What I Read: October/November
Dec. 10th, 2019 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brokenmnemonicI forgot to post up what I read in October because of my preoccupation with failing to get ready for NaNo, and then November was a bit of a bust because of how badly I was doing at actually trying to complete NaNo. Still, I'm getting closer to my end of year target, even if it seems to have been comics more than books over the last couple of months.
521. The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★★
522. The Final Reflection by John M. Ford ★★★★
Very interesting take on the Klingons from the original series of Star Trek, before later series explored their culture on screen. This was much better than I expected from a tv tie-in novel.
523. Treaty Series (Great Britain): #20(2013) Agreement Between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the Republic of Finland Concerning the Mutual Protection Of Classified Information by The Sationary Office
524. Red Sonja #9 by Mark Russell ★★★
525. The Dreaming #14 by Simon Spurrier ★★★★
I can't remember the last time I saw a game as the centrepiece of a comic issue, but I kept thinking of Dream going into Hell and playing the game with one of the demons in the first Sandman graphic novel.
526. Ghost Ship by Diane Carey ★★
There's a decent sci-fi story in this, but it's hampered by being written with probably no more information than the script of the two-part TNG pilot episode, so all the characterization feels completely wonky.
527. His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★
528. Han Solo's Revenge by Brian Daley ★★
This would've made for a much better comic than a novel.
529. The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★
530. Take The Shot by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
531. Darkman by Randall Boyll ★★★
532. House of Whispers #14 by Nalo Hopkinson ★★★★★
533. Dilbert 2017 Day Calendar by Scott Adams ★★★
534. The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★
535. Vampirella/Red Sonja #2 by Jordie Bellaire ★★★
536. Livewire #11 by Vita Ayala ★★★
537. Surface Action by David Drake ★★★
538. A Duet For Invisible Strings by Llinos Cathryn Thomas ★★★★★
539. Firefly #10 by Greg Pak ★★★
540. American Gods: The Moment of the Storm #6 by Neil Gaiman ★★★★
541. The Crow: Hack/Slash #4 by Tim Seeley ★★★
542. The Death-Defying Devil #3 by Gail Simone ★★★
I still have no idea who this character is, but this was an interesting issue, implying that there's something supernatural going on.
543. Savage Tales: A Red Sonja Halloween Special by Mark Russell ★★★★
544. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★
545. Kin by Bruce McAllister ★★★★
I've listened to three or four of the Levar Burton Reads podcast short stories, and he's a good narrator. This is the only one so far that's listed on Goodreads in its own right, and is an interesting story about a young boy who tries to contact a race of alien assassins. The stories are about the right length for me to start listening when I'm getting up in the morning, and be done by the time I get to the station for my train, or by the time my train arrives at work.
546. Lt Leary Commanding by David Drake ★★★
David Drake got to write about ten novels in this series, so there must've been a big market for them, but as I was reading I kept thinking about how it's embodying a lot of the tropes about 80s sci-fi. The naval battles were good, but I think reading this showcased how much better the writing in this genre has become as authors get more diverse.
547. Ghost-Spider #3 by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
548. Too Wicked to Kiss by Erica Ridley ★★★
I actually really liked the country manor murder mystery part of this book, although I was a bit nonplussed when Evangeline turned out to be a psychic reader. I was a little disappointed that this was another story about a male protagonist in his late 20s and a virginal 17-year-old female protagonist, though. Where's my murder mystery historical romance series starring cynical and shocking forty-somethings who barely give a fig for the ton?
549. Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Boba Fett #1 by Greg Pak ★★★
It turns out there were free comic books for Halloween at my comic store. Yay?
550. Fearless #4 by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
551. Aliens: Rescue #4 by Brian Wood ★★
Brian Wood's written some interesting Aliens tie-in comics, but this series just feels predictable.
552. Lady Mechanika: La Dame de la Muerte #1 by Joe Benítez ★★★
553. Dark Red #1 by Tim Seeley ★★
554. Too Wanton to Wed by Erica Ripley ★★★
555. Chivalry by Neil Gaiman ★★★★
I was rather taken by this short story of a little old lady who finds the Holy Grail in a charity shop and ends up with a knight of the Round Table trying to persuade her to trade it to him.
556. Too Tempting to Resist by Erica Ridley ★★★
557. James Bond 007 #12 by Greg Pak ★★★
558. Star Trek: Year Five #7 by Jackson Lanzing ★★★
559. Doctor Mirage #1 by Magdalene Visaggio ★★★
560. Winter Sunshine by Seanan McGuire ★★★
561. Too Sinful to Deny by Erica Ridley ★★★
I found this series a bit hit-and-miss. The ones with the more supernatural elements felt like better reading than the others; I think this felt like the weakest in the series to me, because neither of the protagonists felt particularly appealing or interesting. Which is a shame, because I was up for a good pirate murder mystery.
562. The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith ★★★
563. The Dreaming #15 by Simon Spurrier ★★★
I'm not sure why, but the last 2-3 issues have felt like they're taking a long time to tell us the same thing over and over.
564. Rivers of London: The Fey and the Furious #1 by Ben Aaronovitch ★★★★
Oh, I'm going to love this mini-series.
565. Red Sonja #10 by Mark Russell ★★★
566. The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith ★★★
567. Wargames by David Bischoff ★★
This really didn't live up to a re-read. Looking back at the 80s is always difficult, particularly when it comes to things like technology, but mostly this just felt... simple.
568. House of Whispers #15 by Nalo Hopkinson ★★★★
569. Doomrock by W. Reed ★★
I did a difficult thing. I've collected Starblazer comics since I was about 5 right the way through the final issue in 1991. One of the things I did as an adult over the last 15 years was slowly complete a full run of the series. The comics have a lot of flaws, but they were a part of my childhood, and helped keep me interested in sci-fi and fantasy, and a lot of now well-known British comic book writers and artists worked on the run at one time or another. I've ended up with a lot of spare copies of issues, so I've been keeping one good condition copy for my collection, and a second for reading. This week, I gave away the reading copies to another comics collector I know a little who's working on his own set. That does mean if one of mine gets damaged, I'll have to go out and buy a replacement, but giving away about a hundred comics also thinned out my shelves a bit. So now, I'm idly re-reading some of them. This maybe wasn't the best one to start with...
570. Livewire #12 by Vita Ayala ★★★
571. The Planet Eater by Ray Aspden ★★★
572. The Art of Mass Effect by Dan Birlew ★★★
It turns out this only deals with art from the first game in the series. What was here was interesting, and I liked hearing about the process and seeing the alternative possibilities that were discarded. Unfortunately, it didn't include much detail on the stylistic choices - on why they picked certain looks, or favoured some looks ahead of others, or where they got their inspiration from in most cases, so it felt a bit incomplete.
573. Stone of Fire by J. F. Penn ★★
A little like an Indiana Jones story, but not as satisfying or funny. Although the details on the early Christian history around the twelve apostles was intersting.
574. Blackout by Kit Mallory ★★★★
The setup in this is a little bit improbable, but it's what it needed to be to create this particular dystopian setup. As a YA book, naturally all of the protagonists are teenagers, but this was a good read - and I liked having a F/F lead couple.
575. American Gods: Moment of the Storm #7 by Neil Gaiman ★★★
I feel bad for not liking this one more, but it felt like I already knew everything that was revealed in this issue, and it seems to have taken a very long time to get here.
576. Firefly #11 by Greg Pak ★★★
I'm really not sure how I feel about having Ma Reynolds appear as a character in the way they've chosen...
577. Star Trek Discovery: Aftermath #3 by Kirsten Beyer ★★★
578. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #10 by David Avallone ★★★
579. Vampirella/Red Sonja #3 by Jordie Bellaire ★★★★
It turns out I really like it when Sonja kicks walls down and is then sarcastic about it.
580. The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata ★★★
This was really interesting. It feels a little like it's a book in a world that could easily become a cyberpunk world - the defence corporations are so powerful that they're starting wars just to be able to sell to both sides, some people are starting to get cybernetic implants, and something on the net appears to be possibly gaining some form of sentience and tweaking the lives of people. The back end of the novel was a fairly standard military sci-fi story, but the backdrop definitely piqued my interest.
521. The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★★
522. The Final Reflection by John M. Ford ★★★★
Very interesting take on the Klingons from the original series of Star Trek, before later series explored their culture on screen. This was much better than I expected from a tv tie-in novel.
523. Treaty Series (Great Britain): #20(2013) Agreement Between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the Republic of Finland Concerning the Mutual Protection Of Classified Information by The Sationary Office
524. Red Sonja #9 by Mark Russell ★★★
525. The Dreaming #14 by Simon Spurrier ★★★★
I can't remember the last time I saw a game as the centrepiece of a comic issue, but I kept thinking of Dream going into Hell and playing the game with one of the demons in the first Sandman graphic novel.
526. Ghost Ship by Diane Carey ★★
There's a decent sci-fi story in this, but it's hampered by being written with probably no more information than the script of the two-part TNG pilot episode, so all the characterization feels completely wonky.
527. His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★
528. Han Solo's Revenge by Brian Daley ★★
This would've made for a much better comic than a novel.
529. The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★
530. Take The Shot by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
531. Darkman by Randall Boyll ★★★
532. House of Whispers #14 by Nalo Hopkinson ★★★★★
533. Dilbert 2017 Day Calendar by Scott Adams ★★★
534. The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★
535. Vampirella/Red Sonja #2 by Jordie Bellaire ★★★
536. Livewire #11 by Vita Ayala ★★★
537. Surface Action by David Drake ★★★
538. A Duet For Invisible Strings by Llinos Cathryn Thomas ★★★★★
539. Firefly #10 by Greg Pak ★★★
540. American Gods: The Moment of the Storm #6 by Neil Gaiman ★★★★
541. The Crow: Hack/Slash #4 by Tim Seeley ★★★
542. The Death-Defying Devil #3 by Gail Simone ★★★
I still have no idea who this character is, but this was an interesting issue, implying that there's something supernatural going on.
543. Savage Tales: A Red Sonja Halloween Special by Mark Russell ★★★★
544. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle ★★★
545. Kin by Bruce McAllister ★★★★
I've listened to three or four of the Levar Burton Reads podcast short stories, and he's a good narrator. This is the only one so far that's listed on Goodreads in its own right, and is an interesting story about a young boy who tries to contact a race of alien assassins. The stories are about the right length for me to start listening when I'm getting up in the morning, and be done by the time I get to the station for my train, or by the time my train arrives at work.
546. Lt Leary Commanding by David Drake ★★★
David Drake got to write about ten novels in this series, so there must've been a big market for them, but as I was reading I kept thinking about how it's embodying a lot of the tropes about 80s sci-fi. The naval battles were good, but I think reading this showcased how much better the writing in this genre has become as authors get more diverse.
547. Ghost-Spider #3 by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
548. Too Wicked to Kiss by Erica Ridley ★★★
I actually really liked the country manor murder mystery part of this book, although I was a bit nonplussed when Evangeline turned out to be a psychic reader. I was a little disappointed that this was another story about a male protagonist in his late 20s and a virginal 17-year-old female protagonist, though. Where's my murder mystery historical romance series starring cynical and shocking forty-somethings who barely give a fig for the ton?
549. Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Boba Fett #1 by Greg Pak ★★★
It turns out there were free comic books for Halloween at my comic store. Yay?
550. Fearless #4 by Seanan McGuire ★★★★
551. Aliens: Rescue #4 by Brian Wood ★★
Brian Wood's written some interesting Aliens tie-in comics, but this series just feels predictable.
552. Lady Mechanika: La Dame de la Muerte #1 by Joe Benítez ★★★
553. Dark Red #1 by Tim Seeley ★★
554. Too Wanton to Wed by Erica Ripley ★★★
555. Chivalry by Neil Gaiman ★★★★
I was rather taken by this short story of a little old lady who finds the Holy Grail in a charity shop and ends up with a knight of the Round Table trying to persuade her to trade it to him.
556. Too Tempting to Resist by Erica Ridley ★★★
557. James Bond 007 #12 by Greg Pak ★★★
558. Star Trek: Year Five #7 by Jackson Lanzing ★★★
559. Doctor Mirage #1 by Magdalene Visaggio ★★★
560. Winter Sunshine by Seanan McGuire ★★★
561. Too Sinful to Deny by Erica Ridley ★★★
I found this series a bit hit-and-miss. The ones with the more supernatural elements felt like better reading than the others; I think this felt like the weakest in the series to me, because neither of the protagonists felt particularly appealing or interesting. Which is a shame, because I was up for a good pirate murder mystery.
562. The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith ★★★
563. The Dreaming #15 by Simon Spurrier ★★★
I'm not sure why, but the last 2-3 issues have felt like they're taking a long time to tell us the same thing over and over.
564. Rivers of London: The Fey and the Furious #1 by Ben Aaronovitch ★★★★
Oh, I'm going to love this mini-series.
565. Red Sonja #10 by Mark Russell ★★★
566. The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith ★★★
567. Wargames by David Bischoff ★★
This really didn't live up to a re-read. Looking back at the 80s is always difficult, particularly when it comes to things like technology, but mostly this just felt... simple.
568. House of Whispers #15 by Nalo Hopkinson ★★★★
569. Doomrock by W. Reed ★★
I did a difficult thing. I've collected Starblazer comics since I was about 5 right the way through the final issue in 1991. One of the things I did as an adult over the last 15 years was slowly complete a full run of the series. The comics have a lot of flaws, but they were a part of my childhood, and helped keep me interested in sci-fi and fantasy, and a lot of now well-known British comic book writers and artists worked on the run at one time or another. I've ended up with a lot of spare copies of issues, so I've been keeping one good condition copy for my collection, and a second for reading. This week, I gave away the reading copies to another comics collector I know a little who's working on his own set. That does mean if one of mine gets damaged, I'll have to go out and buy a replacement, but giving away about a hundred comics also thinned out my shelves a bit. So now, I'm idly re-reading some of them. This maybe wasn't the best one to start with...
570. Livewire #12 by Vita Ayala ★★★
571. The Planet Eater by Ray Aspden ★★★
572. The Art of Mass Effect by Dan Birlew ★★★
It turns out this only deals with art from the first game in the series. What was here was interesting, and I liked hearing about the process and seeing the alternative possibilities that were discarded. Unfortunately, it didn't include much detail on the stylistic choices - on why they picked certain looks, or favoured some looks ahead of others, or where they got their inspiration from in most cases, so it felt a bit incomplete.
573. Stone of Fire by J. F. Penn ★★
A little like an Indiana Jones story, but not as satisfying or funny. Although the details on the early Christian history around the twelve apostles was intersting.
574. Blackout by Kit Mallory ★★★★
The setup in this is a little bit improbable, but it's what it needed to be to create this particular dystopian setup. As a YA book, naturally all of the protagonists are teenagers, but this was a good read - and I liked having a F/F lead couple.
575. American Gods: Moment of the Storm #7 by Neil Gaiman ★★★
I feel bad for not liking this one more, but it felt like I already knew everything that was revealed in this issue, and it seems to have taken a very long time to get here.
576. Firefly #11 by Greg Pak ★★★
I'm really not sure how I feel about having Ma Reynolds appear as a character in the way they've chosen...
577. Star Trek Discovery: Aftermath #3 by Kirsten Beyer ★★★
578. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #10 by David Avallone ★★★
579. Vampirella/Red Sonja #3 by Jordie Bellaire ★★★★
It turns out I really like it when Sonja kicks walls down and is then sarcastic about it.
580. The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata ★★★
This was really interesting. It feels a little like it's a book in a world that could easily become a cyberpunk world - the defence corporations are so powerful that they're starting wars just to be able to sell to both sides, some people are starting to get cybernetic implants, and something on the net appears to be possibly gaining some form of sentience and tweaking the lives of people. The back end of the novel was a fairly standard military sci-fi story, but the backdrop definitely piqued my interest.
