free books are awesome

Back from V-CON, and a full post on that will be forthcoming, but before I do that here’s a quick roundup of books recently acquired!

Picked up electronically:

• Lord and Lady Spy, by Shana Galen. Historical romance. Nabbed this because of Smart Bitch Sarah alerting the Bitchery that it was on sale for .99 for the Nook, and I figured what the hell, I’m willing to spend 99 cents on this. It’s a historical romance version of the “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” spy scenario, and it sounds like fun!

Picked up in print, separately from V-CON:

• Ganymede, by Cherie Priest. The next book in her Clockwork Century series, for GREAT ZOMBIE STEAMPUNK JUSTICE. ‘Nuff said!

Picked up in print, at V-CON:

• Matriarch, by Karen Traviss. SF. This is Book 4 in her Wess’Har series, which I happened to grab because I saw it in a free books pile in the con suite. Woo!
• Heroes Die Young, by T.M. Hunter. Bought from the nice ladies at the Champagne Books table, who even told me that if I liked this book, I could email her and say “Hey I got this at V-CON, can I have the ebook?”, and she’d let me have it! How awesome is that? As for what the book’s actually about, it’s a short space-opera type thing, with a hero in the mold of Han Solo. Which, as y’all should know by now, is very, very relevant to my interests!
• The Bloodlight Chronicles: Reconciliation, by Steve Stanton. SF technothriller, bought from the SF Canada table (they appear to be a Canadian analog of SFWA). This is about an alien virus that vastly prolongs life, and a man desperately searching for its source so that he may grant eternal life to his son, who doesn’t have the virus.
• Dance of Knives, by Donna McMahon. Also bought from the SF Canada table, and this one’s an SF novel about a futuristic Vancouver controlled by tongs and gangs. I was intrigued to note that this one was previously published by Tor, and the author has since gotten her rights back (due to low sales numbers) and has self-pubbed it and the sequel.
• Forbidden Cargo, by Rebecca K. Rowe. SF, picked up from the EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing table. This one’s about the creator of a virtual system that allows instant access to all of humanity’s knowledge uncovering a plot to prove the existence of an illegally engineered race.
• And last but definitely not least, Dirk Danger Loves Life, by Chris Rothe. Bought from the nice gentleman at the Atomic Fez Publishing table, because a) I’d heard of this book, b) Atomic Fez is an AWESOME name for a publishing company, and c) the book’s a comedy, and I’m down with the funny right now. I can’t do better than the blurb in telling you what it’s about: “a not-so-typical coming of age story involving scuba gear, terrible poetry, a fish eulogy, a walrus, pop music, terrible puns, marijuana, a fake attorney, homelessness, death, and far, far too much pornography”.

202 for the year!

Oh hey look, posting about something that isn’t Quebec music! It’s my OTHER fandom! Books!

I’ve managed to get hit with a big swath of library checkouts all at the same time, an unexpectedly fun side effect of shunting so many titles on my To Read list over onto the list of things to be checked out from the library first. This does, however, mean I’ve been a bit swamped trying to keep track of them and make sure I can get them read or otherwise dealt with before their due dates! So I’ve decided to chug through my current library books and if I’m engaged enough in the first 100 pages or so, go ahead and commit to buying that title and then jump over to the next one.

Here’s my current list!

• The Dark Wife, by Sarah Diemer. Picked up because it’s a lesbian retelling of the Persephone and Hades story, and as y’all know, I’m a big ol’ sucker for that story. Had previously been aware of this thanks to the Outer Alliance, and was reminded again of it by marzipan_pig.
• Pirate King, by Laurie R. King. The latest in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, which promises to be silly fun.
• “To Read or Not to Read”, by Vincent Hobbes. Freebie short story. Picked this up as it was recommended to me on Goodreads, and also, free things are awesome!
• “Beekeeping for Beginners”, by Laurie R. King. This is a short story of hers, the tale of how Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell met–which was covered from Mary’s POV way back in Book 1, but here, it’s Holmes’ POV. I figured this would be worth 99 cents!
• The Spirit Lens, by Carol Berg. Fantasy, the first of the Collegia Magica series, recommended to me by kisanthe! Initially I checked this out from the library, but got a good way in and decided, yes, I like this very much and want to own it. Will be finishing it up ASAP. High marks for a vaguely French-flavored fantasy setting, as well as very colorful characters and a hapless protagonist who’s a failed mage.
• Heat Rises, by Richard Castle! Bought for reasons which ought to be obvious. Third of the Nikki Heat series!
• Zazen, by Vanessa Veselka. This is another Goodreads recommendation, and another initial library checkout. Of this list, it’s the most unusual thing by far to show up in my reading material for a while and I’m quite enjoying it. It’s hard enough to describe that I can only point you to the Goodreads page for it, and the blurb there. The writing is vivid enough and the characters compelling enough that no matter how it ends, I’ve decided I want to own it. More on this to come.

And that kicks me up to 201 for the year. I’ll be grabbing Cherie Priest’s new release next week–AND a new one called The Hum and the Shiver which looks interesting as well. More on these to come too.

And since I’m going on Internet Furlough next week, here, have a massive book roundup post!

Picked up from Alert Nerd:

• One Con Glory, by Sarah Kuhn. Checked this out from the library, after hearing it raved about on Smart Bitches, and liked it quite a bit. So I bought the PDF version of it. Very quick read, very geek-friendly short romance. Recommended!

Picked up from Carina Press, electronically:

• Lure of the Mummy, by Janis Susan May. This is Carina’s first horror release, and I grabbed it partly on those grounds–just to support Carina’s releasing of non-romance-related genres. But also, the protagonist is described as ‘pudgy, balding, and awkward’, and I felt I wanted to support a story with a non-pretty protagonist on general principle.
• A Line in the Ice, by Jamie Craig. An SF Carina release, likely to be sci-fi-romance based on the description, but I’m okay with that!
• Last Car to Annwn Station, by Michael Merriam. Urban fantasy. The title alone got my interest.
• Quarter Square, by David Bridger. Again, urban fantasy.
• The Devil’s Garden, by Jane Kindred. A fantasy novella, which I grabbed in no small part because the character is genderqueer and spends some time living as both a female and a male, given what’s in the blurb. Stories about non-traditional gender roles FTW!
• Endless Night, by Maureen A. Miller. Romantic suspense.
• Courting Death and Courting Disaster, by Carol Stephenson. Romantic suspense.
• Portrait of Seduction, by Carrie Lofty. Historical romance.
• Alchemy of Desire, by Crista McHugh. Historical/steampunk romance, it looks like.
• Hunting Human, by Amanda E. Alvarez. I’d call this urban fantasy except it doesn’t seem to have an urban setting. There are werewolves!

Picked up from Barnes and Noble:

• The Hour of the Time, by Vincent Hobbes. Short story, available for free. Grabbed it because I like free things!
• First, There Is a River, by Kathy Steffen. Historical fiction, grabbed it when it was the Nook freebie of the week.
• Untouchable, by Scott O’Connor. Another Nook freebie. Looks like it’ll probably be grim. Will hold this one until I’m in the proper mood.
• What Angels Fear and When Gods Die, both by C.S. Harris. The first two of her Sebastian St. Cyr historical mysteries, re-purchased in ebook form.
• Raven’s Shadow and Raven’s Strike, by Patricia Briggs. A fantasy duology of hers. I’d already read the first in print and wasn’t very impressed at the time but want to give it another shot, so I re-bought it in ebook and got the second one as well.
• The Flower to the Painter, by Gary Inbinder. Picked up because Gary’s a fellow Drollerie Press author and because I liked his previous book, Confessions of the Creature, his Frankenstein sequel.
• Southern Gods, by John Hornor Jacobs. Picked up after seeing this in a Big Idea column on John Scalzi’s blog, and because the idea of a Southern Gothic horror story with blues and Lovecraftian monsters is RIGHT UP MY ALLEY, yo. Also, Mr. Jacobs, I totally see what you did there with your mysterious bluesman’s name.

And last but not least, just grabbed from Drollerie since this sounded halfway intriguing:

• Iodine, by C.L. Hilbert. A futuristic/apocalyptic treatment of the Little Red Riding Hood story.

185 for the year.