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

[ATDrake]

So, finished a few more books that were due at the library, which is basically how I get around to reading stuff these days.

Medieval LEGO® edited by Greyson Beights is a No Starch Press title, surprisingly not about building medieval castles and such with LEGO®. It's actually a mini coffee table book combining short introductory history texts by scholars who according to the credentials in the back, are mostly Professor of something or other over at some fairly prestigious universities, with cute illustrative scenes done by LEGO® builders.

This is pretty nifty, if very short, and covers the major highlights of Middle Ages, for values of British Isles-related history, from William the Conqueror over to the Battle of Bosworth Field, with stops in between for colourful figures like Matthew Paris and Margery Kempe and events like The Founding of the University of Oxford (mentioning briefly in passing that the founding of the University of Cambridge is apparently based in quadruple murder, something which their official About Us page kind of skims over), and The Great Famine which was precursor to The Black Death.

Also from the New Books shelf, Crucible: All New Tales of Valdemar edited by Mercedes Lackey, containing what amounts to authorized fanfiction set in her popular fantasy world. These days I sporadically keep up with what's going on in Valdemar not so much out of nostalgia as what could best be described as sheer morbid curiosity, considering that the series has IMHO been going downhill for quite a long time. But this was an okay set of stories by people playing in the sandbox, which is always nice to see how fresh perspectives bring new stuff to the table, even if a lot of them read like Baby's First Professional Sale. I've always liked shared universe stuff for that quality of how different authors do different takes on the same starting material, even if the fad for those anthologies was long since over by the time I started reading sf/fantasy.

One of the tricky things about shared worlds is making one's original material seem to fit in with the established setting, which is something that even accomplished authors can have difficulties with. One of my favourite historical fantasy authors, Judith Tarr, sometimes contributes to these (not in this volume), and her stories, while perfectly cromulent and good quality horse fantasy, simply do not have the flavour of Valdemar stories and read like they could be set in any other horse fantasy world. OTOH, Janni Lee Simner, whose ISFDB credits are considerably shorter, often contributes very thoughtful and fitting tales focusing on lesser-explored cultures such as the Karsites and the Holderkin, which are both entertaining and insightful and really help to flesh out the feel of the world.

There weren't any really standout stories this time around, and a lot of them felt a little repetitive in theme (there's a decided tendency to have stories centred around the plucky downtrodden protagonist discovering some useful new power or coming to terms with their suppressed talent or making a cathartic realization about the emotional trauma holding them back or all three, but that's entirely in keeping with the series proper), they did get varied a bit by having different sorts of characters, so at least we got the variety of gryphons and Rethwellan immigrants and temple acolytes, among the usual Heralds and Bards and Hawkbrothers, oh my! Though some continuity editing could have come in handy. If I haven't read a particular book in years but can still recognize that the name of a supporting character is flat-out wrong, then it would be nice if the author who invoked that character's name in order to give their original character a stronger tie to another major character would at least fact-check before using it.

Anyway, it was nice to see some continuing installments with recurring characters by several authors who've been setting up mini-sagas for their original characters throughout the anthology series. I was hoping for a new Tarma & Kethry story, as a few of them have appeared in previous anthologies, but the Lackey-contributed tale in this one starred the newer character of Healer Vixen, which considering that her old Baen's Bar forum section used to be called "Dixon's Vixen", I can't help but feel is a stealth self-insert character like unto Herald-Chronicler Myste, who started out as an in-joke in the introduction to the Mage Winds trilogy (Lackey's personal nickname is "Misty") and later became written into a major supporting character and love interest for one of the other major supporting characters who got his own backstory book. But aside from that, it was a perfectly cromulent "helping to sabotage an outlaw band without actually beating them singlehandedly" sort of plucky downtrodden protagonist tale, and overall, this anthology was pretty decent for a free library read.

And to cap off the New Books shelf reads which I'll be returning today: Rise: The Complete Newsflesh Collection by Mira Grant, pseudonym of Seanan McGuire, collecting the previously-published shorts in her popular bloggers vs. zombies series as well as two new novellas.

I'd read a few of these when they showed up in the Hugo Voter Packet, and both those and the new ones were entertaining looks into the backstory (and part of the future, post-trilogy) of the setting, with some interesting worldbuilding exploration of how the ramifications of the zombie apocalypse might play out in different areas with different attitudes and circumstances. I'm not always certain about the plausibility of some of it* (IMHO the author is considerably more optimistic than me about the probable level of altruism of much of humanity when it comes to getting along with potentially threatening outsider groups and also the speed of technological advance and cultural adaptation but eh, it's her fantasy world and as long as it's internally consistent), but there's usually a decent amount of thought going in to it, and not just how to cope with zombie attack incidents for the sake of how to cope with zombie attack incidents.

There's some very tragic downer ending stuff which may be an allegory for school shooting lockdowns where the people in charge mouth noises about security but fail to actually secure things beyond a superficial cosmetic level, but also some rather upbeat and positive stuff about infected wildlife conservation efforts in Australia, as well as some more glimpses into the lives of the main characters. In addition to the Australia novella, I rather liked the one which provided insight into Georgia & Shaun Mason's adoptive parents and what drove them to be the way they were.

Overall, a pretty good collection and recommended if you liked the setting and would like to read more about it. It also seems like rather good value for money in terms of word-count, since the front cover flap says this costs $30 CAD in hardcover and it's over 560 pages, which is more substantial than some pricier but shorter titles that were on the shelf. It seems there's now a 4th novel to the trilogy, which does a remixed re-take on the events of the 1st, which I'll have to see if the library has when I visit.

* And as usual, US authors seem to have really weird ideas about how Canada can or would work, but I consider the inadvertent bonus entertainment value of that to be a feature, not a bug.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Now starting Wes Chu's The Rise of Io. The beginning of a new series in his Tao universe.

Which was an excellent start to new series. This has the potential to be much better than the original Tao series, in my opinion.

Now starting Daniel Polansky's newly released A City Dreaming.

[ATDrake]

Finished A Study in Sable by Mercedes Lackey which, judging by its position on the library's New Books shelf, is the latest in her Elemental Masters series of Victorian urban fantasy with fairy tale-based plot elements. Over the course of the series, Lackey has been inserting thinly-veiled pastiches of genre-iconic characters (there was a recent one that was all about the Lord Peter Wimsey expy), and as the title of this installment implies, this is the one that outright uses Sherlock Holmes (by name, since he's mostly public domain in most places now), also recasting John and Mary Watson as Masters of Water and Air.

Quite frankly, the Watsons came across as kind of generic magic people who could have been given any names and served the same plot function, without providing all that much that was distinctive about them from the ACD tales (or at least Dr. Watson, given that he's had a bunch of wives and only one of them got serious screentime, IIRC). But Holmes was mostly himself, even if I found his depiction overly excuses-making determinedly skeptical about the existence of magic in a demonstrably magical world in the face of examinable evidence. ACD Holmes didn't care about whether the earth revolved around the sun or otherwise, but paid attention to anything that was germane to his crime-solving, and I personally think that would carry over in him not really caring about having a "rational" cause for the various supernatural phenomena so much as repeatably observable results. But that's a minor quibble in a story I otherwise mostly liked.

The bulk of the story centred around Nan and Sarah, two of Lackey's past child characters now grown up, coming into contact with the Watsons for reasons, which lead them to encounter Holmes and help him out with a mundane-looking missing persons case, which coincidentally becomes one of their cases from the supernatural side, as one of the parties involved claims to be haunted by restless ghosts, and independently contacts Sarah, whose mediumistic abilities can contact and send on to the afterlife. In between, there's some errand-running which shows off the Watsons' magical abilities and does some namedropping for Holmes' cases. And it does feel like namedropping, since there wasn't all that much plot usage to those bits except for incorporating some Holmesiana mythos by showing off the girls' abilities to impress Holmes and confirm some of his suspicions regarding his rogues' gallery.

Aside from that, the story overall was actually more enjoyable than the past few Elemental Masters volumes that I've read. Lackey does continue her tendency to unhelpfully infodump by going on about the plucky protagonists' super special abilities and training and how awesome they all are, before actually showing them in action, which IMHO kind of undercuts the effect. But this installment was refreshingly lacking in her typical villainous gloating self-justifying rant internal monologue, probably because the actual villain was meant to be a surprise (which I guessed the whodunnit, but not the how/why, mainly because I already knew the particular folk ballad she based the A-plot of this one upon from her Free Bards novels) and there were some red herrings dropped about a possible culprit who turned out to be something entirely different.

Medium-mild recommend if you've liked previous volumes in the series, or just want to read another take on Sherlock Holmes in a domestically cozy fantasy world. This one didn't feel too continuity heavy (I think I skipped a couple of books, since there were a bunch of references to characters and previous incidents I didn't recall as though I were expected to remember them, and the infodumpiness actually didn't help with that, but it was easy enough to gloss over those parts and they felt like repeated character backstory-filler rather than important development bits) and the multiple intersecting plotlines were self-contained and easy to follow, so even though it continues certain characters' stories, I think this one can pretty much be read standalone, as many of the Elemental Masters books are meant to be.

[CRussel]

Just finished reading Castaway Odyssey, by Ryk E. Spoor and Eric Flint. This is #5 in the Boundary series, but makes a reasonable entry point for anyone just starting the series, though you'll want to circle back after you finish, I suspect.

This book is very like every other book in the series. I can't quite understand what it is about them that appeals so much, but I inevitably end up staying up late reading into the night. It's well written, doesn't go on overly long (358 pages), and has interesting, if slightly too good to be true, characters. Recommended.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Along with A Dance with Dragons, i'm re reading The Murder on the Orient Express. A previous attempt has seen me give up on the book. But this time, I'm sticking with it to the end.

I'm done with MOTOE. Now I need to finish A Dance with Dragons. I'm at 68 %.

[HarryT]

Two books recently completed:

"Monday the Rabbi Took Off", by Harry Kemelman. The fourth book in the "Rabbi Small" series, and very enjoyable, as have all the books been thus far. This book sees Rabbi Small go for an extended trick to Israel, where he gets involved in terrorist plots. Highly recommended!

"Planets of Adventure", by Murray Leinster. A Baen omnibus of Murray Leinster's stories, which I bought in 2003. Contains the novel "The Forgotten Planet", a series of related stories about a Colonial Survey Officer, Bordman, a "trouble shooter" for newly-colonised planets, and finally a group of miscellaneous stories. Excellent, and very highly recommended.

And that's 100 books for the year for me, which completes my "reading challenge" for the year some three months early, which is nice .

[PurpleStar]

Finished up The Death of Dulgath by Michael J. Sullivan. Now reading Star Trek Legacies: Purgatory's Key by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now reading Venus Prime by Paul Peruss. Apparently based on a novella by Arthur C Clarke, it seems to have an interesting start.

Interesting. The first half was better than the second half. And the hints of some big conspiracy are a bit off-putting. But since I have it, I'll read the second one in the series at some point and see if it gets better or worse.

Next up: F&SF Magazine for September 2016.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

And here is my ambitious next-up list: The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen, The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow by Joyce Magnin, Murder Passes the Buck by Deb Baker, and A Regimental Murder by Ashley Gardner.

Also, I want to read The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, in the background.

The first three were all OK in varying degrees; Murder Passes the Buck was mostly fluff but funny. I'm no longer in the mood to read A Regimental Murder so I put it back in the pile for another day. And I haven't (re)started The Woman in White yet.

My next-ups are Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer, Broken Angel by Sigmund Brouwer, and The Color of Heaven by Julianne MacLean. I'm working my way through my older paid TBR books, and all of these were bought in 2011.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Just finished reading Castaway Odyssey, by Ryk E. Spoor and Eric Flint. This is #5 in the Boundary series, but makes a reasonable entry point for anyone just starting the series, though you'll want to circle back after you finish, I suspect.

I'm considering a reread of this entire series. But before I start that, I'm reading a couple of other books:

• A Fine Italian Hand, by Eric Wright. This is number 9 or 10 in his Charlie Salter series set in Toronto. The book is a library pBook, because most of his Charlie Salter books were never digitized. A shame, really, they are quite good.
• Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee. This is a series of humourous essays about knitting and knitters. Quite delicious if you're a knitter!
• Legacies by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill. This is the first in their Shadow Grail series. I'm only 4 chapters into it, but it's not hopeful.

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Just finished reading Castaway Odyssey, by Ryk E. Spoor and Eric Flint. This is #5 in the Boundary series, but makes a reasonable entry point for anyone just starting the series, though you'll want to circle back after you finish, I suspect.

This book is very like every other book in the series. I can't quite understand what it is about them that appeals so much, but I inevitably end up staying up late reading into the night. It's well written, doesn't go on overly long (358 pages), and has interesting, if slightly too good to be true, characters. Recommended.

The first book is in the Baen Free Library, so people might as well start there.

(Oops it isn't there. Could have sworn it was. Nevermind then.)

[ATDrake]

Finished A Darker Shade: 17 Swedish Stories of Murder, Mystery & Suspense edited and translated by John-Henri Holmberg, which I got some time ago when it was on sale (or there was deep-discount couponage; I forget which), and have been reading on and off on public transit over the past few weeks. This is a feature collection of short stories by notable Swedish crime authors, intended as a taster for their longer works, and accordingly there's stuff by very famous authors such as the late Stieg Larsson (a science fiction crime story written for a fanzine when he was 17, apparently one of the few short works of his they could dig up), and some other authors who don't seem to otherwise be available in English translation yet, with a mix of previously-published and newly-written stories.

This was a good mix of subgenres, styles, and settings represented, with standalone and series-introductory tales, including a self-indulgent crossover featuring Henning Mankell (of Wallander fame) & Håkan Nesser's detectives meeting each other and their authors, with many pieces being rather good indeed, and only a few that felt like duds (mostly due to the subject matter not meshing with me, rather than lack of prose quality). There were relatively straightforward standard sleuth vs. serial killer stories, but also stories which looked into fuzzier issues like following up on suspected child neglect by a stranger with no proof, what sort of justice can possibly be meted out after the statute of limitations for prosecution for a murder has passed, institutional prejudice and the morality of allowing someone who was guilty of one thing to be falsely accused of entirely another in order that they be punished, using one crime to cover up another as murderers are framed by other murderers, and other pleasantly complex and nuanced themes. For some reason, there's a lot of Christmas murders going on in Sweden (even allowing for the fact that a couple of them were reprints from holiday-themed anthologies).

IMHO, there were especially standout contributions from Åsa Larsson (an historical piece set in Kiruna, a Swedish mining town now apparently being undermined by its success and in danger of collapsing into a giant sinkhole, featuring the Laestadian religious sect who judging from their relatively frequent appearances in Nordic crime thrillers—this is the 3rd appearance by them that I've read in the past few years—must be the equivalent of the Amish in terms of fictional popularity), Inger Frimansson (a psychological portrait of despair and resentment that can lead to taking lives), Anna Jansson (an interesting look at escape into fantasy as a coping device for unpleasant reality), Tove Alsterdahl (examining the feelings of guilt and culpability in a not-murder where maybe one could have saved a life). Also quite interesting were the stories by Dag Öhrlund, Magnus Montelius, and Sara Stridsberg (apparently a literary author who wrote a story which did not involve Swedes at all, but was a glimpse into the mindset of a notorious historical accessory).

Highly recommended as a good introductory taster to a lot of Swedish crime authors if you're interested, even if some of the pieces are apparently non-representative of their usual novel-length work. There are helpful biographical/bibliographical write-ups before and after each piece, which mention what each author is known for and some of their key titles. I've added a lot of new-to-me authors to my to-try list, if I can get my hands on their stuff.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Legacies by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill. This is the first in their Shadow Grail series. I'm only 4 chapters into it, but it's not hopeful.

I read that a long time ago and I'm just going to say that the narrative approach and overall quality of the storytelling doesn't really vary throughout the book, so IMHO what you've seen so far is probably pretty much what you're going to get for the rest of it. YMMV, hopefully.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by PurpleStar

The first book is in the Baen Free Library, so people might as well start there.

(Oops it isn't there. Could have sworn it was. Nevermind then.)

No, sadly it isn't. But certainly, start with Boundary if you wish. And it IS available on a Baen CD: Baen 23: 1635TheEasternFront, so you're welcome to start there. (But as always with Baen CDs, do the right thing-- Treat it as an extended sample. if you like the book, buy it! )

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

I read that a long time ago and I'm just going to say that the narrative approach and overall quality of the storytelling doesn't really vary throughout the book, so IMHO what you've seen so far is probably pretty much what you're going to get for the rest of it. YMMV, hopefully.

Liked it that much, did you?

I'll probably give it another chapter or two, but then I am stubborn.