Begin Again

2015!

Thank goodness, because 2014 kinda stunk in the reading dept. I vow to do better this year!

In fact, I am doing pretty darn good out of the gate, I've already read four books!

The first three, are the Riyria Revelations, which is made up of Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire and the Heir of Novron, all by Michael J. Sullivan. These are not genre changing or earth shattering, but they're fun. And they have a fairly nice happy ending, which is sometimes a good thing. The central characters are thieves extrodinaire Hadrian and Royce, and they have a nice, buddy movie vibe going for them. There's good action, good capers, a larger story that they of course become part of, and a couple of good, strong female characters. I enjoyed 'em and will probably continue on with the Riyria Chronicles at some point.

Book number four is Stormbird (Wars of the Roses: Book One) by Conn Iggulden. Poor, sickly, naive Henry VI was just not cut out to be king. We're given a rather pathetic (but sympathetic) portrayal of him. We meet fierce, loyal and indomitable Margret of Anjou shortly before her marriage to Henry. The Duke of York is a little one dimensional and definitely set out as the bad guy, so it would seem (so far) that Iggulden is a Lancastrian. His best character though is the one he invented; Derry Brewer, Henry's spymaster. This book ends with King Henry's mental illness rendering him basically catatonic for months and Parliament appointing Richard, Duke of York (a man with an even better claim to the throne than the King has), as Lord Protector of the Realm. I'll be moving on to the next book in this series. I do love me some Wars of the Roses. 

Pooched

How much did I pooch this blog? Last entry was in Oct. 2014. It's now the back nine of January 2015.

Sigh.

Part of my apathy was that I read the fewest number of books I have in awhile. I only managed 33, and three of those were re-reads. Meh.

So what did I read after A Queen's Play...

• The World of Ice and Fire - GRRM, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson (loved it)

• Celtika - Robert Holdstock (kinda liked it)

• The Best Laid Plans - Terry Fallis (didn't like it)

• The Bat - Jo Nesbo (liked the ending)

• Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson (liked it, but not liking the follow up)

• The Lily and the Lion - Maurice Druon (loved it)

I tried to branch out this year, with the reading of a couple of sci-fi books. It just reminded me why I don't read sci-fi.

I was introduced to the sublime Dorothy Dunnett and her creation Lymond of Crawford.

Lev Grossman finished his Magicians books, and I think that was my favourite of the year. Special mention goes to Serpent of Venice and Boy, Snow, Bird.

Time to up my game again for 2015. I WILL do 50 books this year darnit!