Sunday, August 14, 2011

Kindle it up (aka books to read)

I got some good pictures today...but my camera cord is at work! So you'll get a double dose tomorrow. I was one of those people who spent months saying "Who needs a Kindle? I like to hold the book in my hands, to smell the pages and feel the weight!" But my sister and her husband each got one and they were pretty cool to play with. And then to celebrate getting the job I have now, I bought myself a Kindle. AND I GOT ADDICTED. It's just like those dippy ads say; it is like reading a book, no backlight weirdness. Plus I got a neat case that has a light, so I can read in bed at night. Plus, there are some super neat writers out there self-publishing on the Kindle. Like Lindsay Buroker who has 7 Kindle e-books available. If you buy all of them, it'll cost you a whopping $10.45. And they're great! I got started on her through Lendle, a Kindle borrowing service (Dude, use it!) and ended up just buying everything. Timeline-wise, Encrypted is first, but publication-wise, The Emperor's Edge came out first. And now you say, "That's great, Erin, but I didn't click on that first link, so WTF does she write?"

I'm glad you asked. She writes a mixture of steampunk/magic fantasy; like if Gail Carriger's books and Terry Pratchett's books had book babies. She has strong female characters and strong male characters (literally and in the sense of fully realized). The villains aren't simply stock villains, either. They're horrible people and you want them to lose, but they are fully fleshed out. She also manages to marry steampunk with magic extraordinarily well (says the reader who's suffered from some pretty poor tries). From what I've read, she started with the fantasy and the steampunk came along second. It's not overt, titled steampunk, either, which is usually how you can find the crappy ones. It's fantasy with some really cool mechanical devices...oh, wait, that bit would be steampunk!

So, moral of the day - read Lindsay Buroker. You'll be glad you did.

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