Thought I’d report back on what I chose to read while on vacation. On the plane I chose a book I hadn’t even listed here–an historical romance I got while at National. I (like a lot of other people) used to be a huge historical romance fan, but somewhere along the way the sub-genre lost its appeal for me (also like a lot of other people). Well, this book gave me some insight into why.
It was good, kind of. When I first started it, I thought it was going to be excellent. But slowly and surely if drifted off into every other historical you’ve ever read. Honestly, it was so much like every other book, I can’t remember a single thing about the plot–or even what roles the main characters held. It was set in England…sometime…that’s it. I left it on the plane. This wasn’t an insult. I thought perhaps the next bored passenger to occupy my seat might find something in it I didn’t–something new…a spark. That is what it was lacking–spark.
Now onto the good news. I read Simon R. Green’s first Nightside novel. It was really good and different. So different that even though this book came out a few years ago, it still struck me as fresh. Which means no one I’ve read has been successful in copying it yet. The plot was a bit strange and I knew from the beginning what the big punch was going to be–but that isn’t a bad thing. It just means as I was reading it, I was thinking…if I were the writer this is what I would do. I tend to do that a lot. By the plot being strange I mean it was a journey book without a real strong mission to push it through and all the events that happen along the way seem to be pretty much unrelated to the reason for the journey. This would have bothered me, but since it was the first in a series I sensed Green was prepping for things to happen in the series rather than just this one book. The book was different because Green created all his own characters and reality. The idea of a shadow or parallel world is done a lot, but Green’s is truly unique.
So, if you haven’t tried this one, yet I really recommend it.
I also finished Vicki Pettersson’s The Scent of Shadows. Also a good read and different. This one has a comic book slant to it, and to be honest some of that was my least favorite part, but again unique characters and world. There are some rather gory bits, so if you are squeamish, it might not be for you, but I give it a big thumbs up too.
So those are the last three books I read. Next up Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I bought this one in hardcover–which I definitely don’t do for many authors–but for whatever reason, haven’t read it. My husband didn’t particularly like it, but while our reading overlaps, we have definite differences. I for example “get” Douglas Adams and he SO doesn’t. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis is one of my all time favorite reads and he thought it was so-so. And to his eternal annoyance, I stopped midway in both George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and Dan Simmon’s first Hyperion novel. (Let me make a note here that I didn’t stop because the books weren’t good. I stopped Martin’s because I could see where he was going and didn’t want to go there and Simmons because, honestly, he was too damn good. He made me feel too much what was happening to his characters and it just wasn’t comfortable. How’s that for a reason to put down a book?) So, that said, I still have high hopes for Anansi Boys–Gaiman hasn’t disappointed me yet. :)
How about you, what are you reading? Any recs?
