So I was gone on a cruise, got a lot of reading done.
Read the second of the Murderbot Diaries stories by Martha Wells, Artificial Condition. Enjoyed it though there were no great twists - it feels like it was a story with the ultimate goal being creating characters to show up in later books. Shorter than I like, but fit what was needed.
Talking of a bit short, I read a number of short stories in Cat Rambo's collection Near. Short stories aren't my preferred form, but I was digging these. Reminded me a bit of Jay Lake, in setting up a bigger world that makes you want to read more in it, but dealing with a more contained personal problem. (That's a compliment.) This was my only physical book with me. I had expected the cruise ship to have a library, like the last one did. It did not. (I've been on very few cruises in my life, this wasn't me being the "seasoned traveler", but rather that it was a number of years since the last time and on the same cruise lines, so I expected that innovation would be present. Smaller ship - it was not.)
I read Clean Sweep by husband&wife psydonym pair Ilona Andrews. First of her Innkeeper series. I did enjoy it, even if it had "werewolves" and "vampires" (two things I don't enjoy in my urban fantasy). For all that, fresh. Made me think of Roman Genius Loci.
At that point, sans the library, I was short on books. I didn't have a lot loaded on my kindle that I hadn't read recently, including my other "long series" (Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga), so I fell back on my guilt pleasure of SF star navel battles with good characters and read the first three and a half of David Weber's Honor Harrington series.
Though really, after a while not only does HH become a Mary Sue, but the entire Star Kingdom of Manticore becomes a Mary Sue, so I'm planning on only reading through about half the series. I a few months back read the last HH book (though not the last Honorverse book), and it left me wanting. So now I'll hold off when I feel it jumping the shark, because we have the capstone instead of the potential of other books.
