Things I’m in the middle of:
Forensics for Dummies, Douglas P. Lyle — What it says on the tin. Simplistic but it does the trick as all I’m looking for a smattering of background and some vocabulary lessons. The interesting stuff will come later.
29th Years Best Science Fiction, Dozios — Dipping in and out. This will take weeks.
For the Love of a Dog, Patricia B. McConnell — Do dogs have emotional lives?
Poems (published in 1820), John Keats — because I’m listening to Dan Simmons’ Hyperion. Making my brain mushy.
Catching up on some old issues of Clarkesworld, Azimov’s, Analog, etc. I’ll owe you all a post on a couple of short stories that you should look up.
Things I finished:
Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, Genevieve Valentine — A rust, and brown, and darkly stained circus of half humans and half monsters (or are they?) traveling through an equally stained world. There are love stories, and war stories, and a bit of a caper. But mostly there is an odd, eerie, strangely hopeful magic. It’s creepy; I loved it.
Devil Said Bang (Sandman Slim), Richard Kadrey — Fourth in the series that shows clear signs of having originally been intended to be a trilogy but now extended to at least six. Stark, who is now Lucifer, escapes too easily from Hell to L.A. Too easily considering the so much was made of the impossibly of said return in the previous book. Also a lot of jokes about Hell’s bureaucracy. Rote appearances by cast members from the previous books — just so you remember them and the obligatory romantic complication that has all the heat of my breakfast. Weak enough that I may not bother with the remainder of the series. Not weak enough that I’ll pass on anything else Mr. Kadrey writes out of hand. Butcher Bird which was, by his own admission, considerably less commercial, remains one my favorites. BTW — there are some excerpts from a Locus interview with Kardey posted.
Up next:
I also spent a lot of time sampling material and adding to the “Read Next” pile. Most of the sample are of books about forensics, some popular some technical, that I’m looking over while I contemplate how to divvy up forensics capabilities in a mixed tech world. I’ve also come to the conclusion that one of my dream library jobs exists, that it’s local, and that I’d have to commit murder to get it. (There’s an incumbent and murdering a reference librarian who manages a forensics library has got to be one of the stupidest ideas ever. But it might make a good story plot. Hmmmm…)
Going onto the Read Next — Fiction pile are the newest from C. Valente The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There. Also Hannu Rajaniemi brings back Jean de Flambeur (Quantum Thief) in The Fractal Prince.
Also seeking recommendations from anyone who has read Stewart O’Nan. Best book to start with?