Science Fiction Novel

• DUST Elizabeth Bear BantamSpectra (Jan.)
• ZOE’S TALE John Scalzi Tor (Aug.)
• GALAXY BLUES Allen Steele Ace (Apr.)
• SATURN’S CHILDREN Charles Stross Ace (Jul.)
• HALF A CROWN Jo Walton Tor (Oct.)

Fantasy Novel

• THE HOUSE OF THE STAG Kage Baker Tor (Sep.)
• SHADOWS RETURN Lynn Flewelling Bantam Spectra (Jul.)
• SHADOWBRIDGE Gregory Frost Del Rey (Jan.)
• GOBLIN WAR Jim C. Hines Daw (Mar.)
• CAST IN FURY Michelle Sagara Luna (Oct.)
• FORTUNE AND FATE Sharon Shinn Ace (Nov.)
• KING OF SWORD AND SKY C.L. Wilson Leisure (Oct.)

Epic Fantasy Novel

• PRINCEPS’ FURY Jim Butcher Ace (Dec.)
• THE IMMORTAL PRINCE Jennifer Fallon Tor (Mar.)
• BLACK SHIPS Jo Graham Orbit (Mar.)
• HAWKSPAR Holly Lisle Tor (Jun.)
• THE HERO OF AGES Brandon Sanderson Tor (Oct.)

I’m not including Urban Fantasy nominations here because they aren’t part of my section–in the magazine, they show up in Paranormal Romance (and I’ve started calling the books which are classified as urban fantasy these days paranormal fantasy to differentiate them from “classic” urban fantasy a la Charles de Lint and Emma Bull).  I do review a handful of urban/paranormal fantasy titles, though, and I nominated T.A. Pratt’s DEAD REIGN for Urban Fantasy Novel.  Because it was awesome.

Work is good, book reviewing is good, life in general is good.  Trying very hard to not lose my shit over the economy or the election and mostly succeeding with occasional forays into asking friends if we can live in a cardboard box on their front lawn and contemplating getting a really nice sock to stuff our meager savings into.

Last Tuesday was me and Paul’s second wedding anniversary–it doesn’t seem like two years (or ten, for that matter, since we’ve been together since June 1998).  Sadly, we didn’t do anything to celebrate due to my feeling somewhat poorly, but we’ll figure something out.

I’ve been spending a lot of time fiddling around in Second Life lately.  I’m slowly learning how to build and my avatar is totally about the shopping (which is why I need to learn to build, so I can support her shopping habit).  Which is just bizarre, because I hate shopping in real life.  Here are two of Alix’s recent outfits:

I think there’s something wrong with me.  The first one was intended to be sort of an insane conglomeration of things–I adore that hat for some reason–and the second was my attempt at looking as trashy as possible.  I generally have a small squid trailing along behind me in-world, it was a gift from a friend and I think it’s really spiffy.

I have been doing a little bit of knitting and spinning–I’m planning on getting a lot of both done this weekend.  I really need to finish up the project I have on the small wheel and I have too many knitting projects going on.  I’d feel happier if I could finish those up and have a clean-ish slate going into fall/winter.  With the fall television season starting, I am spending more time away from the computer in the evenings (although the WoW expansion is out in a month), so I’m hoping to be able to prioritize that stuff.

The first book I read was Jo Walton’s Half a Crown. This is the third (and final) book in her Small Change series, of which I am a tremendous fan. The series is incredibly dark and disturbing and every time I finish a book I say, “Poor Carmichael.” There’s is hope at the end of the third book–to say anything more would be a spoiler–but I still said, “Poor Carmichael.” Walton’s such a fantastic writer–she shifts between first and third person narration seamlessly and her three female narrators (Lucy, Viola, and Elvira) all have very different voices, even as they’re caught up in the same nightmare as Carmichael. It’s very satisfying to see all the pieces fit together at the end of each book, even as you’re cringing at the result–Walton never flinches. These are, I think, important books. They are a warning of what can happen if we give in to fear. I will probably never reread them. I don’t know if I can bear to.

The second book is The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson, final book in the Mistborn Trilogy. I love Sanderson’s fantasy so very much–I am not a fan of Robert Jordan at all, but I feel pretty confident that he’s going to do a great job with the last book in the Wheel of Time series. He knows what’s what in epic fantasy. His world-building is intricate, logical, and consistent. He doesn’t have an overwhelming cast of characters, but he has enough so that there’s a good variety and they’re all distinct. The magical systems are really interesting and well thought out. And the very best part of all? He knows what all the tropes and cliches are in this particular sub-genre and he goes to town with turning them all upside down. It’s really fun to watch the plot unfold and you say to yourself, “Self, he can’t possibly be going there,” but then he does and he makes it work. So often these days epic fantasy seems to be a synonym for “big fat books with a million characters where it takes 300 pages for them to walk across town”, but I guarantee you that not a single page is wasted in the Mistborn Trilogy.

Finally, the last book I’ve read is Mercedes Lackey’s Foundation. It’s a Valdemar book about the founding of the Heraldic Collegium (first in a trilogy if I’m not mistaken–Lackey’s website is woefully out of date). And if this book were fan fiction, it would be of the flavor known as “crack fic”. Because it is compulsively readable and there’s a metric ass-ton of coincidences and guess what? I. Don’t. Care. I love the sentient telepathic white horses (er, Companions), I love the complete and total improbability of the plot line (our Hero is an abused child laborer at the start of the book and a trusted Herald Trainee by the end), and I love the complete and total wish fulfillment of it all. Everyone needs to read a fluffy candy coated book once in a while and there’s no shame whatsoever in indulging.

And not only do I need to write reviews of these books, I need to assign a rating to each one. I don’t get a lot of words to actually say what I think of the books–what I’ve said about each one above is more than I have space for in RT, because I need to do plot summary, too–so it’s complicated and a bit difficult. If I give them all the same rating–I did, after all, love them all–I’m somehow implying that they’re interchangeable when they’re not, but if I don’t then I feel like I’m making some sort of value judgment on the type of books they are, when they’re each a very fine example of their particular sub-category.

That’s probably the part that’s really frustrating–I don’t want to fall into the rut of liking every thing I read so much that I want to give them all 4.5 and 4 stars, but I also don’t want to downrank a book for a something that may technically be a flaw but that also may also be something that is expected in the type of book that it is. I’m not grading papers, I’m reviewing books for people who are pretty damn hardcore readers with a wide variety of tastes and preferences (this is where the tired phrase “fans of $foo will enjoy this book by $bar” comes into play).

And honestly, it’s really unusual for me to have a month where I absolutely love the majority of the books I’m reviewing. It’s more likely that I’ll feel sort of neutral towards most of them with one or two standouts. I’ve found that it’s a lot easier to write a review about a book I’m neutral towards than about one I absolutely love or hate.

more cat pictures

We were way more excited about it than we probably should have been.

Whereas all I have to console myself with is a profile in the August issue of Romantic Times. I’m on page 16. I have obtained copies for everyone in my family. SHUT UP.

The last couple of evenings I’ve been working to get all my CDs digitized. Six years ago when I left Nebraska, I had really limited space for non-essentials so what I did was put all my favorite songs on MP3 CDs–which means that I have bits and pieces of lots of albums. Then, after I got my first iBook, I had a pretty small hard drive. And my second iBook wasn’t a whole lot better in terms of disk space. Now that I have a machine with a 500 GB hard drive and room for at least two more (I think, the video card is really honking huge so I may only have space to plug in one more SATA cable) as well as a 500 GB external drive (used for backups), I’ve decided to digitize the rest of them.

Apparently when I was in college I had a thing for buying EPs/CD singles. I have two different versions of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” CD single. I have at least 3 Nine Inch Nails EPs with multiple mixes of different songs from Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral (the latter of which I have yet to find). Do I need a song called “March of the Fuckheads”? Probably not, but I have it. Go me, I suppose.

I’ve been playing with the Spore Creature Creator quite a bit (my handle on the Spore community site is the usual) and I’ve managed to achieve one of my goals in World of Warcraft–obtain a silly title for my character:

As a casual player (and some would call me a scrub since I don’t devote my every waking free hour to playing), this one was the most easily obtained. The other two PVE titles (Champion of the Naaru and Hand of A’dal) require participation in 25-man raids and I don’t have the time to commit to that sort of thing. I like not having to log on every night. I like that no one’s depending on me to show up except for those events that I specifically commit myself to–and right now, that’s one 10-man a week. For a long time, I wanted to be in a raiding guild that was focused on endgame progression and I’ve found that I’m generally happier if I don’t put that sort of pressure or expectation on myself. My next goal in-game is to get exalted with the Darkspear Troll faction so I can get a dinosaur mount.

And just for fun, here’s my current interface (I use a compilation called ArkiveUI):

I feel so intensely nerdy now. Woot.

I went to the Romantic Times convention in Pittsburgh which was a lot of fun.  It was crazy, weird, and even though I hate flying I”m seriously considering getting on one so I can go to the convention next year (it’s in Orlando).  I’ve also updated my list of books I’ve reviewed–with links to the actual reviews on RT’s website.

I bought a second spinning wheel and have been working a fair amount on that.  I’ve done a lot of reading.  I bought a new computer–or, rather, I bought all the components for a computer and a friend assembled them into a computer for me.  It is the most awesome computer that I’ve ever owned.

Consequently, I’ve been playing a lot of videogames.  It’s so nice to be able to play World of Warcraft on a computer that gets more than 5 fps in highly congested zones–it’s like a completely different game.  I’ve also been playing Hellgate: London which, despite being a bit flawed, is still a hell of a lot of fun.  I’m really looking forward to Spore in a couple of months and I am really geeked at the announcement that there’s going to be a Diablo III.

Life in general continues to be fantastic and I love the whole world.  Or at least most of it.