Death of a Dude - Rex Stout

Viking, 1969, 180 pages

ISBN: N/A

Read: March 2025, age 46

 

Nero Wolfe, book 47 of 50

 

I've been wanting to read a Rex Stout book for a while - it's what the Garrett P.I. books by Glen Cook are based on - and I finally found one.  It was fun overall, but I felt that the mystery solution was a bit out of left field, and we hadn't quite been given enough clues along the way to make it satisfying.  Or I'm not enough of a mystery reader to put it together.  Regardless, it was fun.  Compared to most pop mysteries I've read, it didn't insult my intelligence with the writing level.

 

Rating: 4

Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke

Ballantine Books, 1974, 274 pages

Original copyright 1973

ISBN: 345-24175-4-175

Read:  April 2025, age: 47

 

It was an interesting story, but it wasn't much for characters - really, the only interesting character was Rama itself, but it was a fun big dumb object to explore.   I prefer the newer style of fiction where the characters matter, and they have a reason for doing the thing.

 

Rating: 3+

Killing Floor - Lee Child

Jove, 2012, 524 pages

Original copyright 1997

ISBN: 978-0-515-153651

Read: March 2025, age 46

 

I gave up on this book the first time I read it - there are way, way too many sentence fragments throughout.  I still didn't like the writing style, even after reading the book.  It felt like a fourth-grader's English assignment, in a way, between the fragments and the very simple language - I'd peg this at less than a grade six reading level.  It was effective at directing attention, I guess.  The plot was a lot of fun, but the Amazon series was better.

 

It did hook me, and was a very fast read. I'm still looking for a fun thriller written at a high level, though.

 

Rating: 3 

The Dirty Streets of Heaven - Tad Williams

Daw, 2012. 441 pages

ISBN: 978-0-7564-0790-2

Read: March 2025, age 46

 

Bobby Dollar, book 1

 

Interesting setting, fun characters, and the setup didn't drag nearly as much as I feared (I'm thinking of you, Otherland).  The humour was stretched a bit too far at times, but it was fun overall.

 

Rating: 4

Bones of the Past - Drew Hayes (Audiobook)

Tantor Audio, 2021, 35.8 hours

Read by: Amy Landon 

Listened to: February-March, 2025

 

Villain's Code, book 2

 

Really a lot of fun, and, compared to the first book, more of the story that I wanted to hear, not skipping over as much of the interesting behind-the-scenes small stories for the big set pieces.  The audiobook reader has settled in, and is better than in the first book as well.

 

Rating: 4+

Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delaney

Bantam,1982, 193 pages

Original copyright 1969

ISBN: 0-553-20156-5

Read: February 2025, age 46

 

Some classic 70's sci-fi that was deeper than I was expecting, and was better characterized than most.  Interesting ideas, as well, though I'm not sold on the 'superpowers from learning a language' main hook.

 

Rating: 3+

The Apocalypse Troll - David Weber

Baen, 1999, 312 pages

ISBN: 0-671-31832-2 

Read: February 2025, age 46

This was a bit more lore-heavy than a book this short has any right to be, with a fair amount of info-dumping and direct commentary on political trends c. 2000.  The main characters were reminiscent of Heinlein's self-inserts, down to the 'grumpy old man' and 'hot young redhead'.  They were complete Mary-Sues.  The rest were cardboard cut-outs.  The setup was generally fun, and the prose was fine.  Overall, simple, fun and predictable, but not particularly good, which was pretty much what I was expecting.  

 

Rating: 3