Yes!!!

This weekend two new books arrived by (snail) mail.
About two weeks ago I ordered these books (and some more) on The Book Depository. It is always nice to buy books cheaper on the internet, it is just the waiting that sometimes gets to me.

Alright, my two new books are in. They are:

• Robin Hobb, Blood of dragons
• Tad Williams, The dirty streets of heaven

I'm particularly curious about the Tad Williams one. I'm a huge fan of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, but not of the Otherland-series. We will see.
I saw Blood of dragons in the Waterstone's store in Liverpool. Wasn't quite sure whether I bought it or not, so I decided to wait until home (and I didn't have the space in my lugage to bring it along).

Now I have to find to time to read them (as always).

Disappointed

It’s been a while since I’ve last read a book from the Scarpetta-series by Patricia Cornwell. I wasn’t very impressed with her latest books. I did buy the newest ones and I thought it was time to give her another try. Well, I was kind of disappointed again!

Scarpetta starts very, very long-winded. The first 200 pages are nothing more than Scarpetta examining Oscar Bane, the murder suspect and Scarpetta and Benton discussion what Marino did to her in the previous novel and how this might affect their current case. It is only talk, talk, talk. After 200 pages the action very slowly takes over. Around page 300 another murder takes places. And around page 400 Lucy gets such a brilliant inspiration that the story can be concluded within 50 pages. This inspiration came kind of out of the blue. The previous chapter you were reading about a discussion the whole police team about how to find the murderer. The start of the next chapter sees Lucy on the roof examining video streams and discovering the murderer. Out of the blue, yeah. It felt like Cornwell getting out of control of the story and she needed an excuse to round up. The only reason I finished the book, is because a friend of mine said the book would improve later on. Well, it did some, but not so much. The twist of Lucy finding the murderer really killed the whole book for me. Early on in the book it was pretty obvious who the murderer was, which makes this twist was too easy and too lazy. Oh and of course Oscar wasn't the murderer - something that was quite obvious from the start. Then why waste 200 pages on his character...

Fantastic Fiction (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/patricia-cornwell/scarpetta.htm) describes the book as: “Throughout, Cornwell delivers shocking twists and turns, and the kind of cutting-edge technology that only she can provide. Once again, she proves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthral.” Twists? Turns? Entertain? Maybe they’ve read another book than I did. I still have 3 more Scarpetta-books to read (The Scarpetta factor, Port mortuary  and Red mist), but I think it will take a long, long time before I try anything by Patricia Cornwell again. For now, I prefer Tess Gerritsen over Cornwell. Sorry.

All in all disappointed again. 

It's a kind of magic

A friend of mine gave me digital copy of Jim Butcher’s Storm front, the first novel in The Dresden Files. The series is about a world, similar to our own, but where wizards and magic are very normal. Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire. He finds lost things, is terrible with anything electronic (and that includes his VW Beetle car), has an awful track record concerning women, has trouble paying his bills (don’t we all) and he consults for the police. He lives in a basement along with his cat and has a dungeon for making spells. All in all a nice guy.

In this first book Harry receives the request from a lady to find her lost husband. Later, the police asks for his assistance in a very brutal murders: the hearts of two lovers were ripped out during the act. Ai. The Wizard Council suspects Harry of these murders, due to something that happened in Harry’s past. The precise nature of what is hinted at. Harry has some difficulty proving his innocence, maintaining his health – being attack by some other worldly troll isn’t very good for your physical and mental health – and in the meantime don’t get himself killed. Of course, in the end all ends well (otherwise, there wouldn’t be a series). It takes a time before Harry realizes both causes correspond to eachother: the lost husband is the murderer. 

The book is fun and has a good pace. Harry is a nice enough guy to get interested in. Magic in our world is highly underrated. The idea of magic and how this will affect our world and those who live in it, is well figured out. Not only can magic be off assistance to Harry (but not in the Potter way of things, here magic has a price), it can also be a hindrance. His magic is not always the easy escape you might think. All in all fun/light enough for a bed time snack and I don’t mind reading another one of the series.

Home again

My colleagues don’t even ask anymore where we’re going, when Dear Hubby and I are going on holiday. As usual: England. 

Last week we had a mini cruise to York with a one night stay. That meant almost two whole days in England. This time I didn’t buy too many books, because I bought a very expensive Lego Star Wars kit: the Millennium Falcon. Long time ago, when I went to college, I was a huge fan of Star Wars and particularly of Han Solo. If this had anything to do with a young Harrison Ford… Ah well, I always wanted to own a Millennium Falcon and this is kit is very beautiful and detailed. So I’m very happy.

Besides this beautiful kit I also bought 3 books:

• Tess Gerritsen – The sinner (£ 2,50)
• Tess Gerritsen – Life support(£ 2,50).
• J.D. Robb – Salvation in death (£ 2,00)

We’ll be back again in England in 6 weeks. Another change to buy more books.

Ps. I’ve finished two more books, just need the time to write the blogs…

P.p.s. These are not the covers of the Tess Gerritsen' books I bought, but the only ones I could find on the net.