Raven's Shadow - Patricia Briggs

2004, Ace, 334 pages

ISBN: 978-0-41-01187-2

Read:  October 2025,  age 47

 

Raven Duology, book 1

 

Decent fantasy, kind of fluffy.  Nice to see a non-whiny teenage adventurer for a change.  It didn't really make me want to read more non-Mercy stuff, though.

 

Rating: 3 

The Hot Kid - Elmore Leonard

Harper Collins, 2005, 312 pages

ISBN: 0-06-072422-6

Read: September 2025, age 47 

 

A period piece - set in South in the 30's - it was an okay story about a US Marshal tracking down a bad guy.  The prose was very nice, and the plotting a bit meandering and slow, and there was really no character growth.  It was good, felt very cinematic.

 

Rating: 3+ 

Virtual Light - William Gibson

Seal, 1993, 350 pages

ISBN: 0-7704-2614-X 

Read September 2025, age 47

  

Bridge Trilogy, book 1

 

First of a trilogy, but no need to read the second.  The world was interesting, and the characters were fun, but the title tech was just a MacGuffin that could have been a piece of paper.  Fun, but nothing spectacular.  The feel was very much Snow Crash, but without all the infodumps, and just surface level.

 

Rating: 3 

Island in the Sea of Time - S.M. Stirling

 Roc, 1998, 608 pages

 ISBN: 978-0-451-45675-5

 Read: July 2025, age 47

 

This is the counterpart to Dies the Fire, and I was hoping for more of the same - post-apocalyptic survival and rebuilding.  I did get some of that, but more what I got was ahistorical wargaming.  As is typical with Stirling, it was detailed and a bit slow-paced.  Interesting, kind of fun, and a bit disappointing.  It didn't make me excited to read the sequel.

 

Rating: 3+ 

Thud! - Terry Pratchett

Doubleday, 2005, 362 pages

ISBN: 0-385-60867-5

Read: July 2025, age 47 

 

Discworld, book 34 

 

Amazing that there can be so much quality in such a long series.  This was an excellent instalment, and I suspect that it will be even better on a re-read. 

 

Rating: 4+ 

Worst Person Ever - Douglas Coupland

Vintage Canada, 2014, 317 pages

Original copyright 2013 

ISBN: 978-0-345-81374-9 

Read: August 2025, age 47

 

I've been reading basically every Douglas Coupland book I've found since i read Microserfs, which turned out to be one of my favourite books.  I keep reading them hoping to recapture that, even a little, and I keep being disappointed.  I enjoyed the prose in this book, but the characters and plot were basically just a waste of time, and I bounced off of the humour.   

 

Rating: 2 

Alpha 8 - Robert Silverberg

Berkley Medallion, 1977, 242 pages

Individual stories copyright 1950 to 1973 

ISBN: 0-425-03561-1 

Read: August 2025, age 47 

 

I cracked open the book and discovered that it was short stories.  I really should have known from the cover.  They were good short stories, in general, but that's not really my favourite medium.  

 

Rating: 3 

Four to Score - Janet Evanovich

St. Martins, 1998, 313 pages 

Read: August 2025, age 47 

ISBN: 978-0-312-96697-3 

 

Stephanie Plum, book 4 

 

Just a fun book.  Colourful characters, an okay mystery, and a fun, fast read. Nothing too deep, and no real character development, but that should be expected by now.

 

Rating: 3+ 

Sleeping Late on Judgement Day - Tad Williams

DAW, 2014, 453 pages

ISBN: 978-0-7564-0987-6

Read: May 2025, age 47

 

Bobby Dollar, book 3 of 3 

 

Decent: interesting along the way, reasonably fun.  I didn't feel that it ended particularly well - it left plenty of hooks dangling to keep the story going, more like the end of an instalment than of a series, so not particularly satisfying.  

 

Rating: 3+ 

New Spring - Robert Jordan

 Tor, 2004, 359 pages

 ISBN: 0-765-34545-5

 Read: June 2025

 

Wheel of Time prequel 

 

Unnecessary, but it was well-written, had a reasonable plot, and it was fun to spend a bit of time with Moiraine and Lan.  Not a lot of suspense, seeing as we know the end state right from the start, but this was 'Good Jordan'.

 

Rating: 3+ 

Uprooted - Naomi Novic

Del Ray, 2016, 435 pages

ISBN: 978-0-8041-7905-8

Read: May 2025, age 47

 

A compelling story, it read like a fairy tale, but didn't feel like one - the characters were too strong, and the prose was immediate and compelling, not detached and 'story like'.  I liked it. 

Rating: 4

Happy Hour in Hell - Tad Williams

Daw, 2013, 446 pages

ISBN: 978-0-7564-0948-7

Read: April 2025, age 47 

Bobby Dollar, book 2

 

This book wasn't as much fun as book 1.  I think mostly it pulled our hero away from most of his supports, leaving him to carry a journey through Hell on his own, and it didn't quite work for me as well as it could have without the banter and teamwork.  It was still fine. 

 

Rating: 3

The Book of Life - Deborah Harkness

Penguin, 2015, 561 pages

Original copyright 2014

ISBN: 978-0-14-312752-9

Read: March 2025, age 46

 

All Souls Trilogy, book 3

 

Well, this was the best one of the trilogy.  Which isn't saying much.  It was okay.  I'm happy that it's over.

 

Rating: 3

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

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

Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

Collins, 2000, 302 pages

Original copyright 1986 

ISBN: 0-00-675523-2

Read: February 2025, age 46

 

This is a book for which I am definitely not the target audience.  It's middle grade fiction, and quite good.  It started extremely strong, and then kind of tapered off toward the end, I felt, but was quite readable as a middle-ager, rather than a middle-grader. Fun.  Probably better for the kids, but quick and easy.

Rating: 3+