Bookkeeping

#2. Blood Engines - T.A. Pratt

Well slap me silly and call me Susan--I liked this book a lot.

This is the book, you may remember, that I bought entirely because it was in 3rd person. Going in, I was skeptical. I find the initials silly as hell, and a little insulting. Like the author's genital configuration might influence my book-buying. (I'm sure it must for someone somewhere. Marketing, market trends, yadda yadda, but still--annoying.) And I feared yet another cookie-cutter (s)UF novel. And then there's the Holy Exposition, Batman! moment in the first scene.

But then it started to make me laugh. Like, out loud, in public. And then I started to like Marla. A lot. Oh, sweet sweet sociopathic pragmatism! How I love thee! No angst, no whining, no gratuitous smut. No plot-stupidity, or stupidity plots. And the magic is smart and sensible and interesting.

There was an annoying tendency to repeat things a wee bit too often, as if the reader might have forgotten after 50 pages or so. I'm going to hope that was editing artifacts, and not LCDing.

But overall, very fun.

(no subject)

1381 words today, none of which are the novel. The novel doesn't want to give me an in to the next chapter. The novel is hateful. But at least I'll have a short story finished in the next three weeks, even if it is by collaboration.

Also, I potted the last habanero today. May they grow fat and healthy and provide me with much salsa. On Saturday I'll get some peat moss and liberate the impatiens from its store pot.

In the absence of the boy, I am very bored. I need a rich internal life, or something.