Last Friday I mentioned that I was reading a Viking series about Harald Hardrada by Poul Anderson, but failed to mention the title. This is The Golden Horn, the first of three books about the hero. I’m still kept at arm’s length, but the tone is growing from me. In talking with my good friend Chris Hocking about it he asked whether there wasn’t a bit of a feel from the sagas in it, and I assented that there was, and I think that the tone grew on me. I’m not sure I’ll immediately jump up and read the next of the books, but I ended up enjoying it.

I still haven’t finished reading my pulp anthology, but as most of my reading has been taking place while I am waiting for my daughter to come out of school or finish some after school activity, I haven’t wanted to bring a fragile old book/pulp along, or drag a laptop to read an e-book (I don’t have a Nook or Kindle, just an emulator on the Macbook).

I finally watched Jessica Jones last week and found it terrifically well-written and acted, and my wife and I are about halfway through the second season of Daredevil and so far I find it the same. I don’t understand why these shows have so much “torture porn” though. Maybe it’s supposed to help make superhero shows feel more realistic? I think in its own way that kind of violence might do its own part to desensitize viewers to it. I think I’d prefer less realistic/graphic depictions.

Work continues apace with all my writing projects, but there won’t be any new books from me on the shelves for months and months to come, so it might look like nothing’s happening. If all goes well, the new series should have books following one another in swift succession. If you’re only watching the bookstore, though, you might be wondering “hey, whatever happened to that Howard Andrew Jones guy?”