wednesday reading meme
I'm doing more (fannish, at least) blogging on Tumblr now, including daily accountability posts on my WIP (this is actually really helpful for me, I'm glad I'm doing it), partially because more of the Star Wars people seem to be over there than over here. Tumblr's a fucking nightmare for anything resembling conversation, though.
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Wednesday reading meme (I'm aware it's Thursday, *cough*)
What I've just finished
The Siren Depths by Martha Wells, which was a reread (these books are SO GOOD), and The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell, also a reread.
Tales of the Emerald Serpent, edited by Scott Taylor, which is a shared world anthology that takes place in a magical, colonized Aztec (?) inspired city that was deserted by its original inhabitants. I'm not one hundred percent sure how I feel about this -- there was some really interesting world-building and a couple of the stories that are really good, but as you often get with shared worlds, quality of the individual stories varied, and once they started getting into ~the grand plot I started losing interest. Mostly I bought it because Martha Wells has a story in. Overall I enjoyed it, but the last three or four stories really started losing me. (I also liked those authors' writing styles the least; I'm kind of particular about prose.)
Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, which is one of the Circle books and the only one of her books I hadn't read yet. It's Tamora Pierce, so there's fantastic world-building, really unusual magic, and excellent characters and action sequences, with a couple of gut-clenching scenes. (Including torture.) This one takes place before The Will of the Empress and Melting Stones, so I might have to go back and reread those.
The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula Jones -- this is DWJ's last book, completed by her sister, and I am so sad. I grew up with DWJ books; I own a ton and I've read a lot and fortunately there are still quite a few DWJ books I haven't read, but I still remember the day I heard she'd died. I went and banged on my roommate's door and went, "Diana Wynne Jones died," and she was like, "Who?" (So that was awkward for me. For some reason this is a recurring theme; I keep expecting my friends who read genre have read the same authors as me and then I end up having to explain who C.S. Lewis is.)
Comics: Star Wars: Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir, from last week, which is the first of a four-issue arc that covers something the show would have covered if Disney HADN'T FUCKING CANCELLED IT (sorry, never over it), and new issues of Star Wars: Rebel Heist (LEIA!!!!) and Star Wars: Legacy II (ANIA!!! and JAO!!! too bad it also got FUCKING CANCELLED WHEN DARK HORSE LOST THE LICENSE, considering it's a great Star Wars comic that's written by a woman and has a female main character and a POC secondary main character). *cough* Sorry, I have a lot of feelings about Star Wars.
What I'm currently reading
Actively reading: Sunshine by Robin McKinley (reread), The Hawkwood War by Ankaret Wells, The Lost Fleet: Fearless by Jack Campbell (reread).
In progress but not actively reading: Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno and A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin.
Bizarrely, I still kind of feel like I'm between books for some reason; not really sure why. Maybe because I'm not currently that focused on anything I'm currently reading.
What I'm reading next
Well, I just pulled Melusine by Sarah Monette out of my pile of library books, so probably that. I also got a hard copy of Thinking Tools: Agricultural Slavery between Evidence and Models by Ulrike Roth (which I squeeed about on Tumblr the other day), so I might finally be ready to start reading about ancient Rome again. On the other hand, who even knows what I'm going to read, I certainly don't.
*
Wednesday reading meme (I'm aware it's Thursday, *cough*)
What I've just finished
The Siren Depths by Martha Wells, which was a reread (these books are SO GOOD), and The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell, also a reread.
Tales of the Emerald Serpent, edited by Scott Taylor, which is a shared world anthology that takes place in a magical, colonized Aztec (?) inspired city that was deserted by its original inhabitants. I'm not one hundred percent sure how I feel about this -- there was some really interesting world-building and a couple of the stories that are really good, but as you often get with shared worlds, quality of the individual stories varied, and once they started getting into ~the grand plot I started losing interest. Mostly I bought it because Martha Wells has a story in. Overall I enjoyed it, but the last three or four stories really started losing me. (I also liked those authors' writing styles the least; I'm kind of particular about prose.)
Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, which is one of the Circle books and the only one of her books I hadn't read yet. It's Tamora Pierce, so there's fantastic world-building, really unusual magic, and excellent characters and action sequences, with a couple of gut-clenching scenes. (Including torture.) This one takes place before The Will of the Empress and Melting Stones, so I might have to go back and reread those.
The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula Jones -- this is DWJ's last book, completed by her sister, and I am so sad. I grew up with DWJ books; I own a ton and I've read a lot and fortunately there are still quite a few DWJ books I haven't read, but I still remember the day I heard she'd died. I went and banged on my roommate's door and went, "Diana Wynne Jones died," and she was like, "Who?" (So that was awkward for me. For some reason this is a recurring theme; I keep expecting my friends who read genre have read the same authors as me and then I end up having to explain who C.S. Lewis is.)
Comics: Star Wars: Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir, from last week, which is the first of a four-issue arc that covers something the show would have covered if Disney HADN'T FUCKING CANCELLED IT (sorry, never over it), and new issues of Star Wars: Rebel Heist (LEIA!!!!) and Star Wars: Legacy II (ANIA!!! and JAO!!! too bad it also got FUCKING CANCELLED WHEN DARK HORSE LOST THE LICENSE, considering it's a great Star Wars comic that's written by a woman and has a female main character and a POC secondary main character). *cough* Sorry, I have a lot of feelings about Star Wars.
What I'm currently reading
Actively reading: Sunshine by Robin McKinley (reread), The Hawkwood War by Ankaret Wells, The Lost Fleet: Fearless by Jack Campbell (reread).
In progress but not actively reading: Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno and A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin.
Bizarrely, I still kind of feel like I'm between books for some reason; not really sure why. Maybe because I'm not currently that focused on anything I'm currently reading.
What I'm reading next
Well, I just pulled Melusine by Sarah Monette out of my pile of library books, so probably that. I also got a hard copy of Thinking Tools: Agricultural Slavery between Evidence and Models by Ulrike Roth (which I squeeed about on Tumblr the other day), so I might finally be ready to start reading about ancient Rome again. On the other hand, who even knows what I'm going to read, I certainly don't.