Tuesday, March 15, 2016

NoaF: Deryni, Deverry, Hugo

Good afternoon, folks!

Just a quick update to point you to some stuff I have up over at Nerds of a Feather.

1. Reading Deryni: Saint Camber - The second in my series of essays on Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels.

2. Reading Deverry: Act One - Likewise, the first of my series of essays on Katharine Kerr's Deverry novels (this one covers the first four books - read more Deverry)

3. My Favorite Stories Don't Get Nominated: A Hugo Love Story - a meditation on why I love the Hugo Awards even though, as the essay title states, my favorite stories don't get nominated.

I've been busy.

Tuesday, March 01, 2016

NoaF: Black Wolves, Black Sword, and Resolutions

Hey kids!

I'd like to point you to two recent reviews I've done over at Nerds of a Feather. The first is Kate Elliott's excellent Black Wolves. The second is Larry Correia's fairly disappointing Son of the Black Sword.

For extra Star Wars nerdery, Dean and I have a conversation about Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

For the sake of being amusing, I also collected a much delayed list of New Year's Resolutions from the flock.

Forthcoming, I have my next Deryni essay coming next week on Saint Camber, a Deverry essay on the four books comprising the first Act of the series, something on the Hugo Awards, and a bit farther out - a review of Emily Foster's The Drowning Eyes. That's just what I have written and scheduled for this month.

I'm still "working" on reviews of Central Station, Meeting Infinity, Forest of Memory, Runtime, and probably Lightless. By "working", I mean I need to read these. But, if I keep talking about it, maybe I'll actually do something about it.

Books Read: February 2016

With February having come to a close, let's take a look at the books I read last month.

1. The Survivor, by Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills
2. Black Wolves, by Kate Elliott
3. The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
4. Hunter's Oath, by Michelle West
5. 1634: The Baltic War, by David Weber and Eric Flint
6. This Census-Taker, by China Mieville (unfinished)
7. The Force Awakens, by Alan Dean Foster
8. The New World, by Chris Adrian and Eli Horowitz
9. Grantville Gazette: Volume I, by Eric Flint (editor)
10. Step Aside, Pops, by Kate Beaton
11. Oreo, by Fran Ross (unfinished)
12. The Book of Aron, by Jim Shepard (unfinished)
13. The Drowning Eyes, by Emily Foster
14. City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett
15. Lightless, by C.A. Higgins

Best Book of the Month: Black Wolves was a standout. See the review over at Nerds of a Feather. This is also a virtual tie with City of Blades as to which book was the best I read in February.

Disappointment of the Month: I always count the unfinished books in my tally because I still want a record of what I've attempted, even if I elected to not finish the book. This was a rare month when I decided I didn't want to finish three books. Some years I don't hit three, but I attempted the Ross and Shepard because I'm trying to read my way through the Tournament of Books and sometimes that means I hit books I just bounce off of and probably wouldn't have read otherwise. I bounced off of Oreo and The Book of Aron for very different reasons, but bounce I did. As well as with the Mieville.

Discovery of the Month: Emily Foster's The Drowning Eyes was amazingly good. I must read more from Foster, in that particular setting if possible. So, so good. 

Worth Noting: I loved City of Stairs. City of Blades was even better.

Gender Breakdown: My gender breakdown for February was a bit weaker, with only 6 out of 15 books this month being written by women. This drops my overall percentage down to 53.12%. While I do not a have specific goal this year to read more books written by women than those written by men, I would like to at least keep the breakdown near a 50/50 split. Thus far I am on track to accomplish that.




Previous Reads
January