Sunday Status Update: January 13, 2019

We’re reading lots of cool new books this week! Take a look!

Bill: This week I read Winter of the Witch, the excellent concluding volume of Katherine Arden’s quite good WINTERNIGHT TRILOGY and Robert Jackson Bennett’s sharply satirical Vigilance, which I had some issues with, as apparently did Marion. Stay tuned as we’ll hash those out in an upcoming dual review. I don’t’ usually highlight my children’s book reading here, but I’m making an exception for When the Whales Walked and other incredible evolutionary journeys, by Dougal Dixon and illustrated by Hannah Bailey, which is a fantastic piece of non-fiction wonderfully illustrated and highly recommended for children of just about any age as a read-aloud or read-on-their-own. In media my son and I continue to slowly work our way through The X-Files(near the end of season two when it’s still hit and miss)

Jana: This week I … have no idea how it’s been another week already since the last Status Update came around. I started a few books — S.A. Chakraborty‘s The City of Brass, N.K. Jemisin‘s first collection of short stories, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?, and Sarah Tarkoff‘s Fearless. I made some progress on reviews. I played a little bit of Fallout 4, and am simultaneously amused-and-perplexed by the Atomic Age music available via in-game radio stations. Apparently being “radioactive as a TV tower” was a compliment! Wild stuff.

Marion: I’m finishing up Long Black Curl, a novel of the Tufa by Alex Bledsoe. Although I’ve missed several since The Hum and the Shiver, I am moderately successful at figuring out what’s going on. Bo-Kate is a compelling adversary and the idea of a “true love” that leaves bodies in its wake is well done. Bledsoe has done an excellent job of translating the Faerie Folk to North American folklore, and I love how music is interwoven with every aspect of their magic.

Rachael: This week I reread Naomi Novik‘s Uprooted after seeing it in the library, and was then inspired to start Spinning Silver. This will be controversial as I know it’s a favourite amongst the FanLit reviewers, but I’m not finding it as engaging as Uprooted, although maybe I’ve hit a bit of a lull…

Sandy: If you’ll look back at the list of books that I posted reviews of here in 2018, you’ll notice that they all have one thing in common: Whether sci-fi, fantasy or horror, they were all written during the period 1900 – 1950… a little reading binge of mine that I am calling Project Pulp. And now, I suppose that I will be keeping the early 20^th century fun going, as I have just started the first of a six-part epic that is deemed an historic classic of Golden Age space opera: E. E. “Doc” Smith’s famed LENSMAN series. The first of these books, which I am in the middle of now, is Triplanetary, and I look forward to reporting back to you on this one shortly….

Skye: My largest recent achievement in reading was finishing The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes. Not because it was a huge book, but because it just was not for me – I may have given up on it if I weren’t reading it with my brothers. I’ve started into An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green, I’m about halfway through The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales (and loving the collection of stories), and recently blew through both The Black Tides of Heaven and The Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang with a small book club. Do other people have reading and/or reviewing New Year’s resolutions? Because I do. I love this place, and I’ve let other things get in the way of being as much a part of FanLit as I want to be. So I’ve got a couple goals for myself, and I’m excited to be here among so many fantastic reviewers. I’m pumped to talk about some books!

Terry: Although I had promised myself that I would not start any new books until I’d finished all of those I’d started, I was unable to resist Seven Blades in Black, the start of a new series by Sam Sykes. So far it’s everything I’d hoped for! And I did get the “currently reading” pile down from 12 to six before I dove in, so I don’t feel too guilty.