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I always saying I'm going to read new and different things during a break but I never really do, but thanks to a kick ass temp job where I got to sit around and do nothing for 90% of the day most of the time I actually got to read some new books. I think within a two week period I devoured five books (six if I include Harry Potter but I didn't read it at work). Some general thoughts on the stuff I've finished so far:
-Victory Nelson series. I don't think that's the actual name of the series but it seems like this series doesn't have one so I'll just call them that. By Tanya Huff, the books are about a Toronto PI with failing eye sight and the vampire she meets who ends up becoming her partner of sorts. Now a Canadian TV show (Blood Ties) premiering on Space in the fall! :-D I would call these books a guilty pleasure. They're not thought provoking or anything but fun to read. Actually, it was pretty cool that the stories were set in Toronto and surrounding area. Huff likes to be an omniscient narrator here so you get the thoughts from all the characters all in one paragraph sometimes. That I wasn't really fond of. Feels sort of lazy and sloppy to me. Enjoyable though, if you like stuff in the supernatural vein. Huff gives her own take on the usual stuff like werewolves, mummies, and reanimated creatures. I might actually check out Blood Ties when it premieres, though only to see if they butcher the source material.
-Temeraire series. I absolutely fell in love with these books. By Naomi Novik, the series is set during the Napoleonic era but along with ships and armies dragons are used to fight the war. A historical drama but with dragons. :-D The dragons are the best part about the books. They can talk so they're not just creatures people can ride around on. Novik really fleshes out the dragons, making them engaging characters. The main dragon, Temeraire, is forward thinking but sometimes he says, "Oh" before starting a sentence and that just makes him cute in my mind. I just finished the third book and at one point he says to his rider about a horse he's going to eat, "My horse is wearing a hat." Okay, so the line is kind of taken out of context, but it made me giggle. Apparently Peter Jackson has bought the rights to these books so a movie might be made if he ever gets around to it. I would love to see a Temeraire movie. Novik has a cute short story on her site featuring Temeraire and his fellow dragons. A very amusing read.
-Old Man's War. This is part of a trilogy and I'm trying to work my way through the second one. The thing that struck me about this book is the writing style. Very little flowy description and a lot of talking. Sure it's sci fi, but there's exposition up the wazoo. People just talk and sometimes there's no description of anything else. I didn't really appreciate that. It gets a little better by the second book since that one is written in third person. However, I did like how Scalzi integrated outside information the main character reads. The manual the main character reads about the computer in his head, a BrainPal, totally felt like how a manual would be written. Also, strangely like something from The Sims video game. Not sure where that's coming from.
And today I found a Doctor Who novel at the library. Not a new Who book, but an Eighth Doctor adventure. I have no clue where it came from and it's book one of two. It looks relatively new, too. I'm not sure if this means that the library has bought a bunch of old Doctor Who novels, though that would be really nice. I've got a thing for reading spin-off material from a TV show.
-Victory Nelson series. I don't think that's the actual name of the series but it seems like this series doesn't have one so I'll just call them that. By Tanya Huff, the books are about a Toronto PI with failing eye sight and the vampire she meets who ends up becoming her partner of sorts. Now a Canadian TV show (Blood Ties) premiering on Space in the fall! :-D I would call these books a guilty pleasure. They're not thought provoking or anything but fun to read. Actually, it was pretty cool that the stories were set in Toronto and surrounding area. Huff likes to be an omniscient narrator here so you get the thoughts from all the characters all in one paragraph sometimes. That I wasn't really fond of. Feels sort of lazy and sloppy to me. Enjoyable though, if you like stuff in the supernatural vein. Huff gives her own take on the usual stuff like werewolves, mummies, and reanimated creatures. I might actually check out Blood Ties when it premieres, though only to see if they butcher the source material.
-Temeraire series. I absolutely fell in love with these books. By Naomi Novik, the series is set during the Napoleonic era but along with ships and armies dragons are used to fight the war. A historical drama but with dragons. :-D The dragons are the best part about the books. They can talk so they're not just creatures people can ride around on. Novik really fleshes out the dragons, making them engaging characters. The main dragon, Temeraire, is forward thinking but sometimes he says, "Oh" before starting a sentence and that just makes him cute in my mind. I just finished the third book and at one point he says to his rider about a horse he's going to eat, "My horse is wearing a hat." Okay, so the line is kind of taken out of context, but it made me giggle. Apparently Peter Jackson has bought the rights to these books so a movie might be made if he ever gets around to it. I would love to see a Temeraire movie. Novik has a cute short story on her site featuring Temeraire and his fellow dragons. A very amusing read.
-Old Man's War. This is part of a trilogy and I'm trying to work my way through the second one. The thing that struck me about this book is the writing style. Very little flowy description and a lot of talking. Sure it's sci fi, but there's exposition up the wazoo. People just talk and sometimes there's no description of anything else. I didn't really appreciate that. It gets a little better by the second book since that one is written in third person. However, I did like how Scalzi integrated outside information the main character reads. The manual the main character reads about the computer in his head, a BrainPal, totally felt like how a manual would be written. Also, strangely like something from The Sims video game. Not sure where that's coming from.
And today I found a Doctor Who novel at the library. Not a new Who book, but an Eighth Doctor adventure. I have no clue where it came from and it's book one of two. It looks relatively new, too. I'm not sure if this means that the library has bought a bunch of old Doctor Who novels, though that would be really nice. I've got a thing for reading spin-off material from a TV show.
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