book reviews

I know, it's been a shamefully long time since I had one of these. Factors have contributed - first, the shuffle of the book lineup at the New Year, which meant I started a bunch of all-new nonfictions. Always slows things down some. Second ... Dragon Age. Which has had a surprisingly good effect on several areas of my life, but has absolutely killed my reading rate. Third, I was stuck in a pretty slow-going book for most of January.

Nonetheless, I've finally collected a few:

Michael Cox, ed., Victorian Detective Stories. This is a decent-quality anthology, and at nearly 600 pages is certainly chock-full of entries. Most of which are good. But it was slow-moving - the Victorians tended to be flowery and dense in their writing - and took most of the month to get through.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, A Feast in Exile. I appreciated this one for breaking the standard Yarbro pattern. St. Germain was thrown out of his usual comfort zone and forced to deal with the discomforts of travel and poverty, and faithful servant Roger got a little bit more to do than usual. (I like Roger - I was glad to see a bit more of him.) Nonetheless, I still think it was a bit too dense to be enjoyable and the historical era didn't grab me (India at the time of Tamerlane). So I think this one is not a keeper.

Ken Follett, World Without End. Not sure if I reviewed this one back when I read it or not, honestly, but I'll do it again. I thought it was a decent book, following the lives of some medieval men and women in the time of the Black Plague. It was definitely too long, with a whole section in the middle that felt really forced and did little to advance the plot. But much of the book was quite well-written, the characters were interesting and varied, and I enjoyed about half of it. Which I think doesn't make it a keeper.

Janet Evanovich, To the Nines. I was a big fan of Stephanie Plum to begin with. I loved the first few books. Then the plot got all formulaic, the overarching interpersonal plot froze in place, and it just got to be too much repetition. I've pushed my way through the last few installments in the series, and finally have to admit that I'm all done. The writing is good, the characters are funny and lively ... but the plots are all a bit too similar and the characters are just not going anywhere.

It's a shame this installment is filled with so many nonkeepers! Hoping for better - and sooner - the next time around.