Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[ATDrake]

Finished Dangerous Dames, an omnibus of The Plutonium Blonde and The Doomsday Brunette in John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem's retro-futuristic comedic sf action sleuth series starring Zach Johnson, Earth's last licensed PI, who often takes on the functions of impromtu bodyguard as well as official detective in the course of his day job.

I'd previously read another omnibus further along in the series, and liked it enough to go and buy this one, which was at a pretty good price for 2 books, even before the Kobo coupon discount.

Fun as before, and I don't feel I missed out by reading the series out of order. They do seem to be arranged in sets of 2 books, with the even-numbered ones kind of picking up (or just spoilering developments) from where the odd-numbered ones left off. But aside from the recurring supporting characters, the plots are pretty much standalone within each "duet".

Plenty of nifty looks at the faux-futuristic society which is suspiciously like an exaggerated present-day society (only with more tech and even sillier pop culture) and decent whodunnits with reasonable twists and turns. I confess I rather like cases where it turned out that the deceased had a long-ish list of eligible suspects who almost all tried to dunnit, but only one of them actually managed to succeed, leaving the rest to shake their fists in thwarted revenge-rage.

Recommended if you like light-hearted sfnal whatdunnits in a retro-futuristic comedic action-adventure PI setting, with the kind of culprits that only technology/motivations gone horribly, terribly, and hilariously spoofy of stock genre clichés can provide. Only a few minor typos (a couple of wrong word typos and misplaced curly quotes).

Now currently on the library's paper copy of The Sapphire Sirens, 6th book in the series, which for no particular reason I can determine, spoilers the 5th book in the series which I haven't read in its opening chapters. Well, maybe it actually has bearing on the plot solution later. In the meanwhile, fun as usual.

[Nyssa]

Thanks! I just recommended the John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem series to my Hubby.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

ahh, from that movie "The Seeker"? it was a huge failure IMO. Awful. How is the series?

I've just started it, so I will keep you posted when I get a bit further into it. I think the movie "Seeker" is based on it, but I haven't seen it.

[BearMountainBooks]

I know, I know, I said no more short stories. But I have a vested interest in this one...well, more like I like to check out what my colleagues are up to. Anyway, Darwin's Evolutions just published Big-T by Jakob Drud at Amazon and B&N.

http://www.amazon.com/Big-T-ebook/dp...FE/ref=sr_1_1?

It was a good read--I guess I do still enjoy a short story when the pace is fast enough and I care about the characters. This was well-done, an entertaining little adventure. The ending wrapped things up a little too neatly? maybe...kind of left me wishing for a little bit of suspicion (or maybe I was left a little bit suspicious is a better way to put it.)

[birdbrainbb]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

ahh, from that movie "The Seeker"? it was a huge failure IMO. Awful. How is the series?

I'm going to barge in, here: the movie is awful, the books are decidedly not. The movie? Is almost COMPLETELY different from the book it's based on. The characters are different, the plot is (basically) different, and the atmosphere/setting/etc. is different.

The Dark is Rising sequence is one of the best YA fantasy series ever written, IMHO, and if you haven't read it yet you're doing yourself a disservice.

/soapbox

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I've just started it, so I will keep you posted when I get a bit further into it. I think the movie "Seeker" is based on it, but I haven't seen it.

If you haven't, then don't ever watch it. It's a disaster.

Originally Posted by birdbrainbb

I'm going to barge in, here: the movie is awful, the books are decidedly not. The movie? Is almost COMPLETELY different from the book it's based on. The characters are different, the plot is (basically) different, and the atmosphere/setting/etc. is different.

The Dark is Rising sequence is one of the best YA fantasy series ever written, IMHO, and if you haven't read it yet you're doing yourself a disservice.

/soapbox

arggg, another series to add to the already-incredibly-long list

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

ahh, from that movie "The Seeker"? it was a huge failure IMO. Awful. How is the series?

Definitely do not use that heap of junk movie to be even a vague indication of the quality of this series.

EDIT: Didn't read ahead - someone has already debunked the theory that movie = book in this case.

Only thing left to add is that it's one of the few book series in my life that I've re-read and will undoubtedly read again. (I don't usually re-read books)

[ATDrake]

Finished 2 books that were continuing series I've already mentioned:

John Zakour's The Sapphire Sirens, which it turns out is 7th in the "Zach Johnson, last remaining 21st century PI" series and not 6th as I'd thought, thus throwing a wrench in my hypothesis that even-numbered books spoiler the odd-numbered ones immediately preceding.

Nevertheless, it was a fun light spoof sf/mystery/action-adventure read like the rest of them, with nice character treatment of the snarky AI sidekick and the implications of his ongoing personal development over the course of the series, and a nifty misdirecting whodunnit that turns into multiple red herrings for the actual plot.

Quite liked this one and recommend it like the rest (although this adventure kind of builds on the ones before, so best to read some of the previous in series before tackling this one).

Then went and read a Fictionwise purchase, Castle for Rent, 2nd in John DeChancie's Castle Perilous comedic fantasy world crossover series.

A little like the 1st eponymous series book, this one involves an attempted invasion/takeover of the multi-dimensional gateway castle. But this time it's a lot more interesting, as the (mostly) Earth-ly "Guests" are left to fend on their own while Lord Incarnadine, ruler of Castle Perilous, is stranded on Earth and has to figure out which if any of his somewhat estranged relatives is trying to take over his throne.

More polished writing in this one, as I suspected there would be after I read the 1st book, since the characters and premise are better established.

Also some fun in-jokes, with Incarnadine's income source on Earth comes from being the writer of the "Castle Ramothornax" series, published by "Spade Publishing", now a division of "Bishop* Books", or terms to that effect.

Medium recommend if you like light comedic fantasy/mundane world crossovers. I actually think it's a stronger starting point for the series than the original Castle Perilous book, but you might prefer to be introduced to the characters and premise from the beginning, especially if you can pick up these books cheap during a Fictionwise coupon sale.

* Originally I thought this was supposed to be Tor, since the tower-y thing is a chess piece. But then I wiki'ed Ace and it looks like they were bought out by Penguin, who owns Roc, which is pretty close to "Rook", which is the actual name of said tower-y chess piece.

[amward]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I'm reading "The Dark is Rising" series.

Read these when I was a school librarian, loved them. Maybe I should read them again.

[Fbone]

Finished Agatha H and the Airship City by Foglio. The last 100 pages saved the book. There were so many strange characters it was hard to follow. And the unusual technology was sometimes hard to grasp. This was my first "steampunk" book. I'll read others as they come along but not back to back. Need breaks between them.

Next I'll try Unwind by Neal Shusterman. Looking forward to this one. Interesting concept although sad. I'm wondering how the author plays this theme out.

[covingtoncat73]

Well, I listened to Patient Zero by Jonathan Mayberry. It was a fun little thriller with Zombies. I like that the guy has a cat and I like the shrink best friend.

I finished Those Who Hunt the Dark by Barbara Hambly on my Kobo. It was very good. I will have to read more James Asher novels. It is nice to find well-written vampire books for more mature readers.

I am now reading Hexed. I'm about 50 pages in and enjoying it.

On audio, I'm listening to Throne of Jade, the second of Naomi Novik's Temeraire books. Best. Dragons. Ever.

[maianhvk]

I just finished Red Riding Hood, the book based on the movie with the same name. The movie is out this year, and I thought an adaption of our original children's tale "Red Riding Hood" was interesting, so I started reading this book.

Spoiler:

I enjoyed it at the beginning when small Valerie came out to the goat's place and saw the Wolf. From that on, reading was just for the sake of hoping things would get more exciting. Especially after the older sister died, I don't even remember her name, things got unbearable.

I couldn't understand why the authors lingered that much on such a nonsense detail of the death by one supporting character? Valerie's family and village agonized for what looked like a century for me. Pages after pages the authors went on describing how the living people missed that dead one. Sure losing someone you loved was overwhelming, that I knew, but by inserting "and Valerie thought of her poor sister who has that smile she loved" everywhere since her death, the authors were getting on my nerves. By talking so much about agony, they gave me the impression that what Valerie felt about her sister was fake. I was saying out loud, "PLEASE let's talk about other stuffs like the wolf and that mysterious Peter, whatever! STOP that nonsense!"

And there's something else. At the end of the book, they said something like, "if you want to know how this (crap) ends, go watch the movie". Now THAT caught me off guard. It's irritating, isn't it, when you pay for the book and in the end, figure out that you have to pay for the movie too if you wanna know the ending??

It's not neccessary to mention the fact that when it asked me to rate the book after finishing it, I gave it 1 star without second thought.

I hope the movie isn't as bad as this book.

[Pookeysgirl]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

I just finished Red Riding Hood, the book based on the movie with the same name. The movie is out this year, and I thought an adaption of our original children's tale "Red Riding Hood" was interesting, so I started reading this book.

Spoiler:

I enjoyed it at the beginning when small Valerie came out to the goat's place and saw the Wolf. From that on, reading was just for the sake of hoping things would get more exciting. Especially after the older sister died, I don't even remember her name, things got unbearable.

I couldn't understand why the authors lingered that much on such a nonsense detail of the death by one supporting character? Valerie's family and village agonized for what looked like a century for me. Pages after pages the authors went on describing how the living people missed that dead one. Sure losing someone you loved was overwhelming, that I knew, but by inserting "and Valerie thought of her poor sister who has that smile she loved" everywhere since her death, the authors were getting on my nerves. By talking so much about agony, they gave me the impression that what Valerie felt about her sister was fake. I was saying out loud, "PLEASE let's talk about other stuffs like the wolf and that mysterious Peter, whatever! STOP that nonsense!"

And there's something else. At the end of the book, they said something like, "if you want to know how this (crap) ends, go watch the movie". Now THAT caught me off guard. It's irritating, isn't it, when you pay for the book and in the end, figure out that you have to pay for the movie too if you wanna know the ending??

It's not neccessary to mention the fact that when it asked me to rate the book after finishing it, I gave it 1 star without second thought.

I hope the movie isn't as bad as this book.

IMO the movie sucked. I watched it last night. By the previews I had seen I was expecting a darker version of the tale. I was very, very wrong. The dialogue reminded me a little of Twilight. I think it was a great concept, but poorly executed.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

I just finished Red Riding Hood, the book based on the movie with the same name. The movie is out this year, and I thought an adaption of our original children's tale "Red Riding Hood" was interesting, so I started reading this book.

Spoiler:

I enjoyed it at the beginning when small Valerie came out to the goat's place and saw the Wolf. From that on, reading was just for the sake of hoping things would get more exciting. Especially after the older sister died, I don't even remember her name, things got unbearable.

I couldn't understand why the authors lingered that much on such a nonsense detail of the death by one supporting character? Valerie's family and village agonized for what looked like a century for me. Pages after pages the authors went on describing how the living people missed that dead one. Sure losing someone you loved was overwhelming, that I knew, but by inserting "and Valerie thought of her poor sister who has that smile she loved" everywhere since her death, the authors were getting on my nerves. By talking so much about agony, they gave me the impression that what Valerie felt about her sister was fake. I was saying out loud, "PLEASE let's talk about other stuffs like the wolf and that mysterious Peter, whatever! STOP that nonsense!"

And there's something else. At the end of the book, they said something like, "if you want to know how this (crap) ends, go watch the movie". Now THAT caught me off guard. It's irritating, isn't it, when you pay for the book and in the end, figure out that you have to pay for the movie too if you wanna know the ending??

It's not neccessary to mention the fact that when it asked me to rate the book after finishing it, I gave it 1 star without second thought.

I hope the movie isn't as bad as this book.

Thanks for the review. I will be giving this one a miss.

[The_Casualty]

I'm reading Lord of Chaos, book 6 of the wheel of time series.