Books 2016: cry cry cry

[hawkwing_lb]

Books 2016: 120-132


120. Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom. Henry Holt, 2016.

Read for review for Tor.com, though actually writing the review is hard as fuck.


121. Sarah Rees Brennan, Tell The Wind and Fire. Clarion Books, 2016.

Read for column. Good book. Recommend.


122. Walter Jon Williams, Impersonations. Tor.com Publishing, 2016.

Read for review for Tor.com. Lovely slim book. Excellent stuff.


123. Garth Nix, Goldenhand. HarperCollins, 2016.

Read for review for Tor.com. Meh.


124. Alastair Reynolds, Revenger. Gollancz, 2016.

Read for review for Locus. Good book.


125. Wesley Chu, The Rise of Io. Angry Robot Books, 2016.

Read for review for Locus. Fun.


126. Erica Cameron, Assassins: Discord. Triton Books, 2016.

Read for column. Rough in places but fun as hell.


127. M.E. Logan, Tempered Steele: Hard Edges. Bella Books, 2016.

Read for column. Sequel to Tempered Steele. Less problematic in its character dynamics. Set in a community of queer women in post-apocalyptic (or next best thing) USA. Pretty solid read.


128. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Alliance of Equals. Baen, 2016.

Not a lot of there there. Very much a series book. All middle, no beginning and definitely no end.


129. Lise MacTague, Depths of Blue. Bella Books, 2015.

Someday someone will write me queer female science fiction (planetary opera) romance that isn't shit. Today is most emphatically Not That Day. Smuggler looking for a deal, lands on planet where women are property, meets woman who joined the military while passing as a man. Honestly, "planet of the raving misogynists" is a terrible trope to start with and the book did not really go interesting places.


130. S.M. Harding, I Will Meet You There. Bella Books, 2015.

Book feels like a sequel, but I can't find anything that indicates the story started in another novel, novella, or short story. Lady sheriff up for reelection in conservative US county who always thought of herself as straight falls for old school-friend, now former marine intelligence colonel, out lesbian. Also there is US intelligence community shenanigans and a good shrink. Quite fun, if uneven, but I'd really rather have been able to read the start of the story.


131. S.M. Harding, A Woman of Strong Purpose. Bella Books, 2016.

Sequel to I Will Meet You There, now with lesbian jealousy, more US intelligence community hijinks, and a serial killer. Fun, but still uneven.


132. Audrey Coulthurst, Of Fire and Stars. Balzer + Bray, 2016.

Read for review for Tor.com. I really did not want this book to be shit, but it is.

Comments

[sovay]

Someday someone will write me queer female science fiction (planetary opera) romance that isn't shit. Today is most emphatically Not That Day.

I am so sorry. I feel like it should exist!

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I feel as though there should be MULTIPLE EXAMPLES, but then I am greedy and covetous that way.

[sovay]

I feel as though there should be MULTIPLE EXAMPLES, but then I am greedy and covetous that way.

I think it's a reasonable expectation!

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I keep looking for them.

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

I am amused that, for all that our reading tastes usually line up pretty closely, we had more or less opposite reactions to Tell the Wind and Fire and Goldenhand. :) (Mine being 'meh' and 'ooh, more of that thing I like!' respectively.)

Queer female science fiction/planetary opera romance that's not shit = yes please.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Well, for me I felt one thing was a new thing for the author, and the other thing was... not at all ambitious. (I think Nix's particular brand of nostalgia has lost its appeal for me.) But all such things depend on the reader and the day. *g*

[between4walls.livejournal.com]

Tell the Wind and Fire is one of my fave quotes in Tale of Two Cities (which is pretty much unreadable but has SYDNEY CARTON and MME DEFARGE!).

The other is: "To appeal to her, was made hopeless by her having no sense of pity, even for herself. If she had been laid low in the streets, in any of the many encounters in which she had been engaged, she would not have pitied herself; nor, if she had been ordered to the axe to-morrow, would she have gone to it with any softer feeling than a fierce desire to change places with the man who sent here there."

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I have never read any Dickens. Clearly I have missed some quotable bits!

[between4walls.livejournal.com]

He is not the greatest author of the century by a long shot (In fact, all the contenders I can think of are women, in English at least). But sometimes has interesting characters/moods.