2009/27: Song of Time -- Ian MacLeod

Song of Time -- Ian MacLeod

The music writes itself long before it gets to this stage. It doesn’t care about me and what I am—it just comes out of me—so why should I care about it? ... Listen. See the way the emphasis has changed on the horns even since the rehearsal this morning? And the whole movement would be different if we were to start it again. It’s changing at a huge rate. The bloody thing’s alive, Roushana. People say that, but they don’t understand what it means. It doesn’t need us now, and it doesn’t even need Claude’s performance. It’s simply there. It seeks immortality in its own way.” (p. 200)

( my somewhat spoilery review )

2009/28:The Cat with the Tulip Face -- A R Morlan

The Cat with the Tulip Face -- A R Morlan

Six years of combing the pre-dawn streets had taught Arlene that for a little animal, alone and scared, dawn is too late. (p.8)

( non-spoilery review )

2009/29: Odd and the Frost Giants -- Neil Gaiman

Odd and the Frost Giants -- Neil Gaiman

"We won't die," said the bear. "Because we can't die here. But we'll get hungry. And we'll get more wild. More animal. It's something that happens when you have taken on animal form. Stay in it too long and you become what you pretend to be. When Loki was a horse --"
"We don't talk about that," said the fox. (p. 33)

( non-spoilery review )

2009/30: Stealing Magic -- Tanya Huff

Stealing Magic -- Tanya Huff

... as far as Magdalene knew, there were only two copies of the Booke of Demonkind still in existence and she had one of them -- it had been rather drastically overdue when the library'd burned down, so she'd kept it. (p.116)

( non-spoilery review )

2009/31:The Dead Man's Brother -- Roger Zelazny

The Dead Man's Brother -- Roger Zelazny

I had a philosophical bent of mind with which to console myself and a handy metaphor to objectify the moral. (p. 247)

( very slightly spoilery review )