The Last Oracle - James Rollins

The Sigma Force is back! The Russians are using augmented autistic children, descendants of the Romani Gypsies and the original Oracle, to forecast the future and otherwise being Russia back to its role as a superpower. As with all of Rollins' books, this one offers a fantastic mix of action and storytelling with details that the reader "knows" may be real (in this case, the nuclear contamination around Chernobyl is absolutely true). Although I had a sense for where the story would end up pretty early in, I still enjoyed the book through the last page, and will now eagerly await the next installment in 2009!

Nothing to Lose - Lee Child

This was my first novel with this author, and so my first experience with the character Jack Reacher. This is the latest in the series, the 12th book, so I've missed quite a bit of back story but this book reads well on its oown as well. Jack, a wandering former military man, passes through the town of Hope and continues walking the 17 miles to the neighboring town of Despair. While in the latter, he is jailed by the local deputies and returned to the town line of the former. Reacher, having no better place to be, gets involved in finding out what is going on in Despair that makes its police force so efficient at prosecuting "vagrants." I enjoyed the plot, although there were a few moments when the bad guys seem to inexplicably act a bit out of character to continue the story. I will be going back to the first book now so I can catch up with Reacher's history.

Between the Lines - Jessica Page Morrell

On a recent Sunday morning visit to Borders, I felt that I needed inspiration to get my writing going. Although I have a stack of writing books at home, this one jumped off the shelf at me, and I actually enjoyed reading it (versus feeling like I had to push through). The author uses examples of good writing in both popular novels and movies to help drive home concepts, and I found myself revisiting some of the words that I've already put down. The advice in this book is probably best applied between the first and second drafts, as thinking about these concepts might interrupt the initial thought process where the most important thing is to simply get the words to paper. And, yes, that was a split infinitive, and this sentence starts with a conjunctive.

Soul of the Fire - Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth

Book 5 of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind focus's more on political intrigue than on action.  There is still plenty of action, but the politics of the world become more important and more prevelant to the story.  Here we also begin to view Terry's political philosophy based on Ayn Rand.  This really doesn't distract from the story though if you are completely opposed to Rand's philosophy you may find the writing as a bit of preaching.  I didn't mind so much since as a conservative some of Rand's ideas fall in line with mine.  But that discussion is better saved for a different blog. Because of the change from action to politics, the book was a slower read for me.  There were times I just couldn't motivate myself to read, but plugging through leads to some rewarding reading the last few chapters, leading to a climax with ramifications that will impact future novels. Overall, not a bad  book, not the best so far, but an important transitional book.  6/10

By The Sword - F. Paul Wilson

Foremost, if you're a fan of Repairman Jack, you'll be looking for this book in November. If you need a copy sooner, check out www.GauntletPress.com. The author has again brought a story to a connecting point with a former work, this time touching on his under-appreciated novel "Black Wind." Jack is employed to find a katana, and is still looking for the pregnant girl Dawn, who is in turn hunted by the Kickers. In a note at the end of the book, Wilson briefly discusses bringing the Repairman Jack novels to an end after a few more books, and the reader can see some items getting wrapped up and amplified. This is fast read, but not a good stand-alone book for the unassociated reader - start with The Tomb and move forward!