I haven’t decided whether or not to continue the Friday Fragments in this fashion or not. I’ll let you know in next week’s WW. Meantime, opinions are welcome, but I will say one thing: I’m not going to start writing a review column. That’s just too fraught with all sorts of things.
Looking Out for Jacklopes
For those of you just discovering this part of my blog, 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 magazines.
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:
Fate of the Red Queen by Mab Morris. Thoughtful book with a deceptively quiet start that rewards the reader by answering a lot of questions raised early on in usual ways.
Revenge of the Horned Bunnies (Dragonbreath 6) by Ursula Vernon.
The Magic of Recluse by L.E. Modesitt Junior. (Audiobook).
When Fairies Go Bad (Dragonbreath 7) by Ursula Vernon.
Nightmare of the Iguana (Dragonbreath 8) by Ursula Vernon.
In Progress:
Oddly enough, I just finished two books today and haven’t picked my new ones!
Also:
Wolf’s Blood by Jane Lindskold. Just starting.
Jane Lindskold: Wednesday Wanderings 
March 16, 2018 at 5:17 am |
I’ve only recently discovered E. Nesbitt, and can recommend the Librivox audiobook of her children’s novel The Railway Children, if you’re still looking for something to start.
Although I’d somehow missed her work until now, Nesbitt is apparently well known for her early influence on contemporary fantasy, although The Railway Children is not an example of this genre, and has had characters referenced by both CS Lewis and Michael Moorcock.
March 16, 2018 at 8:12 am |
I didn’t discover The Railway Children until late, but I really liked it. I did read her classic children’s fantasies younger. They’re frequently mentioned in the books of American author Edward Eager, who seemed to be trying to write similar books in American settings.
I LOVED his books as a kid. Jim read them as an adult and liked, so I think they hold up well. The first one is HALF MAGIC.
March 16, 2018 at 7:15 am |
You finished a bunch and haven’t started any new ones. I finished one and am in the middle of a bunch. I’ve been in kind of an “ooh! shiny penny!” reading phase where I keep getting distracted but I’ll eventually finish each of these. (Although, another shiny penny just showed up in the mail today, so … maybe tomorrow.)
Completed: Asphodel, by Jane Lindskold – just finished last night; not yet sure what I think of it, due to its unusual structure; but it was the shiniest penny in the batch so I wanted to finish it first.
In progress:
The Earth Witch, by Louise Lawrence (re-read) – YA set in Wales before YA was really its own genre
Breakwater, by Catherine Jones Payne – mermaid YA, no human characters
First Lensman, by EE “Doc” Smith – 2nd of the Lensman series
Silverlock, by John Myers Myers (re-read) – At this point, I need the annotated version; trying to figure out all the allusions is more annoying than fun. (I’m getting old.)
The Best of Henry Kuttner, by Henry Kuttner – pre-1958 SF short stories, so it has a lot of tropes done to death by other people in later years. Also, “Mimsy Were the Borogoves” is no longer an adventure tale for me; it’s a horror story. I shudder to think what happened to those kids.
March 16, 2018 at 8:15 am |
Thanks for the list. I’ll look forward to hearing about Breakwater.
I’ve read Silverlock and The Best of Henry Kuttner. Roger was a huge Kuttner fan. Alan and I discussed my varied reactions a while back.
Silverlock didn’t work for me when I read it. Should I give it another try?
And I’ll need to see if our library has The Earth Witch. (Scribbles note.)
March 16, 2018 at 9:36 pm
When I was younger, Silverlock felt like a game I wasn’t well-read enough to play properly: allusion-hunter. Now, Silverlock feels like a test I have no interest in taking. I’ll finish it this once more, but then I suspect I won’t be reading it again.
March 19, 2018 at 10:48 am
Interesting. Probably why it didn’t appeal to me.
March 16, 2018 at 11:44 am |
Currently reading – New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson. I’m about halfway through
Recently read –
Thunderhead by Neil Shusterman. It’s the second in his Scythe series. I really liked both books. I’m finding quite a few YA authors I like
Iron Gold by Pierce Brown.
Himself by Jess Kidd
And waiting at the library to be picked up is Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
March 16, 2018 at 2:23 pm |
I’ve found some YA authors I really like, too. I’m not familiar with your list. Scribble. Scribble.
March 16, 2018 at 2:43 pm |
There’s no reason FF should become a review column [and if it looked like i was suggesting that, apologies]. Today’s is perfect, keep it up provided it’s not distracting you from things you find more vital.
A couple of nights ago I took it into my head to reread Space Viking. Still fun, even though many of the underlying assumptions are dubious at best. And it’s rather amusing just how _white_ Piper’s universes are – something I had never thought to notice. [Yes it does amuse me. I’m not insulted by authors populating their books with people who look like themselves, instead of like me, however irrational that may be]
In fiction, that is. I recently finished the Peoples of Europe volume on The Huns. In many was, it was unfortunate, since it was meant to be a second edition of a book EA Thompson published in 1948 – except that he died before he could do more that discuss some of his intentions with the gent asked to help him with the work. This means that it’s replete with mid-century attitudes towards the ‘hierarchy’ of human cultures and takes no account of the post-war explosion in non-literary sources of information on the development of eastern and central European peoples and cultures in the early medieval period. So it doesn’t even attempt to deal with questions that can’t be answered by the fragments preserved by later Byzantine writers quoting more or less contemporary observers. OTOH, Thompson was quite aware of the potential weaknesses of his evidence, and therefore takes a good hard look at how those fragments came to be written and preserved, as well as what they say.
Oh, my! Looks like i just committed a review, doesn’t it? Sorry.
BTW, I think I may have figured out why Archaeology shows those occasional old-style lapses that sometimes irritate you, like taking it for granted that pastoral nomads wouldn’t be capable of producing even their own weapons [something Thompson does in The Huns], never mind impressive jewellery: while the _editor_ is a professional, the writers are not. They appear to be journalists by training, with no broader knowledge of the things they write about that the typical woman in the street. Thus the constant reference to what ‘everybody knows’ to fill in the gaps.
March 16, 2018 at 3:16 pm |
Please DO review if you wish! I learn and I always enjoy.
I think you may be right about Archaeology mag’s uneveness. On the flip side American Archaeology mag can suffer from weak writing, although the research backing tends to be stronger, because in this case the writers are more often archeologists not journalists.
April 16, 2018 at 9:07 am |
I love all your photos of critters enjoying books! We have a foster cat whom we’re taking care of while his person is traveling, and he enjoys it when we come read with him. (We have to keep him separate from our other cats because he eats a special diet and if he discovers, and then scarfs down, our other guys’ food, he’ll get ill. We read aloud to our five-year-old every night, so often we go read with Moonshine to socialize with him.)
The Jackalope made me smile…that’s what we call my mother’s rotund, Holstein-patterned cat, Jack.
April 17, 2018 at 8:28 am |
Nice combination of activities!