Another month, another procrastination update...
Recently Read:
Range of Ghosts (Book 1 of the Eternal Sky series, Elizabeth Bear, fantasy, Kindle): As his father and uncle fight in a war that tears the once-great Khaganate asunder, scattering bodies and blood across the steppelands, Temur's near-death on the battlefield leaves him numb and weary of power struggles. He tries to find a simpler life as he joins a band of refugees - but a malevolent force has wakened the ghosts of the unmourned dead. When these ghosts steal Temur's new lover away from him, his quest to rescue her leads him across the ill-omened Range of Ghosts and across the path of a wizard woman. The troubles plaguing both their lands seem to be tied to a death-goddess cult and an ancient enemy known as the Carrion King, who rose from the mortal world to challenge the very gods in a fight that almost destroyed the world - and still could, if he returns.
This was Tor's October eBook-of-the-month selection; for once, I actually read it in the month it was offered. Bear bases her fantasy world on Asian, particularly Mongolian, mythology. Each of her many cultures have their own skies corresponding to their own gods; Temur's night sky has multiple moons, one for each of the Great Khan's living heirs, while another has a sun that sets in the east and rises in the west, and yet another has a waxing and waning moon like our own. Skies change when a land falls to new conquerors. There are also interestingly original (in my reading experience) magic systems and animals: the legendary rukh, living stone creatures known as talus, and even humanoid tiger people, one of whom comes into play as Temur's quest takes him further from the lands he knows. The characters seemed decently drawn for the most part, though it took some time for them to come together and set the main plot rolling; Bear used the time before to foreshadow events and lay enough promise for the future down to carry the audience through some necessary worldbuilding and establishment of ideas. There were a few plot elements that felt a little shaky towards the end, and I confess I never did quite keep all the places and peripheral characters straight, but for the most part I enjoyed this very different take on epic fantasy in a very different world. I'll have to track down Book 2 soon.
Some Like It Perfect (Book 3 of the A Temporary Engagement series, Megan Bryce, romance, Kindle): Artist Delia, in her mid-thirties, still lives the college-dropout life as the quintessential starving artist, couch-surfing on the good graces of her best friend Justine... but comes a time in any woman's life when suffering for one's art gets tiresome, even for a girl raised on a hippie commune. She swallows her pride and takes a job painting the ceiling of a CEO's office - never expecting to fall for a man who embodies every capitalistic idea she's spent her life rejecting. As she spars with CEO Jack, who finds her chaotic life and refusal to kowtow to his authority strangely refreshing and alluring, Justine feels the big 4-0 breathing down her neck, and starts to wonder if her lukewarm relationship with her own boyfriend is going anywhere or is robbing some of the last years she has to establish the family she's dreamed of since childhood.
Romances, in my reading experience, tend to be predictable, but that can be a good thing, especially when I'm given interesting characters who twist expectations a little. Here, I didn't get much that interested me. Delia and Jack just aren't that interesting, especially when a third wheel, Jack's rebellious teen half-sister, gets stuck in the middle of things as a glaring metaphor for growing up and learning to make one's own way in the scary world of adulthood. As for Justine's storyline, it falls back on so many cringeworthy tropes it pretty much crippled any enjoyment I might've otherwise had in the lightweight romance of the lead pair. (Apparently, the best way to strengthen a questionable relationship is to "oops" a man into a commitment, 'cause all guys really want to be fathers but just don't know it until a woman forces the issue. It's okay because she'll do 99% of the dirty work anyway.)
Unwanted: Dead or Alive (Book 1 of the Buck and Dobie series, Gene Shelton, western, Kindle): Hard-luck cowboys Buck and Dobie can't seem to catch a break. First a killer blizzard takes out most of the cattle from Canada to the southern border. Then a banker forecloses on the ranch, leaving them to look for work in a Texas panhandle crawling with unemployed cow-punchers with barely any cattle left to punch... then, when they do get a job, a brawl with a drunken ranch hand leaves the man accidentally dead. As a final blow, the banker spreads the word that Buck and Dobie are horse-thieves and cattle rustlers, putting a price on their heads sure to have everyone this side of the Mississippi aiming for them. Buck's convinced they're about at the end of their rope... a hanging rope, most likely. But Dobie has an idea. Since they've been forced to ride the "owlhoot trail" anyway, why not turn outlaw for real? It can't be that tough, and it has to pay better than being a cowboy in these parts - and maybe they can get some payback by cleaning out that crooked, lying banker. There's just one problem: neither Buck nor Dobie could steal an egg from a chicken, let alone cash from a bank.
This lighthearted western is chock full of colorful cowboy slang and spirited horses and fast getaways amid flying bullets. Buck and Dobie try their best, but they just can't seem to get the hang of this robbery business, though they persevere nonetheless: optimistic Dobie's perpetually convinced they'll learn the trade eventually, though in truth they never really seem to have a choice, with their perpetual bad luck always ready to get worse on them. About halfway through, they run into Marylou, a city girl itching for some wild times on the frontier; she joins up with their band when she forces them to kidnap her during a stage robbery gone wrong, and is largely responsible for their minimal successes. It's not especially deep, but it read fast, and it was fun.
I'm currently between titles; I'm trying to put energy and focus into a site overhaul, so it's taking a toll on my reading, particularly my reading of physical books. I'm poking at a hardcover fantasy - the idea sounded neat, but it's just not grabbing me, and I don't particularly like the MC, nor are the stakes gripping me. If it doesn't grab me in one more chapter it goes to the cull bag. I'm also poking at a new Kindle read, the first in Mercedes Lackey's new YA fantasy series (Hunted); some nice ideas, but it feels like it's deliberately dithering while she introduces ideas and worldbuilding backstory. I'm a little early in to decide if I'm going to push ahead or not, though I probably will.
