April reading goals

[meganbmoore]

Novels:

Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear(currently reading)
Son of Avonar by Carol Berg
New Dresden book by Jim Butcher
The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan
Wolf Hunting by Jane Lindskold
Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip
Maghouse by Rob Thurman

Manga:

Basara Vol 26
Cantarella Vol 7-9
Claymore Vol 6-7
Fruits Basket Vol 19
Fullmetal Alchemist Vol 16
Gals! Vol 1-2
Kekkaishi vol 7-8
Kurogane Corpse Delivery Service Vol 3
Land of Silver Rain Vol 6-7
Mushishi Vol 3
Pumpkin Scissors Vol 2(currently reading)
Samurai Deeper Kyo Vol 27
Shaman Warrior Vol 3-6
Skip-Beat Vol 10-11
Togari Vol 5

US trades:

Mouse Guard:  Fall 1152

Comments

[sodapopgirl703.livejournal.com]

Totally agree with the Samurai Deeper Kyo.

[southerndave.livejournal.com]

My reading goals for April:

Finish Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart.
Maybe start something else.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I finally lucked into the first half-dozen SDK volumes on BookMooch, so I should be dipping into those soon; still waiting for the one middle volume of the Lindskold I'm missing before starting back on those. And I really need to check out the Mushi-shi manga -- I saw several eps of the anime at Katsucon and it more than lived up to all the hype...

(And no, I still haven't had the stomach to start in on the Cassie Edwards yet...although all the mutual ranting about Savage Honor and the two gawdawful Cherokee books I sent to a friend have inspired another mutual friend to pick up a freebie copy to rip apart. The one she's grabbed features an 1890s lady lawyer who's confined to a wheelchair for psychosomatic reasons; we're all predicting a miracle cure based on Mighty Savage Wang Magcal Healing Sex any minute now.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

For lack of a better way to describing it, the Mushishi manga reminds me of a cross between Blade of the immortal(art) and Kino no Tabi/Kino's Journey(atmosphere and pacing) with a bit of horror thrown in, but not meant to horrify in the usual way. And I doubt that makes sense(esp. if you aren't familiar with both of those series) but it's what I think when I'm reading.

I hope SDK works for you. It doesn't seem to be gelling well with Red. (Based on what she's told me about her problems with it, though, I'm thinking Rurouni Kenshin or Bleach might work for her a little better.)

And of course Mighty Wang will cure our lady lawyer, who no doubt has very modern and PC ideas.

BTW, the Bear book is pretty good, and kinda says "STFU" to a lot of the standard Arthurian myth based books. As an example: The current Merlin is a black woman in her 30s, maybe her 40s(her age hasn't been stated, and I'm trying to narrow it down based on things revealed about her, such as her being a university professor) and she is either very sexually active or lesbian, or both(I lean towards both...when told she'll have to kiss another woman to enter into faerie and asked if that makes her worry about her reputation, she replies that the entire campus has no doubts about which way she swings.) She has both sides of the unseelie court and the human mages trying to seduce her into joining their ranks, but is actually intelligently demanding answers and weighing those she gets, and there's a strong feeling that the ones doing the manipulating and controlling aren't the ones with experience in magic. In addition, Morgan is neither an evil witch nor a misunderstood saint, but rather a very intelligent, mature woman with a dark past she seems to feel no remorse over, but also no desire to revisit, and has served as the voice of reason saveral times. Also, the current Pendragon is a werewolf.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

KnT I haven't seen but I'm passingly familiar with BotI by way of S_D and various other online recs -- it's on my list to pick up eventually as it looks like a more fantastical, modern take on classic historical series like Lone Wolf and Cub. And judging from what I saw of the anime sampling, the horror is definitely very much on the mild side, more Twilight Zone than Junji Ito... I really liked it, the disjointed episodic nature of it all sort of pushed my short-story buttons, and that whole mysterious protagonist and mysterious magical world under the surface of everything really works for me.

As for SDK, I enjoyed the anime well enough although I didn't fall in love with it, and it felt very much like one of those cases where the show wound up kind of rushed and shallow because it was cramming too much plot and a cast of thousands into a limited amount of space. That generally bodes well for the source material being more satisfying than the adaptation.

And of course Mighty Wang will cure our lady lawyer, who no doubt has very modern and PC ideas.

It's like you've read it already! Delux came up with a brilliant capsule description of the entire Edwards ouevre's heroines in her latest rant: "antiracism historical Mary Sues" (http://delux-vivens.livejournal.com/769075.html).

And I still haven't read any E. Bear, but from what I've seen on her LJ that sort of subversion of genre/fannish etc. expectations is a big thing for her.

[estara.livejournal.com]

I'm confused now: what you're quoting about Bear is in Blood and Iron, not in Whiskey & Water, which is the follow up of this part of her Promethean series....

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Blood and Iron is the one I'm reading. Did I put the wrong title in the post?

[estara.livejournal.com]

"Novels:

Blood and Stone by Elizabeth Bear(currently reading)"

I'd say so ^^

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, that's what I get for posting at 1 am. *fixes*

[chomiji]

Just as well you found the SDKs ... my attempts to get together with my friend Mike (who had 1-5 and didn't want them) have fallen victim to Overscheduled Suburban Family syndrome.

Mushishi is a very, very different sort of experience. There are certainly other manga that have some of its elements, but it's not like anything we've been reading together (as it were). There's really only one continuing character, for example, so kiss all the team/buddy stuff we like goodbye.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to think what it reminded me of, other than the obvious Twilight Zone comparisons, and the main things coming to mind are Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John stories, and some of Mignola's Hellboy stuff. It's a more quiet, lyrical feel than either, and Hellboy does some of the time have recurring buddy characters, but they've all got that core of a mysterious do-gooder figure travelling about and gettng involved in all sorts of magical strangeness that lurks under the surface of the mundane world. And I'm dreadfully weak for that sort of storytelling...

[bzoppa.livejournal.com]

New Dresden Files!!!!

Oh boy.

[chomiji]

w00t! Looking forward to talking about SDK, Mushishi, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and Furuba~!

I'll have to dig out Ombria in Shadow - I'm not remembering which one that is.

No Marta Randall ... ?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Marta Randall?

[chomiji]

Oh, that was embarrassing! I meant Martha Wells.

But you might like Marta Randall's The Sword of Winter, although it is long out of print. Abebooks has hardback copies in decent condition for $1.00.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I wondered if you meant Wells. I don't have Death of the Necromancer yet, and wasnt to read it before the trilogy.

What's the Randall about?

[chomiji]

The Sword of Winter by Marta Randall - Lyeth loathes her job as Rider (official messenger) to the hated Lord of Jantesi, because she's become the public symbol of his tireless effort to hunt down and kill all who oppose him. Now that he lies dying and refusing to name his heir, Lyeth finds herself - and the orphan boy she's recently acquired on a whim - drawn into an elaborate locked-room mystery. A guildmaster is killed while all the inhabitants and death watch guests of Jantesi Castle - which is on a rocky island in the middle of a large river - are trapped within its walls during a blizzard, and the solution to the mystery will affect the future of Lyeth, her young ward, and the entire province.

Lyeth is a fascinating character. She was raised essentially in exile by a man who'd turned his back on the kingdom of which she is now a part, and she is simultaneously an insider by her position at her Lord's right hand and an outsider by her upbringing. She has a dirty mouth, a bad temper, and an evil wit, and a very sensual on-again off-again relationship with her Lord's daughter's steward. The huge centuries-old Jantesi Castle and its society are lovingly detailed, and the story is also very, very funny at points. The kingdom is at an interesting point in its history: steam engines and the telegraph have recently been discovered. There are also some disturbing and thought-provoking sexual situations - I'll note in advance that this society seems to tolerate some things that I don't approve of myself. But overall, it's a good book. You may like Lyeth a lot.

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

I like how you listed them out. I liked it so much I'm stealing it. I usually just do "read x amount of books" and that doesn't seem to be working. So concrete books to read would probably be helpful for me.

I love reading so much, it's pathetic how hard it is for me to actually, you know, DO IT.