Ok, not really. But I had a Sampler roundup that was eclectic for this week.
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
I’d heard of this series before, but hadn’t read it. Since the first one is on sale for 99 cents, I thought I’d give it a shot despite descriptions of it that made me wonder if it was for me or not. I like the more interesting takes on urban fantasy in its current definition, but I’m also a little worried this will be on the too-gruesome-for-Jen end of things. (I’m squeamish.)
The sample was fascinating. A good example of how to get us involved and interested with a character. Just the right amount of exposition so we kept up with what’s going on, without taking a long-winded way of explaining everything. The voice is strong and I believe in the character.
I vote this as a buy, especially at the price. It may end up being too squishy-bits for me, but for now, I’ll read on.
The Hedgewitch Queen by Lilith Saintcrow
I’d tried a Saintcrow several years ago. I was, I admit, a little put off by her name, which seemed a little over-the-top. Still, she seemed popular enough. I picked up what I thought was the first in one of her series, but turns out it was the third (I think). It had the infodump-the-past-few-books’-plots problem which drives me nuts about series. (Mostly it makes for a worse introduction for a new reader by slowing things down, and annoys readers who’ve read the earlier ones.) It didn’t capture me at all.
Still, this one is also on sale (2.99) so I thought I’d try it out.
The first line is the kind that draws you in “If not for a muddy skirt, I would have been dead like all the rest. Dead–or worse, perhaps.” (Ok, that’s technically two lines). While the French names and such (I can’t yet tell if this is a faux Europe or a “real” Europe–is it supposed to actually be our world or an alternate one) is annoying (because I didn’t take French and get lost in what I’m supposed to pronounce or not), I find myself entranced by Vianne and her predicament.
The thing I like best is how, when she comes upon a horrific scene which may or may not be a murderer, she acts. She’s absolutely terrified and panics–she’s not the sort of woman who has any experience with these things. But she takes her terror and channels it intelligently, and does the one thing that’s right and will protect her.
The exposition is a little heavy at times, but it is necessary to get us into the world and just when it would put the story into a grinding halt, it pulls back and we get on our way. The promise of the first (2) lines isn’t yet fulfilled, but it has done its job wonderfully. It set up a weighty and ominous portent that keeps the otherwise light beginning from becoming too fluffy.
Most of all, it got me reading, kept me reading, and there I am at the end of the sample, dying to read more.
A buy!
Why Can’t Elephants Jump? by New Scientist
This is a collection of questions and their answers, from the Last Word page from the New Scientist magazine. I’m a both a sponge and fount of random information, so I thought this would be a lot of fun. I haven’t read the other books in this series, but it isn’t as if there’s a story to follow, so jumping in at any point is fine.
The formatting is annoying, however, enough so that I won’t read it digitally. The questions are in italics, with the asker’s name in bold, then where the person is from in normal text. Without any white space to separate it, the answer follows directly under that–actually, there’s several answers, all running right after one another. The answerer’s name is also bolded, but everything else is in normal text.
Except that everything after the section header is also indented from the left about an inch. An inch of my limited Kindle’s screen. Also, the first paragraph of any answer does NOT have a paragraph’s first line indent, making it run flush with the location of the previous answer.
All in all, ugly. Sorry, New Scientist but what looks pretty in print may end up cluttered on screen. I may check it out again in hardcopy, but I so rarely read hardcopy nowadays that isn’t likely. It may not bother anyone else, and it looks like fascinating information, but there you go.