Book report

[sholio]

Still laboring to stay spoiler-free for Civil War, and managing to be mostly successful. Thank you for not spoiling me, flist!

I also ran across a lovely rec for the Lauren books by way of a blog pingback today. I'm not sure if this is one of you guys, but if so, thank you! ♥ (Also, let's hear it for free samples, hooray!)

For my part, I've been reading quite a lot lately. It's been the usual mix of good books, forgettable books, and unfinishable books (the latter mostly courtesy of the cheap paperback pile or impulse acquisitions from random library shelves), but I have managed to discover a couple of new-to-me series lately that I'm really enjoying.

frith_in_thorns turned me onto Invisible Library and Masked City by Genevieve Cogman (and, uh, facilitated me being able to read them, since they're not out in the U.S. yet). They're really delightful; I love the characters and the clever worldbuilding. Alternate Earths exist on a continuum from order to chaos, and the more chaotic a world gets, the more it's taken over by narrative/story instead of reality -- so you get an increasing incidence of worlds that are full of narrative tropes and random crazy tech like ray guns or steampunk mecha. There's also magic, dragons, secret royalty, brilliant detectives, sentient trains ... these books are pretty much "let's throw all the Rule of Cool stuff imaginable into a blender, mix well, stir and enjoy". They're great.

And for a total change of pace from that, the other series I've really been enjoying is Richard Stevenson's Donald Strachey murder mysteries. I've gone through all the ones the library had, and just discovered there are SIX of them beyond the point where the library ones stop (plus, a couple missing ones along the way). The books span the time period from the early '80s to the present day and follow the life and career of a gay private eye in Albany, NY and his straight-laced politico boyfriend/later spouse. These are a blend of funny, adorable, and bleak, with a dry narrative voice and a general optimism about human nature (aspects of it, anyway) that helps keep the darker elements from being overwhelmingly depressing.

I know that movie adaptations of some of the books exist, but I'm not watching those yet because the actors are so far off my inner-eye view of the characters (they're a good 15-20 years too young, for one thing). The more I fall for the characters, though, the less I care because I just want MOAR DON AND TIMMY, so I'm sure I'll be watching those at some point.

Comments

[muccamukk]

Is it just me, or are Vale and Captain Singh totally doing it?

I'm REALLY looking forward to the next one. I get them on audiobook as they come out at the same time in the US as the UK, for some reason.

[sholio]

I do get that impression, yes! Also Irene and the cat burglar whose name I can't remember, in the past (or not; one thing I find really interesting and fun about those books is the total deadpan matter-of-factness regarding a) sexuality, and b) sex, generally -- maybe they were and maybe they weren't, but it doesn't seem to change things very much either way).

That's weird about the audiobooks, though! They must have a different publishing deal than the print/ebook versions.

[muccamukk]

Irene and Brademant had a fair amount of foeyay going on too. Oh, I hate her! But she's gorgeous! But I hate her!

I was sad no Brademant in #2, but I have high hopes for #3. Especially Vale's plot (I was irritated with the lack of consequences for him, so the summary is pleasing to me).

[frith_in_thorns]

I got the feeling from a few things that at least the first one was being published in an EXTREMELY low-risk way -- mostly in ebook version, not really much promotion -- and I'm not sure the publisher expected them to sell. (Ie when I bought the first one, it was only like £1.50 on Amazon, not on sale or anything, which is actually why I got it because I occasionally trawl their rec lists for cheap SFF. Now they're all at more normal-for-the-market prices.) Now that they are in fact selling and being read, things seem to be picking up!

[sholio]

Oh, how interesting! I'm happy to hear they're doing well and picking up readers; yay! :D

[winter_elf]

I keep running into the Donald Strachey murder mysteries being mentioned, and I've been meaning to try them.

[sholio]

They are good! At least, I'm enjoying them. They're probably a lot better if you already have a fondness for books in that general style (old-school murder mystery/crime novels), but I do, and they feel much less dated to me than some books from the same general 80s era.