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books, books, vacation books
Apr. 12th, 2006 12:19 pmI finally finished Kirith Kirin by Jim Grimsley. I had taken this book out of the library many times. I wanted to read it. You know how it is! It won all these awards, and now there's a sequel, and I try to read queer fantasy anyway... but still, this was the first time I managed to even read the prologue. Once I got into it, I really liked it - I think that something about the blurb on the back cover just put me off. Three stars, and I'm really curious to see what he did with the sequel, The Ordinary, which won the Lambda when it came out, too.
Book 38 was Firebirds Rising, edited by Sharyn November. I had loved the first book, Firebirds, and I guess a lot of other people did too - this second volume had a lot more big-name fantasy authors as contributors. The second one was just as good, if not even better. My favorite stories were "Huntress" by Tamora Pierce, "Wintermoon Wish" by Sharon Shinn, "The Wizards of Perfil" by Kelly Link, and "Hives" by Kara Dalkey, and it was really hard to get my choices down to less than five. If you like fantasy and/or young adult fiction, you should definitely read this book. 4.5 stars, as it was not only an excellent read, but some of the stories were also very thought-provoking.
And finally - I read Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson. I really wasn't sure I was going to like this book. I had loved Davidson's story in the anthology Bite, but I almost didn't read her first novel. Why? In "Biting In Plain Sight," we have a brief introduction to Betsy Taylor, the main character of her series, and I thought she was a whiny bitch. Now, let me be terribly clear. This character is a whiny bitch in the novel, too. However, in the novel, she is the viewpoint character, and furthermore, she freely admits that she's a whiny bitch. To me, that makes it all better. This was really fun brain candy. Four stars. If you like the intersection of romance and the occult, a la Kelley Armstrong, Laurell K Hamilton, etc, you'll like this one too. Especially if you like shoes.
Book 38 was Firebirds Rising, edited by Sharyn November. I had loved the first book, Firebirds, and I guess a lot of other people did too - this second volume had a lot more big-name fantasy authors as contributors. The second one was just as good, if not even better. My favorite stories were "Huntress" by Tamora Pierce, "Wintermoon Wish" by Sharon Shinn, "The Wizards of Perfil" by Kelly Link, and "Hives" by Kara Dalkey, and it was really hard to get my choices down to less than five. If you like fantasy and/or young adult fiction, you should definitely read this book. 4.5 stars, as it was not only an excellent read, but some of the stories were also very thought-provoking.
And finally - I read Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson. I really wasn't sure I was going to like this book. I had loved Davidson's story in the anthology Bite, but I almost didn't read her first novel. Why? In "Biting In Plain Sight," we have a brief introduction to Betsy Taylor, the main character of her series, and I thought she was a whiny bitch. Now, let me be terribly clear. This character is a whiny bitch in the novel, too. However, in the novel, she is the viewpoint character, and furthermore, she freely admits that she's a whiny bitch. To me, that makes it all better. This was really fun brain candy. Four stars. If you like the intersection of romance and the occult, a la Kelley Armstrong, Laurell K Hamilton, etc, you'll like this one too. Especially if you like shoes.
