in Episode VII.
The first issue takes place immediately after the battle and establishes the current situation of both the Empire and the rebellion. The second and third issues are about Shara and Leia on a mission to Naboo, where Leia has a force vision and they and the current Queen of Naboo fight an imperial starship. The last issue is Shara and Luke going off on a secret mission to recover branches of the tree that grew in the Jedi temple. (Why does Palpatine still have these? WHO KNOWS? Probably so Kylo Ren can dramatically kill one of them with a lightsaber, based on the trailers.)
Poe has already been born and is mentioned several times, but is never actually seen. Shara mentions that she's barely seen him since he was born, and that he lives with her father.
Seanan McGuire: A Red-Rose Chain. The latest October Daye book, which was truly impressive in its ability to have each chapter make the protagonist's 10 times as screwed as they were in the last chapter. For people who haven't read this but intend to, I should warn that this one dives into some horror and torture territory, and briefly teeters on the edge of becoming a slasher. (Err..."slasher" as in "subcategory of horror genre," not shipping. Though there is some of that too.)
-A lot of important things happened here, but I have to confess that every book that doesn't have more about Amandine just makes me a little bit bitter. Finding out anything about September except that she exists and is missing is right up there.
-In a certain, way, having May get elfshot kind of confirmed that they'd find a cure by the end of the book. It upped the stakes a lot (not that they weren't already high) but as willing as McGuire is to have horrible things happen to Toby, keeping May in a 10 year coma is a little past the limits of what I think she'll but Toby through. (Though all bets are off once McGuire decides to end the series.)
-Quentin/Dean has the potential to be very cute, but also the potential to have a lot of political ramifications.
-Anyone else think Arden completely set Toby up? I mean, Toby figures out that Arden had put morethought than it seemed in sending Toby to Silences, but I think it's more than that. I think she ran because she knew that Toby would be the one to chase her down, and would be angry enough to to do something deserve punishment, which would take away Toby's chances to object.
-I missed Raj, Chelsea, The Luidaeg and Etienne in this book. Not that I would want Raj or especially Chelsea anywhere near that mess. (The other two would have been...quite useful, at least once Etienne has his powers back.)
Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry: : Star Wars: Moving Target: A novella about Leia, set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It's bookended with scenes of Leia sometime not long before before The Force Awakens. Pretty much, after EOTS, Leia goes "Ok, collection of strapping sidekicks, go find my boyfriend! I have to help run this rebellion. Luke, please don't lose any more bodyparts. Lando, don't forget that Chewie has my permission to rip off your arm and beat you to death with it if you betray us again. Chewie, don't rip off anyone's arms unless it's necessary. I'm not too worried about you, you're the most responsible one of the bunch."
Most of the plot involves Leia being sent out as a decoy to distract the empire while the Rebel Armada gathers for the assault on the second Death Star, but there's also a lot of emphasis on Leia as both a symbol of hope and a politician, and how much both can weigh on a person. It pretty much assumes that (A) anyone reading already thinks Leia is great and (B) everyonereading assumes most people in the canon think the same.
The epilogue does imply one interesting (and possibly sad) thing about The Force Awakens.
Poe Dameron is mentioned but not seen (Apparently a common thing in the leadin Star Wars stuff!) and his brief mention would seem to imply that Shara Bey and Kez Dameron's peaceful retirement didn't last long. The way Leia mentions him is the way you talk about your own kid, or a younger relative/ward who's wellbeing you're in charge of, not the kid of an old friend you're keeping a casual eye on now that he works for you.
My current theory is that Rey is Leia's daughter (or Luke's I guess) who was hidden with the Damerons. Something happened and the Damerons moved her to Jakka (Jaffa? Too lazy to check) but died before they could tell anyone where to find her, and Leia took in the then-probably-teenaged Poe.
I'm probably wrong, but theorizing is a great hobby.
Norihiro Yagi: Claymore Vol 22-27. This marks the 3rd shounen series I've stuck with from beginning to end (the other two being Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai Deeper Kyo). I remember when Viz released the first volume and I was figuratively shoving it in everyone's faces.
So, that's where things ended? I was hoping they'd take the war to the mainland and deal with the powers behind the organization tp make sure they don't try this again? But I guess "get off our island nd don't come back" works.
So, uhm, are the Calymores pretty much immortal now? Pretty much all that can kill them is the youma, and other Claymores, who only kill them if they're about to awaken, and they don't seem to age much once they reach adulthood. There won't be any youma or Awakened Ones around for long, and so no reason for anyone to Awaken.
Claire's Awakened form is Teresa and Teresa's Awakwned form is pretty much a goddess. APPROVED.
All the new generation Claymores showing up gave me such strong vibes fo the big battle at the end of the first arc that I was expecting everyone to die again. So happy for a relatively low bodycount.
As much as I approve of Claire going to Irene, I kind of expected her epilogue with Raki to be their going back to all the little girls Raki pretty much promised to adopt.
Where will I ever again find a shounen action series with low levels of fanservice and a near endless supply of female warriors with names and signature moves and powerups?
Sarah Prineas: Ash and Bramble. Sold as a twisted version of fairytales in which the amnesiac main character is one of many slaves of the Fairy godmother from fairy tales, forced to create all the clothes and slippers and items that populate fairy tales. This is a good description of the frist arc, but what the book ACTUALLY is is deconstructive meta about fairytales, perception of roles (and rejection of assigned roles) and stories and a pretty dark and messed up take on the idea of Story As Character. It's kind of Ever After High's concept taken to its worst extremes, in terms of how it affects characters. Becasuse of how its set up, characterization can be a bit inconsistent or absent at times, but it's a conscious narrative choice, as opposed to bad writing. I don't think it hit every note it thought it did. But it was a lot more than I was expecting, and a good read.
I read a bit of the Lando comic, but apparently Lando is like Han Solo where, while I quite like him with the rest of the cast, I'm not really interested in him when he's away from them and in full pre-reformed smarmy conartist mode. His Rebels appearances are as close to that as I'm interested in.
What do you think you'll read next?
More Star Wars stuff, probably, and I have a bunch of mysteries and YA/MG books checked out, so those. Not sure beyond that.