Shadow Lamp

Shadow Lamp by Steve Lawhead
388 Pages

The fourth book of the Bright Empires series begins to wrap up the series as the heroes try to find the link between the Shadow Lamp, the Skin Map, and the Spirit Well.   They must do this quickly as the Zetetic society has determined that the universe's expansion is slowing and quite possibly reversing which could mean the end of everything. 

Finally the books start to answer some questions and wrap up storylines which helps to reduce the convoluted plot.

Spirit Well

The Spirit Well by Stephen Lawhead
377 Pages

This is the third installment in The Bright Empires series.  Kit Livingston and his friends are traveling through the ley lines  which allows not only travel between places but travel between times.  They continue to look for the skin map which supposedly has a map of all the ley lines and the places they connect.  It was tattooed on the skin of the original ley line traveler and split up after his death. 

There are basically three parties looking for this map, 2 bad, one good.  We find out more about the backgrounds of the parties in this book and minor characters become more integral to the story.

The Bright Empires series is a good series and should be enjoyable to fans of science fiction and fantasy.  Since I've read the fourth book as well, the two are starting to commingle in  my memory so I won't go into a lot of detail on the plot.  The books definitely need to be read in order.

Landline

Landline by Rainbow Rowell 
310 pages
 

Georgie McCool is a sitcom writer, a mother, and a wife, probably in that order.  Her husband, Neal, stays home to take care of their two daughters.  They are set to go to Omaha, Nebraska from Los Angeles to spend Christmas with Neal’s mother when Georgie learns that someone wants to air her sitcom, the one that she and her best friend have been writing since college, the one that matters.  The catch is that he wants to meet with them on December 27 and today is December 17 and she and her friend, Seth, need to have three more episodes ready to share at the meeting.  There is no way Georgie is going to Omaha.  Neal takes the kids and goes to Omaha without her.  Georgie is afraid that she has finally ruined her marriage but finds out that calling Neal’s mother’s landline from her old rotary phone at her mother’s house allows her to connect with Neal in an unusual way. Maybe she can figure out how to save her marriage after all.  I really liked this story.  It’s mostly a realistic romantic comedy type story, but with a twist of supernatural thrown in.  People who have liked Rowell’s other books will probably love this one as well.

Landline

Landline by Rainbow Rowell
310 Pages


Landline starts with scriptwriter Georgie McCool telling her husband Neal that she won't be able to go with the family to spend Christmas with his mother because she has too crank out a new script for her dream pilot.  Their marriage, already rocky, suffers as a result and off the husband goes with Georgie's 2 daughters.  Georgie tries to keep in touch with the family but her cell phone keeps dying.  Then one night she tries to call using her mother's phone and finally gets a hold of Neal, only it is the Neal of the past, before they got married.  Through conversations with this Neal, Georgie begins to realize how much the couple has lost as the years progressed.

Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park was a very popular YA book and this novel, aimed at adult audiences is proving to be popular as well.  The only thing I had a problem with in the novel was that the blamed seemed be one-sided and current day Neal seems one-dimensional. 

Long Mars

The Long Mars by Terry Pratchett/Stephen Baxter
351 Pages


Baxter and Pratchett continue their Long Earth series with this latest book.  It is now 2040 and Yellowstone has erupted causing most of the prime earth's population to flee to stepwise earths.  At the same time, super-humans seem to be evolving, possessing higher intelligence than a regular human.  Of course, society reacts against them with fear.  In a separate plot line explorers are using the gap world (where there is no earth present) to travel to Mars and explore stepwise Mars.

 While Prachett and Baxter are talented writers, the whole long earth series has failed to engage and seems rather pointless and meandering.  Once we get past the novelty of the stepwise universe, the number of alternate earths has grown so big as to be impossible to write about.

Fortunately, The Milk

Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman     101 pages

One morning, after their mother has gone away on a trip, the kids realize that they are out of milk for breakfast so their father decides to go get some.  He is gone for a terribly long time and when he comes back he tells the kids a fantastic story about why he was late, that includes aliens, pirates, a stegosaurus, a volcano, the Eye of Splod, and a Floaty-Ball-Person-Carrier, just to name a few.  This is pure Neil Gaiman and is a lot of fun.  A great read for kids who like humor.  Reluctant readers will like that it is short with a lot of white space and illustrations.