Lacking Natural Simplicity

The Forge of the Titans, by Steve White. Adequate science fiction.

A Scattering of Jades, by Alexander C. Irvine. Enjoyable magical historical, somewhat in the Tim Powers mode, with an interesting Mesoamerican tone and pictures of early and mid 1800s New York and Mammoth Cave. (I actually read this last month, I think.)

A Thousand Words for Stranger, by Julie E. Czerneda. Competent space opera.

And No Birds Sang, by Farley Mowat. The horrors of war; a antidote to mindless jingoism.

The Tribune, by Patrick Larkin. Competent historical adventure during the early Roman Empire, with incidental cameos of a couple of famous people.