Sunday, February 27, 2011

February '11

ATLAS SHRUGGED
-A. Rand-epub-1360
-fiction/philosophy-a bare outline of a story covering the philosophic underpinnings of the objectivest movement. One man, John Galt, removes the best and brightest from the world so that they cannot keep being preyed upon by the "looters". Ends with the collapse of the country [possibly world, but we never actually know] and the thinkers getting ready to take their country back. This was not necessarily an enjoyable book to read, mainly because the characters were simply avatars of ideals that the author holds and every couple of chapters one would start spouting the objectivest viewpoint, in expansively great detail, completely shattering the flow of the story. But like I said, this wasn't really a story, just a cover.
Now to discuss the philosophy part. It posits that there is no God, no afterlife, nothing spiritual, just the material. Hence, the goal of man is to make himself happy. Rand states that each man doing his best to make himself happy will, in the end, make many more people happy as well. Trickle over happiness. Responsibility is a point that is hugely stressed and greatly needed in our day and age. Overall though, this is not something that a Christian could subscribe to. Parts of it, yes. I realize this book delves a lot deeper than what I just wrote, but I don't want to write a treaty myself.

FISHERMAN'S CHILDREN: PRODIGAL MAGE
-K. Miller-epub-UNFINISHED
-fantasy-the sequel to the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology. 10 years later. I couldn't stand this. While Asher was a joy to read about before, now he and Dathne are just nagging people who are completely, willfully, blind to their children's emerging talent. I realize that is a large thrust of the story, but when I just want to throttle every adult character, well, that ruins the reading experience.

POLITY: SPLATTERJAY: VOYAGE OF THE SABLE KEECH
-N. Asher-epub-412
-scifi-10 years after the events of Skinner. A surviving prador gets infected with the hooper virus and ends up going back to Prador space to challenge the king. Also deals with a bunch of reifs who are trying to recreate Sable Keech's resurrection. All ties together and stuff.

BARTIMAEUS: RING OF SOLOMON
-J. Stroud-epub-344
-ya fantasy-Bartimaeus around the time of Solomon. Nothing noteworthy or worth writing about.

OTHERLAND: CITY OF GOLDEN SHADOW
-T. Williams-dtb-770
-scifi-a near future where online is almost as real as rl. Some rich people, however, are creating an online world to rival the real world. Various characters get sucked into the story line, even if we, the reader, don't know where they fit into the overall picture. A very good job of building the story up, reaching a satisfactory conclusion, while keeping the plot wide open. I read this in the bookclub hardcover edition, which, while hardcover, isn't as big as a first edition. Man, what a pain! I had to constantly use 2 hands, rest the book on something, etc, etc. It was unwieldy. I will be reading the rest of the series on my ereader for sure!

CIRQUE DU FREAK: ALLIES OF THE NIGHT
-D. Shan-epub-130
-ya fantasy-Darren runs into Debby, and she gets taken by Vampaneze and the group has a run in with the Vampaneze Lord.

DRESDEN FILES: BLOOD RITES
-J. Butcher-epub-344
-urban fantasy-Harry goes to work as a bodyguard/investigator for a small time porn film producer. The White Court is involved, Harry finds out he has a half-brother and it looks like he and the female cop could end up hooking up.

MECHWARRIOR: MERCENARY'S STAR
-W. Keith-epub-371
-scifi-Gray Death Legion is hired by a planet to help throw off a Great House's yoke. Lots of "then he fired his PPC, then the massive 125mm chaingun until the..." blah blah blah. These are interesting little war stories, but nothing that I ever would get really excited about.

SHADOW WAR: SHADOW MOON
-C. Claremont-epub-UNFINISHED
-a sequel to the movie "Willow". I got about 3 pages in and then realized I just didn't care about this at all, nor was I interested.

THE TWO JUNGLE BOOKS
-R. Kipling-epub-309
-fiction-the name is really misleading. There are several short stories about Mowgli and his adventures in the Jungle, but there are just as many short stories about seals, eskimoes, etc, and TONS of stupid 'songs' that I really couldn't enjoy this like I did Kim.

CASTLE BRASS: COUNT BRASS
-M. Moorcock-epub-83
-fantasy-5 years after the events of The Runestaff. Hawkmoon is happily living with his wife and 2 children at Castlebrass. Then 3 friends appear from the dead, and it turns out that one of the Dark Empire Techno-mages is still alive and dimension hopping and trying to topple the new regime. Hawkmoon deals with him, but all his friends die, again, and when Hawkmoon wakes up, it turns out everything of the last 5 years was a delusion and he had been mad. Never had a wife or kids [she died at the last great battle against the Dark Empire] and imagined everything.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: RUINS OF GORLAN
-J. Flanagan-epub-195
-ya fantasy-a foundling is taken into the Ranger trade and saves his master and becomes a good ranger. This was actually quite well done. From the beginning to end, I found the main character open, engaging and a good stereotypical hero type. I like those :-) A good plot, with hints and then some real meat, about an overall danger to the kingdom and you know the main character will be playing a pivotal role to save the kingdom. And it deals with knights, monsters, etc, etc, so it is all cool.

PERCY JACKSON: LIGHTNING THIEF
-R. Riordan-epub-237
-ya fantasy-Percy Jackson is a delinquent. Kicked out of schools every year, failing almost every grade, etc, etc, but not a troublemaker. Turns out he is a son of a Poseiden and a human. Someone stole Zeus's thunderbolt and everyone thinks it was Percy. So he has to find it, return it, clear his name and stay alive while every godling tries to kill him. Really enjoyable and Riordan does a fantastic job of explaining Greek mythology without boring the reader and bringing it up to the 21st century.

PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS
-R. Riordan-epub-181
-ya fantasy-turns out Kronos is trying to take back the universe from the gods. So Percy and Co. have to set out to find the golden fleece to heal their camp. Only it turns out it was a long term trap by Kronos. Turns out one of the children of Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades will forever change the world of the gods on their 16th birthday. However, those three had agreed to have no more kids with mortals. Only they lied. Everyone thought Percy was the only one, but the fleece brought back to life a daughter of Zeus.

MECHWARRIOR: PRICE OF GLORY
-W. Keith-epub-327
-scifi-Gray Death Legion gets suckered. They fulfill a contract to get a world of their own as a base. Only it turns out the world has a secret Lost Library and Com Star [a supposedly neutral techno-religious group, which acts like a secret 6th Great House] wants that library. So lots of backstabbing, betrayals and fighting. The Legion survives, barely.

ARTHURIAN SAGA: THE CRYSTAL CAVE
-M. Stewart-epub-338
-fantasy-another Arthur saga. This is about Merlin, obviously. Lots of non-christian god stuff and setting the historical stage for Arthur. I didn't really care for this and the story just never drew me in.

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES
-L. Montgomery-dtb-309
-fiction-fantastic story. A little orphan girl comes to live with 2 old people [brother and sister] on Prince Edward Island. She forever changes their lives with her personality, etc. Extremely engaging, well written, great characterization, never boring and a story that has such a timeless plot of love and change, that I can see this becoming a "classic" in the future. It should anyway :-)

OTHERLAND: RIVER OF BLUE FIRE
-T. Williams-epub-768
-scifi-the group gets split up, then comes back together, all the while we're finding out more about the Grail Society and hints of what is going on with the Otherland Network.

PERCY JACKSON: THE TITAN'S CURSE
-R. Riordan-epub-196
-ya fantasy-Percy and Co have to deal with yet another prophecy and have adventures and it turns out that a son of Hades is alive, he was just stuck in a hotel that warped time. But Thalia [daughter of Zeus] joins Artemis, so she will never turn 16, so the prophecy won't apply to her.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: THE BURNING BRIDGE
-J. Flanagan-epub-212
-ya fantasy-Will ends up on a mission with Horace to stop a surprise attack by Morgarath on the kingdom. He and some girl, who turns out to be King Duncan's daughter, are kidnapped by Scandians and the last scene is of Halt seeing the boat take off with them aboard.

CASTLE BRASS: CHAMPIONS OF GARATHORM
-M. Moorcock-epub-80
-fantasy-Hawkmoon is convinced to go on a mission and he ends up giving his soul to another champion for a short while on another quest. And his wife returns and she remembers their children too. So something is up. Oh yeah, seems to be some sort of cosmic smackdown going on, Lords of Chaos and Law are fighting for their existences.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
19 novels
2 unfinished novels
6966 pages

Sunday, January 30, 2011

January '11

RESIDENT EVIL: UMBRELLA CONSPIRACY
-S.D. Perry-epub-142
-game novelization- having never played RE, having only seen the movies, this was all new to me. You could tell it was from a game, but I still enjoyed it anyway. Shallow characters, basic puzzle plot with some some-what scary monsters thrown in made for a half-decent read. Definitely going to be reading more in the series.

RESIDENT EVIL: ZERO HOUR
-S.D. Perry-epub-141
-game novelization-this is actually book 0. Shows how the T-virus got loose and the one character from the Bravo group in book 1 has her adventures here. Not actually very exciting.

LADY PENITENT: ASCENDANCY OF THE LAST
-L. Smedman-epub-214
-fantasy-Eilistrae loses to Lolth, but saves what drow she can, who return to being dark elves. But another god steps in to continue the game, the old god of the dark elves. This was a confusing book with changes just happening for no real reason that I could figure out. Weakest of the whole series imo.

THE STRAIN: THE FALL
-G. Del Toro & C. Hogan-epub-267
-thriller, fantasy-the rogue vampire takes out all the other ancients by blowing up nuclear plants where their bodies are. So in one blow he takes out the competition, destroys humanities ability to fight back and extends night over the planet. Definitely a middle book where things look their bleakest. The old jew vampire hunter dies, the boy is kidnapped, humanity is on the ropes. Not as engaging as the first book however.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: VAMPIRE MOUNTAIN
-D. Shan-epub-109
-ya fantasy-Darren and Mr Crepsley go to Vampire Mountain for the vampire gathering and so Darren can be presented and accepted by the Vampire Princes.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: TRIALS OF DEATH
-D. Shan-epub-83
-ya fantasy-Darren has to complete 5 trials to gain acceptance. He fails and is sentenced to death.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE PRINCE
-D. Shan-epub-122
-ya fantasy-Darren escapes, but the vampire who helps him turns out to be a traitor, who is trying to help the vampaneze. Darren returns to Vampire Mountain to warn everyone and the vampaneze are wiped out. Darren is spared by becoming an honorary Vampire Prince. However, there is a huge threat, a lord of the vampaneze, who is prophesied to almost wipe out the vampires.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: HUNTERS OF THE DUSK
-D. Shan-epub-87
-ya fantasy-Mr Tiny prophecies that only Darren, Mr Crepsley and one other Vampire have the chance to kill the Lord of the Vampaneze. They have to hunt him down on their own. This chronicles their first chance, and failure.

MECHWARRIOR: THE SWORD AND THE DAGGER
-A. Mayhar-epub-248
-scifi-introduces us to a galaxy where humanity has spread, then splintered into factions, with each trying to rule the whole. Follows one plot to remove a king of one "clan" for the furthering of another clan. Nothing special, but enjoyable with promise for a huge amount of stories.

SHADOWS OF THE APT: SALUTE THE DARK
-A. Tchaikovsky-epub-392
-fantasy-the wasps are poised to take over the lowlands. But due to mosquito kinden interference, the emperor is killed and replaced by his sister, which allows the rest of the world breathing room. Almost everybody from the original book is dead, with only Stenwald, his niece Cheerwell, Totho and the wasp Athric still around. New characters come and go. But the core group is just about gone. It makes for a very dynamic story, and I actually like it. [this time]

ARTEMIS FOWL: ETERNITY CODE
-E. Colfer-epub-163
-ya fantasy-Artemis makes up a new invention with fairy tech and promptly loses it to an American shady dealer. His adventures, with the fairies, of getting it back. and Butler is put out to pasture and his younger sister might be stepping into the role of body guard.

CHROMOSOME 6
-R. Cook-dtb-457
-medical thriller-a naive scientist messes about with genes and monkeys to produce "doubles" for rich people so they have perfect match organs when needed. But that is almost the sidestory. The other part of the story is about some morgue doctor/detectives finding out all about it because of a high profile death. Things go along at an ok clip, then right at the end everything wraps up in the snap of the fingers. Boom, problems all solved, yada yada yada. Completely unimpressed and ruined any positives I had about the book.

ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE SHATTERED LENS
-B. Sanderson-dtb-292
-ya fantasy-the Librarians are invading the remainder of the free lands, Alcatraz's dad runs off to find a way to give everybody Smedry powers and Alcatraz ends up in the middle of a battle. Not nearly as funny and smart alecky as the previous books. Either I'm used to it, or Sanderson is forcing it. Wraps things up in such a way that this could be the last book [even though events are not wrapped up] but leaves openings for another [probably if publishers will give it a go].

SHADOWS OF THE APT: SCARAB PATH
-A. Tchaikovsky-epub-560
-fantasy-Cheerwell is now inapt, due to some mystical hokum due to her moth lover dying. She mopes about. So Stenwald sends her on an expedition to a city that is apparently full of inapt beetles. The empire of black and gold is also interested in this city, so Athric, who has been having some real issues with being married to the new empress, jumps at the chance to get. Lots of things happen and Athric and Cheerwell get together. The city is almost taken, but the Slug kinden, who are major magicians, rouse themselves to destroy the army that has almost taken the city. Turns out that the ghost of the mantis who killed the emperor has been haunting Cheerwell and the book ends with it going after its daughter, where ever she is, and Cheerwell and Athric following the ghost. So yeah, a new story arc is commencing. This story continues to feel full, alive, vibrant and interesting. Information about the world is detailed enough to give you a picture of all that you don't know. Kind of like a tease. I like it.

MECHWARRIOR: DECISION AT THUNDER RIFT
-W. Keith-epub-298
-scifi-a young mechwarrior survives a surprise attack on a back edge world and leads the fight to take it back, so as to give his clan a chance to survive. Looks to be the start of a sub-series about this particular branch of merc mechwarriors.

GEORGE'S MARVELOUS MEDICINE
-R. Dahl-dtb-89
-children's fiction- George, an 8 year old, is tired of being tormented by his nasty old grandmother. So he mixes up a fantastic potion to replace her medicine. Only it turns her into a giant. So George's father gives it to all the farm animals. When that batch runs out, George tries to make another batch. The final batch makes things shrink, and the nasty grandmother drinks it all, thinking it is tea. A very "epitome" of Roald Dahl.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
15 novels
1 childrens book
3664 pages

Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 In Review...

Below is the list of all the books I've read/attempted to read and all the manga/graphic novels I've read/attempted to read in 2010.

For all you data lovers [like me], here is a quick and dirty breakdown:

149 books
[even though to be honest, I think there are about 4 or 5 short stories in that number]

124 manga/graphic novels

14 unfinished books

1 unfinished manga/graphic novel

50,136 pages read.
[no page data for manga/gn, cause that would just be not right. plus, I didn't keep track of pages for the unfinished books. So I'm sure the actual number is a bit higher, but hey, who is counting? ;-) ]










1: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Memories of Ice-Steven Erikson-900
2: Stoneways: Queen Ferris-S.C. Butler-495
3: Star Wars: Imperial Commando: 501st-Karen Traviss-434
4: Malazan Book of the Fallen: House of Chains-Steven Erikson-722
5: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Midnight Tides-Steven Erikson-674
6: Malazan Book of the Fallen: The Bonehunters-Steven Erikson-909
7: Acacia: The War with the Mein-David Durham-UNFINISHED
8: Wolf: Wolf Hunting-Jane Lindskold-UNFINISHED
9: Robotech: Genesis-Jack McKinney-155
10: Robotech: Battle Cry-Jack McKinney-139
11: Robotech: Homecoming-Jack McKinney-147
12: Robotech: Battlehymn-Jack McKinney-115
13: Robotech: Force of Arms-Jack McKinney-155
14: Robotech: Doomsday-Jack McKinney-161
15: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice-John Jackson Miller-29
16: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn-John Jackson Miller-27
17: Codex Alera: Furies of Calderon-Jim Butcher-383
18: Codex Alera: Academ's Fury-Jim Butcher-404
19: Mirror of Opposition-Timothy Robinson-172
20: War of the Spider Queen: Extinction-Lisa Smedman-228
21: War of the Spider Queen: Annihilation-Philip Athans-225
22: War of the Spider Queen: Resurrection-Paul Kemp-232
23: Quadrail: The Domino Pattern-Timothy Zahn-229
24: Green-Ted Dekker-UNFINISHED
25: Robotech: Southern Cross-Jack McKinney-123
26: Robotech: Metal Fire-Jack McKinney-151
27: Robotech: The Final Nightmare-Jack McKinney-170
28: Malaz: Night of Knives-Ian C. Esslemont-237
29: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon-John Miller-26
30: Vlad Taltos: Jhereg-Steven Brust-208
31: Vlad Taltos: Yendi-Steven Brust-167
32: Vlad Taltos: Teckla-Steven Brust-144
33: Codex Alera: Cursor's Fury-Jim Butcher-407
34: Battlechasers-Timothy Robinson-149
35: Darktower: The Gunslinger-Stephen King-UNFINISHED
36: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Reaper's Gale-Steven Erikson-969
37: Dreamwish Beasts and Snarks-Mike Resnick-UNFINISHED
38: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Toll the Hounds-Steven Erikson-961
39: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: And Another Thing-Eoin Colfer-247
40: Future Imperfect-Keith Laumer-441
41: Shogun-James Clavell-803
42: Vlad Taltos: Taltos-Steven Brust-161
43: Shadows of the Apt: Empire in Black and Gold-Adrian Tchaikovsky-571
44: Discworld: Jingo-Terry Pratchett-282
45: Doom: Knee-Deep in the Dead-Dafydd Ab Hugh-180
46: Star Wars: Death Troopers-Joe Schreiber-138
47: Robotech: Invid Invasion-Jack McKinney-135
48: Admiral's Ghost-NB VanYoos-UNFINISHED
49: Elven Ways: The Dark Ferryman-Jenna Rhodes-UNFINISHED
50: Dresden Files: Storm Front-Jim Butcher-184
51: Dresden Files: Fool Moon-Jim Butcher-214
52: Borderlands: Covenants-Lorna Freeman-375
53: Borderlands: The King's Own-Lorna Freeman-269
54: Borderlands: Shadows Past-Lorna Freeman-307
55: Codex Alera: Captain's Fury-Jim Butcher-387
56: Discworld: The Last Continent-Terry Pratchett-227
57: Robotech: Metamorphosis-Jack McKinney-148
58: Tears of Artamon: Lord of Snow and Shadows-Sarah Ash-387
59: Dresden Files: Grave Peril-Jim Butcher-255
60: Vlad Taltos: Phoenix-Steven Brust-189
61: Shadows of the Apt: Dragonfly Falling-Adrian Tchaikovsky-540
62: Shadowmarch: Shadowrise-Tad Williams-554
63: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Backlash-Aaron Allston-304
64: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Dust of Dreams-Steven Erikson-946
65: Tears of Artamon: Prisoner of the Iron Tower-Sarah Ash-384
66: Vang: The Military Form-Christopher Rowley-228
67: Vang: The Battlemaster-Christopher Rowley-215
68: Demon Cycle: The Warded Man-Peter Brett-416
69: Demon Cycle: The Desert Spear-Peter Brett-579
70: Codex Alera: Princep's Fury-Jim Butcher-350
71: Codex Alera: First Lord's Fury-Jim Butcher-457
72: Foreigner-C.J. Cherryh-UNFINISHED
73: Bill, the Galactic Hero-Harry Harrison-185
74: Riyria Revelations: The Crown Conspiracy-Michael Sullivan-228
75: Discworld: Carpe Jugulum-Terry Pratchett-227
76: Dresden Files: Summer Knight-Jim Butcher-241
77: Doppleganger-Marie Brennan-UNFINISHED
78: The Lost Fleet: Victorious-Jack Campbell-331
79: The Fourth Realm: The Traveler-John Twelve Hawks-330
80: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies-Seth Grahame-Smith-UNFINISHED
81: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Savior- John Miller-27
82: Star Wars: Clone Wars: Wild Space-Karen Miller-279
83: Star Wars: Clone Wars: No Prisoners-Karen Traviss-175
84: Boneshaker-Cherie Priest-416
85: Tears of Artamon: Children of the Serpent Gate-Sarah Ash-420
86: The Fourth Realm: The Dark River-John Twelve Hawks-368
87: Castings: Deep Water-Pamela Freeman-506
88: Castings: Full Circle-Pamela Freeman-404
89: Athabasca-Alistair Maclean-284
90: The Passage-Justin Cronin-766
91: Season of the Spellsong: Spellsinger-Alan Dean Foster-275
92: Season of the Spellsong: Hour of the Gate-Alan Dean Foster-217
93: Season of the Spellsong: Day of the Dissonance-Alan Dean Foster-235
94: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency-Douglas Adams-171
95: Shadows of the Apt: Blood of the Mantis-Adrian Tchaikovsky-354
96: The Twelve Kingdoms: Skies of Dawn-Fuyumi Ono-642
97: The Fourth Realm: The Golden City-John Twelve Hawks-358
98: Riyria Revelations: Avempartha-Michael Sullivan-237
99: Riyria Revelations: Nyphron Rising-Michael Sullivan-277
100: Vlad Taltos: Athyra-Steven Brust-259
101: The Oort Perimeter-Steven Lake-UNFINISHED
102: Empire: Daughter of the Empire-Janny Wurts & Raymond Feist-377
103: Robotech: Symphony of Light-Jack McKinney-158
104: Guardian of the Flame: The Sleeping Dragon-Joel Rosenberg-171
105: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance-Sean Williams-417
106: Empire: Servant of the Empire-Janny Wurts & Raymond Feist-627
107: Wars of Light and Shadow: Curse of the Mistwraith-Janny Wurts-UNFINISHED
108: The Lon Tobyn Chronicles: Children of Amarid-David Coe-600
109: Malaz: Return of the Crimson Guard-Ian Esslemont-681
110: Stormlight Archives: The Way of Kings-Brandon Sanderson-1035
111: Snow Crash- Neal Stephenson-520
112: Legends of Shannara: Bearers of the Black Staff-Terry Brooks-336
113: Lightbringer: The Black Prism-Brent Weeks-609
114: Riyria Revelations: Emerald Storm-Michael Sullivan-380
115: The Three Investigators: Secret of Terror Castle-Robert Arthur-79
116: Artemis Fowl-Eoin Colfer-143
117: Ancester-Scott Sigler-421
118: Dirk Gently: The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul-Douglas Adams-199
119: Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth-Karen Miller-293
120: Guardians of the Flame: The Sword and the Chain-Joel Rosenberg-251
121: Bios-Robert Wilson-214
122: Star Wars: Crosscurrent-Paul Kemp-214
123: Polity: Agent Cormac: Gridlinked-Neal Asher-346
124: Polity: Agent Cormac: The Line of Polity-Neal Asher-437
125: Discworld: The Truth -Terry Pratchett-239
126: Kim -Rudyard Kipling-307
127: Polity: Agent Cormac: Brass Man-Neal Asher-405
128: Brisingr-Christopher Paolini-PARTIAL REREAD
129: Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident-Eoin Colfer-146
130: Robotech: The Sentinels: The Devil's Hand-Jack McKinney-133
131: World at War: Into the Darkness-Harry Turtledove-684
132: Polity: Agent Cormac: Polity Agent-Neal Asher-403
133: Dresden Files: Death Masks- Jim Butcher-235
134: Polity: Agent Cormac: Line War-Neal Asher-395
135: Empire: Mistress of the Empire-Janny Wurts & Raymond Feist-656
136: Tau Ceti Agenda: One Day on Mars-Travis Taylor-UNFINISHED
137: Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare-Darren Shan-148
138: Conrad Stargard: Crosstime Engineer-Leo Frankowski-231
139: Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant-Darren Shan-141
140: Guardian of the Flame: The Silver Crown-Joel Rosenberg-216
141: Battle Royale-Koushun Takami-491
142: The Strain: Strain-G. Del Toro & Chuck Hogan-353
143: Lady Penitent: Sacrifice of the Widow-Lisa Smedman-202
144: Cirque Du Freak: Tunnels of Blood-Darren Shan-139
145: Conrad Stargard: the High Tech Knight-Leo Frankowski-247
146: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II-Sean Williams-295
147: The Gambler-Fyodor Dostoyevsky-130
148: Mutation-Robin Cook-367
149: The Videssos Cycle: The Misplaced Legion-Harry Turtledove-288
150: Conrad Stargard: The Radiant Warrior-Leo Frankowski-281
151: Inherit the Stars-James Hogan-203
152: DragonLords: The Last DragonLord-Joanne Bertin-471
153: Conrad Stargard: The Flying Warlord-Leo Frankowski-232
154: Polity: Spatterjay: The Skinner-Neal Asher-375
155: Rendezvous with Rama-Arthur Clarke-255
156: Lady Penitent: Storm of the Dead-Lisa Smedman-209
157: The Sword and the Dragon-M.R. Mathias-524
158: Discworld: Thief of Time-Terry Pratchett-241
159: Acacia: The War with the Mein-David Durham-756
160: Swallows and Amazons-Arthur Ransome-204
161: DragonLords: Dragon and Phoenix-Joanne Bertin-695
162: Sword of Shadows: A Cavern of Black Ice-J.V. Jones-618
163: Star Wars: Red Harvest-Joe Schreiber-244


MANGA & GRAPHIC NOVELS
1: Oh My Goddess! #32-Kosuke Fujishima
2: Oh My Goddess! #33-Kosuke Fujishima
3: Ranma 1/2 #22-Rumiko Takahashi
4: Ranma 1/2 #23-Rumiko Takahashi
5: Ranma 1/2 #24-Rumiko Takahashi
6: Ranma 1/2 #25-Rumiko Takahashi
7: Amazing Agent Luna Omnibus #2-Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir
8: Superman: The Death of Clark Kent-various
9: Fruits Basket #23-Natsuki Takaya
10: Ranma 1/2 #26-Rumiko Takahashi
11: Ranma 1/2 #27-Rumiko Takahashi
12: Ranma 1/2 #28-Rumiko Takahashi
13: Ranma 1/2 #29-Rumiko Takahashi
14: Ranma 1/2 #30-Rumiko Takahashi
15: Ranma 1/2 #31-Rumiko Takahashi
16: Yotsuba&! #6-Kiyohiko Azuma
17: Yotsuba&! #7-Kiyokiko Azuma
18: Train + Train #1-Hideyuki Kurata
19: Train + Train #2-Hideyuki Kurata
20: Train + Train #3-Hideyuki Kurata
21: Train + Train #4-Hideyuki Kurata
22: Train + Train #5-Hideyuki Kurata
23: Train + Train #6-Hideyuki Kurata
24: Elseworld: Superman: Dark Side-various
25: Ranma 1/2 #32-Rumiko Takahashi
26: Ranma 1/2 #33-Rumiko Takahashi
27: Kare Kano #1-Masami Tsuda
28: Kare Kano #2-Masami Tsuda
29: Kare Kano #3-Masami Tsuda
30: Kare Kano #4-Masami Tsuda
31: Kare Kano #5-Masami Tsuda
32: Kare Kano #6-Masami Tsuda
33: Kare Kano #7-Masami Tsuda
34: Kare Kano #8-Masami Tsuda
35: Yotsuba&! #8-Kiyohiko Azuma
36: XxxHolic #14-CLAMP
37: Ranma 1/2 #34-Rumiko Takahashi
38: Ranma 1/2 #35-Rumiko Takahashi
39: Ranma 1/2 #36-Rumiko Takahashi
40: Hunter X Hunter #22-Yoshihiro Togashi
41: Hunter X Hunter #23-Yoshihiro Togashi
42: Hunter X Hunter #24-Yoshihiro Togashi
43: Hunter X Hunter #25-Yoshihiro Togashi
44: Hunter X Hunter #26-Yoshihiro Togashi
45: Elseworld: Superman: True Brit-various
46: Case Closed #5-Gosho Aoyama
47: Case Closed #6-Gosho Aoyama
48: Case Closed #7-Gosho Aoyama
49: Case Closed #8-Gosho Aoyama
50: Case Closed #9-Gosho Aoyama
51: Case Closed #10-Gosho Aoyama
52: Case Closed #11-Gosho Aoyama
53: Case Closed #12-Gosho Aoyama
54: Case Closed #13-Gosho Aoyama
55: Case Closed #14-Gosho Aoyama
56: Case Closed #15-Gosho Aoyama
57: Case Closed #16-Gosho Aoyama
58: Case Closed #17-Gosho Aoyama
59: Case Closed #18-Gosho Aoyama
60: Case Closed #19-Gosho Aoyama
61: Case Closed #20-Gosho Aoyama
62: Case Closed #21-Gosho Aoyama
63: Case Closed #22-Gosho Aoyama
64: Case Closed #23-Gosho Aoyama
65: Case Closed #24-Gosho Aoyama
66: Case Closed #25-Gosho Aoyama
67: Case Closed #26-Gosho Aoyama
68: Prince of Tennis #3-Takeshi Konomi
69: Prince of Tennis #4-Takeshi Konomi
70: Prince of Tennis #5-Takeshi Konomi
71: Prince of Tennis #6-Takeshi Konomi
72: Prince of Tennis #7-Takeshi Konomi
73: Prince of Tennis #8-Takeshi Konomi
74: Prince of Tennis #9-Takeshi Konomi
75: Prince of Tennis #10-Takeshi Konomi
76: One Piece #22-Eichiro Oda
77: One Piece #23-Eichiro Oda
78: One Piece #24-Eichiro Oda
79: One Piece #25-Eichiro Oda
80: One Piece #26-Eichiro Oda
81: One Piece #27-Eichiro Oda
82: One Piece #28-Eichiro Oda
83: One Piece #29-Eichiro Oda
84: Prince of Tennis #12-Takeshi Konomi
85: Prince of Tennis #13-Takeshi Konomi
86: Prince of Tennis #14-Takeshi Konomi
87: Prince of Tennis #15-Takeshi Konomi
88: Prince of Tennis #16-Takeshi Konomi
89: Prince of Tennis #17-Takeshi Konomi
90: Prince of Tennis #17-Takeshi Konomi
91: Prince of Tennis #18-Takeshi Konomi
92: Prince of Tennis #19-Takeshi Konomi
93: Prince of Tennis #21-Takeshi Konomi
94: Prince of Tennis #22-Takeshi Konomi
95: Case Closed #27-Gosho Aoyama
96: Case Closed #28-Gosho Aoyama
97: Case Closed #29-Gosho Aoyama
98: Case Closed #30-Gosho Aoyama
99: Case Closed #31-Gosho Aoyama
100: Case Closed #32-Gosho Aoyama
101: Case Closed #33-Gosho Aoyama
102: Case Closed #34-Gosho Aoyama
103: Case Closed #35-Gosho Aoyama
104: Elseworld: The Superman Monster-various
105: Elseworld: Batgirl & Robin: Thrillkiller-various
106: Kare Kano #10-Masami Tsuda
107: Kare Kano #11-Masami Tsuda
108: Kare Kano #12-Masami Tsuda
109: Kare Kano #13-Masami Tsuda
110: Kare Kano #14-Masami Tsuda
111: Kare Kano #15-Masami Tsuda
112: Black Bird #1-Kanoko Sakurakoji
113: Black Bird #2-Kanoko Sakurakoji
114: Black Bird #3-Kanoko Sakurakoji
115: Elseworld: Batman & Captain American-various-UNFINISHED
116: Elseworld: Batman & Demon: A Tragedy-various
117: Elseworld: Batman & Houdini: The Devil's Workshop-various
118: Elseworld: Batman: Castle of the Bat-various
119: Elseworld: Batman: Dark Allegiances-various
120: Elseworld: Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty-various
121: Elseworld: Batman: Detective #27-various
122: Elseworld: Batman: Gotham Noir-various
123: Elseworld: Batman: Holy Terror-various
124: Elseworld: Batman: I, Joker-various
125: Elseworld: Batman: In Darkest Knight-various

December '10

DRAGONLORDS: THE LAST DRAGONLORD
-J. Bertin-dtb-471
-fantasy-a world where there are dragons, humans and a very few, rare DragonLords, humans who share a body with a dragonsoul and have great abilities. Follows the adventures of a dragonlord who finds his soultwin and is embroiled in the machinations of a kingdom in turmoil. Very well written, enjoyable and enough depth to make it feel meaty and satisfying.

CONRAD STARGARD: THE FLYING WARLORD
-L. Frankowski-dtb-232
-scifi-Conrad defeats the mongols and the timeline is totally screwed up. This one had a lot less wenching and technology'izing.

POLITY: SPATTERJAY: THE SKINNER
-N. Asher-epub-375
-scifi-a new storyline dealing with a world called Spatterjay. It has a virus that infects humans and makes them strong, regenerative and nearly immortal. But if they don't eat Polity foods [ie, human food], they turn into a skinner. A skinner is a creature that kills and destroys. This book was about a polity agent looking for retribution on a gang of Hoopers [what turned humans are called] that participated in the Prador war, on the Prador's side. Follows the agent, some Hoopers, a Prador and some AI's as they all come together on Spatterjay and deal with a skinner. I enjoyed this as much, if not more, than the Agent Cormac books.

RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA
-A. Clarke-epub-255
-scifi-humanity finds a giant spaceship coming into the solar system. They explore it and realize they are not alone in the universe. The story is about the group exploring the ship. Very little action, well written, but dull none the less. There is a whole series of Rama books, but I don't think I'll waste my time on any more.

LADY PENITENT: STORM OF THE DEAD
-L. Smedman-epub-209
-fantasy-another god enters the game between Lolth and her daughter. And loses. Undead battles, etc, etc. Find out more history about the drow. Same quality as the other books by Smedman.

THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON
-M.R. Mathias-epub-524
-fantasy-first off, the author is a complete asshole. I've run into him on various forums and not once was he civil to anyone unless they were kowtowing to him. That being said, this started out as a fantastic book. I was hooked from the first chapter. Sadly, near the end things really seemed to drag and I was glad when the end came. If there are ever anymore books in this same universe, I will definitely be checking them out!

DISCWORLD: THIEF OF TIME
-T. Pratchett-epub-241
-fantasy-Time has a baby and it gets split in two. The Auditors try using one of them to build the perfect clock, so that time stops. Death must reunite the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse [plus 1] and Susan must tie everything together while she meets and falls in love with the perfect man[for her]. Highly entertaining. Especially when scads of auditors take on human form for some reason or another.

ACACIA: THE WAR WITH THE MEIN
-D. Durham-epub-456
-fantasy-despite not being able to get into this book earlier, I was encouraged by those at Goodreads to try again, and I am glad I did. Complex, long term and with just enough twists and turns to keep things interesting, Durham has created a world that is potentially HUGE for exploring. Definitely looking forward to the other 2 in this series.

SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS
-A. Ransome-epub-204
-ya fiction-a group of children spend a couple of weeks on an island and sailing a lake. Simplistic and not something I was really in the mood for. However, I can see how this would stir the imagination of young duffers and intrigue them greatly.

DRAGONLORDS: DRAGON AND PHOENIX
-J. Bertin-dtb-695
-fantasy-the dragons and true dragons find out about a dragon being held captive in a foreign land and set out to rescue him. In the process Maurynna is able to change and the DragonLords find yet another "hidden" DragonLord. I really enjoyed this novel. Depth and a very wide view of things kept my attention and separate plotlines never got tangled up. Well written. I just wish the 3rd book had been written [the back of this book, published in '98 says the author is in the process of writing it. So if it hasn't happened in 13 years, I doubt it will]

SWORD OF SHADOWS: A CAVERN OF BLACK ICE
-J.V. Jones-epub-618
-fantasy-Graphic. The word to best describe this book. Every negative emotion, every detail about frozen, dying flesh, every bad habit, all were described to such detail so as to make me hate this book. A young woman, who has the power to free an undead horde, must discharge her power in a safe place, the cavern of black ice. Her fate is thrown in with a young clans man who ends up clanless. They succeed in their quest, but more things are still on the horizon. I don't think I'll be reading any more by this author.

STAR WARS: RED HARVEST
-J. Schreiber-dtb-244
-scifi-the prequel, by several thousand years, to Death Troopers. Some Sith lord finds a sith holocron with plans for immortality and experiments on sith students. Thing go horribly wrong and everyone gets infected. A jedi gets involved and some random bounty hunter and pilot. Lots of descriptions to make creepy settings, but there was not really any tension or scariness involved. Enjoyed it a little more than Death Troopers though.

Monthly Summary
12 Novels
4524 Pages

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