2/09/2011

1. prelude
   
   two words: bare maidens.
   
   
2. jeff: a game of thrones. george r r martin.
   
   
   1. verdict: ++
      
   2. review:
      
      "it was awesome, wasn't it?" "yeah." "are you excited about the
      miniseries?" "fuck yeah."
      
   
   
3. jeff: best served cold. joe abercrombie.
   
   
   1. verdict: ++
      
   2. review:
      
      not much to add beyond the other reviews... this is the best anti-hero
      thing he's yet done.
      
   
   
4. matt and marko: zero history. william gibson.
   
   
   1. verdict: -
      
   2. review:
      
      it really was about menswear. we didn't like it.
      
   
   
5. marko: crossed. j f lewis.
   
   
   1. verdict: +
      
   2. review:
      
      he said this before and we all laughed at him, but he says again: this
      book has really strong female characters. he's not finished, but he's
      really enjoying it: fang the stang has sex!
      
   
   
6. paul: the city and the city and the name of the wind.
   
   
   1. verdict: +
      
   2. review:
      
      read the city and the city in the hospital after just having had a
      little lordling, so it's hazy, but from what he remembers, it was
      good. the name of the wind, he liked it but can't really find anything
      much to say about it that doesn't sound stupid.
      
   
   
7. paul: the heroes. joe abercrombie.
   
   
   1. verdict: -
      
   2. review:
      
      not so into it... the "abercrombie voice thing" has gotten out of
      control. he needs new tricks. best served cold was the height of his
      powers: anti-heroes that you have no reason to like, but you like
      anyway, grit, and violence. this is nowhere near that. discussion
      ensues, and the consensus is that this is a very weird book.
      
   
   
8. interlude
   
   megan reads a christmas carol, and discussion of dickens faire derails
   chris's first attempt to tell us about...
   
   
9. chris: bold as love. gwyneth jones.
   
   
   1. verdict: meh
      
   2. review:
      
      a locus award winner, very dated and very british. england is falling
      apart, so they convene a special cultural council consisting of
      members of rock bands. it's very, very 90s, full of stuff like
      "someone broke into my web page" and "i'm soo busy to look at the
      internet". he didn't finish it, realized he really needed to read the
      name of the wind again. but it's pretty interesting, mostly as a
      historical artifact.
      
   
   
10. megan: hades' lover. sara douglass.
    
    
    1. verdict: ++
       
    2. review:
       
       the myth of ariadne and theseus is (of course) real, and this its
       history, heavily adapted, you might say. more plot synopsis
       follows... she's way into it and is right into the second one.
       
    
    
11. megan: black magic sanction. kim harrison.
    
    
    1. verdict: ++
       
    2. review:
       
       another one of these every which way but dead books. it's like the
       15th book of this series or whatever, i dunno. still rockin hard,
       obviously.
       
    
    
12. that's all, folks.