Mouseguard + Steampunk

I love the library. I checked out the sequel to the totally amazing Mouseguard Fall 1152, Winter 1152. It was great. I love this series. Art is amazing. Stories are simple, but very enjoyable. There is great detail in the Mouseguard world, and the richness to the drawing brings it to life. As soon as I can, I'll buy this one too. They are definitely worth buying, even if they are shorter than most graphic novels.

The other book I just checked out, How to Draw Steampunk, was less inspiring. I didn't expect too much from it, but it was still a little disappointing. The art is so-so, not incredible. The basic art instructions are pretty good, especially some of the painting info. Otherwise, it's decent, but it's nothing special. I was hoping for something more along the lines of the very good How to Draw Noir Comics. In otherwords, a breakdown of genre elements and techniques on executing them. Instead it's basically a step by step guide to drawing some scenes. While the illustration techniques are cool, it doesn't shed much on the steampunk genre as a whole. Anyway, glad I checked it out and didn't buy it.

Armored, a compilation of short stories edited by John Joseph Adams is exactly the sort of book a mecha fan should read, and love. It's really a strong collection of stories. As I mentioned on the MZML, there are also lots of stories about people dying in horrible ways, but they are for the most part really well written and intriguing. Despite the fact that a large number of the protagonists end up dead. But I guess reading as much Iain Banks as I do, that sort of thing shouldn't surprise me...

Anyway! This is a great collection of stories. It covers all sorts of mecha genres, from gritty power armor military stuff, to space opera, giant mechs, civilian and military. Favorites included... ah heck, just about every one is a favorite! It'd be easier to list the few that weren't my favorites, but that wouldn't be nice. Suffice it to say, there are great stories in this collection!

One thing of note: there is a strong (and probably deserved...) bias towards stories about Marines. Most of the "realistic" robot soldiers are Marines. The toughest is probably the guy in the Johnson Maneuver by Ian Douglas. It's the first story and it really kicks off the book well. In much the same way, The N-Body Solution by Sean Williams finishes the book of nicely, a space opera contrast to the gritty opening story. I was so satisfied with this book!

One thing: even if you're not so big on the military scifi stuff, there are enough alternatives in this collection to make it worthwhile, despite the subtitle of the book!

I checked it out from the library, but I definitely want to own this one. I want to use it as a reference for checking out the other works from the various authors.

And big plug to fellow MZMLer Jak Wagner for his part in the very enjoyable Poacher story!

I'm a sucker for genre series like Star Wars, and now Warhammer 40k. I just read my third WH40k novel, and this one was unequivocally AWESOME! Emperor's Finest by Sandy Mitchell, a Ciaphas Cain Novel is a totally different book from the other two WH40k books I read, it's much lighter in tone, but still has all the great elements of the WH40k universe: orks, space marines, space ships, genestealers and so much more.

My favorite parts of this book are the main character, Cain, who is so great. He's a rogue, not unlike Flashman (a comparison the author makes in another book somewhere) in some respects, but so much more likeable and you really can't help but think he's the hero he tries so hard not to be.

The other great part is the narrative style itself. It's first person, told from Cain's perspective in a memoir fashion, but it's annotated by a historian and the footnotes and inserted helpful context chapters are great. It added so much to the enjoyment of the book. And it foreshadowed adventures to come or refers to ones in the past. Not that you needed to read any of the previous books to really enjoy this one. I'm sure I missed some inside jokes, but I really didn't care, I was having too much fun.

Another helpful resource for understanding the extremely detailed WH40k universe is the Lexicanum, which is sort of like the Wookiepedia for Warhammer. It's great. I'm really impressed by this universe, even though I have no interest in the game itself. I am, after all, a sucker for the Space Marines!

I checked out the book Fantasy by Ben Boos from the library based on two things: the Swords book by Ben Boos was SO AWESOME and the cover to the Fantasy book was super cool (<----see pic). Well, it's not as cool as Swords, but there are some nice illustrations and it sure seems like it was probably a whole lot of fun to write.

While the rest of the book didn't totally wow me (like Swords... can you guess I really liked that book?), the cover is SO good that it's the sort of thing I'd love as a piece of art.

Now, back to reading my WH40k novel...

I forgot to post about this one... which maybe is a sign.

Mecha Corps by Brett Patton was a book I had high hopes for, mostly because it's called "Mecha Corps". With a name like that it had to be awesome, right?

There was a movie a long time ago that had to be awesome because of it's name: Robot Jox. Well... we all know how that turned out. (In case you don't, it's probably the WORST movie ever made. It is so bad. Crash and burn man.)

Mecha Corps wasn't that bad. Not by half. But it wasn't very good either. It had some interesting parts and was easy to read, but it didn't bring anything new to the giant robot genre. The most interesting bit, the genetically engineered bad guys and their link to the "good guy" government, was sort of wasted at the end. That kind of sums up a lot of the book: lots of potential, but not fully realized. It wasn't a waste of time, I did enjoy it, but it wasn't great. (Robot Jox was a complete waste of time. Even worse than the Star Wars Christmas Special. It really is that bad.)

 I also read this one a few months ago, though I continue to have a love-hate relationship with these books. George R.R. Martin's A Clash of Kings continued pretty much right after Game of Thrones. It was pretty intense, and I really hated a lot of things that happened. But the characters are SO compelling and the intricacies of the plot are engaging. Even with the super frustrating things that happen, I just couldn't stop reading.

The love hate continues. I just finished A Storm of Swords. Oh man. So much happened in this book. SO MUCH. It was intense. And long, the longest I think of the three I've read so far. Did I say that SO MUCH happens? I really started to get attached to some of the horrible characters. The Kingslayer's totally evil right? Well, by the end of this book, I was rooting for him, though I found myself saying "But he pushed Bran out the window! He's bad bad bad!" but I didn't quite believe it. I was still rooting for him. That goes for a lot of other characters too. They are so well done. The characters really make these stories come to life. Two things though: I almost stopped reading it after the Red Wedding. Come on! Can nothing be happy? And ending a book with so many cliffhangers is just cruel. Doing it three times in a row is downright evil. Just sayin'.

Definitely taking a Song of Fire and Ice break. Got a couple good ones line up. Thank you public library!

Swords: An Artist's Devotion by Ben Boos is a totally cool book. I can't vouch for any historic accuracy, but it doesn't matter. The illustrations are super cool. And it's all about swords, which are cool, right?

Checked it out from the library, and definitely think this is one I'd like to purchase!

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, I heard about it somewhere so when I saw it at the library I picked it up. It started off a bit dense, introducing a lot of stuff very very quickly.

But, it got really good really quick after that. Probably the first full fledged post-human novel I've read (certainly the first I've read after learning the term!), and the concepts are pretty darn cool.

Lot's of fancy tech, but the best part was the key role "privacy" played in the story.

There was lots of fun hints at what happened to Earth and extremely entertaining "gamer clans".

My only complaint is that the author kind of was showing off how smart he was. However, he probably is super smart, so the story really made up for it!