Reading Stuff

Read five books in the last month or so:

Jack McDevitt's "Seeker", and "The Devil's Eye". These are both 'Alex Benedict' books, set about 9000 years in the future. McDevitt's not quite as hard SF as Niven or Baxter, but the stories are entertaining, and completely free of the teenage undead and squinty-eyed CG soldiers that seem to be displacing real SF from the SF shelves.

"Bad Boy" from Peter Robinson - this is the latest in a mystery series set in contemporary England primarily about detective (DCI) Alan Banks and company. While some of these are centered on murder investigations, in this one it gets personal for Banks. Burgess loses breakfast! I couldn't put this down, and read it in two days.

Gillian Bradshaw's "London in Chains" is a historical fiction that follows a woman who goes into the printing business in the 1640's. Considering that in the 1640's Parliament and King Charles each basically wanted the other to permanently Go Away, you can see that printing 'news books' for the masses would be a delicate proposition. This leads to some adventure with secret presses, some narsty villains, people getting hauled away in the night and taken to The Tower, and the diabolical machinations of Cromwell.

"Dark North", also Gillian Bradshaw, another historical fiction. This is set in Roman Britain, about an auxiliary scout who volunteered for the legions in Africa and ends up behind enemy lines on the barbarian side of Hadrian's Wall. Good adventure.