book list, November 2006

I made three resolutions this year. First, get a job. (Done!) Second, exercise more regularly and lose weight. (Done!) Third, keep a list of the books I read.

These are the books I read in November, 2006:

New: 6
---The Fall of the Kings, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman (fantasy: sequel to Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword. A bit loose in places, and I spent the second half of the book teetering on the point of such strong sympathetic embarrassment that I nearly couldn't finish reading it. I like the academics, though.)
---Thomas the Rhymer, Ellen Kushner (fantasy: lush but slight)
---Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist vol. 15, Kazuki Takahashi (manga: card games and more card games, and a metaphoric hymn to friendship. Oh, Kaiba, you idiot. Oh, Yugi, you wonderful bitty fierce creature, you! Fight, Jounouchi -- you can break free!)
---Dzur, Steven Brust (fantasy: a Vlad Taltos book, direct sequel to Issola. Fun, but it feels more like necessary filler and set-up than a complete book in and of itself.)
---Chobits vol. 1, CLAMP (manga: very cute, very silly. All about humanoid robots, except nobody calls them that.)
---Clover vol. 3, CLAMP (manga: I love the minimalism and the way you have to read the story out of what isn't said as much as what is. And I really, truly wish my library had the full series.)


Old: 13
---The Final Encyclopedia, Gordon R. Dickson (science fiction: there's something about the sweep of Dickson's Childe Cycle that catches my imagination, even if I find a number of the details incredibly wrong-headed, incomplete, or unconvincing.)
---The Rowan, Anne McCaffrey (sci-fi/romance: psychics in SPACE! *has quiet giggle fit*)
---Damia, Anne McCaffrey (sci-fi/romance: sequel to The Rowan. Afra totally deserved better than being turned into a skeevy old man.)
---The Ship Who Sang, Anne McCaffrey (sci-fi: pieced together from short stories. Her writing's younger and less fluid, but I think this is actually a decent book, if one glosses over the inadvertent sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, and whatnot.)
---The Ship Who Searched, Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey (sci-fi: in which we proceed to invent silly alien archaeology and attempt to be serious about interstellar plagues. Still, I like Tia and Alex, damnit.)
---Deerskin, Robin McKinley (fantasy: a fairy-tale retelling, dark and haunting. Also, dogs.)
---Clover vol. 1, CLAMP (manga: minimalist and gorgeous)
---Angel Sanctuary vols. 1-3, 8, 15-16, (manga: fucked up, brilliant, and very, very pretty. And now you know which volumes I own as of the beginning of December.)


November Total = 19 books (plus a few magazines and some fanfiction)

Year to Date = 342 books (237 new, 105 old)

book list, November 2006

I made three resolutions this year. First, get a job. (Done!) Second, exercise more regularly and lose weight. (Done!) Third, keep a list of the books I read.

These are the books I read in November, 2006:

New: 6
---The Fall of the Kings, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman (fantasy: sequel to Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword. A bit loose in places, and I spent the second half of the book teetering on the point of such strong sympathetic embarrassment that I nearly couldn't finish reading it. I like the academics, though.)
---Thomas the Rhymer, Ellen Kushner (fantasy: lush but slight)
---Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist vol. 15, Kazuki Takahashi (manga: card games and more card games, and a metaphoric hymn to friendship. Oh, Kaiba, you idiot. Oh, Yugi, you wonderful bitty fierce creature, you! Fight, Jounouchi -- you can break free!)
---Dzur, Steven Brust (fantasy: a Vlad Taltos book, direct sequel to Issola. Fun, but it feels more like necessary filler and set-up than a complete book in and of itself.)
---Chobits vol. 1, CLAMP (manga: very cute, very silly. All about humanoid robots, except nobody calls them that.)
---Clover vol. 3, CLAMP (manga: I love the minimalism and the way you have to read the story out of what isn't said as much as what is. And I really, truly wish my library had the full series.)


Old: 13
---The Final Encyclopedia, Gordon R. Dickson (science fiction: there's something about the sweep of Dickson's Childe Cycle that catches my imagination, even if I find a number of the details incredibly wrong-headed, incomplete, or unconvincing.)
---The Rowan, Anne McCaffrey (sci-fi/romance: psychics in SPACE! *has quiet giggle fit*)
---Damia, Anne McCaffrey (sci-fi/romance: sequel to The Rowan. Afra totally deserved better than being turned into a skeevy old man.)
---The Ship Who Sang, Anne McCaffrey (sci-fi: pieced together from short stories. Her writing's younger and less fluid, but I think this is actually a decent book, if one glosses over the inadvertent sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, and whatnot.)
---The Ship Who Searched, Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey (sci-fi: in which we proceed to invent silly alien archaeology and attempt to be serious about interstellar plagues. Still, I like Tia and Alex, damnit.)
---Deerskin, Robin McKinley (fantasy: a fairy-tale retelling, dark and haunting. Also, dogs.)
---Clover vol. 1, CLAMP (manga: minimalist and gorgeous)
---Angel Sanctuary vols. 1-3, 8, 15-16, (manga: fucked up, brilliant, and very, very pretty. And now you know which volumes I own as of the beginning of December.)


November Total = 19 books (plus a few magazines and some fanfiction)

Year to Date = 342 books (237 new, 105 old)

[Fic] "Glass and Shadows" -- Final Fantasy 7 (Mercverse AU)

Another mercverse story, because it suddenly came clear in my head last night.

Ever since icedark_elf made it clear that the royal family are Cloud's nieces and nephews, not just his cousins (as I'd previously assumed), I've been trying to handwave over that discrepancy. This is, among other things, the product of that handwaving.

Somewhat depressing, along the lines of Yesterday and Tomorrow. You could consider this a companion to that fic, actually.

( Glass and Shadows )

original post and comments

---------------------------------------------

In RL news, my occasional friend Andrew is going to be in Ithaca this weekend, so we'll spend a couple hours catching up Sunday afternoon before I go to work.

Also, traffic patterns around the Commons are going to be screwed up for a while, because they're knocking down the Green St. Helix and parking garage, and therefore Green St. is closed from Cayuga down to at least the underpass under South Aurora/96B. I don't care much, because I walk everywhere, but this must bollix bus schedules something fierce -- if they go through central Ithaca, they usually stop on Green St., right in front of the library, and now that stop's blocked off.

Oh well, at least the library's still open!

[Fic] "Glass and Shadows" -- Final Fantasy 7 (Mercverse AU)

Another mercverse story, because it suddenly came clear in my head last night.

Ever since icedark_elf made it clear that the royal family are Cloud's nieces and nephews, not just his cousins (as I'd previously assumed), I've been trying to handwave over that discrepancy. This is, among other things, the product of that handwaving.

Somewhat depressing, along the lines of Yesterday and Tomorrow. You could consider this a companion to that fic, actually.

( Glass and Shadows )

original post and comments

---------------------------------------------

In RL news, my occasional friend Andrew is going to be in Ithaca this weekend, so we'll spend a couple hours catching up Sunday afternoon before I go to work.

Also, traffic patterns around the Commons are going to be screwed up for a while, because they're knocking down the Greent St. Helix and parking garage, and therefore Green St. is closed from Cayuga down to at least the underpass under South Aurora/96B. I don't care much, because I walk everywhere, but this must bollix bus schedules something fierce -- if they go through central Ithaca, they usually stop on Green St., right in front of the library, and now that stop's blocked off.

Oh well, at least the library's still open!