Weekend book roundup

Fictionwise apparently can still get my attention if they have a big enough sale. They have a 40% off thing going on since it’s their anniversary now, and this weekend in particular they’ve also got a 5% off thing going on. So I grabbed ebook versions of Hal Duncan’s Vellum and Ink, as well as yuki_onna‘s first Orphan Tales volume. I’ve got the first Duncan as well as the Valente in print already, but they’re big books, and sure to get torn up if I carry them around in my backpack. So I’ll read ’em in ebook form.

Meanwhile, I’ve also purchased the ebook version of the novelization of Russell Crowe’s new Robin Hood movie. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, movie novelization? Bwuh? Here’s the thing: a well-done movie novelization is often better than the movie, and chances are high that a novelization will have been written off an earlier version of the script, so it’ll have stuff in it that never actually showed up in the movie. Skimming this one, I see already that this is the case; certain plot points get fleshed out in the book.

Also, I wanted to buy it because it was written by David B. Coe, who alert persons may remember as the author of Children of Amarid, lately recommended to me by framlingem! Also, I saw him post about it on one of the SF/F blogs I follow–specifically, about the challenges of writing a media tie-in novel and what he could do to put his own stamp upon it. Which was kind of neat.

Last but not least I have grabbed two more things in print: a very strangely titled book called Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles, by Kira Henehan, which I spotted reviewed on another blog I follow. The concept sounded fun, and I couldn’t find it available for the Nook, so I went ahead and got it in print.

And, the other thing was Jar City, by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason. His series was plugged on a mailing list I’m on, and apparently this guy has quite the international following. So since I like to break out of my American-and-Canadian-centric reading habits every so often, I wanted to check him out. This is actually the third novel of his series, but the first one to be translated into English, so hopefully it’ll be neat.

This brings me up to 147 for the year, y’all!

Meanwhile I’m now on a jimhines marathon, having started his Goblin trilogy, finally. Further author marathons will be happening this summer, as I’m aiming to clear out a lot of the folks for whom I have multiple books queued up. rachelcaine, mizkit, mevennen, desperance, matociquala, jpsorrow, Patricia Briggs, Deby Fredericks, and John Scalzi will all be duking it out for my attention!