Let’s talk about books!
Cherie Priest’s The Inexplicables
First up: Cherie Priest, The Inexplicables. Tor, 2012. Copy courtesy of Tor.com.
I enjoyed this one. I think I’ve figured out why I didn’t love Dreadnought and Ganymede half so much as Boneshaker. Priest’s poisoned Seattle, with its yellow gas and its rotters, its decay and peril and strangeness, is a compelling character in its own right.
Here our viewpoint character is Rector Sherman, petty crook, small-time addict, who enters the city because he’s no other place to go. Soon he finds himself in the middle of a struggle for control, and has to pick sides.
There’s also a sasquatch. It’s really pretty good.
Peter Higgins’ Wolfhound Century
Next, briefly: Peter Higgins, Wolfhound Century. Orbit, 2013. ARC courtesy of the publisher.
This? This is fluently-written, numinous, complex, promising debut. But ultimately somewhat disappointing: I expected more climactic resolution, even from the first book in a new series.
Still recommend it, though. Higgins makes very pretty sentences.
Longer, more detailed review hopefully forthcoming elseweb.
Lois McMaster Bujold: Essays on a Modern Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy, ed. Janet Brennan Croft.
Last for today: Janet Brennan Croft, ed., Lois McMaster Bujold: Essays on a Modern Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy. McFarland Press, 2013. e-ARC courtesy of the publisher.
Review forthcoming from Strange Horizons. Short version: there are one or two good papers in here, but my overall feeling is that this is a bloody awful mess of a collection. And most of the papers wouldn’t pass muster for critical engagement with anyone whose opinions I respect.
Yes, I’m cranky.
That’s it at the moment. Now to decide how to prioritise my present reading list, sigh.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea 