Mark Martinez
This one's not for the faint of heart or stomach. Stross tears the unicorn myth a new one in his most recent Laundry tale and explains why H.P. Lovecraft went mad.
Not as amusing as I hoped it would be. The art is appealing, but the text grasps for humor in classic Trek scenes too often.
A character study of a flawed human. Not quite what I expected, but interesting to read.
Gibson's script and short story are still kind of a rush, perhaps more so than the movie itself.
The last serialized novel I read was Stephen King's The Green Mile. I bought each of the slim paperbacks as they came out and enjoyed the very moving story. I wasn't sure what to expect from John Scalzi's The Human Division, but I've been entertained by his other novels so I pre-ordered the entire set of 13 episodes for Kindle. It turns out that my commute to work is about one Scalzi episode long. Very convenient.
Writing about his publishing experiment, Scalzi suggested that each chapter would be like a television episode in the first season of a show set in the Old Man's War universe. At first, I was a little disoriented. I guess I was expecting chapters in a book. After about three episodes, I understood that he really was approaching this like a TV show, and settled in for the long haul. He was as good as his word. Instead of 13 chapters in a contiguous storyline, he gave us 13 episodes featuring an ensemble cast, multiple locations, and introduced multiple story threads. Some episodes worked better than others, but overall, I had a good time reading his show. I experienced one brief moment of disorientation at the end of episode #13, which concluded without answering some of the questions raised in the plot. That was my book-reading self surfacing again. I got over it, hoping he would follow up those threads in the next season. Will there be another season? Apparently so. See http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/04/09/the-human-division-episode-thirteen-earth-below-sky-above-is-now-live-an-announcement-about-the-future/
I'll be there to read the new episodes. I don't think I'll buy the print edition, even though it has some additional material. Scalzi was up front about that when The Human Division was first announced. I'll wait for new episodes. I had to click a bunch of times to pre-order all 13 episodes, but this is acceptable. Pre-orders can be cancelled if the screenwriter starts jumping the shark during the next season.
So, with a nod to the recently departed and missed Mr. Ebert:
* Thumbs up for the story and characters
* Thumbs up for keeping me engaged and interested in reading another season
* Thumbs up for the episodic structure and commuting convenience
* Thumbs up for pre-ordering individual episodes
* Thumbs up for the experiment
Another chilling vignette, tied to the previous episode. We're down to the last episode, coming next week, and I don't have a clue how, or if, Scalzi plans to wrap up. I suppose tying up all the threads in a neat package isn't a requirement. Have I become addicted to conventional endings?
Comical and disturbing at the same time. I've found something to like in every episode so far.
I would've given this episode five stars if the hairy little mutt had not shed all over my Kindle.
In this second episode, Scalzi throws in a chilling interlude about human frailty and survival. I think I'll enjoy this serialized approach to reading.
Read part of the story and listened to the audiobook for the rest. Scalzi sets the stage nicely. I'l looking forward to reading future episodes. Does this count as a book in my 2013 reading challenge?
I'm trying to get caught up with Elmore Leonard's novels. This one is a lean mean tale featuring U.S. Marshall Raylen Givens and bookie Harry Arno. The feds make trouble for Arno and his boss wants him dead. Arno runs to Italy in Ezra Pound's old neigborhood and Givens decides to go after him. A satisifying story.
Published in paperback by Dell.
Good grief! Won't farmboy, family and friends, ever get a chance to relax and have some fun? Troy Denning makes life miserable for Luke, Mara, Leia, Han and their kids. Bugs big and small, Dark Jedi, space dogfights, light saber duels, sexual tension, and two more books in the series to come. Included with this novel is Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams, a New Jedi Order short story previously released as an eBook.
Published in mass-market paperback by Del Rey.
I really enjoyed this mash-up of organized crime and Lovecraftian horror, but it's the characters that shine in this novel–Mookie Pearl, a big bad who loves his daughter Nora, no matter what; supporting characters with heart like Skelly, Burnsy and Werth; and some really nasty denizens of the Underworld.
A fast-paced thriller. So fast, that I had a little trouble keeping up. In between firefights, there was hacking, neuroscience, genetics, a course in modern weaponry, a global conspiracy, immortality, several psychopathic villains, and much more. My thanks to Mr. Farrugia for sending me a free copy. I'm a little weirded out by the author's marketing tactic of requesting to be added as a friend, accepting the friend request, getting the free book offer, then being unfriended. Seems like a lot of work. I guess this doesn't really have anything to do with whether or not you would want to read the book. I just hadn't encountered this path to new reading material before.
Set almost entirely inside the Blight-ruined city of Seattle, the latest Clockwork Century story from Cherie Priest is mesmerizing. I was choking on fumes and gasping for air along with the main characters. A chilling preview of things that might be coming, topped off a terrific tale.
The end of this first installment of a series felt a little too much like someone hit the reset button followed by the pause button. Other than my dissatisfaction with the ending, I enjoyed meeting Devi Morris in all her Paradoxian kick-ass fury.