I am in intake mode again - read a lot, write very little. I know these go in phases, like my coffee consumption (but no, not in parallel, it's not cause and effect). I finished two more books this weekend:
Octavia Butler's "Bloodchild and Other Stories", and Rennie Airth's "Blood-Dimmed Tide".
I first heard of Octavia Butler this spring, when she died. What, a black woman writing science fiction? Unusual ... "Bloodchild" is the first Butler I have read, a collection of short stories, with afterwords by her, which made the great tales even better. I shall demand authors' afterwords forevermore. I'll definitely move on to her novels soon.
Rennie Airth's "Blood-Dimmed Tide" was kinda nice - I'd read his previous, River of Darkness, and liked it enough - especially the characters, and the setting shortly after The Great War. I did enjoy this one, but found myself impatiently leafing forward at the end. Another serial killer novel, well made, but you always know how those end ... I keep thinking of what Elizabeth George said in her appearance at Kepler's last year: killer kills over here, detective detects over there, and two narratives gradually approach each other. Then the serial killer picks a victim that we care about, and it becomes a race against time - will the detective catch the killer before the killer offs the victim we like?
No, I'm not going to tell you if he will catch him in time. You'll have find out for yourself. Meanwhile, back at the ranch ....
I'm going to run off now and have dinner with Andrew and Rich, to toast to Rich's birthday. Happy birthday, Rich!
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