Three Days to Never by Tim Powers
I love Tim Powers -- his books range from good (Earthquake Weather) to absolutely tremendous (Declare or Last Call). This one falls on the low end of the range, but is still pretty good. It lacks the sweep and global range of his best works, but parts of it still shine -- ghosts moving backwards in time, a fun maguffin, and the trademark slow revealing of the rules of the world that make his novels so much fun.

Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini
There's a movie coming out, so I thought I'd see what the excitement was all about. Eragon is pretty typical fantasy -- and by typical, I mean highly derivative. It takes elements from the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, and the influences are not subtle. They are direct. The writing starts out a little shaky, but does improve by the second book. The second book feels more like an original work, but several parts of it felt just like the Belgariad. It had some amusement value, but I can't really recommend the books with so many good fantasy sagas out there.

House by Tracy Kidder
In 1983, a couple built a house in Massachusetts. This is the story of that house, and the stories of the clients, the architects, and the builders who built it. It reads like a novel, with the house itself as a character. The whole thing evolves and changes as conflicts rise and settle. It was fascinating reading, and not only because we're at the beginning of the process ourselves. It certainly made me increase my estimation of the importance of the builders relative to the architects in how the house comes out.

Air: Or, Have Not Have by Goeff Ryman
This may be the best novel I've read this year; it's certainly the best genre novel I've read this year. He explores the impact of future technology on a tiny village in central asia, with unpredictable consequences. The novel is complex and deeply symbolic, working on multiple levels. If you ever need to recommend a science fiction novel to someone who prefers literature, add this to the very short list of novels to suggest.

Beguilement: The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold
I love Bujold, whether she's writing fantasy or science fiction. I'd read anything she wrote. I hope, though, that books in the future are less like this one and more like her other works. The voice is completely the same -- pure Bujold, with the insights and characters that are her signature. This time, though, the story needs a good bit of help. It felt like the beginning of a novel rather than an entire book. It's the first in a trilogy, which probably is why it felt this way, but if you're going to publish a novel, you might bother to have it have at least some semblance of being self-contained rather than feeling like it just stops rather than ends. Plus it was shorter than her usual, which just makes me feel like she's milking for money rather than keeping up the good work. I hope her next books don't suffer from this problem.

Infoquake by David Louis Edelman
Infoquake was unusual. It's a first effort, and it shows with uneven writing and weak characterization -- many of the characters, including the main one, seem almost more like caricatures. In contrast, the world is detailed and vivid and the scope of the novel is sweeping and ambitious. He doesn't quite pull it off, but with some practice he might be worth paying attention to. This first book, though, does not quite escape mediocrity.

The World Before by karentraviss
The third book in a series, this explores the intersection between 3 races, all of whom have highly different values. The themes of environmentalism and intentions and consequences are fresh and applicable, and the action is entertaining. The main character is unusual in that she crossed over from human to alien over the course of the first two books, and her viewpoint and opinions followed. The nevol is a tad bit preachy at times, but overall solid -- I'll continue reading the series.

One way of rating an author might be whether she is good enough so that I will go read franchise novels written by her. I read Star Wars novels by Barbara Hambly and Walter Jon Williams because of the authors, knowing that even though they would be likely to be worse than original works they still would be readable. Karen Traviss has written several Star Wars books, and I find I have no desire to seek them out. Points for having an LJ account, though.