FF: Out of Order

Regal Persephone

This week’s reading is rather scattered, but enjoyable nonetheless.

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:

Solstice Wood by Patrician A. McKillip.  Contemporary fantasy, but with a tie to her non-contemporary novel Winter Rose.  I can see a re-read of that coming up when I can lay hands on a copy of Winter Rose.

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch.  Audiobook.  Peter Grant undercover…  as Peter Grant, which is an interesting conceit the author makes work. 

In Progress:

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch.  Yes.  I’m reading the series out of order.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  The light tone hides a thoughtful concept.

The Animal World of the Pharaohs by Patrick F. Houlihan.  This 1996 study is enjoyable, even if it falls a little too often into the “votive figure” or “probably religious significance” school of archeology.  Makes me wonder what the Funko Pop figures will be seen as by future archeologists.

Also:

Various new magazines arrived.  In reading the latest Archeology, I was amused that the letter column showed that I wasn’t the only one annoyed at rather casually reached conclusions in some of the articles in the previous issue.