This week I’m reading Where the Dead Walk, by John Bowen, in which the crew of one of those ubiquitous paranormal investigation shows unexpectedly runs up against the real thing. Hilarity does not ensue.
So this week I’m reading Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi, in which citizens of Earth and other planets are offered―in exchange for ten years of service in the Space ForceColonial Defense Force (hereafter “SF CDF”), which does interstellar battle against hostile aliens―a rejuvenation treatment which (allegedly) returns them to their days of youth and vigor. Because the SF CDF wants recruits with plenty of years of knowledge and experience, but doesn’t want to be on the hook for their Medicare payments, or something.
So this week I’m reading Before Midnight, a Nero Wolfe novel by Rex Stout, which is one of the few Stout books that was not included in the box of paperback Wolfe mysteries that I received a year or two ago from my dad.
It’s been a while since I reached into the great big stack of elementary school documents and assignments that my folks shipped out to me a while back, so I thought that this week, instead of another teaser from Great North Road, I would go get something out of the pile of forty year old papers. And so I present to you this “Happy/Sad” assignment:
So this week, and probably for a week or two more, I’m reading Great North Road, a science fiction murder mystery by Peter F. Hamilton. As far as I know, this book, like the excellent Fallen Dragon, is a standalone novel, unrelated to and not set in the same universe as the “Commonwealth” novels (the also-excellent Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained, the what-most-people-seem-to-consider-better-but-I-consider-only-pretty-good “Void” series, of which I’ve so far only read the first one) or the “Night’s Dawn” series, of which I’ve so far read, uh, nothing. It’s also, being Peter F. Hamilton, a doorstopper, or would be if it weren’t an eBook, which is why I’ll probably still be reading it next week. Fortunately, like most Hamilton books, it’s shaping up to be―you guessed it―excellent.
So this week I was reading The Spirit Clearing, a novel (which would have been better as a short story*) about a young man who, after surviving a horrific car accident, wakes to find that his left eye has been drained of all coloration, but has gained the ability to see ghosts, auras, the past, and, possibly the future. Trading a baby blue for second sight? Sure, why not.