I finished the third book of Genevieve Cogman's Invisible Library series, The Burning Page. My impression is that she always intended for this to be a trilogy and for this point to be reached, and that much of the two earlier books was specifically pointed toward the climax of this volume, with its massive and well-executed climactic set piece.

Given this, I must confess I'm a little bemused by the news that a fourth volume is due out in January. I'll have to read it and see where she's going at this point

I have to give Cogman a lot of credit for relentlessly ignoring romance/sexuality as a plot element here. Many significant relationships are depicted, and none of them hinge on romantic love (although there's one that involves a large portion of infatuation).

Next, for reasons not entirely clear to me, I sought out the sequel to one of my long-time favorite mysteries, Peter Dickinson's King and Joker. I mentioned a few weeks ago that a re-read of the older book had left me flat, and my only memories of the sequel are that (1) when I discovered its existence, I was completely disoriented, because I'd often daydreamed that such a thing had been written and was shocked to find out that it was so, and (2) that the mystery had turned on a huge act of betrayal. Betrayal is in many ways a squick of mine, so I'm not sure why I wanted to re-read Skeleton-in-Waiting.

On this read, I was more interested in most of the story than I recalled being the first time around; perhaps my disenchantment with the original book made the sequel seem less unworthy. On the other hand, I recalled the identity of the betrayer (although not the details of the entire plot) the minute that character showed up early in the book. Not the best Dickinson, but not the worst, either. One thing I noticed: he had large blocks of dialog with no anchoring physical details to break them up. This is something I've done before myself, and I've been told it's not a Good Thing. Indeed, I found myself losing track of the identity of the two speakers in some of those passages. It was odd to observe it in a work by someone I consider a very good craftsman.

Now I'm reading a non-fiction book (wow, lately I've been reading a lot of these, for me), Rites and Symbols of Initiation by Mircea Eliade. It's research, actually, but fairly interesting.

Not sure what I'll read next. I've bought a few things cheap on Kindle special recently, and I should actually do something about them. I'd been hearing good things about Linda Nagata, for example, so I bought The Last Good Man when it was super-cheap.

Yeah, I seem to be doing this monthly. *sigh*

What have you just finished reading?

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. YA fantasy with a Slavic-based setting. The heroine is a prickly, skinny girl who is a cartographer with the army, but she turns out to be The Chosen One and gets swept off for special magical training. She's a duck out of water in a way that reminds me a little of Menolly in the Harper Hall in McCaffrey's Pern books, with the queen bee girls being rude and prickly to her. About midway through she suddenly becomes healthier and prettier because Plot Reasons, and then she starts to like to try on dresses, and I realized that I didn't like her nearly as much. I then had to castigate myself for this, because I'm sure lots of the intended readers would love that part. There was some silly romantical stuff too, which I also disliked. And then Bardugo completely confounded my expectations about what the last part of the book was going to be like. Well done, author! I still don't think it's a great book: too many things happening with too little run-up (for example, Alina's relationship wth her childhood friend Mal would have been better with more showing, less telling, of their shared history), but I think I'm invested enough to get the sequel.

The Snake Stone, by Jason Goodwin, is the second Master Yashim book. I begin to see what flemmings was saying about the hero's sex life. It's annoying because Yashim might as well not be a eunuch, except that it means he can visit the seraglio in the palace. He's starting to read more like a man with a slightly low-ish sex drive instead. The cultural and culinary details remain interesting, and I liked the info about pre-Victorian archeology and book-collecting.

The Little Death by Michael Nava is the first volume of a mystery series about a gay lawyer, Henry Rios. It features a tragic Boyfriend in the Refrigerator and lots of Evil Plotting by the rich and the famous. I like Henry, although his situation is somewhat depressing. I will probably try the next one as well.

Four British Fantasists, which is a critical study and comparison of authors Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, and Diana Wynne Jones. The author, Charles Butler, is a member of the DWJ online mailing list. The book was interesting, and now I'm wondering whether I should fill in some of the books that I haven't read that are discussed, especially by Lively and Garner. Although I remember bouncing off Garner's Red Shift, and the things he wrote after that are apparently even more experimental.

What are you currently reading?

Another re-read for a writing challenge, and also volume 10 of the manga Bunny Drop, which basically short stories about Daikichi and Rin that didn't make it into the main series (which ended, plot-wise, with vol. 9).

What do you think you'll read next?

I just got an Amazon order that includes volume 1 of Fumi Yoshinaga's manga series What Did You Eat Yesterday? Also, volume 3 of the hard yaoi manga Crimson Spell (by Ayano Yamane), and the latest volumes of Marjorie Liu's Hunter Kiss series (Labyrinth of Stars) and Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series (Broken Homes). The Aaronovitch has been getting mixed reviews, but I have to at least give it a try because the earlier books were so awesome. (These are both urban fantasy, for those unfamiliar with them, but very different in tone and scope.)

Guys, I have not done this since November. I will try to get back on track!

What have you just finished reading?

Marie Brennan's (swan_tower's) historical fantasy A Star Shall Fall. I liked it fairly well. I'm not sure what would have made it better for me. I need to think about that. I got this copy from last year's Con or Bust auction, so it's taken me a while to decide to read it.

The latest volume, 9, of the manga Ooku: The Inner Chambers by Fumi Yoshinaga. I really liked it and found it much less grim than this series usually is, so I expect the other shoe to drop and the series to go back to normal - or worse - by next volume. There's a great new character, Hiraga Gennai. I will not spoil you about Gennai and what makes Gennai great. XD

The first two volumes of the manga Thermae Romae, which is awesomely silly and beautifully drawn. (The book production values are spectacular too.) It's about a Roman engineer who keeps being transported off at random intervals to present-day Japan, where he encounters various modern-day Japanese public and private baths and invariably returns with new inspirations to try out in Rome. Some of the inspirations are relatively believable, and some are wonderfully absurd in a Flintstones-cartoon sort of way. (Wait'll you see his shampoo shield and shampoo hose.) His interpretations of what he's seeing in Japan are really funny.

What are you currently reading?

I just started Marjorie Liu's The Fire King, which is one of her Dirk & Steele paranormal romances.

What do you think you'll read next?

I grabbed Jason Godwin's The Janissary Tree from the take-on leave-one collection at work. This is a historical mystery set in the early 19th-century Ottoman Empire. I seem to recall reading a favorable review of it at one point, and it won the Edgar Award in 2007. Also, I have the first two volumes of the manga Vinland Saga, but it looks awfully grim. It may be a while until I can get myself to read it.

Links:

• Navajo police mystery author dies (BBC News)
• Acclaimed author Tony Hillerman dies at 83 (Washington Post via AP News