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1. Melissa Michaels - Skirmish: YA SF, an old favourite. The Skyrider is a hotshot pilot out in the Belt; Jamin is homozygous for freefall, has ties to the Company Board, a stepson who can only tolerate gravity. Together, they are sent after a sabotaged liner, falling sunwards. The same people behind the sabotage will go to any lengths to stop the pair, and it seems their ultimate aim is to start the war. But is it really the Colonials who are behind all of this?
2. Colin Wilson - Spider World: The Tower: SF, another old favourite. In the very distant future, humanity left Earth when a comet came far too close. Since then, insects have grown huge and spiders are the new rulers of the world. The remnants of the human race are either slaves of the spiders, or scavenger-hunters ekeing out a subsistance living in the deserts. Niall, born in the desert and possessing unusual mental abilities, kills a Death Spider, prompting a huge search which captures him and his family. Taken to the Spider's City, he finds his way into the mysterious White Tower and begins to work towards a world in which he and the rest of humanity can be free again.
3. Anne McCaffrey - Dragonflight (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. The Red Star is growing in the skies over Pern, but almost no-one believes that Thread will fall. The one remaining Weyr has only a handful of dragons left. Their last queen is dying, and a new queen egg lies hardening on the hot sands of the hatching ground. F'lar, rider of the immense bronze dragon Mnementh, searches for a likely candidate among the women of Lord Fax's 7 holds. Lessa, last of the bloodline of Ruatha Hold's Lords, has hidden there as a drudge ever since Fax invaded and killed the rest of her family. She takes the arrival of Lord Fax and the dragonmen to push for her revenge, but instead of regaining her hold, she ends up becoming the most important Weyrwoman on Pern. But will it be enough to save Pern from the Red Star?
4. Anne McCaffrey - DragonQuest (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. The 5 weyrs of OldTimers, brought to the present by Lessa, are getting tired of fighting Thread. Their old-fashioned customs are placing considerable strain on modern Holders and Crafters. F'lar and Lessa have a lot to do to prevent Pern from erupting in turmoil once more. The Weyr they established in the uninhabited Southern Continent provides more problems, in the form of selfish, self-obsessed Weyrwoman Kylara, whose actions lead to the deaths of not only her own dragon, Prideth, but also Brekke's queen, Wirenth. The Lords Holder are demanding that dragonmen fight thread at its source, on the Red Star, leading F'lar's half-brother, F'nor, to make a fateful journey on brown Canth.
5. Anne McCaffrey - DragonSong (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. Menolly, youngest daughter of Yanos, SeaHolder of Half Circle Sea Hold, lives for music and is devastated when Harper Petiron dies. But there's no place for useless, idle 'tuning' in her Hold. After her left hand is crippled by an infected cut from gutting packfish, she runs away and lives holdless in a sea cave. But she's not alone: it seems the mythical Firelizards aren't as mythical as was thought. Inadvertantly impressing 9 of them, Menolly is kept busy taking care of them, unaware that every Harper on Pern is looking for Petiron's lost apprentice. But Harper Hall is her destiny...
6. Anne McCaffrey - DragonSinger (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. Menolly finds life at Harper Hall isn't as straightforward as she'd dreamed. There's a lot to be done to find her place, and her fair of firelizards inspire as much jealousy as friendship. Will she ever become a Harper?
7. Anne McCaffrey - The White Dragon (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. Jaxom, Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold, impressed the white dragon, Ruth, leaving him neither a full Holder, nor a full dragonrider. Struggling to find himself and his role in Pernese life, he uncovers his dragon's remarkable talents and his own, in adventures which take him to the Southern Continent and a mysterious mountain which may or may not hold the secrets of the first people on Pern.
8. Anne McCaffrey - DragonDrums (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. Apprentice Piemur finds his place at Harper Hall is in jeopardy after his voice breaks. Secretly apprenticed to MasterHarper Robinton, he's placed in the Drum Tower, much to the disgust of the other Drum apprentices. He suffers in silence as increasingly unpleasant and dangerous pranks are played on him until, on a mission for the MasterHarper, he ends up living Holdless on the Southern Continent with only a fire lizard and a runnerbeast for company.
9. Anne McCaffrey - Moreta, DragonLady of Pern (audiobook): Fantasy. The Ballad of Moreta's Ride is mentioned fairly frequently in the previous Pern books. Here's the story behind the ballad. Moreta is Fort Weyr's Weyrwoman at the end of the 6th Pass of the Red Star since people settled on Pern. The crew of a fishing boat land on the Southern Continent and find a strange large feline and bring it back to the Northern Continent, where it is examined and put on display. Unfortunately, it carries a disease against which the people of Pern have no immunity, and very rapidly people fall sick and begin dying. The disease is also highly contagious among runnerbeasts. Moreta, a keen fan of runnerbeast racing, handles a dying runnerbeast at Ruatha Gather, while in the company of Lord Alessan. The book also follows MasterHealer Campian as he also catches the disease, records its process, and finally finds a way to stop the current epidemic. A second outbreak is imminent, though, and the race is on to vaccinate all of Pern in one day - with tragic consequences.
10. Dorothy L. Sayers - Murder Must Advertise (audio adaptation starring Ian Carmichael): Detective novel, one of my all-time favourite books. Lord Peter Wimsey goes undercover at Pym's advertising agency to find out who killed Victor Dean and what the connection is to the dope trade, which his brother-in-law, Chief Inspector Parker of Scotland Yard, is investigating. Memorable for the incredibly erotic fountain-climbing scene and for the Pym's v Brotherhood(?) cricket match; also full of entertaining stuff about advertising, most of which holds true today. The ending shows the terrible cost of the dope trade - and of investigating - on Lord Peter, and also on the people whose lives are caught up in the business. Finding out the truth is not an easy business and it comes with a price.
11. Colin Wilson - SpiderWorld: The Delta - SF; another favourite. Part philosophical treatise on the potential of the human mind, part SF story about the struggle for post-apocalyptic humanity to live in a world dominated by giant insects, this second volume in the trilogy sees Niall travel to the Delta to find the source of the mysterious energy vibrations. He contacts the being worshipped by the spiders as the goddess Nuada (actually a super-being, a massive plant from another world) and discovers the reason for the bizarre evolutionary steps which the world has taken since the comet passed by.
12. Garth Nix - Sabriel - YA Fantasy; another favourite. Sabriel has grown up in Ancelstierre, south of The Wall. When her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing (presumed horribly dead), she returns to the Old Kingdom to look for his body. The Old Kingdom is a place of magic where the undead can, and do, walk. Sabriel takes her father's place as the Abhorsen, and her quest to find her father's body leads her across the Old Kingdom, into and out of the realm of Death, and into the unravelling of a 200-year old plot which pits the survival of everyone in the Old Kingdom - and some of the citizens of Ancelstierre - against one of the last members of the royal bloodline and his thirst for power and eternal life. Awesome book in so very many ways.
13. Garth Nix - Mister Monday - YA Fantasy. Struggled a bit to get into this - wanting a bit more grounding, I guess. Boy with asthma is handed a key to The House (the centre of all creation) and must find a way to defeat the owner of the other half of the key, Mister Monday, before it's too late, before everyone in his town dies.
14. Linda Goodnight - A Very Special Delivery - (Christian) Romance. A woman has issues with babies after her nephew died from SIDS while in her care. A single father arrives on her doorstep during an ice storm, with his baby. Romance ensues. It's okay. Meh.
15. Maureen Child - Baby Bonanza - Romance. A billionaire finds out he has twin sons and (eventually) works things out with the mother. Much of a muchness.
16. Kiernan Kelly - Caffiene[sic] For A Marine - gay porn. *sigh* Badly written.
17. Varian Krylov - Conrad's First Girl - non-con porn. Half a story, better written, but not terribly realistic.
18. Marta Perry - Hide in Plain Sight - (Christian) Romance. A woman returns to look after her sister and grandmother when the sister has an accident. A string of 'accidents' make it clear that someone doesn't want them to open their guesthouse. Also, the lodger in the barn is more than he seems. Set in Amish country. Actually quite entertaining, with a decent mystery plot (although it's really not too hard to spot the villains).
19. Selena Kitt - On the Bus - short story (porn). *shakes head sadly*
20. Rachelle Le Monnier - Peeping Tom - holiday porn. At least this one has a vague attempt at characterisation and plot...
21. Liz Fielding - The Bride's Baby - Romance. An events planner falls for the groom. When the bride runs off before the wedding, the planner and the groom spend an evening together before going their separate ways. He comes back 6 months later to find that she's pregnant. There are other complications (as per), but all-in-all, not a bad novel.
22. Julia James - The Mistress's Secret - novella, Romance. A Greek tycoon accidentally bumps into his ex-mistress and finds out he has a nephew. But soon the truth about his mistress and his brother comes to light and he finds his nephew is, in fact, his son.
23. Habu - The Hitchiker - story, gay porn. Oh dear.
24. F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. A baby is born an old man and lives his life in reverse. Odd.
25. Charles Dickens - Hard Times - novel. Set in 'Coketown' (much like, ooh, Birmingham...) a man decides only Facts are to be believed in, educates his children (and others) in this, and is disabused of this notion when his oldest son, Tom, robs his friend, Josiah Bounderby's, bank and his daughter, Louisa, concludes that she can't stand being married to Bounderby. Bounderby claims to be a self-made man, is full of bully and bluster, despises those who work in his mills. Stephen Blackpool, one of his workers, is a moral man of wretched circumstances who is ultimately killed by the actions of Tom and of Bounderby. The book concludes that Facts alone cannot make one happy, and the intangibles - Love - are needed in order to make one a decent, rounded human being.
26. Charles Dickens - A Child's Dream of a Star - story. Homily about death, heaven, meeting loved ones after death.
27. Lauren Beukes - Moxyland - cyber-thriller novel. Set in near-future Cape Town. Awesome. Can't wait for more!
28. Kaaron Warren - Slights - horror(?) novel. Set in Australia, follows the adult life of a woman as she brushes repeatedly against death and finds out the less-than-savoury truth about her family, especially her father. Deeply disturbing, really crept inside my head. Excellent!
29. Tim Waggoner - Nekropolis - fantasy/detective/noir novel. Something's been stolen. A PI ('I'm not a detective - I just do favours for people!') is hired to recover it by a beautiful women. But the woman's a halfblood vampire, the item has the potential to destroy the world (the underworld, rather) and the detective is a zombie. All manner of fun! I wants more, precious!
2. Colin Wilson - Spider World: The Tower: SF, another old favourite. In the very distant future, humanity left Earth when a comet came far too close. Since then, insects have grown huge and spiders are the new rulers of the world. The remnants of the human race are either slaves of the spiders, or scavenger-hunters ekeing out a subsistance living in the deserts. Niall, born in the desert and possessing unusual mental abilities, kills a Death Spider, prompting a huge search which captures him and his family. Taken to the Spider's City, he finds his way into the mysterious White Tower and begins to work towards a world in which he and the rest of humanity can be free again.
3. Anne McCaffrey - Dragonflight (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. The Red Star is growing in the skies over Pern, but almost no-one believes that Thread will fall. The one remaining Weyr has only a handful of dragons left. Their last queen is dying, and a new queen egg lies hardening on the hot sands of the hatching ground. F'lar, rider of the immense bronze dragon Mnementh, searches for a likely candidate among the women of Lord Fax's 7 holds. Lessa, last of the bloodline of Ruatha Hold's Lords, has hidden there as a drudge ever since Fax invaded and killed the rest of her family. She takes the arrival of Lord Fax and the dragonmen to push for her revenge, but instead of regaining her hold, she ends up becoming the most important Weyrwoman on Pern. But will it be enough to save Pern from the Red Star?
4. Anne McCaffrey - DragonQuest (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. The 5 weyrs of OldTimers, brought to the present by Lessa, are getting tired of fighting Thread. Their old-fashioned customs are placing considerable strain on modern Holders and Crafters. F'lar and Lessa have a lot to do to prevent Pern from erupting in turmoil once more. The Weyr they established in the uninhabited Southern Continent provides more problems, in the form of selfish, self-obsessed Weyrwoman Kylara, whose actions lead to the deaths of not only her own dragon, Prideth, but also Brekke's queen, Wirenth. The Lords Holder are demanding that dragonmen fight thread at its source, on the Red Star, leading F'lar's half-brother, F'nor, to make a fateful journey on brown Canth.
5. Anne McCaffrey - DragonSong (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. Menolly, youngest daughter of Yanos, SeaHolder of Half Circle Sea Hold, lives for music and is devastated when Harper Petiron dies. But there's no place for useless, idle 'tuning' in her Hold. After her left hand is crippled by an infected cut from gutting packfish, she runs away and lives holdless in a sea cave. But she's not alone: it seems the mythical Firelizards aren't as mythical as was thought. Inadvertantly impressing 9 of them, Menolly is kept busy taking care of them, unaware that every Harper on Pern is looking for Petiron's lost apprentice. But Harper Hall is her destiny...
6. Anne McCaffrey - DragonSinger (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. Menolly finds life at Harper Hall isn't as straightforward as she'd dreamed. There's a lot to be done to find her place, and her fair of firelizards inspire as much jealousy as friendship. Will she ever become a Harper?
7. Anne McCaffrey - The White Dragon (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. Jaxom, Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold, impressed the white dragon, Ruth, leaving him neither a full Holder, nor a full dragonrider. Struggling to find himself and his role in Pernese life, he uncovers his dragon's remarkable talents and his own, in adventures which take him to the Southern Continent and a mysterious mountain which may or may not hold the secrets of the first people on Pern.
8. Anne McCaffrey - DragonDrums (audiobook): Fantasy, another old favourite. Apprentice Piemur finds his place at Harper Hall is in jeopardy after his voice breaks. Secretly apprenticed to MasterHarper Robinton, he's placed in the Drum Tower, much to the disgust of the other Drum apprentices. He suffers in silence as increasingly unpleasant and dangerous pranks are played on him until, on a mission for the MasterHarper, he ends up living Holdless on the Southern Continent with only a fire lizard and a runnerbeast for company.
9. Anne McCaffrey - Moreta, DragonLady of Pern (audiobook): Fantasy. The Ballad of Moreta's Ride is mentioned fairly frequently in the previous Pern books. Here's the story behind the ballad. Moreta is Fort Weyr's Weyrwoman at the end of the 6th Pass of the Red Star since people settled on Pern. The crew of a fishing boat land on the Southern Continent and find a strange large feline and bring it back to the Northern Continent, where it is examined and put on display. Unfortunately, it carries a disease against which the people of Pern have no immunity, and very rapidly people fall sick and begin dying. The disease is also highly contagious among runnerbeasts. Moreta, a keen fan of runnerbeast racing, handles a dying runnerbeast at Ruatha Gather, while in the company of Lord Alessan. The book also follows MasterHealer Campian as he also catches the disease, records its process, and finally finds a way to stop the current epidemic. A second outbreak is imminent, though, and the race is on to vaccinate all of Pern in one day - with tragic consequences.
10. Dorothy L. Sayers - Murder Must Advertise (audio adaptation starring Ian Carmichael): Detective novel, one of my all-time favourite books. Lord Peter Wimsey goes undercover at Pym's advertising agency to find out who killed Victor Dean and what the connection is to the dope trade, which his brother-in-law, Chief Inspector Parker of Scotland Yard, is investigating. Memorable for the incredibly erotic fountain-climbing scene and for the Pym's v Brotherhood(?) cricket match; also full of entertaining stuff about advertising, most of which holds true today. The ending shows the terrible cost of the dope trade - and of investigating - on Lord Peter, and also on the people whose lives are caught up in the business. Finding out the truth is not an easy business and it comes with a price.
11. Colin Wilson - SpiderWorld: The Delta - SF; another favourite. Part philosophical treatise on the potential of the human mind, part SF story about the struggle for post-apocalyptic humanity to live in a world dominated by giant insects, this second volume in the trilogy sees Niall travel to the Delta to find the source of the mysterious energy vibrations. He contacts the being worshipped by the spiders as the goddess Nuada (actually a super-being, a massive plant from another world) and discovers the reason for the bizarre evolutionary steps which the world has taken since the comet passed by.
12. Garth Nix - Sabriel - YA Fantasy; another favourite. Sabriel has grown up in Ancelstierre, south of The Wall. When her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing (presumed horribly dead), she returns to the Old Kingdom to look for his body. The Old Kingdom is a place of magic where the undead can, and do, walk. Sabriel takes her father's place as the Abhorsen, and her quest to find her father's body leads her across the Old Kingdom, into and out of the realm of Death, and into the unravelling of a 200-year old plot which pits the survival of everyone in the Old Kingdom - and some of the citizens of Ancelstierre - against one of the last members of the royal bloodline and his thirst for power and eternal life. Awesome book in so very many ways.
13. Garth Nix - Mister Monday - YA Fantasy. Struggled a bit to get into this - wanting a bit more grounding, I guess. Boy with asthma is handed a key to The House (the centre of all creation) and must find a way to defeat the owner of the other half of the key, Mister Monday, before it's too late, before everyone in his town dies.
14. Linda Goodnight - A Very Special Delivery - (Christian) Romance. A woman has issues with babies after her nephew died from SIDS while in her care. A single father arrives on her doorstep during an ice storm, with his baby. Romance ensues. It's okay. Meh.
15. Maureen Child - Baby Bonanza - Romance. A billionaire finds out he has twin sons and (eventually) works things out with the mother. Much of a muchness.
16. Kiernan Kelly - Caffiene[sic] For A Marine - gay porn. *sigh* Badly written.
17. Varian Krylov - Conrad's First Girl - non-con porn. Half a story, better written, but not terribly realistic.
18. Marta Perry - Hide in Plain Sight - (Christian) Romance. A woman returns to look after her sister and grandmother when the sister has an accident. A string of 'accidents' make it clear that someone doesn't want them to open their guesthouse. Also, the lodger in the barn is more than he seems. Set in Amish country. Actually quite entertaining, with a decent mystery plot (although it's really not too hard to spot the villains).
19. Selena Kitt - On the Bus - short story (porn). *shakes head sadly*
20. Rachelle Le Monnier - Peeping Tom - holiday porn. At least this one has a vague attempt at characterisation and plot...
21. Liz Fielding - The Bride's Baby - Romance. An events planner falls for the groom. When the bride runs off before the wedding, the planner and the groom spend an evening together before going their separate ways. He comes back 6 months later to find that she's pregnant. There are other complications (as per), but all-in-all, not a bad novel.
22. Julia James - The Mistress's Secret - novella, Romance. A Greek tycoon accidentally bumps into his ex-mistress and finds out he has a nephew. But soon the truth about his mistress and his brother comes to light and he finds his nephew is, in fact, his son.
23. Habu - The Hitchiker - story, gay porn. Oh dear.
24. F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. A baby is born an old man and lives his life in reverse. Odd.
25. Charles Dickens - Hard Times - novel. Set in 'Coketown' (much like, ooh, Birmingham...) a man decides only Facts are to be believed in, educates his children (and others) in this, and is disabused of this notion when his oldest son, Tom, robs his friend, Josiah Bounderby's, bank and his daughter, Louisa, concludes that she can't stand being married to Bounderby. Bounderby claims to be a self-made man, is full of bully and bluster, despises those who work in his mills. Stephen Blackpool, one of his workers, is a moral man of wretched circumstances who is ultimately killed by the actions of Tom and of Bounderby. The book concludes that Facts alone cannot make one happy, and the intangibles - Love - are needed in order to make one a decent, rounded human being.
26. Charles Dickens - A Child's Dream of a Star - story. Homily about death, heaven, meeting loved ones after death.
27. Lauren Beukes - Moxyland - cyber-thriller novel. Set in near-future Cape Town. Awesome. Can't wait for more!
28. Kaaron Warren - Slights - horror(?) novel. Set in Australia, follows the adult life of a woman as she brushes repeatedly against death and finds out the less-than-savoury truth about her family, especially her father. Deeply disturbing, really crept inside my head. Excellent!
29. Tim Waggoner - Nekropolis - fantasy/detective/noir novel. Something's been stolen. A PI ('I'm not a detective - I just do favours for people!') is hired to recover it by a beautiful women. But the woman's a halfblood vampire, the item has the potential to destroy the world (the underworld, rather) and the detective is a zombie. All manner of fun! I wants more, precious!
