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Books
Katherine Addison: The Goblin Emperor
It gets points for being the very opposite of grimdark - this story could so easily have gone so many nastier ways. And I did like Maia and several of the other characters, but I honestly felt that the books strength is in the worldbuilding and not so much the plot.
Sara B. Elfgren & Mats Strandberg: Eld
Mette Finderup: Smertensbarn
Nanna Foss: Geminiderne
Mørke guders templer
You know, it's not that these short stories are bad, as such. A couple of them are even good - my favourite is probably A. Silvestri's En sang om vand. It's just - at the end of it, I was left feeling that all the stories were just collections of clichés. Individually, found in a more general fantasy collection or in a magazine or online, they might have worked, but all put together, I'm just left feeling that none of the authers could be bothered to write anything other than formulaic sword & sorcery, you know? It's boring.
Anders Rydell: Boktjuvarna - jakten på de försvunna biblioteken
This was a very interesting book about the great Nazi book thefts during WWII - and when I say book thefts, I mean entire libraries. Though the part that fascinated me the most was the chapters about how various German libraries, even to this day, are working to identify stolen books in their collections and return them to the owners or their descendants if at all possible, and how some of the other stolen libraries are still stolen, because they got re-stolen by the Soviets as prizes of war and modern Russia really doesn't want to return them. Not to mention the books that remain stolen because they are now in, for instance, Library of Congress and the original owners are long dead. What a bloody mess, really.
Michelle Sagara: Cast in Flame
I hate to say it - but finally meeting the Emperor was a letdown...
Malene Sølvsten: Ravnenes hvisken
Okay, so it's a fairly standard narrative - teenager girl has powers and discovers she's a part of a mystical otherworld urban fantasy - but it's well written and set in a somewhat recognizable Northern Jutland. It's getting a little predictable that the Danish ya lit of this sort goes with Norse myth, but hey....
Comics
Ed Brubaker: Fatale: Curse the Demon
Brian Buccalleto: The Flash: History Lessons
Gerry Duggan: Deadpool: All good things
J.M. DeMatteis: Justice League Dark: Paradise Lost
I'm beginning to find the way the other team members are constantly blaming John Constantine for everything and verbally (and occasionally physically) assaulting him kinda tiring - partly because John Constantine from the New 52 is nowhere near the levels of asshole-who-deserves-it that the Vertigo version sometimes reached, and partly because when you read the two stories in this collection, for instance, you'll find that all the problems in those stories are entirely the fault of some of the other members of the team.
Liv Strömquist: Einsteins fru
Liv Strömquist: Hundra procent fett
Liv Strömquist: Prins Charles känsla
Brian K. Vaughan: Saga vol. 6.
Total number of books and comics read this month: 16
Currently reading: Äkta amerikanska jeans by Jan Guillou and Der vokser et tre i Mostamägg by Britt Karin Larsen
Total number of books and comics read this year: 37
Right. As an experiment, I am going to try to steal the reading meme a few other people are using and try to do weekly updates next month at least. If nothing else, it should make me post more to my DW?
Katherine Addison: The Goblin Emperor
It gets points for being the very opposite of grimdark - this story could so easily have gone so many nastier ways. And I did like Maia and several of the other characters, but I honestly felt that the books strength is in the worldbuilding and not so much the plot.
Sara B. Elfgren & Mats Strandberg: Eld
Mette Finderup: Smertensbarn
Nanna Foss: Geminiderne
Mørke guders templer
You know, it's not that these short stories are bad, as such. A couple of them are even good - my favourite is probably A. Silvestri's En sang om vand. It's just - at the end of it, I was left feeling that all the stories were just collections of clichés. Individually, found in a more general fantasy collection or in a magazine or online, they might have worked, but all put together, I'm just left feeling that none of the authers could be bothered to write anything other than formulaic sword & sorcery, you know? It's boring.
Anders Rydell: Boktjuvarna - jakten på de försvunna biblioteken
This was a very interesting book about the great Nazi book thefts during WWII - and when I say book thefts, I mean entire libraries. Though the part that fascinated me the most was the chapters about how various German libraries, even to this day, are working to identify stolen books in their collections and return them to the owners or their descendants if at all possible, and how some of the other stolen libraries are still stolen, because they got re-stolen by the Soviets as prizes of war and modern Russia really doesn't want to return them. Not to mention the books that remain stolen because they are now in, for instance, Library of Congress and the original owners are long dead. What a bloody mess, really.
Michelle Sagara: Cast in Flame
I hate to say it - but finally meeting the Emperor was a letdown...
Malene Sølvsten: Ravnenes hvisken
Okay, so it's a fairly standard narrative - teenager girl has powers and discovers she's a part of a mystical otherworld urban fantasy - but it's well written and set in a somewhat recognizable Northern Jutland. It's getting a little predictable that the Danish ya lit of this sort goes with Norse myth, but hey....
Comics
Ed Brubaker: Fatale: Curse the Demon
Brian Buccalleto: The Flash: History Lessons
Gerry Duggan: Deadpool: All good things
J.M. DeMatteis: Justice League Dark: Paradise Lost
I'm beginning to find the way the other team members are constantly blaming John Constantine for everything and verbally (and occasionally physically) assaulting him kinda tiring - partly because John Constantine from the New 52 is nowhere near the levels of asshole-who-deserves-it that the Vertigo version sometimes reached, and partly because when you read the two stories in this collection, for instance, you'll find that all the problems in those stories are entirely the fault of some of the other members of the team.
Liv Strömquist: Einsteins fru
Liv Strömquist: Hundra procent fett
Liv Strömquist: Prins Charles känsla
Brian K. Vaughan: Saga vol. 6.
Total number of books and comics read this month: 16
Currently reading: Äkta amerikanska jeans by Jan Guillou and Der vokser et tre i Mostamägg by Britt Karin Larsen
Total number of books and comics read this year: 37
Right. As an experiment, I am going to try to steal the reading meme a few other people are using and try to do weekly updates next month at least. If nothing else, it should make me post more to my DW?
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I do worry that the third book will be a letdown, simply because after the second it doesn't feel like the story can pull off the final confrontation with the demons and whatever the Chosen will have to do about the Witches council in just one book/school year. Though I guess we'll see.
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Also: shhh! No spoilers, please.
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