Sunday Status Update: May 27, 2018

Some great reads this week!

Bill: In fantasy/sci fi this week, along with some short fiction you’ll see reviewed Monday, I also read Raymond E. Feist’s King of Ashes, a solid if somewhat familiar start to a new series called THE FIREMANE SAGA. Outside the genre, I finished Catherine Nixey’s interesting if too-long condemnation of the Christian “triumph” over the pagans,The Darkening Age; David Sedaris’ newest collection of essays Calypso (a mixed bag but overall I’d recommend it); and a whole bunch of readings about maps as I finished up an essay on the topic. In media, I watched the finale for Marvel: Agents of Shield, which worked as both a season and a series’ close, but I was glad to see it picked up for a new (shorter) season since I think the show’s last two years have been particularly strong. I also just started Killjoys not too long ago and am currently enjoying season two. Finally, my favorite news of the week is that The Expanse, an absolutely great sci-fi show, has been picked up by Amazon after its cancellation by SyFy.  Miller!

 
Jana: This week I didn’t do much that I had planned to do, but still read some good books: Claire North‘s newest, 84K, which was eerie and scary and oh so very British, and Carolyn Turgeon’s The Mermaid Handbook, which was a lot of fun to look through. I keep hoping that I’ll make progress on my TBR pile, and then life keeps getting in the way, which is a little maddening. I have reviews for a few books bubbling away on the back burners, and since it looks like the next few weeks should be relatively clear, I think I’ll be able to get those reviews knocked out and possibly get a jump on some June releases. Plus, I’ve promised to sit down and read Ian McDonald‘s Luna: Wolf Moon and Kate Elliott‘s Buried Heart, as they’ve been nominated for a Locus award (and I really should have reviewed them months ago). So you know where I’ll be over the long weekend!

Marion: Still working under a deadline, and still reading very little else at this point, but I did start Sarah Beth Durst’s Queen of Sorrow. The QUEENS OF RENTHIA series is excellent and I look forward to seeing how all the plot threads converge.

Skye: I started reading Starlings by Jo Walton and Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages, I’m finishing up The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes, and I still have Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey and Perdido Street Station by China Miéville on the back burner. I recently finished reading Jade City by Fonda Lee and The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (which were both extremely good reads). I’m looking forward to getting into some more short fiction this summer, and I’m making some reading goals to reflect that! As a surprise to no one, myself and my partner received many new-to-us books for our wedding – so as usual I have a lot of reading to do!

Terry: This was my week for clearing up the “currently reading” pile, which was getting unmanageable. I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, which is a wonderful book that bears rereading over and over again. I also finished What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton, which is also marvelous; I’ll be paging through it again while I have Amazon up in front of me for new purchases. I finished Off the Grid by P.J. Tracy as well, which was a fun break from nonfiction and SF/F/H. Finally, I read the first volume of Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson from start to finish, and I’m wondering why I didn’t read this a long time ago — it’s excellent.  Fortunately, I have the next two volumes awaiting my attention. I’m now working on finishing The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff, Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, and Nightmare Carnival, edited by Ellen Datlow. That will allow me to concentrate on theMystery.doc by Matthew McIntosh (all 1600+ pages of it), To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams, and Stephen King‘s latest, The Outsider.  Whew!

Tim: This week, I begin listening to The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, and also a quick reread of Edgedancer, by Brandon Sanderson. A review for the latter is forthcoming. Probably for the former as well, sooner or later, but first things first.