[books 2012] Charles Stross

7. Rule 34 by Charles Stross

This month's Bibliogoths selection, and sequel to Halting State, which I've already read.

I don't remember much about Halting State, but I think I liked this one better.  I'm pretty sure it's funnier.

I have the same problem with this as I did with the first volume - namely, that it keeps getting confused in my head with the near-future Edinburgh of Ken Mcleod's The Night Sessions.  He also namechecks Rebus and uses some of the settings from the Rebus books, just to be extra confusing.

Neither of which is a problem if you don't read Ken Mcleod or Ian Rankin.

[books 2012] PJ Tracy

8. Kill to Play by PJ Tracy

The perfect thing for my stinking cold.  Completely disposable but un-put-downable murder mystery.  Knocked it off in two days, which means it must be more substantial than the earlier ones in the series (I read the first one in 24 hours with my New Year's Day hangover).

I thought this might be a series that I was ready to give up on, as there were elements which were cool at first that were starting to be really dull in more recent efforts, namely Grace's paranoia and that every book was about abused women taking revenge, but the authors seem to have come to that conclusion too, and moved the characters along quite nicely.  This book is more about the policemen than the computer hackers, which is good, because they're much more interesting.  The Tracys backed themselves into a bit of a corner by making all the Monkeewrench characters into near-cariactures - really amusing for one book, less so as time goes on.

Not great literature, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.