Feb Book Count
A while ago, one of my co-workers mentioned that he thought I read about fifty books a year, so I decided to keep track.
1. The Year of Living Biblically - I hear that it's being made into a movie, and I hope they include the scene where he stones the adulterer. What am I thinking, of course they will include it, it's a great scene.
2. God's Politics - a good book, made me think a lot about politics and faith, but it quickly became repetitive, and did not have enough scriptural support for his arguments, IMHO. I'm not sure I'll read his current book.
3.Fulgrim - After seeing a number of scantily clad Slaanesh-es in every single MMORPG (though, I hope that's a forbidden name in Warhammer Online, along with Slaaanesh, and Slaannesh, and Slanesh....) it was refreshing to see the cult of Slaanesh described in just plain wrongness. Fulgrim meeting the Eldar was entertaining, and the entire book has the feeling of "we're slipping, and can't do anything about it." A very good addition to the Horus Heresy novels, if only for the line of "Now that the Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Word Bearers, and Alpha Legion are at our backs, the Traitors will surely fall before our Loyalist forces." Not a direct quote, but close.
(these three were started in 07, finished in '08, so I don't know if I should count them)
4. Mortal Engines
5. Predator's Gold
6. Infernal Devices
7. A Darkling Plain - The Mortal Engines Quartet was just fun. I'd call it steampunk, and the idea of Municipal Darwinism (larger and faster mobile cities prey on smaller and slower cities) and it's Goddess, the eight armed Thatcher, was just too amusing. Philip Reeve is a fantastic author, who knows how to create an emotional response in a reader. I told Marian about the last chapter, and she just said "oh, that's not even fair." Plus, when one of the factions is called the Traktionstadtsgellschaft, you know it's going to be good. I hear it's being made into a movie, which fills me with great despair, since I'm convinced Hollywood will ruin it.
8. Opening Atlantis - The first book of Turtledove's new trilogy where Europeans settle on a continent located in the center of the Atlantic ocean. The book ends with our hero ruminating on how they will remain loyal British citizens, unless King George does something insane like tax them, setting up the second book, "The United States of Atlantis."
(and these are in progress)
9. The Scar - One of the best fantasy novels I have ever read. It's a fusion between the best parts of fantasy and steampunk, written by a guy who played a lot of D&D as a boy. It reads (at times) like something from a red-box adventure, which leaves me with a sense of nostalgia. There's even mention of a long dead race that traveled from a dying world in a metal fish that swam in the void between worlds, and an area of the ocean where thamaturges theorize that the weight of the water in the bottomless sinkhole warps the fabric of space and time, allowing the dimensions to be crossed. Reading it makes me want to start a Bas-Lag themed D&D game.
10. War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches - Not as good as the Martian War, Scarlet Traces, or the second League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but still entertaining
1. The Year of Living Biblically - I hear that it's being made into a movie, and I hope they include the scene where he stones the adulterer. What am I thinking, of course they will include it, it's a great scene.
2. God's Politics - a good book, made me think a lot about politics and faith, but it quickly became repetitive, and did not have enough scriptural support for his arguments, IMHO. I'm not sure I'll read his current book.
3.Fulgrim - After seeing a number of scantily clad Slaanesh-es in every single MMORPG (though, I hope that's a forbidden name in Warhammer Online, along with Slaaanesh, and Slaannesh, and Slanesh....) it was refreshing to see the cult of Slaanesh described in just plain wrongness. Fulgrim meeting the Eldar was entertaining, and the entire book has the feeling of "we're slipping, and can't do anything about it." A very good addition to the Horus Heresy novels, if only for the line of "Now that the Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Word Bearers, and Alpha Legion are at our backs, the Traitors will surely fall before our Loyalist forces." Not a direct quote, but close.
(these three were started in 07, finished in '08, so I don't know if I should count them)
4. Mortal Engines
5. Predator's Gold
6. Infernal Devices
7. A Darkling Plain - The Mortal Engines Quartet was just fun. I'd call it steampunk, and the idea of Municipal Darwinism (larger and faster mobile cities prey on smaller and slower cities) and it's Goddess, the eight armed Thatcher, was just too amusing. Philip Reeve is a fantastic author, who knows how to create an emotional response in a reader. I told Marian about the last chapter, and she just said "oh, that's not even fair." Plus, when one of the factions is called the Traktionstadtsgellschaft, you know it's going to be good. I hear it's being made into a movie, which fills me with great despair, since I'm convinced Hollywood will ruin it.
8. Opening Atlantis - The first book of Turtledove's new trilogy where Europeans settle on a continent located in the center of the Atlantic ocean. The book ends with our hero ruminating on how they will remain loyal British citizens, unless King George does something insane like tax them, setting up the second book, "The United States of Atlantis."
(and these are in progress)
9. The Scar - One of the best fantasy novels I have ever read. It's a fusion between the best parts of fantasy and steampunk, written by a guy who played a lot of D&D as a boy. It reads (at times) like something from a red-box adventure, which leaves me with a sense of nostalgia. There's even mention of a long dead race that traveled from a dying world in a metal fish that swam in the void between worlds, and an area of the ocean where thamaturges theorize that the weight of the water in the bottomless sinkhole warps the fabric of space and time, allowing the dimensions to be crossed. Reading it makes me want to start a Bas-Lag themed D&D game.
10. War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches - Not as good as the Martian War, Scarlet Traces, or the second League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but still entertaining