{"id":1513,"date":"2011-06-04T10:59:50","date_gmt":"2011-06-04T10:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/wordpress\/?p=1513"},"modified":"2011-10-29T13:01:23","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T18:01:23","slug":"catching_up_wit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/archives\/2011\/06\/catching_up_wit.html","title":{"rendered":"Catching Up with Some SciFi Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

So apparently I stopped blogging many book reviews sometime mid-last year. GAAAH. Yes, it has been a very busy year, but I am still annoyed with myself. Expect a lot of very short reviews (or some books on the read list [2011<\/a>, 2010<\/a>] never appearing here) as I am determined to be relatively caught up before Fall when I will fall off the map again. Also I will be jumping all over the map in terms of order read.<\/em><\/p>\n

[Note, you can search by author name in the box in the right column to find reviews of previous entries in these series, in most cases.]<\/p>\n

Adult<\/u>:<\/p>\n

River Marked, by Patricia Briggs<\/strong> I still absolutely 100% LOVE these characters but this was BY FAR my least favorite book in this series. Maybe because Mercy and Adam were off on their own? It felt a bit random and rushed and I didn’t enjoy it very much.<\/p>\n

Killbox, by Ann Aguirre<\/strong> Fourth in the series. First half = so sappy I wanted to puke. Second half = much better. Still, a very original series.<\/p>\n

Soulless<\/strong>, Changeless<\/strong>, and Blameless<\/strong> all by Gail Carriger<\/strong> Steam-punk sci fi, set in London with werewolves and vampires openly part of society (and, in the werewolves case, officially a part of the British empire’s army), and one soulless preternatural (the heroine). Really liked book 1, although it didn’t take on the first try (you know those nights when you’re scattered and you pick up a book and it just isn’t right for your mood?). Like the love story, the steam punk details, the society conversations. It’s like Jane Austen loosened up enough to be enjoyable. (Heh. Jane Austen fan hatemail coming my way!) The ending of book 2 made me quite annoyed so I put off reading book 3 for awhile. Liked it, but just read a review of book 4 that doesn’t sound great.<\/p>\n

Magic at the Gate, by Devon Monk<\/strong> I love that Stone becomes a more important “character” as these go by. I liked this entry in the series a lot.<\/p>\n

Mistborn<\/strong> and The Well of Ascension<\/strong> both by Brandon Sanderson<\/strong> Sanderson is the dude filling in for Robert Jordan to finish out the Wheel of Time books. (I’ve mentioned him before<\/a>.) I LOVE the metals\/magic stuff in these books. Love it! Love the secret ninja stylings of it all. Love Vin, love the bookishness of Elend. I’ve started book 3 though and it’s not moving as fast for me.<\/p>\n

I have been reading Lauren Dane<\/strong>‘s Federation and Phantom Corps series also. Too sexyhot to talk about.<\/p>\n

YA<\/u>:<\/p>\n

The Dead-Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan<\/strong> #2 in the series. Jumps ahead a generation. Not as compelling as the first book<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Dark and Hollow Places, by Carrie Ryan<\/strong> #3 in the series. Congruent time- and character-wise with book 2. Loved it! A lot. Loved the new characters and how they intersected with the old and how they tied all the stories and ideas together. Really redeemed book #2 for me.<\/p>\n

Hunger, by Jackie Morse Kessler<\/strong> Read about it on John Scalzi’s blog<\/a> and kept, occasionally, looking for this book whenever I happened on a bookstore. (Why didn’t I just order it? I don’t even know.) FInally found it. LOVED it. Slim book, quick read. Nicely done. This will be a cool series to follow.<\/p>\n

Across the Universe, by Beth Revis<\/strong> If you have other friends who read YA SciFI then surely you have already heard rave reviews of this book. Definitely on the science\/space end of SciFi — which can only be a good thing as movies are revisiting that genre these days as well! \ud83d\ude42 Definitely part of the current wave of dystopian universes (the Hunger Games<\/a>, for example) but less warrior-, revolution-, heroine\/leader-focused and with a LOT more science. A smaller story in some ways, although not all. I found it engaging and thoughtful and really good.<\/p>\n

Vampire Academy (books 1-6) by Richelle Mead<\/strong> Like the Sweep series<\/a>, or Twilight<\/a>, or any other YA vamp\/witch series, this one has a few of its own twists (the guardian\/vampire pairings) while exploring much of the same ground. Completely engaging and emotional while you’re reading them (obsessively, of course). Easy to walk away from after that though. Sometimes I miss being a teenager and having everything been OH SO IMPORTANT. Then again, have I really moved away from that at all? My friends might say no. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Space Demons<\/strong> and Skymaze<\/strong> by Gillian Rubinstein<\/strong> I found these a little derivative and a bit stiff. None of the characters felt fully fleshed out to me.<\/p>\n

Shiver<\/strong> and Linger<\/strong> by Maggie Stiefvater<\/strong> I really liked these. I liked that they (despite being werewolf books) are set so very much in the real, contemporary world. I liked the change of viewpoint from book 1 to book 2. I liked the way the romance developed. I felt like we really got into the main character’s heads and understood their motivations. Evocative, sweet and tender. (Note my friend Sarah thought the second one was too mushy and wistful in places. Heh.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So apparently I stopped blogging many book reviews sometime mid-last year. GAAAH. Yes, it has been a very busy year, but I am still annoyed with myself. Expect a lot of very short reviews (or some books on the read … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-readin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1513"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2102,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions\/2102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crankymonkeybutt.com\/snip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}