New Books!

DB Pro is releasing the comic book adaptation of Laurell K. Hamilton's famous Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. Since there are thirteen books in the series so far (the last one, Danse Macabre has just been published), DB Pro is, reasonably enough, adapting the first book, Guilty Pleasures. Artist Brett Booth is going to draw the series, and since I like vampires, and I really like the penciller (his artwork for the project accompanies this post), I thought I'd give it a try. The first issue was supposed to come out in July, but it is late. Unfortunately, that seems to be the rule in comic book publishing nowadays, so that's hardly newsworthy. However, that gave me the chance to buy Guilty Pleasures (the book), and see what it was all about.

Truth is, I'm not very impressed with it. I finished it last night, on my flight back from San Diego, and while somewhat entertaining, it's not by any means a great book. It does look like the beginning of a good series, and that's why I just bought the second one as part of the book-buying spree I went on a couple of hours ago.

I was going to go to the movies to see either Talladega Nights, Clerks II , or A Scanner Darkly, which has finally come to Chattanooga. Instead, I passed The Rave and kept going toward Barnes & Noble (where else?). Guilty Pleasures had been the last book in my To Read shelf, and I needed new printed words to help me evade reality. B&N was, of course, the place to go.

I ended up buying six books, only two of them from authors I knew already. One of them I just mentioned: The Laughing Corpse, which is the second book in the Anita Blake series. If I don't like this one better than the first one, I won't read any more. Of course, I'll let you know how that goes.
The other book by an author I already knew is I'm a Stranger Here Myself, by the hilarious Bill Bryson. If you've never read anything by him, you could do worse than reading A Walk in the Woods or In a Sunburned Country. You won't regret it!
Next we have Queen of Blades, by a Aaron Rosenberg. This book continues the story of the videogame StarCraft, with characters we all love such as Jim Raynor, Sarah Kerrigan, and Arcturus Mengsk. I confess I never finished the game, but I really like it, so I'm excited about this book.
Another sci-fi book based on a videogame is Perfect Dark: Initial Vector, by Greg Rucka, whom I knew because of his comic book work. I still remember when I first played the original Perfect Dark for N64. Ah, those were the days... Anyway: a badass hottie being hot and badass. Sounds good, right?
Also a sci-fi book (I guess I was in a sci-fi mood today), next I got Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan. I've been wanting to read this book for a couple of years now, so I hope it's good.
And the last one is not sci-fi, but fantasy/alternative history. His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik, is the first book in a trilogy that tells the story of how the British and the French used dragons to enhance their armies when they were kicking each other's butts during the Napoleonic Wars. And yeah, I know that the last time I read a book with a similar premise I struggled to finish it, but at 353 pages, HMD is much shorter than the notorious Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
We'll see how these books turn out. I'm going to go now, because I've got places to be and stuff to read. Enjoy.