Books Dan's Read

Author Last Author First ISBN Author Title Rating Comments
             
Crichton Michael 0060502304 Michael Crichton The Great Train Robbery 10 Clever and fun, concise, and as always brilliant in its ambiguous mix of historical fact and original fiction.
Goldman William 0151015449 William Goldman The Princess Bride 10 This may be my overall favorite book.  I've read it twice.  It's funny, it's elaborate, the meta-story is executed flawlessly, and most importantly, this book is wildly original.  There is nothing else like it.  Nothing.   Brillant.  The movie happens to be brilliant as well and is very faithful to the book, but as always leaves a lot of detail out by necessity.
Harris  Thomas 0312195265 Thomas Harris  The Silence of the Lambs 10 I should start by saying that I hated the movie and had low expectations for the book… but this is a great example of an amazing book that just doesn't translate to the screen.  The movie is about being scared of a guy who cuts people's faces off; the book is about the psychology of a twisted, tortured, brilliant mind, and is executed perfectly.
Rice Anne 0345337662 Anne Rice Interview with the Vampire 10 I started reading this series mostly because Guns and Roses was in the movie soundtrack, and was not disappointed.  Brilliant in its ability to set up a whole world spanning thousands of years, intricate yet always coherent and consistent.  And at the same time, a great train-of-thought exploration for a very unusual character type.
Clancy Tom 0425133516 Tom Clancy The Hunt For Red October 9 This is still my favorite of the TC series.  It highlights what Clancy is best at: brilliantly intricate plots that are extreme but altogether not implausible.  I happen to love the movie too, and if you like the movie I expect you'll see the book as an excellent complement that fills in tons of detail that didn't get into the movie.
Crichton Michael 0345354613 Michael Crichton Eaters of the Dead 9 Clever and fun, concise, and as always brilliant in its ambiguous mix of historical fact and original fiction.
Harris  Thomas 038529929X Thomas Harris  Hannibal 9 Harris demonstrates an ability to almost make you feel sympathy for a character who is, by any metric, pure evil.  Another great psycho-thriller.
Rice Anne 0345419642 Anne Rice The Vampire Lestat 9 I started reading this series mostly because Guns and Roses was in the movie soundtrack, and was not disappointed.  Brilliant in its ability to set up a whole world spanning thousands of years, intricate yet always coherent and consistent.  And at the same time, a great train-of-thought exploration for a very unusual character type.
Rice Anne 0345419626 Anne Rice The Queen of the Damned 9 I started reading this series mostly because Guns and Roses was in the movie soundtrack, and was not disappointed.  Brilliant in its ability to set up a whole world spanning thousands of years, intricate yet always coherent and consistent.  And at the same time, a great train-of-thought exploration for a very unusual character type.  Also an important point on this book in particular... if you saw the movie, do not let that dissuade you from reading the book.  The movie was like a comic book gone bad, with acting and dialog to match.  The plot sort of follows the book, but the movie really misses the point.
Iggulden Conn 0440243904 Conn Iggulden Genghis: Birth of an Empire (Conqueror Series, Book 1) 8 This is among the best pieces of historical fiction I've read.  I felt like I was getting a history lesson, a character novel, and an action book all in one.  But the most fascinating part, to me, was the detailed treatment of a culture that's about as far from modern-day America as any culture history can describe.
Baldacci David 0330419641 David Baldacci Absolute Power 8 By far the best of Baldacci's novels… I saw the movie (which is excellent) first, and the book did not disappoint.  A very clever plot (although it may seem less clever now that's it's been copied by quite a few action movies since) and an intruiging lead character.
Bowden Mark 0552999652 Mark Bowden Black Hawk Down 8 An amazing collection of real quotes and anecdotes into a compelling book that reads like fiction.
Clancy Tom 0006173624 Tom Clancy Red Storm Rising 8 This is the only of the Clancy books to stray from the single-main-character, spy-on-a-quest model.  It's a high-level description of a hypothetical US/USSR WWIII, and it's profoundly well-executed.  The first 100 pages, setting up the war, read like an action book, then suddenly it becomes more like (hypothetical) historical fiction.  Slower and more difficult to get through than other TC books, but very good.
Condon Richard 0743482972 Richard Condon The Manchurian Candidate 8  
Crichton Michael 0345370775 Michael Crichton Jurassic Park 8  
Crichton Michael 034540288X Michael Crichton The Lost World 8  
Harris  Thomas 044024448X Thomas Harris  Hannibal Rising 8 Harris creates an impressively subtle and believable transition from Hannibal the child to Hannibal the monster.  A good addition to the series.
Pullman Philip 0440238153 Philip Pullman The Amber Spyglass 8 Throughout the first two books I was pleased with the anti-church message but slightly concerned about a lingering pro-religious (i.e. pro-God) message.  Very relieved to see that the third and final book went in a direction that could only piss off the church more than the first two books.
Smith Scott 030727828X Scott Smith The Ruins 8 I generally don't read horror novels, and at first glance this couldn't be a more generic horror novel… young couples on vacation in Mexico, everything goes to hell, etc.  And to make things even less interesting, the "evil" that inevitably surfaces really isn't all that inspiring.  BUT... unlike anything I've read in this genre, instead of scaring you with vivid descriptions of implausible evils, this book lives inside the very compelling trains-of-thought of four very real characters.  Yes, there's blood and gore, but it's entirely about how real people deal with fear, and you just can't help but ask how you would deal with the same situation.  Incredibly compelling.
Franklin Tom 0061142778 Tom Franklin Smonk 8 100% credit for originality… extremely effective use of violence, profanity, and vulgarity at a preposterous level, without being crude.  And it takes such a bizarre turn about 2/3 of the way through that you almost feel like you feel asleep and missed something.  In a good way.  If it were longer, it would have gotten dull, but it was appropriate in length.  I only knock off two points because I'm still not sure about everything that happened.
Grisham John 0385517238 John Grisham The Innocent Man 7 Got a little dull for a bit in the middle (we get the point, he's crazy and getting worse), but I really like the journalistic style, and the way that style very deliberately transitions from reporting to social commentary as the book moves forward.
Izzo Jean-Claude 1933372044 Jean-Claude Izzo Total Chaos (Marseilles Trilogy, Book 1) 7 I'm planning to read the rest of the trilogy.  A quintessential noir European crime novel, with a lead character who varies just enough from the tough-guy-gone-introspective cliché to be interesting.  And an excellent translation, at least in the sense that whether or not it's faithful to the original French, the translation yielded excellent prose and believable dialog.
Clancy Tom 0006177301 Tom Clancy Clear and Present Danger 7  
Crichton Michael 0060541814 Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain 7  
Herbert Frank 044100590X Frank Herbert Dune 7 Good sci-fi with a well-thought-out universe, but more importantly a great psychological-exploration novel.
Pullman Philip 0440418321 Philip Pullman The Golden Compass 7 The quality of prose here vastly exceeds that of other books in the adolescent-age fantasy genre (read: Harry Potter), as does the creativity invoked in creating the world in which the book is set. 
Pullman Philip 0440238145 Philip Pullman The Subtle Knife 7 Not quite as compact a story as The Golden Compass; meanders a little bit… but still a way-outside-the-box fantasy series with a controversial treatment and discussion of religion that our society needs more of.
Reich Christopher 0440234689 Christopher Reich The Runner 7 Not so far from a run-of-the-mill action novel, but the historical setting (post-WWII Germany) is used quite well here.
Rice Anne 0345369947 Anne Rice The Mummy 7 Closer to standard paperback fare than Rice's other novels, but still fun.
Rice Anne 0345419634 Anne Rice The Tale of the Body Thief 7 As with any long-running series, things started to fall apart a little here… especially after the massive, apocalyptic scale of The Queen of the Damned, it was hard to be compelled by one character in isolation here.  But good fun nonetheless, and surprisingly good given the pretty cartoon-ish plot.
Rowling J.K. 0439139600 J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 7 I think of my ratings as "recommendation scores", not really "quality ratings".  I don't actually think any Harry Potter book would get a 7 on its own merits, given the total lack of coherence in the plotlines and dialog that fits, well, a children's book.  But with that said, it's fun to experience the phenomenon... it was fun to buy these the night they came out, to see the movies on opening night, etc., and that deserves a 7 right there.
Rowling J.K. 0439785960 J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 7 I think of my ratings as "recommendation scores", not really "quality ratings".  I don't actually think any Harry Potter book would get a 7 on its own merits, given the total lack of coherence in the plotlines and dialog that fits, well, a children's book.  But with that said, it's fun to experience the phenomenon... it was fun to buy these the night they came out, to see the movies on opening night, etc., and that deserves a 7 right there.
Rucka Greg 055380135X Greg Rucka Fistful of Rain 7  
Rucka Greg 0553584936 Greg Rucka Private Wars 7  
Rucka Greg 0671774557 Greg Rucka Batman: No Man's Land 7 When I realized I had actually picked up what essentially amounts to Batman fan-fiction, I was worried I had totally wasted my time and my trip to the library… it turns out this is actually a pretty clever and creative perspective on a familiar character.
Snicket Lemony 0439206472 Lemony Snicket The Bad Beginning 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 0064407675 Lemony Snicket The Reptile Room 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 0064407683 Lemony Snicket The Wide Window 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 0439272637 Lemony Snicket The Miserable Mill 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 0064408639 Lemony Snicket The Austere Academy 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 1405208724 Lemony Snicket The Ersatz Elevator 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 0064408655 Lemony Snicket The Vile Village 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 0064408663 Lemony Snicket The Hostile Hospital 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 1405207523 Lemony Snicket The Carnivorous Carnival 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 0064410137 Lemony Snicket The Slippery Slope 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 1405215275 Lemony Snicket The Grim Grotto 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 0064410153 Lemony Snicket The Penultimate Peril 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket Lemony 0060562250 Lemony Snicket Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Biography 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Snicket  Lemony 0060586583 Lemony Snicket  The Beatrice Letters 7 This series is outstanding relative to other young-adult fiction (read: Harry Potter); always funny, and the meta-story is executed brilliantly throughout the series.
Stephenson Neal 0060512806 Neal Stephenson Cryptonomicon 7 The story I could take or leave, but it didn't really matter.  The humor was dark and witty, the settings were creative, and the use of multiple parallel chronologies was well-executed.
Baldacci David 0446614459 David Baldacci Split Second 6 Well-written, but basically standard action fare.  A disappointment after reading "Absolute Power".
Baldacci David 0446611778 David Baldacci Last Man Standing 6 Well-written, but basically standard action fare.  A disappointment after reading "Absolute Power".
Baldacci David 0446604844 David Baldacci Total Control 6 Well-written, but basically standard action fare.  A disappointment after reading "Absolute Power".
Broadbent Tony 1933397152 Tony Broadbent The Smoke 6 A better-than-average crime/spy story in the well-utilized backdrop of post-WWII Britain.  Good use of the dialect and culture of the time and place without overdoing it.
Brown Dan 1400079179 Dan Brown The Da Vinci Code 6  
Child Lee 0440241022 Lee Child One Shot 6 This is a slight cut above random action novel… a stock Jack-Bauer-esque hero, but a well-executed detective story.
Clancy Tom 0006174558 Tom Clancy Patriot Games 6  
Clancy Tom 0425116840 Tom Clancy The Cardinal of the Kremlin 6  
Clancy Tom 0006471161 Tom Clancy The Sum of All Fears 6  
Clancy Tom 0006476414 Tom Clancy Without Remorse 6  
Clancy Tom 0425147584 Tom Clancy Debt of Honor 6  
Clancy Tom 0425158632 Tom Clancy Executive Orders 6  
Colfer Eoin 0786817070 Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl 6  
Colfer Eoin 0439450705 Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident 6  
Colfer Eoin 0786819146 Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code 6  
Cook Robin 0399144773 Robin Cook Vector 6  
Crais Robert 0345434498 Robert Crais Hostage 6  
Crichton Michael 0060541830 Michael Crichton Congo 6  
Crichton Michael 0345353145 Michael Crichton Sphere 6  
Crichton Michael 0061015725 Michael Crichton Prey 6  
Crichton Michael 0061015733 Michael Crichton State of Fear 6  
Frost Mark 0786888008 Mark Frost The Greatest Game Ever Played 6  
Goldman William 0345442636 William Goldman The Silent Gondoliers 6  
Harris  Thomas 0525945563 Thomas Harris  Red Dragon 6 Better-than-average detective paperback, but not much better.  Amazing that this blossomed into such an incredible series.
Kerr Philip 1400049490 Philip Kerr Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton: A Novel 6 A clever Crichton-esque period piece that blurs history and fiction, but it gets somewhat crude at times and veers in a few random directions
King Stephen 1416524355 Stephen King Everything's Eventual 6  
Koontz Dean 0425181111 Dean Koontz Strangers 6  
Ludlum Robert 0553260111 Robert Ludlum The Bourne Identity 6 Good premise, at the time very original… but pretty slow, and the main character is much less compelling than his silver-screen counterpart.  A rare case where you should skip the book and just watch the movie(s) (which diverge from the books in every way except the original premise).
Ludlum Robert 0553263226 Robert Ludlum The Bourne Supremacy 6 Good premise, at the time very original… but pretty slow, and the main character is much less compelling than his silver-screen counterpart.  A rare case where you should skip the book and just watch the movie(s) (which diverge from the books in every way except the original premise).
Ludlum Robert 0553287737 Robert Ludlum The Bourne Ultimatum 6 Good premise, at the time very original… but pretty slow, and the main character is much less compelling than his silver-screen counterpart.  A rare case where you should skip the book and just watch the movie(s) (which diverge from the books in every way except the original premise).
Preston Douglas 0765311046 Douglas Preston Tyrannosaur Canyon 6  
Preston Douglas and Child, Lincoln 0446618500 Douglas and Child, Lincoln Preston The Book of the Dead 6  
Rowling J.K. 0545010225 J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 6  
Rucka Greg 0553581791 Greg Rucka Critical Space 6  
Spoor Ryk and Flint, Eric 1416555250 Ryk and Flint, Eric Spoor Boundary 5 This was fascinating to me as an exercise in very creative thinking set to terrible prose.  I actually think some clever thinking went into planning a realistic novel set on a space mission to Mars, but it was written like exactly what you'd expect a novel about a space mission to Mars would sound like.  Terrible dialog, predictable characters, the whole bad-sci-fi deal.
David Peter 0441010776 Peter David Knight Life 5 I think I would have loved this book in middle school.  Cheap one-liner humor, no real dialog.  Fiction for dungeons and dragons fans, although not a bad read on the plane if you want something light, where spacing out for a page or two won't really make you sad.
Brown Dan 0743486226 Dan Brown Angels and Demons 5  
Caldwell Ian and Thomason, Dustin 0440241359 Ian and Thomason, Dustin Caldwell The Rule of Four 5 The definition of "random paperback you get at the airport".  Neither good nor bad.
Clancy Tom 0425191184 Tom Clancy Red Rabbit 5  
Crichton Michael 0060873167 Michael Crichton Next 5 Clever in both topic and execution, although not really a coherent novel.
Crichton Michael 0060541830 Michael Crichton Airframe 5 Really disappointing ending.  REALLY disappointing.
Herbert Frank 0441104029 Frank Herbert Children of Dune 5 I have never seen a series degrade quite so quickly… it's clear that Herbet _thought_ the reason Dune was popular was because people liked all the magic and giant worms, when in fact Dune was actually a well-written novel with lots of interesting train-of-a-character's-thought moments.  So when he wrote additional Dune novels, he dropped all the interesting moments and just wrote about magic and giant worms.
Lynds Gale 0752858769 Gale Lynds The Altman Code 5  
Nimmo Jenny 0439474299 Jenny Nimmo Midnight for Charlie Bone 5 Just like Harry Potter (_just_ like Harry Potter), but slightly more coherent, and without all the fun of a pop-culture phenomenon.
Nimmo Jenny 043949687X Jenny Nimmo Charlie Bone and the Time Twister 5 Just like Harry Potter (_just_ like Harry Potter), but slightly more coherent, and without all the fun of a pop-culture phenomenon.
Nimmo Jenny 0439545269 Jenny Nimmo Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy 5 Just like Harry Potter (_just_ like Harry Potter), but slightly more coherent, and without all the fun of a pop-culture phenomenon.
Nimmo Jenny 0439545285 Jenny Nimmo Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors 5 Just like Harry Potter (_just_ like Harry Potter), but slightly more coherent, and without all the fun of a pop-culture phenomenon.
Nimmo Jenny 0439545307 Jenny Nimmo Charlie Bone and the Hidden King 5 Just like Harry Potter (_just_ like Harry Potter), but slightly more coherent, and without all the fun of a pop-culture phenomenon.
Rowling J.K. 043936213X J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 5  
Rowling J.K. 0439554896 J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 5  
Rowling J.K. 0439358078 J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 5  
Snicket Lemony 0064410161 Lemony Snicket The End 5 A little disappointing how little got resolved at the end of this series…
Thor Brad 1416543686 Brad Thor The Lions of Lucerne 5  
Berry  Steve 0345476166 Steve Berry  The Templar Legacy 4 Running around Europe solving centuries-old mysteries, racing against the Knights Templar.  Sound familiar?  Seriously, if I make this sound like a Da Vinci Code clone, I'm understating it.  More importantly, this book was really slow, and I had a lot of trouble keeping track of the stories within the stories within the stories.
Brown Dan 0312995423 Dan Brown Digital Fortress 4  
Brown Dan 1416524800 Dan Brown Deception Point 4  
King Stephen 0517219018 Stephen King The Stand 4  
King Stephen 0743412281 Stephen King Pet Semetary 4  
Ludlum Robert 0752849646 Robert Ludlum The Janson Directive 4  
Ludlum Robert 0752848135 Robert Ludlum The Sigma Protocol 4  
Paolini Christopher 0375826696 Christopher Paolini Eragon 4 Standard fantasy.  Well-written, but I don't really like standard fantasy.
Perry Steve 0425161722 Steve Perry Tom Clancy's Net Force 4 Virtually nothing beyond the usual techno-babble that's supposed to be intruiging.  Computer hackers are the new soldiers, blah blah.  Not very good.
Reich Christopher 044024143X Christopher Reich The Patriots Club 4 Dull novel about a mega-government-conspiracy.  Poor dialog, predictable.
Reilly  Matthew 0312981260 Matthew Reilly  Temple 4 Poorly written, very simplistic language and structure.  Implausible action from beginning to end.  Can I suggest that if you're an author and you find yourself isolating the phrase "...and then it happened" in its own paragraph more than, say, five times in a single book, you should check your cliche factor.
Rovin Jeff 0425147363 Jeff Rovin Tom Clancy's Op-Center 4  
Clancy Tom 0425170055 Tom Clancy Rainbow Six 3 This is the worst of the Clancy books.  Easily.  This is around when TC thought it would be a good idea to further develop his characters, which translated to more awful dialog and less of what he's best at: plot.  In fact, this book had little to no plot.  Armed men run around killing people.  I loved all four Die Hard movies, and this was even too much for me. Ugh.
Clancy Tom 0425180964 Tom Clancy The Bear and the Dragon 3  
Clancy Tom 0425197409 Tom Clancy The Teeth of the Tiger 3 By this point, Tom Clancy seems to have lost his ability to craft huge and deeply-researched war novels, and became just another spy-fiction-paperback writer.  And not a good one, by the way.  When you take away the research and the deep and clever plot from a Clancy book, you're left with awful dialog and a total lack of sensible character behavior.
Herbert Frank 0441294677 Frank Herbert God Emperor of Dune 3 I have never seen a series degrade quite so quickly… it's clear that Herbet _thought_ the reason Dune was popular was because people liked all the magic and giant worms, when in fact Dune was actually a well-written novel with lots of interesting train-of-a-character's-thought moments.  So when he wrote additional Dune novels, he dropped all the interesting moments and just wrote about magic and giant worms.
Irving John 0552135399 John Irving A Prayer for Owen Meany 3 I read this because Merrie left it on the table and I was out of books.  I should have just watched TV.  This book is slow, surprisingly crude, not realistic but at the same time not interesting.   I give it a 3 instead of a 1 basically because the prose is good.
King Stephen 0743437497 Stephen King The Shining 3 Despite its reputation as some sort of classic, largely due to the inexplicable success of the _awful_ movie adaptation… if you care about any of the following, don't read this book: (1) staying awake, (2) plot resolution, (3) coherent motivation for anything that happens.
Rowling J.K. 043965548X J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 3 Two points off for time travel, which I consider to be an author's way of giving up.
Estleman Loren 9780765309143 Loren Estleman The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion 7 A fun, quick read, a nice twist on the usual Western style and the usual heist novel.  Didn't have any of the clever believability that makes heist books fun (see "The Great Train Robbery", written in a similar style but much better than this book), but not quite funny enough to be a real comedy.  But still, good fun.
Iggulden Conn 0007201761 Conn Iggulden Genghis: Lords of the Bow 7 A great follow-up to the first one, though a little dry when his brothers are slowly ambling around China, and some of the dialog was a tiny bit cliché.  But overall an excellent piece of historical fiction about a huge piece of history that most of us - including myself - couldn't tell you the first thing about.
Reeve Philip 1599900203 Philip Reeve Larklight 8 A well-executed children's book with prose good enough to entertain adult readers as well, targeted at the same audience that enjoys the Series of Unfortunate Events books and written in a similar mock-Victorian style.  Clever and amusing.
Dietrich William 0060848332 William Dietrich Napoleon's Pyramids 5 A typical medium-garbage adventure novel with uninteresting puzzles, unrealistic action, and poor dialog.  On the merits of the plot, probably a 3, but it was a brief tour into a piece of history I admittedly know nothing about (Napoleon's military entrance into Egypt).  It was a crappy tour as historical fiction goes, but gets a couple points for an interesting historical domain.
Reeve Philip 0747589135 Philip Reeve Starcross    
Barone Sam 0060892463 Sam Barone Empire Rising 6 Fairly strong as historical fiction, exploring an interesting and rarely-described setting: early prehistory (3000BC) in what is now called the Middle East.  An interesting tour through early culture and early military conflict, though clearly not all that realistic (once again, see the "Lords of the Bow" series for what historical fiction should look like).  As a novel, pretty mediocre.  Characters were stock and predictable, action was drawn out, dialog was better than average but not exceptional.
Pessl Marisha 0670916072 Marisha Pessl Special Topics in Calamity Physics: A Novel 10 I don't give a lot of 10's.  This is only my fifth, in fact.  But this book had me sold by page 50.  I also highlight that the author does not overdo it in the plot department, and I typically read books for plot alone (could someone who reads for prose really stomach all the Tom Clancy books?).  But the prose in this book is so original and so entertaining that I read this book more like poetry than like a novel. In 500+ pages, I don't think I skipped a word.  And after my longest stretch with this book - a 15-hour flight in which I would have been fast asleep were it not for Calamity Physics - I found that even my internal monologue was in the tone of the book, because the prose itself was that compelling.
Cain Chelsea 0312947151 Chelsea Cain Heartsick 6 I had fairly low expectations; this looked like another paperback mystery thriller.  But actually, the main character was quite compelling, and the use of flashbacks to deliver the psycho-thriller what-happened-to-this-poor-guy aspect was done quite well.  All in all, better-than-average mystery/thriller fiction.
DeMille Nelson 0446353205 Nelson DeMille The Charm School 7 I expected little from this book… did I really need another cold-war us-versus-the-Russians action novel?  But I was pleasantly surprised; the action was (appropriately) minimal, and the dialog was - as this genre goes - well-written and believable.  Most interesting was the focus on the setting: many books have American spies doing battle with Russian spies, but few put a spotlight on the Russian culture of the time.  Is it accurate?  Don't care.  The description of the setting was detailed and engaging, notching this a point above your typical "plane read" action-thriller.
Clark Brock 1565125517 Brock Clark An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England 6 The unusual manner of writing was clever here for a few pages, but got dull rather quickly.  The story was also clever and unusual, so uniqueness points all around, but never all that captivating.  Fortunately not all that long either.
Simmons Dan 9780316017442 Dan Simmons The Terror 7 High marks for originality, and high marks for making me curious about a historical phenomenon I'd never even thought about (the European attempts to find the Northwest Passage across Canada, and how miserable an experience it was).  High marks for capturing pure misery to its theoretical limit; it was like a slow, painful train wreck (in a good way).  High marks for having a weird supernatural monster that _wasn't_ the focus of the book, and high marks for blending fact and fiction in a novel way (not in the Michael Crichton way, which I also like, more in a way where everything that is known to history felt real, and everything that is a mystery in the real world was filled in with complete fantasy... very clever).  But... this book did get pretty slow, and was really long.  Because of the mid-nineteenth-century maritime setting, it reminded me at times of the classic books set in that universe that I had to read in high school and HATED.  Also, the end was a little _too_ weird for my tastes.  But a very unique read overall; I'll definitely read at least one of his other books.
Larson Erik 9781400080663 Erik Larson Thunderstruck 7 Good historical fiction in the sense that I still don't know what was real and what wasn't, both in terms of the scientific history (revolving around the quest for wireless radio transmission) and in terms of the personal histories of the inventors involved.  Five stars for originality and five stars for historical intruige.  Unfortunately, I found that it did get a little dull.  We get it, he wants to build a giant antenna.  But very original.
Smith Scott 9780307278272 Scott Smith A Simple Plan 8 A short, fast-faced read that puts you in the world of a regular dude whose life spins, little by little, into killing, crime, and eventually a total loss of sanity.  It's not so much a thriller as it is an exercise in violent pity; you just want everything to get back and track, but you know it won't.  Surprisingly good, much like Smith's first novel (The Ruins).
Colfer Eoin 0141381647  Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception 6 On literary merit alone, this is an excellent series of children's books that - in my opinion - far exceeds Harry Potter (now the genre standard) in originality and plot coherence.
Reeve Philip 0747582408 Philip Reeve Starcross 7 Slightly less coherent than the first book in terms of plot, but still amusing and very stylish.  I am still quite excited about the third book and the upcoming movie.