lohengrin's 2014 reading journal

(2013 thread)

Starting off the year I have two library books, Christopher Moore's Lamb and Holly Black's The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, along with a few books I started in 2013 but did not manage to finish.

Hope you have a good year, and try to keep warm!

Looking forward to following your reading this year. The coldest girl... is on my tbr pile so I'll be interested to see what you think of it.

And of course the first stuff I finished this year actually ended up being manga, because it's quick and easy. And fun!

Puella Magi Kazumi Magica vol. 3 definitely saved the series from the "give up" pile! I still find the art very hard to parse at times and had to re-read several sections to be clear on who was doing what, but the direction the story has taken here has totally sold me on the series.

No. 6 vol. 4 contained THE KISS and I am so so happy! I was worried that the manga would try to keep that aspect of Shion and Nezumi's (called Rat in the manga, but god I hate it when they translate proper names instead of just making a note of the meaning) relationship "off screen," but no. It didn't. And the endgame of the plot is getting started, too, so all in all it was a great volume!

Soul Eater vols. 5-7 got us into the start of the Arachnophobia arc which, aside from just being a great arc also means we're approaching the point where the anime diverged in plot. Super excited!

Magi: Labyrinth of Magic vol. 3 was very good, but I'm actually kind of shocked that I'm three volumes into the manga and still have only covered the first handful of episodes of the anime. The anime really tore through these early volumes in a hurry!

Still have two more waiting to be shipped, so depending on when they arrive I may just tack them onto the February post.

Today I finished The Coldest Girl in Coldtown in one sitting. It's easy to get burned out on vampire books, these days, but this one hit all the right notes for me. The vampires were both beautiful and monstrous, and our heroine was tough, proactive, and determined. Holly Black hasn't steered me wrong yet.

I may go back and re-read the original short story that birthed the book, too.

>5 lohengrin:: Right, that's moving up my tbr pile ...

5> I liked The Coldest Girl in Coldtown too. The short story follows a completely different character and plot, but there are some references to it in the book.

I've been staying away from paranormal stories lately, but now you've poked my interest. If I was to feel like picking up a vampire story, what is the short story prelude to Coldest Girl?

I can't remember the title. I know I read it in her collection The Poison Eaters. The short story may very well have been called "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown."

Thanks!. My library doesn't have The Poison Eaters, but I'll see if I can dig up a copy somewhere else.

Indeed it is also called "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown." ^^ And having just re-read it after reading the book, I find it an interesting comparison. A few lines she just copied in their entirety from the short story to the novel (I can't blame her, they were good lines!), and then other things she changed notably from the one to the other (where the vampire outbreak started and spread first, for instance). But both are excellent!

At one time, the short story was posted online, I think to promote the release of The poison eaters. But when I googled for it on Friday I couldn't find it anymore, so perhaps it got taken down .

Well, my library has The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, so I can always start there.

Argh. I had to return Lamb to the library today, unfinished. I didn't dislike it overall, but the middle section--dealing with Buddhism and Hinduism--had issues that were slowing my reading to a crawl, and I just couldn't push through before the book was due. I'd already renewed it once, too, so. Back it went. Maybe someday I will try again.

While I was there, I picked up my reserved copy of Steelheart which will hopefully help get me out of this no-reading funk I've been in most of the last few months.

I'll be interested to see what you think of Steelheart. I am in a minority for not having liked it.
I have just started Coldest girl in Coldtown and it's really good so far.

#14 - I share your pain. LOL There has been a bookmark stuck in the middle of my copy of Lamb for at least four years now. Maybe longer. It was a gift from my daughter, so I feel like I really have to finish it at some point. I can't put my finger on what made me put it down and not pick it back up. (Except possibly I didn't want to see him grow up and die horribly.)

Finished Steelheart. I would say, overall, I did enjoy it quite a lot. I loved the worldbuilding (as always with Sanderson) and the plot. I also loved some of the characters--mainly Prof and Abraham, though I also liked what we did see of Tia.

The narrator... I liked him at times. Mainly when he was not thinking about or talking to The Love Interest. So, you know, hardly ever; when he was geeking out about weapons or Epics or any other little random fact from his encyclopaedias, then I liked him. The Love Interest I did not like at all until the last scene, where she's struggling to understand the feelings her past incarnation had--that, I thought, had some real potential. We'll see how things go in the next book, which is named for her.

My dislike of those characters wasn't quite enough to turn me off the book, which surprised me; usually characters are paramount for me. But I guess I'm just a sucker for superhero dystopias; I liked Seanan McGuire's Velveteen Vs and the anime Tiger & Bunny more than I liked this book, but I still liked it.

17> Strange... I just finished reading Steelheart a few days ago. I totally agree with you on the narrator and the Love Interest, but I had trouble liking him at other times. How is it that he's the one who comes up with the plans and saves the day when he's the newest in the group? I figured that the weird events, such as in the elevator, were connected to him somehow because he seemed like such an author's darling. I really began to like Megan more after the big reveal. And I agree - that last scene with her did have true power.

I was lukewarm on the book until the big reveals at the end. Then I loved it.

18: I was okay with the narrator having good ideas because he'd been so intensely focused on a limited group of Epics for such a long time. Yes, he had general knowledge about Epics not related to Steelheart, but I think that if asked to come up with a plan for dealing with one of them he'd run into a lot more trouble. And Prof and the others had to refine his ideas a lot to make them work, too.

>17 lohengrin: I've not read Steelheart, but if you like superhero dystopias, perhaps Susan Jane Bigelow's Broken and sequels would be up your alley? They got some pretty good reviews from The Book Smugglers, so I've been meaning to check them out.

20: Whoops, I kinda vanished for the entire month there, didn't I? February reeeeeally sucked health-wise, so I basically got nothing read after Steelheart (and January wasn't much better--2014 is not my year thus far). x.x Thank you for the rec, though, and it definitely looks worth checking out!

Meanwhile, March is off to a bit of a better start with two books I have been eagerly anticipating both coming out on the same day.

Half-Off Ragnarok is the third in Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series, which I actually prefer over the October Daye books (though I really like those, too), despite the marginally higher focus on romance subplots. I was nervous about the change in narrators and leaving behind so many characters I'd gotten attached to in the first two books but, just as she did in the Newsflesh books, Seanan handled the shift in POV very smoothly. And as much as I missed the NYC characters, I ended up really liking Alex and his Love Interest quite a bit. All in all, I really enjoyed the book--it was exactly the light, fun, engaging read I needed coming out of a month of Zero Spoons. It actually arrived a day early so I polished it off yesterday, which left today free for...

Emilie and the Sky World, which also fit solidly into the category of "light, fun and engaging," and also left me missing characters from the previous book, but pleasantly surprised by the new characters introduced in this one. The villain(s) and the world felt a little less developped this time, as there was more focus on action, but we did still get to meet at least one representative from a new (and completely non-human) culture, so it was by no means bereft of the joy of discovery and new knowledge. I liked the first book a little better, but this one still thoroughly entertained me and left me wanting to see even more of this world and these characters, so all in all I cannot complain.

I've been a tiny bit worried about the change in POV from Georgia to Shaun. I really enjoyed Feed, but have been putting off Deadline for no other reason. Glad to know the change doesn't hurt too much.

Best wishes for your health issues improving, @lohengrin. I hope March is a better month in that quarter for you. I'd be curious if you do try Broken what you think of it. I recently added Emilie and the Hollow World to mount tbr, and I am looking forward to it- light, fun, and engaging is definitely something I need sometimes.

I read a thing! After April added renovations and the family dog being diagnosed with surprise!cancer to my own health issues... well. 2014 is kicking my butt so very hard, man. There are no words. Dog is okay now, but my stress levels are not--my OCD and general anxiety have combined into a monster of epic proportions; I keep fixating on one little thing or another to have anxiety attacks about.

But finally, after quite possibly the longest and worst drought I have had in nearly a decade, I finished another book. The latest Mercedes Thompson book, Night Broken arrived for me at the library and I tore through it in one night. I was really worried about this one, because betrayal is an extremely touchy issue for me and I knew the plot would heavily involve Adam's ex-wife and the fact that much of the pack liked her better than they like Mercy... but fortunately Patricia Briggs handled it all deftly enough that it did not tap dance all over my sore spots. I enjoyed the book, though it felt in some ways like a placeholder... I can't put my finger on why, exactly, but it sort of felt like a "monster of the week" episode in the middle of an ongoing storyline. Enjoyable, but except for a few scenes it felt somewhat divorced from the greater Mercyverse.

Congratulations on finishing that book. I'm glad the dog is okay now, and I hope things soon get better for you.

>24 lohengrin: Best of luck with all of it. Hope you remain reading drought free. *big hugs to you*

Two more books finished, which makes this the best month so far this year in terms of reading. That is really, really sad--three books is my best for 2014. Hopefully I can get a few more in this month and make it a decent month, period, as opposed to "less suckish than the first third of the year."

The first book was Sparrow Hill Road, Seanan McGuire's latest and part of the InCryptid universe, though not directly related to the main series. I really enjoyed it, though I'd read some of the stories in older versions when they were online. Like most of McGuire's stuff (with the exception of her Mira Grant books) it was light reading, but really well-done and enjoyable. I hope we'll get to see more of Rose Marshall, and get some resolution to her story, but even if we don't I enjoyed the ride.

I also read The Steerswoman, which I did enjoy enough to at least get the next book, but it didn't entirely click with me. I liked the main characters and in theory the world setup is one of my favourite types, but it felt a little... sketchy, to me. Not in the sense of dubious, but like it was a detailed outline rather than a complete story. I know it's a favourite around here, but it just did not entirely work for me. I wish I could articulate better why, and I hope the next book will remedy the situation somewhat.

27> I would guess it's because so much is left unfinished, if that's the right word. The beginning is set up, but Rowan never finds out the secrets that we know are still there. In many ways, it feels like a set up for the next book.

Crap! I am super behind on this! I've actually finished like... seven books since the last time I posted (and I'm six months behind on the manga I've read, that's going to be insane when I finally get to it). Let's see... first up was:

Steadfast, yet another Elemental Masters book by Mercedes Lackey. It's also the last one my library has, so unless they get the new one this will be it for me. It was okay. That seems to be all I can say about these books, and yet I keep reading them. It was less aggravating than some of the worst ones, but it also felt like the connection to the fairy tale was extremely tenuous.

I actually started A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters a fair while back. And though it's short, I found it slow going. The writing style in the beginning... good lord. I know I'm terrible about superfluous commas, but this was epic even by my standards. And mysteries are rarely my thing to begin with, but it was such an interesting concept. In the end, I do not regret reading it but feel no need to pick up any more books in the series.

Mistworld by Simon R. Green was on sale for the Kindle, I think? Or just always a low price to lure people into the series? Either way, it was cheap and I'd been eyeing the Deathstalker series for a while anyway, so I grabbed it up. I really enjoyed it, too! I like my sf character-focused, and this definitely was. I will almost certainly be picking up more in the series when funds allow.

Though I read the first in the trilogy a fair while back (sometime in 2010, looks like) I only got to The Novice by Trudi Canavan in the past month. My TBR pile is... not small. But I'm glad I finally got around to this one, because I quite enjoyed it! In fact I'm going to start the third book soon.

Guardian's Key by Anne Logston was a re-read, but one in the category of "things I haven't read for over a decade," so I'm counting it here. The Suck Fairy definitely paid a little visit to this one... or I've completely lost patience for certain types of romance plotline over the years, at the very least. Still, I did enjoy the worldbuilding.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Hotel Transylvania was another cheap Kindle purchase. I'd been eyeing this series off and on for years, so it was a good chance to give it a crack. And... Meh. Waaaay too much focus on sex to be consistently interesting to me. I liked the historical setting and I did like Saint-Germain himself, but... yeah. Not going to be continuing the series.

Lastly was another library book, John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice: The Icebound Land. It ended not so much on a cliffhanger as it just... ended suddenly, like it was the middle of a book and not the end of one. I did enjoy it, though, so I'll be picking up the next one sooner than planned. It's simple and oldfashioned, in a sense, but that's kind of what I like about this series--it's refreshing, amongst all the doorstopper grimdark tomes with eight hundred characters.

Argh! I'm somewhat back in the groove with finishing books, but now I'm so out of the habit of reporting here that I'm ridiculously far behind. Another six or seven books, maybe? I will try to get to it tomorrow, this is mostly to remind me that it needs doing (and make me publically accountable, or something).

Tomorrow, two months, same thing right? Of course the number of books I've read since that last attempt has only grown, so I'm going to split things into a few posts just to break things up a little visually.

So!

July:

I did indeed grab The Battle for Skandia almost as soon as I finished the previous book. As I mentioned above it really did feel like one book split in two, and I haven't much to say about it that I haven't said about the previous books in the series: enjoyable brain candy, kind of nostalgic for all that they were actually written when I was in my twenties and thirties.

Also from the library that month were Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone and the sixth of Kim Harrison's Hollows books, The Outlaw Demon Wails.

I really liked the unique worldbuilding of Three Parts Dead, and was very glad when it didn't end up being as grimdark as I had feared. The characters were flawed but mostly likeable, and things actually came to a reasonably satisfying conclusion. I haven't felt any hurry to pick up the next two books in the series, though, as I tend to drag my heels a bit when it comes to changing narrators.

The Hollows book was pretty good. I still feel like the series is leaning a bit too much on the And Then Things Got Worse side, but I did enjoy it. I just need breaks between books, to steel myself for yet another round of Rachel Morgan's life constantly sliding sideways into disaster.

Then, I presume in preparation for the release of the new book, Ilona Andrews's whole Kate Daniels series went on sale for Kindle, so I picked those up though the series had previously been library-only for me. The ones I hadn't yet read were Magic Slays and Magic Rises, both of which were fun reads but since now I find myself going "wait, which ones were they again?" I cannot say that they were particularly memorable. *cough*

And then finally I bought and read both Captive Prince Book 1 and Captive Prince Book 2 about which I will say little except that they were well-written and I enjoyed them entirely shamelessly.

August:

From the library I had The Man With the Golden Torc by Simon R. Green. I was actually looking to start his Nightside series but my library did not have it, so I grabbed this one instead. I liked it quite a bit, it actually managed to stand out from the urban fantasy a bit, and I didn't find the main character quite as grating as I found Harry Dresden. It's not a series I'm going to binge-read, but I'm definitely glad I gave it a chance and will pick up the next book sometime for sure.

Also from the library I got the next two Ranger's Apprentice books: The Sorcerer of the North and The Siege of Macindaw. Again, they were more like one book split in two, so this time I planned ahead. And I still really don't have a whole lot to say about the books. They're fun, they're competently written and plotted, and they're manageable even when I'm having moderately bad brainfog. That's about it.

On the other hand, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie was anything but standard brain candy. I doubt I can say anything new about this book, but as far as I'm concerned it entirely deserved to sweep the awards this year. The worldbuilding was wonderful. The pronoun/gender issue, which could have been just a throwaway gimmick if it had been done wrong, instead ended up making me think about how I perceive characters without gender in the mix. Breq is a wonderful character, both as Justice of Toren and as Breq, and let me just say how impressed I am that the sections with Justice of Toren actually not only made perfect sense but FLOWED well, despite the multiple-bodies issue.

After that was Banana Yoshimoto's Amrita. Not my favourite book of hers, not even in the top three, but I do always enjoy her prose (even through the lens of translation) and the quiet feeling of her books. And I still suck at explaining anything about them. Sigh.

I also finished Trudi Canavan's Black Magician trilogy, with The High Lord. It brought the series to a more or less satisfying end, though I wasn't entirely thrilled with the romance subplot. Fortunately it was a pretty minor subplot, though how tacked-on it felt was probably part of what bothered me.

Charles de Lint is always a bit hit-or-miss for me, and Moonheart was closer to a miss than a hit. I liked it enough to finish it, but it just never quite grabbed me. I can't even really put my finger on what made it fail to click for me, aside from the central romance being rather more "love at first sight" than I like.

Finally was my re-read of Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. It was not quite my very first Murakami (it was the one reccomended to me first, but the bookstore did not have a copy at the time) but it's still very nostalgic for me, and I was interested to see how it held up. Extremely well. I still enjoy everything Murakami writes, but I have to admit that my top three of his works (including this one) were all originally published between 1985 and 1995.

September/October-so-far:

One of many book bullets I've taken here was Daniel O'Malley's The Rook, which I grabbed from the library. I enjoyed it even more than I expected, actually, and I'm anxiously awaiting more. The amnesiac main character is not exactly unfamiliar to me (I do play JRPGs), but it was done exceptionally well here. I really loved Myfanwy, as she is in the book, and felt like I kind of would have hated the person she'd been before, which was interesting. And to find yet another supernatural-forces-are-secretly-among us book that actually stood out from the pack was a delightful surprise.

The Winter Long, the 8th of McGuire's Toby Daye books, was a surprise as well, and for the 8th book in a series that's quite a feat. I often either see mid-series plot twists coming a mile away, or never quite buy that they were "planned all along" because they feel like total ass-pulls, but McGuire really nailed the one in this book, IMO. I always look forward to new books by her, but damn if the next Toby Daye book hasn't moved to the very top of my "cannot come out soon enough" list.

My last read in September (it was another bad month, alas) was Anne Bishop's Written in Red. I'd kind of given up on her after the incredibly heavy-handed Tir Alainn books, but talk of this book here on LT made me curious so I picked it up from the library and was pleasantly surprised. Her take on what the balance of power would be like in a world where supernatural forces were openly among us was quite different, and worked quite logically. I enjoyed most of the characters, and will definitely pick up the second book at some point in the near future.

And that is it for both September, and for library books for the rest of the year, as I've decided to try to make a little room on my shelves for Christmas gifts, so I'll be trying to avoid both the library and ebooks for the next few months.

Of course I've failed miserably on the 'ebook' half of that equation, so far.

First up in October were The End is Nigh and The End is Now, both edited by Hugh Howey and John Joseph Adams. As they are linked anthologies, I basically read them concurrently--reading a story in the first one, then checking to see if it had a sequel in the second (as most of them did). I freely admit I got them for Seanan McGuire's contributions, but I found both books had a much higher pecentage of stories I enjoyed than most anthologies do. I will definitely keep an eye on Adams as an editor with excellent taste! And I look forward to the final book in the Apocalypse Triptych when it comes out next year.

Next up was another ebook, Melissa F. Olson's Hunter's Trail. I did enjoy it, though I feel not quiiiite as much as the first two books in the series. I kind of got love-triangle whiplash with this book, unfortunately. The rest of the plot, though, was pretty interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing how things proceed in the next book, whenever it comes out.

And finally, for now, was... yes, YET ANOTHER EBOOK, damn it. But Ancillary Sword was an instant pre-order for me, and I started reading it pretty much the moment I woke up this morning. It wasn't quite as good as Justice, but that's a tall order anyway. It was still an excellent book. I felt like the ending was rather abrupt, perhaps rushed to publication a bit to catch the buzz of its predecessor, and the book could have used another 50 or so to really wrap things up (as much as they could be--the situation they are in doesn't really allow for neat endings). I'm really looking forward to the next book (I can't imagine there not being a next one), but I do hope Leckie takes her time with it, despite any fan or publisher impatience for more more more.

Glad you've enjoyed so much of your recent reading, especially that which came to you via book bullets! The rook, Written in red and Ancillary justice are three of my favourites so far in 2014, and I need to get my hands on Ancillary sword.

>34 Sakerfalcon: Hear, hear...

Man, the months kept getting away from me. How is it already more than a week into 2015? Well past time to wrap this thread up, obviously. So!

The remainder of October:

The White Road by John Connolly was harder for me to get into than I was expecting. I enjoyed the first three books in the series quite a bit, but it's been an awfully long time since I read them so I spent parts of this book thinking "this is clearly referring back to something, but I cannot for the life of me remember what." A lot of the significance, I think, was lost as a result. It was a good mystery/horror novel nonetheless, and mostly (if not entirely) my own fault that I had as much trouble with it as I did.

On the other hand, Vivian Vande Velde's Now You See It... was immediately and easily accessible. A nice, light read, though it felt like it was aimed even younger than most of the YA I enjoy. It didn't grab me, mostly because the main character fell kind of flat for me, but it was reasonably enjoyable and a good break from books I'd been struggling with.

Speaking of books I struggled to finish... a re-read of Exile by Anne Logston wasn't hit *quite* as hard by the Suck Fairy as her Guardian's Key was earlier in the year, but definitely at least a sprinkling of Suck Dust hit this book in the decade-plus since I last read it. I do not have much patience anymore for young, entitled, spoiled viewpoint characters who spend the entire book being whumped until they grow up a little. And the main character here really only grew at all in the last fifth, at best, of the book. Not satisfying. :/

November!

In my attempt to get some books off my shelf (if only to put them in storage), I finished up Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians series with The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian. The way the prophecies hanging over the series finally played out was pretty clever, and the use of Greek Mythology continued to entertain me but I felt like they closed out the storyline quite well so I don't really feel the need to pick up any of the sequel series.

I broke my "no ebooks, no library books" rule for Symbiont by Mira Grant because I am hopelessly addicted to everything Seanan/Mira writes. Sadly, though, I felt like this was one of her weakest offerings. The beginning of the book kind of felt like a scramble to justify plot points I had issues with in the first book, and in general it felt like there was a little too much telling and not enough showing. I enjoyed it, because for me a mediocre Seanan/Mira book is still better than a lot of what's out there, but I was admittedly a bit disappointed.

Yet another book I struggled to finish was Paula Volsky's The Luck of Relian Kru. It wasn't the oldest of her books that I've read (that would be The Sorceror's Lady), but it *felt* old. I can't even put my finger on what about it didn't work for me, short of "everything." Which sounds harsh--it wasn't a bad book--but it just wasn't for me. At all. Which was disappointing because I've really enjoyed some of her other books. It hasn't put me off trying more of her stuff, though.

Finally for this month, I read 20th Century Ghosts, a short story collection by Joe Hill. I read his debut novel pretty much when it came out and haven't tried anything else of his since, but I'm glad I tried this one because I thought most of the stories were excellent. Some fell a bit flat for me, at least one I just didn't understand, but there were more hits than misses. The only thing that semi-consistently bothered me was the homophobic language. I never got the feeling it was the author's own stance--mostly the people voicing such opinions were presented as unpleasant, young, or both--but it was a bit jarring in the *wrong* way.

And finally, December.

The light novel version of A Certain Magical Index was a bit of a miss for me. I've enjoyed the anime, more or less, but it's not one of my favourites. I thought, as is often the case for me, that I might like the original text version better, but something about the style of the novel (or maybe a mix of the style and the translation) totally didn't work for me. I ended up skimming sections more than I usually do, and will not be continuing the series.

And I broke my "no ebooks, no library books" rule *again* for Clariel, because Garth Nix has been promising this book forever and it's finally here. I got it from the library, because I'd rather own this one in physical form than in ebook form, but I don't buy hardcovers unless I have no choice. I'm not sure it was quite worth the very lengthy wait, but it was definitely a very good read. I devoured it in one night, and found the way it ended both oddly satisfying, and entirely frustrating. There was a *lot* more story left to tell, but I can understand why he felt the need to end it with the moment Clariel firmly set foot on the road to becoming Chlorr rather than giving us more of her journey.

One of my Christmas gifts was Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. I'd read her blog in its entirely (some of it many, many times) and liked it enough that I'd probably have bought the book version even if there was little new material in it, but the amount of new stories was a really pleasant surprise. I could wish that a few of my favourites from the blog that got left out were in there, but maybe another book will be forthcoming someday, even though she seems to have kind of fallen off the face of the earth. :/ Her sense of humour is clearly not for everyone, but I found myself struggling to laugh *quietly* at 4am, even when re-reading pieces I'd read many times before. And, most importantly, the book contains her two-part piece on depression--one of the funniest, truest, most personally resonant examinations of the disease that I have ever read.

I also finally, *finally* polished off my re-read of City of Golden Shadow. I loved the book just as much this time as the first time I read it, it's just that my concentration is shot so I struggled with the sheer amount of material here. Hopefully I will manage to finish the rest of the series rather faster. ^^;

And rounding out 2014, I finished Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. I've always been drawn most to his short stories, so it took me a criminally long time to finally get around to this one. I can't say I "enjoyed" it, exactly, as it was a deeply uncomfortable read in some ways, but the language was beautiful and the story was just... perfectly done. It was a really good way to end a really messed up year.

Since I've pretty much given up on catching up on manga--I'm many, many months behind and I read over a hundred volumes this year--that about wraps up this thread!

On to my 2015 post!

>37 lohengrin: I had the same reaction when I finished the Percy Jackson series, but I suspect I would have felt differently if I were 10 or so.

I really have got to get Hyperbole and a Half.

>37 lohengrin: I've just finished Symbiont and I have to agree with you. Much of the book felt like filler and Sal's interior monologues became very repetitive. Still, it left me wanting to read the last book just to see how it all ends.

>39 MrsLee: I always feel a little nervous reccomending Hyperbole and a Half to anyone, because her humour is definitely off-kilter and sometimes her word choices can be unfortunate. But I think what really makes me love her humour despite its flaws is that she isn't really making fun of anyone, except herself.

>40 Sakerfalcon: I definitely do want to see how it all ends, but it's definitely not sucking me in like the Newsflesh books did, or like her Seanan McGuire work does. Maybe she's struggling with writing another long-form zombie-ish apocalypse, and that's where some of the awkwardness is coming from?

>41 lohengrin: I read that the series was originally meant to be just 2 books but for whatever reason it's been expanded to 3. I suspect it would have been a better, tighter, more exciting read if it had remained a duology.

And I too love Hyperbole and a half. I've read all the web posts and have the book to look forward to.