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Reading Wednesday
Feb. 26th, 2015 10:33 pm(This is going to be very French. You've been warned.)
What did you finish reading
Le Portrait de Dorian Gray, d'Oscar Wilde, by Stanislas Gros (art and scenario): As the title suggests, this is an adaptation in comic form of Wilde's novel. I read the novels years ago and as much as I can tell it's a very faithful adaptation -- except for one thing: Holmes and Watson aren't in the novel, are they? Because they're in this version.
So the scenario is, well, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, which you should totally read, if you haven't already. I thought the comic was less homoerotic between Dorian and Basil than the novel, but it still portrays Dorian as bisexual and an equal opportunity asshole, because, you know, Dorian Gray.
Dorian is pretty much the star of this show and what a star he is! His slowly accelerating from vaguely unpleasant young man to murderous attempted rapist is fascinating, in the way a trainwreck is fascinating. He's a glorious trainwreck and for the most part he doesn't mind and even revels in it. He's Dorian Gray, the way he was always meant to me.
And the art! The art is deceptively simple, yet perfect for the story it's telling. It's ligne claire, which is about the most Franco-Belge of all comic art styles (main stylistic attributes of ligne claire: simplified human figures, detailed backgrounds. Think Tintin or Yoko Tsuno or Alix).
( Dorian sees the portrait for the first time and makes a deal )
The art has one main feature that I thought was a stroke of genius and something that really took advantage of the new medium the story was being adapted into. It's something you can only do in a comic book. Starting on page 9 or so, when Basil finishes his portrait, every righ-hand page ends with the exact same panel of what-the-Portrait-looks-like-right-now. So of course at first the portrait looks exactly like Dorian, but that doesn't last very long and as the book goes on the Portrait becomes uglier and uglier.
( Over the first third or so )
Until, by the end, it looks the way it does on the cover.
( It's a good cover. )
It's a brilliant use of the medium.
I also liked that all of the characters had a distinct visual style and their own colour scheme.
Overall a really great read. Would reccomend.
I'm going to count this as "graphic novel" on the Random card.
De Cape et de Crocs (8 - Le Maître d'armes, 9 - Revers de fortune and 10 - De la Lune à la Terre), by Alain Ayroles (scenario) and Jean-Luc Masbou (art): It's been way too long since I read the beginning of the series, so I only remember the broad strokes, but going by that, it was an emotionally satisfying, if slightly rushed, conclusion to the series. I was very glad to see Don Lope and Raïs Kader resolve the issue of their duel without of them dying and so were they! I will admit that I did enjoy the relationship between the two: as the Moon situation came ever closer to being resolved, they started realising that all friends that they'd become, their honour demanded the duel be fought anyway.
I have to say though that my very favourite scene of the whole series is still the beginning of volume 8. Those dozen or so pages are a swordficght in which every single line is in alexandrins: Douze pieds, rime riche, / Pause au mitan du vers -- Césure à l'hémistiche! (The framing of that never ever fails to make me laugh.) Honourable mention goes to: "Delenda Carthilage" aurait tonné Caton / Si il eu ouï ce nez qu'on mouche en baryton / Barrir come une trompe punique, but really, the whole thing's priceless.
Most of these books are set on the Moon, so I'm going to count them as "Book set in a place you've wanted to visit for a long time" for the Random Card.
The Harem Club, by Jane Nin: At some point last week, I remembered I had a NetGalley account and went a little "YAY BOOKS" crazy in the "Read Now" section. I grabbed this one because it has a red cover (random bingo square!) and I don't usually pay a whole lot of attention to covers in ebooks and also because I was intrigued by the concept of choose-your-own-adventure erotica. It's a very short read and I read the whole thing, path by path in under 40mn. I feel like the author's biased towards one path in particular (judging by the number of orgasms the narrator has) and against another (judging by all the "this looks like fun and it could have been me if you the reader had picked a more interesting path"s in it) which I felt was a bit unfair. That said, it was the only path that had f/f, which was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise, so I kind of agree with the author that it's the best one.
( Red cover )
For the "book with red cover" square of the Random Card.
Manuel de civilité pour les petites filles à l’usage des maisons d’éducation, by Pierre Louÿs: (Available on Wikisource.) I read this on a dare because I was bored and it’s essentially one long list of very crass sex jokes, clearly written to parody the "manners for young ladies" genre.
It was also written in 1926, so it counts as "non-fiction book (CHALLENGE MODE: non-fiction book written 50+ years ago)" square on the Random Card.
Qadehar le Sorcier, by Erik L'Homme: Like I said, this was a fast read. I enjoyed this, but not as much as I did back when I read it for the first time.
According to last week's post, what I remembered from the trilogy was: Ambre is still the bestest, Qadehar is Guillemot's dad (and there's some sort of switcherro with anouther kid involvec, iirc), at one point Coralie goes to great lengths to save her sister Ambre, Valentin dies at the end, I didn't like the epilogue, le Monde Incertain (the Uncertain World) is desert at least in places, the kids end up separated on the other side of the Door.
Let's see how well that holds up, shall we?
- Ambre is still the bestest: I guess? I mean, she's certainly my favourite character so far, but I don't feel the same OMG SHE IS SO AWESOME I felt back on my first reading. Possibly because I am older than that now and now she feels both very young and I can see what the author was doing (and yeah, she's kind of a tomboy cliché, but iirc, she was one of the first tomboy characters I ever read (she had short hair!) and that meant a lot to tiny!me).
- Qadehar is Guillemot's dad (and there's some sort of switcherro with anouther kid involvec, iirc): That's still up in the air at this point, but we have met the other kid. His name's Kyle and he has three (adoptive) dads. Yowza!
- at one point Coralie goes to great lengths to save her sister Ambre: Not yet. She did risk her life and braved her greatest fear to save Romaric, thogh, so there is that. (Coralie is kind of the girly girl cliché, but she is also very very brave, which is appreciable.)
- Valentin dies at the end: Haven't reached the end, have I?
- I didn't like the epilogue: Nor the epilogue.
- le Monde Incertain (the Uncertain World) is desert at least in places: THE VORACIOUS DESERT! (le Désert Vorace) It eats everything that isn't made of stone. Awesome setting. I wish we'd go back there.
- the kids end up separated on the other side of the Door: Yup, major plotpoint of this book.
So that leaves: Qadehar is Guillemot's dad (and there's some sort of switcherro with anouther kid involvec, iirc), at one point Coralie goes to great lengths to save her sister Ambre, Valentin dies at the end and I didn't like the epilogue.
Not bad.
I really enjoyed the book, partly because of the nostalgia factor, partly because of going "hey, I remember that!" and partly, because it is a good book.
That said, there were a few things that bugged me this time around and that I can't remember bugging me last time.
The characters feel pretty thin. Guillemot is The Hero, Ambre is The Tomboy (and The Love Interest), Coralie is The Girl (althiugh, as noted, she is also very brave, which isn't usually a trait The Girl gets to have), Romaric is The Strong One (and Coralie's lost interest, if I'm not mistaken) and Gontrand is The Music One. Qadehar is Mysterious Mentor. Agathe is The Bully. Thomas is The Loyal One. Everyone else is so flat and one-dimensional that I can't remember their names, except for Kushumai.
Speaking of Kushumai! She's a warrior lady and I was all set to go "YAY!" especially since she's Ambre post-Door team-up and Ambre has stars in her eyes the size of galaxies, but then it turned out Kushumai's hunters were all dudes unlike the mix of genders I was expecting AND THEN she wipes Ambre's memory for reasons of ??? so I was mostly rather confused.
That did lead to one realisation from me, that I wish I hadn't had, because it's spoiling this books a little for me in retrospect. WHERE ARE THE WOMEN?
The entire book has 5 women with speaking parts: Ambre, Coralie, Agathe, Kushumai and Guillemot's mom. I can easily name twice as much male characters with greater or equal page time (Qadehar, Urien, Valentin, Guillemot, Gontrand, Romaric, Kyle, Thomas, Wal, Tofann, Kyle's dad, Thunku...). Worse, there are no background women anywhere: Kushumai's hunter are all men, as are the Sorcerers and the Kinghts of Wind. (Edit: no, wait, I guess there's Matsi among the girls, too.) Every position of power in either Ys or the Uncertain World that we see is held by a man (except possibly for Kushumai, depending on what her status is, exactly).
It kind of grated and felt a bit alienating. (The worst part was that one bandit being slimy towards Coralie. I didn't pick up on it at the time, but now, and even though the words are never said, it feels like he's creeping on her in a sexaul way. SHE'S TWELVE FFS. Nothing happens and he's clearly presented as a bad guy by the narrative, but that was rather an unpleasant intrusion of ~realism~ in my fluffy fun-times book.)
I've mentionned Kyle's three dads, yeah? Unfortunately, this is the closest the book comes to having anything like an LGBT presence in and the book doesn't say NO HOMO, but that's only because it doesn't even seem to realise it might need to. These three dudes are raising that one kid together for symbolic reason, as you do. It's like LGBT people don't exist at all in the author's world. It's weird. I don't like it.
Another thing: I felt the pacing was quite strange: the beginning (before they get to the Uncertain World) is rather slow and takes up ~50% of the book while the ending is rather rushed and is rather Deus ex Machina-y. I would have read thousand more words on the People of the Sea (Coralie's post-Door team-up), Kushumai's people (provided more women did show up at some point) and the Sand Men who live in the Voracious Desert (Kyle's people, with Kyle as Guillemot's eventual post-Door team-up).
Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I wished I could feel towards it the same way I felt the first time I read it. rereading's just not same. Still, it holds up okay, I think.
I'll count this as "reread of a childhood favourite" square on the Random card.
This makes 0/25 on the Mix'n'Match Card (unchanged from last week), 11/25 on the Random Card (+5 from last week) and 2/25 on the Serious Card (unchanged from last week) for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hamsterwoman's reading bingo.
( Details )
What are you reading
As always, unfortunately, stalled on Still stalled on The Art of War, Darshan, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Gustav Adolf Mossa: L'oeuvre symboliste: 1903-1918, Les Fleurs du Mal and Métronome
Le Seigneur Sha, by Erik L'Homme: This is book 2 of Le Livre des Etoiles. Guillemot and Romaric are now famous, following the events of book 1. For Guillemot, that manifests as a kidn of low-grade hero worship and for Romaric as people doubting that he's a Squire because he deserves to be instead of because he's a hero. Idk how it affects Gontrand, but I'm willing to bet people love to hear his songs about his adventures. Ambre and Coralie? HAHAHA You say that like we know anything about what they want to be when they grow up. Spoiler: we don't!
On the whole missing biological dads switcheroo: we've met the other father, who is Le Seigneur Sha (Lord Sha), so there you have it.
What are you reading next? (aka the to-read list)
Le Visage de l'Ombre, the last Le Livre des Etoiles book. AND ALSO HOPEFULLY THE EXPOSITION ALBUM FOR THE LOUVRE EXHIBIT ON MEDIEVAL MOROCCO (In all caps, so I remember to go to the Louvre and get it if I haven't by the next instalment of this meme).
Old list:
Books that I have already: Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Darkness Over Cannae by Jenny Dolfen, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett (yuleswap book 1), February by Lisa Moore (yuleswap book 2), The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan
Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni (I'm told it's the Ramayana retld as a noir mystery), Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed and whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (Autumn 2015), The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley (Summer 2015? Still unsure if I'm even going to be reading this one), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), , The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard, The Skull Throne, by Peter V. Brett and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is (THAT ART!).
New additions to the list: Nothing this week. I'm being good. Although... No. But... NO! (Well, let's just say I remembered I had a NetGalley account and well, y'all know how I get with free/cheap books.)
Books what I'm not sure if I want to read them:
City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett: I still dunno, tbh. It is quite strange. I want to (YES PLEASE OMG MORE), but on the other hand, I don't want to (pretty puch perfect in isolation). I JUST DON'T KNOW.
What did you finish reading
Le Portrait de Dorian Gray, d'Oscar Wilde, by Stanislas Gros (art and scenario): As the title suggests, this is an adaptation in comic form of Wilde's novel. I read the novels years ago and as much as I can tell it's a very faithful adaptation -- except for one thing: Holmes and Watson aren't in the novel, are they? Because they're in this version.
So the scenario is, well, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, which you should totally read, if you haven't already. I thought the comic was less homoerotic between Dorian and Basil than the novel, but it still portrays Dorian as bisexual and an equal opportunity asshole, because, you know, Dorian Gray.
Dorian is pretty much the star of this show and what a star he is! His slowly accelerating from vaguely unpleasant young man to murderous attempted rapist is fascinating, in the way a trainwreck is fascinating. He's a glorious trainwreck and for the most part he doesn't mind and even revels in it. He's Dorian Gray, the way he was always meant to me.
And the art! The art is deceptively simple, yet perfect for the story it's telling. It's ligne claire, which is about the most Franco-Belge of all comic art styles (main stylistic attributes of ligne claire: simplified human figures, detailed backgrounds. Think Tintin or Yoko Tsuno or Alix).
The art has one main feature that I thought was a stroke of genius and something that really took advantage of the new medium the story was being adapted into. It's something you can only do in a comic book. Starting on page 9 or so, when Basil finishes his portrait, every righ-hand page ends with the exact same panel of what-the-Portrait-looks-like-right-now. So of course at first the portrait looks exactly like Dorian, but that doesn't last very long and as the book goes on the Portrait becomes uglier and uglier.
Until, by the end, it looks the way it does on the cover.
It's a brilliant use of the medium.
I also liked that all of the characters had a distinct visual style and their own colour scheme.
Overall a really great read. Would reccomend.
I'm going to count this as "graphic novel" on the Random card.
De Cape et de Crocs (8 - Le Maître d'armes, 9 - Revers de fortune and 10 - De la Lune à la Terre), by Alain Ayroles (scenario) and Jean-Luc Masbou (art): It's been way too long since I read the beginning of the series, so I only remember the broad strokes, but going by that, it was an emotionally satisfying, if slightly rushed, conclusion to the series. I was very glad to see Don Lope and Raïs Kader resolve the issue of their duel without of them dying and so were they! I will admit that I did enjoy the relationship between the two: as the Moon situation came ever closer to being resolved, they started realising that all friends that they'd become, their honour demanded the duel be fought anyway.
I have to say though that my very favourite scene of the whole series is still the beginning of volume 8. Those dozen or so pages are a swordficght in which every single line is in alexandrins: Douze pieds, rime riche, / Pause au mitan du vers -- Césure à l'hémistiche! (The framing of that never ever fails to make me laugh.) Honourable mention goes to: "Delenda Carthilage" aurait tonné Caton / Si il eu ouï ce nez qu'on mouche en baryton / Barrir come une trompe punique, but really, the whole thing's priceless.
Most of these books are set on the Moon, so I'm going to count them as "Book set in a place you've wanted to visit for a long time" for the Random Card.
The Harem Club, by Jane Nin: At some point last week, I remembered I had a NetGalley account and went a little "YAY BOOKS" crazy in the "Read Now" section. I grabbed this one because it has a red cover (random bingo square!) and I don't usually pay a whole lot of attention to covers in ebooks and also because I was intrigued by the concept of choose-your-own-adventure erotica. It's a very short read and I read the whole thing, path by path in under 40mn. I feel like the author's biased towards one path in particular (judging by the number of orgasms the narrator has) and against another (judging by all the "this looks like fun and it could have been me if you the reader had picked a more interesting path"s in it) which I felt was a bit unfair. That said, it was the only path that had f/f, which was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise, so I kind of agree with the author that it's the best one.
For the "book with red cover" square of the Random Card.
Manuel de civilité pour les petites filles à l’usage des maisons d’éducation, by Pierre Louÿs: (Available on Wikisource.) I read this on a dare because I was bored and it’s essentially one long list of very crass sex jokes, clearly written to parody the "manners for young ladies" genre.
It was also written in 1926, so it counts as "non-fiction book (CHALLENGE MODE: non-fiction book written 50+ years ago)" square on the Random Card.
Qadehar le Sorcier, by Erik L'Homme: Like I said, this was a fast read. I enjoyed this, but not as much as I did back when I read it for the first time.
According to last week's post, what I remembered from the trilogy was: Ambre is still the bestest, Qadehar is Guillemot's dad (and there's some sort of switcherro with anouther kid involvec, iirc), at one point Coralie goes to great lengths to save her sister Ambre, Valentin dies at the end, I didn't like the epilogue, le Monde Incertain (the Uncertain World) is desert at least in places, the kids end up separated on the other side of the Door.
Let's see how well that holds up, shall we?
- Ambre is still the bestest: I guess? I mean, she's certainly my favourite character so far, but I don't feel the same OMG SHE IS SO AWESOME I felt back on my first reading. Possibly because I am older than that now and now she feels both very young and I can see what the author was doing (and yeah, she's kind of a tomboy cliché, but iirc, she was one of the first tomboy characters I ever read (she had short hair!) and that meant a lot to tiny!me).
- Qadehar is Guillemot's dad (and there's some sort of switcherro with anouther kid involvec, iirc): That's still up in the air at this point, but we have met the other kid. His name's Kyle and he has three (adoptive) dads. Yowza!
- at one point Coralie goes to great lengths to save her sister Ambre: Not yet. She did risk her life and braved her greatest fear to save Romaric, thogh, so there is that. (Coralie is kind of the girly girl cliché, but she is also very very brave, which is appreciable.)
- Valentin dies at the end: Haven't reached the end, have I?
- I didn't like the epilogue: Nor the epilogue.
- le Monde Incertain (the Uncertain World) is desert at least in places: THE VORACIOUS DESERT! (le Désert Vorace) It eats everything that isn't made of stone. Awesome setting. I wish we'd go back there.
- the kids end up separated on the other side of the Door: Yup, major plotpoint of this book.
So that leaves: Qadehar is Guillemot's dad (and there's some sort of switcherro with anouther kid involvec, iirc), at one point Coralie goes to great lengths to save her sister Ambre, Valentin dies at the end and I didn't like the epilogue.
Not bad.
I really enjoyed the book, partly because of the nostalgia factor, partly because of going "hey, I remember that!" and partly, because it is a good book.
That said, there were a few things that bugged me this time around and that I can't remember bugging me last time.
The characters feel pretty thin. Guillemot is The Hero, Ambre is The Tomboy (and The Love Interest), Coralie is The Girl (althiugh, as noted, she is also very brave, which isn't usually a trait The Girl gets to have), Romaric is The Strong One (and Coralie's lost interest, if I'm not mistaken) and Gontrand is The Music One. Qadehar is Mysterious Mentor. Agathe is The Bully. Thomas is The Loyal One. Everyone else is so flat and one-dimensional that I can't remember their names, except for Kushumai.
Speaking of Kushumai! She's a warrior lady and I was all set to go "YAY!" especially since she's Ambre post-Door team-up and Ambre has stars in her eyes the size of galaxies, but then it turned out Kushumai's hunters were all dudes unlike the mix of genders I was expecting AND THEN she wipes Ambre's memory for reasons of ??? so I was mostly rather confused.
That did lead to one realisation from me, that I wish I hadn't had, because it's spoiling this books a little for me in retrospect. WHERE ARE THE WOMEN?
The entire book has 5 women with speaking parts: Ambre, Coralie, Agathe, Kushumai and Guillemot's mom. I can easily name twice as much male characters with greater or equal page time (Qadehar, Urien, Valentin, Guillemot, Gontrand, Romaric, Kyle, Thomas, Wal, Tofann, Kyle's dad, Thunku...). Worse, there are no background women anywhere: Kushumai's hunter are all men, as are the Sorcerers and the Kinghts of Wind. (Edit: no, wait, I guess there's Matsi among the girls, too.) Every position of power in either Ys or the Uncertain World that we see is held by a man (except possibly for Kushumai, depending on what her status is, exactly).
It kind of grated and felt a bit alienating. (The worst part was that one bandit being slimy towards Coralie. I didn't pick up on it at the time, but now, and even though the words are never said, it feels like he's creeping on her in a sexaul way. SHE'S TWELVE FFS. Nothing happens and he's clearly presented as a bad guy by the narrative, but that was rather an unpleasant intrusion of ~realism~ in my fluffy fun-times book.)
I've mentionned Kyle's three dads, yeah? Unfortunately, this is the closest the book comes to having anything like an LGBT presence in and the book doesn't say NO HOMO, but that's only because it doesn't even seem to realise it might need to. These three dudes are raising that one kid together for symbolic reason, as you do. It's like LGBT people don't exist at all in the author's world. It's weird. I don't like it.
Another thing: I felt the pacing was quite strange: the beginning (before they get to the Uncertain World) is rather slow and takes up ~50% of the book while the ending is rather rushed and is rather Deus ex Machina-y. I would have read thousand more words on the People of the Sea (Coralie's post-Door team-up), Kushumai's people (provided more women did show up at some point) and the Sand Men who live in the Voracious Desert (Kyle's people, with Kyle as Guillemot's eventual post-Door team-up).
Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I wished I could feel towards it the same way I felt the first time I read it. rereading's just not same. Still, it holds up okay, I think.
I'll count this as "reread of a childhood favourite" square on the Random card.
This makes 0/25 on the Mix'n'Match Card (unchanged from last week), 11/25 on the Random Card (+5 from last week) and 2/25 on the Serious Card (unchanged from last week) for
hamsterwoman's reading bingo.What are you reading
As always, unfortunately, stalled on Still stalled on The Art of War, Darshan, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Gustav Adolf Mossa: L'oeuvre symboliste: 1903-1918, Les Fleurs du Mal and Métronome
Le Seigneur Sha, by Erik L'Homme: This is book 2 of Le Livre des Etoiles. Guillemot and Romaric are now famous, following the events of book 1. For Guillemot, that manifests as a kidn of low-grade hero worship and for Romaric as people doubting that he's a Squire because he deserves to be instead of because he's a hero. Idk how it affects Gontrand, but I'm willing to bet people love to hear his songs about his adventures. Ambre and Coralie? HAHAHA You say that like we know anything about what they want to be when they grow up. Spoiler: we don't!
On the whole missing biological dads switcheroo: we've met the other father, who is Le Seigneur Sha (Lord Sha), so there you have it.
What are you reading next? (aka the to-read list)
Le Visage de l'Ombre, the last Le Livre des Etoiles book. AND ALSO HOPEFULLY THE EXPOSITION ALBUM FOR THE LOUVRE EXHIBIT ON MEDIEVAL MOROCCO (In all caps, so I remember to go to the Louvre and get it if I haven't by the next instalment of this meme).
Old list:
Books that I have already: Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Darkness Over Cannae by Jenny Dolfen, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett (yuleswap book 1), February by Lisa Moore (yuleswap book 2), The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan
Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni (I'm told it's the Ramayana retld as a noir mystery), Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed and whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (Autumn 2015), The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley (Summer 2015? Still unsure if I'm even going to be reading this one), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), , The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard, The Skull Throne, by Peter V. Brett and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is (THAT ART!).
New additions to the list: Nothing this week. I'm being good. Although... No. But... NO! (Well, let's just say I remembered I had a NetGalley account and well, y'all know how I get with free/cheap books.)
Books what I'm not sure if I want to read them:
City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett: I still dunno, tbh. It is quite strange. I want to (YES PLEASE OMG MORE), but on the other hand, I don't want to (pretty puch perfect in isolation). I JUST DON'T KNOW.