2017 Read List

[triadruid]

Ooops! So somehow I forgot to even post at the end of 2017 about the book reading breakpoint. Backdated post ahoy.

 Legend: bold means I've read it already, Italics means I'm working on it, and normal text means it's a potential. * means I've read it before. Previously read books/reviews are in the 'read lists' tag.

1. Steve McGuire, Writing Solid Code (8-, circa 1999 era book from a Microsoft C expert, that I snagged from HPB to work on my LPC. Only about a third of the book was applicable, mostly because LPC runs all the time without the ability to step through code, but I still learned some things, so not a complete waste of time. The book is just written for a different audience, not that it is bad in and of itself.
2. Roger Zelazny, Nine Princes in Amber (6, sparse prose and non-stop action don't quite make up for a no-longer-striking story now that everyone has copied him, but enough going on to continue and see where this is going...)
3. e.e. doc smith, The Skylark of Space* (5, hopelessly dated pulp fiction from one of the original masters, as I recall the rest of the series becomes a little less formulaic)
4. Saladin Ahmed, Throne of the Crescent Moon (9, engaging first novel in a pseudo-Arab fantasy setting; our heroes are terrifically charming and the story is both classic and fresh at the same time; unfortunately it looks like he has yet to write any sequels)
5. Roger Zelazny, Guns of Avalon (6, I accidentally spoilered myself on a few things, but it hardly matters since the book is so predictable overall... I hear the third one is better, so I'm going to give it one more try. Zelazny's writing style is so chaotic it's distracting when he switches tense, dialect, etc mid-paragraph)
6. Roger Zelazny, Sign of the Unicorn (6, the big twist at the end was about the only part of this that was really intriguing, though I enjoyed Corwin's visit with his friend on Earth who badly wants to figure him out)
7. Roger Zelazny, The Hand of Oberon (7.5, three and a half books in and we finally get an interesting plot twist! again, much of this is because the world of fantasy has evolved and moved on since Amber burst on the scene in the 70s, but now that I want to finish the series the fifth book isn't in the library collection....yeesh)
8. e. e. 'Doc' Smith, Skylark Three* (3, power creep and rampant sexism/what-these-people-need-is-a-honky problems abound; definitely a product of its time that hasn't aged well. In addition to its other sins, it's full of how-the-ship-works/builds and technobabble)
9. Brian K. Vaughn, Saga (Volumes 1-6) (6-8, starts as a timeworn Romeo-and-Juliet-in-space story but gets much more interesting about the time we meet the reclusive author; interesting and varied aliens are probably the best part, though the English-isms (and Esperanto aliens!) can be distracting at times)
10. Mark Millar, Red Son (8, odd Elseworlds story of Communist Superman, with a fun series of twists at the end)
11. e. e. 'Doc' Smith, Skylark of Valeron* (6, a little more interesting but no less silly)
12. T.M. Williams, Undead Winter: The Apocalypse (8, taut little zombie romp that is both surprisingly disturbing and disturbingly surprising, especially for a self-publish; some nice plot twists)
13. Phillip K. Dick, Second Variety* (8, I forgot I read this as part of the Minority Report novelization, which includes some short stories after it; it's a fun one with some pithy things to say though - but I already said it was PKD...)
14. Clifford D Simak, A Choice of Gods (6, hippie scifi that wanders about didactically; Simak is apparently the forefather of 'pastoral scifi', a benevolently Luddite branch)
15. Clifford D. Simak, The Goblin Reservation (7, more entertaining exploration of many of the same themes from above, with much more absurdity and action; still obviously a product of the 60s/70s at times but overall better constructed as a novel)
16. Clifford D. Simak, Special Deliverance (6? another weird one, wandering along the route of paternalistic aliens trying to 'save' humanity by stress-testing abductees; imagine Cube crossed with Pilgrim's progress)
17. Theodore Sturgeon, Venus Plus X (7.5, dated but daring look at non-binary-gendered 'aliens' in scifi, the first of its kind apparently! the plot is really an excuse for some surprisingly insightful commentary on sexism, religion, and humanity in all its neurotic glory)
18. Theodore Sturgeon, The Perfect Host (8, surprise metafictional horror novella about possession and need)
19. Kevin Smith et al, Green Arrow: Quiver (6, Smith's dialogue overwhelms and buries the story of Ollie's resurrection, with a cameo by just about everybody in DC)
20. Theodore Sturgeon, Some Of Your Blood (7, metafictional horror again, this time an epistolary look at a possible vampire in a mental hospital; not as strong as Perfect Host, but interestingly written and engaging from start to almost-finish)
21. Kevin Smith et al, Green Arrow: Sounds of Violence (5, a villain named Onomatopoeia? really?)
22. Marvel Comics, Star Wars: Darth Vader: Vader (8, interquel comic tracking the Dark Lord through his daily routine of death and deceit and damnitIhaveason)
23. Marvel Comics, Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets (7, slightly weaker and rambling, though we're filling in gaps so the authors are both circumscribed in what they can do, and excited about what they can do)
24. e. e. 'Doc' Smith, Skylark DuQuesne (6, y'know I had thought that I read the entire series as a youth, but I don't remember ANY of this nonsense...written much later, it's possibly loopier than the others, what with the psychics and strippers and whatnot)
25. James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games (2, interminably repetitious diatribe that would in a later decade have been a damn blog post)
26.  Roger Zelazny, The Courts of Chaos (6, no real resolution or sense to the outcome, which just feeds into the next series that I am no longer interested in; the best part was noting the basic similarities that may have inspired Robert Jordan, for example)
27. Jason Latour et al, Spider-Gwen (7.5, solid alternate universe Spider-person story with cute-but-not-cutesy variations of the usual cast; punk rock Mary Jane is my favorite)
28. Ward Rutherford, Druids: Magicians of the West (8, surprisingly coherent lit-review of the state of scholarship in the early 1990s, not the 70s as insinuated by the dreadful cover art)
29. Jane McGonigal, Reality is Broken (7-8, McGonigal's ideas are great but her scholarship seems sketchy; or maybe we're just jaded now about how online games really work. she has an unflagging belief in the ability of games to better the world, but it takes some assumptions I'm not quite willing to follow about human/corporate nature; also, most of the games she cites are no longer in existence, which is frustrating for testing her thesis or even just playing along)
30. White Wolf Publishing, How Do You DO That? (7, much less obscure than most WW books, this one lays out just about every way to run a Mage you can think of in excruciating detail; the sidebars that are in-character are actually better than the mechanics text)
31. Patricia Briggs, Dragon Bones (7.5, entertaining fantasy piece with nothing terribly new going on; the main twist at the end is telegraphed quite a ways away, but the dialogue and characters are good)
32. Patricia Briggs, Dragon Blood (7, nothing terribly surprising here but the characters continue to be well-written, and the pathos is surprisingly real)
33. Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures (9, exquisitely crafted little-known history of the women of color who helped NARA/NASA immensely in the early days; better than the movie for the extra depth and time it covers)
34. Marvel Comics, Star Wars: Lando (7, fun heist sidebar about Lando and Lobot and some other mooks that don't make it)
35. Marvel Comics, Star Wars: Han Solo (6, Han Solo getting into trouble before Empire while racing the Falcon improbably)
36. Image Comics, The Walking Dead: Vol. 27: The Whisperer War (7, improbable and inevitable are pretty much the name of the game anymore)
37. Image Comics, The Walking Dead: Vol. 28: A Certain Doom (7.5, somehow resolving the Whisperer crisis leads to some more interesting character choices for once...it probably won't last)
38. Brian K. Vaughn, Saga (Volume 7) (8, these characters really grab you and don't let go, even if the ostensible plot is often....insane? "silly" isn't really the right word for this much pathos)
39. Luke Crane et al, Torchbearer RPG (5, overly complicated, nostalgia-filled attempt to recreate the 'brutal' early days of D&D dungeon crawls... didn't appeal to me, though I'm sure it's some people's cup of tea)
40. Martha Wells, All Systems Red (8, philosophical romp about AI, corporatocracy, lowest-bidder space exploration, and what it means to be alive; possibly YA though it reads as complex enough for an adult reader as well, I finished it in a couple of days)
41. Caleb Stokes, Red Markets (5/8, as an RPG this is completely unappealing to me (economic grind with zombies to lighten the burden), but the first 140+ pages of fictional backstory is top-notch, if utterly ruthless and brutal)