glomming Strike Back

Over the weekend I glommed up the latest season of one of my favorite TV shows, Strike Back. I love the format where it’s effectively one long movie broken up into to episodes. Each episode leaves on a cliff hanger and I also enjoy the banter between the team…well especially the original team of Scott and Stonebridge.

I knew it was a new team this season, but I was willing to give them a chance.

I’m glad I did as I did enjoy the latest season (Gracie Novin played by Alin Sumarwata really made it for me and she had some of the best lines). There were also the usual plot twists, that I knew would be there but still left me stunned (great work writers).

However it’s very hard to bond with character’s when there isn’t much known about them. Their past was hinted at, but not well enough for me to really care. I started to worry about Novin when she got involved with another soldier (that never ends well).

I think it’s important to remember before your characters start lobbing grenades and chasing after black market weapons we need to care about them so we worry (though based on previous seasons I was expecting team and deaths ☹ ).

I’m looking forward to another season...not sure if there is one…

Book Binges, Gloms, and Serializations

Since Netflix started releasing entire TV seasons at once, people have started commenting on the phenomenon of ‘binge watching’—basically sitting down and watching episode after episode in a short period of time. Lately I’ve seen some articles like this one You May Soon Binge Books Like You Do Netflix talking about serialized fiction.

These articles make me laugh. Dude, seriously please: I’ve been book bingeing forever and so have most other bookworms. For evidence I submit the following Dear Author article dated 2013 The Science of the Glom 

I don’t want a ‘serialized’ novel that I have to shell out money for only parts of a book. What I do love is discovering new series with numerous books already out and glomming onto the series or sometimes a new author and glomming their backlist or both.

Here’s an example: by the time I read Moon Called, the first book in Patricia Brigg’s bestselling Merecedes Thompson urban fantasy series book three was already out. I liked book one so I picked up books two and three, which were even better. Now officially hooked, I had to wait for book four. Looking around for more of her stuff, I discovered On The Prowl a collection with a novella by Patricia Briggs called Alpha and Omega, which was in the same world as the Mercedes Thompson series, but featured different characters. I loved the story and was delighted when it spun off its own series. Around the same time, her clever publisher re-released all her older backlist titles with new paperback editions. I bought them all. I remember driving across town for one because my local bookstore didn’t have the title, but one of the other bookstores in the city did.

Once I’m caught up in a series, I don’t whine and gnash my teeth waiting for the next book to come out--which isn't to say I'm not highly anticipating the next one--March! Silence Fallen!--but that I read a lot of authors and series to the point where there's almost certain to be one or two releasing in a given month. And if I run out of current ones I start looking for my next series/glom.

Last year I glommed Gini Koch’s Kitty Katt campy alien series and Brent Week's epic fantasy Lightbringer series.

This year I’m glomming Laura Resnick’s urban fantasy Esther Diamond series.

What books and authors have you glommed onto lately? (And if you're in a reading slump, check out yesterday's post by Marie Harte.)