Reading_fox's reading log (2010)

I did try a reading log in Club read group last uear but it never really went anywhere because there were so few SF/F participants. I use Currently Reading collection as a Recently Read list and have a 2010 tag.

Currently I'm in the Commonwealth duology, I finished Pandora's Star in 5 days and am on the sequel Judas Unchained. It's all a bit Meh. I've read much worse, but at 1000+ pages each I was expecting something better. There's absolutely no reason why it's two massive books rather than 4 or 5 normal to large ones - there is no logical reason for the split, the story picks right up where it left. The whole thing is one million word arc, arbitarilly carved up. But i'll finish it and see how I get along.

I will be interested in whether it gets better. Looking forward to see what else you pick up.

Hmm, 1000 pages each. That's a lot of buildup. I haven't read Hamilton before and both books have a good overall rating. Just not sure after what you (and others) have said that I want to.

Finished Judas.

It's sort of just more of the same. It gets a bit better about 500 pages in (ie 1500 pages into the full story) as we#'ve finally set everything up, got all the players on stage and in position, worked out all the alliances and feuds. Ready to go. However the remaining 500 pages just fail to be the attention grabbing action sequence that you need. Mostly it's because there at least 4 plot lines still converging, and we keep juping between them. I suspect this is supposed to provoke tension, but it just disappates it.

I liked the basic idea, just not the way it was done. And after 1500 pages of build up, I'd have wanted more details in the ending, which does get rather glossed over.

Currently on the appeal bizarely I thought this was new to me, but several chapters in I'm thinking it's all familiar, and having checked, I found that I read in in Jan09. Oh well it's good enough for a re-read. I picked it as an ebook from the library at least partly because Grisham is one fo the first major ebook Holdout authors to do a U-turn and decide that actually ebooks are OK. I thought I'd encourage this attitude. Although it maight take a while before Rowling decides to follow suit.

The appeal is another of Grisham's Mississippi based anti- corporation polemics. A big toxic chemical dumping case wins a large verdict, and the book picks up with the start of the dirty tricks the company uses to try and win the appeal in it's favour.

Some of it's a bit dubious (really ground water is never ever going to have enough petrochemicals in it to be an accelerant in a fire - that's like 40%+) 'toxic' levels are about 0.001% or so. But the characters and the passion are good, and even if I think I can recall the ending it's worth persuing to see how it all works out.

Never mind.

Long weekend's travelling saw me buzz through two books, and start a third.

The redbreast - Norwegian detective story. It's never going to be the next Stieg Larsson, but once over the intial hurdles it wasn't bad at all. Another random elibrary choice, hence I didn't realise it was 3rd in a series, but it didn't seem necessary to have read the others. the case is a bizzare and a little contrived, following the revenge of a WWII soldier. The interleaved flashbacks to 1944 were very annoying and would have been better as one continuous chunk. However they faded away somewhere around the middle, and allowed me to focus on the detective and his patiend unravelling of the case.

farewell my lovely the 2nd Phillip Marlowe story. Much like the first, mostly it's enjoyable for it's insights into 40s US, rather than any of the writing or characters.

And i'm now on Agatha Christie autobiography
Which is deleciously charming again especially for the insights into 1900s UK, and a comfortably off family with 'only' 3 servants.

Jo Nesbø has written at least one hilariously funny kid's book - Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder. He might not be the next Stieg Larsson but he has a good sense of humour :)

I thought Agatha Christie's autobiography was by far her best book. :) It made me very curious to read her journals of the digs she went on, but I've yet to come across them.

I'm about to start re-reading Agatha Christie. Haven't read any since I was a child but I used to devour them. I'm hoping they still stand up to scrutiny in adulthood. I'll keep an eye out for the autobiography too.

#10 _ I'm (re) reading Miss Marple complete short stories with OtherHalf, It still holds up well, and we both enjoy her witty remarks - although I think it's fair to say that the autobiography is better. Miss marple is cleverer, but Agatha herself is just so much more charming and humerous. A delightfully gentle humour, well bred.

It's going to be increasing difficult for people to read through - some of what she refers to, is now so distant from life today that few people will understand. A "Semi-evening dress" ?

I confess I really did not much care for The Redbreast. I thought the structure was unnecessarily confusing in jumping from one point-of-view character to another and then jumping from one time to another.

Finished An autobiography, my full review is Here.

Really charming pretty much the whole way through. Well worth reading if you've any interest in 1900 English life.

Next up is my ER book, Animal Rights which I've dipped a toe into, and already don't like very much. It's very absolutist and little balance seems to be provided, or even acknowledgment that there could be alternative points of view. I'll see how it gets along and whether he manages to present any actual argument rather than just assurtions.

An autobiography sounds really good, another one for my wishlist/TBR pile.

I dipped into it yesterday and I can see it will be charming.

I'm not a big fan of her mystery stories, but Christie herself sounds very interesting. Another for my wishlist as well. I don't normally read biographies, but I'm finding myself wanting to know more about the lives of various female authors.

I don't normally read biographies either - but Manchester library has a somewhat limited ebook scheme which I've been exploring. While I wait for the range to include things I do want to read, I thought I'd try for free, some things that might be interesting. Been about 50/50 worthwhile so far.

Animal rights didn't get any better. Sort of like reading Dawkins if you're christian maybe, but he wasn't any good at writing clear text either. Skimmed my way through enough of it to write a review, but didn't enjoy any of it, or even agree.

Fires of Nuala Quite enjoyable and fully recommened to anyone who likes 'soft' SF. The strong heroine works well, without becoming too soppy.

It's a radioactive planet with precious metal resources, a plan by team of con artists falls afoul of a local coup for power. However the plotters have underestimated the power of familial ties, and the thieves don't care who's in power as long as they can get their loot - at least to begin with.

The science behind the radioactivity is a bit dodgy, but the rest of the world works quite well.

Full Review

Two reads rushed through in a few days.

The Last Key from MG program. Was OK but basically run of the mill, fantasy with religious overtones, that dind't go so strong as to spoil the plot, but did make it all a bit predictable. I like my villains and heros to walk a bit closer to the grey of reality than the black and white of moral posturing.

Resonance was a fun soft SF, near future, multi-world almost thriller. The OCD hero worked quite well, although I think managed to overcome their compulsions a bit too easily at times. Enjoyable though, and I'll look out for what else the author has written.

Finished the complete miss marple short stories as OtherHalf's and my long term reading together book. Enjoyble, especially Miss Marple's slightly dry wit. Her detective abilities probably work better in a slightly longer format, but the instant village people comparisons is far more plauible than any of Holmes' or Peroit's deductions. Any suggestions from my catalogue for our next read - probably also short stories.

I've also just finished A wind from the South really quite enjoyable historical fiction set at the Independance of Switzerland in the 1300s. ANyone who enjoy Guy Kay and similar stories will probably really like this one. I tend to find historical fiction drags too much for my liking, and is either too contstrained by reality or insufficiently so. However Duane has struck a good balance between real events, local myths and a decent narrative weaving them all together through one person's view. Lots of religion without being preachy as the Old Gods attempt to regain past powers now relinquished to jesus. I'm still writing the review on this, should be finished soon.

These reading threads are killers for my wishlist, I've added A Wind from the South, it sounds like what I would enjoy. No time right now to look at your catalogue and suggest, but I love that you two read together. That is something my OH and I stopped doing when kidlets came along, but I loved it when we did. One of our favorite together reads were the James Herriot novels.

Finished Cyteen as I say in the beginning of my review in 2007 Wow ... just lost for words...wow. What a book

I'm very glad to note that it has't changed. Still very very compelling complex psycological politics. It's not the ideal introduction to CJC's writing, and it's not to everyone's taste, but I find it utterly amazing. Perhaps it's not quite as good as first time around, because some of the surprises are lost, but still excellant.

Looking forward to regenesis now.

Regenesis the Sequel to Cyteen. Full Review HERE (currently subject to edit pending comments from the Reviews Reviewed group)

Very enjoyable, deep and slow. Not quite with the same impact factor that Cyteen had, being more of the same rather than something breathtakingly new. Lots and lots of internal politics and machinations, but still offering some insights into governments and how people work - even if some people are cloned!

OH and I are now on the collected stories 1500 pages of short stories the ones from the late 30s are a bit cheesy so far - but then they are some of his very first published work. It might take us a while to finish the book!

My read is the (already) very funny autobiography of one of the UK caving scene's legends Jim Eyre It's Only a Game complete with his knobbly knee'd cartoons.

Bah LT's just eaten a post.

It's Only a Game was as funny as expected, detailing the first half of the Jim's life covering his time in the Navy at the end of the war, and the first 20 years of his caving discoveries (and rescues) All told with his trademark humor. Some very hard people coping with very basic equipment in difficult circumstances Full Review

Now onto some Bujold whilst waiting for CJC and Jane to upload their latest books to Closed Circle

Which was The Vor Game and this did come across as a bit of a series filler. Readable, Miles is fun, but nothing special and definetly feels like two novellas squished together rather than a proper episode of the series.

The Omnibus Miles Mystery and Mayhem was my last read. (Sounds liek a GD thread title!) Two novels and novella.

Chronologically sequential though written over 10 years apart, all three deal with genetics and society - different ways that artifical reproduction can effect a culture. Deliberate screening for high esthetics, with a pronounced gender divide. Then a novel that doesn't feature Miles at all, but is about a 100% male colony. One of it's members has to depart into the wider galaxy to procure new artifical ova. A very nice reversal of the Amazon legends. And finally the novella is a brief look at the problems of genetic soldiers. None of this has the depth the CJC has put inot the Azi fro example, but they are interesting. Bujold's quick pace keeps the story flowing along nicely and Miles wit makes it all entertaining. The deeper sociological issues are left for the reader's imagination.

Blood red moon

Jane's latest ebook offering from Closed Circle. AN urban adaption of Dracula - not just because of the vampires! The whole plot has many similarities, but there are some key differences as well - no Van Helsing for a start. There isn't nearly as much letter writing either, but there are a few emails and some wonderfully rendered cursive on vellum script, which must have been a major pain to typeset in epub.

Definetly one for the cat lovers as well. Wasn't quite my cup of tea, but I'm not sure why. SOmehow the characters didn't react as I was expecting them too I think. Definetly worth reading if you enjoy urban fantasy, vampires, cats or re-workings of the classics.

I'm now catching up on various periodicals that have been delivered with the new month, so it'll be a week or so at least until I'm back reading books.

The wooden Sword Lynn Abbey's latest closed circle offering, better than her previous one, but still oddly lacking somewhere. It starts with a decent pigboy - well shepherdess, in a world rife with gods and goddesses, but she becomes less the focus of the tale, which picks up on her companion, an amnesiac who slowly recoveres his memory. He's far less interesting than she was. The world was interesting, the writing is easy to read, the characters not too bad, but the plotting a bit of a let down.

Miles Errant

Meet the clone brother Mark. Gets a bit farcical which is not my preferred style of humour, lots of visual gags, people running up and down corridors, looking for Miles or Mark and finding one or the other or not recognising which one was which. All got a bit too much in the end, but still mostly fun. Far less social commentary than on previous stories - which is a shame because I feel that's one of the key aspects of SF.

I liek to read a series through but Miles would get very dull if I did that, so I'm interespercing them with some other books, enough to break up the universe, but not so many that I can't remember what happened previously.

Rusalka

Another Closed Circle ebook, this is one of CJC's earlier fantasy stories. Like many (all?) of her fantasy works, magic is accomplished just by 'wishing' thing to happen, but of course how that even occurs can complicated! Wishing a rock to fall is easy. Wishing it to stay put might involve attempting to divert a flood etc. Several wizards wishing at once with different purposes is very complicated to follow!

This is set in a dark and gloomy russianish style world. Standard villages, and some big deep forests populated by a few imps of various sorts. And some ghosts - when you die really really wishing to live, you can get great power.

It's not the best of CJCs writing - the confusing wishing business drags out a bit in the middle of dark forest for quite while - but she's almost incapable of writing anything uninteresting! Some great twists near the end. Her tree spirits are presumably based on old russian folk tales, and I wonder if that's where Tolkein got he inspiration for the Ents. They seem very similar.

Memory
Next along in Miles' adventures. A bit of a dull opening third as we recap various past tales, before Miles finds himself home alone and bored. Quite a fun little whodunnit, and I'm now curiosu to see what the rest of Miles' life has in store for him. Presumably this is very much a transition novel, a la Changes.

Is anyone reading this? It feels a bit odd to be just writing to the ether, when I fully review and tag all my books anyway.

Yes Reading_fox, I read all your posts and am enjoying your reviews. I'm just not reading the same books, but find it interesting 'cause of the differences. Please keep up your journal, I'm sure others are reading too :-)

Yep, I read them all, too.

I'm reading this - just didn't comment (yet). :)

Nope, not reading this at all. I can type with my eyes closed. ;)

that was fast - thanks all.
#35 LOL.

I read, too :)
Not felt the urge to comment, though.

I'm reading!

hi! I'm here, too. Reading...sometimes...skimming sometimes.

I'm reading, too!. We have mainly different tastes in books, but I do now own a copy of Agatha Christie's autobiography I'll blame you for.

oh! Is this where I lay the blame? I am fully into Agatha's fine story. I am enjoying it a great deal and whatever you wrote that led me to get it, and to get my book group to put it on their list, too, it was well recommended! Thanks.

Yup, reading, too. Just don't comment much.

I'm reading all of the reading journals, but I only comment if I am familiar with a book someone has read or if they make me want one.

The thing about reviews and tags is that I would have to track down all of my GD friends and then click through their stuff, whereas here, I get an overall view of their reading life and can go to their reviews if I want to see the official thing.

I know sometimes I feel like quite the egoist, posting all my reads, but I love seeing what other folks read and hearing what they thought about them.

Everything MrsLee said goes for me.

yah, what she said

Same here - what she said.

yeah what they said.

Also, wrt Miles.

He makes me nuts. I want to smack his bottom. I'd prefer a book about Ivan.

Well said MrsLee! Ditto.

Thanks everyone. Real Life (TM) got in the way of computer time but I've read

Rings of Change Which is the sequel to Jane's first fantasy trilogy, and the beginning of the next. The 10 year writing gap shows up slightly, but plotwise it carries right on from where the other left off. All the sexual ambiguities of Dancer seem to be mostly resolved, and the focus is now on politics and technology - finalyl explaining our books in, how this world works.

Miles in Love two more Miles novels and a short story. Comedy of manners and farce crossover, but it did have me giggling a few times. Miles starts his new career and an Emporer's Auditor, and as you might expect meets a women he can love and who might be campaigned/cajoled/tricked into loving him back. Miles learns this is not the proper way to treat people. It's a bit obvious at times. But mostly carried through with humour. I like Miles I think overall, occasionally annoying, but so well intentioned that its ok. Ivan is just there for practical comic relief.

Miles Mutants and Microbes is another Miles collection of two novels and a short story - however they're a bit squished in the chronologicla order I've been reading them in. Falling Free is the 1st novel, set 200yrs before any of the other Vor books, and hence doesn't feature any familiar characters at all - but it does do something that I'd never expected to read. Way back in Mystery and Mayhem, Miles comes across a 'quaddie' a genetically engineered human with four arms designed to live and work in freefall. I thought she was fascinataing but being a minor character never expected to hear more about her. Falling Free is the tale of her 'race' and Diplomatic Immunity is the continuation of her personal story, as seen by Miles. Thanks Ms Bujold for clearing up my curiosity on this!

ER book, Mistress of Molecules. Silly, but fun. In a kind of heavy handed Science Rules, kind of B movie way. Chemists get a starring role which is unusal. Fun idea for a universe - benevolent aliens ruling it, Lots of Industry making profits providing services to them, with Church based enforceres keeping a servile humanity running the factories. Heros from farming and refining worlds lead the revolution - her amazing chemistry skills synthesising a catalyst to do any job, from hormones to plastic degredation.

Hidden Fires Sequel to an earlier ER book I'd read - good enough that I sought this one out and paid for it! Not quite as good as the first though, but still interesting. It's the radioactive world full of mutants with clan based societies attempting to keep the blood line pure. Interstellar traders come looking for a quick scam and fast profits without risking their blood. Because the world was already known little new was added, and it just became immersed in the politics. Good characters though.

Fool's War possibly the best book I've read this year. A very interesting and gripping story about culture clashes and how to deal with Others. Its a great universe and I wish the author had written some other tales in it. A fool takes passage on a spaceship to help ease crew tensions during the monthlong journeys. However they start having problems with their computers, and discover a Fool can have many talents.

FYI - also still reading various lists/journals written by the denizens here in the Dragon. Just thought I'd stop in and note it as others have done.

Cryoburn very average by Bujold stories, somewhat short and rushed. Exploring the consequences of death, and not-death when you are frozen before you die. A bit heavy handed on the death parts, and lacking in action of charm. Maybe Miles is slowing down in his old age.

The Fury Random library ebook thriller, readable enough, I've certainly read worse. But nothing that special either. Reporter investigates the New York drug scene following the death of his step-brother.

Nearly time for the annual Hogfather read!

I think I might read Hogfather as well. Not sure I'll have time though.

Read coraline between waiting for the MassSpec to fill with liquid nitrogen and the journey home on the bus. Thanks Manchester Libraries, for easy ebook access!

Fine YA short story, slightly creepy.

Hogfather remains one of, if not the, favourite Pratchett book. Most of the themes just wind their way through averagely funny, but then right at the end Susan/Death has this massively serious argument about belief, interpretation and what it means to be human. Its only a page or so long, but every time I read it I'm just impressed with how clearly pTerry can dissect why life is both funny and tragic at the same time.

I think that is the exact same reason I like it. :)

I am reading it (Hogfather) now and will say, for starters, it is very different from what I normally read. That is probably very good for me. Variety being the spice in life...right? I am reading it on the Kindle so I really don't know how long it will go on but I'm definitely into it.

We've actually been invited to a Hogswatch party in January by a friend who adores the Pratchett books.

maggie I'm definetly in the variety is the spice camp. Have you read any of his discworld books before?

If not, feel free to ask questions about how the world 'works'. Hogfather is mid-series, so there is some assumption of the underlying principles and characters. But most of it should be obvious enough.

Blitzed thorugh my Santathing Blind Descent Over dramatic (very much so) non-fiction account of two "competing" teams attempts, over a period of years to discover the deepest cave on earth. Enjoyable especially for a caver like myself, but really horribly over emphasized the vertical dangers, whlst ignoring the floods and tiredness that are the biggest hazards. Ok they're difficult to express dramatically, but even so, there's no need to over-hype the others. Enjoyable reading though.

colour of magic start of the Rincewind series in preparation for my other SantaThing Eric and probably the last book I'll read this year, as I'm away for a few days.

Disjointed its the best way of summing up CoM. It's four short stories introducing us to a few places around the Disc, most fo which don't feature again. Death appears, but is much less human, more arbitary and malevolent than in later books. There's none of the social commentry that makes the later books so funny.

I'm gonig to keep this thread going through 2011 because it's only 60odd posts long. As always there are full reviews of each book on my profile, or the work page.

I started the New year with more random library ebooks while I was travelling.

destination unknown is a less common Chrisite story that doesn't feature any of her series detectives. Instead blind chance leads a desperate woman onto a search for a group of missing scientists. Rather than the usual 'rule the world madman' we have a dedicated questor of truth as the arch villain. I was disappointed that I guessed who it was very early. Readable, and a good introduction to Chrisite's style without the burdon of a series of books about the same person.

The lost art nominaly YA, but I think better suited to older teens. Quite good science fiction. It starts as a very run of the mill fantasy, but then gradually morphs as you realise people aren't who you first thought they were. Unfortunetly it is seriously spoilt by not explaining one of the chief characters. Basically its about a search for some ancient books. It does contain quite a lot of moralising about technology and religion, but isn't too heavy handed about it.

Although I've got heaps of pbooks to read, I want to get my library ebooks read.

Me and my brothers was the autobiography of the elder brother of the infamous Kray twins - two mobbsters who ran London's East End in the 60s. He pleads a life free of crime, and despite two jail sentances, maintains his innocence throughout. Some is undoubtly rose tinted viewing, but also no doubt he was never the hardcore that the twins were. Interesting reading about 60s london, life in jail, and how everybody is human.

Declarations of war only lasted a day or so. Its a collection of short stories all written by Deighton specifically for this book (unlike a lot of short story collections). Hence he's had tighter control over the theme - war - than most authors manage. They're nearly all set in WWI with a few exceptions in WWII, and america. Somehow they lacked the finishing punch that really accomlished short story writers can achieve. They were okay as short stories but they would all probably have worked better as full novels or novellas.

Another 1 day ebook - the murder of Roger Ackroyd I wasn't that impressed. I don't generally like Poirots mannerisms from what I can remember of the last time I read some. My memory remains accurate, he detracts from the story I didn't like the 1st person narrator not being the detective either, we miss a lot of the vital clues. And I didn't much like the conclusion either.

Apparently, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd got a lot of complaints when it came out, because of that conclusion. People thought it wasn't fair.

I like Poirot, but Miss Marple is better. But my favorites, and I think they're all short stories, are the Harley Quin stories - look for The Mysterious Mr. Quin if you haven't read it yet.

#68 - Maybe I wasn't clear. I think it was fair enough of Ms Christie to write it in such manner - we get plenty of forewarning in the previous few pages (even if there isn't much before that). It was the suggestion by Poirot and the character's acquiescence that I didn't like.

The light fantastic. Much better than CoM. Luggage really shines in this one. We get introduced to a few other key characters - although the creation of the librarian barely merrits a passing mention. I'm sure pTerry didn't know how influencial the Librarian was to become! Lot so puns in this. Really lots and lots thrown in everywhere.

Sourcery Bleh. This is why I don't like Rincewind. This is my least favourite Diskworld novel of all. Possibly. Fortunetly, apart from Rincewind's fate, nothing has any ties to the rest of the series, its almost as if it didn't happen (which might be the best way to view this.) It isn't bad - its perfectly readable. It just isn't funny, contains no references to the human condition, and doens't really work at all. the themes as best as can be described is 1001 nights.

Fortunetly I'm now set to read my Santathing Eric which will be next up.

Eric was okay - short - and vaguely as I remembered it from the last time I read it, many many years ago. Rincewind is hoiked out of the Dungeon Dimensions and becomes a demon for a while. We get learning form humans applied demonology - otherwise known as burocracy.

Flashforward - read in one day on a train. Enjoyable, with a lot to think about. Even if the author got some of the basic physics wrong. How would you live your life if you knew how 2 minutes of it would play out two odd years ahead. You don't know how true, that vision is, or isn't. I'm not convinced by some of the characters actions, thoughts and deeds, but it was interesting and would make a good book club discussion.

Did you catch the references to Faust in Eric? I didn't the first time I read it, so I want to read it again.

I don't know the details of Faust - I'm not hot on my classics - but the wiki entry seems to very clearly link Eric himself as Faust, who tries to cut a deal with Rincewind, which while technically fufilled, doens't actually bring him what he wants.

Finished last chance to see - very good. Douglas Adams writes with humour about expeditions in the late 80s going to look at endangered animals. It is still very relevant. The animals in question are still endangered, and its obviously something Douglas cared about a lot. Interesting read, even if it doesn't really tell you that much about the animals.

Regarding Last Chance to See: I kept seeing Arthur Dent whilst reading about Douglas Adams' wanderings, which made me wonder if there wasn't a lot of himself in Arthur.

#75 - yeah I did get that feeling too.

Stormwarden One I've been meaning to read for a while now, and very glad to have found whilst on holiday. Now all I need to do is find the rest of the series!

Really enjoyed this - mildly epic fantasy. Three different children caught up in a power play between a sorcerer and neighbouring Kings. Lots of boats and sailing details, a lovely world, some clever magic - plus demons and an SF twist, that although surprising works very well. Nicely balanced pacing with a decent ending that resolves the book well, but leaves the trilogy wanting to be explored.

76, I've still got a long way to go on Janny's Wars of Light and Shadow series but that trilogy looks like another that will eventually be added to the list.

#77 - WoLaS is superb, but as you've noticed, very long. Cycle of fire is definetly easier going. I can't really compare them until I've managed to find the rest of the trilogy though. I'm hoping the publisher will release the ebook versions as they eventually did with WoLaS.

Botany of Desire - one of Pollan's earlier works. Very good. Very readable, and interesting. from my review"Fascinating. Almost devoid of biology or gardening or horteculture, Pollan uses four humble plants almost as metaphors for exploring human interaction with science, history geography, sociology and why today's society is shaped in the way that it is"

The rights to Stormwarden and the trilogy have reverted back to me; uncertain where the future will take them, at this point. They have been released as a gorgeous new audio edition, from Audible with David Thorpe narrating - just FYI. Nice to see them being discovered.

There, see, you do have friends watching!

#79 - But this would mean that you're free to publish your own ebook edition?

#80 - it would. However: easier said than done.

To properly support such an endeavor in all formats, then deal with payment by internet/tech support for all formats/learning curve for all of the same: (have been watching the efforts of CJ Cherry/Jane Fanchur/Lynn Abbey's Closed Circle carefully -- it is not a walk in the park) - if I take this step, it will have to be done right.

I can't take the time just yet, from the contracted writing already on my desk to deal with the extra load.

A further consideration: time away from creativity detracts from same; and on the flip side of that, no other jobs are created for anyone else.

I will be thinking in terms of partnership prospects.

Meantime, what support I have is going to Audible, whose production turned out spectacularly - beyond my expectations.

The print books, last I checked, were not terribly hard to come by, if they are searched out by internet. They don't often show up used; people tend to keep them.

A wave to Reading Fox for the threadjack (it's the Fox's doing I joined LT)

For those in the US, check out Uncle Hugo's. They have a huge selection of used science fiction and fantasy and ship through Abe Books.

#81 - I definitely can see why you chose not to do it; I was just curious :D

Personally I'm a bit wary about buying ebooks. I too have been following the Closed Circle effort and that way learned that many ebook editions offered even by what you'd expect to be legitimate bookshops often are pirated, with no money going back to the author. In that case I can just as well buy an used copy, if the book isn't in print any more.

WOW--I didn't know about this pirated ebook thing.

Amazon.com is valid and safe though, yes?

Nope, and neither is Fictionwise. And it's impossible to know which editions are legitimate and which are "pirated" without asking the author.

I guess from some publishers' view they aren't pirated but the case is that earlier contracts didn't specify ebook rights, for obvious reasons, and sometimes the publisher seems to release ebooks without either informing the author or giving them their due in money. Some cases are even shadier, with books sold by places like Amazon and "published" by "ebook publishers" who doesn't have any right to any version of the text but rather seems to have scanned the book and then done enough work to make it seem legitimate enough.

I became aware of this when I asked CJ Cherryh if a specific ebook edition (that I had found, and wanted, as the original paperback was/is falling to pieces) was legitimate (at the time she was working on tracking down illegitimate editions) - she searched her files and had to answer "no". So I had to skip buying it.

I want authors to be able to keep up writing, and to do that they have to be able to pay their bills...

I agree, Busifer. I want them to get every penny that's coming to them. Now, I wish I didn't buy a Kindle.

Oh, don't wish that! I think most copies are legitimate.

I hope so. I'd hate to cheat anyone.

Well, I don't know if it will be effective but we certainly can ask Amazon if they would begin to verify the legitimacy of the books they sell for the Kindle.

Wow. That was an unexpected influx.

Ebooks - I would guess that anything offered on the main Amazon site (not resellers) or from a publishing company, would be OK. But as always its hard to tell. And Busifer makes a good point about older books, and publishers.

Janny - Waves back - did/do you get any income from the WoLaS ebooks, I know you were surprised to learn they'd been released.

My latest read was the longest crawl picked up appropriately enough at the National Winter Ales Festival, its an account by an itinerant stand-up comic of a month long pub crawl, starting in the far South of the UK in the Scilly Isles and ending up in the UK's northernmost bar in the Shetland Islands (physically closer to the nordic countries than to London). The author is very funny, knows a lot of trivia about the places he visits, and manages to keep the drukne ramblings to a minimum. It was surprisingly enjoyable all the way through without getting dull in the middle.

Waves back to Reading Fox - I have legitimate contracts with HarperCollins UK for e-rights to the series and To Ride Hell's Chasm - they ought to be legitimately available - but there's been some off again on again issues with the Kindle (US vs UK availablity) and some odd appearances and disapperances of Mistwraith.

I have had inquiries in about it for months - nearly a year? - and have no direct answers, yet. Frustration mounts...I am within a few SHORT weeks of final turn in on the current manuscript; the instant that commitment is fulfilled properly, I will pursue the question with direct urgency.

The whole storm of e rights, formats, piracy :( - yes a sad issue, it hurts BOOKS - is a tremendous undertow. The internet has opened pandora's box - immense hope for change, and a scourge of impacts. Every single author I know has been affected.

We have to create; we have to be 'business people', we have to, now, do our own publicity, AND - possibly - become techno experts, digital formatters, tech support for scads of devices that change, monthly, AND banking accountants.

And :X - my emoticon for 'authorial duct tape moment' - do this with 'professional etiquette' that in many cases means we can't speak.

It's one heckuva rollercoaster challenge!

Thank you for the integrity of the folks following YOUR forum, here for caring about the real world (cash) value of ideas. It's a breath of fresh air in a cyber world of bombardment.

I have hopes of getting back to the UK, maybe next year, and hopes, someday of visiting the Shetlands, so I will definitely look up the longest crawl to see where the best ales reside!

Oh wow. A Uk tour? book signing or pipe playing? or on holiday? It would be great to meet-up in person if the dates all work out.

:X is very important. Good emoticon!

Where the Evil Dwells by the usually excellant Simak, is rubbish. Very poor straight fantasy without anything much to recommend it. His SF work is very much better. One to avoid.

Reading Fox - the band is saving to go over - it would be for the Worlds in Glasgow, held in August. If this happens, I would shoot to make a vacation of it, too, and for the rest, maybe, publisher willing....

Shades of grey Jasper FFordes latest weird offering and the start of a new series. FForde's writing in some way reminds me of Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson does really inventive magic. Fforde does really odd worlds. Both plots roll along at speed glossing over any minor cracks that might have otherwise slipped through. This one is set in a far future (last known date 2286) "Something Has Happened" after that and humanity has changed into chromatically divided lines. People can only see 1 natural colour, although synthetic varients exist, some of which have strange properties. Our hero Eddie is 19, and a red (hence at the lower end of the spectrum of pecking orders). He visits an outlying village to earn some humility and meets a girl whom he falls in love with. She however is involved in discovering the underlying truth to their world.

Its fun. well worth reading. But very weird.

Underground England Finally finished. This was started over new year, and I've been forcing myself to read odd chapters since then. The writing is far too disjonited to sit down to for any length of time. The complete abscense of descriptions of what it is that the author is looking at very quickly annoys as well. Scattered account of a variety of tenously underground (usually manamade) features around the UK. Surprisingly dull for a subject I'd normally enjoy, especially since the author does visit some great locations. He just can't write about them.

Read two recently:

The last dragonslayer which is Fforde lastest offering and the start of another new series (his fourth) when really I'd much prefer him to finish off some of the previous three. To me this is his weakest book too which didn't help. Its definetly more YA than the others, more direct, less funny, less satirical, still fabulously inventive, but a bit mundane about it. The basic premise is Thursday next like but straight fantasy twisted rather than book/tech. A young orphan Jenny, gets promoted to the position of the Last Dragonslayer, but doesn't want to perform the role.

The Ash Spear by our own GR Grove. I didn't get on to well with the first of the series, and skipped the 2nd entirely, but was persueded to try this, the third. Definetly an improvement. 6thc Welsh historical fantasy, a young Bard is now completing his learning, and takes a tour with the Master, Talesin. The supernatural is more restrained, the action sequential and less scattered, and the characters have grown a bit too.

I'm half way thorugh Silent Spring which is still shockingly relevant almost 50 years on.

I am glad to hear Silent Spring is still a relevant read. More people should be aware of Rachel Carson's contributions to modern thinking, IMHO.

I really need to find some reviewing time! These three all need proper reviews:

Silent Spring kept the pressure on right up to the end. Really well written pop-sci biology. Kept the explanations clear, and the details sufficient and relevant. Very conclusive statements about the harm of DDT and equivalent pespticides especially when areally sprayed over large forest tracts etc. Some of the biology is possibly a little suspect now - cancer formation is more complicated the more we study - but the biggest issue is almost certainly the regulation and testing of pesticides. At the time DDT was believed safe!

Ghost of a Chance - bah no touchstone - by Rhiannon Lassiter, not any of the other 80odd books on LT with this title - ER book. Good fun. Not as YA as I'd thought. A haunted manor house in england. Told from the POV of one of the recent ghosts, and an attempt to prevent any more joining them. Not toally convincing in places, and guessable near the end, but well written and entertaining.

Galaxy Magazine 1969 Chance buy from 2nd hand book shop - complete with bookworm hole! - four short stories (complete) by Ben Bova, Larry Niven and some less famous names. All good fun for the time - although the adverts are just as enlightening! May be the best story was Niven's organleggers which was a long way ahead of its time and reminds me very much of the (false)internet memes of a couple years ago.

ETA - REVIEWS all up to date. Hurrah.

Oh, I own a stack of late 50's/early 60's Galaxy Magazine and I certainly agree about the adverts. Not to mention the cover images ;-)

Arabian Nights Guttenbrug edition. hence I've no idea how complete it is, but I suspect not very at only 222 pages. Fun but became repetitive.

In Sight of Light - a collection of caving poety. Little of it did much for me, but some pieces were quite good.

The Arabian Nights I got for Secret Santa is over 900 pages including notes. So, yeah, I'd say you got an abridged.

I know it's going to be repetitive, so it's one of the rare occasions where I own rather than borrowed the book so I can take my time.

#101 - well hopefully your copy will include all the "passages suitable only for Arabs and old gentlemen" which the 2nd translator cut out of this one. If it does I'm sure you will enjoy them. I want to know what I'm missing!

The Myriad
I now have (all?) four books of this series so I'm re-reading them in order. This is still timetravelly wierd, but kind of fun in a high octance, US centric, gung-ho kind of way. Miliatary SF at its finest. The entire attitude is best summed up by the captain's answer of what to do when you can't get your full hand out of the cookie jar - break the jar.

Oh, haven't even considered those and now I feel I'll have to add this series to my list.

Darn.
;-)

Wolf star, the 2nd in the sequence. Really good, better than the first. Manages to segue all the explanations missing from ythe first into the new timeline so that the timelines converge. Plus its exciting, and has some great reversals of fortune.

I totally loved the Myriad - and R. M. Meluch's work - all of it. She's totally under appreciated.

The characters always shine - and The Myriad made me laugh out loud more times than I can count. Her treatment of the women is amazing and fun - do give these books a try.

Its cool to see reading fox enjoying them.

Another four added to the wishlist. Thanks reading_fox and Janny. Just what I needed!

Series finished.
Sagittarius Command is possibly the weakest of the four. The Merrimack takes a combined force out to the depths of the galaxy to meet the Hive homeworld and the meglomanic Roman who lives there.

Strength and Honor The excellent concluding volume. US and Rome are at war, and it will be down to the skill, brains and thews of each side to determine who will prevail. Great ending to the series.

I really didn't expect to laugh during a Mil SF series, but Janny's quite right, Meluch is so skilled at elliciting a chuckle from the excellant characterisations.

I am wondering what Meluch will do next.

Did you ever read her more serious work, in particular, Jerusalem Fire? It is an awesome novel! One of my favorites. If you read it, give it time to wind up. Very character driven, and breathtaking for depth.

I came across Jerusalem Fire in 2008. I rated it 4.5/5 and wrote a review which leaves me almost no memories of what it was about! Maybe time to re-read, once I've worked through the TBR stack a bit. Seems I greatly enjoyed it though. I haven't come across any of her other books, but they're on my mental list of authors to watch out for.

Her other books, very sadly, are hard to get. This author deserves to be much more widely recognized. I've read all but two of her works - and the two I haven't, only because I haven't been able to acquire copies, yet.

Bad Blood - Having enjoyed the ER title, I thought I'd try another of the authors books (see the ER program works. THis was much the same as Ghost of a chance - initially very good, but as the supernatural became more prominent, the characters and story faded away. Set in the Lake District a family visit an old house to discover more than just old possessions are there. Initially the writing is superb, perfect YA horror - no gore, but lots and lots of tension. Sadly the promise is not quite forfilled in the ending, but it is very inventive.

The Sword of Shanarra and the Elfstones of Shanarra Very glad this was an elibrary eloan. It's dreck. Inventive dreck in places, but mostly just badly written dreck. nowhere near being the worst fantasy I've ever read, but often poorly imagined, with cardboard characters, and unsustainable places. This could have been held together by a dynamic plot. But it isn't. The plot drags and stutters its way on for over 1000 pages. The 2nd story is slightly better than the first, with less cardboardy characters and maybe slightly more action. Great for long journies when you need something to send you to sleep.

Ray Bradbury Stories vol 1
A long collection of short stories. Quite variable, but good in places. Some are very dated, but others still work well. Lots of Mars (with atmosphere) and jungles on Venus, but also more contemporary and even historical attempts. The series of vampire tales fit right into modern Urban Fantasy even though Ray must have written them decades ago. The biggest downside is there is little to no information about any of the tales.

Missed one: the riddle of the sands slipped in before Ray Bradbury. Again a glad it's a library book read. Not bad, but not exciting either. 1900s account of two men sailing round the sandbanks of Holland. In a small boat. Sometimes grounding and walking about over the sands (really? this didn't seem plausible to me). And trying to deduce what this big german boat was doing there at the same time.

The Crystal Shard. Fairly run of the mill, no-one ever dies, lots of swords strokes and a bit of magic fantasy. Reasonably well written with a nice twist on the Light and Dark theme.

I read The Riddle of the Sands some time ago, and promptly blocked it from my memory banks. It must have had something going for it, because I finished it, but don't remember a thing about it.

Each sentance and paragraph seemed quite interesting, but by the time I'd finsihed it, nothing really seemed to have happened. The one really exciting event - trying to get through some sandbanks in a ginat storm - was briefly mentioned in retrospect, without too much detail. Our two unassuming heros concoct various hypothesis about this big boat and it's owner. But all their investigations come ot nothing. Then the book ends.

#113 grounding and walking about over the sands

R-f, if the tide goes out like it does in southern Mozambique -- halfway to Madagascar, there, this is exactly how you cope. The sandbanks there are quite solid. But it's easy to go in to your knees in a mangrove swamp (and stink to high heaven afterwards!)

How serendipitous! Erskine Childers came up on my radar recently because I was reading about early spy stories. When you are talking about the two Dutchmen investigating a large German boat, was this in the context of espionage?

#117 - how much in the way of spoilers do you want?

They're english sailors, they just happen to be sailing around the dutch coast. I think it's the dutch coast anyway.

They think it might be espionage. They're just two chaps sailing around who notice something odd, and decide to investigate a bit further. It's nothing along the Le Carre style of espionage.

streams of Silver Continuing Drizzit's adventures. This time the dwarf wants to go home, but after 200 years hasn't yet learnt that home is where your heart is, not where your father decieded to run away from.

They do have a good RPG feel to them, but are probably only recommended to RPG fans!

The Halfling's Gem the end of the trilogy. Best o the bunch as well. More character development, better balanced action sequences and generally better written all around. Still fairly avergae fantasy fun, but worht reading if you've ever played midlevel ADnD, or enjoy RPGs in general.

Good weekend of reading had!

Raw Spirit - Iain Banks's non-fiction account of him (and wife and a few friends) driving around Scotland when he felt like it, trying lots of whisky. Way too much driving related stuff for me. A bit on whisky is sometimes interesting, and lots of personal anecdotes fro those who want to know more about him. Overal not my cup of tea.

Destroyer
Yay. Back into the Foreigner universe. This is #7 of the series and the start of the previous trilogy, it seemed like a reasonable run-in to the latest books. Bren is back form space but while he's been away the Mainland has fallen into disarray, with an attempted coup. Bren deos very little in this book, and spends a lot of time thinking. But its still engaging if a little slow at times. A good re-introduction to the series though.

Destroyer is not my favourite Foreigner - not to say I didn't like it, because I did - and the main reason is it's about 400 pages of "everything is my fault". Felt a bit too self-centred ;-)

I don't know how you feel about it but every time I start reading in this universe I kind of get stuck there - even when I put away a book I get dragged back and it takes some severe determination to get on to other books.
Strange, because on the surface they feel kind of lightweight (and not too well edited or proofed) but they manage to grow on me.

reading_fox, have you read any of Iain Banks fiction? B&N is offering one of his sci fi books for $.99 this month and I am wondering if I should download it onto my developing TBR pile in the Nook.

*tip-toes in*
I have. Which one is it? They're kind of special but I do like them/those that I've read.

#123 - Maggie, I've read the first three of his SF. It was sufficient for me to foreswear reading anymore at all, and only his reputation amoung trusted friends and the very different subject matter persueded me to try this one. Quite simply some of the worst SF I've had to put up with, and quickly became some of the only books I've ever purged from my shelves. Consider Phlebas got a full review, but the others were before I started reviewing. They're technically well written, (unliek the very worst of SF) but very badly plotted. It's an imaginative world he could have done so much with, but didn't. On a bad day even the title annoys me. I know a lot of people really like them. But I didn't. AT $.99 it might be worth trying. I will try his non-SF when I can find a free copy at the library, but I'm in no rush to do so.

ETA because I hit enter too soon.:
Busifer - I've found no editing/proofing errors, but I agree with the stickiness of the universe! Especially when I read multiple chunks of the series in sucession.

Foreigner: Yes - ESPECIALLY when reading chunks!

And re: Banks - With his books it is love or hate, I think. To me there's something in the tone of voice that I find addictive, so much so that a lot of things that might bug me otherwise just turn invisible.

Ah, you two have provided me with a fine delimma! What to do, what to do? I guess at $.99 with no shipping it might be worth just giving it a try. Thanks for sharing your thinking about Banks.

Actually, after having realised that it's Consider Phlebas they offer I'm not so sure... It's his first SF and it's very bleak, not to mention gory. For some reason I enjoyed it but I did think some parts were just... ewww.

I'd start with Look to Windward, I think, as there's no real reason to read them in order (except there's an extra dimension to the ending of Surface Detail if you have read Use of Weapons).

Thank you, Busifer, I will pass on this book. I've got enough eeww in RL these days, blood, gore, violence, dreary drama, tragedy, all these and more just in the daily news. Ballderdash! I am sick of all those.

I don't just read fluff, but I really don't need more bleak and gory.

That was what I thought. I really don't think Consider Phlebas a "necessary" book...

Thank goodness for long bus journies. Pretender didn't take long at all. One of the more obvious titles to interpret, but one of the better books of the series. A lot more action, and less introspection compared to above, but also a great deal of clarifying the Atevi customs. A strong ending which is a little unusual in this series.

I too think Pretender one of the better. Especially when Tano & Algini blow the floor out of that room in Tirnamardi, and when Algini calls Bren "aiji-ma". And Tabini on the engine. And the Dowager. Of course.

Deliverer is not at as good, IMHO. But the latest story arc is back to good again. Also IMHO.

I liked deliverer - possibly more than Pretender I think. There is more action, Bren is involved rather than just a passenger, Cajeiri works well as a new character with a voice of his own. Looking forward to the unique experience of reading the next two for the 1st time!

Perhaps I need to reread Deliverer ;-)

I don't think I've ever read CJ Cherryh. I do own Foreigner and it is in my tbr pile.

She's one of my favourite authors, much thanks to 'Fox who told me I ought to try Foreigner. It should be said, though, that the first book is somewhat weaker than the others in the series (not to mention a looong "intro", before the real story begins).

And I do know people who enjoy her other SF but who don't like Foreigner as much (or at all).
I, however, enjoy both flavours :)

Cherryh is a favored author for me. I haven't all of her various series, but I remember being blown away by her book Hunter of Worlds because of the fantastic aliens. And I think Downbelow Station is equally good.

I really love the Company War books (of which DownBelow Station is the first). Perhaps each of them on their own aren't that special but together they weave one grand story. Or rather - paint one grand universe.
Not to mention the Chanur novels...

I can't remember where I first came across Cherryh. I think I read heavy time or hellburner (the first of the Alliance/Union universe books of which the Company War is a prt) as a young teanager from the library, and made a mental note to read the rest of her work as I came across it. SHe deos write the most believable aliens I've come across - and yet manages to work it into a human context so very well. Many of the books are about how we cope with change or strangers. I'm particularly impressed with her short fiction as well, not something that many novel length authors can do. As always not every book is a perfect hit, but none of them are bad.

Conspirator Finished in a weekend with lots of reading. Somewhat similar to Deliverer - The first half is slow civilised Bren getting used to things, and then one sudden action halfway through and everyone is scrambling to try and bring things back under control. The voice of Cajeiri continues to work very well. Given that Cherryh is childless, she's captured the thoughts and emotions of being young very ver well indeed, and this isn't the only exmaple of it in her writing.

Deceiver Not my favourite - too much politics early on which means the eventual action is abandoned midway through. I'm going to have to wait ages before finding out what happened. Does have some good scenes in it, but too much confusing politics (and I generally like politics) for my taste.

Naming the bones an ER title. Not too impressed with, tried far too hard to be literary without achieving it, and spoilt what could have been a halfway decent thriller instead. An Eglish Lit professor investigates the old death of young scottish poet, who turns out to have had connections with current figures in his department. It all gets a bit unbelievable. Plus the grimy literary air didn't really bring any joy to the reading.

Hi -- I see on another thread that you're enjoying stories of general cycling. If you can find a copy, you might like Blazing Saddles by James Clarke (not to be confused with a gazillion others of the same title by other writers). This one is about a group of six retired newspapermen who explore Darkest Europe by bicycle. Clarke insists on leading and navigating, with predictable results as he can't read a map. Their scrapes are frequently hilarious.

#142- thanks.
The Bicycle book wsn't as brilliant as it started out. Bella Bathurst's writing remained light hearted and captivating throughout, but my trust for her as an "ordinary cyclist" was seriously dimished when she handbuilt her own frame! (I'm sure the book was an idea to finance this). The several long chapters on racing didn't help either. Enjoyable, but only for more committed cyclists rather than everyone.

play to kill
Latest in the series of computer geek police procedural crime thrillers. ABout par witht he rest of the series, a good idea, not too badly implimented with some special characters. A serial killer is posting videos on the web, but he's sufficiently tech savy that the cops have to resort to more traditoanl methods to find him. This does stretcht he belivability of the tech wizards a bit. The interpersonal stuff is again somewhat on the limits, and doesn't integrate that well with the rest of the story or series.

City and the City Over-hyped. This is nothing special. It's a noir style urban SF crime story. The scenary is sort of the point. Unfortunetly the dual city concept isn't that well handled and it's never explained properly. Much much more accessible than Perdido Street Station it is, alas, also much less bold in scope, and less rich in detail. Wave without a shore is a much much better version of the same idea.

A few days away from keyboard certainly helps get through some books:

Evil Genius - No touchstone - by Patrica Rice, as opposed to all the other works of the same name, (surely authors google their proposed titles first?)

AN ER book, by a historical romance author. Fortunetly this is a break in genre and neither historical nor that much of a romance. Good fun romp. High tech computer stuff in a US politics with a wacky family to boot. light hearted but completely enjoyable. SOmething like a modern female equivalent of james bond. With siblings.

photo finish nothing at all to do with racing. An e-library loan, apparently 4th in the detective series, but as there is no character development it probably doens't matter much. I found it hard to work out when this was set, but it is placed in a NZ island. An opera singer is found murdered, and as no-one can get off the island the number of suspects is limited.

the lost continent One of Bill' early works. The sarcasm works for the first coupel of paragraghs before it becomes wearying. Despite the occasional references to british culture (where he'd spent the last few decades living) this probably appeals more to americans who have lived in the areas he describes. I certainly found the bits I'd visited the most interesting of the book. The forward to thunderbolt kid his 1950s memoirs seemed the best bit of the book.

double comfort safari club I was going ot stop buying these, because they'd all blurred into one another. But I found this one going cheap. It's a book or two later on than when I last read any, but it hasn't made any difference. It is still a charming read, delightful even. Nothing much happens, Mma Ramotswe talks to some people and they confess. The pround secretary gets more of a part to play as her fiancee gets his leg amuptated following an accident. Even this can't put dampers on the cheer.

146> I'm just reading Double Comfort Safari Club too. All the Mma Ramotswe books are "double comfort" aren't they? Not memorable but comfortable.

#147, yep.

City of Bones many books by thisname, but this is the YA Mortal Instruments series. I was quite impressed by this. There is only so much variation one can squeeze into the urban fantasy genre, but Clare did quite well, and managed to write some fun characters as well. The writing overal is much better than many urban fantasy and YA books out there with a few themes suitable for all ages to enjoy slipping in. I'll be hunting out the sequels.

the best of Gerald Durrell

Hardback with photos. Lovely book. Real life charm as wonderfull as anything McCall Smith makes up, but it's all true. A selection from GD's 40! books chosen by his wife. Almost a biography of Gerald's life, written by himself over many different books. Wonderfully warming stories of animals, and highlights Gerald's lifelong concern about conservation. Could have been a great deal longer.

Swildon's Hole

The definitive guide to one of Mendip (and probably the UK)'s most favourite caves, visited by hordes every weekend, most of whom see very little of the complete system. This book shows just how little of the cave I've been to! Clear prose, good descriptions, lots of survey excerpts and a pullout full survey too. Severla years hard work by the authors and vast team of contributors, including notes form the original discoveres 100 years ago. Some truly epic trips and hardships that these days are scarsely contemplated.

Blacklands A chance pick-up from the ebook library. Really quite good. Set in my parent's neck of the woods which helps. It's about a young boy, steven living in one of the isolated villages down in SW england. Very very scenic, but absolutely nothing to do. His parent just about makes ends meet, but the family ethos has long been destroyed by the loss of his uncle billy, murdered by a paedophile many years ago. Steven's nan has never really got over this, especially as the body was never found. Steven thinks his whole life could be improved if he has a 'proper' family - and so writes to the killer, in jail, asking for him to reveal the body's location. Obviously the killer isn't too keen on this, but can't help responding to a young boy.

A 1-day read of the immortal life of henrietta lacks - 6 hours on the train makes this easy.

Enjyable, well presented, but it isn't really about science, and I feel the 'controversy' is somewhat artificial. Yes the family were badly treated - mostly the invasion of privacy by releasing their details - but that is all there is to it, everything else is routine. I was surprised by the living conditions in what I think of as 'modern' 50s america.

reading_fox, it was those "living conditions" in the south that brought so many northern kids (like me) to support the whole Civil Rights Movement with the bus boycotts and the marches and the rest. Which, in my mind, led to the anti-war movement, the women's liberation movement, and the environmental movement. We were busy in the 1960s and 1970s. The attitudes of the Lacks family I think reflects some of that cultural milieu, especially the attitudes of the youngest son of Henrietta.

#153, it is intersting to find out these details. In the UK sometimes I think we just import such movements from the US a few years later.

City of Ashes continuation of the Mortal Insttruments series. Remain really quite good YA, urban fantasy. Sort of liek a cross between Harry Potter and Harry Dresden - but with a teenage girl as the heroine. I've not read twilight, but it doesn't quite have the same problems that I've heard about. The writing is good the tension between the characters works well, as does the world. The authors managed to keep internal consistency going (well up until the end anyway). Fun.

City of Glass - very dissappointing ending to the series. All the originallity has gone, and we're left with a mundane and mostly predictable finish. Kids turn out to have superpowers overcome big baddy before the world gets eaten, all the romance suddenly works out and everyone live happily forever. Boring. The first two were so much better.

Finished the life and times of the thunderbolt kid Which was much better (although shorter) than I expected. Bryson's autobiography of growing up in 50s america. Real insights into the Golden Age, that we in the UK didn't have, and can only imagine through films. I've never really believed it was real but Bryson portrays it complete with all the joys of washing machines and cars, kids running riot in department stores, and a decade without worry. Probably most intersting for those who were there at the time, but definetly also worth reading for those of us who never knew it at first hand.

The contrast between this and Hela is very profound.

Ah, yes, the 1950s: The golden era that really wasn't

Bryson really does portray it as a golden age. I'm going to be rude, and assume you lived through it (unlike me), hence I can ask: What you didn't find golden about it?

Yes, being born in 1944...

Post World War II many many men were "mustered out" of the armed forces and had to look for work. High unemployment. Women were kicked out of jobs to give the jobs to the men who were "heads of the household". Big myth of perfect family with husband working, wife home all the time, made many many people quite miserable. Lots of emphasis on conformity. There were books published later which pointed out how being a corporate man might not serve everyone well - The Man in The Gray Flannel Suit

Politically, there was the Hollywood black listing of people suspected of being "reds". Huge anti-communist movement. Teachers were asked to sign "loyalty oaths" or they lost their jobs. McCarthy hearings.

And that is just all off the top of my head. With a little research I am sure I can find other issues. The beginnings of the civil rights movement.

Thanks! That's interesting about the family and life not being so rosy.

The concluding chapters mention that the boom years did fade quite hard into the early 60s- once everyone already had a dishwasher and a car etc, culture changed and people had to work and earn in order to pay for the next best gadgets that they wouldn't need if they weren't working so hard.

Bryson does mention the 'Red' issue, but seemed to imply it wasn't an issue out in DesMoines and the central states.

#159 - This is much as I have understood the situation; as it is taught in Sweden.

In many ways I think the label of Golden Age is much more appropriate on post-war Sweden because while much of the rest of the world recovered from the war effort Swedish businesses flowed into the void created by the absence of the former market superpowers, flowering. It resulted in women starting to get a real footing into the labour market, an inflood of imported work force, some of which "economic refugees" from the European ruins.

#160 - Perhaps it was that the Bryson family kept clear from politics, and didn't knew any Commies, because I have a hard time imagining that some states or areas would had been exempt from what in effect was national policy, enforced...

Well, some will have you believe that the "liberals" in the US of A tend to live either on the east coast or on the west coast and that the great middle is very conservative, or at least moderate in their views. It might be true that the was not much in the way of "red baiting" in the middle states; certainly there was not much of it in the South, cuz it would have gotten you lynched if you were a liberal, not even to mention a socialist or communist. Even today, the accusation of socialist or communist is poison in the political waters.

But I'd better stop...I don't want to get into political or religious discussions here. If you want more chatter about this we can move it to Outside.

#162 - I don't mind on my reading thread! I'm sure historical politics isn't as contentious as modern day discussions.

Meanwhile
The Devil's Mask and ER book. Meh. Historical fiction, but nothing special one way or the other. Some details of life in the 1800s but not much, didn't care for the characters or the plot. readable - I've had worse, but not recommended either.

Side Jobs

I've been wanting to read this for ages. Especially after I read changes and the excruiating ending there. No relief is forthcoming unfortunetly. This collection of short stories works very well, and should be a must for anyone who had read the rest of the series. It doesn't move the main series plot along at all, but it does give some more background to a lot of the characters. Only Molly gets short change. Some good excerts from Harry's early days, and also viewpoints of what it's like for those supporting characters who aren't blessed with Harry's abilities.

The best women's travel writing 2009

Another library ebook - glad I didn't buy it. It wasn't bad, but not as interesting as I thought it could be. Most of the pieces were too short, either extracts from longer works, or taken from blog posts and the like. Some of them were interesting, but I didn't get on with them all. The US centric cultural assumptions grated a bit sometimes too. Probably worth reading (this or any in the annual series) if you are a frequent traveller or are planning a trip abroad alone, but otherwise it's nothing special.

Uh oh. First unfinshed. Classic Mystery and Detective stories touchstone about correct ish. I don't know how well combined the series is

Turgid and dull with no mystery and even worse no detectives. Dickens's entry was just about readable. They went downhill after that.

Vikram and the Vampire 1900s translation of ancient indian fairy tales in the mode of 1001 nights et al. Vaguely interesting for the insights into that culture - but the leap from established western norms makes it a bit hard to follow characters motivations in places. It's still very purple prose as the 1900s seems to favour, which makes it hard going in places, though not as bad as the previous book I read. Not recommended unless you're into that sort of thing.

re #158. Didn't find a damn thing golden about the 50s. It's nostalgia carried to extremes by people who ought to know better.

#168 - hfglen started a new thread to discuss this further. also in GD reading Bryson's book, it is very clear that to him it definetly was a golden time of his and his parents' life, and not just nostalgia. However both on this thread and the other one many people have had different experiences. I am interested to hear you found life then - what you wish to share at any rate.

four quarters of light a dissappointing blend of intersting travel writing about life in extreme conditions mixed up with some truly confusing spiritual claptrap. Neither the author, his practitioners or the reader gains any clear insight into what he experienced, or what it 'means'. the conclusion that it meant nothing at all, and the author misunderstood the world around him seem inevitable, if a bit harsh. The descriptions of the alaskan natives and how they cope with life in those harsh conditions were quite good. Some of the wildlife he saw seems very remarkable too.

#169 If you were a white man with money, I'm sure it was a golden time. We were poor. We did have indoor plumbing, but no hot water heater, and had to heat water on a coal stove. We used coal to heat the house so had to wake at 3am to restoke the heater in winters which were brutal in the Pennsylvania mountains.

There was bullying and physical punishment in schools. There was screaming and shouting at you in school. My aunt was beaten regularly and soundly by my often drunken uncle and of course she wasn't allowed to leave hiim.

Black lung disease from working the mines was rampant. Most folks couldn't afford much in the way of health care. The mines paid horribly as did most places. My father was fired when the men in his company (they did road work) tried to institute a union to try to get decent pay.

I was told I had to be cheating when I scored best in math because, of course, girls couldn't do math.

I should say we, at least, always had food and shelter.

Majkia, I know what you mean. My circumstances included my single mother trying to hold it together while working at a minimum wage job. Neither her ex-husband nor her nearly grown son could stick around to help financially. It was just the two of us, with help from her mother, against the world. I was fortunate in that we lived in a nice city, near the university, and I was able to attend on money granted to me by the federal government paid to "war orphans". She also in the end remarried a retired Army colonel and the two of them had about 8 years together with sufficient money. But her entire life before then was poor, and poorer.

Finished The way of the Kings Again a long train journye really helps. This is a LONG books. But It's Brandon so it's also a fast one! Inventive as ever (much better than Warbreaker). He has descended into Epic Fantasy and the multi-character viewpoint never really works for me. Althgh I liek the way he's used the same style as Janny's Mistwraith series with interjections at Section breaks to create short snippits of important info elsewhere in the world. Brandon take note - Janny does it with a paragraph or two per snippit. All Epic fantasy fans should read it- and as such books go it isn't yet very dark.

Full review and thoughts are too long for one post, so they're here

I might need to give Brandon a second chance - I haven't touched anything from him since my disappointment over Hero of Ages, and everyone continues to talk well about his other books... and I never did dislike his writing :)

#173 - IIRC you didn't like all the religion/moralising in HoA. This is also present in WoK although Brandon hasn't yet forcefed us the answers. There is a strong athiest character, who present some reasonable challenges to the authodoxy. But I'm a bit suspicious of how it's all goign to play out. Might be worth trying as a library book. It's a bit big to commit to if you're unsure!

Pet Noir ER - Ebook collection of short stories featuring Leon, a genetically enhance kitty (thumbs and speech) who is brought onto a spacestation to help with their security problems. Doesn't really work as the cat side isn't well expressed, and he acts a lot more like a permently hungry human than an intelligent cat. Kind of fun in places, and each story is short.

#173 - Thanks, I'll see if I can find it at the library, then!

Back to epic fantasy with the painted man (and BAH to publishers who can't manage to keep a title consistent around the world). Debuet novel that I'd heard of a few times around LT. Pretty good but not perfect - follows three characters who grow up in different small villages surrounding big cities, in world where demons rise from teh core every night. Only strong wards can prevent them, and the strongest wards were lost a long time ago. Fairly typical medieval style setting otherwise. The first 2/3 feel very much like rusalka life in the villages really isn't the idyllic pastoral community that it is sometimes portrayed as! the last third is devoted to the various characters overcoming their fears, and doesn't work so well because they change to suddenly. The rest of the series holds promise though.

Tales for Canterbury

Superb. First class collection of speculative fiction short stories. Created as a fundraising effort ofr the victims of the christchurch earthquake, this is such an enjoyable anthology that it is worth buying in it's own right anyway. 34 very varied, very short stories, on the themes of Survival, Hope and Future. Not a clunker amoung them, a few are outstanding while the rest are 'merely' good. Features Zombies, spaceships, animals, fairy tales and legends. Heartily recommend this to everyone.

My review is HERE

and you can buy the book from RandomStatic publishing either as a paperback or ebook from HERE

one of our thursday is missing

Madcap and fun - not laugh out loud continuously fun - but fun enough that from time to time you will cause heads to turn as you read it! Thursday next is missing, but fortunetly there are other copies of her around, one of whom tries to find her, whilst attempting to avoid the cheese smugglers, avert a genre war, preserve the supply of Metaphor and cope or deal with the everpresent Goliath Corporation and the feared Men in Plaid (pst it's tartan)! Surreal as you'd expect it to be, a worthy continuation of the series - you do really need to have read the other books first.

Made to be broken OK ish. Wasn't totally convinced. I'm unsure whether this is better or worse than her supernatural stuff. There's no gratuitous descriptive sex in there, although the 'love triangle' does get shoved in and feels very contrived. The basic idea remains interesting and there is scope for more in the series, but maybe not that much more! Nadia should have been a lot mroe concerned about mixing her 'normal' life with her assassin role, so i suspect all the "drama" we will get in the future will be predictable about what man she ends up with.

The Ambassador's mission Ok. Back in the High lord's world. set 20 years on from the main series, this just about works even if aspects of the plot seem somewhat re-used. I like Trudi's writing without ever being over awed by it. It's fun without too much in the way of depth, even when she's trying to introduce some darker themes. Drug sellers from a new country are creeping around the city using magic. Sonea gets to investigate. meanwhile her now adult son does the Ambassador stuff and hooks up with the Women's Sachean tribe that was forcibly stuffed into the prequel. It works much better here as part of the main plot.

The name of the wind -too long. Not too long like The Way of Kings, where a few bits might be cut maybe, but too long like Deathly Hallows - quite a bit of plot ought to have been cut. But other than that it was a great read, interesting characters, fairly standard but well thought out world (even if not described in much detail). I thought the voice of a precocious 15 yr old failry belivable - technically good, but still very naive especially around girls. Somewhat annoying ending where the present voice story is lost in the incomplete childhood tales.

I totally loved the opening chapters of that book - when it switched in flashback to first person, for me, it lost something....had no trouble reading it through - but I am truly waiting to see whether the complete series delivers that more mature promise shown at the start.

Another book with a simialr issue - superb start, let down by the drawn out plot through the rest of it - terminal world. Reynolds is one of my favourite authors, he has written some stunningly imgainative sf, deep dark and gritty. This isn't one of them. The inital premise is good, but id trails off dissapointingly. I don't know if it si the set up for a series, or merely rushing to meet a deadline, but it doesn't compel anything like the rest of his work. What's worse is that much is unexplained - Reynoldsis normally very clever at letting you know how the universe operates, but in this one you are left with te speculations of a character who can't know the details, and thats it. Dissappointing without actaully being bad.

The Cobra Very very poor from Frederick Forsyth who has written some excellant books. This sin't one of them, being a very weak attempt at overseeing the war of drugs. It contains a lot of factual errors, leading to doubts about all the ones I don't already know as being wrong. The plot is shaky, the characters dull and flat. About the only thing going for it is that the english is gramatically ok.

Hat full of Sky as a re-read so that I can fully understand Tiffany before Wintersmith and I shall wear Midnight - a very un-pTerry title!

Although marketed as YA diskworld, the only way these are any different from the normal tales is that the plot is more one directional (and they have chapters). The themes are as dark and complex as ever - what it takes to be a 'good' person in a world that is largely indifferent to you. The use of power and onus of responsability. Hardly light topics! But well presented in humerous manner, with my favourite characters.

Wintersmith yeah ok continuation of Tiffany's story. She's learning more magic, but still young and impetuous and makes a mistake - that attracts the powerful Winter elemental to her. This takes some getting rid of!

But definetly the highlight is I shall Wear Midnight which is superb. pTerry at his very best. It is not a funny book. It is dark and in places disturbing. As ever with pTerry's best stuff it casts a sharp light on contmporary life. How he's managed to capture the life of a teenager so well is a wonder. I suspect not everyone will like this - but I find it one of the best works he has written. Full Review

Fire Sanctuary now the second book I've bought from this author after winning an ER copy. More complex politics on a radioactive planet. Rather inventive and good fun, light romance and soft SF.

Crown Conspiracy another LT author self published fantasy. It's ok. A pair of thieves get caught with a dead king at their feet. They are helped to escape providing they take the crown prince with them, who decides he wants his kingdom back. Cue evil churchmen; greedy uncles; pretty women; old sorcerors; a bit of sword play; cunnign dwarves, all it really needs is a big fire breathing dragon. The Smashwords EPub is really badly formatted which was annoying. It kept changing font for no reason.

Been in touch with Michael Sullivan of CC above, who has kindly sent me a decently formatted copy, blaiming the Smashwords Meatgrinder engine for the errors. All his ebooks are available through his website without the smashwords problems - and he now has a publshing deal with Orbit, so will be professionally released soon. Good news for him!

Our kind of traitor

Not one of le Carre's best, but better than some. Perry and Gail are on a tennis holiday when they get caught up with a Russian baron looking to defect to the UK. As usual there are interagency squabbles to sort out! Good characterisation but weka plotting (the reverse of his earlier works) make it an interesting but short and ultimately unrewarding read. very cynical but without the evidence to back it up - only one side of the story is told. Fun though.

*tiptoes in to de-lurk temporarily*

Hello there, reading_fox! :*)
Even though I haven't contributed to your thread, just wanted to say I've been following it with avid interest, lurking or otherwise! :O)

Also, *hugs* for your comment & interest in My Reading Thread and adding a splash of sunshine my way!

Much Bliss & Purrs,
~Pandora~

HI to all the lurkers! Comments always welcome. *hugs* too if you want one!

Another train journey, another book finished.
Starfarers Picked up as a free ebokk from BookViewCafe. Somewhat surprised at just how much fun this was. Really good beginning to a soft SF series. It felt very much like Greg Bear's eon although there are some major differences. But unlike Bear, it had personable characters which sparkled with life. And the socio-political history hadn't dated quite as badly. Will almost certainly appeal to anyone who like the lablit style of Julie Czerneda. Planned star mission in vast spinning cyclinder gets some governemtn interferance before it can proceed on it's way. Scientists rise to the challenge. The genetically altered humans make great bit parts along the way, and I hope they'll feature in the rest of the series.

I enjoyed Starfarers as well! Lots of food for thought in it. And female heroes!

I've got a copy of Starfarers but haven't read it yet. Looking forward to trying it.

What does lablit mean?

#192- Lablit - not this time, one of my mistypings! is laboratory literature, a sub-genre (or tag) of science fiction, which features actual scientists as the heros, rather than as the nerd providing the hero with a clue, or the mad ones boiling noxious green stuff in tubes and planning to blow up the world. In Julie's Species Imperative the heroine is a biologist studying the migration patterns of sea-trout. Here SD Sauvage is again a biologist investigating the ocra populations.

Valley of shadows very unbelievable attempt at a thriller. I'm sure it will make a good holywood film with a rough tough hero, takes on the world, and no consequences. But it just doesn't work as a book. Full of plot holes, trite characters, and implausible scenarios. Oh well, it was a free ER title, and they can't all be winners.

Two more short books. And some downtime to read them in.

Birds beasts and relatives the 2nd book of Gerry's life as a boy on Corfu in the years before WWII. Almost as good as the first, very funny in many places and gently charming throughout. Anyone who has read my family and other animals should read this.

Encounters with animals more Gerrald Durrell, not at his best, but still pretty good. Lots and lots of anecdotes but many of them I've read before. Good for someone who has only read one or two of Gerald's other books,

Ah, need to put Starfarers on my list! Thanks for the tip :)

Busifer - yes I think you'll like this. I have the rest of the quartet now, so I'll see how the series progresses.

Just finished Progeny
By GD's own RT Kaelin. Pretty promising, but definetly needs some more editing before it is properly polished. The inital section (ie the bit that any potential reader will judge the work on) is unfortunetly the worst! But once you've got past that it picks up quite nicely. Fairly standard kids discover they're fated to save the world type plot, but it is a well imagined world, nice mix of 'standard' races and inventive new ones. A few bits of clever plotting to get around some of the more likely problems and a decent pitched battle - something a few authors struggle with. Hopefully the sequels will have most of the edit problems ironed out.

Full review Here With a link to a discussion thread

Changes So intense, so thrilling, and the ending. Even though I knew it was coming! Argh.

Fortunetly I have Ghost STory ready to hand, one of the reasons I love ebooks.

Harry comes back from the dead to haunt chicago and face the consequences of his actions, even though he can't touch anything, he can still try and save his friends from the choices he and they made. Much much slower than Changes (hey it couldn't be any more intense) this still works very well, with a lot of clever plotting. You need to be well aware of the rest of the series. Full review - this has mild spoilers for Changes, not so much for Ghost Story itself.

Starfarers Quartet being the follow on to Starfarers only a few weeks ago. It impressed me so much I rushed out to get the rest of the series. While these are good, they ar enowhere near as good as the original. I think some of the characters that made the first so good fade into the background in place of somewhat more orthodox (boring) ones. Crimson Ng's art project did have me enthralled all the way through though.

probably a cocktail dress over here in US,

#200?? Thanks, I'm sure it's a helpful answer to a question, but a reminder as to which question would be useful?!

Domina ER book. Very sgort at 50 pages which I'd normally feel a little cheated at, but this was so bad I'm glad it was only that long. I nearly put it down after only 10 pages. There were 5 readable pages in the middle, that just about persuaded me to keep going. Literary comicbook just ins't a style thats ever gonig to work for me. Especially pretentious overblown purple literary prose with a badly over exagerated superhero.

Avempartha the names only get worse as the series progresses. Otherwise it's a perfectly fine light fantasy, very similar in some ways to Progeny. This is the 2nd in the series and our thieves are stealing another sword from a different tower and things don't go smoothly this time either, although they do manage to avoid getting arrested, but I'm not sure they prefer being dragon fodder.

Nyphron Rising continuing the Rivia Revalations. A bit of clunky start but quickly picks up pace. Good fun light fantasy, obvious heros and villains, but at least the heros have a few doubts about themselves.

Polar City Blues = SF from someone I'd thought solely a fantasy author. I've not yet managed to find the start of any of her fantasy series, but this was pretty good. SF crime Noir with telepathic baseballers and a few aliens and AIs. Good fun worked well enough, written in a slightly dispassionate third person voice which was odd at times.

Anyone got any recommendations where best to start with Kerr's other work?

>204 reading_fox:: Palace is a cyberpunk-type SF thriller, I really enjoyed it but the sequel is very hard to find. The only place to start reading the Deverry series is at the start, with Daggerspell; it's about 15 books long though so you may not want to go there! Snare is a stand-alone but I didn't like it - seem to remember it being very predictable with cardboard characters (odd, because I haven't had this problem with the other books of hers I've read). Her newest work is urban fantasy, looks pretty typical so haven't tried it as that stuff is not my cup of tea.

Polar city blues is still on my tbr pile, getting nearer the top . . . It does have a sequel.

Hope this is helpful!

#205 thanks! More titles to look out for.

The terrene chronicles being our RT Kaelin's short stories, set in the same world as Progeny. The first two trilogies were OK, nothing special and didn't add much to the world - but distinctly better than the opening of Progeny. The last set however was much more interesting - three stories featuring the Orcs and Razorfiends, their tribal cultures and how they interacted with each other and the humans. Better plotting more interesting and varied characters, imaginative and just generally enjoyable.

Emerald Storm and Wintertide by M Sullivan. The 4th and 5th instalments of his planned 6 book series. Getting better as it goes along. Wintertide is a praticularly good book, lite fantasy (but darker than Progeny). Lots of intrigue trust and betrayl, some fun characters forced to make difficult choices. With (always an added bonus) an enemy who is genuinally clever and as good at setting traps as the heros are at solving them. Anyone can be a bad guy through sheer might, but it takes something a bit more special to use that might cleverly. I'm not sure the conclusion will be as good - it's looking a bit predictable from here.

204 - I read the first 8 of the Deverry books (2 series of 4 books each) and felt it came to a nice conclusion. I didn't even know there were more Deverry books until just recently. I loved the reincarnation aspect of these books and these are my favorite by Kerr.

Polar City Blues was a fun sci fi mystery but I didn't like the sequel at all. Didn't even finish it. But PCB has a nice conclusion and is fine as a stand alone IMHO.

Freeze Frame I seem to remember as being more like four connected short stories, sci fi, that weren't bad. But I don't remember what the connection was. Snare I don't remember too well either, but I remember enjoying both these books well enough.

worth dying for

Read over a long festival / train journey / stuck in stations. Don't remember vast amounts, but it seemed better than 61 hours. Lots of driving around in circles, and somewhat foreced technical explanations - not quite sure how these didn't feel as natural as in the early books.

Pegasus

Wonderful, lyrical enchanting and imgainative all the way through to dirty great rock of a cliffhanger dumped in the middle of the duology. I want the sequel NOW! more than I wanted ghost story. now now now now. I was aghast at how this ended, after the delicious build up, all the way through a young princess growing up with her speical Pegasus, to discovering that her perfect world maybe (might) have a rotton core. but we won't know unless Mckinley writes the sequel. Argh. As ever full review

Don't read this book ... yet. Wait for the sequel and read them both together.

Pegasus is one of two McKinley books I haven't read yet and was thinking of reading soon. Thanks for the warning. Do you know when the sequel comes out?

#210 - 2012 is as close as I know, I guess it's probably the later half rather than the front end, but we'll just ahve to wait and see. Her blog is quite amusing if not very helpful.

cold granite
Aberdeen based police procedural. Very realistic characters, alternating between grim scenes (really quite grim) and humerous banter between colleagues. Very impressed, plot roles along at speed, sufficiently beliveable red herrings are brought up, thrown out, re-examined and eventually the real culprit determined. Quite hard to pin down why this felt more realistic than many other such similar novels, somethign about the pacing of events and the character interactions. One or two are somewhat overdone, but the rest are very good.

The Logan McRae series is one I've been meaning to get to and have the first two books sitting on the tbr shelves. It's good to see another positive recommendation and good review for it though. Thank you.

#211, I loved Cold Granite I agree that it did seem more realistic that most, glad you liked it...I can't wait to read the others in the series (but I try to go slow, don't want to finish the series too soon)

#211 - Thanks for the heads up about McKinley's blog. I've started reading it from the beginning and am enjoying the peek into her life. Love reading about her hellhounds.

#214 from the beginning?!! wow, that's a lot of reading to catch up on! I've just signed up to the forums - you can't comment on the blog itself. I'm reading_fox there too.

Macbride was recommended to me by the 2nd hand bookseller at the market. I was somewhat dubious, as they're so often just trying to shift stock and had no idea about my reading tastes. But i'll certainly go back and see if he has the rest of the series.... where does my loyalty lie? to the author or the bookseller? hmm

Terribilis - ER title. not impressed. Good idea, but not thought through properly, which was the same with the characters. Could have been good, but wasn't. Biotech professor goes mad and tries to kill his ex-wife with a frog venom. However disguising it in heroin is just silly, and it gets worse from there. The unbelivable cop doesn't help, nor does the sex starved ex-wife.

#215 - Lol. Yes, I'm anal that way. I don't want to miss anything. I've just signed up on the forum as well, as sandragon, but I don't think I'll make my way into it for a while. I'm just happy reading old blog posts for the moment.

Beholder's Eye Another superb soft SF from Julie. Shapechanging alien with all the biology and physics correct (but not emphasied). Some innate behaviors of the species, and some cultural ones that need to be learned. Close family ties and danger when something comes from outer-space. Really good read all the way through, especially for anyone who apprecites well-written aliens. Will definetly seek out the rest of this series.

T is for Trespass shortly followed by U is for Undertow

T was a re-read and it hasn't improved much, this is just middling along Kinsey - worth it if you've read the others, but nothing much.

U is a little better, but again nowhere near the highlight of the series. Grafton keeps playing with different writing styles, introducing flashabacks or cut scenes from the villains point of view. IMHO none of these have ever worked, Kinsey is enjoyable for her deductive skills and up-front personality. Anything that takes the reader away from that is a distraction. In U she does very little at all, and it's all solved by the villains giving the game away at the end while Kinsey is still joining up the dots.

A short story from an internet friend - argleton which was very good. About the mysteries of online map data, and what happens when you visit a town which doesn't exist! It will make a good novel if it's ever expanded that far.

Also aubreyan by LT's own zette (I don't think she's a GDer yet anyway) First in a series that's quite a neat concept - graded worlds of differeing magical content. However the first book only deals with one world which is your standard medival fantasy lots, elves dragons, demons and enchanted staffs. Enjoyabel but nothing too special.

The man who killed his brother

I've been looking for these for ages. I knew that Stephen Donaldson who is one of my favourite authors, had written some pseudonamed crime novels, but I'd never actually seen them. Turns ut his publisher has recently re-released them as ebooks. Good for Them. It's very good (as I'd expect an SD work to be) but different. Very much a noir style 80s? drunk PI in a crime riddled city, doing the best he can. Very different voice to Donaldson's verbose but powerful SF/F stuff. Shorter faster, with a much smaller vocabulary, still dark, but maybe not as dark as the SF/F even though the themes are possibly worse - there is much less graphic detail, but he still manages to capture how the character feels perfectly.

Very interested to see how it all progresses in the rest of the series.

The man who risked his partner

Maybe not quite as belivable (or good) as the first but it is still interesting and gripping. Mick and Ginny have to bodyguard an accountant who has irritiated a gangster boss. His lies make the job much harder.

Prodigal mage Karen's continuation of her earlier duology. I greatly enjoyed those, and this is a surprisingly good if not better continuation. Asher has had kids, and is now old and tired from his previous efforts to save the world. Unfortunately the headstrong youth isn't the same as his earlier power when troubles reappear. Very good thoroughly enjoyable even if Asher's accent continues to grate.

Reluctant Mage

Excellent conculsion to the series. Emerging characters who have been quiet, finally have a chance to shine on their own, and do so. Nothing is easy.

Blight of Mages - A prequel. But actually this stands alone very well, and should be the starting point for everyone who wants to read the Mage books. Love story,a dn magical romance, and consequences of taking things to far. Brilliantly sets up the world for the later books.

#210 - Just announced on her Blog - 2013 at the earliest. The sequel was in complete re-write and struggling so she's working on something else now, and will create it as a trilogy! after that. ARGH.

The final two mysteries from Donaldson: The man who tried to get away and the man who fought alone

Both pretty good books, but pretty poor mysteries. I'd guessed the culprits in them by halfway. it took Mick and Ginny a lot more time to get there. Both these feel far more like Donaldson's other works though - character studies, about the power of negative emotions and the ability of people to cope even when they hurt. Not his best work, but still very readable.

Thanks for the update. I like to wait to read a series until I have all the books. But I still have Spindle unread and others I want to reread anyways, so lots to tide me over until the trilogy is complete.

Singularity Sky Not Stross's best. Steampunk and timetravel, culture clash nanotech with splintered humanity factions don't really gell cohesively into one story. The romance between the two main characters isn't sufficent to hold it together. Readable enough because it's short, though I skipped paragraghs of technobabble and political exposition.

Snuff Not pTerry's best but entertaining enough. It's a bit of a repeat of a familiar topic for Vimes, some underclass is being downtrodden by those who feel themselves above the law. Vimes is here to remind them that there is no-one above the law. However in this case he doesn't have any Guards to help him Guard himself, and so has to take care that he doesn't get above the law. I'm not sure it works vrey well. There are a few decent satirical points about other topics, but not many.

I do wish authors would check how many other books are out there with exactly the same title! Given the vastness of the english language surely we haven't used up all the words already?

Grand Conspiracy followed by Peril's Gate

Not the best place to start re-reading the series, GC picks up in the middle of a story line, but once you're a couple hundred pages in it all makes sense again. Complex convolute enthralling, and just wrapped in words and layers of meaning. Epic fantasy at its finest, not too dark, but hardly all sweetness and light either. Arithon maligned Prince of Shadow returns to the continent after a decade away at sea. Entangled in the machinations of witches politics and plottings he only wants to spare an innocent life, but his half brother still unwittingly driven by a curse chases him thourgh desperate straights in the mountains. With death all around him what sacrifices will he have to make?

Traitor's knot We're heading towards the grand finale (of this portion on the arc but as usual things aren't that simple and Arithon's grand plans to spare the clan lives are upset when he is called to destroy a cable of necromancers. the resulting outrage sparks the conflict he's hoped to avoid.

Stormed Fortress. Definetly one of the highlights of the series. Superb, action packed, full of twists and turns. Even as a re-read there were a lot of surprises. The storming of the fortress is a most a minor part of action. Well worth the time invested (they aren't short books even by my standards!), always calling you away from what you should be doing, to just finish one more page, thet wasn't a chapter break, ...

Can't wait to start for the new one to see what new directions we get taken.

initiate's trial Wow. Major major jump in timeline, 250 yrs later on. A lot (obviously) has happened in that time, but the world has changed surprisingly little. We only ever get hints about the changes, which is annoying. I'd have liked a decent 'thinks back to when ...' scene. Although admittedly the main hero can't remember that at the moment. Lot so new faces (expected) and new places (unexpected - the world hasn't changed veyr much at all so why didn't we hear about these things in thelast 9 books?). Still thoroughly intrguiing though, and a great start to the new Arc of the story.

Skye object ER book. YA SF, but works quite well, sort of like Alistair Reynolds lite. nano-tach and believable physics (and cruel robotic intelliegence set on destroying life), but with teenagers and a happy well adjjusted planet full of ordinary people. The teenagers inability to forsee the consequences of their actiosn was particularly well cast. Fun.

Dying light Not quite finished this yet, darker grimmer sequel to the dark and grim police procedural I read earleir this year. Lost some of the humour the cops need to keep themseles on their feet every day. Have a feeling the 'hero' is going to go through a rockier patch soon, and do something stupid. Still feels very realistic and gritty in terms of the police life, conflicting requirements, and overcommitement to the job, but not quite as much fun as the first.

Hope, beattie ER collection of SF short stories, around the theme of Hope. Interspersed with articles and stats on suicide in Australia. A few bigger name australian authors and a few new to me. None were particularly worth exploring further, although equally none of the stories were bad. Mostly average. I didn't find them that hope inspiring, but I think it s more of a fundraising exercise than an inspirational one. Readable enough, but not special.

Darwin's radio pretty good. Needs bit of biology to understand the main idea, but the basics are very comprehensible. Humanity is evolving. Not in tens of thousands of years, but overnight. This causes shockwaves throughout society, and it has done in the past. Scients can't stop it, they can only watch and chart the changes, and politicians seek to stem the tide. Thoroughly enjoyable with much to say about the current interactions between science, politics and society.

Ah, sounds interesting!
*adds Darwin's radio to the "check out" list*

Darwin's Radio does indeed sound interesting! (And oh, so relevant to my current life in a totally disrupted, discombobulated industry that hadn't even heard of computerization until the mid '90's.) So like Busifer, I'm adding it to the TBR pile.

Darwin's Radio is near the top of my TBR

Glad I managed to make it sound interesting! Always surprised/pleased when there's a sudden influx of comments :-)

Next up
Broken skin the third in Logan McRae series of gritty police procedurals set in Aberdeen. This is as grim as it sounds, but still very readable, the banter between the police officers and the snapshots of their personal troubles enliven the harsh realities of the cases they work on. Better than the 2nd which suffered a bit without the humour in it. Logan's rash leaps of "logic" continue to irritate, but it's not too bad.

Last message with the few books consumed over christmas:

The Wild Girls a short story and a couple of essays plus some poems. The Poems were by far the best, and might prompt me to look up some more of Guin's poetry.

Mountain: Exploring Britain's high places Griff wasn't particularly funny anywhere, nor did he do that much exploring.

The Spear of Destiny: Eastman - dire. no touchstone, but you don't want to follow the link anyway.

Two ER books:
Imago by casil which was odd. DisneyLand replaced by a computer PerfectWorld with a side dose of human Mutation Virus creating freaks, and a couple of AI presidents. Just didn't quite mesh together.

Subversion: science fiction a collection of short stories. Well written and collected, not a bad tale amoung them. some of them very good indeed.

A cotswold killing Short almost cosy mystery set with a housesitter looking after a cottafe in the cotswolds. Quite enjoyable.

As ever full reviews from my profile. But that's it for 2010/2011 a new thread followsfor the New Year.