Crazy Guy on the Veldt

This is one of the things I hate most.... missing to post for a goodly length of time. Now I have to recall the things I've read from then to now....

Nebula Winners Fourteen edited by Frederick Pohl
~Good bits: Nebula winners
~Bad bits: fourteen...I don't have one to thirteen

A Fearful Symmetry by James Luceno
~Good bits: if you've ever wondered what would it be like if America's president where a new-age hippie zen practitioner
~Bad bits: the world is almost destroyed by a bunch of octogenarian psychic Nazis.

Martin the Warrior, The Bellmaker, and The Long Patrol by Brian Jacques

Playgrounds of the Mind by Larry Niven
~Good bits: Mr Niven gives us insight into his works, his collaborations with Pournelle, sci fi fandom and conventions
~Bad bits: most of the stories are excerpts from his books....and reading a small tidbit, I can't help myself...I have to read the whole book.

And just now...

Taggerung by Brian Jacques.
~Good bits: Like all other Redwall book, food! I know it's completely fantastical but Mr. Jacques has a talent to make the food and the feasting seem so real.
If you can imagine the characters in "The Wind in the Willows" going at it and battling it out Braveheart style then this is for you.

~Bad bits: the mysterious riddle from the past gets a bit old (harhar) by the 3rd book and some of the riddles are a bit strained
Villains never get a break in Redwall books, vermin are there to be hacked up by goodbeasts or other vermin. As such they become predictable.