The Kat&#39;s Journal

I've inhaled the first two books of Charles Stross's "Merchant Princes" series. There are 4, and I can't wait to finish the remaining two.

I don't know if I can recommend "Singularity Sky" or his other previous works, as his earlier lead female characters really made me want to poke a fork through his eye. This serious, though, is damn good.

If you like the contemporary vampire stuff, you should try Charlaine Harris. Her "Dead Until..." series is a good read.

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*grins* I've read all of the Charalaine Harris stuff out currently. Did you know HBO is making that into a TV series?

I've been told that Stross is good and I have a copy of Singularity Sky ... somewhere. I think it is in the car. I never picked it up though. Maybe I'll have to give that and these others a look.

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Hmm...I don't know if I can recommend Singularity Sky. Stross's writing is good, but for several books in a row, his lead females made me want to stick a fork in his eye. Apart from the rest of his body of work, Singularity Sky is probably fine. In fact, I'll even say it's a good book.

I think I'm more than a little burned out on the post-cyberpunk, post-singularity guys right now, though. I'm glad Stross branched into something different.

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That's always unfortunate. That whole, "What? Have you ever really talked to a woman?"

Ehn.

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Oh, it's worse than that. I had the impression he was Trying To Write A Strong Woman, but was somehow channeling a badly sterotyped teenage narcisist.

He finally figured it out by the "Merchant Princes," though. The lead female actually IS a strong character.

Oh, speaking of other excellent fantasy, have you read Lois McMaster Bujold's "Chalion" books? Darn good stuff. Ditto for her SF.

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I haven't read Bujold because ... Well. It is one of those stupid things where you get all stubborn because everyone tells you to read something because OMG IT R AWESOMEZ.

One of these days, I'm sure, I will actually read them.

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This is why I haven't seen Juno. It can't possibly live up to the hype.

Honestly, I didn't read Bujold until around book 6, becauase I didn't believe she could possibly live up to the hype.

I was wrong.

If it makes you feel any better, her new series, "The Sharing Knife," is lukewarm. It's well written, but I just can't get into it. however, you are denying yourself something wonderful by not reading the Vorkosigan books. And as for Chalion, I didn't read them until the first came up in my book club. I'm not really into fantasy that much, so I expected to grit my teeth and suffer through it. Instead, I inhaled the book in 2 days and ordered the next two immediately.

If you want to be stubborn, brush off her most recent work.

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Okay.

Where should I start ow wise one and I'll put it in the large pile waiting for me.

(I love having Prime.)

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Prime rocks my world. I will be deeply sad if they ever discontinue it.

Fantasy:

The Curse of Chalion
Paladin of Souls
The Hallowed Hunt

SF:

Young Miles
(This is a compilation of the first 2 Vorkosigan books with Miles, plus a novella. If you don't like these, don't buy the rest of the series. If you do, there's more where this came from.)

Also, I love me some Christopher Moore. I just finished re-reading his entire body of work. It's darn good stuff.

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*nods*

Cool.

I have You Suck sitting on my shelf in the line of things I need to read.

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You could only allow yourself to read one chapter a day... :)

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Dear Lord woman. I'd have to be reading like seven books at the same time if I did that.

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I just meant of my books. To make them last longer, you see. :)

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I'd still be done in a month. And I'd still have read them all.

*grins*

I'm just voracious like that.

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Well, darnit, I got nothin' else. :)

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*chuckles*

That's okay. I still love you and your books. And soon with the comics I'll absolutely only be able to read one chapter a month.

How are things going in general? I should totally start walking like you do. I keep telling myself this....

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*falls over* Comics. Holy cow. I'm still not over the squee. :)

Things are going all right. I'm sort of in a mental state of just trying to get one foot put in front of the other wrt to work. The problem with that is right now I've got two projects to juggle: the book, and getting things set up for the next 7 issues of the comic. I'm having a hard time managing my brain well enough to do both. I need to make more lists, I guess.

How about you? Anything on the job front yet?

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Well, I know I'm a kabillion miles away but if I can be of any assitance, please let me know. I like being a facilitator and an enabler. It's a hobby.

Nothing yet. I'm pretty sure I'm not who they're looking for on the books front and haven't heard on the others. We shall see, though.

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yellowseptember.livejournal.com

Wow. I think you've read more books in these last two weeks than I'll read all year.

*looks around* Where did I put that 'cast 48 hour day' spell? ;-)

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I read fast.

I also have time on the bus to read. It helps a lot.

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yellowseptember.livejournal.com

I remember chewing through books on the way from home to school when I went back and forth from the U everyday.

*sighs of happiness*

Read a good book for me. :)

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Certainly, my dear.

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xnbach.livejournal.com

Here's my favorite Dirty Job story...

M&M Candy was running this deal where you could M&M's made with anything you wanted written on them. Chris Moore decided that it would be a cool thing to do some with a clever catchphrase from Dirty Job printed on them. He thought that he should go with one of little baby Sophie's lines.

He picked "Not in the butt!"

M&M sent him a form apology that said they couldn't in good conscience make the M&M's he wanted and that he should pick another phrase.

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*laughs*

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fireballof3.livejournal.com

I'm full of the lame - I've only read World War Z so far this year.

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