So this week I’m reading Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest, in which the release of rogue technology destroys much of Seattle and unleashes a toxic gas, known as the Blight, that kills most things it touches, and reanimates some of those things as the living dead. In other words, it’s just like the launch of Windows ME.
What’s this? Two “not a review” posts in a row? Inconceivable! But true. You see, some may remember that a couple of years ago my wife got hooked on crystal meth “Breaking Bad“, AKA “The Best Show Ever“. It took a while for us to get through all the episodes, after which I was charged with finding my wife another show to watch. Not surprisingly, this turned out to be a pretty tall order. Aside from the six-episode “Happy Valley“, I didn’t have much luck coming up with anything that held her interest.
Until now.
Last week I had a sad and didn’t do a post, but this week I’m back with a teaser from my current read, The Lady Astronomer, by Katy O’Dowd.
So far I would characterize this book as steampunk, but it’s steampunk that’s sort of been filtered through a Hayao Miyazaki “Kiki’s Delivery Service” meets “Howl’s Moving Castle” kind of sensibility. It’s cute, but don’t go in expecting something like The Difference Engine.
Lucretia was pulling some monster-like weeds that held a death grip on a pretty climbing rose when Mr. Trotters came belching and bellowing steam in her direction.
She sat back on her heels and regarded the steam-pig.
The steam-pig regarded her back.
“Lost your pipe again, Mr. Trotters?”
The steam-pig burped smoke and she sighed. “Come along then, we had better find it before you blow up.”
Mr. Trotters is, literally, a steam-powered mechanical pig. There’s also a miniature clockwork animal orchestra, a lemur (pictured on the cover), an owl (also pictured on the cover). It’s a veritable menagerie of natural and artificial creatures! And speaking of menageries, our old friend Bob seems to have encountered one, over in the world of Television Man …
Once Bob fired the shotgun, it was pretty much pandemonium. A half-dozen of the little monsters went down, but the rest of them rushed him in a mass. He blasted them again, sending black blood and umber fragments flying in every direction, but the next time he pulled the trigger it just clicked. Empty. He hadn’t even thought to look and see how many shells the gun could hold, let alone how many it contained.
Oops. Always remember to check your ammo, Bob.
So this week I’m reading Hard Bite, by one “Anonymous-9”, who as far as I know is not one of these guys:
So this week I’m re-reading The Black Mountain, by Rex Stout, AKA The One Where Nero Wolfe Goes To Montenegro. Given that Wolfe normally doesn’t even like going out onto the sidewalk, this is serious business.
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 11/24/2015: “The Black Mountain””
So this week I’m reading Queen of the Tearling, by Erika Johanson, because the Calibre Random Book Picker told me to, and I already paid a buck ninety-nine for it a while ago, and Mango Momma advised me too late that I should read the reviews, which to be fair are mostly favorable, except when they’re scathing. (Seriously, read the scathing review — it’s one of the funniest I’ve seen since Meg took down Legon Awakening, a book I didn’t even manage to finish. Go ahead, I’ll wait.)
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 11/10/15: “Queen of the Tearling””
So this week I’m reading Helen of Sparta, a historical novel by Amalia Carosella that tells the story of Helen of Troy when she was just plain Helen.
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 10/20/2015: “Helen of Sparta””
So this week I’m reading Pale Queen Rising, by A.R. Kahler, in which an assassin from Faerie (who, despite being from Faerie, is not actually of Faerie) is charged by Queen Mab with finding out who is skimming off the top of her harvest of Dream. Which is, apparently, a little bit like skimming meth from Heisenberg. If you’re going to do it, do not get caught.
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 10/6/2015: “Pale Queen Rising””
Are you sick of these yet?
“Robinton, you are indeed safely back,” Lessa cried, running toward him, a wide smile lighting her unusual face. “And so tanned!”
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 9/22/2015: Still Yet More “Dragonriders of Pern””
Did I mention my Kobo says the original Dragonriders of Pern trilogy 1,200 pages long? That’s long. That’s very long. In fact, it’s so long, here are four sentences for your teaser this week instead of two. But two of the sentences are rather short.
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 9/15/2015: Still More “Dragonriders of Pern”!”
Viscosity 