Behind Blue Eyes

Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan My rating: 5 of 5 stars I'm actually pretty torn between a 4 and 5 star rating with this one. There were parts throughout the book where it dragged, where I felt this Crossroads of Twilight feeling of plot going nowhere. But those parts were relatively short, and the good parts. Wow. When it was good, it was really good. So the penultimate volume in The World of Time is here to set up the grand finale. Does it do this? Yes. It brings some plotlines to a close and sets up the action for the Last Battle, that end of time-fight the Darklord climax we've been promised for the better part of 20 years. Just one more year or so, and it will all come to a close. Towers of Midnight points us in that direction and says "Bring it on." View all my reviews

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Drawing of the Three is the novel where the Dark Tower story goes from being a cool gunslinger action adventure of the weird west to being a true epic. We still have elements of that otherworldly western flavor, but we get a huge mixture of reality when Roland, the gunslinger anti-hero of the first book, opens a door into “our” world. The three doors Roland must open each connect to our world, but at different “whens”, different eras. From each of these entry points, there are things that Roland must do in order to continue on the path to his fabled Dark Tower. With these adventures, we’re introduced to new characters, a new ka-tet that will help Roland on his quest. But before they can move forward to their goal, they each have something they must work through first. Roland’s intervention is essential to this development, for without it they would be useless to him and to his quest. This is the fourth time...

The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan My rating: 4 of 5 stars See my review (with spoilers) of the book itself. This re-read was for the audio version. The book itself was right on the cusp between 4 and 5 stars. I originally gave it 4, then bumped it up to 5 after I'd given it time to sink in. So why 4 now? This 4 is for the audio experience only. The story is still just as good. The reader wasn't bad, and I didn't struggle with him really, but at the same time he didn't wow me like some readers I've listened to in the past. I've also read books 2 & 3 in this series since my initial read of TCC, and they're even better than this one. So I'll be looking forward to future audio releases, as well as books 4-6 of the series. View all my reviews

The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay My rating: 5 of 5 stars I needed a couple of days to let this sink in before writing a review. That's how powerful the book was, and its incredible ending. This is one of those books that it's very difficult to write a spoiler-free review for. I could mark it as such and go for it, but then people that haven't read the book will skip the review. The Lions of Al-Rassan is a book I will push on friends. When asked for recommendations, it will float to the top of my list every time. I won't say it's my all-time favorite, but it's on the short list. So, without spoilers, let's see what we can do. This book is a great example of what epic fantasy should be. Key on the "epic". There really aren't that many traditional fantasy elements; no elves, dwarves, magic, dragons, or forgetful wizards. But it has the passion and scope of medieval society, and the brutality of its warfare. The clash of three religions...