July Reads

Longer car trips plus more walking plus more working out equals more books read.

• Shattered Spear (The Lost Stars #4) by Jack Campbell
• I have been reading books of this series for a long time (I remember reading some of the first books of the Lost Fleet series way back in 2008). I still enjoy them and find that this spin-off series, "The Lost Stars", adds an interesting element to the universe. The characters aren't just "naturally" (yes, that is an over/underwhelming explanation of Jack Geary's skill set) good like Jack, and this tells the stories from the nominal bad guys. At this point I find myself cheering (the non-snake) leaders of Midway as they attempt to forge and "alliance" and move past their Syndicate past. Complicating that are of course the remnants of the Syndicate, Enigma's and an honest to god Pirate Queen. Overall a fun read and I look forward to more if there is room in there for another story, though the ending wrapped things up fairly neatly if this is the last book the series.
• The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files #1) by Charles Stross
• The first of the Laundry Files series (7 books and counting). Bob Howard, computer geek, works for the Laundry, a super-secret organization that fights and suppresses "magic" across the UK. Magic in this world is interesting, as suddenly becoming a Computer Scientist or Mathematician becomes really dangerous as the advanced math opens holes into other worlds. Anyone who poses a threat get subsumed into the Laundry, a very british governmental organization that involves a lot of make-work. Bob aspires higher and wants to be a field agent. This leads to a lot of interesting situations that drive this story along.
• The Jennifer Morgue (Laundry Files #2) by Charles Stross
• More Laundry. So good that I have come back to re-read it.
• The Fuller Memorandum (Laundry Files #3) by Charles Stross
• Even more Laundry. It has been years since I have read them and I wanted to listen to them again.