A few books
While I wait for M_ to finish her exercises so we can go to bed, let's get through a few books. Cuz we're into 2014 now, so I need 2013 finished.
We begin with Spirits From Beyond by Simon R. Green. This is book four (I think) in his Ghost Finders series. This series is about a secretive "government" agency that investigates hauntings and other such supernatural unpleasantness. The characters are the Too Cool Tough Guy leader, the aggressive technical whiz woman with the guns, and the drug-abusing psychic. Oh, and leader's girlfriend the ghost. Like everything Green writes, there is lots of over-the-top situations and dialogs, phrases and descriptions that get overused, the characters are sloppy about staying on voice, the plot is thin, and... you know what, I'll stop. Like most of Green's recent stuff, it's awful albeit in a somewhat fun way. I'll steal a description from Castle and liken it to a deep fried Twinkie. Eat it all the time and it'll kill you, but it can be fun on rare occasions.
Next up, the third and final part of Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise. This is a story set shortly after the end of the TV series focusing on the attempt to shut down the Fire Nation empire. During the century-long war, numerous Fire Nation colonies were established along the edges of the Earth Kingdom. According to the treaty, those are supposed to all get closed down. This is fine for the newer ones, but a few of the oldest have been in place for generations including intermarriage. Their citizen don't want to leave, and they manage to persuade Fire Lord Zuko to support them. The Earth Kingdom sees this as repudiating the treaty and starts marching an army to forcibly deport the colony. Avatar Aang and his friends are left stuck in the middle. It's a decent story (even if the titular promise is a little dumb and the obvious resolution is "everyone stop shouting and start talking to each other"). I wouldn't read it if you haven't watched the show, but if that's the case you should go watch the show.
Which brings us to Tad Williams's anthology A Stark and Wormy Knight. LIke any anthology, it's something of a grab bag. Short stories generally aren't my thing, but I like Williams so I went ahead and read it. A few of them were good - which generally made me wish he'd extract them and expand them into novels. A few of them were horrid, particularly the title piece. Overall... I dunno. Kind of meh.
I'll close with Chimes At Midnight by Seanan McGuire. This is book seven(?) in the ongoing October Daye series. This is urban fantasy focused on fairies rather than vampires and werewolves. October is a changeling - meaning a half-human - but she's both a knight in one of the San Francisco-area kingdoms and descended from a powerful bloodline. She's also a lot more powerful socially than at the start as she's made friends and allies across the region. Which pisses off the queen (who already hated her) who finds an excuse to exile October. This causes October to start looking into the queen's own legitimacy, so we get some Happy Fun Murderous Intrigue. It's a good book in a good series.
And that's enough; it's late. This brings my 2013 total to sixty-two.
This entry was originally posted at http://squidminion.dreamwidth.org/375218.html.
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We begin with Spirits From Beyond by Simon R. Green. This is book four (I think) in his Ghost Finders series. This series is about a secretive "government" agency that investigates hauntings and other such supernatural unpleasantness. The characters are the Too Cool Tough Guy leader, the aggressive technical whiz woman with the guns, and the drug-abusing psychic. Oh, and leader's girlfriend the ghost. Like everything Green writes, there is lots of over-the-top situations and dialogs, phrases and descriptions that get overused, the characters are sloppy about staying on voice, the plot is thin, and... you know what, I'll stop. Like most of Green's recent stuff, it's awful albeit in a somewhat fun way. I'll steal a description from Castle and liken it to a deep fried Twinkie. Eat it all the time and it'll kill you, but it can be fun on rare occasions.
Next up, the third and final part of Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise. This is a story set shortly after the end of the TV series focusing on the attempt to shut down the Fire Nation empire. During the century-long war, numerous Fire Nation colonies were established along the edges of the Earth Kingdom. According to the treaty, those are supposed to all get closed down. This is fine for the newer ones, but a few of the oldest have been in place for generations including intermarriage. Their citizen don't want to leave, and they manage to persuade Fire Lord Zuko to support them. The Earth Kingdom sees this as repudiating the treaty and starts marching an army to forcibly deport the colony. Avatar Aang and his friends are left stuck in the middle. It's a decent story (even if the titular promise is a little dumb and the obvious resolution is "everyone stop shouting and start talking to each other"). I wouldn't read it if you haven't watched the show, but if that's the case you should go watch the show.
Which brings us to Tad Williams's anthology A Stark and Wormy Knight. LIke any anthology, it's something of a grab bag. Short stories generally aren't my thing, but I like Williams so I went ahead and read it. A few of them were good - which generally made me wish he'd extract them and expand them into novels. A few of them were horrid, particularly the title piece. Overall... I dunno. Kind of meh.
I'll close with Chimes At Midnight by Seanan McGuire. This is book seven(?) in the ongoing October Daye series. This is urban fantasy focused on fairies rather than vampires and werewolves. October is a changeling - meaning a half-human - but she's both a knight in one of the San Francisco-area kingdoms and descended from a powerful bloodline. She's also a lot more powerful socially than at the start as she's made friends and allies across the region. Which pisses off the queen (who already hated her) who finds an excuse to exile October. This causes October to start looking into the queen's own legitimacy, so we get some Happy Fun Murderous Intrigue. It's a good book in a good series.
And that's enough; it's late. This brings my 2013 total to sixty-two.
This entry was originally posted at http://squidminion.dreamwidth.org/375218.html.
There are
comments there. You could add one via OpenID.
Or you can comment here if you'd rather; it's okay.