Month: February 2022

Dark elves, dwarves, assassins, the battle is on!

~ Cathy ~ 3 Comments

The Legacy (Forgotten Realms: Legacy of the Drow, #1; Legend of Drizzt, #7) by R.A. Salvatore

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

My second attempt at the Forgotten Realms series. I have a few of them, bought cheaply through Humble Bundle. My first book of the series was The Crystal Shard, which was his first published novel. That one felt a bit like LOTR fanfiction and was not a success for me. I fully expected to dislike Legacy and dump it after the first chapter, plus all of the remaining Forgotten Reals books on my shelf. But lo and behold, I liked it! The writing is a lot better. It is entertaining, low brainpower sword-and-sorcery with dark elves and a fast plot. 

We start off with a lot of dwarves. And some bad guys planning to assassinate Drizzt, dark elf and titular main character. There is a lot of tunnels, darkness, sword fights, intrigue and light humour. Some of the battle scenes were surprisingly graphic and gory for this light read. And there is a lot of battle scenes. Pretty much the second half of the book. This felt a bit like a dungeon crawler, all that was missing was a plan of the tunnels and a few dice for the table-top version.

Drizzt gets to review his past decisions and his psychotic relations. And the baddies underestimate the bonds he has forged with his found family and friends. We are left with a nice blot bunny for the next books. I actually wonder how that will play out, so I plan do continue reading the sequels to this eventually.

Wikihistory

~ Cathy ~ Leave a comment

Wikihistory by Desmond Warzel

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Short story. Amusing piss-take on Wikipedia and what you would do first, if you could time travel, in the form of forum posts.

International Association of Time Travelers: Members’ Forum
Subforum: Europe – Twentieth Century – Second World War
Page 263

11/15/2104
At 14:52:28, FreedomFighter69 wrote:
Reporting my first temporal excursion since joining IATT: have just returned from 1936 Berlin, having taken the place of one of Leni Riefenstahl’s cameramen and assassinated Adolf Hitler during the opening of the Olympic Games. Let a free world rejoice!

Can be read for free here at Tor.com or here at Apex & Abyss Magazine.

You are in so much trouble when you‘re not sparkly!

~ Cathy ~ Leave a comment

The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six

EYES OF THE FOREST by Ray Nayler — an alien forrest, scouts / wayfinders in a dangerous situation. A young wayfinder in training. No predators, but scavengers that feast on dead things… things that are not illuminated… what a cool concept! And I am really salty about not getting told her given name! ★★★★½

“Predator is just a word we carried with us into space. A concept from Earth. It has no place here. Nothing in the forest hunts what is alive: That is a habit of our home world—a habit of animals none here have ever set eyes on.“

Interview with the author about this story here…

Volcanoes in Space

~ Cathy ~ 7 Comments

Fire and Ice: The Volcanoes of the Solar System by Natalie Starkey (Goodreads) (Narrator)

Rating: 4 out of 5.

What a fascinating book! Have you ever considered that Earth might be the odd one out, because it has plate tectonics and the other planets in our solar system do not? Well, I certainly never did. The majority of our volcanoes, sitting above tectonic plates diverging from or converging with each other, are actually not really a typical phenomenon, if you broaden your reach beyond our planet. And that is only the start of the journey. This book gives you a great overview of the volcanoes on Earth and then takes you on a spin through our solar system and more unusual types of volcanoes, spewing all kinds of unexpected materials. In the process there is a lot to learn about planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, you name it…

I learned a lot, but have to confess that the constant info dump was a bit much at times. Still, it was a fascinating read and pretty entertaining.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author. She did a good job. Here is a talk she gives about her book:

And her website with blog: https://www.nataliestarkey.com

Trouble with shadows…

~ Cathy ~ Leave a comment

Shadecraft #1 by Joe Henderson, Lee Garbett (Cover Art), Antonio Fabela (Artist)

A new offering from Joe Henderson, the showrunner of the Netflix series Lucifer and writer of the excellent comic Skyward Vol. 1: My Low-G Life. Apparently Netflix has preemptively picked up Shadecraft as well.

16-year old Zadie is not afraid of the dark. That is quickly remedied when shadows start chasing her.

Good artwork, diverse cast of characters, amusing. Some teenage angst. Nice twist at the end, I liked it! I might pick up more issues at some point.

Can be read for free at Image Comics.

Here is the video trailer. It shows some light spoilers, so don‘t watch it if you want to go into the comic with a fresh look:

Almost human

~ Cathy ~ 4 Comments

The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six by Neil Clarke

I just started this anthology with the Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year… I will update as I go along…

Scar Tissue, Tobias S. Buckell — 2nd person singular, awkward! 

“The evening before you sign and take delivery of your son, you call Charlie and tell him you think you’ve made a huge mistake.“

Human MC fosters a robot. Is the mind just bolted into its carriage or the sum of a whole? And what does it mean to be raised instead of being programmed and to learn from experience? 
Sweet story, I got pretty emotional. ★★★★★

Can be read for free here: https://slate.com/technology/2020/05/…

And a response to the story by another author: https://slate.com/technology/2020/05/…

And an interview from 2021 with the author on Clarkesworld: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/buck…

Interview completed

~ Cathy ~ 10 Comments

Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1) by Anne Rice

Rating: 4 out of 5.

It’s been a long time since I read this, as a teenager and in German. Mid 80s or so and several times in the years after… Loved it, loved it, loved it. Got me started on my path of life-long love of vampire stories. Shortly after I read Bram Stoker‘s Dracula and a bunch of other classic vampire books and loved those as well. 

I think the German translation dragged a bit. Although about 30% into my current re-read it was not exactly speedy either. A lot of exposition, very little direct speech—not my favourite. Luckily the book eventuality got more involving and lively.

As a teenager I considered this the best of the Vampire Chronicles and the one with the best story-line. The sequels got more and more commercial. I read four of them and then stopped, while I still liked them. In retrospect I probably remember the most of The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned. Boy, that was a horrible movie! If I should re-read the other books as well, I would probably prefer the „more commercial“ ones by now. We will see. I read another of Anne Rice‘s books recently, The Passion of Cleopatra and thought it was pretty meh.

Anyway, Interview with The Vampire. Probably THE book that sailed a massive fantasy subgenre and lead to two movies, one of them sporting a horribly miscast Tom Cruise and a beautifully moody Brad Pitt. 

A young reporter and a vampire sit in a bare room with a tape recorder. The vampire tells the story of his 200 years of life, err, un-death, from his early days on a plantation near New Orleans to Europe and all the way back to the Garden District of New Orleans in the mid-1970s, when the book was written. 

The book is a bit of a declaration of love for that city, which has been nicely captured in this review here: https://gonola.com/things-to-do-in-ne…

A lot of things happen that I didn‘t remember at all. Everything that hasn‘t appeared in the movie seems to have fallen away. Lestat is also a lot more hateful than I remember. And Claudia and Armand a lot more seductive.

The story moved pretty slowly and with a lot of exposition at first. Is it possible that later books were more dynamic? I was not impressed and skimmed some more boring passages early on. By the time the narrative moved to New Orleans and then on to Eastern Europe, I had become comfortable with the slightly old-fashioned feel of the language and the narrative had picked up some momentum. The high point of the book for me is Paris and the Theatre of the Vampires. 

Bottomline this has a lot more to offer than the movie. It is mostly slow paced and rich in detail. Very contemplative, pretty sad, with some shocking moments.

PS: there is an interesting article here about Anne Rice and fanfiction:
A Deep Dive Into the Anne Rice Fanfiction Debacle

It‘s Valentine‘s Day, so guess what…

~ Cathy ~ 2 Comments

Goodreads posted a ton of recommended reading lists today for Valentine‘s Day. I occasionally read romances, mostly as a kind of palate cleanser between SF novels or other a bit heavier offerings. I took a peek at those lists and this is what I found.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert has been on my want-to-read for a while.

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with six directives to help her “Get a Life”…

So, adult romance with a bucket list…

Boyfriend Material (Boyfriend Material, #1) by Alexis Hall is a more recent addition to my want-to-read.

To clean up his image, Luc has to find a nice, normal relationship…and Oliver Blackwood is as nice and normal as they come. He’s a barrister, an ethical vegetarian, and he’s never inspired a moment of scandal in his life. In other words: perfect boyfriend material. Unfortunately apart from being gay, single, and really, really in need of a date for a big event, Luc and Oliver have nothing in common. So they strike a deal to be publicity-friendly (fake) boyfriends until the dust has settled. Then they can go their separate ways and pretend it never happened.

We know how that goes, right?

If I Never Met You (Kindle Edition) by Mhairi McFarlane is another newbie on my want-to-read.

Jamie Carter doesn’t believe in love, but he needs a respectable, steady girlfriend to impress their bosses. Laurie wants a hot new man to give the rumor mill something else to talk about. It’s the perfect proposition: a fauxmance played out on social media, with strategically staged photographs and a specific end date in mind.

Yep, another fake relationship, I like those!

Do you read romances? Any preferences, aka tropes you like? Recommendations?

I have been activated, therefore I have a purpose 

~ Cathy ~ 6 Comments

Clarkesworld Magazine #177, June 2021 by Neil Clarke (editor)

BOTS OF THE LOST ARK by Suzanne Palmer, 11080 WORDS, NOVELETTE

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Bots run amok, aliens threaten, ship and humans need to be saved, little bot to the rescue.

Set on the same ship and following the adventures of the same little bot as HUGO-awarded The Secret Life if Bots, this is a fun and slightly absurd take on the currently abundant stories and novels about artificial intelligences.

I guess it is about time that I pick up one of her full-length novels.

Can be read for free here. Shamelessly stolen from that same page:


SUZANNE PALMER – WEBSITE

Suzanne Palmer is a writer and linux system administrator who lives in western Massachusetts. Her work has appeared frequently in Asimov’s and Analog, and her Clarkesworld story “The Secret Life of Bots” won the 2018 Hugo for Best Novelette. Her next novel, The Scavenger Door (book three of the Finder Chronicles), will be published by DAW in August 2021.

RELATED ENTRIES

In other news, I am in a bit of a reading slump. Real Life is a little extra hard right now. I turned to comfort reading and spent all weekend and Monday night with re-reading some of my favourite fanfiction. A little Spirk and a whole lot McShep.

I am still listening to the audio of Fire and Ice: The Volcanoes of the Solar System.

Further planned reading for February:
– The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six, ebook — this one will take most of the year.
– Interview With The Vampire, ebook, re-read
– maybe A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, ebook
– Saga #56, pub date 23.02., comic
– StoryGraph Reading Randomizer #1 The Legacy, ebook, TBR
– StoryGraph Reading Randomizer #2 The Solitaire Mystery, paper, TBR