What are you reading and book reviews

[Pumpkinstew]

Originally Posted by Takhisis

Finished Twilight Excellent series of books

I read the first two and thought they were brilliant. Stuffed full of ideas and invention. Glad to hear Twilight Watch is up to standard as it's on my Christmas list.
A fourth novel - Final Watch should be out soon. Anton goes to Scotland.

I read through the first two of Bernard Cornwell's Alfred books recently - The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman. Very good. Not quite as good as the Warlord trilogy but better than the slightly disappointing Grail series.
They are set in dark age Britain and tell the story of Uhtred Uhtredson a Northumbrian raised by Danish invaders before changinging sides and joining Alfred the Greats Saxons.
I'd have gone straight into the third book but found I had the fourth on my shelf

Instead I read Deep Aproach to Garbadale by Iain Banks. An excellent book which is laugh out loud funny in places and also quite moving. If you know Banks' work well though the final revelation may not be so surprising.

After that was Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. This was a cunning blend of noir detective story and cyberpunk set in world where the human consciousness can be saved, stored, transferred and downloaded into another body or 'sleeve'. The sex and violence are vividly described, lurid even, making this something of a guilty enjoyment. The mystery is logically and intelligently plotted though, even if there are elements of deus ex machina in a few of the heroes narrow escapes. Should go down well with and Gibson, Asher or Reynolds fans.

I'm now reading another Bernard Cornwell book called Rebel. It's an older one set in the American civil war and revolves around a yankee fighting for a confederate surrogate father figure (something of a recurring theme for BC). I'm finding it slow going so far.