modDB Book Club group

Oh I forgot to mention another book I finished a while ago:

Dean Koontz's Life Expectancy

I'm a big Dean Koontz fan, and Life Expectancy was a great book. The ending was "Meh", but the entire book was definitely well written, eventful, and no doubt exciting. The way the story plays out at first, you expect to know exactly when things would happen, but it definitely doesn't work that way as your read on. It's a great book with characters that I really enjoyed reading about.

More comments about Splinter Cell (only 2,000 characters allowed, hehe):

The Splinter Cell books have been better than I expected (minus Checkmate). But so far, I have to say the first two books were the best.

In the first two books, it's written in the first person. And it covers not just the stealthy and exciting missions that Sam Fisher (Splinter Cell) goes on, but it also covers his personal life. It covers that brief period of time between missions when he gets to come home, relax and interact with normal folk. Sam Fisher being a lean mean killing machine isn't exactly normal, so this presents some interesting interactions between some other characters in the story (I won't spoil anything).

That's also what I hate about Splinter Cell: Checkmate, and so far (I just started) Splinter Cell: Fallout. The author doesn't cover his personal life too much, mostly just the missions at hand. Some people may like this more than me, but I preferred the style of writing that Raymond Benson brought to the books, not just because it was in first person, but just because what he did with the character Sam Fisher.

I highly recommend the first 2 Splinter Cell Books. And I say finish the last two if you just love Splinter Cell (which I do). The last 2 aren't necessarily bad, they just aren't to the level of the first two IMO.

I just finished reading 3 of the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell books:

Splinter Cell
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
Splinter Cell: Checkmate

And I just started to read:

Splinter Cell: Fallout (Last one of the series so far.)
Star Wars: The Mandalorian Armor (Book 1 of The Bounty Hunter Wars [Boba Fett].)

The first two Splinter Cell books were just awesome. The author going under the alias of "David Michaels" was at first unknown, but is now known to be Raymond Benson (007 writer), and he did a great job.

The author of the last two books is so far known only as "David Michaels" but it is not Benson.

Checkmate (not by Benson) was littered with typos unfortunately. I heard it's because it had only 2 months to be written, so it was rushed. I would not recommend it as the firs to be read of the series!

Splinter Cell books are great so far though.

I hope to get to reading:

The Witcher
I am Legend

There are quite a few other books I'd like to get to reading as well, but I can't recall their names right now...

The Road
Cormac McCarthy
Post-apocalyptic

In The Road, nothing is described too clearly, nothing is spelled out, nothing named. Punctuation is even in absence, making the story all the more lacking in boundaries. McCarthy has crafted what I consider to be a masterpiece in this novel of a father and his sun trekking across the burned remains of earth. He presents intriguing dialogue, and a story free of the usual constraints of an event by event plot.

Read it, then thank me ;)

I am reading:

Second Variety (Short Stories collection)
By Philip K Dick
Science Fiction

Second Variety is the second in a series of five collections of Philip K Dicks short stories. I am currently halfway through and once I have finished I will add my favourite short stories in this collection.

I have also just finished:

Foundation
Isaac Asimov
Science Fiction

First part of a trilogy about the fall of an Galactic empire and the rise of a new empire. It spans over a century and is EPIC!

Just finished The Lies of Locke Lamora a few days ago. It runs a little slow and long in the middle, but man, what a finish. I definitely plan to pick up the rest when they hit paperback.

Now I'm on to...

Going Postal
Terry Pratchett

A con man and petty theft is put in charge of the Discworld post office and hilarity ensues.

This is actually the first Discworld book I've read in quite some time, having moved on to other books sometime in my senior year of high school.

Speaking of Pratchett, apparently, the author himself is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Really depressing news.

News.bbc.co.uk

* DragonWing
* Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis
* Fantasy
* An assassin and the royal child he has been hired to kill form an unlikely and unstable alliance as the plots of human sorcerers, elven pirates, and dwarf revolutionaries threaten to overwhelm the airborne kingdoms of Arianus. Long-time collaborators Weis and Hickman ("The Darksword" trilogy; "The Rose of the Prophet" trilogy) have embarked on their most ambitious project to date in this first of a projected seven-volume cycle. The authors' combined talents for innovative world-building and sympathetic characterizations find ample outlet in this epic fantasy. Recommended for most libraries.
* [img]http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n1/n6910.jpg[/img]

I'm reading a book written by the very same author of the DragonLance Chronicles. Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis also wrote Dragon Wing. And so far it's crushing nutz!:D