Fiction log - May 2015

Fiction books
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener. Atomic Robo: The Savage Sword of Dr Dinosaur
T Kingfisher. Nine Goblins (e)
T Kingfisher. The Seventh Bride (e)
Sharon Lee. Carousel Seas (e)
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Ghost Ship (e) (re-read)
Terry Pratchett. Moving Pictures (e) (re-read)
Patricia C Wrede. The Magician's Ward (e)
Patricia C Wrede. Mairelon the Magician (e) (re-read)

In progress
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener. Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne (e) (re-read)
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Necessity's Child (e) (re-read)
George MacDonald. The Princess and the Goblin
Tamora Pierce. Street Magic (e)
Terry Pratchett. Reaper Man (e) (re-read)

Non-fiction books
Simon Singh. Big Bang

( short, screen, and stage )

( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Jung Chang. Empress Dowager Cixi

Fiction log - June 2015

Fiction books
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener. Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne (e) (re-read)
George MacDonald. The Princess and the Goblin
Dustin Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs. Li'l Gotham volume 1
Dustin Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs. Li'l Gotham volume 2
Ryan North. Poor Yorick
Tamora Pierce. Street Magic (e)
Terry Pratchett. Reaper Man (e) (re-read)

In progress
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Necessity's Child (e) (re-read)
George MacDonald. The Princess and Curdie

Non-fiction books in progress
Jung Chang. Empress Dowager Cixi

( short, screen, and stage )

( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Tamora Pierce. Cold Fire

Five Things Make a Post: Fiction Log Edition Meets the Wolf Man

1. Tim Powers has been one of my favourite fantasy authors since I discovered his 1983 novel The Anubis Gates, which features time travel, romantic poets, and a serial killer who's rumoured to be a werewolf but is actually something even more peculiar. Last year, he returned to that setting with a novella called "Nobody's Home", which expands on the backstory of the novel's main female character. I got hold of it recently through a limited-time ebook offer on Humble Bundle, which was a stroke of luck because it seems to otherwise only be available in a small press Collector's Edition that costs half as much again as the original novel despite being less than a quarter the length. I liked it a lot, but not so much that I would have been able to forgive the Collector's Edition price if I'd had to pay it.


2. Another thing I've revisited recently is the comic book series Atomic Robo; the back issues have been re-released as a webcomic, so I'm reading the series through again from the beginning. If you don't know Atomic Robo, I highly recommend it; it's kind of like Indiana Jones with weird science instead of half-remembered mythology and also the hero is a self-aware robot created by Nikola Tesla. Robo's greatest enemy is the megalomaniac scientist Heinrich von Helsingard; his oldest enemy is his father's great rival Thomas Edison; and his most annoying enemy is Doctor Dinosaur, a talking velociraptor whose attempts to science are patently nonsensical and yet somehow seem to work anyway.


3. Speaking of web sites having significant updates that I didn't notice until they were pretty much over: after saying that Adventures with the Wife in Space definitely wasn't going to do any of New Who, Neil and Sue have apparently been talked into doing the Eccleston year. They're absolutely not going to continue on and do Tennant, though. Probably.


4. And speaking of favourite fantasy authors, I can't remember whether I've recommended T. Kingfisher's fairy tale retellings in this space, but if so they're certainly worth recommending again. There are currently two novels, The Seventh Bride and Bryony and Roses, and a short story collection, Toad Words. There will probably be another collection at some point, since she's still writing new ones, and just recently won a Nebula for one of them.

(T. Kingfisher is Ursula Vernon, who won a Hugo for Digger and then became a best-selling author of children's fantasy, which is why now when she writes something in a similar vein to Digger she has to publish it under a different name so that nobody accidentally gives it to their ten-year-old.)


5. It seems to me that it says something about the priorities of the people making Thunderbirds Are Go that when, thirteen episodes in, one of the episodes has an expert consultant credited at the end, it (a) comes as a complete surprise, and (b) turns out to be, not a physicist or an engineer, but a speech therapist. Thunderbirds Are Go is not a series where scientific accuracy gets much of a look-in. (Good on them for wanting to make sure Brains's stammer is portrayed appropriately, though.)