John Kahane (jkahane) wrote,
John Kahane
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Books Read in March, 2017

As is my standard usage of my blog space at or near the beginning of the month, I present the listing of my March, 2017 reads.

*****
Books Read in March, 2017

Matilda by Roald Dahl

February, 2017 Locus

The Wretched of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler

From the Gracchi to Nero by H.H. Scullard

Bowl of Heaven by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven (r)

March, 2017 Reader's Digest

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (r)

Coriolis RPG Quickstart Set by Christian Granath, Tomas Harenstam, Nils Karlen, Kosta Kostulas, and Simon Stalenhag (RPG) (r)

Coriolis - The Third Horizon Roleplaying Game by Tomas Harenstam, Nils Karlen, Kosta Kostulas, and Christian Granath (RPG)

Twinmaker by Sean Williams

The Exile by C.T. Adams

Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
*****

So that's my reads for the month of March. I was actually quite suprised and pleased at the number of books that I read in the month, as I've been so sick for most of the month and my head has not really wanted to read all that much. Obviously ready more books and material than I thought I had. The books I enjoyed the most were:

Coriolis - The Third Horizon Roleplaying Game by Tomas Harenstam, Nils Karlen, Kosta Kostulas, and Christian Granath - Not really a novel, but a roleplaying game, Coriolis uses the basis of the Arabian Nights in space and a simple game mechanic set to bring to life a science fantasy roleplaying game that has a lot of meat to its bone, with a well-detailed universe setting. If you're going to CanGames 2017 here in Ottawa in just over 6 weeks or so, come and play the game with me! :)

The Wretched of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler - The first book in the Legends of Muirwood series, the author paints an interesting picture centred around Lia, a thirteen-year-old girl with with no knowledge of her family and a pretty snarky attitude. Her lack of knowledge of her bloodlines, makes Lia one of the Wretched, the outcasts of the society that are taken care of by the abbeys. Lia’s ambition in life is to learn how to read, something that being a Wretched doesn't afford her. This story is well written, has interesting characters (though Lia can be annoying at times!), and the plot moves along at a solid place. The author did a lot of research for the book (as noted in the Author Notes at the end). The religious and magic elements of this book are quite unique in a lot of ways, and the setting itself breathes and feels alive, having a feel of depth and history. A very strong novel, and one that I recommend highly.

Twinmaker by Sean Williams - I don't know where to begin with this review. Well, okay, I guess I should start by saying that the book is actually called Jump, renamed Twinmaker for the U.S. (and Canadian) market. Simply put, this is a very clever, superbly written book, a rivetting adventure of epic proportions, and a disturbing future. The premise of the book is instant gratification. You can instantly transport yourself anywhere in the world. You can fabricate anything you want immediately through a "fabber". Fun, free, sounds amazing... But if people are taken apart and put back together at their destination, how do we determine if they are unchanged through the process? What about the soul? And taking things further, what if you changed things about yourself using the d-mat? The protagonist of the novel, Clair, struggles with all these questions and more as she tries to save her best friend, Libby, from the devastating effects of Improvement. The set-up of this book has all the signs of a romance-centric novel with some dystopia thrown in, but very quickly morphs into something action-filled. I'm not going to give away any of the plot here, but will say that I was invested in the characters and their lives, and thought that the author's writing was top notch. Looking forward to picking up the sequel from my To-Read Queue, for sure!

All the (other) books that I read in March, 2017 were very good, but the ones above are the stand-outs for the month for me.

Overall, I managed to read 8 novels, 2 RPGs and RPG products, 2 magazines, 0 comics, and 0 graphic novels in March. This brings the year total for 2017 to a set of numbers that look like this: 29 books, 6 RPGs and RPG products, 5 magazines, 0 comics, and 0 graphic novels.

Anyway, thoughts and comments are always welcome. :)
Tags: book hut, books, month total, reading, reading hut
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