Wed Reading Meme (on Tuesday)
Jun. 6th, 2017 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat[Because I forgot it wasn't Wed....I'm a day ahead of myself, this is not a good start to the week. ]
1. What I just finished reading?
See last week's post. I finished the Drakon trilogy by Shannon Abe, the last one was Queen of Dragons. And no, I don't recommend it. It was a mess. And I think it was traditionally published, which makes me wonder about the editors. Shame, the first book in the series, "The Smoke Thief" was rather good. It's weird some writers series get better as they go, others really don't.
Also, I've noticed some writers tend to write the same story, with the same style, regardless of what the plot or setting is. Other's you can't tell it's the same writer at all.
Jim Butcher was somewhat interesting in that his style did change from series to series. I couldn't get into his other series...outside of The Dresden Files, but I did try samples and his style is very different in each. While Illona Andrews style is the same, as is Margaret Atwood, Anne Tyler, and various literary writers.
2. What I'm reading now?
White Hot by Illona Andrews. It should be noted that Illona Andrews is actually a husband and wife writing team. She's a Russian immigrant, and he's ex-American military. They met in a creative writing course.
Nevada Baylor has a unique and secret skill—she knows when people are lying—and she's used that magic (along with plain, hard work) to keep her colorful and close-knit family's detective agency afloat. But her new case pits her against the shadowy forces that almost destroyed the city of Houston once before, bringing Nevada back into contact with Connor "Mad" Rogan.
Rogan is a billionaire Prime—the highest rank of magic user—and as unreadable as ever, despite Nevada’s “talent.” But there’s no hiding the sparks between them. Now that the stakes are even higher, both professionally and personally, and their foes are unimaginably powerful, Rogan and Nevada will find that nothing burns like ice.
This series is beginning to sound and feel a lot like the Kate Daniels series. With similar male and female character tropes. Except, Nevada Baylor is not quite the badass mercenary that Kate Daniels was. The female character is different in various ways, she has a big family, only her Dad is dead from natural causes - cancer. Her mom and grandmom are alive, as are several cousins and sisters. Her mother and grandmother are both ex-military. Together they run the Baylor Investigative Agency. Nevada is the head of the agency and does most of the field work, while they provide backup, and her cousin tech support.
Since this is an urban fantasy novel, people have powers. There are no werewolves, vampires, etc. The powers are well psionic or telepathic in nature. And there's a hierarchy based on "super-powers". Think what the world would be like if Magneto's team won or the mutant super powered folks had money and ruled.
Due to Gordon Andrews, the hubby in the writing team, ex-military experience -- Andrews novels tend to be highly militaristic in nature, with lots of weaponary. I don't know why it's necessary when you have folks that can fold and bend a semi-truck with their minds. Apparently one of the powers is to be able to shot any target with dead accuracy, if you are under threat. Another is to be able to calculate the next shot on a target with deadly accuracy.
It's extremely violent with sexual content. Although not sure about graphic. The writers have a minimalist style, with little description and an emphasis on snarky dialogue and
banter, which may be why I like it. Doesn't require much if any concentration. Also first person narrative.
Unlike the Kate Daniels series, there's not a lot of nifty mythology, world-building, or metaphors to crunch on. In short the story is rather forgettable and feels like a vanilla version of the Daniels books. I read the first one Burn Me in the series. It's entitled "Hidden Legacy Series" -- I'm guessing because of Nevada's hidden potential. Like most of the heroines/heroes in these series -- Nevada starts out not being that powerful and over time, discovers she's scarily powerful more so than anyone else, with unique abilities that blow people away. (I think the only series I've read that doesn't go this route is Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series. No, wait, she's scarily different and unique in that one too. Never mind.)
This book is better than Burn Me, but feels similar to the Daniels series, too characters are eerily similar. Rogan -- is basically a human version of Curran. (I like Curran better).
And Augustine is a human version of Simon, I can't remember his name, aka the Frost Giant.
If you were to pick, I'd go the Kate Daniels route. Although it could get better. Andrews tends to write progressive series as opposed to episodic and they get better as they go for the most part. Kate Daniels series was rather weak to start as well, albeit not quite this weak.
3. What I'm reading next?
No clue. Flirting with books. Bought The Immortals might try that, which is urban fantasy/mystery -- although there is a serial killer and I hate the serial killer trope with a blinding passion. So we'll see. The serial killer trope is why I stopped reading mystery/thrillers and watching them.
Also still flirting with two political ones..."The Hillbilly Elegy" and "The Road to Somewhere" but not sure I can handle either at the moment.
Oh and I have Whedon's Wonder Woman script to read -- got bogged down at page 21. Why? Thought it was silly and campy. (Diana is busy mooning after the man, and her girlfriend is mooning after the man, while they make googily eyes at each other. It brought back bad memories of the Buffy comics. While Trevor makes snarky comments about these Amazon women. And oh, they are keeping him from delivering necessary supplies to refugees, because they want to kill him for discovering their secret island. So stupid and somewhat offensive. Very happy this wasn't made into a film.) And Warren Ellis' Saga -- volume one. Both on the Ipad. They don't work well on the kindle.
1. What I just finished reading?
See last week's post. I finished the Drakon trilogy by Shannon Abe, the last one was Queen of Dragons. And no, I don't recommend it. It was a mess. And I think it was traditionally published, which makes me wonder about the editors. Shame, the first book in the series, "The Smoke Thief" was rather good. It's weird some writers series get better as they go, others really don't.
Also, I've noticed some writers tend to write the same story, with the same style, regardless of what the plot or setting is. Other's you can't tell it's the same writer at all.
Jim Butcher was somewhat interesting in that his style did change from series to series. I couldn't get into his other series...outside of The Dresden Files, but I did try samples and his style is very different in each. While Illona Andrews style is the same, as is Margaret Atwood, Anne Tyler, and various literary writers.
2. What I'm reading now?
White Hot by Illona Andrews. It should be noted that Illona Andrews is actually a husband and wife writing team. She's a Russian immigrant, and he's ex-American military. They met in a creative writing course.
Nevada Baylor has a unique and secret skill—she knows when people are lying—and she's used that magic (along with plain, hard work) to keep her colorful and close-knit family's detective agency afloat. But her new case pits her against the shadowy forces that almost destroyed the city of Houston once before, bringing Nevada back into contact with Connor "Mad" Rogan.
Rogan is a billionaire Prime—the highest rank of magic user—and as unreadable as ever, despite Nevada’s “talent.” But there’s no hiding the sparks between them. Now that the stakes are even higher, both professionally and personally, and their foes are unimaginably powerful, Rogan and Nevada will find that nothing burns like ice.
This series is beginning to sound and feel a lot like the Kate Daniels series. With similar male and female character tropes. Except, Nevada Baylor is not quite the badass mercenary that Kate Daniels was. The female character is different in various ways, she has a big family, only her Dad is dead from natural causes - cancer. Her mom and grandmom are alive, as are several cousins and sisters. Her mother and grandmother are both ex-military. Together they run the Baylor Investigative Agency. Nevada is the head of the agency and does most of the field work, while they provide backup, and her cousin tech support.
Since this is an urban fantasy novel, people have powers. There are no werewolves, vampires, etc. The powers are well psionic or telepathic in nature. And there's a hierarchy based on "super-powers". Think what the world would be like if Magneto's team won or the mutant super powered folks had money and ruled.
Due to Gordon Andrews, the hubby in the writing team, ex-military experience -- Andrews novels tend to be highly militaristic in nature, with lots of weaponary. I don't know why it's necessary when you have folks that can fold and bend a semi-truck with their minds. Apparently one of the powers is to be able to shot any target with dead accuracy, if you are under threat. Another is to be able to calculate the next shot on a target with deadly accuracy.
It's extremely violent with sexual content. Although not sure about graphic. The writers have a minimalist style, with little description and an emphasis on snarky dialogue and
banter, which may be why I like it. Doesn't require much if any concentration. Also first person narrative.
Unlike the Kate Daniels series, there's not a lot of nifty mythology, world-building, or metaphors to crunch on. In short the story is rather forgettable and feels like a vanilla version of the Daniels books. I read the first one Burn Me in the series. It's entitled "Hidden Legacy Series" -- I'm guessing because of Nevada's hidden potential. Like most of the heroines/heroes in these series -- Nevada starts out not being that powerful and over time, discovers she's scarily powerful more so than anyone else, with unique abilities that blow people away. (I think the only series I've read that doesn't go this route is Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series. No, wait, she's scarily different and unique in that one too. Never mind.)
This book is better than Burn Me, but feels similar to the Daniels series, too characters are eerily similar. Rogan -- is basically a human version of Curran. (I like Curran better).
And Augustine is a human version of Simon, I can't remember his name, aka the Frost Giant.
If you were to pick, I'd go the Kate Daniels route. Although it could get better. Andrews tends to write progressive series as opposed to episodic and they get better as they go for the most part. Kate Daniels series was rather weak to start as well, albeit not quite this weak.
3. What I'm reading next?
No clue. Flirting with books. Bought The Immortals might try that, which is urban fantasy/mystery -- although there is a serial killer and I hate the serial killer trope with a blinding passion. So we'll see. The serial killer trope is why I stopped reading mystery/thrillers and watching them.
Also still flirting with two political ones..."The Hillbilly Elegy" and "The Road to Somewhere" but not sure I can handle either at the moment.
Oh and I have Whedon's Wonder Woman script to read -- got bogged down at page 21. Why? Thought it was silly and campy. (Diana is busy mooning after the man, and her girlfriend is mooning after the man, while they make googily eyes at each other. It brought back bad memories of the Buffy comics. While Trevor makes snarky comments about these Amazon women. And oh, they are keeping him from delivering necessary supplies to refugees, because they want to kill him for discovering their secret island. So stupid and somewhat offensive. Very happy this wasn't made into a film.) And Warren Ellis' Saga -- volume one. Both on the Ipad. They don't work well on the kindle.