take a turn at the L's, go two miles down the stacks, and...

[reverancepavane]

Judging from the scatering of book yet to be reshelved, my rereading list for January amounts to the following (in no particular order): The Lord of Castle Black by Steven Brust PJF. Part of an excellent homage to Dumas' The Three Musketeers trilogy, set in the same world as his Taltos series, albiet a few years earlier (at the time of the Interregnum). He maintains the paid-by-the-word verbosity of the original. I read this when contemplating writing up the S7S playtest in more florid language. Black Powder War and Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik. Books 3 & 4 of the Temeraire series, combining dragons with Napoleonic warfare. Running from the Deity and Trouble Magnet by Alan Dean Foster. Part of the Flinx series, they bracket the earlier book Bloodhype. I really liked the early Flinx series, but the constant self-examination of the protagonist in the later books is very wearing. I think the Humanx Commonwealth (which includes the Flinx books as an important subset) is one of the great SF universes, primarily for the creation of the United Church, probably one of the most attractive (to me at least) religious organizations ever thought of. Essentially they are the moral backbone of the Commonwealth (which is otherwise pretty "human"). Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. Book 3 of The Dresden Files. The first book of the series is a "first book" but the writing improves rapidly, and the series is highly reccomended. I'm eagerly waiting for the latest to be released locally. Harry Dresden is Chicago's only practicing Wizard (he's there in the yellow pages under W). Magic and the supernatural exists, but most people prefer to believe it doesn't. I particularly enjoy how his life becomes more complicated as time goes on. Actions and choices have consequences. Queen of the Demonweb Pits by Paul Kidd. Part of Paul's series of Greyhawk novels set in (really) old AD&D modules, where the characters use intelligence, charm, lateral thinking, and slapstick to solve most of the dungeons. Infamous for a faerie with the universe's most-perfect butt and a sentient Hell Hound pelt (yes, pelt), among others. All MGF, and not really a D&D novel. Paul's work (fiction, RPG, and Computer Games) is all highly reccomended. Bitter Gold Hearts by Glen Cook. Part of the Garrett PI series about a private investigator in a fantasy city. All very good. Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold. Part of her Vorkosigan series. All good. Thin Air by Rachel Caine. Book 6 of the Weather Warden series. Not that great a series. I read of it because of a mention in Wm. Mark Simmon's Dead Easy (which is highly reccomended). Actually this was New Book 2008003, so it gets a full review. Oh dear! The Musashi Flex by Steve Perry. A prequel to a the Matador series which explores the nature of the Flex (a very free-form martial arts "tournament") and the creation of the martial art of Sumito. The whole Matador trilogy is something that has great power to move me, but I'm probably extremely susceptable to this sort of martial arts philosophy. YMMV. This book adds to it. Hell to Pay and Agents of Light and Darkness by Simon R Green. The latest Nightside and my favourite Nightside novel (in fact it's probably one of my favourites of any book). I like all his books, and there is an extensive cross-pollination between his various worlds that is extremely enjoyable for the cognisceti. And nobody does epic level interaction better than he does. All in all it's been a fairly quiet month without much available reading time. There is probably some other books in the list which I've already put away or buried elsewhere.