on the book front...

I haven't played Booking Through Thursday for a while. Though I still loved reading the answers of others, I just didn't have much of interest to contribute. Still don't, but I missed playing, so here I am back at it.

This week's question:

"Who’s the worst fictional villain you can think of? As in, the one you hate the most, find the most evil, are happiest to see defeated? Not the cardboard, two-dimensional variety, but the most deliciously-written, most entertaining, best villain? Not necessarily the most “evil,” so much as the best-conceived on the part of the author…oh, you know what I mean!"

This is such a fabulous question, isn't it? But a tough one! There's lots of evil dudes out there between the pages of books. I'm going to go with Randall Flagg from The Stand (Stephen King). He pops to mind, probably because this is one of my all-time favorite books. But evil he most certainly is. And just to be difficult, I'm going to throw in another...Capricorn from Inkheart (Cornelia Funke), because I found him so creepily original.




And now on to other book ramblings...

I finished my second book for the Medical Mystery Madness Reading Challenge. This book, Terminal Condition, by David Shobin, was much more what I was hoping for! (I was rather disappointed in my first choice.) Shobin is a new author to me, but I will probably eventually search out more of his books...if I can ever find time between all these challenges, that is. Terminal Condition was a fast-paced, suspenseful ride. Very reminiscent of Robin Cook or Michael Palmer. In fact, at one point it was almost a little too reminiscent of a scene from Cook's Coma. But the scene worked none-the-less, even if it was eerily familiar.

The basic storyline involves the discovery of new wonder-drug, which can dramatically help people with severe dementia. But as can be predicted before this discovery is even made public, greed muscles its way into the story, and all kinds of evil monkey-business ensue.

I do have one small complaint...it's not really that big of a deal, but it was a tad annoying at times. David Shobin is a physician, as many of these medical thriller books, are. But while most of these authors seem to grasp that their audience will be far broader than the medical community, Shobin sometimes seemed to forget this. Take for example, this sentence, "The copper-jacketed slug transected the right carotid and chipped off the transverse process of C-3 before exiting the upper trapezius muscle." Sure, I understood what he was saying, but come on...

And there was one other thing I just have to mention, because it made me laugh. I even had to interrupt Rich's reading to tell him about it. The mafia plays a role in this book, and in the page where we are first introduced to these characters, we meet Vinnie, Vito, Salvatore, Anthony, Joey, and Dominic. Just made me giggle...I mean couldn't there just once be a mob guy named Tim or Dave or Bob. Okay, forgive my silliness...I just found it amusing for some weird reason.

And with that I am off to go fix the monkeys some breakfast. Then I can't wait to read what other "villians" made the cut.