Sleep deprived books!
So, I've only had brief naps for the past 2-3 days so I could work and work and work. I've been goofing off since I got home this evening because I know I'm getting to a point where trying to design or code would be a mistake. I ought to get my ass to bed. If I'm too dumb to go to bed, I ought to try to do some work. So let's review books!
We begin with Mountain Echoes by C. E. Murphy. This is book eight (really, eight? sheesh!) in The Walker Papers, the ongoing adventures of Joanne Walker (née Siobban Walkingstick) - urban shaman by way of her Irish mage mother and her Cherokee shaman father. Fresh on the heels of her troubles in Europe, she's called back to the Cherokee reservation of her youth. It seems both her father and her ex-high school boyfriend (who fathered the child she gave up) have vanished in the wake of evil magic. She'll have to face the son she's never met, the ex-best friend (who married the ex-boyfriend), and of course an ancient and malevolent sorcerer.
Frankly, I'd felt like this series was getting lost in the weeds, but this book was much stronger. We got to see Joanne's roots and deal with some of her unresolved issues. It was also a tighter plotting than the last book or two. Most heartening of all was at the end... where we were told to await one final book in the series. Given all the open-ended urban fantasy series draining out their early energy into endless sequels, the idea of an actual plotted story arc is reassuring. Plus, it means the weaker novels might have just been suffering from Middle Book Syndrome rather than being a sign the author had stopped aiming at a target.
Following on the heels of last post's The Promise, we come to Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search (part 1) and (part 2). Fire Lord Zuko is determined to uncover what became of his mother after her exile. His imprisoned father isn't forthcoming, but the discovery of some lost papers provides a clue. Zuko gathers his friends - and his lunatic sister who apparently hasn't been stripped of her firebending powers as sanity would suggest - and heads off to his mother's old village. Along the way there will be narrative flashbacks, weird spirit creatures, dangerous revelations, and spirited banter! I'm glad to get resolution on dangling plot threads from the show, but I'm glad I got the book out of the library.
Next up is Jim C. HInes's Libriomancer, book one of Magic Ex Libris. Main character Isaac Vainio is a libriomancer, someone able to reach "into" books and pull items out of them. He's part of a secret order founded - and still led - by Johannes Gutenberg. Isaac's been off active duty, though, because he overused his magic endangering his sanity. He's forbidden to use his powers and spends his days in a library cataloging new books for the order. He's approached by Lena, a dryad who reports that her order psychiatrist girlfriend has been abducted by vampires. Isaac quickly learns several other members of the order have been attacked and Gutenberg himself is missing. Off active duty or not, he races to save the day... a quest which will lead him to some of the order's oldest and darkest secrets.
This was an interesting book. Not a great one, but not bad. It unfolds its secrets at a reasonably well done pace. Lena is an interesting character, too, but she comes more into her own in the second book. The mechanics of the universe don't stand up to harsh scrutiny, but we've all read worse. I enjoyed it while not feeling any urge to add it to my top ten list or anything.
Which brings us to Perilous Shield, book two of Jack Campbell's The Lost Stars series. This is a spin off from the The Lost Fleet series, but it only gently brushes up against the other series. In fact, it's usually confusing when the plots do intersect, because the chronologies of the two series move at different paces. These books focus on the leaders of the Midway star system. Originally a colony of the hopelessly corrupt Syndic empire, Midway seceded when that empire collapsed. The original civilian and military leaders are now the governor and general, co-ruling the planet. They're an interesting pair given that they're both convinced they're hopeless cynics who only keep deals and limit themselves so as to keep the mob happy and inspire subordinate loyalty. In truth, they both long for a better world and have in each other the best ally - and possibly best partner - that they could hope for... if they were willing to trust each other or admit that they could be trusted.
I'm enjoying this series... though I worry about it drifting into too many retreads of the same basic themes the way Lost Fleet did/keeps doing. I'm hoping he wraps it up with one more book leaving things crisp. I'm also embarrassed to admit I was near the end when I realized virtually all the major character have Arthurian-derived names.
I liked Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead so much that I read it to the kid as a bedtime story. But I already wrote it up previously, so I won't do it again.
We'll close tonight with Agatha Heterodyne and the Siege of Mechanicsburg. This is the twelfth collection of the masterful Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Folio. In case you live under a rock, Girl Genius is set in a fantasy version of Victorian-era Europe. Mad scientists - known as sparks - routinely warp the laws of nature. They rule and war across the land with armies of monsters, robots, death rays, and mind control wasps. The main character Agatha is the last scion of the super-spark Heterodyne family. Having gained control of her family's ancestral city (and its sentient castle), she must immediately defend it against... well, pretty much everyone. There's a lot of humor, mystery, plot twists, and drama. I strongly recommend the series, and the best part is you can always just go read it all from the beginning online.
This brings my total for 2013 up to sixty-nine.
This entry was originally posted at http://squidminion.dreamwidth.org/375654.html.
There are
comments there. You could add one via OpenID.
Or you can comment here if you'd rather; it's okay.
We begin with Mountain Echoes by C. E. Murphy. This is book eight (really, eight? sheesh!) in The Walker Papers, the ongoing adventures of Joanne Walker (née Siobban Walkingstick) - urban shaman by way of her Irish mage mother and her Cherokee shaman father. Fresh on the heels of her troubles in Europe, she's called back to the Cherokee reservation of her youth. It seems both her father and her ex-high school boyfriend (who fathered the child she gave up) have vanished in the wake of evil magic. She'll have to face the son she's never met, the ex-best friend (who married the ex-boyfriend), and of course an ancient and malevolent sorcerer.
Frankly, I'd felt like this series was getting lost in the weeds, but this book was much stronger. We got to see Joanne's roots and deal with some of her unresolved issues. It was also a tighter plotting than the last book or two. Most heartening of all was at the end... where we were told to await one final book in the series. Given all the open-ended urban fantasy series draining out their early energy into endless sequels, the idea of an actual plotted story arc is reassuring. Plus, it means the weaker novels might have just been suffering from Middle Book Syndrome rather than being a sign the author had stopped aiming at a target.
Following on the heels of last post's The Promise, we come to Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search (part 1) and (part 2). Fire Lord Zuko is determined to uncover what became of his mother after her exile. His imprisoned father isn't forthcoming, but the discovery of some lost papers provides a clue. Zuko gathers his friends - and his lunatic sister who apparently hasn't been stripped of her firebending powers as sanity would suggest - and heads off to his mother's old village. Along the way there will be narrative flashbacks, weird spirit creatures, dangerous revelations, and spirited banter! I'm glad to get resolution on dangling plot threads from the show, but I'm glad I got the book out of the library.
Next up is Jim C. HInes's Libriomancer, book one of Magic Ex Libris. Main character Isaac Vainio is a libriomancer, someone able to reach "into" books and pull items out of them. He's part of a secret order founded - and still led - by Johannes Gutenberg. Isaac's been off active duty, though, because he overused his magic endangering his sanity. He's forbidden to use his powers and spends his days in a library cataloging new books for the order. He's approached by Lena, a dryad who reports that her order psychiatrist girlfriend has been abducted by vampires. Isaac quickly learns several other members of the order have been attacked and Gutenberg himself is missing. Off active duty or not, he races to save the day... a quest which will lead him to some of the order's oldest and darkest secrets.
This was an interesting book. Not a great one, but not bad. It unfolds its secrets at a reasonably well done pace. Lena is an interesting character, too, but she comes more into her own in the second book. The mechanics of the universe don't stand up to harsh scrutiny, but we've all read worse. I enjoyed it while not feeling any urge to add it to my top ten list or anything.
Which brings us to Perilous Shield, book two of Jack Campbell's The Lost Stars series. This is a spin off from the The Lost Fleet series, but it only gently brushes up against the other series. In fact, it's usually confusing when the plots do intersect, because the chronologies of the two series move at different paces. These books focus on the leaders of the Midway star system. Originally a colony of the hopelessly corrupt Syndic empire, Midway seceded when that empire collapsed. The original civilian and military leaders are now the governor and general, co-ruling the planet. They're an interesting pair given that they're both convinced they're hopeless cynics who only keep deals and limit themselves so as to keep the mob happy and inspire subordinate loyalty. In truth, they both long for a better world and have in each other the best ally - and possibly best partner - that they could hope for... if they were willing to trust each other or admit that they could be trusted.
I'm enjoying this series... though I worry about it drifting into too many retreads of the same basic themes the way Lost Fleet did/keeps doing. I'm hoping he wraps it up with one more book leaving things crisp. I'm also embarrassed to admit I was near the end when I realized virtually all the major character have Arthurian-derived names.
I liked Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead so much that I read it to the kid as a bedtime story. But I already wrote it up previously, so I won't do it again.
We'll close tonight with Agatha Heterodyne and the Siege of Mechanicsburg. This is the twelfth collection of the masterful Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Folio. In case you live under a rock, Girl Genius is set in a fantasy version of Victorian-era Europe. Mad scientists - known as sparks - routinely warp the laws of nature. They rule and war across the land with armies of monsters, robots, death rays, and mind control wasps. The main character Agatha is the last scion of the super-spark Heterodyne family. Having gained control of her family's ancestral city (and its sentient castle), she must immediately defend it against... well, pretty much everyone. There's a lot of humor, mystery, plot twists, and drama. I strongly recommend the series, and the best part is you can always just go read it all from the beginning online.
This brings my total for 2013 up to sixty-nine.
This entry was originally posted at http://squidminion.dreamwidth.org/375654.html.
There are
comments there. You could add one via OpenID.
Or you can comment here if you'd rather; it's okay.