Wednesday, March 31, 2010

March '10

CODEX ALERA: CURSOR'S FURY
-J. Butcher-407-epub
-fantasy-The canim make a major push into the lands of Alera in conjunction with Kalerain [a high lord] making a play for the throne. Tavi takes command of a legion to fight the canim and earns the loyalty of his men. Turns out he is the grandson of the current First Lord. Right at the end Tavi gets his furies for the first time. and it turns out the Vord have taken over the canim's lands.

BATTLECHASERS
-T. Robinson-149-epub
-fantasy-I enjoyed this more than Robinson's Mirror of Opposition. It was one night on a battlefield after the battle. Several opposing forces come to a head and several centuries worth of chasing, etc are finished. This felt very much like a Forgotten Realms book. Dwarf, elf, good mystic priest, evil lady vampire, dragon, thief and some undead. A nice light fantasy trope read.

DARKTOWER: THE GUNSLINGER
-S. King-UNFINISHED-epub
-horror?-it was just to sloggy and boring. I don't want to read about some guy chasing another guy while the world is dying around them. Every word seemed to drip with apathy, lethargy and hopelessness the character[s] was\were feeling.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: REAPER'S GALE
-S. Erikson-969-epub
-fantasy-ties together the Bonehunter's story and the fall of the Letheri empire. This world is physically big! So much going on that I doubt that everything will tie together in a nice neat bow. More like reading about independent multiple assaults on the Crippled God.

FRUITS BASKET #23
-N. Takaya-manga
-thankgoodness this is done! Ughhh. To many people looking to similar with to many similar problems.

RANMA 1/2 #26-31
-R. Takahashi-manga
-more one shot stories. Not going for an over-arching plot. Getting repetitious.

DREAMWISH BEASTS AND SNARKS
-M. Resnick-UNFINISHED-pbook
-scifi-a collection of short stories about hunting, scifi style. The first few were ok, but the overall idea of hunting, usually safari style, doesn't interest me, so after the novelty wore off, so did my interest.

YOTSUBA&! #6-7
-K. Azuma-manga

TRAIN + TRAIN #1-6
-H. Kurata-manga

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: TOLL THE HOUNDS
-S. Erikson-961-epub
-fantasy-this book was WAY too big. Close to 1/4 of the book was the internal monologueing of every single character whining about this, that or the other. The actual happenings/doings were completely overshadowed by all the existential, emo-gothic complaining. I could only recommend this book to a hardcore fan who needs Erikson for a fix. Almost as bad as Goodkind when he got on his soapbox.

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY: AND ANOTHER THING
-E. Colfer-247-epub
-scifi humor-a sequel to Adams' Hitchhiker's trilogy of 5 books. A worthy successor too. This was funny, irreverent, and I felt like I was reading Adams and not some wannabe. Probably won't read any more if there are more written though.

FUTURE IMPERFECT
-K. Laumer-441-epub
-scifi-a collection of short stories about the future that all have something negative overall taking place in society or with the world itself.

SHOGUN
-J. Clavell-803-pbook
-historical fiction-a dutch sailing crew with an english pilot are shipwrecked in Japan. Follows the pilot as he goes from captive to honored samurai. Around the time of Elizabeth I. Politics within Japan itself, Catholicism and Protestantism, and just plain human beings being human beings. I enjoyed this but considering it is fiction, have to wonder how accurate the portrayal of Japanese culture is.

VLAD TALTOS: TALTOS
-S. Brust-161-epub
-fantasy- the story of how Vlad made some Dragaeran acquaintances and got his spell breaking gold chain, as well as walked the paths of the dead and brought back the heir to the Throne.

SHADOWS OF THE APT: EMPIRE IN BLACK AND GOLD
-A. Tchaikovsky-571-epub
-fantasy-set in a world where humans are insect aspected, by kind, ant-kinden, mantis kinden, moth kinden, wasp kinden, etc. The Wasp Empire is rolling over the known world and 20 years earlier a group of friends watched a city fall and vowed to prepare for the time when the Empire came to their homes. That time is now. Follows 4 main characters who are proteges of one of those original friends. Their adventures as they begin to learn about and try to combat the threat of the Wasp Kinden Empire. It is very well written, but weird with humans having insect aspects and certain powers. Weird but very original.


MONTHLY SUMMARY
9 novels
2 unfinished novels
15 manga
4709 pages