Kitty Norville<\/a>” series to date. Enjoyable fun, the books continue to evolve the character and her situation without the biggest flaws of the “Anita Blake” series — ever-escalating worstest-evilest-scariest menaces, ever-increasing compromises in the protagonist’s humanity and believability, ever-more-turgid prose, and ever-squidgier sex. Vaughn’s books remain tight and fast, interesting, and grounded, despite their supernatural setting. Well recommended.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some books I’ve plowed through of late: Greywalker by Kat Richardson (2006) Realityland by David Koenig (2007) She Murdered Me with Science by David Boop (2008) I got turned on to Greywalker through a novella in Mean Streets (which means that collection did just what it was intended). This is fairly standard “urban fantasy” stuff — … Continue reading “Recent Reads”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-books","category-disney"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33388,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/29\/peter-david-update.html","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":0},"title":"Peter David update","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Apr-13 9:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Four months after his stroke, here's how things are going for one of my favorite genre fiction and comic book writers. Four Months Later Things continue to improve for Peter slowly. He can now touch the thumb of his right finger to his pinkie with pretty much normal effort. He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132484,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/01\/books-book-books-2016.html","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":1},"title":"Books, book, books: 2016","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 1-Jan-17 11:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A lot of the year was rereading lengthy series -- David Weber's Honor Harrington series, then running through Robert Parker's Spenser novels. But a lot of other stuff in-between, including comic book graphic novels and TPB collections. ***Dave\u2019s Year in Books View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10404,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/26\/divine_checklist.html","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":2},"title":"Divine Checklist","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 26-Jan-07 11:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah. (via David N.)...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/Bizarro070126.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20989,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/08\/book-review-star-trek-new-frontier-missing-in-action-by-peter-david-2006.html","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":3},"title":"Book Review: “Star Trek New Frontier: Missing in Action” by Peter David (2006)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 8-May-11 2:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Missing in Action by Peter David My rating: 3 of 5 stars I've been plowing through the last several New Frontier novels to get to the most recent three -- ones that I've bought but never got around to reading (because I hadn't had a chance to plow through the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37564,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/05\/book-review-truman-by-david-mccullough-1992.html","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":4},"title":"Book Review: "Truman" by David McCullough (1992)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Jun-13 1:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems like it should be an excellent book, but the audio abridgment from 1100+ pages down to 5 CDs renders it into a Readers Digest edition, ruining the structure and leaving way too many blank places in this great man's life. a review of Truman For what there is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8258,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/01\/04\/so_thats_what_i.html","url_meta":{"origin":14946,"position":5},"title":"So that’s what I’ve been doing whilst asleep …","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Jan-06 9:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"You meet the strangest people online ... Hi David, Please don't be alarmed. I'm not your evil doppelganger... nor have I stolen your identity. I stumbled upon your Amazon reviews...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47471,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14946\/revisions\/47471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/0451461320.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg\")
<\/a> <\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg\" "\\"Good")
I got turned on to Greywalker <\/em>through a novella in Mean Streets<\/a><\/em> (which means that collection did just what it was intended). This is fairly standard “urban fantasy” stuff — plucky female detective in Seattle becoming, through a near-death experience, someone who can see ghosts and other manifestations of the supernatural, and so becoming a nexus for their needs — but Richardson pulls it off well. Harper Blaine’s continuous fear and vertigo regarding the Grey becomes tiresome a bit, and the supernatural danger level ratchets up a bit high for a first outing, and some of the casual coincidences seem strained, but the characters and setting are nicely done, and I was pleased enough to hunt down the next couple of volumes in the series. Recommended.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/0964060523.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg\")
<\/a> <\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars5.jpg\" "\\"Faboo")
Koenig’s Realityland <\/em>is a must-read for anyone with an interest in Disney lore or Walt Disney World, as it details the conception and crafting of that resort. While Disney as a company is known for “good show,” the building of both the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT were progressive series of hasty improvisation and compromise. The downgrading of Walt Disney’s dream of an “ideal city of the future” in EPCOT to a few core elements by his more conservative successors is a known and tragic one, but this rendition of the tale provides plenty of good details. Reading this books is not necessary to enjoy a visit to WDW, but neither does it detract from the magic to know how it was all done. Instead, it stands as a very approachable survey of the mingling of ideals, ideas, entertainment, education, business, and politics, and makes me both more appreciate the resort and recognize its limitations. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/0979588995.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg\")
<\/a> <\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars3.jpg\" "\\"Fair")
The cover of She Murdered Me with Science <\/em>sums up the book pretty well — a dusky singer at an old mic, a trenchcoated detective delivering a punch to some black-garbed techno-stormtrooper, an exotic mask with baleful eyes glaring outward. But this two-fisted 50s-era SF detective novel can’t decide if it wants to be more Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler, or Lester Dent, and the various blending of the various tropes tends to vary unevenly between gritty, glossy, and contrived. It’s an interesting book, and there were parts I very much liked, but ultimately I didn’t feel it lived up to its promise, and I don’t feel the need to race out and discover what else Boop has written. A fair read, with caveats.<\/p>\n