I don’t know about you, but as time goes by it’s increasingly seldom that I find books that are genuinely hard to put down. In fact, it seems more and more common for me to discard a book if it hasn’t grabbed me by at least page one hundred. So imagine my glee when I find myself reading two books that are unputdownable. Don’t judge me. The fact is, I usually “read” two books at a time. The reason read is in quotes is that one of the books will be either a physical book or an eBook, and the other an audio book. When I sit down to read, I’ll generally pick up the print book. When I’m walking, cleaning, or whatever, I’ll often listen to the audio book. The psychologist in me finds it fascinating that I never get confused about what happened or who appears in which book. Perhaps it’s the fact that the input modalities are different. But I digress.
The first of the two books that I’m particularly enjoying at the moment is Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafron, the fourth and final book in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. It has been a long, long time since I’ve encountered an author whose prose has this level of beauty, whose characters are so well developed, and whose stories so relentlessly draw you in. The books are part literary novel and part mystery with, possibly, a touch of fantasy. It depends on how you interpret them. For me, the first and fourth books are the strongest, both equally compelling. I’ve recently finished my third reading of the first, The Shadow of the Wind, and I’m on my second reading of the fourth. This time around, I’ve read the books in order. The second and third books, The Angels Game and The Prisoner of Heaven, are weaker in my opinion, especially Prisoner, though that book, at the very least, sets things up for the fourth. Angels is very good, but confusing, as I wasn’t sure at times whether the story was unfolding as written or whether the protagonist was simply caught up in a story of his own creation.
The second book I’m loving right now is The Evolutionary Void, the third in the Void trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. Here’s the thing: when you read a trilogy by Hamilton, you need to realize that the story is going to be big. Really big. And there are many, many characters and locales, and many subplots that will, miraculously it seems, come together at the end. The Void books represent the second trilogy of Hamilton’s that I’ve read. In both cases, I wondered as I read the first book whether the author wasn’t just pot boiling for the sake of producing a thick book. In both cases, I was dead wrong. The first book, as it should, introduces characters and situations and conflicts and get things going. Things start looking pretty bleak in the second book, and in the third, well, I’m not finished Evolutionary yet but I have hopes for a satisfying conclusion.
I hope that’s enough to entice you to check out these books. I’d make this a longer post, but I really need to get back to my reading …
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