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Jim Butcher
Academ's Fury, Cursor's Fury, Captain's Fury, Princeps' Fury, First Lord's Fury
This series actually reminds me a lot of David Eddings on his better days - it's the same kind of fantasy, with clever, BAMF, snarky characters. And I like that the gratitious Latin actually makes sense, for once - well, mostly. I mean, why would the Canim be calling themselves Canim? It sounds Latin-derived, so... anyway. And anyway, the Canim and their worldview are definitely one of the really fun parts. So, fun fantasy, not the least bit serious, but who cares?
Kulturtrafik - æstetiske udtryk i en global verden
So, I have this thing, where every time I catch a reference to fanfic in something Danish (free magazine on train, random tv news snippet, new anthology about how the interaction between different cultures are making culture grow (which perhaps should have had less chapters involving cultural exchange between Denmark and Germany, but maybe that's just me...), I have to get my hands on it, at least to read/watch/whatever. So, this anthology had a chapter entitled "No, You've Not Lost Your Way - Fans, Fan Fiction, and Literary Traffic on the Web" - it doesn't actually say anything we didn't already know, and it's one of the few chapters of the book in English, not Danish. Mostly, it's the academic doing a full-scale analysis of a Pride&Prejudice fanfic. Which is kind of depressing - I get depressed when reading analysis of literature, because I know I'll never be able to put as much into a text as they always seem to get out of them, and now they're doing the same thing with fanfic? :-(
Patrick E. McLean
How to Succeed in Evil
I seem to have rather fallen for this - both the original podcast and the free audio novel - and would really like a fandom or at least a couple of people to squee with. I mean, there's Edwin Windsor, evil efficiency consultant (basically, an evil mastermind for hire by less than mastermind-full supervillains), assisted by his depraved dwarf henchlawyer Topper and his very proper British secretary Agnes. There are his clients, supervillains who are - alas - less than reasonable and just not good at taking Edwin's advice. There's Excelsior, who is sort of like Superman, only not quite, and who is going through some tough times, because superheroing just isn't how it used to be. I was listening to this on bus-rides (because I had a commute this month and the rails are temporarily absconded, so, bus) and occasionally had to look a lot out of the window to avoid other busriders wondering at the madly grinning lunatic. I mean, it's not perfect - I'd really like some female characters that wasn't either a)sex industry workers (I blame Topper), b)the only villainess in the story or c)fridged at the end, for instance. That said, I enjoyed it, quite a lot - it's a relatively straightforward superhero-deconstruction with humour and economics on top, and fun, and with some very nice plot-twists along the way (just wait for the epilogue - seriously, now there's a twist). I want fanfic. In fact, my mind is pushing at me to write a silly, short crossover with Boston Legal, of all things. But I want other people to write fanfic, too (guess I know my third request for yuletide, then). I mean, it's like nobody knows this, and that's wrong. It's fun. If you like Lex Luthor and Superman, you'll probably enjoy this. It's that kind of dynamic. And the author has announced on his blog that he's almost done with the sequel, so that's all good :-)
L.J. Smith
Midnight
I just hope the tv series never walk down this path...
Jack Vance
Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl
Everything considered, the world of the Elder Islands are in many ways quite as dark and nasty as, say, Westeros. People getting raped here and there and everywhere, rampant slavery, depraved bisexual sorcerers, occasionally wicked faeries, scheming kings wanting to conquer the entire archipelago, alien tribes with alien mindsets (who thinks they are the only real humans, since everybody else interbred with the neanderthals...). It's just, you would never mistake them for ASOIAF or similar, the style they're written in is far too different and more like fairytales, feels like something written a lot earlier than the 80's. But definitely good books.
Total number of books and comics read this month: 18
Currently reading: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Academ's Fury, Cursor's Fury, Captain's Fury, Princeps' Fury, First Lord's Fury
This series actually reminds me a lot of David Eddings on his better days - it's the same kind of fantasy, with clever, BAMF, snarky characters. And I like that the gratitious Latin actually makes sense, for once - well, mostly. I mean, why would the Canim be calling themselves Canim? It sounds Latin-derived, so... anyway. And anyway, the Canim and their worldview are definitely one of the really fun parts. So, fun fantasy, not the least bit serious, but who cares?
Kulturtrafik - æstetiske udtryk i en global verden
So, I have this thing, where every time I catch a reference to fanfic in something Danish (free magazine on train, random tv news snippet, new anthology about how the interaction between different cultures are making culture grow (which perhaps should have had less chapters involving cultural exchange between Denmark and Germany, but maybe that's just me...), I have to get my hands on it, at least to read/watch/whatever. So, this anthology had a chapter entitled "No, You've Not Lost Your Way - Fans, Fan Fiction, and Literary Traffic on the Web" - it doesn't actually say anything we didn't already know, and it's one of the few chapters of the book in English, not Danish. Mostly, it's the academic doing a full-scale analysis of a Pride&Prejudice fanfic. Which is kind of depressing - I get depressed when reading analysis of literature, because I know I'll never be able to put as much into a text as they always seem to get out of them, and now they're doing the same thing with fanfic? :-(
Patrick E. McLean
How to Succeed in Evil
I seem to have rather fallen for this - both the original podcast and the free audio novel - and would really like a fandom or at least a couple of people to squee with. I mean, there's Edwin Windsor, evil efficiency consultant (basically, an evil mastermind for hire by less than mastermind-full supervillains), assisted by his depraved dwarf henchlawyer Topper and his very proper British secretary Agnes. There are his clients, supervillains who are - alas - less than reasonable and just not good at taking Edwin's advice. There's Excelsior, who is sort of like Superman, only not quite, and who is going through some tough times, because superheroing just isn't how it used to be. I was listening to this on bus-rides (because I had a commute this month and the rails are temporarily absconded, so, bus) and occasionally had to look a lot out of the window to avoid other busriders wondering at the madly grinning lunatic. I mean, it's not perfect - I'd really like some female characters that wasn't either a)sex industry workers (I blame Topper), b)the only villainess in the story or c)fridged at the end, for instance. That said, I enjoyed it, quite a lot - it's a relatively straightforward superhero-deconstruction with humour and economics on top, and fun, and with some very nice plot-twists along the way (just wait for the epilogue - seriously, now there's a twist). I want fanfic. In fact, my mind is pushing at me to write a silly, short crossover with Boston Legal, of all things. But I want other people to write fanfic, too (guess I know my third request for yuletide, then). I mean, it's like nobody knows this, and that's wrong. It's fun. If you like Lex Luthor and Superman, you'll probably enjoy this. It's that kind of dynamic. And the author has announced on his blog that he's almost done with the sequel, so that's all good :-)
L.J. Smith
Midnight
I just hope the tv series never walk down this path...
Jack Vance
Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl
Everything considered, the world of the Elder Islands are in many ways quite as dark and nasty as, say, Westeros. People getting raped here and there and everywhere, rampant slavery, depraved bisexual sorcerers, occasionally wicked faeries, scheming kings wanting to conquer the entire archipelago, alien tribes with alien mindsets (who thinks they are the only real humans, since everybody else interbred with the neanderthals...). It's just, you would never mistake them for ASOIAF or similar, the style they're written in is far too different and more like fairytales, feels like something written a lot earlier than the 80's. But definitely good books.
Total number of books and comics read this month: 18
Currently reading: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
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