Book update - 2016
5 June 2016 22:29![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kmusserAlmost a year since my last book post, so time to update you on what I've been reading, lots of good stuff, starting with the most recent:
Uprooted by Naomi Novik - A stand-alone fantasy story drawing on a bunch of fairy tales, especially from eastern Europe. Starts with the familiar story of a village having to sacrifice one of their young women to a dragon, but in this case it isn't a literal dragon, but a wizard, and the young women becomes his apprentice, and of course the kingdom is in danger. An excellent read and I think part of what makes it a better than average fairy tale retelling is the magic, I like that magic works different for different people and is sometimes dangerous and uncontrollable. Definitely recommended for fantasy fans.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - This is an amazing book, non-fiction, Henrietta Lacks was the unknowing donor of the first cells to successfully cultivated into a self-replicating cell line. It follows 3 story lines: That of Henrietta and her family, that of the scientists that took her cells and the research boom they enabled, and Skloot's own story in trying to get this book written. Henrietta was poor and black, the idea of patient consent didn't really exist in 1951 when her cells were taken. Her family didn't learn that it was her cells behind many of the medical breakthroughs of the 50's and 60's until decades later. The story was especially fascinating to me as much of it was local, she grew up in Virginia and lived in Baltimore. She was treated and her cells were first cultivated at Johns Hopkins, one of her daughters was committed and died at Crownsville. The book also serves as a reminder of how awful the 50's were if you weren't a rich, white, and male. Recommended to everyone, Henrietta Lacks really ought to be a household name considering how much of our modern health care is because of her.
The Time Traveler's Almanac edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer - This is a massive anthology of short stories with a time travel theme, I believe all of them previous published. There is a nice mixture of new and old stories, and lots of different writing styles, 72 stories in all and I'm not going to go into them individually. Quality is decent, though with any collection this size you're going to have hits and misses. I think I erred in trying to read straight though it, would've probably been better to take in smaller doses at a time.
Blood-Soaked and Invaded by James Crawford - Book #2 in Crawford's comic horror series about intelligent zombies, I don't think it's quite as strong as the debut, there's a lot of new characters thrown at you quickly and it can get confusing and I had a harder time getting in to it, but if you liked there first one there is fun to be had here, and it kept me interested enough that I'm planning on reading book #3.
Girl Genius by Kaja and Phil Foglio - Also available in webcomic form, but I had some catching up to do as I don't keep up to date with the website, volumes 6-8 are more good stuff involving Mad Science! The storyline of own heroine Agatha reclaiming her ancestral castle is one of my favorites yet. And the next few volumes are on their way.
Sandman by Neil Gaiman - A re-read and still stands up as one of the most amazing things I've read.
The Flux by Ferrett Steinmetz - Sequel to Flex and I think even better, Flex had to spend quite a bit of time on world building, and here Ferrett was able to focus more on story, still lots of magical action, but now with more intrigue as new players are introduced and who's good/bad and/or controlling whom isn't obvious. Like the first one definitely recommended to urban fantasy fans.
Heris Serrano by Elizabeth Moon - Omnibus collection of 3 books, billed as classic SF space opera, it really isn't - the first book is basically a mystery set in space, and the second too get into more political intrigue, but none of them have the scale I associate with space opera. They were still a decent read, though a little slow paced for me, I liked the characters and the general story, but sometimes it seemed to take forever for them to get to the next point.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Hunt Collins (pen name of Evan Hunter) - An oldie from the fifties about a cultural war between anti-drug and pro-drug factions, not recommended, came off as an anti-drug propaganda piece to me.
The Kid From Mars by Oscar J. Friend - Even older story, price on the cover is one shilling and sixpence :-) Holds up surprisingly well, about a martian who comes to earth seeking help for a martian culture in trouble, and no one believes he's a martian, assuming he's a publicity stunt by an ad agency. Definitely cliched/dated in places, but still a fun read.
This list is growing rather than shrinking, so I don't know if I'll ever get to all of these.
Old Fantasy/SF:
10th Annual Edition Year's Best Science Fiction (short story collection, 1965)
The Secret of Sinharat/People of the Talisman by Leigh Brackett
The Squares of the City by John Brunner
Hawk of the Wilderness by William Chester
The Devolutionist and the Emancipatrix by Homer Eon Flint
Planet of Whispers by James Kelly
The Noman Way by J.T. McIntosh
The Uninhibited by Dan Morgan
Key Out of Time by Andre Norton
Knave of Dreams by Andre Norton
The Star Mill by Emil Petaja
The Age of the Pussyfoot by Frederick Pohl
Up The Line by Robert Silverberg
Subspace Explorers/Subspace Encounter by E.E."Doc" Smith
The Second War of the Worlds by George Smith
Buck Rogers: That Man on Beta by Addison Steele (Richard Lupoff)
The Wolf of Winter by Paula Volsky
New Fantasy/SF (yes, anything since 2000 is new, get off my lawn):
Rum and Runestones (a pirate themed anthology of short stories)
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne
Blood Soaked and Gone by James Crawford
Manleigh Cheese by James Crawford
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
Space Bitch by Grig Larson
Wars and Rumors of Wars by M.G. Norris
A Secret Atlas/Cartomancy/The New World by Michael Stackpole (first 2 would be re-reads)
The Dark Tower by Stephen King (which I have despite not having read books 5 or 6)
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
The Family Trade/The Hidden Family/The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson
Other Fiction:
Arabian Nights, translated by Richard Burton
She and Allan by Henry Rider Haggard
Rebels of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
Non-Fiction, history:
Life Among the Apaches by John Cremony
Custer's Last Campaign by John Gray
A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani
The Battle of North America by Francis Parkman (made it about 1/3 of way through, will finish it eventually)
Indian Wars of the West by Paul Wellman
Cavalier in Buckskin by Robert Utley
With Crook at the Rosebud by J.W. Vaughn
Non-Fiction, other:
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
You Are Here by Katherine Harmon (about maps)
Black Elk and Flaming Rainbow by Hilda Neihardt
One More Time by Mike Royko
Uprooted by Naomi Novik - A stand-alone fantasy story drawing on a bunch of fairy tales, especially from eastern Europe. Starts with the familiar story of a village having to sacrifice one of their young women to a dragon, but in this case it isn't a literal dragon, but a wizard, and the young women becomes his apprentice, and of course the kingdom is in danger. An excellent read and I think part of what makes it a better than average fairy tale retelling is the magic, I like that magic works different for different people and is sometimes dangerous and uncontrollable. Definitely recommended for fantasy fans.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - This is an amazing book, non-fiction, Henrietta Lacks was the unknowing donor of the first cells to successfully cultivated into a self-replicating cell line. It follows 3 story lines: That of Henrietta and her family, that of the scientists that took her cells and the research boom they enabled, and Skloot's own story in trying to get this book written. Henrietta was poor and black, the idea of patient consent didn't really exist in 1951 when her cells were taken. Her family didn't learn that it was her cells behind many of the medical breakthroughs of the 50's and 60's until decades later. The story was especially fascinating to me as much of it was local, she grew up in Virginia and lived in Baltimore. She was treated and her cells were first cultivated at Johns Hopkins, one of her daughters was committed and died at Crownsville. The book also serves as a reminder of how awful the 50's were if you weren't a rich, white, and male. Recommended to everyone, Henrietta Lacks really ought to be a household name considering how much of our modern health care is because of her.
The Time Traveler's Almanac edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer - This is a massive anthology of short stories with a time travel theme, I believe all of them previous published. There is a nice mixture of new and old stories, and lots of different writing styles, 72 stories in all and I'm not going to go into them individually. Quality is decent, though with any collection this size you're going to have hits and misses. I think I erred in trying to read straight though it, would've probably been better to take in smaller doses at a time.
Blood-Soaked and Invaded by James Crawford - Book #2 in Crawford's comic horror series about intelligent zombies, I don't think it's quite as strong as the debut, there's a lot of new characters thrown at you quickly and it can get confusing and I had a harder time getting in to it, but if you liked there first one there is fun to be had here, and it kept me interested enough that I'm planning on reading book #3.
Girl Genius by Kaja and Phil Foglio - Also available in webcomic form, but I had some catching up to do as I don't keep up to date with the website, volumes 6-8 are more good stuff involving Mad Science! The storyline of own heroine Agatha reclaiming her ancestral castle is one of my favorites yet. And the next few volumes are on their way.
Sandman by Neil Gaiman - A re-read and still stands up as one of the most amazing things I've read.
The Flux by Ferrett Steinmetz - Sequel to Flex and I think even better, Flex had to spend quite a bit of time on world building, and here Ferrett was able to focus more on story, still lots of magical action, but now with more intrigue as new players are introduced and who's good/bad and/or controlling whom isn't obvious. Like the first one definitely recommended to urban fantasy fans.
Heris Serrano by Elizabeth Moon - Omnibus collection of 3 books, billed as classic SF space opera, it really isn't - the first book is basically a mystery set in space, and the second too get into more political intrigue, but none of them have the scale I associate with space opera. They were still a decent read, though a little slow paced for me, I liked the characters and the general story, but sometimes it seemed to take forever for them to get to the next point.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Hunt Collins (pen name of Evan Hunter) - An oldie from the fifties about a cultural war between anti-drug and pro-drug factions, not recommended, came off as an anti-drug propaganda piece to me.
The Kid From Mars by Oscar J. Friend - Even older story, price on the cover is one shilling and sixpence :-) Holds up surprisingly well, about a martian who comes to earth seeking help for a martian culture in trouble, and no one believes he's a martian, assuming he's a publicity stunt by an ad agency. Definitely cliched/dated in places, but still a fun read.
This list is growing rather than shrinking, so I don't know if I'll ever get to all of these.
Old Fantasy/SF:
10th Annual Edition Year's Best Science Fiction (short story collection, 1965)
The Secret of Sinharat/People of the Talisman by Leigh Brackett
The Squares of the City by John Brunner
Hawk of the Wilderness by William Chester
The Devolutionist and the Emancipatrix by Homer Eon Flint
Planet of Whispers by James Kelly
The Noman Way by J.T. McIntosh
The Uninhibited by Dan Morgan
Key Out of Time by Andre Norton
Knave of Dreams by Andre Norton
The Star Mill by Emil Petaja
The Age of the Pussyfoot by Frederick Pohl
Up The Line by Robert Silverberg
Subspace Explorers/Subspace Encounter by E.E."Doc" Smith
The Second War of the Worlds by George Smith
Buck Rogers: That Man on Beta by Addison Steele (Richard Lupoff)
The Wolf of Winter by Paula Volsky
New Fantasy/SF (yes, anything since 2000 is new, get off my lawn):
Rum and Runestones (a pirate themed anthology of short stories)
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne
Blood Soaked and Gone by James Crawford
Manleigh Cheese by James Crawford
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
Space Bitch by Grig Larson
Wars and Rumors of Wars by M.G. Norris
A Secret Atlas/Cartomancy/The New World by Michael Stackpole (first 2 would be re-reads)
The Dark Tower by Stephen King (which I have despite not having read books 5 or 6)
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
The Family Trade/The Hidden Family/The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson
Other Fiction:
Arabian Nights, translated by Richard Burton
She and Allan by Henry Rider Haggard
Rebels of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
Non-Fiction, history:
Life Among the Apaches by John Cremony
Custer's Last Campaign by John Gray
A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani
The Battle of North America by Francis Parkman (made it about 1/3 of way through, will finish it eventually)
Indian Wars of the West by Paul Wellman
Cavalier in Buckskin by Robert Utley
With Crook at the Rosebud by J.W. Vaughn
Non-Fiction, other:
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
You Are Here by Katherine Harmon (about maps)
Black Elk and Flaming Rainbow by Hilda Neihardt
One More Time by Mike Royko
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no subject
Date: 6 Jun 2016 10:36 (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 Jun 2016 10:50 (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 Jun 2016 16:37 (UTC)The Burton translation of Arabian Nights is rude, raunchy and a lot of fun. It also accurately reflects the racism and sexism of both its contexts. Didn't bug me too much, YMMV.
no subject
Date: 7 Jun 2016 01:45 (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 Jun 2016 21:32 (UTC)*The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks* was great. I think I read there's going to be a movie of it.
******
I've read *Hawk of the Wilderness* AND two sequels! Good fun.
I've ordered the Volsky, since I liked two others of hers.
I've read The Family Trade ... not sure if I read The Hidden Family. I've liked other Stross better.
no subject
Date: 7 Jun 2016 23:16 (UTC)