(no subject)

Deciding on what friendships to accept in Facebook is sometimes a puzzle. I just received a friendship request from Richard Plantagenet. If I knew which Richard it was, maybe my decision would be simpler. None of them are the stuff of BFFs though. And if it's Richard I and he knew what I say about him in class...

PS I'm slowly recovering from a migraine. I've written my Coyote Con thingie (when one is on at 5 am on Sunday, one wings as little as possible). I have more Angry Robot books to post about here in tthe near future. What's more, I've tallied my books and what needs doing and when and I only have to read one a day for the next two months and I'll be entirely caught up. Bargain!

If my TV works today (we have transmission problems from Tuggeranong, I'm told, so I should stop blaming my TV) then my evening will consist of reading, research proposal and TV. If I can't get any of the channels I want to watch, then I shall read and do my research proposal to music. If the migraine returns, then all this is moot.

Amortals - Matt Forbec

I read an Angry Robot book today, from their electronic review copy program. It was very satisfying.

Not only it was a good book, but it made me feel almost normal. Almost human? Maybe it makes me feel life is under my control again. Except that I keep wanting to use that old slogan "Tight, taut and terrific" about Amortals, which is accurate, but oh, so wrong. There's not a wasted word. There's not an idea that doesn't make sense. I meant to start it tonight and finish other work, then finish it tomorrow, but it's a read-at-one-sitting book so I've rescheduled some other things.

The plot is all about the investigation of a senior cop who is murdered. Except that murder is this future Washington has complications we can only dream of. And those complications cause complications.

The writing is taut and the protagonist/narrator is grumpy. It's the sort of book that's perfect for a journey – just the right level of familiarity and newness and noir. Also much adrenalin.

I love the opening. Just enough information – just enough fear. Is the hero just a shadow of his former self? Is he a hero? Has he been abused? Or is everything that's happening a sign of total corruption? All this I got from a man watching a playback with another man in the room. Just enough strange terminology for me to know that it wasn't our society, though it might be our future. Everything else was in everyday English. Easy to read. Easy to understand. Easy to get hooked. Very nicely done. As is the rest of the book.

I believe it's out in the UK already, and will be released in the US in June.