Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

I don't like when the two characters clearly meant to be together are forced apart by the story. No. If people are happy together I don't care how cliched it may be, I want them to live happily ever after insomuch as they stay together no matter what happens.

I was also kind of disappointed that the original universe wasn't continued in this book. I really enjoyed the just slightly different world in the Eyre Affair. I just don't have nearly as much interest in jumping into books. Once the book jumping is postulated, a lot becomes possible. And I don't mean interesting plot lines become possible. If there is a hard situation, it is just required that someone read something and then there is no longer a problem.

I'll still keep on reading these books. I hope the next book is better, but I won't get to it for a long time. I think part of my flagging interest in Fford is that his stories aren't epic enough. I always feel like he has this wonderful universe, but uses it for young adult writing or something.
Pages: 399

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds

This was seems like it was still set in the Revelation Space universe, but didn't particularly reference anything from the previous books. I was disappointed that the book was essentially a human interest story (including a love story) about a conspiracy theory. There were a few interesting moments, but this one wasn't really worth it for me.

Edit: I was mistaken, this isn't in the Revelation Space universe. That explains why nothing seemed to be referenced. Still, the book wasn't very good.
Pages: 576

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fford

I liked Shades of Gray, so I figured some other Fford novels might be good. I was very frustrated at the library because none of the books I looked at would tell me any other books that Fford wrote or the series order. I ended up using the library catalog.

I was a little disappointed and a little impressed. Fford does a good job of writing fantasy that isn't about good vs. evil. He takes the standard Earth and changes one major thing and then writes a story. This was a detective story. He even managed to work in vampires in a non-annoying way, though I won't mention how because that would give it away. But the writing in Eyre Affair was sometimes annoying. Sort of like Fford grew up reading Dan Brown and the horror was only mostly beat out of him. Some really stupid phrases and cliches. Annoying foreshadowing at times. But on the whole I liked this book. I have some more of the Thursday Next books on my reading list.

Pages: 384

Galatic North by Alastair Reynolds

This book is a collection of short stories in the Revelation Space universe. The back story about Nevil and the Conjoiners at Mars was really great to read--the events are referred to in other Revelation Space books, but here much of the story is explained. I love seeing the partial conclusion of the universe in the last story, Galactic North, where the galaxy has been taken over by the greenflies. I'd be even more interested in what life is like in the galaxy at that point, but seeing what most of humanity is doing is interesting as well. There are a couple of throw away stories--little bits of the universe that would never merit inclusion in a novel because they aren't important to any storyline, but that help fill out a character or an idea. I particularly like learning that the Conjoiner drives are controlled with a disembodied Conjoiner brain. I do not recommend reading this book before some of the other books in the universe because it does fill in a lot. I like trying to work out some information myself. But this is a good addition to the Revelation Space universe.

Pages: 384

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

Work has been alternating between really annoying and interesting for the past couple weeks, so I stocked up on lighter reading at the library. I read The Light Fantastic years ago (late high school, I believe). This book doesn't have as many funny footnotes and there aren't quite as many puns for names as in other books. However, I love Rincewind and the Luggage. I don't particularly care for the part with Conan because it gives less time for Rincewind.

Pages: 241

The Gathering Storm by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan

So maybe I should have read some of the other WoT books before jumping ahead to the one published last year, but I got ahold of an ebook and it was only a few days to finish it. I was very impressed with Gathering Storm on the first read because so much happened and there weren't as may repetitive statements ("she tugged her braid"). I'm very excited for the next book to come out in November.

Pages: 1120

Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan

In preparation for the next WoT novel in November (I'm 17 on a hold list for 25 books) I'm rereading some of the older books. Also, I have run out of books to read and the library has been closed all of Labor Day weekend. This book was moderately annoying the first time I read it. I really disliked the Halmia character and I thought it was stupid that Egwene didn't think to connect Halmia to the headaches. Also, not much happened in this book. The neat parts of cleansing the source happened in an earlier book. Eh. This was okay reading for a long weekend, even if I was distracted by the internet every twenty minutes.

Pages: 680

Also, wonderful that StarShipSofa won a Hugo. I got the supporting membership just so I could vote for them.