Limbus, Inc. by Anne C. Petty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The best way to describe what I just finished: a series of short stories in genres I may not have read as standalones but which combined into a highly enjoyable book. Not perfectly true as they all tended to have a bit of science fiction and a bit of detective fiction. But I do not think I would have sought many of these out.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a little Enders Game, a little Battle Royale, and a little 1984 with a dash of Harry Potter.

I don’t usually write such short reviews, but in some ways, while a lot happens in this book, not very much happens. Which is to say that it’s the first book of a trilogy so nothing huge can get resolved. It’s a lot of setup in 3 parts, each with their own beginning, middle, and end. That’s what Pierce Brown does so well and which keeps me from being TOO upset at the fact that at the end of this book, things are only beginning for the main character. Yet we have already seen him have 3 arcs. He’s grown so much in the approximately 2 years in which the book takes place and yet he also reminds somewhat blinded in simplicity by his goal.

Mother Fucking Flowers by Tammy L. Witzens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Let me begin by saying that I enjoyed this book. I won it as part of Goodreads’ FirstReads program. The title looked insane and so did the description; the subject of many an Internet joke and comic strip: if you could go back in time, should you kill Hitler? The Aeon Flux-looking woman on the cover was interesting as well. Unfortunately, I was delayed by a couple weeks in getting the package because I had a business trip. When I did get the book, I was amazed at how thin the package is. Other than, perhaps, The God Engines, this is shortest book I’ve read in a long time.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon it. Brooks does an excellent job putting together a history of both how the zombie virus became an epidemic and how the human race came on top. He gives each character their own voice and style. I really felt as if it were a real documentation of history. I also enjoyed the meta-story told through both the names of the countries/provinces and the introductions to each section.

Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had no idea what to expect when I started reading this book. All I knew was that I found Yahtzee Croshaw’s reviews at Zero Punctuation to be pretty funny. I’d acquired Mogworld and Jam via Humble ebook bundles. I’m not sure, but I think they were in two different bundles. I can’t remember. Anyway, after looking at all the descriptions, it appeared that Jam was just Croshaw’s next novel, not a sequel to Mogworld. So, since the description of Mogworld sounded a little too close to what I do for a living, I went with Jam. It is a standalone book. I ALMOST changed my mind when one of the characters in Jam turned out to be a Mogworld developer, but that was of no consequence. The character may or may not be in both books, but it appears they merely take place in the same universe without any part of Mogworld being necessary before reading jam.

A Midsummer Night’s Steampunk by Scott E. Tarbet

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s always tough when people redo Shakespeare. Sometimes it works really well and sometimes it’s just horrible. I absolutely loved the way Scott Tarbet resets a Midsummer Night’s Dream in a Steampunk Victorian England. He was able to use Steampunk to handle the existence of fairies in the original and he uses wordplay to deal with stuff like the ass. It was only the love potion that had to resort to hand-waving to work with the story. I didn’t mind it too much.

The Silver Ninja: Indoctrination by Wilmar Luna

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Disclosure: I got this book for free for review.

Let me start with what I liked. Wilmar does a good job creating a believable female hero. She has flaws. She sounds like a woman; not a man with breasts. At the same time not a caricature of womanhood or a ditz. The sisterly relationship seems like a girl’s version of what I’ve seen with my brothers. While the dialog sometimes fell a little flat, the martial spat and relationship and sexual dysfunction seemed realistic.

Suddenly Charlie XCX seems to be everywhere. In reality she’s been slowly appearing in and writing lots of pop songs for the past few years. But I had no idea who she was or anything. So I was surprised to find I had “What I Like” from her True Romance album on my computer. Must have been one of those MP3s Rolling Stone used to give away weekly.

The Sword & Sorcery Anthology by David G. Hartwell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed all the stories but one on here - the one about the pick-lock. One of my favorites turned out to be the last one, which I think is the shortest story. But the there’s still a very compelling story told. I was disappointed with the GRRM story because I thought it was going to be an original short story. It just just part of a Dany chapter from ASOIAF. But, on the plus side I got to compare how it’s different from the HBO show, I got to see that I enjoy the way GRRM writes, and it was my favorite part - when Dany reveals to the Astaporians that she understands Valarian. As I mentioned in my updates, I enjoyed the Conan story and other than the vocabulary being a bit more formal, not much gives away that it was written 70-80 years ago. Also, having just read Gail Simone’s first Red Sonja arc, it was neat to see one of the stories call out Red Sonya (who Sonja is based on). Other top story was the one with the “Chinese” soldier. But really, lots of them were great.

The Mocking Dead Volume 1 by Fred Van Lente

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Parodies are hard to do well. The worst parodies are unbearable, the best deconstruct the tropes. I was afraid The Mocking Dead would be the former, but since I got it as part of a huge Humble Bundle, it was nearly free for me to check out. Luckily it turned out to be less Scary Movie and more like something Mel Brooks would put together.