Recently Read (October 2006 - November 2006)

Here's a list of the books I've read in the last two months, (that haven't already been reviewed by me), with an Amazon-style star rating and a few comments.

• The Butcher's Boy - Thomas Perry
  Those who hire a professional hit-man, turn against him. He fights back. Brilliant. Highly recommended. You'll be cheering on the bad guy in this one. I understand the follow-up is inferior. I still want to read it though.

• Camouflage - Joe Haldeman
  Science Fiction. Easy to see why this won a Nebula although the ending was a bit contrived.

• Brown Harvest - Jay Russell
  Strange (and funny at times). Be prepared to suspend your belief in reality near the end.

• The Chill - Ross MacDonald
  Stunning. Another good tough guy detective novel that has left me looking for more from this author. I totally didn't see the twist coming at the end of the book either.

• Eric - Terry Pratchett
  One of Pratchett's older books, that I wanted to reread. Very entertaining, but you can tell that he was still learning his craft in those days.

• Earth From Above - 365 Days
  An early version of this book that I got at a library book sale for a couple of bucks. Some great imagery, spoilt by yet another person with an ecological agenda. I'd have much preferred to know more about exactly what was being shown in the various images, then continually have "you've ruined my Earth, ruined my Earth" rammed down my throat.

• The Circular Staircase - Mary Roberts Rinehart
  Showing its age, but still an interesting mystery with a solid ending. I can see what a couple of the Amazon reviewers mean by poor use of punctuation though.

• Blast From The Past - Ben Elton

• Science Fiction Oddities - Ed. Groff Conklin
  Some older short SF/Fantasy stories that are hard to categorize.

• Vurt - Jeff Noon
  Cyberpunk. Weird. Yeah, that's the word I'm looking for. Weird.

• Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
  The latest Pratchett. Don't be fooled. This might be classified as juvenile fiction, but, like the Harry Potter books, its a great read for adults as well. This man can do no wrong nowadays, but then again, I'm very biased.

• The Lost Continent - Bill Bryson
  Bryson visits Smallville U.S.A and writes about it. One of his earlier books, where he manages to offend virtually everybody and gets away with it. Very funny.

• Strip Tease - Carl Hiaasen
  Another author that I will attempt to read everything that they've written. It's hard to successfully combine humor and violence. Hiaasen pulls it off.

• Altered Carbon - Richard K. Morgan
  This is my latest new favorite SF author. This book kept me on the edge of my seat continuously. The pace never relents. Chock full of great ideas. No doubt Harriet Klausner, Amazon's #1 reviewer would call it "James Bond in the future". It's much more than that. I'm now on the lookout for Morgan's other books.

• Humans - Robert J. Sawyer
• Hybrids - Robert J. Sawyer
  Finishing off an interesting series. Lots of clever ideas, but Sawyer was also using the fiction as a pulpit for his agenda. This wore a little thin at times. In the third book, the recapping of what had happened in the previous two got to be very tedious. If all three novels are ever combined as one, I hope a good editor removes about 100 pages.

Similar posts:
[May 2005 - Jun 2005]
[Jul 2005 - Sep 2005]
[Oct 2005 - Nov 2005]
[Dec 2005 - Jan 2006]
[Feb 2006 - Mar 2006]
[April 2006 - May 2006]
[June 2006 - July 2006]
[Aug 2006 - Sep 2006]

[Technorati Tag: Books]

( Nov 30 2006, 07:31:18 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [7]