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What I read -- September 2014



“The Last Command” by Timothy Zahn. Book three of the Thrawn trilogy.

“The Goblin Emperor” by Katherine Addison. I’ve read a couple of other books by her under her previous name. She did a risky thing here, I think. There are tons and tons of characters, political systems, geography, that weren’t ever really explained. But the main character, Maia, didn’t really understand them either. So it was quite immersive to spend so much time trying to figure out who was who (they seemed to have tons of names also, like a Russian novel). Maia was a delight. As a victim of abuse, he rose above it, and his otherness, both from me as a non-goblin, and from the elves in the story, worked really well.

“The Atrocity Archives” by Steven Brust. I didn’t even remember requesting this, but I’m sure it’s because of Marie Brennan’s reading list from August. It was fast and fun. I loved the science mingled with the fantasy, but I kind of wished Bob did more IT.

“The Land Across” by Gene Wolfe. This is probably because of Marie Brennan’s August reading list, too. My fantasy literature course in University that had the first two of the Book of the New Sun books, so I of course read the other two, because who reads half a series? Book of the New Sun was really memorable. I might have also read a collection of short stories. Anyway. The voice was unmistakable. The ending was so tidy! Everything wrapped up. And two books in a row that featured a hand of glory! Weird.

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