Dead Sleep – Greg Iles

Loved the first three quarters or so of this book, Iles ratchets up the tension a click at a time until your just dying to figure out what the hell is going on. And then the whole bubble is popped not in some stroke of genius but with a cliche that has been old for as long as I’ve been reading. I think Iles just wrote him self in to a corner and couldn’t come up with a real ending. At least that’s what I hope happened. I can’t imagine someone starting out to write a novel with an ending this bad outlined.

I picked this book up because I kept seeing Iles’ books when I was looking for another favorite of mine, Dean Ing. After seeing so many of his books I figured what the hell I’l give one a try.

http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Sleep-Greg-Iles/dp/0451206525/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228547911&sr=1-1

The First Book of Swords – Fred Saberhagen

Okay Saberhagen is cool, I know that, but this book felt a little flat to me, maybe I just need to read the others.

http://www.amazon.com/First-Swords-Book-Volumes-3/dp/0312869169/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228547593&sr=1-1

The Gun Seller – Hugh Laurie

Yes that Hugh Laurie. I’m a huge Laurie fan, not so much of his work on House, though that is top notch, but going back to his Jeeves and Wooster, or A Bit of Fry and Laurie stuff. I don’t know why I expected him to pull off a noirish pulp style page turner, but I did. And he delivered better than I had any right to expect him to. Although I do have a few gripes, well actually it all boils down to one actually. Is it possible for there ever to be a bit of international mischief going on in the world that isn’t traceable back to some over funded and under supervised alphabet soup agency of the United States government?

http://www.amazon.com/Gun-Seller-Hugh-Laurie/dp/067102082X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228547113&sr=8-1

The Seed – Dan Thomas

Okay, by now your probably wondering if I ever met a book I didn’t like. I’ll admit that I’m not that hard to please, but I do have limits. This one is bad. Only the relative shortness enabled me to get through it. Although I have to admit it did arouse in me some curiosity as to just how bad it could get. I just bombed the NaNoWriMo event this year. It’s a challange to write a fifty thousand word novel during the month of November. I got about twenty thousand words into it and I just couldn’t continue. I didn’t like the direction I had steered the story my main character was completely one dimensional and on top of all that I had written the story into a preposterous state. I should have barrelled through though because if I had just managed to finish it I still would have had a better novel than this steaming pile of wasted pulp. This abomination was written in the late sixties. I think the author picked up a couple of pop culture magazines, made a list of buzzwords and strung together a series of events linking them all together. It’s like the author was ticking off a checklist as he wrote each chapter, computers, check, swinging parties, check, psychics, check, witches covens, check, lesbians, check, hypnosis, check, hallucinogenic drugs, check, all wrapped up with a ridiculous ending. Actually as I’m sitting her this book might actually make a funny as hell movie about how stupid a lot of the bullshit that flowered in the sixties actually was. I bet I could option this heap for pennies. As long as the author didn’t see this that is.

No link, I couldn’t find it on Amazon.

Fireship – Joan Vinge

I’m sure when I picked this up I thought this was a Vernor Vinge book. Turns out they are husband and wife. I wasn’t disappointed though this was a decent enough book and well worth the used book store price I paid for it and the time invested in reading it. It’s actually two novellas, the first Fireship about a man who has megered his mind with a self aware supercomputer. The second story, Mother and Child, while not as fun to read was more interesting intellectually. It told the story of a world that was being purposefully kept primitive by an alien race that was frightened by the natives aggressiveness. It had themes that reminded me of Brin’s Uplift Saga and Godwin’s, Parke Godwin not the Godwin’s law Godwin (that’s Mike Godwin), Waiting For the Galatic Bus.

http://www.amazon.com/Fireship-Joan-D-Vinge/dp/B000GRESQO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228543943&sr=1-4

A Cruel Wind – Glen Cook

An omnibus of the first three Dread Empire books this trilogy knocked my socks of. I have loved everything I have ever read of Glen Cooks, even if the Black Company books kind of dragged there in the middle, they are some of the best militaristic fantasy out there and the  Garret, PI books are some of the most genre bending fun I have ever come across this book moved Cook a couple of pegs up the pole for me. I’ve missed two chances to meet Glen Cook, both at Hypericon, although this year I did at least see him taking down his both in the dealer room.

http://www.amazon.com/Cruel-Wind-Chronicle-Dread-Empire/dp/1597801046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228542852&sr=1-1

Shadowplay – Tad Williams

This is the second in the Shadowmarch trilogy from Tad Williams. I got addicted to Williams with the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy which I think is one of the greatest fantasy trilogies out there, right up with The Lord of the Rings and  the first three books of the The Shannara series. Anyway I picked this up in a moment of weakness knowing that I didn’t finish the first book. I finished this one and now I’ve got to figure out what I did with the first one.

http://www.amazon.com/Shadowplay-Shadowmarch-II-Tad-Williams/dp/0756404711/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228542140&sr=1-1

Waldo and Magic, Inc. – Robert Heinlen

Ah, the master Heinlen. I would rather read the worst Heinlen that just about anything else by anybody. This is a little book that consists of two novellas, Waldo and Magic, Inc.Waldo is the superior story but both are worth the short amount of time it takes to plough through.

http://www.amazon.com/Waldo-Magic-Inc-Robert-Heinlein/dp/B000J6EJCK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228541959&sr=1-5

Night of Thunder – Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter is another author that I anxiously await any output from. This is the next installation in the Bob the Nailer series. I still find the Earl Swagger stories more interesting even thought the only Hunter book I never finished was Havana an Earl Swagger story, but this was a great page turner and I loved every page of it.

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Thunder-Bob-Swagger-Novel/dp/1416565116/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228541701&sr=1-1

Anathem – Neil Stephenson

I preordered this from Amazon the minute I heard it was coming out. I could not wait for it to finally come out. When I finally did get my greasy little mits on it I devoured it. Then as soon as I finished it I flipped back to the first page and started reading it again. I would like to say that it was because the book was so much fun I had to read it again, but the truth is that I wasn’t satisfied. I felt like I was missing something and it must be my fault because this is Stephenson; the author of the The Baroque Cycle, Cryptinomicon, The Diamond Age, the one with Hiro Protaganist and the bike with a nuclear reactor in the side car whose title eludes me right now. On a second slower reading it was more satisfying but It just didn’t reach the heihts of his other work, but that’s a mighty high bar. I’m still looking forward to anything else he does with great anticipation.

http://www.amazon.com/Anathem-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0061474096/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228541302&sr=8-1