Tag: Book

Wonder Woman by Nancy Holder (2017)

While travelling visiting family this past Spring, I found this book in a used book store.  It’s a sad fact that movie-tie-in novelizations aren’t being done any more, except for those aimed at younger kids.  I hadn’t realized this one had come out, and Nancy Holder is a veteran of many adaptations. I really enjoyed her work in the Buffyverse.

As I expected, this is a solid telling of the story. What I usually love about novelizations is that they are done from a final script which often has more details than make it into the film.  Sadly, I didn’t learn anything “new” from this one.  I enjoyed the movie and I enjoyed reading the book after not having seen the movie in many years. It was a nice diversion on a dreary Fall day.

When I stop to look over what I have collected over the years that’s comics-related, I have a surprising amount of Wonder Woman books. I am going to add this one into the collection.

The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi (2025)

This is the seventh book in Scalzi’s most well-known series that started with Old Man’s War.  You don’t have to have read from the beginning to read this book, but you will miss out on some of the context.  (Plus, the other six books are worth it.) Last I heard, there will be a Netflix series based on OMW coming out sometime…it may have been delayed.

If you’ve never read a John Scalzi book before, you will either like his style or not.  Almost everything he’s written in the last few years is in a very conversational style, and there is a high “snark” quotient in many of those conversations.  I find his work to be a very ‘easy’ read in that they can be read quickly.  This is not to say he skimps on character or world-building if it’s necessary.  I found myself very interested in the character named “Ran” who is of the Obin race in this book.

Scalzi took a lot of time off of writing in the OMW universe. I respect that he wanted a good story to tell before coming back to it, and I think he told it.  I hope we’re not done completely with the cast of characters he’s created.

 

Framed in Death by J.D. Robb (2025)

I put this on hold at just the right time, so I was one of the first few library readers to devour this book.  This is the umpty-zillionth in the “in Death” series written by Nora Roberts under her pen name J.D. Robb.  My standard advice is, if you are new to the series, don’t start here. Go back to Naked in Death and see if you like that one. If you do, you’ll be OK with the standard two sex scenes in every book, and the bracketing of every case with death/investigation/takedown/interrogation-confession, all centering around Eve Dallas, Lt. NYPSD and her life partner Roarke (dreamy billionaire/former thief).

What makes this series fun to read (and I’ve read all of them) are the now-large cast of supporting characters that experience growth, and fun details of the universe that Robb has fleshed out over time.  As one example, there is almost no Coca-Cola in this universe, but in this book it actually gets mentioned.  I noticed!

Robb releases this book series on a twice-a-year schedule. (Even with a formula, how does she do it? There are some decent deep facts that make it into each book.) I need to go put a reminder in to place the next hold in January for a February release.