Hours Gone By

I'm a couple of weeks behind on this, aren't I? Oops.

What I Just Finished Reading: Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward. It contains a lot of standard fantasy tropes, but does so on purpose. The main characters are on a typical quest and they know it. I wouldn't go so far as to call it outright satire of the genre, more something poking good-natured fun at it. It kind of reminded me of The Flying Sorcerors by David Gerrold, which does much the same thing with light SF.

Hellboy: The Fire Wolves, by Tim Lebbon. It...does what it says on the tin, really. Hellboy fights fire wolves. I like that it was set in Italy, but I wish it would have done more with the setting of Pompeii, which is pretty much just there for background. I would have also have liked it to include more B.P.R.D. members than just a couple phone calls to Liz Sherman. (The books follow comic canon, so Liz and Hellboy aren't dating.) A big part of why I like Hellboy is his interaction with Liz, Abe, Roger, etc. and it was mostly missing.

The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson. I haven't gotten anything done since the weekend because I've been busy reading this book. Fantasy, a truly alien world with alien flora and fauna (not just humans plunked down somewhere where everything has different names: the plants have rock shells and can move and retreat into themselves for protection; the 'dogs' are some kind of insect/crustacean/thing, etc.), references to fallen civilizations, an incoming disaster, engrossing characters, lost tech...sign me up! :D I enjoyed all the characters, but I'll be honest and say that Kaladin is my favorite. I may have neglected other character's chapters in order to skip ahead and find out what happened to him. Like Otherland it has several characters' storylines running in parallel, but it moves much faster.

What I'm Currently Reading: The Very Best of Tad Williams. Otherland didn't grab me, but I enjoyed Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn and Tailchaser's Song just absolutely broke my heart. This anthology has a bit of everything, but I think my favorite so far is Child of an Ancient City, which features an Armenian vampire!

What I'm Reading Next: Still might go back and read The Doctrine of Labyrinths again, although now I'm also thinking of rereading Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Or just trying to work down The Stack.

Oh and, speaking of Sarah Monette/Katherine Addison, The Goblin Emperor has been nominated for a Locus award, and is also up for Best Novel at the Hugo Awards this year. *crosses fingers* (Yes, I know about the problems with the Hugo nominations this year. Which is why I think it'd be a lovely thing for a novel written by a woman to win. And that is all we will say about that.) Love to see that get more attention. I had a very happy moment the other day when I saw paperback copies of it (so glad I didn't wait for that, I would have waited a whole year!) in the book section at the drugstore. Sandwiched in among the cheesy romances, but hey, at least it's there.