Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley

Cinnamon Kiss is Mosley's 10th Easy Rawlins mystery. It has many of the same elements that were great in earlier entries in the series, but somehow this one felt flat for me. Once again, Easy is looking for a woman involved in a mystery (Cinnamon), and once again he's battling racial discrimination as he works his way through the puzzle.

Cinnamon Kiss offers us glimpses of hippie era San Francisco and post-Watts riots Los Angeles, along with some asides about the Vietnam war. I'm not sure if this is really a weaker book in the series, or if I've just hit the "too many books in the series" slump, but I can't really recommend this as one of Mosley's best.

To read more about the Easy Rawlins books and find out about Walter Mosley, check out his web site, at:

http://www.twbookmark.com/features/waltermosley/

Thud by Terry Pratchett

Thud is the latest of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (#30). The Discworld novels come in several flavors: there are wizard books, witch books, DEATH books, "the guard" books, and there are one-offs (like The Truth and Moving Pictures.) The books all take place on the Discworld, but the different "flavors" are the story settings/characters. Some of the books include more than one flavor--witches and wizards, witches and Wee Free Men, wizards and luggage made of sapient pearwood, guards and vampires, etc. Anyway, Thud is a book about The Guard, and the lead character is Commander Vimes.

Commander Vimes has come a long way since the earlier Guard books. He has a wife, a small son Sam, and a lifetime of policing to help him along. In Thud, Vimes has the job of trying to prevent an all out war between the dwarves and the trolls.

Since there are dwarves and trolls among the guard, Vimes is in a good position to know how the two interact. While Vimes is investigating a murder, he is distracted by a new officer (a female vampire--albeit one who has "taken the pledge" to eschew blood drinking) and an efficiency expert sent by Lord Vetinari. There also seems to be some sort of demon lurking about, there's a big painting missing from the museum, and the anniversary of the battle of Koom Valley (a battle between dwarves and trolls) is fast approaching.

As is often the case with Discworld novels--there are echoes of our world in the goings on in the Discworld. There are "deep" dwarves (fundamentalists) telling the city dwarves they need to return to their traditional ways. There is scripture (of a sort) and scriptural interpretation on which an outbreak of war may hinge. And then there is the watch, and politics, and budgets, and equal employment opportunity (for vampires.)

As is always the casein a Discworld novel, there is lots of fun to be had and plenty of silliness to consider along the way to the neat wrapping up of the plot.

Thud is neither the funniest nor the most inventive of the Discworld novels, but it is must reading for Pratchett fans, and good fun for those new to the series. If you're really new to the series, though--I'd recommend you start with one of the earlier books to get some background on the Discworld. Two of my favorite recent entries in the series are Hat Full of Sky and The Wee Free Men. The Color of Magic is the first book in the series (and features the hilarious sapient pearwood "Luggage". You can find a full list of the Discworld novels and lots more Pratchett info on the web. Here are a couple of useful sites:

The L Space Web--a Terry Pratchett/Discworld Web Site
http://www.ie.lspace.org/

Terry Pratchett Books

http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/

Discworld Monthly

http://www.discworldmonthly.co.uk/index.php

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Anansi Boys is a novel about the two sons of Anansi: Fat Charlie Nancy and Spider. Fat Charlie, who takes after his mother, has no magic, while Spider is his father's son through and through.

Fat Charlie has been living in London, where he moved with his mother, after she and his father split up. He has a job, a fiancee, and a pretty normal life, until his father's death. As the story opens, Fat Charlie doesn't know that his father is the magical, mythical Anansi, and he doesn't know that he has a brother.

Spider has been meaning to visit his brother for years, but never got around to actually doing it. When Fat Charlie attends his father's funeral, he learns about his brother and how to contact him.

The rest of the book is the story of what happens when Spider visits Fat Charlie. This is an engaging story with some very funny bits sprinkled throughout. I particularly enjoyed the bits about the lime.

Neil Gaiman is the author of the Sandman graphic novels, as well as several other novels--graphic and not.

A list of his books is available on his website:
http://www.neilgaiman.com/