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Books
Poul Anderson: The High Crusade
This was fun. I mean, it's very obviously also a very dated book - both the historical fiction and the space opera parts would be very different if written today (for one thing, there'd be more than one woman character, and she wouldn't be half as annoying and mostly there to be a problem to solve). But it's fun and it takes its own idea perfectly serious for the length of it.
The Book of Cthulhu
Patricia Briggs: Fire Touched
Patricia Briggs: Shifting Shadows
I think my favourite out of these was Roses in Winter, about a grumpy, scary old werewolf and a girl who was turned werewolf against her will and kept in a cage, meaning now she can't control her transformations. Unfortunately, werewolf law is ruthless - if you can't control your shifts, you die...
Sigrún Gudbrandsdóttir: Sisimka
Naomi Mitchison: A Girl Must Live: Stories and Poems
Well. This is a collection put together late in Mitchison's career and according to the introduction it's intended to show off the various phases of her writing - and it's interesting. I quite liked a lot of the stories - there's everything from a man working with tiger preservation getting offered a wish by the Tiger Rajah, to the story of a fisherman's romance with a selkie (I think she's a selkie, it's never explicitly stated what she is), to a story about two young men drawing on ancestral magics to fight apartheid, to a couple of very nice poems about the London blitz, to a short story that's pretty clearly a tie-in to Memoirs of a Spacewoman, showing the life of the children the spacefarers leave behind for years at a time - and then there's some stories dealing with different worlds - alternate universes, planets, times - and the alien species dwelling there. Not every story is great, but it's definitely a worthwhile collection if you like Mitchison. And I think I might write a long review of it over on goodreads in five minutes, because it looks like there isn't actually much about it online.
Benno Moes: I skyggen af gyldne tider
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
I still can't decide whether Rowling's been reading too much fanfic or not enough. Probably the latter, since she's shied away from making the Albus/Scorpius explicit. But it's perfectly entertaining and imagine the play must be a very nice experience.
Rikke Schubart: Mørke
Helene Th. Svolgart: Livets barske lektie
So, this would be the novel that's making me suspect the author of having fanfic roots. Having done a bit of google fu and finding out that she publishes English-language m/m paranormal romance does not exactly lessen that suspicion - though the specificity of thinking it having started as Prison Break AU might well just be me projecting.
Anyway, I'm very happy that she's written two more novels about Mike the mercenary and Keelan the murderer, and I think I might have found my first yuletide fandom for next year. So that's good, yes?
Varulv
Comics
Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti: All-Star Western: Guns & Gotham
This is the first thing I've ever read with Jonah Hex and I'm quite enjoying this story of the grumpy, wild west bounty hunter coming to 19th century Gotham and becoming part of an awkward team-up with the original Dr. Arkham. It's a little ridiculous, but quite entertaining...
Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti: Jonah Hex: Face Full of Violence
Well, All-star Western was more fun, but it's the same writers, so I think I'll stick with this for a while.
Geoff Johns: Forever Evil
Jeff Lemire: Justice League Dark: The Books of Magic
Jeff Lemire: Justice League Dark: The Death of Magic
I must admit that these books are the weirdest for me to read of the New 52 verse, because they are taking what used to mostly Vertigo storylines and folding them into the mainstream (there's even a team-up with the Flash), and it just feels - weird. And John Constantine is just - wrong. I'm sorry, but he is. Also, I spend half the time wondering where the entire Sandman world has gotten off to - where is Cain and Abel living, if their houses are floating all over the place, for instance?
Scott Snyder: Swamp Thing: Raise Them Bones
I think I'm feeling about this the same thing I am feeling about the John Constantine in Justice League Dark - that DC have chosen to turn them into superheroes and that it just feels like it doesn't quite fit the character, you know?
J. Michael Straczynski: Ten Grand vol. 1.
J. Michael Straczynski: The Twelve vol. 1.
I will be very disappointed if this series doesn't get a guest cameo by Natasha Romanoff.
Matthew Sturges & Dave Justus: Fables: The Wolf Among Us vol. 1.
Mark Waid: Daredevil: Devil At Bay
Mark Waid: Hulk: Banner DOA
Joshua Williamson: Ghosted: Haunted Heist
Total number of books and comics read this month: 23
Currently reading: 1016 : The Danish Conquest of England by Per Ullidtz and The Mythos Dossier by enough people that I'd need to use [et al.] if I was cataloging it for work.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 188
Poul Anderson: The High Crusade
This was fun. I mean, it's very obviously also a very dated book - both the historical fiction and the space opera parts would be very different if written today (for one thing, there'd be more than one woman character, and she wouldn't be half as annoying and mostly there to be a problem to solve). But it's fun and it takes its own idea perfectly serious for the length of it.
The Book of Cthulhu
Patricia Briggs: Fire Touched
Patricia Briggs: Shifting Shadows
I think my favourite out of these was Roses in Winter, about a grumpy, scary old werewolf and a girl who was turned werewolf against her will and kept in a cage, meaning now she can't control her transformations. Unfortunately, werewolf law is ruthless - if you can't control your shifts, you die...
Sigrún Gudbrandsdóttir: Sisimka
Naomi Mitchison: A Girl Must Live: Stories and Poems
Well. This is a collection put together late in Mitchison's career and according to the introduction it's intended to show off the various phases of her writing - and it's interesting. I quite liked a lot of the stories - there's everything from a man working with tiger preservation getting offered a wish by the Tiger Rajah, to the story of a fisherman's romance with a selkie (I think she's a selkie, it's never explicitly stated what she is), to a story about two young men drawing on ancestral magics to fight apartheid, to a couple of very nice poems about the London blitz, to a short story that's pretty clearly a tie-in to Memoirs of a Spacewoman, showing the life of the children the spacefarers leave behind for years at a time - and then there's some stories dealing with different worlds - alternate universes, planets, times - and the alien species dwelling there. Not every story is great, but it's definitely a worthwhile collection if you like Mitchison. And I think I might write a long review of it over on goodreads in five minutes, because it looks like there isn't actually much about it online.
Benno Moes: I skyggen af gyldne tider
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
I still can't decide whether Rowling's been reading too much fanfic or not enough. Probably the latter, since she's shied away from making the Albus/Scorpius explicit. But it's perfectly entertaining and imagine the play must be a very nice experience.
Rikke Schubart: Mørke
Helene Th. Svolgart: Livets barske lektie
So, this would be the novel that's making me suspect the author of having fanfic roots. Having done a bit of google fu and finding out that she publishes English-language m/m paranormal romance does not exactly lessen that suspicion - though the specificity of thinking it having started as Prison Break AU might well just be me projecting.
Anyway, I'm very happy that she's written two more novels about Mike the mercenary and Keelan the murderer, and I think I might have found my first yuletide fandom for next year. So that's good, yes?
Varulv
Comics
Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti: All-Star Western: Guns & Gotham
This is the first thing I've ever read with Jonah Hex and I'm quite enjoying this story of the grumpy, wild west bounty hunter coming to 19th century Gotham and becoming part of an awkward team-up with the original Dr. Arkham. It's a little ridiculous, but quite entertaining...
Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti: Jonah Hex: Face Full of Violence
Well, All-star Western was more fun, but it's the same writers, so I think I'll stick with this for a while.
Geoff Johns: Forever Evil
Jeff Lemire: Justice League Dark: The Books of Magic
Jeff Lemire: Justice League Dark: The Death of Magic
I must admit that these books are the weirdest for me to read of the New 52 verse, because they are taking what used to mostly Vertigo storylines and folding them into the mainstream (there's even a team-up with the Flash), and it just feels - weird. And John Constantine is just - wrong. I'm sorry, but he is. Also, I spend half the time wondering where the entire Sandman world has gotten off to - where is Cain and Abel living, if their houses are floating all over the place, for instance?
Scott Snyder: Swamp Thing: Raise Them Bones
I think I'm feeling about this the same thing I am feeling about the John Constantine in Justice League Dark - that DC have chosen to turn them into superheroes and that it just feels like it doesn't quite fit the character, you know?
J. Michael Straczynski: Ten Grand vol. 1.
J. Michael Straczynski: The Twelve vol. 1.
I will be very disappointed if this series doesn't get a guest cameo by Natasha Romanoff.
Matthew Sturges & Dave Justus: Fables: The Wolf Among Us vol. 1.
Mark Waid: Daredevil: Devil At Bay
Mark Waid: Hulk: Banner DOA
Joshua Williamson: Ghosted: Haunted Heist
Total number of books and comics read this month: 23
Currently reading: 1016 : The Danish Conquest of England by Per Ullidtz and The Mythos Dossier by enough people that I'd need to use [et al.] if I was cataloging it for work.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 188