August 2008 Reading

A little late, but better than never. Here's everything I read in August. Links are to my reviews

1. The Demon and the City - Liz Williams
2. The Healthy Dead - Steven Erikson
3. The Gunslinger - Stephen King
4. Reaper's Gale - Steven Erikson
5. Hell and Earth - Elizabeth Bear
6. Star Wars Legacy: Claws of the Dragon - John Ostrander
7. Jedi Twilight - Michael Reaves
8. The Swarm War - Troy Denning
9. The Wreck of the Godspeed and Other Stories - James Patrick Kelly
10. The Clone Wars - Karen Traviss
11. Renegade - L. Timmel Duchamp
12. Wild Cards: Aces Abroad - George R. R. Martin (editor)
13. The Force Unleashed - Sean Williams

92 books finished on the year.


Pending reviews from this list:

Hell and Earth: Exactly when this review goes live will depend entirely on what happens with my Ink and Steel review. Both are written, but I don’t have a timetable for when they’ll show up. Or where.

Renegade: After I finish with the Godspeed review I’ll work on this one. It’ll probably post here, though I have hopes it’ll go elsewhere.


Now, for some thoughts on stuff I haven’t reviewed and probably won’t:

Reaper’s Gale: Turned out far better than I hoped. My expectation for Erikson has taken a sharp dip in recent years. He is succumbing to glacially slow openings to his novels but at some point in the last two there is a point where it all turns and I’m gripped. Not sure where the point is, but after putting the book down for a month after 150 pages I came back to it and felt that Erikson advanced the story and did some interesting things with the world.

The Gunslinger: Now that I’m reading King in mostly publication order I’m taking care to make sure that I’ve read all the books published before each Dark Tower novel. I’d been down on King recently but The Gunslinger is a heck of a book.

Star Wars: Jedi Twilight was good. The Clone Wars was disappointing for a Traviss novel, but far better than the next two. The Swarm War sucked, as did the other two books in the Dark Nest trilogy. The Force Unleashed...well, it had potential and it wasn’t bad, but for something that was venturing into “The Dark Times”, it didn’t really do anything all that interesting. Up until an ending that felt a bit rushed, I thought there was going to be a sequel to TFU because I didn’t think Sean Williams had enough time to wrap up the story. Ah well.