Tuesday, November 30, 2010

November '10

POLITY: AGENT CORMAC: LINE WAR
-N. Asher-epub-395
-scifi-the final book in the Agent Cormac series. Cormac realizes that Earth Central and the other AI's have allowed the Jain tech to grow so as to spur humanity onward, only they started losing control. Things are brought back under control, but Cormac has become truly post-human and is now the bogeyman to the AI's. They had better do their best by humanity or Cormac will come and get them. Quite an interesting conclusion and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more in the Polity Universe.

EMPIRE: MISTRESS OF THE EMPIRE
-J. Wurts & R. Feist-epub-656
-fantasy-the conclusion to the Empire trilogy. Turns out the Black Robes are keeping the Empire stagnant so that they can do as they please. Mara loses her son, another child and her father in law to the machinations. Ends up going outside of Kelewan to other nations to find magic to combat the Assembly. Comes back, puts her son on the throne, [the Emperor had been killed by rivals], stares down the Assembly and gets on with her life. Has to separate from her husband for political reasons but Kevin comes back as an Ambassador and it is obvious they will comfort each other. This seemed more of Wurts's writing with Feist rubberstamping his name. Lots of descriptiveness of surroundings and feelings and everything. I doubt I'll ever read anything by Wurts again.

THE TAU CETI AGENDA: ONE DAY ON MARS
-T. Taylor-epub-UNFINISHED
-military scifi-to much swearing. I just gave up around page 50. I don't care if I'm reading about marines in the year 2300, I don't want to read strings of profanity after strings of profanity.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: A LIVING NIGHTMARE
-D. Shan-epub-148
-YA fantasy-two best friends go to a freakshow that will change their lives forever. A real vampire works for the show. One of the boys wants to become a vampire, but is rejected on grounds of having bad blood. The other boy steals a spider and it ends up biting his friend. The only way to save his friend is to go to the vampire and ask for help. The vampire gives him a serum, but requires that he become the vampire's assistant and become half-vampire. Darren agrees to save Steve. Darren fakes his death so he can go away in peace but Steve isn't fooled and vows vengeance on Darren and the vampire for taking what he wanted. A wonderfully delightful ya book. Sometimes it is nice to read something where you know exactly what is going to happen.

CONRAD STARGARD: CROSSTIME ENGINEER
-L. Frankowski-epub-231
-scifi-what a joke. A polish engineer is transported back in time to around 1200 in Poland. He sets out to make a difference. You can tell this was written by an engineer. Sex was second to the explanations of how each improvement Conrad wanted worked. I skipped pages at a time when stuff got technical. Not worth anyone's money.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT
-D. Shan-epub-141
-YA fantasy-the adventures of Darren as he is with the Cirque Du Freak. He refuses to drink human blood and it almost kills him in the end. We are also introduced to Mr Tiny, the very obvious villain of the series.

GUARDIANS OF THE FLAME: THE SILVER CROWN
-J. Rosenberg-epub-216
-fantasy-six years or so after the previous book. Carl is still the main character and still has a spear up his butt about slavery. He ends up becoming the duke of a country. I don't like Carl. He is a whiner and a self-pitying fool.

BATTLE ROYALE
-K. Takami-epub-491
-fiction- in an alternate world, there are 2 main empires, the American Empire, and the Asian Empire. Each year the Asian Empire takes a class of junior high students, drops them off in a remote place and has them fight to death. 3 students stick together and make a plan to survive. 2 of them get off the island and the book ends with them running from the police. Overall, I would call this a japanese version of Lord of the Flies where the fallen humanity of humans comes to the surface. This was very violent, with every student, but the 2 escaping, dying. Explores ideas of trust, freedom, free will, the sneakiness of big government, love, hate and the lack of emotions. It was creepy, but brought the idea of people turning on each other up to date with modern times [as opposed to Lord of the Flies back in the WWII era].

THE STRAIN: STRAIN
-G. Del Toro & C. Hogan-epub-353
-thriller, fantasy- vampires are real, but leaving humanity alone for the most part. One vampire decides to change things. He hooks up with a rich, dying guy in America. Flies over to NY and starts a chain reaction of vampire turnings as the first step in a war to take out humanity. Focuses on a guy from the CDC [Center for Disease Control] and turns this into a medical/virus thriller. Vampires do their thing with some parasitic thing. Made it real interesting and looking forward to more in the series.

LADY PENITENT: SACRIFICE OF THE WIDOW
-L. Smedman-epub-202
-fantasy-a direct sequel to the War of the Spider Queen series. The only tie-in characters though are the gods involved and Halistra [a dark elf who tried to kill Lolth in the previous series]. Basically a continuation of the war between Lolth and her children to gain control of all the Drow. Nothing spectacular, but I wasn't rolling my eyes like in some of the Drizz't books.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: TUNNELS OF BLOOD
-D. Shan-epub-139
-YA fantasy-Darren finds out more about his mentors past and about how the Vampire Society is setup. There is a splinter faction called the Vampaneze who kill when they feed. One goes rogue in the city Mr Crepsley grew up in, so he goes with Darren to take him out. Still enjoying!

CONRAD STARGARD: THE HIGH TECH KNIGHT
-L. Frankowski-dtb-247
-fantasy-Conrad kills a bunch of knights who had a group of children slaves. This gets him in hot water and he has to fight a duel with a champion, the very knight he had a run in with when he got to Old Poland back in the first book. Frankowski is an idiot. Conrad still has the right to bed women, but Frankowski portrays it as ok with Conrad's lover, because "Fair's fair". Just continues to show his sexism and engineering genes. And yet it is still a fun read once your eyes stop rolling.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED II
-S. Williams-epub-295
-scifi-a blase sequel. Starkiller is either resurrected or successfully cloned [even though it is stated, and shown in other novels, that Jedi clones never turn out ok.] Thankfully there was enough stuff happening that the stupid characters didn't get in the way. Ends with Starkiller and his lady friend running off. It doesn't make sense, so powerful a force user unsensed by the Emperor and not completely hunted down by Vader. The story was weak, Starkiller is an extremely 2d character and while there are cameos of future greats, they come across as the sops to fans that their appearance really is. Books like this are what will destroy the Star Wars line.

THE GAMBLER
-F. Dostoyevsky-epub-130
-classic-a shorter story about a russian teacher who ends up addicted to gambling and throwing his life away. Ends with him basically saying "I'll give up gambling, tomorrow." Very confusing at the onset with trying to figure out who is who and what is going on. A good introduction to Dostoyevsky's style but without the weight of some of his tomes.

MUTATION
-R. Cook-dtb-367
-med-thriller-a scientist mucks about with genes and his son turns out to be a super genius, with no conscience. Son and father die and the mother is left to destroy the final baby that was a dry run experiment. I read this back in highschool and thought it was wicked cool. Now, it seems almost blase. The whole premise that super intelligence squeezes out emotions just rings false in my ears. A throw away read, but I do want to read at least 1 more of Cook's books before I say anything about the author overall.

THE VIDESSOS CYCLE: THE MISPLACED LEGION
-H. Turtledove-epub-288
-historical fantasy-a roman legion in Gaul ends up on another world through magic. They become mercenaries for the Vidession Empire. Enjoyed this very much. Magic and Roman legion tactics, a cool combo. The problem is that I had a very badly formatted copy. Whoever had scanned this did it as one solid block of text. No paragraph breaks, no indents, nothing. Calibre split it up into 4 xhtml chunks, but my reader had to chug through each whole section whenever turning a page and man, it killed my battery and the flow of the story. Am seriously thinking about working on it with Sigil and making a nice epub copy. Will see.

CONRAD STARGARD: THE RADIANT WARRIOR
-L. Frankowski-dtb-281
-fantasy-Conrad is now ready to start building his army. I give up and admit that this series is utter trash but I still keep reading it. I'll probably read until I run out of the books. I feel ashamed and dirty now ;-)

INHERIT THE STARS
-J. Hogan-epub-203
-scifi-a muddle of humanity from earth, from another planet and some aliens from the same planet. This was written back in '78, probably considered hard scifi then. I was actually entertained. Pretty good for a novel that has no action or fighting or anything non-cerebral.

Monthly Summary
17 Novels
1 Unfinished Novel
4783 Pages

Sunday, October 31, 2010

October '10

STAR WARS: CROSSCURRENT
-P. Kemp-epub-214
-fantasy-the novel that is the immediate prequel to the Lost Tribe of the Sith short stories. A ship of sith blunders 5000 years from the past into the BY[Battle of Yavin] era and sets things up for later in the Fate of the Jedi series and probably some later series as well. Well written and I actually enjoyed reading about non-Skywalker characters. That doesn't happen very often.

POLITY: AGENT CORMAC: GRIDLINKED
-N. Asher-epub-346
-scifi-far in the future, the main empire is the Human Polity, an entity of humans ruled by AI. The line between man and machine is blurring. The non-Polity sections of space are headed by strong willed individuals who are constantly attacking the Polity. Agent Cormac is a Polity agent, gridlinked[connected to AI's through technology] until he is cut off to regain his humanity. Also introduces us to an alien called the Dragon, which appears to be immensely powerful and who cares not a whit about humans. Very well done, even with some of the technical descriptions.

POLITY: AGENT CORMAC: THE LINE OF POLITY
-N. Asher-epub-437
-scifi-a rogue scientist fuses himself with an ancient races technology. At the same time the Polity is attempting to extend their line by the peaceful taking over of a world. These two plots collide and Skellor [the scientist] sets himself up to be a major villain in coming novels. Cormac plays a very small role. Focus is on Skellor and some freedom fighters on the planet's surface. Extremely engaging and I just enjoyed reading this.

DISCWORLD: THE TRUTH
-T. Pratchett-epub-239
-fantasy-a yarn in Ahnk-Morpork about the advent of the movable type press. Subplots of intrigue and murder and Vetinari. And it all works out in the end. And Vetinari continues to show just how much of a clever bastard he really is.

KIM
-R. Kipling-epub-307
-historical fiction-a young boy, son of an irish soldier and wife, is orphaned in India and grows up wild. Meets a holy man and comes to the attention of the British. Goes to the best school and is trained to be a spy. Has adventures with the holy man and the story ends with him at about 17 as he prepares to enter Her Majesties Service. Fantastic. The wording, the pace, the excitement, were all splendid. The sense of India was conveyed very believably. Need to read more of Kipling.

POLITY: AGENT CORMAC: BRASS MAN
-N. Asher-epub-405
-scifi- a direct continuation of Line of Polity. Deals with the back history of Mr Crane [the insane brass golem] and more of Skellor, who obviously didn't die. And some AI's decide to see if they can become AI tyrants instead of benevolent dictators; quite interesting to see AI politics, reminds of Greg Bear's Eon.

BRISINGR
-C. Paolini-epub-PARTIAL REREAD
-fantasy-I started this and it seemed very familiar. I just figured I had read a couple of chapters before. Well, I got up to around the 300+ page mark and it STILL seemed familiar. So I checked and it turns out I had read it in December of '09.

ARTEMIS FOWL: THE ARCTIC INCIDENT
-E. Colfer-epub-146
-ya fantasy- Artemis has to work with the LEP so he can rescue his dad. It was ok, nothing memorable, not a reread that is for sure.

ROBOTECH: THE SENTINELS: THE DEVIL'S HAND
-J. McKinney-epub-133
-scifi-about the SDF3 going off into space before the Masters came to earth. Lots of characters from the Macross saga along with a host of new ones. Minmei is still around sadly, and Rick, even though married to Lisa, hasn't got much of a spine. Will see how this sub series turns out.

WORLD AT WAR: INTO THE DARKNESS
-H. Turtledove-dtb-684
-fantasy-even though it is almost alternate history. Seems to be a World War II'ish story but in another world that has magic. It was well written and even interesting, but I don't know if I really want to read more of the series simply because it is a big investment of time. And I just don't care enough to read a war history. Turtledove also throws in completely unnecessarily graphic sexual descriptions and situations.

POLITY: AGENT CORMAC: POLITY AGENT
-N. Asher-epub-403
-scifi-the continuation of the big story about the fight against the Jain artifacts. Find out Blegg IS just a construct of Earth Central but that Cormac might actually BE the first post-human the AI's are trying to create. Lots of fighting and some stuff with the remaining 2 dragon spheres. Very engaging and plot oriented. Very little character development, but that is ok.

DRESDEN FILES: DEATH MASK
-J. Butcher-epub-235
-urban fantasy-Harry has to have a duel with someone from the vampire Red Court, stop a fallen angel from unleashing a magical plague apocalypse and deal with Susan going away for good and taking the fight against the vampires who created her.


MONTLY SUMMARY
11 Novels
1 Partial Re-read
3549 Pages

Friday, September 24, 2010

September '10

STORMLIGHT ARCHIVES: THE WAY OF KINGS
-B. Sanderson-epub-1035
-fantasy-the first in a 10 book series [or so touted by the publishers with no denial by Sanderson]. Epic fantasy. This was very hard to get into. I was over the 500page mark before I really found things getting interesting. Things were broken up between 3 main characters and I felt like not enough time was given for each character at once, ie, needed bigger chunks at a time for each character. Then in the interludes we get short little threads about side characters we know nothing about but it appears will be appearing in future books. Overall, I felt like I had been duped into spending a very large amount of time on something I didn't really enjoy. I kept expecting things to "get better" but it took until over the 800page mark for that to happen. I doubt I will be reading these books as they come out, but will wait til 3 or 4 have accumulated, then play catch up. Felt like this book failed to live up to its hype, which is sad since I've really, really enjoyed everything of Sanderson's so far [well, except for War Breaker].

SNOW CRASH
-N. Stephenson-epub-520
-cyberpunk-wasn't really expecting to enjoy this, and was very pleasantly surprised. A kooky rich eccentric is trying to take over everyone's brains with some sort of mental virus. Lots of references to old religions, etc, etc. Very fast paced, action packed and ends with a bang. And swords. Wicked cool.

LEGENDS OF SHANNARA: BEARERS OF THE BLACKSTAFF
-T. Brooks-epub-336
-fantasy-taking place after the Genesis of Shannara trilogy. 500 years later, the ward of protection Hawk placed wears out. The valley has split into factions, mainly based on species, but the world outside has survived too, albiet, all the nasty strong things. Inside the Knights of the Word devolved into outcasts who forgot their history. Follows 2 humans, both who have magic potential, as the valley is about to be invaded by trolls. One of the them is a candidate for the blackstaff and it looks like he will probably be the founder of the wizards. Typical Brooks, with nothing stunning, but nonetheless, an interesting story, mainly because we want to know how things get to the world of The Sword of Shannara.

LIGHTBRINGER: THE BLACK PRISM
-B. Weeks-epub-609
-fantasy- A world in which magic is manifested through colors. Different colors have different effects, and most magic workers can handle 1, maybe 2, colors. Only the Prism, ruler of a bunch of small kingdoms, can use all 7 colors. This was cool because it follows a fat boy who turns out to be the Prism's bastard from 15 years before the book. There is supposed to be only 1 Prism in a generation, but there were 2 back then, and a war to determine the True Prism. This series is dealing with the after effects of that war. Lots of politic'ing and intrigue and fighting. In some ways it reminded of The Mistborn Trilogy, in which it is posited that the good guy is the badguy, or vice versa or all jumbled up. Very interesting plot points. Thankfully Weeks' use of foul language is somewhat curbed, making this a more enjoyable read than his Night Angel books.

RIYRIA REVELATIONS: THE EMERALD STORM
-M. Sullivan-epub-380
-fantasy- yet another rollicking chapter in the Riyria Revelations tale. Royce and Hadrian get their butts kicked, only they don't realize it until near the end of the book. Was good to see that they weren't all powerful characters with no weaknesses. Vague hints portend some horrible Event in the near future, which with only 2 books to go, makes me kind of nervous. The only bad thing I have to say about this was the formatting of the file itself, not the story. There were numerous [over 10] cases where words were kind of piled into eachother, ie, "He would have loto hurt him some" which translated would be "He would have loved to hurt him some". Also, there were orphan html commands, notably paragraph or line break commands. Will buy another copy sometime and see if it is a store thing or just a bad release by the author/publisher.

THE THREE INVESTIGATORS: SECRET OF TERROR CASTLE
-R. Arthur-epub-79
-children's mystery- Having read many of the books in this series in elementary school, it was interesting to go back and read one again. Will not be reading anymore. Fantastic reading for a child, just not meant for adults. I shall leave them with the fond memories of my childhood.

ARTEMIS FOWL
-E. Colfer-epub-143
-YA fantasy-a young genius, from a crime family, gets involved with stealing gold from the fairie folk. An interesting idea of trying to make the protagonist a bad guy, walking the fine line between making you like him and still keeping him as a villain.

ANCESTOR
-S. Sigler-dtb-421
-scifi-really should be classified as medical/drama. Basically an update/relocate of Jurassic Park. People muck about with genes, make a super monster, a bunch get loose on an island, almost everybody gets eaten, a select few escape. I really enjoyed this, but there was not a single ounce of originality in this. Good escapist book.

DIRK GENTLY: THE LONG DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL
-D. Adams-epub-199
-fantasy-a blase book in which Dirk Gently is involved with ancient Norse Gods, a contract for a god's soul and some random woman, all mishmashed together in a nonsensical format that hardly anybody could enjoy.

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS GAMBIT: STEALTH
-K. Miller-epub-293
-fantasy- a nasty bioweapon plan is uncovered and Anakin and Obi-Wan must go under cover, in Separatist territory, to figure out a way to destroy it without further extending Republic Forces. Once again, as seems to be on par with these Clone Wars novels, there is nothing really exciting to read about. You see Anakin continue down the path towards Darth Vader, but other than that, I really find the adventures boring.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE FLAME: THE SWORD AND THE CHAIN
-J. Rosenberg-dtb-251
-fantasy-in which the group is back in the fantasy world. They free some slaves, start their own little village and some of the group go out and encounter what turns out to be Excalibur. and the wizard\professor who sent them there turns out to be Merlin in our world. Lots of dumb crap about freeing slaves and such. The main problem I had with that was that there was NO real world view for not having slaves. None of the main characters believe in a god who loves everyone and sacrifices for them. Only by believing that there is One God who created All Men, and hence that all men have equal worth and due the respect of a created being, will there be motivation for slavery to be stamped out. If you just "believe it is wrong", your motivation will fizzle.

BIOS
-R. Wilson-dtb-251
-scifi-a humanistic book in which everybody dies just so the author can wax eloquent on his pet philosophical point. Not really enjoyable and will not be reading any more by this author.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
12 novels
4517 pages

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

August '10

CASE CLOSED #5-26
-G. Aoyama
-manga

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC: FATAL ALLIANCE
-S. Williams-dtb-417
-fantasy-taking place 3650 BBY [before the Battle of Yavin,ie, New Hope], this story is about a rogue genius who creates a bunch of droids that could wipe out the galaxy. The Republic is at a standstill with the Sith Empire while Mandalore is recovering from the Great War. Representatives from each faction come together to fight this threat, all the while scheming to take advantage. Follows a Padawan on the verge of Knighthood, a sith apprentice, and a disgraced special ops trooper. They face the threat, and nobody gets an advantage. This was based on a game [like The Force Unleashed] and it showed. A better read than TFU, but how everything worked, it felt like reading the script. I just hope LucasArts moves away from this type of novel. I like the idea of exploring the Old Republic Era [even Darth Bane was only 1000-+ BBY], just not this way.

PRINCE OF TENNIS #3-10
-T. Konomi
-manga

ONE PIECE #22-29
-E. Oda
-manga

EMPIRE: SERVANT OF THE EMPIRE
-J. Wurts & R. Feist-epub-627
-fantasy-Lady of the Acoma continues to survive the politics. Ends up with all the slaves being exchanged, the Minwanabi being outmaneuvered [and then all Minwanabi blood killed by the head of the Minwanabi in spite] and serious political changes on Kelewan. I suspect the next book will deal with the Assembly of the magicians. I enjoyed this, but not quite as much as Daughter of the Empire, mainly because things were a bit more complicated. And adding the slave Kevin to the mix just made things more emotional. Without being cool. Glad he is gone and I hope he stays gone.

THE WARS OF LIGHT AND SHADOW: CURSE OF THE MISTWRAITH
-J. Wurts-dtb-UNFINISHED
-fantasy- 2 halfbrothers are transported to another world where it turns out they are of ancient royal blood and destined to destroy that worlds enemy, the mistwraith. However, the 2 brothers are at odds with one another because they were of separate kingdoms back on their own world. Basically, one brother is all whiny and missing the comforts of home while the other is just a jerk who does what he wants just to spite anyone who tells him anything to do. Immature spoilt brats. Maybe they gain depth and character later on, but not by halfway through this book. And since there are 7 or 8 books in the series, I'm not waiting that long.

THE LON TOBYN CHRONICLES: CHILDREN OF AMARID
-D. Coe-epub-600
-fantasy-a world where magic lives and humans bond with birds to gain it's powers. Another kingdom is stirring up strife, in preparation for takeover, and it is up to the magic users to defend and figure it all out. I enjoyed this book and if I can find the others in this series I'll read them. Ended in a good place though.

PRINCE OF TENNIS #12-22
-T. Konomi
-manga

CASE CLOSED #27-35
-G. Aoyama
-manga

ELSEWORLD: THE SUPERMAN MONSTER
-Various-.cbr
-ecomic-Superman in the Frankenstein story. Luthor the evil scientist, Superman the monster, Lois the bride of the monster. Luthor gets his and the other two fly away to the Northpole to live happily ever after. Nothing memorable

ELSEWORLD: BATGIRL & ROBIN: THRILLKILLER
-Various-.cbr
-ecomic-an alternate telling of the killing of the first Robin. Batgirl comes before Batman, the Joker is a woman, Bruce Wayne is a penniless cop, etc, etc. Takes place in the 70's and the artwork is Boris Vallejo'ish, not cartoon.

KARE KANO #10-15
-M. Tsuda
-manga

BLACK BIRD #1-3
-K. Sakurakoji
-manga

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN & CAPTAIN AMERICA
-various-.cbr-UNFINISHED
-ecomic-Batman and Cap come together to fight Joker and Redskull. This was done in the early format, where Robin goes "gee whiz" and Bucky says things like "golly Cap, we're doomed now!" Couldn't handle it and the story didn't catch my attention.

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN & DEMON: A TRAGEDY
-various-.cbr
-ecomic-this was cool. Medieval Wayne is possessed by a demon that comes out at night and kills evildoers. As long as Wayne doesn't remember, the demon is forced to kill only evil doers. But once Wayne starts to remember, the demon gains power and starts running rampant. Ends with Alfred, who is Merlin who originally summoned the demon in defense of Gotham, making Wayne forget again. Which he has been doing for 1000 years. Wayne's fiance is killed by the demon, but it ends with him waking up and not remembering any of it or of her. A tragedy indeed.

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN & HOUDINI: THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: CASTLE OF THE BAT
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: DARK ALLEGIANCES
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: DARK KNIGHT DYNASTY
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: DETECTIVE #27
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: GOTHAM NOIR
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: HOLY TERROR
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: I, JOKER
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: DARKEST KNIGHT
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

MALAZ: RETURN OF THE CRIMSON GUARD
-I. Esslemont-epub-681
-fantasy-taking sometime around Toll the Hounds. Turns out Skinner has been turned by the Broken God and in the end of the book takes the place of King in the House of Chains. I didn't really care about any of this. Could take it or leave it.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
4 Novels
1 UNFINISHED Novel
78 Graphic Novels
1 UNFINISHED Graphic Novel
2325 pages

Friday, July 30, 2010

July '10

YOTSUBA&! #8
-K. Azuma
-manga

XXXHOLIC #14
-CLAMP
-manga

RANMA 1/2 #34-36
-R. Takahashi
-manga

HUNTER X HUNTER #22-26
-Y. Togashi
-manga

CASTINGS: DEEP WATER
-P. Freeman-epub-506
-fantasy- the sorcerer manages to raise the dead and razes towns. The others end up on various other adventures to stop him. Enjoyable, but enough different things going on that trying to focus on one storyline is almost impossible.

CASTINGS: FULL CIRCLE
-P. Freeman-epub-404
-fantasy-the conclusion to the trilogy. Acton's ghost, the man credited with the invasion, is brought forth, the truth revealed about the past, the ghosts settled and everybody goes on into a future that looks promising. A nice neat ending.

ATHABASCA
-A. Maclean-dtb-284
-thriller-a fat lush is the head of a super security firm and has to protect two oil factories from terrorists. Banal, unsurprising, uninteresting. Feels like a ghost writer did this.

THE PASSAGE
-J. Cronin-dtb-766
-medical thiller-a scientist injects 12 deathrow inmates with a serum intended to make them into super soldiers. And 1 little 6 year old girl. The inmates turn into vampires/giant bats, escape and the virus spreads. It kills 9 out of 10 people in America, and it seems greater amounts in the rest of the world. The last pockets of humanity huddle together, waiting for extinction. Follows the inmates, little girl at the beginning of the story. Then we switch to a compound 100 years later, of survivors. Ends with the girl taking out one of the 12 and the survivors hooking up with a large military group. Reminded me greatly of The Stand. The beginning was interesting. The middle was wicked boring, even though you needed to see how life went on in the compound. The last part was good. Lots of action and fighting, etc. And it looks good for humanity. Then the last chapter is a journal entry by a character with the group in which you realize that the group gets wiped out. Humanity survives, evidenced by the date of recovery of the journal [1003 AV], just not most of the characters we've been following. Cronin sucks.

SEASON OF THE SPELLSONG: SPELLSINGER
-A.D. Foster-dtb-275
-fantasy-a 24 year old prelaw student, who is a complete pot head, is whisked to another dimension by a powerful wizard [a turtle] to be that worlds savior from an "evil menace". The guy is an idiot, and can supposedly work magic through a kind of guitar. Very rarely. And the world is populated by anthropomorphic animals, and humans are a very small part of the big picture. So it comes down to this: this novel is a story for Foster to admit his secret love of furry'ism, pot and 80's music.

SEASON OF THE SPELLSONG: THE HOUR OF THE GATE
-A.D. Foster-dtb-217
-fantasy-finishes the storyline of the ancient evil. A country of bugs had somehow gotten hold of a military computer full of weapons technology. Ends with the baddies setting off a nuclear bomb in their own camp. Kind of hard to come back from that. Spellsinger boy is a whiner and Foster is constantly referencing songs by groups without giving any lyrics, expecting his audience to be familiar with them. Written for an age group, not for good literature.

SEASON OF THE SPELLSONG: THE DAY OF DISSONANCE
-A.D. Foster-dtb-235
-fantasy-Wizard turtle sends pothead boy and crew off to find him some magic medicine. Cross oceans, face death, etc, etc. Get the medicine, turns out to be aspirin, which pothead boy had in his pockets when he was transported. Gets a little more into Foster's desire for Furry and also introduces the fantasy of hot girls, who are minors. Foster was a real bastard with this series. Should be ashamed to have written it.

DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY
-D. Adams-epub-171
-humor-in the same universe as the Hitchhiker books and very similar in type of humor. The main character knows Dirk Gently and this story is about them as they prevent a multi-billion year old alien ghost from changing the past and wiping out humans. Nothing spectacular, but a fun read.

SHADOWS OF THE APT: BLOOD OF THE MANTIS
-A. Tchaikovsky-epub-354
-fantasy-the story continues. The wasps take over a spider town, Archeos gets ahold of the mysterious box, only to have it stolen by a mosquito kinden and almost killed and the wasps begin a concentrated battle for the lowlands. This is so well written that I just got sucked in and the end of the book took my by surprise because I was thinking I had pages and pages to go. Looking forward to the next book with great anticipation.

TWELVE KINGDOMS: SKIES OF DAWN
-F. Ono-dtb-642
-fantasy-the story of 3 girls. Yoko, the new king of Kei, must face rebellious underlings who isolate her and keep her out of the loop. Shoukei, a former princess of another kingdom, must learn about real life and the responsibilities she forsook as a princess. Suzu, a human from our world, like Yoko, learns that she alone decides if she is miserable or happy. All three stories intertwine and weave together seamlessly and the end works out very well. I continue to enjoy these light novels and the wonder and joy began by the anime is alive and well in these novels.

THE FOURTH REALM: THE GOLDEN CITY
-J. Hawks-dtb-358
-thriller/scifi-the conclusion. Maya is pregnant with Gabriel's child. Michael goes to the realm of the half-gods who have ruthlessly ruled their world and now want to take over the rest of the realms. Gabriel meets his father in the realm of the gods, who would appear to be 'good' angels and who have disappeared, leaving humanity on their own. In the end the Tabula is split apart from within, Gabriel rallies the world and Gabe and Michael faceoff inbetween and neither comes out of their traveler sleep by the end of the book. The only real finish possible to this series, since Hawks obviously doesn't believe in God. He foists the ending off into the nebulous "future". I have to say, I enjoyed this more than the second novel, even though less happened and more philosophy was spouted. The only thing I don't get is why Michael was suddenly so afraid of Gabriel at the end. It just didn't make any sense to me.

ELSEWORLD: SUPERMAN: TRUE BRIT
-Various-.cbr-95
-ecomic-Superman falls to England instead of America. Sadly, John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, was involved, so the humor was that style. This was a parody and a farce. Turned the "Clarks" into a couple who cared more about what the neighbors thought than what was good for their son. Colin [Kal-el] is a spineless idiot who can't do anything right, even being super. If I had known it was supposed to be a farce, I might have enjoyed it more. I didn't though, so I was expecting a Red Son for England. Bleh.

RIYRIA REVELATIONS: AVEMPARTHA
-M. Sullivan-epub-237
-fantasy-taking place half a year or so after Crown Conspiracy. The 2 thieves get roped into helping a village being destroyed by a magical construct left over from the man/elf wars. Esrahaddon is involved, the Nyphron church gets involved and a young girl from the village ends up being declared the Empress of the New Empire. I thought this was a good stepping stone up from the previous novel. It was fast paced, exciting and I had a good time reading it. I was very glad that I had the next book available though. The pacing lent itself to reading very fast, without a break.

RIYRIA REVELATIONS: NYPHRON RISING
-M. Sullivan-epub-277
-fantasy-splits the story between the empress [who is a puppet] and Royce and Adrian. The New Empire is taking over, with long term planning help from the Nyphron church. Several revelations are made about the past, and future, of Royce and Hadrian and the true Heir is revealed. Esrahaddon shows his conniving wizardly ways and you still don't know if he should be trusted, simply because his agenda is unclear. The empress's story was nicely done. She has gone into a moving coma practically, so the story is really more about a serving maid who draws her out and makes her want to live again. Gave a nice touch and contrasted nicely with the devious scheming of the church.

VLAD TALTOS: ATHYRA
-S. Brust-epub-259
-fantasy-Vlad is on the run from the Jhereg. Comes across an old enemy and dukes it out and kills the undead guy. Told from the viewpoint of a village healer apprentice, who's an Athyra. Nothing in it really stood out. There was no real connection with Vlad, no real reason to root for him besides his history. Nothing here made me want to care about his future.

EARTHFLEET SAGA: THE OORT PERIMETER
-S. Lake-epub-UNFINISHED
-scifi-everybody "smirked" and did things "slyly". Seriously. This guy needs to learn to write better. This was a free download and while I appreciate the effort the guy put into writing this, it needs serious help. I certainly won't be reading any more of his stuff.

EMPIRE: DAUGHTER OF THE EMPIRE
-J. Wurts & R. Feist-epub-377
-fantasy-FANTASTIC! I was expecting a trilogy about the Keshian Empire on Midkemia. Instead, we get a novel about Kelewan. How cool is that? Anyway, a family is betrayed, all members killed in battle on Midkemia, except one 16 year old girl. She becomes the head of her house, which is down to under 40 warriors, and has to play the Game of the Council to survive. It was written very well, with characters being alive and real and each success, or defeat, made you want to shout or groan. I think this is a great trilogy to stand by the Riftwar Saga. Characterizations, machinations, world building, all were done superbly and I look forward greatly [!] to the next 2 novels.

ROBOTECH: SYMPHONY OF LIGHT
-J. McKinney-epub-158
-scifi-oh my goodness. this was the book that would never end! Except where hints about the Sentinels and the past life of Hunter, etc, were concerned, this was yet another word for word from the anime. No character stood out. They were all cookie cutter, cast away putzes. I did not enjoy this at all and am wondering about the wisdom of starting the Sentinels series. We'll see.

GUARDIAN OF THE FLAME: THE SLEEPING DRAGON
-J. Rosenberg-epub-171
-fantasy-a group of gamers is transported to a fantasy world. There they assume the characteristics and knowledge [or lack thereof] of their characters. An interesting concept. Then one of the characters is gutstabbed in an inn and dies. Let the gamers know this was a real world, and let us readers know that safety and home were not assured for the characters. And there was another instance where the 2 women of the group get gangraped, for hours, while the others are captive. They are avenged, but it just left a bad taste in my mouth. Nothing graphic, and while it made sense within the storyline, it just felt wrong. The survivors make it back to our world, only to go back to the fantasy world to revive a dead companion. Interesting concept, written ok, very disfunctional characters. Will read the next one or two in the series.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
17 Novels
1 Unfinished Novel
11 Graphic Novels/Manga
5691 Pages

Sunday, June 27, 2010

June '10

RIYRIA REVELATIONS: THE CROWN CONSPIRACY
-M. Sullivan-228-epub
-fantasy-a king is killed, 2 scoundrels blamed, a prince kidnapped, a princess indicted, a rogue magician let loose after 1000 years, and a royal uncle with a thirst for power. All come together in this engaging tale and it even ends happily. It is very obvious that this is the start of a series [6 books in fact, stated by the author], so some of the elements are more setup than storytelling, but overall, a nice light medieval era magic'ish novel.

DISCWORLD: CARPE JUGULUM
-T. Pratchett-227-epub
-fantasy-Verence, king of Lancre, invites lots and lots of people to his and Magrat's daughter's naming. Including some vampires, who are progressive, ie, they don't ravage and pillage, but treat humans like cattle. Ends up as a battle between the vampire family and the witches, with a slice of Omnian priest thrown in. I really enjoyed this. Except for the bits where you can tell he's actually writing about Christianity, not Omnianism. Man, I hate authors who displace their feelings like that.

ELSEWORLD: SUPERMAN: DARK SIDE
-Various-137-cbr
-E graphic novel-superman never makes it to earth, but instead ends up on Apokolips, and raised by Darkseid. Darkseid uses Supes as his final weapon against the new gods of New Genesis, and the fight ends up on earth where Supes turns good and defeats Darkseid. I have to admit, every story I've read that deals with the new gods really sucks. They are lame, lame lame. This was an ok story, but about on par with Elseworld: Superman: Distant Fires. Supes in black armor looked wicked cool though!

DRESDEN FILES: SUMMER KNIGHT
-J. Butcher-241-epub
-fantasy-Dresden gets into a major scrape in which the White Council wants his head, as does the Vampires AND both the Fairy Courts of Summer and Winter. He muddles through and survives. Nothing really was exceptional about this at all.

DOPPLEGANGER
-M. Brennan-UNFINISHED-epub
-fantasy-a world where witches exist. When a witch is born, so is a lifeless doppleganger, which is immediately killed. One isn't though. She becomes a great hunter and the witch, as her initiation into witch'hood, must hunt her down and kill her. This was pathetic. It was all about feelings and relationships, etc, etc.

THE LOST FLEET: VICTORIOUS
-J. Campbell-331-dtb [dead tree book]
-scifi-a good wrap up to the Lost Fleet series. Geary takes the fleet home, then turns around and hits the syndics so hard that they capitulate, while starting to deal with the alien threat. The getting home arc is over. There is enough mystery about the aliens that I can easily foresee 4-6 more books about the adventures in dealing with them. If so, I'd hope Campbell uses another character than Geary. The poor guy finally gets together with the other captain, and he needs a break.

THE FOURTH REALM: THE TRAVELER
-J. Hawks-330-epub
-thriller/scifi-a world not to far from our own in which two groups are at war. One group is made up of people who can travel out of their bodies into other 'realms', which give them wisdom and insight into our world and who, upon their return, always change our world for the better. The other side is an organized group dedicated to bringing the world under complete domination so that things run exactly how they want it to. A mix of the Matrix with an agnostic Frank Peretti. It was so weird how things from Revelations are mixed in with libertarian ideas alongside scifi things.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE & ZOMBIES
-S. Grahame-Smith-UNFINISHED-epub
-drek- take a classic, gut it completely of all things that make it great literature, keep the outershell, fill with crap. And voila, this is what you get. All the great writing was gone. The bare character outlines were there, and zombies and violence were tacked on. This sub-genre is a despicable thing, and if I ever meet the author, or others like him [for I know that other classics have had such eviscerations], I will do bodily harm to them. They have taken great literature and ruined it, completely. Made it palatable to a group of readers who couldn't recognize great literature if it bit their heads off. Which is sad, because now those readers will never go on to read the real thing, and stay in their cesspit of ignorance instead of being raised up.

STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: SAVIOR
-J. Miller-27-epub
-scifi-the Sith consolidate their hold on their adoptive world.

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS: WILDSPACE
-K. Miller-279-epub
-scifi-a direct sequel to Traviss' Clone Wars. Really has nothing to do with the Clone troopers though. Basically Anakin whines about Padme and his new apprentice while Obi-Wan and Bail Organa go off on a goosechase to a Sith Planet. Which turns out to be an ambush. And Obi-wan and Bail bond while surviving. Does do a good job of showing the desolate and empty condition of a sith world, and by extension, what a sith galaxy would be like. Nothing special overall though, certainly not worth buying.

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS: NO PRISONERS
-K. Traviss-175-epub
-scifi- about a spy who Pellaon is involved with. And Anakin and his apprentice, a group of jedi[the offshoot branch Callista is in]and some troopers from the 501st rescuing her. I think it can be summed up with this quote "Emotions are our programming...and help us understand what's right and wrong". More complete and utter bullshit from Traviss. Lots of handwringing and saying how bad the Republic is and how "right" the CSI is. Once again Traviss focuses on the Jedi and the Republic to the exclusion of the Sith and the machinations they have for Galactic Domination. She is such a bitch.

BONESHAKER
-C. Priest-416-dtb
-steampunk-an inventor's machine runs amok, releasing a gas from the ground which turns people into zombies and in the process dies. So Seattle is walled in. Now, the man's son goes back into the city to clear his father's name. His mother, who knows what her husband was really after, chases after him to rescue him. Very much more of the mother's story is told than the young man's. Kill zombies, meet people, go through horrible experiences, bond and come out the other side all energized to live life to the fullest. This wasn't a horrible story, just dumb. As for the over-arching elements in it, ie, Steampunk overall, please visit the following blogpost to see what I really think of Steampunk

RANMA 1/2 #32-33
-R. Takahashi
-manga

KARE KANO #1-8
-M. Tsuda
-manga

TEARS OF ARTAMON: CHILDREN OF THE SERPENT GATE
-S. Ash-420-epub
-fantasy-the finish the Tears of Artamon trilogy. Two of the drakhouls, Gavin and Tielen's emperor's, work together to keep the Lord of the fallen angels from coming into the world. As a result, Kiukiu sends all the 'eaten' children peacefully into the after-life and because of their sacrifice, the drakhouls passover also and are at peace. An interesting trilogy, but not an author I have a desire to go out and read more of her stuff or talk about it to others.

THE FOURTH REALM: THE DARK RIVER
-J. Hawks-368-dtb
-thriller/scifi-Maya makes bad decisions, Gabriel crosses over to find his father, Michael is slowly gaining influence/taking control of the Tabula [while completely espousing their ideas] all mixed in with praise for loser type people who are "brave" enough to live off the grid. The problem is, those people aren't really living off the grid, just using others to do their dirty work for them. Once again Hawks presents the awfulness of the Tabula, but we have yet to see anything of significance come from the Travelers. And the Tabula just becomes more and more unbelievable, with its completely dedicated minions. Something that big, that insidious, always rot and fall. I think we are seeing the cracks though, with what Michael is doing in taking control.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
11 Novels
2 Unfinished novels
11 Manga/Graphic novels
3042 Pages

Monday, May 31, 2010

May '10

SHADOWMARCH: SHADOWRISE
-T. Williams-554-pbook
-fantasy-the 3rd book of the Shadowmarch tetrology. I ended up reading this in short sections at lunch at work, and I think that really worked against this book. The way it was written made it so it needed to be read in 3-5 long reads. Barrit ends up going through yet more stuff and meeting the King of the Qar, Briony makes it safely to another kingdom only to face assassination, etc and ends up fleeing back to Southmarch and the fruitcake godking reveals his plans to sacrifice the king of Southmarch to gain control of a god for his own personal use. This book just didn't really resonate with me, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it in fewer, but longer, sessions.

STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: BACKLASH
-A. Allston-304-epub
-fantasy- I really enjoyed this book. It was a short adventure, with everyone going to Dathomir, and a confrontation with the Dark Sisters, but it was light and humorous. Several one liners just caused me to burst out laughing. Allston can write good Star Wars stuff. Hoping the next book advances the plot a little more though.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: DUST OF DREAMS
-S. Erikson-946-epub
-fantasy-overall, this was nearly as bad as Toll the Hounds, in that everyone whined and complained about the harshness and meaninglessness of life. If they really felt like how they talked, they would have killed themselves off. The very FEW action parts to this book were great, but were so far and few between that they were lost in this mammoth volume. With the tone of the series turning soapbox'ish and not about the action, I can no longer recommend this series. The action, the politics, the maneuvering, it is all gone, given over to mindless rants about philosophical whines by people who shouldn't be ABLE to whine philosophically. Dreading the final book but also looking forward to it just to end this nightmare. This series has devolved into a kind of Terry Goodkind preachiness.

TEARS OF ARTAMON: PRISONER OF THE IRON TOWER
-S. Ash-384-epub
-fantasy-Gavril gets back his drakhaoul, Eugene finds the gate and gets a drakhaoul of his own and another kingdom, the Francians, challanges Eugenes empire.

VANG: THE MILITARY FORM
-C. Rowley-228-epub
-scifi-an ancient alien lifeform is recovered from space and ends up taking over a world, which is then nuked to prevent it taking over other planets. This was how "Alien" should have been. Alien lifeform takes over humans and changes them to ultimate warriors and spreads like wildfire. Very violent, lots of fighting, lots of people writhing in agony while being taken over. Just as good as I remember from back in junior/highschool.

VANG: THE BATTLEMASTER
-C. Rowley-215-epub
-scifi-2000 years after The Military Form. Another Vang is found, this time a battlemaster. Sadly, this book was not nearly as engaging or exciting to read. The battlemaster was obsessed with getting back to its homeworld instead of taking over human space. Once there, and it realized the Axon-Neurone time was over, it just gave up. Not much fun reading about an alien that just makes diversions so it can go home to die. Pooh.

DEMON CYCLE: THE WARDED MAN
-P. Brett-416-pbook
-fantasy-a world several thousand years after ours. The night belongs to demons, which rise out of the core of the earth and destroy life where ever they can find it. Wards, drawn symbols, are humanity's only defense against them. Defensive wards are all that are available to humanity. A prophesied savior, the Deliverer, is supposed to restore humanity's ability to fight back. Follows 3 main characters, Arlen, Leesha and Rojer. Arlen becomes a messenger and finds a lost city of new offensive wards. Leesha becomes a villages Herb Gatherer and makes up new wards. Rojer is a jongleur who can play the violin and charm demons. In the end, Arlen is betrayed by a kingdom based on arab culture [big surprise there] but wards himself and starts to teach the hamlets how to fight back. Brutal. While not graphic, very bad things happen and you are not left in doubt about what those bad things are. Extremely well written and it just pulled me right to the end. A book I was excited to be reading. Good stuff.

DEMON CYCLE: THE DESERT SPEAR
-P. Brett-579-pbook
-fantasy-follows Jardir, the Desert Spear [the man who betrayed Arlin in the first book], as he grows up and takes over the Krasians. Begins his drive to take over the northern kingdoms to make them all one so they can effectively fight against the demons wholesale. Arlin, Leesha and Rojer are wound through the story, and Leesha plays the next biggest role, after Jardir. Once again I really enjoyed this, not quite as much as The Warded Man, and am looking forward to the next book in this cycle.

CODEX ALERA: PRINCEP'S FURY
-J. Butcher-350-epub
-fantasy-Tavi goes to the land of the Canim, only to find them overrun by the Vord. Makes a kind of peace with the remnants and they all head back to Alera. Meanwhile, back in Alera, the Vord queen is taking over, fast. Gaius buys enough time to give Tavi time to get back to Alera. Gaius dies and things get real bad, real fast. The Vord are just voracious.

CODEX ALERA: FIRST LORD'S FURY
-J. Butcher-457-epub
-fantasy-the final stand in Alera. The Vord queen has been "corrupted" by human emotions, and Tavi makes the most of that. A last stand back in Calderon, Kitai and Tavi end up killing the Vord queen. Tavi becomes First Lord. Alera makes alliances with other races, in preparation for the time they will have to invade the Canim homeland to destroy the Vord there. A good ending place, but leaving so many huge threads that sequels seem almost a given.

FOREIGNER
-C.J. Cherryh-UNFINISHED-pbook

BILL, THE GALACTIC HERO
-H. Harrison-185-pbook
-scifi/satire-a complete military scifi satire. Bill the rube gets conned into joining the army. After surviving many trials, Bill becomes inured does what he needs to to get away from the front. Ends up going back to his homeplanet and tricking his brother into joining. Bill just can't get a break.


MONTHLY SUMMARY
11 novels
1 unfinished novel
4618 pages

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

April '10

DISCWORLD: JINGO
-T. Pratchett-282-epub
-fantasy- an island pops up between Ahnk-Morpork and Klatch and things get unsettled. Vimes, Carrot, Vetinari and several Klatchians manipulate things to make everything work. And Vimes get "Duke'd", much to his horror. Oh, and Nobby gets in touch with his feminine side and that is really the only funny part of the book.

DOOM: KNEE-DEEP IN THE DEAD
-D. Ab Hugh-180-epub
-game novelization- Oh My Word! This just about has to be the worst book, grammar, plot, characterization, that I have ever read! It was basically reading the game with some token things thrown in, like conversation, love interest, duty, despair and hope. It was just plain horrible. Continuity was almost nil; to call the characters cardboard cutouts would insulting to cardboard. The game is awesome, this novel, not so much. I can see why someone would read this first one, because they are into Doom, but after getting through this trainwreck, I don't see how the next 3 books were ever published. I certainly won't be reading them!

STAR WARS: DEATH TROOPERS
-J. Schreiber-138-epub
-fantasy\horror- the first foray into the Star Wars universe that is outside the typical fantasy/action genre. A prison ship goes derelict next to a dead star destroyer. Turns out there is some sort of plague, genetically engineered zombie ceator thingy and just about everyone buys the farm. Han Solo and Chewbacca are in the prison ship and they and 2 others escape. I guess this was supposed to be creepy and scary, but it came across as hack to me. Telling me that a corridor seems to go on forever, instead of making me feel the character's terror, makes me feel like they are a complete idiot. Nothing in the story interested me, and having Han and Chewie thrown in for a connection came across as very weak and lame.

ROBOTECH: INVID INVASION
-J. McKinney-135-epub
-scifi-the first in the New Generation trilogy. Scott is the only survivor of the doomed Mars Expedition to survive the re-invasion of earth. This book mainly deals with the gathering of the group as they start their way to Reflex Point. The book offers a whole lot more info in regards to the Sentinels and Hunter's Fleet and hints at things already taken place affecting this time and place.

ADMIRAL'S GHOST
-NB. VanYoos-UNFINISHED-epub
-scifi-a drug runner dies and is united with some weird alien who possesses bodies to experience life. T/he/y end up as some Admiral for some aliens. Not fast paced, not really engaging, plus it crashed my 505. So that was the deal breaker.

ELVEN WAYS: THE DARK FERRYMAN
-J. Rhodes-UNFINISHED-epub
-fantasy-simply couldn't get back into the world created in The Four Forges.

DRESDEN FILES: STORM FRONT
-J. Butcher-184-epub
-Urban fantasy-in which we are introduced to Harry Dresden, a wizard who is a PI, who also helps out the cops. In this story Harry takes down a big baddy wizard who is breaking the rules while himself under scrutiny from the White Council. Palatable urban fantasy, but I prefer the Codex Alera series alot more.

DRESDEN FILES: FOOL MOON
-J. Butcher-214-epub
-Urban fantasy-werewolves and the like are killing people. Some rogue fbi agents [who nobody knows are rogue yet] set up Harry, a Werewolf and a top mob boss to kill take the fall for the killings. Harry gets the crap beaten out of him and survives.

BORDERLANDS: COVENANTS
-L. Freeman-375-epub
-fantasy-this book was just not long enough. A horse trooper turns out to have magical abilities AND be the kings heir. He knew this and was running away, which is why he was in the horse troopers. Has to prevent a war between the Borderlands and his country of Iversterre while learning to control his magic, avoid being taken over by his former master [who has turned to the dark arts to gain more power], avoid the attentions of a jealous former comrade who is also showing magical abilities and do this all while different factions vie for either his attention, or death. Very well written, gripping action, tense, but never gets dark. It is a great attribute to be able to show bad things without allowing that tone to take over.

BORDERLANDS: KING'S OWN
-L. Freeman-269-epub
-fantasy-Rabbit, the horse trooper/talent user/king's heir, is also named Cyn [kin] of the ruling elf of the Borderlands. Along with Jussom, king of Iversterre, he fights a demon trying to take over a town near the border that wants to precipitate a war. Fresh and intriguing and well done. Highly recommended.


BORDERLANDS: SHADOWS PAST
-L. Freeman-307-epub
-fantasy-Rabbit, with the Royal retinue, is invited to a fief for a possible marriage proposal. Thing aren't what they seem though. Turns out there are several factions, envoys from other countries among them, that want marriage, death, chaos, etc, etc. Good characterization. The only concern I have is "where is the author going?" with the story. I just hope she knows the end of the story.

CODEX ALERA: CAPTAIN'S FURY
-J. Butcher-387-epub
-fantasy-Tavi, now acknowledging his title of Octavian, must try to make peace with the Canim in the face of a Senatorial guard, a Senator who wants glory and the Canim themselves. Meanwhile, Gaius sneaks into Kalare with the help of Bernhard and his wife and lets loose a Great Fury that Kalare is holding. It destroys the capital of Kalare and ends the resistance. Ends with Tavi going with the Canim back to their homeland to help fight the vord and to give him breathing room to learn to deal with his new status as Princep.

DISCWORLD: THE LAST CONTINENT
-T. Pratchett-227-epub
-fantasy-a story about Rincewind and the wizards and a land suspiciously like Australia. Where it never rains. They have to make it rain. This book typifies why I liked the stories about Rincewind the best. Silly, comedic danger, action and nothing more serious than a thunderbolt. Good stuff.

ROBOTECH: METAMORPHOSIS
-J. McKinney-148-epub
-scifi-ugh. This arc, New Generation, of the Robotech saga was my least favorite in the anime and it is tough reading. Boring and slogging. The team is almost at reflex point and the invid simulacrom joins up with them, Ariel. Don't know when I'll read the next one, going to be awhile though.

TEARS OF ARTAMON: LORD OF SNOW AND SHADOWS
-S. Ash-387-epub
-fantasy-a would-be emperor. A young artist, heir to a kingdom and a cursed power. A powerful scullery maid, who must compete with a Foreign Princess. Battling clans who hate each other with absolute hatred. This is the backdrop of the story Sarah Ash begins to weave. Interesting, but to be honest, nothing really stands out to me from this book. I'll finish the series, enjoy them, but probably never re-read them again.

DRESDEN FILES: GRAVE PERIL
-J. Butcher-255-epub
-urban fantasy- a vengeful rogue wizard kills himself to turn himself into a ghost. He has help from the Vampire Court and they all go after Harry. Harry saves the night but starts a war between the White Council and the Vampire Court. A main side character was some kind of Christian Knight Templar, and it really grated how he was used. He was powerful because he believed, not because of WHO he believed in. I'll read one or two more, but this just hits too close to home, with blasphemy and stuff, for me to really enjoy these.

VLAD TALTOS: PHOENIX
-S. Brust-189-epub
-fantasy-one nice thing about a shorter book, you don't get bogged down in anything. Vlad helps save the Empire from invasion and from being torn apart from internal strife, but he also separates from his wife and takes off in exile to start a new life as a "not an assassin".

SHADOWS OF THE APT: DRAGONFLY FALLING
-A. Tchaikovsky-540-epub
-fantasy- whoo! This was good! The wasp empire rolls over an ant city, allows another ant city to invade Collegium [which beats them off with help of allies right the end], Totho [the halfbreed in love with Cheerwell Maker] turns traitor and joins the empire, lots of fighting, lots of cool exploring the world of humans with insect characteristics without being stodgy, dry or repetitive. Tchaikovsky can write. Very well. The story just sucked me in and I in no way felt like I was reading 500 pages. This is what fantasy should be. Engaging, not over the top, telling a large story but not losing sight of individuals while not getting bogged down in meaningless detail, exploring a new world [to the reader] while not being expositional. Highly recommended!!!



MONTHLY SUMMARY
16 novels
2 unfinished novels
4217 pages

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

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