Mini-Reviews
Jan. 16th, 2010 06:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellow1. On a recommendation from an LJ friend, I picked up John Ringo's Princess of Wands while I was in San Diego. In terms of plot and context, it belongs in the "Buffy" category, along with Sunshine and Carpe Demon; unfortunately, I didn't find the main character particularly likeable. I also found it rather gorier than I like; like Joel Rosenberg, Ringo dwells a bit too lovingly on shattered hyoid bones and the like. I doubt that I'll be reading any of the further books in that series.
2. I also bought a copy of Peter Hamilton's Pandora's Star, on a vague recollection of hearing his name recommended. This one, I liked quite a bit; the story involves numerous interweaving plotlines, against the backdrop of an interestingly designed society. The alien menace is well-conceived; the various POV characters, all of them, act on incomplete and possibly incorrect information, and at the (literal) cliffhanger ending the reader cannot be sure which of them are nearer to the truth. ("Paranoia strikes deep...") There's a slight flavoring of Dan Simmons here, although without the... intensity and floridity Simmons brings. I'll certainly go after the sequel.
3. People of my acquaintance who are mystery buffs have been pushing the name of Dick Francis for quite a while, and I finally gave him a try, with Bonecrack. It's a solid and satisfying story; if in some respects it's a bit predictable, still, the working out of the details is entertaining, and the characterizations are a little more solid than one expects in a mystery novel. I'll be looking for more Francis.
2. I also bought a copy of Peter Hamilton's Pandora's Star, on a vague recollection of hearing his name recommended. This one, I liked quite a bit; the story involves numerous interweaving plotlines, against the backdrop of an interestingly designed society. The alien menace is well-conceived; the various POV characters, all of them, act on incomplete and possibly incorrect information, and at the (literal) cliffhanger ending the reader cannot be sure which of them are nearer to the truth. ("Paranoia strikes deep...") There's a slight flavoring of Dan Simmons here, although without the... intensity and floridity Simmons brings. I'll certainly go after the sequel.
3. People of my acquaintance who are mystery buffs have been pushing the name of Dick Francis for quite a while, and I finally gave him a try, with Bonecrack. It's a solid and satisfying story; if in some respects it's a bit predictable, still, the working out of the details is entertaining, and the characterizations are a little more solid than one expects in a mystery novel. I'll be looking for more Francis.
