Rest assured that each and every one of Miles's casual little sins will sneak up behind him with a lead bludgeon by and by.

Except on every other page of Anne Rice's books! At least, such is my memory of them.

Speaking of the Unedited One, I finished Blood Canticle the other day. All I can say in its favor is that I wanted to know what happens, in terms of the continuing story of these characters (both Lestat and the Mayfair witches), and it did in fact continue the story.

Not well. Not with any kind of compelling hook to the characters. Not with any ability to make me think the characters in this book were actually the same characters from her earlier books.

But it did continue the story. And since that's all I asked of it, I can say that it delivered.

And JILLI: if you have any hankering to read Blackwood Farm, I'll send you my copy. Let me know.

Now reading -- Fiction: The Lake of Dead Languages, foisted on me by my best friend, and, as near as I can tell, a female imitation of The Secret History; Nonfiction: Party of One -- The Loners' Manifesto, by Anneli Rufus. It was excerpted in Salon a while back. I'm really enjoying it.

Speaking of Bujold, I just read and adored Paladin of Souls (a sequel to The Curse of Chalion, but featuring different characters). I know I should read the Vorkosigan series, but I'm overwhelmed by the sheer size of it.

I know I should read the Vorkosigan series, but I'm overwhelmed by the sheer size of it.

Once you start reading it, you'll find it's not nearly big enough.

t Waiting for the next one

I've already discovered that every Miles book is out of print.

Wait, WHAT? Dude!

I mean, I already own all of them, but this makes it much more difficult to pimp Miles out to all my friends.

(Even if I was kind of disappointed in Diplomatic Immunity. It's the first one ever where I've had trouble following the plot.)

[Susan, I regularly reread the entire series in about a week, and end up sad that there's not more. There's a lot of them, but they go fast.]

Even if I was kind of disappointed in Diplomatic Immunity

You're not the only one. Sigh. I'm hoping for an Ivan-focused one soon. Ivan needs to meet a tough and sexy Galactic girl to knock some sense into him and then ravish him. Heh.

Man, I need to find a copy of Brothers in Arms and Mirror Dance. Those are so good, and I don't have them. Argh.

I just got Mirror Dance used thru half.com. I could wait to get the intervening books and read them in order, but, nah.

Mirror Dance would probably be my favorite of the entire series, if I had to pick. That or Komarr. Or maybe Memory.

I'm hoping for an Ivan-focused one soon.

Ooh, that would be fun.

I like "preternatural" and you never see it.

Except on every other page of Anne Rice's books! At least, such is my memory of them.

and fairly frequently in the Laurell K. Hamilton genre.

I was thinking, I must be reading the wrong stuff, because I swear I see "preturnatural" all the freaking time. And I haven't read Rice in ten years, or Hamilton ever.