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Jim Butcher: Ghost story
I quite liked the answer to: who killed Harry. And I think that this book managed the character-disappears-for-a-long-time-other-people-cope-without-him quite well - it's nice to see Harry's allies shine. I also quite liked Sir Stuart. I'm sorry about the absence of Marcone - it would have been fun, seeing what Harry having an opportunity to spy on him undetected might see - then again, the whole not-in-the-country-henchman-that-I-don't-think-we-have-even-heard-of-before-have-we-? has me wondering if maybe Marcone has gotten himself of to Faerie, voluntarily or not, and will show up in the next book. Actually, I hope so. It would be fun. Besides I want to see someone meeting Harry and going "wasn't you dead?"
The Definitive Thor
Which has basically just confirmed my suspicion that the original superhero Thor was created by someone having pretty much no clue or even a Cliffnotes version of Norse myth, and ever since everybody else have been struggling to make it fit with Norse myth - and mostly succeeding in making my inner Norse myth-geek cringe. And then there's the stuff that's just plain weird...
Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs, and Steel
Interesting. But I still want an AU where people managed to tame cheetahs and keep them for pets...
Gerður Kristný: Blóðhófnir (Blood stallion)
Okay, so I read the Danish translation - my Icelandic is none-existant. Anyway, very interesting poem - it's basically a feminist take on the myth of Freyr and Gerd from Gerd's perspective - and considering that's the perspective what's basically a mother Earth goddess, in a story involving her getting threatened into marrying the god of agriculture, of sharp plows cutting through fertile soil - yeah, not so nice. Certainly not a love story. But then, it's Norse myth - if it's nice and happy and fluffy bunnies, it better be meant for young children, otherwise, you're doing it wrong.
Naomi Novik: Tongues of Serpents
Yes, I know, dreadfully late - but then, I like the new characters, I like Cæsar and find him a perfectly suitable dragon for Rankin, and I am quite pleased with the British not getting to dominate this world quite so easily as they'd like.
Carrie Vaughn: Kitty's Big Trouble
Why, hello Sun Wukong - didn't expect you there. Always a pleasure :-) Anyway, the Kitty Norville books might be beginning to suffer a little from the urban-fantasy-series tendency to overload on supernatural species, but it remains one my favourite urban fantasy series - partly because of our heroines usually quite down to earth considerations about practicalities, like wondering about the possibility of listing alpha werewolves in the phonebook to allow werewolves a way to know if they are accidentally tresspassing on another's territory or not. I like that while it's still early days for this world as unmasqued, then it's making steps towards some form of integration - even if they are baby steps.
Quite frankly, one thing that annoys me about a lot of urban fantasy of the post-reveal-of-supernatural-things (like, say, True Blood or Anita Blake) is its tendency to want to have its cake and eat it too - basically, wanting the supernatural to be out in the open, but also to continue to have independent rules and governing bodies and organizations - I mean, it makes sense for there to have been strong rulers pre-reveal - considering the types running around in TB, anything less than strong, no-nonse rulers would have meant that the reveal wouldn't have been needed, as the masquerade could never have existed in the first place. But post-reveal - do you really think a government, even if it accepts, say, vampires as citizens with full rights, will also let them continue to have what basically amounts to a state in the state, with rules that seems to specialize in violating those very same basic civil rights they supposedly want? I mean, in the Anita Blake verse, where is the crackdown on the weres after some poor bastard finally releases the tell-all interview about getting turned into a were and finding absolutely no sensible support network, just growling beasts refusing to resolve issues like adult human beings and petty local rulers forcing said poor bastard into doing porn movies. Or did that happen after I stopped reading those books?
Another example that comes to mind is this silly paranormal romance series I've been reading - set in a sort of True Blood light world, with our heroine being a spunky vampire librarian - and part of the plot revolves around how apparently the vampires have their own laws involving who inherits stuff - basically, if you kill another vampire, you inherit all their property. Now, our heroine inherited a very nice house from her grandmother, and after getting turned, she becomes the target of a vampire real estate agent who really wants that house and will kill our heroine for it. Only, it is also kind of a major plot point that our heroine's family is very resentful of her having inherited the house, seeing it as basically one big family heirloom, and part of me would have loved to have seen the collision between human family naturally expecting to inherit after tragic death of daughter/sister/embarrasingly nocturnal relative and vampire real estate agent naturally expecting to inherit after succesfully dispatching newbie vampire girl. Seriously, I would love if more of the post-reveal urban fantasy would actually focus more on the integrating and colliding of worlds rather than romantic triangles (or whatever those are called after 10 or 15 characters get involved), mystical wars, or whatever. I suspect I have gotten tainted by too much social realism in my school years - I love fantasy, but dammit, it doesn't make sense. (And I'm not talking about the people turning into animals/zombies/whatever) Anyway...
Total number of books and comics read this month: 28
Currently reading: The Emperor's Finest by Sandy Mitchell, Antikkens Verden and The Mammoth Book of War Comics.
I quite liked the answer to: who killed Harry. And I think that this book managed the character-disappears-for-a-long-time-other-people-cope-without-him quite well - it's nice to see Harry's allies shine. I also quite liked Sir Stuart. I'm sorry about the absence of Marcone - it would have been fun, seeing what Harry having an opportunity to spy on him undetected might see - then again, the whole not-in-the-country-henchman-that-I-don't-think-we-have-even-heard-of-before-have-we-? has me wondering if maybe Marcone has gotten himself of to Faerie, voluntarily or not, and will show up in the next book. Actually, I hope so. It would be fun. Besides I want to see someone meeting Harry and going "wasn't you dead?"
The Definitive Thor
Which has basically just confirmed my suspicion that the original superhero Thor was created by someone having pretty much no clue or even a Cliffnotes version of Norse myth, and ever since everybody else have been struggling to make it fit with Norse myth - and mostly succeeding in making my inner Norse myth-geek cringe. And then there's the stuff that's just plain weird...
Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs, and Steel
Interesting. But I still want an AU where people managed to tame cheetahs and keep them for pets...
Gerður Kristný: Blóðhófnir (Blood stallion)
Okay, so I read the Danish translation - my Icelandic is none-existant. Anyway, very interesting poem - it's basically a feminist take on the myth of Freyr and Gerd from Gerd's perspective - and considering that's the perspective what's basically a mother Earth goddess, in a story involving her getting threatened into marrying the god of agriculture, of sharp plows cutting through fertile soil - yeah, not so nice. Certainly not a love story. But then, it's Norse myth - if it's nice and happy and fluffy bunnies, it better be meant for young children, otherwise, you're doing it wrong.
Naomi Novik: Tongues of Serpents
Yes, I know, dreadfully late - but then, I like the new characters, I like Cæsar and find him a perfectly suitable dragon for Rankin, and I am quite pleased with the British not getting to dominate this world quite so easily as they'd like.
Carrie Vaughn: Kitty's Big Trouble
Why, hello Sun Wukong - didn't expect you there. Always a pleasure :-) Anyway, the Kitty Norville books might be beginning to suffer a little from the urban-fantasy-series tendency to overload on supernatural species, but it remains one my favourite urban fantasy series - partly because of our heroines usually quite down to earth considerations about practicalities, like wondering about the possibility of listing alpha werewolves in the phonebook to allow werewolves a way to know if they are accidentally tresspassing on another's territory or not. I like that while it's still early days for this world as unmasqued, then it's making steps towards some form of integration - even if they are baby steps.
Quite frankly, one thing that annoys me about a lot of urban fantasy of the post-reveal-of-supernatural-things (like, say, True Blood or Anita Blake) is its tendency to want to have its cake and eat it too - basically, wanting the supernatural to be out in the open, but also to continue to have independent rules and governing bodies and organizations - I mean, it makes sense for there to have been strong rulers pre-reveal - considering the types running around in TB, anything less than strong, no-nonse rulers would have meant that the reveal wouldn't have been needed, as the masquerade could never have existed in the first place. But post-reveal - do you really think a government, even if it accepts, say, vampires as citizens with full rights, will also let them continue to have what basically amounts to a state in the state, with rules that seems to specialize in violating those very same basic civil rights they supposedly want? I mean, in the Anita Blake verse, where is the crackdown on the weres after some poor bastard finally releases the tell-all interview about getting turned into a were and finding absolutely no sensible support network, just growling beasts refusing to resolve issues like adult human beings and petty local rulers forcing said poor bastard into doing porn movies. Or did that happen after I stopped reading those books?
Another example that comes to mind is this silly paranormal romance series I've been reading - set in a sort of True Blood light world, with our heroine being a spunky vampire librarian - and part of the plot revolves around how apparently the vampires have their own laws involving who inherits stuff - basically, if you kill another vampire, you inherit all their property. Now, our heroine inherited a very nice house from her grandmother, and after getting turned, she becomes the target of a vampire real estate agent who really wants that house and will kill our heroine for it. Only, it is also kind of a major plot point that our heroine's family is very resentful of her having inherited the house, seeing it as basically one big family heirloom, and part of me would have loved to have seen the collision between human family naturally expecting to inherit after tragic death of daughter/sister/embarrasingly nocturnal relative and vampire real estate agent naturally expecting to inherit after succesfully dispatching newbie vampire girl. Seriously, I would love if more of the post-reveal urban fantasy would actually focus more on the integrating and colliding of worlds rather than romantic triangles (or whatever those are called after 10 or 15 characters get involved), mystical wars, or whatever. I suspect I have gotten tainted by too much social realism in my school years - I love fantasy, but dammit, it doesn't make sense. (And I'm not talking about the people turning into animals/zombies/whatever) Anyway...
Total number of books and comics read this month: 28
Currently reading: The Emperor's Finest by Sandy Mitchell, Antikkens Verden and The Mammoth Book of War Comics.
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