Reading Recap, weeks 48 and 49
Oh, good heavens...
You know, I’m fairly certain we have more than 4 weeks left in the year…wait no, that’s accurate.
Anyway.
Sorry I missed last week, the kids were sick and I was juggling stuff. Here’s what I’ve been up to.
Audiobooks
DIEROCK 88 by S.A. Ernster. Sort of The Count of Monte Cristo in space as far as concept and execution, although it’s very much a “part 1 of ?” book. Main character gets arrested because his dad is supposedly a secret space terrorist and once the kid is in prison, he has to decide to break out with his new friends who definitely dindu nuffin. Good space opera, I’d read a sequel.
KON-TIKI by Thor Heyerdahl. Fascinating true story about six Norwegians who piloted a raft from Peru to Polynesia in 1947, proving that it was possible for the Polynesians to have originated from South America. I thought it was cool and I learned a lot about the ocean.
TOOTH & CLAW by Craig Johnson. (Reviewed in the DIEROCK 88 video above.) Another Longmire prequel novella that I rather enjoyed, this time focusing on Walt and Henry working on an oil rig in Alaska before Walt returned to Wyoming full-time. There was a mutant bear and a ghost ship that complicated an already brutal survival tale. I think the ghost ship might have been real, I’ll need to look that up. I hope Johnson keeps writing these novellas in between the main mysteries, they’re good.
HEART OF THE MOUNTAIN by Larry Correia. Powerful ending to an exciting series. No spoilers here, since the book isn’t available to the wide public until February.
THE PERFECTIONISTS by Simon Winchester. No video on this one, it was generally interesting to learn the (semi) recent history of precision engineering and how it’s allowed us to create ridiculously advanced machines and tools. The earlier chapters held my attention better than the later ones, and it gave me some ideas if I ever need to expound on the lore of the Engines series.
Print and Comics
VOID RIVALS #14 (Skybound). We’re back to the slow, wandering braid of plotlines that caused previous issues to lose steam. Was kind of disappointed by the end of this one. The main highlight is that Hot Rod showed up, so now we’re gonna get more of my favorite Autobot. I have confidence that this will actually go somewhere, it just didn’t this month.
ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #2 (DC) Man, this one was also just…boring. And weirdly the art looked different from last month? The whole story was flashbacks of Diana and Steve, mixed with present-day glimpses of Steve. Diana beats back a horde of evil monsters in the beginning, and then a bigger and evil-er monster shows up at the end. First issue was strong, not sure what Kelly Thompson is doing now.
HORNSBY & HALO #1 (Ghost Machine). This publisher has yet to fail me, and this title was a great delivery on a concept I’ve seen done both well and poorly. Basically Heaven and Hell have a sort of truce, and they swap heirs in mortal bodies to see if nurture can beat nature. An angel boy is adopted by a family of bad guys and a demon girl gets picked up by good guys, in the same town, and they butt heads without knowing who they really are or what they’re up against. All of that is just the backdrop, there’s a plot besides that and it starts off extremely well. I am once again pleased with my Ghost Machine fandom.
THE HORSEMAN: WELCOME TO FLORESPARK (Rippaverse). Like the video says, Horseman is officially the best Rippaverse character, and the best book. Bennett and Dixon nailed it on this one.
Up Next
It’s December but I’m not gonna go bonkers on Christmas books just yet. I’ve got a few others to knock out. Since I’m finished with Thanksgiving books and the Silmarillion, I’m finally getting around to a L’Amour that I bought last September. So. Yeah. I do have one Christmas book from the library to tackle and it’s a short one. I’ll probably finish 5 titles this week.
Get back to work.