Fantastic new author!

46) Dead to me , Anton Strout. AWESOME! I loved this one! Simon is fascinating and so it the Department of Extraordinary Affairs. Set in New York, the twists and turns are fascinating. I love the idea of cultists setting up as a for-profit company. LOL. Very similar to an idea I had for a novel a while back… and no, not going to tell you just in case I finally get it written. All I am going to say is if you like urban fantasy, get this book!

Enjoy it when fantasy authors take on important issues.

39) Summoned to Tourney, Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon. Sometimes earthquakes happen and sometimes the bad guys try and make them happen. A story from the beginning of the Bedlam Bard series and one of the good ones.

40) Wheels of Fire, Mercedes Lackey and Mark Shepherd. How I wish it were true that elves were there to rescue kids who were being abused. It would make the world a better place. Here the elves are not only trying to save a child from abuse, they are also taking on a radical religious cult. Another reason why I have rejected organized religion; there are far too many people in the world you use it to justify horror, abuse and violence against others. Oops, better not get onto that tangent…

41) Fire Me Up, Katie MacAlister. So not the book to read after a book about child abuse. It was just too fluffy and light. Needless to say; didn’t enjoy it much.

42) Sacred Ground, Mercedes Lackey. Clearly I needed to go back to one of my fave authors. This was about environmental and aboriginal issues. For not being Native, I think Misty did a great job. Of course neither am I so all I can say it that it felt good to me.

43) Over the Moon, Angela Knight, MaryJanice Davidson, Virginia Kantra, Sunny. Four paranormal romance novellas (in other words kissy kissy stuff with werewolves, Fae and other spookies). Interesting tales; liked MaryJanice Davidson’s best. Light, but the byplay between our two potential lovers was deliciously snarky.

Another book-aholic confession

24) Seven Towers, 25) Daughter of Witches, 26) Shadow Magic, 27) Harp of Imach Thyssel, by Patricia Wrede. After reading Caught in Cryrstal a short while ago I got the bug to read more of Patricia. So I pulled all the books of hers that I had and read them again. I still admire her economy of phrasing.

28 ) Wolf Moon, Charles de Lint. While pulling out my Wrede books I discovered this tale by one of my all time favourite authors (and a heck of a bodhran player as I discovered when I stumbled upon him one night in a pub in Ottawa). Not my fave book of his, but still good.

29) Love is Murder, Linda Palmer. A murder mystery set in the world of soap operas. Well, I like mysteries, but not a fan of soap operas (despite my continuing to watch CSI: Miami), still this was more fun than I thought. Quirky characters and silly situations. Nice.

30) The Last Place, Laura Lippman. Was still in a mystery mood, so picked this one up from my ‘found in my personal library’ pile. This was a wonderful book; Tess Monaghan is definitely in a mess this time with court-ordered counselling and then a job searching domestic abuse cases. Cases that involve far more than meets the eye. Fascinating twists and turns, and bizarre characters.

31) Dead Man Rising, Lilith Saintcrow. When I first stumbled over the Dante Valentine series, I admit I sneered a little. Both the name chosen for the main character and the name of the author just seemed so fanciful… but I stopped sneering fast. Affectations aside, this is an excellent series. This is the second in the series and here Dante is trying to drown her sorrow (sorry, not giving away what happened in the first book) in work. Unfortunately she gets pulled into a situation where she has to deal with the worst of her childhood. And a truly horrible childhood it was… If you thought pedophiles were bad, wait till you meet the people who tainted Dante’s early life.

32) The Devil Inside, Jenna Black. What a cool premise: voluntary demon possession in order to do good works. And when it isn’t voluntary, you call in our heroine, exorcist Morgan Kingsley. When Morgan discovers she has been forcibly possessed by a demon, a demon who doesn’t want to be in her any more than she wants him to be, the two of them have to work together (sort of) in order to try and figure a way out of the mess. And their ally? A demon-possessed man who is very much into sadism.

33) The Vampire of New York, Lee Hunt. When I was reading a lot of fanfiction (still reading lots, but of a different genre) there was this writer who always got to me. Her stories started out wonderful and got better and better and then… over. She came up with great premises for stories, and was a wizard at writing the beginnings and middles, but when it came to endings she fizzled. This book is very similar – I was fascinated, entranced, spellbound… and then it was just done. Learnt a lot about NYC during the Civil War, though. Just wish the conclusion had been as promising as the rest of the book.

34) Dog Days, John Levitt. Now, I am a cat person… but the ‘dog’ in this book is very likeable. Of course, the focus is on the human, who is definitely someone I can understand. Not that I can play jazz guitar ot anything, but I do understand that whole ‘you have such potential… if you’d only….’ scenario. Been hearing that one my whole life… Anyway, interesting characters and situations. I also enjoyed the fact that it was set in a truly believable world; our own, just with some people who have a little bit more umph to them.

The last two books are part of the pile I picked up on the weekend – yes I have another stack to add to my as yet unread stack. Going to put them aside though; have to get the library books read first. And maybe even take a break for a bit (also got DVDs to watch).

The Monster Read-athon continues

Posting a mega list this time…

12) Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews. This is set in some sort of future-world Atlanta where magic and tech don’t really coincide – more like compete with each other. So one minute you are in a tech-based world where electricity and all works, and the next magic is the name of the day. Understanding that was the easiest part… still not exactly sure about the whole ‘vampires as ride-able bug-like creatures’ thing. Not sure I am fully sold on this new series… or maybe it just caught me at the wrong time. Will give it a re-read sometime later and see if I get into it more.

13) Revenant, Carolyn Haines. For a bit of a change of pace – a mystery! Despite suspecting whodunit almost immediately (and yep, I was right), I really enjoyed this. Fast-paced when it needed to be, introspective when it mattered. And the characters were very sympathetic. I looked Haines up and based on the back jackets of her other books, this is very much a darker turn for her. I give it two thumbs way up and am hoping for more.

14) Rogue Angel: Lost Scrolls, Alex Archer. This series is like popcorn; good fun but not too deep. I like the heroine, Annja, but it is getting to the point where she can’t ask a question without someone trying to blow her away for it. This one is case in point… there was so much gunplay you could skip through several pages of it and not lose the storyline. And the storyline in this one was pretty darn weak too. Usually the stories are pretty fun and at least somewhat believable… not this time.

15) Bedlam’s Edge, ed. Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill. A great collection of urban fantasy stories (heavy on the elves) by some great writers (some I’d heard of before and some new ones for me to watch). If you live The SERRAted Edge or Bardic Voices books, you’ll love these stories.

Right about then it was a few days before I had to go to the hospital for a procedure… and I was getting anxious and stressed. What do you do then? Fall back on your old faves by your best authors. So naturally I turned to…

16) Summon the Keeper, 17) The Second Summoning, and 18 ) Long, Hot Summoning, Tanya Huff. Huff is definitely my fave author, and I have always enjoyed the Keeper books (yo! Tanya! When is a new one coming out????). They are extremely well-written urban fantasies, that have characters you fall in love with almost immediately, situations that are scary… but funny, and extremely witty dialogue. You will never look at guest houses, angels, Kingston, cats or minivans the same way.

19) Music to my Sorrow, Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill. Misty is also one of my fave authors, and I was still in stress-soup so picking up another old fave was a must. I am very anti-organized religion, so this was definitely the book to read if you think that much of the tele-evangelical movement is a crock of crap. Of course I don’t believe that it is that way because of manipulation by Unseleighe forces (or do I?)… but manipulation is definitely at work. But I better not get off on this tangent…

20) Caught In Crystal, Patricia Wrede. Talk about old-school! Found this one (and the next) while unpacking one of my many boxes of books. Came out almost 20 years ago (and it shows). Still enjoyable though.

21) Witchdame, Kathleen Sky. Published over 22 years ago, I think in many ways this was a Deryni wannabe, owing to its calling on archangels and such. Interesting take on a pagan Elizabethan England (or Englene) though.

Phew! That is a lot of books! Even so, the pile next to my bed just never seems to get smaller. As I mentioned, been unpacking books so I kept finding old ones to re-read even though I haven’t yet gotten to many I only recently bought. So I have a long way to go yet… better get to it, hunh?

More reading

Here are two more:

3) The Protector’s War, S.M. Stirling – I had read this one a while back, but wanted to re-read the series as I say that a new book was out. Unfortunately the library sent me this one (2 in the series), the next one and then the new book… while the original book (Dies the Fire) has yet to arrive. And I have no patience, lol. Fortunately I remembered things well enough to pick this one up and run with it.

S.M. Stirling is one of the the best writers of alternate history fantasy out there. Andre Norton and Rosemary Edghill’s Carolus Rex series is also one of my faves, as is Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire (isn’t that a hot sauce? LOL) series. I am not really sure if folks like Charles de Lint or Laurell Hamilton would fit in a ‘alternate history’ classification; I think of them as ‘urban fantasy’. Really, the lines between those two classifications are very bleary. So I guess my definition is that if it is something that happens in the past (even if just 2000, as in this series case) that makes things spin off in a different tangent, well that is alternate history. If it is vampires, fairies and other supernatural beings doing stuff in modern, mostly-urban settings then it is urban fantasy. Just don’t ask me what happens in situations where in the past, vampires, fairies and other supernatural beings come out and make things spin off in a different tangent… haven’t figured out a classification for that yet, LOL.

Still, this trilogy is a great example of what a truly gifted writer can do: take the current world, change one thing and create a new world that is as believable as the one we currently live in (is this one real or is it just aliens playing marbles… you decide). Other than the whole ‘all the good guys are always so darn good’ thing (which every writer does to some extent), reading this I can almost smell the woodsmoke, and see see all those kilts flapping…

Despite its title this is more of a set-up to the war between the Bearkillers/Mackenzies and the Portland Protective Association, than the actual war. It is like watching the chess pieces being moved about the board; setting up for the final moves. Sorry, I don’t play chess so will have to leave that analogy at that…

4) Meeting at Corvallis, S.M. Stirling. Yep, you guessed it… the final book of the trilogy. Where the war that was foretold finally gets to happen. And once again, Stirling does a wonderful job of creating characters that catch your attention. Here, for example, creates a character that you just can’t wait to get killed… and turns said person into someone you not only feel for, you add to your list of ‘good guys’. Or at least I did… if you are reading those books I leave it to you to figure out who I mean.

When the final clash comes it comes in a way that, honestly, I sort of expected considering the characters involved. But that does nothing to detract from the tension of the story. Excellent work!

Okay, off the read The Sunrise Lands (another in this series… new!) now…