Umm... it's raining here -- we're on the wet side of the island, remember -- and I've been sick all weekend. Feel better?

As far as Stackpole, I've never read him... and I'm sure not gonna start now! (I've got some Gaiman, some Murakami and some Stephenson on my "read soon" stack)

It's so odd...there was no sign, in any of the 200+ pages before that bit, that anything like that was gonna happen. People were dying, but in the "usual" ways - duels, magic gone awry, stuff like that, and none of it graphic.

In Stackpole's defense (ugh), I have to say that it was done as non-graphically as one could probably do such a thing without erasing all of the impact or leaving the reader in doubt of what was happening...but it just seemed to be so unnecessary. Possibly the reason for it becomes clear in later volumes, but I have no intention of reading to find out.

Thanks to a rec (yours?) I read one Gaiman book last year and look foward to reading more. I'm not familiar with Murakami or Stephenson though.

Like many great authors, Murakami's been working some very consistent themes and modes for years: I always recommend that people start with his breakthrough work, A Wild Sheep Chase, a treasure of modernist surrealism. For his more "mature" work, the best thing I've read since then is The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.

Neil Stephenson isn't someone I'd recommend you start lightly.... but what I've read so far is quite good (but long; he needs an editor).

I'm going to have to think about Murakami. I'm not sure I'm in a place for modernist surrealism right now.

I tend to approach contemporary fiction gingerly anyhow, finding much of it to be ridiculously self-indulgent. I'll put Murakami on my list for a day when I feel experimental :) and make a note that he's been recommended by a trustworthy source.