Books Books Books

I had the most awesome vacation ever. Also, it was cheap!

I traveled in my imagination, just like those library posters always told me I could. For an entire week, I did nothing much but read.

I could very easily do it again. Right now.

I began with White Cat by Holly Black, which I think is her best book so far (Though Valiant remains my favorite of her novels.) For such a short novel, it packs in quite a lot of worldbuilding and thematic depth. It’s an exemplar of why I love speculative YA fiction.

The rest of the week was devoted to finishing series, or at least finishing the books I had in them; it was sort of like going to visit a lot of very old and dear friends. Tuesday was Corambis by Sarah Monette, which I saved for so long that it’s now come out in paperback. I was sorry this series, The Doctrine of Labyrinths, is over. I could easily see a fifth book, based on character changes that happened in this one, that might have taken the story in an interesting new direction.

Wednesday, I read Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold, which just came out this month. It’s the last in the Vorkosigan series, which I’ve been reading for over twenty years. *boggles* The ending was both painful and fitting.

Thursday, I started and then skimmed a YA novel I didn’t get into, then went on to Where Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris, fourth in a series of Regency-set mysteries. The fifth one is out now and there’s a sixth out next year, I think. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the previous three, I think because it’s a sort of interim book, right after a major change in the series setup. I think the fallout from this one might be more fun, so I plan to read the next one.

Friday was Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik, newest of the Temeraire books. This one, also, felt to me like a bit of an interim book, setting up a great deal of conflict perhaps leading into the final three books of the series.

Finally, I read Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany. Much as I scoff at fiction that has Jane Austen as a character, I really enjoyed this; I enjoyed Mullany’s portrayal of Jane and her sister Cassandra as much or more than I did the interesting vampire plot with its snooty aristocratic Damned. I particularly loved that the vampires never “ate” or “fed.” They only “dined.”

Mmm, books. So delicious.

About Victoria Janssen

Victoria Janssen [she, her] currently writes cozy space opera for Kalikoi. The novella series A Place of Refuge begins with Finding Refuge: Telepathic warrior Talia Avi, genius engineer Miki Boudreaux, and augmented soldier Faigin Balfour fought the fascist Federated Colonies for ten years, following the charismatic dissenter Jon Churchill. Then Jon disappeared, Talia was thought dead, and Miki and Faigin struggled to take Jon’s place and stay alive. When the FC is unexpectedly upended, Talia is reunited with her friends and they are given sanctuary on the enigmatic planet Refuge. The trio of former guerillas strive to recover from lifetimes of trauma, build new lives on a planet with endless horizons, and forge tender new connections with each other.
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3 Responses to Books Books Books

  1. Cara Bristol says:

    So you took the, "if-it's-Tuesday-it-must-be-Sarah-Monette" tour! How fun. It's ironic that as writers we don't seem to have much time to read, which is probably what got us writing!

    So how good were you about staying off the computer all together?

  2. Victoria Janssen says:

    I checked my email and twitter feed a few times, but didn't read blogs and forums. I also wrote a little bit, but only because I really felt like it.

  3. Janet Mullany says:

    Sounds like a fab vacation and I'm glad you liked Jane and the Damned!

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