Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy
Dragonsdawn
DragonRiders of Pern Trilogy: Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon
All the Weyrs of Pern – Anne McCaffrey (reread)
The original trilogy has not aged well but nostalgia let me enjoy them again, more than 20 years since I first read them. And they are such fanciful fantasy, it was a nice palette cleanser after the bleak nihilism of Blood Meridian, ugh.
Akata Witch
Akata Warrior – Nnedi Okorafor
I think these books and maybe the Binti books as well might be categorized as ‘young adult’. And that’s OK, since I remember finding authors I grew to love just because I found something of theirs in that section of the library as a middle school aged kid. Hopefully it doesn’t keep actual adults from reading them. They are short, novella length I guess, and they are all about young people, but they aren’t childish.
Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag – Stevie Chick
I might have to reread this book one day. My impression on one reading was that it was really unflattering of most everybody involved despite trying NOT to be unflattering. I don’t think I’d recommend it to anybody that didn’t like Black Flag, because if you don’t even like their music they’re really going to seem like a bunch of horrible garbage people. Except for Kira – I sympathized with her.
The Sword Interval (webcomic) – Ben Fleuter
I think the whole urban fantasy genre is dominated by comics, in that the comics that would fit in that category are just better than any series of books. I like the Mercy Thompson books OK, but the dialog is bad and the outdated/inaccurate hierarchy of the werewolf packs is annoying. Harry Dresden is such a whiner I can’t deal with him. Anita Blake is generic and dull. I should try more of the Iron Druid series, that had a neat angle. It’s not like this comic is the best thing ever but it’s solid and good. I like the characters even when I don’t, and I like the art as well, which is important with comics…see below…
Daughter of the Lilies – Meg Syverud & Jessica Weaver
The story here is alright but there is a cartoonish quality to the artwork that is incongruous and annoying. I can enjoy comics when I don’t like the art (Girl Genius is the best example) but I have to REALLY like the story and be invested in what happens to the characters. I don’t think I will stick with this one, too often I’m wishing I could go in with an eraser and fix things.
The Element of Fire
The Death of the Necromancer – Martha Wells
Everything I’ve read by Martha Wells has resulted in my buying more books by her.