I should never, ever go into bookstores.

[theweaselking]

Bookstores are very bad for my wallet.

I picked up:

* The rest of Kim Harrison's "Dead Witch Walking" series, which, despite the heavy Buffy The Vampire Shagger vibe you get from the cover and back, is actually worth reading.

A note: I *hate* these books. Hate 'em. The characters are luddites who have a crippling fear of tomatoes!
The supernatural-side detective agency has an open policy of murdering their own agents who try to quit!
The human-side detective agency whose *entire purpose* is to protect humanity from supernaturals doesn't employ supernaturals (they might be a threat) and, worse, doesn't employ *anyone who knows anything about supernaturals* (they know too much! They might be corrupt!) and doesn't even bother telling their *field agents* some basic publicly available knowledge like "killing a vampire makes it REALLY REALLY ANGRY. Don't use guns on vampires, for fear you might hit them."
The phenomenally powerful master vampire who runs the city's "underworld"? Runs a pizza joint. Literally. As in, he cooks there. BECAUSE HE CAN.
And the villain! The villain is an EEEEVIL drug dealer! You know, completely banned, beyond the pale, untouchable burn-you-at-the-stake drugs.... like INSULIN. He sells A CURE FOR ALZHEIMERS. Want your cancer treated? EEEEEEEVILMAN will hook your ass up! But he has to keep it a secret, because BIOLOGY IS ILLEGAL (see also: why everyone is terrified of tomatoes). They get 3/4 of the way through the first book before the author remembers that this is the BAD GUY and has him randomly murder an innocent man in front of witnesses to remind us which side we're supposed to be on.
Oh, hey, want to catch a leprechaun? The best trick is to slap some charmed handcuffs on 'em. And by "charmed" I mean you need a pink heart, a yellow moon, an orange star, and a green clover....
I hate these books so much. I bought the rest of the series and plan to have a wonderful time yelling at them as I read them, because they're like crack. They're *so absurd* that they're hilarious, and yet nobody inside them ever acknowledges just how goddamn wacky they are - they're done completely straightfaced!
And if you can't laugh at the demon's antics and his constant "oooh, I'm a dick! I'm gonna getcha! Them's GOOD EATS! And now I'm going to just be a jerk again, just because I can!" antics, you have no soul. But he will sell you one, cheap!

* The first three Dresden Files books. There was a boxed set, and everyone keeps telling me to read Jim Butcher. So now I has them.

* The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, and Saturn's Children by Charlie Stross. Because I keep meaning to get these. I like giving money to autopope.

* John Scalzi's "Agent To The Stars". Because I'd like him to win a bet about how releasing the book for free online drives up print sales. And also because I hate reading non-physical book-length documents - they're inconvenient.

* David Weber's "Storm From The Shadows". Because I loves me some space opera crack. I really don't care if you can always figure out who's unambiguously wrong by checking their opinions again Harrington's[1] or that the "oooh, scary slavers" appeared out of nowhere to attain Monster Heel status with an entirely undeserved blowjob push a couple of books back, pushing aside the bad guys we all wanted to pay to see lose - the important part is that we've got high-adventure Age Of Sail-ish books with hilarious characters. It's like Horatio Nelson and Horatio Hornblower were given lasercannons, people. You cannot go wrong giving a lasercannon to Admiral Nelson.

But yeah. I went into the bookshop with the intention of buying just one book. And then I just kept seeing *just one more*....

(PS: Massive Twilight rack, I weep for humanity. Orson Scott Card reduced to a single copy of Ender's Game, shelved up top in a corner? That makes me a little more optimistic for the future of the species.)


[1]: Disagree with Honor Harrington = absolutely always wrong. Agreeing with Harrington doesn't mean *right*, but disagreeing is ALWAYS wrong and agreeing may mean that you're still wrong, but at least you're the least wrong possible under the circumstances.

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Your "PS" is anyone else's QOTD. ;>

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

So metaquotes it. I have no shame!

[triskelmoon.livejournal.com]

It's like you're shopping out of my bookshelves and for all the same reasons!

[triskelmoon.livejournal.com]

Oh, also! Jim Butcher's Furies series is fantasy modeled on Roman Empire. It is the radness.

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

He was bet he couldn't do a combo Lost Roman Empire PLUS Pokemon. I love that series with big hugs...

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Cyl! Hi!

You have no idea how freakin' glad I was to discover I hadn't actually picked up anything he did today. :)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I checked first. So there.

[quilzas.livejournal.com]

Jim Butcher for the win. Also noteworthy - Lois McMaster Bujold.. the Miles Vorkosigan series in paticular.

I haven't gone into a bookstore in ages. I would be too tempted to spend the monies. Instead I rely on the library for new books.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I've got the complete (as of ~6mo ago and DO NOT TELL ME OTHERWISE) Vorkosigan on a bookshelf upstairs.

I like Bujold. I just don't want to spend more monies before I finish the current HOARD.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I love the Kim Harrison books. I am addicted to cheesy reading material. Though those holes are somewhat hard to overlook sometimes :)

But the whole tomatoes/luddites/evillllll medicine dealer I find interesting - because they're NOT implausible in the world setting. In fact, they're an interesting comment on the powers of desperation and how fear can cause such extreme paranoia, stupidity and prejudice (ditto on the police department really - it's a nice comment on how prejudice makes you do the stupid. hells, it's even reality based - look at the various armed forces blundering around the middle east who know SQUAT about the culture of the people they're oppressing and pissing off.).

And another interesting theme is how the bad guy is a bad guy because he's pushed into desperation by desperate need - he's the ultimate ends-justify-the-means villain who wants good things but has to engage in naughtiness to get them (which, I think, mixes nicely with Rachael and her continued descent into the role of black witch through repeated necessary acts)


Hmm this was long. Do you think I spend waaay too much time analysing my cheesy addiction?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Not at all!

But no spoilers, since I finished book 2 a few days ago, went to the stroe to get book 3, and bought ALL THIS CRAP so I'm going to be a while before I catch up on Rachel + MopeyNecroHuman + I'mTotallyNotOnBloodVampireChick + MooHooHaHaHaICuredCANCERAren'tIEvilDude.

[stormfeather.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's fine by me... I *heart* these books. I'd also say that while they're not Deep Literature, they're also not as bad as Mustelidae Rex is painting them (even while admitting that they're addictive)... I *like* the way that the bad guy is ambivalent... he does something really nasty, then you slowly slip back into a "okay, he's really not that bad" mode... until the next Really Shitty Move he pulls. I love him anyhow... in a sorta-hating sort of way, at times. My main complaint about him is that the Really Big Mystery about him... isn't.

As for the police and some of that stuff, remember this is coming through Rachel's perspective... I often get the feeling that they're not really as dim and incapable (even without her help) as she tends to think they are. (And from what I've gotten from the books, they don't hire Supernaturals full-time because they're not allowed.

And would you rather have the master vampire running a bordello? ;)

[torrain.livejournal.com]

(1) I love you.
(2) I now feel *so much better* about my (mis)adventures in the dealer's room.

[sleary.livejournal.com]

I went through the Dresden books like M&Ms, but I always warn discerning readers: the first three books are really disjointed. He wrote them all on spec not knowing which would sell, so you get things like "this is my buddy Michael, the guy I always call when I'm in trouble" in the third book, only Harry didn't call him in either of the previous books when he was in, y'know, really big trouble.

Get past that, though, and everything starts coming together in the 4th book. Which you'll reach in no time.

[stormfeather.livejournal.com]

Also, something that didn't bother me but I know bothers others that read it - apparently his research on Chicago (where the books are set) is practically nil, at least in the first few books. So if you do know Chicago well, prepare to grab a few HUGE grains of salt, to take with it.

[gryphart.livejournal.com]

Is the master vampire making some sort of point about garlic not affecting him or something? Or is it more tomato-related evil? I'll give that bit originality points, but making pizza professionally is only slightly above movie ticket-taker in the hierarchy of high school jobs. I cannot envision some badass taking it on as a fulltime gig.

Yeah... I tried Weber's Armageddon Reef, never having read anything else from the guy, and... let's just say his protagonists seem to be of a type in that regard.

Dresden's increasingly awesome up through Dead Beat, which is still my favorite.

If after you're done with the pile, you want more urban fantasy with a minimum of shagging, I'd recommend T. A. Pratt's Marla Mason books, as the protagonist has more common sense (and *far* less angst) than any other series in recent memory.

[stormfeather.livejournal.com]

Is the master vampire making some sort of point about garlic not affecting him or something? Or is it more tomato-related evil? I'll give that bit originality points, but making pizza professionally is only slightly above movie ticket-taker in the hierarchy of high school jobs. I cannot envision some badass taking it on as a fulltime gig.

I don't think it's either really, although more related to the second... in this universe, the only ones that will have *anything* to do with tomatoes (and tomato based sauces, etc.) are the supernaturals, so any places that serve pizza, grocery stores that carry tomatoes, etc etc., are run by supernaturals. Which would leave it up to the witches (one twist I like about these books - witches are a biologically different speciies, although not noticeably on the surface, from humans), vampires, weres, etc. etc.

As for the pizza making, well, he owns/runs the restaurant, which isn't exactly a high school gig, but point taken. ;)

If after you're done with the pile, you want more urban fantasy with a minimum of shagging, I'd recommend T. A. Pratt's Marla Mason books, as the protagonist has more common sense (and *far* less angst) than any other series in recent memory.

Is that urban supernatural, or what?

[chrisrw109.livejournal.com]

Dresden's increasingly awesome up through Dead Beat, which is still my favorite.

Turn Coat is a very very interesting book.


And that is all I will say.

[harper-knight.livejournal.com]

I really love the Honor Harrington books; I ran into On Basilisk Station in a library years ago, when I went to libraries and actually took out books rather than going to Borders and reading books in one go. I think I've read the series twice, select books three times.

I also love the March Upcountry series by Weber and John Ringo, who may be a bit of a militaristic violence-porn type of guy, but he writes good ground-military-scifi, and with Weber to bring a touch of class and some really good characters, it's a great series. Not as much space navy as I like in that sorta thing, but what there is is very sweet, as you'd expect from Weber.

[unknownpoltroon.livejournal.com]

Do not under any circumstances read Callys war. It will hurt you brain.

/Thought, hey, weber and ringo wrote that march book, maybe I should try this ringo one......

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

I kind of like the idea that the OMG SUPER POWERFUL VAMPIRE LORD makes pizza. I mean, shit, if someone's immensely powerful and immortal, who am I to judge if he wants to spend eternity baking?

[serke.livejournal.com]

I love the Harrison books. Al-the-demon brings the lulz hard core.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

So I was just getting something on Amazon, and it suggested a Charlie Stross book from when I was browsing a couple months ago. I've been reading his blog for a while, but haven't read any of his real work yet. I seemed to remember him writing a blog post on "How To Start Reading Charlie Stross Books", but can't find it again, and now I'm not sure if he actually did something like that or if I just imagined it. I sent him an email, then remembered you read him, too. Do you remember what the hell I'm talking about? It could even have been you that wrote it for all I know, but again, can't find anything like it in your archives.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I don't remember any such post. He very well might have written it, but I don't remember it. I certainly didn't write it.

However, Charlie is basically all over the place when it comes to the books. I have yet to find one I don't like, but he doesn't stick to any given genre.

[paoconnell.livejournal.com]

Got a bookstore gift card from my daughter for Christmas.

Three words: "The Gathering Storm," By Robert Jordan (RIP) and Brandon Sanderson. 42 pages in and I'm impressed.