Books and comics read in December 2014

[usuallyhats]

Gatty's Tale - Kevin Crossley-Holland*
Wolverine and the X-Men Vol 6
X-Factor: Together Again for the First Time
X-Factor: The Road To Redemption
X-Men: S.W.O.R.D.: No Time To Breathe
Araña: Heart of the Spider
Ms Marvel: War of the Marvels
Journey Into Mystery: Fear Itself Fallout
Journey Into Mystery: The Terrorism Myth
Black Widow and the Marvel Girls*
She-Hulk: Superhuman Law
Knights of the Old Republic: Days of Fear, Nights of Anger
Star Trek: The Never Ending Sacrifice - Una McCormack
Journey Into Mystery/New Mutants: Exiled
Journey Into Mystery: The Manchester Gods
Black Widow: Homecoming
Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her
Araña: In The Beginning
Lion in the Valley - Elizabeth Peters
Araña: Night of the Hunter
Mighty Avengers: Family Bonding
The Mighty Thor/Journey Into Mystery: Everything Burns
Captain America: Winter Soldier Vol 2
The Way We Live Now - Anthony Trollope
Spider-Girl: Family Values
Joan of Arc: A History - Helen Castor
Daughters of the Dragon: Samurai Bullets
Star Trek Voyager: No Man's Land - Christie Golden*
Throne of the Crescent Moon - Saladin Ahmed
Seven Days of Joyeux - Tansy Rayner Roberts*
Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
Blue Lily, Lily Blue - Maggie Stiefvater
Flygirl - Sherri L. Smith
Lagoon - Nnedi Okorafor
The Handbook for Dragon Slayers - Merrie Haskell*

(Explanatory note: I took advantage of a cheap deal for a month's subscription to Marvel Unlimited in December and attempted to read ALL THE THINGS before it ran out...)

Gatty's Tale
Oh, this was wonderful. A companion volume to Crossley-Holland's Arthur trilogy, it tells the story of Arthur's friend Gatty and her and her fellow pilgrims' journey to Jerusalem. It's beautifully written, capturing the medieval setting with deceptive simplicity, and suffused with kindness. And Gatty - brave, capable, straightforward Gatty - is glorious.

Black Widow and the Marvel Girls
This comic was all about Natasha teaming up with other women, so of course I wanted to love it. Sadly it didn't quite meet my expectations: Natasha's characterisation was a bit too cold and stilted, the addition of Enchantress to her backstory was a bit pointless, and I really didn't like the way the final story ended. Overall it was entertaining enough, but not as good as it could have been.

Star Trek Voyager: No Man's Land
Solid, enjoyable Star Trek, with particularly good stuff for Janeway and Seven. (Seven even gets a girlfriend of the week! "The other woman had captured her soul," indeed. I REQUIRE FIC.) It's book five of seven, but I think it more or less stands alone, as long as you know going in that it's part of a series.

Seven Days of Joyeux
Excellent novella set in Roberts's Musketeer Space universe. Wonderfully festive, but not in an obnoxiously jolly way - there's joy, but there's also sadness and heartbreak too. (Incidentally, re Musketeer Space, remember how I said I liked old stories retold in space or with everyone being queer? Musketeer Space delivers on both fronts. :D)

The Handbook for Dragon Slayers
What an excellent book to end the year on. Lovely, unpredictable and basically a delight. ♥

Comments

[cosmic_llin]

OMG, I definitely owned No Man's Land at some point but I don't remember a thing about it... I might have to revisit it now...

(I am on a bit of a Trek tie-in spree at the moment... I started reading that DS9 one I think you recced me, with the dead Cardassians holed up in the wall?)

[usuallyhats]

I definitely recommend it, it was a great read!

(Station Rage? \o/ Are you enjoying it?)

[cosmic_llin]

Yes, that's the one! I'm liking it so far, love the way she writes Garak! I'd wandered off but I might read some more tonight!

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, I'm so glad you enjoyed Gatty's Tale - it's just lovely, isn't it? :-)

[usuallyhats]

It's wonderful! (And I probably wouldn't have realised it existed if you hadn't told me about it, so thank you!) I think I might have liked it even more than the Arthur trilogy - I loved getting inside Gatty's head. ♥

[thisbluespirit]

I feel pretty much like that about it myself. I'd loved the trilogy, but this just seemed - well, I think you summed it up perfectly above.

I got Kevin Crossley-Holland to sign my copy at the YLG conference a few years ago, but much to my regret I couldn't say anything to him at all. (Oh, to be one of those people who can tell authors how marvellous their books are!)

[usuallyhats]

I totally sympathise - I'm not one of those people either!

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

How did you enjoy your month of Marvel Unlimited? Any standout reads?

[usuallyhats]

I had some problems with the reader, but otherwise it was pretty great! In terms of what I actually read, X-Men: S.W.O.R.D.: No Time To Breathe was a lot of fun - I really love grumpy Abigail Brand and her adorable relationship with Beast. The Araña series was enjoyably Buffy-esque. The two Black Widow volumes were a bit dark for my tastes, but I liked Natasha's characterisation in them, so that was a bonus! And I'm glad I got to read the Journey Into Mystery run with Kid Loki: I'm not sure how I feel about how it ended (I'm definitely glad I knew about it in advance), but otherwise I liked it a lot.

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun!