Author: Tim Scheidler

September rolls in, and it’s time for more reading.

Bill: This week I read the last of J.R.R. Tolkien’sthree “Great Tales”: The Fall of Gondolin, an absolutely gorgeous (thanks to a number of illustrations by Alan Lee) edition edited by his son Christopher, who also traces the story’ evolution and adds critical commentary. I also read The Storm Runnerby J.C. Cervantes, the disappointing second book in the “Rick Riordan Presents” MG series.  In genre media, my son and I both watched and enjoyed the first two episodes of Travelerson Netflix,

We’re reading a lot of fun books this week!

Bill: This week  Glen Cook’sreturn to the Black Company, Port of Shadows, was quite disappointing, though I highly recommend the series. Meanwhile, The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French, had an engaging storyline but was marred for me by problematic language/tone aimed at women.  Outside the genre, David Frye’s book Wallswas an interesting look at, well, walls. Specifically walls meant to keep bad folks out (think Great Wall).

This week, we read a lot of great books!

Bill: This week I read in order of preference (mostly)

• Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver: almost surely going on my best of the year list
• Anna-Lisa Cox’s The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America’s Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality: a vividly compelling history that should be required reading — at least excerpts — in all schools (I’m pushing for just that via teachers I know or have worked with).

Brad: This week I’ve read crime fiction, comics, and some crime fiction comics. I’ve reread The Criminal: Coward by Ed Brubaker and Batman: Year One by Frank Miller. In crime fiction, I’ve reread See Them Die by Ed McBain. In terms of comics, I’ve been all over the place: I’ve been rereading Love & Rockets comics by Jaime Hernandez and a Kingpin story by Matthew Rosenberg. As usual these days, most of my reading has been rereading. Life is too short to read bad books,

We read a lot of fun books in this last full week of July!

Bill: I’ve been away on a long family road trip and then a family reunion, so I’ve missed some weeks. Mostly I was hiking, but I did get some fit some reading in between, including all six (so far) of Max Gladstone’s CRAFT series, which I liked quite a bit obviously; Every Hidden Thing, a rare disappointment from Kenneth Oppel, and Equations of Life,

Jana: This week I was ridiculously busy, but I did manage to read Emily Skrutskie’s Hullmetal Girls, a YA milSF novel chock-full of strong female characters, and I started reading RJ Barker‘s Blood of Assassins, the first sequel to Age of Assassins (and since the trilogy will be concluding soon, with King of Assassins, I’m trying to get myself caught up). Hopefully I’ll have some time next week to get some outstanding reviews finished up,

And some more great reads this week!

Kat: Because they were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series, in the past few weeks I’ve been reading all of Seanan McGuire‘s INCRYPTID novels. I also read the latest of Elliott James‘ PAX ARCANA novel, Legend Has It, Mercedes Lackey‘s Arrow’s Fall (just released in audio) and the first two novels of Tanya Huff‘s KEEPER CHRONICLES, 

Happy Canada Day!

Sandy: Moi? I have just finished reading my first Doc Savage novel since I was in high school, 1933’s Quest of the Spider, and hope to get a review out for you very soon. Next up for me will be a book of stories featuring another pulp character who is not nearly as well remembered as Doc Savage; namely, the Surgeon of Souls, who appeared in seven stories throughout the 1930s in the pulp magazine Spicy Mysteries. The collection is appropriately titled The Surgeon of Souls and Other Tales of Terror,

Another week, more books!

Jana: Last week I mentioned that I was starting Claire Legrand’s Furyborn and Ausma Zehanat Khan’s The Bloodprint, and this week I made the tough decision to DNF both of them. Furyborn because it was a pale imitation of far too many other YA fantasy novels out there, and The Bloodprint because I couldn’t connect with the characters. It’s possible that I might like The Bloodprint more if I tried it again sometime in the future,

As ever, we’re reading plenty of new books, and preparing our reviews!

Bill: This week was mostly reading a lot of hiking books. But I did manage the flawed but often brilliant An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon and the flawed but often gorgeously written Time Was by Ian McDonald. Media-wise, I continue to be pleasantly surprised and impressed with the narrative risks Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger is taking,