Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Book 11 of 2012: A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge (reread).
Book 12 of 2012: The Children of the Sky, by Vernor Vinge.

I liked Fire Upon the Deep so much the first time I read it, I wanted to reread it again so I could fully enjoy the direct sequel, Children of the Sky. My last two books (Flowers for Algernon and Jurassic Park) were rereads as well, so I thought this would work out. It didn't.

Algernon and Jurassic Park worked as rereads because it had been so long since I last read them, it might as well had been the first time. Fire was too new, I remembered way too much of it. I skimmed a lot of the book (which is sad, since I enjoyed it so much the first time, but I knew all the big plot twists, so it felt like there was no point).

Children, on the other hand, I loved. Vinge is so amazing at world building, I loved seeing his Tine aliens again. In some ways, the humans were too human though -- they were so realistic that it almost (almost!) made the book hard to enjoy: how people can ignore or change or misunderstand reality for political/religious-ish reasons. (How's that for a clunky sentence!)

Book #13 I just barely started, but I'm so much in love with it already. Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, Book 1) by Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm only three chapters in, but it's so hard to put down. Such a wonderful fantasy! I love the magic (I think that should likely be in quotes, "magic") of the world she's writing.