Jay's Picks

The third in his "Vampire Love Stories," this novel is told primarily from the viewpoint of Abby Normal, human servant to dysfunctional vampire couple Tommy and Jody. A huge shaved vampire cat is on the loose, stalking the night streets, and the clueless public is in danger. The usual suspects are all present, including the Emperor of San Francisco, his canine sidekicks, the Safeway turkey-bowlers, and the tag-team detectives from SF's finest. Fair warning: read Christopher Moore in public, and everyone around you will be wondering what you're laughing so hard at.

When Robert Jordan passed away in 2007, he left behind a mountain of compiled notes and an unfinished series. Long-time readers will be pleased to know that Sanderson, chosen by Jordan's wife to finish his work, has truly picked up the ball and ran with it. While most of the major characters are moved forward in their various subplots, the book centers around Egwene al'Vere and Rand al'Thor. Egwene, held prisoner in the White Tower, is trying to tie together the factions and end the Aes Sedai civil war, all the while knowing a Seanchan attack is imminent. Rand faces his own struggles in his effort to unite the nations before the Last Battle and negotiate a truce with the Seanchan. As the world teeters on the brink, and the Dragon Reborn grows increasingly frustrated, the darkness threatening the world seems to gain a foothold in his own heart. A superb installment of a beautiful story, this collaborative novel is the beginning of the end, with events accelerating toward Tarmon Gaidon at a breakneck pace.

I first read these books when I was 10, and immediately loved them. They were so absorbing, I even got in trouble a few times at school because I couldn't put them down. In the future, humanity has been enslaved by enormous mechanical Tripods; only during childhood are people free. In a coming-of-age ceremony at 14, everyone is "Capped", fitted with a life-long mind-control device. For Will Parker, giving up his volition is intolerable, and he escapes in search of somewhere free. The writing is superb, the pace swift, the setting detailed, the characters believable, and the action and suspense nearly non-stop. Very highly recommended for pre-teens and teens.

From brilliantly choreographed starship battles to masterfully complex plot lines, from intriguing characters to clever dialogue, David Weber's novels have fully satisfied SF fans for decades. On Basilisk Station is the first in an amazing series featuring Honor Harrington as the protagonist, an officer serving her Navy as best she can. If you're looking for a far-future epic with a strong female protagonist, or if you just desire a great read, you can't go wrong diving deeply into this series.

In a gloriously expanded version of Jane Austen's literary classic, Seth Grahame-Smith mixes in hordes of the shambling undead. Blending seamlessly with the familiar and formal sparring of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, is plenty of mayhem and violence, as the flesh-eating zombies wreak havoc on the countryside. The prim and proper Victorian characters are given a much-needed makeover into masters of combat, dispatching the "Legions of Satan" to their eternal rest.

The two words that best describe this book: INSANELY HILARIOUS. The funniest novelist alive takes a madcap romp through the works of Shakespeare and nothing is sacred. Highly recommended!

There is, perhaps, no other force in Nature as frightening and compelling as lightning. Everything about it, from its incredible swiftness to the overwhelming noise it produces, to the way it seems to pick individuals out of a crowd, have made it a subject of fear and fascination throughout mankind's past. With this book, Friedman chronicles the myths and history, the personal survival stories and the latest science, bundling it all up in a compulsively readable narrative. Just don't curl up with it under a tree in a storm.