Think You Know So Much? I'm only Mostly Dead

Since I actually bothered to look at the blog today, I figured I'd give you all a bit of update. Yes, it's been quite around here lately with only 1-2 posts per month. Let's just say work, home life and everything in between and around have conspired to sap my enthusiasm for blogging in my few free hours per week and the simple truth is that will probably continue for the foreseeable future. I have a few reviews that I plan to do, but those will probably trickle out pretty slowly over the next month or two. But I am conspiring (I like this word today) with another blogger to bring about some potentially interesting content here. Stay tuned for it. I am still around on Twitter most days, so I'm not completely silent.

Anyway, so expect more of the same, though I do hope my enthusiasm will reappear soon. I even took a break from reading at all for nearly a month. I suppose I could take a picture with the stacks of books I've received since I posted the last one. But I don't even have the energy for that and those posts were mostly filler anyway.

Anyway, here's to more of the same and to blave!

Update

As promised, it's been a while since my last post. Of course a little while ago I did say I was going to stick with shorter, mini-reviews and then I went and posted a 2000+ word review of The Wheel of Time series. Oh well, don't get used to it. I hope to post one or two mini-reviews this week. If I don't get to them now, it'll be quite a while. Starting next week I'll be travelling almost full time for the next month. It'll be exhausting enough that I don't expect to get too much reading done (except perhaps on airplanes) and certainly not any blogging.

 

Below is a picture of books I've received in the last couple of months. It's a lot and there's even more considering a bunch of ebooks I've gotten. Conspicuously absent is one of the most anticipated books of this year that it seems that every other blogger already has and is reading (or spent all of last weekend reading). No worries - I'll get a copy soon and then I'll read it and promptly not review it for a long time (just like every other book I read these days).

 

Books Received: May 4 - July 1, 2013

 

The Usual Update

Wow, it's been weeks since my last post. I suppose that's mostly the result of how crazy busy I've been, but then I'm always crazy busy. I've been doing some travel for work and I've got some more travel coming. Then Spring Break for the kids. Then...who knows, I just hope it's good news rather than bad. And I hope congress pulls their heads out of their asses and does their job so my wife doesn't go on furlough. But I digress.

 

Things will continue to be quite around here. I still owe reviews on The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) and Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) . And now I'm reading The Folly of the World by Jesse Bullington (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon)  - this one is so far not what I expected. I think that's a good thing, as it's my first Bullington book, the style is a bit different from the typical SFF novel. Certainly night and day compared to the book I read immediately before by de Lint.

 

Anyway, I may find time this week to wrap up a review and I may not. Time will tell and the next book review will be written and posted when it's ready. I've long ago gotten past the need to post as regularly as 'they' say I should.

 

I'll leave with the books I've received over the last month or so. As usual, it doesn't count the electronic copies I've gotten, which are near as many (with a few duplicates). Ciao!

Books Received: January 24 - February 26, 2013

Books Received and an Update

More travel scheduled for this week - 4 days in Montana doing a site visit. I've not been to Montana before, so this should be nice. I'll probably get caught up on reading, but I don't expect to post much here. Hopefully I'll find some time soon to write up a review for The Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley P. Beaulieu (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) and I should finish up Sharps by K.J. Parker (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) on the trip.

Anyway...

Books Received: June 2 - 17, 2012

Books Received and Update

So, life and work are pounding me pretty hard and not looking to let up. So, that means content will be slow, though I'm on the verge of review purge. I hope to get my review of Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) up today. I've got part of a review written for Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Woodring Stover (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) and I just finished Tricked by Kevin Hearne (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) and will write-up a mini-review for it soonish. I have big plans for reviewing the massive anthology The Weird edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) that I hope to begin soon. I'm going to break it up into distinct time periods (most have historically based cutoff points) to allow me to tackle it in a reasonable fashion. So I anticipate about 13 seperate reviews for the entire anthology over the course of a year or two. I'm looking forward to it.

You may have noticed that in my book links I've added Amazon and dropped Powell's Books. As far as I can tell, no one ever clicks on the Powell's links, so I'm not going to waste me time anymore. I still don't like Amazon and many of their business practices, but it's tough to argue against the convinience they provide customers. Also, since they now own The Book Depository, that's not a true alternative. Barnes & Noble for some unfathonable reason still makes it impossibly difficult for a blogger like me to set up affiliate links, so until they get their heads out of their backside I can't offer that as an alternative to Amazon. I still prefer and strongly suggest that you utilize Indiebound - especially now that DRM is dying a slow death and ebooks are easier than ever from independent sellers.

Anyway, on to books I've received.

Books Received: April 17 - May 8, 2012

Room With A View and an Update

I was in Denver, Golden, Denver again, Boulder, Denver again this weekend. Yes it went that way and it was all professional society related meetings. So, a few drinks, but no real outside enjoyment - but it was cold and a bit snowy, so I'm not too bummed by that.

I've finished up Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole (Book Depository, Powell's Books, Indiebound) and should have review up soonish, but it could easily be a week out if I don't find some free time somewher. I'm almost done with The Hungar Games by Suzanne Collins  (Book Depository, Powell's Books, Indiebound). I can see why it's spoken of so highly - it is good, and I can see it translating very well into a movie. I'm not sure what I'll read next, but I'm leaning toward Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell  (Book Depository, Powell's Books, Indiebound). I should also have another whisky review up soon.

So, on to the room with a view.

Denver, CO

And a bonus - not truly a room with a view, since it's the view from my new office that I moved into late last month. It's nice, but it can get a bit warm in the afternoon. It's February, if it gets a bit warm in February, I dread July.



Phoenix, AZ (west)



Phoenix, AZ (west-southwest)



Something Completely Different + an Update

I know that anyone who still bothers to read this blog (and thank you for doing so loyal readers) another update on how real content is slow in coming is not what you want to read - but the sad truth is that this is the new normal for me. For the foreseeable future I simply won't have the time to read and write reviews at the same pace as I have in the past. I suspect that it'll be just one or two a month. Once I get closer to an equilibrium I'll hopefully fill in the space with a few more interesting  posts, but that's still a work in progress.

I've actually got a draft (that still needs quite a bit of work) review for The Edinburgh Dead by Brian Ruckley (Book Depository, Powell's Books, Indiebound), so hopefully that will go up in the next couple of days. I've also got a review of The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson (Book Depository, Powell's Books, Indiebound) partially written in my head, though I'll hold back on that one until the end of the month. And I'm hoping for a nice bit of good, high-profile content along the way, but I'll wait a bit before saying any details.

Anyway, on to something completely different - and in honor of my forthcoming review of The Edinburgh Dead I figured this is appropriate.

View of New Town, Edinburgh, Scotland

A Room With a View, an Update and a Bonus

Well, I'm back from Alaska and an very fun but very exhausting conference. I did actually see some Alaska, but mostly I was confined to a hotel in Anchorage. The red-eye back almost killed me (it didn't leave until about 2am). I did do some reading, but not much. I finished up The Edinburgh Dead by Brian Ruckley (Book Depository, Powell's Books, Indiebound), which I really enjoyed. I'll probably start up The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson (Book Depository, Powell's Books, Indiebound) next, though I still haven't decided for sure. So hopefully I'll get some nice content up soon - and stay tuned, I think I've decided to do a giveaway with a book or two that I've received multiple copies of.

So, here is the view from my room in Anchorage, Alaska.

And for a bonus (not really), here is my view from a hotel room in Green Valley, Arizona from a trip just before the Alaska trip.

Books Received and an Update

Update first - actual interesting content will continue to be sparse around here for quite a while. Life has me as busy as ever and with the AZ Diamondbacks in a penant race, my reading time is as short as ever. I'll also be travelling for half the month of September (4 days in San Diego and 9 days in Alaska). So, be patient and I'll see if I can come up with anything of actual interest. Anyway, now to the books received since August 12th.

Books Received: August 13 - September 1, 2011

Update

Hello all. I know it’s been a bit quite around here lately, so I thought I’d chime in with an update. Things are just hectic – work is picking up (which is a good thing even if it does impact blog/reading time) and I had a couple of trips in there. And with all the time I’ve spent travelling or in the office (where things like Twitter are blocked), I’ve been pretty silent on all fronts.

I’ve simply not found the time to write a couple of reviews – so, for my own sanity and keeping my interest, I’ll probably do ‘mini-reviews’ rather than full on reviews of a couple of books just to keep up. This will be for Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound) and Wolfsangel by M.D. Lachlan (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound). I’m currently slogging my way through The White-Luck Warrior by R.Scott Bakker (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound). It’s good, sometimes very good, but it’s also a very dense and slow read. So, it’ll take me a while to get through with the 15- to 30- minute reading chunks I get. I’m not sure what’ll be next since I have quite a few books that I really want to read, but I imagine I’ll choose something a bit lighter.

So, I’m still here, though it’ll probably be a bit quite around here for a little while longer.

Updates and Info

Struggles in my personal life both continue and continue to improve. But I’m still not even back to full time with work, so if I don’t have time for work, I certainly am not left with much time for something like blogging. I still manage an hour or two a day with reading (sometimes longer if I let my daughter sleep on me during the day), so I’m reading quite a bit, I’m just not finding the time to write up my reviews. They will come, just slowly. Below is a list of books I’ve finished but not yet reviewed (except The Crippled God which I’m about half-way through).

Forthcoming reviews (when I can get to them):

·         The Dark Griffin by K.J. Taylor (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound)

·         The Fallen Blade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound)

·         The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound)

·         Never Knew Another by J.M. McDermott (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound)

·         Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound)

·         The Crippled God by Steven Erikson (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound)

The state of those reviews ranges from nothing to detailed notes to (really) rough drafts. Even though I list them in the order that I finished (with The Dark Griffin finished back in early January) I doubt reviews will come in that order. I expect I’ll publish a review for Wise Man’s Fear on the day it’s released – March 1^st. The Crippled God will also get priority once finished. Never Knew Another is a bit closer to publishable review than others so it could show up as soon as early next week. We’ll see.

And because I don’t want this post to all about me, below are a few links that may be of interest.

A few links of potential interest:

·         Here are the details to Steven Erikson’s upcoming UK tour. Unfortunately there are no plans for a US tour any time soon (maybe someone should start up a campaign to get him over here). Also, Erikson has posted up a few series-ending notes of appreciation for his fans – awww shucks…that was nice of him.

·         So, the blogosphere got it’s panties in a bunch when some nut-job conservative said a bunch of stupid and ill-informed things about the modern state of the fantasy genre – pointing fingers at some its most popular authors. Reactions have been swift and varied, sometimes quite reasonable and informed, sometimes they are even more crazy than the original post, and some try to set themselves above it all. And various author-types keep showing up in the comments – especially in Abercrombie’s reaction. For me – apathy.

·         A mass coronal eruption could affect technology – or at least result in cool aurora visible pretty far from the poles.

Update with Scotch Whisky

So, my daughter is recovering well from her second surgery in 2 months of life and I’m slowly trying to get my life back in order. I’m still at least a week away from any real progress with this, but I’m at a point where I can start thinking on other things in life (such as work, blogging, etc.). I may even find some time for adding some real content around here in the next few days. We’ll see.

In about a week I should be back to a normal, though I honestly expect it’ll be a month or two before I’m truly back to regularly scheduled blogging. I won’t be absent, just not consistent – expect blogs will come in fits and starts separated by longish lulls.

But I always try and find some positives in my world, so I’ll leave you with a small bit that certainly raises my spirits. My birthday is one week after Christmas and after a lifetime of combination gifts I’ve fully embraced them. In fact I ask for the exact same thing from everyone – gift cards to BevMo so I can buy good Scotch. Below is a picture of the spoils from this year which was a banner year in part due to my parents’ divorce last year and a relative doubling of their contributions – amazingly enough I didn’t spend too much more than the amount I was given (relatively speaking anyway).

Care to guess which one I cracked open first?

Something Completely Different

Well, I'm slowly getting caught up after a week-long conference last week and being single dad this week while my wife was away at a conference. I still owe a review to the SFF Masterworks Reading Project for The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound) that I hope to write soon and I'm enjoying Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound), though this book is not for everyone. I'm also trying to weasel my way into early copies of some the great up-coming releases that so many of fans are anticipating - Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound), The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound), The Crippled God by Steven Erikson (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound), The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound), etc. I have hopes, even if those are books that all of us bloggers will be reading (the thing is that most of us are fans first).

Anyway, on to photo - only in the U.S.!

Something Completely Different

Well, things have been crazy busy with travel, work, and on the homefront. I've had a bit of time to catch my breath, but the next couple of weeks look pretty busy as well. Reading time has suffered, but I did finish up Canticle by Ken Scholes (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) last night, so look for a review in the next few days.

I've also decided the Something Completely Different photo series will probably be bumped back to somewhere between every other week and whenever I feel like it. Fall has definitely arrived here in the mountains with trees changing a low temps well below freezing. In honor, this photo is grey, cool, wet and urban from a wonderful autumn trip through England, Scotland and Wales back in 2006.

York, England

Sad News It would Seem

Well there is no official announcement, but it the rumor mill is reporting that the Science Fiction Book Club is being disbanded and their two, long-time editors are now out of a job. While I'm not a member, even I can recognize a blow to the SFF publishing world. Best of luck to all those adversely affected.

And to give a short update on goings-on around here - well, I'm just insanely busy with real life. Work is averaging 12-hour days right now and thing at home are hectic as my wife and I prepare for our first new addition to the family later this year. So, reading time is being impacted a bit. Anyway, expect my review for Brasyl sometime soon over at Scalpel and I'm about 200 pages into Acacia at the moment. I plan to read Red Seas Under Red Skies next (it's been taunting me for far too long now).