December '10

DRAGONLORDS: THE LAST DRAGONLORD
-J. Bertin-dtb-471
-fantasy-a world where there are dragons, humans and a very few, rare DragonLords, humans who share a body with a dragonsoul and have great abilities. Follows the adventures of a dragonlord who finds his soultwin and is embroiled in the machinations of a kingdom in turmoil. Very well written, enjoyable and enough depth to make it feel meaty and satisfying.

CONRAD STARGARD: THE FLYING WARLORD
-L. Frankowski-dtb-232
-scifi-Conrad defeats the mongols and the timeline is totally screwed up. This one had a lot less wenching and technology'izing.

POLITY: SPATTERJAY: THE SKINNER
-N. Asher-epub-375
-scifi-a new storyline dealing with a world called Spatterjay. It has a virus that infects humans and makes them strong, regenerative and nearly immortal. But if they don't eat Polity foods [ie, human food], they turn into a skinner. A skinner is a creature that kills and destroys. This book was about a polity agent looking for retribution on a gang of Hoopers [what turned humans are called] that participated in the Prador war, on the Prador's side. Follows the agent, some Hoopers, a Prador and some AI's as they all come together on Spatterjay and deal with a skinner. I enjoyed this as much, if not more, than the Agent Cormac books.

RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA
-A. Clarke-epub-255
-scifi-humanity finds a giant spaceship coming into the solar system. They explore it and realize they are not alone in the universe. The story is about the group exploring the ship. Very little action, well written, but dull none the less. There is a whole series of Rama books, but I don't think I'll waste my time on any more.

LADY PENITENT: STORM OF THE DEAD
-L. Smedman-epub-209
-fantasy-another god enters the game between Lolth and her daughter. And loses. Undead battles, etc, etc. Find out more history about the drow. Same quality as the other books by Smedman.

THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON
-M.R. Mathias-epub-524
-fantasy-first off, the author is a complete asshole. I've run into him on various forums and not once was he civil to anyone unless they were kowtowing to him. That being said, this started out as a fantastic book. I was hooked from the first chapter. Sadly, near the end things really seemed to drag and I was glad when the end came. If there are ever anymore books in this same universe, I will definitely be checking them out!

DISCWORLD: THIEF OF TIME
-T. Pratchett-epub-241
-fantasy-Time has a baby and it gets split in two. The Auditors try using one of them to build the perfect clock, so that time stops. Death must reunite the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse [plus 1] and Susan must tie everything together while she meets and falls in love with the perfect man[for her]. Highly entertaining. Especially when scads of auditors take on human form for some reason or another.

ACACIA: THE WAR WITH THE MEIN
-D. Durham-epub-456
-fantasy-despite not being able to get into this book earlier, I was encouraged by those at Goodreads to try again, and I am glad I did. Complex, long term and with just enough twists and turns to keep things interesting, Durham has created a world that is potentially HUGE for exploring. Definitely looking forward to the other 2 in this series.

SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS
-A. Ransome-epub-204
-ya fiction-a group of children spend a couple of weeks on an island and sailing a lake. Simplistic and not something I was really in the mood for. However, I can see how this would stir the imagination of young duffers and intrigue them greatly.

DRAGONLORDS: DRAGON AND PHOENIX
-J. Bertin-dtb-695
-fantasy-the dragons and true dragons find out about a dragon being held captive in a foreign land and set out to rescue him. In the process Maurynna is able to change and the DragonLords find yet another "hidden" DragonLord. I really enjoyed this novel. Depth and a very wide view of things kept my attention and separate plotlines never got tangled up. Well written. I just wish the 3rd book had been written [the back of this book, published in '98 says the author is in the process of writing it. So if it hasn't happened in 13 years, I doubt it will]

SWORD OF SHADOWS: A CAVERN OF BLACK ICE
-J.V. Jones-epub-618
-fantasy-Graphic. The word to best describe this book. Every negative emotion, every detail about frozen, dying flesh, every bad habit, all were described to such detail so as to make me hate this book. A young woman, who has the power to free an undead horde, must discharge her power in a safe place, the cavern of black ice. Her fate is thrown in with a young clans man who ends up clanless. They succeed in their quest, but more things are still on the horizon. I don't think I'll be reading any more by this author.

STAR WARS: RED HARVEST
-J. Schreiber-dtb-244
-scifi-the prequel, by several thousand years, to Death Troopers. Some Sith lord finds a sith holocron with plans for immortality and experiments on sith students. Thing go horribly wrong and everyone gets infected. A jedi gets involved and some random bounty hunter and pilot. Lots of descriptions to make creepy settings, but there was not really any tension or scariness involved. Enjoyed it a little more than Death Troopers though.

Monthly Summary
12 Novels
4524 Pages