First the before, which was three books read back in August:
Jean le Flambeur – This trilogy by Hannu Rajaniemi reminded me of two other authors’ styles. The first book (The Quantum Thief) was reminiscent of Jack Vance, the second (The Fractal Prince) of R. Scott Bakker, and the third (The Causal Angel) a combination of the two. These books do not explain what’s going on. Rather, they show you what’s going on and trust that you’ll be able to understand/decipher the terminology and happenings on your own. It’s… certainly interesting.
And now the after, three books I just read yesterday. The first since the trilogy above:
The Winter Long – Seanan McGuire’s eighth October Daye novel apparently kicks off the ‘main’ plotline that’s been simmering in the background since Rosemary and Rue. Which is not to say that things have changed all that much, as it’s still fundamentally the same series it has always been… just with higher overall power levels.
Unbinding – This eleventh Lupi novel is focused on wrapping up the loose ends from the tenth and is told from the perspective of the mindhealer Kai. There’s not really much to say about it honestly, since if you’ve been reading this far into the series you already know what to expect and this doesn’t do anything in particular to shake things up. One aspect stands out though, and that’s the possible newfound focus on marrying off its characters. I don’t really like the message this appears to be trying to send; that somehow ‘officially’ being bound to your SO should be important for the relationship in any way, shape, or form. Of course I highly doubt anyone impressionable enough to have their views on the subject changed will be reading a series like this in the first place, so I suppose it doesn’t matter much.
Havoc – The second part of Ann Aquirre’s Dred Chronicles series is sort of so-so. I wasn’t really sure where things could go from the first book, and this one just feels like an excessive escalation. I also don’t remember the central government being so ridiculously corrupt in the Sirantha Jax novels (this takes place in the same universe), which caused some cognitive dissonance. It’s okay I guess, it just lacks solidity and doesn’t come across as particularly believable.