More Books

Ed Greenwood: Dark Vengeance

Ed Greenwood is among the better of the Dungeons & Dragons writers, and this particular book is actually published by Tor. Consequently, the dark elves are called Niflghar, and it all reads much like D&D with every trademarked name replaced. The Niflghar were supposedly closer to the original Norse concept of dark elves, but they sure look a lot like Drow to me. Unfortunately I have no idea why Tor published it. It's not very good. It has characters that look like NPCs from a RPG adventure module. None of them have any depth to them, the reader never cares about any of them, and the plot is about as clear as a season of 24. All the random people and parties just bumble about, may meet shortly, then are on their way again. Meh. Two stars out of five.

Tess Geritsen: Harvest

"The Best Medical Thriller I've read since Coma" cries the cover. It's accurate, and I'd go as far as to say it's better. This book reads like an episode of a police procedural TV show. If you know my viewing habits, you know this isn't a bad thing. It's somewhat predictable, and not horribly original, but it is a very well written mystery with nice energy. Four out of five.

Patricia Briggs: Cry Wolf

I don't get werewolves. Vampires, fae, witches, mages and so forth, sure, but werewolves just never seemed neat to me -- don't ask me why. Maybe it's the pack mentality, maybe the idea that their supernatural form is a mindless beast. That's why I was a bit dubious looking at this book, but read it anyway, and I'm glad I did. It's solidly in the paranormal romance genre, but a fair bit better than most of the other ones I've read. The prose is a bit immature at time, the author trying to show off and falling short, but this is all forgivable because the plot is actually quite neat and original. If you like Anne Rice or Laurell K. Hamilton, read this instead. Four out of five -- the fourth because of the plot.