Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
My anniversary was last weekend, guess I’m still feeling mushy…
Category: News/Misc. Page 6 of 194
I’m going to be AFK for the day, so Tony, Owen, or anyone else: if there’s a mistake in this post, please do point it out, but it’ll be here for a while 🙂
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
From No. 1 to No. 60, Readers’ Top Books Published in the Past Five Years—according to Goodreads, anyway
The Tyranny of the Best-Of List: On Navigating Book Lists with OCD
The Doomed Mouse Utopia That Inspired the ‘Rats of NIMH’—as someone who read Robert C. O’Brien’s book an estimated 100 times, I had to read this
Tom Wolfe at the Strand—a “brisk survey of [Wolfe’s] career” recently present at the Strand bookstore.
Lee Child with Michael Connelly – Safe Enough—Connelly and Child talk about his new short story collection
Five SFF Strategies for Plotting Around Pesky Parents: Are you the responsible, caring parent of a juvenile adventurer? You may want to upgrade your insurance…
Historical Fantasy – Where does the history end and the fantasy begin?—Shauna Lawless opines
How to Avoid Book Blogger Burnout
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Not a lot actually (October 2014 was a pretty quiet month for some reason), but I did note the release of: Incarnate by Anton Strout and Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution by Keith DeCandido.
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Candle & Crow by Kevin Hearne—The last Ink & Sigil novel, the last novel in the Iron Druid universe, and one of Hearne’s best yet. I raved about it recently
This turned into a read or blog kind of day, given a bunch of looming Library due dates, I’m opting for the former. But I’ll still try to get this done on time. Allyson—yes, I do still read all the comments, and “respond to comments” is always the next thing on my list. I just need to get better at checking the box ahead of it.
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:
What are you currently reading?
 |
 |
| Blind to Midnight by Reed Farrel Coleman |
Starter Villain by John Scalzi, read by Wil Wheaton |
Blind to Midnight starts off strong (even after this afternoon’s post), and…well, that’s all I know. But I’m looking forward to seeing more.
I’m enjoying Starter Villain just as much the second time as I did the first, I can just sit back and enjoy the lunacy without wondering what’s coming next. Wheaton’s doing a bang-up job. (I should’ve finished this today, but I didn’t get a chance to open the app–just one of those days. Been a long time since I couldn’t listen at work)
What did you recently finish reading?
 |
 |
| Black Maria by Christine Boyer |
Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune by Keith Thomson, ready by Feodor Chin |
Black Maria ended up satisfying most of the expectations I expressed yesterday and surpassed them. The things I wrongly predicted, I’m very glad I did. Boyer’s version (as you’d expect) was better than mine was. Solid story, well told.
Brief thoughts on Born to Be Hanged: amusingly written, interesting story, and I could barely pay attention. I’m not sure if that’s me, the narrator, or the text. I’d believe any of those, or a combination.
What do you think you’ll read next?
 |
 |
| The More the Terrier by David Rosenfelt |
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, read by Hanako Footman, Susan Momoko Hingley, Kenichiro Thomson, Winson Ting, and Shiro Kawai |
I’m going to need the lightness of the next David Rosenfelt holiday novel, based on the opening paragraphs (alone) of Blind to Midnight.
A friend recommended What You Are Looking for Is in the Library, saying it’s similar to No Two Persons. That’s good enough for me.
Do you try to go for something seasonal—either harvest season/fall-like or spooky this time of year? Or do you just read whatever’s next?
Head & Shoulders used to tell us that, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” That’s true for wearing dark shirts, and it’s especially true for books. Sometimes the characters will hook the reader, sometimes the premise, sometimes it’s just knowing the author—but nothing beats a great opening for getting a reader to commit.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, 11:43 P.M.
He is the last man alive. Or at least, things would be less complicated if he were.He is standing on the platform at the Smith and Ninth Street subway station. The tallest station in Brooklyn looms over the Gowanus Canal. The canal, so polluted with toxins and heavy metals that you don’t have to be Jesus to walk on its waters. A writer once joked it was the only body of water that was 90 percent guns. Nobody is joking tonight. Nobody! Not about anything.
The lone man is waiting for the G train. He smells the acrid windblown smoke continuing to rise from where the World Trade Center stood. His blue Mets cap is squashed low on his forehead, his eyes fixed on the pebbled concrete under his running shoes. He hopes that by not looking up he might be invisible. It makes no rational sense. Today the world stopped making sense. Still, he can’t help but peek at the place where the towers once stood. He quickly looks away. The pile smolders. Ash, shreds of paper, and carcinogenic dust still rise into the air, carried by the prevailing winds. A downy coating of gray snowflakes falls around him.
from Blind to Midnight by Reed Farrel Coleman
Sure, picking up a Coleman novel, you know you’re not in for a romp. But starting off with that date, you know things are going to be grim–and the next three paragraphs emphasize that.
As the title implies, I’m in the middle of this book, so this is not a review, just some thoughts mid-way through. The book releases today, and I didn’t want to wait to say something.
Book Blurb:
Business magnate Thomas Farney and Detective Felix Kosmatka both want the same thing: to catch the monster who brutally murdered Farney’s young grandson.
Thomas, brutal and savvy, didn’t become wealthy by playing by the rules or kowtowing to authority. Felix, smart but green, still believes in the integrity of law and order…and he believes solving this case may be his ticket out of his dying hometown.
Felix must team up with seasoned detective Adam Shaffer to hunt the killer. Their investigation leads them into the past-when Thomas and his coal company owned the town, and when the riches beneath the surface belonged to anyone ruthless enough to claim them. Thomas made a multitude of enemies in those lawless days, and perhaps a few followed him into the present to exact their revenge.
Set in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt in the 1970’s, Felix’s faith in his institutions is shaken when the killer reveals a difficult truth: the rich and powerful rarely pay for their own sins, and vengeance can sometimes look uncomfortably like justice.
This starts on some very familiar territory—a young, ambitious, and talented detective on a small town police force catches a murder that between its method, victim, or victim’s family is going to make it a major story. In this case, it’s all three—this powerful magnate’s young grandchild is killed in a pretty chilling way. It’s such a big deal that outside help is brought in—the two investigators have different goals, different methods, and probably different ideas about where the case should go. They form an alliance (however uneasy it may be), it’ll be tried by circumstances and their own backgrounds—their secrets may be uncovered along the way, but they’ll get their killer. We’ve seen this before—in print, TV, and film. We will see it again in all three because it works.
And it works well here—I really want to see the way that Felix and Shaffer’s relationship develops along the way—Felix is one of those detectives you can’t help but root for. I really like this guy. But Boyer isn’t just going to give us this story of the partnership, because she threw me for a loop, just when I thought I knew where this book was going.
We got a chapter from the killer’s point of view. And not in one of those aggravating chapters where they’re called “He” or “She” (with the capitals so you know who the author is talking about) and all the teasing about which character of the right gender that adjective is talking about. Nope. Boyer just names Them* (which is one of the ways that this isn’t one of those aggravating chapters). So this novel is suddenly not a whodunit, but a whydunit. We get the killer’s backstory, we get to see how They went about starting to plan the killing, and how they try to outsmart the detectives.
I don’t know exactly where Boyer is going, but..oh, I’m this close to sacrificing sleep to finding out. (I also think if I read much further, it’ll be easier to stay awake than to have some of these visuals take up residence in my subconscious.
Jo Perry’s blurb says (in part), “the place where everything in Black Maria really happens is the deep, vast, coal-dark chambered maze that is the human heart.” Having read just under 50% of this leads me to say that she’s (no surprise) dead right. You should go look for it.
* Okay, I can see how this is fun to do
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
Nothing against the studio version of this song, but…c’mon:
I was certain that I’d get this posted in the first week of the month, and here we are on the last day of the month. Organization has not been my friend in September.
Mortal Coil by Derek Landy
“They say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit,” Valkyrie said.
China glanced at her. “They’ve obviously never met me.”
“Stairs,” Valkyrie said, disappointed.
“Not just ordinary stairs,” Skulduggery told her as he led the way down. “Magic stairs.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yes.”
She followed him into the darkness. “How are they magic?”
“They just are.”
“In what way?”
“In a magicky way.”
She glared at the back of his head. “They aren’t magic at all, are they?”
“Not really.”
“So he has no head.”
“Thats usually what headless means.”
“No head at all?”
“You’re really not getting the whole headless thing are you?”
“What about you?” he asked, his words not much more than a mumble. “Regrets?”
“Many,” Skulduggery said.
Tesseract’s breath rattled in his chest. “That’s the good thing about living. You get to make up for past mistakes.”
“Or make brand-new ones.”
“Zombies were an accident–much like champagne and penicillin, but much less welcome.”
“What a burden it must have been. You’re very brave for facing it alone.”
“Thank you,” she mumbled.
“Amazingly, astonishingly stupid, but brave.”
She cracked a smile. “Yeah.”
“Very foolish, is what I’m getting at.”
“I can see that.”
“This, basically. Just thick. Dumb as a bag of hammers. Not too bright there, Valkyrie.”
“You can really stop complimenting me now.”
“It might be a trap,” she said, speaking softly.
“Unlikely,” he whispered, traps are usually enticing.
“It might be a very rubbish trap.”
“Always a possibility.”
“I am neither a grinch nor a grouch. I like Christmas as much as the next person. So long as the next person is as unsentimental as I am.”
“I don’t want to threaten you in your own home,” Skulduggery said, “so if you’d like to step outside, I can threaten you there.”
Blood Reunion by JCM Berne
“I’m—I have no idea how to respond to that. I’m sure I’ll think of something in the shower, three days from now.”
“I will wait for that eagerly.”
Ben reached over and patted the younger man’s knee. “You’re usually the one putting your life at risk for the sake of others, aren’t you? Not used to the turnaround.”
“It’s not the same, though. I don’t usually face certain-death to help other people. At most, it’s certain-pain. Maybe even certain-discomfort.”
“A certainly-torn-shirt.”
“Can you explain to me why it’s so difficult?”
“I doubt it.”
“Can you try? Use words you might use to explain to a monkey? A well-intentioned but slightly brain-damaged monkey that is hanging around your lab, asking annoying questions?”
“So… space penicillin?”
“You do realize that just putting the word ‘space’ in front of another word doesn’t magically create a new, fancier version of the thing you’re thinking of, don’t you?”
“I don’t know. I thought it did. Space ship. Space prostitute.”
“Wei Li, you sound more skeptical than usual. And your skepticism is usually sharp enough to cut through atoms or the fabric of spacetime.”
Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
I was sitting there, sipping ale and thinking dark thoughts when the door opened again. I didn’t look up, occupied as I was with brooding, a famous pasttime of wizards everywhere.
Okay, Harry, I told myself. Keep calm. Do not panic. All you have to do is to hold them here until the cops get here, and then you can bleed to death in peace. Or get to a doctor. Whichever hurts less.
There’s more magic in a baby’s first giggle than in any firestorm a wizard can conjure up, and don’t let anyone tell you any different.
Alone. It’s one of those small words that means entirely too much. Like fear. Or trust.
Bard Tidings by Paul Regnie
Stumpy Jake manned the bar, eternally filling and cleaning glasses of ale and mead. Contrary to rumors, Jake did not have a wooden leg. But for some reason he enjoyed the nickname and did nothing to dispel the myth. In fact, he attached a wooden block to his heel so he’d make a clomping sound when he walked across the floor. He thought it added character to his establishment.
Panacea by Alex Robins
War is not a game. It is a penance. A price to pay for failure. The last possible solution when there are no other options. Do not wish for it. Do not strive for it. Victory is ephemeral. Death is eternal.”
Most people believed that war was the worst of humanity’s sins, for it could never create, only destroy. But Elena knew that wasn’t quite true. War excelled in creating many things: poverty and famine. Sickness and disease. Orphans and widows.
“…as luck would have it, hair-brained plans are my forte.”
Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
Murder investigations start with the victim because usually in the first instance that’s all you’ve got. The study of the victim 1s called victimology because everything sounds better with an ology tacked on the end. To make sure that you make a proper fist of this, the police have developed the world’s most useless mnemonic: 5 x WH & H. Otherwise known as Who? What? Where? When? Why? & How? Next time you watch a real murder investigation on the TV and you see a group of serious-looking detectives standing around talking, remember that what they’re actually dome is trying to work out what sodding order the mnemonic is supposed to go in. Once they’ve sorted that out, the exhausted officers will retire to the nearest watering hole for a drink and a bit of a breather.
Every male in the world thinks he’s an excellent driver. Every copper who’s ever had to pick an eyeball out of a puddle knows that most of them are kidding themselves.
Just about every council estate I know has a set of communal rooms. There’s something about stacking people up in egg boxes that makes architects and town planners believe that having a set of communal rooms will compensate for not having a garden or, in some designs, enough room to swing a cat. Perhaps they fondly imagine that the denizens of the estate will spontaneously gather for colorful proletarian festivals and cat-swinging contests.
For a terrifying moment I thought he was going to hug me, but fortunately we both remembered we were English just time. Still, it was a close call.
Ways and Truths and Lives by Matt Edwards
“That’s an interesting way to look at it, I guess.”
“Well, that’s the secret, James.”
“What?”
“Looking at things,” Cynthia said with her eyes momentarily fixed on James. “Looking at things differently. Looking at things under a different light Looking at things from the light.” Her eyes bounced around the room at various objects.
“But what’s it the secret to?”
Cynthia paused to take a sip of coffee before answering. “Everything.”
Zero Stars Do Not Recommend by M.J. Wassmer
He had a softness about him, like a favorite armchair come to life.
His eyes protruded from their sockets like someone was squeezing the sides of his head, and goodness, his breath was less than fresh. That was one thing they didn’t touh on in post-apocalyptic movies. Human beings turn rank in a matter of days. We don’t keep well.
They sound like wasps. That was the best way Dan could think of to describe the bullets, like wasps shooting past his ear. Pissed off wasps. Wasps on a mission to finish some wasp-related business.
Mara gasped again. She was a great gasper. If Fitzgerald wrote a book about her, it’d be titled, The Great Gaspy, because there was something very haunting about a Mara gasp, something bone-chilling.
Never underestimate the fragility of a man’s ego, especially one wearing camouflage pants.
The car ride immediately following an argument is always awkward. And it turns out that’s especially true if the argument is concluded by someone being pummeled over the head with a snow globe.
(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay)
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Kevin Hearne: A Niche that Needed Filling—Hearne talks about launching his own imprint
When Did SFF Get Too Big?—Good question. (fun intro, especially if you look at the foonotes)
Morning Brew gives a fun reaction to the NaNoWriMo AI kerfuffle
In Praise of Things Being Just Plain Good—Yes. Just yes.
Philosophical Picture Books- Stories for Younger Readers with Hidden Depths!—Oraguntan Librarian has given Grandpappy’s Corner a shopping list
Beowulf and Science Fiction: Shannon Knight Talks About Her Book and the Old English Poetic Tradition—a nice little guest post on Witty and Sarcastic Book Club
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Thriller Zone Episode 198 Lee Goldberg and the Power of Humor in the Thriller Genre—I can see where Goldberg is coming from, but I think his self-publication rant is wrong. The rest of this episode? Golden. It could’ve gone on for another 2 hours and I’d have enjoyed it all.
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week? (this was a good week)
Premonitions by Jamie Schultz—a criminally underselling Urban Fantasy Crime Novel that I’d recommend to anyone
The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey—that rare Zombie Novel that I loved (and re-read)
Indigo Slam by Robert Crais
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
A Sky Full of Dragons by Tiffany McDaniel, Ayesha L. Rubio (Illustrator)—I talked about this a couple of weeks ago when I first read about it. I’m still weirded out about by the idea of McDaniel writing this, “ight-hearted and whimsical middle grade fantasy about a young girl who must save her witch aunt from an uncommonly voracious hat.” But I can’t wait to read it.
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C. M. Waggoner—”Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle keeps finding bodies–and solving murders. But she’s concerned by just how many killers she’s had to track down in her quaint village. None of her neighbors seem surprised by the rising body count…but Sherry is becoming convinced that whatever has been causing these deaths is unnatural.” This description had me at this paragraph.
Monster Movie! by Chuck Wendig—”Ethan Pitowski is afraid of everything. Luckily, his best friends don’t mind, and when their entire class gets invited to watch a long-buried horror movie at the most popular boy in school’s house, Ethan’s friends encourage him to join in the fun. But when the “scariest movie ever made” reveals itself to be not just a movie about a monster, but a movie that is a monster, only a terrified Ethan escapes its clutches. Now he must find a way to stop the monster and save his friends (and also, um, get their heads back).”
The Most Boring Book Ever by Brandon Sanderson, Kazu Kibuishi (Illustrator)—”In this humorous epic adventure, a boy is, on the one hand, having a very ordinary day. He does his math homework, his chores, and takes a nap….all while a surprising adventure unfolds around him involving pirates, dragons, and other unexpected perils.” A Sanderson picture book? Hmm.
I love it when I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with things and someone stops by without prompting to say “hey, you want a Guest Post?” The answer, by the way, is almost always yes. That’s exactly what happened last week when Shannon Knight asked if I was interested in this. It helps when the person is someone like Shannon so I know the post will be a good one.
Death Mythology IN SPACE!
Insiders is a big space opera adventure with plants, but I couldn’t resist pulling death mythology into it. I’ve got excuses! I’d completed all this research for Grave Cold, which I wrote prior to Insiders, including developing some completely unrelated story lines and then discarding them. I’d especially dug deep into the oracles, or sybils, of Greece, so I had this story thread I wanted to build on. Meanwhile, my agent was pitching Wish Givers to editors, and the editors kept asking for more, particularly more religion and more politics. Repeatedly, I rewrote Wish Givers to align with different editors’ visions (adding another POV character, redoing everything as YA, etc.). As I started Insiders, I was full of confidence. I had two books in my agent’s hands, so I could try some new things, and if editors wanted more, more, more, I could write that!
Insiders begins on Kerberos Station, where a highly contagious, world-killing virus is actively spreading. (Another note, I wrote this prior to SARS-CoV-2. I considered not publishing Insiders at all simply because the plot contained a virus, even though the symptoms do not align with COVID-19.) Kerberos is the Greek three-headed dog who guards the Underworld, keeping the dead inside and the living out. I liked the idea of referencing Kerberos for many reasons. On one level, Insiders deals thematically with the notion of being inside, and on Kerberos Station, we start with an insular group of pipe crawlers, who live within the pipes of the station. Leaving these pipes is difficult on many levels for young Sachi, and linking her life-and-death choice with evading Hades’ Underworld guardian appealed to me.
Imperatrix Persephone, an antagonist in the story, leads the intergalactic, powerful Elysium Empire. I chose Greek Persephone, in part, due to an entire back story that I may yet write into a novel related to the ancient Greek oracles. More simply and directly, Persephone is a death goddess who I thought most readers would recognize. The Elysium Empire links with the Eleusinian Mysteries, secret rites connected with the cult of Persephone and her mother, Demeter. The mysteries are fascinating in part because of the strict secrecy held regarding what they involved. To this day, we do not know what the mysteries shared. Nevertheless, scholars believe that the mysteries revealed what happens after death. I realize references to the Eleusinian Mysteries would likely only be noticed by readers with an interest in history, myth, or both. Personally, I quite enjoy making connections between the distant past and the far future. Again, Insiders is a space opera with, for example, a carefully crafted scene allowing for the realistic fiery explosion of a spaceship in space. (Yes! Fire in the void!) Readers do not need to understand and sift through various mythological references to enjoy the story. Pew, pew, pew!
In Insiders, Imperatrix Persephone enjoys special powers due to the Eleusinian Mysteries, which involve a certain “beetle” entering her body and living symbiotically with her. The imperatrix conducts others into the mysteries by bestowing beetles upon them. These beetles crawl in through the nasal cavity. Then their hosts’ human bodies become capable of surviving extreme environments that cause death in other creatures. In other words, the Mysteries and the beetles offer a sort of immortality to those who obtain them. I thought it was fun to suggest an alien connection between the Eleusinian Mysteries of the ancient past that would allow them to continue into the far distant future.
On account of humans inducted into the Eleusinian Mysteries being able to survive deadly environments, the Elysium Empire presides over a series of death worlds. I casually termed them as death worlds due to their environments being antithetical to life. Each world is named after an Underworld from Earth culture with a designated ruler entitled with the name of the coordinating death god. Therefore, we meet Sammael ruling over the planet Sheol and Izanami reigning in Yomi. Izanami’s ship is the Jeweled Spear, in reference to the Japanese creation myth in which Izanami uses the spear to create land. In Insiders, the Elysium Empire is full of mythological I-spy moments for readers who enjoy myth. Links connecting the past with the future ground stories in a world we recognize. These connections also help reveal how our cultural understanding of the world partially shapes how we see the universe and beyond.
At its heart, Insiders is a book about coming together. Humanity faces obstacles of all kinds. Many are of our own creation. Some we could have never predicted. As individuals, it’s easy to focus on our very personal difficulties. The human mind isn’t capable of stepping back and encompassing all the injuries or injustices of the entire planet. However, we don’t need to do that. We do, however, need to step away from an us-and-them dichotomy that divides everyone into insiders and outsiders. With grit and creativity, we can acknowledge that we’re all in this together and aim our hearts and minds towards solutions.
Find a copy of Insiders.
Shannon Knight is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror author living in the Pacific Northwest. Mythology ties into most of her stories. Sign up for her newsletter at https://www.shannonknight.net/. Her page about Insiders is here.
That good-lookin’ cover image is the work of Isabeau Backhaus, incidentally. Go check out her portfolio, you’ll be glad you did.
No intro today…I really don’t have much to say. Let’s just get on with it.
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:
What are you currently reading?
 |
 |
 |
| The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson |
On Classical Trinitarianism: Retrieving the Nicene Doctrine of the Triune God edited by Matthew Barrett |
An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka, read by Will Watt |
I’ve barely scratched the surface of The Space Between Worlds but I can tell that this is one that’s going to mess with my head, but the writing is so nice that I don’t care. I’m reading this for a SF Book Club that meets next week. I’ve never tried a book club before, I’m looking forward to doing that (he says days in advance, we’ll see if my introversion will let me leave the house).
I’m still plugging away at On Classical Trinitarianism, it’s rewarding…but I spend a lot of time feeling that I’m not quite smart enough to read it. But I’m getting enough out of it to put up with feeling like I’m wearing a dunce cap.
I’m not far in An Inheritance of Magic, but I’m digging Watt’s narration and am enjoying revisiting this world before An Instruction in Shadow releases next month.
What did you recently finish reading?
 |
 |
| The Debt Collector by Steven Max Russo |
Sleepless City by Reed Farrel Coleman, read by Peter Giles |
Russo’s latest novel is one of those where you end up reading a lot further in each session than 1. you intended to and 2. you realize until you stop. I don’t know if it’s the story, the character, or his prose—but something just moved so smoothly about this. I’ll try to say more soon—and I should have a Q&A with Russo about it, too.
I’d like to say I adjusted to Giles’ narration, but his raspy narration and a couple of interesting (to try to be charitable) pronunciation choices never really settled with me. I did like some of the supporting character voices and accents he used, I have to say. Coleman’s story was just as gripping as I remembered.
What do you think you’ll read next?
|
|
| Black Maria by Christine Boyer |
Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune by Keith Thomson, ready by Feodor Chin |
I have no idea what Black Maria is about—a few weeks ago, Vern Smith from Run Amok Crime sent me a copy of the ARC. He’s yet to lead me astray, so I’m going for it.
I remember reading the back cover/jacket flap for Born to Be Hanged a year or so ago, and thinking it looked pretty fun (and maybe educational). Who doesn’t like a good pirate story, right? When I saw it browsing the library’s audiobooks, I had to jump.
What’s the end of September hold for you?