Being All Over the Place

I am sure that many of you have noticed that the “Currently Reading” image has changed a lot recently, and that there has been a dearth of reviews lately. So, a quick explanation while I hurry and catch up on reading. Finals week has reared its ugly head, as have a couple of bus trips, and it made reading hard. Lots of breaks made getting into books near impossible, when any other time I would have devoured them. So, to make up for this, here are some very brief thoughts on the books that I started:

Grey Knights by Ben Counter: A story following a group of space marines given the mission to stop all influences of the daemonic in the universe, this novel starts off with a huge action scene before moving into a tale of intrigue about a heretic member of the Inquisition. The pacing was spot on, the action was credible, and it stood up to my only other trip into Counter’s fiction, Galaxy in Flames, from the Horus Heresy series. From what I read, this is a solid book, and one that Luke Reviews promises to return to.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins: Collins is enjoying a very minor resurgence in the recognition of his work, including a new Broadway musical based on his thriller/mystery The Woman in White. I had always wanted to check out one of his novels, and I finally got the chance. Collins’ use of language is a wonderful example of all that can be done with the English language, yet it doesn’t distract from the shocking mystery set out at the very beginning, of a woman in white who escapes from an insane asylum. This one will draw you in very quickly, as it did to this reviewer. It might require a bit more patience than today’s thriller, but it rewarded me for it.

A Thousand Words for Stranger by Julie E. Czerneda: A few years ago I read Survival, the first book in Czerneda’s Species Imperative trilogy, and I loved it. It was a wonderful novel. Yet, for whatever reason, it was years before I finally picked up another of her novels. A Thousand Words for Stranger is Czerneda’s first published novel, as well as the first book in her Trade Pact series. This science fiction novel combines mystery, intrigue, and action to make it a very exciting tale. While it contained a few flaws that were shaken when I read the other novel by a more practiced Czerneda, it still contained the raw story-telling power that I look for in every book I read.

All of these books will get another look here at Luke Reviews, under the conditions they deserve. For now, I’ve moved on to short stories, which will help my short time periods for reading during the stresses of the end of a semester. The magazine Black Gate has been receiving a considerable amount of attention and good reviews, so I’m going to be giving its latest issue a read. I have very high hopes.

Thanks again for the patience. Luke Reviews will reward you for sticking with it!