2.2

I am really, really going to read an economics book now! But 1st, more science fiction!

1st, "Luna: Wolf Moon" by Ian McDonald, 2017, 400 pages. 5 economic clans war for control of the moon. Oh boy, oligarch fight! This series began with a novelette, this is the 2nd novel. As good a job as SyFy channel has done with The Expanse, they would knock this out of the park. Tons of action, interesting characters, weird sex (it is the future), and Game of Thrones level scheming and bloodshed. Definitely a page turner.

Next up, "The Violent Century" by Lavie Tidhar, 2015, 353 pages. So we have superheroes fighting for their side in every war from WW II on. Contrast with "Bitter Seeds", by Ian Tregellis (2010) which featured Nazi superheros vs British mages in the Spanish Civil War and WW II, blogged here. As I mentioned in this post on a Wild Cards novel, I think I am getting burned out on superheroes - which is unfortunate, because this is a very good book. It jumps between several sequences of events dating back to the 1930s, and winds up being a love story. Interesting characters, lots of action, nice plot twists. The WW II portion has tie-ins with The Holocaust and the prosecution of those who were responsible for it. It was also interesting that Stan Lee (Mr. Marvel) and the creators of Superman appear in the novel, and that in real life they were all 3 Jews whose families fled Europe as Hitler came to power. So superheroes were originally created in response to the shock to morality and our psyche that the Nazis delivered.

Finally, "Everything But The Squeal" by John Scalzi, 2016, 53 pages, a novella. This was a cute short read, set in an interesting near future, in a zero-environmental-footprint New City.

I was annoyed though to find out that this novella was originally published in a shared world anthology "Metatropolis" on the future of cities, which came out in 2008. This a topic I'm interested in, so I just purchased the anthology (5 stories) for $7.99. But I have now wasted the $4.99 I spent for Scalzi's contribution.

I recently purchased for $2.99 Part 1 of a Scalzi novel that I had already read - I mean, what's up with that, you don't serialize a novel that's already been released??? Kobo did refund me the $2.99, but I don't see why they would refund me the $4.99.

I don't have a problem at all with Scalzi and The Expanse guys publishing $1.99 and $2.99 add-on short-stories or novellas to their established series. I'm sure that it helps smooth out their cash flow, and some of these have been interesting additions. But, I guess with Scalzi, I need to pay more attention and make sure I'm making the right purchase.