Recently I have been going through Raymond E Feist’s books again. This happened when amazon recommended to me one of his recent books, Talon of the Silver Hawk.

I started reading it, quite enjoying it. But it felt awfully familiar (it’s a “typical” Feist book, a young man’s coming of age in the middle of sweeping events). Then halfway through you encounter characters from earlier books and it was a bit like meeting old friends.

So I started my way through the books again. I find it amazing that he managed to put most of his books in the same universe yet the settings and situations are diverse - and it stays mostly consistent. I also find it great the way he weaves an almost scientific/scifi view of magic in the books…

Magician, Silverthorn, A darkness at Sethanon - Magician is still excellent on the third read and the others are still good too. Anyone who likes epic fantasy should read those.

Prince of the Blood - Picked up second hand. I don’t think i had read that one before and i like it a lot.  Two young men’s coming of age in the middle of sweeping events…

The King’s Buccaneer - more in the same vein, great read

After that I shall go through the serpentwar books and the empire books - this could get me to spring!

Cosmonaut Keep and Dark Light - Ken MacLeod

These are great! It is space science fiction at a grand scale, in a very different future.  It explores the implications of faster than light space travel both practical, political and philosophical. There’s a lot of thinking and debating in these books but lots of suspense and action too.

I still have to read the third on in this series and it is high on my list!

The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal & The Cassini Division - Ken MacLeod

I really enjoyed these books.

I had read the Star Fraction a while back and somehow i didnt care for it all that much. But i re-read it over Christmas (after reading the books above) and I loved it.

It is such a clever world, and I love the way political thought and philosophical ideas are used as plot elements.

The others are in the same vein and are worth picking up if you like science fiction.
I have one more book to read in this series and it is on my shelf waiting for the time to read it

Books I will buy when they come out - obvious-Must-Haves(TM), upcoming books by favorite authors

A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4) - I have been waiting for this one for more than two years. Expect me to cancel anything on my diary the evening when it comes out later this year.

Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of Fallen) - Steven Erikson

Pandora’s Star - Peter F. Hamilton

Newton’s Wake - Ken MacLeod

Kil’n Time - David Brin

David Brin, Kiln People (Tor 1/02) The job of a private investigator has new twists in this future where disposable duplicate bodies make it possible to be literally in two places at one time. A richly complex hard-boiled, hard-SF mystery.

Rhapsody - Elizabeth Haydon. Regularly recommended to me so when i saw it cheap… And it is very enjoyable and rather fresh. The reviews of the following books are less glowing so I don’t know what I’ll do.

Paul Johnston, Water of Death - I have rather enjoyed the previous two and this is just as good.

Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion - tale of an ex-soldier caught up in royal politics, a curse, and the unwanted interference of the gods.

Lois Mc Master Bujold - Diplomatic Immunity. Lovely, unmissable if you’ve read any other.
(May 2002)

Julie Czerneda - the “trade pact” trilogy, starting with “a thousand words for stranger”. A very enjoyable tale, fast paced and full of all kinds of aliens.

Paul Johnston - all “dalrymple” paperbacks. I like his “futuristic noir” style.

The new book by John Marco, The Eyes of God. A little too much the same themes as his “Jackal” books, but enjoyable of course!

Fool’s Errand - Robin Hobb. Bought as soon as it was out… she’s one of those sure bets… Good book but you have to have read the assassin trilogy first. And those are a treat so that’s actually a good thing. Anyway it was like meeting old friends again! (Nov 2001)

“Hobson & Co” - Brian Hughes - it certainly is unique, managing to be wacky and dark at the same time. You have to be in the mood for something like that, though.

Frontier Earth - Bruce Boxleitner. Now it took me months of Babylon 5 to have me stop snigger at seing Bruce Boxleitner, and buy into his serious role… Seing him always reminded be of the terminally silly Scarecrow… Now it seems not only is he a good actor, he is a very decent writer too… Science Fiction meets Wild West - it had to be done one day and this is very enjoyable. I’ll buy the sequel.

Soul of the Algorithm Norbert Weissinger - (trade, 405 pages, $19.95 US/$32.95 Can) “Andrew Lee, on the verge of inventing a quantum computer, must escape his father’s legacy and free himself from mind-altering forces. In a world of corporate piracy, where kidnapping and murder are the rule, Lee runs a tortuous path in seeking his father’s killers and discovering the truth behind a sinister multinational corporation that would control him and alter the fate of the world’s electronic commerce.”

The Runner - C. Reich. A different kind of thriller in the end of world war 2.

Death and the Penguin - Abdey Kurkov. New wave russian author. Very wacky book. I enjoyed it a lot but it is strange.

Navohar By Hilari Bell (SFW: Some of the humor may be a little corny, but Navohar is a perfect book for the summer.). It’s just plain fun to read, and it has some really great camels.

Candle - Barnes, John. Made me want to look up this author again. The last book of his I had read had left me quite cold, this has woken up my interest again. Intriguing universe.

Defender by C.J. Cherryh - Too short. Although I don’t see what the people who say not much happens mean, I think loads of things happen… I WANT THE NEXT ONE NOW!!!

The Ground Beneath Her Feat Salman Rushdie - It’s extremely well written, intriguing, funny, surreal at times, very enjoyable. Yet I find myself reading in small doses, one chapter at a time or less.

Cloud’s Rider C J Cherryh - a sequel to Rider at the Gate.

Rider at the Gate C J Cherryh - this is a good book, not easy to get into but once in you don’t want it to end. It ends a bit abruptly for my taste.

Fall of Angels, Modesitt - this is one of his best, I think

Red Mars and Green Mars and Blue Mars - Red Mars was quite good. Felt more like a historical novel than science fiction, and that is refreshing. Green Mars is still good but it plods along with lots of political theories…

“Pigs in Heaven”, Barbara Kingsolver. I’ll go back to it now that i have read the “bean trees” - This is an absolutely wonderful book, but it will play with your feelings.

“the Constant Gardener”, the new LeCarre - in Africa this time.

“Heroes Die” - a very clever story. Entertaining and morally ambiguous.

Caught in a Still Place Jonathan Lerner “After the plague, there remain 4 survivors… In a landscape littered with the debris of physical and psychological devastation, they evolve new ways of relating to one another. Part prediction, part parable, Caught in a Still Place is a novel of sparse intensity which affirms the possibility of human survival in the aftermath of disaster.” - a very quiet and well written book, a small slice of time in a bleak future, concentrating on a few people over a few months. Unspectacular on purpose, and quite sweet.

the last Cherryh “Fortress” book, “A Fortress of Dragons” the first three were good to excellent and I can’t wait to see the conclusion (well, I will wait till the paperback, honestly)