Books 2012: books read while travelling and upon return home

[hawkwing_lb]

Books 2012: 66-75


66. Jonathan Maberry, Patient Zero. (St. Martin's Press, 2009)

Ick. Why did I do that to myself? Now I can't get Sexism Fairy spit out of my clothes. This? Would be a not-actively-terrible skiffy zombie thriller if it weren't male gaze-y as all hell and possessed of two active women characters, one of whom is a Cackling Seductrice Islamic Villainess and the other is an SAS major on detached duty in the States who is uber-competent, beautiful, and ends up falling for Our Hero.

Also, Hollywood called. It wants its boilerplate B-movie American Paranoia Terrorism plot back.


67-71. Sandy Mitchell, Caves of Ice, The Traitor's Hand, Death Or Glory, Duty Calls, and Cain's Last Stand. (The Black Library, various dates.)

These are actually fun. And surprisingly lacking in many kinds of fail (particularly gender-fail) that regularly turn up in milSF. I'm not about to become a W40K fan, but for light entertainment in airports, I could do worse.


72. Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke and Bone. (Hodder and Stoughton, 2011.)

YA. It's fun until you think about it, and then you realise it's got no logic. Also replicates a couple of icky love-attraction narratives and the protagonist is Special enough to make my teeth hurt. Also, excessively romanticised USian view of Europe. A longer review forthcoming in Vector eventually. puddleshark, was it you who wanted to talk about this one?


73. Patricia Briggs, Fair Game. (Orbit, 2012.)

I thought Briggs' spin-off series was going to be hideously romance-generic. Three books in, they're really not: this is an interesting mystery/character study that pulls the rug out from how you thought things would go at the conclusion, with intriguing implications for the future directions of both this and the Mercy Thompson series.


74. Seanan McGuire, Discount Armageddon. (DAW, 2012.)

I've an inquiry for a review of this out in the big bad world. It's damn entertaining, funny, doesn't take itself too seriously, has a really engaging voice and a sensibility that reminds me of the short-lived TV show "The Middleman." It has flaws, sure, but considering that I bounced - hard - off McGuire's first series, I'm pretty happy I enjoyed this one so much.


75. K.E. Mills, Wizard Undercover. (Orbit, 2012.)

Review forthcoming from Tor.com, I hope. Fast, engaging blend of drama and humour in a second-world setting remniscent of the Edward period. Recommend it.

---

I am going to go sit in the corner and shake now, because I got the Reader's Report comments back on my not-quite complete first chapter of thesis just a moment ago. I may need to throw up.

It's not a bad report. In many ways a bad report would be easier to deal with.

Comments

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Go easy on yourself. The Reader is meant to be unpleasant, (as for any advanced degree) you must Suffer before you can be awarded. Even the medical and veterinary degrees have their own form of this ordeal. You're a good writer and a hard-working student; that's what they're looking for.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I must live up to expectations!

My overall assessment of the workat present is that it marks excellent progress towards realizing the thesis’ aims, and very successfully stakes out the necessary grounds for what bears of all the signs of a fascinating further investigation. The candidate demonstrates impressive mastery of the archaeological data, writes with elegance and precision, and begins to formulate highly promising theoretical grounds from which to embark upon the kind of cultural phenomenology of healing which the thesis sets out to produce, and which could potentially mark one its major contributions to the field, he said. And he's not a fulsome man.

So I am still sitting here wibbling.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

0.o

Well, we certainly agree with the Reader! Someday, we shall all be able to say "I knew her when...!"

(OK, I must stop using ! now.)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

!

!?

!!!

...pretty much describes my reaction. :)

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Daughter of Smoke and Bone - yes, that was me. And I think you may have put your finger on part of the problem with the 'Special enough to make my teeth hurt' comment. I suppose I didn't much sympathise with the protagonist in the end; someone who uses magic to colour her hair, and floats above the city in her own little world of privilege...

I look forward to the longer review!

And now I have to order Wizard Undercover...

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

It was a shallow book, in my assessment: a lot of flash and shiny, but not great depth of heart. I hesitate to level the suggestion of Mary-Sue-ism, but it was definitely kicking hard at the Angsty Wish Fulfillment end of things.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

...though I have to add that my niece, who is more in the target age group for that kind of wish fulfilment, loved it.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Many things are forgiven when one is ten or thirteen or fifteen. And then one grows up and learns taste and becomes cynical and starts reviewing books as, like, a job... :P

[jennygadget.livejournal.com]

yes, but...this is the price you pay for being awesome. suck it up. :p

i jest, of course. flail as much as you need to. and here, have some ice cream. and cake. you deserve it. and dont mind the noisemakers and streamers, they just kinda appeared. i dunno where they came from...

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

<3

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

I didn't set anything off, I swear!

::shuffles::

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

*eyes suspiciously*

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Erm.

::looks around::

Soup smells good, eh? Nothing like a good pot of soup on a cold rainy day, although it's up to 24 of those European Celsiuses. I just finished some chili myself -- and look at the time! Got a meeting, must run!

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Soooouuuuup.