At the beginning of the year, several bloggers made pledges to read more sf/f books written by women. I took a somewhat opposite pledge: to read at least one book a month written (or co-written) by a man! Co-written books equal a 1/2 mark. Re-reads are included.

Female: 59-1/2
Male: 17

I would have to say that I just barely met the goal, and only by ( Read more... )

Less than a year later, we get the second Raksura book, The Serpent Sea, from Martha Wells. Hooray! I adore Wells's books--interesting plots, well-thought-out worlds, and smart characters. I briefly discussed the first book back in February here. Occurring directly after The Cloud Roads, Moon is trying to adjust to life as a consort (the only ( Read more... )

After a quiet period of some years, R.A. MacAvoy has started publishing again. Last year, she released In Between, a short novel or novella, and this year a full length novel, Death and Resurrection. Supposedly, Death and Resurrection contains In Between, but I didn't feel that any of DaR was familiar. I'll have to find In Between and reread it. ( Read more... )

I am so happy that P.C. Hodgell (now that she's retired) has been able to pick up and continue her Kencyr series with some regularity. The Kencyr series has gone through several publishers over the years and currently released by Baen who seem to be willing to publish fan-favorites that don't quite work at other publishers. The latest book is Honor ( Read more... )

Because I was traveling, I took two previously read books with me, but only read one of them. I also grabbed thrashed 3rd copies so I could toss them. Anyway, I read C.J. Cherryh's Chanur's Legacy. This is a loose sequel to The Pride of Chanur (which was followed by Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back, and Chanur's Homecoming) focusing on Hilfy ( Read more... )

Because I was going to be traveling, I decided to reread Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett. Set in an alternative Renaissance Amsterdam or London (called Astreiant), they focus on Nicolas Rathe, a pointsman, and Philip Eslingen, a unemployed mercenary. Another reason to read them (besides that they're good) is ( Read more... )

I've been on a re-reading kick for the past week or so. After REAMDE, I decided I wanted a book or books that I knew I loved with excellent writing style. I went with Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy. Because these were published in the 1970's each book is relatively short and I ripped through them pretty quickly. The three books are ( Read more... )

Neal Stephenson has been a buy-on-sight author for me since Cryptonomicon. It was the Cap'n Crunch scene that made me exclaim something like, "This is an author for me!" As I'm sure many people will understand, that doesn't mean that I've read all the books that I've bought. So far I haven't read the "Baroque Cycle" (wanted to reread Cryptonomicon ( Read more... )

These two books were eagerly awaited and another book that I'd just started got dropped to read these instead!

Tamora Pierce published the latest (and last, it looks like) book in the Beka Cooper series. The book is called Mastiff, to go along with the earlier Terrier and Bloodhound. Set in an early Tortall, Beka joins the Dogs, the street police, ( Read more... )

It's been pretty slow the last few weeks. I went to the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego the week before last. I got some nice books in the book bag (publishers donate books for publicity reasons), traded some with a friend who went with me, and put on the 'free' table everything that I was sure I wouldn't read. I was also careful in the ( Read more... )