Saturday, February 27, 2010

February '10

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: THE BONEHUNTERS
-S. Erikson-909-epub
-fantasy-so much violence, sadness and hopelessness. So well written, so full of depth and crosscurrents. I am already looking forward to rereading this series. Bring it on!

ACACIA: THE WAR WITH THE MEIN
-D. Durham-UNFINISHED-pbook
-fantasy-this story seemed like my thing. A kingdom about to undergo tumult, royal children spirited away, assassins, etc. But for whatever reason, I just couldn't get into it. I tried 5 times, and would read 5-10pages, and then lose interest. So I gave up. I would recommend it anyway, how weird is that?

WOLF: WOLF HUNTING
-J. Lindskold-UNFINISHED-pbook
-fantasy-well, Lindskold finally lost me here. Every book seems to be a new place, new people, new adventures. But, it feels like Lindskold has no imagination for the places she has already explored and so is forced to make up more and more new lands to have her stories in. And the fact that Firekeeper and the wolf are practically mated, without the mating, is just pushing the beastiality line and really isn't appropriate. Goodbye Jane, your first Wolf book was great, I shall remember you by that one, and not the rest.

ROBOTECH: GENESIS
-J. McKinney-155-epub

ROBOTECH: BATTLE CRY
-J. McKinney-139-epub

ROBOTECH: HOMECOMING
-J. McKinney-147-epub

ROBOTECH: BATTLEHYMN
-J. McKinney-115-epub

ROBOTECH: FORCE OF ARMS
-J. McKinney-155-epub

ROBOTECH: DOOMSDAY
-J. McKinney-161-epub
-scifi-comprising the Macrass Saga part of Robotech, these 6 books are almost a word for word for scene novelization of the anime. This is not a bad thing, if you watched the anime first and loved it. I would NOT recommend these to someone to read BEFORE watching the anime. It is just to stilted, silly individual plots [while great in one epic storyline, they suck as standalones] and the writing is not inspired. I still enjoyed these, but I really liked Robotech too.

STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: PRECIPICE
-J.J. Miller-29-epub
-fantasy-a short story tying directly in with the new Fate of the Jedi series. About the lost ship of Siths who crash on a planet.

STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: SKYBORN
-J.J. Miller-27-epub
-fantasy-a short story tying directly in with the new Fate of the Jedi series. About how the Sith meet the populace of the world and the beginning of their takeover.

CODEX ALERA: FURIES OF CALDERON
-J. Butcher-383-epub
-fantasy-a world where humans have carved for themselves an empire in a hostile world. Led by the First Lord, humans have the powers of 'furies' to enhance them. This follows one young man from his beginnings as a humble shepherd in the outer stretches of the empire as he saves the region, makes an alliance with a hostile race and is given patronage by the First Lord to attend the Academy. Very well done. Good characterization, intriguing novel plot and an overarching plot.

CODEX ALERA: ACADEM'S FURY
-J. Butcher-404-epub
-fantasy-the First Lord is incapacitated and Tavi must help cover it up. With some friends he fends off attacks magical, physical and political. Tavi is fury'less and mocked as a freak by the rich and powerful. Using his wits alone he survives. Keeps things from collapsing until the First Lord recovers.

MIRROR OF OPPOSITION
-T. Robinson-172-epub
-fantasy-3 young warriors in training end up saving the world from a demon almost as old as god. Ok. This seemed forced. There were many times where Zen'ist thought was bandied about, along with a perverted form of Christianity. The characters had no depth and they seemed to follow a cookie cutter path-1 becomes a great warrior, 1 becomes a Powerful Angelic Being of Great Goodness and 1 becomes a bad guy who gets bored and so helps out the good guys just because he can? They weren't fleshed out. 1 or 2 short chapters in and things just get busy. They just seemed like cardboard characters moving along a candyland path. Several things didn't make sense to me. If the school the boys were at was a school for a powerful empire, why were the badguys just having their way? Where were the Imperial Forces? The gates. Why did the Mirrorist simply have a holding pattern? Why didn't they USE the gates in force instead of simply hiding them? If something isn't going to be used by you, destroy it so the enemy can't use it. Basic military thought, at least in my opinion. And the whole angel/demon thing, phooophhh, it just smacked of D&D and the Apocrypha. With that being said, overall it wasn't a bad read. It just should have been longer with some serious character development.

WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: EXTINCTION
-L. Smedman-228-epub
-fantasy

WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: ANNIHILATION
-P. Athans-225-epub
-fantasy

WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: RESURRECTION
-P. Kemp-232-epub
-fantasy-the War of the Spider Queen finishes up. Basically everybody in the group dies except three females. One who becomes the new Lolth, one who returns as high priestess to Menzoberranzan and the final one who becomes the Lady Penitent, a slave to Lolth. Lots of fighting and magical battles and such.

QUADRAIL: DOMINO PATTERN
-T. Zahn-229-epub
-scifi/mystery-this confirms it. Zahn is officially trying his hand at the mystery genre while staying in Scifi. Overall, it reminded me of the Asimov book Caves of Steel. It was well written, interesting, kept moving along without getting hung up on inconsequential details and ended well while at the same time setting up BIG things for the future. So now Compton and friends are in league with a modhri. And it looks like the big bad aliens who ruled for a millenium or more a long time ago are coming back. Zahn ratchets up the threat level in each book. I have to wonder if he is contracted to write "x" number of books in this series? I just hope it ends well. This is a good solid addition to a Zahn library. I enjoyed it more than Third Lynx or Odd Girl Out.

GREEN
-T. Dekker-UNFINISHED-pbook
-just couldn't get into it. Felt like I was reading some sort of "oh well, might as well write more" kind of book. Now I want to go re-read the Circle Trilogy to see if it is what I remember it to be.

ROBOTECH: SOUTHERN CROSS
-J. McKinney-123-epub

ROBOTECH: METAL FIRE
-J. McKinney-151-epub

ROBOTECH: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE
-J. McKinney-170-epub
-scifi-these 3 books comprised the "Robotech Masters" trilogy. About the Robotech Masters coming to earth to get the Protoculture matrix in the SDF1. They fail, the flowers bloom, life on earth is blown even further downwards and the Invid are coming. Also fleshes out more about Dana being a unique creature in regards to Protoculture and ties into the Sentinels subseries coming up later. The overall plot was not nearly as interesting as the "Macross" saga and Dana was not a very dynamic character.

AMAZING AGENT LUNA OMNIBUS #2
-N. DeFilippis & C. Weir-pbook
-manga-finishes up the schoolyear for Luna. Lots of turmoil among all involved. Ends with Luna's crush becoming pretty much the new badguy and his dad [the former badguy] becoming part of the team. This seemed a good place to end. It seemed the writing team was losing focus and not having a solid story to go with. I wouldn't want to see anymore volumes until they get things settled.

SUPERMAN: THE DEATH OF CLARK KENT
-various-pbook
-graphic novel-a supervillian figures out Superman is Clark and starts taking out everyone close to Clark. Superman beats him eventually and all is ok. Also turns out Luthor was incapacitated by the clone problem and in the end of the book he comes back, fully revived. This storyline is a good reason why comics are for youngters and teens overall. Conduit escapes from prison and within a month has a bajillion bases, men and weapons up the wazoo, robotic clones of himself, a whole robotic town based on Smallville AND a nuclear missile? I mean, that is just too much. Good storyline overall though.

MALAZ: NIGHT OF KNIVES
-I.C. Esslemont-237-epub
-fantasy-an account of the night that Kellenved and Dancer ascended. I enjoyed this, even as confusing as it was. Esslemont has a slightly 'lighter' hand when it comes to his fight scenes, which was nice. Still plenty of action and detail though.

STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: PARAGON
-J. Miller-26-epub

VLAD TALTOS: JHEREG
-S. Brust-208-epub
-fantasy-the first in a series in a world where humans and reptilian'ish humaniforms coexist, but not peacefully. Vlad Taltos is a human who lives among the Draegon. He becomes an assassin and works his way up the ranks, basically being a mob boss. This reminded me of a murder mystery in a fantasy setting from the Mafia's point of view. Interesting.

VLAD TALTOS: YENDI
-S. Brust-167-epub
-fantasy- a complicated plot between Draegons involves Taltos. Very shallow, quick wit remarks and lots of turf war style fighting seem to be the hallmarks of this series.

VLAD TALTOS: TECKLA
-S. Brust-144-epub
-fantasy-Vlad's wife Cawti takes up with revolutionaries who want to overthrow the system and make things more "fair" for Easterners[humans]and Teckla, the grunt of the Draegons. Too much talking by the head revolutionary for my taste. Vlad should have just wasted him right in the beginning. Oh well.


MONTHLY SUMMARY
24 novels, short stories
3 unfinished novels
2 graphic novel/manga
4936 pages