Pretty good week for reading.
Kat: I entertained myself with several good novellas over the past week. Damnation for Beginners by Alan Campbell made me want to read more of Campbell’s work. I read all of Lucius Shepard’s stories about his famous dragon which have been collected into one volume by Subterranean Press: The Dragon Griaule. These were excellent. Lastly, on audio, I read Taylor Anderson’s novel Destoyermen: Into the Storm which was a solidly entertaining alternate naval history. I’ll be reading the second novel in Anderson’s DESTROYERMEN series.
Kelly: I’ve spent about the last month in one of the worst “reading slumps” of my life, and still don’t know why. I’ve recently gotten myself reading again by cleansing my palate with mystery and historical fiction. Now I’m trying to prod myself back toward fantasy (hey, self, a lot of urban fantasy is also mystery! but with magic!) and picking back up the books I had fallen behind on. I’m currently reading the anthology Welcome to Bordertown edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner and the novel Lies & Omens by Lyn Benedict.
Terry: I’ve been reading N.K. Jemisin‘s The Killing Moon, the first in her DREAMBLOOD series (which I believe is only two books long; I have The Shadowed Sun waiting for my eager eyes next). I also finished reading the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones, which contains truly excellent horror short stories. I’ve also just barely started Graham Joyce‘s Some Kind of Fairy Tale. Lots of new books arrived this week, and I’m planning a summer for the record books in terms of great reading.
Tim: This week I finally made it through Robert N. Charrette‘s A Prince Among Men, which was disappointingly mediocre. I also read Brandon Sanderson‘s Warbreaker (a lot of fun) and finished up with Neil Gaiman‘s Neverwhere. Finally, I’ve begun reading some sort of supernatural thriller called So Cold the River by Michael Koryta. So far it’s nicely crafted and creepy, though it hasn’t passed into legitimately “scary” territory yet.
I love Taylor Anderson’s Series, it’s the sort of good fun, portal/alt. world fantasy I always enjoy. II’ve done the whole series in audio, and Dufris does a good job with it.
I had no idea there was a new Graham Joyce novel coming out. Have to see if it will be available in audio.
Koryta is one of my favorite supernatural authors, and I enjoyed most of his detective series as well, although the last one sort of fell apart for me. If you like So Cold the River, definitely check out The Ridge, and The Cypress House.
Bob, I know you like the Anderson series on audio — that’s why I decided to start it. I’m finishing book 2 now and got book 3 at Audible today.
Found a new to me author through a blog by one of the frequent commenters on this page. Author is Frank Tuttle. His YA All the Paths of Shadows was wonderful. Amusing and well done. I’m currently reading his Markham files. Wisecracking PI in a fantasy setting. Kelly, you ought to try this guy.