cyphomandra

I have all these half-finished manga and anime posts that require inspiration, fact-checking and finishing off all the reading/watching in various combinations. I'm also behind on books - I read the first one of these about a month ago - but these are easier to catch up on.

I took an irrational dislike to this book when I heard the author read an extract from it, less because of the extract (from the first chapter, with Ista being contemplative) than because of the hordes of Bujold groupies (it was at Worldcon) who listened in an overly intense fashion with fixed beatific smiles on their faces. I thought Curse of Chalion was interesting but not outstanding, and Hallowed Hunt was neither. However, a lot of people seem to like this one best, so I – finally – gave it a chance. ( Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold. )

( Everest: Book 1; The Contest and Book 2: The Climb, both by Gordon Korman. )

( Precious Dragon, Liz Williams. )

And I'm also part of the Harry Potter re-reading horde - currently half-way through Order of the Phoenix, which should put me on track to finish Half-Blood Prince before next Saturday. Obviously, some sort of sheep icon would be appropriate at this point, but I'll have to settle for a hare...

My books-read-and-not-recorded stack is approaching ridiculous lengths. Leaving out books I want to discuss at more length, here are some catch-ups.

( Blood Price, Tanya Huff. )

( The Death of Dalziel, Reginald Hill. )

( Bad Medicine, David Wotton. )

( Snake Agent, Liz Williams. )

And some even shorter summaries...

Die Trying, Lee Child. Solid thriller, good characters, smart plot.

Killing Floor, Lee Child. See above. I worked out the gimmick to this one just when Jack Reacher did (a few pages ahead of the explanation) and liked it a lot. I do like thrillers where neither the good guys nor the bad guys are dumb.

Tripwire, Lee Child. Not quite as good as the first two, but I think he’s also setting stuff up for later books. The gimmick here was, unfortunately, much more obvious to the reader than the characters, which (for me, anyway), creates the wrong sort of suspense, where I feel that the characters are just being dim. A little unfairly in this case, as they know a lot less than the reader for much of the book.

Lady Friday, Garth Nix. Latest one in the series. I must re-read the earlier ones before the end, as it’s been a long time since Monday. Good and inventive, as always; slightly less complex than some of the earlier ones. Looking forward to the weekend…

I haven't yet watched either of the last two Torchwood episodes, but I have written 1200 words of fiction, which, in the long term, is hopefully more useful. And I seem to have read rather a lot of books...

( David Marusek, Counting Heads. )

( Liz Williams, Banner of Souls. )

( R.S. Downie, Medicus and the Disappearing Dancing Girls. )

( Gillian Bradshaw, The Wrong Reflection. )

Two unpublished novels, for critique. (counted here for completeness, but no comments. I read one of them 4 times and wrote 25 pages, so feel little need to say anything else at the moment!).