...completely random people trying to be my friend on Facebook?

"Take the news by the horns." --NY1 (local TV news)

I'm not giving anything away by telling you that the Fourth Crusade is the one where the crusaders sack and loot a series of Christian cities, most famously Constantinople (capital of Byzantium). Knowing that, you might expect this book to be depressing. It's actually highly entertaining--a "rip-roaring adventure yarn" (tm)--with lots of action, suspense, and humor. It is, in fact, very like an extended, well-plotted D&D campaign, or better, module with pre-gen characters thrown together in a contrived situation and sent On a Quest. The two protagonists are a bard/assassin and a paladin. Watch them not get along! and then learn to appreciate one another! There's another rogue, a fighter, a tyrant or two, some spineless clerics, and a kickass woman posing as an Arab princess who is rescued by the party (I mean, the main characters). Still, there is character development here. ANd the history is pretty accurate, tho it's the My-Characters-Made-EVERYTHING-Happen school of historical fiction. Essentially, this is shallow fun that's well paced and won't leave you with a toothache.

Deeply imaginative and always fascinating, this novel imagines a Noah's flood scenario in which a (wait for it)children's hospital becomes an ark. Preserved by angels for some unknown purpose, the colorful cast of characters include a medical student who receives strange healing powers; your typical roster of doctors, residents, fellows, nurses; and a colorful set of child patients. Did I mention angels, a vampire, a mysterious man who washes out of the sea? Wonderful, horrifying, and complex, this novel is a must for lovers of The Stand, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, or Cloud Atlas.

(resonance42 , you especially)

 They beat me to all the good post titles. 

okthxbai

OMG. If you are or ever have been overeducated, a faculty brat, bookish, socially awkward, or in high school (preferably two or more of those): read this book. If you're into thrillers, conspiracy theories, postmodern prose, the movie Heathers, and/or Wildean wit: read this book. Blue van Meer has spent her life traveling the country with her widower dad, a professor. She has her sights on Harvard (I can forgive) but no idea about the world. For her senior year of high school, she attends a prep school where she's drawn into the orbit of a charismatic teacher and the uber-popular kids who are her proteges. A series of strange events culminates in the teacher's death--and our heroine determines to uncover the truth, no matter the cost. Have I mentioned the fact that the table of contents is a syllabus, with each chapter named after and thematically linked to a famous work of literature? The entire novel is that self-consciously clever... but it really is clever.

Read it before they make a half-assed film version like The Golden Compass, which I saw last weekend with M, matt_rah, and someone whose LJ username I don't know. I'd give the movie a B-. It's not howlingly bad, it's entertaining, it's reasonably faithful to the book (the solution to the religion issue works pretty well). The daemons and bears are done very well. But there's no character development, and we're basically rushing around for two hours with too much Stuff happening to really make Sense.

I'm just waiting for the animated film of Persepolis that comes out on Christmas. That's actually gotten some good buzz, I hear.

er,yay, The Opium Season: A Year on the Afghan Frontier has its own NYTimes review!

And I was worried that

havenstone wouldn't get enough publicity. Way to go!

To the two of you who haven't already heard, you should read this book! It has adventure, it has a dramatic setting, it has sociopolitical (is that a word?) import, it has good writing... apart from all that, the author's one heck of a GM.