Sunidesus Reads

The Protector's War, by S.M. Stirling

This is the second in a series by S.M. Stirling, the first being Dies the Fire.

I know it got a number of crummy reviews on Amazon, but I liked it. Yeah, there isn't exactly a war like the title says, more of the buildup to it. I'm assuming that'll happen in the next book (I'm waiting eagerly for the paperback edition so I can get it, I want to know what happens next!)

I think the time jumps about 5 years from the end of the first book, so civilization is a little bit further along; we get to learn about some of the rest of the world, which is nice. Plus it's quite lengthy and I'm always a fan of a well written brick!

Extremes: A Retrieval Artist Novel, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This would be the second book in the Retrieval Artists Series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the first was The Disappeared. For whatever reason, this one is out of print and I had to order it from a seller on Amazon. No idea what that's about since the book before and the ones after are still in print. And it's not like it was a bad book or something either! I quite enjoyed it. Lots of character development stuff happened for the main character and his former partner.

This one centers around a murder at the moon marathon and the possible involvement of a Disappeared in that and the following events. (about which I shan't go into detail so as not to ruin it for anyone who happens across this!)

I'm planning to go get number three in the series at Borders tomorrow. I'm home on vacation and I need another book!

Acceptable Risk, by Robin Cook

This is a Robin Cook book. Usually his books follow a fairly predictible pattern. Young idealistic doctor discovers some kind of horrible corruption or evil conspiracy and must expose it. And of course he must do so all on his own and is hunted by the Bad Guys the whole time, the authorities never believe him... but eventually he succedes and takes down the Big Evil Corporation. I do enjoy his books, it's just that I know what to expect from them.

This one didn't follow that formula at all. And I quite enjoyed that!

I have no idea how much of it is based in actual research of the history or how much of it is possible, but there's a lot of really interesting stuff in this one about the Salem witch trials and what could have caused them. Since the cause being actual witches seems a little far-fetched.

He also touches on psychopharmacology and how much of our personalities are we willing to change with drugs. How much should we change?