Requiem for an Assassin written by Barry Eisler is about a former operative who wants to get out of the business but is drawn back in when his only friend is kidnapped by Jim Hilger. Dox is captured and used to force John Rain to kill three people so that his friend will live. John can’t let his friend die but at the same time he doesn’t want to kill anymore. This is about is struggle to save his friend and to get out of the business.

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman was a book that I wasn’t interested in until all of the controversy over the movie. It was a kid’s book in my mind. However, this was one of the best audio books that I have ever listened to. It had a full cast of readers that added real depth for my listening pleasure. The story is about Lyra and her being caught up in something bigger than herself when she accidentally stops an attempted murder of Lord Asriel.

In the second book, The Subtle Knife, she finds herself paired with Will Parry a boy from another realm very different from her own. There come across one another is a haunted world full of Specters that suck the soul/life out of adults and change them into zombie like hulks. It is here that they fight for and claim a knife that can cut through to other realms. They are pursued by the Church powers and others who want the knife. They are helped by angels and mortals.

The last book, The Amber Spyglass, they continue their quest to free all the realms from the tyranny of the Church and the oppression of the Authority. They are help by Lorek Byrnison an armored bear introduced in the first book and two Gallivespian spies working for Lord Asriel who does not have the best interests of these two as his goal. I enjoyed the first two books but by the third one I was tiring of the story.

This was awarded the Hugo for best novel in 2007. You can never go wrong with a Hugo award winning novel and this is no exception. I’ve followed Hugo awards since Frank Herbert won it for Dune.

This is a story about medieval Europe, the Black Death and aliens. A totally engrossing combination of science fiction/fantasy and modern contemporary curiosity. It starts out with an anomaly in the distribution of villages in the Black Forest in Germany. For some reason there was a hole in the normal arrangement of villages that caught the attention of a professor named Tom.

The story jumps between Father Dietrich the priest of the village and Tom’s search for ancient manuscripts to explain the missing village. It’s a compelling tale well worth the reading.

This series is four books: March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars and We Few written by David Weber and John Ringo. The first book introduces us to Prince Roger, a spoiled third heir in the line to the Throne of Man. He is ordered by his Queen Mother on a diplomatic mission to a far 0ff planet. Being the spoiled son he is he reluctantly leaves on this trip only to have a saboteur cause him and Bravo Company of the Bronze Battalion of the Empress’ Own Regiment to crash on planet Marduk. There he begins his journey to walk halfway around the planet to the Imperial spaceport. Of course the Marines who have to keep him alive are not happy to have to deal with a spoiled heir and are even more distressed when the first real danger has Roger shooting an atul-grak. This actually turns out to be a good thing but at the moment it is just another immature action of a spoiled brat.

The second book is March to the Sea and we begin to see how difficult this is going to be for everyone. Marduk is not what anyone expected and they are in constant danger from various indigenous and lethal animals to the barbarian inhabitants. It is one huge battle after another as the space-wreaked group slowly moves toward the spaceport. The only good thing is Roger is showing signs of maturity (of course the story won’t be much if he continued on as a royal pain in the butt).

The third book, March to the Stars, finds Roger really coming into his own as a leader. He has won the respect of Bravo Company of the Bronze Battalion of the Empress’ Own Regiment and gathered around him loyal Mardukians who call themselves the Bronze Barbarians. They have finally fought there way to the edge of the sea and now have to sail across dangerous waters inhabited by unknown terrors. Once they make it to the other seashore they discover that the attempted assassination via the saboteur was a larger attempt to overthrow his mother.

The last book, We Few, is about the trip back to home and the rescue of his mother from his own father who has drugged and controlled the Queen. No one who knew Roger before he left realizes that he has become worthy of the Throne of Man and there is much that has to be done in order to save his mother. Of course his father has laid the attempted coup at his feet and everyone thinks he is dead.

I liked this series in most cases. I did get tired of the overly long description of how the military was organized and how the tactics used. Towards the end it got to be a little too much. If you just want to get a feel for this series you could go directly to We Few. There is enough of the back story to make the last book understandable. Of course you won’t get to know many of the characters that got killed just trying to survive the trek across Marduk.

His Majesty’s Dragon: Temeraire by Naomi Novik won a Hugo award in the Novel category. This is a story about a dragon named Temeraire and Captain Will Laurence who discovers the egg after a navel battle against the French. It is a period piece set in the time of Napoleon. While Will is a naval officer he suddenly finds himself bonded to the newly hatched dragon and eventually ends up as a captain in the Aerial Corps. This book tells the story of his transition from a naval officer to an aerial officer. It is the beginning of a long story about Temeraire’s growth and shows his development as a dragon. In this story dragons have a lot of noble characteristics and show the best of human values in their thoughts and deeds. Temeraire is by far one of the best of either humans or dragons.

The second book in the series is Throne of Jade. While His Majesty’s Dragon is about how Temeraire and Will Laurence become bonded this is a story about Temeraire’s beginnings. It turns out that Temeraire was a rare gift to Napoleon from the Chinese Imperial family . Not only that but Temeraire is no ordinary dragon but he is an Imperial dragon and the Chinese want him back. This ends up with Will and Temeraire going to China via a long sea voyage around Africa. Once there they find themselves in the middle of court intrigue and barely manage to leave China together.

The third book is Black Powder Wars and is about their return overland from China. They are ordered to the Ottoman Empire to get three dragon eggs and are guided there by the mysterious messenger who delivered the original orders. Upon arriving in Istanbul the eggs are not available and the British envoy his been killed in a hunting accident. They end of grabbing the eggs and heading to England through Europe. This lands them in the middle of Napoleon’s war with the Austrians. They eventually make it back to England.

The fourth book is Empire of Ivory and is about a disease that has spread throughout all of the dragons in the Aerial Corps. It turns out that Temeraire seems to have developed an immunity to this disease. The immunity appears to come from an incident in the second book where Temeraire got sick on the voyage to China but was cured when they were stopped in Africa. So Will and Temeraire are off to Africa to find the cure. Upon discovering the cure they head back to England only to end up going to France to take the cure to the French dragons. The story ends here for now but the tale is not finished yet.

This is the second book of the Fourth Realm series written by John Twelve Hawks. The first book ‘The Traveler’ mainly introduces all of the principles and sets the stage for the struggle of the hidden manipulators, The Brethren, against the few travelers and their protectors the Harlequins. This struggle has been going on for centuries but the advances in technologies have made it possible for the Brethren to finally achieve their long sought after goal of ruling through electronic surveillance. The last two travelers are brothers, Gabriel and Michael. Michael sees this as an opportunity to grasp the power he has always desired and joins up with the Brethren. Gabriel is protected by Maya who never really wanted to be a Harlequin but with the killing of her father by the Brethren she reluctantly goes to America and finds and protects Gabriel.

I enjoyed the second book more than the first because the sides are set and the characters are introduced so the story begins to build. This book has a rating of 3.99 based on 221 votes.

The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks is a book about the machine. The machine is what all of the modern technology has become. It is the gathering of all of our personal information through electronic means. It is the tying together of our financial, medical, consumer, email, employment, travel history. It is the controlling of ‘citizens’ through fear. It is the suppression of freedom. It is the idea that a small group of individuals can control the whole world.

It draws much from the present and takes the next step. The United States and Europe and coming under the control of unseen forces that want all of the power to control everyone and at the same time to give the impression that this is being done to protect them.

The foes to making this a complete reality are the travelers. Traveler move between different realities and are a source of resistance to the machine. Because of this the machine, aka Tabula, wants to remove this threat.

Travelers are protected by a group know as Harlequins who will give up there lives. The story is centered around two brothers who may be the last two travelers and the Harlequin who is trying to protect them. One of the brothers see an opportunity to grab power by joining the machine and the other decides to resist it.

This book was given a rating of 3.94 but I liked it a little more than that rating.

I’ve missed a couple of books so I thought I would catch up. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman is about a woman who causes a serious accident crossing an icy bridge. She doesn’t stop and get off of on a ramp and gets out of her car. The police find her and she claims that when she was younger she and her sister were kidnapped. When she is taken to the hospital she clams up and won’t say anymore. The story then goes on and tells the story of the disappearance of her and her sister many years ago.

This isn’t one of my favorite books but it wasn’t too bad. The ending is a little different than I expected but it wasn’t too different. This book got a 4.14 rating and that is about right for me too.

“The Grave Tattoo” by Val McDermid is about a body discovered in a bog in England’s Lake District. The body may have been there for 200 years and the rural legend that is given new life is that it may be the body of Fletcher Christian of “Mutiny on the Bounty” fame. This begins a hunt for a possible missing poem penned by William Wordsworth. A couple of clues found in some Wordsworth family letters indicate that a former Wordsworth family maid may have been given the narrative poem. As the search through the branches of the maid’s family tree begins to turn up dead elderly relatives suspicion falls on Jane Gresham a Wordsworth specialist who is trying to determine if the poem exists or not.

I’ve almost finished listening to the book and while I have my own ideas about who the killer is I’m looking forward to the ending. Maybe I’m right or maybe I’m wrong.

Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich. If you are unacquainted with this series you are missing a great cast of characters. The main character is Stephanie Plum who makes her living as a bounty hunter. As the title implies this is the 13th book in the Stephanie Plum series. It would be an understatement to say that Stephanie has her share of misadventures. There are two men in her life. Ranger is a former Navy seal and security company owner and Morelli is her boyfriend and plain clothes detective. Her family includes oddball characters who are not what you would describe as normal. This is definitely a great series and my only complaint is that the stories are only around 6 hours long.