Matthew Reilly - Ice Station

Oh no...it began so entertaining but after 4 CDs I already lost interest and now at CD6 I cannot stand it anymore and deleted it from my iPod. I was listening to this audiobook and I must say that it was pure entertainment first. Some would call it trash or trivial literature and maybe it is.
Reilly writes in a good style, in short sentences, and he is constantly producing speed with his style. You could compare it with a film director who wants to produce speed and tension by cutting a film into a lot of fast and short cuts.

The story of the "Ice Station" however is fascinating, playing in a research station in the Antarctic Ice. Something has been discovered there. Looks like a spaceship and while trying to find out about it, a lot of scientists and divers die. All over sudden, not only US Marines but also french scientists and special forces as well as british forces appear at "Ice Station"....that is where the fast and furious adventure begins.
As a book you could surely read through it in 2-3 evenings. The audiobook is about 11 CDs and that is far too long for me in this case. Especially because the german reader talks so very monotonously and does not put any accents in his reading.
To me, personally, there was too much of killing soldiers in their trivial battles. Nothing believable left after CD 4 anymore and it was too much of american nationalism for a german listener like me. Too easy for the US Marines to find a way out of any unbelievable threat.

I quit listening to it even though I would have liked to know about the end of the story, but it became too boring. It may be because of the german reader but i think it is even more boring because of its extreme triviality. By listening to only the beginning of a chapter, you know how every little action will turn out.
Recommended for those who don't owe any imagination at all. I hope that the book is a lot better to read....on amazon.de reviews it got 3,5 to 4 stars. But I have no idea why and what for.

Michael Crichton - Prey (Beute)

This book is not new (german release was 2003 I think) and I read it already some years ago. Now I got it as an audio book (6CD) and was fascinated again. As the book was already hard to set aside, the audio book was even more thrilling and I hardly could pause my listening when arriving at home.

It is all a fiction, playing in the world of Nano technologies, where the most worst scenario is being described: Artificial Intelligence developing itself, learning with an incredible speed and attacking human beings in the end. Why? Because the programers/developers of those nano particles and their assemblers were using a training program called "Prey"...and now you may have a guess of who in the end are the hunters and who is the prey...

Arnaldur Indridason - The Draining Lake

Another detective story and this time a fine one.

In a lake in Iceland the water level of drops suddenly, revealing the skeleton of a man half-buried in its sandy bed. Clear to see that this man must have been murdered cause he has a huge hole in his skull and he was tied to a communication unit.

The book is divided into 2 stories being told parallel. First there is the crime and the things happening with the investigations of commissioner Erlendur, and the second are the thoughts, obviously of the murderer, back from the 1950s while studying in Leipzig, Germany.

During the first half of the book, nothing really spectacular happens. The crime itself has been put in the background and the main thing is the description of the protagonists, the mental state they are in now and even some steps back in time.

To me it was a fascinating book not only because of the interesting story, but also because of the authors fine writing style with very close and intense observations on human nature and of how people can possibly react if they get betrayed by people or society.

Thanks to Schwester Keia for this recommendation :-)

A thousand splendid suns

posted by Richa....thanks for that review

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

Yet another masterpiece by Khaled Hosseini after ' The kite runner'. A Thousand splendid suns is the story of Mariam and Laila belonging to two different generations in Afghanistan. Fate brings them together as wives of old and ill tempered Rasheed.

Mariam has never known love while Laila is forced to part from her loved ones due to political turmoil in Afghanistan.In the unhappy household of Rasheed there develops a bond between two women which ultimately gives them what they were yearning through out thier lives!

This book again celebrates Khaled hosseini's simple style of writing.Characters are so well itched that they stay in your mind for longer time and the narration is so clear that you feel as if everything is happening around you.While reading the book,sometimes I felt sad and sometimes depressed but after I had finished the book there was a kind of numbness that caught hold of me. Maybe as a woman i couldn't help feeling what it is to be like a woman in some parts of the world!

All in All a must read if you are looking for some serious reading.

The Turkish Gambit

The last book took me about 2 months to read through. Not because it was so hard to read but because I simply had not enough time for it. So I had to re-read a several chapters to get back into the story.
The Turkish Gambit is another novel by Boris Akunin starring his already famous observer/detective Erast Petrovitch Fandorin. It is another historical detective story, this time playing during the war between Russia and Turkey in the 1870s. The whole story is playing at the frontline of this war and the subject is a treason that leads the Russians army to defeat...nearly. It may sound like a war book but it is not like that. Fighting or any other cruelty has no real place in this book. It is all about finding out who of the protagonists is the traitor. And again, like all "Fandorin" novels it is nice to read. Akunin writes in a stylish and vivid way that enables you to imagine about that historical scenery.

The book has "only" 245 pages and a surprising end, what more can you ask for? If anyone can get along with a puzzling, historical detective story and is not afraid of facing a several diffcult russian names, I can really recommend this book.