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Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 11:35 on 23 April 2015

Walt Longmire, Collected Shorts

No Walt Longmire collection is complete without this collection of short stories. Few (any? I can't recall) are mysteries (no, wait, at least one was), most of them being adventures of some sort, with all of them being further insight into the mythical world of Absaroka County, Wyoming.

The stories were originally published as Christmas stories for fans, and not available in collection form (or at all, maybe, depending on the original publications, none of which I'm actually bothering to track down, to be honest). I'm late enough to the Longmire train that they are available in one volume, which delights me.

Each story takes place in a well defined time in the Longmire saga. While they could have been entertaining to read properly in order with the full-length mysteries, I still enjoyed reading them all at once in the end, as I wait for Dry Bones to come out NOT SOON ENOUGH (cough, three weeks).

So, for any Longmire fan, this collection is totally recommended. I had a number of laugh-out-loud moments in the book: Johnson's wit is still sharp.

Ready Player One

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 10:02 on 20 April 2015, kitt created this:

I'm not sure who recommended this book to me, likely Andy or Kris. The basic premise is that in a not-too-distant future (like, really not too distant, the world is pretty much shit, and humans interact in a virtual world, pretty much hermitting except for, well, not much. The creator of the virtual world technology dies, and leaves the inheritance of his vast fortune to the first person to find an easter egg hidden in that virtual world. The biggest issue with the easter egg hunt is the stunning size and complexity of the virtual world created.

The book is full of 1980s trivia, including more references to early gaming culture than I have seen in a long, long, long time.

It was a great, if somewhat awkward at times, read.

And as Andy says, "Was there ever a greater decade than the 80s?" The answer is, of course, "No."

Recommended.

Any Other Name

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 22:55 on 15 April 2015

Walt Longmire, Book 10

Yep. Keep reading the series. The next book is due out in about a month. Shock! I preordered it.

This Walt Longmire book is another mystery book. It starts with a death. I have to say, I find it a rather relief in contrast from the Bosch books where the bad guy is ALWAYS A COP. Not in this series. I'm still enjoying the wit, cultural references and history lessons in these books. We finally see some emotion in the man, and, holy shit, his visions are actual, real life, physical entities! Hot damn! No, wait, no they aren't. It's weird. Worth reading.

What I find amusing in this particular book is that while, once again, Longmire is stunningly impossibly super-human in his physical endurance and recovery, in this book, EVERYONE ACKNOWLEDGES IT. Hallelujah, praise Hey-zeus, and all that. One really doesn't get shot, walk miles in a blizzard dripping blood from the open carotid artery, and manage to function just two days later. Doesn't happen. Yet, sometimes you need a hero, so the author gives you one, but reminds you with another character that, well, getting shot in passing in the gut really is a mortal issue needing attending. Not that you can tell with Longmire.

Did I mention the worth reading part? Well, I meant it. This series is going on the list with the Dresden books. Speaking of, when is the next one due out? Has to be before the next Song of Ice and Fire. F'ing GRRM schedule.

Spirit of Steamboat

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 18:57 on 10 April 2015, kitt created this:

Walt Longmire, Book 9.5

So, apparently, Johnson writes Longmire books for the fun of it. Sometimes they are short stories which are released, say, around every Christmas time, to be later gathered into a compendium for those who either missed the individual stories, or want to have them all in one place. And sometimes, when he starts writing a short story, it just sorta gets away from him. Or so, this is what he said when explaining the existence of the Spirit of Steamboat, a half-sized, not mystery, Walt Longmire book.

I have to say, I rather liked this book because it wasn't a mystery. It was a Walt Longmire adventure, which is great in its own right. But better than that, this book had the elements of suspense that, in this case, I would argue, were stronger than in the mystery books. And suspense in a good sense, too, the OMG OMG OMG KEEP READING READ FASTER sort of way that I like, not the torturous "omg what the f--- is going on I can't read this any more" sort of discomfort way that causes me to skip to the end of the book sort of way that I hate.

I was amused when Johnson had Walt hear the drums in the rotors and remark on them, given that Walt was surprised to hear the drums in the first of the Longmire series. So, either he didn't hear any drums in the intervening 22 years, or all the crazy antics between this book and book one of the series caused amnesia in the man. Both are plausible, given how much physical abuse Longmire takes when doing The Right Thing™.

Totally recommended.

Serpent's Tooth

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 20:19 on 5 April 2015, kitt created this:

Walt Longmire, Book 9

Okay, I was somewhat excited to be reading a Walt Longmire book that didn't start off with some murder investigation. I mean, there are only so many deaths you can have in a small county before everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, notices and gets the fuck out of there. Okay, yes, some of the books were about escaped convicts, but even that resulted in a lot of death. And one particular story had only a stolen horse.

This one, the main plot premise doesn't involve the investigation into a death. Hot damn.

Once again, Johnson doesn't disappoint with a fast paced modern day, small down, western mystery. The clues were a little too obvious in this book as to what was going on, which, of course, leads the reader to think, COME ON, DON'T BE DUMB, at the characters. Of course, in Johnson style, Longmire has figured out what's going on, and it just playing along until the right time to expose his knowledge.

I really wish I would learn the art of playing along.

I enjoyed this book. I'm nearing the end of the written Longmire books, as there are only two left. I guess I'll have to wait for Johnson to write more. At least he doesn't write at GRRM pace. Gah, would suck.

Ages of Miracles

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 15:05 on 1 April 2015

One of the best things about my Mom's houses growing up was the bookcases full of books. I would often linger at the bookcases, pull out a book, and read it. It's how I like to read books: engrossed when I feel like this is the book I should be reading. It's how I picked Voltaire's Candide to read. It's how I picked this book to read.

Mom had suggested the book when we were in Portland last month. It was on sale. I bought it, and plunked it on my bookcase in the "haven't read, read at some point" stack of books. I picked it up late last week, and read it fairly quickly. I enjoyed it.

The book is a young adult book about an 11-turned-12 year old girl's life in the first months of the Earth's rotation slowing from 24 hours in a day to 72 hours in a day, and how the world changes to adapt, or not adapt as the case is with some people and places. Much of the gross (as in "total" not as in "disgusting") science is accurate enough to my understanding: the changing of the magnetic fields, the change of the radiation reaching the planet surface, the dying of many plants unable to adapt so quickly to the longer, hotter days and longer, colder nights. Many of the speculated societal changes presented were plausible.

Station Eleven

Book Notes kitt decided around 19:09 on 24 March 2015 to publish this:

Wow, a book that isn't part of a series, doesn't have a lead character named Harry, and wasn't read in 3 days. Go me.

There exists a particular style of book in which nothing particularly exciting happens, the plot plods along, and the reader is supposed to, I don't know, bond with a character or two in the book. The Shipping News had this feel to it, as did Her Fearful Symmetry. The plot just sorta goes along, lives intertwine, foreshadowing is explained, and details planted in one spot reveal their nature in another.

In yet another post-apocalyptic world (I swear, I've been on a the-world-is-going-to-end-kick as of late), 99% of the people die, with it taking 20 years before a power grid will come back on and life can resume. Of course, there's the bad people and the good people in the book. Mostly, there are people trying to survive, some trying to remember, some trying to forget, everyone learning something new about people.

This book was far more positive about the end of the world than Wool was. With the plot jumping back and forth among various timelines, how clever that so many lives were intertwined in a way that belies believability, even as it possibly delights the author.

It's a mostly-good book, if you like the plodding, nothing really happens, life can still be interesting, sort of plot. If you like something to happen (12% more plot!), eh, go read something else.

THAT all said, I did make a couple notes of in the book.

As The Crow Flies

Book Notes Posted by kitt at 19:26 on 23 March 2015

Walt Longmire, Book 8

Okay, book eight of the Longmire series. While I thought I might be growing tired of reading these straight through, I was mistaken. The books are entertaining reads. The wit is great, though less of it in this one. The plot was clever in that the original murder was, then wasn't, then maybe was, a murder.

And gosh golly a crap tonne of people die in this series. Upside, at least this wasn't actually IN Longmire's county. That's the only upside.

This book has the introduction of another strong female lead, which is amusing in some sense, not so amusing in another. That "another" being the case where, well, in future books there are sure to be annoying tug-o-wars over Longmire, full of discomfort.

This book also reminds us of previous foreshadowing of not-so-great-things happening to Cady, also in future books.

Fortunately, those are in future books. This one was totally entertaining, and, for once, Walt didn't freeze something off or collect another crazy injury. Yay!

Recommended.

Unrelated to the book, HEY! Look! I'm in the second half of my goal of reading 52 books this year, and it's only week 13th, still the first quarter of the year. Yay!

Echo Park

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 20:23 on 18 March 2015

Harry Bosch, Book 12

I rather took a break from the Bosch books, and nose-dived into non-fiction books, work reading, and, well, the Silo books, leaving this one dangling in my started-and-not-finished in progress list. I came back to it today and finished it.

I can summarize it as "Classic Bosch."

Which is to say, "Murder Solved!" and "Tunnels!" and "Bad cop!" The elements that Connelly puts into every Bosch book, it seems.

This one was a little different, however, in that it had a couple twists that were unexpected (which is a great delight), as well as HARRY BEING WRONG. That's one of the better aspects of this book. Too many times in previous books, he just creates a theory and boom, it's the right one, mystery solved. In this one, he was wrong, and it makes him more believable as a character. I'm not sure just how many of these "unsolved cases that Harry just couldn't let go" Harry is supposed to have, but he's bound to run out at some point, right?

Yeah, so, if you're a Bosch fan, keep reading. This one was classic Bosch style, which, if you enjoy it, makes this a good read.

Wool

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 13:59 on 12 March 2015

Recommended by Luke.

Okay, wow. When Luke recommended Wool, I had four other books going, and wanted to finish those before getting too far into Wool. I kinda wish I hadn't delayed. This book is great. Read the basic plot on the Amazon page, if you'd like. The back reads something like:

In a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.

His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.

The thing about Hugh Howey's writing is that it's isn't eye-rolling absurd. Given the basic premise (societies living in underground silos), the characters are believable, the dialogue reasonable and the actions plausible. I really enjoyed that about the book, being able to be lost in the dystopian world for hours.

Luke says the following two books in the series, Shift and Dust, are great, too. And now quickly added to my to-read reading list.

Recommended.

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