Voices In My Head

I am a terrible blogger. No really, it's been weeks and I still don't have anything to say. I don't know how some people manage to do a new (and interesting) entry every day. I'm lucky if I get in two or three a month these days. I just don't think my life is all that exciting.

The latest is that I'm still wrapped up in work. The project that would not end finally ended and now I'm on another one, which needs to be done yesterday it seems, and my piece is in C# .NET. Which I do not know. So I'm learning how to code in C#. The learning something new part I like. The pressure from the project manager to get it done NOW I do not.
 
The rest of my life is going well. I've been hitting the gym semi-regularly and eating well most of the time. I am not doing as well at either as I would like but I've still managed to lose 8 pounds so I must be doing something right. I worked out here at home earlier while my computer was installing upgrades so I can safely say that I managed to get in 3 days this week. YAY!

I'm currently reading City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandemeer. So far all I can say is good writing but very weird.  I've only read the first story though.  I'll stick with it and we'll see what I think.  Recent reading and mini-reviews include Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge and Mainspring by Jay Lake.  

Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge
I've been very anit-Urban Fantasy lately so I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to give this book a fair shake.  I really shouldn't have worried though because Kittredge managed to pull me into her world of Black London pretty much from the first chapter.  I liked Pete well enough and loved Jack, of course.  He very much reminded me of a Billy Idol / Spike hybrid in how he was described.  The story itself was interesting and entertaining.  The only real flaw was that the bad guy and how things were resolved was kind of a let down.  By that point I wanted the big bad to be really Big and really Bad and he, well, wasn't.  Still, not a bad start to a new series, the world Kittredge has created is amazing, I like the characters, and I will definitely read Demon Bound.   

Mainspring by Jay Lake
I will start off by saying that this book is not for everyone.  Just check out the Amazon reviews to see why.  Now, I personally liked it although I am well aware that I have an extremely flexible suspension on my disbelief and it takes a lot for me to put a book down.  The first two-thirds of the book are amazing.  I wasn't impressed with the main character, Hethor, but he didn't make me want to throw the book at the wall so nothing I couldn't accept.  Sometimes he's TSTL but I think that may have been the point.  This is very much a coming of age / divine quest story.  The worldbuilding is great, the sense of impending doom, the quest story - all work in the first two-thirds of the book.  My problem came once Hethor went over the Wall into the Southern Earth.  Things here become a little trippy and while I was never fully yanked out of the story I did find myself having to retune my suspension of disbelief quite often.  I had a big problem with the deus ex machina nature of the last several chapters of the book.  When I first read it my initial response was "cop out".  After thinking about it I can see where divine intervention makes sense in a way but I never felt like Lake set that up as a possibility so it came out of left field.  So, overall I liked it but this is not one I would necessarily recommend to others.  I am pleased to see that the next book brings back a couple of characters I really liked from this book and that it has multiple points of view - things that can only help. 

OK, enough reviews and blabbering.  I think it is time to take a shower and find some lunch.  We are getting spits of snow here but nothing is sticking yet.  So long as I don't have to go outside it can snow all it wants!