March '11

SHADOWMARCH: SHADOWHEART
-T. Williams-epub-738
-fantasy-the conclusion to the Shadowmarch tetralogy. A god is resurrected, but not the god Sulepsis [the mad monarch] thinks, the god is defeated. Brionny and Ferris get together, Barick becomes the leader of the Qar for its last generation and everyone else just kind of survives. I wasn't impressed, sadly. I doubt I'll ever re-read this series.

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS: GAMBIT: SIEGE
-K. Miller-epub-UNFINISHED
-scifi-ugh. What can I say? The 2 Gambit books should have been 1 and heavily edited. I just got so bored with Siege that I gave up. More Anakin whining, more stolid Kenobi, lots of nothing happening. Yeah.

STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: ALLIES
-C. Golden-epub-314
-scifi-Luke and Ben make an uneasy alliance with some of the Sith to go after Aboleth, some sort of super powerful force using bogey-woman, Skywalkers to destroy her, Sith to use her. She just keeps switching bodies, so when it seems that Luke has her dead to rights, oops, nope, now she's somebody else. While this is happening, Daala is losing it about the Jedi defying her control. Jaina and Jag break off their engagement. And all the insane jedi are now sane, since Abeloth isn't exerting such control over them. Enjoyable but nothing fantastic.

STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: VORTEX
-T. Denning-epub-360
-scifi-more chasing and fighting from the Skywalker/Sith/Aboleth group. And the jedi decide to take their future into their own hands instead of allowing Daala to do that for them. Sets things up for a huge confrontation, or even a total withdrawal of the jedi from the Galactic Alliance.

THE WHEEL OF TIME: STRIKE AT SHAYOL GHUL & RAVENS
-R. Jordan-epub-35
-fantasy short story-2 short stories. Strike is a historical fragment telling a barebones about the sealing of the Dark One and the Breaking of the World and Ravens is about Egwene, at 9 years old, on a shearing day. Neither add huge amounts to the WoT world, but just little interesting bits.

STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: PURGATORY
-J. Miller-epub-30
-short story-a jedi is on the sith world, having crashed. He takes in a disgraced Sith, who finds out he is a jedi. It ends with the appearance of the Sith about to betray him to gain her status back.

AMAZING AGENT LUNA #1-6
-DeFilippis & Weir
-manga-volume 6 was new to me. Not nearly as engaging as the first several volumes. Glad to see it out however and since DeFilippis and Weir are american, maybe we'll see a nice close to this story, but not holding my breath.

ONCE A HERO
-M. Stackpole-dtb-513
-fantasy-a good reread, but, doesn't hold up as well simply because the convergence of the past and present is already known to the reader and so much of the suspense of the story depends on the reader NOT knowing that. Still a fantastic fantasy book, just not as interesting on the 4th or 5th reread :-)

PERCY JACKSON: BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH
-R. Riordan-epub-243
-ya fantasy-Percy and Co have to find Daedolus, the creator of the labyrinth, in order to get him to help them close it down so that Camp Half Blood can't be invaded. Kronos takes over a body and is now corporeal and things aren't looking good for the Olympians.

WHEEL OF TIME: NEW SPRING
-R. Jordan-epub-317
-fantasy-the prequel to the WoT series. Having read it before, and up to book 9 or 10 of Wot, I could read it first. For a first timer, it should definitely not be read until at least after book 8 simply because I'm sure it reveals things quickly that are teased out in the series. And it is a nice light read without most of Jordan's literary "quirks" that drive us batty. A good start to a long series.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: THE CRIPPLED GOD
-S. Erikson-epub-953
-fantasy-the end of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It was about 500 pages of existential whining, much like the previous book or 2, then it got serious about the action and things happened. But that first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book were just plain torture. Why does it take Erikson 5 pages of monologuing build up to accomplish something that he writes in 2 paragraphs? It was worse than Ayn Rand. It was a great story, the action was fast, furious and violent, the characters were all intertwined fantastically, but I can't recommend this series because Erikson ruined it with his need to bash us over the head with his philosophical viewpoints. Pages upon pages upon pages of them! That being said, it did end well. I was satisfied with the ending and felt like I had closure.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: THE ICEBOUND LAND
-J. Flanagan-epub-222
-ya fantasy-Will and the Princess are taken as slaves for Skandia and Will becomes addicted to some drug. Princess makes a deal with the kind hearted Skandian who originally captured them and she and Will escape to a mountain hut for the winter. She weans Will off the drug. Meanwhile Halt insults the king and gets thrown out of the kingdom so he can search for Will. Ends with them all finding eachother but with a horde of mongols ready to invade Skandia.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: BATTLE FOR SKANDIA
-J. Flanagan-epub-238
-ya fantasy-Halt, Will and the others are trapped in Skandia by the mongol horde. They make an uneasy truce with the Skandians to provide training so the Skandians don't get their butts handed to them on a platter. They defeat the horde at a terrible cost and the main group survives and gets home, with a treaty with the Skandians.

SCHOOL RUMBLE #1
-J. Kobayashi-epub
-manga-a converted cbr file. It read ok on my 505, but I didn't really like it. Hoping the original cbr's are much more readable on my new 10.1 Android tablet.

WHEEL OF TIME: EYE OF THE WORLD
-R. Jordan-epub-702
-fantasy-a re-read in preparation for the final novel in the beginning of next year. Incredible. The scene in the beginning where Rand sees the dark horseman and everything is winter dead and the atmosphere is dreadful, it really got me. It was good writing. The story was cool and there was so much that I just didn't remember. There were times that I didn't like characters, but I know more of that is coming, so I tried to let it go. But it is really hard to not want to kill Matt for being a complete asshole in the middle of Shadar Logoth. Definitely going to go slow with this series, one every couple of weeks, no back to back readings, so as not to burn out. And I really like the new TOR covers as well :-)

OTHERLAND: THE MOUNTAIN OF BLACK GLASS
-T. Williams-epub-749
-scifi-things really start to come together in this book. We found out the ultimate aims of the Grail and the Circle. Paul Jonas has a bit revealed about his past and the group makes it back together. Fantastic writing, tons of action. Dread is a great bad guy.

DISCWORLD: AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS
-T. Pratchett-epub-170
-fantasy-a group of mice become sentient, so does a cat and they hook up with a little boy who plays the pipes. They run scams to get rid of "rats". At one village they come across something bigger, a king rat, and take him down and at the end try to come to terms with the village. Make peace, as it were. Amusing and light and easy.

PERCY JACKSON: THE LAST OLYMPIAN
-R. Riordan-epub-234
-fantasy-the wrap up of the series. Kronos and Co. almost take over. Luke redeems himself in the end, lots of info is learned about lots of people and things settle down, for a little bit. Rachel is the new Oracle and Annabeth and Percy hook up. A new "great" prophecy about the end of the world pops up right at the end. So it ends on a good note, but with the chance for more if the author feels like it.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
13 novels
1 unfinished Novel
2 short Stories
7 manga
5818 Pages