Well, for any who are regular readers of my blog, you know that I set myself the goal of reading 100 books this year. Bad news...I am not going to make it. Now, there is a second problem and that is that I have fallen way behind in posting what I have been reading. I have 10 books I have read but not posted because I am a lazy bum. So, today I am going to catch up. Without further ado, here are the rest of the books I have read this year.
#28 - Bradshaw's Railway Handbook 1866: Volume 1
I
am an avid fan of Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys,
and so when I found Bradshaws as an ebook on Amazon, and at a very
reasonable price, I snapped it up. Much of the book is quite boring, so
I cannot really recommend it to anyone who is not into that sort of
thing.
#29 - Swords and Ice Magic, by Fritz Leiber
When
I started reading the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories, this was the last
book. Unfortunately, it is not the best of the series, though still
good. They travel off to Rime Isle and get involved with magic and
gods...meaning that they are doing the same thing they have been doing
through the rest of the series. Highly recommended.
#30-32 - The Northworld Trilogy, by David Drake
This
is a weird book. The premise is so convoluted that I will not even
bother. You are better off reading it. The problem is that the books
are a little predictable. And at the end he still does not answer the
biggest question posed by the books, and that is just annoying.
#33 - Storm Over Warlock, by Andre Norton
Warlock
is a planet, and the storm is an attack. This is another of Norton's
books that basically mix magic and science, though the magic may
actually be very advanced technology. There are some very good parts to
this novel, and a few that lag well behind the rest. It's free on
Kindle, and worth what you pay for it. A pleasant dalliance.
#34 - The Knight and Knave of Swords. by Fritz Leiber
The
last of the Lankhmar series and the final curtain call for our heroes.
The first two stories are up to the old standards, but the final one,
which is by far the longest is just odd and leaves a sort of bad taste
in my mouth. I did not want to see them go out in a blaze of glory, but
one last real adventure would have been nice, and we did not get that.
#35 - Pictures From Italy, by Charles Dickens
A
travelogue written by Dickens after a sojourn in Italy in 1844. It
starts off with the author moving to Genoa and all of this observations
of Genoa. By the way, he does not like it. Then, he travels to all the
major sights in Italy and while he likes the sights, he does not like
much else that he sees in Italy. This is interesting to read, but it
includes very little of Dickens. There are no amusing encounters with
locals, or the tales of the happenings along the road. I was a little
disappointed. Free on Kindle.
#36 - Goblinopolis, by Robert G. Ferrell
Robert
is a friend I have known for many years, so when I saw his book on
Amazon for only $0.99 I had to buy it. I almost felt back because he
cannot have made much off a $1 sale. This is another book that mixes
technology and magic. The only real problem with the book is that it
requires the telling of a great deal of history as background so that
you understand the world where the novel is set. That can get a little
tedious, but if you muscle through you will be well rewarded. This is
still available on Kindle for a very low price, though not $0.99. I can
recommend this one.
#37 - Going Under, by Justina Robson
This
is the fourth book of the Quantum Gravity series. This one involves
our cyborg heroine going to Faery, the land of the Fae. To say the
least, it is bizarre. We start off in Deamonia where Lila tries to
answer various questions and avoid various assassination attempts, then
goes for a short time back to Otopia, Earth, where things are falling
apart because of something bleeding in from Faery, and Lila needs to
find an answer....in Faery. It ends with an encounter with Jack Frost,
Fae edition and a long lost legend, and all sorts of other confusing
things. If this brief review is confusing, then look back and find the
rest of the books I have reviewed from the Quantum Gravity series. I
like these books, but I am not entirely sure that I would recommend them
to anyone else. Too odd.
So, that is my reading for the year up to date. I did not do very well on my goal, but I did read some interesting stuff.
