Abram's Daughters, The Fall of Ile-Rien, Invader

I've been reading some interesting books lately and I wanted to share them. It's always nice to know which books are worth the time and effort, and which to leave on the shelf.
The first was a series by Beverly Lewis entitled Abram's Daughters. This is a fascinating look into the Amish community and the Amish people. I thought the author handled the subject very well. Because of the setting, it felt more like a historical romance. Lewis does a good job of characterization and dialogue. The first book was my favorite. By the end, I found myself skipping descriptions in order to find out what happens to the main characters. There's a lot of time devoted to minor characters, which I find annoying. I was also really ready for the main character, Leah, to grow a backbone and fight for what she wanted instead of being so danged mousy. But I think it's worth a read. There wasn't any swearing or inappropriate scenes (the characters are, after all, Amish ;) ).

Another great book is the trilogy, The Fall of Ile-Rien by Martha Wells. Though I must warn you, it took me 50 pages to get over feeling lost and confused. After I finally figured out the the two main characters are from different planets and cultures, (one very much like Britain around WWI, the other more like the ancient Athenians) I finally started to get into it. The storytelling is great and the concept fairly origional. It doesn't follow the 'normal' formula for writing either. The characters are very real, with flaws and quirks that even lead me to dislike them for a while. While the villans were believable and even to be pitied. Wells does not, however, write emotions or romance well. I found myself wanting more emotions from the characters. Also, the characters jump around from one world to the other a lot, and she went overboard on the description--especially in the third book. All in all, I really enjoyed it. It doesn't have any inappropriate sex scenes, but it does use the occasional swear word. I'd guess less than 10 per book, but they were 'bad' ones. I think it was worth it.

The third set of books was Invader by CJ Cherryh. . . Maybe hard sci-fi just isn't for me. I couldn't get into the book.