It's the last day of February

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Apparently I haven't had anything to say for the whole month.  My knee has been killing me and it's better now, so maybe it loosened my tongue.  Or my fingers.  Or my thoughts.

I watched the Egyptians and now the Libyans fight for their freedom.  I'm disgusted with the US for shoring up these despicable dictators.

I've read, but nothing memorable.  It took me from January 6 to finish King Hereafter, late last night.  First, I was trying to read with the DDANZ group  over on Yahoo, but got frustrated with the slowness and the lack of discussion so finally tore off on my own.  It's still making me tear up with its heart breaking ending.  I knew it was coming, had to come, but still.  Broke my heart.  Thorfinn/Macbeth is the hero - an ancient King of Scotland - and I fell in love with him.  Dorothy Dunnett does create the most wonderful heroes.

I am reading Erikson's Gardens of the Moon with the Fantasy Book Club Series group.  It's confusing, filled with unfathomable magic, slaughter, gore.  But everyone raves about the series, so I'm giving it a shot.  Of course, everyone raves about the Wheel of Time series as well, and I quit after the first book because the characters are too dumb to live, which makes me not care what happens to them.  Gah!


I've written a brief review of KH, will post when I'm done.  Other than that, the best book I read all month was Death Without Company by Craig Johnson - #2 in a series about Walt Longmire, a sheriff in the Powder River country of Wyoming.  His wry sense of humor, his dog - named Dog - and his Indian friend Henry Standing Bear - all make them wonderful.  Actually, I listened to it, and George Guidall does a wonderful job of narrating.  I've got the first - The Cold Dish - in my Nook, but I'd almost rather listen to it than read it.


Oh!  I forgot I read Warchild by Karin Lowachee, which was powerful good!  Here's my review:
Warchild by Karin Lowachee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The book starts with the hero, eight year old Jos, huddled in a hiding place on the space ship he and his parents call home, listening to a battle rage outside.  It proceeds through his capture by the pirate captain, his escape, his rescue by a man sympathetic to the alien race that Earth Hub is trying to eradicate, and his eventual growth into manhood.  This is a character driven story that takes place in a future universe that is well developed and real -- my favorite kind of read.

It starts in the second person, creating some needed emotional distance from the terror stricken boy, but morphs into first person fairly quickly.  I'm not even sure when it happened.


Lowachee creates such emotional reality with so few words and without the graphic violence of so many books, that I found my heart gripped with the emotions Jos was experiencing - his loneliness, the frozen emptiness of abandonment, the avoidance of the real traumas of murder, dismemberment, rape and child abuse.

The alien planet where Jos learns his skills in fighting, computer hacking (or Burn Diving as they call it) is a place of beauty and peace modeled on the oriental.  The giant space ships are felt and imagined.  The torn loyalties between Earth and the aliens are wrenching.  The connection between Jos and Niko, his rescuer, is real and moving and we sense Jos' need to be loved and valued.

I didn't want it to end.  I'm glad there are two more books.


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This one was pretty good as well:
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Very complex, densely woven story of Nicholas Valiarde and his attempt to exact revenge on the man he holds responsible for his foster father's unjust conviction and execution for necromancy ten years earlier.

Great characters, fascinating world, very interesting magic, and some truly scary moments made it a great read.

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And here's my review of the Craig Johnson:
Death Without Company by Craig Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another delightful episode with Walt Longmire, brilliantly narrated by George Guidall.  The wry humor, the characters, the setting in the Powder River country of Wyoming, all combine to make a thoroughly enjoyable listen.


In this story, Walt struggles to uncover the twisted family secrets of an elderly woman who dies in a nursing home.  He shortly discovers she was murdered, and then follows a convoluted story of her life... His Indian buddy, Henry, provides endless entertainment with his dry wit, his brilliant understatements, and his knowledge of Indian language and custom.

I have a couple of the titles on my Nook, but kind of wish I'd bought the audio versions instead, as Walt is a perfect foil for George Guidall's narration.

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