There were editing problems with this novel, but it was fairly short and a good intro to the series. The editing problems spanned from simple typos to some dialect issues. See, I don’t mind dialect in my fantasy fiction. I can even deal with “poor/simplified language due to the limitations of machine translation” kind of thing, and “shorthand lingo because we’re in space.” In both cases, the author has chosen to express this dialect as a lack of articles (the, a, etc) and a looseness of structural similarity to the human language of English (so we have “I no go” instead of “I won’t go”).

What I cannot deal with are:

• characters who speak in the same shorthand between two members of the same species who are standing next to each other.
• expository paragraphs using the same shorthand/translator-speak
• a matrix of communication that is supposed to represent the thoughts/sentences of an alien species and which is a crucial piece of information and which the protag immediately knows what it’s supposed to mean, even though it’s really unclear whether “help help help help help help help” is a command, a statement of intent, or a request.

Otherwise, it was an entertaining book, and I just kind of skimmed over the parts that got to be too non-English, and the rest I read them as if I were reading a piece written by a non-native-speaking Freshman.

An audiobook. Very enjoyable. The sequel to The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. They’re historical romance mystery/spy novels. Enjoyable, a little “fluffy,” but good beach reads. I’ve been listening to this one for several weeks, so it is nice to finally finish it.

A standalone (? I suspect a sequel will be forthcoming) novel set in a world with broken magic and major political upheaval. It’s an interesting story, well-written, and the love story is secondary to the rest of the novel. My one complaint is the use of non-English words for things we have perfectly useful equivalents, but he limits that to mainly cultural things (like priestly ranks and, more annoying, friend-relationships). It’s a good book if you like fantasy novels. It reminded me very strongly of the video game Planescape: Torment, in the sense of the main character being somewhat not-alive.

A book all about making money as an independent Internet content creator. Good advice, lots of nuts-and-bolts stuff, and not too focused on the cartooning side (JD is a web cartoonist).

An amusing historical adventure/romance novel set in post-Revolutionary France.

A very nice mirror to Sense & Sensibility, about three daughters and their quest for marital and familial happiness.

OK, look. I read books when I’m at lunch by myself, right? So, loudly cracking up and laughing isn’t uncommon for me. But with this book, I actually had someone lean across the aisle and ask me what I was reading. When I told him “it’s a book about dead bodies” he quickly left the cafe….

It’s hysterically funny, but also touching and respectful and lovely. If you are squeamish, there are passages that might be a little too much, but overall, it was quite good and straightforward. I am prone to nightmares, but had none while reading this book.

This is an awesome book, lots of fun. If you are a typical blogger looking for ideas, grab this book and run with it. I did, and am videoblogging my journey at mortaine.blogspot.com!

Yes, I cried. Yes, it’s a beautiful movie. Yes, I wanted to beat the crap out of the bitch 2 rows in front of me who turned to her companions and said “THAT won an Oscar?” And then went on to complain “I thought it was a boxing movie!”

Well, no wonder you were disappointed, lady. This was as much a boxing movie as Rocky (another Oscar winner) was before every other sport movie that came after it copied it.

I knew watching the opening credits that this would give me nightmares. But it’s a good one for Halloween!