February is almost over, and at this point it appears I’ll finish with six books read. While January was almost fully made up of re-reads, this month I focused on new books.
My first is the latest from John Scalzi. I was first turned on to his work by an old work associate Kimberly, who recommended his sci-fi book Redshirts. That was a wonderful riff on Star Trek and the idea of wearing a red shirt as a sign of impending demise. I’d then read a bunch of his other works, and started following his Twitter feed, and am now a full fledged fan. His latest, The Consuming Fire, is a sequel that picks up where The Collapsing Empire leaves off. I enjoy his writing style, and many of his characters share the same sharp minds and tongues that Scalzi himself exhibits on Twitter.
Another old favorite author came next. I’ve been reading Terry Brooks work since the Sword of Shannara back in my college days. His focus has been almost exclusively in fantasy, but his latest book Street Freaks is a sci-fi entry. His world is not quite dystopian (thankfully) but leaning in that direction, where a sheltered young man is thrust by death and danger into a tenuous existence in a hard unfamiliar world. I enjoyed it.
Next up is a trilogy I heard of, curiously enough, from Scalzi’s twitter feed. All three of N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy books won the Best Novel Hugo Award. That was a first, as was her being the only African American writer to ever win that award even once. (Coincidental yet appropriate for being Black History Month.) Anyway, the books were very good but I did have a small problem – the books kept slipping between first- and third-person narrative (in keeping with her story) but that started messing with my own writing. At one point I had to spend an hour reading and re-reading one of my chapters to straighten out my own narrative. Barring that hiccup, I enjoyed the trilogy tremendously and would definitely recommend it to all.
My last book was, again, from a friend’s recommendation. Kathleen shares some of my reading interests and mentioned enjoying John Green’s Paper Towns. I’d not read any of his work, but I did see the Fault in Our Stars movie and thought it wasn’t bad. So what the heck? Turns out this teen novel was a pretty good read.
So that brings me to 15 for the year. I’ve again started another book, but it won’t be finished this month. Look for another book(s) review a few weeks from now!
- Scalzi, Consuming Fire
- Brooks, Street Freaks
- Jemisin, Fifth Season
- Jemisin, Obelisk Gate
- Jemisin, Stone Sky
- Green, Paper Towns
Yay for John Green! 😀 You can take some credit for my Lord of the Rings re-read this month… I’ll have to check out the Jemisin series at some point.
I’m sure you would have gotten round to it eventually.