The Tamir Trilogy (The Bone Doll’s Twin, Hidden Warrior, and The Oracle’s Queen) by Lynn Flewelling: 5 stars
I admit I was a bit nervous about The Oracle’s Queen, seeing as there was such a long hiatus between the previous book and its arrival; I guess I thought some of the momentum would be lost. I am happy to report it wasn’t. I thorougly enjoyed rereading the first two books, and loved the third one as much as I did the first two. The books were, to a page, masterfully written, beautifully characterized, and tightly plotted. Now I am filled with that odd mix of satisfaction and melancholy I always feel at the end of a wonderful series of books; happy to have read them, but sad to have them be over, to not be in the middle of the excitement. Fantasy fan or not, these books should be immediate additions to your reading queue.

book reviews here. What follows is a guide to my rating system, which I have modified slightly from the Netflix 5-star system:

• 1 star – I hated this book. No words can describe what an agonizing bore it was, or how badly written it was. There was not one redeeming feature of this book, and I likely couldn’t bring myself to finish it.
• 2 stars – One thing was OK about this book; one thing saved it from a 1 star rating. I probably finished it, but didn’t enjoy it much.
• 3 stars – This book was solidly entertaining and decently written, but nothing to write home about. I either have a few problems with the execution or it just didn’t engage me enough to get a higher rating.
• 4 stars – This was a great book. Well written and captivating, it’s definitely going on the keeper shelf. I’ll more than likely read it again.
• 5 stars – This goes in my personal book hall of fame. It sucked me in, I was lost in it, and sad when it ended. I will look for any other books the author has written and buy them sight unseen. I’ll read it many times over, and recommend it to everyone I know. In short, I loved it.

Each book review is categorized under a star rating, for quick reference. Oh, a disclaimer: a pet peeve of mine is reviews with spoilers, or book reports masquerading as book reviews, so I don’t write them. My reviews don’t say much, if anything, about the story of the book I’m reviewing, so if you’re looking for a synopsis of the book, you’ll have to go elsewhere. Without further ado, the reviews:

• The Hard Way by Lee Child – 4 stars
  All of Child’s Reacher novels have been excellent: tightly plotted, well written, and thoroughly unputdownable. As expected, this one delivered the goods; as good as any of the previous novels, and better than most. Highly recommended.
• Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn – 4 stars
  I’ve been a fan of Shinn’s since first reading her Samaria series a few years ago, primarily for her skill with character development. However, her plots, while not bad by any means, had not been of sufficiently satisfying complexity for me, a diehard epic fantasy fan. Let me elaborate. When I come across a series of books, especially in the fantasy genre, I have certain expectations. One of them is that the story will continue across all the books in the series. In the Samaria series, this was not the case; while all 3 original books (with another one just published, I believe) were set in the same world, they were more or less stand-alone novels. They’re interesting and well written, and good enough to be on my keeper shelf, but not on my list of favorites for the reason I mention above. Mystic and Rider goes a long way to addressing that lack; an interesting and complex story was introduced in this first novel, and while I think the second in the series, The Thirteenth House, will focus on a different main character, I believe the overarching plot will be explored in more detail. Anyway. Back to the review. Like I said before, I love the way Shinn paints complex characters and their inter-relationships, and Mystic and Rider showcases her skill admirably.
• A Plague of Angels by Sheri S. Tepper – 3 stars
  This first novel of Tepper’s had the same strong points as her later ones: a very high level of technical skill, in dialogue, narration, plotting, pacing, everything. And it had the same weak points, too. She tends to write near- or post-apocalyptic novels with a similar theme: that man is a plague, a virus, a scourge upon the earth, and has destroyed it (or will in the near future) through his selfishness and utter disregard for those other creatures that have the misfortune to share it with us. Him. Whatever. So after a while, you get the feeling that if you’ve read one, you’ve read them all, however skillfully they’re put together. This being the 4th Tepper novel I’ve read, her strident and thinly-veiled lectures to care for the earth before it’s too late, and her resolute pessimism about human nature are wearing mighty thin. So I’ll give this one a 3 for being an engaging and interesting story, but no higher because, well, no one likes being told what to do all the time.