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The list for the last couple of weeks. I’ll be expanding each one into a separate post.

• Dune The Battle of Corrin Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
• Chainfire, Terry Goodkind
• What If?, Robert Cowley
• Hostile Takeover, Susan Schwartz
• Mindscan, Robert J. Sawyer
• Eleanor and Franklin Joseph P. Lash
• Whipping Star, The Dosadi Experiment, The Santaroga Barrier, Soul Catcher Frank Herbert
• Winter Moon Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, CE Murphy
• Alexander The Ambiguity of Greatness Guy MacLean Rogers
• Eragon
• The Life of the World to Come Kage Baker
• Anne Perry mysteries and Come, Armageddon
• The Road to Reality and The Emperor’s New Mind Roger Penrose

Wolf Captured at Amazon by Jane Lindskold.

I seem to have picked up a series in the middle. Oh well.

It picks up just as an earlier story ends. This is the fourth installment.

When I come across the earlier books in the series I will definitely read them. In fact, I’ll be seeking them out someday. One of my pet peeves about serials is that when the nth installment is being hawked the nth – 1 installment isn’t in stock where the nth installment was purchased. It’s on my list the next time I’m in Barnes & Noble, Borders or The Tattered Cover.

Other than the main character of the woman who was raised by wolves, the characters are either not very well drawn or they just don’t behave as drawn. For example, the other main character — the merchant-turned-prince, is he an adolescent or a man? Or are we supposed to believe that he changes during the course of the book? If the latter, the transition is not well-managed. One minute he’s acting like a pimply-faced 17 year old, the next he’s matured and ready to settle down and raise little merchant princes and princesses.

Similarly, his love interest is a cipher through most of the book, and then she’s not.

Don’t get me wrong. I liked this book, and look forward to reading others in this series and others by this author.

The Shadow of Saganami by David Weber.

Mr. Weber is one of the top, if not the top, practitioner of the craft of military science fiction (the only one I would rate better or even in the same league is — Tom Clancy). If you want a good ‘sampler’ of his work, check out the Baen free library. David Weber has ten entirely free works downloadable in every format you could possibly be using.

This novel, however, fits more into the genre of space opera. A galactic empire needs defending and the cast of characters is drawn up on either side of good and evil to do battle. Like most stories of this type, in The Shadow of Saganami, the villains are very villainous and the heroes very heroic. Though we know good is going to win bad has its moments along the way. I liked The Shadow of Saganami and look for more stories set in the same universe.

Polaris by Jack McDevitt was a perfectly acceptable science fiction novel. I read the whole thing in basically one sitting, and sighed contentedly when I was done.

It’s a far future mystery. The twist wasn’t bad at the end. It caught me by surprise, and that isn’t that common. Who was it who said good science fiction is good fiction first and then good science? The mystery here was good; the science I found to be less plausible.

I always have a hard time believing in conspiracy theories and one of the basic premises here is that there was one, and that it worked over hundreds of years. I won’t be a spoiler more than that.

Well written and well worth the read.

I was about 10 years old when he died. The parallels between him and Gorbachev are interesting. Had he come to power in the 80′s instead of the 50′s I wonder how different the world would be.

The picture of the Soviet Union in the 20′s, 30′s and 40′s is very vivid.

It is to his credit that when he was in a position to do something about it he tried to make amends and rehabilitate the reputations of those who died, and that he also lead the cultural change that made it much less likely for a Soviet citizen to be sent to a labor camp.