Since I last posted on March 26, I am still reading Ian McDonald’s River of Gods. As I said then, normally this is the kind of book I would love and race through—it’s cyberpunk scifi with an array of characters and layers of complexity to the plot. Intellectually, I know it’s a good read but emotionally I just can’t connect with the story.  I suspect this is because the February 22nd earthquake and its aftermath have been such an emotionally draining time that stories that demand concentration and emotional energy are not the right reading “fit.” So if I don’t get it finished this week I may put it aside and come back to it a little later in the year.

A book I have completed recently was Daniel Abrahams’ A Betrayal in Winter, the second in his “The Long Price” quartet. You may recall that I had just enjoyed the first book, A Shadow in Summer, when I posted on February 6. I was intrigued by the world, which has a decidedly Sino-Japanese “feel” to it and also by the characters and depth of the story.  A Betrayal in Winter built on those strengths and I enjoyed the story even more—possibly because I’m also getting more “into” the world and the characters. Betrayal is what I would call “political-cultural SFF”, where the story revolves around intrigue and personalities rather than sword-swinging action, but it definitely doesn’t feel “slow.”

And just by the way, for those of you who followed Mary Victoria’s Writing Strong Women guest blog series—Daniel Abrahams writes great female characters. I think the accountant (yes, I know, a bean-counter, but …) Amat Kyaan in A Shadow in Summer, and the princess Idaan Machi in A Betrayal in Winter are two of the most interesting women I’ve encountered in SFF for some time.

So how about you, what are you reading right now?