- Grabbed Paul Zindel's Rats, and was disappointed. Now, being fair, it's written for the "young adult" market, which I was not aware of until I found it, so it was bound to be a bit cheesy, but still, damn. Long slow build-up leading to a "and then she did this and everything worked out fine" kind of ending. Add to that the sheer unbelievability of, oh, 90% of what happened in the book, and I don't recommend it. Some of the deaths are downright disgusting, though, and that was cool.
- On the opposite side of the coin was Richard Morgan's Market Forces, which was fabulous. Some of the writing style took a little getting used to, but the story itself was excellent and inventive, the action was stimulating, the dialogue felt real, the descriptions were just deep enough to make visualization easy without being overwhelming. An absolute page-turner that I could not put down. Pretty sure I'll be buying a copy for myself at some point, as well as tracking down his other two books.
- My mother-in-law gave me The Gospel According to the Flying Spaghetti monster, which honestly was amusing but got old quick. Like most internet jokes, the seed is funny, but it gets run into the ground.
- Re-read the first half of Duncan Delaney and the Cadillac of Doom and actually finished it this time. Not bad, a bit of a downer with a sweet ending. very "slice-of-life" with a bunch of strippers, bikers, lesbian bikers, a painter, an over-bearing mother, and a damn fine hat.
- Working my way through The Sly Pass, which turns out to be the second book in a series. Hate doing that, but oh well. Not bad, I'm having to make assumptions based on things that obviously happened in the first book (The Bold Stroke), but for all that, I'm curious to see where it goes. Lots of action, gritty hard-boiled pap, but funny in places.
- Recent re-reads: Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (no surprise, I know), The Book of Lists, Angry Women, Time Travel in Einstein's Universe.
Next on the hit list is Skulduggery Pleasant, which appears to also be written for a much younger crowd, but I think may be a fun read.
