70. The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau.

The City of Ember is a book aimed at younger readers, but it's a neat little story nevertheless. Lina and Doon are 12, and have just been given their first jobs. They live in a city built by the Builders, where the sky is always black, food and goods come from the Storage Vaults, and the only light comes from electric bulbs, powered by a failing generator. When Lina finds what appear to be Instructions for something, she and Doon investigate further.

I liked this story because it was short, sweet, and simple. The idea is cool, and it's executed pretty well, with a reasonably satisfying ending. Lina and Doon are cute characters, and it's definitely a book I'd recommend to kids of about that age group.

69. Night Shift, by Stephen King.

Night Shift is a book of short stories written by Stephen King. It probably has the scariest of his stories in, at least in my opinion. The Mangler, Jerusalem's Lot, and Graveyard Shift are particularly worrisome, and The Last Rung On The Ladder is sad but sweet.

Most of the stories in this collection gave me that uniquely horrified yet fascinated feel that the good King books manage so well. They're stories about some terrible things, but at the same time, it's very difficult to prise yourself away. Not really a night-time read, unless you want to have some interesting dreams.

Interlude.

I recently started a new job, which has caused a few pretty big changes in my life. For one, I've been able to quit my supermarket job, which is much more liberating than I was expecting - I feel like a giant weight's been lifted off my self-esteem. Working there was honestly starting to do my head in. My new job is infinitely better, in that it is actually in the field that I studied and love to bits - vet nursing. One of the most noticeable effects is that I suddenly have a regular schedule for weekdays, and it's a good four or five hours off my "natural" cycle of going to sleep past midnight and waking up at ten. Currently I live quite far away from my job (and I can't drive yet, more's the pity) so I am resigned to a nearly-two-hour commute to and from work. It's expensive and time consuming, but it's also more-or-less uninterrupted reading time that I've been putting to good use. I love my ereader because of things like this. I do plan on moving closer as soon as a suitable house comes up, but unfortunately - nothing yet. Mostly because I am insisting on a cat, now. I have the job, I'll get the savings, and I want a cat because I miss the companionship and the cuddles. I'll always miss my first cat, Lolly, but I know I can make another cat as happy as I hope I made her. Regardless, and as always, hope you found something interesting to read.

68. Xanth 2: The Source of Magic, by Piers Anthony.

This is book 2 of the Xanth series.
In this book, Bink has married Chameleon (a girl who cycles from clever-ugly to stupid-beautiful with the moon), but something is challenging his magic talent and acts as the final push to send him away on a quest to find the Source of magic within Xanth. He sets out with a motley arrangement of companions, all whilst trying to avoid muysteriously vague actions against him.

Piers Anthony continues his 'boy's club' theme in this second book, which irritates me a little. His female characters are all lacking in at least one painfully obvious way, causing most of this book to be taken up by the adventures of an all-male band. I'm hoping that improves as the series goes on. The story continues to be unusual, with all sorts of adventures taking place as they progress towards the Source. A fun read, although my copy stopped rather...abruptly...and I'm concerned that I don't actually have the whole story. Must get round to looking up what the proper ending is supposed to be.

67. Xanth 1: A Spell For Chameleon, by Piers Anthony.

A Spell For Chameleon is the first book in the Xanth series. It tells the story of Bink, a human who lives in the magical world Xanth, which is attached to the world of Mundania - a place bereft of magic. In Xanth, everything is magical - people, trees, inhabitants, even landforms have magical powers. Bink has no talent, and as such, is due to be expelled from his world unless he is able to find a way to reveal it.

I quite liked reading this book. I'd been feeling like some classic Fantasy reading for a while, and this series as about as fantasy as it gets. Magical creatures abound, and while I didn't like the way Piers Anthony depicts some of his characters (His females are all...second-rate), I did enjoy the story. There are a lot of other books in this series, which is still in progress (this one was published in 1977), so it's nice to have another series I can return to as I like.

66. Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut.

Galapagos was recommended to me by a friend, who is a Vonnegut fan. I haven't read any of his other books, although I'd probably give at least one more a read. Galapagos is set a million years from now, and is told by the ghost of a man that died building a cruise ship.It's written in a bit of an interesting way, because it's looking back on everything, and most of the suspenseful events are pre-explained.

I'm not entirely sure I'm a fan of writing things in and alluding to them multiple times before they actually happen, but it was different, and not necessarily in a bad kind of way. While I generally like having more guesswork involved, figuring out the parts of the story that weren't main plot points was a challenge in itself. It's an amusing read, although it wasn't what I was expecting.

65. Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman

Fragile Things is a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman. It has the standard Gaiman feel of three-degrees-off-true, but each story/poem executes this in its own distinct way. I liked the Fairy Reel, A Study in Emerald, and The Monarch of the Glen, in particular.

Most of these stories had a sinister air to them, which I quite enjoy. Monarch of the Glen reintroduces us to Shadow, the main character in American Gods, and gives us a bit of a clue as to how his life continued to develop after the conclusion of that tale. A Study in Emerald was good because it had some unexpected plot points - though I did think that was probably where the story was headed. The Fairy Reel has a good rhythm and was a fun, quick read.

64. Doctor Who: Human Nature, by Paul Cornell.

Recently, I started watching the revived series of Doctor Who. I remember being told about it while I was at school, and discounting the series for one reason and another. A friend recommended that I give it a go, seeing as I'm quite the sci-fi fan, and so I watched a few episodes. Then I watched a few more episodes. Then I got emotionally involved with the series. And...well, I'm pretty sure I'm hooked, at this point. I'm about to start watching Season 4, but I paused briefly to read one of the books, which some of my favourite episodes (so far) are based off.

The novel Human Nature is very similar to the episodes Human Nature/Family of Blood which it gets made into. The Companions and Doctors involved are slightly different, but the same base storyline is involved. More or less, the Doctor converts his body into a human body, and places his mind, and memory, within a holding device as he replaces it with an assumed identity - Dr. John Smith. He lives as a teacher for several months, as his companion attempts to keep him safe and out of harm's way. However, the plan falls apart when aliens (Aubertides/The Family) attack the school in a bid to gain Time Lord biodata for themselves, as a way to ensure continuation and multiplication of their familial line.

Some parts of the book, I really liked - the Aubertides seemed a bit more fleshed out in the books, and it's a bit clearer how they change form, and impersonate people, and WHY they wanted to get Time Lord data in the first place. I liked how their attack on the school was written, and I preferred the Biodata pod to the watch-like artifact in the TV series. But some parts of the story were also done really well for the TV. They integrated Martha (and her temporally-sensitive ethnicity) in quite well, and I think that having her as a maid was probably a better plot, as it allowed her to keep a thorough eye on the Doctor. I preferred that the Doctor had the body-changing tech himself, as it seemed to me that the Aubertides were a bit silly allowing him to get away from Laylock in the first place. And I really liked the TV ending. I thought it was acted really well, and it's just heartbreaking watching a character I've grown very fond of watching his life get shredded by circumstance. I feel like I can relate to John Smith's memory gaps, and the episodes did a better job of showing his anguish at events outside his control. I get the feeling that I'll be reading a lot more of the Doctor Who books (not to mention a whole bunch of Classic episodes!), so expect to see a fair amount more commentary on each.