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2012 books: Kearney and Leon
Apr. 28th, 2012 04:18 pmI finally managed to finish not one, but two books this week. After several publishing delays, Paul Kearney's Kings of Morning was released several weeks ago. It's the third book in the Macht trilogy. The Macht are loosely ancient Greeks, or maybe closer to Spartans. Some of them have magical or possibly high tech armor. There are several humanoid races on this world. The first book was The Ten Thousand, which detailed a retelling of the Anabasis--Macht mercenaries must fight their way out of a country. The 2nd book, Corvus, detailed the rise of new general/king among the Macht. It's basically Alexander, but with a different family history and closer ties to the main character of the first book, Rictus.
In this book, Corvus takes the Macht to conquer the Asurian empire, aka Persia. In the first part of the book, we meet three children of the Asurian emperor and follow their stories for about half the book. It was interesting getting some insight on the Asurian empire. Much of the information may come into further play in later books. I believe that I did hear that he's sold at least two sequels (yea!). I'm a sucker for Alexander stories, so I enjoyed these books quite a lot. I still think The Ten Thousand is my favorite, but I need to read them again, really.
I then ripped through Donna Leon's latest, Beastly Things. The nineteenth (!) Commissario Guido Brunetti book, it focuses this time on a slaughterhouse scandal. At under 300 pages, I thought it felt rushed, and I wasn't surprised at all at the secret doings at the slaughterhouse. Brunetti's despair at Italy's government and people (in general) was directly at the forefront which made it rather downbeat to me. I need to read a few of the earlier ones, to remember the more innocent time. While it's possible to pick up any of these books, I'd suggest starting earlier in the series.
I was going to start Glamour in Glass by Kowal, but just heard that the eARC (electronic advanced reader copy) of Lee and Miller's Dragon Ship is available. Wheeee!
In this book, Corvus takes the Macht to conquer the Asurian empire, aka Persia. In the first part of the book, we meet three children of the Asurian emperor and follow their stories for about half the book. It was interesting getting some insight on the Asurian empire. Much of the information may come into further play in later books. I believe that I did hear that he's sold at least two sequels (yea!). I'm a sucker for Alexander stories, so I enjoyed these books quite a lot. I still think The Ten Thousand is my favorite, but I need to read them again, really.
I then ripped through Donna Leon's latest, Beastly Things. The nineteenth (!) Commissario Guido Brunetti book, it focuses this time on a slaughterhouse scandal. At under 300 pages, I thought it felt rushed, and I wasn't surprised at all at the secret doings at the slaughterhouse. Brunetti's despair at Italy's government and people (in general) was directly at the forefront which made it rather downbeat to me. I need to read a few of the earlier ones, to remember the more innocent time. While it's possible to pick up any of these books, I'd suggest starting earlier in the series.
I was going to start Glamour in Glass by Kowal, but just heard that the eARC (electronic advanced reader copy) of Lee and Miller's Dragon Ship is available. Wheeee!
