2013 Reads: March

13. The Hedge Night,
14. The Sworn Sword, and
15. The Mystery Night, all by George R. R. Martin,
which together make up the Tales of Dunk and Egg, a series of short stories set in the Song of Ice & Fire universe, about 100 years before the novels. It was good to be back in that universe without having to commit myself to 1500 pages and all of my favorite characters dying.

16. The Legacy, R.A. Salvatore. This is #7 in the Drizzt series, but the book didn’t say that anywhere, so I had no idea. I wonder if I would’ve liked it more if I’d read the earlier books… but I doubt it. It was super cliche, and there was a lot of reminding the reader 15 times about things we just read about (in case we already forgot, I guess?), and the characters seemed like the author knows they’re fully fleshed out in his head but can’t figure out how to convince us that they’re anything but flat.

17. Starless Night, R.A. Salvatore. I tried to give the next one (#8, I guess!), in case I was being unfair… but no, I was absolutely correct, and then I gave up.

18. Matilda, Roald Dahl. This got left at the studio (and it’s still there! The poor kid that lost their copy!!) and I read it one afternoon during recitals. This was my freaking favorite book when I was little; seriously, I checked it out of the bookmobile one week, had to check it back in the next week, and would check it back out the week after that. Just the best.

19. The Lost Gate, Orson Scott Card. OSC wrote the Ender’s Game series, so I’m always hopeful for his writing. Folk of the Fringe, which I read in February, was a series of his short stories, and I didn’t really enjoy it. I read the Lost Gate a couple years ago when it was new, and I enjoyed it; the idea was really interesting and different to me. But coming back to it now, after I’ve spent the last several months reading a lot and researching a fair amount, and with a better idea of how religious OSC is, I have to admit it felt really different. This time around, I noticed how annoying the main character was; clearly Card expects us to think he’s smart and witty, but he literally gets out of trouble TWICE by showing his ass to cops. I wish I was joking that this not only happens, but it happens more than once.

20. The Gate Thief, OSC. This is the sequel to Lost Gate, which was just released earlier this month. It was more of the same: sort of inconsistent characterizations, things that are supposed to be witty or funny and are actually just pretty dumb, and an undertone of religion weirdness that turned me off.
Maybe I wouldn’t have noticed it (and I don’t know how to describe it!) without having just read Folk of the Fringe, which is all about Mormons, and my subsequent research into OSC (yes, he’s very Mormon; the general consensus is he can’t keep it out of his writing). I was probably hyper-aware of it, so your mileage may vary… and I will probably read the third whenever it comes out, but I’m not nearly as excited for it as I was for this two months ago.

To get to 72 books by the end of the year, I have to read 6 a month, which means right now I’m actually a couple books ahead! Hooray! I think I’m going to try to get at least a couple more ahead by the end of April, so that when I inevitably don’t have much time to read in May due to packing and driving and moving, it won’t be a big deal.