What I read in 2007

[davidgoldfarb]

Here's my reading list for 2007, with a few comments, behind a handy cut tag.

January:
The Family Trade, Charles Stross
The Spriggan Mirror, Lawrence Watt-Evans
The Hidden Family, Charles Stross
The Clan Corporate, Charles Stross
Seraglio, Bill Swears

A beta read for a RASFC person; I hear he actually has an agent for it, although one who is asking for a lot of rewriting.

The Mislaid Magician, Patricia Wrede & Caroline Stevermer

February:
On Stranger Tides, Tim Powers

I remember reading this 20 years ago and loving it...but didn't remember anything about it now. But I loved it just as much reading it again.

It's Superman!, Tom De Haven
The Merchants' War, Charles Stross
The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross
The Jennifer Morgue, Charles Stross

March:
A Reading Course in Homeric Greek, Raymond V. Schoder & Vincent C. Horrigan, SJ

Started this one in 2005, not fully realizing the significance of that "SJ". I have a lot of complaints about this one, but I have to admit it fulfilled its purpose...as you can see below.

The Vondish Ambassador, Lawrence Watt-Evans
Mindswap, Robert Sheckley

About two-thirds of the way through, abandoned even the pretense of being an actual coherent narrative. Not really what I was expecting from a book that I've seen so highly praised.

Salamander, David D. Friedman

Another beta read, one that left me in a somewhat embarassing position because I didn't actually end up liking it. I did give some crit eventually.

The Pinhoe Egg, Diana Wynne Jones
Self-Made Man, Norah Vincent

An interesting non-fiction book about a woman who cross-dressed to see what men are like without women around. Showed me that US society is even more screwed up about sex than I thought; and actually convinced me that the "men's movement" is capable of being worthwhile.

Babylon 5: The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, vol. 10
The Alchemist's Apprentice, Dave Duncan

April:
The Neil Gaiman Reader, ed. Darrell Schweitzer
Masterpieces of Declarer Play, Julian Pottage
God Stalk, P.C. Hodgell
Babylon 5: The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, vol. 11

May:
Dark of the Moon, P.C. Hodgell
Seeker's Mask, P.C. Hodgell
To Ride a Rathorn, P.C. Hodgell
The Secret History, Donna Tartt

Recommended by evilrooster because it's about a bunch of students of Ancient Greek. It was interesting, but I found it hard to care about the characters.

The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi

June:
Doctor Who: Human Nature, Paul Cornell

Having watched the episode, I was curious about the original novel. It helped that the BBC made it available as a free download.

Od Magic, Patricia McKillip
Blindsight, Peter Watts
Eifelheim, Michael F. Flynn
The Devil You Know, Mike Carey

July:
The Sharing Knife: Legacy, Lois McMaster Bujold
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

Re-reads preparing for...

Half a Crown, Jo Walton
The Bacchae, Euripides, tr. T.A. Buckley
The Bacchae, Euripides
Giant Lizards From Another Star, Ken MacLeod
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
Brainiac, Ken Jennings

Almost more a book about trivia in general than about his long run on Jeopardy!. Fun read, though.

Interworld, Neil Gaiman & Michael Reaves

August:
Sixty Days and Counting, Kim Stanley Robinson
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

After seeing it performed.

Stardust, Neil Gaiman & Charles Vess
Saturn's Children, Charles Stross
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

September:
Ilium, Dan Simmons
Play Bridge with Mike Lawrence, Mike Lawrence
Play a Swiss Teams of Four with Mike Lawrence, Mike Lawrence
The Prestige, Christopher Priest
Olympos, Dan Simmons

From the library, because I couldn't stand not seeing the end of the story. While I was in the library, the following two leaped into my hands...you know how it is.

Overclocked, Cory Doctorow

October:
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

This one had been on my "to-read" shelf for a long time, and I couldn't resist getting onto this list in this position.

Ha'Penny, Jo Walton
The Odyssey, Homer, tr. A.T. Murray
The Odyssey, Homer, tr. Robert Fitzgerald
The Odyssey, Homer

November:
The Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, vol. 12
Halting State, Charles Stross
Blood and Ivory, P.C. Hodgell
The Sun in Shadow, Mary K. Kuhner

Another RASFC beta read. It amazes me that Mary isn't yet published.

December:
Misplay These Hands With Me, Mark Horton

The North American Bridge Championships were in San Francisco in late November/early December, and I bought several books on bridge there.

Territory, Emma Bull
Return of the Bridge Philosopher, James Kauder
The Deed of Katy Elflocks, Graham Woodland

Yet another RASFC beta; short, but going to have sequels...and really good.

The Android's Dream, John Scalzi
Back Through the Pack, Julian Pottage

In addition to all this, subscriptions to Science News, Asimov's Science Fiction, The Bridge World, Chess Life, and The ACBL Bulletin...and of course Usenet, Making Light, and various blogs and webcomics. I certainly didn't lack for stuff to read.

Comments

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Are you sure you read _Half a Crown_ in July? I have a fair number of the SFF titles on my to-be-read piles.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

That's the month I wrote it down under in the list. I went and checked my mailbox, and she sent me the manuscript on July 11th. So yes, I'm sure.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

But she just finished working on it, so it wasn't quite a book then.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I feel that if something is done enough to send out for beta reads (and Jo's rough drafts in particular are pretty polished) it's done enough to include in my book log.

That reminds me, I somehow omitted Graham Woodland's wonderful The Deed of Katy Elflocks...it's only a third of a book, but it deserves a place. When I get a chance (I'm taking a break at work now) I'll edit.

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

Lovely list. What did you think of the Simmons? I need to reread those two again...

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I'm not sorry I read the Simmons, but I don't see myself reading them again. He set up a lot of interesting mysteries in the first half. Then in the second half it turned out that a bunch of characters really didn't have good reasons that I could see for their mysterious behavior; some of the mysteries were left dangling (if there was any explanation given for why there were two Odyssees [*], I missed it); Simmons went way off the Quantum Nano Pixie Fairy Dust deep end; he let his Islamophobia infect the story -- Arab-Jew conflicts should not be important in a story set tens of thousands of years in the future.

I could go on, but hopefully it's clear enough that I was pretty disappointed.

[*] There's a plural you don't see every day.

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

Yes, I came away with the general sense of liking the first better than the second, and liking the Hyperion Cantos better in general. But I devoured Olympos once I finally got a hold of it, and had already read Ilium twice when I read it--so I need to reread to get a better analysis going.

One thing that did bother me was that his reading of Tempest doesn't jive with mine...Caliban as literal monster just doesn't do it for me.

And, I've really never noticed the Islamophobia I've heard tell so much about. Which is odd, because it's not the sort of thing that usually escapes my notice.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

You didn't notice the submarine full of Islamic jihadists who nearly destroyed the entire world? Or the fact that the voynix were originally an Islamic terror weapon?

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

Guess not. heh.

I'm a pathological fast reader on first pass, especially of genre fic. This is why I need to reread, soon.