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Bimonthly Book Foo! + some other stuff
Aug. 11th, 2015 08:48 pmTV's been pretty slow lately, however, there have been a few things of interest:
Wayward Pines: Surprisingly watchable, and surprisingly SF. I mean, a bit silly at times, but I enjoyed it and I appreciated them not dangling out the mystery, they actually solved it about halfway in and the rest was dealing with other issues. THAT is how you do it. I kind of want to see a season 2.
Dark Matter: One of two new space opera shows on the channel formerly known as the Sci-Fi channel. At least it's getting back to its roots a little, I just wish they'd go back to their old name. As for their new show... it's watchable, mildly enjoyable, but... it doesn't really reach very far. It's done a few cool things, but pretty soon the gimmick that started it (mercenaries with really bad pasts who get a chance to reform when their memories are all wiped) will not just lose it's novelty, but also it's relevance, and it's going to have to keep audience excitement up or it's going to turn into a bog-standard space opera with nothing particular to recommend it. But, as I said, I am enjoying it, especially the overly earnest and endearing android character who I just want to tell that she's doing a great job. David Hewlett (aka Rodney McKay) has appeared a few times as the mercenary's agent/fixer and hopefully will appear again.
Killjoys: The other space opera show on the channel formerly known as the Sci-Fi channel. Now, this is more like it. It's got energy, there's a sense that some serious worldbuilding time went into the setting (I don't know if it has, but the feeling that it has is enough), the interactions between the characters (including minor ones) often sparkle, and there's overall a feel that the people involved, actors, writers, even set designers, love what they're doing (the soldier guy is maybe a little flatter than the others, but that's okay). It's not quite up to the level of Firefly, but it's possibly the space opera show that's gotten me most excited since then. It doesn't hurt that the studios they filmed at is right near my work, so I theoretically might have the chance to run into the actors (but probably not). If it gets renewed, and I hope it does.
Under the Dome: Almost hilariously awful. I've seen some sites suggesting it's improvement, people are lying. It's gone from being awful at doing a plot that's at least novel, to being awful at doing the oldest, hoariest plots in SF TV. And I say almost hilariously awful because it's at least in previous years the awfulness was somehow funny, this time, it's more often just dumb and badly acted. Why do I still watch? Masochism, obviously.
What's coming? I still need to finish watching Sense8... I saw the first ep and liked it but I keep putting off watching the rest.
Pretty soon the Walking Dead spinoff (set in LA and at the start of the outbreak) will be starting, and I look forward to that. And then the fall season begins not long after that, which includes Doctor Who.
So, books! As usual, these reviews are mostly copied from my Goodreads feed.
Finished: Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, by Judd Trichter
At some unspecified point in the future, human-looking androids live side-by-side with humans, albeit with virtually no rights, and there are strict laws against robot/human affairs. Eliot Lazar is a businessman working in robot sales, but he's in love with a free-roaming robot girl and plans to run away with her. But when she's taken and her parts sold off, he has to go on a quest to recover her... all of her.
This one's a tough one for me. I wanted to like it much more than I did. ( Read more... )
Finished: The Blondes, by Emily Schultz
Disclaimer: I received this book free through a giveaway (although not through Goodreads). I don't think it affected my review.
Hazel Hayes is pregnant, from an affair with her professor... and although the news rocks her world, the world in general is being rocked by something else... a disease that turns ordinary people into vicious killers... but which only seems to affect blonde women.
The premise sounds a lot more dramatically cool than the book actually is. Which isn't to say it's a bad book. ( Read more... )This was the kind of book I probably never would have bought except for the fact that I got it free, but I did wind up enjoying it. I could also see it making a cool movie.
Finished: The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu
In the Three Body Problem, China is experiencing a problem with it's scientists... some are being murdered, others are experiencing strange phenomenon or giving up, or entering into secretive organizations. It's all connected to an online game called The Three-Body Problem, and a scientist during the Cultural Revolution who has made contact with an alien race. ( Read more... )As it stands now, even with all my problems with it, this is my #2 vote of those novels nominated for the Hugo, which just goes to show how weak a slate it is this year. Overall, I still feel that the best novels were kept off the list entirely.
Finished: Shelter, by Susan Palwick
Shelter tells the near future story set in San Francisco, during a major storm that costs many lives, and two old acquaintances, one who has inadvertently harmed the other, meet and explain how their lives lead them to that point. One, Roberta, is poor and on probation, diagnosed with a mental illness of "excessive altruism" because of a series of events the other woman, Meredith, put into motion in an attempt to protect her son. Meredith is rich, privileged, and has some mental illness issues of her own, and a complicated family life that includes her father as the first ever human consciousness translated into a digital form.
The book is not the usual type of thing I read... one decent way to describe it is as a near future family drama, but wow, it really does turn out to be pretty impressive. ( Read more... )Highly recommended.
Finished: River of Gods, by Ian McDonald
In 2047 India, while internal tensions and possible civil war looms, a cop hunts down illegal artificial intelligence while his marriage is in danger, a stand-up comic is called home to take over his father's business, a reporter gets the scoop of a lifetime, a high level politician pursues a taboo relationship that could ruin his career, and an American scholar seeks another regarding an impossible artifact in space. These stories, and others, all contribute to a change that will ring out throughout history.
I really enjoyed this book, although it had a bit of a slow start. ( Read more... )Highly recommended... my first experience with McDonald, but I don't think it'll be my last.
Finished: Terms of Enlistment, by Marko Kloos
A hundred years from now, Andrew Grayson signs up to join the armed forces. It's not patriotism or duty that drives him, he simply views it as his only chance to escape the life he was born into, a crime-ridden and economically broken city in which most of the population lives in government assisted housing with a small food ration. Moreover, it's his only real shot at getting off Earth and to live in a colony, which is about the closest thing he has to a dream. We follow him through his training and his first few assignments, where he learns that the universe is more dangerous than he first thought.
This is unapologetic military SF. It doesn't really do anything daring or especially novel, but then, it doesn't have to... ( Read more... ) The events in the second half bumped up my interest, although, if half-stars were allowable, it might not have made the full three. It's somewhere on the edge. But since I can't mark the edge itself, and I usually give a bit more leeway to first novels anyway, I'll give it a three.
Finished: The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison
Maia, the half-goblin son of an elven emperor is suddenly thrust into a position he never expected or wanted. His father had other heirs and seemed to regret having him in the first place, but, when his father and everyone else in line before him all died in the same accident, Maia was the only choice. He learns to deal with his new role, those who don't feel he belongs there, those who try to manipulate him, and those who are actively plotting against him, while trying to his best to be a good leader and improve his empire.
I should state right up front that I'm largely not a fantasy reader. I'm reading this because it made the short list of nominees for the Hugo award, and probably would entirely skip it otherwise. ( Read more... )As it stands, I rate it a two. I can see why others liked it more, but my personal rating was just a two. It was okay. I don't feel like I totally wasted my time, but I don't feel I would have missed anything important if I had never read it at all. If there's a sequel, I probably won't read it (unless it, too, gets nominated and I get it for free). Currently on my Hugo vote ranking it stands at #3, just barely above No Award. And, when they eventually showed up in the book, I never got over my urge to root for the group who wanted to tear down the monarchy. I don't think that was intended, but, it is what it is.
Finished: Fluency, by Jennifer Foehner Wells
The government has known about an alien space ship in the solar system for decades, and they're finally ready to launch a mission. They believe the ship is abandoned, but, just in case, they include Dr. Jane Holloway, an expert linguist, on the mission. But the ship isn't abandoned, and what they find there may force Dr. Holloway to choose whether to trust an unknown alien, or her own crew.
I've heard some good things about this book, and there is a lot to like, but I have some mixed feelings that prevented me from giving it a higher score.( Read more... ) But, it is a first novel, and I suspect this is easily the kind of thing that can be improved on.
Finished: Afterparty, by Daryl Gregory
There's a new drug on the street... those who take it not only start to believe in God, but often believe God is right there, talking to them... at least until it's out of their system, and then it's like being abandoned. Lyda has experienced a drug like this before... she was on a team that invented it, before they were dosed with a massive quantity of it that left one person dead and the rest with permanent side-effects. Lyda's is a persistent hallucination of an angel. She knows it's not real, but it guides her nonethelss. She also knows that this new drug is probably the one she helped to invent, and she breaks her parole and goes on a quest to find the source and put it out of business.
Wow. This book impressed me so much than I thought it would.( Read more... )
Finished: Infidel, by Kameron Hurley
Since this is book two, I'm cutting the summary which spoils elements of God's War
( Read more... )I really want to see how Nyx's story ends, and I'm absolutely going to read the third part of the trilogy.
Oh, and since this is my personal journal, a little side story. I do most of my reading while walking to or from work, and of course, this was the case here. While I was reading this, I heard somebody walking behind me, maybe 5-6 sidewalk slabs behind me, speaking loudly, apparently to himself, saying, "If you kill one Infidel, it's like killing all Infidels, I'm going to kill all Infidels!" or something like that. Possibly mentally ill person with a hate-on for Infidels, however he might define them... normally, as long as it's just talk, well, I'm not going to pay it much attention. Except, of course, that I happened to be reading a book called Infidel, and I was worried that if he passed me and happend to spot it, he'd either attack me or want to start a conversation, and neither seemed particularly appealing. So I tried to non-obviously pick up my pace and get as much distance between us as I could. Luckily, though, at the next intersection I kept walking straight, and he turned down the other street.
Finished: Bless Your Mechanical Heart (short story collection)
This book is one of those themed anthologies of short stories. In this case, the theme is robots/AI/cyborgs, and more specifically, the application of the phrase "Bless Your Heart"/"Bless His/Her Heart" to them, implying that perhaps they're a little naive or don't quite get it... but there's a lot of variation within, in some cases the robot's not naive, but the humans are by thinking it is, for example, in other the robot's got some wonky programming or incomplete emotions, and in others it just lacks some important piece of knowledge but reasons as well as any of us. There are robots in love, robot murderers, robot guardians, robots all alone, and even a few who are arguably not even robots. It's a good mix, if you like AI themes. ( Read more... )I actually received this book for free as part of the Hugo voters packet (the editor was up for an award and this was provided as a sample of her work). I don't think it affected my review, but I'm glad I got it because I likely wouldn't have encountered it otherwise, although I do think it's worth buying if you like SF short stories and the theme appeals to you.
Finished: Dark Orbit, by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Dark Orbit tells the story of two women who arrive on a strange crystalline world... one, on her last assignment, is believed to have suffered some psychotic break and took on the role of a goddess. The other is a wanderer with little respect for authority, but who has been assigned to keep an eye on the first. But their discoveries on this new world challenge much what both of them thought they knew about the universe. ( Read more... )I enjoyed the book for what it was, over all, and though I think it was close to being much much better, it's so deliberately crafted that it's quite possible that almost any element changed to bring it towards that much better novel would make the whole thing fall apart.
Currently Reading (or finished but haven't written reviews for): The Red by Linda Nagata, Cinder by Marissa Meyer, Anathem by Neil Stephenson, The Deaths of Tao by Wesley Chu, Up Against It by M.J. Locke, Linesman by S.K. Dunstall, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
You may have noticed a pattern in these... or maybe not. But 11 of the 19 books listed above were written by women (and one was a short story collection). Some of this is circumstance (I've gotten several free, either from giveaways or as part of the Hugo voters packet), but also, I've been trying to make a conscious effort to read more female SF authors. It is still a field that is dominated by men, and my philosophy has always been that if there's an obvious disparity in something like this, there are only a few explanations: either one group just isn't as good, they, by some natural tendency, just don't have the interest, or there is some systemic bias that skews the numbers (which can occur by pushing them away from trying or lack of promotion), and that can be combated by adding a bit of bias in the other direction. I believe the last one and am trying to take steps to correct it. The positive bias I'm applying isn't dramatic, I'm just trying to be aware of what's happening, and be more open to trying things... books that I might have been on the fence on, where I'd think "Maybe I'll get it if I hear good reviews", I've been just getting, and keeping an eye out for recommendations of others in this area. It also dovetails nicely with another goal I've had for 2015, that started several months in when I realized I'd accidentally been holding to it: no rereads. I love rereading my old favorites, but since I'm more than halfway through the year and haven't yet read anything I've read before, why not make it a goal? And it means I need to be exposed to more books anyway, so why not try more female SF authors?
In any event, I'm still not at parity for the year, but with just that small level of bias I've gotten closer than I expected. And I've got plenty of more on the queue or in my sights for later. In fact, I just bought the Women in SF ebook bundle (pay what you want for 5 works, or get 10 for $15 or more)... since one of my three books I read at any given time is on my phone. If you read ebooks, it might be worth checking out the bundle, which runs for about another two weeks.
Also I mentioned last time that I was thinking of converting my own personal domain, which had, for a time, run as a comic review site, into a written-SF news-and-review site, and I'm leaning towards making that happen when I stop being so lazy.
Speaking of leaning towards, right now I'm leaning towards skipping Fan Expo Canada this year. The guests are cool but none are the kind I can't miss, and also my Mom's coming into town that weekend. But I'll keep an eye on the guest list for any last minute changes.
Wayward Pines: Surprisingly watchable, and surprisingly SF. I mean, a bit silly at times, but I enjoyed it and I appreciated them not dangling out the mystery, they actually solved it about halfway in and the rest was dealing with other issues. THAT is how you do it. I kind of want to see a season 2.
Dark Matter: One of two new space opera shows on the channel formerly known as the Sci-Fi channel. At least it's getting back to its roots a little, I just wish they'd go back to their old name. As for their new show... it's watchable, mildly enjoyable, but... it doesn't really reach very far. It's done a few cool things, but pretty soon the gimmick that started it (mercenaries with really bad pasts who get a chance to reform when their memories are all wiped) will not just lose it's novelty, but also it's relevance, and it's going to have to keep audience excitement up or it's going to turn into a bog-standard space opera with nothing particular to recommend it. But, as I said, I am enjoying it, especially the overly earnest and endearing android character who I just want to tell that she's doing a great job. David Hewlett (aka Rodney McKay) has appeared a few times as the mercenary's agent/fixer and hopefully will appear again.
Killjoys: The other space opera show on the channel formerly known as the Sci-Fi channel. Now, this is more like it. It's got energy, there's a sense that some serious worldbuilding time went into the setting (I don't know if it has, but the feeling that it has is enough), the interactions between the characters (including minor ones) often sparkle, and there's overall a feel that the people involved, actors, writers, even set designers, love what they're doing (the soldier guy is maybe a little flatter than the others, but that's okay). It's not quite up to the level of Firefly, but it's possibly the space opera show that's gotten me most excited since then. It doesn't hurt that the studios they filmed at is right near my work, so I theoretically might have the chance to run into the actors (but probably not). If it gets renewed, and I hope it does.
Under the Dome: Almost hilariously awful. I've seen some sites suggesting it's improvement, people are lying. It's gone from being awful at doing a plot that's at least novel, to being awful at doing the oldest, hoariest plots in SF TV. And I say almost hilariously awful because it's at least in previous years the awfulness was somehow funny, this time, it's more often just dumb and badly acted. Why do I still watch? Masochism, obviously.
What's coming? I still need to finish watching Sense8... I saw the first ep and liked it but I keep putting off watching the rest.
Pretty soon the Walking Dead spinoff (set in LA and at the start of the outbreak) will be starting, and I look forward to that. And then the fall season begins not long after that, which includes Doctor Who.
So, books! As usual, these reviews are mostly copied from my Goodreads feed.
Finished: Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, by Judd Trichter
At some unspecified point in the future, human-looking androids live side-by-side with humans, albeit with virtually no rights, and there are strict laws against robot/human affairs. Eliot Lazar is a businessman working in robot sales, but he's in love with a free-roaming robot girl and plans to run away with her. But when she's taken and her parts sold off, he has to go on a quest to recover her... all of her.
This one's a tough one for me. I wanted to like it much more than I did. ( Read more... )
Finished: The Blondes, by Emily Schultz
Disclaimer: I received this book free through a giveaway (although not through Goodreads). I don't think it affected my review.
Hazel Hayes is pregnant, from an affair with her professor... and although the news rocks her world, the world in general is being rocked by something else... a disease that turns ordinary people into vicious killers... but which only seems to affect blonde women.
The premise sounds a lot more dramatically cool than the book actually is. Which isn't to say it's a bad book. ( Read more... )This was the kind of book I probably never would have bought except for the fact that I got it free, but I did wind up enjoying it. I could also see it making a cool movie.
Finished: The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu
In the Three Body Problem, China is experiencing a problem with it's scientists... some are being murdered, others are experiencing strange phenomenon or giving up, or entering into secretive organizations. It's all connected to an online game called The Three-Body Problem, and a scientist during the Cultural Revolution who has made contact with an alien race. ( Read more... )As it stands now, even with all my problems with it, this is my #2 vote of those novels nominated for the Hugo, which just goes to show how weak a slate it is this year. Overall, I still feel that the best novels were kept off the list entirely.
Finished: Shelter, by Susan Palwick
Shelter tells the near future story set in San Francisco, during a major storm that costs many lives, and two old acquaintances, one who has inadvertently harmed the other, meet and explain how their lives lead them to that point. One, Roberta, is poor and on probation, diagnosed with a mental illness of "excessive altruism" because of a series of events the other woman, Meredith, put into motion in an attempt to protect her son. Meredith is rich, privileged, and has some mental illness issues of her own, and a complicated family life that includes her father as the first ever human consciousness translated into a digital form.
The book is not the usual type of thing I read... one decent way to describe it is as a near future family drama, but wow, it really does turn out to be pretty impressive. ( Read more... )Highly recommended.
Finished: River of Gods, by Ian McDonald
In 2047 India, while internal tensions and possible civil war looms, a cop hunts down illegal artificial intelligence while his marriage is in danger, a stand-up comic is called home to take over his father's business, a reporter gets the scoop of a lifetime, a high level politician pursues a taboo relationship that could ruin his career, and an American scholar seeks another regarding an impossible artifact in space. These stories, and others, all contribute to a change that will ring out throughout history.
I really enjoyed this book, although it had a bit of a slow start. ( Read more... )Highly recommended... my first experience with McDonald, but I don't think it'll be my last.
Finished: Terms of Enlistment, by Marko Kloos
A hundred years from now, Andrew Grayson signs up to join the armed forces. It's not patriotism or duty that drives him, he simply views it as his only chance to escape the life he was born into, a crime-ridden and economically broken city in which most of the population lives in government assisted housing with a small food ration. Moreover, it's his only real shot at getting off Earth and to live in a colony, which is about the closest thing he has to a dream. We follow him through his training and his first few assignments, where he learns that the universe is more dangerous than he first thought.
This is unapologetic military SF. It doesn't really do anything daring or especially novel, but then, it doesn't have to... ( Read more... ) The events in the second half bumped up my interest, although, if half-stars were allowable, it might not have made the full three. It's somewhere on the edge. But since I can't mark the edge itself, and I usually give a bit more leeway to first novels anyway, I'll give it a three.
Finished: The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison
Maia, the half-goblin son of an elven emperor is suddenly thrust into a position he never expected or wanted. His father had other heirs and seemed to regret having him in the first place, but, when his father and everyone else in line before him all died in the same accident, Maia was the only choice. He learns to deal with his new role, those who don't feel he belongs there, those who try to manipulate him, and those who are actively plotting against him, while trying to his best to be a good leader and improve his empire.
I should state right up front that I'm largely not a fantasy reader. I'm reading this because it made the short list of nominees for the Hugo award, and probably would entirely skip it otherwise. ( Read more... )As it stands, I rate it a two. I can see why others liked it more, but my personal rating was just a two. It was okay. I don't feel like I totally wasted my time, but I don't feel I would have missed anything important if I had never read it at all. If there's a sequel, I probably won't read it (unless it, too, gets nominated and I get it for free). Currently on my Hugo vote ranking it stands at #3, just barely above No Award. And, when they eventually showed up in the book, I never got over my urge to root for the group who wanted to tear down the monarchy. I don't think that was intended, but, it is what it is.
Finished: Fluency, by Jennifer Foehner Wells
The government has known about an alien space ship in the solar system for decades, and they're finally ready to launch a mission. They believe the ship is abandoned, but, just in case, they include Dr. Jane Holloway, an expert linguist, on the mission. But the ship isn't abandoned, and what they find there may force Dr. Holloway to choose whether to trust an unknown alien, or her own crew.
I've heard some good things about this book, and there is a lot to like, but I have some mixed feelings that prevented me from giving it a higher score.( Read more... ) But, it is a first novel, and I suspect this is easily the kind of thing that can be improved on.
Finished: Afterparty, by Daryl Gregory
There's a new drug on the street... those who take it not only start to believe in God, but often believe God is right there, talking to them... at least until it's out of their system, and then it's like being abandoned. Lyda has experienced a drug like this before... she was on a team that invented it, before they were dosed with a massive quantity of it that left one person dead and the rest with permanent side-effects. Lyda's is a persistent hallucination of an angel. She knows it's not real, but it guides her nonethelss. She also knows that this new drug is probably the one she helped to invent, and she breaks her parole and goes on a quest to find the source and put it out of business.
Wow. This book impressed me so much than I thought it would.( Read more... )
Finished: Infidel, by Kameron Hurley
Since this is book two, I'm cutting the summary which spoils elements of God's War
( Read more... )I really want to see how Nyx's story ends, and I'm absolutely going to read the third part of the trilogy.
Oh, and since this is my personal journal, a little side story. I do most of my reading while walking to or from work, and of course, this was the case here. While I was reading this, I heard somebody walking behind me, maybe 5-6 sidewalk slabs behind me, speaking loudly, apparently to himself, saying, "If you kill one Infidel, it's like killing all Infidels, I'm going to kill all Infidels!" or something like that. Possibly mentally ill person with a hate-on for Infidels, however he might define them... normally, as long as it's just talk, well, I'm not going to pay it much attention. Except, of course, that I happened to be reading a book called Infidel, and I was worried that if he passed me and happend to spot it, he'd either attack me or want to start a conversation, and neither seemed particularly appealing. So I tried to non-obviously pick up my pace and get as much distance between us as I could. Luckily, though, at the next intersection I kept walking straight, and he turned down the other street.
Finished: Bless Your Mechanical Heart (short story collection)
This book is one of those themed anthologies of short stories. In this case, the theme is robots/AI/cyborgs, and more specifically, the application of the phrase "Bless Your Heart"/"Bless His/Her Heart" to them, implying that perhaps they're a little naive or don't quite get it... but there's a lot of variation within, in some cases the robot's not naive, but the humans are by thinking it is, for example, in other the robot's got some wonky programming or incomplete emotions, and in others it just lacks some important piece of knowledge but reasons as well as any of us. There are robots in love, robot murderers, robot guardians, robots all alone, and even a few who are arguably not even robots. It's a good mix, if you like AI themes. ( Read more... )I actually received this book for free as part of the Hugo voters packet (the editor was up for an award and this was provided as a sample of her work). I don't think it affected my review, but I'm glad I got it because I likely wouldn't have encountered it otherwise, although I do think it's worth buying if you like SF short stories and the theme appeals to you.
Finished: Dark Orbit, by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Dark Orbit tells the story of two women who arrive on a strange crystalline world... one, on her last assignment, is believed to have suffered some psychotic break and took on the role of a goddess. The other is a wanderer with little respect for authority, but who has been assigned to keep an eye on the first. But their discoveries on this new world challenge much what both of them thought they knew about the universe. ( Read more... )I enjoyed the book for what it was, over all, and though I think it was close to being much much better, it's so deliberately crafted that it's quite possible that almost any element changed to bring it towards that much better novel would make the whole thing fall apart.
Currently Reading (or finished but haven't written reviews for): The Red by Linda Nagata, Cinder by Marissa Meyer, Anathem by Neil Stephenson, The Deaths of Tao by Wesley Chu, Up Against It by M.J. Locke, Linesman by S.K. Dunstall, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
You may have noticed a pattern in these... or maybe not. But 11 of the 19 books listed above were written by women (and one was a short story collection). Some of this is circumstance (I've gotten several free, either from giveaways or as part of the Hugo voters packet), but also, I've been trying to make a conscious effort to read more female SF authors. It is still a field that is dominated by men, and my philosophy has always been that if there's an obvious disparity in something like this, there are only a few explanations: either one group just isn't as good, they, by some natural tendency, just don't have the interest, or there is some systemic bias that skews the numbers (which can occur by pushing them away from trying or lack of promotion), and that can be combated by adding a bit of bias in the other direction. I believe the last one and am trying to take steps to correct it. The positive bias I'm applying isn't dramatic, I'm just trying to be aware of what's happening, and be more open to trying things... books that I might have been on the fence on, where I'd think "Maybe I'll get it if I hear good reviews", I've been just getting, and keeping an eye out for recommendations of others in this area. It also dovetails nicely with another goal I've had for 2015, that started several months in when I realized I'd accidentally been holding to it: no rereads. I love rereading my old favorites, but since I'm more than halfway through the year and haven't yet read anything I've read before, why not make it a goal? And it means I need to be exposed to more books anyway, so why not try more female SF authors?
In any event, I'm still not at parity for the year, but with just that small level of bias I've gotten closer than I expected. And I've got plenty of more on the queue or in my sights for later. In fact, I just bought the Women in SF ebook bundle (pay what you want for 5 works, or get 10 for $15 or more)... since one of my three books I read at any given time is on my phone. If you read ebooks, it might be worth checking out the bundle, which runs for about another two weeks.
Also I mentioned last time that I was thinking of converting my own personal domain, which had, for a time, run as a comic review site, into a written-SF news-and-review site, and I'm leaning towards making that happen when I stop being so lazy.
Speaking of leaning towards, right now I'm leaning towards skipping Fan Expo Canada this year. The guests are cool but none are the kind I can't miss, and also my Mom's coming into town that weekend. But I'll keep an eye on the guest list for any last minute changes.
