Some Fiction.

I'm going to have to stop Pascal's Fearless series-- the libraries out here don't have them, which makes me sad. If anyone has finished the series, let me know if it improves. I was really looking forward to a few more of those. A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick. (I received a galley copy at MidWinter (yes, I'm still working through those).) This book didn't always go quit where I wanted it, but it was a very good story, and very well written. There wasn't anything really for me to gush about, but I'm not complaining, either. I'm sure this one will do very well; I can see it being good in a small book group, and I enjoyed it as a story that made you feel for the characters, made you think, but didn't make you want to take notes: it was a good balance of relaxing story but involving and interesting. The Wizard Heir, by Cinda Williams Chima. I was able to get my hands on this book and finished it over the weekend. It begins by focusing on a new character, but eventually brings in all or most of the characters from the first book, and it carries all of them over into the third book, which I have started. The old characters seem a bit different, like the author changes a few things to make them fit, or goes back and adds detail to their lives-- they just feel a bit different, but it's been a while since I read the first one, so that could just be me. 1st to Die, by James Patterson. Despite the fact that I have a passle of objections and criticisms, I weirdly enjoyed this book and read through it in one day this weekend. I've read a few things be Patterson, and his inability to capture a female protagonist is not limited Maximum Ride: I found this main character's reactions and speech to be unrealistic. I thought it was quite silly that many of the chapters weren't even a whole page long. What's the point of that? The author also switched between omnipotent 3rd person narrative and 1st person, which annoyed me (pick one and just stick to it, eh?). All of my literary pet peeves got attacked in this one, too: liberal use of fragments; inappropriate, overuse of italics; and inconsistent, completely out of place swearing, not consistent with characters or narrative style. My biggest problem with this novel was, although the plot did move along and was quite compelling, the motivation really wasn't explained at all. I was extremely disappointed. I'm sure my review isn't going to impact sales at all, but I have been very let down by all of my encounters with Patterson's works. I really can't imagine why he is so popular when so many people do better.