40. Lockdown, Alexander Gordon-Smith
A friend of mine is reading the Monstrumologist books by Rick Yancey, which I've already read (and adored), and hearing him talk about them made me crave something dark, gritty, scary and weird. So I looked up some title read-alikes on Novellist and pulled this title out of a pile. It was ok - definitely not lacking in the dark and weird arena. The story is about Alex, a teen who has the misfortune to be a small-time criminal growing up in the aftermath of the so-called Summer of Slaughter (an event in the book's history where teen gangs killed huge numbers of people). When he gets framed for the murder of his friend, the judge locks him away for life in the juvenile detention center Furnace. Furnace is basically hell with more nutritious food, complete with Nazi-esque body horror, some super creepy dogs that habitually tear inmates to pieces, and a geographic location a mile or so under the earth. It turns into a pretty standard escape-from-prison story, but I appreciated the horror dressings Gordon-Smith applied in abundance.
41. Fablehaven, Brandon Mull
I've been supervising junior volunteers at the library this summer, and they've been plying me with reading recommendations. Fablehaven was one of these, and it turned out to be super fun. It's young-young-adult fantasy, about a sister and brother who get sent to stay with their grandparents over summer break and find out that they're basically gamekeepers for a forest preserve full of fantastical creatures. The fairies in Fablehaven are definitely the new breed, more inclined to harm and mischief than just being pretty, and the excitement ramps up after a pretty spooky midsummer night scene when the grandfather gets kidnapped. I just got the second book in the series and I'm looking forward to reading more.
42. Full Dark, No Stars, Stephen King
King's short stories are kind of hit-or-miss for me - for every Langoliers there's a Trucks, often in the same collection. I thought that the first and the last stories in Full Dark, No Stars were pretty excellent; the middle two, not so much. I had some trouble with one - it deals with the graphic rape and abuse of a young woman, and reeks a bit of appropriation; the other one I didn't care for was just too...boring.
43. Age of Darkness, ed. Christian Dunn
Moar Horus Heresy. This was fun, even the piece by Gav Thorpe (which was at least short fiction rather than a whole novel). The big surprise for me was that the stand-out piece wasn't by Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill, or Aaron Dembski-Bowden (easily the strongest writers in Games Workshop's bull pen), but by some guy I'd never heard of named Rob Sanders. His piece, "The Iron Within," wrecked me in a way I'm only used to from McNeill. Good stuff.
A friend of mine is reading the Monstrumologist books by Rick Yancey, which I've already read (and adored), and hearing him talk about them made me crave something dark, gritty, scary and weird. So I looked up some title read-alikes on Novellist and pulled this title out of a pile. It was ok - definitely not lacking in the dark and weird arena. The story is about Alex, a teen who has the misfortune to be a small-time criminal growing up in the aftermath of the so-called Summer of Slaughter (an event in the book's history where teen gangs killed huge numbers of people). When he gets framed for the murder of his friend, the judge locks him away for life in the juvenile detention center Furnace. Furnace is basically hell with more nutritious food, complete with Nazi-esque body horror, some super creepy dogs that habitually tear inmates to pieces, and a geographic location a mile or so under the earth. It turns into a pretty standard escape-from-prison story, but I appreciated the horror dressings Gordon-Smith applied in abundance.
41. Fablehaven, Brandon Mull
I've been supervising junior volunteers at the library this summer, and they've been plying me with reading recommendations. Fablehaven was one of these, and it turned out to be super fun. It's young-young-adult fantasy, about a sister and brother who get sent to stay with their grandparents over summer break and find out that they're basically gamekeepers for a forest preserve full of fantastical creatures. The fairies in Fablehaven are definitely the new breed, more inclined to harm and mischief than just being pretty, and the excitement ramps up after a pretty spooky midsummer night scene when the grandfather gets kidnapped. I just got the second book in the series and I'm looking forward to reading more.
42. Full Dark, No Stars, Stephen King
King's short stories are kind of hit-or-miss for me - for every Langoliers there's a Trucks, often in the same collection. I thought that the first and the last stories in Full Dark, No Stars were pretty excellent; the middle two, not so much. I had some trouble with one - it deals with the graphic rape and abuse of a young woman, and reeks a bit of appropriation; the other one I didn't care for was just too...boring.
43. Age of Darkness, ed. Christian Dunn
Moar Horus Heresy. This was fun, even the piece by Gav Thorpe (which was at least short fiction rather than a whole novel). The big surprise for me was that the stand-out piece wasn't by Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill, or Aaron Dembski-Bowden (easily the strongest writers in Games Workshop's bull pen), but by some guy I'd never heard of named Rob Sanders. His piece, "The Iron Within," wrecked me in a way I'm only used to from McNeill. Good stuff.
3 comments:
Hi, Martha,
Thanks for reading 'The Iron Within'. You give high praise indeed. I love your site and your reading challenge. I especially like the way BL books keep cropping up on it. : ) I'm newish to Black Library so it doesn't surprise me that you hadn't come across me before. Heresy-wise you'll probably come across me again in The Primarchs anthology - a novella called 'The Serpent Beneath'. You can find my blog at http://rob-sanders.blogspot.co.uk/ if you want to check out more. : )
Cheers
Rob
Wow, thank you so much for visiting and commenting on my blog! Honestly, when I was finished with Age of Darkness I looked you up on the 40K Lexicanum to see what other work of yours was out there - I'm looking forward to reading more! (I was planning on reading The Primarchs next, actually.)
Thank you again for visiting, it's an honor to get a comment from a Black Librarian!
Hope you enjoy 'The Primarchs'! : )
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