A Study In Scarlet Women (Thomas): A truly excellent alternate-universe Sherlock Holmes. I have read hundreds of trad-published SH pastiches, and this is one of the best I've read (this fanfic is also a favorite). Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant woman stuck in 19th-century London, who becomes a brilliant consulting detective anyways. 10/10, would read again, sequel already on hold.
Besieged (Hearne): Short stories. Okay, but not great, and a lot less compelling than the Iron Druid books.
Besieged (Hearne): Short stories. Okay, but not great, and a lot less compelling than the Iron Druid books.
All Systems Red (Wells): Novella about a sentient android who develops both a conscience and a love for soap operas. Highly recommended.
Invisible Library series (Cogman): Another installment in the Magical Central Library genre, but quite good and with nice character development.
Pocket Apocalypse (McGuire): Cotton-candy Australian adventure, with love, betrayal, and cryptids. Enjoyable.
Court of Fives series (Elliott): [MILD SPOILERS] I liked the first one quite a lot because it had a strong female character who didn't succumb to Twoooo Wuuuuv. The series ends without making the main character succumb, and has an interestingly anti-colonialist theme. I find the armed-rebellion-by-underclass slightly implausible in terms of relative armaments and so on, but hey, good for them.
Dark State (Stross): Another give-you-nightmares dystopian surveillance state. The plot in this series continues to advance with frustrating slowness, but at least one can tell it's going *somewhere*.
I also, finally, have a copy of PROVENANCE and I'm saving it for a rainy day. (Don't tell me what happens!)
What have you been reading?
Have you read The Power by Naomi Alderman? I can't say it's enjoyable, but it was intriguing and I couldn't put it down.
ReplyDeleteNo! I'll have to look at it... this summer, when I have emotional capacity.
DeleteI just finished the Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. I only truly enjoyed her two most famous ones, perhaps because I have seen videos of her reading them and can hear her voice.
ReplyDeleteI've nearly finished Autobiography of John Stuart Mill, which was recommended by a favorite economics podcast. The man was brilliant, humble, and ahead of his time. Also, people never change. "Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative." He was a contemporary of Jane Austen and has much to say about the upper class obsession with money and manners.
Recently re-read all the Harry Potter books. My new favorite is #5. Despite Harry's teenage angst, the Wesley twins are just too hilarious in their fight against Umbridge.
Harry Potter! I've been reading some HP fanfic lately (not the porn kind though), much of which was better than the original in a lot of ways.
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