August Reading
Aug. 31st, 2019 08:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brokenmnemonicIt's September tomorrow? Seriously? Ugh. This month is always difficult at work, because so many people go on leave and there's usually a big event in September each year that causes me a pile of work, but for added fun and games I've been covering my boss' desk (in addition to mine, and the empty post in the team) which has meant that I've spent most of the last couple of weeks desperately trying to deal with the urgent deadlines until the less urgent deadlines become urgent. Unfortunately, that means I keep losing reading time because I'm either dozing during breaks, or worrying about work. Hopefully, the back end of September will be a bit quieter.
431. The Echo by James Smythe ★★
Meh. I might've liked this more if I'd read it's critically-acclaimed predecessor, but this just wasn't interesting. It didn't feel like a book with any answers in it, possibly because it's apparently book 2 of 4. It didn't help that the viewpoint character spends the entire book complaining about his more successful twin brother.
432. The Beauty #28 by Jeremy Haun ★★★
Unusually for The Beauty, this self-contained issue felt predictable throughout.
433. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Vol 1 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa ★★★
434. The Crow: Hack/Slash #2 by Tim Seeley ★★★
435. Xena: Warrior Princess #3 by Vita Ayala ★★★
436. Xena: Warrior Princess #4 by Vita Ayala ★★★★
437. Red Sonja: Lord of Fools by Mark Russell ★★★★
This was more of a 3.5, as one of the two stories didn't grab me, but I liked the other.
438. Smitten By Magic by Erica Ridley ★★
Another hopelessly fluffy fairy tale (literally) romance, this time between a guardian angel and her charge, who just happens to be a devastatingly attractive billionaire-turned-nice guy. I'm definitely not in the right frame of mind for this.
439. The Dreaming #12 by Simon Spurrier ★★★★
Nice to get some answers...
440. Fearless #1 by Seanan McGuire (and others) ★★★
This was difficult to rate, because it's a four-issue mini-series, with three stories running at the same time. The first (and longest) story by Seanan McGuire felt like the best of the three, partly because I have no idea who Millie the Model is or what her significance is in the Marvel universe, and the third story stopped at an odd point. I really like the premise of the first part though - a summer camp for children where the organization running the camp recruits superheroes like Captain Marvel and storm to be the motivational speakers.
441. The Raven Strategem by Yoon Ha Lee ★★★★
I found this an easier read than the first novel, which I suspect meant it was a bit simpler for me to follow. The story in this novel is more rooted in the characters than in the esoterics of how the hexarchical calendrically-ruled society works. A couple of the twists worked really well for me, and it felt like the characters who were being explored in more depth were characters I liked or was interested in. I'm looking forward to the next novel in the series.
442. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #8 by David Avallone ★★★
443. The Death Defying Devil #1 by Gail Simone ★★★
444. The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton ★★★★
One of a few children's books I picked up for my niece Lizzie. I've made a point of telling her that her dad should read them to her. This one's about a girl who wants to be a warrior, and asks for a warhorse as a present, but gets a roly-poly cross-eyed flatulent pony. She still triumphs, and I'm looking forward to Phil having to discuss the occasional bout of flatulence. Apparently, Lizzie really likes it, so I'm counting this as a win. I need to solicit more excellent book recs for children from Llin :)
445. Green Monkey Dreams by Isobelle Carmody ★★★
This was an imaginative and slightly odd collection of stories, which were a mix of near-future dystopia tales, sci-fi, and fantasy. Most were evocative, some were depressing, and one I may have accidentally fallen asleep in. It's been a long month.
446. The Book With No Pictures by B. J. Novak ★★★★
Another book for Lizzie, and one that's intended to help children move across to books that don't have pictures in. My brother's going to have to read it again, and there are lots of entertaining gibberish phrases in there intended to make people laugh. Lizzie's not as keen on this one as she is the other books I picked up; I gather the family verdict is that she's not quite old enough for it yet.
447. Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi ★★★
448. Armada by Ernest Cline ★★★
This is pretty much a pop-culture nostalgia medley popcorn movie pitch, based around the idea that video games have actually been a secret government plan to train us all to help fight off an impending alien invasion. I suspect this would make for an ok if indifferent movie plot, that would be fanboyed relentlessly by those who think Ready Player One was the best movie of the last decade.
449. Star Trek: Year Five #4 by Brandon M. Easton ★★★★
450. Team of Teams by Stanley McChrystal ★★★★
For a business book, this was pretty interesting. Some of the examples feel a bit dated, but it's one of the texts recommended for reading by officers in the Army here. Stanley McChrystal, when he was a serving general, completely reinvented the management structure of the US task force in Iraq between 2003 and 2006, and after he retired, produced this book in conjunction with three other authors as part of a study into how businesses have or need to do something similar if they wish to deal with the complexity of the modern business environment. It focuses on replacing the stovepiped, top-down management structure that came in with the possible efficiencies of industrialisation (driven by the desire to reduce factory production down to tasks involving the smallest increments of work so that completely unskilled labourers could replace artisans as the basic unit of labour) with a much flatter, more interconnected and communicative organisation.
451. House of Whispers #12 by Nalo Hopkinson ★★★★
452. The Heart of What Was Lost by Tad Williams ★★★
This probably suffered from it having been so long since I read the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, but it was still an entertaining read, as much of it's told from the viewpoint of the Norns.
453. James Bond: Origin #12 by Jeff Parker ★★★★
This is more of a 3.5, as it was a bit predictable, but I'm really enjoying reading about young Bond's wartime missions.
454. Fearless #2 by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
The plot thickens, and I really enjoyed the introduction of Ms Marvel as a viewpoint character. It feels a bit weird to be reading a Marvel comic again, but I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of this mini-series.
455. Aliens: Rescue #2 by Brian Wood ★★★
456. American Gods: The Moment of the Storm #5 by Neil Gaiman ★★★
457. James Bond 007 #10 by Greg Pak ★★★
458. Ghost Spider #1 by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
I'm finding this oddly charming, and a very low-key story, which suits my mood at the moment.
459. Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula by Stephen Seitz ★★★
This was a little odd, as the narration is from more than one viewpoint (none of which is Holmes) but it was a rather entertaining Sherlock Holmes/Bram Stoker crossover.
460. The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen ★★★
I can see why Arthur Machen is cited as both an influence on other contemporary authors like Lovecraft and Wells, and as having been influenced by them in turn. What was shocking to an 1896 audience isn't particularly shocking now, though... but you've got to be careful where you walk in the countryside at night. THe foreword assumed that I knew who Arthur Machen was, which led to me googling around a bit and discovering that apparently a few years ago his work was being revived as part of a programme to raise the profile of notable Welsh authors, which I rather like.
461. The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide #1 by Dan Slott ★★★
462. The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide #2 by Dan Slott ★★★
463. The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide #3 by Dan Slott ★★★★
464. The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide #4 by Dan Slott ★★★★
465. The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide #5 by Dan Slott ★★★
I picked these up at a small comics fair here, as they looked interesting (and I thought I should buy something). Peter Parker is now the head of something called Parker Industries, and seems to be on his way to being a new Tony Stark, only with Peter's moral code. Mockingbird was a supporting character, which was a nice addition, and he's hired another superhero to pretend to be Spider-Man, as part of a ploy to present Spider-Man as Peter Parker's bodyguard. This doesn't exactly work flawlessly, but creates the opportunity for some entertaining scenes, particularly when attempts to replicate the famous punning associated with Spider-Man don't go desperately well. I do feel like I stepped in part-way through a story, though. The first five issues were a complete story, so I thought I'd get some more in the half-price back issue sale at my comics dealer...
466. Grandghost by Nancy Springer ★★★
This was short, and ended up being rather fluffier than I'd expected, given that the pitch was about a tragic haunting involving a murdered child. While there wasn't a tension, the female characters in this were generally hugely entertaining. The main protagonist is a sarcastic sixty-something book illustrator who moved to rural Florida (and finds the remains), her daughters are in their forties and living their lives the way they want to, and the protagonist really doesn't care what anyone else thinks about her. I liked that a lot.
467. Star Trek: Year Five #5 by Jody Houser ★★★
468. The Amazing Spider-Man #6 by Nick Spencer ★★★
So, I went to get more back issues. I carefully checked with my comics dealer that I'd bought a complete run of stories, as I hate an incomplete run. I started reading... and Peter Parker's unemployed and sharing a basement with MJ and an ex-super villain named Boomerang and is living on a shoestring. So, I did some digging... and it turns out that The Amazing Spider-Man was rebooted in 2015, and then again in 2018, and the first five issues I'd read were from the earlier run, while the next set of issue I bought were from the later run. Whoops.
469. The Amazing Spider-Man #7 by Nick Spencer ★★★★
470. The Amazing Spider-Man #8 by Nick Spencer ★★★
431. The Echo by James Smythe ★★
Meh. I might've liked this more if I'd read it's critically-acclaimed predecessor, but this just wasn't interesting. It didn't feel like a book with any answers in it, possibly because it's apparently book 2 of 4. It didn't help that the viewpoint character spends the entire book complaining about his more successful twin brother.
432. The Beauty #28 by Jeremy Haun ★★★
Unusually for The Beauty, this self-contained issue felt predictable throughout.
433. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Vol 1 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa ★★★
434. The Crow: Hack/Slash #2 by Tim Seeley ★★★
435. Xena: Warrior Princess #3 by Vita Ayala ★★★
436. Xena: Warrior Princess #4 by Vita Ayala ★★★★
437. Red Sonja: Lord of Fools by Mark Russell ★★★★
This was more of a 3.5, as one of the two stories didn't grab me, but I liked the other.
438. Smitten By Magic by Erica Ridley ★★
Another hopelessly fluffy fairy tale (literally) romance, this time between a guardian angel and her charge, who just happens to be a devastatingly attractive billionaire-turned-nice guy. I'm definitely not in the right frame of mind for this.
439. The Dreaming #12 by Simon Spurrier ★★★★
Nice to get some answers...
440. Fearless #1 by Seanan McGuire (and others) ★★★
This was difficult to rate, because it's a four-issue mini-series, with three stories running at the same time. The first (and longest) story by Seanan McGuire felt like the best of the three, partly because I have no idea who Millie the Model is or what her significance is in the Marvel universe, and the third story stopped at an odd point. I really like the premise of the first part though - a summer camp for children where the organization running the camp recruits superheroes like Captain Marvel and storm to be the motivational speakers.
441. The Raven Strategem by Yoon Ha Lee ★★★★
I found this an easier read than the first novel, which I suspect meant it was a bit simpler for me to follow. The story in this novel is more rooted in the characters than in the esoterics of how the hexarchical calendrically-ruled society works. A couple of the twists worked really well for me, and it felt like the characters who were being explored in more depth were characters I liked or was interested in. I'm looking forward to the next novel in the series.
442. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #8 by David Avallone ★★★
443. The Death Defying Devil #1 by Gail Simone ★★★
444. The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton ★★★★
One of a few children's books I picked up for my niece Lizzie. I've made a point of telling her that her dad should read them to her. This one's about a girl who wants to be a warrior, and asks for a warhorse as a present, but gets a roly-poly cross-eyed flatulent pony. She still triumphs, and I'm looking forward to Phil having to discuss the occasional bout of flatulence. Apparently, Lizzie really likes it, so I'm counting this as a win. I need to solicit more excellent book recs for children from Llin :)
445. Green Monkey Dreams by Isobelle Carmody ★★★
This was an imaginative and slightly odd collection of stories, which were a mix of near-future dystopia tales, sci-fi, and fantasy. Most were evocative, some were depressing, and one I may have accidentally fallen asleep in. It's been a long month.
446. The Book With No Pictures by B. J. Novak ★★★★
Another book for Lizzie, and one that's intended to help children move across to books that don't have pictures in. My brother's going to have to read it again, and there are lots of entertaining gibberish phrases in there intended to make people laugh. Lizzie's not as keen on this one as she is the other books I picked up; I gather the family verdict is that she's not quite old enough for it yet.
447. Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi ★★★
448. Armada by Ernest Cline ★★★
This is pretty much a pop-culture nostalgia medley popcorn movie pitch, based around the idea that video games have actually been a secret government plan to train us all to help fight off an impending alien invasion. I suspect this would make for an ok if indifferent movie plot, that would be fanboyed relentlessly by those who think Ready Player One was the best movie of the last decade.
449. Star Trek: Year Five #4 by Brandon M. Easton ★★★★
450. Team of Teams by Stanley McChrystal ★★★★
For a business book, this was pretty interesting. Some of the examples feel a bit dated, but it's one of the texts recommended for reading by officers in the Army here. Stanley McChrystal, when he was a serving general, completely reinvented the management structure of the US task force in Iraq between 2003 and 2006, and after he retired, produced this book in conjunction with three other authors as part of a study into how businesses have or need to do something similar if they wish to deal with the complexity of the modern business environment. It focuses on replacing the stovepiped, top-down management structure that came in with the possible efficiencies of industrialisation (driven by the desire to reduce factory production down to tasks involving the smallest increments of work so that completely unskilled labourers could replace artisans as the basic unit of labour) with a much flatter, more interconnected and communicative organisation.
451. House of Whispers #12 by Nalo Hopkinson ★★★★
452. The Heart of What Was Lost by Tad Williams ★★★
This probably suffered from it having been so long since I read the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, but it was still an entertaining read, as much of it's told from the viewpoint of the Norns.
453. James Bond: Origin #12 by Jeff Parker ★★★★
This is more of a 3.5, as it was a bit predictable, but I'm really enjoying reading about young Bond's wartime missions.
454. Fearless #2 by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
The plot thickens, and I really enjoyed the introduction of Ms Marvel as a viewpoint character. It feels a bit weird to be reading a Marvel comic again, but I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of this mini-series.
455. Aliens: Rescue #2 by Brian Wood ★★★
456. American Gods: The Moment of the Storm #5 by Neil Gaiman ★★★
457. James Bond 007 #10 by Greg Pak ★★★
458. Ghost Spider #1 by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
I'm finding this oddly charming, and a very low-key story, which suits my mood at the moment.
459. Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula by Stephen Seitz ★★★
This was a little odd, as the narration is from more than one viewpoint (none of which is Holmes) but it was a rather entertaining Sherlock Holmes/Bram Stoker crossover.
460. The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen ★★★
I can see why Arthur Machen is cited as both an influence on other contemporary authors like Lovecraft and Wells, and as having been influenced by them in turn. What was shocking to an 1896 audience isn't particularly shocking now, though... but you've got to be careful where you walk in the countryside at night. THe foreword assumed that I knew who Arthur Machen was, which led to me googling around a bit and discovering that apparently a few years ago his work was being revived as part of a programme to raise the profile of notable Welsh authors, which I rather like.
461. The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide #1 by Dan Slott ★★★
462. The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide #2 by Dan Slott ★★★
463. The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide #3 by Dan Slott ★★★★
464. The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide #4 by Dan Slott ★★★★
465. The Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide #5 by Dan Slott ★★★
I picked these up at a small comics fair here, as they looked interesting (and I thought I should buy something). Peter Parker is now the head of something called Parker Industries, and seems to be on his way to being a new Tony Stark, only with Peter's moral code. Mockingbird was a supporting character, which was a nice addition, and he's hired another superhero to pretend to be Spider-Man, as part of a ploy to present Spider-Man as Peter Parker's bodyguard. This doesn't exactly work flawlessly, but creates the opportunity for some entertaining scenes, particularly when attempts to replicate the famous punning associated with Spider-Man don't go desperately well. I do feel like I stepped in part-way through a story, though. The first five issues were a complete story, so I thought I'd get some more in the half-price back issue sale at my comics dealer...
466. Grandghost by Nancy Springer ★★★
This was short, and ended up being rather fluffier than I'd expected, given that the pitch was about a tragic haunting involving a murdered child. While there wasn't a tension, the female characters in this were generally hugely entertaining. The main protagonist is a sarcastic sixty-something book illustrator who moved to rural Florida (and finds the remains), her daughters are in their forties and living their lives the way they want to, and the protagonist really doesn't care what anyone else thinks about her. I liked that a lot.
467. Star Trek: Year Five #5 by Jody Houser ★★★
468. The Amazing Spider-Man #6 by Nick Spencer ★★★
So, I went to get more back issues. I carefully checked with my comics dealer that I'd bought a complete run of stories, as I hate an incomplete run. I started reading... and Peter Parker's unemployed and sharing a basement with MJ and an ex-super villain named Boomerang and is living on a shoestring. So, I did some digging... and it turns out that The Amazing Spider-Man was rebooted in 2015, and then again in 2018, and the first five issues I'd read were from the earlier run, while the next set of issue I bought were from the later run. Whoops.
469. The Amazing Spider-Man #7 by Nick Spencer ★★★★
470. The Amazing Spider-Man #8 by Nick Spencer ★★★
