Since the last time I posted, I’ve actually read a few books that I’ve enjoyed, along with more than a few that I didn’t or thought were vastly overhyped, and one that I enjoyed but, upon reflection, felt… well, you’ll see. For just fun, I liked Alex Bledsoe’s The Sword-Edged Blonde, although the title is really a stretch, and Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which, although delightfully written, is mostly just fun, with a hint of Peter Pan growing up thrown in.  Another fantasy PI novel was Ari Marmell’s Hot Lead, Cold Iron, which mixes faerie with 1930s Chicago underworld.  Another book that I liked, but had reservations of a different sort about was Charles Stross’s Neptune’s Brood, since I thought his take on future interstellar economics was, shall I say, either a bit-far-fetched or an incredibly sarcastic and sardonic not-so-veiled commentary on our current economic structure, with the resolution turning on a long-hidden, but unveiled just-in-time technological deus ex machina  totally at odds with the entire technology Stross so carefully constructed.  I liked it, but….  As for the other books I’ve read recently, let’s just say that while I feel I need to know what others are writing, there are some writers I may not be revisiting, at least not soon.