Short book reviews.

Short reviews:

Well, more like short impressions. Writing a thoughtful review is hard.

WORTH DYING FOR, Lee Child.

Kind of funny -- the previous book ended in such a way that you couldn't figure out how Jack Reacher survives.

Other than him having sore arms, this book just ignores that. Heh. That's one way of writing yourself out of a corner.

Once again, Reacher gets into trouble in his wanderings -- (it's getting to be more and more a 'reach' for him to find such trouble.) I think Child is at his best when he is writing about middle America, maybe a little stereotypical but very colorful characters, so I enjoyed this book.

SILENCE, Thomas Perry.

I've said it before, I think aPerry is the best lessor known mystery writer out there. This wasn't one of my favorites, but I enjoyed it. The guy writes a hell of a plot, and has a sneaky sense of humor.

THE MOURNER and DEADLY EDGE, Richard Stark.

These books are 200 pages long, and just the right length. Straightforward hard boiled fiction. They don't write them like this anymore.

No, really. They don't write them like this anymore.

BLACKWATER SOUND, James W. Hall.

This author is a little hit or miss for me, but this was one of his better ones. Beach bum, Thorn, is out fishing when an airliner drops out of the sky into his fishing hole. Can't completely relate to the fishing and boating ethos --

SIXTY DAYS AND COUNTING, Kim Stanley Robinson.

Washington D.C. is under water, and the rest of the east coast is following.

The third book of a global warming near future science fiction trilogy. I read the second book without knowing it was the middle, and I think it would've served me just fine. Robinson tends to do a little too much soap opera for my taste.

ANANSI BOYS, Neil Gaiman.

Magic realism, American style. I'm not sure why I held off reading this book for so long, because I love Gaiman's writing. This was a bit more humorous and light hearted than I expected, but sometimes that's the best kind of fantasy. I'm still thinking his comic series, SANDMAN, is his masterpiece, no matter how successful he becomes in the book world.

WARLORDS OF REPUBLICAN ROME, Nic Fields.

Already pretty much reviewed this earlier. Spoiler -- Caesar meets a bad end. Pompey loses his head.

REQUIEM FOR AN ASSASSIN, Barry Eisler.

New author for me, about the assassin, John Rain. I liked it enough to try another one. Not as geo-politically serious as the Dan Silva books, but similar in plot mechanics.

The morality of these characters is interesting -- a for hire assassin, is -- well, a strange person to root for...

**********

PETER AND MAX, Bill Willingham.

Set in the world of the FABLES comic book series, I'd have to say this is my favorite novel so far this year. Lots of fun, very imaginative and different.

But...I have to admit, I actually listened to it, rather than read it. It took three trips to finish the book, because I can only take so much of that at a time.

I must admit I enjoyed it.

But I'm still going to read my books, instead of having them performed for me.