Books #5

As I am at the Alamo GT right now, enjoy a pre-uploaded blog.

So as usually happens to me, I get busy at work and life and don't have that much time to paint and game. But I gain lots of random time (about 20 minute spurts) to read. This allows me to read much more than I normally do. As such, I have already finished a ton of other books since the last time I updated the reading portion of this blog. Here are the most recent finished books:

Day by Day Armageddon: Shattered Hourglass
J.L. Bourne
This is the third novel in J.L. Bourne's Day by Day Armageddon series. It involves zombies, so of course I enjoyed reading it. This latest installment introduces and focuses on several new characters - while still addressing a few older, favorite characters - to bring a new level of conflict to the series. Now, the world of the series has grown. We, as readers, are no longer concerned about our own personal survival. We have already survived the first months of the zombie apocalypse. We must now turn the tide and survive as a race as the novel introduces us on a larger scale to the military, small islands of civilization, and what can be rebuilt in a limited capacity. The book was a quick read and I await the next novel.


Chronicles of the Black Company
Glen Cook
This is a collection of the first three Black Company novels (The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose). I remember buying this book as I wandered around a Barnes and Noble a few years ago, where it ended up sitting on my to read shelf. When I finally got around to grabbing this book I had no idea what it involved, but was quickly won over by the dark humor of the story and the basic, down to earth way the characters react. The story focuses on the Black Company, a band of mercenaries hired to fight as part of a much larger army. Seeing the trials and tribulations of ordinary men fighting because they are paid was an interesting way to frame a narrative and after reading the first three novels, I really want to read about the rest of the Black Company's history after the war of the rose.

The Illustrious Dead
Stephen Talty
The book jacket for this non-fiction, historical work, describes the book as "the terrifying story of how typhus killed Napoleon's greatest army." I have always liked historical biographies, and this one seemed interesting as it provided an different view point on Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia which was written into a much larger and better novel known as War and Peace. I was pleasantly surprised at how well written the book was, and how evenly keeled it was in presenting its point of view. Stephen Talty mixes well though out hypothesis about Typhu's impact on Napoleon's army with doctor's reports, personal letters and diaries, and 21st century disease research. It was a great, quick read and I kept finding myself looking forward to taking a break and reading the next chapter. I look forward to reading Talty's prior work about pirates entitled Empire of Blue Water.

Furies of Calderon
Jim Butcher
If you couldn't tell from the last several book updates, I have become a Jim Butcher fan. After demolishing his Dresden novels, I chose to delve into his own fantasy world. This book, the first in a rather large series already, sets the stage of an interesting word with spirits known as Furies. These furies can be communed and bonded with by individuals to allow them to take on aspects of that furies' power, like earth, air, etc. depending on what type of fury it is. It is a neat little world that focuses on the actions of a few characters to provide a backdrop against the growing political intrigue against the current leader of the continent of free peoples. I liked the book and am glad the Butcher had several novels under his belt when he got around to taking on this type of work as the writing is much better than in his Dresden novels.

Academ's Fury
Jim Butcher
This is the second novel of the Codex Alera series. The main character has gone to the continent's capital to lean at the university, but foul creatures from the farthest reaches of the world are after him! The book was a quick read, especially after I became so invested in the world after reading through the first book. Especially as the seeds of the coming civil war begin to grow. I am eager to see what happens once things really get going and the political machinations turn into full on war. This is good, background oriented sequel that begins to set the tone of the whole series in motion.




Pump Six and Other Stories
Paolo Bacigalupi
This is an anthology of shorter stories written by the author of The Windup Girl which I read a few months ago. I thought this was a great anthology of stories, though there were a few stories at the beginning that I felt didn't belong in the futuristic world he was trying to create. I think this is a good example of a writer trying, through several smaller stories, to create a world that becomes more developed with time. I really like the story about the Calorie-man as it set up the world of the Windup girl and the story about the girls whose bodies were turned into instruments. They were both fantastically written and carried a very creepy, futuristic feel to them where the world seemed to digress morally while it advanced technologically.