Grail

Well, here we are: Grail!  After Chill, I really wasn't sure what to expect, beyond the fact that the Jacob's Ladder was going to choose a destination.

Grail takes place fifty years after Chill.  The Jacob's Ladder has been slowly travelling towards the planet they've termed Grail.  During that time, the inhabitants have established a sort of peace.  Wars and uprisings have been quelled under First Mate Tristen.  The world has been repaired as best it can.  And both Captain Perceval and Nova have made peace with each other and their roles. 

But when the Jacob's Ladder finally enters Grail's system, they discover that others have made it there, first.  It seems that humans survived on Earth after the Jacob's Ladder left a millennia ago.  These other humans have evolved their own cultures and technologies, including altering their brains, making themselves more cooperative and less competitive.  And these other humans aren't keen on sharing Fortune (their name for Grail) with warlike outsiders.

I really liked the ideas brought forth in Grail about the diverging human cultures and technologies.  When the Jacob's Ladder entered Fortune's star system, their broadcasts used old technology according to the humans already on Fortune (they had to dig up hobbyists to help them understand it).  Likewise, the people of the Jacob's Ladder spoke an outmoded language....it would be like if the people who spoke Old English diverged into two groups, and found each other now; both groups would be speaking different languages that devolved from the same source (this analogy isn't exact though, because the Jacob's Ladder humans were speaking a language that was more similar to 21st century English than the ones on Fortune, so scholars of 21st century English were still able to communicate with them). 

But culturally, both groups had diverged so much; the humans of Fortune outlawed genetic modification, while those from Jacob's Ladder needed it to survive in space.  I actually liked how the humans of Fortune looked down on those from the Jacob's Ladder as barbarians, that their way was better (even though the people of the Jacob's Ladder were able to see how they weren't really so different, that what the people of Fortune had done to themselves was actually very similar to what those of the Jacob's Ladder had done to survive).  And maybe the people of Fortune haven't actually changed as much as they believe, for there is an assassination attempt against Perceval when her and Tristen are invited down to the planet to help them decide whether or not they want to submit to the necessary surgery if they are to be accepted by the colonists.  (While I wasn't planning on going into it here, Cheryl Morgan talks about the diversity within the whole series, specifically in relation to Grail and how the people of Fortune have eliminated diversity from their population.  Check it out, it's worth the read!)

Unfortunately, the fun cultural clash wasn't the only thing going on in Grail.  A murder and theft alert the crew of the Jacob's Ladder to the presence of remnants of beings they thought long vanquished (specifically Ariane Conn and Dust).  So large chunks of the book are devoted to trying to find and stop the duo.  This part of the book felt like a rehash of the earlier ones; sure, the ship is now functional, so there's no multi day adventure to the bowels of the ship.  But seeing how they were both defeated in the first book, their specters reappearing (and as much diminished versions of themselves) wasn't exactly exciting (like I said, it was a rehash).  I think a much more effective plot would have involved the Go-Backs, who, now that the ship is approaching an alien world, are trying to do everything to stop the ship from succeeding in reaching it (I used that specific example because Dorcas, the Go-Back priestess in Tristen's daughter's body, basically tries to stop the ship from infecting the planet at the end, but only because the means to do so were handed to her by Ariane, not through any agency of her own).

I should also mention that this subplot was pretty obvious.  I figured out pretty early on who Ariane was probably hidden in (Oliver Conn's body).  And failing that, my actual second guess (Chelsea Conn, because she had no character, lol) ended up being Ariane's backup plan (and the body she used to enact her ship takeover plan).

The ending of the book was also super weird.  To stop Dorcas from killing every living being on the ship (in order to save the alien planet from being infected by them), Perceval gets her to transform pretty much everything into an Angel (so much like Rien transformed herself at the end of Dust).  But then Perceval might remain in her body (but I'm not sure?  She was walking on a beach), and Nova decides to leave, but Rien wants to stay, so she does and is solid?  Honestly, I'm really not sure what the heck happened here.  But I do know that some of the colonists (specifically Amanda and Danilaw, the pair who went out to the Jacob's Ladder to meet everyone) decide they want to travel the stars as Angels too.  And some of the remaining crew (specifically Tristen and Mallory) go off together, too.

It was interesting to see how the characters had changed this time around.  With fifty years passing, Perceval has grown into a strong Captain.  Tristen is feeling the effects of his age more (he is weary of war, but will fight for his Captain when she needs him).  Danilaw and Amanda were interesting too; I wasn't sure how I felt about Danilaw at first, but it was good to have a character from Fortune who was somewhat more open-minded (although he was still a product of his culture and heritage, for he was the one who thought of those from the Jacob's Ladder as barbarians).  But he was interested in their culture, and was interested in trying to understand them (even though they terrified him because they were basically the monsters his ancestors got rid of through their "rightminding" surgery). 

So now here we are: the end of the Jacob's Ladder trilogy.  I'm not entirely sure how I felt about Grail....I enjoyed it more than Chill (I wasn't bored by the halfway point), but I also didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Dust (either time I read it).  I'm glad that the people of the Jacob's Ladder didn't submit to the rightminding, because that wouldn't have been a satisfying conclusion, but the end just felt weirdly forced (maybe because it kind of just happened so quickly and was weirdly vague?  It was a good peaceful solution in its way because the Jacob's Ladder won't need to take resources from Fortune or anything else in its system, nor will it infect the planet).  And I wish there had been more of the cultural stuff and less of Ariane and Dust.

But I'm glad to have finally read Grail, finishing the series once and for all.  And I'm glad that I liked Grail more than Chill!  I just wish the series had lived up to Dust.

Reread: Chill

I still wish they'd used the other cover.

Like Dust before it, I remember only two things about Chill: the ending (albeit only vaguely), and how I felt about the book (specifically, in Chill's case, that I disliked it).  I wasn't looking forward to rereading it because of that dislike, but I was also willing to give the second book another chance.  Maybe it won't be so bad when I read it directly after the first book?

I already gave the synopsis of the book last time:

Chill picks up pretty much where Dust left off. Perceval is now captain of the ship, which she has managed to save from the dying nova star. The Jacob's Ladder is now accelerating, but it has been damaged in the process and is now in dire need of repair. So enters Caitlin, the Chief Engineer, who must find a way to repair the damage with the limited resources available onboard.

At the same time, Arianrhod, a woman who should have died, has escaped. And so Tristen, Perceval's First Mate and head of the house of Conn, and Benedick, Perceval's father and Tristen's younger brother, are trying to track her down. With a colourful cast of characters, many of whom appeared in Dust (like the necromancer Mallory and the basilisk/torch Gavin), the two brothers journey across the ship in pursuit. Engaged in a pincer movement in an attempt to cut her off, the two brothers encounter vastly different things, from carnivourous plant people to ancient enemies of Tristen's. 

In the beginning, I kept thinking that Chill wasn't as bad as I remembered it.  This time around, I was prepared for Perceval to basically be sidelined, so that realization wasn't a problem like the last time I read the book.  I also liked Benedick and Tristen.  While neither of them were as well developed as Perceval or Rien in Dust, I was willing to give them a shot.  But they never really end up well developed, despite some of their trials (this was particularly weird with Tristen; he's made to remember and atone for his past; while he endures, I never really got a sense of his anguish over the past, other than being told over and over again that he was hurting).  Benedick is joined by his younger sister, Chelsea, who I likewise never get a feel for; she's just someone kind of shoved along for the ride.

And as the narrative continued, more and more characters got added as point of view characters (compared to just the three of Perceval, Rien, and Dust in Dust).  And more and more of those point of views seemed unnecessary.  For example, the book would flash periodically to Arianrhod, who might tell the angel fragment of Asrafil (who was with her) that she had laid a trap for either Benedick or Tristen.  Then the book would cut to one of the brothers dealing with said trap.  Couldn't we have cut out the middle bit, and just gone straight to the brothers dealing with the traps?

Other than the aforementioned repetition of characters saying plans then other characters stumbling into said plans, the book is super repetitive in other ways.  I know that Perceval, Caitlin, Tristen, and Benedick are all still mourning over Rien's sacrifice.  But t felt a bit much that by halfway through the book everyone was still upset when dealing with the new angel, Nova (now don't get me wrong, it made sense for Perceval to still be struggling). 

And then, there was the plot itself.  Benedick and Tristen are trying to catch Arianrhod, but rather than meet up, they try to catch her in a pincer move.  They go through all kinds of holds and see all kinds of fantastical things.  And by about two thirds of the way through the book, it gets very, very boring.  They go from hold to hold, but nothing they encounter feels like it actually matters.  Will the plant people have any part in the story within Grail?  What about the Edenites (despite Tristen's parting words to their priestess that he'll be in touch after the crisis is over)?  They feel like these are just random diversions thrown at the characters that they have to deal with, rather than actual alliances that have more consequence.  The stakes don't even seem high, despite the fact that there's a giant alien asteroid thing attacking the ship that their dead sister captured.  I had to push myself to finish reading the last thirty pages or so, because I just didn't care about what was happening.  :(

But I did it: I reread Chill. And my quest to Grail is complete: I can now finally read the final book of the Jacob's Ladder series.

Reread: Dust

Continuing on with my apparent quest this year of rereading books/finally finishing a series, I've now turned to Elizabeth Bear's Jacob's Ladder trilogy (which I am referring to as my "quest to Grail" because I've already read the first two books in the series).  I decided to tackle Jacob's Ladder right after the Inheritance Cycle because I needed a break from epic fantasy.

I admit, I was somewhat hesitant to reread Dust.  While I don't remember much other than the ending, I do remember loving it (not so much Chill, the second book).  Would it hold up?

As I said before:

Dust tells the story of two girls. Sir Perceval was captured in battle, her wings cut off. She waits only to die, to be consumed by her captor. Rien is the serving girl who was to attend Perceval, and who is also Perceval's lost sister. Together, the pair escape Rule and set off to find their father in hopes of stopping a war. Their journey takes them throughout their world, the ruined starship Jacob's Ladder, in an unforgettable story that I couldn't get enough of!

But I didn't give much detail of the book.  Perceval used the nanotech chains that bound her in Rule to help her and Rien escape, but the chains became new wings that attached themselves to Perceval's back, melding onto the stumps of her old wings (Rien called the new wings Pinion; Pinion scared both of the girls because they had a mind of their own),  After escaping Rule, the pair finds themselves in a Heaven (which is like an orchard with different fruit trees) where the necromancer Mallory and her companion, the basilisk-looking cutting torch Gavin, reside.  Mallory gives Rien a peach which contains the essence of a long dead engineer, as well as a plum (which Rien keeps but has no intention of eating after consuming another being in the peach).  Gavin decides to accompany Rien and Perceval to their father, leading the way.  But thanks to the engineer inside of her, Rien finds a side tunnel that will get them there faster, where they discover their uncle, Tristen, whom everyone thought was long dead.  Together, the four of them make their way to Benedict Conn.  Then one of the ship's AI fragments, Dust, makes himself known to Perceval and kidnaps her with his construct, Pinion; Dust wants Perceval to become the ships new captain, but this involves Perceval submitting to him (or one of the other fragments).  In an attempt to save her, Rien, Gavin, Benedict, and Tristen make their way to Engine searching for allies; there Rien meets both her mother and Perceval's (they have different mothers) and unravels the plot centered around Perceval that threatens the whole world.  Racing to her sister's side, Rien sacrifices herself to make the ship AI whole and save her sister and everyone else on the world.

It was a different experience reading Dust this time, because, while I didn't remember most of how the story went, I did remember the ending.  And seeing the book building inexorably towards it and Rien's sacrifice was quite something.

But even though it was a different experience, I still loved this book.  Rien, Perceval, and Gavin are all fantastic characters.  I love how Rien, thanks to her upbringing as a Mean and servant in Rule, looks at the world in a more naive yet also more suspicious way than Perceval.  And how Rien is just an all around good person, willing to name the nameless (even when she offers to name her armor, she detects a jauntiness in the armor's step).  Perceval, in comparison, is much more world-weary from being a knight on errantry (but her errantry makes her more open to the trials of the world; if not for her, they wouldn't have saved Tristen).  I liked how the narrative switched between the two as well.  And of course, Gavin just added that little bit of spunk to the team.

I also love the worldbuilding of Dust.  How the Means, while looked down on now, were meant to be the controls in the great experiment that  was Jacob's Ladder.  How to save itself, the ship's AI fractured (and pieces of it have been lost).  How the split between Engine and Rule happened because when disaster first struck centuries ago, the engineers and command didn't agree on how to save them.  I'm so glad that Dust remains such a fantastic read. :)

Of course, now I have to tackle Chill....and while I don't really remember the book much at all, I remember it being terrible, especially in comparison to Dust.  We'll see though; maybe it'll be better when I read it right after Dust rather than a year later?

The Sea Thy Mistress

Well here we are.  It's over two weeks after I finished All the Windwracked Stars, and I'm only now finishing the final book of the Edda of Burdens, The Sea Thy Mistress. 

Like All the Windwracked Stars, I had a bit of a hard time getting into The Sea Thy Mistress.  Actually, that's an understatement: I had a very hard time getting into this story.  It takes place during the 50ish years right after All the Windwracked Stars: the world is renewed thanks to Muire's sacrifice.  Selene and Cathoair, as angels, are trying to help the world and its people rebuild.  But then 34 years later, Muire's child with Cathoair (Cathmar) washes up out of the sea.  And Heythe arrives, finding the world not at all how she expected it.

From there, the book moves slowly through Cathmar's childhood and adolescence.  Cathmar is a child first and an angel second, and so he needs to learn how the world works.  And this was a bit of a slog to get through, especially when I found myself having to backtrack through the dates a bit to figure out how old Cathmar was at certain times.

But once he sort of grew up, it felt like the story really started.  Cathmar slowly got his independence and found a girl he liked.  He moved into the city with her around the time the Imogen showed up to serve his father.  But Cathoair was still grieving the loss of both Astrid (whom he accidentally killed) and Muire (although she was not truly lost, just changed); the Imogen's ability to feed on your pain becomes an addiction.  And when Heythe finds him and tells him she can send him back to save Astrid at the cost of four days spent with her, Cahey agrees to her torture, not realizing Heythe may be using him just to get to Muire. 

The Sea Thy Mistress, when it comes down to it, is an interesting read.  Unfortunately it takes a bit to get there.  It doesn't help that it deal with a pretty big time span and multiple characters (on that note, I think it gets better when the characters more or less come together later in the book).  All in all, I am glad I persevered through the beginning and finished it and the entire saga.

All the Windwracked Stars

So it's less than a week after I finished By the Mountain Bound and I'm already finished All the Windwracked Stars.  I actually finished reading it last night when I couldn't sleep - rather than wasting my time trying to sleep, I thought I'd be useful.  And the story had really caught me by that point, so I was really eager to finish.

Unfortunately, it didn't start out that way.  The first chapter of All the Windwracked Stars is almost exactly the last chapter of By the Mountain Bound (it's the epic battle between the Children of the Light and the Tarnished).  Once that was finished, All the Windwracked Stars then went into a lot of worldbuilding.  You see, Valdyrgard may be dying thanks to that battle, but it's taking its sweet time about doing it!  Over 2000 years pass, and Muire, last of the Valkyries, is in the last remaining human city.  And it's there that she finds Mingan haunting her city.  For Mingan has found Cathoair, a beautiful boy with the soul of Strifbjorn.

It took until about halfway through the book before I really got hooked with this story.  Eiledon (the last city) is being held together by the Technomancer Thjierry Thorvaldsdottir's power.  It was at the point that you start to realize some of the bad Thjierry has done that the story gets really interesting.  It seems she has been using the swords of the Children of the Light to take power from the rest of the world and funnel it into saving Eiledon - she is literally killing the rest of the world to save this one city.  She's also found a way to infuse the souls of the dead Children of the Light into animal bodies, making them into slaves. And she wants Muire's help or at least cooperation to keep this system in place.

One thing I was struck by, especially during the first half of the book, was that I was glad I'd read By the Mountain Bound first.  By the Mountain Bound gives you the background of a lot of characters who are generally just mentioned in All the Windwracked Stars.  So if you're planning on reading this series, I recommend doing what I did and reading the first two books in reverse order.

By the Mountain Bound

As part of my goal of reading at least 50 List books this year, I decided I would start with some Elizabeth Bear.  I've had her Edda of Burdens series since it came out, but never got around to reading it.  That all changed earlier this week when I started By the Mountain Bound.

By the Mountain Bound is the story of three people: the Warrior, the Wolf, and the Historian.  All three are Children of the Light, beings who survived Ragnarok and sang the new world into being.  The Warrior, Strifbjorn, is an Einherjar and leader of the Children of the Light.  The Wolf is Mingan, the Fenris Wolf remade into an Einherjar.  And the Historian is Muire, least of the Valkyrie. 

I'm going to take a moment to say that the worldbuilding was awesome for this book.  The Children of the Light can take vengeance and share souls through a kiss.  So when a couple is married and they kiss, they share souls (and are sort of forged into one).  I really, really liked this.

So anyway, the Children of the Light have been doing their thing for centuries, waiting for the return of their Lady. What they didn't expect was that she might tear them apart.

That's exactly what happens when Heythe appears.  She is different than the Children of the Light - physically stronger than them, but weaker in other ways.  She claims to be escaping an army of giants and wants the Children of Light to use their gifts to take strength from the mortals.  But doing so is an abomination; it tarnishes their very souls.  And so Strifbjorn and those who still follow him resolve to fight her.

In the middle of all this is the story of Strifbjorn and Mingan.  The Children of the Light are few, and so it is their duty to marry in an effort to conceive children.  But Strifbjorn and Mingan have already shared the kiss.  Their story really made this book, particularly when Heythe enters the picture and wants Mingan for herself.

There was one particular moment in the book, involving Mingan's wolf pack, when my heart felt like it broke for him.  That moment alone showed the power of Bear's writing; I hope I can one day be half as good of a writer as her.

Hilariously, By the Mountain Bound is book 2 in the Edda of Burdens series (although it is a prequel).  I didn't realize it until after I finished reading it.  Luckily Bear assured me on Twitter that the series is meant to be read in any order so I don't have to worry.  With that in mind, I'll be starting book 1, All the Windwracked Stars, tomorrow.  :)

Chill

I like this picture of Chill better than the actual cover, so it's going here too.

Almost a year to the day later, I finally read the second part to Elizabeth Bear's Jacob's Ladder trilogy (I actually finished Chill on July 9th at camp). And unfortunately, I wasn't really impressed with it. With Dust, I didn't want to put the book down. With Chill, I generally couldn't be bothered to pick it up.

Chill picks up pretty much where Dust left off. Perceval is now captain of the ship, which she has managed to save from the dying nova star. The Jacob's Ladder is now accelerating, but it has been damaged in the process and is now in dire need of repair. So enters Caitlin, the Chief Engineer, who must find a way to repair the damage with the limited resources available onboard.

At the same time, Arianrhod, a woman who should have died, has escaped. And so Tristen, Perceval's First Mate and head of the house of Conn, and Benedick, Perceval's father and Tristen's younger brother, are trying to track her down. With a colourful cast of characters, many of whom appeared in Dust (like the necromancer Mallory and the basilisk/torch Gavin), the two brothers journey across the ship in pursuit. Engaged in a pincer movement in an attempt to cut her off, the two brothers encounter vastly different things, from carnivourous plant people to ancient enemies of Tristen's.

You may have noticed that Perceval and Rien, the two stars of Dust, do not really feature in Chill. While it's true that Perceval is now captain, she really doesn't have much to do with the plot of Chill at all, grieving for the loss of Rien. And that was one of the problems of Chill, that we have lost a confident character who was a lot of fun to follow.

The other problem is that the narrative is so fragmented. In Dust, the story was mainly told from one or two perspectives (Rien's and Perceval's). But in Chill, we are all over the place, following three main characters who are facing vastly different things. While I liked all of them, I just felt that everytime I started to get into what one was doing, the narrative would switch to one of the other characters.

Another problem might have been that I read Dust over a year ago, and forgot a lot of what happened in the book (and who some of the characters were). For that reason, when Grail comes out, I'm going to reread both Dust and Chill before reading it. That will also give Chill a second chance.

A Companion to Wolves

Originally I was going to read Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear's A Companion to Wolves right after Steal the Dragon, but then Camelot's Blood showed up. So as soon as I finished reading that, I went on to A Companion to Wolves. I originally discovered it on Bear's website, where she said they were planning on having it be a novella satirising the whole animal companion genre, but it took on a life of its own. And so, intrigued, I decided I had to read it. And it was definitely worth reading! A Companion to Wolves is a beautiful book about the interspecies relationship between a man and his wolf.

Isolfr is the son of a nobelman who is tithed to the wolfmen who defend the people from trolls and wyverns. He falls in love with the puppy Viradechtis, who is destined to be a wolf-queen. It is the story of their growing up and growing into the roles destiny has cast for them, amongst the threat of a war against the trolls. But it is also a book about sacrifices, and the sacrifices that both must make in order to stay together.

My biggest complaint about the book was the names. All of the characters have Norse, Anglo-Saxan and Germanic names, which can be a bit confusing because many are rather similar. But to make matters worse, all of the wolf brothers take on a new name once they bond with their wolves! For instance, the main character is Njall for the first while, and then becomes Isolfr. It gets very confusing, and about half way through the book I decided that if I couldn't remember who someone was, then they weren't worth remembering! But other than that, I really enjoyed it.

While I absolutely loved A Companion to Wolves, I cannot recommend it to everyone. There are aspects of the book of a sexual nature that not everyone will want to read. It is definitely for mature audiences.

Dust

It was almost a year ago that I discovered Elizabeth Bear. A friend from work recommended Hammered to me, which I devoured along with the rest of the Jenny Casey trilogy. And now, after a long time away, I return to Elizabeth Bear's writing with Dust. Dust was recommended to me by another friend, who bought it on one of our many random book buying sprees at Chapters. I finally picked it up during their awesome annual sale.

Dust tells the story of two girls. Sir Perceval was captured in battle, her wings cut off. She waits only to die, to be consumed by her captor. Rien is the serving girl who was to attend Perceval, and who is also Perceval's lost sister. Together, the pair escape Rule and set off to find their father in hopes of stopping a war. Their journey takes them throughout their world, the ruined starship Jacob's Ladder, in an unforgettable story that I couldn't get enough of! Dust was a fantastic tale, and I can't wait for the next enstallment in the Jacob's Ladder series, which is coming this December!

I reviewed Dust, as well as the Jenny Casey trilogy, on Best of the Backlist. Click here to read the review!

The Chapters Sale

I wandered into Chapters the other day, and found out that they had extended their annual Buy 3 Books and Get 1 Free sale until Sunday. And me being me, I had to go and take advantage of it, even though I definitely do not need any more books! I phoned a friend up, and we planned to make an evening of it, hanging out and choosing books. But when we got there, we had about 20 minutes to choose our books because the store was closing! (Chapters used to be open until 10pm on Friday nights, but they're now open until only 9pm). Needless to say, I was able to choose my four books pretty quickly. I bought Dust by Elizabeth Bear, Raven's Shadow and Raven's Strike by Patricia Briggs, and Fallen by Tim Lebbon. I'm kind of excited about the Lebbon book, as I've never read anything by him before. My friend loved Dust, and really recommended it to me, so hopefully it will be good. And the two Briggs novels sound really good; I'm hoping to fly through them like I did the Mercy Thompson novels.

Of course, this brings the List back up to 125 novels. I am definitely still buying them faster than I'm reading them! But I'm in the middle of a really good book, so hopefully I'll be able to breeze through a bunch, bringing the List down to 100 before summer's end!

Library Break: Worldwired

Well, here it is: the end of the Jenny Casey trilogy. Worldwired is about the aftermath of Scardown: what happens after the Toronto disaster and the starship Calgary going down. The alien Benefactors are here, but strangely silent. The UN is looking into the Toronto disaster. And Jenny Casey and her friends are still stuck in the middle of everthing.

I have to say that I liked Hammered and Scardown better than Worldwired. I think that Worldwired had too much going on with so many different characters that it wasn't able to follow Jenny Casey as much as I would've liked. But it was still a good story that was definitely worth reading. Elizabeth Bear did a great job with the whole trilogy! There were many great characters, and even though not all of them made it, it was great to know their stories. And I still like it that Jenny Casey's parts were written in first person.

Elizabeth Bear's Website

Oh, in case anyone is interested, here is Elizabeth Bear's website:

http://www.elizabethbear.com/index.html

Library Break: Scardown

As I had to wait a few days until I got Scardown, book 2 in Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey trilogy, I thought I would read something else. I got through one chapter, but then I couldn't keep going; I NEEDED to know what happened next, and I didn't want Scardown to come in and then have to wait to read it until I was finished another book. So I waited. And it was worth the wait!

I just finished Scardown a few minutes ago, and it was great! Scardown picks up right where Hammered left off. It was a little bit all over the place at first, but by the middle of the book, I needed to know what happened next and didn't dream of putting it down! (Although I had to as I worked all day today).

Many of the characters from Hammered return in Scardown and the story of Jenny Casey is expanded upon. But as political intrigues expand and explode, it becomes clearer and clearer that Scardown is about much more than Jenny Casey's life, but is about a world crisis that is rapidly drawing nearer. Scardown was an excellent read and I can't wait to (momentarily) start Worldwired!

Library Break: Hammered

Hammered by Elizabeth Bear was one of four books that were recommended to me from the library recently. After reading The Weekend Man, I needed something that was faster paced and had interesting characters and dialogue. I actually decided to read this book first because of the cover quote by Mike Resnick: "Very exciting...very impressive debut." And I absolutely have to agree! Although it wasn't possible, I didn't want to put the book down! (And I am hopefully going to have the other two in the trilogy by the middle of this week!)

Hammered tells the story of Jenny Casey, formerly Master Warrant Officer of the Canadian army. Casey survived the army although lost her legs and her left hand in service. She was the only person to successfully adapt to her metal limbs, but now, thirty five years later, they are slowly killing her.

Hammered was full of many other interesting characters, from Razorface, the Connecticut warlord with a face full of metal, to Richard, the only successfully sentient AI. It was a masterpiece that remained glued to my hand all night until I was able to finish it a few minutes ago, leaving me aching to know what happens next!