Body of evidence - Patricia Cornwell

The second tome of the Kay Scarpetta series. Kay Scarpetta is a forensic doctor, so the stories are thrillers, by a master of the genre.

Unfortunately, this episode didn't catch my attention as much as the first one. It was not bad, but everything was a bit bland and the end of the story is quite an anticlimax, to my opinion...

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

Time of Contempt by Sapkowski. The second book in the Witcher novel series. Entertaining but very much a middle chapter sort of thing, in which the characters run around various places and stuff happens to set up stuff that will presumably be resolved in later books.

State of Fear - Michael Crichton

Yeah, Cricthon again. Excellent book on environment, NPOs and power struggles. Seriously, written in 2005 this book is still relevant in 2018. While it's of course a novel, it's really thought-provoking. Plus Crichton adds a post-scriptum in which he states his own stance at the time on the debate about global warming and other ecological problems and he also lists a series of scientifical articles and books for us to refer to he we want to go deeper in that question.

Really, a good read, even if the end is one of the most anti-climacic I've ever read...

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks A novel set in his Culture universe and a good read, as always, from this author.

Incomplete list to this point (I really need to get this up to date): Linky

Gilgamesh the King - Robert Silverberg

A retake of the life of the famous sumerian King Gilgamesh, his adventures, his friendship with Enkiduh the savage man.

Very well written by of of the american masters of S-F and fantasy. Very enjoyable read thorough, but that's only the first volume of Gilgamesh's adventures. Now reading the second tome.

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

★★☆ The Trouble With Women / Jacky Fleming

We found the book with my wife, in cafe, and we didn't know what to expect. It's short, so we've read it expecting some kind of conclusion, but it seems to be just a long line of ridiculous and abstract jokes. Quite funny, however it's also quite specific sense of humor.

★★★ Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets / Svetlana Alexievich

Great reading, as most of the author's books.

★★☆ Jak występować i zabłysnąć / Maciej Orłoś

List of all books finished in 2018.

To the Land of the Living - Robert Silverberg

The second volume of Gilgamesh's adventures. Boy was I in for a surprise! Can't really say anything about the scenario in order to keep the book fresh, but just try to imagine what happens when Gilgamesh encounters people like Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Sir Walter Raleigh, Pablo Picasso or Lenin.

Crazy book, crazy story, very enjoyable! But you must read the books in order to get the full effect.

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

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★☆☆ Grimm Tales: For Young and Old / Philip Pullman

Somewhat disappointing. Perhaps I've just expected too much / sth different. It's just a bunch of well-known fairy tales written in today's language, with the purpose of showing exactly as they looked at the moment of being gathered by brothers Grimm, in original and clear versions. What I didn't expect is they actually sound suprisingly close to the version we all know today from pop-culture. A detail or two is not enough to recommend the book as worth reading.

List of all books finished in 2018.

Crossed +100 vol. 1 by Alan Moore and Gabriel Andrade

This is a spin-off of the original series called Crossed, an ultra-violent tale of humanity vs. infecteds. People complain about language being switched up like: skull = think, movie = pretty, audie = listen/hear, and opsy= look/see. But I found it to be no problem. While I've only finished the first volume, I find Crossed +100 to be far more interesting than the original series. I didn't get very far in the original.

Crossed +100 volume 2

Still loving it.

The Comic Book Makers, by Joe Simon and Jim Simon. I've been reading a lot of Golden Age comics lately, so this was a nice companion to some of that. It's basically Joe Simon's memoir of working in comics off and on from the 30s to the 70s, so although it shouldn't be used a primary source for learning about comics history, it's a nice supplement in how it gives a more personal perspective on what was going on. It does, however, have one of the better write-ups on the Kefauver hearings that I've come across, reprinting with minimal editorializing Bill Gaines's statements along with some description of the statements by Walt Kelly and Milt Caniff. (The newspaper strip artists really threw the comic book industry under the bus.)

Simon comes across as a likable guy, although he does seem a bit of a snob, occasionally remarking that the popularity of comics was unfortunate or tragic because of what it indicated about the public's literacy, even as he was making his living from it. Not surprisingly for a guy who was so close to Jack Kirby, he corroborates most of Kirby's statements about Stan Lee, from the early days when Stan was just an annoying kid fetching sandwiches and then tunelessly blowing on a flute all the time, to the Silver Age origins of Marvel when Martin Goodman threatened to shut down Marvel until Kirby told Goodman they would get some new books done while Stan sat weeping in the office. I don't think it's that Simon disliked Stan, but more that to his older perspective, Stan was always that goofy kid who kept his job because of his uncle.

Shadowdale - Scott Ciencin

The first book of the Trilogy of the Avatars, the first book also of the Forgotten Realms universe 'Dungeons & Dragons). Tells what happens in the Realms when the Gods are banished in the Realms by Ao the almighty.

That's what you would call in French "train station literature": cheap books quickly read. But it still has the charm it had when I first read it in senior high school. It's not Nobel-prize grade literature, but it's still very enjoyable, at least if you like D&D universe. Scott Ciencin knows how to write relatable/despicable characters and how to deliver an action-packed novel - just like a good D&D scenario!

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

The Big U - Neal Stephenson

I'm quite a fan of Stephenson's books, and I wasn't disappointed again. This one is certainly one of his early works and sometimes it shows a bit. Nevertheless, Stephenson already shows his talent to tell several story arcs at the same time and to still be able to make it coherent.

The story takes place in a Mega University somewhere in the USA. A strange place, full of loony studients, crazy teachers, strange slavic janitors, RPG fans, drug addicts, lesbians and nuclear waste! Can't tell more or it would spoil the book! But really worth a read, to my opinion.

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9