Lacking Natural Simplicity

The Smoke Ring, by Larry Niven; Del Rey/Ballntine 1987. More fun and interesting SF from Niven.

Fool's Fate, by Robin Hobb; A Bantam Spectra Book/Bantam Dell/Random House; 2004. Enjoyable sixth book of two series. Robin Hobb has also written as Megan Lindholm. I gather that it's not unusual in the current writing market for a mid-list author to have to change their nom de plume to be able to publish work.

Confusion, by Neal Stephenson; HarperCollins, 2004. This is the second volume of Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, and he explains that it's actually two intertwined novels published as one. Like the earlier volume it's very wordy, but enjoyable if you don't mind big books.