Journeys in Print

Mei Ling Stalks the White Hart

I’ve been really busy, as I get back into my writing, but I’m still finding time to read.  I seem to have been reading a lot of stories in which journeys, not necessarily quests, are a theme.

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, 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.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading. 

Completed:

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.  Audiobook.  Non-military space opera setting.  Good aliens.  Structure is more like interlocking short stories than a novel, but very good. 

The White Hart by Nancy Springer.  Celtic flavor fantasy in which love in its many forms, rather than merely romance is a driving force.  Lovely prose.

In Progress:

A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger.  So far quite promising, but I’m only a few segments in.

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire. Audiobook. Just started.

Also:

“A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers.  Novella.  Richly descriptive, with focus on conflicts within the self, rather than without.  Sort of a non-dystopian “Canticle for Leibowitz” meets some of Clifford Simak’s more pastoral work.  Definitely, SF for more reasons than setting.

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