"The Monsters Inside" - Stephen Cole

Probably the Doctor Who novel that I've liked the least. The Doctor and Rose get separated right away and imprisoned, thus eliminating the stuff I like reading about - the interplay between their characters.

Lots of action and aliens. The return of the Slitheen - woo. I did like the Doctor's interaction with the aliens on his research team; that felt very like him. And Rose's intrepid nature comes to the fore. But my interest in reading all of these novels is wearing thin.

"The Sharing Knife: Passage" - Lois McMaster Bujold

This is the third book in a series of which there will obviously be more - which is a good thing! Lois is a local author - at least, she has lived in the Twin Cities for many years - and is tremendously successful in the SF/F field. Her Miles Vorkosigan series is a masterpiece of space opera; I really would recommend it to anyone for just pure entertainment value. Brilliant writing, spot-on characterizations. And the plotting!

It took her a while to break into fantasy, mainly because her science fiction was so successful that her publishers didn't want her to do something different. But at this point she has multiple successes behind her (the amazing "Curse of Chalion" and "Paladin of Souls") and she has done something unique and wonderful with this, the "Sharing Knife" series.

Fantasy, but set in a rural, agrarian society, in which the fantasy element is the threat of life-sapping malice, and the ability to sense "ground" or life-force. This series also has a heavy romantic element, which she pulls off beautifully. The strong relationship between the protagonists Dag and Fawn runs through the books like an anchoring force.

"Bel Canto" - Ann Patchett

I heard Ann Patchett being interviewed on mpr, and I felt really drawn to the conversation and to her. She seemed like a terribly thoughtful person. A large part of the conversation was about her friendship with Lucy Grealy and the books that the two of them wrote about their lives and relationships. I then went to amazon.com, my auxiliary brain, and read up on the books. Something about the description of "Bel Canto" made me hesititate to read it. I'm not sure what it was; perhaps it's the nature of a single-paragraph description of the plot, to make the whole thing seem a little impersonal. However, my cousin told me that her good friend recommended it highly and I was able to get it on CD from the library.

I loved it. I will definitely read more Ann Patchett; she writes in such a seamless fashion and I was so drawn in to the lives and the world of the characters. To summarize the plot ever so briefly, a group of important people are held hostage by South American terrorists. I particularly enjoyed the play of languages; the cast of characters includes Americans, Russians, a Frenchman, several Japanese, and a majority of Spanish-speakers. One of the Japanese characters is a very accomplished translator, and his role in the delicate situation of hostages and captors is an incredibly important one. But it's the subtlety of nationality and language that really fascinates; the ways in which the characters communicate without common languages, and the ways in which a certain behavior in a Russian man means something different than that same behavior in a Japanese man. The demands placed on the translator, and the ways in which this changes the dynamics of relationships. The forced intimacy of hostages and captors.

So beautifully written.

"Winner Takes All" - Jacqueline Rayner

Yet another Doctor Who novel; yes, I do intend to read every one the library owns. This one features the 9th Doctor and is the best so far. The plot is taut and bristling with danger and action. A new video game sensation is actually a scheme by an alien race to recruit humans to fight and defeat another alien race, and the Doctor unwittingly becomes their prime target after thoroughly trouncing Mickey in a game.

Despite the breakneck pace of the plot, the dialogue and character-establishment bits are lovingly handled. The Doctor has never seemed so smart, smart-alecky and unpredictable, while remaining the rock that Rose can depend on. Rose is sweet and intrepid, and the final scene in which the Doctor turns down the offer of a nap on her mum's sofa in order to go check out the moons of Jupiter is pure Doctor Who. Of course Rose chooses to go with him; she made that choice long ago.

"The Invention of Everything Else" - Samantha Hunt

A fascinating and beautiful novel, at least partially about the later days of Nikola Tesla as he lives in poverty in a Manhattan hotel. Louisa, a chambermaid at the hotel, strikes up a friendship with Tesla after he catches her poking through his stuff, and the book then veers in many unexpected directions. The characterizations are so achingly subtle and beautifully done. I am in danger of overusing the words "beautiful" and "dreamlike" when describing this book; it is often hard to know whether events are actually taking place or are imagined by one character or another. Manhattan itself lives and breathes on the page, and you will never view pigeons in the same way again after reading this lovely piece of work.

"The Stone Rose" - Jacqueline Rayner

Another Doctor Who novel, this one featuring the 10th Doctor and Rose. These really are aimed at an all-ages audience; the writing is not overly complex. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the book. The Doctor and Rose travel to Rome to investigate the origins of a 2000 year old statue of Rose they find in the British Museum.

After some major suspension of disbelief as the Doctor is thrown to the lions in the Colliseum, the final third of the novel offered up some wonderful moments of time-travel conundrums and ramifications of extreme future tech. Also, the characterizations of Rose, the Doctor and Mickey are spot on and enjoyable.