What I've Been Reading
February 4, 2013
So, the first 10 books (although that's complicated) I've read so far this year.
1. Key Death by Jude Hardin
I read this in manuscript format, as I blurbed it. I believe it's coming out in June or so, a short novel featuring Jude's PI Nicholas Colt. I enjoyed it. Serial killers, drug deals, and twists and turns.
2. A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
Blew me away. I was resistant to reading it because it's very long and the first very long book in a very long series of very long books - did I say it was very long? - and epic fantasy it's usually my thing, but hey, when you're in the presence of genius, sometimes you need to go ahead and see what all the fuss is about.
3. Last Chance Lassiter by Paul Levine
This is a prequel novella featuring hard-luck down-and-dirty Florida attorney Jake Lassiter and I enjoyed this very, very much. Essentially Jake takes on the case of an old blues singer who believes he has been plagiarized by a Rap star.
4. Dinosaurs in the Attic by Doug Preston
A nonfiction book about the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, this was very enjoyable and interesting.
5. The Human Division #1: The B-Team by John Scalzi
Scalzi is writing a serialized novella, which his publisher is releasing a chapter/section every Tuesday. It's SF and it's in the same universe as his Old Man's War series. This first part was quite good, about 60 pages or so. It will also be published as a novel when the serialization is completed, but I'm enjoying the serialization. Overall it's a little hard for me to tell exactly what the plot is about, but essentially there's Earth, and there's the Colonial Union, which is the government that was set up by Earth out in space, and then there's everybody else in the galaxy who were fighting over territory. Then, in The Last Colony, that went to hell and a group of other planets (Earth and CU not included, exactly) take over and say, "No more colonization, no more fighting over planets." And in this book, it seems that there's some folks with either the CU or Earth (or both, or neither!) who don't necessarily agree with that edict.
6. Pandora's Temple by Jon Land
A sort of Indiana Jones meets Dirk Pitt meets James Bond meets ... well, you get the idea. Totally ridiculous and a lot of fun. I gather this is about #10 of the series. I've read a couple other books by Jon and enjoyed them reasonably well, but this is pretty outrageous and involves ... dark matter and Armageddon and... don't think too much. Just go along for the ride.
7. The Human Division #2: Walk The Plank by John Scalzi
Part 2. This is an oddity, pretty much all told in dialogue, as if it's a recording. It doesn't seem to be at all connected to Part 1 until you get to Part 3. I had a tough time getting into it, but eventually did, and once you get to part 3 it makes complete sense.
8. The Human Division #3: We Only Need the Heads by John Scalzi
In Part 3 we basically get some of the characters from part 1 down on the planet where Part 2 took place, while other characters from Part 1 are involved in diplomatic negotiations with a race that is supposed to have control over the planet the other group is on. It doesn't end well. Or begin well, for that matter.
9. The Treatment Option by Joel Barrows
I read this in manuscript. Joel is a client and this is a thriller about bad deeds involving a pharmaceutical company. I enjoyed working on this quite a bit.
10. The Blood Gospel by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell
A new series (clearly) by James Rollins and someone I've never read before, Rebecca Cantrell. I'd read their novella, City of Screams, which doesn't really prepare you for how weird The Blood Gospel is going to get. But it basically takes the history of Christianity and the Catholic Church and overlays vampire mythology on top of it, then combines that with James Rollins fast-paced, action-adventure style, and throws in a bunch of historical figures who are, er, well, um, vampires. As Jim said in an interview, it's pretty amazing (read weird) how much of the Catholic Church's history dovetails so well with vampire mythology. I enjoyed this a lot.
So, the first 10 books (although that's complicated) I've read so far this year.
1. Key Death by Jude Hardin
I read this in manuscript format, as I blurbed it. I believe it's coming out in June or so, a short novel featuring Jude's PI Nicholas Colt. I enjoyed it. Serial killers, drug deals, and twists and turns.
2. A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
Blew me away. I was resistant to reading it because it's very long and the first very long book in a very long series of very long books - did I say it was very long? - and epic fantasy it's usually my thing, but hey, when you're in the presence of genius, sometimes you need to go ahead and see what all the fuss is about.
3. Last Chance Lassiter by Paul Levine
This is a prequel novella featuring hard-luck down-and-dirty Florida attorney Jake Lassiter and I enjoyed this very, very much. Essentially Jake takes on the case of an old blues singer who believes he has been plagiarized by a Rap star.
4. Dinosaurs in the Attic by Doug Preston
A nonfiction book about the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, this was very enjoyable and interesting.
5. The Human Division #1: The B-Team by John Scalzi
Scalzi is writing a serialized novella, which his publisher is releasing a chapter/section every Tuesday. It's SF and it's in the same universe as his Old Man's War series. This first part was quite good, about 60 pages or so. It will also be published as a novel when the serialization is completed, but I'm enjoying the serialization. Overall it's a little hard for me to tell exactly what the plot is about, but essentially there's Earth, and there's the Colonial Union, which is the government that was set up by Earth out in space, and then there's everybody else in the galaxy who were fighting over territory. Then, in The Last Colony, that went to hell and a group of other planets (Earth and CU not included, exactly) take over and say, "No more colonization, no more fighting over planets." And in this book, it seems that there's some folks with either the CU or Earth (or both, or neither!) who don't necessarily agree with that edict.
6. Pandora's Temple by Jon Land
A sort of Indiana Jones meets Dirk Pitt meets James Bond meets ... well, you get the idea. Totally ridiculous and a lot of fun. I gather this is about #10 of the series. I've read a couple other books by Jon and enjoyed them reasonably well, but this is pretty outrageous and involves ... dark matter and Armageddon and... don't think too much. Just go along for the ride.
7. The Human Division #2: Walk The Plank by John Scalzi
Part 2. This is an oddity, pretty much all told in dialogue, as if it's a recording. It doesn't seem to be at all connected to Part 1 until you get to Part 3. I had a tough time getting into it, but eventually did, and once you get to part 3 it makes complete sense.
8. The Human Division #3: We Only Need the Heads by John Scalzi
In Part 3 we basically get some of the characters from part 1 down on the planet where Part 2 took place, while other characters from Part 1 are involved in diplomatic negotiations with a race that is supposed to have control over the planet the other group is on. It doesn't end well. Or begin well, for that matter.
9. The Treatment Option by Joel Barrows
I read this in manuscript. Joel is a client and this is a thriller about bad deeds involving a pharmaceutical company. I enjoyed working on this quite a bit.
10. The Blood Gospel by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell
A new series (clearly) by James Rollins and someone I've never read before, Rebecca Cantrell. I'd read their novella, City of Screams, which doesn't really prepare you for how weird The Blood Gospel is going to get. But it basically takes the history of Christianity and the Catholic Church and overlays vampire mythology on top of it, then combines that with James Rollins fast-paced, action-adventure style, and throws in a bunch of historical figures who are, er, well, um, vampires. As Jim said in an interview, it's pretty amazing (read weird) how much of the Catholic Church's history dovetails so well with vampire mythology. I enjoyed this a lot.
posted by Mark Terry at 12:21 PM
1 Comments:
Interesting list. Now that I finally got my rewrites in to the publisher I'm hoping to catch up on some reading.
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