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I've been dipping into the Raksura collections of short stories/novellas by Martha Wells while biding time until The Edge of Worlds comes out. The official release date is early April, but I've had an alert set on several sites and an ARC finally showed up on one of them. It arrived yesterday, and somewhat fortuitously, I'm sick enough that I stayed home today--after a several hour wait at urgent care, and a leisurely trip to the supermarket.
Prior to that, I finished Kingfisher by Patricia McKillip. Interesting milieu, there's a king, and witches, and knights, but the technology is around current day. I liked it, but had trouble caring about the characters (there's a lot) and it felt like some willful blindness. It's a Arthur/round table analog, but no one's heard of the fisher king, or the wild goose chase quest? Not as opaque to me as, say, The Sorcerer and the Cygnet, but it didn't feel as tightly plotted or interesting as some of the her other books.
I've discovered the joy of Murdoch Mysteries, a police procedural set in Toronto at the end of the 19th century. Murdoch is an inspector who's savvy to all the latest crime-fighting technology, and often reproduces ingenious devices that he's heard about (like a seismograph). His faithful constable, Crabtree, is enthusiastic about fantastical reasons for a crime (it must be mole men!) and wants to become a mystery writer. I turned around and read the first book of the series it's based upon, Except the Dying, by Maureen Jennings. Eh, it's fun, but at $7 - $10 per book, I'll be spacing them out.
I'm also reading Desert Rains by Jana S. Brown which was recommended by...sartorias, I believe. It's a western romance set on another planet. Technology is mixed (horse and wagon and cars, sophisticated irrigation systems and weather moderation). Another eh, I'm still reading, but it'll be in between books I want to read more.
Prior to that, I finished Kingfisher by Patricia McKillip. Interesting milieu, there's a king, and witches, and knights, but the technology is around current day. I liked it, but had trouble caring about the characters (there's a lot) and it felt like some willful blindness. It's a Arthur/round table analog, but no one's heard of the fisher king, or the wild goose chase quest? Not as opaque to me as, say, The Sorcerer and the Cygnet, but it didn't feel as tightly plotted or interesting as some of the her other books.
I've discovered the joy of Murdoch Mysteries, a police procedural set in Toronto at the end of the 19th century. Murdoch is an inspector who's savvy to all the latest crime-fighting technology, and often reproduces ingenious devices that he's heard about (like a seismograph). His faithful constable, Crabtree, is enthusiastic about fantastical reasons for a crime (it must be mole men!) and wants to become a mystery writer. I turned around and read the first book of the series it's based upon, Except the Dying, by Maureen Jennings. Eh, it's fun, but at $7 - $10 per book, I'll be spacing them out.
I'm also reading Desert Rains by Jana S. Brown which was recommended by...sartorias, I believe. It's a western romance set on another planet. Technology is mixed (horse and wagon and cars, sophisticated irrigation systems and weather moderation). Another eh, I'm still reading, but it'll be in between books I want to read more.
