Author: Lois McMaster Bujold

Details: (c) Lois McMaster Bujold 1994; Pub 2008 Baen Books; ISBN 0-671-87646-5

Verdict: Mirror Dance is impressive and thrilling.

Reasons for reading it: I am absolutely starving for more of this series by now, and it was the next one in order.

How it came into my hands: My ever-wonderful Beau lent it to me.

( detailed review )

The good news is that papersky is discussing the whole series on Tor.com. Very cool to have her insights into the series, though on a slightly negative note she's not really tagging her posts properly, so you just have to look through the site to be able to find them. Several are on the front page at the moment, though, including MD.

Author: Katharine Kerr

Details: (c) Katharine Kerr 1991; Pub HarperCollins Voyager 1996; ISBN 0-586-20789-9

Verdict: Polar City blues is a thumping good story, in spite of technical flaws.

Reasons for reading it: cartesiandaemon recommended it, albeit with some reservations. We've mostly run out of books that we absolutely must press on eachother right now, but still like raiding eachother's libraries anyway.

How it came into my hands: cartesiandaemon lent it to me.

( detailed review )

Author: Steven Brust

Details: (c) 1993, 1996 Steven Brust; Pub 2003 ACE (as single volume); ISBN 0-441-01010-5

Verdict: Athyra is slight, but fun; Orca brings some unexpected novelty to the series.

Reasons for reading it: I'm gradually working through the Vlad Taltos series, which so far range from enjoyable to really enjoyable.

How it came into my hands: cartesiandaemon got enthusiastic about the series too (it's been fun discovering them together!) and bought the next double volume so we could both keep reading. I read Athyra back in December and then didn't get round to reviewing it. And I didn't get to Orca for a long time because the two-volume edition is physically so big that I was never able to fit it in my luggage.

( detailed review )

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

Details: Originally published 1892; Pub 1971 Berkley Medallion

Verdict: The adventures of Sherlock Holmes is better than I was expecting.

Reasons for reading it: Between reading Arthur and George and watching a sweet but silly film Young Sherlock Holmes over Christmas, I was intrigued enough to get round to reading some of the original stories.

How it came into my hands: Found it in my parents' house. I'm guessing it's from one of the grandparental collections that we inherited, because I can't remember it being there when I was a kid. And it's physically small compared to most modern books so it fitted nicely in my handbag while I was travelling; actually it's really good for reading on the plane because the short stories are just nicely bite-sized, engaging without needing vast amounts of brain power.

( detailed review )

Author: Michael Chabon

Details: (c) 2007 Michael Chabon; Pub 2007 HarperCollins; ISBN 0-00-714982-4

Verdict: The Yiddish Policemen's Union is highly original and a great read.

Reasons for reading it: Lots of people were talking it up when it came out. While I don't always make a beeline for books with a Jewish theme, the premise of this one appealed, and lethargic_man's review (yes, over a year ago, I have a good memory for that sort of thing) piqued my interest.

How it came into my hands: I saw a copy on the new books display shelf in the synagogue library, so I grabbed it, as I'd been intending for ages to read it. I don't make use of the shul library very much, partly because its opening hours are inconvenient and partly because three quarters of its stock is Holocaust memoirs and I have a very limited tolerance for those.

( detailed review )

Author: Steven Brust

Details: (c) 1991 Steven Brust; PubTor 1992; ISBN 0-812-50689-8

Verdict: The Phoenix Guards doesn't quite live up to its premise.

Reasons for reading it: In common with many geeks, I like Brust and I like Dumas, so Brust doing Dumas sounded like a good thing.

How it came into my hands: cartesiandaemon lent it to me.

( detailed review )

Author: Colson Whitehead

Details: (c) 1999 Colson Whitehead; Pub Anchor Books 2000; ISBN 0-385-49300-2

Verdict: The intuitionist is thoughtful and readable.

Reasons for reading it: I wanted to expand my horizons a bit and try something I don't normally read, and contemporary American literature definitely falls into that category.

How it came into my hands: The ever-wonderful staubundsterne sent it to me as part of my prize from the livelongnmarry auction.

( detailed review )

Author: Naomi Novik

Details: (c) 2006 Naomi Novik; Pub Ballantine Del Ray 2006; ISBN 0-345-48130-5

Verdict: Black powder war is an enjoyable continuation of the series.

Reasons for reading it: I had fun with the first two in the series, and wanted something unlike Bujold to follow Brothers in arms

How it came into my hands: My wonderful Beau brought me a whole pile of books I really want to read, mostly continuations of series I've already started. I had to stop and pet all the lovely books before I could choose which one to start with; this wasn't the most urgent, but I thought some of the others wouldn't work straight after a Miles book.

( detailed review )

Author: Lois McMaster Bujold

Details: (c) 1989 Lois McMaster Bujold; Pub Baen Books 2003; ISBN 0-671-69799-4

Verdict: Brothers in arms is magnificent fun.

Reasons for reading it: I should probably stop filling in this field for the Miles series, because really the only trouble here is rationing myself so that I don't spoil them by reading too many back to back.

How it came into my hands: cartesiandaemon lent it to me. I really ought to buy some copies of my own, because I'll certainly want to reread at least Borders of infinity and The warrior's apprentice

( detailed review )

I'm still horribly, horribly behind on book reviews (and have been since summer, really), but here are a few of the books I've read recently:

Larry Niven: The long arm of Gil Hamilton

Greg Egan: Luminous

Jacques Monod: Chance and necessity

Author: Jaques Monod

Details: Originally published 1970 as Le Hasard et la Nécessité; Pub Penguin books 1997; ISBN 0-14-025646-6; Translated Austryn Wainhouse; translation (c) 1971 Alfred A Knopf

Verdict: Chance and necessity is an interesting snapshot of the history of biology.

Reasons for reading it: I was interested in Monod's account of molecular biology, since he's really one of the fathers of modern genetics. I was spurred to read a book I've had lying around for a while because of attending a popular science course and wanting to look at a real example, and partly because I had somewhat run out of novels to read. (cartesiandaemon is planning to lend me a nice little pile when he gets here tomorrow, though!)

How it came into my hands: I bought it in a charity shop years ago and never quite got round to picking it up; I'm not always good at motivating myself to read non-fiction.

( detailed review )

Author: Lois McMaster Bujold

Details: (c)1996 Lois McMaster Bujold; Pub Baen Books 2001; ISBN 0-671-87744-5

Verdict: Cetaganda is great fun!

Reasons for reading it: I've been tearing through the Miles books, partly because they're tremendous fun to read, and partly cos my lovely Beau has been lending me the whole series in order so that I don't have to get frustrated.

How it came into my hands: The Beau brought a nice little pile of books when we met up in Norway last month.

( detailed review )

---

Facebook tells me that my old friend L from Dundee had a baby daughter on Tuesday evening. Yay!

Author: Greg Egan

Details: (c) 1998 Greg Egan; Pub 2003 Gollancz; ISBN 1-85798-573-7

Verdict: Luminous is somewhat lacklustre, though it has its cute moments.

Reasons for reading it: I have liked a lot of Egan's other stuff, particularly short stories.

How it came into my hands: cartesiandaemon lent it to me.

( detailed review )

This probably comes across harsher than I mean; my overall verdict is that the collection is competent, but falls short of brilliance.

Author: Ian McDonald

Details: (c) 1988 Ian McDonald; Pub Bantam Spectra 1988; ISBN 0-553-27057-5

Verdict: Desolation Road is skilfully surreal.

Reasons for reading it: I read it five years ago, and was impressed, but got a bit impatient with the magic realism. So I thought I would give it another try, to see if I understand it better by reading it again, especially now that I'm much more familiar with modern SF. Besides, I've thought very highly indeed of some of McDonald's other work.

How it came into my hands: Some combination of lethargic_man and rysmiel.

( detailed review )

Author: Larry Niven

Details: (c) 1976 Larry Niven; Pub Ballantine Books 1976

Verdict: The long arm of Gil Hamilton is entertaining fluff.

Reasons for reading it: I am finding that Niven fills a very particular need, namely when I'm travelling and bored out of my mind, but too tired and too disturbed by airport atmosphere to concentrate on anything that needs serious attention. His stuff is just about intelligent enough to be more entertaining than sudoku, but not much more than that. So I was very happy to read this on the way back from Norway.

How it came into my hands: cartesiandaemon, who is something of a fan of Niven, lent it to me.

( detailed review )

Author: Salman Rushdie

Details: (c) Salman Rushdie 2005; Pub Vintage 2006; ISBN 0-099-42188-7

Verdict: Shalimar the clown is powerfully written but depressing.

Reasons for reading it: I'm a big fan of Rushdie anyway, and this book got some good press when it came out.

How it came into my hands: Useful Cambridge charity shops. And it turns out the copy I picked up is signed, which isn't a big deal, but rather pleasing to have a book signed by an author I so admire.

( detailed review )

While I'm on the subject, can somebody explain to me why the media (not just the mainstream US media, but most of the world media that's on my radar, and most of the so-called independent media and blogs) is devoting so much verbiage to gosspping about the Palin family soap opera, and paying almost no attention to the sudden upswing in American military action in Pakistan? Priorities!

Author: Julian Barnes

Details: (c) Julian Barnes 2005; Pub Vintage 2006; ISBN 0-099-49273-3

Verdict: Arthur & George is readable and incisive.

Reasons for reading it: I am a big fan of Julian Barnes, and was interested to see what he'd do with a fictional biography of Conan Doyle (one of Barnes' great strengths is mixing literary analysis with fiction, cf Flaubert's parrot).

How it came into my hands: I had a chance to dip in to some of the Cambridge charity shops this visit, though didn't manage a full scale raid. I found a couple of treasures in the British Heart Foundation shop behind the Grafton centre, where I also dropped off some of my great aunt's clothes. Being able to make impulse purchases of books is definitely something I miss about living abroad.

( detailed review )

Author: Jacqueline Carey

Details: (c) Jacqueline Carey 2001; Pub Tor 2003; ISBN 0-330-49374-4

Verdict: Kushiel's dart is surprisingly compelling in spite of its many flaws.

Reasons for reading it: I was looking for something that would be a contrast to Spin; this turned out to be an excellent choice!

How it came into my hands: cartesiandaemon lent it to me.

( detailed review )

Author: Robert Charles Wilson

Details: (c) 2005 Robert Charles Wilson; Pub 2006 Tor; ISBN 0-765-34825-X

Verdict: Spin is an appealing modern take on traditional SF.

Reasons for reading it: There was a huge buzz about it when it came out which made me want to try it.

How it came into my hands: I found it lying around in Screwy's room and borrowed it. I hope it wasn't left there accidentally by one of his carers, because Screwy can't get up there himself these days. Anyway I'll return it when I next see him.

( detailed review )

Author: Terry Pratchett

Details: (c) Terry and Lyn Pratchett 2004; Pub Corgi 2005; ISBN 0-552-55144-9

Verdict: A hat full of sky is both exciting and profound.

Reasons for reading it: I left the book I'm actually reading at work, and didn't want to be without anything to read for a whole weekend, so I picked up something light to tide me over.

How it came into my hands: atreic found herself with insufficient space for all her books, so she was giving away duplicates and less beloved ones at her party. Thank you atreic!

( detailed review )

Author: Hanne Blank (misia)

Details: (c) 2007 Hanne Blank; Pub 2007 Bloomsbury USA; ISBN 1-59691-010-0

Verdict: Virgin is lively and interesting.

Reasons for reading it: I was reading misia's journal while she was writing Virgin and it seemed such a fascinating project I wanted to read the end result.

How it came into my hands: I bought it from Amazon, nice shiny new hardback, because reading her blog meant I had enough trust in Blank's writing to pay real money for the book. And it is a very nice edition, lovely paper, attractive typeface, and a sparsely elegant cover (I am so glad that misia won her argument and stopped the publishes from using the clichéd image of a naked woman's torso).

( detailed review )

Author: Kim Stanley Robinson

Details: (c) 2002 Kim Stanley Robinson; Pub Bantam 2003; ISBN 978-0553-58007-5

Verdict: The years of rice and salt has some neat ideas, but not enough story.

Reasons for reading it: lethargic_man told me about it and I liked the premise of an alternate history of a world with no Europe.

How it came into my hands: Bought from Amazon.

( detailed review )

Author: Ian McDonald

Details: (c) 2006 Ian McDonald; Pub 2007 Pyr; ISBN 978-1-59102-595-5

Verdict: River of gods is quite the tour-de-force.

Reasons for reading it: I am increasingly impressed with McDonald, and the buzz about this when it came out further encouraged me that I ought to read it.

How it came into my hands: I bought it as part of my haul from Amazon last year.

( detailed review )

But yes, this very much lived up to my high expectations.

Author: Lois McMaster Bujold

Details: (c) 1986 Lois McMaster Bujold; Pub 2003 Baen; ISBN 0-7434-3616-4

Verdict: The warrior's apprentice is a thoroughly good read.

Reasons for reading it: I enjoyed the first pair in this series, and was keen to read more.

How it came into my hands: cartesiandaemon has been helpfully lending me big piles of books so that I don't have to get impatient waiting to find the next in the series!

( detailed review )

Author: Diane Duane

Details: DW (c) 1985 Diane Duane; Pub Harcourt Magic Carpet books 1996; ISBN 0-15-216257-7 / HW (c) 1990 Diane Duane; Pub Harcourt Magic Carpet books 1997; ISBN 0-15-216244-5

Verdict: Deep Wizardry is effective both as a story and, surprisingly, as a Christian allegory. High Wizardry builds on this successfully.

Reasons for reading it: I enjoyed So you want to be a wizard, and was eager to read the sequels. (Actually I read Deep wizardry back in April, but I'm getting behind on book reviews so I shall cover the two together.)

How it came into my hands: cartesiandaemon lent me both books. With a nice beau to lend me whole series at once, I could get into this reading series thing; not having the frustration of taking ages to find the next book makes a big difference to my enjoyment!

( detailed review )

Author: Naomi Novik (naominovik)

Details: (c) Naomi Novik 2006; Pub Harper Voyager 2006; ISBN 0-00-721911-3

Verdict: Temeraire is lovely!

Reasons for reading it: I've been reading interesting discussions about it on LJ, and wanted to join in. buymeaclue, was it you who proposed a theory about an allegory between the relationship of men to dragons in the Temeraire books, and the relationship of men to women in the real world?

How it came into my hands: cartesiandaemon very kindly brought it to Holland to lend to me. It was just the thing to occupy the really boring journey back to Sweden.

( detailed review )

But yay, reading that has just made me grin excessively.