My Reading List

January '12

2012-01-29T14:40:00.001-05:00

The Dragon Knight by Gordon R. Dickson

Ebook, 503 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While I thought Jim had grown a pair by the end of the previous book, this book gives lie to that idea.

Jim is the wussiest over 6ft person imaginable[and he is not a stringbean]. He is athletic, smart and he HAS MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I still have to hear him be concerned because someone calls him Lord James instead of plain ol' Jim.

Fun story, just not as good as it could have been with a hero who had a backbone.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Ebook, 321 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this, and was horrified at the same time.

Some of the things that happen just gave me the willies and made me think "I'd NEVER let my pre-teen read this stuff".

And I'm still no closer to figuring out what is going on.

Dune Messiah & Children Of Dune by Frank Herbert

Dtb, 592 Pages

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dune Messiah:

Paul Atreides' downfall. The Jihad has been conveniently all wrapped up and the bureaucracy is starting it's inevitable creep.

Paul has trapped himself by prescience and knowing the future destroys him.

He gives up, but I can't blame him.

Children of Dune:

Leto and Ghanima are the main characters. Alia takes the predetermined path of the preborn. Leto takes the path of vision instead of prescience and sets up humanity for the Golden Path, whatever that is.

Fantastic! Instead of a simple messianic action story like Dune, we get a full fledged galactic spanning empire intrigue underpinned by arguments of free will and what it means to be human.

There were lots of monologues and dialogues that Herbert threw in that bored me to tears, or went completely over my head, or appeared to delve into completely pointless ethereal world views,

BUT, it was great nonetheless! I feel like I can learn a lot of what is going on inside Herberts head, and I always like a psychological twist to my reads.

Cobra Gamble: Cobra War, Book III by Timothy Zahn

Dtb, 400 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The story snores to its inevitable ending. I was bored and glad for the end. The ending might wrap up this particular story line, but it seems more like a middle of a longer series. I'd say 5 or 6 books long.

The only good thing was seeing some of the characters exhibit real character. There were several instances where the character had to give their word and then a situation came up where it made sense to break their word, but they didn't.

I found that encouraging.

The Death Cure by James Dashner

Ebook, 305 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fight, run, repeat. All the way to the end.

It got repetitive and mind numbing. Ended ok, but every horrible thing that happened, felt like a waste.

Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan

Ebook, 704 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this, but it didn't get 5 stars because there just so much info not wrapping up that I couldn't truly immerse myself completely in the book.

Once I was done, I realized, this was the last book Jordan wrote by himself. And I tell you, if I had read up to this book then heard that Jordan had died, I would have been REALLY angry.

I am so glad I still have several books ahead of me.

The Dragon Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

Ebook, 528
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice wrap up to this series.

It seemed like there was a lot more teenage angstyness and crap like that.

A lot more action and fighting. Good stuff.

The Broker by John Grisham

Dtb, 368 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My only other Grisham was The Firm, so I don't much to compare to.
This book was bland, boring and filled with repeated, ad nauseum, references to drinking coffee and talking in Italian.

I'm never reading another John Grisham book. I'm 50/50, so I don't want to chance it getting worse...

The Hawk And His Boy by Christopher Bunn

Ebook, 225 Pages
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The more I read Young Adult books, the more I am liking them.
Clean, tight short story, bit less jaded views of good and evil.

I hope the rest of the series lives up to this book. This does suffer from first book syndrome and leaves you with a cliffhanger right at the end. Good thing we don't have to wait for the next book.

The Night Eternal by Guillermo del Toro

Ebook, 318 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The weakest book in the Strain Trilogy.
Angels, some seriously blasphemous new age God re-interpretation, apocryphal scripture like stuff. It all came out of left field all of the sudden.
We have a story involving Vamps as virus vectors and how they plotted among themselves and suddenly we're all metaphysical and religious?
And very poorly thought out religion at that.

There was no tension. No suspense. Characters and situations felt like the authors had already used them up and now they were paper thin [no pun intended] and being over/misused.
It wasn't bad, it just didn't live up to the mysteriousness and high-tension created in the first book.

The Omen Machine by Terry Goodkind

Ebook, UNFINISHED

I was around the 100 page mark when I realized that ~~Terry Goodkind~~Richard was still harping about freewill and determinism.

Tell me a good story, not a Ayn Rand philosophy. Could not finish it.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Ebook, 1084 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a moody, emotionally driven book.

I felt completely in sync with the characters ups and downs. This was some seriously good writing.

When the author wrote about a character going grocery shopping, and described it in nigh excruciating detail, I still found it engrossing.

The mystery of the little people, the 2 moons, the tension about Sakigake[or however it is spelled], the unfolding of the romance across time between the 2 main characters, I found it all absorbing and enthralling.

Then there was the graphic sex. Again, again and again. It fit with the flow of the narrative, but it was not necessary. Murakami is a good enough author that he could have gotten his point across in the way he wanted without the graphicness. When I read a book, I do not want to read that kind of stuff.

And that is why I only gave it 2 stars. The writing and storyline really deserved closer to 5, but because of the sexual aspect I could not recommend this book to anyone.

Nor am I now willing to try the author's other works. It just is not worth it to me.

God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

Dtb, 404 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good stuff.

After having read Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson's prequels and sequels, the little throw away references took on a much larger import.

The Golden Path is still not spelled out for the reader. We simply have to figure out stuff while the main story unrolls. That is one thing I really enjoy about the Dune Chronicles, they are not the "Transformers" of books, but a very thoughtful and insightful look at what it means to be human.

Herbert deftly weaves words and thoughts to reveal his idea of what humanity is and where he thinks it could go. In many ways, a psychological version of what Neal Asher graphically shows with his souped up science in his Polity universe.

Poor Leto. To see, to know, to sacrifice, all for a species that turns on him, reviles him, fears him, worships him and ultimately, just wishes he didn't exist.

Herbert also tries to posit the non-existance of any sort of God because he claims it is incompatible with free will; free will being the ability to DO anything one wants. which is why the argument fails, because free will is about the ability to make the CHOICE about doing something, even if it is between 2 horrible choices.

So anyway, lots to love about this book :)

Cowl by Neal Asher

Ebook, 336 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Confusing start and lots of scientific'y talk about time travel and chronal possibility, blah blah blah.

It comes down to lots of fighting and people killing things and each other.

I liked this more than Asher's The Departure. by Neal Asher, but not as much as the Polity Universe.

2012 So Far...

2012-01-01T17:01:00.009-05:00

001: Dragon: The Dragon Knight-Gordon Dickson-503
002: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials-James Dashner-321
003: Dune Messiah & Children of Dune-Frank Herbert-592
004: Cobra War: Cobra Gamble-Timothy Zahn-400
005: Maze Runner: The Death Cure-James Dashner-305
006: Wheel of Time: Knife of Dreams-Robert Jordan-704
007: Heir: Dragon Heir-Cinda Chima-528
008: The Broker-John Grisham-368
009: Tormay: The Hawk and His Boy-Christopher Bunn-225
010: Strain: The Night Eternal-Chuck Hogan & Guillermo del Toro-318
011: The Omen Machine-Terry Goodkind-UNFINISHED
012: 1Q84-Haruki Murakami-1084
013: God Emperor of Dune-Frank Herbert-404
014: Cowl-Neal Asher-336

2011 In Review

2011-12-31T23:00:00.001-05:00

This has been a good year overall for books.

I read
184 Books/Short Stories/Novellas
10 Unfinished books
69,086 Pages

I also started using my goodreads account reviews as my reviews here. Copy and Paste. So not exactly sure how much longer this blog will last. Of course, non-goodreads people can see this blog, while only my goodreads friends can see me on goodreads.

I think YOU should join Goodreads.com [finger point!!!!!]

001: Resident Evil: Umbrella Conspiracy-S.D. Perry-142
002: Resident Evil: Zero Hour-S.D. Perry-141
003: Lady Penitent: Ascendancy of the Last-Lisa Smedman-214
004: Strain: The Fall-G. Del Toro & Chuck Hogan-267
005: Cirque Du Freak: Vampire Mountain-Darren Shan-109
006: Cirque Du Freak: Trials of Death-Darren Shan-83
007: Cirque Du Freak: Vampire Prince-Darren Shan-122
008: Cirque Du Freak: Hunters of the Dusk-Darren Shan-87
009: Mechwarrior: The Sword and the Dagger-Ardath Mayhar-248
010: Shadows of the Apt: Salute the Dark-Adrian Tchaikovsky-392
011: Artemis Fowl: Eternity Code-Eoin Colfer-163
012: Chromosome 6-Robin Cook-457
013: Alcatraz versus the Shattered Lens-Brandon Sanderson-292
014: Shadows of the Apt: Scarab Path-Adrian Tchaikovsky-560
015: Mechwarrior: Decision at Thunder Rift-William Keith-298
016: George's Marvelous Medicine-Roald Dahl-89
017: Atlas Shrugged-Ayn Rand-1360
018: Fisherman's Children: Prodigal Mage-Karen Miller-UNFINISHED
019: Polity: Splatterjay: Voyage of the Sable Keech-Neal Asher-412
020: Bartimaeus: Ring of Solomon-Jonathan Stroud-344
021: Otherland: City of Golden Shadow-Tad Williams-770
022: Cirque Du Freak: Allies of the Night-Darren Shan-130
023: Dresden Files: Blood Rites-Jim Butcher-344
024: Mechwarrior: Mercenary's Star-William Keith-371
025: Shadow War: Shadow Moon-Chris Claremont-UNFINISHED
026: The Two Jungle Books-Rudyard Kipling-309
027: Castle Brass: Count Brass-Michael Moorcock-83
028: Ranger's Apprentice: Ruins of Gorlan-John Flanagan-195
029: Percy Jackson: Lightning Thief-Rick Riordan-237
030: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters-Rick Riordan-181
031: Mechwarrior: Price of Glory-William Keith-327
032: Arthurian Saga: Crystal Cave-Mary Stewart-338
033: Anne of Green Gables-Lucy Montgomery-309
034: Otherland: River of Blue Fire-Tad Williams-768
035: Percy Jackson: The Titan's Curse-Rick Riordan-196
036: Ranger's Apprentice: The Burning Bridge-John Flanagan-212
037: Castle Brass: Champions of Garathorm-Michael Moorcock-80
038: Shadowmarch: Shadowheart-Tad Williams-738
039: Star Wars: Clone Wars: Gambit: Siege-Karen Miller-UNFINISHED
040: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Allies-Christie Golden-314
041: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Vortex-Troy Denning-360
042: The Wheel of Time: Strike at Shayol Ghul & Ravens-Robert Jordan-35
043: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Purgatory-John Miller-30
044: Once A Hero-Michael Stackpole-513
045: Percy Jackson: Battle of the Labyrinth-Rick Riordan-243
046: Wheel of Time: New Spring-Robert Jordan-317
047: Malazan Book of the Fallen: The Crippled God-Steven Erikson-953
048: Ranger's Apprentice: The Icebound Land-John Flanagan-222
049: Ranger's Apprentice: Battle for Skandia-John Flanagan-238
050: Wheel of Time: Eye of the World-Robert Jordan-702
051: Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass-Tad Williams-749
052: Discworld: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents-Terry Pratchett-170
053: Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian-Rick Riordan-234
054: Starship: Mutiny-Mike Resnick-163
055: Cirque Du Freak: Killers of the Dawn-Darren Shan-129
056: Cirque Du Freak: Lake of Souls-Darren Shan-161
057: Castle Brass: Quest For Tanelorn-Michael Moorcock-80
058: Wheel of Time: The Great Hunt-Robert Jordan-618
059: Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov-363
060: Otherland: Sea Of Silver Light-Tad Williams-1002
061: Pet Sematatary-Stephen King-411
062: Mechwarrior: Warrior: En Garde-Michael Stackpole-388
063: Moby Dick-Herman Melville-UNFINISHED
064: Hull Zero Three-Greg Bear-256
065: The Magicians-Lev Grossman-390
066: The Day of the Triffids-John Wyndham-196
067: Wheel of Time: The Dragon Reborn-Robert Jordan-595
068: Cirque Du Freak: Lord of the Shadows-Darren Shan-97
069: Cirque Du Freak: Sons of Destiny-Darren Shan-125
070: Dresden Files: Dead Beat-Jim Butcher-386
071: Polity: Splatterjay: Orbus-Neal Asher-361
072: Ranger's Apprentice: Sorcerer of the North-John Flanagan-230
073: Ranger's Apprentice: Siege of Macindaw-John Flanagan-236
074: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn: The Dragonbone Chair-Tad Williams-824
075: Starhammer-Christopher Rowley-277
076: Star Wars: Knight Errant-John Miller-310
077: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn: The Stone of Farewell-Tad Williams-727
078: Resident Evil: Caliban Cove-S.D. Perry-134
079: Asian Saga: Tai-Pan-James Clavell-655
080: Emerald Eyes-Daniel Moran-217
081: Starship: Pirate-Mike Resnick-165
082: Malaz: Bauchelain and Korbal Broach-Steven Erikson-180
083: Malaz: Crack'd Pot Trail-Steven Erikson-154
084: Polity: Prador Moon-Neal Asher-173
085: Abolethic Sovereignty: Plague of Spells-Bruce Cordell-290
086: Wheel of Time: The Shadow Rising-Robert Jordan-907
087: Acacia: The Other Lands-David Durham-504
088: Discworld: Thud!-Terry Pratchett-297
089: 5 Novels-Daniel Pinkwater-648
090: Ranger's Apprentice: Erak's Ransom-John Flanagan-327
091: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn: To Green Angel Tower-Tad Williams-1374
093: Bards of Bone Plain-Patricia McKillip-329
094: Abolethic Sovereignty: City of Torment-Bruce Cordell-UNFINISHED
095: Polity: Hilldigger-Neal Asher-505
096: Cobra War: Cobra Guardian-Timothy Zahn-388
097: Green Rider: Blackveil-Kristen Britain-773
098: Dark Angel: Before the Dawn-Max Collins-291
099: Ranger's Apprentice: Kings of Clonmel-John Flanagan-357
100: Ranger's Apprentice: Halt's Peril-John Flanagan-348
101: The Last Day-Glen Kleier-484
102: Wheel of Time: The Fires of Heaven-Robert Jordan-877
103: Grimm Dragonblaster: A Mage In The Making-Alistair Archibald-264
104: Star Wars: Old Republic: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Sentinel-John Miller-27
105: T2: Infiltrator-S.M. Stirling-513
106: Star Wars: Old Republic: Deceived-Paul Kemp-348
107: Time Traders-Andre Norton-400
108: Starship: Mercenary-Mike Resnick-338
109: WWW: Wake-Robert Sawyer-388
110: Vlad Taltos: Orca-Steven Brust-313
111: Tiffany Aching: The Wee Free Men-Terry Pratchett-289
112: Dresden Files: Proven Guilty-Jim Butcher-557
113: Tiffany Aching: A Hat Full Of Sky-Terry Pratchett-299
114: Wheel of Time: Lord of Chaos-Robert Jordan-1223
115: The Count of Monte Cristo: Unabridged-Alexandre Dumas-1606
116: Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught-Jack Campbell-420
117: Tiffany Aching: Wintersmith-Terry Pratchett-341
118: Night Angel: Perfect Shadow-Brent Weeks-70
119: Dark Angel: Skin Game-Max Collins-UNFINISHED
120: Lyra: Shadow Magic-Patricia Wrede-256
121: Malaz: Stonewielder-Ian Esslemont-640
122: T2: Rising Storm-S.M. Stirling-384
123: Ranger's Apprentice: Emperor of Nihon-Ja- John Flanagan-438
124: Riyria Revelations: Wintertide- Michael Sullivan-332
125: Wheel of Time: A Crown of Swords-Robert Jordan-896
126: So You Want To Be A Wizard-Diane Duane-408
127: WWW: Watch-Robert Sawyer-368
128: The New Age Movement and the Illuminati 666-William Josiah Sutton-UNFINISHED
129: The Iron Druid Chronicles: Hounded-Kevin Hearne-239
130: T2: The Future War-S.M. Stirling-368
131: Imperium: Mech-B.V. Larson-328
132: Imperium: Mech 2-B.V. Larson-252
133: Neuromancer-William Gibson-288
134: What It Is Like To Go To War-Karl Malantes-256
135: Book of the Elements: The Legions of Fire-David Drake-368
136: Broken Empire: Prince of Thorns-Mark Lawrence-336
137: Destroyermen: Into the Storm-Taylor Anderson-400
138: Destroyermen: Crusade-Taylor Anderson-400
139: The Hourglass Door-Lisa Mangum-400
140: The Eternal Champion-Michael Moorcock-484
141: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Pantheon-John Miller-34
142: Sandkings-George RR Martin-80
143: Lyra: Daughter of Witches-Patricia Wrede-304
144: Polity: Shadow of the Scorpion-Neal Asher-250
145: Stealing Light-Gary Gibson-441
146: Wheel of Time: Path of Daggers-Robert Jordan-705
147: Videssos: An Emperor for the Legion-Harry Turtledove-336
148: Germline-T.C. McCarthy-UNFINISHED
149: A Room with a View-E.M. Forster-231
150: Star Dragon-Mike Brotherton-352
151: Time Traders II-Andre Norton-384
152: The Hobbit-J.R.R. Tolkien-256
153: Battlestar Galactica-Jeffrey Carver-269
154: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Conviction-Aaron Allston-367
155: Black Magician: Magicians Guild-Trudi Canavan-384
156: The Iron Druid Chronicles: Hexed-Kevin Hearne-246
157: Jumper-Steven Gould-345
158: Asian Saga: Gai-Jin-James Clavell-1248
159: Maze Runner-James Dashner-336
160: Killer-Karl Wagner & David Drake-193
161: Finity-John Barnes-303
162: Ranger's Apprentice: Lost Stories-John Flanagan-352
163: The Viscount & the Witch-Michael Sullivan-28
164: Shadows of the Apt: The Sea Watch-Adrian Tchaikovsky-586
165: Steel and Other Stories-Richard Matheson-320
166: The Story of My Experiments with Truth-Mahatma Gandhi-UNFINISHED
167: Wheel of Time: Winter's Heart-Robert Jordan-560
168: The Heir: Warrior Heir-Cinda Chima-272
169: The Horus Heresy: Horus Rising-Dan Abnett-295
170: The Owner: Departure-Neal Asher-352
171: Star Wars: Choices of One-Timothy Zahn-384
172: Underworld-Greg Cox-302
173: The Walking Drum-Louis L'Amour-480
174: Discworld: Making Money-Terry Pratchett-400
175: Destroyermen: Maelstrom-Taylor Anderson-400
176: Dresden Files: White Night-Jim Butcher-376
177: Timeline-Michael Crichton-436
178: Jumper: Reflex-Steven Gould-310
179: The Walls of the Universe-Paul Melko-301
180: The Onuissance Cells-Steve Jordan-162
181: Polity: The Technician-Neal Asher-391
182: Wardstone: Kings, Queens, Heroes & Fools-M.R. Mathias-500
183: Wheel of Time: Crossroads of Twilight-Robert Jordan-672
184: Seven Realms: The Demon King-Cinda Chima-340
185: Seven Realms: The Exiled Queen-Cinda Chima-402
186: Seven Realms: The Gray Wolf Throne-Cinda Chima-399
187: The Heir: The Wizard Heir-Cinda Chima-315
188: American Gods-Neil Gaiman-560
189: Spice and Wolf Book 1-Isuna Hasekura-UNFINISHED
190: The Dragon and the George-Gordon Dickson-243
191: The Iron Druid Chronicles: Hammered-Kevin Hearne-273
192: Lyra: Harp of Imach Thyssel-Patricia Wrede-308
193: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Ascension-Christie Golden-382
194: Dune-Frank Herbert-535

December '11

2011-12-31T22:00:00.003-05:00

Timeline by Michael Crichton

Dtb, 436 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Read May 2001
Reread December 2011

While this was no Jurassic Park, I certainly enjoyed this much more than Congo, Prey and definitely a lot more than that horrible State of Fear.

Time travel, medieval settings, modern wussies getting some culture shock, kickass fighting, it all came together to entertain me.

Now I want to watch the movie, even though that was a real bastardization of this novel...

Reflex by Steven Gould

Ebook, 310 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A more mature Davy and his wife go through a horrifying ordeal.

This was a fully thought out novel, with the consequences mapped out for someone who is a teleport like Davy.

It rang true, not over the top comic book style, and held my attention. Definitely be reading the third book.

The Walls of the Universe by Paul Melko

Ebook, 301 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

One John was a complete dickhead at the beginning and ended up maturing into a better man.

Another John was a naive farmboy who grew into a very smart and capable man.

Both stories are a side of a multisided coin and it is quite the coin!

The Onuissance Cells by Steve Jordan

Ebook, 162 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Blah, blah, blah.

A bunch of preachy short stories. Given, my view of the author is biased by my passing acquaintance with him on some online forums, but this just seemed very heavy handed.

The Technician by Neal Asher

Ebook, 391 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blood, guts, Jain tech and Atheters!

Another excellent addition to the Polity Universe.

Kings, Queens, Heroes, & Fools by M.R. Mathias

Ebook, 500 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some crude humor, some very unpolished writing [I am almost tempted to ask my cousin, who is a professional editor to go over this for my own enjoyment. I just can't afford her] but a really good follow up story to The Sword and the Dragon.

I did not see the death of one of the characters near the end coming. While it simplifies and cleans up the plot for the next book, it kind of seemed like an easy out.

But I really did enjoy this story. A good solid fantasy novel and I am looking forward to the final book in this trilogy.

Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan

Ebook, 672 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fantastic!

I have to admit, I am enjoying seeing Perrin pushed to the edge, and a little beyond. He really needs to "grow" but the only way is to force him along certain paths.

I find Matt's acceptance of his fate, in regards to the daughter of the nine moons, very unlike him. He always seems to have fought being forced to do anything, and now he is just going along with it?

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Ebook, 340 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this. More than Chima's "Heir" series.

Medieval settings always help though. And the idea of magic being like any other "tool", ie it can be totally misused and have long term bad consequences for the world, was interesting.

She definitely has a "thing" against magic users.

The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima

Ebook, 402 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The story continues.

Action, intrigue, character growth, good writing, clean writing, all combine to make a good series.

The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima

Ebook, 399 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This series gets better and better!
And all this time I was under the impression it was a trilogy so imagine my surprise when I get to the end of the book and realize it isn't the end!
I certainly don't see Chima wrapping up everything in 1 book, but she could just leave certain things undone, or for possible future series.
Either way, I am looking forward to the next book.

The Wizard Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

Ebook, 315 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I did not enjoy this as much as The Warrior Heir. Mainly because the protagonist had to do a lot more hiding, less "actiony" stuff than in Warrior Heir.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Ebook, 560 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this on a mental level, but had so many issues with Gaiman's world philosophy that I had to completely compartmentalize while reading this.

Well written, very interesting ideas and quite the con game. I can see why many people would like this book. It tells a dramatic, gripping story and looks at American through non-American eyes, but without all the anti-imperial bullshit so common in many modern European writings [which is SO hypocritical that I want to puke sometimes].

Now, the quick philosophical look. This is philosophy 101 for the lazy. which is why it is so popular. Take an idea that has been around for 1000's of years, modernize it, streamline it, rub off all the hard edges, everything that actually makes you think, and voila, you have a wonderful philosophical "idea".

Which is great for your a-typical modern human in a first world country who refuses to look at logic and philosophy as a logical school of thought.

All these slams are not slams on the book, but on the intended audience. I think Gaiman wrote a perfect piece for his audience. Pseudo-psychology, some darkness to scare us, some big warm fuzzies to warm us up.

Spice & Wolf, Book 1 by Isuna Hasekura

Ebook, UNFINISHED
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Boring! Could not finish.

The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson

Ebook, 243 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I actually read a scanned copy on my ereader.

This reminded me, a lot, of the Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenburg. But this was SO much better.
We only have to deal with 1 coward/douchebag and by the end he's not a douchebag anymore, just a dummie.[unlike the Guardian series, where there is a group and they are still pretty much complete jerks even after several books]
This was a nice fun read that went quickly and gave me an hours enjoyment. I have high hopes that the rest of the series will be as fun.

Hammered by Kevin Hearne

Ebook, 273 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This will be the final book I read in this series; it just pushed the irreligious button too hard for me to ignore anymore.

Anyway, w1z3 0l dru1d g3ts tog3th3r with palz and goez aftuh Th0000r!

and they kill Thor and a whole ton of the viking pantheon.

this struck me as odd. If they could do this, why hadn't other groups assembled and there been war "in the heavens", as it were? And using Thor as an example of a "killer" god who ruined countless lives? What about some of those hindu gods? It just seemed capricious on the part of the author to pick Thor, like he wanted to use the title and wrote a story around that.

Anyway, done with this series. No more interest even when other books do come out.

The Harp of Imach Thyssel by Patricia C. Wrede

Ebook, 308 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Best book in the Lyra series so far. I actually found myself wanting to read more, unlike the previous books where I just kind of slogged through.

I am not sure why the change in attitude for me. On the surface, this was in the EXACT same vein as the others. It strikes me more as an Andre Norton book than a Wrede book.

I enjoyed it and now have a slightly better outlook for the final books in the series.

Ascension by Christie Golden

Ebook, 382 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So many different threads being woven. I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster. As soon as one crisis is over, another one IMMEDIATELY pops up and then whammo, time for our heroes to jump into action again.

I like Luke, Leia and Han and the host of the original characters. Some of the newer people are ok, ie, Jaina, Jag, Tahiri, but most of the characters seem to be there as props.

The Sith. What a joke. What a phracking joke! Where are the ysalamari [excuse the spelling]? Why aren't they blanketing Coruscant? They are a HUGE tool to use against force users and you would think that the non-force users would have realized this by now.

Abeloth-it morphs once again into the perfect boogeyman for the writers to use without having to think very much. I am resigned to it sticking around to the end.

Overall, this series is my last I'm buying in the Starwars EU. While I enjoy parts and bits, the overall isn't as fun or as good as say, Zahn, Stackpole or Allston.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Dtb, 535 Pages
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my first time that I have read Dune in short chunks. I usually read the whole book over a weekend and gorge myself on it.

I had a completely deeper reading by going slow. I don't think I'll ever read this way again, because it wasn't nearly as an enjoyable action story as when read in one chunk.

Herbert tones down his usually dense cryptic philosophical psycho-babble and gives us a story that almost anyone can enjoy.

Freewill, prophecy, love, genetics, time/space, guiding forces, pre-destination, all collide together on a single planet to tell a story about a young man who must face his destiny while averting a horrible future all the while being manipulated by forces outside his immediate control[at the beginning of the book].

There are books that I might enjoy more than Dune, but I have yet to find one that holds up to so many rereads or to find a book that still resonates with me even as I change because of life experiences. This would be a book I would choose to take with me to a deserted island.

Monthly Summary
17 Novels
1 Unfinished Novel
6529 Pages

November '11

2011-11-30T01:30:00.000-05:00

The Lost Stories by John Flanagan

Ebook, 352 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

John Flanagan did a great job with this book. Sometimes a collection of short stories will just fall flat and leave you feeling bleh. Not this one though.

Flanagan packed each story chock full of what I've come to expect from the RA Series-adventure, fun, a tiny bit of mystery and suspense and a good ending.

I was a little confused at the first, with the whole archeological thing, but it quickly made sense. Just the first couple of pages made me wonder if I'd gotten a bad ebook or something.

The Viscount and the Witch by Michael J. Sullivan

Ebook, 28 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This story was over before I even got my head around that it was starting. That was my only complaint-too short :D

Really neat intro to Royce and Hadrian and "their" noble. Now I REALLY want the final book, sigh...

The Sea Watch by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Ebook, 586 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It seems like it is Stenwold Maker against the entire Kinden world. I feel pretty bad for the poor guy. Everything seems to go wrong for him.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Not quite as much as the previous books, but I think the Wasp Empire makes a fantastic antagonist, and the underwater kinden made me feel kind of creepy/crawly and Tchaikovsky's descriptions made ME feel claustrophobic.

I have to say, it sure would be nice if somebody besides Stenwold became the major character. I just have this image of an 80 year old tottering around. I know that isn't accurate, but from the descriptions in previous books, that is how I see him.

Looking forward, with great anticipation, to the next book, Heirs to the Blade[I think that is the name].

Steel: And Other Stories by Richard Matheson

Dtb, 320 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Matheson seems to see the worst in humanity and to spray that about.
I think every story was about a human being being irrational in one form or another.

I enjoyed these,[there was comic relief, even if in a bitter form] but would not want to read lots of books like this one right after the other. It would be too much.

The Story of My Experiments With Truth by Mahatma Gandhi

Dtb, UNFINISHED
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I simply gave up around page 300.

I didn't know much about Gandhi except that he was a pacifist and helped free India. So I wanted to find out more about him. What better way than to read the man's own words about his life? So I went in with vim and vigor, ready to learn.

I got bogged down in details that didn't mean anything to me [he wrote about current Indian authority figures like I might toss off a comment about Britney Spears].

He routinely came across as a complete prick, ie, he would almost scold the reader to do, or not do, some particular line of action simply because he, Gandhi, recommended it.[this is/was a time period thing. I've read several other pieces of non-fiction by like people from that time and it is just how they write. Still pisses me off though]. He also had no problems denying people the same benefits that he had had[college, job opportunities, etc] if the alternative was an "experiential" growing thing-ie, he denied formal education to his children because he thought they would be better off simply "knowing" people and how life worked.

He routinely acted like an authority on a subject that he had an interest in, based upon 1 or 2 instances-ie, he decries doctors, and then goes on to talk about a plague that he helped deal with and how he used some alternative medicine [doctors and him were both ineffective in that case]. It was not a case of "I found X to work for me and if you feel like it, you can try it", it really came across more as "I like X, you should use X too. It might work, it might not, but it is better than anything else".

False humility? This one I'm not sure of to be honest. He comes across as very humble in many instances, but there are flashes of extreme arrogance or ignoring certain facts that made me really wonder just how much his writing hid. Given, we all self-deceive to one degree or another [and in most cases, it isn't purposeful, we humans are simply blind to our own faults], but for a self-professed "seeker of truth" to say some of the things he did, it did not jive with humility.
But that is the kind of thing you cannot accurately judge unless you've met the person.

His wife. His poor, poor, wife. I don't know if she should be considered a saint for putting up with Gandhi, or what. Abandoned for months or years at a time while he pursues social equality in South Africa [for Indians], constantly told that material possessions are meaningless, that sex has no part in love, and in a nutshell, told that anything she wants must be subsumed to the greater good of the Indian Cause.

And that is the main reason I stopped reading. Gandhi seems to advocate the collective over the individual. And he was a prick and wicked boring. Now I am completely disillusioned with him.

I predict it will be years before I attempt another autobiography of anyone after this.

Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan

Ebook, 560 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read June 2001
Re-read November 2011.

What a difference 10 years makes. First off, I've got the final book in my hands in the next couple of months. Second, I'm reading a WoT book a month instead of a year[or 2 or 3] and I think that is just about the right amount of time.

Most of this was completely new to me because I think I stopped the first time when I realized the series wasn't at its end. I enjoyed this. Same compliments, same complaints as the previous books.
And the cleansing of Saidin was pretty cool. It did make me wonder just how strong/weak the Forsaken actually are. And if they couldn't deal with Rand and Co, why did the original Aes Sedai have such trouble?

The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

Ebook, 272 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this.

Not much of a review, I know, but it was fun, with just the right amount of danger and uncertainty to spice it up.

And no ***** werewolves or vamps [sparkly or otherwise]...

Horus Rising (Warhammer 40,000) by Dan Abnett

Ebook, 295 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While a very action packed, gruesome story, I kept waiting for the "Heresy" to show itself, and it never did.

Also, logistics. A space force that is dealing with at least 3 different forms of humanity would not have integrated walkways/doorways/whatever for all 3 subspecies, it simply would be cost prohibitive.

And every bloody "hero" is always godlike, or nearly godlike. I felt like I was reading the Iliad or something. Frack that...

The Departure by Neal Asher

Ebook, 352 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Non-polity universe.

But blood and guts GALORE! I kind of found it over the top. And the whole mental "aha, I found a new trick that I can use until you figure out how to counter it" was used enough that it detracted from my enjoyment.

Would certainly not recommend as a first Neal Asher book. hardcore fans only.

Star Wars: Choices of One by Timothy Zahn

Ebook, 384 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zahn brings some much needed polished writing to the Star Wars universe. I actually put the book down when I got tired so that I would be able to understand what he was writing.[and yes, that is a good thing]

I had fun reading this, a bit more than I had reading Star Wars Allegiance, not sure why though. Seemed to have more action than I remember in Allegiance.

Glad I bought this one...

Underworld by Greg Cox

Ebook, 302 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you really liked the movie, you'll probably enjoy this.

I thought the movie was a good action romp, but the book was just plain dull.

I had all three books on tap to read, but after this, I'm not going to waste my time, it is just mediocre pablum.

The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour

Dtb, 480 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Instead of stereotyping westerns here, Louis L'Amour does medieval Europe.

It was fun, but it got kind of tiring having the hero bash Europe, praise the Middle East, learn EVERYTHING in about 2 days, and get into a new kind of danger at the end of every chapter.

So it was a typical L'Amour :D

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Ebook, 400 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Maybe the "Occupy Wallstreet" people should have read this before camping out and pooping in the parks ;)

Anyway, a very humorous look at the banking system, Anhk-Morpork style. We get good old Moist Von Lipwig[who I am enjoying immensely] and some more Vetinari stuff. He's the best kind of tyrant :D

And I actually found the little annoying dog funny too! Which means Pratchett wrote this well, cause I NEVER find annoying little dogs funny...

Maelstrom by Taylor Anderson

Ebook, 400 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, with it's very large battle at the end, but it wasn't as riveting as the previous book nor did I feel the excitement.

Taylor Anderson opens up enough extra cans that we know this could be a lengthy series[thankfully book 6!!! came out just as I was getting into this. Better not be as long as the Wheel of Time series though!]

I am not a big fan of alt/whatever, but this is keeping my interest. I do wish Anderson wouldn't speechify so much though. Sometimes I feel like I'm re-reading the previous book as characters "remember" scads of info.

White Night by Jim Butcher

Ebook, 376 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Harry is stronger, badder and more kickass than he has ever been.

And we still get to hear lots of whining. But I do like that there are now more bad guy options.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
13 Novels
1 Short Story
1 Unfinished Novel
5107 Pages

October '11

2011-10-31T23:30:00.000-04:00

Sandkings by George R.R. Martin

Ebook, 80 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually only read the short story "Sandkings", not the entire book of short stories.

Anyway, what a deliciously gruesome story. It made me shiver with macabre delight :D

Daughter of Witches by Patricia C. Wrede

Ebook, 304 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Way, way, way, way to slow. I felt like I was wading through molasses to get the story. It was there, but barely.

Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher

Ebook, 250 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While I enjoy Asher's Polity universe, this particular Agent Cormac prequel had enough graphic sexual content that I couldn't recommend it or truly enjoy it.

Lots of bloody action though.

Stealing Light by Gary Gibson

Ebook, 441 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Didn't work for me at all. Came across as a mix of cyberpunk and wannabe Neal Asher, and failed.

The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan

Ebook, 704 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read September 2000

Re-read October 2011

Oct 2011 Review:

My initial remembrance of Path of Daggers is nothing happens and everyone is a bitch.

My reread confirms that, but with some very serious upgrades in like-ability. This was a setup book. Not a good book to read when first released, but when you've got the books after, you don't feel the pressure.

So many different storylines, lots of things happen but without resolving anything while introducing more questions. I had to make myself not immediately read the next book and wait until November.

An Emperor for the Legion by Harry Turtledove

Ebook, 336 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am now convinced Turtledove is a closet homosexual and afraid to say so.

I mean, two guys with "magic swords" "cross blades" and they are transported to another world? And in this book, they are afraid to "fight near each other" because they don't know "what might happen if their blades cross again?". Yeah, you don't need to be a board certified Psychologist to figure that one out. Harry, just say you want some sweet manlove and be done with it.

Other than that, this series so far has bored me to death. Very little magic, domestic troubles, etc, etc. Why no just read Roman Homemakers Monthly?

Germline by T.C. McCarthy

Ebook, UNFINISHED
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I got through 38% of this book and then just gave up in despair. It never got better.

If you like a reject of a human who can't be a responsible adult OD'ing on drugs and describing in detail his vomiting/withdrawal sessions, then you have got to read this book.

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

Ebook, 231 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good book showing the complete and utter hypocrisy of an age.

The way time shifted around took some getting used to, and I'd want to read this again, so as to figure out what went on in the "blank" spaces between chapters or breaks.

Glad that it went against the grain and turned out ok in the end.

Star Dragon by Mike Brotherton

Ebook, 352 Pages
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I am SO sick of women hating, irresponsible men and women who are either complete bitches or rugs.

And we get them all in spades here. Plus tons of boring info dumps that do not advance the story but simply seem to be there so the author can wax eloquent on his pet hobby.

Time Traders II: The Defiant Agents & Key Out of Time by Andre Norton

Ebook, 384 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First story bordered on the "ignorant rascism" for me, but maybe that is because I'm a product of the times and am overly sensitive [I suspect that is true].

Second story was more in the vein of the Time Traders I was used to. Enjoyed it very much.

The Hobbit or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

Dtb, 256 Pages
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read June 2000

Re-read October 2011

Fan-frakking-tastic!

I grew up on the Hobbit. I read it on trips, wrote a lengthy [for a highschooler] paper on the Hobbit and Tolkien, had it read to our class by a college professor and just generally loved it.

So when I saw a goodreads friend doing his annual LotR read, I thought to myself, "Derrick, it has been over a decade and you need to read Tolkien again".

This was aimed at children, and the little authorial asides reflect that, but with such gentle wit and clever wording, that it didn't feel "little kid'ish", or even young adult. But those groups, and adults, could both fully get into the story and love it.

There was adventure, action, thrills, quiet reflective moments, moralizing and a happy ending. And it was well written. At no time did I have to reread a sentence or a paragraph to try to figure out what the author was saying. It was clear, concise and straight-forward.

Completely and highly recommended to anyone who likes fantasy.

Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver

Ebook, 269 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A blanket word for word, action for action novelization of the miniseries and first couple of episodes [I think...].
Don't bother reading this. Just go watch the series, it is better on the screen.

Star Wars Fate of the Jedi #7: Conviction by Aaron Allston

Ebook, 367 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was tempted to give this book 4 stars, but then I realized it was because the previous books [by Denning and Golden] were so mediocre.However, Allston does a good job of writing an action novel here. I enjoyed almost every chapter.

My only gripe was when Boba Fett rescues Daala. It just didn't seem to make sense. Mando's rescuing her, I could see. She had sent them a lot of work recently. But Fett personally rescuing her just smacked of Name Dropping

The idea of Abeloth hasn't gotten any more palatable. It is still a big made up boojum that is a dumb literary device employed by Lucas Books. I still think a WHOLE FRAKKING PLANET FULL of Sith is more than enough for a series of this length [but I've said that in earlier reviews, so I'll try to not say it anymore]

Magicians' Guild by Trudi Canavan

Ebook, 384 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this. Not sure it actually deserves a 4 star rating, because everything was a bit simplistic as far as I was concerned and the 'badguy' wasn't so bad, at least until you realize he truly is small potatoes compared to the reveal at the end. Now that was cool!

Definitely going to be reading the whole trilogy...

Hexed by Kevin Hearne

Ebook, 246 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

You know, while I enjoyed this overall, several things made me glad I'm not paying hardcover prices for these.

Kinky sex. Why is it everytime Atticus jumps in the sack with some goddess who can destroy him, that it is abnormal? Either the actual act [sex magic to fix his ear? anyone?] or it is just a ruse by one deity on another? And then the apprentice. Atticus has sex, lots and lots it seems, with immortal beings of unearthly appeal.
AND HE CAN'T EVEN LOOK AT HIS APPRENTICE? Geez, what exactly is in his tea, stupid?

Along with that, I understand that the author is trying to make him relevant by giving him 21st century lingo and attitude. But just like in the first book, it doesn't work for me because it is outside the normal parameters of the human psyche. People DO NOT CHANGE on demand. Just look at an older relative [or yourself as the case may be] to see how humans adjust to change. Some do better than others, given, but 2100 years of constant change will destroy a human unless they have an inner core identity [and most people don't have a strong enough core to stand up to 2100 years.]

Thirdly, pop culture references. Pop culture changes to fast and to often to make so many references. Some went over my head. In 5-10 years[barely an eyeblink in literary terms], the target audience of this book will have little to no clue to at least half of the references. They are amusing to you and me, but will be a killer for anyone down the road. I know these are not meant to be ageless tomes alongside of Dickens and Dostoyevsky, but still, show a little longterm pride.

Ok, now that I've written everything I didn't like, here's my like.

Vampires trying to swear/talk slang. I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes.

Overall, a good action story. Lose the sex and faked "will he or won't he" romance angle and you have an enjoyable man story.

Jumper by Steven Gould

Ebook, 345 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I went into this expecting a simple ya scifi oriented story. This is so much more!

It is more of a coming of age than an adventure story. Davy goes from a young man scared for his life to a man dealing with love, hatred, fear, revenge and duty.

Very well done.

Gai-Jin by James Clavell

Ebook, 1248 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What a sprawling book. Not sure what to say.

I guess it will be interesting to see what the next book is like, since I couldn't see where the Noble House is going...

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Ebook, 336 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The not knowing, the non-omniscience of the narrator, it all worked together to keep me interested.

I kept wanting to KNOW what was happening, what had happened and what was going to happen.

Killer by David Drake

Ebook, 193 Pages
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Could really have been predator. But the main protagonist, the hunter, I wished he had died.

Shallow and boring.

Finity by John Barnes

Dtb, 303 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Weird.

Monthly Summary
18 Novels
1 Short Story
1 Unfinished Novel
7029 Pages

September '11

2011-09-30T00:10:00.001-04:00

The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan

Ebook, 438 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a great book. I don't know if it is the last Ranger's Apprentice or not, but if it is, it ends on a very good note.

We basically get a taste of Japanese culture here. In some ways, greco-roman military themes and japanese samurai/bushido ideals were simplified to the point of losing what made each great, but it had to be done to appeal to a YA audience and so that the plot could advance. This is a novel after all, not a comparative on military types.

This is where Flanagan should end this series. It is on a high note and will leave a good taste in the readers mouth. I could see him starting another series following the further adventures of Will and Horace and wives, or a different YA series where Will and Horace have moved into the place that Halt occupied in The Ruins of Gorlan.

Either way, this whole series was fantastic. For those leery of magic, but wanting a relatively gore-free medieval read, this is it. Sadly, profanity started creeping in in the last few books, so I suggest a review if you are wondering about these for your kids.

Wintertide by Michael J. Sullivan

Ebook, 332 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very good addition to the Riyria Revelations series. [do you know difficult it is to remember how to spell Riyria everytime? I usually try about 4 different ways, then give up and copy and paste :)]

This definitely was a much tenser books than the previous 4. Where the other ones were more happy go lucky and madcap capers, this felt tighter, darker and a bit more serious. I didn't get the feeling that everything was going to turn out ok somehow in the end, like the others.

Now I can't wait for the final book. And I can't wait to see what the Boojum actually is...

A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan

Ebook, 896 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read September 2000
Read September 2011

September 2011 Review:

This is a very hard book to review, for me.

On one hand, I loved the introduction of yet another baddy-Moridin, of Lain and Nynaeve finally getting hitched, of Rand taking down another Forsaken, new One Power tools, more info about the True Power[even if extremely measily], and the gholam.

On the other hand, I didn't like the constant bickering between Men and Women. I didn't like the cliffhanger about Matt[even though I can read the next book next month], I didn't like that there was very little about Egwene[as I remember. There may have been and it got washed away in the deluge of other info? Feel free to correct me].

Overall, a fantastic read. It just seems that the characters are very immature for the amount of hardship they have gone through/endured. I know they are young, late teens, early 20's, but hard experiences tend to either make one grow up or kill you.

So You Want to Be a Wizard (digest): Young Wizards, Book One by Diane Duane

Ebook, 408 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Where to start? It is definitely aimed at the children crowd, and not children AND adutls. Some YA novels can do that. Not this.

A young girl and boy find a Wizards Primer, take an oath, and Presto-Chango, they are wizards. THEN they have to save the world, all by themselves.

That is what I had a problem with. 2 young kids face the ultimate baddy and where are the senior wizards? Do they even exist? That is fine for a kids book, appeals to them in fact. But it was just too unbelievable for me to stomach. Will not be reading any more in this series.

WWW:Watch by Robert J. Sawyer
Ebook, 368 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I can deal with an author who believes in Evolution.

[which from a philosophical standpoint doesn't actually make sense. The language used when talking about evolution is the same type of language used for a deity. That says all I need to know].

However, when someone starts using disparaging/abusive language about those who don't agree with their viewpoint, then we have an issue.

Go read Darwin's Black Box for a good look at why "Evolution" isn't the god some seem to think it is.

Emerging minds. AI, human, animal. Sawyer seems to like the idea of consciousness and what makes it. But he can't explain it, so he gives us the run around with scientific jargon and expects the reader to be blown away and not question what he extrapolates from fuzzy science.

Plotwise, this book was kind of blase. Webmind goes public, govt's are fearful and the young female lead keeps on saying how 1984 can't be. And the author shows a couple of people making good choices and using that to "prove" that humanity can bootstrap itself to a better "all togetherness".

Won't be reading the final book.

The New Age Movement and the Illuminati 666 by William Josiah Sutton

DTB, UNFINISHED
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Ok, I only got through chapter 1, but both parts!

And I had 3 pages of handwritten notes of things that were either misuse of scriptures, speculation with no historical basis, historical "facts" based on outdated and 3rd hand sources, info dumps that simply confused the issue at hand, choosing to ignore certain sources when they conflicted with the authors own opinion and general fear-mongering in tone and language.

The author even admits, on page 63, for it is still not clear this number of doom, 666, will keep God's people from buying and selling. Now if he doesn't have an answer, why is he confusing the answer by throwing more chaff into the maelstrom of this subject?

Now, if this man wanted to simply speculate, I would simply have ignored this book and gone on about my life. However, he purports to be a "Christian Authority" and as such is invoking much greater weight than he actually has.

For a couple of new Christians in our church, this book brought nothing but guilt, condemnation and fear. It did not draw them nearer to Jesus or to create in them the desire to be more Christ-like. 2nd Timothy 1:7 states for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. ESV

That is damning enough for me.

Feel free to read for fun, but as a serious theological book, this is a joke and gives Christians a bad name.

Hounded by Kevin Hearne

Ebook, 239 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I classified this as "Urban Fantasy", but after thinking about it, I think it really comes down more in the "Para-normal" camp.

I hate & despise paranormal.

But a couple of my guy friends here on GR had given it high scores, so I had to try it.

It was ok. Atticus came across as a 200 year old badass, not some 2100 year old. I don't know if having the hormones and body of a 21 year old for 2000+ years does that to one, or what, but he did NOT seem that old.

Someone that old is going to have scars, emotional and mental, that can't just be shrugged off and ignored. Maybe it came from his usually running away? But if that were the case, he wouldn't have fought like he did in this book.

So a pretty good story. I definitely would have given it 4 stars, but for all the beautiful women who just can't seem to ignore him. It was completely ridiculous. Utterly gratuitous descriptions of goddesses & boink-worthy barmaids added nothing to the story and in fact detracted from the seriousness of the situation.

We'll see how the rest of the trilogy turns out.

T2: The Future War by S.M. Stirling

DTB, 368 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this was a strong finish to the series. Not so nitty-gritty and one on one battles like the earlier two books [which is what we like, Mano E Terminatoro?], but a really good overall story about John becoming John Connor the great leader.
I personally enjoyed reading about Judgement Day and the immediate events before and after. The end was a bit rushed, with '4 Years Later', '7 Years Later', etc frequently popping up, but Stirling was not trying to encompass the whole war, just the beginning and the end.
What I really liked was the realization that everyone, terminators, Reese and Uncle Bob, all went through the time machine within minutes of each other. It wasn't a protracted, multiple time event. Time travel happened once, then that was it. Certainly makes it easier to understand the movies, even if it does go against the Comics canoninicalness.[which I don't think is even a real word.]

Mech by B.V. Larson

Ebook, 328 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was disappointed. I was hoping for a mech battle or something, along the lines of what Neal Asher does.

What I got was a recopy of Vang, The Military Form, but with more POV's to break the story up[which was NOT a good thing]. Copied stuff even down to the Two Ancient Races who destroyed each other thing. And the Mech? I'm not even sure what Mech the author was talking about!

It was just such a copy that I was extremely distracted. And Vang was published back in the '80's. and is WAY cooler.

Mech 2 by B.V. Larson

Ebook, 252 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Where Mech 1 was so distracting because of its plagairism of Vang: The Military Form, this book showed the weakness of the author. Weakness of ideas and execution.
The Mechs referred to in the title are side characters, barely there and almost sideshows. The main characters are ok, but how they are handled was not at all polished. One moment they are acting one way and then 2 chapters later they are acting in such a way that would be impossible for them if how they had been 2 chapters earlier was true. Almost like the author just made his characters be what he needed at that moment without either thinking it through or caring about continuity.
Then the side characters. A cowardly gypsy [Vlax Romani? come on], a psycho mech and the stupid Tulk Phryxx. And a bimbo and her new lover. It was a kaleidoscope of ridiculousness. I would call it a farce, but it obviously wasn't meant to be.
Then the plot. A ship that propels itself by lighting off nukes under? The invasion was almost pretty good, but it just lacked that oomph, that something to make you feel threatened.

In finish. I will not be reading any more by this author and do not recommend that you start. Like I said in my review of Mech, go read Vang: The Military Form for some really cool bio-aliens invading.

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Ebook, 288 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What the frack? No wonder Cyberpunk died out. Japan rules the world and everyone is on drugs or about to kill someone.
Whatever.

What It is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes

DTB, 256 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a good book, and I agreed with the author's overall assessment of the spiritual in regards to the armed forces.
But in specifics we definitely differed. Given that he is a rhodes scholar and a vietnam vet, while I'm a Fairwood Bible School graduate and a land surveyor, I'm not surprised :D
This book epitomized why I don't read that much non-fiction. I wanted to take notes upon notes for each chapter-why I agreed, why I disagreed, what I thought was good, what I thought was bad. And when I read, I want to escape life, not keep on fighting.
I think enough. I don't need more things to think about :D

The Legions of Fire by David Drake

Ebook, 368 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While this was supposed to be a romping fantasy, several items really detracted from my enjoyment of it.
1: This was a Lord of the Isles remix[which I loved by the way], with several character types and personalities mixed around a bit and a very blase badguy. I was hoping for something original, but it felt like David Eddings The Tamuli, formulaic regurgitated rehash.
2: several sexual situations that added nothing but titillation to the story. They weren't necessary and it really felt like the story became gutter worthy because of them.
3: Snappy thoughts/comebacks. Too much, too many all the time. Nobody is always clever. Nobody.
So I can't really recommend this series unless you are in love with Drake and his style of writing fantasy. If you are in love with him, you'll probably eat this up and ask for more...

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

Ebook, 336 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Complete and utter over the top brutality and selfishness. The main character simply does things to spite others. While you might have felt sympathy for him because of the horrible history he had, he uses that history to grow his hate and rage to commit as great, or even greater atrocities, thus becoming a ravening beast inspiring hatred and rage in others, and thus continuing an ever-downward spiral.

I will not be reading any more by this author.

Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson

Ebook, 400 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had no idea what this series was about, hadn't even read a blurb, before I started it.

So I was under the impression it was about super robots, or mecha, or ninja's or something. I mean, come on, Destroyermen? Sounds like an army of unstoppable killer thingies to me!

Little did I know I was wandering into the dark of Alt-History. Shudder.

However, it turned out ok. It was an interesting story, but it seemed a little too easier for them to solve their supply problems. The Spectre of Bestiality raises its ugly head, and that was one reason I only gave this 3 stars instead of 4.

I am looking forward to more in this series.

Crusade by Taylor Anderson

Ebook, 400 Pages
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was blown away.

This is a non-stop, seat of your pants, drag me along action sequence. It was exactly what I needed to de-stress today.

I was dragged along the emotional ups and downs right along with Cap'n Matt. Don't know why things resonated so, but I felt a real connection with his battle with despair against impossible odds.

As for the bestiality hinted at in the previous books, it is expounded on slightly in this book. I realized though, that it wasn't really talking about bestiality, because these are sentient creatures, and it IS sailors we are reading about. We'll have to wait and see how cross-species interaction works out. Definitely not over the top or lewd. It is just taking into account how deprived sailors, with no women, would react to females of another sentient species.

Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum

Ebook, 400 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Girl is not satisfied with almost perfect boyfriend. He is too "predictable". Enter the bad boy, who isn't actually bad, and can't do anything physically to the girl because of some ridiculously made up "rules".

Throw in a generous dash of the badboy telling the girl how "special" and "perfect" she is and you get this confectionary of girly fantasy.

The Eternal Champion by Michael Moorcock

DTB, 484 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Comprising 3 novels and 1 short story, this begins the lore of the multi-verse and the Eternal Champion.
2 stories deal with Erekose, 1 with a Von Bek and the short story deals with Tanelorn.

The Erekose stories were enjoyable as a foundation to the other Eternal Champion incarnations, and made the glimpses we see of Erekose in Elric and Corum that much deeper.

The Von Bek storyline dealt with the multiverse and the tone was scifi/psychological and didn't really fit, in my opinion. Also didn't seem to fit in with Moorcock's Law, Chaos and the Great Balance schtick.

Definitely would recommend as a start before Elric or Corum. Even though it definitely would give spoilers for those 2 characters.

Pantheon by John Jackson Miller

Ebook, 34 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

MONTHLY SUMMARY
17 Novels
1 Short Story
1 Unfinished Novel
6595 Pages

August '11

2011-08-31T21:55:00.000-04:00

TIFFANY ACHING: THE WEE FREE MEN
-T. Pratchett-epub-289
-fantasy-taking place in Discworld, but not necessarily in the Discworld series. A young girl by the name of Tiffany Aching has to defend her land against the queen of the faerie world. Mainly because Tiffany's grandmother is dead and so she can't do it. Tiffany is a witch in the making. Granny Weatherwax comes in at the end. It is called "Wee Free Men" because Tiffany gets help by the Nac Mac Feegles. Little blue pict'sies. Drunk, rowdy, almost indestructable but fun and lovable none the less. This was classic Pratchett WITH excellent writing, tight plot and everything was funny, not stupid. Best Pratchett ever!

DRESDEN FILES: PROVEN GUILTY
-J. Butcher-epub-557
-urban fantasy-Harry saves one of Michael's kids and takes her on as an apprentice. I felt like Harry is a complete idiot, and an arrogant one to boot. He always takes everything on his shoulders, without trying to spread the responsibility and then he whines and complains about how hard things are. He ALWAYS acts like he is the only one who can do anything. Well, he isn't. And one man can't do EVERYTHING! Get over yourself and your poor little pity party of the past.

TIFFANY ACHING: A HAT FULL OF SKY
-T. Pratchett-epub-299
-fantasy-Tiffany goes off to get some witchy training. Only a monster, a mindless Hiver, takes her over. She gets free, then has to defeat it. Has some help from Granny Weatherwax and learns some lessons about what being a witch really means. Not nearly as much about the Nac Mac Feegles, so this wasn't as funny. Still a solid book and very enjoyable.

WHEEL OF TIME: LORD OF CHAOS
-R. Jordan-epub-1223
-fantasy-I can feel the gears beginning to grind to a halt. Lots of "big ticket" things seem to be introduced, but go no where. Examples: the "super" Myrdrral-he appears to be more powerful than the Forsaken, but we really find out nothing about him. The Bowl of the Wind-appears to be the answer to all the weather problems, but it takes the WHOLE book for them to even start looking for it. Not nearly as enjoyable as the previous books.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO: UNABRIDGED
-A. Dumas-epub-1606
-classic-this was my first time reading the Unabridged version. It was not good. Where as the Barnes and Noble abridged edition was a tight, thrilling story of vengeance and final redemption, this was a maundering convoluted monstrosity filled with "current pop culture" references that added nothing and detracted. Side stories kept pulling me away down dead end paths. I was very disappointed. Still a good story, but the story gets lost in Dumas's wordiness and love of conversations. I would never recommend the Unabridged version, that is for sure.

Dreadnaught by Jack Campbell

Ebook, 420 pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I dreaded this book, I have to admit. I didn't see how Campbell could continue the series WITH Geary without losing much of what I loved about the original Lost Fleet books.

Thankfully, I was hugely disappointed :) This was just as good as the previous books, and in some ways, better. There was not nearly as much explicit space battle tactics explained in painful detail. Whoohoo!

Geary is still Geary and dealing with a government that doesn't want him, balancing those who hate him, love him, want to use him and want to kill him. And he has a wife. A strong spirited woman. [I suspect a good strong spanking might work wonders, for both of them ;)]

We get lots of kind of info about the aliens, and new ideas about them and it is made real just how ignorant humanity is about the universe they live in.

Good stuff! Looking forward to the rest of these...

Wintersmith (Tiffany Aching, #3) by Terry Pratchett

Ebook, 341 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Liked it more than the second book, less than the first book.

Perfect Shadow: A Night Angel Novella by Brent Weeks

Ebook, 70 Pages
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you wanted more info about Durzo Blint, this short story will at least be a good appetizer. If you want totally unnecessary sex that doesn't advance the story in any way, this is for you. Take out the lust and hormones, and the page count goes down by at least half. However, it does let you know how Durzo turned into Durzo. So Night Angel fans will enjoy this no matter.

Skin Game by Max Allan Collins

Ebook, UNFINISHED
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I felt like I had missed an entire book between the last and this. I just couldn't get into it and dropped it very quickly.

Shadow Magic by Patricia C. Wrede

Ebook, 256 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This reminded me of Andre Norton's older writings. It was dry, straight forward telling of an atypical fantasy.

Nothing really was bad, but it didn't draw me in, or make me laugh, or make me go "wow" like most of Wrede's stuff. I think this was her older series, so it is to be expected.

I'll be reading more in this series, but I'm not really excited about that fact :)

Stonewielder by Ian C. Esslemont

Ebook, 640 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is what I think all of Steven Erickson's book SHOULD have been like. Lots of action, a smidge of philosophy and just some down right wicked cool characters.

While Esslemont's Crimson Guard felt like it was just hanging out there all by itself, Stonewielder felt like an integral part of the Malazan Series. Part of it was several characters are from the Crimson Guard, so I wasn't introduced to a completely new set of characters, there was some continuity from CG. That went a long way towards making me more comfortable.

Man, this was just cool! The storm riders, the koreli, the Lady, Skinner the skumbag [at the end]. AND Leoman of the Flails!!!. I had always wanted to know what happened to him, and now I find out. Wicked!!

So basically, I enjoyed this a lot. and look forward now to more of Esslemont as his own writer instead of just an extension of Erickson. Way to go ICE...

T2: Rising Storm by S.M. Stirling

Ebook, 384 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Much more than even the first book.

John Connor is truly becoming the man who takes down skynet. Of course, I saw that Skynet would come about from Wendy's interference from a mile away but hey, mankind HAS to create Skynet, right?

More of the differential timeloops are talked about, so it will be interesting to see how Stirling wraps up that side of things. Looking forward to the final book.

MONTHLY SUMMARY

10 Novels
1 Unfinished Novel
1 Novella
6085 Pages

July '11

2011-07-31T15:00:00.000-04:00

MEMORY, THORN AND SORROW: TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER
-T. Williams-epub-1374
-fantasy-the conclusion to the trilogy. Everybody meets up at Green Angel Towers after much trial and hardship; only to learn it is all a trap and that the prophecy of Nisses was a lie by Ineluki, who wanted to use the power of the swords to bring himself back. Everybody has a kum-by-ya moment and they all forgive Ineluki and he can't handle it and so all his plans go poof. Seriously. It was written a bit more epically than that, but that is what it boils down to. Simon turns out to be an heir of the original king of Hayholt and he marries Miriamelle and everybody starts the business of rebuilding. So many things I misremembered or didn't remember at all, made me glad for this reread.

BARDS OF BONE PLAIN
-P. McKillip-dtb-329
-fantasy-a bard misuses his power and is cursed to live without his music until he can fix his error. This was as pretty as any of her other books, but without so much mystery, so I found it easier to deal with.

ABOLETHIC SOVEREIGNTY: CITY OF TORMENT
-B. Cordell-epub-UNFINISHED
-fantasy-I am giving up on the Forgotten Realms universe. I just can't get into it. So I won't waste my time. I leave it to those who do like it. More power to them.

POLITY: HILLDIGGERS
-N. Asher-epub-505
-scifi-an alien entity is messing with 2 worlds. The Polity interferes in its own non-interfering way. I didn't find this very interesting. Not very much AI humor, or over the top brutal war. Oh well, Asher can't write to please me all the time I guess.

COBRA WAR: COBRA GUARDIAN
-T. Zahn-epub-388
-scifi- I came in with such low expectations after the first book that I actually liked this. Still seems a loose story and characterization is so spread between different people that I don't really care about any of them.

GREEN RIDER: BLACKVEIL
-K. Britain-epub-773
-fantasy/romance- I started this book fulling expecting it give it one star. I was uber-pissed about the length of time between book 3 and this. I didn't care about Britain's "reasons" given on her blog or anything else she had to say.
As the story went on, I got over that. This was a half decent story with some real interesting possibilities and I was thinking, OK, this deserves 3 stars 'cause I'm liking this.
Then things got all romance'y. And by romance'y, I mean angsty, poke my eyes out with the characters whining about their love or lack thereof. And the consumation scene? Next thing you know, the next book will be a soft porn romance, sigh. A lot of things felt like they were thrown in because the author would have liked something like that, not because it was integral to the story.
Finally, the ending cliffhanger. Britain really needs to wrap this series up. Instead, she keeps making this bigger and bigger. If I have to wait another 4+ years before the NEXT book, and it isn't the final book, then I will not be reading it. Period.
Miss Britain, get over yourself and wrap this thing up. You want to write more, fine. Do it with another series. I'm just about ready to get rid of my 3 previous hardcovers in the series and be done with you. I can't recommend your Greenrider series anymore because I don't know when it will end and I will not put others through this same path of daggers that I have gone through.

DARK ANGEL: BEFORE THE DAWN
-M. Collins-epub-291
-scifi- Having never seen Dark Angel, just heard of it, I was interested in the books. If the books were interesting, I'd probably check out the tv series [even with the incomplete ending].
Standard prequel. A child super soldier escapes into a post-apocalyptic world and grows up trying to escape her former captives and trying to find her brothers/sisters.
Nothing superduper about this book, but I certainly didn't feel like I'd wasted my time. I'll definitely be checking out the tv series based on my reading of this book.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: KINGS OF CLONMEL
-J. Flanagan-epub-357
-ya fantasy- Even though Will is a full fledged ranger, he is still working with/under Halt.
In this story, we find out a lot about Halt's past. Will, Horace and Halt are called together as a new task force for dealing with threats outside of the Kingdoms borders.
Once again, tension was just right, laughs were just right. Just a touch of naive'ness and simplicity that makes it a YA title.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: HALT'S PERIL
-J. Flanagan-epub-348
-ya fantasy- The finishing of the story begun in The Kings of Clonmell. Pretty much the same comments as for Kings of Clonmell. These 2 books really should have been one.

THE LAST DAY
-G. Kleier-dtb-484
-fiction-a book written right before the Y2K craze. A woman is the begotten daughter of god and everything takes place on and around the New Year of 2000. At first I thought it was blasphemous, but several comments made me realize the author didn't know a thing about Christianity and was just kluging popular ideas together. My main tipoff was his off the cuff reaction of the 7th Day Adventists to this "new messiah". He simply didn't have a clue. Second was the repeated references to "church/temple of the self. God is inside." Antithesis to true Christianity. Everything else fell pretty flat as well. Characterization came out candy thin and by the end everyone was all 'lets love everybody and do the right thing' without any real change or reason for change. Romance was forced onto us like an ugly old relative wanting a kiss on the mouth. The plot relied on action sequences driven by mega-maniacal authority figures that made me cringe with their fakeness. Overall, this is one book I really should have not finished, but I had to so I could call it the utter, complete piece of trash it is. AVOID AT ALL COST!

WHEEL OF TIME: THE FIRES OF HEAVEN
-R. Jordan-epub-877
-fantasy-Intensity ratchets up and we get the famous "Who Killed Asmodean?" scene. A wicked cool battle between Rand and Rhavin, involving bale fire and portals. Matt starts using/acknowledging his martial memories. Moiraine and Lanfear disappear through a Sangreal/Terangreal and seem to die. Rand is starting to fight the madness, which seems to be a mixing of wills with Lews Therin, the former Dragon. The badstuff-every female seems to be so angry. I mean counseling angry. Jordan really let the ball drop in the characterization department with this. It is a real turn off.

GRIMM DRAGONBLASTER: A MAGE IN THE MAKING
-A. Alistair-epub-264
-fantasy-10,000 years in the future. Humanity has almost destroyed itself, then recovered. Magic has come forth and male magic become dominant. A talented mage killed his leader and was banned. Now his grandson is on trail to becoming a mage. We find out that a witch was responsible, behind the scenes, for the grandfather killing the leader, and she is interested in Grimm now. Basically covers from 7-17 years of Grimm's life. I really didn't care for this. I'll keep the rest around for a year or so, but if I don't read any more, I'll get rid of them.

STAR WARS: OLD REPUBLIC: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: SENTINEL
-J. Miller-epub-27
-short story-the direct sequel to the story before. The jedi marooned hooks up with a sith and they decide to turn their backs on their respective orders and live in the wilderness.

T2: INFILTRATOR
-S.M. Stirling-dtb-513
-scifi-follows Terminator 2. In many ways this reminded me of the Sarah Connor Chronicles tv show. No time jumping or friendly terminator though. The Connors meet up with the man the T800 was based on. And a more organic terminator, called an Infiltrator, is sent back to try to change things by creating Skynet instead of trying to kill the Connors. Even though that is still a mission priority. The Connors take her down, but she has a replacement hidden away for the next book. Her name was Serena and many of the situations were similar to the T:SCC but John was more charismatic, mature and starting to bear the burden of being mankind's next savior, instead of being a whiny teen with responsibility issues.

STAR WARS: OLD REPUBLIC: DECEIVED
-P. Kemp-epub-348
-scifi-another stand alone novel in the Old Republic era. Basically a Sith engineers the downfall of Coruscant, only to have it be taken away by political intrigue by his sith 'allies'. he kills a jedi master and that Master's former padawan, now a Jedi Knight, comes to Coruscant to take revenge. There is a side story about some smuggler and his crippled daughter. Overall, the last Old Republic book I'll be buying. It was so blase and the characters had no time to get any real depth. It felt like the Star Wars universe was turning into a Forgotten Realms kind of place. Hack and Slash writing with completely forgettable characters.

TIME TRADERS
-A. Norton-epub-400
-scifi-a book with 3 separate short stories all tied together by common characters. Basically, humanity finds the ability to time travel and the Americans are going through history trying to find the Russians, who seem to have found some advanced tech way in the past. Turns out it was from an alien spaceship. The russians get all their bases destroyed and the americans start tiptoeing. Ends with a group of americans finding an intact spaceship and making a trip to the aliens world. The alien empire seems to have fallen and humanity looks to have a free hand.
I really enjoyed this. Norton writes in the classic scifi style and it was nice to have some straight forward adventure stories without all the psychological baggage.

STARSHIP: MERCENARY
-M. Resnick-epub-338
-scifi-The Crew become mercenaries and win battle after battle, usually through brain, not brawn. Clever, witty. Same as the previous books. If you liked them, you'll like this.

WWW: WAKE
-R. Sawyer-epub-388
-scifi-a young blind girl is given sight with some new tech, and along the way a young AI is born, and they come into contact. And some story line about the chinese killing off 20,000 of their own people to stem the start of a H1N5 super flu. Must tie together in the later books. It was interesting, well written and the characterization was very well done. But it wasn't captivating. The birth of the AI isn't explained, it just kind of spontaneously happens.

VLAD TALTOS: ORCA
-S. Brust-epub-313
-fantasy-Vlad tries to save an old ladies land in exchange for healing the boy who helped him from the previous story. In the process, corruption is found to the top level, but nothing can be done about it. And we find out that Keira is Sethra Lavode and that Vlad has a son by Cawti, who he doesn't know about.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
17 Novels
1 Short Story
1 Unfinished Novel
8317 Pages

June '11

2011-06-29T22:30:00.000-04:00

ABOLETHIC SOVEREIGNTY: PLAGUE OF SPELLS
-B. Cordell-epub-290
-fantasy- taking place sometime soon after the death of Mystra [recorded in the Lady Penitent trilogy], the world has changed. A blue fire plague has changed the land, the magic and made it possible for ancient evils to possibly return. Deals with one small sample of the twisted magic that can recall the Aboleths. Having a new set of characters for each sub series in the Forgotten Realms doesn't sit well with me. I understand it, but the only continuity provided is on a world wide scale, which is too big for me. I'll keep plugging away at the Forgotten Realms books, but as backups, not as primary reads.

WHEEL OF TIME: THE SHADOW RISING
-R. Jordan-epub-907
-fantasy-fantastic! Some really cool storylines. Forsaken are starting to be real characters instead of just non-entity bogeyman. Rand is starting to explore his powers on a very large scale. Perrin is back in Two Rivers, becoming the Lord he is destined to be. Matt is still Matt, running from responsibility while searching money, girls and drink. The women are becoming the arrogant characters that they hated in Morraine.

ACACIA: THE OTHER LANDS
-D. Durham-epub-504
-fantasy- I really enjoyed this. Where War with the Mein took me a while to get into, I was already hooked and ready to go from page 1 with this book. Follows the 3 royals and the consequences of the Guild poking its nose into business it doesn't understand. Basically, another war is coming to Acacia, with ALL the clans of the Other Lands instead of just 1. Magic, the book of Elenet, the Santoth and hinted consequences are integral to the story as well. Looking forward to the final book.

DISCWORLD: THUD!
-T. Pratchett-epub-297
-fantasy-a dwarf is murdered and Vimes must solve the crime before a war breaks out between the dwarves and the trolls with Ankh-Morpork caught in the middle.

5 NOVELS
-D. Pinkwater-dtb-648
-ya fiction-5 different novellas by Daniel Pinkwater. All dealing with teens or early teens and written for teens. Some ya books are written for ya AND adults. Not so this. Still well written and funny, just not AS funny as I remember :-)

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: ERAK'S RANSOM
-J. Flanagan-epub-327
-ya fantasy-Erak, oberjarl of the Skandians, is betrayed by one of his own. Will and company attempt to free him. With lots of difficulty and near death experiences they do. Ends with Will becoming a full fledged ranger. Laughter and tension in equal measure underpinned by a new environment. Also, truly Will's coming of age story, where he must act on his own without help from Halt.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
6 novels
2973 pages

May '11

2011-05-30T20:15:00.000-04:00

WHEEL OF TIME: THE DRAGON REBORN
-R. Jordan-epub-595
-fantasy-Matt gets caught up with the girls. Perrin is back with Moirane. Rand is on his own, trying not to kill anyone with his new burgeoning powers. Everyone ends up at Tear, where Rand takes Callendor, a sword of the one power, and fulfills a part of the dragon reborn prophecy. More people are being introduced and things are starting to get complicated. Each of the main characters, the 3 male and the 3 female are starting to form their own subgroups. Really wanted to break my one a month rule and read the next one, but I'm holding it off.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: LORD OF THE SHADOWS
-D. Shan-epub-97
-ya fantasy-Darren finds out that a Lord of the Shadows will turn the world into a wasteland, and the Lord of Shadows will either be him or Steve. So either way, Darren loses. Turns out Mr Tiny is an agent of chaos who does what he can to cause problems and stir the pot.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: SONS OF DESTINY
-D. Shan-epub-125
-ya fantasy-Darren kills Steve, but then allows Steve's dying lashout to kill him, in an attempt to foil Mr Tiny. Mr Tiny's daughter plots with Darren and they concoct a plan to change things to allow the vampires, vampaneze and humans to all survive and eventually become one race. I was glad the series was over. After the 5th or 6th book, the story lost its shiny newness and became much darker than what I was enjoying.

DRESDEN FILES: DEAD BEAT
-J. Butcher-epub-386
-urban fantasy-Harry has to fight some necromancers. The White Court of Wizards is pretty much wiped out and Harry is made a Warder. Typical Dresden.

POLITY: SPLATTERJAY: ORBUS
-N. Asher-epub-361
-scifi-An old captain, a war drone and a Polity ship head to a neutral zone between Polity and the Prador kingdom. The prador from the previous Splatterjay books turns into what the king is, a mutated prador. In the process, it is revealed that the splatterjay virus is actually a form of Jain tech, which emerges and is barely headed off by the King of the Prador, who dies. Closer ties are hinted at between the Pradors and Polity. Fantastic book, and not a single "human" character in it. Asher can write.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: SORCERER OF THE NORTH
-J. Flanagan-epub-230
-ya fantasy-Will is sent to a quiet castle after his adventures in Skandia. However, he is immediately dispatched on a secret mission to the North to check out claims of sorcery going on. Finds out a nephew of a Duke is trying to take over and make an alliance with the Picti. Alice is involved, and gets captured.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: SIEGE OF MACINDAW
-J. Flanagan-epub-236
-ya fantasy-the conclusion to the story. Horace is sent north and the 3 friends overcome and win the day. Overall, this story arc captured in a nutshell why I like this series: flashes of humor when things start getting dark, determined heroes who won't give up and right winning over evil.

MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN: THE DRAGONBONE CHAIR
-T. Williams-epub-824
-fantasy-a young scullion boy, who is a hopeless clutz, ends up becoming embroiled in a plot by an elder race to supplant the humans. Rereading this so soon after finishing Williams Shadowplay series, it is real easy to compare. This series holds up much better than the Shadowplay series. Simon, the main character, is likeable. Yes, he has his annoying traits, but he is growing into someone the reader can cheer for. So many of the same ideas in this series are taken to greater depths, but you can see where Williams is starting to repeat himself. I was fearful that this wouldn't hold up to the memories, but just like the Otherland series, this was even better the second time around.

STARHAMMER
-C. Rowley-epub-277
-scifi-the human race meets the Lowan, and become enslaved. One human hooks up with a resistance group and they find the Starhammer. An ancient weapon meant to fight the Vang, it destroys stars at a time. Ends rather abruptly with the humans dictating terms to the Lowan.

STAR WARS: OLD REPUBLIC: KNIGHT ERRANT
-J. Miller-epub-310
-scifi-follows one young jedi knight who is stranded in the Sith empire. She runs around causing havoc and ends up rescuing a bunch of kids while facing down several different sith lords. Very abrupt shifts from sith lord to sith lord. Felt forced and I didn't really enjoy it.

MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN: THE STONE OF FAREWELL
-T. Williams-epub-727
-fantasy-A lot happens. Now that is an understatement. The history of the 3 Swords is starting to be revealed as well as why Ineluki is doing what he is. Simon gets stranded with the elder race in their bastion of peace, until Ineluki attacks them as well. Princess Miriamelle is gadding about and not helping. Josua and company make to the Stone of Farewell and begin figuring out what they can do. This is epic, and not just in size. I blew through it and really wanted to read the next book right away, but I think I'll enjoy the final book more with some space between.

RESIDENT EVIL: CALIBAN COVE
-S.D. Perry-epub-134
-game novelization-sucky to the sucky'th degree. I barely made it through this nauseatingly predictable and boring book. The attempts at characterization were so badly executed that it would have been better if Perry had left it alone. Maybe a HARDCORE fan of the Resident Evil games would enjoy this, but I can't imagine anyone else who would.

ASIAN SAGA: TAI-PAN
-J. Clavell-epub-655
-historical fiction-Wow. I really enjoyed Shogun, but this was on another level of greatness. Follows one English trader who is trying to get into the chinese market and is lobbying for Hong Kong. Tons of drama and excitement. Political and cultural adventures. Family and Foes. The main character's strength of will dragged you the reader along with him. I felt excited when he was excited, sad when he was sad, etc, etc. Definitely a favorite now.

EMERALD EYES
-D. Moran-epub-217
-scifi-a disjointed and confusing novel about the emergance of a new genetic line of Homo Sapiens. Telepaths, who appear to be the ancestors of time travellers. Who are popping in and out of the story and making things even more confusing. Story segments were not segued well and it felt very herky-jerky. I guess this is a series, but I won't be reading any more.

STARSHIP: PIRATE
-M. Resnick-epub-165
-scifi-the captain and crew decide to pirate other pirates. By the end of the story they realize that that won't cut it and are thinking about becoming mercenaries. Resnick's universe is full of historical character references and this one was with Dickens. I loved it.

MALAZ: BAUCHELAIN AND KORBAL BROACH
-S. Erikson-epub-180
-fantasy-3 short stories about how Emancipor Reese becomes the man servant to the "evil" duo. They are almost side characters in each story, just giving a little push here and there to influence things. I found this amusing.

MALAZ: CRACK'D POT TRAIL
-S. Erikson-epub-154
-fantasy-1 story. A bunch of poets fall in with some bounty hunters who are chasing Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. The poets have to tell a story and whoever gets the least votes gets eaten [they are going through inhospitable lands]. Very lyrical and I still don't understand the ending very well at all. To confusing for my taste.

POLITY: PRADOR MOON
-N. Asher-epub-173
-scifi-the first contact/fight between the Polity and the Pradors. Shows the beginnings of the higher end augs/human mix that blur the line between man and machine. Very violent, mainly because of how the prador eat everything.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
18 Novels
5846 Pages

April '11

2011-04-29T14:45:00.000-04:00

STARSHIP: MUTINY
-M. Resnick-epub-163
-scifi-taking place in the same universe as the Santiago books, this is about a misfit Space Navy guy who is so disgusted at his superiors, for punishing him for doing a good job because it wasn't by the book, that he convinces a ragtag crew to turn pirate with him. I guess there are several more books in the series. I'm going to try to find them.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: KILLERS OF THE DAWN
-D. Shan-epub-129
-ya fantasy-the 3 hunters, Crepsley, the Vamp Prince and Darren, hunt down the lord of the vampaneze. Crepsley kills him at the cost of his own life and the others escape. Only to find out that Steve was the Lord all the time. So Mr Crepsley died for nothing.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: LAKE OF SOULS
-D. Shan-epub-161
-ya fantasy-Harkat Mulds is going to die. So Mr Tiny allows him and Darren to go on a quest to find out who he was in a previous life to save himself. Darren and Harkat go through adventures and find out. Then they come back and prepare to start doing stuff again in our world.

WHEEL OF TIME: THE GREAT HUNT
-R. Jordan-epub-618
-fantasy-the women go to Tar Valon to become Aes Sedai and the men go after the Horn and the dagger, otherwise Mat is going to die. The Black Ajah is revealed as a real thing, Artur Hawkwing's armies come back. Rand starts channeling for real and is pretty much recognized as the Dragon Reborn by a small group of men. He has an epic battle with Ba'alzamon and defeats him, but at the cost of taking an unhealable wound. This was fantastic. Even better, imo, than the previous book. Lots of epic'ness and glimpses into a world that is older, more mysterious and intriguing, than we can truly imagine. I am simply enjoying this without thinking of the future books, cause that would spoil things. These beginning books are the reason this series is so fantastic. It has a solid foundation.

CASTLE BRASS: QUEST FOR TANELORN
-M. Moorcock-epub-80
-fantasy-the end of the Eternal Champion series. Hawkmoon, along with Corum, Elric and Erekose [the eternal champion who remembers all his incarnations, unlike the others] must battle 2 sorcerers from outside the multiverse who want to take all its energy [hence destroying it] and use it to become greater in their own dimension. Much like the time in Elric, all 4 become 1 and defeat them. In the process, Law and Chaos and the Balance are destroyed and humanity is left to fend for itself. Hawkmoon finds his children at Tanelorn. He goes back to Castlebrass with them and his wife to live out his life instead of staying in Tanelorn. I have read the stories of Hawkmoon, Elric and Corum and after reading this, am tempted to go find out Erekose's story. A good ending to this universe of Moorcock's.

LOLITA
-V. Nabokov-epub-363
-fiction-the story of Humbert Humbert, a pedophile who is telling his own story after killing a man who lured Lolita away from him. Gist of the story-Humbert, who is european, marries a widow with a young daughter to be near the daughter. The mother dies, Humbert takes Lolita traveling around the U.S. for 2-3 years in an effort to completely possess her. She slips away. He gives up trying to find her. She comes to him for money, married and pregnant. He finds out how she slipped away. He goes and kills the man [not her husband, who is the father of her baby] and is writing his memories down to present to the jury and judge. He is a nutcase, so he writes all over the place. He is deluded, thinking he is perfectly fine and doing the best for Lolita. So it is obvious that you, the reader, cannot take at face value what the writer, Humbert, is writing. Overall, a disgusting book that gives more weight to the idea of simply killing all pedophiles instead of sending them to jail.

OTHERLAND: SEA OF SILVER LIGHT
-T. Williams-epub-1002
-scifi-the finale to the Otherland story. Dread takes over the network and wreaks havoc. The group offline figure out a way to communicate with the Other, which turns out to not be an AI, but a telepath in a satellite in earth's orbit. It destroys itself, Dread is in a life coma, Lando Gardiner is alive online only, and Mr Sellars has created a new lifeform, an electronic form, which takes off into space. The otherland Network survives as a pale imitation and is hidden away by the group until it can be integrated easily into the existing networks of the world. And there are shocking revelations about Paul, but it works out all good. Overall, a good wrap up to each storyline.
As a re-read, this series held up. It was slow going at first, confusing, but then all the threads started coming together and forming on awesome story. Since this series held up so good, I think I will go and re-read Memory, Sorrow & Thorn with a lot less trepidation.

PET SEMATARY
-S. King-dtb-411
-horror-A story about a cemetary that brings things back to life. A very long build up about a family of 4 who move to Maine, befriend an old yankee who tells the father about the cemetary. The family cat dies, so the father buries it and it comes back, but it is "off". Then the young son [pre elementary school] dies and the father buries him secretly. The son comes back possessed by whatever evil powers the cemetary and kills the wife and old neighbor. The father kills the son, burns down the neighbor's house to cover his tracks and buries his wife immediately, because he believes that the time gap is what accounted for things not working for his son. Ends with his wife coming back into the house, and the rest is left to our imagination. Now, the last 50 pages deal with the horror. The first couple of hundred are the build up and yet, that build up was just as enjoyable, if not more, than the ending. Hints about the evil of the burial ground were given, vague stories by the old yankee neighbor, myths about the Indians who created it. A sense of dread was quietly building up the entire time and you knew the son was going to die and be brought back and that nothing good would come of it. Fantastic, keep me glued to the pages, kind of writing. Makes me wonder what King could have written if he'd gone into another genre.

MECHWARRIOR: WARRIOR: EN GARDE
-M. Stackpole-epub-388
-scifi- I was really looking forward to Stackpole's writing and hoping he would make this universe interesting. I will probably not be reading any more in the mechwarrior series. I'll keep them in my library, but not on my reader. The blow by blow mech fights did nothing for me, I couldn't connect with the characters, and the multiple storylines were just wicked confusing.

MOBY DICK
-H. Melville-epub-UNFINISHED
-classic- I got half way through this and then just couldn't stomach any more. The story was interesting. The problem was that there were more chapters akin to National Geographic articles on whales than chapters dealing with the plot. Maybe someday I'll read a condensed version that has all the useless crap [and yes, chapters going into details about whales and how they are made up, or the process of catching a whale, or skinning a whale, or "whatever" a whale, are USELESS in regards to the plot] gone and I'll be able to actually read a story, but not with this version.

HULL ZERO THREE
-G. Bear-epub-256
-scifi-a man wakes up in a spaceship with little to no memory and completely disoriented. He has to figure out what is going on, to stay alive, and hook up with other "wake up"ers and make a choice that will affect the whole colony ship. This was confusing to read, a deliberate style by the author. Part way through everything you thought you knew was turned on its head. Who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, what in the world is going on, who am I? I didn't realize Greg Bear had written this before I read it and it reminded me once again that I just don't care for his stuff.

THE MAGICIANS
-L. Grossman-epub-390
-fantasy-a 17 year old is taken to an academy where he finds out magic is real and he has the gift. A coming of age story, but from the viewpoint of someone who is self-centered. All he wants is to be happy, but he is always thinking the next "thing" will make him happy. Ends with him realizing he has to make his own happiness, or some such thing. It started out really cool, but then kept descending into a depressing swirl of meaninglessness. A good look at someone with power who has no anchor point, no real meaning with their life. Not recommended.

THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS
-J. Wyndham-epub-196
-scifi-a new kind of plant is discovered/invented, one that is mobile, carnivorous, and filled with all sorts of new useful oils/chemicals. Then one night there is a meteor shower and the next day anyone who watched it is blind. Follows one man as he tries to survive the collapse of civilization. This actually had almost nothing to do with the triffids, the plants. More about the collapse of civilization as 99% of the world dies off in blindness. The triffids are just a bogeyman that appear once in a while and a future threat. Blardy, blardy blar...

MONTHLY SUMMARY
12 novels
1 unfinished novel
4157 pages

March '11

2011-03-31T16:15:00.000-04:00

SHADOWMARCH: SHADOWHEART
-T. Williams-epub-738
-fantasy-the conclusion to the Shadowmarch tetralogy. A god is resurrected, but not the god Sulepsis [the mad monarch] thinks, the god is defeated. Brionny and Ferris get together, Barick becomes the leader of the Qar for its last generation and everyone else just kind of survives. I wasn't impressed, sadly. I doubt I'll ever re-read this series.

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS: GAMBIT: SIEGE
-K. Miller-epub-UNFINISHED
-scifi-ugh. What can I say? The 2 Gambit books should have been 1 and heavily edited. I just got so bored with Siege that I gave up. More Anakin whining, more stolid Kenobi, lots of nothing happening. Yeah.

STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: ALLIES
-C. Golden-epub-314
-scifi-Luke and Ben make an uneasy alliance with some of the Sith to go after Aboleth, some sort of super powerful force using bogey-woman, Skywalkers to destroy her, Sith to use her. She just keeps switching bodies, so when it seems that Luke has her dead to rights, oops, nope, now she's somebody else. While this is happening, Daala is losing it about the Jedi defying her control. Jaina and Jag break off their engagement. And all the insane jedi are now sane, since Abeloth isn't exerting such control over them. Enjoyable but nothing fantastic.

STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: VORTEX
-T. Denning-epub-360
-scifi-more chasing and fighting from the Skywalker/Sith/Aboleth group. And the jedi decide to take their future into their own hands instead of allowing Daala to do that for them. Sets things up for a huge confrontation, or even a total withdrawal of the jedi from the Galactic Alliance.

THE WHEEL OF TIME: STRIKE AT SHAYOL GHUL & RAVENS
-R. Jordan-epub-35
-fantasy short story-2 short stories. Strike is a historical fragment telling a barebones about the sealing of the Dark One and the Breaking of the World and Ravens is about Egwene, at 9 years old, on a shearing day. Neither add huge amounts to the WoT world, but just little interesting bits.

STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: PURGATORY
-J. Miller-epub-30
-short story-a jedi is on the sith world, having crashed. He takes in a disgraced Sith, who finds out he is a jedi. It ends with the appearance of the Sith about to betray him to gain her status back.

AMAZING AGENT LUNA #1-6
-DeFilippis & Weir
-manga-volume 6 was new to me. Not nearly as engaging as the first several volumes. Glad to see it out however and since DeFilippis and Weir are american, maybe we'll see a nice close to this story, but not holding my breath.

ONCE A HERO
-M. Stackpole-dtb-513
-fantasy-a good reread, but, doesn't hold up as well simply because the convergence of the past and present is already known to the reader and so much of the suspense of the story depends on the reader NOT knowing that. Still a fantastic fantasy book, just not as interesting on the 4th or 5th reread :-)

PERCY JACKSON: BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH
-R. Riordan-epub-243
-ya fantasy-Percy and Co have to find Daedolus, the creator of the labyrinth, in order to get him to help them close it down so that Camp Half Blood can't be invaded. Kronos takes over a body and is now corporeal and things aren't looking good for the Olympians.

WHEEL OF TIME: NEW SPRING
-R. Jordan-epub-317
-fantasy-the prequel to the WoT series. Having read it before, and up to book 9 or 10 of Wot, I could read it first. For a first timer, it should definitely not be read until at least after book 8 simply because I'm sure it reveals things quickly that are teased out in the series. And it is a nice light read without most of Jordan's literary "quirks" that drive us batty. A good start to a long series.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: THE CRIPPLED GOD
-S. Erikson-epub-953
-fantasy-the end of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It was about 500 pages of existential whining, much like the previous book or 2, then it got serious about the action and things happened. But that first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book were just plain torture. Why does it take Erikson 5 pages of monologuing build up to accomplish something that he writes in 2 paragraphs? It was worse than Ayn Rand. It was a great story, the action was fast, furious and violent, the characters were all intertwined fantastically, but I can't recommend this series because Erikson ruined it with his need to bash us over the head with his philosophical viewpoints. Pages upon pages upon pages of them! That being said, it did end well. I was satisfied with the ending and felt like I had closure.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: THE ICEBOUND LAND
-J. Flanagan-epub-222
-ya fantasy-Will and the Princess are taken as slaves for Skandia and Will becomes addicted to some drug. Princess makes a deal with the kind hearted Skandian who originally captured them and she and Will escape to a mountain hut for the winter. She weans Will off the drug. Meanwhile Halt insults the king and gets thrown out of the kingdom so he can search for Will. Ends with them all finding eachother but with a horde of mongols ready to invade Skandia.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: BATTLE FOR SKANDIA
-J. Flanagan-epub-238
-ya fantasy-Halt, Will and the others are trapped in Skandia by the mongol horde. They make an uneasy truce with the Skandians to provide training so the Skandians don't get their butts handed to them on a platter. They defeat the horde at a terrible cost and the main group survives and gets home, with a treaty with the Skandians.

SCHOOL RUMBLE #1
-J. Kobayashi-epub
-manga-a converted cbr file. It read ok on my 505, but I didn't really like it. Hoping the original cbr's are much more readable on my new 10.1 Android tablet.

WHEEL OF TIME: EYE OF THE WORLD
-R. Jordan-epub-702
-fantasy-a re-read in preparation for the final novel in the beginning of next year. Incredible. The scene in the beginning where Rand sees the dark horseman and everything is winter dead and the atmosphere is dreadful, it really got me. It was good writing. The story was cool and there was so much that I just didn't remember. There were times that I didn't like characters, but I know more of that is coming, so I tried to let it go. But it is really hard to not want to kill Matt for being a complete asshole in the middle of Shadar Logoth. Definitely going to go slow with this series, one every couple of weeks, no back to back readings, so as not to burn out. And I really like the new TOR covers as well :-)

OTHERLAND: THE MOUNTAIN OF BLACK GLASS
-T. Williams-epub-749
-scifi-things really start to come together in this book. We found out the ultimate aims of the Grail and the Circle. Paul Jonas has a bit revealed about his past and the group makes it back together. Fantastic writing, tons of action. Dread is a great bad guy.

DISCWORLD: AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS
-T. Pratchett-epub-170
-fantasy-a group of mice become sentient, so does a cat and they hook up with a little boy who plays the pipes. They run scams to get rid of "rats". At one village they come across something bigger, a king rat, and take him down and at the end try to come to terms with the village. Make peace, as it were. Amusing and light and easy.

PERCY JACKSON: THE LAST OLYMPIAN
-R. Riordan-epub-234
-fantasy-the wrap up of the series. Kronos and Co. almost take over. Luke redeems himself in the end, lots of info is learned about lots of people and things settle down, for a little bit. Rachel is the new Oracle and Annabeth and Percy hook up. A new "great" prophecy about the end of the world pops up right at the end. So it ends on a good note, but with the chance for more if the author feels like it.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
13 novels
1 unfinished Novel
2 short Stories
7 manga
5818 Pages

February '11

2011-02-27T09:45:00.001-05:00

ATLAS SHRUGGED
-A. Rand-epub-1360
-fiction/philosophy-a bare outline of a story covering the philosophic underpinnings of the objectivest movement. One man, John Galt, removes the best and brightest from the world so that they cannot keep being preyed upon by the "looters". Ends with the collapse of the country [possibly world, but we never actually know] and the thinkers getting ready to take their country back. This was not necessarily an enjoyable book to read, mainly because the characters were simply avatars of ideals that the author holds and every couple of chapters one would start spouting the objectivest viewpoint, in expansively great detail, completely shattering the flow of the story. But like I said, this wasn't really a story, just a cover.
Now to discuss the philosophy part. It posits that there is no God, no afterlife, nothing spiritual, just the material. Hence, the goal of man is to make himself happy. Rand states that each man doing his best to make himself happy will, in the end, make many more people happy as well. Trickle over happiness. Responsibility is a point that is hugely stressed and greatly needed in our day and age. Overall though, this is not something that a Christian could subscribe to. Parts of it, yes. I realize this book delves a lot deeper than what I just wrote, but I don't want to write a treaty myself.

FISHERMAN'S CHILDREN: PRODIGAL MAGE
-K. Miller-epub-UNFINISHED
-fantasy-the sequel to the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology. 10 years later. I couldn't stand this. While Asher was a joy to read about before, now he and Dathne are just nagging people who are completely, willfully, blind to their children's emerging talent. I realize that is a large thrust of the story, but when I just want to throttle every adult character, well, that ruins the reading experience.

POLITY: SPLATTERJAY: VOYAGE OF THE SABLE KEECH
-N. Asher-epub-412
-scifi-10 years after the events of Skinner. A surviving prador gets infected with the hooper virus and ends up going back to Prador space to challenge the king. Also deals with a bunch of reifs who are trying to recreate Sable Keech's resurrection. All ties together and stuff.

BARTIMAEUS: RING OF SOLOMON
-J. Stroud-epub-344
-ya fantasy-Bartimaeus around the time of Solomon. Nothing noteworthy or worth writing about.

OTHERLAND: CITY OF GOLDEN SHADOW
-T. Williams-dtb-770
-scifi-a near future where online is almost as real as rl. Some rich people, however, are creating an online world to rival the real world. Various characters get sucked into the story line, even if we, the reader, don't know where they fit into the overall picture. A very good job of building the story up, reaching a satisfactory conclusion, while keeping the plot wide open. I read this in the bookclub hardcover edition, which, while hardcover, isn't as big as a first edition. Man, what a pain! I had to constantly use 2 hands, rest the book on something, etc, etc. It was unwieldy. I will be reading the rest of the series on my ereader for sure!

CIRQUE DU FREAK: ALLIES OF THE NIGHT
-D. Shan-epub-130
-ya fantasy-Darren runs into Debby, and she gets taken by Vampaneze and the group has a run in with the Vampaneze Lord.

DRESDEN FILES: BLOOD RITES
-J. Butcher-epub-344
-urban fantasy-Harry goes to work as a bodyguard/investigator for a small time porn film producer. The White Court is involved, Harry finds out he has a half-brother and it looks like he and the female cop could end up hooking up.

MECHWARRIOR: MERCENARY'S STAR
-W. Keith-epub-371
-scifi-Gray Death Legion is hired by a planet to help throw off a Great House's yoke. Lots of "then he fired his PPC, then the massive 125mm chaingun until the..." blah blah blah. These are interesting little war stories, but nothing that I ever would get really excited about.

SHADOW WAR: SHADOW MOON
-C. Claremont-epub-UNFINISHED
-a sequel to the movie "Willow". I got about 3 pages in and then realized I just didn't care about this at all, nor was I interested.

THE TWO JUNGLE BOOKS
-R. Kipling-epub-309
-fiction-the name is really misleading. There are several short stories about Mowgli and his adventures in the Jungle, but there are just as many short stories about seals, eskimoes, etc, and TONS of stupid 'songs' that I really couldn't enjoy this like I did Kim.

CASTLE BRASS: COUNT BRASS
-M. Moorcock-epub-83
-fantasy-5 years after the events of The Runestaff. Hawkmoon is happily living with his wife and 2 children at Castlebrass. Then 3 friends appear from the dead, and it turns out that one of the Dark Empire Techno-mages is still alive and dimension hopping and trying to topple the new regime. Hawkmoon deals with him, but all his friends die, again, and when Hawkmoon wakes up, it turns out everything of the last 5 years was a delusion and he had been mad. Never had a wife or kids [she died at the last great battle against the Dark Empire] and imagined everything.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: RUINS OF GORLAN
-J. Flanagan-epub-195
-ya fantasy-a foundling is taken into the Ranger trade and saves his master and becomes a good ranger. This was actually quite well done. From the beginning to end, I found the main character open, engaging and a good stereotypical hero type. I like those :-) A good plot, with hints and then some real meat, about an overall danger to the kingdom and you know the main character will be playing a pivotal role to save the kingdom. And it deals with knights, monsters, etc, etc, so it is all cool.

PERCY JACKSON: LIGHTNING THIEF
-R. Riordan-epub-237
-ya fantasy-Percy Jackson is a delinquent. Kicked out of schools every year, failing almost every grade, etc, etc, but not a troublemaker. Turns out he is a son of a Poseiden and a human. Someone stole Zeus's thunderbolt and everyone thinks it was Percy. So he has to find it, return it, clear his name and stay alive while every godling tries to kill him. Really enjoyable and Riordan does a fantastic job of explaining Greek mythology without boring the reader and bringing it up to the 21st century.

PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS
-R. Riordan-epub-181
-ya fantasy-turns out Kronos is trying to take back the universe from the gods. So Percy and Co. have to set out to find the golden fleece to heal their camp. Only it turns out it was a long term trap by Kronos. Turns out one of the children of Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades will forever change the world of the gods on their 16th birthday. However, those three had agreed to have no more kids with mortals. Only they lied. Everyone thought Percy was the only one, but the fleece brought back to life a daughter of Zeus.

MECHWARRIOR: PRICE OF GLORY
-W. Keith-epub-327
-scifi-Gray Death Legion gets suckered. They fulfill a contract to get a world of their own as a base. Only it turns out the world has a secret Lost Library and Com Star [a supposedly neutral techno-religious group, which acts like a secret 6th Great House] wants that library. So lots of backstabbing, betrayals and fighting. The Legion survives, barely.

ARTHURIAN SAGA: THE CRYSTAL CAVE
-M. Stewart-epub-338
-fantasy-another Arthur saga. This is about Merlin, obviously. Lots of non-christian god stuff and setting the historical stage for Arthur. I didn't really care for this and the story just never drew me in.

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES
-L. Montgomery-dtb-309
-fiction-fantastic story. A little orphan girl comes to live with 2 old people [brother and sister] on Prince Edward Island. She forever changes their lives with her personality, etc. Extremely engaging, well written, great characterization, never boring and a story that has such a timeless plot of love and change, that I can see this becoming a "classic" in the future. It should anyway :-)

OTHERLAND: RIVER OF BLUE FIRE
-T. Williams-epub-768
-scifi-the group gets split up, then comes back together, all the while we're finding out more about the Grail Society and hints of what is going on with the Otherland Network.

PERCY JACKSON: THE TITAN'S CURSE
-R. Riordan-epub-196
-ya fantasy-Percy and Co have to deal with yet another prophecy and have adventures and it turns out that a son of Hades is alive, he was just stuck in a hotel that warped time. But Thalia [daughter of Zeus] joins Artemis, so she will never turn 16, so the prophecy won't apply to her.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE: THE BURNING BRIDGE
-J. Flanagan-epub-212
-ya fantasy-Will ends up on a mission with Horace to stop a surprise attack by Morgarath on the kingdom. He and some girl, who turns out to be King Duncan's daughter, are kidnapped by Scandians and the last scene is of Halt seeing the boat take off with them aboard.

CASTLE BRASS: CHAMPIONS OF GARATHORM
-M. Moorcock-epub-80
-fantasy-Hawkmoon is convinced to go on a mission and he ends up giving his soul to another champion for a short while on another quest. And his wife returns and she remembers their children too. So something is up. Oh yeah, seems to be some sort of cosmic smackdown going on, Lords of Chaos and Law are fighting for their existences.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
19 novels
2 unfinished novels
6966 pages

January '11

2011-01-30T13:00:00.000-05:00

RESIDENT EVIL: UMBRELLA CONSPIRACY
-S.D. Perry-epub-142
-game novelization- having never played RE, having only seen the movies, this was all new to me. You could tell it was from a game, but I still enjoyed it anyway. Shallow characters, basic puzzle plot with some some-what scary monsters thrown in made for a half-decent read. Definitely going to be reading more in the series.

RESIDENT EVIL: ZERO HOUR
-S.D. Perry-epub-141
-game novelization-this is actually book 0. Shows how the T-virus got loose and the one character from the Bravo group in book 1 has her adventures here. Not actually very exciting.

LADY PENITENT: ASCENDANCY OF THE LAST
-L. Smedman-epub-214
-fantasy-Eilistrae loses to Lolth, but saves what drow she can, who return to being dark elves. But another god steps in to continue the game, the old god of the dark elves. This was a confusing book with changes just happening for no real reason that I could figure out. Weakest of the whole series imo.

THE STRAIN: THE FALL
-G. Del Toro & C. Hogan-epub-267
-thriller, fantasy-the rogue vampire takes out all the other ancients by blowing up nuclear plants where their bodies are. So in one blow he takes out the competition, destroys humanities ability to fight back and extends night over the planet. Definitely a middle book where things look their bleakest. The old jew vampire hunter dies, the boy is kidnapped, humanity is on the ropes. Not as engaging as the first book however.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: VAMPIRE MOUNTAIN
-D. Shan-epub-109
-ya fantasy-Darren and Mr Crepsley go to Vampire Mountain for the vampire gathering and so Darren can be presented and accepted by the Vampire Princes.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: TRIALS OF DEATH
-D. Shan-epub-83
-ya fantasy-Darren has to complete 5 trials to gain acceptance. He fails and is sentenced to death.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE PRINCE
-D. Shan-epub-122
-ya fantasy-Darren escapes, but the vampire who helps him turns out to be a traitor, who is trying to help the vampaneze. Darren returns to Vampire Mountain to warn everyone and the vampaneze are wiped out. Darren is spared by becoming an honorary Vampire Prince. However, there is a huge threat, a lord of the vampaneze, who is prophesied to almost wipe out the vampires.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: HUNTERS OF THE DUSK
-D. Shan-epub-87
-ya fantasy-Mr Tiny prophecies that only Darren, Mr Crepsley and one other Vampire have the chance to kill the Lord of the Vampaneze. They have to hunt him down on their own. This chronicles their first chance, and failure.

MECHWARRIOR: THE SWORD AND THE DAGGER
-A. Mayhar-epub-248
-scifi-introduces us to a galaxy where humanity has spread, then splintered into factions, with each trying to rule the whole. Follows one plot to remove a king of one "clan" for the furthering of another clan. Nothing special, but enjoyable with promise for a huge amount of stories.

SHADOWS OF THE APT: SALUTE THE DARK
-A. Tchaikovsky-epub-392
-fantasy-the wasps are poised to take over the lowlands. But due to mosquito kinden interference, the emperor is killed and replaced by his sister, which allows the rest of the world breathing room. Almost everybody from the original book is dead, with only Stenwald, his niece Cheerwell, Totho and the wasp Athric still around. New characters come and go. But the core group is just about gone. It makes for a very dynamic story, and I actually like it. [this time]

ARTEMIS FOWL: ETERNITY CODE
-E. Colfer-epub-163
-ya fantasy-Artemis makes up a new invention with fairy tech and promptly loses it to an American shady dealer. His adventures, with the fairies, of getting it back. and Butler is put out to pasture and his younger sister might be stepping into the role of body guard.

CHROMOSOME 6
-R. Cook-dtb-457
-medical thriller-a naive scientist messes about with genes and monkeys to produce "doubles" for rich people so they have perfect match organs when needed. But that is almost the sidestory. The other part of the story is about some morgue doctor/detectives finding out all about it because of a high profile death. Things go along at an ok clip, then right at the end everything wraps up in the snap of the fingers. Boom, problems all solved, yada yada yada. Completely unimpressed and ruined any positives I had about the book.

ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE SHATTERED LENS
-B. Sanderson-dtb-292
-ya fantasy-the Librarians are invading the remainder of the free lands, Alcatraz's dad runs off to find a way to give everybody Smedry powers and Alcatraz ends up in the middle of a battle. Not nearly as funny and smart alecky as the previous books. Either I'm used to it, or Sanderson is forcing it. Wraps things up in such a way that this could be the last book [even though events are not wrapped up] but leaves openings for another [probably if publishers will give it a go].

SHADOWS OF THE APT: SCARAB PATH
-A. Tchaikovsky-epub-560
-fantasy-Cheerwell is now inapt, due to some mystical hokum due to her moth lover dying. She mopes about. So Stenwald sends her on an expedition to a city that is apparently full of inapt beetles. The empire of black and gold is also interested in this city, so Athric, who has been having some real issues with being married to the new empress, jumps at the chance to get. Lots of things happen and Athric and Cheerwell get together. The city is almost taken, but the Slug kinden, who are major magicians, rouse themselves to destroy the army that has almost taken the city. Turns out that the ghost of the mantis who killed the emperor has been haunting Cheerwell and the book ends with it going after its daughter, where ever she is, and Cheerwell and Athric following the ghost. So yeah, a new story arc is commencing. This story continues to feel full, alive, vibrant and interesting. Information about the world is detailed enough to give you a picture of all that you don't know. Kind of like a tease. I like it.

MECHWARRIOR: DECISION AT THUNDER RIFT
-W. Keith-epub-298
-scifi-a young mechwarrior survives a surprise attack on a back edge world and leads the fight to take it back, so as to give his clan a chance to survive. Looks to be the start of a sub-series about this particular branch of merc mechwarriors.

GEORGE'S MARVELOUS MEDICINE
-R. Dahl-dtb-89
-children's fiction- George, an 8 year old, is tired of being tormented by his nasty old grandmother. So he mixes up a fantastic potion to replace her medicine. Only it turns her into a giant. So George's father gives it to all the farm animals. When that batch runs out, George tries to make another batch. The final batch makes things shrink, and the nasty grandmother drinks it all, thinking it is tea. A very "epitome" of Roald Dahl.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
15 novels
1 childrens book
3664 pages

2010 In Review...

2010-12-31T23:00:00.001-05:00

Below is the list of all the books I've read/attempted to read and all the manga/graphic novels I've read/attempted to read in 2010.

For all you data lovers [like me], here is a quick and dirty breakdown:

149 books
[even though to be honest, I think there are about 4 or 5 short stories in that number]

124 manga/graphic novels

14 unfinished books

1 unfinished manga/graphic novel

50,136 pages read.
[no page data for manga/gn, cause that would just be not right. plus, I didn't keep track of pages for the unfinished books. So I'm sure the actual number is a bit higher, but hey, who is counting? ;-) ]

1: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Memories of Ice-Steven Erikson-900
2: Stoneways: Queen Ferris-S.C. Butler-495
3: Star Wars: Imperial Commando: 501st-Karen Traviss-434
4: Malazan Book of the Fallen: House of Chains-Steven Erikson-722
5: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Midnight Tides-Steven Erikson-674
6: Malazan Book of the Fallen: The Bonehunters-Steven Erikson-909
7: Acacia: The War with the Mein-David Durham-UNFINISHED
8: Wolf: Wolf Hunting-Jane Lindskold-UNFINISHED
9: Robotech: Genesis-Jack McKinney-155
10: Robotech: Battle Cry-Jack McKinney-139
11: Robotech: Homecoming-Jack McKinney-147
12: Robotech: Battlehymn-Jack McKinney-115
13: Robotech: Force of Arms-Jack McKinney-155
14: Robotech: Doomsday-Jack McKinney-161
15: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice-John Jackson Miller-29
16: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn-John Jackson Miller-27
17: Codex Alera: Furies of Calderon-Jim Butcher-383
18: Codex Alera: Academ's Fury-Jim Butcher-404
19: Mirror of Opposition-Timothy Robinson-172
20: War of the Spider Queen: Extinction-Lisa Smedman-228
21: War of the Spider Queen: Annihilation-Philip Athans-225
22: War of the Spider Queen: Resurrection-Paul Kemp-232
23: Quadrail: The Domino Pattern-Timothy Zahn-229
24: Green-Ted Dekker-UNFINISHED
25: Robotech: Southern Cross-Jack McKinney-123
26: Robotech: Metal Fire-Jack McKinney-151
27: Robotech: The Final Nightmare-Jack McKinney-170
28: Malaz: Night of Knives-Ian C. Esslemont-237
29: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon-John Miller-26
30: Vlad Taltos: Jhereg-Steven Brust-208
31: Vlad Taltos: Yendi-Steven Brust-167
32: Vlad Taltos: Teckla-Steven Brust-144
33: Codex Alera: Cursor's Fury-Jim Butcher-407
34: Battlechasers-Timothy Robinson-149
35: Darktower: The Gunslinger-Stephen King-UNFINISHED
36: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Reaper's Gale-Steven Erikson-969
37: Dreamwish Beasts and Snarks-Mike Resnick-UNFINISHED
38: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Toll the Hounds-Steven Erikson-961
39: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: And Another Thing-Eoin Colfer-247
40: Future Imperfect-Keith Laumer-441
41: Shogun-James Clavell-803
42: Vlad Taltos: Taltos-Steven Brust-161
43: Shadows of the Apt: Empire in Black and Gold-Adrian Tchaikovsky-571
44: Discworld: Jingo-Terry Pratchett-282
45: Doom: Knee-Deep in the Dead-Dafydd Ab Hugh-180
46: Star Wars: Death Troopers-Joe Schreiber-138
47: Robotech: Invid Invasion-Jack McKinney-135
48: Admiral's Ghost-NB VanYoos-UNFINISHED
49: Elven Ways: The Dark Ferryman-Jenna Rhodes-UNFINISHED
50: Dresden Files: Storm Front-Jim Butcher-184
51: Dresden Files: Fool Moon-Jim Butcher-214
52: Borderlands: Covenants-Lorna Freeman-375
53: Borderlands: The King's Own-Lorna Freeman-269
54: Borderlands: Shadows Past-Lorna Freeman-307
55: Codex Alera: Captain's Fury-Jim Butcher-387
56: Discworld: The Last Continent-Terry Pratchett-227
57: Robotech: Metamorphosis-Jack McKinney-148
58: Tears of Artamon: Lord of Snow and Shadows-Sarah Ash-387
59: Dresden Files: Grave Peril-Jim Butcher-255
60: Vlad Taltos: Phoenix-Steven Brust-189
61: Shadows of the Apt: Dragonfly Falling-Adrian Tchaikovsky-540
62: Shadowmarch: Shadowrise-Tad Williams-554
63: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Backlash-Aaron Allston-304
64: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Dust of Dreams-Steven Erikson-946
65: Tears of Artamon: Prisoner of the Iron Tower-Sarah Ash-384
66: Vang: The Military Form-Christopher Rowley-228
67: Vang: The Battlemaster-Christopher Rowley-215
68: Demon Cycle: The Warded Man-Peter Brett-416
69: Demon Cycle: The Desert Spear-Peter Brett-579
70: Codex Alera: Princep's Fury-Jim Butcher-350
71: Codex Alera: First Lord's Fury-Jim Butcher-457
72: Foreigner-C.J. Cherryh-UNFINISHED
73: Bill, the Galactic Hero-Harry Harrison-185
74: Riyria Revelations: The Crown Conspiracy-Michael Sullivan-228
75: Discworld: Carpe Jugulum-Terry Pratchett-227
76: Dresden Files: Summer Knight-Jim Butcher-241
77: Doppleganger-Marie Brennan-UNFINISHED
78: The Lost Fleet: Victorious-Jack Campbell-331
79: The Fourth Realm: The Traveler-John Twelve Hawks-330
80: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies-Seth Grahame-Smith-UNFINISHED
81: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Savior- John Miller-27
82: Star Wars: Clone Wars: Wild Space-Karen Miller-279
83: Star Wars: Clone Wars: No Prisoners-Karen Traviss-175
84: Boneshaker-Cherie Priest-416
85: Tears of Artamon: Children of the Serpent Gate-Sarah Ash-420
86: The Fourth Realm: The Dark River-John Twelve Hawks-368
87: Castings: Deep Water-Pamela Freeman-506
88: Castings: Full Circle-Pamela Freeman-404
89: Athabasca-Alistair Maclean-284
90: The Passage-Justin Cronin-766
91: Season of the Spellsong: Spellsinger-Alan Dean Foster-275
92: Season of the Spellsong: Hour of the Gate-Alan Dean Foster-217
93: Season of the Spellsong: Day of the Dissonance-Alan Dean Foster-235
94: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency-Douglas Adams-171
95: Shadows of the Apt: Blood of the Mantis-Adrian Tchaikovsky-354
96: The Twelve Kingdoms: Skies of Dawn-Fuyumi Ono-642
97: The Fourth Realm: The Golden City-John Twelve Hawks-358
98: Riyria Revelations: Avempartha-Michael Sullivan-237
99: Riyria Revelations: Nyphron Rising-Michael Sullivan-277
100: Vlad Taltos: Athyra-Steven Brust-259
101: The Oort Perimeter-Steven Lake-UNFINISHED
102: Empire: Daughter of the Empire-Janny Wurts & Raymond Feist-377
103: Robotech: Symphony of Light-Jack McKinney-158
104: Guardian of the Flame: The Sleeping Dragon-Joel Rosenberg-171
105: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance-Sean Williams-417
106: Empire: Servant of the Empire-Janny Wurts & Raymond Feist-627
107: Wars of Light and Shadow: Curse of the Mistwraith-Janny Wurts-UNFINISHED
108: The Lon Tobyn Chronicles: Children of Amarid-David Coe-600
109: Malaz: Return of the Crimson Guard-Ian Esslemont-681
110: Stormlight Archives: The Way of Kings-Brandon Sanderson-1035
111: Snow Crash- Neal Stephenson-520
112: Legends of Shannara: Bearers of the Black Staff-Terry Brooks-336
113: Lightbringer: The Black Prism-Brent Weeks-609
114: Riyria Revelations: Emerald Storm-Michael Sullivan-380
115: The Three Investigators: Secret of Terror Castle-Robert Arthur-79
116: Artemis Fowl-Eoin Colfer-143
117: Ancester-Scott Sigler-421
118: Dirk Gently: The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul-Douglas Adams-199
119: Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth-Karen Miller-293
120: Guardians of the Flame: The Sword and the Chain-Joel Rosenberg-251
121: Bios-Robert Wilson-214
122: Star Wars: Crosscurrent-Paul Kemp-214
123: Polity: Agent Cormac: Gridlinked-Neal Asher-346
124: Polity: Agent Cormac: The Line of Polity-Neal Asher-437
125: Discworld: The Truth -Terry Pratchett-239
126: Kim -Rudyard Kipling-307
127: Polity: Agent Cormac: Brass Man-Neal Asher-405
128: Brisingr-Christopher Paolini-PARTIAL REREAD
129: Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident-Eoin Colfer-146
130: Robotech: The Sentinels: The Devil's Hand-Jack McKinney-133
131: World at War: Into the Darkness-Harry Turtledove-684
132: Polity: Agent Cormac: Polity Agent-Neal Asher-403
133: Dresden Files: Death Masks- Jim Butcher-235
134: Polity: Agent Cormac: Line War-Neal Asher-395
135: Empire: Mistress of the Empire-Janny Wurts & Raymond Feist-656
136: Tau Ceti Agenda: One Day on Mars-Travis Taylor-UNFINISHED
137: Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare-Darren Shan-148
138: Conrad Stargard: Crosstime Engineer-Leo Frankowski-231
139: Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant-Darren Shan-141
140: Guardian of the Flame: The Silver Crown-Joel Rosenberg-216
141: Battle Royale-Koushun Takami-491
142: The Strain: Strain-G. Del Toro & Chuck Hogan-353
143: Lady Penitent: Sacrifice of the Widow-Lisa Smedman-202
144: Cirque Du Freak: Tunnels of Blood-Darren Shan-139
145: Conrad Stargard: the High Tech Knight-Leo Frankowski-247
146: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II-Sean Williams-295
147: The Gambler-Fyodor Dostoyevsky-130
148: Mutation-Robin Cook-367
149: The Videssos Cycle: The Misplaced Legion-Harry Turtledove-288
150: Conrad Stargard: The Radiant Warrior-Leo Frankowski-281
151: Inherit the Stars-James Hogan-203
152: DragonLords: The Last DragonLord-Joanne Bertin-471
153: Conrad Stargard: The Flying Warlord-Leo Frankowski-232
154: Polity: Spatterjay: The Skinner-Neal Asher-375
155: Rendezvous with Rama-Arthur Clarke-255
156: Lady Penitent: Storm of the Dead-Lisa Smedman-209
157: The Sword and the Dragon-M.R. Mathias-524
158: Discworld: Thief of Time-Terry Pratchett-241
159: Acacia: The War with the Mein-David Durham-756
160: Swallows and Amazons-Arthur Ransome-204
161: DragonLords: Dragon and Phoenix-Joanne Bertin-695
162: Sword of Shadows: A Cavern of Black Ice-J.V. Jones-618
163: Star Wars: Red Harvest-Joe Schreiber-244

MANGA & GRAPHIC NOVELS
1: Oh My Goddess! #32-Kosuke Fujishima
2: Oh My Goddess! #33-Kosuke Fujishima
3: Ranma 1/2 #22-Rumiko Takahashi
4: Ranma 1/2 #23-Rumiko Takahashi
5: Ranma 1/2 #24-Rumiko Takahashi
6: Ranma 1/2 #25-Rumiko Takahashi
7: Amazing Agent Luna Omnibus #2-Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir
8: Superman: The Death of Clark Kent-various
9: Fruits Basket #23-Natsuki Takaya
10: Ranma 1/2 #26-Rumiko Takahashi
11: Ranma 1/2 #27-Rumiko Takahashi
12: Ranma 1/2 #28-Rumiko Takahashi
13: Ranma 1/2 #29-Rumiko Takahashi
14: Ranma 1/2 #30-Rumiko Takahashi
15: Ranma 1/2 #31-Rumiko Takahashi
16: Yotsuba&! #6-Kiyohiko Azuma
17: Yotsuba&! #7-Kiyokiko Azuma
18: Train + Train #1-Hideyuki Kurata
19: Train + Train #2-Hideyuki Kurata
20: Train + Train #3-Hideyuki Kurata
21: Train + Train #4-Hideyuki Kurata
22: Train + Train #5-Hideyuki Kurata
23: Train + Train #6-Hideyuki Kurata
24: Elseworld: Superman: Dark Side-various
25: Ranma 1/2 #32-Rumiko Takahashi
26: Ranma 1/2 #33-Rumiko Takahashi
27: Kare Kano #1-Masami Tsuda
28: Kare Kano #2-Masami Tsuda
29: Kare Kano #3-Masami Tsuda
30: Kare Kano #4-Masami Tsuda
31: Kare Kano #5-Masami Tsuda
32: Kare Kano #6-Masami Tsuda
33: Kare Kano #7-Masami Tsuda
34: Kare Kano #8-Masami Tsuda
35: Yotsuba&! #8-Kiyohiko Azuma
36: XxxHolic #14-CLAMP
37: Ranma 1/2 #34-Rumiko Takahashi
38: Ranma 1/2 #35-Rumiko Takahashi
39: Ranma 1/2 #36-Rumiko Takahashi
40: Hunter X Hunter #22-Yoshihiro Togashi
41: Hunter X Hunter #23-Yoshihiro Togashi
42: Hunter X Hunter #24-Yoshihiro Togashi
43: Hunter X Hunter #25-Yoshihiro Togashi
44: Hunter X Hunter #26-Yoshihiro Togashi
45: Elseworld: Superman: True Brit-various
46: Case Closed #5-Gosho Aoyama
47: Case Closed #6-Gosho Aoyama
48: Case Closed #7-Gosho Aoyama
49: Case Closed #8-Gosho Aoyama
50: Case Closed #9-Gosho Aoyama
51: Case Closed #10-Gosho Aoyama
52: Case Closed #11-Gosho Aoyama
53: Case Closed #12-Gosho Aoyama
54: Case Closed #13-Gosho Aoyama
55: Case Closed #14-Gosho Aoyama
56: Case Closed #15-Gosho Aoyama
57: Case Closed #16-Gosho Aoyama
58: Case Closed #17-Gosho Aoyama
59: Case Closed #18-Gosho Aoyama
60: Case Closed #19-Gosho Aoyama
61: Case Closed #20-Gosho Aoyama
62: Case Closed #21-Gosho Aoyama
63: Case Closed #22-Gosho Aoyama
64: Case Closed #23-Gosho Aoyama
65: Case Closed #24-Gosho Aoyama
66: Case Closed #25-Gosho Aoyama
67: Case Closed #26-Gosho Aoyama
68: Prince of Tennis #3-Takeshi Konomi
69: Prince of Tennis #4-Takeshi Konomi
70: Prince of Tennis #5-Takeshi Konomi
71: Prince of Tennis #6-Takeshi Konomi
72: Prince of Tennis #7-Takeshi Konomi
73: Prince of Tennis #8-Takeshi Konomi
74: Prince of Tennis #9-Takeshi Konomi
75: Prince of Tennis #10-Takeshi Konomi
76: One Piece #22-Eichiro Oda
77: One Piece #23-Eichiro Oda
78: One Piece #24-Eichiro Oda
79: One Piece #25-Eichiro Oda
80: One Piece #26-Eichiro Oda
81: One Piece #27-Eichiro Oda
82: One Piece #28-Eichiro Oda
83: One Piece #29-Eichiro Oda
84: Prince of Tennis #12-Takeshi Konomi
85: Prince of Tennis #13-Takeshi Konomi
86: Prince of Tennis #14-Takeshi Konomi
87: Prince of Tennis #15-Takeshi Konomi
88: Prince of Tennis #16-Takeshi Konomi
89: Prince of Tennis #17-Takeshi Konomi
90: Prince of Tennis #17-Takeshi Konomi
91: Prince of Tennis #18-Takeshi Konomi
92: Prince of Tennis #19-Takeshi Konomi
93: Prince of Tennis #21-Takeshi Konomi
94: Prince of Tennis #22-Takeshi Konomi
95: Case Closed #27-Gosho Aoyama
96: Case Closed #28-Gosho Aoyama
97: Case Closed #29-Gosho Aoyama
98: Case Closed #30-Gosho Aoyama
99: Case Closed #31-Gosho Aoyama
100: Case Closed #32-Gosho Aoyama
101: Case Closed #33-Gosho Aoyama
102: Case Closed #34-Gosho Aoyama
103: Case Closed #35-Gosho Aoyama
104: Elseworld: The Superman Monster-various
105: Elseworld: Batgirl & Robin: Thrillkiller-various
106: Kare Kano #10-Masami Tsuda
107: Kare Kano #11-Masami Tsuda
108: Kare Kano #12-Masami Tsuda
109: Kare Kano #13-Masami Tsuda
110: Kare Kano #14-Masami Tsuda
111: Kare Kano #15-Masami Tsuda
112: Black Bird #1-Kanoko Sakurakoji
113: Black Bird #2-Kanoko Sakurakoji
114: Black Bird #3-Kanoko Sakurakoji
115: Elseworld: Batman & Captain American-various-UNFINISHED
116: Elseworld: Batman & Demon: A Tragedy-various
117: Elseworld: Batman & Houdini: The Devil's Workshop-various
118: Elseworld: Batman: Castle of the Bat-various
119: Elseworld: Batman: Dark Allegiances-various
120: Elseworld: Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty-various
121: Elseworld: Batman: Detective #27-various
122: Elseworld: Batman: Gotham Noir-various
123: Elseworld: Batman: Holy Terror-various
124: Elseworld: Batman: I, Joker-various
125: Elseworld: Batman: In Darkest Knight-various

December '10

2010-12-31T09:15:00.001-05:00

DRAGONLORDS: THE LAST DRAGONLORD
-J. Bertin-dtb-471
-fantasy-a world where there are dragons, humans and a very few, rare DragonLords, humans who share a body with a dragonsoul and have great abilities. Follows the adventures of a dragonlord who finds his soultwin and is embroiled in the machinations of a kingdom in turmoil. Very well written, enjoyable and enough depth to make it feel meaty and satisfying.

CONRAD STARGARD: THE FLYING WARLORD
-L. Frankowski-dtb-232
-scifi-Conrad defeats the mongols and the timeline is totally screwed up. This one had a lot less wenching and technology'izing.

POLITY: SPATTERJAY: THE SKINNER
-N. Asher-epub-375
-scifi-a new storyline dealing with a world called Spatterjay. It has a virus that infects humans and makes them strong, regenerative and nearly immortal. But if they don't eat Polity foods [ie, human food], they turn into a skinner. A skinner is a creature that kills and destroys. This book was about a polity agent looking for retribution on a gang of Hoopers [what turned humans are called] that participated in the Prador war, on the Prador's side. Follows the agent, some Hoopers, a Prador and some AI's as they all come together on Spatterjay and deal with a skinner. I enjoyed this as much, if not more, than the Agent Cormac books.

RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA
-A. Clarke-epub-255
-scifi-humanity finds a giant spaceship coming into the solar system. They explore it and realize they are not alone in the universe. The story is about the group exploring the ship. Very little action, well written, but dull none the less. There is a whole series of Rama books, but I don't think I'll waste my time on any more.

LADY PENITENT: STORM OF THE DEAD
-L. Smedman-epub-209
-fantasy-another god enters the game between Lolth and her daughter. And loses. Undead battles, etc, etc. Find out more history about the drow. Same quality as the other books by Smedman.

THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON
-M.R. Mathias-epub-524
-fantasy-first off, the author is a complete asshole. I've run into him on various forums and not once was he civil to anyone unless they were kowtowing to him. That being said, this started out as a fantastic book. I was hooked from the first chapter. Sadly, near the end things really seemed to drag and I was glad when the end came. If there are ever anymore books in this same universe, I will definitely be checking them out!

DISCWORLD: THIEF OF TIME
-T. Pratchett-epub-241
-fantasy-Time has a baby and it gets split in two. The Auditors try using one of them to build the perfect clock, so that time stops. Death must reunite the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse [plus 1] and Susan must tie everything together while she meets and falls in love with the perfect man[for her]. Highly entertaining. Especially when scads of auditors take on human form for some reason or another.

ACACIA: THE WAR WITH THE MEIN
-D. Durham-epub-456
-fantasy-despite not being able to get into this book earlier, I was encouraged by those at Goodreads to try again, and I am glad I did. Complex, long term and with just enough twists and turns to keep things interesting, Durham has created a world that is potentially HUGE for exploring. Definitely looking forward to the other 2 in this series.

SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS
-A. Ransome-epub-204
-ya fiction-a group of children spend a couple of weeks on an island and sailing a lake. Simplistic and not something I was really in the mood for. However, I can see how this would stir the imagination of young duffers and intrigue them greatly.

DRAGONLORDS: DRAGON AND PHOENIX
-J. Bertin-dtb-695
-fantasy-the dragons and true dragons find out about a dragon being held captive in a foreign land and set out to rescue him. In the process Maurynna is able to change and the DragonLords find yet another "hidden" DragonLord. I really enjoyed this novel. Depth and a very wide view of things kept my attention and separate plotlines never got tangled up. Well written. I just wish the 3rd book had been written [the back of this book, published in '98 says the author is in the process of writing it. So if it hasn't happened in 13 years, I doubt it will]

SWORD OF SHADOWS: A CAVERN OF BLACK ICE
-J.V. Jones-epub-618
-fantasy-Graphic. The word to best describe this book. Every negative emotion, every detail about frozen, dying flesh, every bad habit, all were described to such detail so as to make me hate this book. A young woman, who has the power to free an undead horde, must discharge her power in a safe place, the cavern of black ice. Her fate is thrown in with a young clans man who ends up clanless. They succeed in their quest, but more things are still on the horizon. I don't think I'll be reading any more by this author.

STAR WARS: RED HARVEST
-J. Schreiber-dtb-244
-scifi-the prequel, by several thousand years, to Death Troopers. Some Sith lord finds a sith holocron with plans for immortality and experiments on sith students. Thing go horribly wrong and everyone gets infected. A jedi gets involved and some random bounty hunter and pilot. Lots of descriptions to make creepy settings, but there was not really any tension or scariness involved. Enjoyed it a little more than Death Troopers though.

Monthly Summary
12 Novels
4524 Pages

November '10

2010-11-30T21:05:00.000-05:00

POLITY: AGENT CORMAC: LINE WAR
-N. Asher-epub-395
-scifi-the final book in the Agent Cormac series. Cormac realizes that Earth Central and the other AI's have allowed the Jain tech to grow so as to spur humanity onward, only they started losing control. Things are brought back under control, but Cormac has become truly post-human and is now the bogeyman to the AI's. They had better do their best by humanity or Cormac will come and get them. Quite an interesting conclusion and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more in the Polity Universe.

EMPIRE: MISTRESS OF THE EMPIRE
-J. Wurts & R. Feist-epub-656
-fantasy-the conclusion to the Empire trilogy. Turns out the Black Robes are keeping the Empire stagnant so that they can do as they please. Mara loses her son, another child and her father in law to the machinations. Ends up going outside of Kelewan to other nations to find magic to combat the Assembly. Comes back, puts her son on the throne, [the Emperor had been killed by rivals], stares down the Assembly and gets on with her life. Has to separate from her husband for political reasons but Kevin comes back as an Ambassador and it is obvious they will comfort each other. This seemed more of Wurts's writing with Feist rubberstamping his name. Lots of descriptiveness of surroundings and feelings and everything. I doubt I'll ever read anything by Wurts again.

THE TAU CETI AGENDA: ONE DAY ON MARS
-T. Taylor-epub-UNFINISHED
-military scifi-to much swearing. I just gave up around page 50. I don't care if I'm reading about marines in the year 2300, I don't want to read strings of profanity after strings of profanity.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: A LIVING NIGHTMARE
-D. Shan-epub-148
-YA fantasy-two best friends go to a freakshow that will change their lives forever. A real vampire works for the show. One of the boys wants to become a vampire, but is rejected on grounds of having bad blood. The other boy steals a spider and it ends up biting his friend. The only way to save his friend is to go to the vampire and ask for help. The vampire gives him a serum, but requires that he become the vampire's assistant and become half-vampire. Darren agrees to save Steve. Darren fakes his death so he can go away in peace but Steve isn't fooled and vows vengeance on Darren and the vampire for taking what he wanted. A wonderfully delightful ya book. Sometimes it is nice to read something where you know exactly what is going to happen.

CONRAD STARGARD: CROSSTIME ENGINEER
-L. Frankowski-epub-231
-scifi-what a joke. A polish engineer is transported back in time to around 1200 in Poland. He sets out to make a difference. You can tell this was written by an engineer. Sex was second to the explanations of how each improvement Conrad wanted worked. I skipped pages at a time when stuff got technical. Not worth anyone's money.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT
-D. Shan-epub-141
-YA fantasy-the adventures of Darren as he is with the Cirque Du Freak. He refuses to drink human blood and it almost kills him in the end. We are also introduced to Mr Tiny, the very obvious villain of the series.

GUARDIANS OF THE FLAME: THE SILVER CROWN
-J. Rosenberg-epub-216
-fantasy-six years or so after the previous book. Carl is still the main character and still has a spear up his butt about slavery. He ends up becoming the duke of a country. I don't like Carl. He is a whiner and a self-pitying fool.

BATTLE ROYALE
-K. Takami-epub-491
-fiction- in an alternate world, there are 2 main empires, the American Empire, and the Asian Empire. Each year the Asian Empire takes a class of junior high students, drops them off in a remote place and has them fight to death. 3 students stick together and make a plan to survive. 2 of them get off the island and the book ends with them running from the police. Overall, I would call this a japanese version of Lord of the Flies where the fallen humanity of humans comes to the surface. This was very violent, with every student, but the 2 escaping, dying. Explores ideas of trust, freedom, free will, the sneakiness of big government, love, hate and the lack of emotions. It was creepy, but brought the idea of people turning on each other up to date with modern times [as opposed to Lord of the Flies back in the WWII era].

THE STRAIN: STRAIN
-G. Del Toro & C. Hogan-epub-353
-thriller, fantasy- vampires are real, but leaving humanity alone for the most part. One vampire decides to change things. He hooks up with a rich, dying guy in America. Flies over to NY and starts a chain reaction of vampire turnings as the first step in a war to take out humanity. Focuses on a guy from the CDC [Center for Disease Control] and turns this into a medical/virus thriller. Vampires do their thing with some parasitic thing. Made it real interesting and looking forward to more in the series.

LADY PENITENT: SACRIFICE OF THE WIDOW
-L. Smedman-epub-202
-fantasy-a direct sequel to the War of the Spider Queen series. The only tie-in characters though are the gods involved and Halistra [a dark elf who tried to kill Lolth in the previous series]. Basically a continuation of the war between Lolth and her children to gain control of all the Drow. Nothing spectacular, but I wasn't rolling my eyes like in some of the Drizz't books.

CIRQUE DU FREAK: TUNNELS OF BLOOD
-D. Shan-epub-139
-YA fantasy-Darren finds out more about his mentors past and about how the Vampire Society is setup. There is a splinter faction called the Vampaneze who kill when they feed. One goes rogue in the city Mr Crepsley grew up in, so he goes with Darren to take him out. Still enjoying!

CONRAD STARGARD: THE HIGH TECH KNIGHT
-L. Frankowski-dtb-247
-fantasy-Conrad kills a bunch of knights who had a group of children slaves. This gets him in hot water and he has to fight a duel with a champion, the very knight he had a run in with when he got to Old Poland back in the first book. Frankowski is an idiot. Conrad still has the right to bed women, but Frankowski portrays it as ok with Conrad's lover, because "Fair's fair". Just continues to show his sexism and engineering genes. And yet it is still a fun read once your eyes stop rolling.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED II
-S. Williams-epub-295
-scifi-a blase sequel. Starkiller is either resurrected or successfully cloned [even though it is stated, and shown in other novels, that Jedi clones never turn out ok.] Thankfully there was enough stuff happening that the stupid characters didn't get in the way. Ends with Starkiller and his lady friend running off. It doesn't make sense, so powerful a force user unsensed by the Emperor and not completely hunted down by Vader. The story was weak, Starkiller is an extremely 2d character and while there are cameos of future greats, they come across as the sops to fans that their appearance really is. Books like this are what will destroy the Star Wars line.

THE GAMBLER
-F. Dostoyevsky-epub-130
-classic-a shorter story about a russian teacher who ends up addicted to gambling and throwing his life away. Ends with him basically saying "I'll give up gambling, tomorrow." Very confusing at the onset with trying to figure out who is who and what is going on. A good introduction to Dostoyevsky's style but without the weight of some of his tomes.

MUTATION
-R. Cook-dtb-367
-med-thriller-a scientist mucks about with genes and his son turns out to be a super genius, with no conscience. Son and father die and the mother is left to destroy the final baby that was a dry run experiment. I read this back in highschool and thought it was wicked cool. Now, it seems almost blase. The whole premise that super intelligence squeezes out emotions just rings false in my ears. A throw away read, but I do want to read at least 1 more of Cook's books before I say anything about the author overall.

THE VIDESSOS CYCLE: THE MISPLACED LEGION
-H. Turtledove-epub-288
-historical fantasy-a roman legion in Gaul ends up on another world through magic. They become mercenaries for the Vidession Empire. Enjoyed this very much. Magic and Roman legion tactics, a cool combo. The problem is that I had a very badly formatted copy. Whoever had scanned this did it as one solid block of text. No paragraph breaks, no indents, nothing. Calibre split it up into 4 xhtml chunks, but my reader had to chug through each whole section whenever turning a page and man, it killed my battery and the flow of the story. Am seriously thinking about working on it with Sigil and making a nice epub copy. Will see.

CONRAD STARGARD: THE RADIANT WARRIOR
-L. Frankowski-dtb-281
-fantasy-Conrad is now ready to start building his army. I give up and admit that this series is utter trash but I still keep reading it. I'll probably read until I run out of the books. I feel ashamed and dirty now ;-)

INHERIT THE STARS
-J. Hogan-epub-203
-scifi-a muddle of humanity from earth, from another planet and some aliens from the same planet. This was written back in '78, probably considered hard scifi then. I was actually entertained. Pretty good for a novel that has no action or fighting or anything non-cerebral.

Monthly Summary
17 Novels
1 Unfinished Novel
4783 Pages

October '10

2010-10-31T21:10:00.000-04:00

STAR WARS: CROSSCURRENT
-P. Kemp-epub-214
-fantasy-the novel that is the immediate prequel to the Lost Tribe of the Sith short stories. A ship of sith blunders 5000 years from the past into the BY[Battle of Yavin] era and sets things up for later in the Fate of the Jedi series and probably some later series as well. Well written and I actually enjoyed reading about non-Skywalker characters. That doesn't happen very often.

POLITY: AGENT CORMAC: GRIDLINKED
-N. Asher-epub-346
-scifi-far in the future, the main empire is the Human Polity, an entity of humans ruled by AI. The line between man and machine is blurring. The non-Polity sections of space are headed by strong willed individuals who are constantly attacking the Polity. Agent Cormac is a Polity agent, gridlinked[connected to AI's through technology] until he is cut off to regain his humanity. Also introduces us to an alien called the Dragon, which appears to be immensely powerful and who cares not a whit about humans. Very well done, even with some of the technical descriptions.

POLITY: AGENT CORMAC: THE LINE OF POLITY
-N. Asher-epub-437
-scifi-a rogue scientist fuses himself with an ancient races technology. At the same time the Polity is attempting to extend their line by the peaceful taking over of a world. These two plots collide and Skellor [the scientist] sets himself up to be a major villain in coming novels. Cormac plays a very small role. Focus is on Skellor and some freedom fighters on the planet's surface. Extremely engaging and I just enjoyed reading this.

DISCWORLD: THE TRUTH
-T. Pratchett-epub-239
-fantasy-a yarn in Ahnk-Morpork about the advent of the movable type press. Subplots of intrigue and murder and Vetinari. And it all works out in the end. And Vetinari continues to show just how much of a clever bastard he really is.

KIM
-R. Kipling-epub-307
-historical fiction-a young boy, son of an irish soldier and wife, is orphaned in India and grows up wild. Meets a holy man and comes to the attention of the British. Goes to the best school and is trained to be a spy. Has adventures with the holy man and the story ends with him at about 17 as he prepares to enter Her Majesties Service. Fantastic. The wording, the pace, the excitement, were all splendid. The sense of India was conveyed very believably. Need to read more of Kipling.

POLITY: AGENT CORMAC: BRASS MAN
-N. Asher-epub-405
-scifi- a direct continuation of Line of Polity. Deals with the back history of Mr Crane [the insane brass golem] and more of Skellor, who obviously didn't die. And some AI's decide to see if they can become AI tyrants instead of benevolent dictators; quite interesting to see AI politics, reminds of Greg Bear's Eon.

BRISINGR
-C. Paolini-epub-PARTIAL REREAD
-fantasy-I started this and it seemed very familiar. I just figured I had read a couple of chapters before. Well, I got up to around the 300+ page mark and it STILL seemed familiar. So I checked and it turns out I had read it in December of '09.

ARTEMIS FOWL: THE ARCTIC INCIDENT
-E. Colfer-epub-146
-ya fantasy- Artemis has to work with the LEP so he can rescue his dad. It was ok, nothing memorable, not a reread that is for sure.

ROBOTECH: THE SENTINELS: THE DEVIL'S HAND
-J. McKinney-epub-133
-scifi-about the SDF3 going off into space before the Masters came to earth. Lots of characters from the Macross saga along with a host of new ones. Minmei is still around sadly, and Rick, even though married to Lisa, hasn't got much of a spine. Will see how this sub series turns out.

WORLD AT WAR: INTO THE DARKNESS
-H. Turtledove-dtb-684
-fantasy-even though it is almost alternate history. Seems to be a World War II'ish story but in another world that has magic. It was well written and even interesting, but I don't know if I really want to read more of the series simply because it is a big investment of time. And I just don't care enough to read a war history. Turtledove also throws in completely unnecessarily graphic sexual descriptions and situations.

POLITY: AGENT CORMAC: POLITY AGENT
-N. Asher-epub-403
-scifi-the continuation of the big story about the fight against the Jain artifacts. Find out Blegg IS just a construct of Earth Central but that Cormac might actually BE the first post-human the AI's are trying to create. Lots of fighting and some stuff with the remaining 2 dragon spheres. Very engaging and plot oriented. Very little character development, but that is ok.

DRESDEN FILES: DEATH MASK
-J. Butcher-epub-235
-urban fantasy-Harry has to have a duel with someone from the vampire Red Court, stop a fallen angel from unleashing a magical plague apocalypse and deal with Susan going away for good and taking the fight against the vampires who created her.

MONTLY SUMMARY
11 Novels
1 Partial Re-read
3549 Pages

September '10

2010-09-24T14:45:00.001-04:00

STORMLIGHT ARCHIVES: THE WAY OF KINGS
-B. Sanderson-epub-1035
-fantasy-the first in a 10 book series [or so touted by the publishers with no denial by Sanderson]. Epic fantasy. This was very hard to get into. I was over the 500page mark before I really found things getting interesting. Things were broken up between 3 main characters and I felt like not enough time was given for each character at once, ie, needed bigger chunks at a time for each character. Then in the interludes we get short little threads about side characters we know nothing about but it appears will be appearing in future books. Overall, I felt like I had been duped into spending a very large amount of time on something I didn't really enjoy. I kept expecting things to "get better" but it took until over the 800page mark for that to happen. I doubt I will be reading these books as they come out, but will wait til 3 or 4 have accumulated, then play catch up. Felt like this book failed to live up to its hype, which is sad since I've really, really enjoyed everything of Sanderson's so far [well, except for War Breaker].

SNOW CRASH
-N. Stephenson-epub-520
-cyberpunk-wasn't really expecting to enjoy this, and was very pleasantly surprised. A kooky rich eccentric is trying to take over everyone's brains with some sort of mental virus. Lots of references to old religions, etc, etc. Very fast paced, action packed and ends with a bang. And swords. Wicked cool.

LEGENDS OF SHANNARA: BEARERS OF THE BLACKSTAFF
-T. Brooks-epub-336
-fantasy-taking place after the Genesis of Shannara trilogy. 500 years later, the ward of protection Hawk placed wears out. The valley has split into factions, mainly based on species, but the world outside has survived too, albiet, all the nasty strong things. Inside the Knights of the Word devolved into outcasts who forgot their history. Follows 2 humans, both who have magic potential, as the valley is about to be invaded by trolls. One of the them is a candidate for the blackstaff and it looks like he will probably be the founder of the wizards. Typical Brooks, with nothing stunning, but nonetheless, an interesting story, mainly because we want to know how things get to the world of The Sword of Shannara.

LIGHTBRINGER: THE BLACK PRISM
-B. Weeks-epub-609
-fantasy- A world in which magic is manifested through colors. Different colors have different effects, and most magic workers can handle 1, maybe 2, colors. Only the Prism, ruler of a bunch of small kingdoms, can use all 7 colors. This was cool because it follows a fat boy who turns out to be the Prism's bastard from 15 years before the book. There is supposed to be only 1 Prism in a generation, but there were 2 back then, and a war to determine the True Prism. This series is dealing with the after effects of that war. Lots of politic'ing and intrigue and fighting. In some ways it reminded of The Mistborn Trilogy, in which it is posited that the good guy is the badguy, or vice versa or all jumbled up. Very interesting plot points. Thankfully Weeks' use of foul language is somewhat curbed, making this a more enjoyable read than his Night Angel books.

RIYRIA REVELATIONS: THE EMERALD STORM
-M. Sullivan-epub-380
-fantasy- yet another rollicking chapter in the Riyria Revelations tale. Royce and Hadrian get their butts kicked, only they don't realize it until near the end of the book. Was good to see that they weren't all powerful characters with no weaknesses. Vague hints portend some horrible Event in the near future, which with only 2 books to go, makes me kind of nervous. The only bad thing I have to say about this was the formatting of the file itself, not the story. There were numerous [over 10] cases where words were kind of piled into eachother, ie, "He would have loto hurt him some" which translated would be "He would have loved to hurt him some". Also, there were orphan html commands, notably paragraph or line break commands. Will buy another copy sometime and see if it is a store thing or just a bad release by the author/publisher.

THE THREE INVESTIGATORS: SECRET OF TERROR CASTLE
-R. Arthur-epub-79
-children's mystery- Having read many of the books in this series in elementary school, it was interesting to go back and read one again. Will not be reading anymore. Fantastic reading for a child, just not meant for adults. I shall leave them with the fond memories of my childhood.

ARTEMIS FOWL
-E. Colfer-epub-143
-YA fantasy-a young genius, from a crime family, gets involved with stealing gold from the fairie folk. An interesting idea of trying to make the protagonist a bad guy, walking the fine line between making you like him and still keeping him as a villain.

ANCESTOR
-S. Sigler-dtb-421
-scifi-really should be classified as medical/drama. Basically an update/relocate of Jurassic Park. People muck about with genes, make a super monster, a bunch get loose on an island, almost everybody gets eaten, a select few escape. I really enjoyed this, but there was not a single ounce of originality in this. Good escapist book.

DIRK GENTLY: THE LONG DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL
-D. Adams-epub-199
-fantasy-a blase book in which Dirk Gently is involved with ancient Norse Gods, a contract for a god's soul and some random woman, all mishmashed together in a nonsensical format that hardly anybody could enjoy.

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS GAMBIT: STEALTH
-K. Miller-epub-293
-fantasy- a nasty bioweapon plan is uncovered and Anakin and Obi-Wan must go under cover, in Separatist territory, to figure out a way to destroy it without further extending Republic Forces. Once again, as seems to be on par with these Clone Wars novels, there is nothing really exciting to read about. You see Anakin continue down the path towards Darth Vader, but other than that, I really find the adventures boring.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE FLAME: THE SWORD AND THE CHAIN
-J. Rosenberg-dtb-251
-fantasy-in which the group is back in the fantasy world. They free some slaves, start their own little village and some of the group go out and encounter what turns out to be Excalibur. and the wizard\professor who sent them there turns out to be Merlin in our world. Lots of dumb crap about freeing slaves and such. The main problem I had with that was that there was NO real world view for not having slaves. None of the main characters believe in a god who loves everyone and sacrifices for them. Only by believing that there is One God who created All Men, and hence that all men have equal worth and due the respect of a created being, will there be motivation for slavery to be stamped out. If you just "believe it is wrong", your motivation will fizzle.

BIOS
-R. Wilson-dtb-251
-scifi-a humanistic book in which everybody dies just so the author can wax eloquent on his pet philosophical point. Not really enjoyable and will not be reading any more by this author.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
12 novels
4517 pages

August '10

2010-08-31T20:25:00.001-04:00

CASE CLOSED #5-26
-G. Aoyama
-manga

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC: FATAL ALLIANCE
-S. Williams-dtb-417
-fantasy-taking place 3650 BBY [before the Battle of Yavin,ie, New Hope], this story is about a rogue genius who creates a bunch of droids that could wipe out the galaxy. The Republic is at a standstill with the Sith Empire while Mandalore is recovering from the Great War. Representatives from each faction come together to fight this threat, all the while scheming to take advantage. Follows a Padawan on the verge of Knighthood, a sith apprentice, and a disgraced special ops trooper. They face the threat, and nobody gets an advantage. This was based on a game [like The Force Unleashed] and it showed. A better read than TFU, but how everything worked, it felt like reading the script. I just hope LucasArts moves away from this type of novel. I like the idea of exploring the Old Republic Era [even Darth Bane was only 1000-+ BBY], just not this way.

PRINCE OF TENNIS #3-10
-T. Konomi
-manga

ONE PIECE #22-29
-E. Oda
-manga

EMPIRE: SERVANT OF THE EMPIRE
-J. Wurts & R. Feist-epub-627
-fantasy-Lady of the Acoma continues to survive the politics. Ends up with all the slaves being exchanged, the Minwanabi being outmaneuvered [and then all Minwanabi blood killed by the head of the Minwanabi in spite] and serious political changes on Kelewan. I suspect the next book will deal with the Assembly of the magicians. I enjoyed this, but not quite as much as Daughter of the Empire, mainly because things were a bit more complicated. And adding the slave Kevin to the mix just made things more emotional. Without being cool. Glad he is gone and I hope he stays gone.

THE WARS OF LIGHT AND SHADOW: CURSE OF THE MISTWRAITH
-J. Wurts-dtb-UNFINISHED
-fantasy- 2 halfbrothers are transported to another world where it turns out they are of ancient royal blood and destined to destroy that worlds enemy, the mistwraith. However, the 2 brothers are at odds with one another because they were of separate kingdoms back on their own world. Basically, one brother is all whiny and missing the comforts of home while the other is just a jerk who does what he wants just to spite anyone who tells him anything to do. Immature spoilt brats. Maybe they gain depth and character later on, but not by halfway through this book. And since there are 7 or 8 books in the series, I'm not waiting that long.

THE LON TOBYN CHRONICLES: CHILDREN OF AMARID
-D. Coe-epub-600
-fantasy-a world where magic lives and humans bond with birds to gain it's powers. Another kingdom is stirring up strife, in preparation for takeover, and it is up to the magic users to defend and figure it all out. I enjoyed this book and if I can find the others in this series I'll read them. Ended in a good place though.

PRINCE OF TENNIS #12-22
-T. Konomi
-manga

CASE CLOSED #27-35
-G. Aoyama
-manga

ELSEWORLD: THE SUPERMAN MONSTER
-Various-.cbr
-ecomic-Superman in the Frankenstein story. Luthor the evil scientist, Superman the monster, Lois the bride of the monster. Luthor gets his and the other two fly away to the Northpole to live happily ever after. Nothing memorable

ELSEWORLD: BATGIRL & ROBIN: THRILLKILLER
-Various-.cbr
-ecomic-an alternate telling of the killing of the first Robin. Batgirl comes before Batman, the Joker is a woman, Bruce Wayne is a penniless cop, etc, etc. Takes place in the 70's and the artwork is Boris Vallejo'ish, not cartoon.

KARE KANO #10-15
-M. Tsuda
-manga

BLACK BIRD #1-3
-K. Sakurakoji
-manga

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN & CAPTAIN AMERICA
-various-.cbr-UNFINISHED
-ecomic-Batman and Cap come together to fight Joker and Redskull. This was done in the early format, where Robin goes "gee whiz" and Bucky says things like "golly Cap, we're doomed now!" Couldn't handle it and the story didn't catch my attention.

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN & DEMON: A TRAGEDY
-various-.cbr
-ecomic-this was cool. Medieval Wayne is possessed by a demon that comes out at night and kills evildoers. As long as Wayne doesn't remember, the demon is forced to kill only evil doers. But once Wayne starts to remember, the demon gains power and starts running rampant. Ends with Alfred, who is Merlin who originally summoned the demon in defense of Gotham, making Wayne forget again. Which he has been doing for 1000 years. Wayne's fiance is killed by the demon, but it ends with him waking up and not remembering any of it or of her. A tragedy indeed.

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN & HOUDINI: THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: CASTLE OF THE BAT
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: DARK ALLEGIANCES
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: DARK KNIGHT DYNASTY
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: DETECTIVE #27
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: GOTHAM NOIR
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: HOLY TERROR
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: I, JOKER
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

ELSEWORLD: BATMAN: DARKEST KNIGHT
-various-.cbr
-ecomic

MALAZ: RETURN OF THE CRIMSON GUARD
-I. Esslemont-epub-681
-fantasy-taking sometime around Toll the Hounds. Turns out Skinner has been turned by the Broken God and in the end of the book takes the place of King in the House of Chains. I didn't really care about any of this. Could take it or leave it.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
4 Novels
1 UNFINISHED Novel
78 Graphic Novels
1 UNFINISHED Graphic Novel
2325 pages

July '10

2010-07-30T21:00:00.001-04:00

YOTSUBA&! #8
-K. Azuma
-manga

XXXHOLIC #14
-CLAMP
-manga

RANMA 1/2 #34-36
-R. Takahashi
-manga

HUNTER X HUNTER #22-26
-Y. Togashi
-manga

CASTINGS: DEEP WATER
-P. Freeman-epub-506
-fantasy- the sorcerer manages to raise the dead and razes towns. The others end up on various other adventures to stop him. Enjoyable, but enough different things going on that trying to focus on one storyline is almost impossible.

CASTINGS: FULL CIRCLE
-P. Freeman-epub-404
-fantasy-the conclusion to the trilogy. Acton's ghost, the man credited with the invasion, is brought forth, the truth revealed about the past, the ghosts settled and everybody goes on into a future that looks promising. A nice neat ending.

ATHABASCA
-A. Maclean-dtb-284
-thriller-a fat lush is the head of a super security firm and has to protect two oil factories from terrorists. Banal, unsurprising, uninteresting. Feels like a ghost writer did this.

THE PASSAGE
-J. Cronin-dtb-766
-medical thiller-a scientist injects 12 deathrow inmates with a serum intended to make them into super soldiers. And 1 little 6 year old girl. The inmates turn into vampires/giant bats, escape and the virus spreads. It kills 9 out of 10 people in America, and it seems greater amounts in the rest of the world. The last pockets of humanity huddle together, waiting for extinction. Follows the inmates, little girl at the beginning of the story. Then we switch to a compound 100 years later, of survivors. Ends with the girl taking out one of the 12 and the survivors hooking up with a large military group. Reminded me greatly of The Stand. The beginning was interesting. The middle was wicked boring, even though you needed to see how life went on in the compound. The last part was good. Lots of action and fighting, etc. And it looks good for humanity. Then the last chapter is a journal entry by a character with the group in which you realize that the group gets wiped out. Humanity survives, evidenced by the date of recovery of the journal [1003 AV], just not most of the characters we've been following. Cronin sucks.

SEASON OF THE SPELLSONG: SPELLSINGER
-A.D. Foster-dtb-275
-fantasy-a 24 year old prelaw student, who is a complete pot head, is whisked to another dimension by a powerful wizard [a turtle] to be that worlds savior from an "evil menace". The guy is an idiot, and can supposedly work magic through a kind of guitar. Very rarely. And the world is populated by anthropomorphic animals, and humans are a very small part of the big picture. So it comes down to this: this novel is a story for Foster to admit his secret love of furry'ism, pot and 80's music.

SEASON OF THE SPELLSONG: THE HOUR OF THE GATE
-A.D. Foster-dtb-217
-fantasy-finishes the storyline of the ancient evil. A country of bugs had somehow gotten hold of a military computer full of weapons technology. Ends with the baddies setting off a nuclear bomb in their own camp. Kind of hard to come back from that. Spellsinger boy is a whiner and Foster is constantly referencing songs by groups without giving any lyrics, expecting his audience to be familiar with them. Written for an age group, not for good literature.

SEASON OF THE SPELLSONG: THE DAY OF DISSONANCE
-A.D. Foster-dtb-235
-fantasy-Wizard turtle sends pothead boy and crew off to find him some magic medicine. Cross oceans, face death, etc, etc. Get the medicine, turns out to be aspirin, which pothead boy had in his pockets when he was transported. Gets a little more into Foster's desire for Furry and also introduces the fantasy of hot girls, who are minors. Foster was a real bastard with this series. Should be ashamed to have written it.

DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY
-D. Adams-epub-171
-humor-in the same universe as the Hitchhiker books and very similar in type of humor. The main character knows Dirk Gently and this story is about them as they prevent a multi-billion year old alien ghost from changing the past and wiping out humans. Nothing spectacular, but a fun read.

SHADOWS OF THE APT: BLOOD OF THE MANTIS
-A. Tchaikovsky-epub-354
-fantasy-the story continues. The wasps take over a spider town, Archeos gets ahold of the mysterious box, only to have it stolen by a mosquito kinden and almost killed and the wasps begin a concentrated battle for the lowlands. This is so well written that I just got sucked in and the end of the book took my by surprise because I was thinking I had pages and pages to go. Looking forward to the next book with great anticipation.

TWELVE KINGDOMS: SKIES OF DAWN
-F. Ono-dtb-642
-fantasy-the story of 3 girls. Yoko, the new king of Kei, must face rebellious underlings who isolate her and keep her out of the loop. Shoukei, a former princess of another kingdom, must learn about real life and the responsibilities she forsook as a princess. Suzu, a human from our world, like Yoko, learns that she alone decides if she is miserable or happy. All three stories intertwine and weave together seamlessly and the end works out very well. I continue to enjoy these light novels and the wonder and joy began by the anime is alive and well in these novels.

THE FOURTH REALM: THE GOLDEN CITY
-J. Hawks-dtb-358
-thriller/scifi-the conclusion. Maya is pregnant with Gabriel's child. Michael goes to the realm of the half-gods who have ruthlessly ruled their world and now want to take over the rest of the realms. Gabriel meets his father in the realm of the gods, who would appear to be 'good' angels and who have disappeared, leaving humanity on their own. In the end the Tabula is split apart from within, Gabriel rallies the world and Gabe and Michael faceoff inbetween and neither comes out of their traveler sleep by the end of the book. The only real finish possible to this series, since Hawks obviously doesn't believe in God. He foists the ending off into the nebulous "future". I have to say, I enjoyed this more than the second novel, even though less happened and more philosophy was spouted. The only thing I don't get is why Michael was suddenly so afraid of Gabriel at the end. It just didn't make any sense to me.

ELSEWORLD: SUPERMAN: TRUE BRIT
-Various-.cbr-95
-ecomic-Superman falls to England instead of America. Sadly, John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, was involved, so the humor was that style. This was a parody and a farce. Turned the "Clarks" into a couple who cared more about what the neighbors thought than what was good for their son. Colin [Kal-el] is a spineless idiot who can't do anything right, even being super. If I had known it was supposed to be a farce, I might have enjoyed it more. I didn't though, so I was expecting a Red Son for England. Bleh.

RIYRIA REVELATIONS: AVEMPARTHA
-M. Sullivan-epub-237
-fantasy-taking place half a year or so after Crown Conspiracy. The 2 thieves get roped into helping a village being destroyed by a magical construct left over from the man/elf wars. Esrahaddon is involved, the Nyphron church gets involved and a young girl from the village ends up being declared the Empress of the New Empire. I thought this was a good stepping stone up from the previous novel. It was fast paced, exciting and I had a good time reading it. I was very glad that I had the next book available though. The pacing lent itself to reading very fast, without a break.

RIYRIA REVELATIONS: NYPHRON RISING
-M. Sullivan-epub-277
-fantasy-splits the story between the empress [who is a puppet] and Royce and Adrian. The New Empire is taking over, with long term planning help from the Nyphron church. Several revelations are made about the past, and future, of Royce and Hadrian and the true Heir is revealed. Esrahaddon shows his conniving wizardly ways and you still don't know if he should be trusted, simply because his agenda is unclear. The empress's story was nicely done. She has gone into a moving coma practically, so the story is really more about a serving maid who draws her out and makes her want to live again. Gave a nice touch and contrasted nicely with the devious scheming of the church.

VLAD TALTOS: ATHYRA
-S. Brust-epub-259
-fantasy-Vlad is on the run from the Jhereg. Comes across an old enemy and dukes it out and kills the undead guy. Told from the viewpoint of a village healer apprentice, who's an Athyra. Nothing in it really stood out. There was no real connection with Vlad, no real reason to root for him besides his history. Nothing here made me want to care about his future.

EARTHFLEET SAGA: THE OORT PERIMETER
-S. Lake-epub-UNFINISHED
-scifi-everybody "smirked" and did things "slyly". Seriously. This guy needs to learn to write better. This was a free download and while I appreciate the effort the guy put into writing this, it needs serious help. I certainly won't be reading any more of his stuff.

EMPIRE: DAUGHTER OF THE EMPIRE
-J. Wurts & R. Feist-epub-377
-fantasy-FANTASTIC! I was expecting a trilogy about the Keshian Empire on Midkemia. Instead, we get a novel about Kelewan. How cool is that? Anyway, a family is betrayed, all members killed in battle on Midkemia, except one 16 year old girl. She becomes the head of her house, which is down to under 40 warriors, and has to play the Game of the Council to survive. It was written very well, with characters being alive and real and each success, or defeat, made you want to shout or groan. I think this is a great trilogy to stand by the Riftwar Saga. Characterizations, machinations, world building, all were done superbly and I look forward greatly [!] to the next 2 novels.

ROBOTECH: SYMPHONY OF LIGHT
-J. McKinney-epub-158
-scifi-oh my goodness. this was the book that would never end! Except where hints about the Sentinels and the past life of Hunter, etc, were concerned, this was yet another word for word from the anime. No character stood out. They were all cookie cutter, cast away putzes. I did not enjoy this at all and am wondering about the wisdom of starting the Sentinels series. We'll see.

GUARDIAN OF THE FLAME: THE SLEEPING DRAGON
-J. Rosenberg-epub-171
-fantasy-a group of gamers is transported to a fantasy world. There they assume the characteristics and knowledge [or lack thereof] of their characters. An interesting concept. Then one of the characters is gutstabbed in an inn and dies. Let the gamers know this was a real world, and let us readers know that safety and home were not assured for the characters. And there was another instance where the 2 women of the group get gangraped, for hours, while the others are captive. They are avenged, but it just left a bad taste in my mouth. Nothing graphic, and while it made sense within the storyline, it just felt wrong. The survivors make it back to our world, only to go back to the fantasy world to revive a dead companion. Interesting concept, written ok, very disfunctional characters. Will read the next one or two in the series.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
17 Novels
1 Unfinished Novel
11 Graphic Novels/Manga
5691 Pages

June '10

2010-06-27T22:30:00.003-04:00

RIYRIA REVELATIONS: THE CROWN CONSPIRACY
-M. Sullivan-228-epub
-fantasy-a king is killed, 2 scoundrels blamed, a prince kidnapped, a princess indicted, a rogue magician let loose after 1000 years, and a royal uncle with a thirst for power. All come together in this engaging tale and it even ends happily. It is very obvious that this is the start of a series [6 books in fact, stated by the author], so some of the elements are more setup than storytelling, but overall, a nice light medieval era magic'ish novel.

DISCWORLD: CARPE JUGULUM
-T. Pratchett-227-epub
-fantasy-Verence, king of Lancre, invites lots and lots of people to his and Magrat's daughter's naming. Including some vampires, who are progressive, ie, they don't ravage and pillage, but treat humans like cattle. Ends up as a battle between the vampire family and the witches, with a slice of Omnian priest thrown in. I really enjoyed this. Except for the bits where you can tell he's actually writing about Christianity, not Omnianism. Man, I hate authors who displace their feelings like that.

ELSEWORLD: SUPERMAN: DARK SIDE
-Various-137-cbr
-E graphic novel-superman never makes it to earth, but instead ends up on Apokolips, and raised by Darkseid. Darkseid uses Supes as his final weapon against the new gods of New Genesis, and the fight ends up on earth where Supes turns good and defeats Darkseid. I have to admit, every story I've read that deals with the new gods really sucks. They are lame, lame lame. This was an ok story, but about on par with Elseworld: Superman: Distant Fires. Supes in black armor looked wicked cool though!

DRESDEN FILES: SUMMER KNIGHT
-J. Butcher-241-epub
-fantasy-Dresden gets into a major scrape in which the White Council wants his head, as does the Vampires AND both the Fairy Courts of Summer and Winter. He muddles through and survives. Nothing really was exceptional about this at all.

DOPPLEGANGER
-M. Brennan-UNFINISHED-epub
-fantasy-a world where witches exist. When a witch is born, so is a lifeless doppleganger, which is immediately killed. One isn't though. She becomes a great hunter and the witch, as her initiation into witch'hood, must hunt her down and kill her. This was pathetic. It was all about feelings and relationships, etc, etc.

THE LOST FLEET: VICTORIOUS
-J. Campbell-331-dtb [dead tree book]
-scifi-a good wrap up to the Lost Fleet series. Geary takes the fleet home, then turns around and hits the syndics so hard that they capitulate, while starting to deal with the alien threat. The getting home arc is over. There is enough mystery about the aliens that I can easily foresee 4-6 more books about the adventures in dealing with them. If so, I'd hope Campbell uses another character than Geary. The poor guy finally gets together with the other captain, and he needs a break.

THE FOURTH REALM: THE TRAVELER
-J. Hawks-330-epub
-thriller/scifi-a world not to far from our own in which two groups are at war. One group is made up of people who can travel out of their bodies into other 'realms', which give them wisdom and insight into our world and who, upon their return, always change our world for the better. The other side is an organized group dedicated to bringing the world under complete domination so that things run exactly how they want it to. A mix of the Matrix with an agnostic Frank Peretti. It was so weird how things from Revelations are mixed in with libertarian ideas alongside scifi things.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE & ZOMBIES
-S. Grahame-Smith-UNFINISHED-epub
-drek- take a classic, gut it completely of all things that make it great literature, keep the outershell, fill with crap. And voila, this is what you get. All the great writing was gone. The bare character outlines were there, and zombies and violence were tacked on. This sub-genre is a despicable thing, and if I ever meet the author, or others like him [for I know that other classics have had such eviscerations], I will do bodily harm to them. They have taken great literature and ruined it, completely. Made it palatable to a group of readers who couldn't recognize great literature if it bit their heads off. Which is sad, because now those readers will never go on to read the real thing, and stay in their cesspit of ignorance instead of being raised up.

STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: SAVIOR
-J. Miller-27-epub
-scifi-the Sith consolidate their hold on their adoptive world.

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS: WILDSPACE
-K. Miller-279-epub
-scifi-a direct sequel to Traviss' Clone Wars. Really has nothing to do with the Clone troopers though. Basically Anakin whines about Padme and his new apprentice while Obi-Wan and Bail Organa go off on a goosechase to a Sith Planet. Which turns out to be an ambush. And Obi-wan and Bail bond while surviving. Does do a good job of showing the desolate and empty condition of a sith world, and by extension, what a sith galaxy would be like. Nothing special overall though, certainly not worth buying.

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS: NO PRISONERS
-K. Traviss-175-epub
-scifi- about a spy who Pellaon is involved with. And Anakin and his apprentice, a group of jedi[the offshoot branch Callista is in]and some troopers from the 501st rescuing her. I think it can be summed up with this quote "Emotions are our programming...and help us understand what's right and wrong". More complete and utter bullshit from Traviss. Lots of handwringing and saying how bad the Republic is and how "right" the CSI is. Once again Traviss focuses on the Jedi and the Republic to the exclusion of the Sith and the machinations they have for Galactic Domination. She is such a bitch.

BONESHAKER
-C. Priest-416-dtb
-steampunk-an inventor's machine runs amok, releasing a gas from the ground which turns people into zombies and in the process dies. So Seattle is walled in. Now, the man's son goes back into the city to clear his father's name. His mother, who knows what her husband was really after, chases after him to rescue him. Very much more of the mother's story is told than the young man's. Kill zombies, meet people, go through horrible experiences, bond and come out the other side all energized to live life to the fullest. This wasn't a horrible story, just dumb. As for the over-arching elements in it, ie, Steampunk overall, please visit the following blogpost to see what I really think of Steampunk

RANMA 1/2 #32-33
-R. Takahashi
-manga

KARE KANO #1-8
-M. Tsuda
-manga

TEARS OF ARTAMON: CHILDREN OF THE SERPENT GATE
-S. Ash-420-epub
-fantasy-the finish the Tears of Artamon trilogy. Two of the drakhouls, Gavin and Tielen's emperor's, work together to keep the Lord of the fallen angels from coming into the world. As a result, Kiukiu sends all the 'eaten' children peacefully into the after-life and because of their sacrifice, the drakhouls passover also and are at peace. An interesting trilogy, but not an author I have a desire to go out and read more of her stuff or talk about it to others.

THE FOURTH REALM: THE DARK RIVER
-J. Hawks-368-dtb
-thriller/scifi-Maya makes bad decisions, Gabriel crosses over to find his father, Michael is slowly gaining influence/taking control of the Tabula [while completely espousing their ideas] all mixed in with praise for loser type people who are "brave" enough to live off the grid. The problem is, those people aren't really living off the grid, just using others to do their dirty work for them. Once again Hawks presents the awfulness of the Tabula, but we have yet to see anything of significance come from the Travelers. And the Tabula just becomes more and more unbelievable, with its completely dedicated minions. Something that big, that insidious, always rot and fall. I think we are seeing the cracks though, with what Michael is doing in taking control.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
11 Novels
2 Unfinished novels
11 Manga/Graphic novels
3042 Pages

May '10

2010-05-31T14:55:00.001-04:00

SHADOWMARCH: SHADOWRISE
-T. Williams-554-pbook
-fantasy-the 3rd book of the Shadowmarch tetrology. I ended up reading this in short sections at lunch at work, and I think that really worked against this book. The way it was written made it so it needed to be read in 3-5 long reads. Barrit ends up going through yet more stuff and meeting the King of the Qar, Briony makes it safely to another kingdom only to face assassination, etc and ends up fleeing back to Southmarch and the fruitcake godking reveals his plans to sacrifice the king of Southmarch to gain control of a god for his own personal use. This book just didn't really resonate with me, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it in fewer, but longer, sessions.

STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: BACKLASH
-A. Allston-304-epub
-fantasy- I really enjoyed this book. It was a short adventure, with everyone going to Dathomir, and a confrontation with the Dark Sisters, but it was light and humorous. Several one liners just caused me to burst out laughing. Allston can write good Star Wars stuff. Hoping the next book advances the plot a little more though.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: DUST OF DREAMS
-S. Erikson-946-epub
-fantasy-overall, this was nearly as bad as Toll the Hounds, in that everyone whined and complained about the harshness and meaninglessness of life. If they really felt like how they talked, they would have killed themselves off. The very FEW action parts to this book were great, but were so far and few between that they were lost in this mammoth volume. With the tone of the series turning soapbox'ish and not about the action, I can no longer recommend this series. The action, the politics, the maneuvering, it is all gone, given over to mindless rants about philosophical whines by people who shouldn't be ABLE to whine philosophically. Dreading the final book but also looking forward to it just to end this nightmare. This series has devolved into a kind of Terry Goodkind preachiness.

TEARS OF ARTAMON: PRISONER OF THE IRON TOWER
-S. Ash-384-epub
-fantasy-Gavril gets back his drakhaoul, Eugene finds the gate and gets a drakhaoul of his own and another kingdom, the Francians, challanges Eugenes empire.

VANG: THE MILITARY FORM
-C. Rowley-228-epub
-scifi-an ancient alien lifeform is recovered from space and ends up taking over a world, which is then nuked to prevent it taking over other planets. This was how "Alien" should have been. Alien lifeform takes over humans and changes them to ultimate warriors and spreads like wildfire. Very violent, lots of fighting, lots of people writhing in agony while being taken over. Just as good as I remember from back in junior/highschool.

VANG: THE BATTLEMASTER
-C. Rowley-215-epub
-scifi-2000 years after The Military Form. Another Vang is found, this time a battlemaster. Sadly, this book was not nearly as engaging or exciting to read. The battlemaster was obsessed with getting back to its homeworld instead of taking over human space. Once there, and it realized the Axon-Neurone time was over, it just gave up. Not much fun reading about an alien that just makes diversions so it can go home to die. Pooh.

DEMON CYCLE: THE WARDED MAN
-P. Brett-416-pbook
-fantasy-a world several thousand years after ours. The night belongs to demons, which rise out of the core of the earth and destroy life where ever they can find it. Wards, drawn symbols, are humanity's only defense against them. Defensive wards are all that are available to humanity. A prophesied savior, the Deliverer, is supposed to restore humanity's ability to fight back. Follows 3 main characters, Arlen, Leesha and Rojer. Arlen becomes a messenger and finds a lost city of new offensive wards. Leesha becomes a villages Herb Gatherer and makes up new wards. Rojer is a jongleur who can play the violin and charm demons. In the end, Arlen is betrayed by a kingdom based on arab culture [big surprise there] but wards himself and starts to teach the hamlets how to fight back. Brutal. While not graphic, very bad things happen and you are not left in doubt about what those bad things are. Extremely well written and it just pulled me right to the end. A book I was excited to be reading. Good stuff.

DEMON CYCLE: THE DESERT SPEAR
-P. Brett-579-pbook
-fantasy-follows Jardir, the Desert Spear [the man who betrayed Arlin in the first book], as he grows up and takes over the Krasians. Begins his drive to take over the northern kingdoms to make them all one so they can effectively fight against the demons wholesale. Arlin, Leesha and Rojer are wound through the story, and Leesha plays the next biggest role, after Jardir. Once again I really enjoyed this, not quite as much as The Warded Man, and am looking forward to the next book in this cycle.

CODEX ALERA: PRINCEP'S FURY
-J. Butcher-350-epub
-fantasy-Tavi goes to the land of the Canim, only to find them overrun by the Vord. Makes a kind of peace with the remnants and they all head back to Alera. Meanwhile, back in Alera, the Vord queen is taking over, fast. Gaius buys enough time to give Tavi time to get back to Alera. Gaius dies and things get real bad, real fast. The Vord are just voracious.

CODEX ALERA: FIRST LORD'S FURY
-J. Butcher-457-epub
-fantasy-the final stand in Alera. The Vord queen has been "corrupted" by human emotions, and Tavi makes the most of that. A last stand back in Calderon, Kitai and Tavi end up killing the Vord queen. Tavi becomes First Lord. Alera makes alliances with other races, in preparation for the time they will have to invade the Canim homeland to destroy the Vord there. A good ending place, but leaving so many huge threads that sequels seem almost a given.

FOREIGNER
-C.J. Cherryh-UNFINISHED-pbook

BILL, THE GALACTIC HERO
-H. Harrison-185-pbook
-scifi/satire-a complete military scifi satire. Bill the rube gets conned into joining the army. After surviving many trials, Bill becomes inured does what he needs to to get away from the front. Ends up going back to his homeplanet and tricking his brother into joining. Bill just can't get a break.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
11 novels
1 unfinished novel
4618 pages

April '10

2010-04-27T18:00:00.001-04:00

DISCWORLD: JINGO
-T. Pratchett-282-epub
-fantasy- an island pops up between Ahnk-Morpork and Klatch and things get unsettled. Vimes, Carrot, Vetinari and several Klatchians manipulate things to make everything work. And Vimes get "Duke'd", much to his horror. Oh, and Nobby gets in touch with his feminine side and that is really the only funny part of the book.

DOOM: KNEE-DEEP IN THE DEAD
-D. Ab Hugh-180-epub
-game novelization- Oh My Word! This just about has to be the worst book, grammar, plot, characterization, that I have ever read! It was basically reading the game with some token things thrown in, like conversation, love interest, duty, despair and hope. It was just plain horrible. Continuity was almost nil; to call the characters cardboard cutouts would insulting to cardboard. The game is awesome, this novel, not so much. I can see why someone would read this first one, because they are into Doom, but after getting through this trainwreck, I don't see how the next 3 books were ever published. I certainly won't be reading them!

STAR WARS: DEATH TROOPERS
-J. Schreiber-138-epub
-fantasy\horror- the first foray into the Star Wars universe that is outside the typical fantasy/action genre. A prison ship goes derelict next to a dead star destroyer. Turns out there is some sort of plague, genetically engineered zombie ceator thingy and just about everyone buys the farm. Han Solo and Chewbacca are in the prison ship and they and 2 others escape. I guess this was supposed to be creepy and scary, but it came across as hack to me. Telling me that a corridor seems to go on forever, instead of making me feel the character's terror, makes me feel like they are a complete idiot. Nothing in the story interested me, and having Han and Chewie thrown in for a connection came across as very weak and lame.

ROBOTECH: INVID INVASION
-J. McKinney-135-epub
-scifi-the first in the New Generation trilogy. Scott is the only survivor of the doomed Mars Expedition to survive the re-invasion of earth. This book mainly deals with the gathering of the group as they start their way to Reflex Point. The book offers a whole lot more info in regards to the Sentinels and Hunter's Fleet and hints at things already taken place affecting this time and place.

ADMIRAL'S GHOST
-NB. VanYoos-UNFINISHED-epub
-scifi-a drug runner dies and is united with some weird alien who possesses bodies to experience life. T/he/y end up as some Admiral for some aliens. Not fast paced, not really engaging, plus it crashed my 505. So that was the deal breaker.

ELVEN WAYS: THE DARK FERRYMAN
-J. Rhodes-UNFINISHED-epub
-fantasy-simply couldn't get back into the world created in The Four Forges.

DRESDEN FILES: STORM FRONT
-J. Butcher-184-epub
-Urban fantasy-in which we are introduced to Harry Dresden, a wizard who is a PI, who also helps out the cops. In this story Harry takes down a big baddy wizard who is breaking the rules while himself under scrutiny from the White Council. Palatable urban fantasy, but I prefer the Codex Alera series alot more.

DRESDEN FILES: FOOL MOON
-J. Butcher-214-epub
-Urban fantasy-werewolves and the like are killing people. Some rogue fbi agents [who nobody knows are rogue yet] set up Harry, a Werewolf and a top mob boss to kill take the fall for the killings. Harry gets the crap beaten out of him and survives.

BORDERLANDS: COVENANTS
-L. Freeman-375-epub
-fantasy-this book was just not long enough. A horse trooper turns out to have magical abilities AND be the kings heir. He knew this and was running away, which is why he was in the horse troopers. Has to prevent a war between the Borderlands and his country of Iversterre while learning to control his magic, avoid being taken over by his former master [who has turned to the dark arts to gain more power], avoid the attentions of a jealous former comrade who is also showing magical abilities and do this all while different factions vie for either his attention, or death. Very well written, gripping action, tense, but never gets dark. It is a great attribute to be able to show bad things without allowing that tone to take over.

BORDERLANDS: KING'S OWN
-L. Freeman-269-epub
-fantasy-Rabbit, the horse trooper/talent user/king's heir, is also named Cyn [kin] of the ruling elf of the Borderlands. Along with Jussom, king of Iversterre, he fights a demon trying to take over a town near the border that wants to precipitate a war. Fresh and intriguing and well done. Highly recommended.

BORDERLANDS: SHADOWS PAST
-L. Freeman-307-epub
-fantasy-Rabbit, with the Royal retinue, is invited to a fief for a possible marriage proposal. Thing aren't what they seem though. Turns out there are several factions, envoys from other countries among them, that want marriage, death, chaos, etc, etc. Good characterization. The only concern I have is "where is the author going?" with the story. I just hope she knows the end of the story.

CODEX ALERA: CAPTAIN'S FURY
-J. Butcher-387-epub
-fantasy-Tavi, now acknowledging his title of Octavian, must try to make peace with the Canim in the face of a Senatorial guard, a Senator who wants glory and the Canim themselves. Meanwhile, Gaius sneaks into Kalare with the help of Bernhard and his wife and lets loose a Great Fury that Kalare is holding. It destroys the capital of Kalare and ends the resistance. Ends with Tavi going with the Canim back to their homeland to help fight the vord and to give him breathing room to learn to deal with his new status as Princep.

DISCWORLD: THE LAST CONTINENT
-T. Pratchett-227-epub
-fantasy-a story about Rincewind and the wizards and a land suspiciously like Australia. Where it never rains. They have to make it rain. This book typifies why I liked the stories about Rincewind the best. Silly, comedic danger, action and nothing more serious than a thunderbolt. Good stuff.

ROBOTECH: METAMORPHOSIS
-J. McKinney-148-epub
-scifi-ugh. This arc, New Generation, of the Robotech saga was my least favorite in the anime and it is tough reading. Boring and slogging. The team is almost at reflex point and the invid simulacrom joins up with them, Ariel. Don't know when I'll read the next one, going to be awhile though.

TEARS OF ARTAMON: LORD OF SNOW AND SHADOWS
-S. Ash-387-epub
-fantasy-a would-be emperor. A young artist, heir to a kingdom and a cursed power. A powerful scullery maid, who must compete with a Foreign Princess. Battling clans who hate each other with absolute hatred. This is the backdrop of the story Sarah Ash begins to weave. Interesting, but to be honest, nothing really stands out to me from this book. I'll finish the series, enjoy them, but probably never re-read them again.

DRESDEN FILES: GRAVE PERIL
-J. Butcher-255-epub
-urban fantasy- a vengeful rogue wizard kills himself to turn himself into a ghost. He has help from the Vampire Court and they all go after Harry. Harry saves the night but starts a war between the White Council and the Vampire Court. A main side character was some kind of Christian Knight Templar, and it really grated how he was used. He was powerful because he believed, not because of WHO he believed in. I'll read one or two more, but this just hits too close to home, with blasphemy and stuff, for me to really enjoy these.

VLAD TALTOS: PHOENIX
-S. Brust-189-epub
-fantasy-one nice thing about a shorter book, you don't get bogged down in anything. Vlad helps save the Empire from invasion and from being torn apart from internal strife, but he also separates from his wife and takes off in exile to start a new life as a "not an assassin".

SHADOWS OF THE APT: DRAGONFLY FALLING
-A. Tchaikovsky-540-epub
-fantasy- whoo! This was good! The wasp empire rolls over an ant city, allows another ant city to invade Collegium [which beats them off with help of allies right the end], Totho [the halfbreed in love with Cheerwell Maker] turns traitor and joins the empire, lots of fighting, lots of cool exploring the world of humans with insect characteristics without being stodgy, dry or repetitive. Tchaikovsky can write. Very well. The story just sucked me in and I in no way felt like I was reading 500 pages. This is what fantasy should be. Engaging, not over the top, telling a large story but not losing sight of individuals while not getting bogged down in meaningless detail, exploring a new world [to the reader] while not being expositional. Highly recommended!!!

MONTHLY SUMMARY
16 novels
2 unfinished novels
4217 pages

March '10

2010-03-31T22:00:00.001-04:00

CODEX ALERA: CURSOR'S FURY
-J. Butcher-407-epub
-fantasy-The canim make a major push into the lands of Alera in conjunction with Kalerain [a high lord] making a play for the throne. Tavi takes command of a legion to fight the canim and earns the loyalty of his men. Turns out he is the grandson of the current First Lord. Right at the end Tavi gets his furies for the first time. and it turns out the Vord have taken over the canim's lands.

BATTLECHASERS
-T. Robinson-149-epub
-fantasy-I enjoyed this more than Robinson's Mirror of Opposition. It was one night on a battlefield after the battle. Several opposing forces come to a head and several centuries worth of chasing, etc are finished. This felt very much like a Forgotten Realms book. Dwarf, elf, good mystic priest, evil lady vampire, dragon, thief and some undead. A nice light fantasy trope read.

DARKTOWER: THE GUNSLINGER
-S. King-UNFINISHED-epub
-horror?-it was just to sloggy and boring. I don't want to read about some guy chasing another guy while the world is dying around them. Every word seemed to drip with apathy, lethargy and hopelessness the character[s] was\were feeling.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: REAPER'S GALE
-S. Erikson-969-epub
-fantasy-ties together the Bonehunter's story and the fall of the Letheri empire. This world is physically big! So much going on that I doubt that everything will tie together in a nice neat bow. More like reading about independent multiple assaults on the Crippled God.

FRUITS BASKET #23
-N. Takaya-manga
-thankgoodness this is done! Ughhh. To many people looking to similar with to many similar problems.

RANMA 1/2 #26-31
-R. Takahashi-manga
-more one shot stories. Not going for an over-arching plot. Getting repetitious.

DREAMWISH BEASTS AND SNARKS
-M. Resnick-UNFINISHED-pbook
-scifi-a collection of short stories about hunting, scifi style. The first few were ok, but the overall idea of hunting, usually safari style, doesn't interest me, so after the novelty wore off, so did my interest.

YOTSUBA&! #6-7
-K. Azuma-manga

TRAIN + TRAIN #1-6
-H. Kurata-manga

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: TOLL THE HOUNDS
-S. Erikson-961-epub
-fantasy-this book was WAY too big. Close to 1/4 of the book was the internal monologueing of every single character whining about this, that or the other. The actual happenings/doings were completely overshadowed by all the existential, emo-gothic complaining. I could only recommend this book to a hardcore fan who needs Erikson for a fix. Almost as bad as Goodkind when he got on his soapbox.

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY: AND ANOTHER THING
-E. Colfer-247-epub
-scifi humor-a sequel to Adams' Hitchhiker's trilogy of 5 books. A worthy successor too. This was funny, irreverent, and I felt like I was reading Adams and not some wannabe. Probably won't read any more if there are more written though.

FUTURE IMPERFECT
-K. Laumer-441-epub
-scifi-a collection of short stories about the future that all have something negative overall taking place in society or with the world itself.

SHOGUN
-J. Clavell-803-pbook
-historical fiction-a dutch sailing crew with an english pilot are shipwrecked in Japan. Follows the pilot as he goes from captive to honored samurai. Around the time of Elizabeth I. Politics within Japan itself, Catholicism and Protestantism, and just plain human beings being human beings. I enjoyed this but considering it is fiction, have to wonder how accurate the portrayal of Japanese culture is.

VLAD TALTOS: TALTOS
-S. Brust-161-epub
-fantasy- the story of how Vlad made some Dragaeran acquaintances and got his spell breaking gold chain, as well as walked the paths of the dead and brought back the heir to the Throne.

SHADOWS OF THE APT: EMPIRE IN BLACK AND GOLD
-A. Tchaikovsky-571-epub
-fantasy-set in a world where humans are insect aspected, by kind, ant-kinden, mantis kinden, moth kinden, wasp kinden, etc. The Wasp Empire is rolling over the known world and 20 years earlier a group of friends watched a city fall and vowed to prepare for the time when the Empire came to their homes. That time is now. Follows 4 main characters who are proteges of one of those original friends. Their adventures as they begin to learn about and try to combat the threat of the Wasp Kinden Empire. It is very well written, but weird with humans having insect aspects and certain powers. Weird but very original.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
9 novels
2 unfinished novels
15 manga
4709 pages

February '10

2010-02-27T15:35:00.002-05:00

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: THE BONEHUNTERS
-S. Erikson-909-epub
-fantasy-so much violence, sadness and hopelessness. So well written, so full of depth and crosscurrents. I am already looking forward to rereading this series. Bring it on!

ACACIA: THE WAR WITH THE MEIN
-D. Durham-UNFINISHED-pbook
-fantasy-this story seemed like my thing. A kingdom about to undergo tumult, royal children spirited away, assassins, etc. But for whatever reason, I just couldn't get into it. I tried 5 times, and would read 5-10pages, and then lose interest. So I gave up. I would recommend it anyway, how weird is that?

WOLF: WOLF HUNTING
-J. Lindskold-UNFINISHED-pbook
-fantasy-well, Lindskold finally lost me here. Every book seems to be a new place, new people, new adventures. But, it feels like Lindskold has no imagination for the places she has already explored and so is forced to make up more and more new lands to have her stories in. And the fact that Firekeeper and the wolf are practically mated, without the mating, is just pushing the beastiality line and really isn't appropriate. Goodbye Jane, your first Wolf book was great, I shall remember you by that one, and not the rest.

ROBOTECH: GENESIS
-J. McKinney-155-epub

ROBOTECH: BATTLE CRY
-J. McKinney-139-epub

ROBOTECH: HOMECOMING
-J. McKinney-147-epub

ROBOTECH: BATTLEHYMN
-J. McKinney-115-epub

ROBOTECH: FORCE OF ARMS
-J. McKinney-155-epub

ROBOTECH: DOOMSDAY
-J. McKinney-161-epub
-scifi-comprising the Macrass Saga part of Robotech, these 6 books are almost a word for word for scene novelization of the anime. This is not a bad thing, if you watched the anime first and loved it. I would NOT recommend these to someone to read BEFORE watching the anime. It is just to stilted, silly individual plots [while great in one epic storyline, they suck as standalones] and the writing is not inspired. I still enjoyed these, but I really liked Robotech too.

STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: PRECIPICE
-J.J. Miller-29-epub
-fantasy-a short story tying directly in with the new Fate of the Jedi series. About the lost ship of Siths who crash on a planet.

STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: SKYBORN
-J.J. Miller-27-epub
-fantasy-a short story tying directly in with the new Fate of the Jedi series. About how the Sith meet the populace of the world and the beginning of their takeover.

CODEX ALERA: FURIES OF CALDERON
-J. Butcher-383-epub
-fantasy-a world where humans have carved for themselves an empire in a hostile world. Led by the First Lord, humans have the powers of 'furies' to enhance them. This follows one young man from his beginnings as a humble shepherd in the outer stretches of the empire as he saves the region, makes an alliance with a hostile race and is given patronage by the First Lord to attend the Academy. Very well done. Good characterization, intriguing novel plot and an overarching plot.

CODEX ALERA: ACADEM'S FURY
-J. Butcher-404-epub
-fantasy-the First Lord is incapacitated and Tavi must help cover it up. With some friends he fends off attacks magical, physical and political. Tavi is fury'less and mocked as a freak by the rich and powerful. Using his wits alone he survives. Keeps things from collapsing until the First Lord recovers.

MIRROR OF OPPOSITION
-T. Robinson-172-epub
-fantasy-3 young warriors in training end up saving the world from a demon almost as old as god. Ok. This seemed forced. There were many times where Zen'ist thought was bandied about, along with a perverted form of Christianity. The characters had no depth and they seemed to follow a cookie cutter path-1 becomes a great warrior, 1 becomes a Powerful Angelic Being of Great Goodness and 1 becomes a bad guy who gets bored and so helps out the good guys just because he can? They weren't fleshed out. 1 or 2 short chapters in and things just get busy. They just seemed like cardboard characters moving along a candyland path. Several things didn't make sense to me. If the school the boys were at was a school for a powerful empire, why were the badguys just having their way? Where were the Imperial Forces? The gates. Why did the Mirrorist simply have a holding pattern? Why didn't they USE the gates in force instead of simply hiding them? If something isn't going to be used by you, destroy it so the enemy can't use it. Basic military thought, at least in my opinion. And the whole angel/demon thing, phooophhh, it just smacked of D&D and the Apocrypha. With that being said, overall it wasn't a bad read. It just should have been longer with some serious character development.

WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: EXTINCTION
-L. Smedman-228-epub
-fantasy

WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: ANNIHILATION
-P. Athans-225-epub
-fantasy

WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: RESURRECTION
-P. Kemp-232-epub
-fantasy-the War of the Spider Queen finishes up. Basically everybody in the group dies except three females. One who becomes the new Lolth, one who returns as high priestess to Menzoberranzan and the final one who becomes the Lady Penitent, a slave to Lolth. Lots of fighting and magical battles and such.

QUADRAIL: DOMINO PATTERN
-T. Zahn-229-epub
-scifi/mystery-this confirms it. Zahn is officially trying his hand at the mystery genre while staying in Scifi. Overall, it reminded me of the Asimov book Caves of Steel. It was well written, interesting, kept moving along without getting hung up on inconsequential details and ended well while at the same time setting up BIG things for the future. So now Compton and friends are in league with a modhri. And it looks like the big bad aliens who ruled for a millenium or more a long time ago are coming back. Zahn ratchets up the threat level in each book. I have to wonder if he is contracted to write "x" number of books in this series? I just hope it ends well. This is a good solid addition to a Zahn library. I enjoyed it more than Third Lynx or Odd Girl Out.

GREEN
-T. Dekker-UNFINISHED-pbook
-just couldn't get into it. Felt like I was reading some sort of "oh well, might as well write more" kind of book. Now I want to go re-read the Circle Trilogy to see if it is what I remember it to be.

ROBOTECH: SOUTHERN CROSS
-J. McKinney-123-epub

ROBOTECH: METAL FIRE
-J. McKinney-151-epub

ROBOTECH: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE
-J. McKinney-170-epub
-scifi-these 3 books comprised the "Robotech Masters" trilogy. About the Robotech Masters coming to earth to get the Protoculture matrix in the SDF1. They fail, the flowers bloom, life on earth is blown even further downwards and the Invid are coming. Also fleshes out more about Dana being a unique creature in regards to Protoculture and ties into the Sentinels subseries coming up later. The overall plot was not nearly as interesting as the "Macross" saga and Dana was not a very dynamic character.

AMAZING AGENT LUNA OMNIBUS #2
-N. DeFilippis & C. Weir-pbook
-manga-finishes up the schoolyear for Luna. Lots of turmoil among all involved. Ends with Luna's crush becoming pretty much the new badguy and his dad [the former badguy] becoming part of the team. This seemed a good place to end. It seemed the writing team was losing focus and not having a solid story to go with. I wouldn't want to see anymore volumes until they get things settled.

SUPERMAN: THE DEATH OF CLARK KENT
-various-pbook
-graphic novel-a supervillian figures out Superman is Clark and starts taking out everyone close to Clark. Superman beats him eventually and all is ok. Also turns out Luthor was incapacitated by the clone problem and in the end of the book he comes back, fully revived. This storyline is a good reason why comics are for youngters and teens overall. Conduit escapes from prison and within a month has a bajillion bases, men and weapons up the wazoo, robotic clones of himself, a whole robotic town based on Smallville AND a nuclear missile? I mean, that is just too much. Good storyline overall though.

MALAZ: NIGHT OF KNIVES
-I.C. Esslemont-237-epub
-fantasy-an account of the night that Kellenved and Dancer ascended. I enjoyed this, even as confusing as it was. Esslemont has a slightly 'lighter' hand when it comes to his fight scenes, which was nice. Still plenty of action and detail though.

STAR WARS: LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH: PARAGON
-J. Miller-26-epub

VLAD TALTOS: JHEREG
-S. Brust-208-epub
-fantasy-the first in a series in a world where humans and reptilian'ish humaniforms coexist, but not peacefully. Vlad Taltos is a human who lives among the Draegon. He becomes an assassin and works his way up the ranks, basically being a mob boss. This reminded me of a murder mystery in a fantasy setting from the Mafia's point of view. Interesting.

VLAD TALTOS: YENDI
-S. Brust-167-epub
-fantasy- a complicated plot between Draegons involves Taltos. Very shallow, quick wit remarks and lots of turf war style fighting seem to be the hallmarks of this series.

VLAD TALTOS: TECKLA
-S. Brust-144-epub
-fantasy-Vlad's wife Cawti takes up with revolutionaries who want to overthrow the system and make things more "fair" for Easterners[humans]and Teckla, the grunt of the Draegons. Too much talking by the head revolutionary for my taste. Vlad should have just wasted him right in the beginning. Oh well.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
24 novels, short stories
3 unfinished novels
2 graphic novel/manga
4936 pages

January '10

2010-01-31T22:00:00.001-05:00

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: MEMORIES OF ICE
-S. Erikson-900-epub
-fantasy-The storyline takes a decided cut about 3/4 of the way through. One storyline ends and another picks up, but so different that it feels like another book. Overall, I enjoyed this nearly as much the second time. I made more connections, but the impact of the sadness and loneliness of the Imass was really subdued.

OH MY GODDESS! #33-34
-K. Fujishima-manga
-these 2 volumes really should have been one. It was one story arc and the books were THIN! I'm about ready for OMG! to wrap up. I feel like I am being milked.

STONEWAYS: QUEEN FERRIS
-S.C. Butler-495-pbook
-fantasy-the second in the Stoneways Trilogy. Reiffen comes into his own, kills 2 of the wizards and ends up marrying Ferris right at the end. Even though this series is about Rieffen, Avender is the character that most of the story is told through, so he feels like the main character. Poor Avender, a hero who can't get the girl.

RANMA 1/2 #22-25
-R. Takahashi-manga

STAR WARS: IMPERIAL COMMANDO: 501st
-K. Traviss-434-pbook
-fantasy-picks right up from the Republic Commando books. Two of the clones get stuck in the 501st, the rest go to Mandalore. Lots of angst and Jedi hating and some seriously twisted thinking. Might as well be a soap opera with all the drama.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: HOUSE OF CHAINS
-S. Erikson-722-epub
-fantasy

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: MIDNIGHT TIDES
-S. Erikson-674-epub
-fantasy-so much goes on, that it is hard to write about it. In a nutshell, the Crippled God, a being from another dimension brought to the Malazan world and chained by its world's gods, has vowed to destroy them all, and this series is about that battle. Epic Fantasy.

MONTHLY SUMMARY
5 novels
6 manga
3225 pages

2009 In Review

2009-12-31T23:00:00.001-05:00

1: Shadow of the Hegemon-Orson Scott Card-442
2: Acorna: The Unicorn Girl-Anne McCaffrey & Margaret Ball-254
3: Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa #16-Clamp-184
4: Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa #17-Clamp-182
5: Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa #18-Clamp-184
6: Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa #19-Clamp-183
7: Oh My Goddess! #30-Kosuke Fujishima-151
8: The Three Musketeers-Alexandre Dumas-738
9: One Piece #19-Eiichiro Oda-210
10: Acorna: Acorna's Quest-Anne McCaffrey & Margaret Ball-282
11: The Count of Monte Cristo-Alexandre Dumas-618
12: Dragon Ball #1-Akira Toriyama-175
13: Adam- Ted Dekker-400
14: The Prince of Nothing: The Darkness That Comes Before-R. Scott Bakker-577
15: The Dragon Keeper Chronicles: Dragonspell-Donita K. Paul-334
16: The Last Rune: Beyond the Pale-Mark Anthony-622
17: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide-Douglas Adams-815
18: Shaman King #13-Hiroyuki Takei-190
19: Shaman King #14-Hiroyuki Takei-190
20: Shaman King #15-Hiroyuki Takei-186
21: Dinosaur Beach-Keith Laumer-186
22: Catch-22-Joseph Heller-443
23: Blessed Child- Ted Dekker & Bill Bright-351
24: A Man Called Blessed-Ted Dekker & Bill Bright-356
25: King Kelson's Bride-Katherine Kurtz-374
26: The Dragonriders of Pern: Dragonflight-Anne McCaffrey-188
27: The Dragonriders of Pern: Dragonquest-Anne McCaffrey-250
28: The Dragonriders of Pern: The White Dragon-Anne McCaffrey-295
29: Hellsing #1-Kohta Hirano-204
30: Hellsing #2-Kohta Hirano-188
31: Hellsing #3-Kohta Hirano-190
32: Hellsing #4-Kohta Hirano-205
33: Amazing Agent Luna Omnibus #1-Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir-502
34: Miss Marjoribanks-Margaret Oliphant-497
35: Noble Dead: Dhampir- Barb & JC Hendee-376
37: The Lost Fleet: Dauntless-Jack Campbell/John Hemry-283
38: The Lost Fleet: Fearless-Jack Campbell/John Hemry-295
39: Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz-Frank Baum-272
40: Inuyasha #1-Rumiko Takahashi-183
41: Inuyasha #2-Rumiko Takahashi-190
42: Hellsing #5-Kohta Hirano-205
43: Hellsing #6-Kohta Hirano-191
44: Hellsing #7-Kohta Hirano-190
45: Battlefield Earth- L. Ron Hubbard-942
46: Oz: The Marvelous Land of Oz-Frank Baum-291
47: Noble Dead: Thief of Lives- Barb & JC Hendee-410
48: Noble Dead: Sister of the Dead- Barb & JC Hendee-405
49: Oz: Ozma of Oz-Frank Baum-272
50: Inuyasha #3-Rumiko Takahashi-196
51: Inuyasha #4-Rumiko Takahashi-186
52: Inuyasha #5-Rumiko Takahashi-190
53: Inuyasha #6-Rumiko Takahashi-188
54: School Rumble #1-Jin Kobayashi-176
55: School Rumble #2-Jin Kobayashi-174
56: School Rumble #3-Jin Kobayashi-174
57: School Rumble #4-Jin Kobayashi-174
58: School Rumble #5-Jin Kobayashi-176
59: American Notes & Pictures from Italy-Charles Dickens-unfinished
60: The Harper Hall of Pern: Dragonsong- Anne McCaffrey-140
61: The Harper Hall of Pern: Dragonsinger- Anne McCaffrey-192
62: The Harper Hall of Pern: Dragondrums- Anne McCaffrey-167
63: Inuyasha #7-Rumiko Takahashi
64: Inuyasha #8-Rumiko Takahashi
65: Inuyasha #9-Rumiko Takahashi
66: Inuyasha #10-Rumiko Takahashi
67: Inuyasha #11-Rumiko Takahashi
68: Inuyasha #12-Rumiko Takahashi
69: Inuyasha #13-Rumiko Takahashi
70: Inuyasha #14-Rumiko Takahashi
71: Inuyasha #15-Rumiko Takahashi
72: Inuyasha #16-Rumiko Takahashi
73: Inuyasha #17-Rumiko Takahashi
74: Inuyasha #18-Rumiko Takahashi
75: Looking Glass: Manxome Foe- John Ringo & Travis Taylor-463
76: Inuyasha #19-Rumiko Takahashi
77: Inuyasha #20-Rumiko Takahashi
78: Inuyasha #21-Rumiko Takahashi
79: Inuyasha #22-Rumiko Takahashi
80: Inuyasha #23-Rumiko Takahashi
81: Inuyasha #24-Rumiko Takahashi
82: StarWars: Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor-Matthew Stover-311
83: A Child's History of England-Charles Dickens-unfinished
84: Noble Dead: Traitor to the Blood- Barb & JC Hendee-396
85: Case Closed #1-Gosho Aoyama
86: Case Closed #2-Gosho Aoyama
87: Case Closed #3-Gosho Aoyama
88: Case Closed #4-Gosho Aoyama
89: Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte-502
90: Master Humphrey's Clock-Charles Dickens-144
91: The Bourne Identity-Robert Ludlum-535
92: Oz: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz-Frank Baum-256
93: The Bell at Sealey Head-Patricia McKillip-277
94: The Bourne Supremacy-Robert Ludlum-646
95: The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas- Fuyumi Ono-294
96: Reborn! #1- Akira Amano
97: Reborn! #2- Akira Amano
98: Oz: The Road to Oz-Frank Baum-261
99: More Than One Universe-Arthur C. Clarke-554
100: The Bourne Ultimatum-Robert Ludlum-unfinished
101: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Cestus Deception-Steven Barnes-457
102: Bridge to Terebithia-Katherine Paterson-191
103: The Council Wars: There Will Be Dragons-John Ringo-719
104: Inuyasha #25-Rumiko Takahashi
105: Inuyasha #26-Rumiko Takahashi
106: Star Wars: The Clone Wars-Karen Traviss-256
106: Recluce: Natural Ordermage-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-496
107: A Madness of Angels-Kate Griffin-538
108: A Two Handed Engine-Henry Kuttner and C.L.Moore-UNFINISHED
109: Oz: The Emerald City of Oz-Frank Baum-UNFINISHED
110: This Is Not A Game-Walter Jon Williams-367
111: Bleach #21-Tite Kubo
112: Bleach #22-Tite Kubo
113: Reborn! #3- Akira Amano
114: Reborn! #4- Akira Amano
115: Reborn! #5- Akira Amano
116: Star Wars: Cloak of Deception-James Luceno-342
117: Red Mars-Kim Stanley Robinson-572
118: The Lost Fleet: Courageous-Jack Campbell-299
119: With Friends Like These...-Alan Dean Foster-232
120: Bleach #23-Tite Kubo
121: Bleach #24-Tite Kubo
122: Bleach #25-Tite Kubo
123: The Lost Fleet: Valiant-Jack Campbell-284
124: The Swan's War: The One Kingdom-Sean Russell-517
125: Xxxholic #13-Clamp
126: The Lost Fleet: Relentless-Jack Campbell-320
127: King Raven: Tuck-Stephen Lawhead-443
128: Taken: The Candle of Distant Earth-Alan Dean Foster-262
129: Star Wars: Coruscant Nights: Jedi Twilight-Michael Reaves-343
130: The Charmed Sphere-Catherine Asaro-473
131: Visions of Fantasy-Isaac Asimov, editor-180
132: Crown of the Isles: The Gods Return-David Drake-398
133: Reborn! #6-Akira Amano
134: Reborn! #7-Akira Amano
135: Fruits Basket #22-Natsuki Takaya
136: Crossroads: Shadow Gate-Kate Elliott-475
137: Pip & Flinx: Running from the Deity-Alan Dean Foster-255
138: Star Wars: Coruscant Nights: Street of Shadows-Michael Reaves-306
139: Corean Chronicles: Alector's Choice-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-510
140: Translucent #1-Kazuhiro Okamoto
141: Yu-Gi-Oh! #1-Kazuki Takahashi
142: Yu-Gi-Oh! #2-Kazuki Takahashi
143: Yu-Gi-Oh! #3-Kazuki Takahashi
144: The Swan's War: The Isle of Battle-Sean Russell-467
145: The Cryptonomicon-Neal Stephenson-UNFINISHED
146: The Council Wars: Emerald Sea-John Ringo-490
147: Reborn! #8-Akira Amano
148: Noble Dead: Rebel Fay-Barb & J.C. Hendee-416
149: Pip & Flinx: Trouble Magnet-Alan Dean Foster-272
150: Inuyasha #27-Rumiko Takahashi
151: The Bronze Canticles: Mystic Quest-Tracy and Laura Hickman-453
152: The Swan's War: The Shadow Roads-Sean Russell-433
153: Vampire Hunter D-Hideyuki Kikuchi-238
154: Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars: The Mandalorian Armor-K.W. Jeter-387
155: Fahrenheit 451-Ray Bradbury-190
156: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-174
157: The Bronze Canticles: Mystic Empire-Tracy & Laura Hickman-391
158: Inuyasha #28-Rumiko Takahashi
159: Around the World in Eighty Days-Jules Vern-287
160: Frontier Magic: Thirteenth Child-Patricia C. Wrede-344
161: Cat-A-Lyst-Alan Dean Foster-206
162: Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars: Slave Ship-K.W. Jeter-324
163: Night Angel: The Way of Shadows-Brent Weeks-661
164: Star Wars: Coruscant Nights: Patterns of Force-Michael Reaves-288
165: Inuyasha #29-Rumiko Takahashi
166: Firebirds-edited by Sharyn November-420
167: No Need For Tenchi! #1-Hitoshi Okuda
168: No Need For Tenchi! #2-Hitoshi Okuda
169: No Need For Tenchi! #3-Hitoshi Okuda
170: No Need For Tenchi! #4-Hitoshi Okuda
171: No Need For Tenchi! #5-Hitoshi Okuda
172: No Need For Tenchi! #6-Hitoshi Okuda
173: No Need For Tenchi! #7-Hitoshi Okuda
174: No Need For Tenchi! #8-Hitoshi Okuda
175: No Need For Tenchi! #9-Hitoshi Okuda
176: No Need For Tenchi! #10-Hitoshi Okuda
177: No Need For Tenchi! #11-Hitoshi Okuda
177: No Need For Tenchi! #12-Hitoshi Okuda
178: Corean Chronicles: Cadmian's Choice-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-510
179: Yu-Gi-Oh! #4-Kazuki Takahashi
180: Yu-Gi-Oh! #5-Kazuki Takahashi
181: Yu-Gi-Oh! #6-Kazuki Takahashi
182: Yu-Gi-Oh! #7-Kazuki Takahashi
183: The Darkwar Saga: Flight of the Night Hawks-Raymond Feist-UNFINISHED
184: The All-New Tenchi Muyo! #1-Hitoshi Okuda
185: The All-New Tenchi Muyo! #2-Hitoshi Okuda
186: The All-New Tenchi Muyo! #3-Hitoshi Okuda
187: The All-New Tenchi Muyo! #4-Hitoshi Okuda
188: The All-New Tenchi Muyo! #5-Hitoshi Okuda
189: The All-New Tenchi Muyo! #6-Hitoshi Okuda
190: The All-New Tenchi Muyo! #7-Hitoshi Okuda
191: The All-New Tenchi Muyo! #8-Hitoshi Okuda
192: The All-New Tenchi Muyo! #9-Hitoshi Okuda
193: The All-New Tenchi Muyo! #10-Hitoshi Okuda
194: The Last Rune: The Keep of Fire-Mark Anthony-593
195: The Last Rune: The Dark Remains-Mark Anthony-643
196: The Last Rune: Blood of Mystery-Mark Anthony-579
197: The Last Rune: The Gates of Winter-Mark Anthony-565
198: The Last Rune: The First Stone-Mark Anthony-513
199: Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars: Hard Merchandise-K.W. Jeter-338
200: Summer of the Monkeys-Wilson Rawls-283
201: Pern: The Masterharper of Pern- Anne McCaffrey-366
202: Wolf: Through Wolf's Eyes-Jane Lindskold-579
203: Pern: The Renegades of Pern-Anne McCaffrey-305
204: Vampire Hunter D: Raiser of Gales-Hideyuki Kukuchi-215
205: Pip and Flinx: Patrimony-Alan Dean Foster-228
206: Star Wars: Jedi Trial-David Sherman & Dan Cragg-345
207: Vampire Hunter D: Demon Deathchase-Hideyuki Kukuchi-178
208: Magicians of Quality: The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After-Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer-328
209: Vampire Hunter D: Tale of the Dead Town-Hideyuki Kukuchi-167
210: Pern: All the Weyrs of Pern-Anne McCaffrey-404
211: Reborn! #9-Akira Amano
212: Inuyasha #30-Rumiko Takahashi
213: Inuyasha #31-Rumiko Takahashi
214: Imager-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-432
215: Reborn! #10-Akira Amano
216: Codgerspace-Alan Dean Foster-309
217: Corean Chronicles: Soarer's Choice-L.E. Modesitt-540
218: The Red Badge of Courage-Stephen Crane-142
219: Bleach #26-Tite Kubo
220: Wolf: Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart-Jane Lindskold-602
221: Neon Genesis Evangelion #1-Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
222: The Black Stallion-Walter Farley-187
223: JAG in Space: A Just Determination-John G. Hemry-259
223: JAG in Space: Burden of Proof-John G. Hemry-293
223: JAG in Space: Rule of Evidence-John G. Hemry-276
224: The Commonwealth: Drowning World-Alan Dean Foster-315
225: Bartimaeus: The Amulet of Samarkand-J. Stroud-462
226: Neon Genesis Evangelion #2-Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
227: Neon Genesis Evangelion #3-Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
228: Neon Genesis Evangelion #4-Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
229: Neon Genesis Evangelion #5-Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
230: Eyeshield 21 #1-Riichiro Inagaki
231: Eyeshield 21 #2-Riichiro Inagaki
232: Eyeshield 21 #3-Riichiro Inagaki
233: Eyeshield 21 #4-Riichiro Inagaki
234: Eyeshield 21 #5-Riichiro Inagaki
235: Eyeshield 21 #6-Riichiro Inagaki
236: Eyeshield 21 #7-Riichiro Inagaki
237: Eyeshield 21 #8-Riichiro Inagaki
238: Eyeshield 21 #9-Riichiro Inagaki
239: Eyeshield 21 #10-Riichiro Inagaki
240: Eyeshield 21 #11-Riichiro Inagaki
241: Eyeshield 21 #12-Riichiro Inagaki
242: Eyeshield 21 #13-Riichiro Inagaki
243: Eyeshield 21 #14-Riichiro Inagaki
244: Eyeshield 21 #15-Riichiro Inagaki
245: Eyeshield 21 #16-Riichiro Inagaki
246: Going Postal-Terry Pratchett-377
247: Lady Audley's Secret-Mary Elizabeth Braddon-440
248: The River Into Darkness: Beneath the Vaulted Hills-Sean Russell-451
249: Star Wars: Millenium Falcon-James Luceno-317
250: Night Angel: Shadow's Edge-Brent Weeks-636
251: Bartimaeus: The Golem's Eye-Jonathan Stroud-562
252: Bleach #27-Tite Kubo
253: Neon Genesis Evangelion #7-Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
254: Neon Genesis Evangelion #8-Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
255: Neon Genesis Evangelion #9-Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
256: Twilight-Stephanie Meyer-498
257: Wolf: The Dragon of Despair-Jane Lindskold-729
258: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #1-Kazuki Takahashi
259: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #2-Kazuki Takahashi
260: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #3-Kazuki Takahashi
261: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #4-Kazuki Takahashi
262: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #5-Kazuki Takahashi
263: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #6-Kazuki Takahashi
264: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #7-Kazuki Takahashi
265: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #8-Kazuki Takahashi
266: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #9-Kazuki Takahashi
267: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #10-Kazuki Takahashi
268: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #11-Kazuki Takahashi
269: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #12-Kazuki Takahashi
270: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #13-Kazuki Takahashi
271: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #14-Kazuki Takahashi
272: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #15-Kazuki Takahashi
273: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #16-Kazuki Takahashi
274: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #17-Kazuki Takahashi
275: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #18-Kazuki Takahashi
276: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #19-Kazuki Takahashi
277: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #20-Kazuki Takahashi
278: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #21-Kazuki Takahashi
279: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #22-Kazuki Takahashi
280: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #23-Kazuki Takahashi
281: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #24-Kazuki Takahashi
282: Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa #20-Clamp
283: Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa #21-Clamp
284: Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa #22-Clamp
285: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast-Aaron Allston-302
286: Looking Glass: The Claws that Catch-John Ringo & Travis Taylor-443
287: Noble Dead: Child of a Dead God-Barb & JC Hendee-464
288: Night Angel: Beyond the Shadows-Brent Weeks-720
289: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Omen-Christie Golden-272
290: Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World #1-Kazuki Takahashi
291: Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World #2-Kazuki Takahashi
292: Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World #3-Kazuki Takahashi
293: Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World #4-Kazuki Takahashi
294: Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World #5-Kazuki Takahashi
295: Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World #6-Kazuki Takahashi
296: Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World #7-Kazuki Takahashi
297: The River Into Darkness: The Compass of the Soul-Sean Russell-353
298: Jurassic World: The Lost World-Michael Crichton-390
299: The Long Price Quartet: A Shadow in Summer-Daniel Abraham-304
300: The Long Price Quartet: A Betrayal in Winter-Daniel Abraham-291
301: The Elven Ways: The Four Forges-Jenna Rhodes-547
302: Ranma 1/2 #1-Rumiko Takahashi
303: Ranma 1/2 #2-Rumiko Takahashi
304: Ranma 1/2 #3-Rumiko Takahashi
305: Ranma 1/2 #4-Rumiko Takahashi
306: Ranma 1/2 #5-Rumiko Takahashi
307: Ranma 1/2 #6-Rumiko Takahashi
308: Ranma 1/2 #7-Rumiko Takahashi
309: Ranma 1/2 #8-Rumiko Takahashi
310: Delver Magic: Sanctum's Breach-Jeff Inlo-445
311: Stargate-Andre Norton-144
312: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Abyss-Troy Denning-352
313: When Worlds Collide-Philip Wylie & Edwin Balmer-192
314: The Winds of Dune-Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson-448
315: Landover: A Princess of Landover-Terry Brooks-352
316: Haze-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-303
317: Warbreaker-Brandon Sanderson-588
318: Ranma 1/2 #9-Rumiko Takahashi
319: Ranma 1/2 #10-Rumiko Takahashi
320: Ranma 1/2 #11-Rumiko Takahashi
321: Chrono Crusade #1-Daisuke Moriyama
322: Chrono Crusade #2-Daisuke Moriyama
323: Chrono Crusade #3-Daisuke Moriyama
324: Chrono Crusade #4-Daisuke Moriyama
325: Bartimaeus: Ptolemy's Gate-Jonathan Stroud-501
326: The Dark Elf: Homeland-R.A. Salvatore-271
327: The Dark Elf: Exile-R.A. Salvatore-256
328: The Dark Elf: Sojourn-R.A. Salvatore-270
329: Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull-James Rollins-330
330: Ranma 1/2 #12-Rumiko Takahashi
331: Ranma 1/2 #13-Rumiko Takahashi
332: Ranma 1/2 #14-Rumiko Takahashi
333: The Riftwar Saga-Raymond Feist-1295
334: Alcatraz versus The Evil Librarians-Brandon Sanderson-308
335: Icewind Dale: The Crystal Shard-R.A. Salvatore-344
336: The Godless World: Winterbirth-Brian Ruckley-654
337: JAG In Space: Against All Enemies-John G. Hemry-203
338: The Iron Elves: A Darkness Forged in Fire-Chris Evans-416
339: Wolf: Wolf Captured-Jane Lindskold-520
340: Twilight: New Moon-Stephanie Moon-563
341: Kingmaker, Kingbreaker: The Innocent Mage-Karen Miller-642
342: Titan-John Varley-302
343: Icewind Dale: Streams of Silver-R.A. Salvatore-377
344: Ranma 1/2 #15-Rumiko Takahashi
345: Ranma 1/2 #16-Rumiko Takahashi
346: Ranma 1/2 #17-Rumiko Takahashi
347: Inheritance: Eragon-Christopher Paolini-544
348: Icewind Dale: The Halfling's Gem-R.A. Salvatore-378
349: Kingmaker, Kingbreaker: The Awakened Mage-Karen Miller-712
350: Alcatraz versus the Scrivener's Bones-Brandon Sanderson-322
351: Castings: Blood Ties-Pamela Freeman-461
352: Clone: The Clone Republic-Steven Kent-384
353: Inheritance: Eldest-Christopher Paolini-668
354: Legacy of the Drow: The Legacy-R.A. Salvatore-316
355: Ethan Starke: Starke's War-John Hemry-216
356: Ethan Starke: Starke's Command-John Hemry-210
357: Ethan Starke: Starke's Crusade-John Hemry-218
358: A.I. Love You #1-Ken Akamatsu
359: A.I. Love You #2-Ken Akamatsu
360: A.I. Love You #3-Ken Akamatsu
361: A.I. Love You #4-Ken Akamatsu
362: A.I. Love You #5-Ken Akamatsu
363: A.I. Love You #6-Ken Akamatsu
364: A.I. Love You #7-Ken Akamatsu
365: A.I. Love You #8-Ken Akamatsu
366: Inheritance: Brisingr-Christopher Paolini-748
367: Cleric Quintet: Canticle-R.A. Salvatore-203
368: Ranma 1/2 #18-Rumiko Takahashi
369: Ranma 1/2 #19-Rumiko Takahashi
370: Ranma 1/2 #20-Rumiko Takahashi
371: Ranma 1/2 #21-Rumiko Takahashi
372: Dragon and Liberator-Timothy Zahn-364
373: The Iron Elves: The Light of Burning Shadows-Chris Evans-360
374: Hawkmoon: The Jewel in the Skull-Michael Moorcock-128
375: Hawkmoon: The Mad God's Amulet-Michael Moorcock-122
376: Hawkmoon: The Sword of the Dawn-Michael Moorcock-130
377: Hawkmoon: the Runestaff-129
378: Midas World-Frederik Pohl-276
379: After Worlds Collide-Philip Wylie & Edwin Balmer-190
380: Recluce: Mage-Guard of Hamor-L.E. Modesitt Jr-716
381: The Stoneways: Reiffen's Choice-S.C. Butler-463
382: The Forlorn-Dave Freer-260
383: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Gardens of the Moon-Steven Erikson-543
384: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Deadhouse Gates-Steven Erikson-683
385: Star Wars:Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil-Drew Karpyshyn-296
386: One Piece #21-Eiichiro Oda
387: Cobra War: Cobra Alliance-Timothy Zahn-246

December '09

2009-12-31T15:15:00.000-05:00

A.I. LOVE YOU #1-8
-K. Akamatsu-manga
-the whole series. By the guy who went on to do Love Hina. This series was just this side of pornographic. It was also a blatant ripoff of Oh My Goddess in the first book or two.

INHERITANCE: BRISINGR
-C. Paolini-748-pbook
-YA fantasy-Eragon fights off Murtagh again, learns the source of Galbatorix's power, gets a new sword. Oromis and his dragon die. Roran learns lessons about politics and leadership. And we all find out that there is to be one more book. For some reason I didn't enjoy this as much as Eldest, but I have to admit, I think the story was better.

THE CLERIC QUINTET: CANTICLE
-R.A. Salvatore-203-epub
-fantasy-some evil group makes up this evil potion and tries to destroy a library, which for some reason is the center of everything in this particular region. The protaganist, Cadderly, is a young gifted mage who ends up helping the badguys and then destroying them. Extremely trope'ish. Dwarves, warrior woman who love him, jealous rival, etc, etc. Definitely not high reading. It was bland enough that it almost lost my interest. We'll see how the second book holds up. If it isn't any better, I'll probably drop the series.

RANMA 1/2 #18-21
-R. Takahashi-manga

DRAGON AND LIBERATOR
-T. Zahn-364-pbook
-YA scifi-the finale to the DragonBack series. Jack and Draycos, along with others, save the fleet of immigrants and in the process figure out that a Human/K'da pairing are immune to the Death ray. All the badguys get defeated after much daring-do and Jack ends up as the Ambassador to the new colonists, who have been given a world by the rich guy, who turns out to be Alison's grandfather. This was a good YA series. Fantastic Zahn.

THE IRON ELVES: THE LIGHT OF BURNING SHADOWS
-C. Evans-360-pbook
-fantasy- I actually liked this better than the first book. Another Star comes down to yet another land wanting its independence. Only this time there are things capable of destroying the shadow stuff, the Iron Elves included. Everybody was a jerk though, not a single character was really likable. If this doesn't change in the next book, whenever it comes out, that will be it for me. A semi-interesting story isn't worth a bunch of people you'd like to punch.

HAWKMOON
-M. Moorcock-502-pbook
-dark fantasy-consisting of The Jewel in the Skull; The Mad God's Amulet; The Sword of Dawn; The Runestaff. This was blase, really. Nothing Hawkmoon faced seemed overwhelming, nor was he really likable like Corum, nor ultra-tragic like Elric. And then he doesn't die in the end. It felt like a thin vegetable soup.

MIDAS WORLD
-F. Pohl-276-pbook
-scifi-several short stories chronicling mankind once unlimited energy is discovered. The push to the stars, the takeover [albiet peacefully and by our letting it go] of the earth by robots. An interesting little tale.

AFTER WORLDS COLLIDE
-P. Wylie & E. Balmer-190-pbook
-scifi-the group from earth makes to to Bronson Beta, only to find they are not alone. Other groups from earth have also made the crossing, and some of them are inimically opposed to Henderson's group. After a time of figuring stuff out, the bad guys are taken out and the good guys have the planet to themselves, for their children.

RECLUCE: THE MAGE-GUARD OF HAMOR
-L.E. Modesitt Jr-716-pbook
-fantasy-the final [for me] Recluce book. It was really more of the exact same. I've had enough for at least a year I think, if not longer.

THE STONEWAYS: REIFFEN'S CHOICE
-S.C. Butler-463-pbook
-fantasy-a young man, heir to 2 kingdoms, is kidnapped by wizards so they can control him and sow chaos in the world, thus strengthening their rule. Several of the boy's friends attempt to rescue him: a dwarf, a shapechanger, and 2 childhood friends. They get him back, only to have him go back to the wizards right at the end of the book. Is Reiffen under their spell, or attempting to fool the wizards and overthrow them? I would almost classify this as YA, because the characters are young teens, and the writing seems geared toward a younger, simpler audience. Looking forward to the next in this trilogy.

THE FORLORN
-D. Freer-260-epub
-scifi-you know those books that you think "well, maybe it will get better by the next chapter" only you think that for the whole book and it doesn't? This was one of those. Blatant sexuality, scumbags and betrayal upon betrayal. I certainly won't be reading anymore by this author. Very disappointed.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: GARDENS OF THE MOON
-S. Erikson-543-epub
-fantasy- definitely appreciated this more the second time around of reading. It really helps knowing a general outline of what is happening so you can comprehend the details.

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: DEADHOUSE GATES
-S. Erikson-683-epub
-fantasy-I just realized, the Sha'ik rebellion ISN'T the Pannion Domin. I kind of skimmed over that fact last time. The question I have, is Icarium, a Jahg, the same thing as a Jaghut? Or are those different things? So many details just not explained. Hopefully more explanations in the later books.

STARWARS: DARTH BANE: DYNASTY OF EVIL
-D. Karpyshyn-296-pbook
-fantasy-the conclusion of the Darth Bane Trilogy. Bane discovers the secret of essence transfer and takes over Zanna while getting a new apprentice. Not as interesting as the preceding books.

ONE PIECE #21
-E. Oda
-manga

COBRA WAR: COBRA ALLIANCE
-T. Zahn-246-epub
-scifi-a start of a new Cobra trilogy. However, it doesn't start very promising in my opinion. In the other cobra books, Zahn starts each new story with a new generation and doesn't include the old generation very much at all. A clean break. It worked well. He doesn't do that here. Jin Moreau Broom gets a message for help from Qasam and it turns out another Troft Demesne is taking it over to kidnap all the spine leopards to let loose on the main Cobra World to distract the Cobra's while they take over the Cobra Worlds. It deals with Jin, some of her children and a bunch of Cobra-wannabe Qasamans. Zahn focuses more on the Qasamam "cobras" than on the real ones. And the whole Qasaman paranoia thing wore thin. Let the Cobra's kick Troft butt. And that just wasn't what was happening. Given this is a trilogy, the storyline is going to be stretched out, but still, this opening felt weak compared to the first 2 cobra books. Of course, time and memory might be biasing me against it.

November '09

2009-11-28T23:45:00.000-05:00

ICEWIND DALE: THE CRYSTAL SHARD
-R.A. Salvatore-344-pbook
-fantasy-the continuing adventures of Drizz't. A magical do-hickey from the bowels of hell comes to the surface and takes over a weakminded wizard. He threatens 10 towns and it is up to Drizz't and a new character named Wulfgar to save the day. Kill dragons and demons, face down hordes and get magical weapons. Good for what it is.

THE GODLESS WORLD: WINTERBIRTH
-B. Ruckley-654-pbook
-fantasy-a world where the gods made 4 races. One went bad and the other 3 banded together and committed genocide, then turned on eachother. The gods left the world in sorrow. One race disappeared, 1 split into factions and went to the woods and the third, the humans, split into medieval style clans. This is the story about the possible fulfillment of a prophecy stating the gods would return. Honestly, very little "grand" magic, more of a blood and mud medieval story. Follows a clan that is almost wiped out. It wasn't bad, it just seemed very slow and boggy reading. Since the library doesn't have the next book, doubt I'll read it.

JAG IN SPACE: AGAINST ALL ENEMIES
-J.G. Hemry-203-epub
-scifi-the final book in the JAG in Space series. Paul has ticked off enough people that he is being reassigned to Mars. But before he goes, he has to participate in another courtmartial for someone on their ship who has been selling secrets to the SASAL's. He and Jenn get married hurriedly at the end and then that is it. Kind of a "going out with a whimper" ending. Not sure why this series was so popular.

RANMA 1/2 #15-17
-R. Takahashi
-manga

ICEWIND DALE: STREAMS OF SILVER
-R.A. Salvatore-377-pbook
-fantasy-Bruennor the dwarf, along with some others, set out to find his ancestral home that he was driven from over 2 centuries ago. Mix in an assassin going after the halfling, a wizard going after Drizz't because he thinks Drizz't has the Crystal Shard and a dragon trying to kill them all, and you get a good rollicking adventure story.

TITAN
-J. Varley-302-pbook
-scifi-a complete piece of crap from the late 70's. A spaceship encounters a huge thing and end up crashing on it. An artificial world. A quest to find the guiding intelligence behind it. Madness, perversion and drugs. Basically, this story boiled down to hardcore feminism, lesbians and cocaine. Yeah, on a self aware planetoid type thing.

KINGMAKER, KINGBREAKER: THE INNOCENT MAGE
-K. Miller-642-pbook
-fantasy- there are 2 races in a land cutoff from the rest off the world, for its own protection. A fisherman from the lower caste race becomes the trusted advisor to the Prince, a higher caste race. Their adventures that draw them together and tear them apart. The King keeps the wall of protection up, but its cost is in his blood. This book ends with the king dying and the evil ruler from the outside world taking over the royal magician and turning the prince against his advisor. I really enjoyed this. The writing just drew me in. The dialogue was clever without being shallow, the problems were big without being pretentious and the characters were very real. I look forward to reading more by Miller.

TWILIGHT: NEW MOON
-S. Meyer-563-pbook
-fantasy- my final foray into the Twilight universe. This book sucked. Bella was a completely selfish, self-centered, suicidal, insecure, self-lying bitch. If this is the type of character teen girls want to read about and emulate, then we are all doomed. But maybe we'll get lucky and all those stupid types will just off themselves and do the world a favor. Maybe that is actually Meyer's sinister secret plan. A kind of Literary Eugenics Master Plan? LEMP for short ;-)

WOLF: WOLF CAPTURED
-J. Lindskold-520-pbook
-fantasy-Firekeeper and Derian are captured and taken South, to a land where people know about Royal Beasts and use them for future telling. Firekeeper learns about her origins and how she came to be with the wolves. Lindskold takes this book down a path I was not very comfortable with. Firekeeper wants to be a wolf and be with Blindseer. Practically bestiality. I hope the rest of the books in the series turn from this path, or I'm done with them.

THE IRON ELVES: A DARKNESS FORGED IN FIRE
-C. Evans-416-pbook
-fantasy-across the Sea, there is some evil witch elf who wants to cover the world in darkness, or some such. A group of elves have been marked by her, with one ear being turned black. Such elves are called the Iron Elves and cast out from elven society. They became a group of fighters in the human empire. They were disbanded for disloyalty, before the book begins. This book deals with the reforming of the Iron Elves, only without any elves except for the Captain, who is an elf who hates nature and who nature seems to hate in return. The New Iron Elves have to fight some battle and in the end realize that they have carried out the will of the Witch Elf and everyone is all sad. Darren recommended this, so I was really looking forward to it. Didn't really care for it though. I'll read the next, but only because the library has it.

INHERITANCE: ERAGON
-C. Paolini-544-pbook
-YA fantasy- a young boy finds a dragon egg, one of the last 3 and bonds with it. Minions of the dark king come looking for him while he is away and end up razing the farm he lived at and killing his uncle. He hooks up with an old dragonrider and learns swordsmanship and dragonriding lore. Makes it to the main hideout of a group of rebels who are fighting against the evil king. Oh my, I just realized this is Star Wars on dragons. And at the end? He scry's an old man in blinding white who is going to protect him and further his training. Can you say Tolkien? Not bad really, but nothing really wonderful. Good YA stuff to hook them.

ICEWIND DALE:THE HALFLING'S GEM
-R.A. Salvatore-378-pbook
-fantasy-Drizz't and company go rescue Regis, the overreaching greedy halfing. Ends at Cattie Brie and Wulfgar's wedding. This stuff is one step up from the Mars series by Burroughs. But palatable, unlike Burroughs :-)

KINGMAKER, KINGBREAKER: THE AWAKENED MAGE
-K. Miller-712-pbook
-fantasy-the finish to this duology. Morg takes over the next in line to be king and becomes king. Has Asher executed and the Prince exiled. Asher is spirited away and comes back to finish off Morg. While this book was longer, it seemed shorter, a lot shorter. While Innocent seemed to be about Asher's journey from fisherman to Olken noble, Awakened seemed a rush to finish the story.

ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE SCRIVENER'S BONES
-B. Sanderson-322-pbook
-YA fantasy-Alcatraz is on his way to a safe place when he gets a call from his Grandfather, who is at the Library of Alexandria. The stronghold of the Librarians. His dad has entered and his Grandfather is going in after him. So Alcatraz, along with some new relatives, take a detour to rescue everyone. Interesting. Not as funny as the first one, but it might be because I was expecting it.

CASTINGS: BLOOD TIES
-P. Freeman-461-pbook
-fantasy-1000 years ago, one group of people invaded a land and dispossessed another group. This book deals with the remnants of that dispossessed and how some want revenge. The format was different. Each chapter, whether 1 page or 50 pages, followed one character. And it switched between at least 10 different characters. By the end of the book you began to see the hint of an outline of how all these different threads were coming together. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the rest of this trilogy.

CLONE: THE CLONE REPUBLIC
-S. Kent-384-pbook
-military scifi-the galaxy is ruled by the U.A.[Unified Authority]. Their will is enforced by an army of clones, who are programmed to not know they are clones. One man, Wayson, is a new type of clone, promptly discontinued, because he is self-aware and has an insatiable bloodlust in battle. Basically about his rise through the ranks and the politic'ing going on around him. It was an ok read, but I am just not a big fan of military scifi overall. Won't be reading any more in the Clone series.

INHERITANCE: ELDEST
-C. Paolini-668-pbook
-YA fantasy-Paolini definitely matured between the writing of this book and Eragon. This is a lot more original but still keeps the solid foundation. Very enjoyable. Eragon comes into his own as a rider, only to have to fight against Murtaugh, his brother, who has been turned by Galbatorix.

LEGACY OF THE DROW: THE LEGACY
-R.A. Salvatore-316-pbook
-fantasy-the next series in the Drizz't series. The dwarves have taken control of the mines. Drizz't's sister regains Lolth's favor so she attempts to hunt down Drizz't with Entreri's help [the assassin]. Regis is kidnapped and used as a pawn and the group must enter the Underdark to rescue him and to free Drizz't from the Drow. Cattie-Bri and Wulfgar have a falling out and Wulfgar apparently dies while in battle with one of Lolth's servants.

ETHAN STARKE: STARKE'S WAR
-J. Hemry-216-epub
-scifi-a sergeant is sent to the moon to take everything for the US. The US has fallen under the power of corporations, who have bought the powers that be in Washington. Who in turn micromanage the army, from the backlines. After yet another disastrous fight in which inept generals chew up a whole division following a plan that had no basis in reality, Starke mutinies and takes over.

ETHAN STARKE: STARKE'S COMMAND
-J. Hemry-210-epub
-scifi-Starke makes a truce with the civ population, fights off mercenaries hired by the gov't and deals with a betrayal from within. Lots of fighting and action. The one thing that kind of turned me off was how dumb and hick'ish Starke can view himself. Someone who can make the smart decisions he does is not stupid and yet he can sit back and pretend his is just a dumb soldier.

ETHAN STARKE: STARKE'S CRUSADE
-J. Hemry-218-epub
-scifi-A final push by a corrupt gov't fails, a populace demanding their rights and other countries snapping at the US's heels all lead to the fall of the current regime, the moon colony becoming another state and Starke and Co getting pardons and living happily ever after. This was much more enjoyable than the JAG in Space series, but still had that civic's lesson taste to it.

October '09

2009-10-30T14:00:00.000-04:00

STARGATE
-A. Norton-fantasy
-144-a young man of half blood [Starman and native] must go with the last group of Starmen leaving the planet. They use a "gate" to travel to alternate worlds of the same world. Due to being chased, they are stranded on a world where the Star Lords are evil, corrupt gods. The young man helps with the downfall of the evil Star Lords and then travels on, looking for a world never inhabited. A nice YA novel that is well written but brief. To bad more authors today don't take lessons from Norton. She knew how to write!

STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: ABYSS
-T. Denning-fantasy
-352- Luke and Ben go on some weird force trip and meet dead people. Some darkside force is manipulating the sith to capture the Skywalkers. More Jedi go crazy and there is more confrontation between the Galactic Alliance and Jedi Order.

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
-P. Wylie & E. Balmer-scifi
-192-the world is on a collision course with 2 planets heading into our solar system. A group of scientists gather a group of select people and work on a rocket ship to take them to the second, smaller, hopefully inhabitable planet. For something written back in the 1930's, this was really good.

DUNE: THE WINDS OF DUNE
-B. Herbert & K. Anderson-scifi
-448-a direct sequel to Dune Messiah. This looks at Alia as she is forced to deal with the Empire after Paul so abruptly leaves. Jessica plays a big part too. Where the Dune Chronicles were big in scope and vision, these books between books by Herbert and Anderson seem to be looking at the nitty-gritty, the small. And I don't like that contrast. Dune SHOULD be big and galactic and over-arching. I'll continue to read these other Dune books, but I have no interest in buying them. Messing with immediate past, far past and ending the series is one thing, messing between books is another. It is just messy.

LANDOVER: A PRINCESS OF LANDOVER
-T. Brooks-fantasy
-352-this was just another tired rehash. About Ben and Willow's daughter. She is a teenager and rebellious and is sent off to a library to fix it. She rebels, Edgewood Dirk the prism cat convinces her to go anyway, she goes, discovers an evil magician [there only seem to be evil or inept magicians in Landover by the way] who is trying to open a gate to Abaddon and in the end takes care of everything and learns a valuable lesson about listening to her elders and yet doing exactly what she wants to anyway. I am not sure I can stomach much more of Brooks' stuff. Give me at least another year or two.

HAZE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-scifi
-303-I gave Modesitt a final chance with this book. He failed. It is at least 1000-1500 years after the fall of the American Empire but at least 2-3 times per chapter the main character is reminded in one form or another how evil they were and how enlightened and wonderful this new society is. First off, who even talks about empires thousands of years in the past. The past is forgotten and the evils of a generation are glossed over by newer evils. It was just another diatribe against capitalism wrapped in Modesitt's scifi universe. Only his Recluce stuff for me now.

WARBREAKER
-B. Sanderson-fantasy
-588-an interesting stand-alone story. People can give their "breath" [life essence] to another person and it enhances certain aspects of perception. The overall story deals with a kingdom split in the past that are now being manipulated to go to war by a third country. Deals with people who were present at the first split 300 years ago and how they are either trying to make up for what they did or running away from it. My first thought was how much like Mistborn it was, but it was different enough that it didn't feel like a copy. There was a lot of humor and I just laughed out loud several times. I would like to see Sanderson explore this world or the Elantris world more. But given his involvement in the finishing up of The Wheel of Time series, that is doubtful. This was a worthwhile read.

RANMA 1/2 #9-11
-R. Takahashi-manga

CHRONO CRUSADE #1-4
-D. Moriyama-manga

BARTIMAEUS: PTOLEMY'S GATE
-J. Stroud-YA fantasy
-501-the conclusion to this trilogy. Turns out certain demons have been planning revenge on the human race. They have figured out a way to take over a human host which gets rid of many of the drawbacks of being summoned. Nathanial finally stops being a complete ass right at the end and kills off all the hybrids with Gladstone's Staff. Finally, he unleashes the complete potential of the Staff to destroy the leader and in the process gives his life up. I have to admit, at first I didn't like the ending. Then I realized these books were about Bartimaeus, not Nathanial. Probably won't be reading any more by this guy though.

THE DARK ELF TRILOGY
-R.A. Salvatore-fantasy
-805-consisting of Homeland, Exile and Sojourn, this chronicles the beginnings of Drizz't Do'Urden, renegade drow. From his birth and growing up years in which he realizes he cannot be a typical drow [capricious, backstabbing, evil], his exile in the Underdark and realization that the Drow will never cease trying to kill him, to his journey to the surface world and his adventures to gain acceptance, these stories tell of a Drow of great skill and kind heart. Okay, so not the best writing ever, pretty shallow, but a good rousing tale to wile the time away.

INDIANA JONES & THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
-J. Rollins-fiction
-330-the final nail in the Indiana Jones franchise's coffin. An old Indi is kidnapped by russians, along with a loser kid, who turns out to be his son by the woman from the first Indi movie. Aliens are at the heart of this adventure and they all go into a big black hole at the end or something. Glad I read the book and didn't spend money on seeing the movie.

RANMA 1/2 #12-14
-R. Takahashi-manga

THE RIFTWAR SAGA
-R. Feist-fantasy
-1295- the complete original Riftwar Saga, which includes Magician, Silverthorn and A Darkness At Sethanon. After having idolized this series from my highschool days, it was good to re-read it with a more mature reading taste. It still stands tall :-). A fantastic tale. A bit unpolished, but given it was Feist's first series, to be expected. Adventure and magic and fighting and bad bad guys and good good guys. I like this and would still recommend it.

ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS
-B. Sanderson-YA fantasy
-308-oh my. What a tale. Cross A Series of Unfortunate Events with something light, upbeat and funny, with a dash of the Mistborn non-hero, and this is what you get. I laughed the entire way through the book. A thirteen year old boy finds out that he is an Ocularist and must fight evil Librarians, who want to box and order everything. His grandfather helps him along with 2 cousins and a 13year old girl who is a knight. Their powers are hilarious. Alcatraz can break things. His grandfather can be late for anything, his cousins can trip and speak gibberish. I don't know how this will hold up to repeated readings, but on a first read, it was GREAT!

September '09

2009-09-30T23:45:00.000-04:00

NOBLE DEAD: CHILD OF A DEAD GOD
-B. & JC Hendee-fantasy
-464-Magierre and Co go to the place she's been seeing in her dreams, brought upon by the black cloud thing. Get there, find some ultra-powerful artifact, leave and go their separate ways. This sucked. It was nothing but bickering, fighting, distrust and non-hope the whole way through. There was no joy, no light, no happiness. If the next book's tone is the same, I will be done with this series.

NIGHT ANGEL: BEYOND THE SHADOWS
-B. Weeks-fantasy
-720- the conclusion. A LOT happens. I'm still confused, to be honest. People pop back up from the dead, have new names, get possessed, get un-possessed, lots of battles, prophecies, etc, etc. Honestly, I felt like I was in a maelstrom reading this book. Just dragged along for the ride. Weeks did such a good job of weaving so much together that I can't pick particular threads to write about, it was all woven so tight. Blint coming back and his ability to still use the little black magic thing was a bit much though. Needs to be edited for profanity.

STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: OMEN
-C. Goldman-fantasy
-272-Jysella Horn [Corin and Mirax's daughter] goes nutso. More politic'ing between the Jedi and the GA. Luke and Ben trace Jacen's path of travels. And Ship [the sith ship] finds the Sith World and starts training them. Opening things up for another fall of the Jedi and ascendancy of Sith. Kind of sad.

YU-GI-OH! MILLENNIUM WORLD #1-7
-K. Takahashi-manga
-I really didn't enjoy this series. Going back thousands of years in Yugioh's memories to change fate. A bunch of old world style duels with stone tablets, sucked really. One final duel between Yugioh and Yugi to send Yugioh [the pharaoh] peacefully to the afterlife.

THE RIVER INTO DARKNESS: THE COMPASS OF THE SOUL
-S. Russell-fantasy
-353-whew. This was SLOW! Just like McKillip has her own unique style, so does Russell it appears. It is definitely not for everyone and I am hesitant to read any more of his stuff. Basically, Eldrich [the mage] stops the last of the Tellerites [rogue mages who want the arts to continue] and uses tons of people to gain this end. A sad and melancholic story. Not nearly as enthralling as the Swan's War trilogy.

JURASSIC WORLD: THE LOST WORLD
-M. Crichton-science fiction
-390-the novel sequel to Jurassic Park. Another island, Site B, is discovered by a scientist friend of Ian Malcom [who doesn't die, it turns out] and he finances an expedition. Malcom along with 3 engineers/designers and 2 stowaway kids go to the island. Everything goes wrong, as Malcom predicts and dinosaurs eat people. This was a rehash, and not a very good one. I can see why the movie added lots of people [to get eaten!]. Jurassic Park was cool, this was tired.

THE LONG PRICE QUARTET: A SHADOW IN SUMMER
-D. Abraham-fantasy
-304-a loose confederacy of kingdoms keep the rest of the world at bay with the power of Andats. Andats are beings forced into physical form by poets and they have the power of their name. Seedless is the andat in this story. He removes all the seeds from wool, in the blink of an eye. Gives the kingdom a huge economic advantage. He can also remove the living seed from anything. So if another kingdom attacks, he would be used to kill all the unborn babies and destroy all the crops of that particular kingdom. However, andats don't want to exist in our world, so they are constantly fighting their owners/poets to escape. Seedless sets up a scenario where he is working with the enemies of his poet. He intrigues so that the poet repeats a horrible deed from his past, unknowingly, until after the fact, in the hopes of breaking the poet so he kills himself and frees Seedless. The story is from the perspective of a young man who walked away from the poet's school and who has become a common laborer. A very complex world, but so sad. Nobody is happy. There is no joy, no happiness. Everyone is concerned with money, power, etc, etc. No one is content, but yearning after something, usually something out of their reach. Seedless succeeds in gaining his freedom and the kingdom falls.

THE LONG PRICE QUARTET: A BETRAYAL IN WINTER
-D. Abraham-fantasy
-291-turns out the common laborer from the previous book is an heir to another kingdom, except heirs figure out who is going to rule by killing off all the competition. Brother against brother. However, this time a sister enters secretly so she can have her lover/husband be the new king. So the sister conspires with outside forces to kill off all the brothers and blame it all on the main character. In the end the sister is revealed the hidden heir takes over. So much betrayal, backstabbing, fear, loneliness. It was not enjoyable and I don't know if I'll be reading the next book in the series.

THE ELVEN WAYS: THE FOUR FORGES
-J. Rhodes-fantasy
-547-a world where elves suddenly descended after mages had wiped themselves out. For hundreds of years the elves have been trying to remember where they came from and how to get back there. This follows 2 halfbloods. One becomes the spy for the queen of the elves and the other grows up with a dweller [think hobbit/dwarf cross] family. The elves have accords to not war with eachother and this series deals with how those accords are failing. In this novel, a renegade elf forces demons into weapons to make them super-powerful. And it comes down to the 2 halfbloods to stop him. I will probably read this series but no other by the author. It just wasn't interesting enough to me to search out her other stuff.

DELVER MAGIC: SANCTUM'S BREACH
-J. Inlo-fantasy ebook
-449-magic was all sucked up into a sphere hundreds of years ago and sealed away because it had become tainted and was destroying the land. The seal has been breached by the sphere itself [it has become semi-selfaware] and it is up to a small group of various races to find it and destroy it. This must have been Inlo's first book or something. It was almost painful to read. I think he had a thesaurus by his side when he wrote because his descriptions are always with words that are "too much". It was very shallow, very amateur. Not a good impression for a first book. Hopefully he improves with the next books in the trilogy.

RANMA 1/2 #1-8
-R. Takahashi-manga

August '09

2009-08-30T20:20:00.000-04:00

COMMONWEALTH: DROWNING WORLD
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-315- yet another novel of the commonwealth. And guess what? You have several different species all stranded together on an inhospitable world who must rely on each other to survive. Also guess what again? Another sentient being is found in plant life. Surprise! Man, Foster needs to stop. His stuff is becoming as rote and as badly written as Edding's stuff was before he died.

BARTIMAEUS: THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND
-J. Stroud-YA fantasy
-462-a young magician in training calls up the djinni Bartimaeus to revenge himself on another magician and in the process saves England from a revolt of other magicians. This was very occultic, with all the pentagrams and incense and whatnot. And all the footnotes by Bartimaeus threw the whole rhythm off. Couldn't read half a page before you had to stop the main story and read a stupid footnote. Like that through the whole book. Very poorly executed. I'll probably try the next one, but it is definitely taking a backseat in the bookline.

EYESHIELD 21 #1-16
-R. Inagaki-manga

GOING POSTAL
-T. Pratchett-fantasy
-377- a smooth talking conman is conned by Lord V into taking over the Post Office. It was amusing and interesting, but not riotous or outlandishly weird like most of Pratchett's early stuff. Discworld in Depends, if you know what I mean.

LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET
-M.E. Braddon-classic
-440-a young woman, whose husband has run off to Australia to make his fortune, gives herself a new name and ends up marrying an old rich lord. The husband returns, Lady Audley kills him and her secret is safe. Except that her husband was good friends with the lord's nephew, Robert. Robert investigates his friends disappearance and turns up all of Lady Audley's secrets. She is put away in an insane asylum. In the end she dies a couple of years later and her husband, who she supposedly killed, turns out to be alive, and in Australia. Written back in the 1860's, I'm sure this was shocking stuff; bigamy, murder, etc, etc. Sadly, today, the social foundations that made this story shocking no longer exist and so the story descends into a mere murder mystery. I feel so jaded on society's behalf.

THE RIVER INTO DARKNESS: BENEATH THE VAULTED HILLS
-S. Russell-fantasy
-451- The last of the mages who is determined to end magic. A schism of mages who want to revive magic. And all the people who are drawn into this battle. Basically follows several people as they attempt to find the entry way to Faery, the source of the mages power and the source of the mages themselves. Ends up with everyone trapped in some caves and finding their way out. As in The Swan's War, this was slow, understated and more about the characters than anything else.

STAR WARS: MILLENNIUM FALCON
-J. Luceno-fantasy
-317-2 years after Invincible. The Solo's go on an adventure to find out the history of the Millennium Falcon. In the process, they meet up with a Clone War era pilot who is trying to fulfill his last mission, which involved the Falcon. Overall, the history parts were cool. The Solo's were working it backwards from when Han won her and the pilot was working forwards from when he crashed and burned her. The "present" plot about some treasure to restore honor to the Republic [the last mission of the pilot] was kind of fuzzy and was almost a carbon copy of the Han Solo at Star's End in its ending. It was even mentioned, so it was deliberate. This was just a fill in story to tie the Legacy of the Force series into the new Fate of the Jedi series.

NIGHT ANGEL: SHADOW'S EDGE
-B. Weeks-fantasy
-636-Kylar tries to make a life with Elene and without killing. He ends up going back to the fallen city and rescuing Logan. Another wetboy, girl, kidnaps Uly and takes all traces of Kylar's love for Elene. Elene thinks that Kylar has left. The Wetboy girl breaks a spell placed on her by the Godking by using old bonding magic with Kylar and kills the Godking. Kylar is now married to Vi, the girl wetboy. And Durzo comes back right at the end. He's not dead. Going to be interesting to see how Weeks ties everything up in one final book.

BARTIMAEUS: THE GOLEM'S EYE
-J. Stroud-ya fantasy
-562- yet another subversive government magician working to overthrow the current regime. Bartimaeus and the kid get thrown together. This time the Resistance plays a big part. And are dupes for some big player. The kid is a wretched brat and really arrogant to boot. I enjoyed this more than the first though, LOTS less footnotes.

BLEACH #27
-T. Kubo-manga

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION #7-9
-Y. Sadamoto-manga

TWILIGHT
-S. Meyer-fantasy
-498-a 17year old girl moves in with her dad in a small town in Washington. Going to her highschool are what turn out to be 5 vampires. She falls in love with one, and he with her. They are 'vegetarian' vamps, eating only animal blood. Another group of vamps come in and one is taken with the girl. He decides to hunt her. The vege-vamps rally around her and save her and destroy the bad vamp. This is the epitome of young-girl romanticism. Undying love, mysterious rugged lover, etc, etc. Meyer's did a good job of capturing what it feels like to be in love for the first time. I suspect that the girl will be turned in later novels. I kind of enjoyed this, a guilty, embarrassing pleasure.

WOLF: THE DRAGON OF DESPAIR
-J. Lindskold-fantasy
-729-Melina Shield has married the Healed One of New Kelvin and is working on setting free an ancient dragon to consolidate her power. FireKeeper and Co must stop her. All the while, settlers are starting to move beyond the Iron Mountains, threatening the Royal Beasts. King Tedric proclaims them off limits, but it seems like war between humans and royal beasts is in the near future. Lindskold uses the growth of humanity as a reason why humans are starting to push beyond the Iron Mountains, but with all the wars and the sub-standard standard of living among the majority of peoples, it doesn't really seem reasonable that there are that many people yet.

YU-GI-OH! DUELIST #1-24
-K. Takahashi-manga
- Yeah, I liked this series. Of course, the rules for cards were pretty loose and everyone pulled "secret" abilities out of their butts ALL the time, but it was cool. And having played myself I could enjoy the strategies as a player and not just a reader. Good stuff.

TSUBASA: RESERVOIR CHRONICLE #20-22
-CLAMP-manga

STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST
-A. Allston-fantasy
-302- the next Star Wars storyline. Jedi seem to be going rogue; going insane and gaining new, unknown talents. Luke is exiled from Coruscant by Daala and the GA, as a means for the GA to try to take control of the Jedi Order. Luke, along with Ben, are trying to follow Jacen's journeys to see if they can find out where he went bad so as to prevent it happening again. I enjoyed this. Not sure if I want to own these though.

LOOKING GLASS: THE CLAWS THAT CATCH
-J. Ringo & T. Taylor-scifi
-443- the next Adventures of the Vorpal Blade II. Two Guns is married, Dr Weaver is a sidelined character and Miriam [the genius linguist who hears the voice in the ship] has taken over from Mimi for weird/genius female role. The ship finds a big artifact, and in order to deny it to the Dreen, figure it out. Turns out to be a big, solar system sized entertainment system. They turn it into a weapon to fight the Dreen. And there are some bio-engineered purple crab thingies that turn out to be Dreen eaters. So the Dreen are fought off, again, and the Alliance of humans, cheerick and hexohaurs[or whatever] have a bit of breathing room. I got this as a free download off of Baenbooks, and I have to say, I am glad I don't own this in pbook format. What a waste of paper that would be.

July '09

2009-07-30T00:00:00.001-04:00

THE LAST RUNE: THE FIRST STONE
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-513- the end of the series. The rifts of Nothingness are diverted, all magic is canceled out and people decide to live on Eld or Earth, never to meet again. Travis and Grace both grew out of the whiny, self-doubters that they were in Beyond the Pale and that was nice. Sadly, Anthony chose to make deviant lifestyles a major part of this series. And because of that, I cannot give this series any credible review. Nor will I be reading any more by him.

STAR WARS: THE BOUNTY HUNTER WARS: HARD MERCHANDISE
-K.W. Jeter-fantasy
-338-the end to this series. It was a mediocre ending to a very mediocre trilogy. Boba Fett was not the main character and he was 2 dimensional. The writing was insipid and didn't make you feel anything, even disgust. This series was warm, bland mushy oatmeal. At least Karen Traviss gives some depth and personality to Fett.

SUMMER OF THE MONKEYS
-W. Rawls-fiction
-283-a young teen boy in the Ozarks in the late 1800's spends his summer trying to capture trained zoo monkeys that escaped from a train wreck. Many misadventures and hilarious happenings are chronicled. There is a big reward for the monkeys and Jay wants a pony and a .22 rifle. He catches the monkeys after a big storm and ends up using the reward money to let his sister have an operation to fix her useless leg. And he gets a pony and rifle in the end anyway. This was a good feel good YA novel about a simple boy living during a hard time.

PERN: THE MASTERHARPER OF PERN
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-366-the story of Master Robinton from his being born til the events of the first Dragonrider trilogy. An extremely talented boy is ignored by his perfectionist father even while being better than him. Amazing that Robinton turned out as well as he did. A very enjoyable tale, even though McCaffrey shows her true colors in regards to her views on marriage and sexuality.

WOLF: THROUGH WOLF'S EYES
-J. Lindskold-fantasy
-579-a young girl, raised by Royal wolves [bigger and smarter] is taken back to medieval civilization as the possible heir of a kingdom. Turns out she isn't, but she ends up saving the King and helping the kingdom. The first in at least 6 Wolf novels. This was a very enjoyable read. There was NO angst, no bitter self-recriminations. The author kept the emotional tone of the book upbeat, forward moving and didn't let you get mired in despair and the past. Worth getting in hardback.

PERN: THE RENEGADES OF PERN
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-305-deals with those who were holdless, for a variety of reasons, during the beginning years of Threadfall. Almost the same period as DragonDrums but from different viewpoints. Sets up just right for the following book, All the Weyrs of Pern. Looking forward to it.

VAMPIRE HUNTER D: RAISER OF GALES
-H. Kikuchi-fantasy
-215- D must fight with the leftover experiments of some great Noble dr. Vampires who can live in the daylight. Bloody, sexual and just pulp fiction. This stuff is about on the same level, literary wise, as the Mars series. Shallow and action instead of plot.

PIP AND FLINX: PATRIMONY
-A.D. Foster-fantasy
-228-Flinx is hunting down his father. Finds out that he doesn't have "a" father, or even a mother. The sperm and egg were manmade. Whoop de do. Pathetic.

STAR WARS: JEDI TRIAL
-D. Sherman & D. Cragg-fantasy
-345- Anakin earns his Jedi Knight spurs leading the recapture of a planet that has some communications essential to the Republic. And a side story about some people meeting through the battle and falling in love and getting married by Anakin at the end. This was really dumb. Asajj Ventress is displayed prominently on the cover, but she appears twice or thrice, through a holo-projector, that is it. The side story about the couple is forced and adds nothing to this novel. This wasn't even blase.

VAMPIRE HUNTER D: DEMON DEATCHASE
-H. Kikuchi-fantasy
-178- D, in direct competition with a clan of Hunters, goes after a Vampire who has absconded with a willing woman. The pair are trying to get to space to escape. Pretty much everybody but D dies. No loose ends that way. I have one more VHD book, and that will be it. In this one, a woman is raped, repeatedly by her 4 brothers. Kikuchi is one sick bastard.

MAGICIANS OF QUALITY: THE MISLAID MAGICIAN or TEN YEARS AFTER
-P. Wrede & C. Stevermer-fantasy
-328- the third in the series. Once again in letter form between Cecily and Kate. This time there are also letters between their husbands. About the railroads in England and how they are affecting the ley lines of magic. Turns out there is a big huge magic spell surrounding England that makes invaders settle in and become part of the culture. This one just didn't get my attention like the first 2 did. Glad I read it, but satisfied with just owning the first 2.

VAMPIRE HUNTER D: TALE OF THE DEAD TOWN
-H. Kikuchi-fantasy
-167-The cleanest, morally, so far. Also the dumbest. D goes to a floating town where experiments have gone on to spread vampirism like a plague instead of through bites. I'm not going to be reading any more of this trash.

PERN: ALL THE WEYRS OF PERN
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-404-picks up with the people we know communicating with Aivas to carry out plans to get rid of Thread permanently. It was ok but I could see that this book should have been one to wrap up the Pern series. Sadly, it is still going.

REBORN! #9
-A. Amano-manga

INUYASHA #30 & 31
-R. Takahashi-manga

IMAGER PORTFOLIO: IMAGER
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-432- another series by Modesitt. I manfully made my way through this, but I don't plan on reading any more. A world where Imagers exist. People who can "imagine" things into reality, or out of, depending. Follows a young man who is a painter who turns out to be an Imager and his trials and tribulations as he moves up the ranks. 2 things:
1-STOP the confounded preaching! This seemed to be a book on Modesitt's philosophy and world view. I don't care! Considering that this has been in other books of his, I decided that I didn't have to put up with it. It ruins the story and really bogs the plot down with dry boring info that I, the reader, DON'T need to know.
2-I am sick of self-effacing, stoic, perfect people whose only problem seem to be that everybody else is keeping them back. The hero is smarter than everybody, more intelligent, harder working, more ethical, etc, etc and then he goes and says inane things like "well, I'm only trying my best" or such crap. The hero seems like a machine that would do better without people in their world.
So, to end this. Another Modesitt regurgitation that has no really original ideas and is blase and mediocre without the charm that makes Recluce semi-palatable.

REBORN! #10
-A. Amano-manga

CODGERSPACE
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-309- 5 retirees find an old alien spaceship buried on earth. The AI is confused, after 1million years, and turns to them for commands. Also has a story about the AI's of earth leaving their duties and searching for non-human intelligent life. Funny and light and serving absolutely no purpose beyond a little humor. Good read.

COREAN CHRONICLES: SOARER'S CHOICE
-L.E. Modesitt-fantasy
-540- the end of this trilogy. The alector and the cadmian become the forbearers of the Talented. Acorus is severed from Efrit and all those linked to it either adapt to Acorus's lifeforce or die. I didn't really enjoy this. For the end of the world as they know it, the characters sure don't show much panic or haste or any emotion of any kind. I've got 1 more Modesitt book on tap and if it doesn't change drastically, I think I'll give him up except for Recluce.

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE
-S. Crane-historical fiction
-142-a young man goes to the Civil War full of vim and vigor, all set to conquer everything. He runs away the first time and subsequently fights like a demon in later battles. This was a coming of age story full of the inner thoughts of a boy. It was pathetic and "very modern", ie casting doubt and despair on everything. Probably never read it again.

BLEACH #26
-T. Kubo-manga

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION #1-5
-Y. Sadamoto-manga

WOLF: WOLF'S HEAD, WOLF'S HEART
-J. Lindskold-fantasy
-602-Melina Shield maneuvers things so that the artifacts Vallora took are sent for study to New Kelvin, with Melina as the understudy. The group must stop her. Lots of politic'ing and kind of sad. Firekeeper finds out a bit of history from the Royals about Royal/Human interaction. In the end Firekeeper has to give up what she wants and tries to please both humans and Royals. She's the one stuck in the middle.

THE BLACK STALLION
-W. Farley-YA fiction/classic
-187-a teen boy returning from India is shipwrecked along with a wild stallion. Is eventually rescued along with the horse. Turns out the horse could be a racer, so a friend helps him train it. Ends up racing the 2 fastest horses and winning. Simple and yet very well written and engaging.

JAG IN SPACE: A JUST DETERMINATION
-J.G. Hemry-scifi
-259- a young man, Paul Sinclair, is fresh out of Space Academy and on a ship for the first time. One of his side duties is to be the ships legal advisor. The captain fires upon a civilian ship outside of US territory and is court-martialed. Sinclair testifies on the captain's behalf, even though he doesn't like him at all, because he believes that the charges brought against the captain do not reflect accurately. Ends up with Sinclair getting involved with an officer on another ship and the captain being reassigned to some backwater office, instead of getting hung.

JAG IN SPACE: BURDEN OF PROOF
-J.G. Hemry-scifi
-293- an accident on board kills an officer. Evidence points to the officer working outside of given parameters and all blame is hung on him. Sinclair finds evidence of a coverup by another officer, an admiral's son, and sets out to prove the first officer innocent, post-humously.

JAG IN SPACE: RULE OF EVIDENCE
-J.G. Hemry-scifi
-276- on a joint mission, the sister ship of Sinclair's ship blows up. On board is Sinclairs girlfriend, Jen Shen. She is implicated and court-martialed. Everything is circumstantial and unprovable, but Shen is the scapegoat. Sinclair uses his parents former military pull to find some problems about a new engineering piece of equipment. Turns out the equipment wasn't ready and Shen is exonerated. They become engaged. Now, what I thought of these three books. It pretty much is the same for all 3. Very slow, and not until at least halfway through does the main plot start to form. Until then you just have a description of life shipboard and everything. The legal stuff is very legal, and hence dry. Interesting, but definitely not something you'd get excited about. I think these could be a precursor series to the Lost Fleet series, before Space had been divvied up. Definitely in no rush to get the final book now. I can wait.

June '09

2009-06-27T00:10:00.000-04:00

INUYASHA #27
-R. Takahashi-manga

THE BRONZE CANTICLES: MYSTIC QUEST
-T. & L. Hickman-fantasy
-453-the saga continues, in 3 stories again. Deals with a new set of people, mostly the children or relatives of those from Mystic Warrior. The human world is about a group of mystics trying to find the original city of the gods. The elven world is about a group trying to find an artifact in the capital city of the Kyree. The goblin story is about a goblin sent to spy out on a trollish city and discovers a whole library of books. Overall, I actually liked this better than the first. More going on, and a better understanding of everything. Not sure how the 3 worlds coming together is going to work out, interesting to find out.

THE SWAN'S WAR: THE SHADOW ROADS
-S. Russell-fantasy
-433-the conclusion to The Swan's War trilogy. Alaan, Elise and their respective groups face off against Hafydd and his. Death, also known as Meachi, is trying to get free from the spell that walled him in from the living. Everything comes together quickly in the end and Death is walled in again, Hafydd goes back to the river and Alaan and Elise go their ways. The groups all go back to their ways of life, forever changed. To be honest, it seemed a bit to pat and quick. I enjoyed the ending, but with such humble beginnings[the feud between the Will's and the Renne's], to escalate things to Death himself trying to walk the earth again, it just seemed almost anti-climactic. Well written, well thought out though. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this trilogy and am looking forward to re-reads already :-)

VAMPIRE HUNTER D
-H. Kikuchi-fantasy
-238-the first novel in the Vampire Hunter D light novel series. A young woman is bit by a local Noble and hires D to kill the Noble to free her. A local human thug, some mutant rebels and other demons all come together to make life hard for D as he just tries to do his job. Obviously a first novel. Descriptions go something like this "The wind snarled like a beast across the barren sky". It is like using fingerpaints to do a portrait. Gets the job done, but kind of makes you groan at the amateurishness of it. No real character development, but since I'm guessing D is the only character common in all the books, not surprising. A nice light read.

STAR WARS: THE BOUNTY HUNTER WARS: THE MANDALORIAN ARMOR
-K.W. Jeter-fantasy
-387-2 stories. One taking place around New Hope and the second during Return of the Jedi. About Boba Fett. First story is about Fett taking down the Bounty Hunters Guild. The second story is what happens to him after being eaten by the Sarlacc. Not really sure how canon this is, considering all that Traviss has written about the Mando and Fett himself. I'm enjoying it though. No jedi, lots of assassins and bounty hunters though. Looking forward to the next 2.

FAHRENHEIT 451
-R. Bradbury-science fiction
-190- in the nebulous future the masses are entertained with mindless drivel and books are banned, hunted and burned when found. One man discovers how empty everything is and goes on the run from the authorities and finds others like himself. Ends with the US being nuked and the premise that these "book rememberers" will help rebuild civilization. I can't say I really enjoyed this book. The writing style was annoying, too dramatic, over the top, when describing the internal struggle felt by the protagonist. And a culture that allows the youth to grow up to be cattle, it couldn't survive very long. The kind of people needed to make a culture survive that was described couldn't grow up in the culture described. It doesn't fit.

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
-Sir A.C. Doyle-mystery
-174-a series of short stories about the cases Holmes solves. Slowly but surely working my way through The Complete Sherlock Holmes.

THE BRONZE CANTICLES: MYSTIC EMPIRE
-T. & L. Hickman-fantasy
-391-the conclusion to the Bronze Canticles trilogy. The goblins get a rift gate to the human world and invade. The Shuraj[dead magic] elves are going to be destroyed by the Kyree and get a gate to the human world. The elves make alliance with the humans and work together to close the gates. The gates are closed and the goblins are hunted down. The end. I really didn't care for this ending. The story was cool and all the action was nice. But the whole point was the "Binding of Worlds", which never happened. The Hickman's just let it slide for a later time. Bleh to them!

INUYASHA #28
-R. Takahashi-manga

AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS
-J. Verne-fiction, classic
-287- an englishman takes a bet that he can go around the world in 80 days. With his french manservant, he takes off. He saves an indian woman, is pursued by the police as a suspect in a huge bank robbery, and has lots of adventures. Gets home and to the Club exactly on time. Marries the girl and gets the bet money and the real robber is apprehended. This was a good read. Exciting, informative [for the time] and not real long either.

FRONTIER MAGIC: THIRTEENTH CHILD
-P.C. Wrede-fantasy
-344-Wrede turns her hand to the Americas, and specifically the Frontiers. Taking place in the mid 1800's, this is about a girl, whose brother is the 7th son of a seventh son, and she is the 13th child. Grows up thinking she is somehow bad because of being unlucky number 13, until the family moves west to help expand a college town. This is the pioneer story, like Caddy Woodlawn or Laura Ingals Wilder, with magic. This story ends with Eff, the girl, saving some pioneers by using a non-conventional way with some magic in dealing with some magical bugs. Sounds kind of funny, but this was a good book and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series as it comes out.

CAT-A-LYST
-A.D. Foster-fantasy
-206-super beings, that are catlike, watch over earth to let it grow up at its own pace. A rogue SB tries to ruin everything. Humans end up setting things straight. This was a stupid novel and I don't have anything good to say about it. Might have been a good short story though.

STAR WARS: THE BOUNTY HUNTER WARS: SLAVE SHIP
-K.W. Jeter-fantasy
-324-having 2 different storylines at different time periods is confusing when trying to write a review. Boba Fett does this, Boba Fett does that. It is just reading adventures about Boba Fett that have a very thin connection.

NIGHT ANGEL: THE WAY OF SHADOWS
-B. Weeks-fantasy
-661-a young boy becomes the apprentice to the cities top wetboy [super duper assassins] and grows up. Lots of intrigue and politics and the city falls to a northern kingdom. Turns out the Wetboy had a magical item and it ends up bonding with the apprentice, allowing him to become the next Night Angel, a creature that is a balance to 6 other magical creations. It was a bit brutal and graphic. I'll be reading the next 2, but have no desire to own them. Really well written for a first novel though.

STAR WARS: CORUSCANT NIGHTS: PATTERNS OF FORCE
-M. Reaves-fantasy
-288-the conclusion. A young force adept, very powerful is found and hunted. Hooks up with the Pavan group. There is a confrontation with Vader and bota [from the Medstar books] is used. Vader has a bad "trip on bota" and the good parts of the group escape. Jax learns his father loved him and I5, the sentient robot, ends up getting a "soul", or something that can be sensed in the Force anyway. This series almost seems to make light of how the hunt for the remaining Jedi went. This was a mediocre series that wasn't interesting. Not anything like the MedStar duology, sadly.

INUYASHA #29
-R. Takahashi-manga

FIREBIRDS
-S. November, editor-fantasy
-420-an anthology of scifi and fantasy. A bunch of short stories. Some were good, some were simply mediocre and some I thought were stupid. Not a bad collection to introduce to a YA though.

NO NEED FOR TENCHI! #1-12
-H. Okuda-manga
- this takes place after Episode 6 of the OVA. Lots of enemies popping up and bothering Tenchi and the girls. Or silly side adventures. Way too much shojo stuff. Nothing really like the anime. It wasn't very funny and it wasn't very moving. I'm thinking about getting rid of them now.

COREAN CHRONICLES: CADMIAN'S CHOICE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-510-the second book dealing with Dalyn and Mikel, an Alector and a Cadmian. Rogue Alectors are transferring in and it is up to Dalyn and Mikel to navigate the political hidden agendas and figure out what to do and how to do it semi-safely. This was annoying. The politics are as confusing to us the reader, probably more so since we don't have prior experience and knowledge, as to the main characters. Keeping track of what Alector is supposedly supporting which Duarch and Highest and all the military ranking, it is confusing and does not make the read interesting.

YU-GI-OH! #4-7
-K. Takahashi-manga
-the final volumes of the original Yugioh manga. I enjoyed it, but at times the way the badguys were allowed to cheat and get away with it was almost eye-rolling. I mean, Kaiba kidnaps Yugi's Grandfather and displays him dying in a cage in front of a huge crowd of kids and everyone is like "Yeah, Kaiba, you're the coolest" while Yugi's group is "We believe in you Yugi, you can DO it". A little to much sometimes. The final 2 books, dealing with Bakura though, were pretty cool.

THE DARKWAR SAGA: FLIGHT OF THE NIGHT HAWKS
-R. Feist-fantasy
-UNFINISHED

THE ALL-NEW TENCHI MUYO! #1-10
-H. Okuda-manga
-I think I actually liked this better than the original manga series. More action and fighting and less Sasami rescuing little animals and being cutesy. Ends and I don't think that there will be any more. Enjoyable.

THE LAST RUNE: THE KEEP OF FIRE
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-593

THE LAST RUNE: THE DARK REMAINS
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-643

THE LAST RUNE: BLOOD OF MYSTERY
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-579

THE LAST RUNE: THE GATES OF WINTER
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-565

May '09

2009-05-31T18:00:00.001-04:00

BLEACH #23-25
-T. Kubo-manga

THE LOST FLEET: VALIANT
-J. Campbell-scifi
-284-much better than the 3rd book. More space fighting. Also a traitor trying to kill Alliance people and ships. And the alien side of things gets explored a little more. Geary admits he is in love with Capt Desjani. Enjoyed this.

THE SWAN'S WAR: THE ONE KINGDOM
-S. Russell-fantasy
-517-a land was torn asunder in the distant past by 3 siblings. Today the land groans under a schism of two families. But the Siblings' spirits have returned to finish what they could not last time, conquer all. Follows the adventures of different people caught up in this whirlwind. Very slow for the first 9/10th's of the book and no huge gratuitous displays of magic. 3 people have been "possessed" by the ancient siblings. I'm looking forward to the next book.

XXXHOLIC #13
-Clamp-manga

THE LOST FLEET: RELENTLESS
-J. Campbell-scifi
-320-the Lost Fleet finally makes it back to Alliance territory. In spite of overwhelming odds, alien intervention and sabotage by officers in his own fleet, Geary makes it home. Ends with them planning a raid on the Syndic CEO homeworld to cut the head off of the snake and then deal with the aliens as best they can. A good cut off point for the series, but maybe he'll do one more in this series? Just checked the bibliography on his website, John G Hemry and it looks like he WILL be writing another book, due out in '10.

KING RAVEN: TUCK
-S. Lawhead-historical fiction
-443-the finale to the Robin Hood legend. Bran enlists the help of other Cymry [welshmen] and some Freinc lords and forces Rufus for the rulership of Elfael. So the story ends happily, unlike the original Robin Hood legend. I enjoyed this, but it all just seemed a bit to pat at the end. Everybody just goes "oh, ok, lets do the right thing after years of not and call it a day". But it was an ending that made sense, even if I didn't particularly care for it :-)

TAKEN: THE CANDLE OF DISTANT EARTH
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-262-the gang all make home to their respective homeworlds. However, Walker and George both decide, just as they find our solar system, that they have "grown" and that now they want to travel. Gee, wish they had decided that before they set out with a whole fleet! And the Villinji who kidnapped them and has been chasing them, well, what do you know? He has a sudden change of perspective and sees that maybe other sentients aren't just "goods" to be sold. How heartwarming . Foster forced this ending and it didn't fit with everything that had gone on before. Glad I never bought these.

STAR WARS: CORUSCANT NIGHTS: JEDI TWILIGHT
-M. Reaves-fantasy
-343- Den and I-Five, from the Med-Star duology show up trying to find Pavan's son[from Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter]. Jax is his name and he is/was a jedi. Takes place after Revenge of the Sith, so the Jedi are being hunted. Jax is a whiner and a loser and I didn't like him at all. I was more interested in Den and I-Five. Also has a big Xizor tie-in[prequel info for Shadows of the Empire]. This book could go either way with fans. Either like it for the tie-in info or dislike it for its complete mediocrity. While I enjoyed the Med-Star duology, I didn't care for this at all. It does, however, show how the remaining Jedi felt after Revenge of the Sith.

THE CHARMED SPHERE
-C. Asara-fantasy
-473-a world where magic is defined by shape [for power] and color[for type]. A really cool premise. A small kingdom is under threat from a neighboring kingdom and must use its mages to supplement it's army. So it sounded good. Then I met the characters. Bunch of whiny, pansy, selfish, no self confidence bunch of pathetic losers. The characters teenager'ish angst and self-doubt completely ruined this book for me. It was not enjoyable and I will not be reading any more by Asara.

VISIONS OF FANTASY
-I. Asimov, editor-fantasy
-180-a series of short stories by different well know fantasy writers. YA, but written well enough that I enjoyed the stories very much too.

THE CROWN OF THE ISLES: THE GODS RETURN
-D. Drake-fantasy
-398-a VERY satisfying ending to the Lord of the Isles, Crown of the Isles series. Garric and Co face the invasion of 'new' gods since the Change did away with all of their old familiar gods. So of course, they break up into groups and go fight. And by the end, Ilna, Cashel and Sharina end up Ascending and become the new Sister, Shepherd and Lady. Pretty cool actually. I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. The writing, while familiar, didn't grate on me like Mirror of Worlds did. It seemed a bit fresher, more polished. Really enjoyable and a good, happy ending.

REBORN! #6 & 7
-A. Amano-manga

FRUITS BASKET #22
-N. Takaya-manga

CROSSROADS: SHADOW GATE
-K. Elliott-fantasy
-475-the hopelessness of the characters really grated on me. What can they do, as mere humans, when supernatural powers, for good, have turned bad? It was once again unnecessarily sensual. Violent. I just don't know if I'll even read the others as they come out. This just depressed me.

PIP & FLINX: RUNNING FROM THE DEITY
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-255-Pip goes to a low tech world to hide and get repairs. Instead of staying hidden in his ship, he goes out and makes contact with the natives, setting a war in motion. He, and the A.I. of the ship, stop the war and take off. This was PATHETIC! Nothing but Pip feeling bad for himself and doing stupid things and feeling bad about those, etc, etc. Foster has totally lost the FUN that started this series. Boooo!

STAR WARS: CORUSCANT NIGHTS: STREET OF SHADOWS
-M. Reaves-fantasy
-306- much better! Jax has matured enough to stop being a whiner. The gang ends up trying to find out who the murderer of a famous Camaasi artist is, because his assistant wants help getting off world. Vader hires a jedi-killer to hunt Jax. That doofus Captain from the prequels, Typho, is on some vendetta to avenge Padme, cause apparently he was in love with her. That story arc was just LAME! Better than the first book, but definitely NOT a "buy" book.

COREAN CHRONICLES: ALECTOR'S CHOICE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-510-set thousands of years before the first trilogy. The ifrit's are cultivating Corus, and another planet Efron, as possible replacements to their current homeworld. Both are vying to be the home of the Master Scepter. This story deals with the Alector [ifrit] and the Cadmium [human] who have to deal with uprisings, etc that threaten to bias the Archon on their current homeworld against Corus. Overall this story reminded me a LOT more of a Recluce book. It took me over a week to read it and it just didn't engage me like the original trilogy. Plodding, that is a good word for this book. The 2 main characters were completely un-engaging. The plot has enough stuff hidden way for the future books that I was constantly trying to figure out if something I didn't understand would be explained later in this book, in another book, or not at all. Not a good thing for a smooth read.

TRANSLUCENT #1
-K. Okamoto-manga

YU-GI-OH! #1-3
-K. Takahashi-manga

THE SWAN'S WAR: THE ISLE OF BATTLE
-S. Russell-fantasy
-467-absolutely fantastic. Haffyd goes after Alaard to kill him and Elise chases after Alaard to save him. Fills out the picture in regards to the Children of Wyrr, who have taken on human hosts to live again. Engaging, quick [not slow like The One Kingdom] and opens up an even bigger world than we thought. Wyrr, and his Brother Aillyn are at odds. I know this is a trilogy, so I have to wonder how Russell is going to wrap everything up in 1 book.

CRYPTONOMICON
-N. Stephenson-fiction
-UNFINISHED-gay brits, violent marines, math, and 3 story lines that have no relation to eachother 150 pages into the story. Not going to waste any more of my time.

THE COUNCIL WARS: EMERALD SEA
-J. Ringo-fantasy
-490-Herzer and Co go south to some islands to make an alliance with mer-people to take preventative action against Paul's plans to invade across the ocean. Ok, no more of this series for me. Lots and lots of sex stuff. It was a naval story with dragons. And lots of sex, that didn't have anything to do with the story other than to spice it up. Bleh.

REBORN! #8
-A. Amano-manga

NOBLE DEAD: REBEL FAY
-B. & J.C. Hendee-fantasy
-416-the group goes into Elven land to find Leesil's mom. They give up their weapons and "trust" the elves, who are really bent on destroying them. Kind of like the U.N. and the United States. So basically everybody acts like a complete idiot and nobody even tries to think. They rescue his mom and then leave. Chap finds out his memory has been selectively sliced, at birth, by the Fay, so he is just a tool. It was just to much with everybody reacting like they were on hair-triggers instead of actually trying to think. And Leesil needs a good beatdown to get rid of his attitude.

PIP & FLINX: TROUBLE MAGNET
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-272-Flinx gets involved with some gang kids while trying to decide if humanity is worth saving. Basically, Foster slaps on the name of Pip and Flinx to sell this mediocre Commonwealth novel. A bit of action, and very little whining by Flinx, make this book mediocre instead of abysmal. Foster appears to have run out of ideas, real ideas, for Flinx and this novel really shows that. Nothing original, nothing exciting, no advancement of the "Must stop the BIG BAD Thing that will destroy us all" plot [which is really lame imo anyway], in fact, so much nothing that without Foster's name on it, this book would have died before ever getting out into the wild. I just want this series to end now. Foster has ruined it completely by trying to milk it for close to 30 years. Shame on him!

April '09

2009-04-30T23:30:00.000-04:00

THE COUNCIL WARS: THERE WILL BE DRAGONS
-J. Ringo-fantasy
-719-in the 41st century mankind lives in a utopia. People do whatever they feel like while a computer program called 'mother' makes sure that nobody kills somebody else and that everyone gets all the energy they need. 'Mother' is overseen by a council of humans. It has split into 2 factions. One wants to just keep things the way they are, the other wants to return to the "good old days of hard work and character building" with them in charge, of course. A coup happens. In the ensuing fight, earth is deprived of all her energy, and hence her gadgets. So everyone has to go back to pre-coal industrial happenings. One guy rallies a town and prepares for the attack by the other people. The good guys win but the council wars look like it could be generational, so everybody settles down to live a long, pre-industrial life. It was quite interesting. Ringo confuses me though. One minute he is talking about patriotism, importance of a strong military and the dangers of a bloated federal govt, etc, etc and then 2 people are shacking it up like it is totally normal.

INUYASHA #25 & 26
-R. Takahashi-manga

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
-K. Traviss-fantasy
-256-Jabba's son is kidnapped by the Separatists who make it look like it was the Jedi. The Jedi have to rescue the little slimer. Anakin has a padawan. LOTS of clone troopers die. Kenobi fights Asajj Ventress. Once again, Traviss's anti-jedi streak shows, strongly. Asajj is shown as some hurt little girl who is just trying to make up for her masters death by becoming a mass murderer.

RECLUCE: NATURAL ORDERMAGE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-496-a young punk is exiled from Recluce to Hamor. He turns out to be a "natural ordermage", basically someone who can't learn, just can or can't, do things with his power. Interesting and better writing than the early Recluce books.

A MADNESS OF ANGELS
-K. Griffin-fantasy
-538-urban fantasy. A sorcerer comes back from the dead 2 years after being killed. He has hooked up with a magic in the telephone lines. He was killed by his old master who wanted the telephone magic, the Blue Angels. Matthew, the resurrected guy, goes after his former master and lackeys to get revenge. The word that came to mind after reading this was "guttural". I don't like urban fantasy. If fantasy can be compared to water, urban fantasy is dark scummy water. There was no redeeming value about this book. There was SO much profanity/obscenity spewed out that I felt like I was standing in a sewer hole. I would never recommend this to anyone.

THE TWO HANDED ENGINE
-H. Kuttner and C.L.Moore-scifi
-unfinished. A bunch of short stories that all seemed to be gloomy and "psy" this and "psy" that. There was a nameless dread in almost every story that just got old after about the 3rd story.

OZ: THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ
-F. Baum-juvenile fantasy
-unfinished-Dorothy's aunt and uncle come to Oz after failing to make the farm work. It was just to much "oh, everyone is good and happy in Oz" in one chapter while the next shows some neerdowell getting together all the malcontent elements of Oz. Baum just contradicted himself and it was all extremely, to much so for me, sugary syrupy sap.

THIS IS NOT A GAME
-W.J. Williams-tech fiction
-367-This was great! Real world, bots, net gaming, social networking, murder, Russian mafya, national economies attacked, this book ties them all together. It started off kind of slow and odd, with the main character in a 3rd world country that was collapsing. But once she got back to LA, the main story took off. The ending was a bit rushed, imo. Basically, an overlapping and intertwining of the real world and the networld. It was a cool ride. However, due to the slow start and rushed, almost simplistic, ending, I don't think it was as good as it could have been. Really recommend it though to anyone who thinks that the net can't affect the real world :-0

BLEACH #21 & 22
-T. Kubo-manga

REBORN! #3-5
-A. Amano-manga

STAR WARS: CLOAK OF DECEPTION
-J. Luceno-fantasy
-342-An immediate prequel to Episode 1. I never was a big fan of Qui Gon, so that aspect of things didn't appeal to me. This was more a book of the politics of the day and as such, wasn't very exciting. More about Palps manipulating things. That was interesting :-) One thing I did like was the inclusion of Vergere. I wish we had the actual story of her turning though. Sadly, this was much like of most of Luceno's Star Wars books. Not badly written, but not exciting by any stretch of the imagination. I wouldn't recommend this to a casual Star Wars fan.

RED MARS
-K.S. Robinson-scifi
-572-a story about the colonization of Mars. It was filled with characters who had no redeeming qualities. Nothing in this book appealed to me at all. From dysfunctionality on a 100+people size to large paragraphs rambling about Mars to the pure pettiness of the characters involved, nothing interested me. It was almost like Robinson set out to write a book about the worst set of exceptional characters he could. I certainly won't be reading the other 2 Mars books.

THE LOST FLEET: COURAGEOUS
-J. Campbell-scifi
-299-things started to wear a bit in this book. Geary saves them, they complain. They get smacked up. Geary does this, Geary thinks that. Really need to move past the whole "running around in enemy territory" thing. This was almost a carbon copy of the 2nd book. Different names and places, but same idea. I want something new.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...
-A.D. Foster-scifi
-232-a collection of short stories of some of Foster's early stuff. I enjoyed this. It was cool seeing ideas that were later expanded in his novels. Nothing really stood out but it was a nice light read and now my collection looks better, with this sitting next to ...Who Needs Enemies?.

March '09

2009-03-31T22:10:00.000-04:00

OZ: OZMA OF OZ
-F. Baum-children's fantasy
-272-Dorothy goes back to Oz and with the help of her old friends and Ozma and a yellow chicken, saves the Queen and children of Ev from the goblin king.

INUYASHA #3-6
-R. Takahashi-manga

SCHOOL RUMBLE #1-5
-J. Kobayashi-manga

AMERICAN NOTES & PICTURES FROM ITALY
-C. Dickens-non-fiction
-UNFINISHED- a travelogue from Dickens' trips to America and Italy. Boring. I got about 100 pages in and then started skimming the American Notes. By the end of that, I didn't even try to skim Pictures from Italy. Not like his fiction at all, really. But that is to be expected.

THE HARPER HALL OF PERN: DRAGONSONG
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-140- a young girl from a fishing hold has great musical talent. Due to her fathers holding to the old ways, however, it is discouraged. She runs away and in the process impresses 9 firelizards. Then she is picked up by a dragon rider and taken to the Harper Hall.

THE HARPER HALL OF PERN: DRAGONSINGER
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-192- Menolly's adventures in the Harper Hold. Trials to be overcome as she learns much about music and such.

THE HARPER HALL OF PERN: DRAGONDRUMS
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-167-follows the adventures of Piemur, a young lad whose voice changes. His adventures as the apprentice to the Master Harper, Robinton. Ends up on the Southern Continent. These 3 novels were in the same vain as her Dragonrider trilogy. Fresh, funny with just the right amount of adventure and adversity to keep you interested without getting you depressed or sad.

INUYASHA #7-18
-R. Takahashi-manga

LOOKING GLASS: MANXOME FOE
-J. Ringo & T. Taylor-scifi
-463-the Vorpal Blade and crew investigate a lost communications outpost. Stumble upon a new species who are being wiped out by the Dreen. Rescue them and come back to earth with the news that the Dreen will arrive within the next 10 years by spaceship. Bergstresser, aka Two-Gun, seems to be taking over as the main protaganist. No Mimi or anything. :-( Some things felt very shallow though. Like two-gun getting married. He meets a girl, talks to her for all of 4-6hrs, and when he comes back, they are planning on getting married. It just didn't seem at all plausible. I still am disappointed in this series though. The first book was JUST so good, oh well.

INUYASHA #19-24
-R. Takahashi-manga

STARWARS: LUKE SKYWALKER AND THE SHADOWS OF MINDOR
-M. Stover-fantasy
-331-soon after the Empire has fallen. A shadowy figure returns to reunite the empire. But it turns out he has some power to transfer his consciousness and he wants to trap Luke and take him over. Overall, this was on the level of The Crystal Star. It was just not on the same level as Stover's other StarWars books and that was very disappointing. It was more like reading some melodramatic play or something.

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND
-C. Dickens-nonfiction
-UNFINISHED- Dickens writing a history of England for his son. BORING!

NOBLE DEAD: TRAITOR TO THE BLOOD
-B. & JC Hendee-fantasy
-396-Everyone goes back to Leesil's home so he can figure out what happened to his parents. He is a big ball of wussiness in my opinion. Find out a bit more about his past and some about the elves. I just wish everyone in the story would stop having such emotional hangups. Get over yourself and go do what needs to be done!

CASE CLOSED #1-4
-G. Aoyama-manga

JANE EYRE
-C. Bronte-classic
-502- a girl grows up in a school. Becomes a governess. Falls in love with the Master and the Master with her. He is already married though, to a mad woman. Jane leaves, finds her relatives and ends up with Mr Rochester when his wife commits suicide. I can see why this is a classic. Simple but not shallow. This showed the struggle of someone who did what was right, not necessarily exactly what they wanted. And it turned out all ok in the end.

MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK
-C. Dickens-short stories
-144- an old man and 3 others sit around and palaver. Basically this was a serialization between novels. It was not a story in and of itself. Not very interesting. The only thing going for it was the inclusion of Pickwick and the Weller's.

THE BOURNE IDENTITY
-R. Ludlum-fiction
-535- a man wakes up, bullet riddled and with no memory. Through the next couple of months he finds out he is a special forces agent gone outside cover to draw out and destroy an international terrorist. By becoming an international terrorist. Hunted by all, helped and loved by only 1 woman, Bourne must survive to find the truth, about himself and about Carlos. Very different from the movie with Matt Damon. This has another whole layer of politics and intrigue. Global. Complicated. I liked the movie better :-) I do plan on reading the next 2 books though to get the whole story.

OZ: DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ
-F. Baum-childrens fantasy
-256-Dorothy, her cat, a boy named Zeb and his horse get caught in an earthquake and go to the center of the earth. After many adventures they make it to the surface and go to Oz where they go home. This felt like a churned out novel. I didn't enjoy it like I have the other Oz books.

THE BELL AT SEALEY HEAD
-P. McKillip-fantasy
-277- A bell is heard at sunsight every day at a town. It has rung for hundreds of years. A magician comes to find it. In the process he sets free a magical realm that was taken over by his ever so great uncle. A house that hides doorways to the other kingdom. This was more prosey than her other stuff. I really enjoyed it.

THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
-R. Ludlum-fiction
-646- first, this has nothing to do with the movie. nothing. Webb's wife is kidnapped and Bourne must live again in order to save her. Everything is happening in HongKong and China. Turns out Marie was kidnapped by US forces to force Bourne to go after a rogue Mainland China guy who wants to take over HongKong and plunge the world into war. It was sickening to see how people were manipulated and used. Lots of profanity too, bleh.

THE TWELVE KINGDOMS: THE VAST SPREAD OF THE SEAS
-F. Ono-fantasy
-294- the story of En. The Taiho chooses a king. The king appears lacksadaisical and everything. A regent of the land starts up a rebellion ostensibly to make things better for the people. In truth he just wants praise. The King gets things taken care of with minimal bloodshed and the Enkai/Taiho, etc, etc, learn to trust the king. I really hope Tokyopop lasts long enough in the publishing biz to bring out all 7 novels. This was enjoyable.

REBORN! #1-2
-A. Amano-manga

OZ: THE ROAD TO OZ
-F. Baum-childrens fantasy
-261-Dorothy helps a shaggy man find a road and in the process they all end up in Oz for Ozma's birthday party.

MORE THAN ONE UNIVERSE
-A.C. Clarke-scifi
-554- a whole bunch of his short stories from the late 40's til the very early 80's. Recurring themes of American/Russian conflict, self-destruction on a planetary scale and the idea of man going to the stars. Depressing really.

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
-R. Ludlum-fiction
-Unfinished-Carlos the Jackal is back and gunning for Bourne/Webb. I'd had enough about a man always on the run/hunt. Webb is now 50. Let the guy alone!

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS: THE CESTUS DECEPTION
-S. Barnes-fantasy
-457- Obi-wan goes to Cestus to stop the creation of semi-force sensitive robots. Diplomacy and fighting. A quad of clone troopers are involved too. Asajj Ventress is Dooku's representative. Having only read about her in the Legacy of the Force series, it helped me understand what went on then better. However, several references were made to previous encounters between her and Obi-wan which I'm guessing must have been comics only. That is stupid, referring to comics in a novel. Stick to other novels. Other than that, I thought this was ok, not wonderful or great, but not horrible either.

BRIDGE TO TEREBITHIA
-K. Paterson-ya fiction
-192-winner of the 1978 Newberry Award. Back in the 70's in some backwoods place. A 10 year old boy makes friends with a new girl from the city. Together they imagine Terebithia, a magic place safe from all the problems of school, home and the world. Jess's world is torn down when Leslie dies one day going to Terebithia when he doesn't. He stands back up though and continues on and introduces his younger sister to Terebithia, after building a bridge over the river. This was a very evocative book. It really showed the pain of growing up, of being a kid, the inherent unfairness that is practiced among kids and it showed the freedom available if one puts forth the effort to take it. This was a fantastic book. One sentence stood out though "It took them a long time to accept there what everyone could see by their TV's was OK anywhere else".[italics mine] It just made me realize how susceptible we humans are to having our reality defined by fiction. God spoke Truth. Satan spoke lies. Guess which we chose, and continue to choose? But this was a fantastic book. Definitely worth a hardcover buy.

February '09

2009-02-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

THE ULTIMATE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE
-D. Adams-scifi
-815-comprising Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe and Everything
So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
Young Zaphod Plays it Safe
Mostly Harmless
Stories about a man from earth who survives the earth being blown up. Lots of silliness ensues, multiple universes/earths happen, Arthur finds his way back to Earth, just in time to have ALL the earths wiped out of the space/time continuum. Very silly stuff that I remember making my sides hurt back in bibleschool, but to be honest, I just found it stupid this time around. Maybe it is a one time thing? And what a cop out of an ending. All the main characters are on earth when all the earths are erased. Fits with the series profile though.

SHAMAN KING #13-15
-H. Takei-manga
-had read these last year and totally forgotten. Library has no new ones either, sigh.

DINOSAUR BEACH
-K. Laumer-scifi
-186-a time agent from Era4 gets into some serious time screwups. Messes with Era5-7 and turns out to be a robot from the WAY future allowing humanity a chance to survive without timetravel. He loves a woman from 1936 and as a reward goes back there and forgets everything but his cover story about living in that age. Weird.

CATCH-22
-J. Heller-fiction
-443- This was a novel that I absolutely hated. It was about a man in the airforce, in WWII, named Yossarian who is a cowardly son of a bitch. He thinks of nobody but himself. All his peers die throughout the book due to the war. Comedic, horrible, outrageous, pretentious. Heller takes the worst traits of human nature, throws them all together and presents it as an airforce unit. There was not a single good man in this book. All were cheats, adulterers, cowards, liars, etc, etc. It was not pleasant to read. The whole thrust of Heller's book seems to be that humans are totally horrible creatures and that one must do whatever is necessary to survive. Look out for number one. If he was alive today, even if in a wheelchair with an oxygen can, I'd go right up to him and beat the living snot out of him. Satirizing men who gave up their lives for me is not funny imo.

BLESSED CHILD
-T. Dekker & B. Bright-fiction
-351- a young boy, who has a complete rapport with God, changes the lives of a man and woman who rescue him in Ethiopia. Brought to the US, he changes the lives of hundreds of thousands, physically. Ends up with him and the man and woman going back to Ethiopia to restart the mission that was destroyed at the beginning of the book. This was good. This was Dekker's writing coupled with Bright's theology, and it was terrific. A heart healed, a soul reclaimed, is more important than a million miracles of physical restoration. That is what I got from this book. This was what I wish Dekker had stayed like.

A MAN CALLED BLESSED
-T. Dekker & B. Bright-fiction
-356- the sequel to Blessed Child. Caleb is now a man of 25. The Ark of the Covenant is discovered at the monastery where he and his parents now reside. An Israeli woman and an Arab man are the other 2 main characters. Ends with the ark melting, the Arab dying and the Israeli probably going to marry Caleb. The thrust of this book was that God no longer dwelt within an ark of wood and gold, but within the ark of our hearts. Not nearly as good as its predecessor.

KING KELSON'S BRIDE
-K. Kurtz-fantasy
-374-finishes, happily, the story of King Kelson. At least, he finally gets married successfully. I'm guessing there was enough outcry at how she left her Histories of King Kelson series that her publisher wanted to wrap it up happily. It was just to wordy though. To much description of everything: clothes, scenery, people, objects, ceremonies. She described a bloody picnic for almost 2 pages. I was glad to see a happy ending for Kelson, but I have no real interest in any more of her stuff. It seems to be church history with a tiny bit of magic thrown in. I was not enthralled.

THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN: DRAGONFLIGHT
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-180- introduced to the world of Pern. Dragons are in symbiosis with men, to fight thread, a parasitic thing that falls every 200 to 400 years. It has been very long since last threadfall in this story and nobody believes it will come again. One dragonrider, F'lar, believes it will. He searches out a woman to be queen of the Weir for the next queen egg. Lessa gets it and ends up discovering that dragons can jump between times as well as distances. Not enough dragons to fight thread. So Lessa goes back 400+ years to get the last known large group of dragonriders. Works and saves Pern.

THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN: DRAGONQUEST
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-250-The "oldtimers" aren't fitting in. So they are exiled to the southern continent. Lots of problems between dragonmen, holders and craftsmen. Lots of intrigue among northern dragonmen as well. Things get sorted out and "ancient timer" technology is discovered.

THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN: THE WHITE DRAGON
-A. McCaffrey-fantasy
-295- a young holder lord impresses a runt dragon. The southern continent is shown to be HUGE and the northerners want it opened up for their landless children. F'lar wants the best of the continent for dragonmen so they won't be beholden to the holds once threadfall passes. Everything works out and it is discovered that man is not indigenous to Pern.

HELLSING #1-4
-K. Hirano-manga
-a protestant organization fights vampires and such and their trump card is a vampire. They have a catholic counterpart. By book4 it had degenerated into nazi vampires in South America trying to take over the world.

AMAZING AGENT LUNA OMNIBUS #1
-N. DeFilippis & C. Weir-manga
-502-the first 3 volumes of Amazing Agent Luna. Ameri-manga. Testtube girl/superagent goes to highschool to find out what stereotypical villain is up to. Funny. To bad library doesn't have more.

MISS MARJORIBANKS
-M. Oliphant-classic
-497- a strong willed young lady takes over the social scene when she returns from school. Her duty is "to be a comfort to her papa". The first 2/3rds of the book deal with her at 19. Interesting and comical. The last third deals with her 10 years later when her father dies. Ends with her marrying her cousin Tom and setting out to conquer a new village/town. I liked the earlier part, not the later. First was refreshing and interesting. Later was same old, same old and you wanted her to get on with it. Good to read once.

NOBLE DEAD: DHAMPIR
-B & JC Hendee-fantasy
-376- a woman and a half elf scam villagers by pretending to kill some imaginary vampire threat. They settle down to run an inn and have their old business come back to haunt them, only this time there are real vampires. The woman turns out to be the daughter of a vampire and is consequently a dhampir, a human with some vampiric powers. This was a very simple book, with many details glossed over or left out, but it was a good entertaining read. I would call it trash fantasy, but not in a bad way, more of a disposable way. I'll probably read more of this series.

THE LOST FLEET: DAUNTLESS
-J. Campbell/John Hemry-scifi
-283- a space captain is rescued from his escape pod 100 years after the battle he won. The alliance and the syndic are still at war. Through a variety of bad decisions on the alliance's part, all their military leaders are butchered by the syndic, leaving John Geary in charge. His mission is to take the fleet home and deliver a hypernet key to the alliance. The current military is a bunch of amateurs and Geary must navigate politics as well as the enemy if he is to survive, much less succeed. Darren suggested this author to me and I'm really liking it so far. Geary doesn't want to be in charge, especially in charge of idiots. But he is and he does his duty.

THE LOST FLEET: FEARLESS
-J. Campbell/John Hemry-scifi
-295- the second leg of the journey home. They rescue a bunch of POW's and one turns out to be a charismatic "hero" who was a real blunderer. The blunderer convinces 40 ships to follow him and they take off on their own. Only 12 survive and hook backup with the main fleet. I really like this series. Unfortunately, the library doesn't have book 3. It does have book 4, but that is it. And they were never printed in hardcover, so I won't be buying them. Sigh...

OZ: THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ
-F. Baum-juvenile fantasy
-272- Dorothy is taken to Oz, from Kansas, by a cyclone. She defeats 2 evil witches and helps out her friends, the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Cowardly Lion and returns back to Kansas. I really enjoyed this. It wasn't like the movie in that it was much more kid friendly without all the dark overtones. I never realized that there were at least 12 books in the Oz series. Looking forward to reading them this year.

INUYASHA #1-2
-R. Takahashi-manga

HELLSING #5-7
-K. Hirano-manga

BATTLEFIELD EARTH
-L.R. Hubbard-scifi
-942- earth is conquered by the Psychlos for 1000 years. A man ends up destroying them, saving earth, and also pretty much saving all the galaxies in the bargain. Good writing.

OZ: THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ
-F. Baum-juvenile fantasy
-292- a young boy runs away from a witch with a pumpkin head man. Meets up with the Tin man and the Scarecrow. Emerald City is taken over. Glinda helps them retake it and it turns out that Tip, the boy, is actually a girl who is the real ruler. Light and engaging.

NOBLE DEAD: THIEF OF LIVES
-B & JC Hendee-fantasy
-410- Magierre and Leesil are asked to take care of a vampire in a bigger city. Turns out to be just a setup by Westiel to train her. Find out more about Leesil's past. Very clean for a vamp novel. No graphic sex or even gore.

NOBLE DEAD: SISTER OF THE DEAD
-B & JC Hendee-fantasy
-405- Magierre is trying to find out her past. Turns out she was specifically made to serve some long dead thing that wants to be resurrected with her at its side. Chap, the fey dog, is watching her to take her out if she goes down the dark path.

January '09

2009-01-28T20:55:00.001-05:00

SHADOW OF THE HEGEMON
-O.S. Card-scifi
-442- a sequel to Ender's Shadow. All the Battleschool children, except Ender, are back on earth. Achilles kidnaps a bunch of them to take over the world, tries to kill Bean. Bean hooks up with Peter Wiggins, who reveals himself and the world changes. I doubt I will read any of the novels after this one. Ender's War and Ender's Shadow were engrossing, not this one. Just politics "in the future", oooooohhhhhh.

RESERVOIR CHRONICLE TSUBASA #16-19
-Clamp-manga

OH MY GODDESS! #30
-K. Fujishima-manga
-151

ACORNA: THE UNICORN GIRL
-A. McCaffrey & Margaret Ball-scifi
-254-this was much more YA than I remembered. I doubt I'll read this again for a very long time.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS
-A. Dumas-classic
-738-I enjoyed this. A tale of swashbucklers and mindless bravery. Unfortunately, the immorality was so blatant and so mixed with "christian" ideals that it was ridiculous. What scares me is the fact that a national character can change so drastically over a couple hundred of years. The French were fighters. Now? Look at them. What about us Americans? Brrr...

ONE PIECE #19
-E. Oda-manga
-210

ACORNA: ACORNA'S QUEST
-A. McCaffrey & M. Ball-scifi
-282-Acorna goes to find her homeworld. 4 linyarri find humanity. Humanity meets, fights and sends packing, the kleevi. Done with this series.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
-A. Dumas-classic
-618-Wow! This was gripping, well told, fascinating and almost perfect. The way it was told just sucked me in. A man is unjustly accused and throught several people betraying him, ends up in a prison left to die. Befriends another prisoner, escapes, gets a fabulous treasure and returns to wreak his vengeance. The emotions portrayed were so good, so true. The only thing I didn't like is that one of his vengeances is explained almost as a sidenote and you never really find out what happened. But other than that, awesome. If I couldn't read another book this year, this one would be the perfect one to end on. Incredible!

DRAGON BALL #1
-A. Toriyama-manga
-175-Bulma meets Goku and they start out looking for the rest of the Dragon Balls. Crude, childish humor and for a 34C, Bulma sure is flat.

ADAM
-T. Dekker-suspense/thriller
-400- an investigator goes after a serial killer who turns out to be demon possessed. This was disturbing. There was very little of the power of Jesus involved. Dekker also seems to be trying to include Islam in his "appeal to those of faith" approach. I did not like this book.

THE PRINCE OF NOTHING: THE DARKNESS THAT COMES BEFORE
-R.S. Bakker-fantasy
-577-this was a callously cold and brutal book. Some of the violence and most of the graphic sex seemed to be there just to shock the reader at how pathetic the characters were. Gods, wizards, warriors, politicians, all coming together for another apocalypse 2 thousand years after the previous apocalypse. Nothing in this book made me want to read the next book in the series.

THE DRAGON KEEPER CHRONICLES: DRAGONSPELL
-D.K. Paul-ya fantasy
-334-a young girl finds a dragons egg and is sent to the Hall of Learning to serve under Paladin, the earthly representative of Wulder, the one true God. She gets caught up on a quest before she ever gets to the hall and ends up saving a special dragon egg. This lady is a Christian and she sets her fantasy in a world very similar to ours in regards to God and satan. This was geared towards young adults and not really toward adults. Had a hard time paying attention because it was "simplified". I doubt I'll be reading any more of her YA stuff.

THE LAST RUNE: BEYOND THE PALE
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-622-2 people from earth are whisked away to another world where magic, etc, etc, is real. An evil king from a millenia ago is on the rise and it is up to the 2 travelers to stop or slow him down. I enjoyed this book. It is a finished series, with 6 total. Sadly, the libraries do not carry any more. Glad I got to read this one anyway.

2008 In Review

2008-12-31T23:59:00.002-05:00

1: Hogfather-Terry Pratchett-354
2: Hyperion Cantos: Endymion-Dan Simmons-563
3: Hyperion Cantos: The Rise of Endymion-Dan Simmons-709
4: Recluce: The Towers of the Sunset-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-359
5: Rurouni Kenshin #1-Nobuhiro Watsuki-199
6: Mars: A Princess of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-160
7: Recluce: The Magic Engineer-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-617
8: Mars: The Gods of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-195
9: Mars: The Warlord of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-138
10: Les Miserables-Victor Hugo-1463
11: Recluce: The Order War-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-598
12: Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two-Drew Karpyshyn-318
13: Mars: Thuvia, Maid of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-125
14: Spellsong: The Soprano Sorceress-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-664
15: Castle in the Air-Diana Wynne Jones-199
16: Dark Lord of Derkhom-Diana Wynne Jones-345
17: Spellsong: The Spellsong War-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-672
18: Bleak House Part I-Charles Dickens-511
19: The Martian Chronicles- Ray Bradbury-182
20: Something Wicked This Way Comes-Ray Bradbury-290
21: Quadrail: The Third Lynx-Timothy Zahn-350
22: Mars: The Chessmen of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-222
23: Bleak House Part II-Charles Dickens-540
24: The Illustrated Man-Ray Bradbury-253
25: Princess and the Goblin-George MacDonald-161
26: Princess and Curdie-George MacDonald-160
27: The Roald Dahl Omnibus-Roald Dahl-682
28: Martin Chuzzlewit Part I-Charles Dickens-568
29: The Old Man and the Sea-Ernest Hemingway-140
30: Howl's Moving Castle-Diana Wynne Jones-329
31: Recluce: The Death of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-640
32: Hikaru No Go #1-Yumi Hotta-192
33: Hikaru No Go #2-Yumi Hotta-192
34: Hikaru No Go #3-Yumi Hotta-192
35: Hikaru No Go #4-Yumi Hotta-192
36: Hikaru No Go #5-Yumi Hotta-192
37: Hikaru No Go #6-Yumi Hotta-192
38: Book of the Gods: Ariadne's Web-Fred Saberhagen-412
39: Martin Chuzzlewit Part II-Charles Dickens-563
40: Little Women-Louisa May Alcott-669
41: Mars: Mastermind of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-160
42: Hikaru No Go #7-Yumi Hotta-192
43: Hikaru No Go #8-Yumi Hotta-192
44: Hikaru No Go #9-Yumi Hotta-192
45: Hikaru No Go #10-Yumi Hotta-192
46: Hikaru No Go #11-Yumi Hotta-192
47: Hikaru No Go #12-Yumi Hotta-192
48: Hikaru No Go #13-Yumi Hotta-192
49: Hikaru No Go #14-Yumi Hotta-192
50: Hikaru No Go #15-Yumi Hotta-192
51: Hikaru No Go #16-Yumi Hotta-192
52: Battle Royale #1-Koushun Takami-216
53: Gravity Dreams-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-468
54: The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind-Fuyumi Ono-317
55: Hikaru No Go #17-Yumi Hotta-192
56: Hikaru No Go #18-Yumi Hotta-192
57: Hikaru No Go #19-Yumi Hotta-192
58: Hikaru No Go #20-Yumi Hotta-192
59: Hikaru No Go #21-Yumi Hotta-192
60: Hikaru No Go #22-Yumi Hotta-192
61: Hikaru No Go #23-Yumi Hotta-192
62: MeruPuri #1-Matsuri Hino-200
63: MeruPuri #2-Matsuri Hino-200
64: MeruPuri #3-Matsuri Hino-200
65: MeruPuri #4-Matsuri Hino-200
66: IT-Stephen King-1138
67: The Old Curiosity Shop Part I-Charles Dickens-362
68: The Old Curiosity Shop Part II-Charles Dickens-355
69: Recluce: Fall of Angels-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-592
70: Azazel-Isaac Asimov-221
71: The Stand-Stephen King-1153
72: Star Wars: Republic Commando: True Colors-Karen Traviss-472
73: Mars: A Fighting Man of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-200
74: Recluce: The Chaos Balance-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-596
75: One Piece #16-Eiichiro Oda-188
76: Shaman King #13- Hiroyuki Takei-190
77: The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald-159
78: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #13-Clamp-208
79: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #14-Clamp-192
80: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #15-Clamp-192
81: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #16-Clamp-192
82: Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet-Arthur Conan Doyle-86
83: Founding of the Commonwealth: Phylogenesis-Alan Dean Foster-327
84: Founding of the Commonwealth: Dirge-Alan Dean Foster-310
85: Shaman King #14- Hiroyuki Takei-190
86: Shaman King #15- Hiroyuki Takei-185
88: One Piece #17-Eiichiro Oda-206
89: Middlemarch-George Elliot-800
90: Founding of the Commonwealth: Diuturnity's Dawn-Alan Dean Foster-341
91: Pudd'nhead Wilson-Mark Twain-224
92: Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four-Arthur Conan Doyle-100
93: Little Dorrit Part I-Charles Dickens-433
94: Recluce: The White Order-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-468
95: Temeraire: Empire of Ivory-Naomi Novik-404
96: Little Dorrit Part II-Charles Dickens-398
97: The Four Loves-Clive Staples Lewis-192
98: Deathnote #13: How to Read-Tsugumi Ohba-270
99: The Catteni: Freedom's Landing-Anne McCaffrey-342
100: Cheaper By The Dozen-Frank Gilbreth, Jr & Ernestine Carey-180
101: Runelords: The Sum of All Men-David Farland-613
102: Retief!-Keith Laumer-589
103: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles #17-Clamp-182
104: Recluce: Colors of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-798
105: The Fifth Elephant-Terry Pratchett-494
105: Recluce: Magi'i of Cyador-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-560
106: Prophet-Frank Peretti-461
107: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Gardens of the Moon-Steven Erikson-488
108: Night Watch-Terry Pratchett-338
109: The Dark Side of the Sun-Terry Pratchett-158
110: Fruits Basket #18-Natsuki Takaya-209
111: Barnaby Rudge-Charles Dickens-599
112: Corean Chronicles: Legacies-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-558
113: Recluce: Scion of Cyador-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-720
114: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Deadhouse Gates-Steven Erikson-598
115: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Fury- Aaron Allston-356
116: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Revelation- Karen Traviss-410
117: Corean Chronicles: Darkness-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-492
118: Starswarm-Jerry Pournelle-349
119: In Legend Born-Laura Resnick-461
120: Taken: The Light-Years Beneath My Feet-Alan Dean Foster-245
121: In Fire Forged: The White Dragon-Laura Resnick-491
122: Green Rider: Green Rider-Kristen Britain-504
123: Malazan Book of the Fallen: Memories of Ice-Steven Erikson-781
124: Invasive Procedures-Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston-352
125: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible- Troy Denning-299
126: Corean Chronicles: Scepters-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-624
127: In Fire Forged: The Destroyer Goddess-Laura Resnick-478
128: Green Rider: First Rider's Call-Kristen Britain-484
129: Oh My Goddess! #29-Kosuke Fujishima-156
130: The Looking Glass Wars-Frank Beddor-376
131: Green Rider: The High King's Tomb-Kristen Britain-679
132: Forward the Foundation-Isaac Asimov-480
133: Hard Times-Charles Dickens-257
134: The Holly-Tree- Charles Dickens-32
135: StarWars: Republic Commando: Order 66-Karen Traviss-432
136: Shannara: Genesis of Shannara: The Gypsy Morph-Terry Brooks-402
137: The Octagonal Raven-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-432
138: Dune: Paul of Dune-Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderseron-512
139: Temeraire: Victory of Eagles-Naomi Novik-329
140: Great Expectations- Charles Dickens- 479
141: The Mystery of Edwin Drood- Charles Dickens-230
142: Oliver Twist-Charles Dickens-501
143: Recluce: Wellspring of Chaos-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-400
144: Paradise: Saint-Ted Dekker-347
145: Foundation-Isaac Asimov-227
146: Foundation & Empire-Isaac Asimov-227
147: Second Foundation-Isaac Asimov-225
148: Mars: Swords of Mars-Edgar Rice Burroughs-208
149: Landover: Witches' Brew-Terry Brooks-304
150: Skin-Ted Dekker-349
151: Recluce: Ordermaster-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-494
152: Quadrail: Odd Girl Out-Timothy Zahn-379
153: Looking Glass: Into the Looking Glass-John Ringo-366
154: The Bronze Canticles: Mystic Warrior-Tracy and Laura Hickman-433
155: The Singer's Crown-Elaine Isaak-469
156: War of the Spider Queen: Dissolution-Richard Byers-344
157: War of the Spider Queen: Insurrection-Thomas Reid-338
158: Elminster: The Making of a Mage-Ed Greenwood-312
159: Where the Sidewalk Ends-Shel Silverstein-166
160: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed-Sean Williams-319
161: Looking Glass: Vorpal Blade- John Ringo & Travis Taylor-400
162: Alice's Adventure in Wonderland-Lewis Carroll-144
163: Through the Looking Glass-Lewis Carrol-164
164: War of the Spider Queen: Condemnation-Richard Baker-344
165: Not For Glory-Joel Rosenberg-232
166: Mistborn: The Hero of Ages-Brandon Sanderson-572
167: Elminster: In Myth Drannor-Ed Greenwood-378
168: Fruits Basket #19-Natsuki Takaya-216
169: Fruits Basket #20-Natsuki Takaya-192
170: At the Back of the North Wind-George MacDonald-292
171: Eon-Greg Bear-412
172: Eternity-Greg Bear-346
173: Kare Kano #4-Masami Tsuda-194
174: Kare Kano #5-Masami Tsuda-197
175: Vellum: The Book of All Hours-Hal Duncan-463
176: One Piece #17-Eiichiro Oda-206
177: One Piece #18-Eiichiro Oda-223