R.I.P. Challenge wrap-up

Well, I've been doing plenty of reading (although not as much as I'd planned), but precious little writing. So, I have just over an hour to churn out reviews for the 6 books relevant to the challenge:

The Thirteenth Tale (audiobook, finished Aug. 26, on the way back from Kansas)
Bloody Bones (finished Sept 19)
House of the Seven Gables (finished Oct. 3)
Danse Macabre (finished Oct. 7)
Dracula (finished Oct. 15)
Fragile Things (finished Oct. 30)

Looking at the gaps, I certainly could have finished my 2 chunksters, and done the Sunday Short Stories, but in my need to get off-farm, I overscheduled my weekends.

I really enjoyed all these books, and I really wish that I could have participated/interacted more with everyone else. I think that I got in my own way this time.

Well, here I go... am backdating my posts so that they're in some semblance of reading order, but these reviews were all written between now and (gods willing) just-before-midnight so I can post this wrapup entry over at SSD

Danse Macabre, Peril the First

I wanted to include a non-fiction book into this challenge, and I've been wanting to read this one for a while (aside from the fact that it was published over 25 years ago). The problem I have in general with reading non-fiction is the fact that I wind up with exponentially more books to read. This book was no exception; I believe that I have at least 5 pages of notes documenting more books to read, or movies to see. So, if I die unhappy, it will be because I couldn't finish them all.

I really wish that King would write another volume of this, I'd love to read his take on how the horror genre has evolved in the nearly 30 years since Danse Macabre came out, and I'd like to see what he has to say about current authors, graphic novels, and perhaps some commentary on the flavor of societal violence we're seeing now.

House of the Seven Gables, Peril the First

I wanted to include a classic in my reading, and when I made my list in August, I hadn't planned on reading Dracula, so this was the one that stood out and said "Pick me!"

This was a nice, solid work, but I didn't really find anything noteworthy/quoteable/thought-provoking for (about) the first half of the book. Looking at my copy, I see several posties holding a place for me to go back and think about...something.

[which I'll do after I get the basics out on the rest of the reviews]

Bloody Bones, Peril the First

Anita Blake rides again! I'm in a place in the series where there is still some plot to her stories, but I can see that the, erm, tension between the main characters is going up exponentially. So, I'm on the lookout for when the series switches over so I know when to pick them up as my mood dictates. Ahem.

In this installment, Anita battles fey and a big bad vampire queen, and of course calls up a few dead bodies for her "day" job. Glad to see that she finally gets some sleep in between rounds with the baddies. [this has been a complaint of mine in earlier installments]

The Thirteenth Tale, Peril the First

I'm a sucker for stories-within-stories, and the madness/mayhem within this book was frosting on the cake. It's also one about twins, and corrupted people who have money, and what it can take to break out of a rut.

There were many quoteworthy passages, which I was not able to take down from the audiobook (had to drive), but I did manage to find a fairly cheap trade paperback, so I can (in theory, anyway) find them in a re-read, and include them here.

R.I.P. Challenge

Here is the list of books for the four perils I'm going to attempt:

Peril the First:
Bloody Bones (Laurell K. Hamilton)
The House of the Seven Gables (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
Danse Macabre (Stephen King)
The Thirteenth Tale (Diane Setterfield)--audiobook

Peril the Second:
The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova)
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke)

Bonus Peril #1:
Fragile Things (Neil Gaiman)

Short Story Peril:
Lovedeath (Dan Simmons)
Love in Vein II (ed. Poppy Z Brite--4 selections)

I'll post a picture of the book stack, links, etc. early next week, after I've recovered from my trip to Kansas.