Count Zero by William Gibson. Okay. So the only other Gibson book I've read was Idoru which was interesting, abet raw, so I was not expecting very much from the cyberpunk king (I don't expect very much from cyberpunk in general--the entire genre doesn't seem so fresh, so '80s, ya' know?) but I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this one. The novel starts with three main storylines featuring Turner the corporate mercenary sent on a mission recover the creator of the biochip, Bobby Newmark the young hacker who runs for his life when a new icebreaker backfires on him, and Marly Krushkova the former gallery owner with a tarnished reputation who ends up working for the enigmatic Joseph Virek. The three parts merge into a stunning finale located in the futuristic yet gritty metropolis called the Sprawl. There's plenty of action and twisting plots to keep any reader hopping and happy. Too bad I didn't realize that this was the second novel in a trilogy (the first is Neuromancer, which I'm currently reading).
Sex, Lies, And Vampires by Katie MacAlister. I think this is one of those novels where a reader would either laugh at or despise. As a parody of all those romantic vampire novels currently glutting the market, it's light and not very serious. The ditzy heroine, Nell Harris, is a professor of medieval history who travels to the Czech Republic to get her hands on a piece of fourteenth century armor but ends up recruited into a mission to help save her client's nephew from the demon lord Asmodeus. When Nell stumbles into the appropriately dark and brooding Adrian the Betrayer who insists on being called a Dark One instead of vampire, hijinks ensue--imp squishing, visiting poltergeist bordellos, raising mummies. Funny, yet with a climax that will leave you rolling your eyes.
