Last books of this year
Woohoo, I did manage to finish this post during 2008!!! :) No I can start the new year with a clear slate.
This year's reading list of only a little over 100 books seems ridiculously small compared to last year when I read over 170 books, or the year before with 185 books... I guess that's more than some people ever read, but I still feel like I should have been reading more.
96. Joss Whedon & al.: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Volume 1: The Long Way Home
97. Joss Whedon & al.: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Volume 2: No Future for You
I quite like the comic version of Buffy that continues from where the tv series ended. The characters and situations are true to the series, and I'm not at all surprised that the military is going after the Slayers. The comic book format also allows for more 'special effects' in the stories, something that wouldn't have been possible on tv.
Dawn being a giant is both funny and sad, because she has so many issues with her sister. Warren and Amy teaming up is pretty scary and will probably make life very interesting for Buffy & co.
Faith always seems to get a raw deal of being forced into morally ambiguous situations which end badly. Still, I think her teaming up with Giles, who also has quite a lot of darkness in him even though he mostly hides it, should prove very very interesting...
98. Brian Lynch: Angel: After the Fall: Volume 1
99. Brian Lynch: Angel: After the Fall: First Night
Like Buffy, this comic continues the story from where the tv series ended. And just like with it's sister series, stays very true in tone and characterization with the original and has various characters from the TV series showing up in it.
The fight at the end of the last episode of Angel ended up plunging Los Angeles right into Hell. And now everything is different. Even though Angel still tries to make things better, Wes is in the White Room, Illyria is crazy and Gunn is a vampire and blames Angel for it.
I think I prefer the Buffy books even though these aren't bad at all. Still, Buffy was my first love in this continuum and even though I quite liked most of Angel, that series was much darker and horrorish in tone. And I'm not really a fan of horror stories.
100. Sonia Singh: Bollywood Confidential
This was a light fun story where a US born actress who has only had small roles is suddenly offered the lead role in a Bollywood film. Of course, things turn out to be tougher than she might have imagines, when she falls for her co-star and finds that the director of the film is a lecherous idiot whose father pays the bills. Some of the Bollywood jokes were fun, but at times I felt like the author was trying to explain and teach a bit too much about the Indian film industry instead of concentrating on her story.
101. Charlaine Harris & Toni L. P. Kelner (eds.): Wolfsbane and Mistletoe
Like most anthologies, this has some good stories, some bad stories and some okay ones. Several of the stories took place in the authors' established with plenty of oneshots as well.
I think the established world stories work best if they centre around some minor characters without offering too many spoilers for the main story and offer tantalizing hints that might make a new reader tempted to check them out anyway.
This is where Charlaine Harris's own story fails big-time. Rant ahead... Don't read this if you haven't yet read the latest Sookie Stackhouse book!!!!
In the latest Sookie book, From Dead to Worse, it's revealed that Sookie's grandfather is actually a fairy, which explains her talent and the fascination various vampires have for her (like it wouldn't have been enough that she's an attractive female with a special talent, she has to have some kind of a speeeshul background :P).
This story goes even further into the WTF?-crazy-with-annoyance-land, since in it Sookie discovers an injured werewolf just before Christmas and takes him to safety in her own house, feels attracted to him, and ends up sleeping with him.
But, and that's a BIG BUT, in the end of the story it's revealed that it was another fairy in disguise. Her fairy grandfather, who doesn't really understand humans and their emotions, wanted to give her a "happy" Christmas and ordered one of his underlings to masquerade as the injured wolf and seduce her by magic (magical roofies and rape, anyone?!) and then leave after the one-night-stand...
The way this series works, I strongly suspect Sookie will discover the truth about the matter sometime later in the series and the fairy who seduced her will become yet another contender for her affections, which could be extremely creepy :P.
/END RANT
Looks like I ended up ranting about that story more than anything about the rest of them :P. I quite liked the Carrie Vaughn, Rob Thurman, and Patricia Briggs stories, plus Karen Chance's story made me curious about the rest of her books.
102. Hiromu Arakawa: Fullmetal Alchemist 17
Ed and Al continue their adventures in the frozen north. There's also more of their father's backstory, with adorable child versions of the two boys.
I really like how badass some of the female characters in this manga are. I loved the scene where the usually tough-as-nails Major General Armstrong was trying to appear coy and feminine in order to mislead a visiting General.
103. Mick Takeuchi: Her Majesty's Dog 10
This book finally reveals who is behind all the trouble that Amane and Hyoue have faced. There are also some shocking revelations from the past which are at least partially behind the situation (trying to keep this non-spoilery). I can't wait to get my hands on the next volume, which is apparently going to be the last book of this manga...
104. Megan Chance: The Spiritualist
Evie Atherton's husband is discovered dead after a disrupted séance they both attended. At first, it's thought to be a robbery, but Evie soon finds herself suspected of murdering her husband. Despite her misgivings, she must join the Spiritualist circles her husband frequented in order to find out the truth about her husband's death.
I guessed pretty much right from the start the nature of the relationship between her husband and Benjamin Rampling and curse my habit of flipping ahead in a book, also knew him to be the murderer. Still, this book was a complete pageturner and I loved the spooky atmosphere in it.
What delighted me the most was when Evie herself turned out to be a genuine medium, unlike Michel who is a very skilled fake. Of course this might turn some mainstream readers off, but I thought it added a nice touch to the mystery.
105. Patricia Briggs: Cry Wolf
Cry Wolf continues the story directly from the story "Alpha and Omega", published in the anthology On the Prowl. In that one, Anna and Charles meet for the first time when he's sent to check out on the Chicago pack of werewolves and discovers a pretty nasty situation there. Surprisingly, he also finds Anna whose wolf is a perfect mate for his wolf.
In this book, Anna is leaving Chicago and moving into Aspen Creek with Charles. She has suffered a lot of abuse in the past and is understandably scared and wary of the situation. However, she doesn't have too much time to worry about things, since there seems to be a rogue werewolf loose on the mountains and she and Charles are sent to solve the problem. However, things turn out to be a lot worse than that.
I still like the Mercy Thompson books better, but I like how this series shows more about the Marrok and his family, and also about the werewolf society in general. Asil was an interesting new character and I hope he will show up again in the later books in this series.
106. Matsuri Hino: Vampire Knight 5
Yuki and Zero are such an OTP, but Kaname is starting to appear creepier and creepier. I wonder what he's plotting and how his plans will affect Yuki...
Books 107. - 110. were rereads of the Buffy & Angel graphic novels in order to refresh my memory about what happened in them for this post. I really should have written my thoughts down right after reading them the first time :P.
And as the last book of this year, I decided to feast on my Christmas gift to myself, (111.) James Jean's Fables: Covers, which is an extremely beautiful book, containing covers for 75 issues of the ongoing comic, plus covers for the 11 collections as well. It's really gorgeous! Maybe I'll scan some of the covers at some point and make new icons from them...
This year's reading list of only a little over 100 books seems ridiculously small compared to last year when I read over 170 books, or the year before with 185 books... I guess that's more than some people ever read, but I still feel like I should have been reading more.
96. Joss Whedon & al.: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Volume 1: The Long Way Home
97. Joss Whedon & al.: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Volume 2: No Future for You
I quite like the comic version of Buffy that continues from where the tv series ended. The characters and situations are true to the series, and I'm not at all surprised that the military is going after the Slayers. The comic book format also allows for more 'special effects' in the stories, something that wouldn't have been possible on tv.
Dawn being a giant is both funny and sad, because she has so many issues with her sister. Warren and Amy teaming up is pretty scary and will probably make life very interesting for Buffy & co.
Faith always seems to get a raw deal of being forced into morally ambiguous situations which end badly. Still, I think her teaming up with Giles, who also has quite a lot of darkness in him even though he mostly hides it, should prove very very interesting...
98. Brian Lynch: Angel: After the Fall: Volume 1
99. Brian Lynch: Angel: After the Fall: First Night
Like Buffy, this comic continues the story from where the tv series ended. And just like with it's sister series, stays very true in tone and characterization with the original and has various characters from the TV series showing up in it.
The fight at the end of the last episode of Angel ended up plunging Los Angeles right into Hell. And now everything is different. Even though Angel still tries to make things better, Wes is in the White Room, Illyria is crazy and Gunn is a vampire and blames Angel for it.
I think I prefer the Buffy books even though these aren't bad at all. Still, Buffy was my first love in this continuum and even though I quite liked most of Angel, that series was much darker and horrorish in tone. And I'm not really a fan of horror stories.
100. Sonia Singh: Bollywood Confidential
This was a light fun story where a US born actress who has only had small roles is suddenly offered the lead role in a Bollywood film. Of course, things turn out to be tougher than she might have imagines, when she falls for her co-star and finds that the director of the film is a lecherous idiot whose father pays the bills. Some of the Bollywood jokes were fun, but at times I felt like the author was trying to explain and teach a bit too much about the Indian film industry instead of concentrating on her story.
101. Charlaine Harris & Toni L. P. Kelner (eds.): Wolfsbane and Mistletoe
Like most anthologies, this has some good stories, some bad stories and some okay ones. Several of the stories took place in the authors' established with plenty of oneshots as well.
I think the established world stories work best if they centre around some minor characters without offering too many spoilers for the main story and offer tantalizing hints that might make a new reader tempted to check them out anyway.
This is where Charlaine Harris's own story fails big-time. Rant ahead... Don't read this if you haven't yet read the latest Sookie Stackhouse book!!!!
In the latest Sookie book, From Dead to Worse, it's revealed that Sookie's grandfather is actually a fairy, which explains her talent and the fascination various vampires have for her (like it wouldn't have been enough that she's an attractive female with a special talent, she has to have some kind of a speeeshul background :P).
This story goes even further into the WTF?-crazy-with-annoyance-land, since in it Sookie discovers an injured werewolf just before Christmas and takes him to safety in her own house, feels attracted to him, and ends up sleeping with him.
But, and that's a BIG BUT, in the end of the story it's revealed that it was another fairy in disguise. Her fairy grandfather, who doesn't really understand humans and their emotions, wanted to give her a "happy" Christmas and ordered one of his underlings to masquerade as the injured wolf and seduce her by magic (magical roofies and rape, anyone?!) and then leave after the one-night-stand...
The way this series works, I strongly suspect Sookie will discover the truth about the matter sometime later in the series and the fairy who seduced her will become yet another contender for her affections, which could be extremely creepy :P.
/END RANT
Looks like I ended up ranting about that story more than anything about the rest of them :P. I quite liked the Carrie Vaughn, Rob Thurman, and Patricia Briggs stories, plus Karen Chance's story made me curious about the rest of her books.
102. Hiromu Arakawa: Fullmetal Alchemist 17
Ed and Al continue their adventures in the frozen north. There's also more of their father's backstory, with adorable child versions of the two boys.
I really like how badass some of the female characters in this manga are. I loved the scene where the usually tough-as-nails Major General Armstrong was trying to appear coy and feminine in order to mislead a visiting General.
103. Mick Takeuchi: Her Majesty's Dog 10
This book finally reveals who is behind all the trouble that Amane and Hyoue have faced. There are also some shocking revelations from the past which are at least partially behind the situation (trying to keep this non-spoilery). I can't wait to get my hands on the next volume, which is apparently going to be the last book of this manga...
104. Megan Chance: The Spiritualist
Evie Atherton's husband is discovered dead after a disrupted séance they both attended. At first, it's thought to be a robbery, but Evie soon finds herself suspected of murdering her husband. Despite her misgivings, she must join the Spiritualist circles her husband frequented in order to find out the truth about her husband's death.
I guessed pretty much right from the start the nature of the relationship between her husband and Benjamin Rampling and curse my habit of flipping ahead in a book, also knew him to be the murderer. Still, this book was a complete pageturner and I loved the spooky atmosphere in it.
What delighted me the most was when Evie herself turned out to be a genuine medium, unlike Michel who is a very skilled fake. Of course this might turn some mainstream readers off, but I thought it added a nice touch to the mystery.
105. Patricia Briggs: Cry Wolf
Cry Wolf continues the story directly from the story "Alpha and Omega", published in the anthology On the Prowl. In that one, Anna and Charles meet for the first time when he's sent to check out on the Chicago pack of werewolves and discovers a pretty nasty situation there. Surprisingly, he also finds Anna whose wolf is a perfect mate for his wolf.
In this book, Anna is leaving Chicago and moving into Aspen Creek with Charles. She has suffered a lot of abuse in the past and is understandably scared and wary of the situation. However, she doesn't have too much time to worry about things, since there seems to be a rogue werewolf loose on the mountains and she and Charles are sent to solve the problem. However, things turn out to be a lot worse than that.
I still like the Mercy Thompson books better, but I like how this series shows more about the Marrok and his family, and also about the werewolf society in general. Asil was an interesting new character and I hope he will show up again in the later books in this series.
106. Matsuri Hino: Vampire Knight 5
Yuki and Zero are such an OTP, but Kaname is starting to appear creepier and creepier. I wonder what he's plotting and how his plans will affect Yuki...
Books 107. - 110. were rereads of the Buffy & Angel graphic novels in order to refresh my memory about what happened in them for this post. I really should have written my thoughts down right after reading them the first time :P.
And as the last book of this year, I decided to feast on my Christmas gift to myself, (111.) James Jean's Fables: Covers, which is an extremely beautiful book, containing covers for 75 issues of the ongoing comic, plus covers for the 11 collections as well. It's really gorgeous! Maybe I'll scan some of the covers at some point and make new icons from them...