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January 2010

Book Log

Book Log #7: ReVamped, by J.F. Lewis

ReVamped, J.F. Lewis’ second book in the Void City series, picks up pretty much right where Book 1 left off: with Eric, his vampire protagonist, getting blown up. Which, you have to admit, is a pretty tough state to come back from–but Eric isn’t just any vampire. He’s an Emperor-class vampire, with enough power and enough followers to pull off even coming back from the dead. Thus, we’ve got the stage set for Book 2.

Eric is understandably less than thrilled at having been made to explode, but that’s only the beginning of the curveballs his resurrected existence throws him. His newly vamped girlfriend, Tabitha, has dumped him in favor of a far more powerful and physically repellent vampire. His almost-a-thrall–who just happens to be Tabitha’s apparently resurrected sister Rachel–is exerting magic upon him for unknown reasons. A local demon wants him to acquire the Stone of Aeternum, conveniently enough from the very same powerful vampire to which Tabitha has given her attentions. And on top of it all, Eric’s discovered he’s suddenly got an undead car.

There are certainly plot twists galore in this installment, and things advance intriguingly not only on the Eric/Tabitha front, but also in explaining what’s going on with Rachel and quite a bit about Eric’s own background. But ReVamped didn’t have quite the same punch for me as Staked did; there were parts that matched that book, but overall it didn’t flow quite as smoothly, perhaps because Eric seemed to spend a lot more time in reaction mode rather than being proactive. Nonetheless, I’m up for Book 3! For this one, three stars.

Book Log

Book Log #6: Unsolicited, by Julie Kaewert

Unsolicited, the first of Julie Kaewart’s Alex Plumtree series, is a book I’ve actually had for some time and which I had the yen to re-read. Specifically, in print form–since the hero, Alex, is the young owner of a publishing company in London, and it therefore seemed wrong to re-purchase this particular volume in ebook form.

You’d think the British publishing business would be a sedate and staid affair, but as this is after all a mystery novel, you’d be wrong! It seems that Plumtree Press has scored big with its first fiction release, a novel written by an anonymous author known only as “Arthur”. Now Arthur is penning his sequel. But! He’s gone missing, and with him, the last five chapters of the novel. As Alex does his best to track down his reclusive writer and secure the missing chapters–or risk his publishing company going under–he soon discovers that there’s a lot more involved with this manuscript than just fiction. Arthur, whoever he may be, has taken actual World War II events pertaining to the kidnapping of British children and worked them into his book. Moreover, he’s about to reveal the perpetrator.

This is Kaewert’s first novel, and it shows a bit; she overuses the “if I had only known such-and-so was about to happen!” device, pretty much as code for “and something suspenseful is going to happen in the next chapter!” Plus, the book’s got issues with being dated even though it’s set in the 90’s, not that long ago. Arthur is described as being fond of communicating exclusively by fax, and in a scene where Alex’s office computer is trashed, he tells the reader in an aside that it’s a good thing that the culprit only broke the monitor instead of the hard drive where the actual data is stored–in what read to me clearly as a passage intended for readers who weren’t likely to be at all familiar with computers.

But all this said, Alex is a charmingly self-deprecating hero, and it’s refreshing to see a hero with severely bad eyesight, enough that he’s pretty much legally blind if he loses his glasses. Moreover, his devotion to Sarah, the banker who works with him on Plumtree Press’s finances and for whom he carries quite the torch, is quite sweet. So all in all, a nice read. Three stars.

Book Log, Photos

Sunrise over Lake Washington

When I was walking down the hill to the bus stop, the sunrise over the lake was stunningly pretty. There was quite the cloud formation going on over the treeline and the lake, and sunlight was pretty much setting the entire thing on fire. Best of all, it was bouncing off the lake as well so there was this great lovely span of pink before me as I was heading to the corner.

My dinky little iPhone camera doesn’t really do it justice, but here it is anyway:

(ETA: Grf, for some reason the photo isn’t coming through on the version of this post mirroring out to LJ and Dreamwidth. Possibly due to a recent WordPress upgrade on my part! Anyway, if you’re looking at this from anywhere but the WordPress blog, try looking here for the picture.

ETA #2: No wait duh. I didn’t see the picture because AdBlock Plus was eating it. Oops!)

I wanted to call this out particularly because the last couple weeks of weather here have been classic Seattle winter: rainy and windy and awful. The last day or two though, it’s cleared up. And it brought us the lovely sunrise, so!

Meanwhile I would also like to note that the tally of books purchased or otherwise acquired has jumped significantly for the month! Continuing the January theme of “Buying Things Written by “, I ordered the two missing books of his Outremer series from Powell’s, and a copy of Dispossession from Mr. Brenchley himself. I was particularly interested in that one, since a) its cover is the source of his userpic, and b) it involves amnesia in the plot, and y’all know what a sucker I am for an amnesia plot. 😉

I do think I’ll have to have me a Chaz Brenchley marathon sometime soon.

Also! I volunteered to do a bit of coding work for Smart Bitch Sarah Wendell, as I posted before. Took me a couple hours this past weekend to get her something approximating what she’ll need; it’ll need a bit of fine-tuning perhaps, but it’s at least in the ballpark. She kindly paid me for my time in the best way possible: a Fictionwise gift certificate! So I have a new pile of ebooks to add to the list of things purchased/acquired thus far this year:

  • Magic Bites, Magic Burns, and Magic Strikes, the Kate Daniels novels by . Urban fantasy. In the case of the first two, re-buys of books I’d previously purchased in paperback form
  • Dead to Me, by . Urban fantasy. Another re-buy in ebook form
  • Unperfect Souls, by . Urban fantasy. Pre-order of the forthcoming next Conner Grey novel
  • Three Days to Dead, by Kelly Meding. Urban fantasy.
  • Deadtown, by Nancy Holzner. Urban fantasy.
  • Sentinels: Wolf Hunt, by Doranna Durgin. Paranormal Romance.
  • Exception to the Rule, by Doranna Durgin. Suspense/Romance.
  • Beyond the Rules, by Doranna Durgin. Suspense/Romance.
  • The Knights of the Cornerstone, by James P. Blaylock. Fantasy. Re-buy in ebook form, since Fictionwise was selling it for only 84 cents!

This brings the Books Acquired tally for 2010 thus far up to 22. Go me!

Book Log

Book Log #5: Salvation in Death, by J.D. Robb

At this stage of the In Death series, twenty-seven books in, one of these is as good as another as far as quality goes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Eve/Roarke books are formulaic, but there’s something to be said for Nora Roberts being able to maintain a readable formula for nearly thirty novels.

This time around Eve’s investigating the murder of a priest who was poisoned right in the middle of conducting a funeral service–a deeply perplexing murder, because who would off a priest? But the matter gets more complex as she soon uncovers that the priest was not who he appeared to be, and that he was in fact apparently in hiding.

On the personal front it’s the turn of stylish ME Morris to start developing a relationship, and it’s amusing to see Eve and Peabody issuing tart commentary on the detective who’s snared his interest. Aside from that, though, no huge developments in the statuses of any of the main characters’ lives take place, so the fun here is pretty much all with the investigation. Still, though, it’s an enjoyable read. Three stars.

Bone Walker

Tonight's words for Bone Walker

Not as many as last night’s, but hey, there are words and that’s a good thing. And I do hope these are acceptable words. Mostly, they feature heading into the confrontation between Kendis, Christopher, and the nogitsune! It all worked out to about a page added to the Chapter 7 file, and I’m slowly closing in on 20K for the book.

Written tonight: 263
Chapter 7 total: 1,504
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,238

Bone Walker

This'll do

More words thrown into Bone Walker tonight, and for once I actually topped the 500 mark. Still in Chapter 7, but now I’ve gotten the nogitsune on camera, and Christopher and Kendis are about to meet another important character to this plot, one of the last few I need to have show up.

Tonight also marks the first time I actually broke out the Street View of Google Maps to give me an idea of what to write, since I’ve got K. and C. bolting towards Lake Washington through a residential stretch of blocks right on the border between Seattle proper and Lake Forest Park. Useful, this, even if the Street View does not of course go all the way to the Burke-Gilman trail.

Written tonight: 521
Chapter 7 total: 1,241
Bone Walker total (first draft): 17,975

Book Log

Book Log #4: Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament, by S.G. Browne

If you love you some zombies, especially in a story with a hefty helping of lulz and satire, you can’t do much better than Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament. I had great fun with this one, the story of a man who has come back to life as a zombie following the car accident that killed both him and his wife. He’s now living a miserable existence in his parents’ basement, barely surviving on the consumption of formaldehyde and his attendance at the meetings of an undead support group. But he’s growing more and more drawn to fellow zombie Rita, and more and more interested in standing up for zombie civil rights. All of which comes to a head when his support group meets Ray, who shares with them his jars of “venison”–after which they find that the death wounds they sustained are healing, that their hearts are beginning to beat again, and that…

Well. You can probably figure out what the “venison” actually is. Muahaha.

General points for not only achieving a story with zombie protagonists, but doing it in such a way as to make you totally want to root for them munching on as many of the nearest brains as possible. Mark Henry has pulled this off equally well in his Amanda Feral books, so it’s fun to see it here, too. Four stars.