kgbooklog

Sam Savage, Firmin
Delta (2006) ISBN: 978-0-385-34265-0
Score: 0

Judging by the cover, I thought this would be a light, probably silly tale of a talking rat. Instead its a cynical memoir of a rat with pretensions of literature. It may be intended as satire, but how can you tell?

Next Book: Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages

Shaun Tan, The Arrival
Levine/Scholastic (2006) ISBN: 0-439-89529-4
Score: 1

A wordless graphic novel about immigration, with lots of whimsy and atmosphere. This is more Art than Entertainment, and very well done art at that (lots and lots of detail). But I'm more interested in stories, and there just wasn't much of one here.

Next Book: Derek Landy, Skulduggery Pleasant

K.J. Parker, Evil for Evil
Orbit (2006) ISBN: 0-316-00339-5
Score: -1

Middle book of the sorta-fantasy[1] Engineer trilogy, in which things apparently continue to go according to the plan. About halfway through I decided that the author wanted to do an anti-romantic version of Foundation, taking everything Asimov did right and do it wrong (focussing on predicting individuals instead of mobs, keeping the plan on track through large chaotic battles involving said predictable individuals, killing as many people as possible in order to achieve private goals).

[1] Invented world, not quite industrial technology, but no other speculative elements.


Next Book: Shaun Tan, The Arrival

Sarah Ash, Tracing the Shadow
Bantam (2006) ISBN: 978-0-533-80519-2
Score: 0

Start of a trilogy set in the same world as her Tears of Artamon trilogy. This is a prequel trilogy, though I had to go to the author's website to find that out; there's no hint of it on the cover nor in the first 150 pages (I recognized one character and a couple other names, but couldn't remember if they survived the previous book). I didn't like any of the new protagonists, and the uncertainly about the timing really bugged me; the author rarely gives any hint how much time passes between scenes (and scenes from different POVs aren't always in chronological order), so it seems like it only takes a couple hours to travel between any two points on the map. And then I learned a journey took several months, completely jarring me out of the story.

Next Book: Joel Shepherd, Killswitch

Rachel Caine, Glass Houses
Jam (2006) ISBN: 0-451-21994-5
Score: 0

Start of the Morganville Vampires series, a YA urban fantasy about a 16-year-old girl (a horribly stereotyped nerd) attending a small town college (for stupid reasons) run by vampires. I gave up 1/5 through, after she insisted on staying in town and attending classes even after the vampires and police started hunting for her. No supernatural elements had appeared yet (except maybe her housemates), so I can't tell if the author is doing anything original with them.

Next Book: Robert Asprin and Phil Foglio, Myth Adventures

Sarah Monette, The Virtu
Ace (2006) ISBN: 0-441-01404-6
Score: 2

Second book of an unnamed quartet, in which the characters fix the rest of the stuff that was broken in the previous book. The first part of the book was fairly slow (another long journey), and several things at the end seemed a bit too easy, but the characters were well done.

Next Book: Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archives

Charlie Fletcher, Stoneheart
Hyperion (2006) ISBN: 142310175-8
Score: 1.5

Start of the Stoneheart trilogy, a juvenile urban fantasy set in London. The hero, railing against the injustices of the world, breaks a carving off a building, which accidentally restarts the war between statues and gargoyles. Too soon to judge the consistency of the worldbuilding and premise (it's amazing how many of the good guys know all about "making amends to the Stone" but only admit to knowing after forcing the hero jumps through hoops to learn for himself), and the ending was a bit anti-climatic, even for a first book of a series.

Next Book: Jasper Fforde, First Among Sequels

Tanya Huff, Blood Bank
DAW (2006) ISBN: 0-7564-0392-8
Score: -1

This collection is only available as the second half of the omnibus The Blood Books, vol. 3, though only the Christmas story is new. Only two stories (Manner and Scleratus) do not contain spoilers for Blood Pact. Reading this makes me think it may be impossible to write a good supernatural whodunit short story. Also, that I don't like post-Pact Vicky.

"This Town Ain't Big Enough" 1995
"What Manner of Man" 1996
"The Cards Also Say" 1997
"The Vengeful Spirit of Lake Nepeaka" 1999
"Someone to Share the Night" 2001
"Another Fine Nest" 2002
"Scleratus" 2003
"Critical Analysis" 2006
"So This is Christmas" 2006

Vladimir Sorokin, Jamey Gambrell (trans.), Ice
New York Review Books (2006) ISBN: 1-59017-195-0
Score: 0

An urban fantasy set in Russia, about a cult of blond-haired, blue-eyed people who recruit new members by hitting them in the chest with a hammer made of ice until they pass out and their heart whispers their true name. And that's about all I learned from reading the first third of the book; the blurbs claim the hammers are made of interstellar ice, which is pretty unbelievable (especially since each hammer can only be used once). It didn't help that none of the characters were likable, and each had at least three names to keep track of, and we never spent much time with any of them. In hindsight, I wish I'd noticed the word "postmodern" on the back cover.

Michelle Sagara [West], Cast in Courtlight
Luna (2006) ISBN: 0-373-80244-7
Score: 2

Second book in the Cast series (at least 3 more novels planned), in which more people notice how special the heroine is. Luna is starting to look like a reliable source of good fluffy fantasy.

Next Book: Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat in a Red Hot Rage