Comments | hamsterwoman: Reading roundup

hamsterwoman

Reading roundup

Oct 17, 2009 14:51

43. Moving Targets and Other Tales of Valdemar (ed. by Mercedes Lackey) -- what this book is, actually, is published and author-blessed fanfic for Valdemar. Weirdly, A Companion to Wolves left me wanting to (re)read some Valdemar stories, and I came across this book in the library and gave it a shot. It's... not very good, but some of the stories ( Read more... )

a: karen russell, ya, a: ysabeau wilce, a: daniel abraham, mckillip, a: charlaine harris, lackey, a: ted chiang, sookie stackhouse, dresden files, a: christopher moore, a: t.a.pratt, short stories, a: delia sherman, a: patricia mckillip, a: jim butcher, reading, a: norton juster, marla mason, a: holly black

Comments 26

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hamsterwoman October 19 2009, 15:49:16 UTC

Mwahaha, Dresden Files addiction! Those books are pretty much crack! So, of course I've got to ask -- who are your favorite characters, books, moments, etc.? :D (

The TV series, short-lived as it was, was neat but not, I would say, on the same level. But they cast Harry really well, I thought. And from what I've seen of the GN, the art is gorgeous!)

There wasn't a whole lot of Jason and Arlene in this one, but it sounded like there was more of them in the first, which, I have no particular desire to know more about them, either.

Bill reminded me of Edward Cullen (but Bill actually had worse fashion sense and hardly any lol moments, which is saying a lot).Haha! I haven't read Twilight, but I almost feel like I have, from the online exposure, so, yeah. That is a slightly scary thought. I agree on the boring and the blah ( ... )

sheiannasherra October 19 2009, 16:31:31 UTC

I have to admit to really liking Pam too. And there is actually a reason why everyone falls for Sookie, which is brought out in the later books. Don't want to be spoilery though...

hamsterwoman October 21 2009, 21:39:16 UTC

I don't mind spoilers, but I'm intrigued now! And I guess there's more Pam in the first book? and/or in the next ones? Because I barely noticed her in this one.

Thread 9

g0newiththesin9 October 20 2009, 01:36:21 UTC

Phantom Tollbooth used to be one of my favorite kids books :-)

hamsterwoman October 21 2009, 21:06:38 UTC

I know I would've loved it a whole lot as a kid! :)

tim_pratt October 20 2009, 22:02:23 UTC

Thanks for the reviews! (Bradley Bowman is mostly important to Marla because of the events in Blood Engines.)

The coyness regarding the initials in my name for the Marla books and in the bio, etc. was the publisher's idea, not mine. There's a notion that women readers won't pick up a book with a female protagonist if it's written my a man, so they asked me to go the gender-neutral route to avoid the issue. (And my wife does sometimes write as H.L. Shaw, so it wasn't totally unreasonable.) I went along with it because what I know about marketing could fit inside a thimble, and anyway, I don't care what name things are published under, as long as I get to keep writing and getting paid for it.

Fair cop about me killing off the gay characters, though to be fair, I'll happily kill off my sympathetic straight characters too (most notably Ted in Poison Sleep).

hamsterwoman October 21 2009, 21:38:23 UTC

Hi! How cool of you to stop by and comment -- thank you!

I was guessing the initials thing was publisher-suggested, but hadn't considered the male author writing a female protagonist angle. Doesn't bother me (as a female reader) one bit (I actually assumed the author was male both from the cover blurb and from the book, though I couldn't say why), but I've been trying to think of other recent books I've read with female protagonists (that are not part of a multi-protagonist cast) written by male authors, and I can't. Very interesting! I'm glad you've written one such series.

Having read Dead Reign now (which I hadn't when I wondered about Marla's closeness with B in >Spell Games), I understand said closeness predates it. I'm looking forward to reading Blood Engines and catching up on the beginning, not least because as a San Franciscan I suspect I'll find that part of the setting very enjoyable (based on how much I enjoyed the Bay-Area-set part of Dead ReignI definitely didn't see Zealand's and B's deaths (or whatever actually ( ... )

tim_pratt October 21 2009, 23:23:05 UTC

I'm always happy to see a reader engage seriously with one of my books -- it means a lot. I don't expect everything I do to work for every reader, nor do I think my books are perfect! I do my best, and just hope the general trend of my books is vaguely upward in terms of quality.

If you like Mr. Zealand, he's in my short story Life in Stone, too, in my collection Hart & Boot & Other Stories (which also has a non-Marla story about Bradley Bowman). Life in Stone was also done as a free podcast at Escape Pod:

http://escapepod.org/2006/08/17/ep067-life-in-stone/

hamsterwoman October 24 2009, 00:53:18 UTC

Thank you -- I will definitely check those out!