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The Boy on the Bridge by Mike Carey - A somewhat-unnecessary prequel to The Girl With All the Gifts, showing an expedition of soldiers and scientists who discover certain important things about the “hungries”. It ends on a slightly higher overall note than the first book (and must be read second, because it spoils everything from the plot and the epilogue makes zero sense without reading the first book), but because of certain foregone conclusions, neither the surprise nor the tension was ever really there for me. I wonder how much of this was just Carey having some great ideas for writing a non-neurotypical character and figuring out he could use them in this universe and sell some more books.
Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko - A fascinating sci-fi story (and fairly hard sci-fi, at that) centering around a five-person “cluster” who share thoughts and a collective identity, in a world where 90% of humanity joined the hive-mind “Community” and left Earth thirty years earlier. It’s a glorious book of worldbuilding centered around five not-quite-individual viewpoints and by the end it’s resolved pretty much every hanging thread. I really enjoyed it.
Unforgettable by Eric James Stone - A less-than-serious spy thriller about a man who is utterly forgotten a minute after he leaves anyone's line of sight; a condition that affects electronics as well. The author goes into great depth with the complications and restrictions this would cause to someone's life, including the complications of his childhood and the difficulties of travel in modern life. And then, of course, he meets the one person who CAN remember him, and things get complicated. The nature of Nat's power means the exposition gets a bit repetitive, and the climax goes a little too much action-movie given what's set up, but this was a fun thought-experiment sort of book.
Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn - This is much more a story about recovering from trauma-induced depression and unhealthy relationships than it really is about superheroes. Aveda is kind of a terrible person, though to be fair, many of the characters are self-involved nutjobs and need to get over that. The author takes a bunch of jabs at hipster culture, particularly things like “weird” food that Asians get mocked for becoming the hot thing for cool white kids. Also, in greatest “why can't the romantic pairing happen right now” excuses ever, this exchange: ”I don't mean,'We can't because I'm afraid you'll crush my delicate girl-soul'—I mean, we can't because I will burn you to death.”
And, in the books I didn't finish:
Generation Decks by Titus Chalk - A history of Magic: The Gathering as told by a fan, interspersed with his own experiences as a player. I found the first dozen chapters interesting, mostly for the history of the company and creation of the game, but then it got really in-depth with the drama of the Pro Tour and the histories of the various winners; and the later history of the game and complications after I stopped playing. As neither of these really interest me, I essentially skimmed the second half of the book.
The Last Time Traveler by Aaron J. Etheridge - A thinly-veined Doctor Who parody. Thinks it's funny, with pop-culture references and attempted snark. Unfortunately, it isn't.
Unwind! by Dr. Michael Olpin and Sam Bracken - Free via Kindle, and worth every penny. While there is some benefit to thinking around emotional responses and trying to guide yourself to more healthy reactions to stress (See: CBT), this falls into a lot of the, “Stop being a whiner and do things rather than sitting around being stressed!” school of motivational speaking. Perhaps I'm just in the wrong headspace for this, but, “Have you tried not being stressed?” is not terribly useful when I have, in fact, tried that; and determined that the world is shitty and needs fixing.
Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko - A fascinating sci-fi story (and fairly hard sci-fi, at that) centering around a five-person “cluster” who share thoughts and a collective identity, in a world where 90% of humanity joined the hive-mind “Community” and left Earth thirty years earlier. It’s a glorious book of worldbuilding centered around five not-quite-individual viewpoints and by the end it’s resolved pretty much every hanging thread. I really enjoyed it.
Unforgettable by Eric James Stone - A less-than-serious spy thriller about a man who is utterly forgotten a minute after he leaves anyone's line of sight; a condition that affects electronics as well. The author goes into great depth with the complications and restrictions this would cause to someone's life, including the complications of his childhood and the difficulties of travel in modern life. And then, of course, he meets the one person who CAN remember him, and things get complicated. The nature of Nat's power means the exposition gets a bit repetitive, and the climax goes a little too much action-movie given what's set up, but this was a fun thought-experiment sort of book.
Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn - This is much more a story about recovering from trauma-induced depression and unhealthy relationships than it really is about superheroes. Aveda is kind of a terrible person, though to be fair, many of the characters are self-involved nutjobs and need to get over that. The author takes a bunch of jabs at hipster culture, particularly things like “weird” food that Asians get mocked for becoming the hot thing for cool white kids. Also, in greatest “why can't the romantic pairing happen right now” excuses ever, this exchange: ”I don't mean,'We can't because I'm afraid you'll crush my delicate girl-soul'—I mean, we can't because I will burn you to death.”
And, in the books I didn't finish:
Generation Decks by Titus Chalk - A history of Magic: The Gathering as told by a fan, interspersed with his own experiences as a player. I found the first dozen chapters interesting, mostly for the history of the company and creation of the game, but then it got really in-depth with the drama of the Pro Tour and the histories of the various winners; and the later history of the game and complications after I stopped playing. As neither of these really interest me, I essentially skimmed the second half of the book.
The Last Time Traveler by Aaron J. Etheridge - A thinly-veined Doctor Who parody. Thinks it's funny, with pop-culture references and attempted snark. Unfortunately, it isn't.
Unwind! by Dr. Michael Olpin and Sam Bracken - Free via Kindle, and worth every penny. While there is some benefit to thinking around emotional responses and trying to guide yourself to more healthy reactions to stress (See: CBT), this falls into a lot of the, “Stop being a whiner and do things rather than sitting around being stressed!” school of motivational speaking. Perhaps I'm just in the wrong headspace for this, but, “Have you tried not being stressed?” is not terribly useful when I have, in fact, tried that; and determined that the world is shitty and needs fixing.
