Ahira's Hangar

Reading Catherynne M. Valente's Yume Me Hon: Book of Dreams





My interview this week:

I've been putting off starting anything long or possibly intricate, as there seems to be little use in starting books along those lines. I am on the disaster response list for the federal agency I work for and between hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I'm sort of just living for the moment right now, as I could be sent out of town at any time. That said, I am chomping at the bit to try Erikson and Bakker. Perhaps if I am not deployed by the middle of October I can start to relax a bit and do some serious reading.

In the meantime I have been reading a couple of short vampire novels by Mary Janice Davidson that I saw at the warehouse club that looked pretty cute. They are called Undead and Unwed and Undead and Unemployed. They are a bit raunchy in both language (the main character has a potty mouth) and content (some sex scenes, including an orgy between a master vampire and his harem of babes) but they are also very funny!

They are about a girl named Betsy Taylor who works as a secreatry in the Twin Cities. One night she is hit by a car in the snow. She wakes up dead, and isn't too happy about it. She's even less happy when she finds out that other vampires consider her to be their long prophesied queen. All she wants is to be left in peace to go on about her "life" as well as she can. Oh, and shoes. She really really wants designer shoes.

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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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I have started the latest (and stand alone) fantasy novel by Orson Scott Card, Magic Street. It's set in an upper class African American neighborhood in the greater LA area in the present time. So far its sort of weird, but I am also enjoying it a lot. <i></i>

The second Eragon book, Eldest. A friend whose daughter works at Borders gets early stuff, so yay me.

~gloat~

Trust me, it's awesome.

*Avoid roasted cabbage*

ATMF She hurrumphed loudly. "Oh, yes, well, if you want to avoid confrontation, then, let's just forget about my plan, shall we?"<i></i>

Well currently I'm making my way through Sean Wright's The Twisted Root of Jarfindor , and a special treat The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, a book I was anticipating for mid 2006, that foud a way into my hands. Very much looking forward to this.

I recently read A Princess of Roumania, the first book in a new series by Paul park, and it's a damn exceptional fantasy read that I think coudl appeal to a lot of people no matter what sub-genre they prefer, and China Mieville's incredible collection Looking for Jake - both of which I am writing reviews on now.





My interview this week:

Still working on Orson Scott Card's Magic Street, which I have been enjoying. The second book I've read this sumemr which pulls very heavily from Shakespeare!!! (the other being Dan Simmons's Olympos).As an old English lit major, I can only approve.

I have also been reading a really good anthology, called Grails: Quests of the Dawn with short stories from all sorts of leading authors like Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe. It's a great collection.
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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I am nearly done with the Grail anthology. Some great short stories in there -- so far my favorite is the one by Gene Wolfe, which is very different and quite wonderful, But I still have a handful to go, including the one by Gaiman, which I am looking greatly forward to.

I am also reading Diana Gabaldan's Outlander. The only work of hers I have previously read is the Lord John story in Legends 2, which I enjoyed.

I picked up Outlander recently at the bookstore. It was at a special price (very low). I think it was at the price because the latest book in her series that begins with Outlander was very recently released.

Outlander is sort of hard to classify. It has elements of fantasy, history (you can tell Gabaldan researched the heck out of both historic eras she writes about in the story), and romance. I suppose the best way I could describe it is historical fiction with some fantastic elements and a love story?

So far I am finding it to be a good read.

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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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