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

[ATDrake]

Finished The Hunting Dogs by Jørn Lier Horst, 8th in his William Wisting, Laid-Back Non-Drunkard Norwegian Crime Solver, series. This was a pretty interesting installment, with a little more action thriller in it than previous ones, what with someone having to plan a heist to break into their own office and a suspect surveillance chase and all. The premise of this one was quite good, with an accusation of mishandling evidence in an old abduction-turned-murder case in order to secure a conviction coming back to haunt Wisting and the police department, resulting in his suspension from the force until the matter is cleared, leaving him unable to officially investigate either this, or the other cases which pop up.

In a nice touch, it's not simply a matter of having doubt cast on the integrity of the police having potentially put away an innocent person, but apparently actual tampering, opening up questions in Wisting's mind as to what sort of justice can truly be gotten if the justice-dispensers themselves act injustly, and how far he can trust not only his fellow colleagues, but also himself, to uphold the law, and re-examining his own methods and approaches towards improvement, now having experienced what it was like to be on the other side of the investigative procedure. In the meantime, there's a new missing persons case which Wisting is very frustrated about not being able to help out with due to his suspension, as he becomes excluded from the usual police resources (officially, at least, though he still has a network of willing-to-help old colleagues he can contact), and to avoid conflict-of-interest, his crime journalist daughter Line is looking into another case, involving the random murder of a pedestrian into which she has become part of the story, having confronted the masked probable-murderer at the victim's house after having tracked down the latter's identity in the course of her reporting, rather than covering her father's situation, as the rest of her paper is doing.

As a result, there's an interesting examination of the synergy between the media's crime coverage and the police investigations, with questions raised about how far the media's need for fresh news about investigative developments and finding things to print to attract the public's attention can go to feed and affect a crime, as Wisting's accuser manipulates the coverage by dropping selective tidbits, Line resorts to rather sneaky tactics to obtain unreleased information for her story, and Wisting himself looks back at how the media's need for a scoop and the pressure on the police to provide results may have sealed the original victim's fate once the knowledge of an important piece of evidence was leaked and also once having been set on the path of a promising suspect, both the press and the police vision can become narrow, blinkered, and biased, preferring to focus on finding confirmation for the case rather than looking for evidence that might disprove it. (And we also find out the hierarchy for importance-to-the-Norwegian-paper-reading-public of potential murder victims when Line goes to initially cover her then-unknown case and is evaluating whether she can get a sensational enough story to knock her father's case off the front page and spare him a little of the media firestorm for a while: young women = best; celebrities = almost as good, but too rare to be relied upon; old men = not so good; old men with dogs = better, since there are a lot of dog lovers among the Gentle Readers, especially if they can get a good picture of the dog.)

Highly recommended. This one is the first of the Wisting novels to start accumulating the major-ish subgenre prizes, and managed to snag three of them (Norway's Riverton for best in country, Scandinavia's Glass Key for best Nordic overall, and Sweden's Martin Beck for best in translation), which, IMHO, were well-deserved. Some of the dénouement and ending of this felt a little pat, considering that I managed to guess who was really behind some of the things (it was kind of obvious that it was that sort of person who would be doing it) and there was a tidy wrap-up to the cases, but important ethical questions are raised and examined and not laid aside simply because closure was provided for all the crimes.

[Fbone]

Next is The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson. My first with this author.

Overall, this was fun. The chalk was interesting (I like unicorns) but the mystery was rather simple and very apparent. YA for sure. I just went with it to see what happens. Also, the first chapter wasn't written as smooth and crisp as the later chapters. The author then found his rhythm. The "to be continued" was an unpleasant surprise. Rated C [3 stars].

Next, is Star Wars: Choices of One by Timothy Zahn purchased back in April 2015.

[ATDrake]

Finished The Caveman by Jørn Lier Horst, 9th in his William Wisting, Laid-Back Non-Drunkard Norwegian Crime Solver, series. This was recently awarded the 2016 Petrona Prize, and used the starting point of how in an ostensibly social welfare-oriented nation, an elderly local man in a small community where everyone knew everyone else could be left alone to the point where his mummified body was only found by chance months after his peaceful at-home death, to build both a pleasantly complex and twisty case and commentary around the socially invisible people who slip through the cracks.

To go with this theme, there's also a secondary case built around the difficulties of positively identifying a visiting foreigner found sans wallet and unhelpfully nibbled by the local wildlife in similar isolated straits, and Wisting and Line have very well done tandem investigations into each angle, with Wisting trying to get a positive ID for his body, and Line having the ID for hers as the basis for a story about Norwegian society, and each attempting to figure out how their respective deceased ended up in their particular circumstances. Without getting into spoilers (since the twists are extra-twisty and surprising in this one), there's an entertaining portrayal of how international co-operation in these matters works (or doesn't), and brief but fun guest cameo appearance by reporter Henning Juul from Thomas Enger's own Norwegian crime series.

Highly recommended as another strong installment in the series (and IMHO well worth picking up for the £1.99 it currently costs in the UK, especially with bonus Kobo discount couponage). This one starts with an interesting premise and uses it to launch one of the most complicated but fitting mystery plotlines I've read, with all the legwork and the following of new leads springing from the old and finally figuring things out believable and entertaining, even if it is a little more action thriller-ish than usual. I was wondering whether I wanted to break out one of my hoarded coupons and splurge on Ordeal, the 10th and latest in the series, to read next or wait to see if they had a sale later, but lo and behold, it's actually discounted to just £0.99 right now at Amazon, so I just went ahead with the Kobo price-match procedure. While I was browsing, I was also pleased to see that apparently the earlier books before the mid-series English pickup are being translated and released starting next year.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next up: Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett. Discworld #15 and City Watch #2. Should be fun.

It is hard to choose a favorite sub-series for Discworld. How do you choose between Sam Vimes and Moist Von Lipwig and DEATH? Very fun book, as expected.

After that I decided to try out the new Prime Reading and read The Lions of Lucerne by Brad Thor. Someone had recommended this series as "similar to Tom Clancy" a while back. I can see some similarities but I really want more of the build-up rather than just action-action-action. It was fun but not really what I was hoping for. I really want something similar to Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, or some of the other early Jack Ryan novels.

As for Prime Reading, I am annoyed that the books from this program don't remain on your "Manage Your Content" page after you return them. I like to see everything on that one page but these ones disappear when returned. You can view Prime Reading titles that have been returned in another location but it only shows the borrow date not the return date (which is shown for regular library borrows when you return them.) Oh well, minor annoyance.

Next up: The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg which has been on my list for a long time.

[ATDrake]

Finished Ordeal by Jørn Lier Horst, 10th and latest in his William Wisting, Laid-Back Non-Drunkard Norwegian Crime Solver, mystery series. This one had an interesting look at how as the time passes, chances of being able to find the culprit for a crime diminishes due to things like phone records and CCTV data being deleted, and the effects that new leads and evidence can have on open cases, as well as cases that are considered open and shut by investigators who've already made up their minds.

After the excellence of the immediately preceding previous installments, this one was, quite frankly, a bit of a step down. There were what seemed like a few drastic off-screen character developments, with one of the recurring characters having a rather changed role which made their contribution in this novel seem somewhat contrived in order to get them back into the story to supply information in a new way without using their old connections, while being less co-operative than usual. (And there was what I felt was somewhat gratuitous melodrama about a situation that they find themselves in, although I suppose if one does go meddling, one can probably expect that sort of thing to happen, but you'd think they'd have learned their lesson about it the last few times around. And a bit of contrivance in having backup evidence become available as leverage, just in case opponents can't be convinced with the merits of the initial set.) And I admit, I kind of miss what their old role brought to enhance the story, but I'm interested in seeing where they go from here.

Medium recommend if you've been following and enjoying the series. While this is a quite solid installment with a perfectly good whodunnit in it*, it's also much more continuity-heavy than usual, and relies a lot upon character relationship stuff built in previous novels, which even the handy introductory recap at the beginning which brings you up to speed with the important developments in the previous novels probably wouldn't help with, and just didn't feel up to the same standard as the rest. So this one probably works best if you're already familiar with everyone and want to see more of their circumstances, in between another well-done mystery case that confronts challenges to having a fair justice system where the potentially guilty are brought in for the crimes they actually committed.

* However, I did manage to guess the exact motive for one of the crimes, and finger the culprit and how they were induced to do it. Since I'm usually absolutely terrible at solving these things, I can't help but consider this not so much a sign that my amateur sleuth skills are improving, as the author having failed somewhere with the plotting.

[BenG]

Jonathan L. Howard introduced Johannes Cabal in a couple of short stories that were published before the novel, Johannes Cabal, Necromancer. They are now available from Amazon. I read them in preparation for reading the third Cabal novel, The Fear Institute.

I loved the first one, Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day and the second one Exeunt Demon King is almost as good.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by cromag

Well, I came up with something.
...
Now, back to wondering what I'll read next.

Once again, I found myself mostly reading short stories. One that I really liked turns out to be a "good news, bad news" story. I had Persia Walkers' In Asbury Park, Someone Lies Waiting. I really enjoyed this story! It's a ghost story that takes place in October and is set in Asbury Park, NJ. I know Asbury Park pretty well -- and, if nothing else, you probably know it as Bruce Springsteen's home town.

The bad news is: this story seems to be no longer available as a stand-alone short story. The good news is that it is available as part of a four story anthology over at Amazon as part of Dark Tales: Four Ghastly Tales of Ghostly Murder. As a single this cost me $0.99 -- the four story collection currently costs $3.99 -- so, if the other three stories are as good as this one was, it's a bargain!

Next, I read Dead Madonna, by Victoria Houston. I like the Loon Lake mysteries, and this was an especially good one. I'd say it's tied with the first book in the series, Dead Angler, as my favorite. Interestingly, this ebook had some odd formatting errors. Nothing terrible -- once I read through a couple they became "invisible" -- but the other books in the series don't have them. This book came from Kobo and the others came from Barnes & Noble and Amazon, so maybe it's specific to Kobo.

I've now started Dead Hot Shot, the 9th in the series. It's also from Kobo and has the same formatting problems. But, formatting problems aside, this also is pretty good!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: F&SF Magazine for September 2016.

Which was OK. A Special "David Gerrold" issue with two novellas by him. Unfortunately I only liked the first, finding the jokey autobiographical tone of the second too irritating to finish it.

Next up: Roman Blood (Gordianus the Finder Book 1) by Steven Saylor

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

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

I loved Polansky's previous books (the Low Town series and his novella The Builders), but I did not love this book. In fact, until right around the three-quarter mark, I couldn't even say I liked the book. It was in solid "meh" territory up until that point. But I'm not going dwell on it. They all can't be home runs. I still eagerly await his next project.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Roman Blood (Gordianus the Finder Book 1) by Steven Saylor

Good choice. I loved that book. It started me on a whole ancient Rome reading kick a few years back.

The same author wrote a stand-alone novel A Twist At The End, which has O. Henry investigating a serial killer in Texas. Usually I find these sorts of stories hokey, but Saylor does it better. And aside from O. Henry, the killer actually existed as well.

I've just started Peter Straub's Shadowland. I'm a fan of Straub, but this one just didn't sound like it was for me, so I put it off for years.

So far, I'm enjoying it. I very much enjoy Straub's style of writing.

[ATDrake]

So today having been 1013, I was feeling nostalgic and decided to try out The X-Files™: Trust No One, a recent anthology of newly-written tie-in stories for the show edited by Jonathan Maberry, which I got in last year's X-Files Humble Comics Bundle from IDW, as one of the two prose books in it. Most of them were by established horror authors (many well-known genre award-winners), and ranged from fairly decent to pretty good. Some of them would have made perfectly cromulent TV episodes; others wouldn't have been filmable but were good character/setting pieces.

Mind you, some of them seemed to just be showcases for the authors' pet ideas, pushing established character and continuity well to the background. YMMV, but I personally think that a) the window of opportunity for doing topically timely mocking meta-commentary about the Twilight franchise with an expy teen hit series leading to delusional fans probably passed somewhere around 2012 and no1curr as of 2015, b) if one still wanted to try, they should have gone with a parody of Fifty Shades of Grey (Aliens ) since that was the next pearl-clutching bad-for-the-obliviously-shallow-readership series that the media moved onto concern-trolling about, and c) Scully has no room to cast stones about bestselling entertainment reading material of dubious literary merit, considering that she's known to read the trashy-sounding thriller novels of Jose Chung. And as usual, US writers get Canada rather wrong, and for the record, Ottawa is not a province, if that's what you meant by repeatedly using it that way in the "location and date" header that the cases sometimes have.

Aside from that, and a few other similar missteps by authors who sometimes seemed to not get the lead characters and how they would plausibly react in keeping with their established personalities, or putting in levels of hinting about future developments in the show for some of the pieces set at certain points in the past which made them look like they knew too much, too soon about what was going to happen to them, this had a good mix of different story ideas and styles and settings, even if there seemed to be a whole bunch of disgruntled ex-military research scientists out for revenge. And there was some bonus variety with a couple of stories starring A.D. Skinner, a pre-series team-up between Mulder and his predecessor Agent Arthur Dales, and a story written from the POV of a regular FBI agent who has Mulder & Scully come in on a serial killer case and Mulder spout his weird hypotheses all over the place, which is always fun to see how outsiders view these things.

Recommended if you're a fan of the series. I was pleased to read Stefan Petrucha's thoughtful and contemplative contribution, as I always quite liked the stories he wrote for the old Topps tie-in comics, and Kevin J. Anderson, tie-in writer extraordinaire, provided his usual solidly serviceable fare. It seems that this has done well enough in the sales that IDW has put out at least two more anthologies of such, and I'll have to see if the library has, or they go on sale at some point.

[orlok]

Finished To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Very enjoyable, and obviously a big influence on Jodi Taylor and her Chronicles of St Mary's series.

I only realised half-way through that it is #2 in the series, which is a bit annoying. Reading the blurb for #1 it appears to be about a completely different set of characters, so maybe "Dog" is okay to have been read in isolation.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by orlok

I only realised half-way through that it is #2 in the series, which is a bit annoying. Reading the blurb for #1 it appears to be about a completely different set of characters, so maybe "Dog" is okay to have been read in isolation.

Only the time-travel "technology", itself (and its Oxford home-base), really connects the two books. Otherwise, the stories themselves are fairly unrelated.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Luffy

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

I've finished A Dance with Dragons, and I feel that I've completed a marathon. Next up is Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist.

[Apache]

I just finished my latest, The Flame Bearer by Bernard Cornwell. This is number ten in his excellent series The Saxon Tales. It was released in the UK on October 6th and will be released in the US on November 29th. Highly recommended. In this book

Spoiler:

Uhtred finally captures Bebbanberg Castle

If you have not read this series I recommend you start with the first book and read it in order.
Apache