It’s About Making Babies!

The topic this week is rolling on Booking Through Thursday. Specifically, a compelling non-series sequence of books.

Perhaps my habits might be considered ‘meta rolling’. I tend to reread series in clumps.

I just came off a Tamora Pierce revisit, with Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen. I think it was the puzzle solving that took me to Patricia Briggs’ Moon Called and Blood Bound - both really good paranormal / underworld adventure. I don’t go in for the classic horror stuff, but I found Briggs’ stories of Mercedes ‘Mercy’ Thompson, VW mechanic, walker, and neighbor to the local alpha werewolf very good. I also like what Kelley Armstrong has done with her ladies of the underworld and werewolf interwoven stories.

Susan R. Matthews writes a dark story. Her new ‘Warring States’ continues the conflicted tales of the Ragnorak cruiser-killer Jurisdiction space ship, and her Secured Medical officer Andrej Koscuisko. And the strong Jils Ivers character continued the ‘competent central woman’ theme.

I just re-read David Weber’s Honor Harrington, from On Basilisk Station through Ashes of Victory (I couldn’t find my copy of War of Honor until this afternoon.)

Mike Shepherd’s Kris Longknife: Audacious was it’s usual reluctant-hero excellent story telling. As was Kris Longknife: Reluctant, Kris Longknife: Mutineer and Kris Longknife: Deserter. Except maybe Shepherd might have gone on a bit longer than necessary with the ‘booby bombs’.

Then followed Kristine Smith’s first two, Code of Conduct and Rules of Survival. The connection here was the edgy mayhem and battle backgrounds.

Now I am on Robert Frezza’s silly space operas McLendon’s Syndrome and V.M.R. (Vampire Master Race theory - space aliens decided humanity is too stupid to actually travel space, colonize worlds, and hold elections. They figure vampires are a hidden master race actually guiding humans.) The reluctant, inept hero of these stories is guided by the elusive, competent Scandanavian vampire (it is a venereal disease here, with only 3% of the populations susceptible, including our hero), Catarina Lindquist.

Maybe next I will drop back to Weber, and hit some ancillary stories - including Crown of Slaves and Shadow of Saganomi - really good reads, and continue a competent heroine theme.

And then there are a couple of soul-warming delights - Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Balance of Trade and Conflict of Honors. Balance of Trade is a young man coming of age between sophisticated cultures in conflict over trade, where Conflict of Honors finds a young woman hounded by circumstance and bad luck to find refuge - and unlooked for comfort and welcome. As many books as promise a glimpse of fulfillment, of joy and acceptance, these two stay near the top of my stack.

And then it may be time for Elizabeth Moon’s Deed of Paksennarian (Sheep Farmer’s Daughter, Divided Allegiance, Oath of Gold) again, for a deeper sense of growth, loss, and restoration.

Enjoy the season!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 6:40 am and is filed under BTT, Books, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.