Finished Part 3 of LES MISERABLES

Though I believe Hugo spins a great yarn and creates great characters, he can sometimes be darned boring.  Even the best characters don't require more than say 20-30 pages to explain.  This section had 200 pages in it, 150 of which explained characters.  It wasn't until the last 50 pages did something actually start to happen.  Needless to say, these pages read very quickly in comparison.

I will now put this aside again for awhile and move on to something else.



And that is the last book in Vicki Pettersson's Zodiac series, The Neon Graveyard.  I am only 4 pages in, but, as always, she has me intrigued. 

Finished NARCISSUS IN CHAINS

Laurell K. Hamilton's series keeps becoming more erotic without losing any of its violence...in short, I love it.  It is a lovely break from my usual fare.



I've now gone back to Les Miserables to read another portion.  Am about half-way through part 3 and have only just met Marius (a sympathetic character).  No mention yet of Jean Valjean or Cosette.   

Finished A MAN RIDES THROUGH

This is among my three very favorite swords and horses fantasies--The Lord of the Rings, Tale of Fire and Ice (starts with A Game of Thrones) and now Mordant's Need (consisting of two books--The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through).  Exciting, romantic, scary, and satisfying!  Hurrah for Stephen Donaldson.  I just ordered The Last Dark (came out last Tuesday), the last of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.  If he destroys "the land" in this book, I will never forgive him!  The title sounds ominous, but the saga I have just finished gives me hope.

I have now started Narcissus in Chains, Book 10 of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series.  She spends the first chapter catching her audience up with who Anita is and what her present status is in both her personal life and the world of work.  This would be boring for people like me who have read all of the previous ones, except for the fact that it reads like a comedy routine and makes me chuckle the whole way through.  This is good, because knowing her, I won't be laughing much more as the book progresses.  In the second chapter, it becomes scary and, by the fifth, it is not only scary, but steamy.  I love the roller coaster.