Lacking Natural Simplicity

These books were spread out over the past three weeks or so.

• Sharpe's Battle, by Bernard Cornell; copyright 1995; HarperPerennial, 1999. Sharpe's adventures in Spain, May 1811.

• Drums of Autumn, by Diana Gabaldon; Delacorte Press, January 1997.

• The Fall of the Kings, by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman; Bantom Books, Novemeber 2002. This did not hold my attention as well as Swordspoint, the earlier book by Kushner set in this world; in fact, I set it down somewhere in the last two thirds of the book and it sat unread for a very long period of time. It is, no doubt, a more ambitious book.

• The Gun Ketch, by Dewey Lambdin, copyright 1993; read by John Lee; Books on Tape, Inc., 1999. Well read by John Lee. Well written and rich in details.

• The Order War, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.; Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, January 1995.

• Fall of Angels, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.; Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., June 1996. We learn much more about the history of Recluce's world in this one; these Reculse books are consistently page-turners for me.

• The Thieves' Opera, by Lucy Moore, copyright 1997; Harvest/Harcourt, Inc., 2000. Fascinating tour through the criminal classes of early- to mid- 1700s London, especially Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard.

• Thrones, Dominations, by Dorothy L. Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh; copyright 1998 by the Truestees of Anthony Fleming (deceased) & Jill Paton Walsh; St. Martin's Press, February 1998. I had not expected to enjoy this as much as I did. Why did Sayers stop writing mysteries before finishing this, anyway?

• The System of the World, by Neal Stephenson; William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2004. Volume Three of Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, this book finishes the series off nicely. Regardless of Stephenson's prolixity, these books are great fun.