As tempted as I am to make you all read some ponderous history tome like Dreadnought, I think I'll go with Terry Pratchett's latest, Dodger. Currently only $3 for the Kindle edition at Amazon! This is one of Pratchett's stand-alone novels, though if you squint a bit you could probably imagine it happening in Discworld anyway. Set in early Victorian London, our hero Dodger, a street urchin and "tosher" or sewer rat, saves a young lady's life and finds he has a knack if not actually a desire for being a hero. Lots of period flavor here, sort of "Dickens light" (and in fact Mr. Dickens makes an appearance himself.) A nice light repast for the December holiday season, I think.
Okay my wrist is often sore reading it. I'll try to pick this up at some point in the next week - but last months pick, Independent People, still has me engrossed.
And done! I have to say, I quite thoroughly enjoyed it. I've read several books that take place in London this year, with varying levels of historical settings and varying degrees of accuracy. I'd have to put this near the top of the list. It's short, but fun. It has a decent story all round, and I was chuckling throughout. My only complaints are somewhat the too heavy hand with some of the Dickens references, but it's pretty minor.
I'm almost halfway through Esslemont's Blood and Bone and I'm really enjoying it. His style is a bit more hit-and-run than Erikson's, which means the plot moves more quickly. At this point, I'll rate it as better than Forge of Darkness simply because not a single character has lapsed into a multi-page emo monologue about the pointlessness of life.
Carnifex, you want the other book thread. As an aside, this happens almost once every month, which leads me to believe that many people don't actually read the book threads before they post in them.
Hooray! The Dickens references didn't bother me - I took them more as a sort of running gag which Pratchett wasn't even trying to be clever with.
