#84 Cold Days by Jim Butcher

At this point in the series you really need to have read some of the previous books otherwise even all the infodumps will not keep you straight with everything that has happened in Harry's life. This book did leave me wanting to reread Summer Knight. And of course in the end it doesn't always come up roses for Harry. 

#85 The Black Box by Michael Connelly

Harry keeps finding the wrong ant hills to kick over as his career slowly winds down as he works the cold cases. The case he works on this time goes back to the LA riots and now as he finds his suspects they have powerful juice. Harry is also working on his relationship with his daughter and he feels almost as he can never quite get it right and also doesn't seem to do everything right with his new girlfriend as well. A decent book but not one of my favorites. 





 

#86 The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde

I love these books but you do need to read them from the beginning otherwise you will miss little bon mots the author has placed in the book to reward a faithful reader. Thursday is in semi-retirement and ends up taking a head librarian position instead of head of the newly reformed Chronoguards. The town of Swindon is depending on  her teenage daughter to come up with a solution to prevent the smiting of the town and her son gets the news that since time travel wasn't discovered he now will kill someone and go to jail. Just the usual week for Thursday. The upside is Landon is by her side and by the end she finally gets rid of the last of the family of villains that she has been fighting for the entire series.

 

#87 The Kimono of the Geisha-Diva Ichimaru by Barry Till, Michiko Warkentyne, Judith Patt

I saw this listed on someone's list of read books for the year and it looked very interesting. It is mostly photographs of kimonos owned by Geisha-Diva Ichimaru. There is a short biography of her life and it made me want to track down her music recordings. Not a big book but one of very cool photos. 

#88 Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey

A new series that is set in a small town in the Midwest where the Fae and others can cross into our world. Sometimes you get a glimpse and sometimes it changes your world forever. Daisy is half demon that was conceived during a college weekend trip and now she is is the goddess Hel's mortal representative in town keeping all the  non-mortals in line. The death of a visiting college student from a nearby uptight town brings her position out more in the public eye and more in contact with her secret crush. What I liked about this series  setup is she has a good female friend and a good family relationship and she talks to both during the course of the book. I'm interested in reading the next one.

#89 Fables, Vol. 16: Super Team by Bill Willingham

I felt like this was one of the weaker story arcs in the series. There were some high points but I was mostly glad to know that I had the next volume ready for me to read to get over this one. 

#90 Fables, Vol. 17: Inherit the Wind by Bill Willingham

This one has more meat to the story with picking up with Bodkin in Oz and the choosing of a new North Wind. Even with all of that happening in the book there is not a ton of action since Mr Dark has been taken care of. You do have to wonder about the Bigby and Snow's other children with the prophesy and how that will all be handled. 

#91 The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

This is a stand alone novella which I thought would be a great start for me to try out Brandon's writing since the last one I tried but didn't get too far into was over  one thousand pages. A Forger is caught in the Emperor's palace with a forged painting and instead of being put to death she is given the task of forging a new soul for the Emperor, who is unresponsive after a assassination attempt. The magic system is very interesting and if there is ever more stories in this universe I would certainly look for them to read. 

#92 Tricked by Kevin Hearne

I had held off reading this based on a friend's opinion of the book. I can see why he didn't like it and I have to say that Atticus seems to burn through some allies that seemed so close to him in the previous books. This book was certainly a departure from the first trilogy since now this one is a setup of how Atticus is now trying to hide and "be dead" to everyone.  I'll read the next one and see how is personality continues but if everyone comes off as a total jerk I have to play it book by book. 

#93 Fated by Benedict Jacka

I've been hearing this compared to the Dresden Files so I decided to give it a whirl.  There is a hat tip to Butcher in the very beginning of the book and then the story settles in to several wizards fighting over an ancient magical artifact that our hero gets sucked into. Alex Verus is a seer of possible futures and both sides want to use him to get the artifact open. As the story progresses you find out how Alex has become estranged from the wizarding world.  A good start to a new series and I'll get around to reading some more of these in the coming year. 

#94 The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

Something new for Jasper Fforde, a YA novel. This one does have the same feel as his other books but is firmly set in its own universe. Jennifer Strange is a super capable 15 year old trying to keep a company running and hiding the fact the the owner of said company has run off. The adult wizards that are the employees of the company seem just fine with this arrangement. Turns out though that she has a destiny awaiting her as the last dragonslayer and she doesn't even know it.  There is big money to be made when the last dragon dies and everyone wants as much of that as possible. A good fun read and I'm sure I'll pick up the other ones and maybe gift them to younger family members during the holidays. 

#95 Steel's Edge by Ilona Andrews

I was a bit wistful when I saw that this was the last of the books in the series and yet I also think that is a good thing. Not every series needs to go on and on and yet I really liked how the viewpoint characters rotated around and sometimes were used to introduce someone new to that universe.  This one is entirely Edger and Weird, there is no crossover into the Broken at all. It tackles slavery in this setting and trying to get rid of it by spy methods since technically it is illegal but still happens. As with all the books in the series it is also a love story. Of course this one has leads that think they will never love again. Good fun read and I hope at the very least this writing duo will dip back in this setting at some  point even if it is only for short stories. 

#96 Night Life by Caitlin Kittredge

I finished this and I am not sure if I will get around to reading the next one, The world building was good but I hate when the bad guys seem to be everywhere and the good guys are always knocked around by neutral characters in the plot. Luna is a non pack werewolf that falls for a bad boy pack werewolf during the course of a murder investigation. That is the part that irked me, if she is a good cop working hard to make a good impression all the time then why does this love interest have to spring up so quickly with someone that was a suspect in the beginning of the book. I might read the next one if I have a lull in my reading list but I don't think that will happen anytime soon. 

#97 Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

It tool me a while to get to this even though lots of people I read had been raving about the book. The book does things with the usual fantasy setups and makes it fresh. Almost all the main characters are older, there are a few young people but they are certainly being mentored or taken care of by the older people in the book. The setting is in the desert instead of some "medieval forest" and the monsters correspond with this setting. I enjoyed the book and the story and I will be looking for the next book out in the series. A well written fantasy and a nice change of pace for most of it out there.

#98 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz #1) by L. Frank Baum

So on a sleepless night I downloaded this and figured I would reread it since it had to be more than twenty years since I had last read it. The sad thing is all I could recall of the book was tied up in my memories of the movie and that leaves a lot of the book out. An enjoyable read and was a nice surprise to see all the bits I had forgotten. I'll be reading more of the books I think since there are so many of them and lots of sleepless nights. 

#99 Kiss Me Twice by Mary Robinette Kowal

This novella was part of the Hugo voter pack that I read this past summer. A SF police procedural with a murder investigation being interrupted by the police's AI mainframe stolen out of the police station. Not only is this a straight mystery there is also commentary on how people treat AIs. A good read and if there is more in this this world later on I certainly would read it. 

#100 The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson

This was another novella from the Hugo voter packet that I read back in July.  A simple story about what the title exactly says. Of course you get a bit more than that but it leaves you wondering about the world it is set in and if we will ever see anything else in it. No flashy magic, no terrible battles but there are monsters and some deaths but in the end a nice quiet read. 

#101 The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary by Ken Liu

This was a tough read. The subject of the time travel as an observer only sounds great but seeing and not being able to document by any means just means that no one will believe what was seen. And it doesn't help the study that people that have a direct tie to the events go back. That the story explores war crimes just makes it an even harder read. Technically the story is well written but not one you want to read for a good time. 

#102 The Ice Owl by Carolyn Ives Gilman

This is another Hugo novella that I read for the voter packet. Overall I felt the story was rather light and yet there was so much to find out about of the backgrounds of the characters and the universe that the story is set in. I was disappointed in the story overall and was left feeling as if I missed something that other people saw in this story.