{"id":2496,"date":"2014-07-01T22:25:13","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T12:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/?p=2496"},"modified":"2014-09-28T09:35:35","modified_gmt":"2014-09-27T23:35:35","slug":"monthly-round-up-june-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/?p=2496","title":{"rendered":"Monthly round up – June 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I took two novella length works for my plane reading when going down to the Continuum convention in Melbourne. Horn<\/em> and Bleed<\/em> by Peter M. Ball were published by Twelfth Planet Press<\/a> a few years back. Both have the same main protagonist, who is a burnt out ex-cop with a strong connection into the world of the fae. I enjoyed both works, I liked the hard boiled main character, the story lines were entertaining and moved along at a good pace. I think both could have stood to be a little longer, but that is probably because I was enjoying them and didn’t want them to end quite so quickly!<\/p>\n

I also read the latest Jim Butcher novel,\u00a0Skin Game<\/em>. What can I say, I like the series. Not much really to add to previous reviews – this one was a heist novel, moved along at a good pace and I liked the unexpected plot development\u00a0towards the end involving a particular kind of sword. I think the novels are starting to overly rely on the intervention\u00a0of the Christian God, with a little too much “let me explain away this giant coincidence that resolves the novel in a \u00a0very convenient way by invoking one religion’s God and his\/her\u00a0ineffable plan” for my liking. But hey, when you back your characters into the kinds of corners that Butcher tends to, you probably need an all powerful deity save the day.<\/p>\n

Apart from that I’m still working on Ancillary Justice<\/em> and Winter Be My Shield<\/em>. I’m enjoying both books but not getting a lot of time to read.<\/p>\n

On the TV front, I started watching the new series of Defiance<\/em> which is being fast tracked from the US on Foxtel. I enjoy the show – feels like a well used universe and I like the interactions between the alien races (feels a bit like Farscape<\/em> from that perspective). Will be interested to see where they take the season this year.<\/p>\n

I’ve also been watching the new season of Archer<\/em> – Archer: Vice<\/em>. Ah, Archer<\/em>. So problematic. So funny.<\/p>\n

Continuum<\/em> is a good\u00a0Canadian sci-fi series, well worth checking out. I’ve also been watching the remake of\u00a0The Tomorrow People<\/em>, but mainly in solidarity from vague but fond memories of the series from my youth. I don’t necessarily recommend it.<\/p>\n

That’s all for this month. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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<\/p>Hi,\n

Welcome to Mark Webb’s author website. At this point the site is rather sparse – I’ve only recently started writing and there isn’t a lot to show for it right now. You can check out\u00a0my biography<\/a>, see …<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[85,138,14,15],"class_list":["post-2496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-jim-butcher","tag-peter-m-ball","tag-review","tag-specfic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2496"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2499,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions\/2499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}