Busifer's 2013 in books

A new year!

Still reading Dracula, slowly.

Looking forward to the new Foreigner novel, Protector, the new GG Kay (River of Stars) and the last installment in JC Grimwood's Assassini trilogy - The Exiled Blade - all due in April.

Until then I think I'll make an effort of reducing Mount TBR... Maybe I will have better luck with it this year? ;)

hope your new year is terrific and all your books are winners.

Thanks - and the same to you!

Ditto what #2 said. :o)

Yay! Busifer's going to keep reading and posting!

Love reading your thoughts on books. Looking forward to more this year.

Looking forward to the new GGK as well. And there's a new Czerneda coming out in March as well, though it's a fantasy this time.

I didn't know about Czerneda, but if it don't get raving reviews I think I'll pass - as you all know by now I'm a bit wary of too fantastic fantasy... Even if I know I'm not very consistent with my prejudices, I do love the Assassini trilogy, with its vampires and werewolves and supernatural beings and all ;)

That said I am strugling a bit with Dracula. I keep on thinking I should just dig out the Gary Oldman movie instead, and for some days now I have resisted putting it aside.
I think I'll endure but clearly it will be some time before I finish it.

Looking forward to following your thread this year - I found some great reads from you in 2012!

Aw I loved Dracula and found it a very quick read.

I don't read suspense or horror at all, as with urban fantasy the genres do nothing for me, and in this case I think the language is in the way, too. The edition I'm reading feels very authentic and at times it is just too much for me. Too much embroidery and too little happening. I find I skip parts just t make the story go forward.

Remember, English is not my native language and despite having read English language books since I was 13, soon 34 years ago, it can be a bit hard to penetrate old or dialect varieties (I think I'll never be brave enough to try Banks' Feersum Endjin) and even when I manage it can be slow going.

Even as I read almost exclusively English language books my reading speed is about half of when I read in Swedish.

Quite interesting, as a phenomenon.

In this case I find I have absolutely zero interest in any of the characters, as well.

#10 I would suggest you need a Glaswegian to read the relevant parts of Feersum Enjinn and to provide you with a running translation.

In both Feersum Enjinn and The Bridge I find Banks's phonetic spelling to be excellent, but one would need to be familiar with the accent to understand it even if English was one's first language.

By the way, Happy New Year. I hope 2013 is good for you.

Thank you, and same to you!

7 - I seem to recall Czerneda's new book, A Turn of Light, making it onto Janny Wurts' best of 2012 list. She'd received an advance copy.

ETA: Yup. Janny posted it on the best of 2012 fiction thread.

Thanks to Sandragon I just finished Julie Czerneda's The Franchise - short story sequel to In the Company of Others. It started a bit uncertain but te ending... not what I anticipated. Very good, anyone who have read and enjoyed the novel should read these 17 pages.

The pdf can be found here - http://www.czerneda.com/pdf/My%20first%20short%20story.pdf#zoom=100

I wondered how you would do with Dracula, Busifer. I love it for its Gothic darkness, but not so much for its action sequences or great prose. :)

It's not that I dislike it, it just fails to engage me. I will go on to finish it, though. Eventually ;)

It's not particularly engaging in many respects. I have very mixed feelings about Dracula.

Happy new year, Busifer, and thanks for mentioning the new GGK... I haven't been paying attention and didn't know about it. I liked Under Heaven better than the couple before it, if not quite as well as some of the prior ones. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the new one.

#18 - Under Heaven was a big step forward compared to Last Light of the Sun and Ysabel but like you I think some of the older ones his best, to date.

I don't dare get my hopes up, but... I'll definitely share my views on River of Stars, once it is published :)

Good luck on reducing the tbr's. Seems like an impossible task sometimes doesn't it.

Thanks.
In reality it will be impossible, I think. But one can always strive... ;-)

OK, not a book, but -

I have, somewhat late, started to watch the modernised Sherlock series. And I like it. A lot.

After some analysing I have started to think that the reason I enjoy crime/mysteries on screen but not as reading is I just don't have patience for all the context and clue-laying that has to go in the written form. It takes so much time, so many words, to paint the picture.
The film format is perfect for this, so many things can go on in one image or sequence - the nuances of a facial expression or body language, or the surroundings...

It's interesting to hear your thoughts on the screen/book divide with mysteries. I have a similar 'problem' with a lot of sci fi, maybe because I can't process the detail required to paint a new world in my imagination - perhaps in a film the hard work has been done for me.

But I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Sherlock, is that the BBC series with Cumberbatch? It is rather spectacular!

It is. I had hear a lot of good stuff about it but it never aired when I was able to actually catch it.

#22 Busifer

We enjoyed the new series in our house, too.

Your comments on preferring film to books for this type of story could probably also be used for comic books/graphic novels, if one wished to.

Probably. Yesterday when at the library I eyed a graphic novel version of Dracula but it was too slim to feel credible, and with too many nekkid ladies per page to fit the story ;-)

with too many nekkid ladies per page to fit the story

Which particular edition was that? ;)

I don't remember, actually. It was real slim, perhaps 48 pages or so, and drawn in a rather simple manner - no variety in line thickness, no usage of b/w fields or so.

I'm not actually a graphic novel fan but I know many people who are.

I wouldn't label myself either fan or connoisseur even I if I do have a sizeable collection of graphic novels and do read the format from time to time. I know a lot of people who are, though, and have picked up this and that over time ;-)

Oh, perfect timing! I just watched the first episode of Sherlock on Friday night. Absolutely loved it. Had to promise my daughter I wouldn't watch any more episodes without her while she's off gallivanting in Boston for the weekend.

Do you think we should give Sherlock his own thread?

#27 - Bwaa haa haa!!!

After we watched the first episode I convinced husband that he wanted to watch the second, too. I hope next viewing don't have to wait too long!

The first was absolutely best of the two, but I love how they have transposed Sherlock & Watson into our times without actually losing anything - rather the opposite.

A dedicated thread sounds like a great idea!

I'm glad to see you're enjoying the Cumberbatch / Freeman Sherlock, Busifer (and Clam). It's probably one of the finest BBC TV shows in quite some time, and I'm glad it's doing well overseas. Can't wait for them to make some more.

A dedicated thread does indeed sound like a great idea.

Count me in on the Sherlock thread. I think they have really added something extra. (There is one episode I didn't think much of, but I will stay quiet until that has been watched by all.)

Series 3 is due out this year and I am eagerly waiting for it.

OH! They are going to continue the series?!?! I had no idea but am VERY happy about it :)

With luck I'll watch the 3rd episode today.

Or Firefly. It haven't ever aired here and I've been hesitant about getting a box set of a series I've never watched... but lately it has become available on one of the legal streamed TV/film sites so I started it the other day.

I enjoyed both series (Firefly *and* Sherlock) but they are very different in tone. The modern Sherlock has a certain urban grittiness to it while Firefly has more humor and future shock in its tales. You have a sense that people who are killed in Sherlock are really most sincerely dead and gone, whereas in Firefly, there's always some lingering doubt. But again, I think both make for enjoyable viewing -- just for different moods.

And I'm still thinking about your idea of preferring mysteries on screen rather than in print. If I differ from you in that regard, its because things tend to move so fast on screen that I never feel like I can keep up with the sleuth. Unless it is Marple or Poirot...

Watched the third Sherlock episode together with husband today and his - husband's, not Sherlock's! - habit to guess whodunnit or what's going on well in advance of anyone on screen is fun and annoying, at the same time.

Also watched Firefly, after everyone else had gone to sleep. I quite enjoy the contrast between startravel, which we perceive as future-tech dependent on high civilization, and the Western archetypes, which we today deem outmoded or uncivilized.
For some reason it makes me think of How the West Was Won, if anyone remember that series. Wagon Train to the Stars, anyone? ;)

Sherlock and Firefly were/are great series! I wish Firefly had made it more than one season and Sherlock seasons are WAY to slow coming out... ;)

# 7 - If you enjoy Patricia McKillip's style, the new Julie E. Czerneda fantasy has a similar flavor. The style is a little more lush than her SF work - I read both, and I loved Turn of Light a lot. Nice break from the current run of grimdark - this one is not gritty in the least.

I've never read anything by Patricia McKillip so have absolutely no idea :)

No overt violence, combined with a lush, poetic feel - idyllic, dreamlike - sincere characters to root for....the backdrop is bucolic, and the magic totally original and strange. The setting is as important to the story as any of the characters.

Julie has posted a sequence of excerpts where she does her stuff (web page and Facebook, etc) - so her SF readers can 'sample' the difference in style for her first fantasy. The book actually releases this spring, and I THINK she said she was taking the samplers down then.

OK, I'll have a look. I do like her writing, in general, but was put off, to say the least, by the closing book in her "prequel" trilogy in the Trade Pact universe...

Another Sherlock and Firefly fan here. I think I'm kinda with jillmwo on the idea of preferring to read mysteries, but only if it is an excellent author. A show can make a so-so mystery shine. Such was the case for the Murdock mysteries for me. Loved the show, couldn't stomach the books.

ALso a Sherlock fan (and many of the others mentioned above) which given I don't have a TV is quite something. We caught a repeat episode when visiting and on the basis of just that decided to buy the DVDs. Have been very enjoyable. I am most impressed with the clever way they attribute all sorts of little bits from many of the short stories into the main plot.

#41 - also sounds somewhat like Robin Mckinley's writings. For some reason over here, Patricia is very expensive/difficult to get hold of. I have memories of really enjoying riddlemaster of hed when I was young, but haven't been able to re-read it. I think it was a Morphy/GD read a while back?

McKillip also wrote a science fiction novel called Fool's Run, which I like a lot. She does a good job of weaving a convoluted series of interactions and relationships among a set of characters. The science is trivial, although she has some interesting ideas about musical instruments. To me, a lot of her fantasies other than the riddle-master trilogy are hard to tell apart. She's not exactly telling the same story over and over, but her style and settings are pretty consistent.

I too am a Firefly fan, and a McKinley and McKillip fan.

It's true, as Jim53 said, that a lot of the McKillip books seem to be in the same sort of story, but I like that world and that feeling, and that she doesn't feel the need to explain why jewels are falling out of people's hair and clothing or the many other odd things that happen. I can just ride along and experience those things without a lot of extra words getting in the way ;)

JIm, thanks for mentioning Fool's Run. Just added it to the wishlist.

And of course I'm a Firefly fan as well. Us nerds...

I love Sherlock and Firefly and Robin McKinley's books. Three of my favourite things. I stalled on McKillip though. Od Magic was my first and I liked it well enough. It felt magical and lovely like nhlsecord just described. But The Forgotten Beasts of Eld didn't do anything for me (felt flat to me) and I really didn't like the Riddle Master of Hed. I had absolutely no urge to finish the series and I'm hesitant to try any others.

>48 sandragon:: If you liked Od magic, try Alphabet of thorn or Ombria in shadow, I think you'll like them better than Eld or Hed, which were earlier books. I was disappointed with the Riddlemaster trilogy, and although I do remember liking Eld, I prefer her later titles.

As a rule the more magic the less I like it. The same goes for anything supernatural. As an example every single book that I've read that used the Arthur legends felt ridiculous to me.
So I honestly don't think I'll try either of McKillip or McKinley.
Sorry.

I discovered Patricia A. McKillip with The Forgotten Beasts of Eld which I loved. I lost sight of her until sometime in the '90's when I happened across her The Book of Atrix Wolfe with its fabulous fairy tale treatment of the Green Man and its wonderful description of the medieval kitchen. I loved her storytelling in that. Unfortunately, I think she slipped into a bit of a rut following Ombria in Shadow however. Still, she's pretty good at weaving new worlds.

All that said, Busifer, if you're not big on magic, chances are you wouldn't favor McKillip.

#51 - Oh, thanks Jill. Another for my already bursting wishlist. (I have a Green Man thing...)

Hmm, I like medieval kitchens. :)

Trying to puzzle out the connection between the Green Man and medieval kitchens... hmmm. Might have to read it to see!

I'm still hesitant, but I may try another if I see one in the library. I do like McKillip's ideas; I just don't seem to mesh well with her writing.

Totally awed today when Julie Czerneda commented on a FB post regarding the Foreigner "audio movie" project.
I had no idea she was such a C.J. Cherryh fan!

Meanwhile I'm slogging on with Dracula...

What?!! There's a movie in the offing? Now that's kind of cool!

No, not a movie, more like an audio theatre but they label the project "movie in audio", for some reason. There's a FB page for the project, which you can "like" - "CJ Cherry Movie in Audio".

OK, still reading Dracula, intermittently. Not much left of it now but the past two weeks at work have been hellish and I ended up with a vile headache that only just now is subsiding...

Meanwhile I bought some new books - Against A Dark Background, and Power Systems. The latter is an interview book about democracy.

I really need to finish with those vampires so I can get on with the interesting stuff!

Sorry about that headache, Busifer. It's one of the few symptoms of an illness that can keep me from reading. :o/

Thanks, and it's the same for me. Thankfully it's over now. Reading is ON :)

"I really need to finish with those vampires so I can get on with the interesting stuff!"

That's what Van Helsing said. ;)

I now have your headache. :P

Hmmm! Headaches.

Isn't that one of the early symptoms of vampirism?

Check your necks for unusual marks if you can you still see yourselves in the mirror.

Hmn, no unusual marks but perhaps my mirror image is a bit vague?

Any wolfs bane or garlic in the medicine cabinet? Otherwise, it can affect your capacity for sleep.

>56 Busifer: I must admit I really am intrigued by the idea of an audio movie... sounds like it could be really good.

You've been quiet. Everything relatively okay? Just busy with real life?

Oh, I didn't even see your post, Jill, over a month ago!!!

Yes, very quiet. Finding a new flat is exhausting, both for the actual work I put into it and for the emotional roller-coaster. Also, MIL's death is taking its toll off my husband, and a lot of his going back and forth down south to arrange things, which affects me too. And then suddenly my step-MIL realises that she can't handle my FIL at home any longer (tough emotional step for her, they have lived out of each others' pockets since 1974) - his Alzheimer's is too severe now and she's at the brink of a total breakdown. But she can't afford both her own flat, the nursing home fees and the cabin, so we have suddenly agreed to buy the cabin from her.

Plus a lot of stresses at work, what with the new owners and total reorganisation and subsequent upheaval...

In the midst of this I have actually managed to finish an actual book - Protector, the 14th Foreigner novel. I liked it but it is clearly a bridge book - some unexpected revelations but in the main setting the stage for next book in the series.
Also I thought it was too little of Bren in it. Usually the story centres on him and his thoughts but this time around we get only very short glimpses of what he thinks of what is going on - more like a classical third person narrative than the tight intense third person voice I'm used to from her.

I'm on to River of Stars (no touchstone!) but won't comment on it yet.

Meanwhile, during all of these weeks, I have read stuff but only nonsensicals... started a good few books that I know I'll pick up again but at the moment... well, I think I'll resurface, eventually, but there's too much going on in my life right now - I mainly want to go hide somewhere, to get some peace and quiet.

You're in my heart, Busifer. I hope you find your quiet place and your life settles down soon.

Oh Busifer, I am so sorry to hear all of this. Hang in there. Things have to ease up a bit eventually. Good luck with everything, but with the flat especially. *hugs*

Thanks.

We had a swap finalised and then the couple who'd wanted ours got cold feet... so now we're trying to find another swap. And we need to find one soon or son's school year will get affected - for practical reasons we need to move in June. And we've looked at so many bad flats, and a great one which is waaay too expensive for us now we're taking over the cabin up north. Sigh.

Husband is trying to convince me we'll manage but that flat is an additional US$10.330 in rent per year, plus the roughly US$5.300 per year for the cabin. It's just too much, we'd have no fallback for emergency expenses.

Oh well, I imagine things will end up okayish but at the moment it is a bit much. And I don't want to whine so for the most part when I feel like that's all I can manage I stay away instead.

Busifer, I am sorry to hear about all the pressure. The death of a parent in law takes its tole on everyone and you are having to support your partner. I wish you the energy to carry on.
Good luck the home search. That is a big deal in itself.

pgmcc, both my husband and I very much feel that my MIL has finally found peace - she was schizophrenic, and, as old age found her, dementia added to the mix.

The hard thing now is her siblings, 11 still alive, who never even called her, not to mention paid her a visit, during the 20 years that I knew her but who are now urgent to get in touch with my husband, her son.

Busifer, my mother is currently struggling to take care of my father (with Alzheimer form of dementia) because it's gotten to the point where it is affecting his physical balance in movement (one of those things you don't realize it will affect). She too is exhausted like your step MIL. The services available here in the States for that kind of thing aren't particularly robust.

All my sympathies for what you're coping with; it's a huge juggling act and so frequently laden with emotion for each of you (you, spouse, child).

(((hugs))).

My step-MIL makes everything hard(er) by calling every day to tell my husband that she doesn't think we really want to buy the cabin from her - she is trying to tell him he's forcing this decision upon the family. This basically isn't true, it is a joint decision and we knew it might be coming so we had talked about it already - it was that it happened now rather than next winter that surprised us. But she's harassing him to the point of him starting to think she don't want to sell it to us - that she want to sell it to the highest bidder, and get a good price for it, instead.

It's such a mess.

The Trek film was a hoot and I finally feel like I'm ready to return to life!

Books read during this bleak interlude in my life will have to be reread before I can comment or review - the start of 2013 has been like a grey void and it isn't over yet, but hopefully our struggles will soon be done with :)

Spoilers ahead!

I had planned to re-see Wrath of Khan prior to seeing Into Darkness but didn't manage the find the time... did it afterwards instead, and it was good fun, too. I remembered most of it, and now I want to see Into Darkness again :D

It is hard to compare the two Khans, especially given the fact that in the old one Khan is THE bad guy whilst in the new one he has company; a war-loving Admiral responsible for Khan being on the scene in the first place. And whose apparition makes Khan look like a victim or pawn more than a baddie.

I liked how they referenced the original film, often in an oblique way that made me alternatively giggle and nod appreciatively.
But what really stood out when comparing the two was the f/x - how modern technology is both an enabler and a distraction from plot - and how modern films seems to be populated solely by 30-somethings. In WoK the cast was geriatric but I think it would had been good if at least the new Khan had looked a bit older than he did. After all, he's supposed to be a 300 year old bio-engineered war machine, he shouldn't look like something fresh off the catwalk ;-)

Busifer, I am delighted to see your spirits are lifting and that the new Star Trek film is good. I hope to see it this coming weekend. Your spoiler warning prevented my reading your entire post.

Good luck.

Peter

Thanks.

I need to add that Into Darkness in no way is great storytelling, or profound, or... But it was great fun to watch :)

Hope you get to see it next weekend!

I need to add that Into Darkness in no way is great storytelling, or profound

No, say it isn't so!

;P
It's pure love anyway!

I work for an IT consultancy company, I mean the place is ripe with geeks - one guy builds model railways, a woman who have a whole room dedicated to her self-made 15th century costumes (she's an Anachronist) - but yesterday when I got an email from a colleague about an offering we're putting together which he calls ATWA I started on a tirade on how acronyms is so much more like Star Wars than Trek, starting to exemplify with Okudagrams and Jefferies tubes versus ATAT and such and my colleagues just looked at me as if I had just walked off a starship from someplace alien.

I can't help it.

The only Trek I can't stand is #10. Nemesis is just embarassing to watch. Even Generations is better, and that is saying a lot.

I wish I'd been there to hear that tirade. Sounds like great fun.

Welcome back to life!

Yes, indeed! And as @Jim52 says, welcome back! Based on your comments, I am now tempted to make the spouse take me to the movie next weekend to see the movie. Profundity is not always necessary to a good movie-viewing experience.

Thanks :)

Glad to hear you enjoyed the new Trek. :o)

Also, I do hope all the cabin drama calms down for you.

Thanks.
I'm sorely tempted to go watch Into Darkness one more time.

The cabin drama in all its glory - right now it's the flat-swap drama occupying centre stage ;-)
Resolution close on both accounts, hopefully. *knock on wood*

*knocks on wood & holds thumbs*