Book round-up: May 2019

[sixthlight]

I read a lot (for Adult Me) this month but it was almost all one series, which...does that count, really? It feels like it shouldn't.

Non-fiction

Nothing! My book club (pop science focused and my main impetus for longform non-fic reading) took a month off this month and I didn't read anything else.

Fiction

The Phryne Fisher series, books 1-16 (Kerry Greenwood)
I watched the TV show but hadn't got around to the books until now; being books, they present a much richer and more-peopled universe, and the character concept for Miss Fisher (wish fulfillment + crime-solving) is still excellent. Highly recommend for all your 1930s detective novel with a lady detective needs.

The October Man (Ben Aaronovitch)
Will have more to say about this when it's officially out everywhere (I got the mumble-expensive-including-shipping Subterranean Press edition) but as good as always and a fun expansion of the universe outside Peter's ambit, though Peter and co get enough mentions to tie the two together. Tobi Winter and Vanessa Somer are great protagonists and I would happily read a novel-length story about their adventures in German magic policing. The German side of the fandom seems to like it a lot which is high praise. 

Ninefox Gambit (Yoon Ha Lee)
Award-winning far-future milsf with high concept physics- and maths-based worldbuilding; does an unusually good job for the genre of showing a far-futured galaxy-spanning empire that is decidedly not 1950s white America, but like much of its genre, borderline on my Some Of These People Need To Fucking Like Each Other metric. I'm halfway through the second now and am likely to finish the trilogy but not to re-read. 

Comments

[cyprinella]

I thought October Man was decent. I have to say that the audio was a HUGE letdown after Holbrook-Smith. Didn't work for me at all.

[sixthlight]

That's a shame to hear! Mind you, KHS is SO phenomenal that I'm not surprised someone else couldn't live up to the same standard.

[cyprinella]

Yeah, I have an aversion to the "reading a thing aloud" tone you get from a majority of audiobooks so it really shouldn't have been unexpected. KHS manages to hit on "I'm a guy telling you a story" instead just perfectly which is why his work for me. I wish he did more audios of books I want to hear!

[katkun]

I feel really complicated about October Man because I liked it a lot but would really rather have more Peter Grant. But I am happy for Aaronovitch that he gets the variety that clearly he enjoys.