After last year’s impressive reading tally, I set the bar a lot lower this year but, even so, it looked like I was going to come up short of the 100 book mark. Over this past month, however, I’ve done some major catching up. Here are a few of the titles I enjoyed…
Half A War by Joe Abercrombie
The third and final instalment in Joe Abercrombie’s Shattered Sea trilogy is epic fantasy at its high flying, action-packed finest. This one has all of the elements one would expect from Abercrombie – colorful characters, heart-stopping twists and, best of all, that wicked sense of humor I’ve come to know and love.
Heaven’s Queen by Rachel Bach
The second book in Rachel Bach’s (Aaron’s) Paradox Trilogy continues an SF series that stands out well above the rest. These books are smart, fast-paced, engrossing and, without a doubt, flat-out the most FUN you’ll have reading in recent memory.
Get Carter by Ted Lewis
I’m not a huge fan of noir-themed titles but this British classic, adapted into a movie starring Michael Caine back in the early 70’s, hooked me early and held my rapt attention through the entirety of my cover to cover single seating read. A brilliant and brutal crime novel that has restored my appreciation for the genre.
Sharpe’s Tiger by Bernard Cornwell
Having worked my way through most of George MacDonald Fraser’s similarly-themed Flashman series, I decided to give Cornwell’s historical anti-hero a shot – and came away mightily impressed. I loved this book and hope the rest of Sharpe’s adventures are as masterfully detailed.
Arcadia #4 by Alex Paknadel and Eric Scott Pfeiffer
This mind-bending SF series continues to, well, bend minds. Paknadel juggles intellectually intoxicating narrative elements to magnificent effect while Pfeiffer’s art dazzles in perfect compliment.
Descender by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen
From The Underwater Welder to Sweet Tooth to Trillium, Lemire’s work is distinguished by its grounded, at times painfully real characters struggling in fantastic and surreal environments. In Descender, it’s Tim-21, a child robot who may be the key to averting a looming invasion. A delightfully sweet and compelling series.
And a couple of screenshots from Friday night’s all-new episode of Dark Matter:
FOUR against seven. They’re gonna need more guys!
Seeing double?
What do we have here?!
Well, look who’s coming back to stir things up!
The boys convene in one of my favorite scenes in this episode.
Don’t forget to join me for a live post-episode Periscope after both airings tomorrow night.
Watch the show…
10 pm EST
7/10 pm PST
Then join me for a Periscope chat…
11 pm EST
8/11 pm PST
I FIIIIINALLY was able to watch the first two episodes of Dark Matter thanks to Amazon Prime! So worth the purchase. I am instantly addicted to this show. It’s fantastic.
If I get a promotion at work I’m hoping I’ll be able to afford cable soon.
Congratulations, Joe!
I have been remiss in not inquiring about dear Lulu. How is the little girl? My dear Riley, a senior chocolate lab, had two tumors removed today. I am drained. The vet said she’s doing well and can come home tomorrow. How is it that dogs can be better people than most humans I associate with? Dog parents know what I mean.
So excited about a new Dark Matter tomorrow! See you on periscope.
Sigh.. I am always behind because I can’t watch Dark Matter til my daughter can (don’t ask), and so I don’t want spoilers. But I have either missed it completely or no update in a while on Lulu since the endoscopy.
We love the show, really really hoping it gets renewed for oh, another 6 or 10 seasons. 🙂 Okay I know you won’t want that long.
Looking forward to Friday! Dark Matter keeps getting better and better.
But I’ll probably have to wait until Saturday to watch since I’m meeting friends at Pizano’s for pizza tomorrow evening.
For anthony: I saw you in the good witch and loved your performance with Catherine bell. Which kind of role is more fun for you? Playing the boyfriend of a beautiful woman or a dude who has fight scenes and shoots guns? You are great in both those roles.
@ Tim Hendrix – Glad your Riley did well. I know what you mean…..
Joe, your blog followers want to know. Is Lulu belle any better?
(sorry couldn’t resist calling her “belle”. Been wanting to do that forever.)
Did you send Mr. THREE those bazillion questions yet? I bet he is cursing you about now. “How did I let Joe talk me into this?!” That’s what Anthony gets for being so popular. We love him!
Thanks for the book review. I am planning on reading the next to of Joe Ambercormbie’s series as you mentioned, but first I started out on part of Daniel Silva’s thriller/spy series. I reflect on the books from last years reading quite often.
I am all set to see the next episode in Dark Matter, but it will be ep. 8 for me as I am slowly catching up via my iTunes subscription. I have enjoyed reading of what other are writing from the most current episode It is not so much a spoiler as it helps set me to look for thing like Three’s loss of Sarah his forgotten friend. Speaking of iTunes, I noticed that the episodes for SGU run 40 or so seconds longer than Dark Matter. Is there a known reason for this? Air, part 1 and Earth run 43:49 and 43:40 respectively as Dark Matter runs averaging 40:03?
Sharpe’s Tiger was an awesome book. I really like the first 3 (chronological), it’s a good series, but the later books get less interesting. there’s also the TV show which has SEAN BEAN NOT DYING. …it’s funny, because Sharpe is what he became popular with, and it’s all him going through all these battles not dying and then now he’s just known as the guy who dies in everything.
Sigh. I really need to get back on the reading bandwagon. Between moving, stuff going on this Summer in general, and thinking about the house construction I’ve been a little distracted.
Speaking of which, here’s a visual update. It’s starting to look like an actual house!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/gforce2002/DB06A8C6-5BFC-4120-B007-E08785592F87_zpsyggfv7vc.jpg
Tim Hendrix: Glad Riley’s doing well!
Ponytail: Lulu Belle? I like it!
Mr. M.: Thanks for the book suggestions! I’m reading Lou Ander’s book now and then John Scalzi is next. I’ll definitely look into those.
Also, thanks for clearing up that periscope is after DM. Intriguing screen shots!
Tim – {{{HUGS}}} to you and Riley.
Joe – Since S1 is still in first run, WHEN DM gets renewed, won’t it be a full year before we can see S2?
It’ll be more 10 months or so if Season 2 airs around the same time Dallas Marshall. But Joe is great for keeping people up to date on here without spoiling anything.
@confracto
He didn’t die in those Silent Hill movies. Though the less said about the 2nd one the better. It was just so bad, not even he could save it. Despite that, I would hope they conclude that story someday.
Android needs a more personal name. I keep meaning to say that.
What? Did someone mention Silent Hill? No, Sean Bean did not die in Silent Hill. I’ve seen that movie a lot! I am just fascinated by it. Plus it took several times watching to figure out what was going on because there was so much going on. Randomness is right. Silent Hill 2nd movie was crap. Can’t get through the first 15 minutes without giving up. It is a great example of why I hate sequels.
Sean Bean didn’t die in Ronin either but he did leave early in the film. And he’s surviving on the TV show Legends. But I love the Sharpe series, lots of fun.
Did you know that every thing that Sean Bean is in, he manages to get the phrase “sharp” in it as a reference to that. Like in LOTR The Fellowship of the Ring. “Boromir comments about the shards of Narsil (still ‘sharp”).
@TimHendrix I am glad to hear Riley did well with surgery; I hope things are better at this point.
@Ponytail I know, right?
@gforce Very exciting!! I have a whole photo album that chronicles our weekend trips up here where we now live to see the progress on the house. And what a view that will be.