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Stranger at the Wedding, Augustine Painters, Memory of Stone, Under the Skin, Winter Death

samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Thursday, January 8th, 2009 09:56 am
  • Stranger at the Wedding by Barbara Hambly. Turns out I have read this before, forgot enough to read it with the odd weird déjà vu moment. I love how relationships are important but how the women always have lives and priorities that have to be woven in as well. Kyra left her family to pursue magic but is drawn back when she discovers that her sister’s wedding night will be her death.
  • The Augustine Painters by Michelle West. Short story. I love the way this unfolds, simple and complicated all at once. Camille is one of the mysterious orphans/artists whose gift of prophecy manifests through art.
  • The Memory of Stone by Michelle West. Short Story. Heartbreaking and beautiful. Love, creativity, loyalty, madness. A look at the Maker Guild in Averalaan and the price they pay for their gifts.
  • Under the Skin by Michelle West. Short story. Not sure how I feel about this. Jane Thornton works out some anger with the help of a little magic.
  • Winter Death by Michelle West. Short story (Set in Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar universe). Sad and strong. Kayla grows up in a mining town with complicated life history and finds it gave her the strength to understand an attack that devastates Valdemar.
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Dancer's Luck, Dancer's Illusion, Echoes and Wayfinder

samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 01:50 pm
  • Dancer's Luck and Dancer’s Illusion by Ann Maxwell. Re-reading for love of the whistle language.
  • Echoes by Michelle West. Short story I didn’t know existed but oh my god, so pleased I do now. This might not mean a lot to non followers of Michelle West but it’s an absolute treat for me. How Kallandras came to the Brotherhood.
  • Wayfinder by Janny Wurts. Short story set in the same world as The Master of Whitestorm. Has the strongly character driven feel that I’ve grown to love. A fisher girl loses her brother in a storm and finds a man in chains on a beach. He can find anything and so, maybe, can she.
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Lady of Mercy, Masqueraders, Monstrous Regiment, Buffy, Dresden Files, House of Many Ways

samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 11:17 am
  • The Sundered (03) Lady of Mercy by Michelle Sagara West. Early writing, reading it for completeness.
  • The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer. Rereading because I love Prudence.
  • Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. Rereading because I love all the jokes about socks.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 Issue 19 by Drew Goddard. Winds up the Fray storyline and has least porny cover - must be compensating for last time.
  • Dresden Files: Storm Front and Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. Detective/supernatural/romance mashup, not the greatest but entertaining.
  • House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones. Nothing but love. Charmain looks after her Great-Uncle William's cottage. This has bad guys, laundry, magical dogs, self discovery and much, much more.
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Polly and the Pirates, Midnight Days, Marvel 1602, Black Orchid, Legacy of Heorot & Chronicles of El

samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 02:21 pm
  • Polly and the Pirates by Ted Naifeh. Win! Lovely illustrations, gorgeous tale. Polly is a young girl raised to believe her mother was everything a Proper Lady should be, when she is recruited by some pirates to be their queen it turns out that may not have been entirely accurate. I have [livejournal.com profile] ascetic_hedony 's copy and must get my own.
  • Midnight Days by Neil Gaiman. Compilation of works, all worth seeing.
  • Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman. Marvel classic characters transferred to the Elizabethan period. This is a lovely work of fusion, you get familiar characters, lovely art and a 'save the world!' storyline.
  • Black Orchid by Dave McKean. Beautiful, dark and whimsical. Black Orchid awakens in a greenhouse with the memories of a murdered women, before she can learn of her origin, her creator also dies leaving her to seek self-knowledge.
  • The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Steven Barnes & Jerry Pournelle. I think I was having a weird nostalgia moment, I read this years ago and picked it up again second hand out of curiosity. Colonists on new planet think everything is going swimmingly except for designated military character who is, unsurprisingly, military. Bad things ensue, humanity conquers all. The whole 'humans as masters of the universe' vibe doesn't work for me as a plot device and the whole bad thing -> Bad Thing -> BAD THING escalation didn't ring true for me although to be fair, it is constantly emphasised that the decision making ability of almost all adults is impaired and they are making *bad* decisions.
  • Chronicles of Elantra (1, 2 & 3) Cast in Shadow, Cast in Courtlight & Cast in Secret by Michelle Sagara West. Quite different in tone to her Sun Sword books (which I am madly in love with) but solid and enjoyable. Kaylin is our disreputable heroine with a heart of gold working for local law enforcement. She has a gift for getting into trouble, complete disregard for authority and all sorts of fun and complex problems including being covered in the graffiti of a god. Keep her company as she grows up a little, learns some new things and makes unexpected friends.
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The blessings of Stefan, Buffy S8, Superior Saturday, Into the Dark Lands and Children of the Blood

samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Friday, August 29th, 2008 11:34 am
  • The Sundered (02) Children of the Blood by Michelle Sagara West. See below.
  • The Sundered (01) Into the Dark Lands by Michelle Sagara West. Early Michelle West, you can see the seeds of what is going to be a shit hot fantasy writer and world builder, but here the writing is still quite young. Point of view and exposition problems. Don't let this put you off reading Hunter's Oath and the Sun Sword series because they are amazing.
  • Keys to the Kingdom (6) Superior Saturday by Garth Nix. The first of this series that didn't complete a story, now left hanging for the last book, am seriously hoping for some resolution here. Not as interested as I was in previous books but I have problems with WIPs and tend to struggle to maintain interest.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 Issue 15 & 16 by Drew Goddard. Made of awesome, Love Fray and love Dawnie.
  • The blessings of Stefan : in the land of the blind is the sighted man king? by John Jetty. This was pretty darn amazing. I sank into reading it and came back out a couple of days later blinking and wondering why we didn't have braille on the walls - how am I supposed to get around! This is the story of the first person to be sighted in a community of the blind, he can't read/hear/touch well, fails at important social behaviour and is the beloved but retarded son. That isn't the story though, that's just the context. The writing is so tactile and rich.
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