![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The summer doldrums continue to have me in their grip. (And my students as well; I've had about half a dozen appointments cancelled in the past week.) About all I've achieved lately is to finish off the genre novels in my last Amazon shipment.
The Wake is the last of the Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. (Well, from the cover I get the impression that there was one more volume, apparently as an afterthought, but the overall arc is completed by this story and I don't know that I'll bother to get the other one.) It's a fairly nice coda, but overall I think I enjoyed the non-arc stories as much as or better than the main line.
Flash for Freedom! is the third of the Flashman books; this time, he finds himself on board a slave ship (the slave trade being, by this time - ca. 1848 - illegal under, among others, British and USAn law). It's as irreverent as ever, and in parts exciting - especially the "crossing the ice" scene; I could wish for a deeper exploration of, for instance, the slavery vs. factory-work issue, but Flashman is, after all, not that thoughtful a character - if there's a cynical way of understanding what's going on, he'll seize on it.
Sharpe's Triumph, the second (on internal chronology) of the Sharpe novels, is, well, reasonably exciting and informative; Cornwell is good at the description of battles on the tactical level, and he makes the sequence of events at the Battle of Assaye clear.
Two for the Dough is the second of the Stephanie Plum mysteries, and I think I'm coming around to the idea that they're pretty much mind candy. Less than a week after reading the book, I had to exert a bit of effort to remember just what happened, which is unusual. Still, they're entertaining enough, and Evanovich doesn't stint on the gritty details. (Again, she has one particularly nasty villain and another colder, but ultimately more dangerous, one.)
To Darkness and to Death, the fourth mystery in the Fergusson/Van Alstyne series, is on a par with its predecessors; I have to admit that I didn't catch on to the central detail that pulled everything together, namely ( spoiler ). I'm left wondering how the interaction between Rev. Fergusson and Deacon Aberforth will play out, and looking forward to the next installment.
The Language of Power is the fourth of the Steerswoman books, and continues to intrigue. More pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. I'm a bit troubled by a couple of things, though. ( Spoilers ). Still, I'm enjoying the series a lot.
In other matters, I've started going through the archives of yet another webcomic, this time on a nonrecommendation from Websnark. Dominic Deegan, Oracle for Hire is an odd mix of silliness (including a propensity for obvious puns) and outright horror, and I'm finding it quite compelling. It's not exactly for the squeamish, though... It's probably best to begin at the beginning, where the silliness predominates (I loved the Curse of the Fish) and where the major characters are introduced.
Ah, well. Back to loafing.
The Wake is the last of the Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. (Well, from the cover I get the impression that there was one more volume, apparently as an afterthought, but the overall arc is completed by this story and I don't know that I'll bother to get the other one.) It's a fairly nice coda, but overall I think I enjoyed the non-arc stories as much as or better than the main line.
Flash for Freedom! is the third of the Flashman books; this time, he finds himself on board a slave ship (the slave trade being, by this time - ca. 1848 - illegal under, among others, British and USAn law). It's as irreverent as ever, and in parts exciting - especially the "crossing the ice" scene; I could wish for a deeper exploration of, for instance, the slavery vs. factory-work issue, but Flashman is, after all, not that thoughtful a character - if there's a cynical way of understanding what's going on, he'll seize on it.
Sharpe's Triumph, the second (on internal chronology) of the Sharpe novels, is, well, reasonably exciting and informative; Cornwell is good at the description of battles on the tactical level, and he makes the sequence of events at the Battle of Assaye clear.
Two for the Dough is the second of the Stephanie Plum mysteries, and I think I'm coming around to the idea that they're pretty much mind candy. Less than a week after reading the book, I had to exert a bit of effort to remember just what happened, which is unusual. Still, they're entertaining enough, and Evanovich doesn't stint on the gritty details. (Again, she has one particularly nasty villain and another colder, but ultimately more dangerous, one.)
To Darkness and to Death, the fourth mystery in the Fergusson/Van Alstyne series, is on a par with its predecessors; I have to admit that I didn't catch on to the central detail that pulled everything together, namely ( spoiler ). I'm left wondering how the interaction between Rev. Fergusson and Deacon Aberforth will play out, and looking forward to the next installment.
The Language of Power is the fourth of the Steerswoman books, and continues to intrigue. More pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. I'm a bit troubled by a couple of things, though. ( Spoilers ). Still, I'm enjoying the series a lot.
In other matters, I've started going through the archives of yet another webcomic, this time on a nonrecommendation from Websnark. Dominic Deegan, Oracle for Hire is an odd mix of silliness (including a propensity for obvious puns) and outright horror, and I'm finding it quite compelling. It's not exactly for the squeamish, though... It's probably best to begin at the beginning, where the silliness predominates (I loved the Curse of the Fish) and where the major characters are introduced.
Ah, well. Back to loafing.
