My December Reading Log

Fiction:
There’s Something About Ari by L.B. Gregg was novella length, I think, a m/m romance that never took off for me, though I did finish it.

I picked up another in a long-running series. Obsession in Death by J.D. Robb was fairly rote, but it was ideal for circumstances in which I was constantly being interrupted. I was very happy each time a new characters/s had to be updated on the crime; that was very helpful in re-orienting me to the story.

And I finally read A Stranger to Command by Sherwood Smith, character-based military fantasy; if you liked her massive Inda series, this reminded me of it on much smaller scale. A foreign student is sent away from the intrigues of his home country and immersed in training at a legendary military academy, learning more about governing in the process. It’s a very internal book, but I could still see it as a movie as well.

Fiction Re-reads:
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold, the second Chalion book. It amused me that the prtagonist, Ista, seemed much younger than she had on my first read, because I am now older than she is. I hadn’t read this since it first came out in hardcover, and had forgotten most of the details except for impressions of the characters and their fates; this proved to be true of my mystery re-reads, too.

I was reminded of Kate Ross by one of my brief holiday visits to Twitter, so I re-read the first three Julian Kestrel Regency historical mysteries: Cut to the Quick, A Broken Vessel, and Whom the Gods Love. I highly recommend this series; there are only four, because of the author’s death. Kestrel is a bit Campion with his mysterious background and formerly-criminal manservant; there’s also a precocious girl who brings faint echoes of the Lymond series.

Comics:
Ms. Marvel Volume 2: Generation Why by G. Willow Wilson has a special guest! And giant reptiles! And Inhumans! I don’t entirely love the art – sometimes I like the cartoony faces, sometimes it seems a bit much. But I am getting used to it. Though this volume had two different artists, there seemed to be an attempt at unity of style, a style tinged with humor. Maybe because they’re aiming at a younger audience?

Hawkeye Volume 4: Rio Bravo is the last of the Matt Fraction run; the next volume will have a new writer. It was pretty intense, and as usual, I loved, loved, loved the clean and spare art. I did not expect to love Clint’s brother Barney, who hasn’t been that great in the past, but Fraction actually managed it. Also, I have Lucky feels. (Lucky is the dog.)

Captain Marvel Volume 2: Stay Fly by Kelly Sue Deconnick features some Guardians of the Galaxy crossover, and also Chewie the cat.

Captain Marvel Vol. 3: Alis Volat Propriis by Kelly Sue Deconnick was unexpectedly moving, more than once, adventure mixing with poignancy.

Captain Marvel & the Carol Corps by Kelly Sue Deconnick is the first, and possibly only, volume of the new “Secret Wars” that I intend to read. The story didn’t grab me all that much, as there were a lot of new-to-me characters, and I wasted a lot of energy trying to tell them apart. But the whole female WWII-style airplane pilots thing was pretty awesome, and I loved how well the art matched the idea.

I didn’t read a huge amount of fanfiction in December, due to re-reads and traveling and not having much free time, but I loved I’ll build a house inside of you by magdaliny, an AU story about young Natasha Romanov and the Winter Soldier escaping together. With a happy ending, if you’re worried.

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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