Reading_fox's reading log (2012)

Here we go first book of the new year.

Offshore Non-fiction from the library ebook. Readablem, but nothing very enjoyable. Fogle travels around a few of the UK's islands looking ot buy one. He doesn't look very hard, but does do a lot of travelling.

Full review on my Profile, which will be the case for all the books in my list!

Looking forward to following your thread again.

Thanks GeorgiaDawn,

The prequel trilogy From the library just as a curiosity to see how bad it could be - the films weren't that good, and neither Brooks nor Salvadore are renown for their writing. It was actually OK - not brilliant - but I've read a lot worse. Pretty true the films as you'd expect, the action scenes were less dramatic but even Brooks and Salvadore managed to inject more life into the characters! And made JarJar less annoying which is always a good thing.

The Lies of Locke Lamora

Part of @morphidae's shared fantasy read. I enjoed this a lot - not perfect, I'd have liked a few more background details a lot less Interludes mid plot - but fast paced clever fantasy. Locke is thief from birth and he gets trained up in a gang aiming to run scam on the otehrwise excempt nobility. He's very good at it, such that money becomes a way of keeping score rather than an aim in itself. His latest scam gets him noticed by the ducal secret police though, and when a new gangboss also arrives Locke realises he doesn't have many options left. I'd recommned this to all adults who enjoy fantasy - it isn't a YA book though there's quite abit of violence and plenty of questionable morals.

Red seas under red skies the sequel to LLL. Rollicking good yarn. Contains many of the weaknesses of LLL but I don't find these getting in the way of the enjoyment, there is manybe less violence involved, but not by much.

Through a somewhat convoluted set of politics Locke and Jean find themselves on a pirate ship. Cue sabres, sails, and silliness. Good fun, really want to read the third instalment when it comes out.

Yeah, the second one does leave that cliffhanger ending doesn't it? Glad to see that you're enjoying them though.

I am still working through vol I of Locke Lamora - slowly. It's engagingly written on the surface, but what's not completely grabbing me, (personally, yet,) is the fact the characters' cleverness hasn't shown much depth of motivation. Hoping this shifts as the novel progresses, as that human puzzle is one of the elements I crave in a story for it to come fully alive.

So far, I particularly enjoy the sense of place and backdrop, and the descriptions do characterize the people well, outwardly. The tale telling is quite vivid. The writing itself is highly skilled, quite a cut above the ordinary.

I can't comment yet in the Spoiler read, since I have a ways to go to the finish.

Blood in the cotswolds - book 5 in a series I begun over christmas. The library didn't have the intervening ones, but I'll definetly be gong back to check them out. It's a sort of cosy mystery set in a cotswold village. Thea is a professional house-sitter for rich couples who want someone to look after their place while they're away on holiday. Her boyfriend a police DI comes to visit, sprains his back, and accidentally discovers an old body buried beneath a tree. The village mostly of Templar descent with a big trust argument brewing over the family fortunes would prefer that such a matter was never referred to. Thea can't leave it alone.

Enjoyably cosy, good picturesque english village life - closer to reality than maybe you'd expect.

#7 Janny - the motivation is onyl really revealed in book - Thieves prosper, the rich remember, is the motto of the Thirteeth priest. Locke and Jean are stealing pretty much for the hell of it because they can, and also so that the rich and powerful don't totally forget that life can be brutal at times.

slaughter in the cotswolds not as bloody as it might sound from the name, Slaughter being a local village name. Thea is housesitting when her sister witnesses a murder. Thea's not really involved at all, but does know many of the participants. She also involved with her hosts dogs who escape and there's a lot of relationship discussions which make it a fairly slow book. But the sense of village life and descriptions of the landscapes are once again accuraely caught.

Blood in the Cotswolds sounds like a nice cozy which might do nicely for the ladies in my library book group. (And I'm glad you explained that Slaughter was a village name. Because that didn't sound at all cozy when I first read the posting!)

#10 The series begins with A cotswolds killing I think. But they're all more or less along the same theme.

Altered carbon A Santathing gift. Dark not really noir SF. Extremely violent and graphic in places, but otherwise quite good fun. Fairly common idea of excahngeable bodies with a digitally stored mind - distinct from AI which also exist. A soldier turned criminal is hired to investigate the suicide of a mega-rich baron. By the baron of course because unless your stack gets destroyed (or corrupted) death is far from perment in this world. A bit like Greg Bear's Kiln people but not as good, and a lot darker. Still an exciting read though.

Against all things ending One of those titles that only Donaldson can get away with. 9th in the series and 3rd in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Really really the last, sure absolutely no more coming at all... which I might just about believe because at the moment the whole world/universe is about to be devoured by the Worm. This really does feel a bit too much like a filler novel. Not a great deal happens, a few incidental subplots get resolved and most characters move more or less into the right ish sort of places mentally and physically to confront the final Evil, in the last book. I needed to have re-read the preceding two volumes, but couldn't face 2000 pages without the end being in sight, so I jumped into this one trusting my distant memory of events would cope. It didn't. Covenant is finally back in a body again, somewhat disorientated by eons of memories from within the Arch of Time. He disdains to use any power not wishing to further corrupt his soul meanwhile Linden believes He will save the world, so she can concentrate on getting back her son. Various people try and aid them or stop them for reasons of their own. I will certainly read the last in the series when it is finally published in a year or tow, but this doesn't have the magnificence of the first series, or his Gap works.

Shuttleworth pot into Witches II because it's where I was over the weekend. Useful guide with pictures, route descriptions and rigging diagrams, admittedly only of interest for those UK cavers who are on Leck Fell which isn't going to be many other readers of this thread! The odd name is because the cave system was already known as the 2nd area of dry cave after the Witches' cave sump. Shuttleworth pothole is the newly dug surface connection to this section.

Ares Express My other Santathing title. Not totally impressed with it. I knwo there are a lot of IM fans in Green Dragon, but IF this is representative of his writing, I'm probably not one of them. Sci-fi / steampunk / farce. I really don't do farce very well, it just isn't funny to me, and detracts from whatever the storyline is otherwise about. In this case we have s tupidly named girl who lives with her extended family as engineers on very large nuclear powered steam trains. There is no necessity for the steam. She decide snot to get married to a Stuard (steward presumably) and runs away into the desert. Here she meets a cathedral whose high priest is intent on bringing about Amrageddon by encouraging the AIs that run this terraformed Mars to destroy themselves. Or something. It wasn't very clear, and I didn't really care. STarted off OK, but rapidly got lost inside it's own cleverness.

Hmm, I might avoid that McDonald. I read both Dervish House and River of Gods last year and thoroughly enjoyed them. Neither book contained any element of farce that I could detect, and it is something of a turn-off for me too. So don't give up on McDonald :-)

Definitely on Sakerfalcon's line of thought here. I'd recommend either of Dervish House or River of Gods, and I do personally know at least one person who thinks Brasyl is up there with them; I think it's good enough but not THAT good - might be a matter of personal taste?

Wll I'll keep them on my 'watch out for' list, but I probably won't be buying the hardback editions at full price until I've tried them out and got a feel for his other writing styles.

The Hard Way: (why is this so hard to touchstone?) easy reading Reacher, probably the last of the 'good' ones before the more recent attempts that lost the spark. Reacher is in a cafe, and get asked to identify a man he saw. Turns out he man was a kidnapper driving off with the ransom. Ever a sucker for a damsel in distress Reacher aids the group of mercenaries superficially similar to himself (but without the investigative abilities he gained in the Military police). ALong the way he meets an ex-FBI agent (female) who leaps into bed with him (as do they all) and abuses her position in order to provide information for him. This elad Reacher to suspect that the story isn't as simple as it might have first appeared.

Good fun - somewhat simple mind candy but with lots of twists and turns. If you like a hard man/PI story Reacher is hard to beat.

collected short fiction of CJ Cherryh

re-read of a favourite. I was surprised it has been 5 years since i last read this. from my review

"Very approximately divided into three parts. The first previously published as Sunfall is a collection of tales set in Earth cities far in the future when the sun has aged and cities have sealed themselves away from the rest of the world, but still retain a lingering essence of their current nature. The 2nd part Visible Light, is a set of shorter stories interspersed with commentary from CJC in the form of dialogue between herself and a travelling companion on an interstellar jump. Here she explains just a little about the mindset of an SF author and where she gets her ideas from. The third and my favourite part is simply 'Other Stories' that she has written over the years. There is little or nothing connecting them. Some are set in other worlds she has explored in full length novels - from Alliance/Union through to Ealdwood, but most are "just" stories. All are profound.

A great collection showcasing some of CJC's talent. I had intended to just dip in and re-read a few favourites, but was drawn into reading the whole book. They are that book. If you like short story SF or are a fan of CJC then this is must have, and if you aren't either of the above this is the book that will introduce them to you."

Hmn, I have that one on my shelf but since I didn't enjoy Sunfall it has been pretty far down in the TBR pile. My plan for this year is to get through those of her books that I own but have yet to read - I got so many of them in a short time I'd had a year with only CJ books if I had read them at once. And that didn't feel entirely right... ;-)
Perhaps this one would be a good start.

the cruel wind

One of Glen Cooks lesser knonw series. Somewhat dry without a hero, just a sucession of characters taking the narrative voice for a while - on either side fo the continent spanning conflict. Becoems engrossing after a while though once you've got used to the style and the lack of detail. Admittedly I'm a details person and would love a bit more in depth look at several aspects, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

I've got A Cruel Wind to look forward to. Might carry on with the Black Company books before I get to it though.

Dervish house
Not really my thing. Feels a bit like Courtney Grimwood which I also didn't much enjoy. Far better than Ares Express though! Convolvuted plotline forced to coincide didn't help, nor did the long list of characters and places, difficult to keep apart. I appreciated the nano-tech ideas, and the look at how this could change society, but it didn't really work for me. I was always happy to put it down and go and do something else. Terrorism and nanotech in Istanbul.

I can definitely see your point. I, on the other hand, enjoy much of Jon Courtenay Grimwood's output ;-)

Flesh House

More grim reading from the depths of an Aberdeen police force. The darkness is only elevated by the banter between the police officers, and on this occasion the addition of a BBC film crew. Given that a cannibal is loose in Aberdeen this isn't particularly entertaining viewing. Still very enjoyable reading though becaue you know it will all work out right in the end. Logan does get offered his promotion that I've been expecting for at least a book. Only in the continuation will we find out if he accepts it...

A fortress in shadow return to Glen Cook's Dread Empire series. This is somewhat peculiar as although described as a continuation fo the series it is very much a prequel. Detailing the lives of some of the main players from a Cruel Wind, before the wizards get involved. There is almost no magic here at all, but the same dry sparse style picking up the highlights of the action at most. Again we feature heros from both sides of the conflict which although interesting deos mean it is very hard to empathise with any one character, and the reader is left feeling somewhat isolated from the action. Still quite engaging writing though, and I'm not sure how Cook manages to achieve this. I would recommend reading this before Cruel Wind.

The mercenary and Prince of mercenaries Ebooks from Baen. Military SF, featuring a Marine Colonel Falkeneberg, drummed out of the ranks for political reasons he sets up his own Mercenary unit. These are the stories of some of their explots during the expansion of hummanity in the early 20th cen following the invension of the Alderman Jump Drive as featured in Mote in Gods Eye. Thsi is more or less the same universe, but a while earlier.

Quite reasonable, but nothing special unless you're a mil-SF fan. bit like Bujold'd Miles series, but without the wit and personality of Miles. Less focsu on the action and more on the grander tactical scene. Reading order is all screwy so I'm guessing a bit which books to read in what order.

Continuing the series - at the beginning, now having read it, West of Honour is the first in the series, with Falkeneberg still in the military doing pretty much what he deos int he later books but with some kind of official sanction. Of course he now has less well trained and less loyal men, but doesn't have to worry too much about the budget for equipment.

Imported settlers are wrecking an agrarian planet. Falkenberg doesn't have many men to put them back in their place, but does the best he can. The interplay between force and politics is highlighted and well done.

A Cotswold Ordeal Charming crme story set int he beautiful Cotswolds. 2nd in the series, Thea OSbourne is housesitting for a family who've gone away to Ireland for two weeks. A large villge row breaks out over the proposed re-development of the historical canal that runs close by the village. When this results in a body hanging in Thea's current house, she realises she will meet the attractive DS Hollis again. Some good political discussion amidst and intrersting crime staory with a coupel of well written characters. Unfortunately the villagers aren't so belivable, but it all just about makes sense in the end.

Ready Player One

Yes it really is as good as everyone said it was. 'That is soooo cool' plus a big grin pretty much every page. 2040 distopia, but everyone's online so it hardly matters. When the big designer dies he leaves his fortune to the first person who can complete the various quests he's hidden within the almost infinite space of the virtual worlds. I lved the characters the switch between online and off, the banter, the clever references and how it all pulled together in the end. Superb fun throughout.

( Full review

I need to remember this one when Christmas comes around again. I think my brother would like it. He's not a gamer but he was in his teens during the late 80s and from the comments I've seen this is right up his alley. I don't think I've seen any really negative comments about this book.

>28 reading_fox: Looks like another one to add to my list of must reads.

#30 - yep definetly. #29 I suspect I'll be giving a few copies away at christmas too.

The outcast and the little one
An ER book. Somewhat Bizare SF set in a robotic society on venus, that is being persecuted by it's human former masters. Slowly makes sense as the book progresses, especially when they find an orphaned girl. Very clunky beginning, but thestyle settles down after a while.

Sung in Blood. Somewhat poor offering from Cook. Apparently a stand alone it reads more like the mid-point of a series, not a lot is explained, and you're supposed to already know and care about the characters. I didn't.

Tech Heaven Excellant SF. Bought because I'd enjoyed the author's ER offering, this is a more adult SF set in more or less the same world. Near future Earth looking at the consequences of nano-tech and life extension. What if those currently crazy cryo-suspension people are right, and we can bring back the nearly dead to full life? Follows a 'widow' as she fights her family and global culture to try and reclaim her husband. Really well written with a lot of insights.

Bohr Maker Not as good as the prequel which is surprising but there you go. Set a bit later on wiht a wider cast fo characters you don't really empathise with nay of the m very well. Nano-tech has progressed to the point of ubiquitness but is strictly controlled in attempts to presever the human genome. (pointless exercise but this isn't discussed). An experiement (there's alway some) called Nicko want's to carry on living and arranges to steal a prohibitively powerful Maker that commits the ultimate crime of innovating and being able to replicate different Makers. However his plan goes wrong (doens't it always) and the Bohr Makers end up in the hands of a street slum girl.

The imagaintiona dn world building is excellant, but the charaters never really quite grabbed me. The intelligent social commentary from tech heaven was alos missing which is a shame as that was the particular brilliance of the prequel. However I am very likely to go on and buy the rest of the series because they are quite a bit better than usual.

High Justice a collection of early short stories by Jerry Pournelle, each a little bit further on in the developmnent of earth from a nationalistic current position through to a corportate controlled solar system although still before the advent of the Alderman Warp drive. Not bad, not brilliant probably shows more about his thinking and storywriting abilities than of any particular merit on their own.

Nearly finished
An Empire Unacquainted with defeat which is also short stories, and also showing the development of a writer (Glen Cook in this case) but far better. Much more varied although all nominally set in the Dread Empire series (see above posts), there is no other unifying theme. Some stories were written for special occasions, some were among his first ever publications, some have been lost forever in agent's files. SO far they've all been really good. Glen's pithy characters are better captured in short story form where you aren't expecting much in the way fo character development. He also doens't have to worry overly about consistency or tidying up loose ends. Favourite so far has been a series of three set upon a ship of dammed souls. but they all capture the imagination.

Go tell the spartans more mil SF set in teh CoDominium (prior to Mote in God's Eye which I'll get to in a bit). There's lots more trench level fighting this time, plenty of action, marching confusion and rockets being fired at someone. Some annoying intersperced commentry breaks up what is otherwise 500 pages of battle. You can guess who wins, but the how becomes obvious only about 2/3ds of the way through. Readable and fast paced.

Prince of sparta. Nearly there now this is the last in this timeline AFAIK, then there's a centuries jump to the Mote timeline. I'll probably read something different inbetween because I'm bored of these now. More miol SF fighting on Sparta. Fortunately all the population can join in. Nothign very special but ok if you like this sort of thing. Very much a weak ending. It reads as if there were more stories planned, and the timeline for the next book up King David's Spaceship sounds there ought to be several more books inbetween.

Syrian Folk Tales ER read, finally turned up from January's batch. Interesting, although a bit short and disorganised. If I was going to break tales down by region then I'd want to pick tales that had some regional specific identity which these don't. The addition of riddles, haldeths and recipes helps, but again there is nothing to tie them into the regional format of the books. the tales themsleves although Has Christain Anderson in style espouse a somewhat different morality which is interesting. The beautiful couples don't always live happily ever after, and there is a lot more abrupt endings. Different is perhaps the one word summary.

Death in the Cotswolds - Third in Thea's house sitting mystery serious. Another very enjoyable outing well worth reading for a cosy dog loving style. Thea becomes a bit part as the actual narration is taken by Ariadne an old friend of Thea's boyfriend Phil. Ariadne is pagan and deeply involved with homesteading and living off the land, spinning, knitting and weaving, pickling and cooking etc. These aspects are very well described, briefly, but acurately. When one of her pagan friends is found dead on a Barrow, Adriadne and Thea are oviously involved but only at the periphery of the case. Interesting, well written with delightful scenary.

The Swordbearer.

Another standalone from Cook. Much better than the previous one, and in many ways better than his more famous stories. Up close and personal with a pigboy who finds a magic sword. There's obviously plenty of death around but not too much gore.

Phew, nerely finished my Pournelle odessy. King David's Spaceship set just before Mote in God's Eye, but very very different. Written a long time apart I think, Mote has considerable input from Larry Niven, and is much better book for it. KDS features little of interest, a low tech world has the opportunity to steal some reminant high tech, from an ever lower tech world that doesn't appreciate what it has. Somewhat arbitary contstraints mean the most the book is describing tactics that infantry can use against horsemen. This is no longer relevant or interesting in an SF book.

Mote is one of the classic First Contact novels and really quite entertaining with well develped aliens. Not as immersive as Foreigner but with a distinct culture and well developed background of their own. Set in Jerry's Empire universe with a hyperspace drive humanity is somewhat startled when they discover a sublight (lightsail) ship some 35 lightyears out. A quick expedition is sent balancing exploring with the necessity of defending humanity's technology. the aliens seem very friendly and accomodating, desiring of no more than the option to settle a few unwanted colony worlds.

The politicing is very convincing, the biggest drawback is Jerry's somewhat old fashioned backdrop.

Finally... The Gripping Hand which has kind of been the point of the whole series of Pournelle that I've been reading. I've read and enjoyed Mote a few times, and thanks to Baen had a chance to try GH. It is confusing, and not as good as the original which is disappointing. But it does add somewhat to the story, and takes the characters further through their various lives. Of coruse the Moties don't have much, but in this installment we get to see the Motie Soace culture, somewhat distinct from the planet based life seen previously. Human politics are more complicated too, and together with the Motie factions and remembering 3D ship positions it all just gets too much. It isn't boring as such, just too complicated to remember with not enough clues to keep the reader focused. In part I think this is because the viewpoint is with the humans, but all the decision making (almost apart from a few key ones) are from the Moties. We're just observing the outcomes of prior policies, and that doens't convey very well.

Salsa Nocturna A collection of short stories - more of a mini-series as they are all set in the same haunted NewYork with the same few characters crossing in and out of each other lives. Good fun, a it fdark in places but nothing too extreme, nice cultural references (plus plenty I didn't get I suspect). As short stories each individual one was nothing special, but as a collection it worked quite well building apon each other. One of the better ER books I've recieved.

The Affair Hardly an original title loads of authors have book by that name. But this is Lee Child's take on it - which means Jack Reacher. It is the 2nd prequel chronologically or the 16th published book. Set in 1997, after the enemy but while Jack is still an MP in the Army. He's sent to small town mississippi to help keep the lid on a breaking scandal. But he's unsure whether the scandal are the events involved, or the attempt to cover them up. So he solves the case his own way. Someone's been murdering beautiful girls, and suspicion lies in the nearby army base. Reacher hooks up (literally) with the local Sherif (female) and patiently works his way through all the misleading evidence to get to the truth. Better than the last couple but not at the heights of the first. The details again flwo somewhere inbetween, they're slightly jarring whereas in the first they were seemless. But in the worst they were turgid lumps, and they aren't that bad either. If like Reacher in the past you'll enjoy this.

The beekeeper's apprentice. A must for anyone who's read the original Holmes stories. This has been really really well done. I was somewhat sceptical when I first came across this on LT. But it absolutely works. Holmes has retired, but he meets a young american girl who has an interlect to rival his own and they become friends and or mental sparring parters. The tales are all told from Mary's POV rather than Watson, but because she is clever she is able to keep up with Holmes rather than just be a safe pair of hands to hold things. Holmes is exceedingly well written and Mary works very well as a foil to it, that Watson always failed to do. Plus King is abtter writer by far, than Conan Doyle. There's humour, insight, historical and cultural knowledge, and some clever characters.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice sounds wonderful...off to download to my Nook.

Reading_fox - I agree the Mary Russell series is excellent - and it keeps getting better ('tho no less unlikely!) You might enjoy the short story Beekeeping for beginners which is the beginning of the story from Holmes' POV - it's available as an e-book.

#46 - thanks I'll look out for that.

Aubreyan and Brendan's song from LT's own @zette. First two parts of a fantasy series, set across varying worlds, each with it's own balance of magic and technology. These, the opening parts are fairly standard fantasy as ou hero Abby and his elven friend Tristain attempt to recover (destroy) parts of an evil staff. They are persued across the worlds by the demon Gix and his avatar in the mortal realm Tabor - as Abby is the unwilling gods' avatar.

Enjoyably readable but not without faults - the world building is just a bit too thin in places, and some inconsistencies creep into the characters. However the main plot in enjoyable enough and the central characters do have plenty of life, although it is all somewhat action orientated.

Agent of Change and Conflict of honors

First in the Liaden universe. Fun in a Bujold sort of way, but not as good as that. Universe seems good, but it isn't well described, the Liadens are some form of polite human faction (akin to Foreigner ) but more advanced. Mere terrans don't have their advantages, but a few do get embroiled in Liaden schemes and manage to come out well. Fast paced, with annoyingly jumpy writing in places. Humanity also appears to have been given vast mental powers for no explained reason, hopefully hr limits of these will become apparent in time, but at the moment there is a bit MarySue about the lead women. Can do anything. easily. The male leads are at least compasionate, and clever as well which helps a bit, the dialog sparks along and the fast paced plots brush over the worst of the gaps. I'm not completely sold on the series but will eventually read most of it I suspect.

Bah already so far behind.

Carpe Diem which is just about the sort of conclusion to the above two. There are another 20 odd books in the series, which I'll probably read in dribs and drabs. Priscila and Sham help locate ValCon and Miri but they manage to get themselves off planet without too much trouble.

License to ensorcell and Kerr series that doesn't feature dragons. It's fairly ordinary urban fantasy. Family of 'talents', one of whom works for secret gov agency trying to keep the world stable. Has visions, can find people etc etc. Gets involved when her broterh goes missing (werewolves) and picks up a cute Israeli bodyguard. Fun ish but no longer original. I did like the ChaosCreatures though.

Out of Time and Behind, Taking and currently Down Time More urban(ish) fantasy. Much better than Abbey's other stuff I've read. The heroine is instead of the normal teenage girl and 50yr old library director. Not twice divorced and stepchilded, she's not looking for hansome hunks which helps. She discovers she has an ability to mindwalk into another plane, whereby she can find "curses" active malevolent not-quite-beings, By journeying back in time she can alter history just a tiny bit such that the curse was never formed. ... when she's sucessful anyway. Then her 70yr old absent mother appears looking 25, and life gets a little bit harder. Not exactly fun, but well written in a adult women's observations of the world kind of way. A little bit clunky in places, but generally quite good. May appeal to a few GDers - available from Closed Circle if you can't find a physical copy.

Finished Down Time fully the first half the book is just two women taking a cruise together. If you enjoy (fairly well captured) that sort of thing, then it's quite interesting, but I found it somewhat odd, almost as if the author was just using her recent life expereinces as a means of writing. Which is of course possible, but seems a bit unlikely. Eventualyl the theme from the rest of the series kicks in and we do another quick whizz through history and the firery curses before it all ends. Which is still somewhat abrupt, because there were several issues left unresolved.

If you continue to delve into the Liaden universe, all that stuff does get explained in an interesting way. There is a trilogy 'prequel' etc. that unveils the origins of a lot of your questions. Definitely read in publication order, though.

These make good comfort reads for a light hearted vacation - I actually appreciated the vein of sweetness, in the midst of the current fad for wallowing in the grit and downright grim. The clutch turtles and some of the upside down humor (the atypical 'little' guy, and the hit by the big, drunk amazon that brewed up the bar fight) made me laugh out loud.

Thanks Janny, I've got the next couple from Baen, and I'll see how I get on with those sometime soon. I did like some of the humerous touches.

Immunity to strange tales which was an ER book, a collection of short stories (I seem to get a lot fo these from ER). More Weird SF then anything else, but quite good. A coupel were excellant and a few OKish. None were totally bad. Author has a particularly varied immagination. The tales ranged from straight SF through time travel, and into the weirder bits of horror cross SF.

Next up is my other ER book at the mouth of the river of bees From the tale I'm guessing there is a real river of bees in the north US somewhere, and the title story (about half way through) was just written around it. Much more varied than Immunity, length and style alters considerably, although the weirdness and immagination is less explicit. About two thirds through so I'll see how the rest of the stories work out.

Fear in the Cotswolds another cosy mystery set in the heart of england. It's January this time, and Thea is housesitting for a whole month, with a menagerie of animals to care for. Instead of the usual british cold grey rain, and dazzling snow falls instead. A few inches are enough to cause chaos, andThea starts to become concerned about her isoldation. This isn't helped when she finds a body, that by the time the police arrive, has disapperaed. She's sure she saw it, but except for the fading marks in the snow there is no evidence. Although the ending is a bit rushed (Thea's there for a whole month so there should have been plenty of time), the rest is entertaining.

Plan B Continuation of the Liaden series. Fun, lighthearted mil SF. mercenaries do a bit of squabbling with invaders while Miri and ValCon meet the family and the rest of the relatives try and arrive in due time. I don't quite know what's missing from this series, but it all seems a bit thin somewhere. Fun at the time, but quickly forgotten.

Local Custom Last in the Liaden books Baen bundled together, but also the best, and the chronologically earliest. A true romance amoung the stars with very little actions other than a girlfriend meeting his parents. But it explains a lot about the Liad culteru that was missing above and doens't have any of the annoying mental magic that gets thrown around to solve problems in the others. Very well done court drama / romance. Not as complex as foreigner but the alien society feel is similar at times.

I think this might be my prefered reading order... so far anyway. I'll havr to see what other Liaden books I can get out of Baen.

A Cotswold Mystery More of Thea's housesitting in this charming part of england. She does manage to capture the essence of modern village life very wlel indeed. Te ocsy msyery isn't too engrossing on it's own, but the little details help spark the whole thing inot somethign worth reading. Let down byt he ending though, especially as the reader isn't given anything to guess what's coming up.

Heart of StoneVery good urban fantasy with a unique twist. I've not read any others where the main non-human is a gargoyle. They do feature occasionally as bit part thugs usually in the 'bad' side, but here we have a proper white knight. The heorine is a lawyer, also unusal. It's wlel written fast moving with a well constructed plot, if somewhat confusing in places. The usual urban fantasy romance is dialed right down, athough still present. The characters are belivable and interact well.

If you don't like urban fantasy then this still won't be the one book to introduce you to it, the acceptance of otherworldly creatures and contravensions of physics are all to readily taken, but for anyone who can copewith that this is one of the better offerings around.

House of cards as much fun as the previous book. Well written characters, especially the humans, but belivable Old Races as well. the usual choice of races - Gargoyle, Vampire, Dragon, Dijin and Selkie, gives Murphy a to fo scope to work with, and this is well achived. Some what to my surprise this is only a trilogy - I had expected the author to go down the usual fantasy route where each book is based on one of the OldRace sin turn, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Looming forward to the last book, when I get around to buying it.

Crystal and the stars which I'd forgotten I owned. I'd bought it at the same time as #2 in the series, but then had issues downloading #2. Eventually these got sorted out, but by then it had completely bypasse dme that I had another in the series to read.

Works OK, about as well as the others. Godling and Elf travel to a magic low, tech high niverse in search of more bits of the evil staff. They dont really have any issues despite the lack of magic. Neither do the demons who follow them much to the surprise of the spaceship crew who encounter them. Everythign else proceeds pretty much as expected, although the demonling Tabor does still hold a few surprises.

Rusalka CJ CHerryh's slow and gloomy russian faerie fantasy. A couple of lads flee their small village and end up deep in a dank forest. They seek sheler with an old wizard who is trying to ressurect his daughter - she's currently a rusalka; a ghost of someone who drowned in dispair. Meanwhile there are other ghosts around, plus leshys - tree spririts similar to ents - and spirits of almost every place, the Yard, the Hearth, the fields etc. Some are more hostile than others....

Chernevog the 2nd in the series. Both better and worse I think. The opening is definetly better and the woods are slightly less turgid. Maybe. But the ending. surprisingly, leaves a lot to be desired. I liek the magic system, and the explanation and the Things that haunt certain places. But there's a lto of wondering, and wandering, which doesn't really get anywhere.

This far I have stayed away from Cherryh's fantasies but was leaning towards checking these out.
Now I'll definitely stay away.

I would suggest one might not want discard ALL of CJ Cherry's fantasies based only on Chernevog - it is not comparable.

Dreaming Tree/The Tree of Swords and Jewels duology is much more direct and not so gloomy, and her standalone, The Goblin Mirror is delightful.

Fortress in the Eye of Time and series is awesome, in a different way, but the wondering, if that bothered you, seen through the eyes of a character of total innocence thrown into a dangerous magical war, and fraught political intrigue, may not suit. This series picks up in speed and action the further it goes. I've read nothing else like it.

I loved all of these books - as well as the best of CJ's SF. In my experience, (and opinion, of course) they don't carry the same tone as Chernevog at all.

Janny, it's not hat I have discarded all her fantasy based on the Russian trio alone - it was a decision I made some time ago after having read lots of reviews. I have yet to read all her SF, which is what generally interests me the most - after I've finished with those I'll make a new decision.
What happened now was that the decision wasn't bumped up, to be made now or soon, but remains what it was - a future one. There are so many books out there waiting to be read that I need prioritise my choices.

I'd agreew ith Janny that Fortress series is a lot more approachable than any of the others. Tristain's magic is almost the same as in the russian series, but the atmosphere is totally different, and that makes it much more ejoyable to read. Not that the russian series is bad, it's just different.

Paladin would be the CJC fantasy that I would probably choose to introduce people to CJC's fantasy works. It is almost classic straight low fantasy, just a novice with a sword - apart from CJC's unique twists and excellent characters. I haven't read GM though - not seen it for sale anywhere. I hope she will eventually put it up on ClosedCircle.

Oh, I loved Paladin!

Just about my only non-fiction this year so far! Haven't come across so many non-fic ebooks that I want to read. reconfiguring biological sciences which isn't quite as dull as it sounds. It's a locally produced modern history book charting the rise of what is now the Faculty of Life Sciences in the University of Manchester. Which is where I work. It was interesting to see how it got to be as it is, but could have done with more refernces to the wider UK picture, and also a closer look at the last few years where some significant changes have occured, that only get a brief mention. Most of the people in it have now retired or died, wheras it's more interesting to read about people you actaully meet.

death of an expert witness
Dalglish investigates a murder that occures within a forensic crime lab in the fens. Full of sterotypes, but given that it was set in the 70s somewhat interesting for a look at how life was then.

Conspirator and Deciever- bah no touchstone.

Continued internal aveti politics with Bren doing his best to keep things calm and stable for when the aliens re-appear, somethign I think that most readers are waiting for with baited breath. The poltics gets very convoluted at times and it's difficult to tease apart the motivations. Finally we have had some explanation of the alien Manchi concept which is good to get. I've already started the end of this 'trilogy' Betrayer and can't wait to see how it all works out.

Betrayer Hah it's not the end at all meerely a mid series high point with lots and lots more action that was missing from the earlier books. Greatly enjoyed this, but am going to have to wait far far too long for the conclusion to this part of the series. Bren goes out himself with only a few bodyguards to settle the entire Southern problem. SHame that it isn't quite what hje'd been led to believe was the case. He doesn't have to do too mcuh, just surivive and make a few key strategic decisions leaving the consequences to his bodygaurds.

Beauty: a retelling as I came across it relatively cheaply as an ebook and rememebered it was the Morphy's GD read this month.

Fun. Short. Simple. I prefer my fary tale retelling to be a little darker and edgier than this, with more moral ambiguity, whereas this is a simple, trust and life will be good tale. However given that I'm not exactly the target audience for a female teen YA story, I still enjoyed it remarkably well. The opening is particulaly fun as we encountrer Beauty for the first time. But it very quickly moves into more traditional fare, and the enidng is predictabel and trite. Robin does write very well though, so even though this isn't the very best of her work, it is still exceptionally well crafted.

I love the Foreigner series by CJ, too - amazingly consistent considering she has done do many.

Foreigner is getting near the top of my To Read pile . . . I may cheat and bump it up a few places!

"...bump it a few places!"
It deserves to be bumped to the top, in my humble opinion!

The priestess of the eggstone

ER free book. Very much reads like a self-pub book that hasn't been thoroughly edited. The actual prose is more or less OK, spelling and typos weren't noticable. But the plot needs a lot of tightening up. It was fast paced. It was also hurried, full of deux et machina and lacking in any kind of depth or explanations whatsoever. Which is a shame because the basic plot was kind of fun, and Dace the heroine was likeable (once she'd got over her hang-up with men and decided which one she liked best). Might make a reasonable Space Adventure for Girls - for young YA teens - or it could be a farce ala Harry Harrison. But that isn't a style I'm fond of.

Several!

Feed. Amazingly excellant. Zombie infestation during the US presidentual elections. The zombies rose 20 years ago, but life goes on, more or less as usual. The media have been replaced by professional bloggers, and a team accompany the one of the presidentual candidates. Even the thought of a road trip or meeting strangers in person is unusal in these days, but the blogger faithfully report on what they see. Superb world building, decent characters, excellant plot, and some fine thoughts on politics and media at the same time. Go Read it!

Full Review Or on my profile as ever.

The last dragonslayer - reread in preparation for hte sequel. Not Jasper's finest work, definetly more YA focused, direct and obvious. Still somewhat quirky, but laboured.

Song of the Quarkbeast. SLightly better but not much. Jasper's tried to shoehorn in some reallife observations at a YA level. but it doesn't really work that well. Lots more contrived plotting.

Read Feed. it was much better!

Shadow of the torturer First of the five part series that is supposedly one of the highlights of SF/F genre, groundbreaking int is' day. Perhaps. Now some 30+? yeas on it is laboured and dull. It has victoreanesque dream sequences, random asides and foreshadowing, boring characters, a meandering and pointless plot, contrived incidents and no overall direction. Plus it is also set in the far future but is actually a fantasy with swords etc, because all the technology has been lost. Somehow. No I didn't like it very much, how did you guess. Unless anyone can convince me the rest is any better I won't be reading them.

Captain Vorpatril's alliance
Bujold back on form far better than CyroBurn, this was just good fun. Ivan gets married very early on to avoid an Immegration tangle, but then finds ou it isn't so easy to get out of it. Mother-In-Law is exceptionally scary, and the whole family games are fun. The ending is a bit silly, but even this is fun, and did make me laugh. If you've enjoyed Miles, reading about Ivan is no hardship.

Nearly a week later - Snare an odd stand alone by K Kerr looking at religion in the far future. How deos Islam cope with aliens, and a few other ethical concepts of telling the truth to your decendants, the perils of technology, etc. Good in concept but a bit slow most of the way and belaboured in places. I never quite got my head around the pictures of the aliens, and felt the characters too readily accepted many of the decisions that altered the entire pattern of their lives. Interesting though.

I've got a review discussion thread going because I'm not sure how to handle some spoilers on this one. Would be interested in any comments. (no spoilers currently present I think)

I read Snare when it was first published, and was not terribly impressed by it. Your review is more favourable than mine would have been! I have forgotten most of the details, so can't really provide a helpful critique of your review unfortunately. I seem to remember that the female shaman-type character was a bit of a Mary Sue, and that I found the interactions between her and the two male protagonists totally predictable. I can't remember what the big reveal was at the end (even having read your review, so you are probably safe as far as spoilers go), but it obviously didn't blow me away. I thought this was one of Kerr's weaker books, and far prefer Palace and the Polar City novels.

Thanks Sakerfalcon, I'll probably leave the review as it is then.

ER book The last sunset
Readable time travel story but not very impressed. Usual problems - unexplained paradox, historical characters understanding and accepting far too much modernity without question and living idyllic lives without hardship. Modern characters finding it far far too easy to cope without amenities they're accustomed to. And a very porr imaginaing of the world only a decade away.

Scout's progress more backstory about clan Korval slowly filling in the details that lead upt ot where the series stopped a few books back. Slow romance without much action, but well contrived characters and god situational descriptions keep it moving along. Nice interplay of culture and backgrounds, work well to develop personal tensions even if it is all a bit predictable.

The Sundering star - Janny's most recent short story set in the Mistwraith universe but a long time before. Poignent. Very interesting to see where she's going to take this.

I dare and Balance of trade Both Liaden novels.

I much prefered BoT even though I Dare is a continuation of the 'main' storyline involving the Korval heros we've read about for a few books now. However it doens't really work being a bit too disjointed and also far too pat in just finishing everything up without much struggle.

BoT is completely independant set int eh same universe but much earlier without ever encountering hte Korvals. All about a coming of age tale for a terran teenager, on both a terran and Liaden ship. Works quite well indeed. Also explains abit more a bout the dramliza. I wasn't totally convinced about the necessity of introducing the 'Before' tech, but it might be relevant if it crops up again further in the series.

One of the fun things about the Liaden series is how the books (in publication order) gradually fill in the back history - and always with a twist that's not predictable. Layer by layer the reader discovers where all of the factors arise. As a whole work, it's more impressive than the individual pieces. And as a relief from the trend toward the New Wave Grim (my wry term for the tilt toward the psychotic, and what some bloggers have labeled 'grimdark') these books make some welcome lighter fare.

Miles behind on reviews. These brief summaries will have to do for now.

Crystal soldier and Crystal dragon Two fo the best Liaden books I've read so far. These tellt he backstory of Jela and Cantra the founders of Liaden culture. I'm still not entirely sure it was necessary to destroy an entire universe in order to get to that point, but the rest of it is well done indeed.

I like a bit of 'real' in my stories especially SF although where the boundry between dark and gartuitious lies is perhaps only down to personal taste. These are certainly darker than some of the Liaden books, which is partly what makes them better. #80 I agree about the series overview - but given that it's now 20+ books long? that's getting to be a major undertaking to appreciate the subtlties, which maybe could be better portrayedf in the individual books.

The woman who died a lot FForde's next somewhat bizare (even by fforde standards) Thursday next book (7th I think). I had ot go back and re-read the ending of 6 before it made even a slight amount of sense - so it definetly isn't a standalone. There is even more annoying timetravel, but he lightheartedness seesm to have gone - withered in old age perhaps - this is several years along form the 1st book and Thursday isn't wearing well. I'm not sure this series is reaching it's former heights

2312 I'm part way through and really enjoying.

Downside girls ER book. 4 very good short stories, but only 4. I'd feel somewhat ripped off if I'd bought this. The stories are all set in the same universe as her novels, and good enough that I'll be looking out for them next time I'm buying books. A floating city has Topside where the rich sucessful people live and Downside where the poor, literally, hang out. From these poor a few select are chosen and enhanced into Angels, the democratic will of the people - executing politiians who haven't kept their promises. Dark, but well written.

Pirate Cinema Cory Doctorow's latest. YA and naive with it, but fun. A mashup artist in the near future gets his family' Internet cut off, by illegally downloading too many films. He goes on the run in London, meets up ith the urban activist crowds and gets to make his political films again. Really naive at time, but enjoyable nethertheless. A few key things to think about the direction of the UK 's political scene, and the impact copyrightlaws may ormay no have. Not as good as little brother - lacking in imagination in a few key areas, and avoiding some of the more difficult legitimate arguments about copyright.

Old man's war and Pump six and other stories both from Humble bundle that was mentioned a week or so ago (as was Pirate cinema above)

Old Man's war, oft mentioend in SF circles is a bit of a Mil-SF farce crossover. Fun but not particularly insightful, easy reading. old man jons army gets new body, endures training camp, kills aliens. Some fun bit sof showy tech, the enjoiyabel new bodies, a tiny bit or moralising about why we fight, and the fighting - not too gory though.

Pump Six - several short stories set in a distopean future. There's still plenty of tech around but ti's drained the water table and focused on patented crops. Over population is a huge problem adn there are some grim tales of the consequences. Mostly not set in the same timeline it is clear that one or two of the stories do interlink slightly. Not inpsiring to read the author's otehr novels, although they were well written.

Old Man's War didn't inspire me to read Scalzi's other books - the only reason that I did go and read one other was because it was hailed as very funny - that was Redshirts. Which it was; witty, too, especially if you're into Star Trek. But stepping back from then fun I found it pretty void of meaning, so mainly fluff. Which is what I felt about Old Man's War too, except it scratched me the wrong way as it felt too much of a rip-off off Heinlein without making a twist.

Which is a disappointment, because I quite want to like him.

I haven't read Pump Six yet so can't comment on how it stands in comparison with The Wind-up Girl, which I did like very much.
In actual reality I have at least one and a half book to read (halfway through Hydrogen Sonata and then it's The Fractal Prince) before I get around to the Humble Bundle books, even if they are ready to read, on whatever device I chose ;-)

The rest of the Humble Bundle.

Secret world chronicles - Mercedes Lackey and coauthors. A mixed selection of vinegrettes featuring various superheros and villains fighting evil alen nazi robot superheros. Not sure why or how. Was just about beginning to get into it when it morphed into a white witch dealing with vampires. Was very confused for a whiel before I realised it was a different story. Which then switched back again for a finalle with the Nazis. Only it didn't end it just stopped.

Zoo city fun ish concept but didn't quite go anywhere interesting. Criminals wake up one day with a visible soul animal. They have to care for it or else they get swallowed by the Undertow. But are still shunned by polite society. Music business journalisem ghetto settings in S africa.

Stranger things happen cone of two collections of weird sf short stories. Didn't do anything for me, no dramatic twists nothing that weird just odd. Finsihed 1 but CBA to read the other.

I liked Zoo City when I read it, but felt that the worldbuilding was much, much stronger than the story. Stranger things happen made me feel stupid because I just didn't "get" so many of the stories. Although the Snow Queen one was good.

#86 - yes I did like the Snow Queen one. But not enough to read any more of here work.

Feed re-read even though I only read it in August. I enjoyed it so much that now I've got the sequels I thought I'd read it rhough form the start. Still as excellent as before. Probably my book of the year.

Deadline not quite as good, definetly hasd the mid trilogy transition feel to it. Lost all the politics (which I felt had added to feed as satire). Now deep into conspiracy mode, but that is less fun to me - less belivable even than the zombies. And the author is starting to play a little bit too loose with the biology. We'll see how the series finishes.

Blackout the concluding episode. Back to brilliance again. It isn't perfect; there are niggles here and there, and one point when I was shouting, no that's just wrong. But mostly because the intensity of the experience is so great you just want it all to go wonderfully. The opening is briliant. Just jaw dropping.

Read this series.

Vale of Stars
ER books. Good idea, but somewhat spoilt byt he heavy handed politico/socio viewpoint thumped across it. I like my SF to comment on society in one repsect that is it's purpose as genre of fiction, but this managed to do so by telling me what I should eb feeling rather than the characters showing me. Not all the time, but far too often to be enjoyable. Good concept though. Generational ship arrives ata colony planet. We follow an extended family through the generations looking at how the colony has changed and how human nature hasn't. - the same choice is faced by each member of the generation in a new setting, under different circumstances.

newsflesh short stories. All of these are as good as the original series! Somethaing about Mira Grant's (pseudoname) writing really grabs at me. TBH the plots aren't totally brilliant but the characters just really get to you.

Name of the Wind
Re-read - fun it's long but njoyable, drags a bit here and there, but the interruptions more or less work to make a bigger backstory.

The wise man's fear
Not so good. 400 pages of recap form the first book, followed by newer adventures, but nothing that actually progresses the main story at all. We seem to have covered most of the legends of Kvothe, but he's still a long way short of actaully having significant powers. Just too many niggling little faults, and far too many pages taken to not get very far at all.

I've been holding back on Wise Man's Fear....the opening scenes and the current story were what engaged me and piqued my interest the very most, in Name of the Wind. I really want to know what happens next, as the back story was far less intriguing to me. More than ever, I expect I'll hold off continuing with this series until the story catches up with its present. I will get the books and hoard them, then read the whole.

I really should read Feed and the rest of the series. :) You've made it sound really interesting. I've been eyeballing it for a while now.

The Lightbringers Somewhat moralisng near future SF. But with a spiritual bent rather than a judeochristian leaning which makes it different if not better. Somewhat lacking in details and full exploration of the issues, but readable enough. The Lightbrngers are a cult balancing the twin eveils of ignoring bad events vs embracing them. It is all a bit predicatbel at times.

Dodger - pTerry's victorean take on life in London. In the style of Dickens who guest stars. Fun, but very different from his Discworld work. A young boy rescues a girl and goes on to be a hero.

#91/2 - Feed is my book of the year I think, wheras WMF is my letdown of the year. There were plenty of worse books, but none that I expected so much more from.

The rogue Mid series Canavan, much the same as too many mid series books, not a lot actually happens although many sub plots move themselves along, with the climaxes looking somewhat predictabel for the final episode. Enjoyable enough, and despite the frequent character viewpoint swapping enough edges have been smoothed out of Canavan's writing style that it all flows along enjoyably.