Richard

Fresh Meat!
I love it when I realize I’ve been ignoring my favorite authors and here’s piles of new stuff of which I was unaware. First are books 7-9 of the “Penric and Desdemona” series by Lois McMaster Bujold:
The Physicians of Vilnoc, The Assassins of Thasalo, Knot of Shadows
And an interstitial short story Masquerade in Lodi set after the third book Penric’s Fox.
Unsurprisingly the writing is very Bujold-like. Protagonists Penric and Miles Vorkosigan are not dissimilar and most scene changes start with a detailed description of what everyone is wearing.

Then Season of Skulls which is the third book of Charles Stross’ New Management series which is a spinoff of his excellent Laundry Files series. I don’t much care for the first two books because scarcely any of the characters are likeable or relatable. The third book is much better.

Then Weaponized set during the beginning of the Prador War in Neal Asher’s Polity universe. I found the book literally unmemorable. I had to look it up to recall the plot. I found the heavily layered structure of current events, near flashbacks, and far flashbacks irritating.

Then I was made aware of two of Martha Wells’ Murderbot series short stories freely available:
Compulsory set shortly after SecUnit hacked his governor module. Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory set just after the fourth book Exit Strategy: How can anyone not love Murderbot?

A friend of mine likes to read the Hugo award nominees and decide for himself the best book. I do the same to maintain dialog topics. I gave The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal a shot and after two attempts gave up. It’s woke Mary Sue crap and a sad indication of how far the Hugos have fallen.

 

Shirley Knot

Only 1 new book this past month. Martha Wells first fantasy novel in quite some time, or so the blurb claims — The Witch King. Moderately interesting, but I think not to be included amongst her best work (Murderbot!). I’m always bothered by books that start out in media res and then tell the back story a chapter at a time, interspersed between the ‘real time’ events. This is one of those books. Well crafted nonetheless, some intriguing ideas, some vague hand-wavery over the disparate forms and sources of magic. It might be something she can build on, as she did with The Cloud Roads, which launched the Raksura series. Then again, that series left me cold. Time will tell.

 

Fourscore

I rarely read fiction and this month’s entry is a good reason why I don’t. Written by Willliam Johnstone and published 10 years ago, Butch Cassidy, The Lost Years is a fast and easy read. The narrator tells a story that sort of suggests he may be the now retired Butch Cassidy. Very typical of the Saturday Matinee cowboy movies that I saw as a 9 year old, only now Butch has tired of gangsterism and is trying to run away from his past and become a solid cattle rancher.
Touches all the bases, handy with a gun and his fists but only as necessary. Hires some racially diverse cow punchers plus a couple of youngsters that could have come from the Ponderosa and two old guys, one of which is a cowboy gourmet cook. The preacher’s daughter comes along to add some romance. West Texas gets lonely.
If this was a movie RJ would have it on his list. If anyone is interested in the stuff our Dads read in those ’50s magazines this would fill the bill. Happy to send it along.
Where’s my Hamilton Books catalog, I need to order some more?

The Hyperbole

I ain’t read shit this month, So I’ll take care of some house cleaning, as I believe you nerd editor type people call it. Tonio informed me a while back that all book titles and short stories and series names should be italicized, not put in quotes, like everyone else in the world apparently thinks they should be. So if the two regular contributors and the other part-timers  could keep that in mind it’d be great. And (Mostly for Richard) I’ve decided from hence forth I’m gonna link any book or series mentioned to it’s Goodreads page so no need to put the link it the submissions anymore, Okay Thanks.