Book Recommendations

I just finished reading John Wiswell's The Dragon Has Some Complaints which was an absolute delight. I'm not sure how best to describe it without spoilers, because "injured dragon hooks up with dragonriders in order to get food and possibly revenge at which point hijinks and battles ensue" just doesn't seem to cover it. I highly, highly recommend that you read it and see for yourself.

I'm now starting the second of the Shadows Over Ravenkirk books, which a fun, quirky take on cosmic horror in a small town where absolutely nobody is normal except for possibly Samantha, who is a tarantula. I highly recommend the first book, and the second one looks set to match.

Challenge: Books I Discovered On Social Media

This is part of the weekly Wednesday Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. This week's topic is Books I Discovered On Social Media.

Which... I don't even know where to start. There's a bunch.

All right, let's start with the one I'm reading now:

1. The City Stained Red, by Sam Sykes. I wound up following Sam Sykes on Twitter a few years back, I think mainly because of his interactions with Chuck Wendig (whom I'd already read and enjoyed) and Myke Cole (whom I hadn't, yet). So... this book. All right. You know what High Fantasy is? Grand themes, great heroes, inescapable destinies, and the ultimate war between Good and Evil? Yeah. This book... isn't that. This is more... Low Fantasy. Yes, it has a lot of the fantasy tropes, but it's also got a lot of crude humor, heroes who aren't particularly heroic (they've actually arrived on the scene because they're chasing someone who owes them money), and despite all that it has a lot very enjoyable adventure.

2. The Iron Wyrm Affair by Lilith Saintcrow. An intriguing, richly-imagined mix of steampunk and sorcery, which I believe I originally learned about from an article on John Scalzi's blog Whatever. (I wouldn't absolutely swear to that, but I distinctly remember the article and its discussion of how the romance elements within the book play out, and it isn't between the two title characters.) Anyway, after I finished that one I read the next in the series, and the one after that, and somewhere in there I basically started working my way through all of Lilith Saintcrow's back catalogue.

3. Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente. Oh my God, y'all, I love this book so much. And I wouldn't have known it existed except that the author was talking about how it grew out of her deep, strong love of Eurovision -- either on Twitter, or somebody linked to the discussion from Twitter. This is a story about some deeply broken, very remarkable people who have to save humanity from extermination through the power of Rock'n'Roll.

4. Rolling in the Deep by Myra Grant. I'm pretty sure I picked this one up because somebody on Twitter said, "It has murder mermaids." I do not regret that choice. It's a bit campy (there's a bit of Found Footage approach to the way it's set up) but it does exactly what it sets out to do, and the end result is a fun little horror book set in the middle of the ocean. With mermaids.

5. Space Unicorn Blues by TJ Berry. This is another one that I can basically chalk up to, "I follow a lot of authors and aspiring authors on Twitter." I'm pretty sure that in this case somebody said, "Unicorns! In! Space!" and I thought, "I'm there for that." A misfit crew, an unlikely mission, a pretty fair amount of violence and explosions, and some actual personal growth in the characters. It's not going to be to everyone's taste (in fact, that's probably true of anything I like) but I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

There are others, probably a lot of others, but those are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head.

Can't Post Today

Sorry, Exit Strategy comes out today. It's the fourth of the Murderbot Diaries. I will not be posting anything until I'm done reading it.

Christmas Crud

Yep, the Christmas Crud got me again. It started last week, just in time for the training session. And I keep thinking I've mostly shaken it off, but... not quite. So... more rest, more liquids, more stopping when I run out of energy. Ugh.

I've done very little writing, and nothing for the blog (obviously). I finished reading a solidly enjoyable new fantasy novel - Age of Assassins - but instead of starting something else new, I've gone back to Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me. It's fun, it's got cheery dialogue, and everything turns out all right in the end: just what I need right now. (Age of Assassins was a bit darker, but it was fun and adventurous and I'd recommend it too, just for different reasons.)

Meanwhile: my job is full of work, our departmental transitions are still bobbing along like icebergs in a choppy sea, the holidays are rushing towards us like an avalanche, and my workplace is full of Christmas music. Also, it's still warm enough that I don't need a jacket. All in all? Pretty much what I expect from early December in Texas. Yes, including the plague.

How're the rest of you holding up? Any humorous NaNoWriMo stories you want to share?

No, that kids book isn't creepy at all

So, I was at my father's house and he was unloading a bunch of books from back in my childhood. In the course of sorting through to see which, if any, the boys might like, I found this:

The Lemming Condition
by Alan Arkin

I have no memory of every reading this book. I mean, I might have read it, but if so I either long since forgot about it, or I blocked it out of my mind completely. So when I found it, I promptly flipped it over to read the back, and... well...

I... I just... I don't even... I mean, the thing about lemmings running off the cliff is a myth, but if I ignore that... who thought this book would be a good idea? I can't imagine.

The Boys, the Sea, and the Little Fishes

So, I've been reading Terry Pratchett's The Sea And The Little Fishes to the boys at bedtime.

Secondborn really enjoys it. He's seven, and he likes being read to sleep. I think it's partly just having the sound of words all around him -- he's an intensely auditory child -- and partly knowing that there's nothing happening without him, that everything important that's happening is happening right there on his bed. But he'll listen to me read and pass out in, I don't know, ten or fifteen minutes. Left on his own, by contrast, he can easily take an hour or more to fall asleep.

Firstborn, of course, gets it in some ways that his younger brother doesn't yet. He's ten, and cultivating his own deadpan, sardonic approach to humor.

So I'm reading along in the story, and I get to this part:

Letice had what Nanny thought of as a deliberate walk. It had been wrong to judge her by the floppy jowls and the overfussy hair and the silly way she waggled her hands as she talked. She was a witch, after all. Scratch any witch and…well, you’d be facing a witch you’d just scratched.

At this point I notice that Secondborn has fallen asleep, so I stop there and close the book.

Firstborn looks over at me from the top bunk. "Scratch any witch, and you'd be facing a witch you'd just scratched," he repeats. Then he adds: "Probably as a chicken. Or a frog."

Yup. This one's coming along nicely.

Book Review: Alice in Underland: The Queen of Stilled Hearts

First things first: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. That sort of thing always worries me a little -- I mean, what if I didn't like it? -- but in the case of Alice's Adventures in Underland: The Queen of Stilled Hearts, I'm happy to say that no such problem exists. The book is utterly charming (provided, of course, that you're the sort of person who enjoys phantasmagorical settings, humorous and/or macabre nonsense, and zombies).

I was expecting something on the order of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- that is, the original text of Alice in Wonderland but with zombies added in. That would have been enjoyable by itself, I think, and there are definitely zombies in there. (In this case, it isn't so much that there are zombies "added in" as it is that all the mad inhabitants of Wonderland are now zombies. Still mad, though.) However, the author doesn't stop there. Alice's Adventures in Underland isn't just Alice in Wonderland retold, with zombies; it's also a story about Alice Liddell, the young girl for/about whom the story was written, and something of her experience growing up in an alternate-history England where the zombie plague is wide-spread, but held in check by a special serum that allows the infected to look, act, and think like everyone else.

On that level, it's a fascinating look at the society of this not-quite-historical England, using the not-quite-Alice-in-Wonderland story as a sort of lens or mirror to explore elements of social expectation, hypocrisy, slavery... and, of course, zombies. And, by providing this not-quite-historical context, the author makes the story much more accessible than (I suspect) most casual modern readers find the original Alice in Wonderland. Alice in Underland isn't just charming, sometimes macabre nonsense; it's charming and sometimes macabre nonsense with meaning.

If that sounds like your cup of tea, you can purchase the book here. Just don't forget to take your serum.

The Darkened Heart Returns

Good news!

As of midnight last night, the Intern is once again updating his(?) blog over at The Darkened Heart. Why is this good news? Well, for one thing, it means he hasn't simply disappeared. Which, given the way things were going when he last updated, was beginning to look like a distinct possibility. For another, it means that those of us who have been reading along with his investigations may once again get a special look at some of the more obscure items and collections within the Smithsonian Institution's archives, courtesy of their agreement with the Infusco Animi Foundation. And, just possibly, we may finally discover what really happened during that "outbreak" a century ago.

I'd suggest that everyone start from the beginning - even for those of us who were following along back in 2010, it's been long enough to merit a bit of a refresher.

Image is property of Infusco Animi Foundation.

Someone start this magazine, please!

So I'm skimming down through a list of magazines for a website. And as I'm going down the list, I encounter:

• India Today
• Mother Jones

...And because I was skimming, my brain conflated the two entries into "Indiana Jones Today."

Now I'm all disappointed. I would totally have read that magazine if it really existed. Just think: it could have articles on archaeology, anthropology, cryptozoology, weird science and historical conspiracy theories, travel, and how to use your bullwhip! Who wouldn't read a magazine like that?

The Zombie Hunters

Apparently it's Zombie Week here at Mock Ramblings.



My copy of The Zombie Hunters, Book One has come in at last, which means that I now know exactly how I'm spending my evening. If you're not already reading it, The Zombie Hunters is an online comic which takes place after the zombie apocalypse. The survivors live in isolated enclaves called Arcologies, where they try to survive and find some way to turn the tide in a world which has been completely overrun by the living dead. The story follows a small group which makes its living as government-sponsored scavengers. They search for food, drink, and materials in the wastelands outside their arcology - a job which gives them plenty of opportunities to get in trouble. (In fact, I'd broadly categorize them as a group of "heroic troublemakers", which may be why the Arcology prefers to have them spend so much of their time out in the ruins.)

The art is excellent and the story is entertaining, and there's plenty of zombie (and anti-zombie) violence. There's some interesting variety in the zombies, too. As a bonus, the online comic updates very regularly - so you won't sit around wondering when the next page is coming out, or what happened to the author and if they ever plan to continue. And so but anyway, if you're the sort of person who enjoys post-apocalyptic zombie stories, go read it - and if you like it, show 'em some love by buying the book.