Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2008 In Review

1: Hogfather-Terry Pratchett-354
2: Hyperion Cantos: Endymion-Dan Simmons-563
3: Hyperion Cantos: The Rise of Endymion-Dan Simmons-709
4: Recluce: The Towers of the Sunset-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-359
5: Rurouni Kenshin #1-Nobuhiro Watsuki-199
6: Mars: A Princess of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-160
7: Recluce: The Magic Engineer-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-617
8: Mars: The Gods of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-195
9: Mars: The Warlord of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-138
10: Les Miserables-Victor Hugo-1463
11: Recluce: The Order War-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-598
12: Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two-Drew Karpyshyn-318
13: Mars: Thuvia, Maid of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-125
14: Spellsong: The Soprano Sorceress-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-664
15: Castle in the Air-Diana Wynne Jones-199
16: Dark Lord of Derkhom-Diana Wynne Jones-345
17: Spellsong: The Spellsong War-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-672
18: Bleak House Part I-Charles Dickens-511
19: The Martian Chronicles- Ray Bradbury-182
20: Something Wicked This Way Comes-Ray Bradbury-290
21: Quadrail: The Third Lynx-Timothy Zahn-350
22: Mars: The Chessmen of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-222
23: Bleak House Part II-Charles Dickens-540
24: The Illustrated Man-Ray Bradbury-253
25: Princess and the Goblin-George MacDonald-161
26: Princess and Curdie-George MacDonald-160
27: The Roald Dahl Omnibus-Roald Dahl-682
28: Martin Chuzzlewit Part I-Charles Dickens-568
29: The Old Man and the Sea-Ernest Hemingway-140
30: Howl's Moving Castle-Diana Wynne Jones-329
31: Recluce: The Death of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-640
32: Hikaru No Go #1-Yumi Hotta-192
33: Hikaru No Go #2-Yumi Hotta-192
34: Hikaru No Go #3-Yumi Hotta-192
35: Hikaru No Go #4-Yumi Hotta-192
36: Hikaru No Go #5-Yumi Hotta-192
37: Hikaru No Go #6-Yumi Hotta-192
38: Book of the Gods: Ariadne's Web-Fred Saberhagen-412
39: Martin Chuzzlewit Part II-Charles Dickens-563
40: Little Women-Louisa May Alcott-669
41: Mars: Mastermind of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-160
42: Hikaru No Go #7-Yumi Hotta-192
43: Hikaru No Go #8-Yumi Hotta-192
44: Hikaru No Go #9-Yumi Hotta-192
45: Hikaru No Go #10-Yumi Hotta-192
46: Hikaru No Go #11-Yumi Hotta-192
47: Hikaru No Go #12-Yumi Hotta-192
48: Hikaru No Go #13-Yumi Hotta-192
49: Hikaru No Go #14-Yumi Hotta-192
50: Hikaru No Go #15-Yumi Hotta-192
51: Hikaru No Go #16-Yumi Hotta-192
52: Battle Royale #1-Koushun Takami-216
53: Gravity Dreams-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-468
54: The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind-Fuyumi Ono-317
55: Hikaru No Go #17-Yumi Hotta-192
56: Hikaru No Go #18-Yumi Hotta-192
57: Hikaru No Go #19-Yumi Hotta-192
58: Hikaru No Go #20-Yumi Hotta-192
59: Hikaru No Go #21-Yumi Hotta-192
60: Hikaru No Go #22-Yumi Hotta-192
61: Hikaru No Go #23-Yumi Hotta-192
62: MeruPuri #1-Matsuri Hino-200
63: MeruPuri #2-Matsuri Hino-200
64: MeruPuri #3-Matsuri Hino-200
65: MeruPuri #4-Matsuri Hino-200
66: IT-Stephen King-1138
67: The Old Curiosity Shop Part I-Charles Dickens-362
68: The Old Curiosity Shop Part II-Charles Dickens-355
69: Recluce: Fall of Angels-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-592
70: Azazel-Isaac Asimov-221
71: The Stand-Stephen King-1153
72: Star Wars: Republic Commando: True Colors-Karen Traviss-472
73: Mars: A Fighting Man of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-200
74: Recluce: The Chaos Balance-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-596
75: One Piece #16-Eiichiro Oda-188
76: Shaman King #13- Hiroyuki Takei-190
77: The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald-159
78: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #13-Clamp-208
79: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #14-Clamp-192
80: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #15-Clamp-192
81: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #16-Clamp-192
82: Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet-Arthur Conan Doyle-86
83: Founding of the Commonwealth: Phylogenesis-Alan Dean Foster-327
84: Founding of the Commonwealth: Dirge-Alan Dean Foster-310
85: Shaman King #14- Hiroyuki Takei-190
86: Shaman King #15- Hiroyuki Takei-185
88: One Piece #17-Eiichiro Oda-206
89: Middlemarch-George Elliot-800
90: Founding of the Commonwealth: Diuturnity's Dawn-Alan Dean Foster-341
91: Pudd'nhead Wilson-Mark Twain-224
92: Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four-Arthur Conan Doyle-100
93: Little Dorrit Part I-Charles Dickens-433
94: Recluce: The White Order-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-468
95: Temeraire: Empire of Ivory-Naomi Novik-404
96: Little Dorrit Part II-Charles Dickens-398
97: The Four Loves-Clive Staples Lewis-192
98: Deathnote #13: How to Read-Tsugumi Ohba-270
99: The Catteni: Freedom's Landing-Anne McCaffrey-342
100: Cheaper By The Dozen-Frank Gilbreth, Jr & Ernestine Carey-180
101: Runelords: The Sum of All Men-David Farland-613
102: Retief!-Keith Laumer-589
103: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #17-Clamp-182
104: Recluce: Colors of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-798
105: The Fifth Elephant-Terry Pratchett-494
105: Recluce: Magi'i of Cyador-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-560
106: Prophet-Frank Peretti-461
107: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Gardens of the Moon-Steven Erikson-488
108: Night Watch-Terry Pratchett-338
109: The Dark Side of the Sun-Terry Pratchett-158
110: Fruits Basket #18-Natsuki Takaya-209
111: Barnaby Rudge-Charles Dickens-599
112: Corean Chronicles: Legacies-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-558
113: Recluce: Scion of Cyador-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-720
114: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Deadhouse Gates-Steven Erikson-598
115: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Fury- Aaron Allston-356
116: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Revelation- Karen Traviss-410
117: Corean Chronicles: Darkness-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-492
118: Starswarm-Jerry Pournelle-349
119: In Legend Born-Laura Resnick-461
120: Taken: The Light-Years Beneath My Feet-Alan Dean Foster-245
121: In Fire Forged: The White Dragon-Laura Resnick-491
122: Green Rider: Green Rider-Kristen Britain-504
123: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Memories of Ice-Steven Erikson-781
124: Invasive Procedures-Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston-352
125: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible- Troy Denning-299
126: Corean Chronicles: Scepters-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-624
127: In Fire Forged: The Destroyer Goddess-Laura Resnick-478
128: Green Rider: First Rider's Call-Kristen Britain-484
129: Oh My Goddess! #29-Kosuke Fujishima-156
130: The Looking Glass Wars-Frank Beddor-376
131: Green Rider: The High King's Tomb-Kristen Britain-679
132: Forward the Foundation-Isaac Asimov-480
133: Hard Times-Charles Dickens-257
134: The Holly-Tree- Charles Dickens-32
135: StarWars: Republic Commando: Order 66-Karen Traviss-432
136: Shannara: Genesis of Shannara: The Gypsy Morph-Terry Brooks-402
137: The Octagonal Raven-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-432
138: Dune: Paul of Dune-Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderseron-512
139: Temeraire: Victory of Eagles-Naomi Novik-329
140: Great Expectations- Charles Dickens- 479
141: The Mystery of Edwin Drood- Charles Dickens-230
142: Oliver Twist-Charles Dickens-501
143: Recluce: Wellspring of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-400
144: Paradise: Saint-Ted Dekker-347
145: Foundation-Isaac Asimov-227
146: Foundation & Empire-Isaac Asimov-227
147: Second Foundation-Isaac Asimov-225
148: Mars: Swords of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-208
149: Landover: Witches' Brew-Terry Brooks-304
150: Skin-Ted Dekker-349
151: Recluce: Ordermaster-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-494
152: Quadrail: Odd Girl Out-Timothy Zahn-379
153: Looking Glass: Into the Looking Glass-John Ringo-366
154: The Bronze Canticles: Mystic Warrior-Tracy and Laura Hickman-433
155: The Singer's Crown-Elaine Isaak-469
156: War of the Spider Queen: Dissolution-Richard Byers-344
157: War of the Spider Queen: Insurrection-Thomas Reid-338
158: Elminster: The Making of a Mage-Ed Greenwood-312
159: Where the Sidewalk Ends-Shel Silverstein-166
160: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed-Sean Williams-319
161: Looking Glass: Vorpal Blade- John Ringo & Travis Taylor-400
162: Alice's Adventure in Wonderland-Lewis Carroll-144
163: Through the Looking Glass-Lewis Carrol-164
164: War of the Spider Queen: Condemnation-Richard Baker-344
165: Not For Glory-Joel Rosenberg-232
166: Mistborn: The Hero of Ages-Brandon Sanderson-572
167: Elminster: In Myth Drannor-Ed Greenwood-378
168: Fruits Basket #19-Natsuki Takaya-216
169: Fruits Basket #20-Natsuki Takaya-192
170: At the Back of the North Wind-George MacDonald-292
171: Eon-Greg Bear-412
172: Eternity-Greg Bear-346
173: Kare Kano #4-Masami Tsuda-194
174: Kare Kano #5-Masami Tsuda-197
175: Vellum: The Book of All Hours-Hal Duncan-463
176: One Piece #17-Eiichiro Oda-206
177: One Piece #18-Eiichiro Oda-223

Monday, December 29, 2008

December '08

WAR OF THE SPIDERQUEEN: INSURRECTION
-T. Reid-fantasy
-338- a group of drow go to another city to see if they too are plagued by Lolth's absence. They are and lesser houses are plotting to overthrow greater houses. Dwarven merc's are hired. The slaves revolt. The whole city is pretty much ruined. The group from the first city gets out at the end on their way to meet a priest who will hopefully help them find out why their god is absent. Sucks to be a drow, that is for sure. I'll read the 3rd book that I have, but that will be it. Not worth spending any more money on unless it is for a dollar or something.

ELMINSTER: THE MAKING OF A MAGE
-E. Greenwood-fantasy
-312-the beginnings of the mage known as Elminster. A huge hero in the forgotten realms lore, I gather. This book didn't so much read as it was almost a script for a D&D campaign. Given, Ed did make up D&D, but still. This was more 2D than a Terry Brooks book. So if you want a brainless magic read, this is the type of series for you. I shall be reading more Forgotten Realms to see if they are all like this. Might depend on the author I guess.

WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS
-S. Silverstein-children's poetry
-166-This had illustrations to go with it. Some of the poems would only make sense WITH the picture in fact. It was something silly to introduce the idea of poetry to children, imo. I'd read it to my kids.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED
-S. Williams-fantasy
-319-based upon the videogame of the same name. A nameless secret apprentice of Darth Vader's ends up helping to create the rebellion. This book was yet another good reason why most games don't make good books. This read like a game. Go here, do this, go there, do that. The character development was pretty nil. The contradictions in this story were huge, imo. A sith apprentice who easily switches over to the light? He changed the course of a StarDestroyer for goodness sake, with darkside power. That should have twisted him beyond recognition. It was just one big piece of crap. I didn't enjoy reading it and am glad it is not the beginning of a series, for I would have to skip it.

LOOKING GLASS: VORPAL BLADE
-J. Ringo & T. Taylor-military scifi
-400- the Vorpal Blade is a converted sub for space travel. Weaver and Miller and Mimi and Tuffi are all on board. The whole purpose of the sub is to explore and look for Dreen presence. They come across a couple of planets, the last which was inhabited. This book was ok. Not as much action as Into the Looking Glass, and the action that does happen seems to be mainly in the last half or so of the book. I thought Into the Looking Glass was worth owning. This was worth reading. I don't know if the libraries have any more of the series though.

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
-L. Carroll-juvenile fiction
-144-young Alice is bored, so she follows a rabbit down a rabbit hole and ends up in Wonderland. She shrinks and grows and shrinks and grows and meets all sorts of interesting characters. Then her sister wakes her up.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
-L. Carroll-juvenile Fiction
-164-Alice walks through a Mirror and sees what is on the other side. It is a living chess board. She makes her way across the board and becomes a Queen. Then she wakes up. Both of the Alice books were a bit more on the light side than I'd remembered. Not bad, just I remembered them as having more of a "heft" than I found this time :-) Guess I am just getting old, hahaha.

WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: CONDEMNATION
-R. Baker-fantasy
-344-the group tries to find a wizard of another god to help them. He does, but betrays them and allows his god to enter and try to kill Lolth. No real desire to read the rest of the series. I certainly won't be buying them. The drow are jut horrible. Backstabbing, no trust, no hope. No race could have gone on like that for real. It would have imploded or torn itself apart.

NOT FOR GLORY
-J. Rosenberg-scifi
-232-first, this author should not be confused with Joel C[!!!!] Rosenberg. Completely different guy. Writes about Israel though, go figure. Anyway, Israel was kicked out of the promised land and took over a desolate ball of a planet. Now they are mercenaries to support themselves. It was dedicated to a "Bob Adams". I'm going to find out if it is the Bob Adams I know. Wouldn't that be a kicker. Bleh story though. Grey describes it very well.

MISTBORN: THE HERO OF AGES
-B. Sanderson-fantasy
-572- the conclusion to the Mistborn trilogy. The power Vin released was Ruin. It was a force opposed by Preservation. Preservation made humans with some ruin so as to get an edge on Ruin. Ruin was trying to destroy the world, period. Preservation gave up its sentience to imprison Ruin. Vin freed Ruin in Well of Ascension but joined the mists and took on Preservations power. Fought with, and joined with, Ruin. Sazed took both those powers and became The Hero of Ages, basically a god watching over the world. Vin is no more and Elend dies to, so no loose ends. The story ends with Sazed fixing the world and keeping it safe for the remnant of humanity saved by the Lord Ruler's foresight. Definitely didn't take the direction I thought it would, but it was good none the less. Hope Sanderson does a good job on Memories of Light, the final Wheel of Time book.

ELMINSTER: IN MYTH DRANNOR
-E. Greenwood-fantasy
-378- Elminster goes to the Elven kingdom to learn lots of magic and help the elves open up their kingdom. Almost all the elves want to kill him so he ends up spending 20+ years apprenticing to some unknown elven sorcerer. Everything works out in the end with one elvenhouse swearing eternal vengeance against him, so as to make room for more books ;-) Blase writing but a good time killer. Light.

FRUITS BASKET 19 & 20
-N. Takaya-manga
-blah, blah. Kyo confesses he could have saved Tohru's mom but didn't. Tohru continues to look for a cure to the bond, which basically consists of her moaning about how unworthy she is. I just read these books without remembering a thing from 18. To many people who look alike and act alike. Everytime I am like "Ok, who is THIS character again?". Bleh.

AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
-G. MacDonald-children's fiction
-292- a little boy gets to know the North Wind, which is basically an angel of death for children. Sees the world, has adventures with his family, and then goes to the Back of the North Wind at the end of the book, which means he died. Can't say I really understood this very well. Filled with poems, songs, etc that I just skipped over. In essence, it seems to be a story about a little boy who dies. But it wasn't really sad.

EON
-G. Bear-scifi
-412- humanity discovers an "alien" artifact in orbit around our world. Turns out to be from an alternate future in which the world almost destroyed itself. It appearing heightens tension between the Russians and the Americans and sets off what is called "The Death", the world almost destroying itself. Lots of humanity going digital. Assumes that that is possible. A pretty cool read. Lots of action with the Russians trying to take over the artifact. Bear wrote well, unlike his starwars stuff. He should stick to straight scifi.

ETERNITY
-G. Bear- scifi
-346-the sequel to Eon. Not nearly as interesting. Lots of junk about the future affecting the past to cause itself. Explored what humanity might become. Why does it seem that most evolutionistic authors assume that we will all become some sort of group mind meld? More likely we will kill ourselves off first. I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as Eon.

KARE KANO #4-5
-M. Tsuda-manga

VELLUM: THE BOOK OF ALL HOURS
-H. Duncan-fantasy
-463- profanity, obscenity, blasphemy, all these were what this book centered around. Humans become angels, the top angel became god, was overthrown. Angels, demons, whatever, are unkin. And a war wages between them all. The Vellum is under all, the "true reality" that can be rewritten. This book was very non-linear, almost like the author was on an acid trip or smoking pot when he wrote this. Duncan gloried in profanity and homosexuality, and a refusal to "choose" sides in a divine war. And it was just so full of emptiness, hopelessness and despair. Who would want that kind of world view? Ugh.

ONE PIECE #17-18
-E. Oda-manga
-reread 17 to orient myself properly for 18.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

November '08

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
-C. Dickens-classic
-479- a young boy helps a convict and he in turns makes the boy's fortune later in life and in secret. It all comes to naught though and the convict dies and the boy, now a man, must make it on his own. I enjoyed this story, but the main character, except right at the end, is one of the typical "gentlemen" of the times. Loose with money, miserable and doing anything to make that misery disappear. He is a shallow, selfish jerk. Redeemed at the end, but 20-30 pages against 430+ doesn't do a whole lot.

THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD
-C. Dickens-classic
-230- Dickens' last novel, unfinished. A young man, Edwin Drood, is affianced to a young lady who his uncle is in love with. The uncle is a scoundrel, in secret. Edwin disappears and suspicion is thrown on a young man who is also in love with the fiance. Probably the uncle though. But we will never know. It just ends, very abruptly. Drat that Dickens' for dying! As bad that Jordan guy ;-)

OLIVER TWIST
-C. Dickens-classic
-501- a young boy is brought up on the streets but taken in by kind people. Goes through various struggles and ends up being the rightful heir to a deadman. More of a social commentary on the workhouses of the times. Horrible places and run by hypocrites. Young Oliver is an innocent and a joy to read about.

RECLUCE: WELLSPRING OF CHAOS
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-400- Kharl the cooper saves a neighbors daughter from rape. Then he saves a young black staffer from Recluce. The man he thwarts is the son of the local lord. Kharl's consort is killed, his sons leave him and his cooperage is taxed out of his control. He leaves, learns some about Order on his own and helps a ruler from being displaced. Gets lands and a title in another land. Probably going to be a sequel about him going back to his land and giving justice. This was the most "novel" of them to date. Not much repetition and noise words.

PARADISE: SAINT
-T. Dekker-fiction
-347- a sequel to Showdown, of sorts. A man has been stripped of his very identity and memories and rebuilt, many times. He is an assassin. He doesn't know when something is a test or the real thing as he is conditioned. He is sent to kill the US President but meets up with Samuel and David Abraham from Showdown. Turns out he is Johnny from Paradise and he has special powers. He comes to a showdown of his own with a fictitious character named The Englishman who has similar powers. Johnny ends up 'believing' and loses his normal eyesight but gains something like Ghostriders soulsear eyesight or something. Also uses 2 sentences to tie in House, which I thought was wicked cool. Pretty shallow, but I enjoyed it and would consider buying it.

FOUNDATION
-I. Asimov-scifi
-227-a galaxy spanning empire of 12 millenia is crumbling. One man, Hari Seldon, uses psychohistory to plot a course to shorten the new dark age from 30,000 years to 1000 years. To do this, he establishes 2 Foundations. This book deals with the First Foundation, a collection of scientists who embody all the collective knowledge needed to bring about the Second Galactic Empire. Follows the Foundation through the first couple of hundred years as it weathers "Seldon Crises" and becomes the nucleus of the New Empire.

FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE
-I. Asimov-scifi
-227-the Foundation comes head to head with the remnant of the First Empire and conquers it. A genetic mutant with the ability to twist peoples emotions ends up foiling the Seldon Plan and taking over the galaxy. Introduces the Second Foundation, a foundation of Mentalists. The Mule, the mutant, hunts them down to destroy them. The book ends with him being foiled by a couple who are First Foundationers.

SECOND FOUNDATION
-I. Asimov-scifi
-225- the Mule continues his hunt. Comes head to head with the Second Foundation, loses and never realizes it. After his demise, the First Foundation feels threatened and begins to try to hunt down the Second Foundation so as to be unrivaled. Through some tricky mindstuff, the Second Foundation, which is to be the true guardian of psychohistory, convinces the First Foundation that they have been destroyed. These three novels were written back in the 50's and they are just good vintage scifi. Simple, easy and yet extremely enjoyable.

MARS: SWORDS OF MARS
-E.R. Burroughs-scifi
-208-John Carter goes to another city to break up an assassins guild. They in turn kidnap his wife. End up going to a moon of mars and back to rescue her. Ugh. I can't stand these anymore. I wish I hadn't bought them. Well, I will end up finishing the series next year. Only 3 more stories to go. But I need at least 4 months between these.

LANDOVER: WITCHES' BREW
-T. Brooks-fantasy
-304-Ben and Willow's child is kidnapped by Nightshade. Nightshade uses the child's magic against Ben before he gets a clue and realizes what is going on. Ends with everything ok and Nightshade as a crow in our world. This book had absolutely nothing interesting in it. Which is why it was the last of the Landover novels. But it was typical Brooks, so who knows why this series didn't take off like the Shannara one.

SKIN
-T. Dekker-suspense/thriller
-349- a killer is on the loose in a smalltown and seems hellbent on having 5 specific people kill each other, based on who is most ugly. It is just weird. Turns out it is all in a "game" that is testing new tech on epileptic people. But the badguy is one of the players turned bad. This was a thriller through and through. Some very vague references to universal truths, but without Christ, so it seemed like they were just kind of thrown in. I enjoyed this, knowing that things were NOT as they seemed, but having no idea how they were not :-) Dekker likes colors in regards to his villians names-Marsuvees Black, Barsidious White, Sterling Red in this one. Two things I didn't care for; 1: Tied it to the Circle Trilogy world, probably in reference to his new Lost Books quaddrilogy, just too blatant. 2: It ends with them still in the game, and you never know when or if they'll get out. Other than those 2 things, this was a fantastic page turner that just entertained the darkside of me :-)

RECLUCE: ORDERMASTER
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-494- Kharl goes back to his homecountry and ends up finding a new consort and killing off a bunch of white mages and Egen, the man responsible for killing his family and driving him from Brysta. I enjoyed this, but nothing special in any way.

QUADRAIL: ODD GIRL OUT
-T. Zahn-scifi
-379-Compton and Bayta help a girl who is part of a group. This group is in symbiosis with a variant of the Mhodri, in an attempt for the Chahwyn to create an army of their own to fight back against the Mhodri. This was so filled with "I know that they know that I know that I will do this to..." that it was just confusing. Read the first 2 or 3 chapters, read the last 3 chapters, and your have the story in a nutshell. I enjoyed this only because I enjoyed the previous 2 books in the series. Pretty blase work though. I really hope Zahn ups his game in any forthcoming Quadrail books or I'm afraid they just won't be worth reading.

LOOKING GLASS: INTO THE LOOKING GLASS
-J. Ringo-military scifi
-366- basically take Doom and parts of Starcraft, specificall the Zerg, add in some military hardware jargon and you've got this book. Some rogue physicist creates some kind of gate that throws out bosun particles, which allow gates to be opened to other planets. The dreen come through one and we go through another and meet some friendly aliens. The dreen take over planets and suck them dry of resources. The dreen are zerglike, growing creatures for specific needs. Besides some profanity and some seriously over the top weapon specifications[it IS military scifi though], this was enjoyable. I plan on reading some more in this series.

THE BRONZE CANTICLES: MYSTIC WARRIOR
-T.&L. Hickman-fantasy
-433- 3 worlds. One of men, dragons and dwarves. One of goblins and mechanical titans. One of elves, dryads, nyads, etc. One man, Galen, is taken as an "Elect", or madman under the laws of the dragonkings. He dreams of another world. The fae world. His dreams and communications within them become real. Begins the start of humanity throwing off the chains of the dragonkings. It seems that all 3 worlds are somehow going to become one and the dreams are precursor to it. It seems that communication between worlds opens up the user to a well of "deep magic". Plan on finishing the series.

THE SINGER'S CROWN
-E. Isaak-fantasy
-469- this novel had an interesting plotline. A king dies, his brother kills his heirs and wife but lets his fave nephew live, but castrates him and sends him to live with singing monks. The nephew comes back many years later and retakes his throne. Ok, now the real review. This was a HORRIBLE book. By horrible, I mean I would gladly do physical violence to the author to prevent her from ever writing again. Why, you ask? Let me tell you. This lady either hates men, doesn't understand them AT all OR has some insane desire for men to actually be women inside. ALL the male good characters are the most effeminate, emotional, wussy and plain cowardly wusses I have ever wanted to throttle and then run through. How many times can you read about men "...touched his shoulder and gazed into his eyes" without wanting to just totally puke it all up! And the thing is, it is not at all homosexual. It is just girly. Men acting like women, WRONGO!

WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: DISSOLUTION
-L. Byers-fantasy
-344-a forgotten realms novel. This series is about the drow, dark elves. The ones living beneath the earth. They worship some spider goddess, who is apparently doing something of her own and leaving them to fend for themselves. Chronicles what is happening as the ruling caste loses their power. The drow appear to be the worst kind of creature I could imagine. Elves, but with no love, no honor, nothing good. Pure ambition, even to the hurt of their own houses. I only have the first 3 books and the libraries don't have the rest, so I don't know if I'll be finishing this series or not.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

October '08


GREEN RIDER: THE HIGH KING'S TOMB
-K. Britain-fantasy
-679-well, this is turning into a series. A VERY good series to! This deals with King Zachary and more remnants of the Second Empire. An old woman, a necromancer awakened by Mornhavon's awakening, plans the kidnapping of Estoria, Zachary's bride to be. This is simply a diversion to allow the Second Empire to use black magic to take down the Deyer Wall. This book focuses on the wall. Alton plays a big part. Find out the history of the land and what happened after Mornhavon's defeat. I really am looking forward to the rest of this series.

FORWARD THE FOUNDATION
-I. Asimov-scifi
-480-the immediate prequel to the Foundation Trilogy [which I shall now have to reread]. Seldon is on Trantor and trying to get psychohistory ready in time. This book covers about 30+ years. Not really interesting unless one was a big Foundation buff, which I am not. Founds the first Foundation and uses his granddaughter as the nucleus for the Second Foundation.

HARD TIMES
-C. Dickens-257
-classic-a story set in a small town. A man raises his children with regard for nothing but "Facts!" One marries a much older man because she doesn't care about anything and it will help her brother and the brother becomes a selfish idiot. Brother robs a bank and through it all the family realizes that there is much MORE than just "facts!" to life.

THE HOLLY-TREE
-C. Dickens-32
-classic-a short story. A man believes his beloved is in love with his friend, so he determines to leave for America and forget his troubles. A snowstorm strands him at an inn, the Holly-Tree, and he thinks about all the inns he's been in. After the snowstorm his friend rides up with his new bride, who turns out to be the main character's beloved's cousin. So the main character goes back to his love and marries her. Just a short little narrative that is filled with Dicken's way of describing everything, very evocative.

STAR WARS: REPUBLIC COMMANDO: ORDER 66
-K. Traviss-432
-scifi-the final Republic Commando novel, supposedly. We will see though, since she left several "openings" for later stories. Basically, everything comes to a head and the RC's under Skirata disappear and go to Mandalore to start their new lives. Etain, the jedi who had a baby with a clone, is killed as they are trying to leave Coruscant. I really enjoyed this story, much more story than the previous. I really hope the bookclub carries this and the previous as a combo.

SHANNARA: GENESIS OF SHANNARA: THE GYPSY MORPH
-T. Brooks-402
-fantasy- a typical Brooks novel. Hawk, the gypsy morph, gathers a group and goes to a safe place. Elves all go into the Lodenstone and are also taken to the Safehaven. Findo Gask is supposedly destroyed by a combination of the Elfstone magic and Tom Logan's Knight of the Word magic. I don't believe it. I think he is the Warlock/Morgawr. Ends with Hawk going into a magical sleep and placing a protective mist around the new enclave and some insane soldier firing off all the remaining nukes that America has. Really doesn't say how our world "changed" into Shannara, just shows the end of ours. I was really hoping for more. I bet he writes another trilogy taking place one generation after this one though. Milk that cash cow ;-)

THE OCTAGONAL RAVEN
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-432
-scifi- this is comparable to Gravity Dreams, but not quite so sickeningly preachy. I didn't enjoy it at all though. In the future, humans are augmented by nanites, but the well off get more, etc, etc. A class of augments wants to become the ruling elite and attempts to use the media to do it. A younger son of one of the Big Three in the media ends up opposing them and winning. It was SO boring. I shall stick to his Corean Chronicles and Recluce stuff from now on.

DUNE: PAUL OF DUNE
-B. Herbert & K. Anderson-scifi
-512- Two stories about Paul Atreides. One is set between Dune and Dune Messiah. Tells of the beginning of the Jihad and the starting of the Empire of Maud'dib. The other is from Paul's childhood. Both are interesting but it felt like they were put together in one book because neither had enough substance on its own. Enjoyable if one is a Dune fan, but I couldn't really recommend it to anyone else.

TEMERAIRE: VICTORY OF EAGLES
-N. Novik-fantasy
-329- Now this was a good story. Napolean has landed in England and the English are in shambles. Lots of politic'ing and Laurence and Temeraire are allowed to do what they need to. Fighting and dragons making their own tactics, quite interesting. Ends with Napolean's army being smashed and Britain liberated. Laurence is exiled to Australia and Temeraire too, since the House of Lords don't want a rogue dragon around. Hopefully Novik's next book will follow in the action vein of this one.

Friday, September 26, 2008

September '08


IN FIRE FORGED: THE WHITE DRAGON
-L. Resnick-fantasy
-491-sequel to In Legend Born. Nothing has improved in her writing that I could tell. Since Josarian is dead, another goddess, this time a sea goddess, gets involved in things and stirs the pot. The gods of this world are horrible. Uncaring, selfish, all the worst of fallen humanity but without its limitations. This story is definitely going for the epic feel, but I am just not feeling it. I certainly connect with the characters, even the villains. Characterization is great but I almost feel like I'm reading a B-movie novelization in regards to plot.

GREEN RIDER: GREEN RIDER
-K. Britain-fantasy
-504-this is Britain's first novel, and yes, it shows. There are times that you have to shake your head and wonder how long between her reading of Tolkien and her writing her story. A dire threat is somewhat foiled by a young girl who ends up joining the Green Riders. Green Riders are magic users and completely loyal to the king. 2 more books in this series. Bordered on the young/adult line for me.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: MEMORIES OF ICE
-S. Erikson-fantasy
-781-taking place during and immediately after Deadhouse Gates. Paran is now Lord of the Decks [which recognizes "legitimate" gods]. Turns out that the Crippled god is actually an alien forced into our dimension 100's of thousands of years ago and now he is trying to destroy everything here in revenge. He is playing a great game of war. This book deals with various factions putting down an army of his that is led by a Jaghut. Details alot more about the Imass and the Jaghuts in the far past. Has lots to do with the rise and fall of gods, ascendants and the like. It is incredibly sad. Yet the writing is SO incredible that whenever I read a fantasy book right after one of these, the fantasy book seems so shallow and 2d by comparison. This was the last that the libraries have and Crystal doesn't feel comfortable having them in our house, so I guess I am done with them. I shall, hopefully, remember these books as some of the most incredible, detailed, indepth and utterly fantastic books that I have ever read.

INVASIVE PROCEDURES
-O.S. Card, A. Johnston-medical thriller
-352-a renegade geneticist is nearing completion of his plan to 'uplift' humanity, with himself in control. A Biohazard Agency agent stops it all from going down. I suspect that Card's name was on this more for sell'ability than anything else. A nice light read.

STARWARS: LEGACY OF THE FORCE: INVINCIBLE
-T. Denning-fantasy
-299-the end of the Legacy series. I was glad it was done. Jaina kills Caedus, who in the end allows himself to be killed so that he can send a warning to Tenel'ka about a virus directed at their daughter. Everything just wrapped up so quickly and neatly once Caedus was out of the way. The series went out with a whimper, in my opinion. This book was as good as the rest of the series though.

COREAN CHRONICLES: SCEPTERS
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-624-the end of the first trilogy of the Corean Chronicles. Wendra and Alucius both get some additional training by the Soarers. They push back an assault by the ifrits. Then they recover some sort of "life sapper" device [the scepters] which links to the one on Efran, the ifrits home world. They travel to Efran via the Tables and destroy the Master Scepter. Without that, Efran collapses on itself and Corus is safe evermore from them. Modesitt uses to many predictable simple things to stretch out the story. Why does he insist on telling us everytime Alucius is thirsty and takes a drink? After the first book, that type of thing should have been dropped. Oh well, probably a holdover from his writings on Recluce. Formulaic. I will take a break from Modesitt for awhile and visit him again next year.

IN FIRE FORGED: THE DESTROYER GODDESS
-L. Resnick-fantasy
-478- the conclusion to this trilogy. Sharifar, a sea goddess, gets her new consort. Tansen and Zarien end up killing Killoran. Lots of things happen. Josarian's spirit had never gone to the afterlife and it became Dar's new consort. I think this whole series could be summed up by this sentence in the book: ...Dar demanded her due...worship her, praise her, comfort her and offer her their lives. I did not like this, even though in the end everything prophesied came out ok. I would not recommend this series to anyone nor will I be seeking out anymore of Mz. Resnick's books.

GREEN RIDER: FIRST RIDER'S CALL
-K. Britain-fantasy
-484-a good successor to Green Rider. Karrigan resists actually joining the Green Riders, but is "haunted" by Lil Ambrioth, the First Rider and eventually joins up. Mornhavon the Black's consciousness is awakening in the Black Forest. Alton goes to the breach in the wall to attempt to repair it. He ends up being fooled by Mornhavon and almost destroys it. Karrigan foils a plot by the "Second Empire" [original descendants loyal to Mornhavon] and sends Mornhavon into the future to give Acoria time to prepare some kind of magical defense. Much more original than the first novel. Looking forward to the end of this trilogy, in a good way.

OH MY GODDESS! #29
-K. Fujishima-manga
-156

THE LOOKING GLASS WARS
-F. Beddor-fantasy
-376- an alternate "take" on Alice in Wonderland. Alyss is a young princess in Wonderland. Her parents, the King and Queen, are deposed by Alyss's Aunt Redd. Alyss escapes to our world, lives there for 13years, and then comes back and rescues Wonderland. Twists Alice in Wonderland into something completely different. A very cool idea. However, this book is a bit shallow. It was like looking at snapshots. Alyss at 7, Alyss at 14, Alyss at 20. No character development, even though Beddor does "try". It comes up VERY lacking when compared to the original, which is to bad. I think that a younger, less experienced mind would appreciate this story more. Wouldn't recommend this to anyone, too much glitter and glazz without the substance to make the g&g palatable.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

August '08

STAR WARS: LEGACY OF THE FORCE: FURY
-A. Allston-fantasy
-356-Incredible, it has been nearly a year since I read Inferno. I slipped right back into the Star Wars universe though. Caedus kidnaps Allana. Reveals to her that he is her father. Centerpoint is made operational and subsequently destroyed by the Jedi. The Jedi are preparing themselves to be a third "galactic" government of sorts. Luke lets go of Mara. Ben lets go of his hatred of Caedus. While destroying Centerpoint, other Jedi rescue Allana and Han and Leia find out that she is Caedus and Tenel Ka's daughter. Jaina, Zekk and Jag take down Alema Rar. Han and Leia are given new Mando armor. Ends with Jaina heading off to get "extra" training to take down Caedus. You know she is heading to Fett. And since Traviss is writing the next book, it is a given. Only 2 more books to go.

STAR WARS: LEGACY OF THE FORCE: REVELATION
-K. Traviss-fantasy
-410- well, I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed. Caedus is really slipping. Doesn't seem like much of a Sithlord at all. The GA fractures when the Duumvirate of Caedus and Niathal splits. Ben proves with evidence that it was Caedus who killed Mara. Jaina gets training from Fett. Fett uncarbonites his wife who has been in it for close to 30 years. I was mostly disappointed in how lame and shallow the "training" of Jaina was by Fett. Saying things like "be a different person" and then using a real sword instead of a lightsaber. Whatever. Everything takes place in a month too. Just seemed very shallow, and there were no humorous spots to lighten things up like in Fury. And LOTS of humanistic moralizing about Jedi, Sith and what is good and what is wrong. Traviss has ruined it by bringing her 21st century humanistic amoralism to the table.

COREAN CHRONICLES: DARKNESS
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-492- the Iron Valley becomes part of Lanachrona. Alucius and the militia become the Northern Guard and go to fight nomads in the north. Ends up fighting talent creatures [pteridons]. Ends with Alucius getting extra Talent training from the soarers so he can fight Ifrits, beings who used to rule the world. I enjoyed reading this book. I really did my best to enjoy the story without wanting to buy the series. I think I succeeded. I have enough books of my own I haven't read that I won't be reading the next for quite some time.

STARSWARM
-J. Pournelle-scifi
-349-a young boy, with an implant, who is the unknown heir of a huge interplanetary conglomerate, foils a plot to take over his adopted world and discovers native intelligence. This was EXTREMELY reminiscent of Heinlein's juvenile scifi. I enjoyed it but it lacked depth. It was good for what it was.

IN LEGEND BORN
-L. Resnick-fantasy
-461-first, Resnick is Mike Resnick's [of Santiago fame] daughter. This story was ok. It had the token warrior, evil magic user, good magic user who prophesied, prophesied hero, hero's family member who would betray him and the woman who nobody can resist. A country has been subjugated for 1000 years. Infighting and feuds keep them weak. A world spanning empire rules them. Suddenly the Hero fights for freedom. Everybody else wants freedom now too! Feuds, fights, hatreds and hundreds of years of superstition are gone in a matter of months. I enjoyed reading this, but after reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen books, it was very underdeveloped and showed the authors lack of understanding on how politics and military strategy work, especially in a sword and shield era. The little blurbs on the back were nothing but hype, and I am reacting to those more than the story in this review. This was a good, generic, forgettable fantasy story.

TAKEN: THE LIGHT-YEARS BENEATH MY FEET
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-245-the second in the Taken Trilogy. The four friends go to another planet since Marc is now a chef. End up meddling in politics to further their journey home. Still pursued by the aliens that originally kidnapped them. Ends with them leaving for a part of the galaxy that "might" be familiar with one of the non-terran aliens. Nice and light and not crass like the first.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

July '08


NIGHT WATCH
-T. Pratchett-fantasy
-338-Vimes goes back in time and must resolve a time conundrum to make "his" future happen. Vimes is getting old. Character age wise. Also interesting wise. Pratchett needs to move on. This whole book screamed "tired" at me. Sure, there were amusing parts, but overall, it seemed that trying to read it was as hard a process as Vimes getting up in the morning. The Discworld "ride" is slowing down and almost at the gate for debarking. I just hope Pratchett knows when to stop.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUN
-T. Pratchett-fantasy
-158-written back in '76, this is one of Pratchett's pre-Discworld novels. BUT. So many of the names and ideas from discworld were in this novel. Basically, a young man finds the creators of the known universe, the Jokers, who are now little lizards on his homeworld. It was a crazy story with huge jumps from point to point. A serious precursor to Discworld. Pratchett wrote one little book and then expanded it to a whole series and called it the Discworld :-)

FRUITS BASKET #18
-N. Takaya-manga
-209- this manga is no longer about Tohru, but about the cursed Soma family. I don't like this. Every single member of the clan is the most messed up person ever. Doesn't exactly make for uplifting reading. Ever time I get tempted to go buy Fruits Basket, I just read the next volume and it depresses me and the desire to buy disappears.

BARNABY RUDGE
-C. Dickens-classic
-599-An idiot[mentally retarded], Barnaby is swept up into mob action of protestants against catholics. Is caught and sentenced to hang, but in the end his many friends save him. Sidestories of an innkeepers son and a smith's daughter. A catholic landholders niece and a protestant "lord"'s son. Barnaby's father, who supposedly died many years ago. The protestant "lord"'s illegitimate son and his rabble rousing companions. Overall, it was a fictional account of a non-fictional incident [the riots of "something or other" or 1786 or whatever]. Dickens never writes just one story, but about 4-6 interweaving stories that are all tangentially connected. Good stuff!

COREAN CHRONICLES: LEGACIES
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-558-a different series by Modesitt. A young man, a herder with some sort of talent, goes into a local militia. In a fight, is captured and taken prisoner. Forced to wear a collar that can kill unless orders are obeyed, he joins the other side. The other side is run by the Matrial, an ageless woman. In the end, the man destroys a crystal which seems to be the Matrial's lifesupport and takes a company of soldiers back to his homeland. I really enjoyed this story. A completely different flavor than Recluce and a very different writing style. It flowed, more novel like, instead of the choppiness that permeates the Recluce books. Look forward to reading more.

RECLUCE: SCION OF CYADOR
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-720-Lorn becomes Emperor of Cyador in the end. This was a pretty flat book. It was like drinking cola that has been sitting open in the fridge all night long. It has taste, but not something you really want or like. I felt no connection with Lorn and I didn't see how him becoming Emperor would enable him to save Cyador. New faces but same problems and gridlock. Blah.

MALAZON BOOK OF THE FALLEN: DEADHOUSE GATES
-S. Erikson-fantasy
-598- oh man, where to start? I'm not really going into the plot, too many different threads, almost Dickensesque. I really enjoy this series. Erikson pays attention to detail, has a very fullbodied storyline and obviously has an overarching storyline. First thing though, it all gets confusing. Creatures more powerful than gods. So many different kinds, names, etc, etc. It seems to be getting to the point where being a god is pointless because there are so many other things just as, if not more, powerful. Second, nobody is safe. Anybody can die. Of course, nobody is of the Heroic Cast, so you dont really feel happy or sad about them. Thirdly, this book seemed filled with the hopelessness of living in such a world. One characters sums it up as "smile, what else is there?" There really is no hope for characters. Even death isn't always final, nor is it necessarily a release. Nor is god-hood a safety. There are things meant to simply deal with the powerful. I wouldn't want to live in this world, not at all!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

June '08

THE RUNELORDS: THE SUM OF ALL MEN
-D. Farland-fantasy
-613-a universe where endowments [brawn, wit, beauty, etc] can be taken and given. One Wolf Lord is trying to take over. A prince becomes a legendary king, the Earth King. Humanity has a common enemy called Reavers, some sort of huge insect like race. It was an ok story, but I wasn't wow'ed or really impressed.

RETIEF!
-K. Laumer-scifi
-589-a bunch of short stories about a diplomat named Jame Retief. He works in the CDT, a galaxy spanning Corp that is about as helpful as the Circumlocution Office in a Dickens' novel. He actually gets things done. Light and amusing. I like Laumer's stuff.

TSUBASA: RESERVOIR CHRONICLES #17
-Clamp-manga
-182

RECLUCE: COLORS OF CHAOS
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-798-continues the story of Cerryl. This is a counter-story to Dorrin's tales. Really interesting to see how a True White is committed to protecting the weak and seeing that all play fair. I thought that the two books involving Cerryl were some of the best in the Recluce Saga.

FIFTH ELEPHANT
-Terry Pratchett-fantasy
-494-Vimes goes to Uberwald as a diplomat. Lots of things happen and Ankh Morpork gets good deals with the dwarves. It seems that Pratchett has replaced Rincewind [and other wizards] and the witches with Vimes. I am not sure how I feel about this. Vimes is a good protagonist but I really enjoyed the hapless terror that was the daily deal for Rincewind.

RECLUCE: MAGI'I OF CYADOR
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-560-deals with Cyador. Near the end of its reign. The white power that the magi'i use is definitely on a different level than what the future white wizards use. Lorn is a magi who doesn't quite cut it so is sent to become a Lancer. He is constantly the center of plots to get rid of him. He has his own plots to take over Cyador. Deals a LOT with the Forest, that is restrained.

PROPHET
-F. Peretti-religious fiction
-461-A forties something news anchor must deal with God. His father is a prophet, who is killed. He is given the mantle and must confront the current governor about lies about abortion and the death of the governor's oldest daughter. A bit fluffy. The thing I really didn't like was how characters were thrown together without any apparent intro. I had to reread parts several times to make sure I hadn't missed something. I'd buy it hardover if I could find it cheap.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: GARDENS OF THE MOON
-S. Erikson-fantasy
-488- An empire of humans is trying to take over the world, the Malazan Empire. There are also a plethora of gods, old and new, several additional races [all of which seem to be old and dying out] and various types of magics. Complicated. The Empress, who ousted the Emperor 15-20 years before the book starts, seems bent on taking over all that she can while also wiping out those in the army who still respect the Emperor. Follows one company who is set for destruction, called the Bridgeburners. Some High Magical Lord of an Elder race who must face a resurrected Tyrant who ruled for close to 3 Millenia back in the day. Gods playing around with fate and it is all tied together, even if not directly. Complicated, confusing and very indepth. I still don't feel like I have a grasp on everything that happened. I know that I missed stuff when I skimmed, but there was SO much that I couldn't help but skim. Definitely looking forward to reading more though.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

May '08

MIDDLEMARCH
-G. Elliot-classic
-800-a look at a village named Middlemarch in the 1830's. Lots of people acting like people, ie, selfish and stupid. It was interesting, but people refused to talk to eachother and that really annoys me.

FOUNDING OF THE COMMONWEALTH: DIUTURNITY'S DAWN
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-341-I didn't even know what Diuturnity meant. It means "long lasting". This novel is about the actual founding of the HumanX commonwealth. Each book became less interesting than the previous.

PUDD'NHEAD WILSON
-M. Twain-classic
-224- a negro woman switches her baby and her masters. The new young master grows up and ends up killing his uncle for money. Is caught by the work of Pudd'nhead Wilson, a lawyer who has an interest in fingerprints. Ends with the switch being revealed and the new young master being sold down the river[they are in their 20's].

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE SIGN OF FOUR
-A.C. Doyle-mystery
-100-a man is murdered. He is connected to another missing man, who has a daughter who comes to Holmes and Watson. Turns out there is a huge indian treasure involved. 4 men stole it and hid it. Then went to prison. The murdered and missing man found out about it and made a deal to free the prisoners for a part. Backstabbing. Prisoner escapes and takes his revenge. Watson ends up marrying the daughter.

LITTLE DORRIT PART I
-C. Dickens-classic
-433-a man and his family go into debtors prison. 20+ years later, through the efforts of a 40 yearold man recently returned from China, they come into money. Dickens has so many different threads all running at once that it is hard to define just what the exact story is. There is the story of Little Dorrit[youngest daughter, born in prison], of her family, of Mr Clennam [the middleaged man from china who it appears Little Dorrit is in love with], of some italian who has a tie to an english murderer, to Mr Clennam's business partner[who is in perpetual warfare with the Circumlocution Office of government]. It is SO fascinating though. Dickens descriptions of his character is perfect. From comparing them to inanimate objects in mannerisms to how they simply talk, you KNOW what Character X is like. I am just in awe.

RECLUCE: THE WHITE ORDER
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-468-Finally, a novel from a white wizards point of view. From the time of Justin and Gunnar. A young white ends up being a wizard under Jeslek while trying to figure out everything. Shows that the White Order was in place to check unbridled chaos wizards[which is what happened in the time of Lerris]. Much more enjoyable than the Justin and Gunnar arc.

TEMERAIRE: EMPIRE OF IVORY
-N. Novik-fantasy
-404-dragons of England are all sick. Temeraire isn't. They figure it must be something he ate in Africa on his journey back from China. Bunch of sick dragons go to Africa. Find a cure. Laurence and others are captured by a tribe of Africans and taken prisoner. The tribe of humans and dragons wipes out all European towns along the coast. Laurence and others escape to England. English infect rest of European dragons, now that they have a cure. Laurence and Temeraire go to France with the cure. Ends with Laurence and Temeraire preparing to head back to England to face court-martial for treason. Ok, Novik is a history buff.It shows. Once again, the dragons are given very little character developement time. They are almost just a sideshow to allow Novik to probe into alternate history. I don't care 2 bits about most of what goes on in the human society, I want dragons! And Novik insists of slogging through the human society and dragging us along.


LITTLE DORRIT PART II
-C. Dickens-classic
-398-everything comes to an end. Fortunes are lost and gained. In the end, Rigaud dies, Clennam marries Little Dorrit and Doyce [his business parter] goes off to Europe to be wildly successful at inventing things. I think I really enjoyed this Dickens novel the best of all I've read so far. I just wanted to keep on reading and find out what happened. I can't really point out what I liked more than in his other novels, but this is my favorite Dickens, to date.

THE FOUR LOVES
-C.S. Lewis-religious
-192- can't say that I really enjoyed this. About the four different kinds of love. Lewis, however, goes into so many different kinds of love that I was lost almost from the beginning. Good points about "love", not sublimated to God's Will, being demoniac and "God usurping", but not a clear, concise read. I hope to reread this several times in my life, and to understand it a bit more each time.

DEATHNOTE #13: HOW TO READ
-T. Ohba-manga
-270-this is pretty much an encyclopedia of everything in the Deathnote series. Character bios, explanations of who did what and why, etc, etc. Even had the original "Deathnote" pilot chapter that Ohba wrote. A bit of a hard read, since there was just SO much info. Not really a manga, in the traditional sense. Definitely including this in my "number of books I read this year" as a "real" book :-)

THE CATTENI: FREEDOM'S LANDING
-A. McCaffrey-scifi
-342-aliens invade earth, take lots of prisoners. A bunch get dumped on a new planet to see if it is "safe" for the alien overlords. Main character is a woman. She falls in love with one of the alien overlords, who has been abandoned on the planet with them all. Ok, but nothing that I really liked. Might read the next couple, might not. Depends on how I'm feeling I guess.

CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN
-F. Gilbreth Jr & E. Gilbreth Carey-biography
-180- a hilarious semi-biography of a family with 12 children. Back in the 19'teens or so. Really made me laugh. A good "read out loud to the family" kind of book.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

April '08

RECLUCE: FALL OF ANGELS
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-592-explains the origins of the Westwinds, from which Recluce was born. Quite interesting. A starship of women from another universe appears. Some appear to be able to use Order. One man, Nylan [the main character], is the Ordermaster of this story. He comes with the women. More whining and complaining about how he hates that force is necessary. Just refuses to accept that some people will only submit to a greater application of force. That is the main flaw with this series, in my opinion. Modesitt harps [and man, if he was a woman, I'd say she bitches] about this over and over and over. Every single novel. I like the storyline, but not that part of it. I'll keep reading, but no longer have any desire to try to buy these.

AZAZEL
-I. Asimov-fantasy
-221-a collection of short stories about a 2cm tall demon. He is at the beck and call of an acquaintance of the authors. He [the friend George] is always trying to "help" his friends using Azazel's powers. They always turn into misadventures.

THE STAND
-S. King-horror
-1153-first off, what a massive book. Second, I really enjoyed this. A plague with 99.4% death rate devastates the world. In America, people gravitate toward Boulder or Las Vegas. In Boulder is Mother Abigal and in Las Vegas is the Dark Man. This is a story about Good vs Evil and how good pays in blood and evil causes its own downfall. Some messed up views on God, some profanity and enough graphic sexual things degrade my overall view on this story however.

STAR WARS: REPUBLIC COMMANDO: TRUE COLORS
-K. Traviss-scifi
-472-follows the commandos as they find out more about the war and slowly realize that things are not as presented by Palpatine and the media. Skarata is hunting down the Kaminoan who engineered the clones so she can reverse the "fast aging" so they can live a normal length life. Traviss is really setting things up to tie in with the Legacy books. I didn't enjoy this novel nearly as much as the first two. The military jargon, the Mando'ese, it was just over used, imo, this time. You have so many different identifications for the same people [usually group oriented] that I felt like I lost track of who was who. Nulls, Alpha's, ARC's, Republic Commandos, Delta, Omega, etc, etc. Keeping track of it all really bogged the story down.

MARS: A FIGHTING MAN OF MARS
-E.R. Burroughs-fantasy
-200-a red martian man goes to rescue a martian woman who has been kidnapped. In the process he falls in love with another, discovers yet another crazed, world domineering wannabe and yet another mad scientist. Everything works out in the end. Burroughs uses the word "indubitably". How pretentious.

RECLUCE: THE CHAOS BALANCE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-596-continues the story of Nylan. He, his lover and a son leave Westwind. He ends up battling Cyador, which is the remnants of a Rationalist empire founded by long ago. Destroys Cyador by letting loose the forest of Daclos and he and Arylin become the first druids. A lot less whining. I think perhaps Modesitt realized it was overused? I don't know, we'll see how it is in future books.

ONE PIECE #16
-E. Oda-manga
-188

SHAMAN KING #13
-H. Takei-manga
-190

THE GREAT GATSBY
-F.S. Fitzgerald-fiction
-159- a man tells a sordid tale about his neighbor and a cousin. The neighbor loved the cousin 5 years ago but left. She married someone else. Her husband cheats on her but is rich. The neighbor comes back rich [from bootleg(illegal liquor, this was in the 20's) and other shady affairs] and tries to woo the cousin back. The husband gets his revenge by telling his mistress's husband that the neighbor is actually the mistress's lover. The neighbor tries to get the cousin to leave with him, she won't. The mistress's husband kills the neighbor after the mistress is run over and then kills himself. Confused yet? This was a story about fallen humanity with no redeeming quality. Why it is a "classic" is beyond me. There is no redemption and there must be in all True Stories.

TSUBASA RESERVOIR CHRONICLES #13-16
-CLAMP-manga

SHERLOCK HOLMES: A STUDY IN SCARLET
-A.C Doyle-mystery
-86- how Watson meets Sherlock Holmes. Solves a double murder mystery. Always knew the mormons were a bunch of no good...

FOUNDING OF THE COMMONWEALTH: PHYLOGENESIS
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-327-How the Thranx and Humans began the Commonwealth. Not their meeting [as in Nor Crystal Tears], but the pivotal moment when they united together. About a rogue thranx poet and a petty criminal. Pretty trivial drivel actually. But engaging.

FOUNDING OF THE COMMONWEALTH: DIRGE
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-310-a new race, the Pitar [humanoids who are physically what we all dream of] are discovered by humans. Turns out they wipe out a colony of humans[about 600,000]. Brings the thranx and humans together militarily. Also shows the founding of the interspecies church. The humanx invade the pitar homeworld. Pitar, xenophobic narcisssists, commit mass suicide to avoid the "pollution" by lesser species.

SHAMAN KING #14-15
-H. Takei-manga

ONE PIECE #17
-E. Oda-manga
-206