30 Days of Genre - Day 16

Oops, that was a bit of a break... where were we then...?

Day 16! Genre novel with the most intriguing plot.

Well it's deffo going to have to be Mira Grant but will it be Feed or Deadline? Oh, definitely Deadline.



Great mother of pumpkins, people, Deadline! And I can't even tell you why it's an intriguing plot without giving away the jawdropping revelations that pop up.

So, generally speaking, what you have is a glorious post-zombie-apocalypse world where your average peeps are co-existing with the shambling undead. Who, as I recall, get smarter the more of them in a swarm. (The undead, that is, not the average peeps, who one might imagine go the other way when in crowds...) There's plenty of mad science and even madder scientists. There's blogger and other online writer types as the heroes who have to navigate their way through increasing peril and crazed conspiracies. There's the persistent threat of the mutating virus that has more to it than previously thought, there's the dodgy genetic engineering and the clones and...and... mad science, people, mad science!

And dear god that ending. It is lethal. Lethal, I tell you. And reading the preview of the next book is even worse because it's going to be soooooo long until it's out in May 2012.

30 Days of Genre - Day 15

Day 15 – The cover from your current (or most recent) genre read.



Just reviewed this for the BFS - fun book, utterly brutal with some truly jaw dropping plot developments. Plus bonus vikings! Wolfmen! Bonkers gods!

30 Days of Genre - Days 13/14

Yep, it's a twofer, given that I forgot again yesterday... (am having a totally braindead week this week...)

Sooooo....

Day 13 – A genre novel you’ve read more than five times.

Stephen King. My ultimate comfort reading. IT probably takes the prize as most read as I'm on my third (very ratty) copy, but The Stand is another favourite (at least, up until it gets all over religious towards the end. Apocalypse hijinx!). Also various of the early short story collections. And bonus points because once you read the Dark Tower books you keep seeing all the connections between all the rest, which makes you go back and re-read again. Which is fun.

A similar thing happens with Charles De Lint. The Newford books have an excellent criss-crossing of characters so you'll get a walk on in one book becoming the lead in another. I think, on reflection, that Someplace to be Flying (crow girls!) would be one of my most read. Also Spiritwalk (my first De Lint!), and, again, like with King, the short story collections get more rereading than the novels do.

There is also the legendary Lord of the Rings. It has to be done at least once a year (although I don't re-read the Hobbit quite as much and have only touched the Silmarillion once.) I find I skip different bits on each reading, though. Currently, I can not being doing with the interminable Frodo angsting (the movies have ruined me...) and so I tend to give more attention to the rest of the Fellowship shenanigans; while in earlier times it was the other way around.

And as I tend to re-read collections and anthologies more than novels, Esther Friesner's Chicks in Chainmail anthologies are a definite favourite. Comic fantasy full of excellent action heroines - what's not to love?

Day 14 – Favourite book trailer from a genre novel.

No idea. Have to confess to not completely getting the big deal with book trailers - I get sold on books by either reading the reviews of and/or articles/interviews by the author, or listening to the author at a convention. Actually, especially that last one. Authors at conventions tend to make me immediately pick up at least one of their books, even if I'd only vaguely heard of them before and never gotten around to searching out titles. Especially if they give good panel.

30 Days of Genre - Day 12

Day 12 – A genre novel everyone should read.

Eaaaaaaasy. Kari Sperring's Living with Ghosts. It is brilliant! Swashbuckling ghostie adventures wrapped up in beaaauutiful language. Soooo much love. :-)

30 Days of Genre - Day 11

Argh. Forgot this yesterday!

Day 11 – Favourite genre series

This is a tricky one - just one? Insanity! Lillith Saintcrow's Jill Kismet books? Jim Hines' Princess books? Jim Butcher's Dresden Files? Seanan McGuire's Toby Daye books? Jo Graham's Numinous World books?
All told, though, this week I'll go for Kate Griffin's Matthew Swift series. Excellent stories, fabulously told and it even manages to make London and surrounding boroughs sound interesting. (Look, I get that people love London, really, but I'd quite like to read UK urban fantasy that is set somewhere else please... ta!)

30 Days of Genre - Day 10

Day 10 – Best writing style, or the style that resonates most with you.

Oh good, an easy one! While Charles de Lint writes the stories I most like to read and Kate Griffin has that wicked combo of action prose done with some fantastic quirky stylistic choices and excellent turns of phrase; it is a truth universally acknowledged that the absolute lord high king and emperor of gorgeous prose has to be: Chaz Brenchley/Daniel Fox/(and possibly even Ben Macallan!)

The man delivers the most beautiful writing you'll ever read -lyrical, fabulous, and utterly enchanting, all of which subtly entangles you in the story he's telling. Read Daniel Fox's Moshui books (with their very beautiful covers), read the Selling Water by the River books, read the Outremers. Hell, read everything, you won't be disappointed.

30 Days of Genre - Day 9

Day 9 – Saddest scene in a genre novel.

Ooh, tricky one. Especially since I've got the emotional depth of a puddle in a drought. And the memory of a leaky sieve.

One that springs to mind is the gut punch that is Gage's death in Stephen King's Pet Sematary (and if I could find my copy I'd be able to go into more detail on the why. (Alas, the great house tidy has mysteriously vanished many things...) That whole damn book creeps me out, but Gage's death comes out of nowhere and is utterly tragic.

And, actually, now I think about it, there's a similar such saddest scene in Chaz Brenchley's Shelter (which I also can't find...) - as I recall, there's a particular scene near the end that is all the more wrenching by the fact that when you're reading it, you're absolutely certain there's no way he's not going to deliver the predictable happy ending. And yet... I do recall having to flip back and re-read it a couple of times to check, that, yes, actually, he really did let that happen...

30 Days of Genre - Day 8

Odd one today...

Day 8 – Best fan soundtrack.
I have no idea what this even means. (Goes to consult the multi-faceted wisdom of teh internetz... internetz suggests it's something to do with applying songs to characters or something? I dunno. I'm making up my own interpretation...)

So. Music. Books. Don't know about best fan soundtrack, but there are certain books I can't read without instantly hearing the albums I was listening to at the time. Stephen King's Pet Semetary & The Shining, f'rinstance, will always and forever have Roxette's 'Look Sharp' album playing in my head. And the first three Terry Brooks Shannara books are doomed to be intermingled with the strains of Enya's 'The Celts' album. (I was 14, what can I say!)

30 Days of Genre - Day 7

Day 7 – Favourite couple in a genre novel.

Hawk and Fisher! How is this even a question? Found in the Hawk and Fisher & Forest Kingdom series by Simon R. Green; she's the princess who was sent to be a sacrifice to a dragon, he's the younger prince who was sent to slay it. Only, turns out the dragon is the one who needs rescuing from her. And when they're done with the whole save the kingdom from terrrrrible peril thing, they throw in the royalty business in favour of wandering off, changing their names and becoming cops in a far off city. Much hijinx ensue.

And as a couple, they rock. They have an excellent relationship that, as written, shows them as absolute equal partners who trust each other implicitly while they get on and do much heroic stuff. And the witty banter is just an extra bonus.

30 Days of Genre - Day 6

Rant time! Because Day 6 is:
Most annoying character.

There is no doubt in mind who my most annoying character is - characters, plural, actually: Ruth Gallagher and Jack Churchill from the Age of Misrule/Dark Age/Kingdom of the Serpent trilogies by Mark Chadbourn.

They shouldn't be annoying. I mean, Church is an archaeologist who becomes a Destined!Champion! and Ruth starts out being pretty cool what with the solicitor becoming a witch thing. And in the first trilogy they take up Legendary!Weapons! and save the world (kinda). That their supposedly epic romance was just silly and over done was a minor annoyance, the fact that the Romance!Of!Doom! sucked in Laura (a much more kick-ass female character than Ruth, thankyekindly) and Ryan (secrets!mysteries!) was a tad more annoying. Luckily Shavi managed to dodge the Love!Triangle! and retain full-on awesomeness.

Then we got the middle trilogy which focused on a whole new set of destined heroes (who inherited the roles from the first five, who were the latest in a line of fives...)

And then... oh, then was the last trilogy where everyone gets dragged back together for the mother of all apocalyptic battles across different times and otherworldly dimensions... and yet... Ruth and Church... dear god but suddenly they were overly whiny, overbearing and sanctimonious and every moment they were on the page was a moment I wanted to skip to get to the better characters. Maybe I'm not buying Church as the big hero he was supposed to be by the end, maybe Ruth was acting far too passive for the super!witch! she was supposed to have evolved into... or possibly it was too much being told that their Romance! Was! Epic! I don't know, I just know that by the last trilogy my hatred for them as characters reached irrational proportions. (And someday I'm going to have to attempt a re-read just to see if time makes them any better...)

If you're playing along, don't forget to check out the other peeps of Day 6:
Floor to Ceiling Books
A Fantastical Librarian
Bibliotropic
SMZb
The Erudite Ogre (Day 6 not up at time of blogging!)