I enjoy reading very much. For years, I read academic or technical books. Since about 2000, I've been taking a break from the latter and reading books from various fictional genres: namely, Fantasy, SciFi, Mystery, and Suspense/Thrillers. Below, I've started my reading log (RdLog).
| DATE | GRADE | TITLE | AUTHOR(S) | GENRE | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9/15/2006 | B+ | Mystic Quest | Tracy and Laura Hickman | Fantasy | Well, fellow reading fans, last Saturday, I finished Mystic Quest (about 14 hours), the second enjoyable Fantasy novel in the Bronze Canticles series by husband and wife team, Tracy and Laura Hickman, and, this evening, I finished Brad Meltzer’s latest Political Suspense/Thriller, The Book of Fate (about 18 hours). The former was dramatically narrated by Lloyd James and the latter by Scott Brick, both of whom did excellent jobs of role-playing the various characters, As usual, I'm not going to write too much about these books, so as not to spoil any of their plots; eventually, I may add a link for each to a summary, but, until then, their summaries/teasers can be found quickly via using the search feature on Audible.com or using your favorite search engine. Anyway, Mystic Quest has some of the normal Fantasy ingredients, such as, magic, quests, gods, human factions and other mythological races. Some interesting standard philosophical/religious questions are revisited and posed, but, mostly, from start to the end of the book, a few connected and yet separate entertaining stories are told, primarily focusing on humans in their realm, goblins in their's, and fairies in their realm. While I enjoyed the entire book, I found the human and goblin story lines the two more enjoyable ones. And, thank goodness, Laura and Tracy didn't end with the torturous cliffhanger, but the book did provide a one-liner that hints at a future story may haps?... Brad Meltzer's latest novel is/was a long one and a pretty quick and diverting read. WARNING: Expect some violence and blood! I've read previous Meltzer books, and this one is just as entertaining, again, if you like Suspense/Thrillers, as, obviously, I do. (Of course, if these two books had been narrated by narrators of lesser ability, the books wouldn't have been near so enjoyable and highly recommended, if at all.) As always, Scott provides the best narration of these sorts of books and the characters found therein. Brad, I do have a few proverbial bones to pick regarding some scenes, however. For one, I find it hard to believe that everyone, even friends, isn't searched/patted down thoroughly by someone from the Secret Service right before entering the President's limo. Secondly, putting aside the question of why no one was able to spot and shoot you know who pretty quickly, you know whose escape from you know where seemed to have some weaknesses: No audio/video/health monitoring of the room interior or exterior of the window or grounds? Where were the internal security folks? Come now, only one exterior security staff? Hmm. Thirdly, the scene where the protagonist and two of his companions are talking emotionally (and not indicated as whispering) at the table about some "very sensitive matters" in a room full of many other people at this fundraiser seems a tad questionable, because people at nearby tables could have overheard or so could have servers or others passing the table, especially during those times it seemed that they were raising their voices because of their emotional impact of the issues being discussed... There were probably others, but that's enough bone picking, especially from a vegetarian. In short, I liked both reads and highly recommend them for you Fantasy and Suspense/Thriller fans out there in cyberspace. |
| 9/15/2006 | B | The Book of Fate | Brad Meltzer | Political Suspense/Thriller | |
| 9/8/2006 | B- | Bad Twin | Gary Troup | Detective | A few weeks ago, I finished reading/listening to Bad Twin by Gary Troup, and, last weekend, I finished the long-awaited Dune 7: Hunters of Dune by the dynamic duo of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Both were read by the fantastic, dramatic narrator, Scott Brick, and the former is a short (i.e., about 7.66 hours) Detective novel and the latter is, as Dune fans can attest, a long (about 19 hours) SciFi novel. Troup's book was an enjoyable quick read, perhaps a bit too quick, and I especially liked the primary protagonist and his friendship with his former Classics professor and their routine walks in the park with their shared chocolate lab, Argos. Unfortunately, Gary was lost (and presumed dead) on Oceanic Flight 815 back in 2004. This book was my first read of his, and I'm sad for his loss and his readers, since we won't be able to enjoy future books from him. Hopefully, I can enjoy earlier audiobooks by him. The one negative criticism I have for the audio version of this book is that the echoing manner with which the chapter numbers were announced by some other narrator(s), not Scott Brick, was extremely annoying and, quite frankly, stupid sounding! Not only were the chapter numbers echoed, but varying volume levels, though within the soft range, were employed. Please, publishers or audio producers, just have the narrator anounce the chapter titles normally and get on with the story... As far as Dune 7 goes, I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I have with Scott's dramatic narrations of all the recent Dune prequels and collaborations between Brian and Kevin. (Sidebar: I don't know where Scott or Brian lives, but that bum, Kevin and his wife live in Colorado, which, after Utah, is where I, a ski-bum-want-to-be, wished I lived!) Anyway, Dune 7 has some interesting and entertaining new and old characters, and three very old characters return to the stage... The audible.com version of this audiobook offered an informative bonus interview of the co-authors by Scott Brick -- perhaps not surprisingly, Scott the interviewer doesn't quite sound the same as Scott the narrator. Oh, don't expect the story to end with Dune 7; Brian and Kevin couldn't (or didn't want to) fit all they wanted into one volume, without it being about 1500 pages, and so they divided Dune 7 into Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. Fudge, we've got to wait at least another year for the rest of this tale! As with most of the books I read, I highly recommend these two, if you like Detective and SciFI/Dune novels. |
| 9/8/2006 | A | Hunters of Dune | Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson | Science Fiction | |
| 8/10/2006 | B- | Stonehenge Gate | Jack Williamson | Science Fiction | Well, last Saturday, I finished The Stonehenge Gate by Jack Williamson and then read Black Order by James Rollins starting on Saturday and finished after work on Monday. I enjoyed and recommend both if you like SciFi (the former) and Espionage (the latter). Both are narrated reasonably well, though neither narrator does as good of a job as Scott Brick... Williamson tells an interesting and entertaining, though not that novel, alternative-origins story of humanity. His story slowly grew more interesting/entertaining, especially after a certain character was removed from most of the novel. Speaking of which, I found one of the initial party members quite annoying and warn you that you may as well! Fortunately, as I said, he vanished for most of the tale. (I probably wouldn't have finished listening to this book if he had remained through most of the story and continued his annoying behavior and perhaps questionable for such a smart person, not that smart people don't behave in unreasonable ways sometimes.) Anyway, Rollins' espionage novel was enjoyable from start to finish, had a pleasant surprise, and didn't include any annoying characters. This was my first Rollins read, but I've read and enjoyed other in this genre, and while these books are fast-read, "page-turners" and authors often use leading-edge concepts from the sciences or involving technology -- what-ifs, if you will -- to develop and pepper their plots, the ones I usually read are more the "page-turner" than peppered with food for thought. I was pleasantly surprised that this book included more food for thought, albeit based on some different recent speculative works and scientific works, and that it combined this ingredient so well with other key plot elements of action and interesting/entertaining characters and settings. While I recommend both, if it sounds as though I enjoyed Rollins' book somewhat more, I'd have to agree. If you are so inclined, please give them a try, and I hope that you enjoy them. |
| 8/10/2006 | B+ | Black Order | James Rollins | Espionage | |
| 7/30/2006 | A | Dragons of the Dwarven Depths | Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman | Fantasy | Well, last night at about 12:50 A.M., I finished the book by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman that I mentioned last week in ENTRY# 1, namely, Volume 1 of Dragons of the Dwarven Depths. Thank you, Margaret and Tracy, for another enjoyable story and book. Pardon the pun, but it was almost magical... I was concerned that they were going to end this book with a typical cliff-hanger. Thankfully, they did not; while their story isn't over (hence, Volume 1 of more), one quest did end at the close of this book. Again, if you are a fan of the Dragon Lance series or just like stories about companions that go on adventures or quests and confront monsters, magic, dilemmas, friend and foe, and the occasional pun or spell of humor, then I suspect you will enjoy this book, as did I. Now, I've got to decide what to read next, whilst I wait for the next volume in this series to become available in audio format. Decisions, decisions... BTW, I use www.audible.com and www.audiobookstand.com as my primary commercial sources of audio-book pleasures. |
| 7/23/2006 | A | Of Fire and Night | Kevin J. Anderson | Science Fiction | On Saturday, I finished Of Fire and Night, Book Five in the Saga of Seven Suns Series by Kevin J. Anderson. If you enjoy SciFi books with interesting
characters and races, struggles between various human and non-human factions, epic story lines, and a view of a possible future, then I'd recommend you
try this series. As with the Dune prequels and the first four books in this SciFi series, I thoroughly enjoyed reading/listening to this book. Unfortunately,
I've got to wait at least another year before the next book in this series. Fortunately, there are plenty of books and other endeavors to keep me occupied.
I started one such book today by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Dragons of the Dwarven Depths, Volume 1 of the Lost Chronicles series. I'm only into Chapter Four, but, so far, it is enjoyable. Any of you who are fans of the Dragon Lance series by these two authors, which started about twenty years ago, will probably enjoy this book and series. We are returned to a lost chapter in the adventures of our favorite company of human, dwarven, elven and half-elven, and kender heros from the original Dragon Lance series. Even if you haven't read any of these fantasy books, if you like Fantasy of the Dungeons & Dragons sort, then I'd recommend you try these and other books by Margaret and Tracy. Once I get around to adding my reading list to this site, you'll see that I've read quite a few of their creations... |