2021 was a year of reading comfort fiction, mostly because I was in cancer treatment for so much of the year that I just wanted to read what I already knew I would enjoy. Hence, a lot of later volumes in various series.
Normally I list the twelve books I enjoyed the most, but this year because of all the series' reading and because I mostly read volumes back to back, I'm just going to group everything by series and include book/volume numbers. I didn't start any new series. This is all ongoing stuff.
My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 4: Strategem by Yoshiki Tanaka
We finally see all the politicking in the previous volume pay off as the Dominion of Phezzan makes its move and Reinhart decides to make use of their subterfuge, bringing him one step closer to claiming the imperial throne for himself. He feels a lot better in this book, less distant, perhaps because he's getting over his grief. Yang's chapters aren't quite as good this time around, perhaps because he has less to do. This isn't a particularly space battley volume and while his grand strategy insight is as good as ever, his government doesn't like to hear what he has to say, as usual.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom! Vols 2-3 by Satoru Yamaguchi
In Vol 2 Katarina continues her quest to avoid getting a "bad end" as the villainess of the otome video game she's been reincarnated into. Now that she's a teenager she finally goes off to the magic academy, beginning the game proper, but this time around due to her bond with her potential adversaries it's clear the story will play out differently. There is surprisingly a "bad guy" character who shows up to give the story a little oomph in the finale, but otherwise it ends just about the way you'd expect.
Vol 3 is a little stranger since Vol 2 wraps up the premise of the series, but it was clearly popular enough that the author or his editors wanted to continue so what we get is a stand alone volume of Katarina meeting new people, getting into more trouble, and causing more people to be smitten by her. It's all right, but feels a bit like filler.
Baccano! Vols 8-10 by Ryohgo Narita *
Baccano volumes 8-10 cover the 1934 Alcatraz storyline as well as Nebula Corporation shenanigans in Chicago. For anime-onlies, this arc covers where Ladd Russo wound up after he was pulled off the Flying Pussyfoot and finally puts Huey Laforet's plans into action. Firo gets some pretty awesome moments as he has to operate solo inside Alcatraz for much of this arc and he really gets to put his alchemic knowledge to good use. The best mostly new to us characters are probably the twin homunculi, Sham and Leeza, who have been mentioned before, but get to finally take the stage in this arc.
Shadow of the Fox Vols 2-3 by Julie Kagawa
Soul of the Sword and Night of the Dragon are the second and third books in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy, continuing and concluding Yumeko's journey to stop the summoning of the dragon god in a pseudo-medieval Japanese setting. We get more POVs as characters previously denied a spot in the narrative limelight get their own stories to tell, but I found I didn't like the diluted focus as much. The ending was similarly mixed for me. Parts I liked, parts I didn't, though the journey towards getting there was very good.
The Protectorate Vols 1-3 by Megan E. O'Keefe *
Velocity Weapon, Chaos Vector, and Catalyst Gate are the three books in the trilogy. If you like action sf with careful worldbuilding, this is an excellent choice. It's got spies, military operations, government conspiracies. The two timelines running through the first book are amazing as I couldn't help wondering how they were going to resolve. I love Sanda and Tomas, they have great chemistry together, even when things aren't working out, and Bero is possibly one of my favorite AI characters ever. (There's nothing quite like a sulky warship.) It's all quite good.
The Murderbot Diaries Vol 3 and 4 by Martha Wells *
Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy are the third and fourth novellas in the The Murderbot Diaries, bringing the titular Murderbot full circle with the decisions it's made since the end of the first novella. It still hates caring about people, because oftentimes people are stupid and caring makes this hard, but it still cares anyway, making Murderbot highly relatable.
Showing posts with label baccano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baccano. Show all posts
Monday, December 27, 2021
Monday, January 4, 2021
My Favorite Books of 2020
My 2020 reading year didn't go off as planned, particularly in regards to picking up new reading material, but with all the staying at home that had to be done, I ended up mostly reading backlogged physical and ebooks.
These are the twelve books I enjoyed the most, and in the order I read them. My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
I picked this up for Kindle a while ago when it was on sale for a quarter (!), figuring I'd never get it cheaper short of going to a library. It's one of those books I'd always heard about, but never read while growing up, and while the Vietnam allegory is pretty apparent once you get to the middle section of the book, a lot of the societal changes come off as insensitive as best and homophobic at worst. Though the protagonist tries to be a decent guy and avoids being a jerk to any of the numerous gay characters that appear later in the story, he never gets comfortable with the thought that a queer society could be just fine even if it's not for him. If you can ignore all that (and it's all over the later parts of the book), it's not a bad story about a soldier just trying to find his own piece of heaven, but it hasn't aged well.
Baccano! Vol 6: 1933 <First> The Slash -Cloudy to Rainy- by Ryohgo Narita
More Baccano! The series works much better in the 1930s than the 2001 of the last installment, and we get to return to the woes of our favorite mobsters. In particular, this book focuses on Tick and Maria, who were minor characters previously, when Luck Gandor sends them to negotiate with some new hoodlums in town, who happen to be Jacuzzi Splot and his gang! Dallas is finally pulled out of the river, Firo has to deal with the psychological burden placed on him by inheriting Szilard's memories, and Ronny from the Martillo family gets to hint at his true colors. There's a lot going on as usual and Narita's sense of comedic timing is on point, knowing exactly when to turn the worst tension into an incredible joke.
Baccano! Vol 7: 1933 <Last> The Slash -Bloody to Fair- by Ryohgo Narita
The second half of the Slash arc ramps up with Vino being called into back into action after having been a non-appearance most of the previous book, and we get to see him and Chané as a romantic couple for the first time, which is a bit weird if you haven't watched the anime, because the specifics of how they became a couple are skipped over for another time in the books themselves. Tick and Maria go through their own bit of character development making them worthwhile additions to the pre-existing cast. Though they're clearly as morally impaired as most of the cast, I can't help rooting for those two.
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
I'd been wanting to read this ever since I heard this was Sherlock Holmes in space and Watson is a spaceship. I'm not sure I see the parallel between The Shadow's Child and Watson, other than through being a detective's partner, but Long Chau is definitely a far future Holmes; prickly personality, eccentric habits, and all. This was a really swift read and The Shadow's Child is a fantastic narrator, but the mystery was solved a little too easily for me. Still, I'd definitely be interested in a sequel.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom! Vol 1 by Satoru Yamaguchi
If you need a light and fluffy read, this is a surprisingly short first volume that serves as a sort of extended prologue to Katarina's plans to avoid getting either exiled or killed. Katarina is initially the spoiled daughter of a duke until she hits her head one day and realizes that in her previous life she used to be a teenager in our world until she got into a car accident while riding her bike. More than that, she seems to have been reborn as the rival character in the last video game she was playing, the otome Fortune Lover, and the rival doesn't have a single happy ending in the game! Now that she's armed with knowledge of her future, Katarina puts plans in motion to change her fate, but she's also prone to overthinking things and/or making strange jumps in logic, making multiple characters wonder just what happened to the duke's daughter.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Murderbot continues to be a fantastic narrator, though I wasn't sure where the story was going considering the ending for the first book. Being a construct of few wants (other than good entertainment), Murderbot didn't seem like one to go off on unnecessary adventures, and the answer is searching for what really happened that caused it to start thinking of itself as Murderbot in the first place. The soul searching was worthwhile, but I wished that had been the climax of the story instead of the other plot thread, which I was much less invested in. ART was the highlight of the book though and I'm disappointed the research vessel and Murderbot parted ways at the end.
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 3: Endurance by Yoshiki Tanaka
Though I enjoyed the previous two LoGH volumes, the first third of Endurance was aptly named, spending an enormous amount of time on setup and political maneuvering before getting to the central conflict (the worst part being that the setup ends up being for a future book and not the current one). Yang's chapters continue to be a highlight, given how politicians and enemy combatants alike really don't know what to make of the guy. Reinhard's chapters are unfortunately more distant. Emotionally he's suffered a great loss since the end of the last book, but his loss is also the audience's loss as it makes him a much harder character to relate to. No doubt some of that is intentional, but I found I just didn't like his chapters as much.
86 Vol 1 by Asato Asato *
The first book of the 86 series is surprisingly weighty for a light novel series and was originally conceived as a stand alone so there's no need to commit anything further. Though it's primarily a war story following a remote commanding officer of the ethnic majority and her squadron composed of the oppressed minority, it's laced throughout with an exploration of government sanctioned racism and how privilege can blind otherwise "nice" people. Lena's growth over the course of the story, and realizing that it may be impossible for her to ever truly become a comrade to her soldiers, is quite frankly a conclusion I didn't expect to be reached. The combat and war segments are good too, but it's really the interpersonal relationships between Lena and her squad that make the book sing.
The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez
There are essentially two stories in this book; one following a mining operation on 22nd century Mars with a strong hard science fiction slant, and a one following the crew of the 18th century sailing ship the Daedalus, which is pursuing pirates and a rogue alchemist across the solar system with a golden age science fantasy feel. (Think of the animated Treasure Planet movie or the D&D Spelljammer setting.) The sub-genre mixing is fun and unusual, but I developed a strong preference for one storyline over the other, and the two take a long time to meet, so reading was an uneven experience. I kept wanting to hurry up to get back to the team I liked better.
The Venusian Gamit by Michael J. Martinez
The third book in the Daedalus Trilogy and the one with the best pacing. You can really see how Martinez's craft improved since the first book, and there are fun moments like the two dimensions meeting up again. I wasn't surprised to read in the notes at the end of the book that Martinez wrote the trilogy for Weatherby. You have to really like sailors on 18th century ships to write this stuff! It was an exciting read all the way up until the end when I realized that not all of my questions were going to get answered. But if you don't sweat the details, it's satisfying enough.
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart *
Set in an East Asian themed island nation, The Bone Shard Daughter mostly follows the struggles of Lin, the imperial princess who is desperate to prove herself worthy of being her father's heir, and the smuggler Jovus, who is looking for his missing wife. The world building is quite good, particularly the imperial constructs, and I'm really interested in seeing Lin's path forward after all the upheaval at the end of the book. It's not going to be an easy one!
Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa *
Really impressed by this Japanese-inspired fantasy that introduces just enough Japanese language that the culture comes across, without overindulging. Yumeko and Tatsumi work well as the dual narrators with their differing attitudes and points of view, and they're distinctive enough that they can be told apart by narrative voice alone. This is the first in a trilogy and the end of the book is very much a break before starting another story arc rather than a complete ending.
These are the twelve books I enjoyed the most, and in the order I read them. My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
I picked this up for Kindle a while ago when it was on sale for a quarter (!), figuring I'd never get it cheaper short of going to a library. It's one of those books I'd always heard about, but never read while growing up, and while the Vietnam allegory is pretty apparent once you get to the middle section of the book, a lot of the societal changes come off as insensitive as best and homophobic at worst. Though the protagonist tries to be a decent guy and avoids being a jerk to any of the numerous gay characters that appear later in the story, he never gets comfortable with the thought that a queer society could be just fine even if it's not for him. If you can ignore all that (and it's all over the later parts of the book), it's not a bad story about a soldier just trying to find his own piece of heaven, but it hasn't aged well.
Baccano! Vol 6: 1933 <First> The Slash -Cloudy to Rainy- by Ryohgo Narita
More Baccano! The series works much better in the 1930s than the 2001 of the last installment, and we get to return to the woes of our favorite mobsters. In particular, this book focuses on Tick and Maria, who were minor characters previously, when Luck Gandor sends them to negotiate with some new hoodlums in town, who happen to be Jacuzzi Splot and his gang! Dallas is finally pulled out of the river, Firo has to deal with the psychological burden placed on him by inheriting Szilard's memories, and Ronny from the Martillo family gets to hint at his true colors. There's a lot going on as usual and Narita's sense of comedic timing is on point, knowing exactly when to turn the worst tension into an incredible joke.
Baccano! Vol 7: 1933 <Last> The Slash -Bloody to Fair- by Ryohgo Narita
The second half of the Slash arc ramps up with Vino being called into back into action after having been a non-appearance most of the previous book, and we get to see him and Chané as a romantic couple for the first time, which is a bit weird if you haven't watched the anime, because the specifics of how they became a couple are skipped over for another time in the books themselves. Tick and Maria go through their own bit of character development making them worthwhile additions to the pre-existing cast. Though they're clearly as morally impaired as most of the cast, I can't help rooting for those two.
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
I'd been wanting to read this ever since I heard this was Sherlock Holmes in space and Watson is a spaceship. I'm not sure I see the parallel between The Shadow's Child and Watson, other than through being a detective's partner, but Long Chau is definitely a far future Holmes; prickly personality, eccentric habits, and all. This was a really swift read and The Shadow's Child is a fantastic narrator, but the mystery was solved a little too easily for me. Still, I'd definitely be interested in a sequel.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom! Vol 1 by Satoru Yamaguchi
If you need a light and fluffy read, this is a surprisingly short first volume that serves as a sort of extended prologue to Katarina's plans to avoid getting either exiled or killed. Katarina is initially the spoiled daughter of a duke until she hits her head one day and realizes that in her previous life she used to be a teenager in our world until she got into a car accident while riding her bike. More than that, she seems to have been reborn as the rival character in the last video game she was playing, the otome Fortune Lover, and the rival doesn't have a single happy ending in the game! Now that she's armed with knowledge of her future, Katarina puts plans in motion to change her fate, but she's also prone to overthinking things and/or making strange jumps in logic, making multiple characters wonder just what happened to the duke's daughter.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Murderbot continues to be a fantastic narrator, though I wasn't sure where the story was going considering the ending for the first book. Being a construct of few wants (other than good entertainment), Murderbot didn't seem like one to go off on unnecessary adventures, and the answer is searching for what really happened that caused it to start thinking of itself as Murderbot in the first place. The soul searching was worthwhile, but I wished that had been the climax of the story instead of the other plot thread, which I was much less invested in. ART was the highlight of the book though and I'm disappointed the research vessel and Murderbot parted ways at the end.
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 3: Endurance by Yoshiki Tanaka
Though I enjoyed the previous two LoGH volumes, the first third of Endurance was aptly named, spending an enormous amount of time on setup and political maneuvering before getting to the central conflict (the worst part being that the setup ends up being for a future book and not the current one). Yang's chapters continue to be a highlight, given how politicians and enemy combatants alike really don't know what to make of the guy. Reinhard's chapters are unfortunately more distant. Emotionally he's suffered a great loss since the end of the last book, but his loss is also the audience's loss as it makes him a much harder character to relate to. No doubt some of that is intentional, but I found I just didn't like his chapters as much.
86 Vol 1 by Asato Asato *
The first book of the 86 series is surprisingly weighty for a light novel series and was originally conceived as a stand alone so there's no need to commit anything further. Though it's primarily a war story following a remote commanding officer of the ethnic majority and her squadron composed of the oppressed minority, it's laced throughout with an exploration of government sanctioned racism and how privilege can blind otherwise "nice" people. Lena's growth over the course of the story, and realizing that it may be impossible for her to ever truly become a comrade to her soldiers, is quite frankly a conclusion I didn't expect to be reached. The combat and war segments are good too, but it's really the interpersonal relationships between Lena and her squad that make the book sing.
The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez
There are essentially two stories in this book; one following a mining operation on 22nd century Mars with a strong hard science fiction slant, and a one following the crew of the 18th century sailing ship the Daedalus, which is pursuing pirates and a rogue alchemist across the solar system with a golden age science fantasy feel. (Think of the animated Treasure Planet movie or the D&D Spelljammer setting.) The sub-genre mixing is fun and unusual, but I developed a strong preference for one storyline over the other, and the two take a long time to meet, so reading was an uneven experience. I kept wanting to hurry up to get back to the team I liked better.
The Venusian Gamit by Michael J. Martinez
The third book in the Daedalus Trilogy and the one with the best pacing. You can really see how Martinez's craft improved since the first book, and there are fun moments like the two dimensions meeting up again. I wasn't surprised to read in the notes at the end of the book that Martinez wrote the trilogy for Weatherby. You have to really like sailors on 18th century ships to write this stuff! It was an exciting read all the way up until the end when I realized that not all of my questions were going to get answered. But if you don't sweat the details, it's satisfying enough.
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart *
Set in an East Asian themed island nation, The Bone Shard Daughter mostly follows the struggles of Lin, the imperial princess who is desperate to prove herself worthy of being her father's heir, and the smuggler Jovus, who is looking for his missing wife. The world building is quite good, particularly the imperial constructs, and I'm really interested in seeing Lin's path forward after all the upheaval at the end of the book. It's not going to be an easy one!
Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa *
Really impressed by this Japanese-inspired fantasy that introduces just enough Japanese language that the culture comes across, without overindulging. Yumeko and Tatsumi work well as the dual narrators with their differing attitudes and points of view, and they're distinctive enough that they can be told apart by narrative voice alone. This is the first in a trilogy and the end of the book is very much a break before starting another story arc rather than a complete ending.
Monday, April 6, 2020
Baccano - The Slash
One of my favorite anime series is Baccano!, the overlooked cousin of the more popular Durarara!! (the author clearly loves his exclamation points). I was introduced to it by dumb luck. Simulcasting was not yet a big thing, and I was just digging through online anime catalogs to find something that looked interesting, and an anime set in the 1930s with gangsters was right up my alley.
It ended by being one of the few anime series in my adult life where after I finished it I immediately turned around and rewatched it; though I did switch dub languages from Japanese to English for my second viewing. And in this particular case I prefer the English dub because 1) they attempt appropriate regional accents for the time period, and 2) for a story set in the United States featuring a cast that is primarily white, it's really weird hearing Japanese honorifics.
What enchanted me about Baccano is how the story unfolds. You have three different storylines taking place in three different years, but the way the scenes were laid out, outside of chronological order, is simply brilliant because you learn things at the point when they matter most even if the situation was actually set up the previous year.
I was a bit disappointed when I started reading and discovered the anime was primarily drawn from the first four books of the novel series (which are short since they're light novels, roughly the equivalent of YA in the US, but heavily serialized). The novels are set by year, so you don't quite have the same jumps in the anime, but it quickly became apparent to me that author Ryohgo Narita likes chaos.
Reading Baccano! is like watching someone set up five lines of dominos that are on a collision course with each other. He jumps POVs a lot and characters are constantly moving. What happens in one scene might not make sense initially, but then he'll revisit it later from a different POV and suddenly it'll mean something. He also takes advantage of those jumps to play with readers' expectations. We know someone's coming, so when the doorbell rings we expect it's them, but it's not. And it isn't the second time either. It is the third time, but then who's ringing the doorbell the fourth time? Isn't everyone here already?
And this is a long winded way to say I've finished reading The Slash arc. The anime covered up to Vol 4 (and the OAVs that make up episodes 13-15 are Vol 14, which is not in English yet) and Vol 5 was strange for being a stand alone volume set in 2001, so it really couldn't have been added to the anime in any sensible fashion, especially since the majority of the 1930s characters aren't even in it.
Vol 6 and 7 comprise The Slash though, and it's too bad Baccano didn't get a second season because this would have been a fun addition, and it follows up right where the anime and OAVs left off. Jacuzzi's gang has set up shop in New York, Eve has finally dredged her brother out of the river, and Claire and Chané are an item. We also get introduced to our latest misanthropes, Tick and Maria, who previously made animated appearances, but were limited to a single scene each.
Most of the characters in Baccano! are a bit messed up, which isn't unexpected for a series that focuses on gangsters and immortal alchemists, but I've never met a more heartwarming duo of torture expert and assassin. I don't know that I could call either Tick or Maria sane, but when Maria begins to doubt the usefulness of her katana, Tick is the most supporting ray of sunshine he can possibly be. And Tick, who doubts the existence of anything he can't physically cut, finally finds a human bond in Maria.
There's definitely a lot of cutting in The Slash; with scissors, with katanas, with spears, and less conventional weapons too. We finally see what Huey Laforet's plans are, given we see very little of him in the anime, and the demon responsible for giving out the immortality elixir is formally revealed as part of the preexisting cast. Heck, even the senator who has a bit role in the anime turns out to be a person quite knowledgeable about many of these ostensibly secret events.
This wraps up the year 1933 for the Baccano series and it moves to 1934 with an arc set on Alcatraz next. Huey is already imprisoned there and we know that Ladd Russo from The Grand Punk Railroad arc is being transferred there, so things are sure to be interesting.
It ended by being one of the few anime series in my adult life where after I finished it I immediately turned around and rewatched it; though I did switch dub languages from Japanese to English for my second viewing. And in this particular case I prefer the English dub because 1) they attempt appropriate regional accents for the time period, and 2) for a story set in the United States featuring a cast that is primarily white, it's really weird hearing Japanese honorifics.
What enchanted me about Baccano is how the story unfolds. You have three different storylines taking place in three different years, but the way the scenes were laid out, outside of chronological order, is simply brilliant because you learn things at the point when they matter most even if the situation was actually set up the previous year.
I was a bit disappointed when I started reading and discovered the anime was primarily drawn from the first four books of the novel series (which are short since they're light novels, roughly the equivalent of YA in the US, but heavily serialized). The novels are set by year, so you don't quite have the same jumps in the anime, but it quickly became apparent to me that author Ryohgo Narita likes chaos.
Reading Baccano! is like watching someone set up five lines of dominos that are on a collision course with each other. He jumps POVs a lot and characters are constantly moving. What happens in one scene might not make sense initially, but then he'll revisit it later from a different POV and suddenly it'll mean something. He also takes advantage of those jumps to play with readers' expectations. We know someone's coming, so when the doorbell rings we expect it's them, but it's not. And it isn't the second time either. It is the third time, but then who's ringing the doorbell the fourth time? Isn't everyone here already?
And this is a long winded way to say I've finished reading The Slash arc. The anime covered up to Vol 4 (and the OAVs that make up episodes 13-15 are Vol 14, which is not in English yet) and Vol 5 was strange for being a stand alone volume set in 2001, so it really couldn't have been added to the anime in any sensible fashion, especially since the majority of the 1930s characters aren't even in it.
Vol 6 and 7 comprise The Slash though, and it's too bad Baccano didn't get a second season because this would have been a fun addition, and it follows up right where the anime and OAVs left off. Jacuzzi's gang has set up shop in New York, Eve has finally dredged her brother out of the river, and Claire and Chané are an item. We also get introduced to our latest misanthropes, Tick and Maria, who previously made animated appearances, but were limited to a single scene each.
Most of the characters in Baccano! are a bit messed up, which isn't unexpected for a series that focuses on gangsters and immortal alchemists, but I've never met a more heartwarming duo of torture expert and assassin. I don't know that I could call either Tick or Maria sane, but when Maria begins to doubt the usefulness of her katana, Tick is the most supporting ray of sunshine he can possibly be. And Tick, who doubts the existence of anything he can't physically cut, finally finds a human bond in Maria.
There's definitely a lot of cutting in The Slash; with scissors, with katanas, with spears, and less conventional weapons too. We finally see what Huey Laforet's plans are, given we see very little of him in the anime, and the demon responsible for giving out the immortality elixir is formally revealed as part of the preexisting cast. Heck, even the senator who has a bit role in the anime turns out to be a person quite knowledgeable about many of these ostensibly secret events.
This wraps up the year 1933 for the Baccano series and it moves to 1934 with an arc set on Alcatraz next. Huey is already imprisoned there and we know that Ladd Russo from The Grand Punk Railroad arc is being transferred there, so things are sure to be interesting.
Monday, January 27, 2020
My Favorite Books of 2019
I'm afraid I've mostly been reading series last year. Since I was going through cancer treatment I had a lot more time for reading, and that gave me a fair bit of catch-up time. That said though, I did manage to squeeze in a couple of stand alones.
These are the twelve books I enjoyed the most, and in the order I read them. My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher
I was introduced to Ursula Vernon via her short fiction, and knew that she wrote her books for older readers as T. Kingfisher. She's always been a pleasure to read and from her Twitter I've become familiar with her sense of humor and passion for gardening, so when one of her books went on sale I figured I should pick it up. The Seventh Bride has a lot of funny asides and jumps in logic to dress up what is otherwise a retelling of the Bluebeard fairy tale. I never got entirely attached to the protagonist Rhea, but the narration was snappy enough to keep me moving along.
On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard *
I've been meaning to read this one ever since it came out, and finally got it as a Christmas present. It primarily follows two characters, Quyen and Linh, during their stay together at the rapidly fading Prosper Station. What's amazing is that both characters are sympathetic, but both of them are carrying such incredible amounts of baggage that it prevents them from ever fully understanding or wanting to understand the other's point of view. It's set in Bodard's Xuya universe, so it's a spacefaring future based on predominantly Vietnamese and Chinese culture. I really liked this one and I'm not surprised it was nominated for the Nebula and Hugo awards.
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 2: Ambition by Yoshiki Tanaka *
I really enjoyed the first volume of LotGH last year and bought Vol 2 almost immediately after, not knowing when I'd get around to it. This time we see Reinhard and Yang operating on parallel tracks to do similar jobs in their respective nations, though for vastly different reasons. As such the core conflict isn't between the Galactic Empire and the Free Planet Alliance, so enjoyment may vary depending on which side you enjoy reading about more. I really loved Yang's chapters, but Reinhard's probably have more setup for what's going to happen later in the series. There's no cliffhanger though, so you won't be left hanging at the end, and I like that.
All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka *
I'd been wanting to read this for a while, even before the US movie adaptation came out as Edge of Tomorrow. Even if you've seen the movie, it's worth reading as it's tonally different (much less funny) and forgoes the Hollywood ending. Keiji is a hapless private set to head off into his first ever battle with the alien mimics when he finds himself caught in a time loop that always seems to end with him getting killed. Frustrustated with the whole thing, he decides that the only thing to do is become so damn good he can make it out of the meat grinder alive, and he spends well over a hundred attempts trying to do just that.
Baccano! Vol 5: 2001 The Children of Bottle by Ryohgo Narita
This is a rather odd time jump that brings the series up to modern day, though it's more understandable after you realize the author's notes and realize this could have been the second book instead what became the start of The Grand Punk Railroad duology. It doesn't make much use of the modern day setting, it probably could have been set in the 30s without much of a difference, but what the time skip allows is for many of the series' original immortals to reunite after they no longer have to fear being killed (since the source of that concern died in Vol 1). It's a decent stand alone, and we finally learn the number of surviving immortals from the ship, but I'm also looking forward to going back to the 30s in the next volume.
Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone
Third book in the Craft Sequence. As always, Max Gladstone's world building is impeccable. I love the island setting for the third book and how such a small nation has to manage its power and security against more powerful, larger nations outside its borders. As in Two Serpents Rise, change and colonization by outsiders is very much a thing, with foreigners kicking back on this world's equivalent of a Hawaiian vacation. Kai and Izzy are good protagonists, and Teo comes back for a second round, though it took me a while to remember who she was.
Serpentine by Cindy Pon
This had been sitting in my Kindle backlog a while, but the Kindle is really nice for reading when you're not feeling up for the weight of a regular book. I don't read a lot of Chinese fantasies, but this is one of the better ones. I mostly found it weird how all the servant names are translated into their English meanings, but the other names are not. It's hard for me not to like a snake girl though, and Skybright is easily the highlight of the book. Not only can she take on a demonic half-snake form, but she figuratively kicks real ass with it too.
Sacrifice by Cindy Pon
This was a spur of the moment pick because I was still recovering from surgery while I finished reading Serpentine on Kindle, and it was literally a button push and $0.99 to get the sequel, so I figured I'd go ahead while the first book was fresh in my mind. It was a good choice. The change to multiple POVs was different, but I didn't mind too much except that I found I didn't care about Kai Shen enough to really enjoy gaining his POV scenes. What was going on around Skybright and Zhen Ni was always more interesting. There's a bit of a love triangle in this one and I don't quite like the way it resolves, but it implies that eventually the resolution I would have liked will happen.
Spice & Wolf Vol 14 by Isuna Hasekura
I picked this up because I still wasn't well enough for gaming and I realized that I really wanted to do a better job of catching up with Spice & Wolf since Vol 13 was just an anthology and reading Vol 14 would let me get back into the main story. Spice & Wolf is always at its best when Lawrence is fretting over a future with Holo, and now that the end of their journey is looming he finds himself daydreaming about one day living with her, while also assuming that once they part ways they will likely never see each other again. This is probably the best volume I've read since the first half of the series, and it helps that it takes place in Lenos, where Lawrence first told Holo that he loves her.
Spice & Wolf Vol 15: Coin of the Sun I by Isuna Hasekura
And then I couldn't stop, because I already had the book in my backlog and Vol 14 left me wanting to plunge into the two-part finale. For a two-parter it actually has a pretty good resolution except for the obvious cliffhanger dropped at the end of the last chapter. Though there are the usual economic shenanigans going on, it's nice that at one point Lawrence is encouraged to stop looking for everything that could potentially go wrong and take a step towards realizing his dream of owning his own shop.
Spice & Wolf Vol 16: Coin of the Sun II by Isuna Hasekura
Unfortunately this volume was a bit of a letdown. It would have been fine as a middle book, but a lot of the dramatics force Holo and Lawrence into reacting rather than acting themselves. While I understand the realistic message that there are some things that a single person cannot change, I think Hasekura was trying to up the stakes, but didn't do it in a way that really served the characters, making the final book a lot less personal despite all the callbacks and obvious trust the two leads display in each other.
The World Awakening by Dan Koboldt
The last book in the Gateways to Alissia trilogy. I was on the fence with this one, but had some Amazon ebook credit and a long wait at the DMV ahead of me so I picked it up for my Kindle. I was pleasantly surprised and this is definitely the best book of the series. Still got some nits, and the decision-making of most of the major characters from the Earth side of the portal is pretty predictable, but overall it was a fun read.
These are the twelve books I enjoyed the most, and in the order I read them. My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher
I was introduced to Ursula Vernon via her short fiction, and knew that she wrote her books for older readers as T. Kingfisher. She's always been a pleasure to read and from her Twitter I've become familiar with her sense of humor and passion for gardening, so when one of her books went on sale I figured I should pick it up. The Seventh Bride has a lot of funny asides and jumps in logic to dress up what is otherwise a retelling of the Bluebeard fairy tale. I never got entirely attached to the protagonist Rhea, but the narration was snappy enough to keep me moving along.
On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard *
I've been meaning to read this one ever since it came out, and finally got it as a Christmas present. It primarily follows two characters, Quyen and Linh, during their stay together at the rapidly fading Prosper Station. What's amazing is that both characters are sympathetic, but both of them are carrying such incredible amounts of baggage that it prevents them from ever fully understanding or wanting to understand the other's point of view. It's set in Bodard's Xuya universe, so it's a spacefaring future based on predominantly Vietnamese and Chinese culture. I really liked this one and I'm not surprised it was nominated for the Nebula and Hugo awards.
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 2: Ambition by Yoshiki Tanaka *
I really enjoyed the first volume of LotGH last year and bought Vol 2 almost immediately after, not knowing when I'd get around to it. This time we see Reinhard and Yang operating on parallel tracks to do similar jobs in their respective nations, though for vastly different reasons. As such the core conflict isn't between the Galactic Empire and the Free Planet Alliance, so enjoyment may vary depending on which side you enjoy reading about more. I really loved Yang's chapters, but Reinhard's probably have more setup for what's going to happen later in the series. There's no cliffhanger though, so you won't be left hanging at the end, and I like that.
All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka *
I'd been wanting to read this for a while, even before the US movie adaptation came out as Edge of Tomorrow. Even if you've seen the movie, it's worth reading as it's tonally different (much less funny) and forgoes the Hollywood ending. Keiji is a hapless private set to head off into his first ever battle with the alien mimics when he finds himself caught in a time loop that always seems to end with him getting killed. Frustrustated with the whole thing, he decides that the only thing to do is become so damn good he can make it out of the meat grinder alive, and he spends well over a hundred attempts trying to do just that.
Baccano! Vol 5: 2001 The Children of Bottle by Ryohgo Narita
This is a rather odd time jump that brings the series up to modern day, though it's more understandable after you realize the author's notes and realize this could have been the second book instead what became the start of The Grand Punk Railroad duology. It doesn't make much use of the modern day setting, it probably could have been set in the 30s without much of a difference, but what the time skip allows is for many of the series' original immortals to reunite after they no longer have to fear being killed (since the source of that concern died in Vol 1). It's a decent stand alone, and we finally learn the number of surviving immortals from the ship, but I'm also looking forward to going back to the 30s in the next volume.
Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone
Third book in the Craft Sequence. As always, Max Gladstone's world building is impeccable. I love the island setting for the third book and how such a small nation has to manage its power and security against more powerful, larger nations outside its borders. As in Two Serpents Rise, change and colonization by outsiders is very much a thing, with foreigners kicking back on this world's equivalent of a Hawaiian vacation. Kai and Izzy are good protagonists, and Teo comes back for a second round, though it took me a while to remember who she was.
Serpentine by Cindy Pon
This had been sitting in my Kindle backlog a while, but the Kindle is really nice for reading when you're not feeling up for the weight of a regular book. I don't read a lot of Chinese fantasies, but this is one of the better ones. I mostly found it weird how all the servant names are translated into their English meanings, but the other names are not. It's hard for me not to like a snake girl though, and Skybright is easily the highlight of the book. Not only can she take on a demonic half-snake form, but she figuratively kicks real ass with it too.
Sacrifice by Cindy Pon
This was a spur of the moment pick because I was still recovering from surgery while I finished reading Serpentine on Kindle, and it was literally a button push and $0.99 to get the sequel, so I figured I'd go ahead while the first book was fresh in my mind. It was a good choice. The change to multiple POVs was different, but I didn't mind too much except that I found I didn't care about Kai Shen enough to really enjoy gaining his POV scenes. What was going on around Skybright and Zhen Ni was always more interesting. There's a bit of a love triangle in this one and I don't quite like the way it resolves, but it implies that eventually the resolution I would have liked will happen.
Spice & Wolf Vol 14 by Isuna Hasekura
I picked this up because I still wasn't well enough for gaming and I realized that I really wanted to do a better job of catching up with Spice & Wolf since Vol 13 was just an anthology and reading Vol 14 would let me get back into the main story. Spice & Wolf is always at its best when Lawrence is fretting over a future with Holo, and now that the end of their journey is looming he finds himself daydreaming about one day living with her, while also assuming that once they part ways they will likely never see each other again. This is probably the best volume I've read since the first half of the series, and it helps that it takes place in Lenos, where Lawrence first told Holo that he loves her.
Spice & Wolf Vol 15: Coin of the Sun I by Isuna Hasekura
And then I couldn't stop, because I already had the book in my backlog and Vol 14 left me wanting to plunge into the two-part finale. For a two-parter it actually has a pretty good resolution except for the obvious cliffhanger dropped at the end of the last chapter. Though there are the usual economic shenanigans going on, it's nice that at one point Lawrence is encouraged to stop looking for everything that could potentially go wrong and take a step towards realizing his dream of owning his own shop.
Spice & Wolf Vol 16: Coin of the Sun II by Isuna Hasekura
Unfortunately this volume was a bit of a letdown. It would have been fine as a middle book, but a lot of the dramatics force Holo and Lawrence into reacting rather than acting themselves. While I understand the realistic message that there are some things that a single person cannot change, I think Hasekura was trying to up the stakes, but didn't do it in a way that really served the characters, making the final book a lot less personal despite all the callbacks and obvious trust the two leads display in each other.
The World Awakening by Dan Koboldt
The last book in the Gateways to Alissia trilogy. I was on the fence with this one, but had some Amazon ebook credit and a long wait at the DMV ahead of me so I picked it up for my Kindle. I was pleasantly surprised and this is definitely the best book of the series. Still got some nits, and the decision-making of most of the major characters from the Earth side of the portal is pretty predictable, but overall it was a fun read.
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