Recent Reads: Short Reviews

I absolutely love trips to my local library. Heck, I just love my local library. They have a cool feature on their website that allows you to "Suggest Items" for them to acquire. If there's a book you want to read, but they don't have it, suggest it! They'll probably order it, and once it's in, they'll even put it on hold for you.  I did that recently with Nightworld, by F. Paul Wilson. They had the old original version, but not the recently released highly revised and updated version. I used the "Suggest Item" feature and once it was in, they emailed me to let me know it was on hold! Wootage!

Nightworld, by F. Paul Wilson absolutely sucks. (No. It does not!) I say that because it is the final book in the Repairman Jack series. No more post-Nightworld Repairman Jack. That sucks! But the book is great! It's not just the end to Jack's series, it's also the end of the "Secret History" that F. Paul Wilson has been weaving into his fiction, mainly his Repairman Jack series and his Adversary Cycle. If you've been following Jack or the Adversary Cycle, you owe it to yourself to finish the story and read Nightworld to see how Jack, Glaeken, and all their accomplices come together to defeat Rasalom and prevent The Change.

Nocturnal, by Scott Sigler, was a surprisingly good book. I've been wanting to read some of his fiction, but never had the chance. I saw Nocturnal on the New Arrivals shelf at my local library and grabbed it. I'd heard Sigler writes great stories, but that they're gory and gruesome - and I'm not a fan of gore. Nocturnal didn't bother me one bit. Interesting story, interesting characters and character development, interesting setting. Good book. I'll definitely seek out more of his stuff.

Arctic Rising, by Tobias S. Buckell, was another surprisingly good novel. I'd heard good things about this novel, but the description didn't really pull me in. I gave it a chance anyway. It was a wild roller-coaster ride that never let up! Seriously: the main character is continuously offered ways to get back to a normal life, but she feels she must follow what she's started through to the end. Of course, most of the offers she had would probably have ended up with her disappearing and ending up dead. Good thing she didn't.