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.
Savage Damsel Persephone
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!