There's no arguing I've been slacking lately. Suddenly my schedule blossomed and I've got hearing after hearing in court the last couple weeks and the next couple as well. I do family law and I have a really hard time turning anyone away and everyone's got a story.
Anyway, here are some catch up reviews. It's ... been a while since I read them. I've been on a good roll the last couple days and I plan on keeping it up for a bit. This will not be the last of these.
Among Others by Jo Walton
This book got rave reviews when it came out, even won the Nebula Award, which I can see. However, I didn't absolutely love it as seems to be the norm.
What I loved:
I did love a few things. I loved that I really wanted to go back and read all the classics of science fiction and fantasy. Walton writes with such a love of the genre that you can't help but become enamored yourself.
I loved that if you are a fantasy nerd like me and the main protagonist Mori (and it may be safe to assume, Jo Walton), then you can completely relate to living two lives. One in a fantasy land you never want to leave and one in the "real" world where you don't quite completely fit in ... whatever that means.
What I thought was more three stars out five:
This was really a love note to SFF with a story at the far background, if any. It's obviously there, but only mildly mentioned and then all of a sudden some stuff happens in the end.
I think I expected more of a blend of the two; references to classic SFF stories and a story itself as opposed to more of the former and less of the latter.
It's still a decent story, but not really a classic. I see why it won the Nebula, it's essentially a love letter to the Nebula Award and, therefore, a dead-ringer from the get-go, but it didn't quite work for me.
I'll leave with a couple great quotes for your nerdy heart:
"Interlibrary loans are a wonder of the world and a glory of civilization."
"Glory Road is deeply disappointing ... I love Heinlein but he clearly doesn't get fantasy. It's just stupid." (I felt the exact same way reading Glory Road. Starship Troopers is amazing, but I don't know if I'll attempt his fantasy again)
3 out of 5 Stars (Recommended with reservations)
Bitter Seeds (Milkweed Triptych #1) by Ian Tregillis
I don't always get behind alternate histories. There's something in me that screams for the truth. These are definitely not the truth, look in a history book.
Yeah, that's from the guy who reads 99 fantasy books out of 100.
Oh and one of my favorites is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (though that's much more magical and fairyland-ish). But once you change the past, that just throws me off too much. I don't know why. Still haven't read a thing by Harry Turtledove.
But throw superheros into an alternate World War Two and for some reason that just clicked with me.
I had a great time with this book. I guess it doesn't hurt that I lived in Germany for a while, speak German and all that. It did kill me during a part where the English-speaker gets by speaking flawless German (which is just close to impossible without speaking it as a child), but otherwise, I enjoyed this from start to finish.
I got this as a review copy on audio, but publishers have this problem with not sending the sequels ever. I know, wo is me, I have to buy a book, but that explains why I haven't made it any further. Got sidetracked with other books while waiting for the sequel.
Kevin Pariseau did an excellent job on the narration, did a fine German accent, which is what really counted in this one. :)
4 out of 5 Stars (highly recommended)
The Crown Tower (Riyria Chronicles #1) by Michael J. Sullivan
I love Michael J. Sullivan and this book's no exception. Before The Crown Tower was released, I'd read that Michael was wary going into a prequel series, because let's face it, they rarely go well, but that he would only do it if there was something good there to write about. I.e., he didn't want to beat a dead horse.
I'm so glad he went for it. The Crown Tower ranks up there with the best of the original series (that I've read, still two more if you can believe it!). Michael writes fun fantasy that's hard to put down. What more could you ask for? There's always room for more of his work. What need I say more? Definitely no more of these questions?
Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (Jacana South Africa; Angry Robot) The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit) The Silent Land, Graham Joyce (Gollancz; Doubleday) Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc; Harper Voyager UK) Redemption In Indigo, Karen Lord (Small Beer) Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
Best Novella
Bone and Jewel Creatures, Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean) The Broken Man, Michael Byers (PS) “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon”, Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All-New Tales) The Thief of Broken Toys, Tim Lebbon (ChiZine Publications) “The Mystery Knight”, George R.R. Martin (Warriors) “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window”, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer 2010)
Best Short Fiction
“Beautiful Men” , Christopher Fowler (Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts) “Booth’s Ghost”, Karen Joy Fowler (What I Didn’t See and Other Stories) “Ponies”, Kij Johnson (Tor.com 11/17/10) “Fossil-Figures”, Joyce Carol Oates (Stories: All-New Tales) “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us”, Mercurio D. Rivera (Black Static 8-9/10)
Best Anthology
The Way of the Wizard, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Prime) My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, Kate Bernheimer, ed. (Penguin) Haunted Legends, Ellen Datlow & Nick Mamatas, eds. (Tor) Stories: All-New Tales, Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio, eds. (Morrow; Headline Review) Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, S.T. Joshi, ed. (PS) Swords & Dark Magic, Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders, eds. (Eos)
Best Collection
What I Didn’t See and Other Stories, Karen Joy Fowler (Small Beer) The Ammonite Violin & Others, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean) Holiday, M. Rickert (Golden Gryphon) Sourdough and Other Stories, Angela Slatter (Tartarus) The Third Bear, Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon)
Best Artist
Vincent Chong Kinuko Y. Craft Richard A. Kirk John Picacio Shaun Tan
Special Award, Professional
John Joseph Adams, for editing and anthologies Lou Anders, for editing at Pyr Marc Gascoigne, for Angry Robot Stéphane Marsan & Alain Névant, for Bragelonne Brett Alexander Savory & Sandra Kasturi, for ChiZine Publications
Special Award, Non-Professional
Stephen Jones, Michael Marshall Smith, & Amanda Foubister, for Brighton Shock!: The Souvenir Book Of The World Horror Convention 2010 Alisa Krasnostein, for Twelfth Planet Press Matthew Kressel, for Sybil’s Garage and Senses Five Press Charles Tan, for Bibliophile Stalker Lavie Tidhar, for The World SF Blog
SDCC pics and commentary:Blood of the Muse has a couple posts about their adventures at the San Diego Comic Con.
Hello and welcome to issue #09 of my Weekly Roundup. Tomorrow is the last day of February. Where has the month gone? Concerning reading it has been a sad month. Three and a half books is far away from my planned six books. But finally I started to work on one of my New Year's resolutions - thanks tomy wife for putting pressure on me. Since last week we both go three times per week to a local fitness center. That means on the one hand less time for reading but on the other hand I do something for my health and to be honest I feel better. Blog wise you should have mentioned that we three post more regularly. And it seems that you our dear readers like the mix. Enjoy reading......
Friday, March 5th, Review: The Stolen Moon of Londor (2009) [US][UK] , by A.P. Stephens First book in the The White Shadow Saga. Epic quest with elves, dwarves, wizards.......
Saturday, March 6th, Bona Fide: Weekly Roundup #10 Content unknown so far
Friday, March 12th, Review: Farlander (2010) [US] [UK], by Col Buchanan Another promising debut novel. The blurb is like a soft reverberation of The Malazan Empire
Saturday, March 13th, Bona Fide:Weekly Roundup #11 Content unknown so far
Friday, March 19th, Review: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010) [US] [UK], by J.K.Nemesin A very promising debut novel.
Saturday, March 20th, Bona Fide: Weekly Roundup#12 Content unknown so far
Wednesday, March 24th, Review: The Exodus Gate (2009, 566 p.) [US][UK], Stephen Zimmer Second series by Stephen Zimmer
Friday, March 26th, Review: Soulless (2009) [US] [UK], by Gail Carriger. More and more people talk about it. I wanted to know more about vampires, werewolves and parasols.
Saturday, March 27th, Bona Fide: Weekly Roundup#13 Contains Bona Fide's Forecast for April 2010; Reading Forecast and the Reality; rest unknown
Bona Fide's Butcher's Bill: January Reads
I read and reviewed following three books Seeds of Earth (2009) [US][UK], Michael Cobley Spellwright (2010) [US March] [UK July], by Blake Charlton The Stolen Moon of Londor (2009) [US][UK] , by A.P. Stephens, will be posted on March 5th
I read 1/5th of the book in January. Wanted to continue in February and Failed. Will now continue in March. The Gardens of the Moon (2009, 10th anniversary edtition) [US][UK], by Steven Erikson
I read 1/3rd of the book in February. I will finish and review it in March. The Exodus Gate (2009, 566 p.) [US][UK], Stephen Zimmer
Again I didn't reach my target. There is one obvious reason for it: I have had less time for reading and reviewing. But I work on my schedule in order to optimize. Will see how it works in March.
Stats
Average Pages Per Day: 52
Average Publication Date: 2009
Average Books Per Day: 0.10 Books settled in London: NONE Stolen moons: 1
Bona Fide's March Reading List Even I missed my monthly reading goal of six books for the second time I plan again to read six books. Among my choice you find two debut novels: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and Farlander. Beside this I will read my second sci-fi book in 2010: Crossover.
I was curious and tried to find out what the book is about.
"Product Description It’s 1939. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in between. Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him. When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.
Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different."
About the Author IAN TREGILLIS lives near Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he works as a physicist at Los Alamos Laboratory. He is a member of the Wild Cards writing collective, directed by George R. R. Martin. Bitter Seeds is his first novel.
Delivery of the week Today I received a my review copy of Farlander (2010) [US] [UK], by Col Buchanan. Thanks to Julie Crisp who is the editor of the book. And this is the blurb
"The Heart of the World is a land in strife. For fifty years the Holy Empire of Mann, an empire and religion born from a nihilistic urban cult, has been conquering nation after nation. Their leader, Holy Matriarch Sasheen, ruthlessly maintains control through her Diplomats, priests trained as subtle predators. The Mercian Free Ports are the only confederacy yet to fall. Their only land link to the southern continent, a long and narrow isthmus, is protected by the city of Bar-Khos. For ten years now, the great southern walls of Bar-Khos have been besieged by the Imperial Fourth Army. Ash is a member of an elite group of assassins, the R shun - who offer protection through the threat of vendetta. Forced by his ailing health to take on an apprentice, he chooses Nico, a young man living in the besieged city of Bar-Khos. At the time, Nico is hungry, desperate, and alone in a city that finds itself teetering on the brink. When the Holy Matriarch's son deliberately murders a woman under the protection of the R shun; he forces the sect to seek his life in retribution. As Ash and his young apprentice set out to fulfil the R shun orders - their journey takes them into the heart of the conflict between the Empire and the Free Ports ...into bloodshed and death."
The cover is mouth-watering. There is a dirigible..... Farlander hardback will be on sale on March 5th 2010 Unfortunately I can deliver you a review until March 5th. But you can read my review in two weeks time.
Hijacking of the week Soulless (2009) [US] [UK], by Gail Carriger has been my Valentine gift for my wife. That was on February 14th. I could resist thirteen days until I "hijacked" the book. Which means I started to read it. The Blurb
"Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she is being rudely attacked by a vampire to whom she has not been properly introduced! Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire, and the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?"
I don't know whom of you receive DRIN - Del Rey Internet Newsletter. The February issue contains an article by Robert V.S. Redick - author of x and x - which I would like to share with you.
The Possibility and Promise of a Book by Robert V. S. Redick
Fantasy extends the promise of a feast. Suppose you're watching a ship sail towards you across a choppy bay. As it draws near and you gain perspective, you see that it's very large–no, gigantic–no, monstrous, larger by half than any ship you've ever heard of, let alone seen. There's a mad captain at the wheel, and fantastically muscled ogres turning the capstan, a young woman guarded by blue mastiffs emerging from the forecastle house, tiny figures in the shadows, fitting three-inch arrows to their bows–
Stop. There's a setting for you: as it happens, my own, in The Ruling Sea, which Del Rey brought to the states on February 16 (yeah, baby!). Trouble is, that setting guarantees you precisely nothing. The book in question could be glorious, or ghastly. You simply can't know which until you start to read.
Now consider plot. In my four-book series The Chathrand Voyage, two empires–long estranged but intimately bound by ties of history–find themselves at a crossroads. For years, they've tried to practice a kind of benign neglect, because both sides have found that preferable to another chapter in their long, ruinous, unnecessary war. Or have they? As my heroes discover to their horror in Book I, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, smiles and vague words of peace can sometimes be the perfect cover for an assassination attempt.
But by the same token, a nice setup can be a perfect cover for a half-baked novel. Again, such summary information can only tell you about one aspect of a book—one that's not, by any stretch, the most important.
What is? Fortunately, that's still up to the individual reader. The best the market analysts can do is when, and how deeply, the readers begin to care. Of course, caring is not the same as cheering. Beloved books, like beloved people, don't only make us jump for joy. They can also make us sad, furious, frightened or scandalized. But they always make us feel.
Plenty of books–genre and mainstream, old and new–don't pass this personal test. Something colder–sterile craft perfectionism, or a desperate grab for literary chique, or geeky hand-rubbing over a Nifty Idea (vampires plus time travel plus gorgeous handbags plus...)–takes the place of the novel's heart. When that happens, I walk. You can fill that space in the chest cavity with dust or diamonds: this reader still won't care.
Idealistic? You might say. Don't get me wrong, though: I want millions–nay, billions–to love The Chathrand Voyage series, to devour the books, and me by extension. I've deployed my own Nifty Ideas, after all: one former mentor asked if there was anything left in the sorcerer's lab, or was it all in the bubbling cauldron?
I don't know the magic spell that summons billions to the bookshops. Only Ms. J.K.R. knows that, and she can't be bribed. But I can promise you one thing: love The Ruling Sea or hate it, you won't ever ask yourself if the writer was indifferent. Happy sailing—and don't go barefoot on the lower decks.
This time I want to do something different. As you may know movies have different release dates depending on the country they are shown. I live in Germany and when I can trust the schedule of my favorite cinema I have to go there several times in March. These are trailers of the movies I want to watch together with my wife:
SHUTTER ISLAND The film, based on the novel "Shutter Island" by Dennis Lehane, is an atmospheric psychological thriller set in a 1950s asylum for the criminally insane.
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
OCEANS Nearly three-quarters of the earth's surface is covered by oceans. (Don't get confused by the very short Italian introduction
And now tell me which movies are on your agenda for March.
Quotes The Men Who Stare At Goats inspired me to search for quotes related to goats........
" Don't approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any side. ” Yiddish proverb
"Bring me A bowl of coffee before I turn into a goat.” Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer and musician (1685 -1750)
"Put silk on a goat and it is still a goat.” Irish sayings
"SATYR, n. One of the few characters of the Grecian mythology accorded recognition in the Hebrew. (Leviticus, xvii, 7.) The satyr was at first a member of the dissolute community acknowledging a loose allegiance with Dionysius, but underwent many transformations and improvements. Not infrequently he is confounded with the faun, a later and decenter creation of the Romans, who was less like a man and more like a goat.” Ambrose Bierce, American writer and journalist (1842 - 1914)
Disclosure: Assume all links are affiliate links (i.e., we get paid a small percentage). That helps run the blog and do what we do, which is mostly reading more books.
This book got rave reviews when it came out, even won the Nebula Award, which I can see. However, I didn't absolutely love it as seems to be the norm.
I don't always get behind alternate histories. There's something in me that screams for the truth. These are definitely not the truth, look in a history book.
I love Michael J. Sullivan and this book's no exception. Before The Crown Tower was released, I'd read that Michael was wary going into a prequel series, because let's face it, they rarely go well, but that he would only do it if there was something good there to write about. I.e., he didn't want to beat a dead horse.
