draggonlaady

A fairly quick read (as you might notice given the time stamps between this entry and the one prior), Merrie Haskell's Handbook for Dragon Slayers was very, very good. A young princess chafing at her duties, and convinced everyone hates her because of her lameness, Mathilda's strongest desire is to be an author. I highly encourage you all to follow her adventures as she is kidnapped, rescued, faces dragons and The Wild Hunt, and battles sorcery with wits.

My only complaint is that we never get to hear how Frau Dagmar managed her part!

Just finished Redliners, by David Drake. I don't think I've read any of Drake's stuff before. This was... well, a redemption story, I guess. In a way. It was also explicitly a PTSD/shell shocked warrior tale, so potentially triggery on said topic. I think it was quite well done, but it was not always exactly enjoyable to read. Then again, I can't imagine any war stories that really are always enjoyable are very much about war, so there's that.

I had a few moments early on in the book where some of the science struck me as forced for plot, but once past the initial battle, things revolved primarily around characters and character interaction, and less around the science aspect of the sci-fi. For those who fear that sounds awfully "Hallmark Special-y", don't worry, there's not much sappy. In scanning the author profile, it seems Mr Drake is a veteran himself, so he's potentially writing on a subject he's had experience with, and he doesn't try to brush everything up and make it all roses.

Anyway, that's kind of a twisty way of saying I think it was a good one, but don't read it if you are hoping for cheery fluff.

I read a couple short stories while away from the computer and The Sky So Big and Black, so brief summaries:

Chewed through 2 Cory Doctorow stories; I Row-boat and A Place So Foreign. Both are available for free download from his website. I encourage you to go try some of his stuff if you haven't.
I Row-boat was twisty and fun, and other than feeling sorry for the parrotfish (you'll understand if you read it), I really liked it. A fairly short story, so a quick read, and I really enjoyed the concept of spam as the origin of successful artificial intelligence.

A Place So Foreign was good, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much. I am a bit slow, sometimes - I sort of half-caught some things but didn't understand the underlying meanings until much later, which had me pretty confused and distracted from the story for a while. Also, I think Bruce may have gotten tired of seemingly random questions like "Hey, who wrote The Island of Dr. Moreau?" and "No, I a CERTAIN Verne didn't write War of the Worlds, what the Hell, has Doctorow lost his mind?" It made sense eventually, but I had a harder time getting into this one.

I also attempted but gave up on Breaking Down, by Lelanthran Krishna Manickum (downloaded from Smashwords). Yeah, yeah, I know, it's only 8 pages long, but I still only made it half way. Just not into the whole "God was a mis-understood, lost alien" concept, I guess.

I did make it all the way through Samantha Warren's Battle of Black River, which I apparently downloaded from amazon at some point. It was decidely mediocre; the intro to a series, apparently, but not one that I think I'll be pursuing.

And now I'm gonna pull up something nice and fluffy, cuz The Sky So Big And Black seems to've left a bit of a heavy spot in my emotions.

Yep. That chapter was just about depressing as Hell.

Off to float on the river for a while, will be back to read about the after effects of the Sunburst later.

This review is going to be a little different - I was requested by sagaciouslu for thoughts on a couple books, so I'm going to be writing as I read instead of just a quick "I liked it" summary at the end. That means there will probably be spoilers. Get over it - the book's been out for a decade. The Sky So Big And Black, by John Barnes

sagaciouslu - before you start reading this, keep in mind that I pick things apart and proofread compulsively. Just cuz I point out negative details doesn't mean I don't like the overall total! Though If I don't like it, I'll tell ya... :D

First page and we've already got a phrase I like: I raise my glass to my own reflection in the mirror by the door; lately this is as close as I get to drinking with a colleague.

Hmm. We've got 15 pages of establishing that the narrator is a lonely guy who drinks too much... time to move on?

Ok, we're at 20 pages and whiskey number 4... as-yet-nameless narrator has been waxing philosophical about the next generation for several pages. I am perhaps a bit impatient, but isn't there supposed to be action about here? I understand you have to establish the characters but...

Page 22 we get to what I think is the main character, based on the back of the book.

Page 26; I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about the details of terraforming. I kind of like the concept of getting paid for spreading shit, though.

"Your aunt Callie is real nice about accidentally getting luxury goods to wander into our mail."

So I'm a bit confused here. Earlier, we were told specifically that folks mark age by earth years still, but everything else by Mars time. Now we're in Teri's story, and the only age indicator we have is the year she was seven... but she's talking about getting married and Dad says he got married younger than she is? Clearly there's been some time lapse there, but it's never really stated.
Okay, 5 pages later we have mention of "next 10 Mars years, so you probably won't be forty yet", which makes her about 20 Earth years? Maybe? Makes more sense for marrying, but I feel like trying to work this stuff out is a bit distracting from the story.
Page 41 we get a definitive answer, she's 15. In the meantime there was some pretty interesting discussion of Marsformed humans (as opposed, of course, to Terraformed Mars surface) and the debate about whether it's better to fit their descendants to the planet or fit the planet to themselves. Also, I want a picture of the Marsform, it sounds interesting.

ooh, deep driller sounds seriously dangerous and cool.

Clearly I am a total geek. Teri and her geography lessons are way more interesting to read than narrator and his philosophizing.

hahahahahahahahahahaahaha! "The next time...I hope you're a full adult, so that I can give you a beating and have it be simple assault instead of child abuse." (page 62 now, going a lot faster since we've been following Teri instead of narrator.)

Her dad had a bad habit of telling his little girl the truth, too. Probably spoiled her for life.

Page 80. The more I hear of her beau, the more I think Teri can do better for herself.

Bed time for me. More later. There's clearly been a lot of research put into this book, in geology and astronomy especially. Not a fluffy sort of sci-fi with randomly unexplained major precepts. Makes me wish I knew more about it. Liking Teri steadily more as we go, though her hang-up about the Marsforms is kind of grating on my anti-prejudice nerves.

Another book finished - this one ended mid-action abruptly enough that I made disgruntled growling sounds upon discovering the last page. Bruce asked if someone in the book had died unexpectedly. JUST THE WHOLE DAMN BOOK! Good thing I already downloaded the final book in the series, bwahahahahahahahah.

Anyway, this one was a bit more serious/action, with context-driven jokes building up over several pages and fewer one-liners. But I saved you a couple:

Eden and Zalzyn Shaa had their eccentricities, but Arznaak, the first-born, had a far more intimate relationship with the borderland of sanity.

But then why was she feeling these curls of electricity? Why, although she didn't particularly like cats or cat-based metaphors, did she feel like nothing other than purring of all things?

Anything approximately human but unambiguously male might do for Dalya in a pinch.

"He seems to specialize in making people nervous," commented Leen. "You seem better at making them aggravated."

"I am requisitioning your vehicle."
"You couldn't fit inside it," Favored yelled back through the speaking-tube, "and you couldn't fly it if you could!"
"Of course," the god said impatiently. "I am requisitioning you too."

Work is busier than busy this week, so free time is lacking. Still reading Spell of Intrigue and chuckling along. Thought I'd share another quote or three with you:

"Vermin infestation, that's a nice turn of phrase. Do me a favor though, don't use it as a form of address when we're with these folks, okay? Trying to talk somebody into doing something they don't think they should do isn't made any easier by calling them Your Verminship."

On being a detective: "Thought is thought, I said. "That's all it is and that's all it takes, that and a willingness to talk to people, get lied to, get beaten up occasionally just like a regular person, spend a lot of your time frustrated and bored, and ultimately find out things you didn't really want to know in the first place."

I was trying to annoy her, at least a little. I didn't want her to start feeling happy I was around, or worse yet, comfortable. As long as she though we were married, I didn't want her to get the idea that maybe whatever was wrong between us was on the way to being reconciled.

A wonderful, wonderful man in Pullcow (howdy, E!) introduced me years ago to the amazing worlds of Charles de Lint's imagination. It has been probably 3 years since I read anything by him, and I've been missing the eerie overlap of this world and that world that is the hallmark of de Lint's writing. So I picked up The Riddle of the Wren at a used book store recently. This is the first of his young adult that I've read (and I wasn't even aware he wrote young adult fiction until I nabbed this). It is also the first of his novels that I've read - prior experiences have been chains of short stories, many with recurring characters and/or shared worlds. Turns out this is the first novel he wrote, so kind of appropriate that it's the first I read, I guess. It is set in its own universe, a universe of many balanced worlds that can be traveled to and from if one has some magic and knows the secrets of the gates. The main character is a 17 year old girl from a backwater, magic-less world who is tossed headlong into the wider universe after an encounter with a malicious wizard. It was a very fun and satisfying read, and I recommend it, but ultimately wasn't what I was looking for - no fault of de Lint's writing or the story, but I was hoping for a return to the traces of wonder in this world sort of stories of Jenny Coppercorn and her lot. Any disappointment I found was for having expectations in blind disagreement to the description on the back of the book. So read it. And read anything else you can find of Charles de Lint's works, they are fabulous.

Just finished Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld. For such a hefty book, it was a surprisingly quick read-I picked it up and finished it in one straight read of about 5-6 hours. Not bad time for 425 pages, I suppose. Good world concept, engaging story, and most of the characters were quite good...except that I really wasn't fond of the main character. Don't get me wrong; she's not a silly empty shell non-character, like the cardboard cut-out girl-shaped hole in the story that was the lead in Twilight. Tally is a very well-developed, well-written, and convincing character. It's just that she was so... lacking conviction? Weak willed, I guess. She didn't really start showing a spine and standing up for herself instead of just running away from each successive push until the very end of the book. I am pretty sure that the second book will be about redemption for the bullshit she allowed herself to be pushed into in the beginning of the first, but I don't HAVE the second book. Yet. Good sign for how engaging the writing is, I suppose, that I fully intend to acquire the sequel, Pretties, despite my lack of empathy with the main character through most of the first book.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest was delightful, in a grim and zombie-infested sort of manner. This book actually precedes the last book I reviewed from her, Dreadnought, so you should read Boneshaker first, but you should read both. :)

I've also finished off Nightbirds on Nantucket by Joan Aiken. I rather enjoyed it, though not as much as I enjoyed her book Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Both are children's books, but Ms. Aiken has a lovely way of not talking down to her young readers. She also manages to do a good bit of suspense without resorting to the gore of most suspense books written for adults. And she manages to avoid being utterly predictable in her suspense, which rather helps with the whole suspense thing. Anyway, Nightbirds was a bit sillier than Wolves, but I liked them both.

And I'm sure you'll all be terribly surprised to hear that Patricia Briggs' latest Mercy book, River Marked, was a great addition to the series. FINALLY got some more detail on Mercy's background, which was fun, and this whole book was more of a Native American myth base than most of the series, which has dealt primarily with "imported" supernatural from Europe.