Tag: Recently Read

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Recently Read, Prose (7/2/12)

As you can see, I’m continuing with my Star Trek and Greg Rucka reading habits. Critical Space is a weird, fascinating read because it’s a novel that changes the Kodiak series from one thing into another, and also the format of Rucka’s novels, as well; I have to doubleback and read Shooting At Midnight again to see if he actually started it there. Fistful of Rain, meanwhile, I just loved for the Portland-ness of it all (This is maybe the third time I’ve read it, and each time I feel like I recognize a little more of the city). As far as the Trek novel goes, it’s fun enough but has a truly ridiculous ending that reads as if it is missing a chapter or two somewhere along the way. As far as cliffhangers go, though, it’s pretty fun.

Next up on the bedside table: Alan Bennert’s Time and Chance, a recommendation from none other than comics’ own Kurt Busiek, and the Shooting At Midnight that’s waiting for me at the library.

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Recently Read, Prose (6/22/12)

Apparently, I take more time to read good books than trashy books; the Rucka novels took a few days each – part of that, though, was also that the start of the week is heavier workwise and leaves me with less time to read – but the Star Trek book I ripped through in a couple of evenings despite it being longer than either Finder or Smoker. Go figure.

I will, at some point, write something about the trilogy of Keeper, Finder and Smoker; re-reading them this time, one right after the other, I realized that there’s a really clear narrative arc in the three books that I hadn’t realized before, with Rucka playing with expectations in the last of the three after shaping them in the first two – Plus, I had forgotten about Erika, one of the Kodiak series’ main characters, almost entirely until this re-read, and now I’m weirdly obsessed with her. So, when I have more time and/or brainspace, that’ll happen for sure.

The Trek book was… eh, pretty crappy, really; I would’ve given up more than once, but had nothing else to read and saw it through to an end that was, indeed, bitter. Normally, Peter David’s Trek books have more pace and humor to them, but this was a leaden, self-important thing that trudged on and made the reader earn every chapter up until the last third or so.