This week hasn’t been exactly peaceful, what with my kitchen ceiling being patched and the whole kitchen painted, but good stories have done a great deal to ease the strain.
For those of you just discovering this feature, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week. Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazine articles.
The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list. If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.
Once again, this is not a book review column. It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.
Recently Completed:
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. Audiobook.
The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady by Gerald Morris. Standalone sequel to The Squire’s Tale, which I read a few weeks ago. Who “His Lady” is an interesting question of pronoun reference.
In Progress:
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater. Audiobook. Again, a book I read in print and am now enjoying in this alternate form.
The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf by Gerald Morris. I remember reading Malory’s original version of this and wondering if the manuscript had been incomplete. This is a great deal more comprehensible!
Also:
Still typing and reviewing my own recent additions to a manuscript. Still enjoying.
October 7, 2016 at 10:35 am |
Recently completed (in the last 2 weeks):
Midnight Riot, by Ben Aaronovitch – first in the Peter Grant series about a very small division of the Metropolitan Police in London, which deals with magic; VERY much set in London with no clues for outsiders, so it reads a lot like a high fantasy if you’re not familiar with the city. In other words, I could have used a map while reading it, and London’s culture is far more different and detailed than what you see on Sherlock. There are 4 or 5 in the series so far; I plan to read the next one and keep going, for now.
The Earth Witch, by Louis Lawrence (reread) – an old favorite for this time of year; would probably be classified as YA these days but in 1980 it was just considered “Fantasy”. Bronwen Davis has moved into the old cottage of Megan Davis, who died a year ago and who everybody thinks was a witch. But this is 1970s Wales; 17-year-old Owen Jones, his friends, and his fellow townsfolk don’t really believes in witches (or the ancient goddess) any more – but the land remembers – and there’s a price for the bounty of nature.
Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille, by Steven Brust (reread) – I was just in the mood for this one: a bar which hops across space and time whenever a nuclear war lands a bomb too close; told from the point of view of a banjo player in an Irish music band; but with some pathos because they remember what they’ve lost. Also, someone’s trying to kill them. Next time I read it, I’m going to put together the playlist from the chapter headings.
In Progress:
A Night in the Lonesome October, by Roger Zelazny (reread) – rooting for Jack the Ripper to save the world from Lovecraftian nasties. Again. Told from the POV of his dog, Snuff. It’s still a joy to read, even after all these years.
A Dark Traveling, by Roger Zelazny (reread but it’s been so long I don’t remember the details) – his one main attempt at writing for a YA crowd: parallel worlds, magic, super tech, but the hero/narrator is 15 so no smoking or drinking (at least so far)
There’s an awful lot of rereading being done. I need to read more new books but I guess I just wanted no surprises recently.
October 8, 2016 at 7:51 am |
Several of these sound great… And not just the Zelazny and Brust pieces, which I’ve read. Thanks!