Jana: This week I read two upcoming novellas: Catherynne M. Valente’s Comfort Me with Apples, which is surprisingly complex despite being quite short, and Along the Saltwise Sea, the second of A. Deborah Baker’s UP-AND-UNDER series, which is full of delightful fun and clever ideas. (And now I’m really excited for Seasonal Fears, the second in Seanan McGuire’s MIDDLEGAME series, because I want to see how these two books dovetail.)
Bill: This past week was pretty much student papers, as will be the case this week as well. I did manage to finish Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome by LJ Trafford which honestly didn’t tell me a lot I didn’t know but was solid enough in terms of content and breezily informal. In video I loved the first half of this week’s Foundation but was less enamored of the second half; thoroughly enjoyed this week’s Marvel’s What If, as has become par for the course with that show; and gave up on Manifest after the first half-dozen or so episodes, having grown weary of plot driven by characters not having conversation any normal humans would have (not going down that hell-hole again, thank you Lost). Finally, for fans of the MALAZAN EMPIRE series, just a reminder that this week over on Tor I’m posting a series of read-throughs for the first few chapters of the newest novel, The God Is Not Willing.
Kat: I read The Girl and the Mountain, the second book in Mark Lawrence’s BOOK OF THE ICE series. This necessitated a quick re-read of the first book, The Girl and the Stars. I am far behind with my reviews but I’ll try to catch up soon.
Marion: I started Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswoman book once I got home. I already read The Lost Steersman, out of sequence, so it’s great to be introduced to this interesting planet/world, and get the principles of the steerswomen.
Sandy: Moi? I am currently reading another space opera-type of novel from the early ‘40s, this particular one being called That Worlds May Live, by Nelson S. Bond. This one was originally released in 1943 and is proving to be quite a fun ride. I hope to be able to share some thoughts about it with you all very shortly. On the home video front, I have been binge watching, on DVD, the two seasons of the great 1960s sci-fi show The Invaders. I had never seen this cult program before and am really loving it a lot. Again, I hope to be able to share some musings about this terrific show with you all shortly….
Terry: I’m once again enmeshed in a number of books at once, all of which seem pretty terrific so far. Most of my attention is going to The Target by David Baldacci, which is at least my 15th Baldacci since I discovered him earlier this year. I started reading Middlegame by Seanan McGuire — I’m late to the game on this one, but it seems pretty danged amazing so far, and very, very different from anything else I’ve read by this favorite author of mine. I’ve just started The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow, prompted by the fact that it was awarded the British Fantasy Award last weekend; it is very elegantly written. And finally, I’m about halfway through Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency by Michael Wolff. In other media, I’m watching Midnight Mass on Netflix, and it is excellent so far.
Marion, the second Steerswoman novel, The Outskirter’s Secret, is the one that really hooked me on this series. The characters we’re supposed to sympathize with in the first book do some very bad things that I couldn’t shake off until well into the second book. Still have some hope that the next two books will eventually come out (a higher level of hope, say, than I have that we’ll get more than one additional book in A Song of Ice and Fire).