dreams of pirate ships and patty hearst

So, I made a pledge on our way home from work - "god," I said, "I have GOT to be productive tonight."

Right. That's working out.

What I did do tonight, though, was finally finish reading Laura Anne Gilman's Staying Dead. It took me a while to pick it up, for a petty reason - the font they printed the book in annoys the crap out of me! I'm a traditionalist, I guess, when it comes to typesetting. Anything other than the usual makes it look unprofessional to me, somehow. So, I let this book sit on the shelf for a couple of months.

... which, in retrospect, I shouldn't have done, because this one is good. Well, well played on the characters and the relationship between them. Wren is an engaging heroine - smart and tough, but far from perfect, with a really snappy voice both in dialogue and thought. And Sergei? Is HOT. The polished-businessman and rough-and-tumble-girl thing has been played before, obviously, but this is a great spin on it. They aren't even romantically involved in this book, not really, but the connection between them sizzles. There's something about the relationship, both romantic and professional, that reminds me a bit of Nikita and Michael, only a little more functional ... he's her handler and protector, even when she doesn't need it, and they dance around these tangles of espionage with only their wits and trust in each other to assure them a safe exit. Add in all the supernatural touches - Gilman's magical world feels archetypal, but at the same time different than everything else that's being produced by the urban fantasy world right now - and you've got a book I'll recommend highly to anyone who reads the genre. I don't have any business buying anything else before payday, but I may have to take a detour to B&N tomorrow to buy the sequel anyway.

So, I've read Staying Dead, and watched Without A Trace, and ... that's about it for the night. Productive, yes?