The Knight by Gene Wolfe

Annoying main character. Cliffhanger ending to make sure you read the next book. Wolfe made an error with that, because I am not going to pick up the next one even though it is at my normal library.
Pages: 430

To Rule in Amber by John Gregory Betancourt

This was a less than interesting end to the trilogy. It felt like a fast explanation of the remaining story, instead of telling the story. Perhaps the publisher figured out that no one really liked the books because they weren't by Zelazny. This technically finished the trilogy, but left a lot of loose ends. Also, this feels like a novella because the font, line spacing, and margins are all large.

Pages: 310

Maniford Time by Stephen Baxter

Stephen Baxter writes very good books. He writes horrible endings. Honestly, very few stories should be about how life continues in the universe. Most should be about some big event and then maybe hint that the event was important. Not directly state that man's purpose was to make more life in the universe.

Pages: 441

Lots of books in December

 I got behind in writing down what I'm reading, so here's everything I missed.

Gateway by Fredrick Pohl
Okay, but not that great. I prefer happier books

Pages: 278

Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Fredrick Pohl
Not actually that interesting, not much happens, and leaves off annoyingly.
Pages: 336

Dragonseye by Anne McCaffery
Not much happened in this book. I didn't really care about most of the characters.
Pages: 416

Protector by Larry Niven
This book is enjoyable. I had read it before.
Pages: 224

The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach
This was interesting, but the towards the end things went far too slowly. Lots of plot threads were quickly introduced because they contributed to the ending.
Pages: 304

Misspent Youth by Peter F. Hamilton
Kind of weird, but okay. An awful lot of sex is implied, like if Heinlein had made sex a bigger plot point. Yes, sex can be a bigger plot point than in Heinlein and the book is still sci-fi. I'll give this author another try or two, but I don't particularly recommend this book. Some interesting commentary on politics and family relations though.
Pages: 416

Riverworld and other stories by Philip José Farmer
Riverworld was okay, I wasn't super fond of some of the other stories because they dealt more with religion and crazy people than I was interested in. I would like to read more in his Riverworld series.
Pages: 264

The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories by Ray Bradbury
This wasn't very good. I only kind of like Bradbury, so that isn't surprising. I thought it was silly to include scanned copies of the manuscripts for two of the stories.
Pages: 247

Titan by Stephen Baxter

I was all set to write a really good review of this book, but then I had to go to bed and didn't come back to it for a week. This was a really good book until the last hundred pages or so. The end sucks as much as the vacuum of space that is occasionally discussed in this novel. The beginning of the book is wonderful. The middle is both neat and really annoying. If you want, I'll make up a new ending for you. Read through to where the end starts sucking (wherever you think it is) and send me a message. My ending won't suck nearly as much as Baxter's.

Pages: 676

Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan

I'm getting ready for A Tower of Midnight and therefore reading some of the books earlier in the series in a random order. It isn't actually that useful because now I'm kind of confused about what happened when.

I liked that a lot happened in this book. Perrin rescued Faile, Mat actually got married, Rand lost his hand, and Elayne won the throne. It seems action packed (in terms of moving the plot along), though Gathering Storm has even more actual events. Initially, I thought I was reading book 9, which is a very sucky book. But Knife of Dreams is worth reading as more than a time filler. And I'm kind of swamped with books right now so I don't need any time fillers. I'll probably read one more WoT book before November and it will probably seem slow in comparison.

Pages: 880

Crime Scene at the Cardwell Ranch by B. J. Daniels

I volunteered at the Xcel Energy booth at the Minnesota State Fair. Prior to working at the booth, I wandered around the fair with Caroline and Clay. One of the free things we picked up was a book from topless cowboys. It was a mystery with a major romantic subplot. Being from Harlequin, I expected it to be mostly just erotic literature with a mystery plot to get from one steamy scene to another. However, it was mostly a bad mystery that spent a lot of time talking about how the two main characters felt about each other. I mostly read this one because the bus ride back to the car was really long, so I got about half way through on the bus. I wouldn't read this one again and I probably will just recycle it.

Here's the picture Caroline wanted. She didn't quite get up the courage to ask them for a picture, so I made one for her. I don't have many pictures of her.

Pages: 248