daddygoth's 2008 Challenge

I didn't post my challenge and results from last year since I joined LibraryThing around the middle of the year. I read about 70 books last year and will try for 100 this year. That might be a little too ambitious due to everything else in life, but we'll see. I rarely read non-fiction and most of my fiction reads will be from the horror, fantasy and espionage/techno-thriller genres.

daddygoth

1. Hell House by Richard Matheson

I'm not generally a fan of haunted house novels, but I really enjoyed this one.

2. Protect and Defend by Vince Flynn

After being out of commission for a while due to surgery, I'm finally back to reading.

This one is another in the continuing Mitch Rapp series. While not the best in the series, it is better than its predecessor Act of Treason.

3. Earthcore by Scott Sigler

An excellent sci-fi/horror/thriller novel. It seems to be out of print, but definitely worth reading if you like those genres and can find a copy.

4. Vacation by Jeremy Shipp

This book came highly recommended, but it wasn't my cup of tea.

5. Dark Hollow by Brian Keene

An excellent horror novel, and his best one to date, in my opinion.

6. Worldbinder (Runelords, Book 6) by David Farland

This is the latest entry in the Runelords series, another long-running fantasy series published by TOR. While not as entertaining as the first four, it's still worth reading.

7. Vaders by R Patrick Gates

An end-of-the-world sci-fi/horror novel that started well, but quickly grew tiresome with all the chase scenes. The book was too long and the conclusion was unsatisfying.

8. The Missing by Sarah Langan

An excellent, end-of-the-world, zombie-like novel. I enjoyed her first book (The Keeper), but I thought this one was even better.

9. Fires Rising by Michael Laimo

An enjoyable Good vs. Evil, potential end-of-the-world novel.

10. Cemetery Things by Keith Latch

11. Mine by Robert McCammon

12. The Dead by Mark E. Rogers -- An end of the world/rapture novel featuring those left behind to battle the zombies. This was a different take on the end of the world. While it can come across as a little "preachy" in places, overall it was a good novel in the subgenre of zombie horror fiction.

13. Ilium by Dan Simmons -- An excellent sci-fi story with Homer's Iliad serving as the backdrop. Throw in some Shakespeare quoting robots, a few dinosaurs, and mythological creatures and it's amazing how Simmons ties it all together. You don't need to have read the Iliad beforehand to understand the story.

14. Queen of Blood by Bryan Smith - A sequel to House of Blood, Bryan Smith's first novel published in the Leisure horror line. I thought House was better than Queen and that Queen resorted too much on trying to make the reader squirm with the gory depictions of death and torture.

I've only ever read Mystery Walk by Robert R. McCammon any thoughts on Mine?

I enjoyed Mine more than I did Mystery Walk, but Mystery Walk was still very good. It's been about 20 years since I've read it, but still can recall parts of it. I feel that Swan Song is McCammon's best and the only novel of his I haven't really enjoyed was The Night Boat. You really can't go wrong with McCammon. Mine is not monster/creature/end of the world horror, but more of human monster.

15. The Undead: Zombie Anthology, edited by DL Snell. This collection of zombie short stories contains some great stories, one humorous one and a few not worth reading. Overall, if you like zombie stories, there's enough here to entertain a reader.

I liked Wolf's hour and Gone South

Wolf's Hour is the best werewolf novel I've read. Gone South is one of the few McCammon's I have not read, but I plan to read it in the near future.

16. The Shell Game by Steve Alten -- an excellent political thriller. Although the author claims to take shots at both parties, the large majority of it is directed at one of them. While some of it does read like conspiracy theory, other parts are factual.

17. Flesh Welder by Ronald Kelly -- This is a new chapbook that contains an early short story by Ronald Kelly, an interview and a preview of Undertaker's Moon, the original title of Kelly's Moon of the Werewolf that was published in the 90's in the Zebra horror line.

I forgot two I'd read in February:

18. Triage by Richard Laymon, Edward Lee, and Jack Ketchum -- three variations on the same basic beginning of the story. I thought Laymon's was average, I enjoyed Lee's and Ketchum's was average.

19. The 6 Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly -- I've enjoyed most of Reilly's novels, even though they written more like a comic book/summer action flick, but I had trouble finishing this one. It seems this will be a trilogy as Reilly mentioned something about this being his Lord of the Rings. OK...

20. The Vanishing by Bentley Little -- I've read all of Little's novels and enjoyed most of them. However, I found this one to be average. The story started well, but seemed too disjointed at times with the various subplots, both past and present.

yeah, I didn't like it too much and wondered if his other novels are better.

I would suggest Little's satirical horror novels -- The Store, The Association, The Mailman or his earlier pure horror novels -- The Revelation, The Summoning, University. I also enjoyed The Ignored, but it's a little more slanted toward sci-fi than horror. His collection of short stories (The Collection) is also a great read.

The ones I thought were average or below include The Walking, The Return, The House and The Town

Hah I've been looking for lists with a horror slant. Should have got a clue from your username. Think I'm gonna give The Missing a shot. What's The Burning by Little, like? any good.
I've got Mine on my TBR pile, but it's not really exciting me with the synopsis.
What's Flesh Welder about? I was interested in the chapbook.
Definately getting Ilium by Simmons. Love The Illiad and would love to read an update on it. Doesn't Simmons always write big honking doorstoppers though. Is this a heavyweight or more manageable.
What's Bryan Smiths writing like? I've heard bad things, but The Freakshow has me intrigued.

(I didn't love Mine but so far we're not agreeing on books)

;)

The Burning isn't Little's best or his worst, it's somewhere in the middle, but I did like it.

Both of Sarah Langan's books are good reads, but I think The Missing is the better of the two.

Flesh Welder is a short story from early in Ronald Kelly's career. It involved a "doctor" that has the ability to attach body parts from the deceased to people who have had a body part destroyed (in battle) or rendered unusable. The body part becomes fully functional once it's attached. It's short and you can probably guess how it ends, but it's still a good read. Check with Croatoan Publishing (www.croatoanpublishing.com) to order a copy for $5.

All of Simmons books in the past 10 or so years are doorstoppers and Ilium is no exception. It clocks in around 650 pages in hardcover, so probably around 800+ in paperback. It took me a while to get into the book, but once I did, it was incredible.

I've read three of Bryan Smith's books -- House of Blood, Deathbringer, and Queen of Blood. Overall, I think they've been just average. Deathbringer started well, but tapered off and got ridiculous toward the end. I thought House of Blood was the better of the two in the Blood series. I thought Queen relied too heavily on shock/gross-out scenes. I haven't read The Freakshow.

Mine, while not a monster horror book, I thought was an excellent read because Robert McCammon can simply write about anything and make it entertaining. If you're new to McCammon, try Swan Song or They Thirst for horror, Boy's Life for a coming of age story or Stinger for sci-fi/horror.

The goth part of my username is a shortened version of another username in the past. It doesn't have anything to do with goths, horror, wearing all black, pale skin, etc. ;-) I added the daddy at the beginning of the shortened username four years ago when I became a daddy, and the name has stuck.

21. The Last Oracle by James Rollins -- this is the latest in Rollins' Sigma Force series. The premise is good as is the first third of the book, but the middle third drags. The concluding third is better, but overall this is not one of Rollins' better books. He needs to give Sigma a rest for a bit, but the ending of The Last Oracle lets the reader know where Rollins' team is heading (again). The team is growing stale and the attempted shakeup from before is resolved quickly in this novel.

I'd recommend Excavation or Amazonia if you're new to Rollins. If you like a team based adventure, then start with Sandstorm, the first Sigma novel.

I was thinking of trying James Rollins as the the other side of James Clemens. Read a bit of his fantasy work so I'll take your recommendation on board and start with Excavation. Thanks for that.

22. The American by Andrew Britton -- this was a surprisingly good political thriller/espionage novel considering it was Britton's first novel. I definitely will read the sequel -- The Assassin.

23. The Crib by Paul Kent -- a decent, horror/thriller with some religious background. I can't say too much about it without spoiling the central theme of the book, but to me, the mystery behind the crib was very obvious once the first clue was revealed about halfway through the book.

24. Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons -- I thought I had read this one when it was released 20 years ago, but I guess I had not. Overall, it's a very good horror novel and one that I'd recommend to others if you have the time to read a 900 page tome.

did you love the ending?? LOL I thought it was great.

If you meant the chess match, yes, I enjoyed that. If you meant the last chapter, no, I thought that was predictable and was hoping that open ending wouldn't have been included. I can't say too much without spoiling it for those who haven't read it yet.

25. Empire by David Dunwoody -- Another post-apocalyptic zombie novel from Permuted Press. This one was a bit different as the character of Death was incorporated into it. Overall, a good zombie novel, but other than the novelty of Death being included, it didn't offer anything new to the zombie horror genre.

I just finished The missing by Sarah Langan it follows The Keeper but goes in a different direction, check it out if you're looking for more zombie fare.

I've read both and while I thought The Keeper was good, I thought The Missing was excellent. I definitely would recommend both to any fan of the horror genre.

Of course you did, I'm such a twit. It was on your recommendation that I picked the two books up. And I agree with The Missing being better than The keeper. LOL I should re-read threads before I start posting.

26. The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500 Year Old Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark by Tudor Parfitt -- I saw this at the library and it seemed intriguing, even though I don't read much non-fiction. I didn't really enjoy it as the author's findings seem a bit unbelievable.

27. The Bleeding Season by Greg F. Gifune -- This was the first novel by Greg Gifune that I have read and it was excellent -- very atmospheric and well-written. I will definitely read Gifune's other novels if they are all of the same quality as this one.

Got this on my wishlist after reading some positive reviews. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Is it worth the higher price than the typical MMP.

I would say it is worth the higher price. I typically only read mmpb, but I made an exception for this one. Outside of some Delirium Books and Permuted Press, I don't buy many non-mmpb novels.

28. Prince Caspian by CS Lewis -- I have never read the Books of Narnia before, but figured I'd give this one a try. I was not impressed. I'll try the third book in the series to see if I like it since some view Prince Caspian as the weakest in the series.

29. The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson -- I really enjoyed Berenson's debut novel. It was a quick read along the lines of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor.

30. Long Horn, Big Shaggy by Steve Vernon -- A good, but not great, zombie novel with a western theme and some satire.

I finished three books while on vacation last week:

31. The Ruins by Scott Smith -- a very good horror novel, my only complaint being the predictable ending.

32. Intensity by Dean Koontz -- a good Koontz novel, but not a great one. The beginning was excellent, but it dragged a bit in the middle.

33. The Desert by Bryon Morrigan -- a very good sci-fi/horror book. As far as I know, this is Bryon's first work and I'll definitely read his next novel.

DaddyGoth,

I've enjoyed reading through your list and opinions.

The only Robert McCammon book I've read so far is The Night Boat. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit as a nice, unpretentious little horror story.

I'm thinking about reading Stinger next. (Though I'll probably change my mind three times before I finish my current book.)

By the way, I thought your quickie overview of Bentley Little in #24 was spot on.

34. Fear of Gravity by Brian Keene -- a very good collection of short stories by Brian Keene. There was only one in the bunch that I didn't like (the one that was a take off on the Survivor reality show). If you've read The Conqueror Worms, published under the Leisure horror line, you've read the last story in this collection as it was the second part of the Worms novel.

jseger9000,

Regarding The Night Boat, I probably need to reread that one to see if my opinion has changed since I read it 20+ years ago. From what I remember, it felt too short unlike They Thirst which was well fleshed-out.

I thought Stinger was an excellent sci-fi/horror novel and I'd definitely recommend it.

35. Doom Spore by John T. Cullen -- an average sci-fi/horror book along the lines of The Puppet Masters and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

36. It's Only Temporary by Eric Shapiro -- a very good, but short, soon-to-be end of the world novel. The main character has less than a day to set things straight in his life before a meteorite strikes the Earth, with the prediction that less than 1% of humans will survive.

37. Madmen's Dreams by Eric S. Brown and D. Richard Pearce -- a better than average collection of short stories. I did like Pearce's stories better, especially The Adversary, which he co-wrote with Brown.

38. Dark Voices Volume 1 by Thomas Monteleone -- a short story/chapbook that included the story as read by the author on CD. Generally I like Monteleone's works, but this one was just average.

39. 13 Bullets by David Wellington -- This is the way a modern vampire novel should be written. There are no brooding, wimpy, sex-starved vampires here. These vampires are truly evil and intelligent. I wasn't a big fan of Wellington's first zombie novel, but his first vampire novel is top notch.

40. Bloodstained Oz by Christopher Golden and James A. Moore -- this is a twisted takeoff on The Wizard of Oz, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Most of the characters are there, but in different roles. It's a great read, if you can locate a copy.

holy crap! why is it so expensive??

It's probably due to there only being 500 numbered hardcovers ($35 original price) and twenty six lettered and traycased hardcovers ($175 original price). It hasn't been reprinted and I don't believe there are any current plans to have it reprinted. That's the thing with some of these small press releases -- you either buy it when it's released, or you'll have a hard time tracking one down without paying an arm and a leg unless it's reprinted. It's good, but not worth the $100 or so asking price.

41. The Words of Their Roaring by Matthew Smith -- a good, but not great, zombie novel. The book was divided into three main sections -- the starting time period, five years previous and 10 years later. I didn't care too much for the backstory in the middle, but the other parts were enjoyable. The part I liked the best was the short prologue that introduced the zombie plague.

42. White Tribe by Gene O'Neill -- an average novella about an ancient evil that is freed by an earthquake, which felt more like a compressed novel. There was quite a bit of setup, but a fairly quick, if unresolved, ending.

43. Dead Heat by Joel Rosenberg -- the fifth and final book in Rosenberg's political thriller series with a religious End Times theme. This was the best book in the series and Rosenberg held nothing back.

44. Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks -- Faulks did and excellent job of capturing the atmosphere of the Ian Fleming novels and setting it during the Cold War era. The only problem was the story was lacking. The lead villain was a typical Bond villain, complete with a deformity, but his diabolical scheme was somewhat weak. Still, if you're a fan of the Fleming novels, I'd recommend this one.

45. High Time to Kill by Raymond Benson -- I had never read a Benson Bond novel, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It was written more along the lines of the Gardner novels vs. the Fleming ones. I hadn't heard too many good things about Benson's take on the character, but I did enjoy this novel.

46. The Woods are Dark by Richard Laymon -- What can I say? I've never liked Laymon's books, but I occasionally read one to see if it's any different from others of his I've read. This one was no different. I've said it before, but I'm sure this is the last Laymon I'll read.

47. Ancestor by Scott Sigler -- Like Earthcore, this is an excellent sci-fi/horror/biothriller. Sigler can definitely write and keeps your interest throughout the book, whether it be with the action or the scientific background. I highly recommend both Ancestor and Earthcore, if you can find them.

It's been a while since I've posted to my list. Then again, I really haven't read that many books:

48. Nobody Lives Forever by John Gardner -- I haven't read a Gardner Bond novel in a while, but this one was better than most of those I remember having read years ago.

49. Watchmen by Alan Moore -- I read this years ago, and didn't think much of it. I reread it recently and, while I enjoyed it more than I did the first time, I still thought it was just average. I know I'm in the minority with my opinion of it.

50. Infected by Scott Sigler -- Another great book by Sigler. It's not quite as enjoyable as Ancestor and Earthcore, but still a very good read.

51. Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry -- The first in his Pine Woods horror trilogy, and a great start to the trilogy. I enjoyed his writing style, the characters and story. While a little slow to develop, it does pay off.

52. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming -- I hadn't read this Bond novel previously. This is one of the better Fleming novels and a good amount of the recent movie that rebooted Bond was taken from this novel.