November book round-up
Dec. 6th, 2013 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardThis month I did some rereads! I didn't do any rereads in September and October, which is pretty unusual for me, but in November I drifted back into rereading a couple of things here and there as I got over my MUST READ ALL THE NEW THINGS phase. (Also I started running out of Star Wars novels set in a period I'm interested enough in to hunt down the books my library doesn't have.)
The complete list (finished books):
Law of Becoming, Kate Elliott
Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn
The Terrorists of Irustan, Louise Marley
Star Wars: Scoundrels, Timothy Zahn
Deep Secret, Diana Wynne Jones
Circle of the Moon, Barbara Hambly
City of Bones, Martha Wells
Star Wars: Clone Wars: The Cestus Deception, Steven Barnes
Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation, Drew Karpyshyn
Star Wars: The Han Solo Trilogy: The Paradise Snare, A.C. Crispin
The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin
1356, Bernard Cornwell
Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Terry Brooks
Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge, Martha Wells
Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth, Karen Miller
Knight of the Demon Queen, Barbara Hambly
Deadline, Mira Grant
Blackout, Mira Grant
Stranger at the Wedding, Barbara Hambly
Moon Called, Patricia Briggs
Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Siege, Karen Miller
Those Who Hunt the Night, Barbara Hambly
Novellas and short stories:
"Star Wars: Clone Wars: The Hive", Steven Barnes
"Star Wars: Incognito", John Jackson Miller
"We Both Go Down Together", Seanan McGuire
TPBs/graphic novels:
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, Prudence Shen, art by Faith Erin Hicks
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Volume 10: War, John Jackson Miller, art by Andrea Mutti
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Volume 7: Dueling Ambitions, John Jackson Miller, art by Brian Ching, Bong Dazo, & Dean Zachary
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Volume 8: Destroyer, John Jackson Miller, art by Ron Chan, Brian Ching, & Bong Dazo
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Volume 9: Demon, John Jackson Miller, art by Brian Ching
Star Wars: Omnibus: At War with the Empire: Volume 2, various authors and artists
Star Wars: Knight Errant: Aflame, John Jackson Miller, art by Federico Dallocchio & Ivan Rodriguez
Star Wars: Dark Times: The Path to Nowhere, Mick Harrison (Randy Stradley), art by Douglas Wheatley
Star Wars: Dark Times: Parallels, Mick Harrison (Randy Stradley), art by Dave Ross
Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral, John Jackson Miller, art by Andrea Mutti
Star Wars: Dark Times: Blue Harvest, Mick Harrison (Randy Stradley), art by Douglas Wheatley
Star Wars: Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness, Randy Stradley, art by Douglas Wheatley
Star Wars: Dark Times: Fire Carrier, Randy Stradley, art by Gabriel Guzman
Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Lost Suns, Alexander Freed, art by Dave Ross & George Freeman
Star Wars: Knight Errant: Escape, John Jackson Miller, art by Marco Castiello & Andrea Chella
Audiobooks:
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast, Aaron Allston, narrated by Marc Thompson
Did Not Finish:
The Emancipator's Wife, Barbara Hambly
Graceling, Kristin Cashore
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Catherynne Valente
The Diviners, Libba Bray
Island of Vice, Richard Zacks
Blood's Pride, Evie Manieri
Books in progress (as of December 1):
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Omen, Christie Golden, narrated by Marc Thompson (audiobook)
The Labyrinth Gate, Kate Elliott
Wet Grave, Barbara Hambly
The Broken Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin
The Cloud Roads, Martha Wells
Twenty-three books and various other media. I've got an unusually high percentage of DNF books, which either means I got really bad at pulling books out of the library or my attention span was so frayed I couldn't concentrate on anything. Or both. (You can also tell that I'd pick up rereads of series books, but I just kept starting in the middle of the series rather than the beginning.)
Um, let's see. In novels, I had a lot of fun reading the Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit books, Stealth and Siege, which were basically fannish catnip for me since they featured Anakin and Obi-Wan going undercover, being super-competent, and having intense feelings for each other. (There's one scene early on in Stealth that I still can't find another way to interpret aside from "and then they made out." Some of the official writers are seriously just as shippy as the fannish ones is all I'm saying.) Karen Miller's nice as a writer because she and I have similar Obi-Wan characterization -- it's always strange reading tie-ins by a bunch of different authors featuring a character that you write fannishly, since characterization varies just as much as between different fan authors. It's really nice to see that another author, especially a pro, has a similar interpretation to you.
Guardian of the Dead, by Karen Healey, is a great YA urban fantasy novel set in New Zealand and featuring Maori mythology. Highly recommended. Law of Becoming, the fourth Jaran novel from Kate Elliott, was a huge disappointment to me because I really liked the earlier three, but that fourth one just spoiled the whole series for me.
Over in comic book land, I finished up Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which is just frankly a lot of great, witty, thoughtful story-telling -- I realized the other day that it's basically the Farscape of the Star Wars universe, so if that's a thing that sounds interesting, KOTOR is the Star Wars title for you. The first omnibus is out now! Star Wars: Dark Times, which takes up after RotS (it's named for Ben Kenobi's remark in ANH, "before the dark times, before the empire"), actually surprised me by how good it is -- and by how dark, wow, it's probably one of the grittiest Star Wars titles I've read, and horrifying in a completely different way than the two SW horror novels I read before (those are Joe Schreiber's Red Harvest and Death Troopers). It's written by Randy Stradley, who's actually the editor for all the Dark Horse comics (I think); he used a pen name at first (and I guess for some other titles I haven't read yet), which is why there are a couple different names attached. It's kind of reassuring to see one of the PTB down there writing a really good story. (Dark Times is one of the titles that's still ongoing, so I kind of ran into a cliffhanger and went nooooooo.)
I also read a large chunk of Star Wars: Legacy, but since I didn't read it in TPB form and didn't finish the run until December, I'll cover it in the next round-up. (Or possibly a separate entry, I've got enough Star Wars topics that I could probably just do a straight week of Star Wars posts and talk about something else every day.)
Although if anyone wants a rec on various Star Wars EU stuff, I'm your girl. (Basically, anything but the post-RotJ stuff, since my interest basically stops dead at the end of RotJ, aside from Legacy.)
The complete list (finished books):
Law of Becoming, Kate Elliott
Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn
The Terrorists of Irustan, Louise Marley
Star Wars: Scoundrels, Timothy Zahn
Deep Secret, Diana Wynne Jones
Circle of the Moon, Barbara Hambly
City of Bones, Martha Wells
Star Wars: Clone Wars: The Cestus Deception, Steven Barnes
Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation, Drew Karpyshyn
Star Wars: The Han Solo Trilogy: The Paradise Snare, A.C. Crispin
The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin
1356, Bernard Cornwell
Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Terry Brooks
Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge, Martha Wells
Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth, Karen Miller
Knight of the Demon Queen, Barbara Hambly
Deadline, Mira Grant
Blackout, Mira Grant
Stranger at the Wedding, Barbara Hambly
Moon Called, Patricia Briggs
Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Siege, Karen Miller
Those Who Hunt the Night, Barbara Hambly
Novellas and short stories:
"Star Wars: Clone Wars: The Hive", Steven Barnes
"Star Wars: Incognito", John Jackson Miller
"We Both Go Down Together", Seanan McGuire
TPBs/graphic novels:
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, Prudence Shen, art by Faith Erin Hicks
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Volume 10: War, John Jackson Miller, art by Andrea Mutti
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Volume 7: Dueling Ambitions, John Jackson Miller, art by Brian Ching, Bong Dazo, & Dean Zachary
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Volume 8: Destroyer, John Jackson Miller, art by Ron Chan, Brian Ching, & Bong Dazo
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Volume 9: Demon, John Jackson Miller, art by Brian Ching
Star Wars: Omnibus: At War with the Empire: Volume 2, various authors and artists
Star Wars: Knight Errant: Aflame, John Jackson Miller, art by Federico Dallocchio & Ivan Rodriguez
Star Wars: Dark Times: The Path to Nowhere, Mick Harrison (Randy Stradley), art by Douglas Wheatley
Star Wars: Dark Times: Parallels, Mick Harrison (Randy Stradley), art by Dave Ross
Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral, John Jackson Miller, art by Andrea Mutti
Star Wars: Dark Times: Blue Harvest, Mick Harrison (Randy Stradley), art by Douglas Wheatley
Star Wars: Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness, Randy Stradley, art by Douglas Wheatley
Star Wars: Dark Times: Fire Carrier, Randy Stradley, art by Gabriel Guzman
Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Lost Suns, Alexander Freed, art by Dave Ross & George Freeman
Star Wars: Knight Errant: Escape, John Jackson Miller, art by Marco Castiello & Andrea Chella
Audiobooks:
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast, Aaron Allston, narrated by Marc Thompson
Did Not Finish:
The Emancipator's Wife, Barbara Hambly
Graceling, Kristin Cashore
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Catherynne Valente
The Diviners, Libba Bray
Island of Vice, Richard Zacks
Blood's Pride, Evie Manieri
Books in progress (as of December 1):
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Omen, Christie Golden, narrated by Marc Thompson (audiobook)
The Labyrinth Gate, Kate Elliott
Wet Grave, Barbara Hambly
The Broken Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin
The Cloud Roads, Martha Wells
Twenty-three books and various other media. I've got an unusually high percentage of DNF books, which either means I got really bad at pulling books out of the library or my attention span was so frayed I couldn't concentrate on anything. Or both. (You can also tell that I'd pick up rereads of series books, but I just kept starting in the middle of the series rather than the beginning.)
Um, let's see. In novels, I had a lot of fun reading the Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit books, Stealth and Siege, which were basically fannish catnip for me since they featured Anakin and Obi-Wan going undercover, being super-competent, and having intense feelings for each other. (There's one scene early on in Stealth that I still can't find another way to interpret aside from "and then they made out." Some of the official writers are seriously just as shippy as the fannish ones is all I'm saying.) Karen Miller's nice as a writer because she and I have similar Obi-Wan characterization -- it's always strange reading tie-ins by a bunch of different authors featuring a character that you write fannishly, since characterization varies just as much as between different fan authors. It's really nice to see that another author, especially a pro, has a similar interpretation to you.
Guardian of the Dead, by Karen Healey, is a great YA urban fantasy novel set in New Zealand and featuring Maori mythology. Highly recommended. Law of Becoming, the fourth Jaran novel from Kate Elliott, was a huge disappointment to me because I really liked the earlier three, but that fourth one just spoiled the whole series for me.
Over in comic book land, I finished up Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which is just frankly a lot of great, witty, thoughtful story-telling -- I realized the other day that it's basically the Farscape of the Star Wars universe, so if that's a thing that sounds interesting, KOTOR is the Star Wars title for you. The first omnibus is out now! Star Wars: Dark Times, which takes up after RotS (it's named for Ben Kenobi's remark in ANH, "before the dark times, before the empire"), actually surprised me by how good it is -- and by how dark, wow, it's probably one of the grittiest Star Wars titles I've read, and horrifying in a completely different way than the two SW horror novels I read before (those are Joe Schreiber's Red Harvest and Death Troopers). It's written by Randy Stradley, who's actually the editor for all the Dark Horse comics (I think); he used a pen name at first (and I guess for some other titles I haven't read yet), which is why there are a couple different names attached. It's kind of reassuring to see one of the PTB down there writing a really good story. (Dark Times is one of the titles that's still ongoing, so I kind of ran into a cliffhanger and went nooooooo.)
I also read a large chunk of Star Wars: Legacy, but since I didn't read it in TPB form and didn't finish the run until December, I'll cover it in the next round-up. (Or possibly a separate entry, I've got enough Star Wars topics that I could probably just do a straight week of Star Wars posts and talk about something else every day.)
Although if anyone wants a rec on various Star Wars EU stuff, I'm your girl. (Basically, anything but the post-RotJ stuff, since my interest basically stops dead at the end of RotJ, aside from Legacy.)