If you are looking for good military fiction Lois McMaster s Bujold Miles series is good stuff. Although she has lots of kick ass women, only a few of her books in that series feature women. Shards of Honor, and Barrayar for a kickass women hero. Barryar also gives a whole new meaning to the term "shopping" that is full of awesome.

LOVE. LOVE. Own them all, wish she'd written more stuff. They're complex and interesting and unusual.

Aren't they amazing? Tsecha is one of the great alien characters. While I was reading the series, I found myself worrying about him at odd times when I was doing something else. "Tsecha! They'll never let you do that. Tsecha! You should at least talk to Jani." The books build to the point that when she says, "I am what I am; I do what I do," it's one of those fiction moments that send a shiver down my spine and stay with me for days.

If you haven't read all of Bujold's books, you should stop what you're doing and start reading.

GRRM mentioned the next Dunk and Egg novella which will appear in the anthology tentatively titled Dangerous Women:

And yes, DANGEROUS WOMEN will include the fourth Dunk & Egg novella, the long-promised tale of their visit to the North, where they encounter the She-Wolves of Winterfell. I could tell you more than that, but then I'd need to kill you.

I tore through all the Vorkosigan books and I own Cordelia's Honor, the omnibus of Shards of Honor and Barryar. I so adore Cordelia.

I tried re-reading some of them a bit ago, though, and unfortunately I wanted to smack Miles so very, very hard. Maybe I'll try the one with the royal wedding again, that was hysterical watching all those cunning plans interfere with each other.

I can't wait for that installation of the Dunk & Egg saga. . perhaps we'll find out if Hodor really is Dunk's grandson as some have suggested.

Interesting, J.K. Rowling has left her literary agent that she's had since 1996.

Also interesting, she owns the digital rights to her books, not Bloomsbury. So her Pottermore site will be a total end-around on the publishing industry. Very smart, but tough on publishing.

She's presciently seen that a big enough writer can sell e-books through their own website and take all the profits. There's really no need for a publisher then.

It's what I think of as the Fugazi/Ani Difranco model of business.

So I finally finished Deadline. I have questions. Like, what's the point of the conspiracy? They want the situation to keep getting worse until they can fix it and get the credit? Seriously? Who thinks like that?

Also, one of the reasons I liked Feed so much was the way that Grant killed off George at the 75% mark. So the cloning business just negated a good chunk of my goodwill.

Additionally, I have a serious, serious incest squick. If this is going where I think it's going, ew. Shaun and Georgia were raised as siblings, and the incest taboo actually still applies in that instance.

I dunno. I think the plot in this one was better--tighter, even, but I'm less satisfied with it, in part because basically the story ended up being run, break in somewhere, run, break in somewhere, run. With occasional info-dump. And breakdown for Shaun.

I understand the incest squick, but I was neither surprised nor upset. They were raised as siblings, but always knew full well that there was no blood relation. And I actually expected it after all the mentioning in the first book of how neither dated, how they preferred sharing a room whenever possible, and in the hotel rooms on the road they pushed their beds together (to make more rooms for the computers, riiiiiiight). I appreciated it being just laid out and then left alone so sit and breathe without explanation or justification. They were such an integral part of each other, it seems natural and unavoidable. Without blood relation, the incest taboo relating to increased potential for genetic mutations is moot. I suspect the level of intimacy between them is necessary to fuel his immunity somehow.

I still hold that the fully grown clone thing is ridonk. I expect a dang good explanation of scientific development acceleration to explain away that one.

I expect the third book to resolve the whole WTF WHY CONSPIRACY questions. Cuz i also don't get why the CDC is so hellbent against a cure for the virus, and seemingly intent on wiping out most of the country (or world??) in order to keep it going in new, more virulent and resistant permutations. My brain not grasping the motivation there.

I sob like a little baby through the last third of Kay's "The Darkest Road" every. single. time.

SOB. Not little trickling tears, but a full-on snot fest. I did it at 14, I do it at 38.

And I went to go crawl on Dan and sob happily on him for a while -- he was sprawled on the couch, playing Harry Potter...and I kinda accidentally kneed in in the balls. A little.

He asked me to warn him next time I read it, so he can wear a cup.

Heh, Erin, sounds like me reading Pawn in Frankincense. 'cept for the balls thing.

No seriously, ten years after I read PiF the first time I thought, "Well, I know what's coming ahead of time, I'll be fine." Wrong. I won't read it again. Well, not unless I need really badly to cry and can't manage it otherwise.