melita's booklog - mostly

I knew it had been a long time since I posted, but really! The move to dreamwidth derailed me, and I never seem to have the energy to put together even my lackadaisical post on what I've been reading.

I'm not going to bother to really write up stuff now, but just list what I can remember. If anyone wants more information (hollow laughter), feel free to comment and I'll try to remember what I thought of the book. Without further ado, and in roughly latest to oldest order. Peters is interwoven, Wells has been read and read in this time frame...

Martha Wells, Murderbot: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol (ARC)
Martha Wells, Raksura books (Stories of the Raksura volumes 1 and 2, The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, and The Siren Depths, The Edge of Worlds, The Harbors of the Sun, and Fall of Ile Rien (The Wizard Hunters, Ships of Air, Gate of Gods) novels
(of the less than novel length, I adore "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud")
Lois McMaster Bujold, "Penric's Fox", "Mira's Last Dance", "The Prisoner of Limnos", "The Flowers of Vashnoi"
Elizabeth Peters (reread): Crocodile on the Sandbank, The Ape Who Guards the Balance, Children of the Storm, The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog, The Hippopotamus Pool, Lord of the Silent, He Shall Thunder in the Sky, The Falcon at the Portal, Lion in the Valley, The Mummy Case, Curse of the Pharaohs
(Now reading The Ape Who and finally hit the scene where the romance became public--so wonderful! I have a soft spot for Ramses)
Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess, The Painted Queen (posthumously finished, meh)
Cecelia Grant, "A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong" (fine, but not enough to make me read her other books)
Melissa Scott, Point of Sighs, Fairs Point
Jessica Day George, The Rose Legacy
Underwater Ballroom Society anthology
Daniel Keys Moran, "Sideways", "Platformer", "Play Date", The Long Run, Emerald Eyes, The A.I. War (part 1), The Last Dancer, "Leftbehind", "Old Man"
C.S. Pacat, "Pet", The Captive Prince, Kings Rising, "The Summer Palace", Prince's Gambit (still not sure why I found these so compelling--two princes of neighboring kingdoms are fighting for their crowns. One ends up the slave of the other, many shenanigans and it turns out to be a love story in a roughly greek vs persian world)
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, "Degrees of Separation", Local Custom, Mouse and Dragon, "Heirs to Trouble", Neogenesis, "Cultivar", Scouts Progress, "Due Diligence"
C.J. Cherryh, Emergence, Convergence
Diane Duane, "Lior and the Sea"
Faye Kellerman, Bone Box - I really liked the first few books in the this series. Main characters have since relocated from southern California to upstate NY. Practically anyone who was of note in the series showed up in this book--how conveeenient. I'm not going to try to catch up but will likely reread the early ones at some point)
D.M. Quincy, Murder in Mayfair: An Atlas Catesby Mystery. Eh.
Helen S. Wright, A Matter of Oaths (originally published in 1990, finally released on ebook)
Melissa McShane, Pretender to the Crown, Guardian of the Crown, Abounding Might, Wondering Sight
David Pagel, The Forever Girl - love story of a G.I. who falls in love with a Japanese woman (post WWII)
Charles De Lint, The Wind in His Heart
Ann Leckie, Provenance
F.M. Busby, Renalle Kerguelen (story of Rissa's clone daughter, compelling because I like this series, but ultimately eh, only for completists)
Stephanie Burgis, Snowspelled, "Shadow Duet", "Forbidden Magic", "Flying Magic", "House of Secrets", The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart
P.C. Hodgell, The Gates of Tagmeth
SJ Rozan, "Prosperity Restaurant", "Heartbreak", "Body English" (short stories in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series)
Nevil Shute, The Far Country (problematic handling of natives, but I found the love story very compelling and the information that various countries took in refugees from WWII very interesting and surprising)
Megan Whalen Turner, Thick as Thieves (Pretty sure I reread the rest of the series during this period--probably at least twice)
Jo Graham, The Marshal's Lover
Jo Graham and Melissa Scott, Lost Things, Steel Blues, Silver Bullet, Wind Raker, Oath Bound

I may be mislabeled some novellas as novels and vice versa. List also omits a bunch of stuff started but not finished.

I believe I'm missing at least one book, but it would have been a reread.

**SPOILERS for Ancillary Justice**

Yea!!! Ann Leckie's second novel, Ancillary Sword, finally came out in October. The first, Ancillary Justice, took home a bunch of awards last year--deservedly so. This book continues to follow Breq as she takes up with one of factions of her emperor, Anaander Mianaai. Mainaai has multiple cloned bodies, which have now split among how to maintain, or not, the Radchaai empire. Breq is given control of a small area--the only duty she would take because the sister of someone she killed lives there.

Once there, she finds several other mysteries and, of course, problems that she will try to fix or figure out. As many other reviewers have said, it's a much more interior book. Breq appears to have had a very solitary existence for about 20 years after losing her AI and other bodies and has to now re-adjust to dealing with a lot of contact. We find out more about the aliens through a very, very strange translator who shows up. Anyway, recommended, recommended, recommended.

I also reread Patricia Wrede's Magician's Ward which is set in an alternative Regency London. Kim has been rescued from the streets by an aristocrat and made his ward. Kim has the ability to become a wizard, and Merrill (Mairelon) will help her. A sweet, fun little story.

I then felt in the mood for more historical fantasy and reread Guy Gavriel Kay's A Lion in Al-Rassan. Set in an alternative almost-Reconquista Spain, it follows a young Kindath (Jewish-analog) doctor as she gets caught up in the struggle between the Jaddites (Christian-analog) and the Asharites (Muslims) in Spain. Rodrigo Belmonte is "El Cid" and Ammar ibn Khairan is a "renaissance man" (so to say!) among the Asharites. It's my favorite Kay book and the one I reread most often. The characters are beautifully done.

I'm still in the midst of Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr. This one is set just before and while Alexander the Great conquers Egypt. Meriamon, a priestess and daughter of Nectanebo, comes to Alexander to ask him to becomes Pharaoh.