Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Brilliant. Another book from Neil Gaiman that I love. Love, love, love. I love how he intertwines a bizarre, fantasy world with our normal, modern world. It creates fascinating reading. In this book, a man named Charlie hears that his father has died. He flies from his home in London to Florida to attend the funeral, and from there everything goes weird. He finds out that his father was actually a god (a spider) (and might not really be dead, but he doesn't play a direct role in the novel, so he may as well be dead for our purposes as readers) and that he has a brother (sort of) who has his father's god-like abilities, which Charlie does not have. Sort of. Charlie invites his brother into his life, and Spider (his brother) makes a mess of Charlie's life and then Charlie has to figure out how to get rid of his brother. And then he has to figure out how to save his brother when Raven takes him. Great story. Great worlds.

Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn Mccrumb

I have very mixed feelings about the book. I can't decide whether I like it or hate it. It's a clever premise. It is a murder mystery set at a science fiction convention. The title of the book (and it's a great title) is also the title of a book written by a minor author invited to the con; he is our protagonist. However, the author's agent/editor/girlfriend seems to be voice of this book's author, Sharon Mccrumb. And she's annoying.

And this is where my mixed feelings mostly come in. She seems to have a very cliche view of con-goers, incredibly judgemental about what losers they all are. The geeks are all superfically characterized. At the same time, I had to admit I'd met con-goers like those portrayed. Thus I was constantly bouncing back and forth between offense and laughter.

As for the tale itself, I liked the premise. It was a fairly interesting read (I don't normally read murder mysteries), and they way the killer was brought to light at the end (through a Dungeons and Dragons game) was a great idea. Unfortunately, the events at the very end of the game when the murderer is revealed led me to roll my eyes. I didn't buy it. I think that the suspension of disbelief was lost because of the weak characterization. We as readers had not been given a deep enough understanding of the murderer - or any of the characters, for that matter - to accept what was then told us about what he did and his motivation.

So... mixed feelings. Clever premise, fairly good read, but weak characterization, which damages the entire story.

Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein

Good book. It's a tale about an actor who is hired to impersonate a politician who has been kidnapped. His kidnapping threatens the relationship between Earth and Mars because the Martians have an intensely ritualistic culture that makes it impossible to just not show up for an impending important ceremony, and this politician is expected to participate in this ceremony.

I had a hard time getting into this book. For the first half of the book, I thought it was quite dull and was disappointed. I just wasn't caring about the actor - actually, he was kind of annoying, and he wasn't supposed to be annoying. But then around the midpoint, I suddenly got really into the story and quite enjoyed the rest of it. The ending was predictable, but it was a good enough tale that I didn't mind.