Books of June

[oneiriad]

Books

Mathias F. Clasen: Monstre

Suzanne Collins: Mockingjay

Kate Colquhoun: Mr Briggs' Hat: A Sensational Account of Britain's First Railway Murder

Down These Strange Streets: Stories of Urban Fantasy
One thing I find annoying in short story collections of the more fantastic bent is when they don't actually stick to the announced genre. Or interpret it - unusually. Urban fantasy I tend to expect to be stories set basically in our present world, except with fantasy elements - yes, I know the proper definition is wider than that, but most urban fantasy seem to fit within it. In the foreword by George R.R. Martin (one of this collection's two editors) he makes it clear that apparently no, proper urban fantasy is a much narrower genre than that - that it's basically what I have seen referred to elsewhere as supernatural noir. Detective stories involving supernatural things.

Fair enough. I don't object to supernatural noir.

Out of the 16 stories in this collection, however, 3 are straightforward historical mysteries - no more fantasy or supernatural than a classic Scooby Doo story (in fact, one seems to have stolen its plot from there) and one story is pure science fiction. The rest fit the genre, more or less, but sadly, well, you know how these genre short story collections tend to have a lot of big name authors writing stories? And how big name authors who have a series will often write a short story set in the same verse? Well, how to put it - this collection has a lot of big name authors already writing mystery series - and that's fine, I bet it will get a lot of people reading the book because they like one of them (I confess I'm one of them, wanting to read Diana Gabaldon's Lord John and the Plague of Zombies (which is good, but not urban fantasy)) - but when the whole book is full of those stories? And when it's urban fantasy, well, urban fantasy has a lot of world building and unlike in the historical mysteries, where you can have knowledge about the world from elsewhere, in urban fantasy, the text is all there is, so a 20-some page short story in a preexisting world full of twists and characters and the author's personal take on magic and werewolves and vampires etc., well, either the plot will be extremely simplistic or the story will be extremely confusing - or both. Usually, genre anthologies manage to find a balance between stories set in preexisting worlds and completely original stories. This one doesn't. Anyway...

Frances Hardinge: Twilight Robbery

Kim Harrison: Into the Woods: tales from the Hollows and beyond

Danielle Henderson: Feminist Ryan Gosling
Yes, I could have just read the tumblr. Actually, I did. Actually, I find that most of these work better on tumblr. Anyway...

Harald Herdal: Trællene i Norden
Next time I grow interested in a historical subject and decide to basically order all the books I can find about it on bibliotek.dk, remind me to hesitate when it comes to 20th century books and just - go and google the author, see if he's a Communist. I mean, I don't mind Communists, but this book is literally one long repetition of all the horrible things the wicked capitalists freeborn did to the poor, oppressed workers thralls (seriously - even setting them free is given a wicked twist), to the point were it feels pretty useless as a history book. I mean, the author freely draws in medieval laws, Viking sagas, Tacitus and fricking bog mummies in a way that leaves the impression that he seems to think that they all applied all the time (and that they were all 100% historically accurate...) and not representing a fairly spread-out bit of the space/time continuum. And he throws out random bits of information without saying where he gets them. I mean, there was one or two bits that sounded useable - at one point, he comments that Christian thralls were particularly favoured as sacrifices because they were, well, Christian - but I have no clue if they are actually correct and reliable, that's how crappy this writer is at what he does. Ah well, at least the book was short and there's a couple of other, far newer and far more professional appearing books about thralls waiting in my to-read-bookpile...

Peter Kjeldsen: Sorte enker og andre giftige hunkønsvæsener
Maybe I'm over-sensitive, but I couldn't help but get a somewhat misogynistic vibe while reading this book. I mean, maybe it's just me - it's a collection of first half the 20th century women murderers, after all, there's some pretty nasty ladies here (and interesting ones too - note to self: Pearl Hart). And still, there is something not quite, you know?

Erik Christian Larsen: Film 2012
Four pages on Titanic 3D and five lines for Skyfall? Some people have no sense of priorities...

Kevin Lindemann: En aften i kolera-året

Bjarne Henrik Lundis: Axel Axgil: kampen for kærligheden

Richard Morgan: The Steel Remains

Elizabeth Peters: Crocodile on the Sandbank
Entertaining. Actually, I found myself constantly reminded of Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate - genre differences aside, I find myself unable to believe that Carriger hasn't read this series, because the similarities are simply too great.

J.D. Robb: Ceremony In Death

Ashanti White: Not Your Ordinary Librarian: Debunking the popular perceptions of librarians


Comics

Yasuko Aoike: From Eroica With Love vol. 12.

Warren Ellis: Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island

Warren Ellis: Freakangels vol. 2.
Warren Ellis: Freakangels vol. 3.
Warren Ellis: Freakangels vol. 4.

Garth Ennis: The Boys: The Bloody Doors Off

Geoff Johns: Justice League: The Villain's Journey

Marini: Les Aigles de Rome I
Marini: Les Aigles de Rome II
Marini: Les Aigles de Rome III

Hiro Mashima: Fairy Tail vol. 22.

M.K. Reed: Americus
It's odd - I like fantasy and science fiction, I consume (read, watch, whatever) a lot of it. And then sometimes, I consume a tale, like say this comic, realist with a fantastic fiction work existing in canon - and somehow, those in-verse works of fantastic fiction always come across as - simplistic? Dull? Maybe it's just cause you never get the full story, just high points at best, but still? Is it just me?

Mikkel Ørsted Sauzet: Aske

Scott Snyder: Batman: The City of Owls
Apparently, Alfred's dad was named Jarvis (probably because there is a union of comic book butlers working for heroes, complete with lists of appropriate butlery names ;-) Also, I think I wouldn't mind seeing more of Harper Row and her brother.

Yana Toboso: Black Butler vol. 4.
Yana Toboso: Black Butler vol. 5.

Brian Wood: DMZ: Collective Punishment

Brian Wood: Northlanders: The Icelandic Trilogy


Total number of books and comics read this month: 34
Currently reading: Stefan Brink's Vikingarnas slavar: den nordiska träldomen under yngre järnålder och äldsta medeltid