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- Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
- Science Fiction with a decent premise. I found myself having to
go back and revise assumptions I had made about the characters and
setting several times - I might re-read it later and see how my mental
image of the book changes knowing the later bits beforehand. I want
a utility fog outfit! - Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear
- Bear at her most cruel, to her characters at least. An urban
fantasy full of fae folk and wizards. Bear does something clever with
POV in this book that I think works very well. I'd recommend this
book to anyone who isn't looking for something cheerful. - From the Notebooks of Dr Brain by Minister Faust
- ZOMG funny. A self-help book for superheroes. At the same time,
an intelligent, aware deconstruction of superheroes, and a good
story. Did I mention it is funny? It is. - Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
- Informative. The first of McClouds three examinations of
comics. I didn't get as much out of it as I did from the
third book, Making Comics, but I'm not surprised - this one is older,
and has a different focus. I'd still recommend this one for anyone
with a serious interest in the art form. - Soul Kitchen by Poppy Z Brite
- The third novel in Brite's chef books. I love these. If you've
read Brite's horror fiction, and didn't like it, you should read
these. If you *did* like her horror, you should read these, too.
Especially if you like food. Brite's writing has always been focussed
on her characters, with the plot mostly serving as something to show
of the characters. The difference with her chef books is that her
characters are now *likeable* instead of being psychopaths and
self-absorbed teenagers. On another note, I keep imaging Ricky as
looking like Rob Feenie, though as Liz notes, his personality is more like Anthony Bourdain.
I've been remiss at logging my reading...
Probably out of order. I hope I haven't missed anything - among other things, this list is supposed to help prevent me buying books I've already read.
If I can finish off the book I'm currently reading (American Backlash: The Untold Story of Social Change in The United States), I'll have made 20 books this year, which is a decent showing for me in a year where I've read this many non-fiction books.
Probably out of order. I hope I haven't missed anything - among other things, this list is supposed to help prevent me buying books I've already read.
- The Hallowed Hunt by Lois Mc Master Bujold
- Mmm, Bujold. I really like the theology for this ficton.
- The Hidden Family by Charles Stross
- Book two in the Merchant Princes series. I liked this one much more than the first, and that's saying something. The main romantic relationship was clarified in a way that covered my problems with it in the first book. Also, Stross manages to make economic theory interesting, and with much fewer words than Neal Stephenson did in his Baroque Cycle.
- Accelerando by Charles Stross
- Why yes, on my last book store trip I did buy a bunch of Stross. Accelerando is Stross' most direct take on the Singularity and Posthumanism. I want utility fog! I am not sure I want an omnipotent cat, though.
- The Atrocity Archive by Charles Stross
- Imagine Tim Powers' Declare if written by Neal Stephenson after reading a lot of Lovecraft, in England. British Lovecraftian geek spies. I devoured this one like a Shoggoth, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the next book.
- Oracle's Queen by Lynn Flewelling
- A good, clean end to a good series. I can't stress enough how much I enjoy fantasy series that actually end, these days. Yes, there are unanswered questions and unexplored story gems. That's fine - those are different stories. Good stories need to have endings.
- Making Comics by Scott McCloud
- So much goodness! I leanred a lot, and will likely re-read this periodically as I make my glacial progress on my own comics experiments over on
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mrdeth. I really need to get ahold of McCloud's other two books. - The Magician's Reflection by Bill Whitcomb
- An examination of symbolism in a magical context, with the aim of developing systems of symbols for a magical system. I've been getting a lot out of this, but I have had to put it down for a while to read other things.
- Techniques of Chaos Magic by Joseph Max
- The nice thing about online works is how easily they are downloaded to my futurephone. This is worth reading if you've any interest in Chaos magic.
If I can finish off the book I'm currently reading (American Backlash: The Untold Story of Social Change in The United States), I'll have made 20 books this year, which is a decent showing for me in a year where I've read this many non-fiction books.
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