Up went my latest review, The Ancient by R.A. Salvatore, a book I enjoyed more than I expected. I haven't read any of his other DemonWars novels, so this was an introduction that may lead me to more of the books. It was a bit predictable, but I've seem many comments from fans of Salvatore that the earlier books in the series are much better than this one. Still, I enjoyed it and the pages moved pretty swiftly. I read this not too long after Empress, and although Salvatore's novel is cliched like Miller's book, I thought the cliched aspects of Salvatore's novel weren't as overpowering. Essentially, The Ancient was cliched comfort fantasy done pretty well.

Don't forget to go out and pick up or order Little Brother, the book is in stores now and is the best book I've read this year. It just might the most important book of the year, too. I've praised the book since I finished reading it, but I can't help but really urge people to take a look at it. Robert of the Fantasy Book Critic liked it just about as much as I did. There's a reason cool folks like Neil Gaiman and Brian K. Vaughn (Y: The Last Man, Lost) are singing its praises and have their blurbage on the book.

It's been too long, but I find myself being drawn back into the Star Wars Expanded Universe of novels. I've had the final book, The Unifying Force for almost three or four years now, residing on my version of Aidan's Pile o' Shame.* I really enjoyed most of The New Jedi Order novels and what I've been reading/hearing (specificlly from Jay Tomio, whose reading tastes have similar ranges to mine) about the Legacy of the Force is really good, too. Coincidentally, the final book of the Legacy of the Force, Invicible arrived yesterday from Del Rey the publisher is offering a free dowloadable version of the first book, Betrayal. As much as I want to read that novel, I've got a lot of catching up to do before I get to that book. My brother-in-law has been reading most of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and said The Dark Nest trilogy was pretty good too. Then again, he thought The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno was good, whereas I thought it very, very lacking especially since I've enjoyed other SW novels by Luceno.

* what us** about Aidan is his us of o' for of, something we** try do here at the Blog o' Stuff. I should start posting my weekly recievables a la the Hornswaggler.

**...of course by us I mean me.