Book 42: Tricked, by Kevin Hearne. Continuing the Iron Druid Chronicles, I was happier with this book than I was with the last; an interesting little Coyote-tale, including a twist at the end. I'm curious how he'll handle the jump into the future that the teaser at the end of this book promises, so it'll be worth seeing what comes of that.


Book 43: Embassytown, by China Mieville. My favorite of the Hugo nominees so far, this is a alien linguistics SF story that really grabbed me. Definitely worth checking out for the various intrigues and twists, and an evocatively alien landscape. (Also, I have to say that 'The girl who ate what was given to her' sounds like it could be a missing Steig Larson title... I wonder what a crossover of those two would be like?)


Book 44: The Killing Moon, by N. K. Jemisin. Jemisin continues to be a hit with me, especially with this story of ninja priests in ancient pseudo-Egypt. Plus, the second book is coming out next month already, which makes me quite happy.


Book 45: The Minority Council, by Kate Griffin. Another series that I've been quite pleased with, this is the next tale of a modern London sorcerer - and also a good place to start if for some reason you don't feel like going back and reading the first three. It's fun watching him struggle with his new responsibilities, and especially after this book, I can picture him sitting down with Stross's Bob Howard (of the Laundry) to complain about magical office politics.

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Book 39: Glamour and Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal. I got this signed by the author at JordanCon this year, which was a lot of fun. It's a good sequel to the first book, although I didn't think it quite as much fun, probably because the war-is-coming plot didn't seem to gel as well as the romance-and-marriage of the first. That said, it was still good, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next ones bring too, after hearing her talk about them.


Book 40: Among Others, by Jo Walton. Another book from my Hugo reading list; it was very evocative, but didn't really end up doing much for me. I liked the very bookish main character, and could identify a lot with her; that said, I kind of wish she actually did something -- I get that the point of it is that this is _after_ she's had her adventure, but it felt a lot like reading a year of her diary where she was just passing time.


Book 41: Winning Mars, by Jason Stoddard. Random SF, with the first expedition to Mars staged as a reality TV show. Well enough written, but the ending was a bit too abrupt for me -- much the same way the actual show would have been, I suppose. Still, it'd be worth looking to see what else he's done, I suppose.

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Book 35: Deadline, by Mira Grant. The first of my Hugo nominations reading this year; more bloggers after the zombie apocalypse. It was a better zombie novel than the first book, but I think a weaker stand-alone book overall -- very much the middle of the arc of this trilogy, with a large cliffhanger at the end. (Also, you _could_ read it without having read the first book, but it would take a lot longer to get up to speed on who everyone is and what's going on.) I did enjoy the dead girl's voice in the protagonist's head, though.


Book 36: Caine's Law, by Matthew Stover. The latest book in this two-fisted fantasy series is kind of baffling without a reread of the previous book; took me a good bit to understand what was going on, especially with the jumping around in the timeline. That said, it makes an excellent wrap-up on lots of things that had been happening, and while I wouldn't recommend starting here, it's definitely worth reading once you've gotten here.


Book 37: Serpent Sea, by Martha Wells. Another sequel (to The Cloud Roads), and a good continuation to see more of this interesting and alien world. She almost threw me off in the last few chapters, that seemed like it was going to introduce a sudden cliffhanger, but avoided that. There's still plenty of room for another sequel, but I wouldn't complain about that at all.


Book 38: Shadows of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Been meaning to read this for a while, and since she just had the sequel come out and is going to be at JordanCon this weekend too, I wanted to check it out. It's a fun Austin-esque fantasy novel, and I did enjoy it; put me in the mind of Sorcery and Cecelia -- another excellent novel in the same vein, and I'd recommend both of these to people who haven't read them yet.

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Book 32: The Mirage, by Matt Ruff. The United Arabian States became the world's superpower; North America is a backwater of religious fundamentalism and squabbling countries; terrorists have just flown planes into the two towers on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This is the 9/11 novel I've been waiting for, in an alternate history where Saddam is Baghdad's biggest gangster, and Bin Laden is a McCarthy-esque senator. The whole thing is great on so many levels, with excellent world-building, engaging characters, and a quick-moving plot -- really, I'd recommend this book to everyone. I'd say more, but half the fun is discovering all the little allusions and jokes that are in there for yourself.


Book 33: Range of Ghosts, by Elizabeth Bear. The beginning of a new epic fantasy; not in the sense of multiple thousand-page tomes, but a story spanning across kingdoms and heroes struggling against powers for the fate of the world. Bear is, as always, intriguing and unique in her writing; I especially like the touch of the different skies for each land, and the distinctness of each culture that still feels connected into the same world. The various real-world influences probably help with that, and helped me place the movement across the map as people were traveling, too. This is another one that I'd recommend everyone to go out and read.


Book 34: Feed, by Mira Grant. Picked this up because its sequel is on the Hugo ballot this year, so figured I should read it first -- it's bloggers on the political trail after the zombie apocalypse. I'm not sure how well it works as a world, but it holds together enough to string the zombies on, if you don't look at it too hard. It's also an interesting contrast between the Republican nomination race in the book, and the one currently going on; another place where it's perhaps best to not poke too much at the seams. Overall, as a zombie story, it's great (given the understanding that as such, it's never going to end well), but as a whole, it's kind of shaky. It'll be interesting to see what Deadline (this year's nominee) is like after this.

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Book 29: The Cloud Roads, by Martha Wells. Finally got around to picking this up, since I'd been meaning to since it came out. It's a very interesting new fantasy world for her, full of flying shape-shifters of various sorts, and intrigues and evil plots, and all sorts of general fun stuff.

Book 31: Living With Ghosts, by Kari Sperring. I just went back and reread this book because I found out that the author has another novel (The Grass King's Concubine) coming out this summer, set in the same world. As before, I was really swept up by this book, and so I'm very happy to have another one to look forward to.

Book 31: The Way of Shadows, by Brent Weeks. Also on the list of things I've gone back to reread, hopefully I'll actually finish out the trilogy this time around.

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Book 25: Flesh and Fire, by Laura Anne Gilman. The first book in the Vineart trilogy, where magic is born in grapes and refined in the creation of wines. The premise is interesting, so I'd been meaning to pick up this for a while and check it out. My first impression was that it was interesting, but what a horrible world the Vinearts lived in (casual slavery and abuse almost unthinkingly justified by those few who come out of it) and so I was glad to see about two-thirds of the way through, that the rest of the world didn't all share the same attitudes. The book was fairly slow -- it seemed mostly world-building and an introduction to the characters and plot, with the second book being where things might actually start happening. I'll still want to read the rest of this, but it didn't really grab me and make me feel like I needed to do that right away.


Book 26: Tangled Webs, by Anne Bishop. Speaking of characters who live in a horrible world... This is a return to the world of the Dark Jewels books, although hardly as dark as the first trilogy. Don't judge it by the jacket text -- this book is ridiculous, although still good id-fic. The plot is that a C-list author has decided to get revenge for imagined slights by creating a haunted house to terrify and kill our protagonists; if this sounds like a Scooby-Doo plotline with a bit more blood, it's not far off. Go into this like you would a popcorn flick, and you'll have fun with it. Also, despite the character's explicit rejection of the rule of law for their society, I think this entire episode is a pretty good argument for why they would really benefit from it. ...

This is labeled as book #5, but I felt like I'd missed out on a story or two in between; nothing I needed to actually follow or enjoy the experience, but I feel like there must have been a short story or something that bridges the gap between the original trilogy and this book.


Book 27: Discount Armageddon, by Seanan McGuire. After the previous two books, I wanted something that would just be pure fun, and this was definitely it. A ballroom-dancing cryptozoologist heroine, a wierd and fascinating ecology of 'monsters,' and a touch of romance and drama as she tries to stop an underground cult from sacrificing the hidden denizens of New York; really, I couldn't have asked for more. Well, except maybe the next book in this series, but I'll have to be patient for that. *grins*


Book 28: Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed. Arabic high fantasy, which is an interesting change from the more standard mythologies. I'd enjoyed this author's short story in the same world (Judgement of Swords and Souls), and while this book didn't share the same characters, I've heard that they'll cross paths in the sequel, so I'll be looking forward to that.

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Book 18: The Invisible Ring, by Anne Bishop. I enjoyed this more than the original trilogy, probably because it wasn't as dark. No real surprises or twists here, but it was decent fun to revisit this world. Also, I'd really enjoy reading a book that was more the long history of Daemon trying to undermine Dorothea, if it wasn't likely to be so relentlessly grim.


Books 19, 20, 21: Foundation; Foundation and Empire; Second Foundation; by Isaac Asimov. Classic science fiction; a bit slow to get started, and some things haven't aged well, but still definitely worth rereading.


Book 22: A Perfect Blood, by Kim Harrison. Another book in this series; more setting things back up after the last book's events, but it's still be entertaining enough to keep going and see how it all shakes out.


Book 23: Echoes of Betrayal, by Elizabeth Moon. I'm glad (and surprised) to discover that this isn't the end of the Paks-world sequels. Lots more happening here, as we start to see more reprecussions from what seemed minor events, as well as some major new revelations. Now if I just didn't have to wait while she writes more...


Book 24: It's Superman, by Tom De Haven. Superman's origin retold in the 1930s. That said, it's almost more a character study than anything else; you could almost take Clark out of it entirely without changing things.

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Books 12, 13: Wings of Wrath, and Legacy of Kings by C. S. Friedman. I went back to reread the second book in the trilogy to be up-to-date for the last book, and had a lot of fun with it. Wings of Wrath was a great expansion of the story; unfortunately, Legacy of Kings ran a little too quickly to the end for my taste - I wish she'd spent a bit more time fleshing out the world and politics and building some other threads as we got to the defeat of the souleaters.


Books 14-16: Hounded, Hexed, and Hammered, by Kevin Hearne. I was sent the first of these books as a Christmas gift, and it was such a quick read that I went and read the next two in the next two days as well. The series follows a snarky, 2000+ year old Druid living (and hiding out) in Arizona when his gods start catching up to him. I rather enjoyed the first two books for the humor and pop culture references, and the tangle of mythology. The third, alas, was just kind of off -- Atticus (the druid) lost his snark and was mostly just a jerk, and the overall experience was less enjoyable when I could only really sympathize with the people telling him the whole thing was a bad idea. I'm sure he's working on another book, after the hook he left at the end, but I'm dubious about how much it'll be worth picking up.


Book 17: City of Dragons, by Robin Hobb. I was very pleased with this book; it's certainly not the place to start with (I'd suggest 'Ship of Magic,' if you don't have the time to go all the way back to 'Assassin's Apprentice') but it's fun, and definitely a worthy addition to this world. It's also very many-layered, which I really appreciate after all the light fantasy I've read lately -- it's not an overwhelming cast of characters, but all of them are very fleshed out and well-rounded, with their own motivations and goals, and it makes for a much deeper experience.

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01: Shadow Prowler, by Alexey Pehov. A translated Russian fantasy novel, of a particular old-school style. My initial impression was that it was a cheesy 80's D&D novel, although the jacket text made a comparison to Fritz Leiber, which is also fairly apt. The bit about going to a shop to buy supplies, and purchasing thirty ice bolts, and thirty fire bolts, and some magical potion vials pretty much sealed that feeling, and I couldn't really take it seriously after that. Unfortunately, the high-fantasy epic-quest tone that it was trying for didn't really work either, and it was just kind of a slog to get through this book -- and it didn't even really have a climax or ending, so much as just stopping; there's a sequel (it's probably a trilogy) but there's no reason for me to want to look for that. (Leiber had the advantage of working in short stories, where if it occasionally got ridiculous, at least it never went on so long as to be also boring -- a lesson that others seeking to emulate his style should probably take to heart.)
(Also makes me curious about the state of Russian fantasy literature in general -- is this a case of different audience expectations or something?)


02: The Measure of the Magic, by Terry Brooks. Speaking of lesser works... Okay, that's a bit unfair. It's not the top of his game, but Brooks is always at least compulsively readable. I couldn't really remember what happened in the book immediately previous in this series (it's part of his works bridging Shanarra and The Word and Void novels), but I was quickly grabbed by the characters and the world, and happy to read along and pick up the bits of background as they came by. I'm not at all sure I'll remember these events either when I get to the next book, but I'll still read it because I know he'll give a nice light fantasy adventure.


03: The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley. "Amnesiac British secret supernatural civil service" was really all the description I needed to want to read this, and I wasn't disappointed. As an added bonus, it was completely self-contained - no cliffhanger endings, or dangling promises of sequels, just a story that neatly wrapped itself up by the end of the book. I was very pleased with both the quality of the secret supernatural society that the author created, as well as how well the book was written. I think this is the one book I read in January that I could whole-heartedly recommend for other people to read.


04-06: The Black Jewels trilogy, by Anne Bishop. Okay, this is a very dark set of books, by which I mean that rape and abuse are nearly omnipresent in the world she's created. I think the best way to
describe them is as wish-fufillment fantasies about finding a loving family, and it's _very_ clear why this is a nearly unbelievable luxury for all of the characters. (Contrast to Mercedes Lackey's early
Valdemar books, which are similar fantasies, but in a world rather less devoted to breaking _everyone_ who lives in it.) I'd only recommend reading this if you're warned and prepared ahead of time, because even so it's very unpleasant. That said, I can also see why people would be very attached to these books, too.

Also, this is an interest system of magic to read about for those who are looking for something that works without all of the rules that, say, Jordan and Sanderson write up. That isn't to say that her magic doesn't have it's rules, but we only really know the very rudiments of them, and the story works fine with us only having the faintest idea of what the characters might actually be able to do with it.


07-11: Dragonbreath; Attack of the Ninja Frogs; Curse of the Were-Weiner; Lair of the Bat-Monster;and Revenge of the Horned Bunnies, by Ursela Vernon. On a completely different
note, these are YA semi-illustrated fantasies about a young dragon with more enegery than sense, and the adventures he drags his best friend (and other classmates) into. Quick reads (I don't think any take more than an hour to finish) and stuffed full of entertaining strangeness; I kind of wish I knew someone in that age range to recommend these to

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Book 81: Supervolcano: Eruption, by Harry Turtledove. It's just what it says on the tin; mostly set-up for sequels, but decent anyways.

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