2007 Book Log #49: Black Order, by James Rollins

I picked up James Rollins' Black Order on another impulse buy, half-certain that it was going to suck after I'd gotten burned on my last attempt to impulse-buy a thriller. This time around I didn't get a spectacular read, but it turned out to be not half-bad. I did have the disadvantage of coming in partway into a series, which meant several character relationships had been established before the start of this particular story... but it didn't hinder the telling of this one too much.

Turns out this book is the latest in a series about something called Sigma Force, described by one of the character as "scientists with guns". That in and of itself kind of set the tone for the whole thing with me: i.e., something that's kind of fun and is not to be taken too seriously. Kind of like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in fact. And hell, this story even had Nazis, giant mutated monsters, and a core cast of characters traveling around to exotic locations all over the world. All in all, it did rather read like one of the better Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea plots, even if its attempt to fuse the concepts of evolution and intelligent design into something it called "quantum evolution" was pretty silly. It did at least do it in an entertaining fashion. Two and a half stars.

2007 Book Log #50: Witch Fire, by Anya Bast

There is an audience for Anya Bast's Witch Fire, but unfortunately I am not it.

Here's the Not My Cup of Tea part: this is one of those paranormal romances that's very heavy on the sex and fairly light on the plot, and for that matter, fairly light on the romance. I knew Bast had lost me when I'd gotten sixty or seventy pages into the book and knew little more besides that 1) our heroine Mira was an air witch, 2) our hero Jack was a fire witch who had been surreptitiously keeping watch on her because bad guys were out to get her, and 3) they were hot for each other. Especially #3, because the vast majority of the first sixty or seventy pages are devoted to telling the reader in very blunt and straightforward language about the effects Jack and Mira have on one another's libidos. This continues through much of the book, with our heroine in "zomg he kidnapped me and yet I find him strangely sexy" mode a lot, and some mild bondage play as well.

Here's the part I did like: the setup isn't anything terribly new or different. You can't swing a stick in the fantasy genre without hitting a series about elemental-based magic--and certainly it's hard to top the fun that rachelcaine is having with that exact schtick over in the Weather Warden novels. That said, I do actually like that schtick, and I wish that Bast would have spent more time describing how magic works in her world and less on how Jack and Mira wanted each other's pants off, because she does seem to have an interesting take on magic. She's also got some promising politics set up between her good witches (the Coven) and her bad witches (the Duskoff), which I expect will provide the fuel for the series in general, unless she's planning on introducing other supernaturals into the mix. Her prose is readable, and once we finally got some action scenes and plot developments, my interest did pick up a bit.

Had there been a bit more plot setup at the beginning and some time taken to let the reader better get to know our heroine before smacking her upside the head with Le Sexx0rs, and more plot in general to balance out all the hormones flying around, I think I would have liked it better. I will say that unlike some authors who write heavy sex, I can actually see why others would find her sex scenes sexy--so if they do sound like your cup of tea, three stars for you. For me, since I prefer a subtler brew, two and a half.

Busy, busy weekend all around!

Friday night we had kathrynt, llachglin, jessicac, babies Lillian and Moira, and off-LJ-friend Danny over for an evening of pizza and video games. A pleasant time was had by all, and I made sure, since I wasn't involved in the gaming, to wear my Entertaining the Babies necklaces: the queer pride rings (which are jangly and brightly colored) and the ocarina (which makes whistly noises and which was therefore Quite Fascinating to one-year-old Moira, once she got over the whole AIGH SKEERY STRANGER PERSON shyness). It was also charming to watch Moira be quite fascinated by the bright shiny video games all the big people were playing, and she kept trying to help Mommy by pressing buttons on her Wii controller. Hee.

Saturday night we had another hang-out session with Kathryn and Erik and Lillian, only this was dinner at the Pike Place Brewery downtown prior to seeing Carmina Burana at Benaroya Hall. Q was supposed to sing in it but has been fighting off some ick lately and hasn't been up to the singing, but we did have a nice dinner. And Lillian amused us all by making quite the mess of chicken and broccoli bits all over herself, the high chair, and the floor. It is in fact quite astonishing to me how a baby of her tiny size can make that big of a mess. I expect her ability as a Force of Destruction will correspondingly grow as she gets bigger. Especially she's also quite, quite smart.

Carmina Burana, meanwhile, was highly enjoyable. As the opening act we had Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35--featuring Joan Kwuon on violin. Ms. Kwuon did some stunning things with her instrument during the Allegro moderato movement, hitting some jaw-dropping high notes. I had no idea violins could make noises that high. I was quite, quite impressed. And during the main event, I was also quite impressed by baritone Lucas Meachem getting quite cheerfully into his role, by tenor Stanford Olsen hamming it up beautifully in his, and by the purity of the voice of soprano Maureen McKay. Excellent performances all around, and bonus points for the amusing lyrics in general. Half the fun was reading through the translations and comparing notes with spazzkat and solarbird after the show. Q had warned us that the translations provided were, shall we say, less blunt than the actual words, and I caught at least one part where that was the case as I said to Dara: "So, those birds in that bit about the springtime? They weren't hopping, were they?" No. No they weren't. ;)

And today, I met up with mamishka to see Ratatouille. Which, as Pixar films generally are, was charming and funny and all around just generally wonderful. She gave me a lift home afterwards, and we promised to touch bases again later this week so she can finish getting caught up on the last few episodes of the current season of Doctor Who. Me, I watched another Classic Who myself: "Resurrection of the Daleks", a Fifth Doctor story, with Turlough and Tegan. In fact, the last one with Tegan, it turned out. And while I will say that Five came through that story to me as not half bad, he still doesn't hold a candle to Tom Baker for me. But, I need to give him a fairer shake and see a few more of his stories.

I have hopes for a quieter weekend this next weekend, because the one after that will be chock full of GREAT BIG SEA! ^_^

Miles since the 8th: 21.9
Miles out of Hobbiton: 2178.1
Miles out of Isengard: 385.1
Miles to Minas Tirith: 400.9